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View Full Version : Trip Report - October 15-17



ppmuse
10-19-2004, 09:09 AM
This is my first trip report, so be patient. First, my wife and I had not been back to the park since July of last year, due to my wife being pregnant, so this trip back meant a lot to us, especially with my four month old baby boy.

We got in late on Friday night and got a suite at the Paradise Pier. My wife and I loved it: Two bedrooms, a room in the middle with a couch. My mom, on the other hand, hated it. The second room wasn't really attached to the middle room, you could keep both doors open, and then there was another pair of doors that you could close, so everything was connected. Wife and I loved the king sized bed, and the baby loved the crib. So we couldn't complain.

The next morning, baby woke up at 7:45, which meant that we got up, got ready and went to the park. Our first ride was Pirates. And amazingly, it's also the best ride for such a young baby. Why? The ride is pretty slow and dark, which means that it has a lot of bright oranges and yellows, which caught his attention. So his little head kept going back and forth. If I had to choose which ride was his favorite, I would have to choose that one.

We had to meet my mom and her family at the Partners sculpture, so with not much time, we quickly rode Snow White and Mr. Toad's. To our amazement, the rides went to fast, and the baby lost interest real fast. He ended up just watching us.

My step dad was hungry, so we went off to find a breakfast place. In the old days, we use to go to Tomorrowland. So we headed over there, no breakfast, and like we've all said in the past, a complete ghost town. We ended up eating at the restaurant across from POTC. The line moved extremely slow because the lady was only making two Mickey Mouse pancakes at a time. What happened to making a lot so the line would never stop moving? I think we got our food a half hour later.

To our amazement, we saw characters that we hadn't seen in the park before: Tom Sawyer, Mulan, Scully, and the characters out front were all playing duck duck goose. We even saw Peter Pan hiding in an alcove trying to find Hook. This is our first trip in October, and if the characters are always like this, we might have to make this an annual thing.

We took a ride on Indiana Jones. The ride is beautiful. Don't remember seeing so much fire and special effect in that ride, and the snake looks awesome. Then we went on Jungle Cruise, besides not being able to understand the guy over the sound system, the guns brought tears to my eyes. I felt like applauding.

We grabbed a fast pass for Thunder Mountain (overheard a conversation about the ride, "If it wasn't safe, they wouldn't have opened it", guess the guests were scared). My wife and I left my mom's group and headed over to the annual pass location where we stood in line for 40 minutes to get our annual pass. I realized I hadn't been down that alleyway next to Space Mountain for some time. It was like walking somewhere that I hadn't been since child hood. Wonder what it's going to be like if they bring back the submarines.

Thunder Mountain was fun. Have to admit, I was a little worried, and relieved when I left the ride alive. I hope that feeling goes away with time. Went and got the baby his first pair of ears. Was surprised that it was so cheap to do it (just under 8 dollars). I was expecting to pay at least 15.

Went on Small World next, and the baby kind of enjoyed it. Didn't look around as much as on POTC, but he seemed to enjoy it. After the ride, we saw the brother from Everybody Loves Raymond. He was with his family getting popcorn, but I walked up close just to hear his voice. That was pretty cool.

Ran over to the other park and rode Screamin and Hollywood Tower of Terror. I loved the one in MGM Studios, so was nervous about riding TOT at DCA. I was expecting to be disappointed because of all the bad things I've read about it, but it wasn't bad. We had fun, and laughed. It just wasn't TOT in MGM.

Went to Tortilla Joes. It was a nice mexican restaurant, but we probably won't go back. We'll stick to the mexican restaurant next to Thunder Mountain. Should have gone to Hungry Bear (we missed out this time, next time, we'll eat there twice ;-) ).

We messed around for the rest of the day (going on Screamin, TOT, Orange Spinner, Ferris Wheel, and Golden Zephyr, family favorites). We met my brother at Rainforest Cafe at around 7:30. Baby new it was his bed time, and the noise, the lights, and people talking were too much of a distraction for him to sleep. So we ended up leaving the group early, puting him to bed, and getting take out from Storybook Cafe.

If you haven't done take out from Storybook Cafe, it's pretty sweet. For 20 bucks, we got two burgers, two fries, and they gave us little glass jars of ketchup, mayo, and mustard. Plus two packages of knives, forks, and salt and pepper. It was pretty awesome.

That night, three of us headed to the park. And it was packed. HM had an hour wait, Splash had an hour and a half wait, and it was hard to move. So we got a rice krispy treat, caramel apple, and popcorn, and headed back to the hotel. And that's when it started raining. We were drenched by the time we got back.

Next morning, we went to Goofy's. Our first time, and it was awesome. Talk about all the food you could eat, and the food was actually good. The characters were nice, and we had a great time. Next time, if we can't get in there before 8:30, we probably won't go.

Then we went on Splash (awesome as always) and POTC and HM for the baby. Baby slept in line at the Haunted Mansion holiday. When we got to the elevator, the lights went out, baby jumped, babies around us cried, but our little one looked up, saw Jack, and gave the biggest smile. For the rest of the ride, he looked around, and the went back to sleep as soon as we left the mansion. Guess POTC and HM are the top of his list.

Next trip in November. We're taking advantage of this annual pass, and we hope to see the castle and the Christmas decorations. And we'll definitely use the 10% off with the pass, as well as see Playhouse Disney (baby's favorite). Til next time.

CoasterChickie
10-19-2004, 10:04 AM
I really enjoyed reading your trip report. It's always fun to see the park through someone elses eyes. Your baby sounds very sweet and he has very good taste in rides, plus he didn't cry and grinned when he saw Jack at the HM!! :~D


Hope you get to go back again soon!!

rentayenta
10-19-2004, 10:21 AM
Thank you for the awesome report. I love how your baby loved POTC and HM- too cool.

Great character interaction too.

stan4d_steph
10-19-2004, 10:38 AM
...To our amazement, we saw characters that we hadn't seen in the park before: Tom Sawyer, Mulan, Scully, and the characters out front were all playing duck duck goose...Wow. Was Mulder there too? :p

Christiii
10-19-2004, 10:48 AM
I was there at the same time as you, and Im going back in Nov also...we need to carpool..hehe...ai saw Brad Garrett too...getting on Thnunder Moun tain...i posted it in the stars at Disney thread...my mom loves the show...so it was kewl!!
Noticed TSI was down on Sunday..tho it wasnt on the refurb liat..we wanted cto go stroll around..but couldnt..wonder why?? also had a really rude castmember on pirates...never had that happen before, and it was kind of hard to shake off...kinda left a bad feeling for awhile...I ashoulda reported it, but I didnt...just didnt want to let it ruin any more of my day.. :rolleyes:

Mukta
10-19-2004, 10:49 AM
What a wonderful trip report. Thank you for sharing all of that. I didn't realize so many characters would be there either. I might have to check that out.
The suite sounds wonderful too. Why did your mom hate it?

Rae
10-19-2004, 01:33 PM
Sounds like you had a great trip and really enjoyed it with your son

dlandnut
10-20-2004, 07:36 AM
What impressed me the most about the trip report was that you were even willing to take your baby; that it was a positive experience; and that your baby was such an angel. I think when my babies were 4 months old, I was still in my nightgown with post-partum depression, lol! Sounds like you had an awesome time. :)

ppmuse
10-20-2004, 07:47 AM
We were definitely worried about bringing a baby, but he did amazingly well. The really weird thing that happened was that my wife and I really didn't want to go on rides without him. When we did go on something, like TOT, we felt awful, and missed the little guy.

Here's a story I forgot: After riding HM, our stroller had disappeared, and another one was standing in it's place. We saw another stroller just like it, so we thought somebody had taken it by mistake. So we decided to wait around. Well, it turned out that we had parked it in the wrong location, so someone, probably a janitor or HM worker, moved it into a Stroller parking area. We were a bit freaked, but now we have learned to keep an eye out for Stroller parking, not just any old place where other's park their stroller.

Answer to a question a ways back: I think my mom was hoping that the suite would be like the time share they had stayed at before. Where the center room was where you enter, and then there's two doors on either side of the room that leads to the two bedrooms. This wasn't laid out that way, so she didn't get what she was expecting.

rentayenta
10-20-2004, 08:40 AM
For your next trip, try tying a cheap scarf or bandana on your stroller. It makes your stroller easier to spot and less likey that someone will take it :)