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.
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.