Alex Durrani -- May 16-21, 2008 -- Off Site

[AlexDurrani]

Well I know most people actually start this when they start planning but here goes.

First day started off with Flying from Houston Hobby on Southwest Airlines.

Upon arriving at Orlando International 5 minutes late due to weather in route, took another 30 minutes to get luggage and find shuttle service to hotel.

My Mom decided that she didn't want to go to the parks today so she took a shuttle with all the bags to the hotel and I took shuttle to Epcot.

Used Mears Shuttle service.

Arrived at EPCOT Center (yes i know it is just Epcot but I am an old timer regarding name) at 2:00 PM and took another 30 minutes to an hour to get park passes and go through turnstile.

To my utter surprise I found that there were still some ECVs available to rent and got one. Note to anyone planning on getting an ECV during busy season, get there early or get one offsite they go fast.

After grabbing a burger and apple slices for a late lunch I chose to go to ride The new Spaceship Earth.

EEEEKKKK what have done to my Spaceship Earth? Some good but a lot just was missing. It could have been done better. The garage scene was still a bit hard to see and make much sence of. There were some areas where you used to be able to hear Greek scholars talking to each other and the Egyptians talking about taxes but now you do not.

After spaceship earth I made my way over to Mission Space and found that it is still as constricting to Pooh size people as it used to be. I did not ride it due to my clostraphobia. Took a break in the space race area and watched and participated in it for a while before leaving.

Took a dive off the deep end and did the Ellen show. Same old waste of time no use talking more about it. If you are bored and want to do something out of the heat or rain then this is a 90minute show (well it felt like it) for you.

Afterwards I went around and scoped out the where the meet on Saturday and the french pavilian was and then decided to eat at the Tappon Edo restaurant for dinner.

Missed the Illuminations show while i was eating and after leaving the restaraunt I made my way to the International gateway to get out of the park. Took the launch to the Boardwalk and grabbed a cab at the Boardwalk in to my hotel.

Well that is day one. More to follow including my meeting with Mark and some of the other listners including Katrina.

[AlexDurrani]

Hello once again from WDW and Orlando. Yesturday, Day 2 of my trip started with the morning meet with Mark from Mousestation and Katrina and her DH. Also there was Alex and two other men I missed their names. After waiting in line for 20 minutes to get something at the Main Street Bakery I joined the others and had a great time conversing.

Around 10:30 we broke up with Mark rushing off to do some work and my mom and I going out to Adventureland in search of the new Tiki room. I have see the original but I wanted to try a new spin to it and it was a great way to get out of the heat. Sadly we found that the Jungle cruise was down for refurbishment so we could not ride it. After that we went over to the Pirates and found that the line for it was too long. We made out way to the Golden Horseshoe Review and got something to eat. After lunch we went to the Haunted Mansion and rode it once.

Love the new updates they did with the mansion. I may go back and ride it again to see them all. After the Haunted mansion my mom didn't want to ride anything so we went to the Monsters Inc laugh floor and the Carosel of Progress. In the end my mom was too tired to do anything else and she headed back to the hotel leaving me free to do what I wanted to in the park.

I went back and rode TTA. This was my first experience with a ride going 101 on us. Cast members actually walked to track to get it started again. That took almost an hour to ride. After getting off TTA I went to see Stitch. I probably will not see that again.

After stitch I rode the WDW Railroad around starting at Main street. This pretty much ended my day at Magic Kingdom. I realized that I needed to get to EPCOT Center to attend the Moose Meet at the France Pavillian.

I rode Spaceship Earth again to see if they got the Audio fixed on a lot of sections. They did.

After Spaceship Earth I decided to tour the left side of World Showcase. Had dinner at the American Pavillion and went to meet with Mark at the France Pavillion.

It was great to meet Charlotte and her husband and Alexis and his wife.

We watched the Illuminations from the area just in front fo the International Gateway. After Illuminations we talked a bit more then we headed out with me taking a boat from the international gateway to boardwalk to get a cab to my hotel.

[AlexDurrani]

Hey all sorry this is posted 3+ months after the trip but had computer problems while on vacation then got swamped with contracts as soon as I got back so I have only now been able to get things together.

Day 3 was Saturday and again due to a promise I made to my mom I went with her to Epcot. To those that are planning on attending the Flower and Garden festival at Epcot, if you suffer from allergies take your medicine before you go. I spent most of the day suffering because of my allergies and all the flowers. The previous 2 trips to the park did not have me spending time near the flower during the day time and what I thought was just exhaustion the previous two days was anything but. I spent most of the day going around the park with my mom avoiding some of the rides that she couldn't easily get on and off.

My mom did a bit of shopping around the showcase. We had lunch at the Morocco Pavilion and My mom had fish and chips for dinner from the UK pavilion. I grabbed a sandwich from the electric umbrella because I was trying to stay away from the showcase as possible.

We watched the Illuminations from close to the front of the World showcase where they sell McDonalds items.

We returned to the hotel afterwords.

[TinaMouse]

I never thought of the allergies-angle. Good tip!