Jon C. - June 2006

Well I hope everyone has been doing well. I had a great time traveling with my family to Tampa for my cousin's wedding over the weekend. But my real joy was visiting WDW this past Sunday. So here's all the details from my visit.

I was up at 6am Sunday morning, despite that my cousin's wedding ended at midnight and I did not get to bed until like 1am. So my nephew and I get ready and we're on the road to WDW at 7am. The drive was pretty easy all the way thru. I took the advice that I should get to WDW via Rt. 27 from I-4. That worked out great. Thanks all for this tip.

I got to my hotel, The Swan Resort, at 8:30am. I checked in, but my room was not ready. We got parking passes so that we can park for free at the parks. I then went to the hotel's ticket desk and bought our park hoppers for the day. We're now ready to start our long day at WDW.

We get to AK by 9am. We get in the park and make our way to Expedition Everest. We 1st get FastPasses for later, 12-1pm. We see that the line is moving pretty good, so we get in line. As we wait in line I realize we forgot the free ride photo certificate in the car. Thats ok since we'll be back later to ride it again. I have my digital camera with me which also films mini movies depending on the size of the memory I have in it. I will film the whole ride while I'm on it. The line moved real fast and in 25 minutes we're on the ride. This attraction has awesome queing. The whole pre-ride walk thru is filled with rich details and artifacts and so many things to see. When they say that this area has some 2000 items imported from Asia, they really mean it. This is an awesome ride, my nephew and I just laughed and yelled on the whole ride. After riding EE, we checked out the picture taken on the ride, just for fun. It was a bad pic because I was holding my camera in my hands and it covered my face. We'll be back later to do it all again.

Let me say that it was starting to become a very hot day and there were possible thunderstorms in store. We adopted a 'wait and see' plan of action.

We then decided to head to Epcot. The 1st thing we needed to do is decide what we wanted to Fast Past. We go to Soarin and get FP's for later, 4-5pm. We now need to eat something, so my nephew was looking foward to eating at the Fountain View Cafe, because they have these breakfast pockets that are really good. But by the time we got there it was after 11am and they had ran out of the the breakfst items. So we had croisants and danishes with soda and juice. While eating, I phone my Mother back in Tampa to tell her we arrived ok and are doing fine. After eating, we walk over to Test Track to see what the wait time is like. The regular line is like 50 minutes, while the solo rider line is 10 minutes. I ask my nephew if he had a problem riding with other people so that we can go thru the ride faster. He said no problem as long as I went in before him so that I can wait for him at the exit. We go thru the solo rider line and we're enjoying the ride in no time. Before we got in the ride car, I asked the CM if he can put the two of us in the same car and he was able to do so, I in front and my nephew behind me. Thanks Disney CM's!!

After Test Track, my nephew wanted to visit some of World Showcase before we head back to AK. So we took pictures and visited Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, Japan and Morocco. In Japan, my nephew bought some tin toys he wanted to get the last time we were there. It was now about 12:30 and we need to leave. So we took the shuttle boat across the lagoon to get out faster. Only there was a problem. Usually the boats go straight across the lagoon, Morocco to Canada and Germany to Mexico. But on this day the boat was making its way around the whole lagoon: Morocoo to Germany and then to Mexico. So it took a few more minutes to get across.

Back at AK, we make sure we now have the certificate for the free ride picture. We go to guest relations to pick up the voucher for the free picture. We head straight to EE. We go to the FP entrance and show our Fast Passes. We are 30 minutes past our time frame. The CM waves us thru. Remember, FP's are always good during your time, after your time but NEVER early. The FP que line also has some great detailing and look. When we ride EE this time, we are in the very 1st set of seats!! So yes we have an awesome view of the whole ride. But when u get to the broken track part, don't look over!! OOOHHH SCARY!!! Just kidding!! After riding, we get our free picture, buy some EE ride pins and head on out, the long way around the Tree of Life. We get some bottled water because now its really hot. Its around 2pm, so we decided to head over to Downtown Disney for some quick shopping. We head to World of Disney because my nephew is looking for a specific board game, but he can't find it. We head to Once Upon a Toy to get a box of extra Mr.Potato Head parts. While there, it starts to rain. HARD and FAST!! While we wait it out, we decide our next move. We decide to skip MGM, therefore no Star Tours and Star Wars Weekend. Oh well, next time. As it stops raining, 20 minutes later, we decide on lunch. We go off property and head onto Rt. 192. My nephew wants Burger King so thats what we have for lunch.

After lunch, we go back to Epcot. Its now time for our Soarin Fast Pass. We get in line and head on in. While waiting during the pre-board video viewing, I notice these 2 women ahead of me. They are in thier late 50's I would say. One of them is drinking bottled water. I notice that she has finished all her water. As the doors open to enter Soarin, she places the empty bottle on the floor and walks away!! I'm totally stunned by this!! So I pick up the bottle from the floor, I go after the lady and tap her on the arm. She turns around and is taken aback a bit. I hand the bottle back to her and I say she forgot this and that she should dispose of her trash properly!! She stands there stuned and her friend is also speechless. My nephew and I get into our seats and buckle in. It takes them a moment and they too sit down on the ride. I hear one of them say they can not believe what has happened. I bite my tongue. The ride starts and a good time is had by all. After Soarin, my nephew wants to go to Mouse Gears. We go in and we look a around a bit. My nephew finds what he was lookin for: The Monorail board game. We can now leave Epcot.

As we walk thru the parking lot, we feel drops of rain coming. Storm #2 is coming, we get in the car just in time. So now what? Well earlier, I did get the call from the Swan resort that my room was ready, so we decide to take our things up to the room now. As we're driving the rain is really pouring down hard. It lets up a bit so we can run into the resort with our lugage. We get our new resort keys and parking passes. We get into our room and lay things out. We wait out the rain while watching TV. Finally, after an hour or so, it stops raining. We now head to MK.

We park at TTC and we make sure we have everything we need before getting on the monorail. Its about 8pm and we need to get some plans in order and have some back up plans. We need to find out if there will still be EMH because of the weather. We find a CM, and to the best of his knowledge yes there will be EMH tonight. Its too early to get the wrist bands. We head to Space mountain to get FP for later, 9:20-10:20pm. It starts to drizzle, so we head to Small World. After that, we ride Mad Tea Party. Now the rain is coming down a bit more. But its time to get our wristbands. They are being hand out near Space Mountain. I ask the CM if Specto Magic Parade or Wishes will be cancelled due to the rain. She says in most cases no, that we would have to wait till the last minute to find out. Ok, we'll wait and see.

We head to Space Mountain for our FP time, but we were a 1 minute early and the CM is being so exact about the FP times. So for the moment we are standing in the rain, with our umbrellas. We go in and enjoy SM. After that we head over to the park hub and find a curb to watch Wishes from. The rain has totally stoppped. At 10pm they start. I get to video tape it all. I LOVE Wishes. Yes I cry a bit. After the fireworks, we get some popcorn and soda. We walk towards Main Street to find a better spot to watch the parade. We so sit across from the Emporium. Before the 11pm parade starts, I see that my nephew may be getting tired. I tell him if he wants to leave after the parade, thats fine with me. He says lets wait and see how he feels after the parade.

The parade goes on and its awesome. I so loved it and so did my nephew. After the parade, my nephew says we should ride Splash Mountain!! All day long we have been AVOIDING getting caught in the rain and getting wet and NOW he wants to ride Splash Mountain!! I say ok! We go on with a 5 minute wait. We did not get that wet at all. After that its Thunder Mountain. Its a 5 minute wait. Then we ride Haunted Mansion, its a walk on. After that we ride Buzz Lightyear, its also a walk on. By now, its 1:30am. I think its safe to say we have had our days worth of Disney. We head on out and get some late night snacks to take back to our resort. We finally crash at 2:30am. A good nights sleep is awaiting us.

Well despite the rain and the timing issues, we had a great time and made the most out of everything. It will probably be a couple of years before I head back to WDW, unless I win a trip or the lottery!! But I do have DL this September to tie me over until the next trip!!

Purplebell1969 / aka Jon C