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Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7 - Day 8
Day 1: Wednesday,
July 5 Our vacation started from Nashville, where we arrived on July 4th and heard the Independence Day fireworks as we were trying to sleep, as our hotel was 3 miles from downtown and about 5 miles from the airport. The alarm went off at 5:00 and due to excitement, I had managed to get probably between 4 and 5 hours of sleep, but who cares when you’re on vacation. We were checked out by 5:30 and at the airport at 6:00, giving us a whole hour to get to our gate. Checking in domestically was a breeze: we used the automated check-in to get our boarding passes and then we had to rearrange our two suitcases so that it wasn’t overweight, but with that done we were through the security checkpoint by 6:30. Our plane was small, holding around 50 passengers with an aisle containing one seat and an aisle containing two, (Ashley and I sat together luckily), as our plane to Orlando was “sold out.” We were at the very back, next to the lavatory, or as the flight attendant called it numerous times during the safety speech, the “laboratory.” The flight was only an hour and a half and it was a total breeze. Getting off the plane in Orlando, having traveled only from Tennessee, was a lot different than traveling there all the way from Alberta. The climate wasn't all that different in the two states. Although I’m informed that Orlando International Airport is much larger than before, it seemed pretty much the same. You have to take a “people-mover” from the gate to the main terminal -- the first of many rides we would be going on. We found the Disney Welcome Desk and we got out our vouchers to take our motor coach to our resort. We didn’t have to deal with our luggage -- our suitcases would be brought right to our hotel room like as if on a cruise ship. Half-an-hour later we were at the All-Star Music Resort on the south end of Disney property. We had to stand in line to check in for a while but luckily they had a room available right away (usually they don’t have rooms ready until past 3:00 and it was only 11:30 or so). So we went to our room, which was a good five minute walk from the hotel’s main building (which contained the front desk, the concierge, the arcade, the souvenir shop, and the cafeteria). The hotel itself had probably 10 large buildings; each one with a different themed façade (there was Calypso, Jazz, Country, Rock n roll, and then we were located in Broadway. There was a giant box-office façade and a fake road of sorts outside our building. Our building was way past the Giant Guitar Pool and near the much smaller-and-always-packed Piano Pool. Our room was small for a hotel room, but it would have been quite large for a cruise ship. It was completely utilitarian in nature: two beds, a small table, a tiny television on top of the cookie-cutter dresser. The toilet had a suck-o-lux button on it as opposed to an actual handle-flusher. Basically, it was absolutely perfect. We weren’t going to be in the room very much anyway. As a matter of fact, the first thing we did upon arriving in our room was leave. We went straight back to the main building and ate at the cafeteria. Here we had to get Jupiter Dogs (of course they weren’t called Jupiter Dogs but they were clearly the same familiar signature Disney foot-long wiener); Ashley got hers with chili and cheese on it, and she pretty much got one every time we went to the cafeteria, they were that good. It was probably around 1:00 by the time we went out front to catch the bus to the Magic Kingdom. Disney-MGM Studios was being kept opened late for resort guests but we wanted to see the castle first, (of course!). The bus took us right to the front gate so we didn’t have to catch the ferry/monorail at the Ticket and Transportation Center. The Magic Kingdom was packed that day but we couldn’t have been happier to have been there. We did the walk down Main Street towards the castle, but the castle was roped off for the Cinderellabration show (a new stage show that they do every few hours) so we had to go around the castle… and we found ourselves in Fantasyland by the Mad Tea Party. Ashley spotted Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and being the Alice fan she is, got in line to have her picture taken with them. The first ride we went on was the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which I had not been on (it replaced Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride although it’s still at Disneyland in California). It was pretty good. That Heffalumps and Woozles song is kinda scary. After that we went on another ride I hadn’t ever been on and it instantly became a must-see: Mickey’s PhilharMagic. It’s located in the 3D theatre that once housed Magic Journeys and the live Lion King show, and it is the latest Disney “4D” experience (a 3D movie with other sensory surprises like water dripping on you, etc.). This movie kicked butt because Donald was the star -- he ends up losing Mickey’s sorcerer hat and he pretty much has to chase it through several famous scenes from different Disney movies. Pretty funny. The shop that you get spat out at once it’s over has a ton of Donald Duck merchandise, but we didn’t really stop to shop just yet! Our next ride was it’s a small world, which has recently gotten its indoor load area redone to look like Disneyland’s. I almost fell asleep but it’s Ashley’s favorite. I don’t hate it, but the lack of sleep was starting to kick in, albeit temporarily. Getting tired of the strollers and the general crowdedness that is Fantasyland in the afternoon, we opted to skip Peter Pan’s Flight (the line was huge) and we made our way to Frontierland to do some of the more intense rides (so I’d wake up!) The afternoon parade was starting, so the line for Splash Mountain was under half-an-hour. But before we went on Splash Mountain, we grabbed a Fast Pass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Fast Passes allow you to come back to a ride later on in the day and bypass the line. It seemed like such a great idea on that first day, but we really didn’t need to play the Fast Pass game very much as the vacation progressed because of our Hyperactive Type A Theme Park Commando skills -- we often were able to ride things strategically and never faced any lines that were too, too long. Regardless, we managed to get Splash Mountain and Big Thunder done in an hour, mostly because of the parade. Splash Mountain, for the first time, wasn’t exceedingly scary for me to ride, mostly because I’d ridden the Voyage at Holiday World with its 150 foot drop. Suddenly a 50 foot drop doesn’t seem so intimidating. I love the story and the Song of the South music of the ride anyway. The drop is just a bonus at the end. It’s still one of my all-time favorites. Ashley loves it too. Big Thunder was fun, but nothing what I remembered it to be. It always seemed to be more fun at night time. We wouldn’t get to put that to the test until near the end of our trip though. With the parade winding down, we made our way to Liberty Square to ride the Haunted Mansion. We had to wait in line for probably 30 minutes once again, but nothing too long. This is another ride that just seems to be a lot more fun at night time, even though the entire ride is indoors. It's not as scary waiting in line during the day. Afterwards we saw the Country Bear Jamboree, which is one of Ashley’s family’s classic favorites. We then got on the Disney World Railroad to Mickey's Toontown Fair (stroller land) and then we walked to Space Mountain. This was the line that we had to stand in the longest that day, probably 45 minutes. Space Mountain at Disneyland in California has apparently undergone a massive two-year-long refit and reopened in 2005 as more-or-less a completely new ride. Disney World’s version would benefit from the same attention. It is old, and jerky, without banked turns, and kind of showing its age. We only rode it once. The park was still packed, we were kind of tired, and so we went back to the hotel. We stopped at the Emporium on Main Street and did some shopping first. Ashley bought some pins and I got her a Cheshire Cat alarm clock and a picture frame. We ate again at the hotel cafeteria for supper. We probably should have gone to bed at that point since we had been awake since 5:00, but Disney-MGM Studios was being kept open extra late for resort guests. (Each night a different park would have these Extra Magic Hours for resort guests only, which we took full advantage of. Disney-MGM Studios only had extra-hours on Wednesdays though, so we had to take advantage of them that day or miss out.) So once we arrived at Disney-MGM Studios, we got our wristbands for the Extra Magic Hours and then we immediately got in the big huge lineup for Fantasmic!, the popular show from Disneyland which is shown at Disney-MGM Studios nightly in a huge outdoor amphitheatre. We had to stand in a mob for probably an hour, which wasn’t a lot of fun, but we ended up getting really good seats. Ashley really wanted a frozen lemonade but she settled for an Itzakadoozie (Popsicle). Fantasmic! is still a blast -- Mickey kicks all the villains’ butts. Some of the new scenes include a live-action stunt scene from the movie Pocahontas. That was neat because you don’t normally see a whole lot of Pocahontas stuff at Disney World. With the park officially closed to non-resort guests, we managed to get on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which I had never ridden. It became an instant classic, although again my experience with the Voyage at Holiday World had well-prepared me for it. You lose your stomach at least four or five times on Tower of Terror. The ride starts out with a preshow that shows scenes from the actual episode of the Twilight Zone about the Tower of Terror. And then you board your elevator and it takes you up a few floors and shows you some freaky stuff. Then it takes you up a few more floors and the elevator actually leaves the shaft and goes through some freaky twilight zone stuff, and then you’re in a new elevator shaft. From here, you hear the Twilight Zone song (doo-doo-doo-doo), and then the ride randomly either sends you straight up… or straight down. The sequence is random, but you basically get shot up and dropped down five times. Each time you get to feel completely weightless. At least one of the drops is from the 13th floor where you can see the entire park below you and it takes your picture. What can I say, it’s a total, unpredictable thrill. It was almost midnight by the time we went over to the Studios’ other thrill ride - the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith - an intense indoor coaster with three inversions, set to an Aerosmith soundtrack. It was better than I thought it would be. At first I thought it would be dumb to have an Aerosmith ride, but it was kind of funny. The line was very long but some nice girl approached us and gave us her Fast Passes because she wasn’t going to ride it afterall, so we managed to bypass the huge line and almost walk on. The preshow has Aerosmith in a recording studio having an argument with their manager. You can tell that the guys in the band aren’t really taking it seriously, but it's fun anyway. Then you get on the ride and it shoots you from zero to sixty in five seconds or something incredibly fast and all of a sudden you are upside down. The rest of the ride was so much smoother than Space Mountain that it further put Space Mountain to shame. The gift shop that you are spat out into unsurprisingly sold Aerosmith merchandise. Star Tours, at this point, with the park almost completely empty, was a walk on. This was almost unfortunate because I love the lineup, with R2-D2 and C-3PO and the realistic droids. The ride itself is really showing its age. It’s a classic for me, but Ashley who’d never ridden it, and until last year had never even seen Star Wars, could probably have done without it. George Lucas has indicated that a new Star Tours is in the works - a prequel Pod Racer simulator. As if we weren’t tired enough yet, Ashley spotted a Disney Villains store on Sunset Boulevard. They had some Cheshire Cat merchandise there. She got a Cheshire Cat shirt. The girl who was in front of us in the lineup was a big Maleficent fan (the evil queen from Sleeping Beauty). She appeared to have as much Maleficent stuff as Ashley has Cheshire Cat stuff. As one kid remarked later on in our vacation, “bad guys are so much cooler!” Cheshire Cat isn’t really a bad guy though! He’s just mischievous. By the time we arrived at our hotel it was probably 2:00. So we were awake for 21 straight hours. It was probably not an ideal way to spend the first day of the vacation, but we got a lot done and we were really excited to do as much as we could at this point. It was a great day! Onto Day 2!
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