Tale of a Trip... part dos

Di'ney World

It's a small world after all??? Are you kidding me? Eight billion people on the planet and they all decide to show up at Disney when I'm there- what's up with that? Guess that's why they call it Disney WORLD, hello!

We stayed at one of Disney's resort hotels, it was the Coronado Springs Resort (see pic in part uno of Brenda). Very nice place to stay- there are nicer... for a price. And one bit of advice if you're ever going to go to Disney World- staying at one of the resorts is the best way to go. They have buses running about every 20 minutes from the resorts to the theme parks- don't have to worry about parking or anything... you just have to remember where you're staying, which bus to get on, or which monorail to take (more about that later in the Magical Kingdom part) :D

We got up early to hit the parks. Our goal: hit Disney's Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom- all in one day. Impossible you say? Well, we shall see...

Animal Kingdom


This is a very cool park- probably our most favorite. Unfortunately, since we were on a very tight s'edule, we could only hit the highlights. Brenda had her show this day, but we all went to the park together, then she left for her show at about 10:30a and would be gone for a few hours. She'll meet back up with us @ Hollywood Studios. Anyway, there is this awesome tree in the middle of the park. The trunk has all kinds of animals carved into it (I guess it's really cement)... see the pic- but so cool. The animals were awesome- the birds, monkeys, lions, tigers and bears... ok, we just saw monkeys, tigers, and birds, and Carson had a staring contest with a gorilla- he was quite a show-off. People say that when they go to Disney World, they usually do a full day at each park. You know why? Can I just say that I think whilst we were there, the Slow-Walker's of America must have had their Convention as well and followed us around all day- good gravy! Make a hole, would ya? We always felt like salmon trying to swim upstream. Mount Everest was an awesome ride. After a few hours, we had to bug out to our next park- the time was going much too quickly. Our regret here was that we didn't have time to take the safari ride- line was too long and the FastPast wasn't until late in the evening- dang!
















Hollywood Studios


This was pretty cool too, but not a lot of time here either. We were getting pretty hungry and we needed some lunch. Brenda was done with her morning show and met us here... guess where we ate? Pizza Planet- why wouldn't we? Double prizes- no way!" We went on the Star Tours ride- some 3D action there, which was more fun than I expected. We also hit the Indiana Jones show- a stunt show which was very well done. Carson thought it was the real thing and that Indy got run over by the big ball- funny! We saw a few more things here, like the Tower of Terror (fun!), and we wanted to get on the Aerosmith roller coaster, but the line was over an hour long and the FastPasses were not available until about 10p! I'm sorry, but we'll be in another kingdom, sir (alas, not the Celestial one).

Epcot


Sydney, Carson, and I were reticent about this place as we were not that excited about it. But we went, we saw, but forgot the t-shirt. When we got there, I was wondering if they were shutting the place down, as there weren't too many people there (yahoo!). We did go on the ride in the big round ball- I thought it was going to be a screamer, it turned out to be was a yawner- the slowest ride in the world... although it was very informative- OK, I liked it. But after the "ballroom blitz", we woke up and cleaned the drool off our shirts then high tailed it outta there. We did look around a little bit, but nothing really attracted us to stay. Remember when I said earlier that you had to remember where you are/were and how to get back? Well, we had a hard time finding how to get to our next destination.... we had a date with Micky at the Magical Kingdom and our coach was soon to turn into a pumpkin! After a wrong bus or three, we finally figured out how to get to the mayhem at Mickey's maniacal Magical Kingdom.

Magical Kingdom


When we went to Disneyland, back in 'ot whenever, when it was getting late and the kids were all crying and the parent ticked off, they started pouring out of the park... just the opposite here. They took everybody out of the other kingdoms and dumped them off here. The place was wall to wall Mickymani-ites! Unbelievable! First thing we do is grab a map so we can figure out where we are (usually that big 'X' labeled "you are here") and where the good stuff is. We were getting a little hungry again, so we tried to find a vender of victuals that wasn't too busy, but, we saw Pirates of the Caribbean! Had to do it, even if it is a little goofy, it was fun anyway. Then we wolfed down some kind of meal as we had to bee-line it to Space Mountain. We were hung up a bit as we had to wait for Tink and her Electric Light Orchestra Parade to pass by- totally cut off our route! We even tried to get around her by going up the Swiss Family Robinson tree, but dang... it just came back down (because what goes up....). Anyway, we finally made it to the mountain... a little bit of a line, but whatcha gonna do? Crazy ride! Then we saw the Buzz Lightyear ride which was kinda fun, too. People started lining up for the firework show- which meant the lines were low! We boogied over to the Haunted Mansion- our shortest line ever.

Brenda had her evening show and was unable to be with us, we invited her to meet us, but she respectfully declined as she was enjoying a little quiet time at the hotel (perhaps she found a BBD (bigger, better deal)?). So, we did our best to have fun without her.... P.A.R.T. Why? Because we gotta!" We grabbed some ice cream and walked around trying to find things to do. I think this is when we hit Splash Mountain- not smart to ride this one when it's late and a bit cold... oh well, it was a splash and it brought back good memories of Disneyland ;)

It was getting a bit late and we thought we had better think about heading back. So, we hopped the first monorail we saw leaving the place... remember earlier when I said you have to remember where you are/were and how to get back? We got off at the last stop, and well, things didn't look all that familiar- hmmmm. After trying to figure out where we were, I finally did the manly thing and, ladies... Wait For It!!!!... asked for directions. As you might have guessed, that first monorail was NOT the one to take- and it was getting late and the buses don't run all night. Unbeknownst to us, the monorail back to the Magical Kingdom is the slow ride- a death dirge if you will , and we stopped at everybody else's hotel and wait for all the drunken princesses to disembark. Man, did your pumpkin dump you in the gutter or what?

With directions from the friendly Mouseketeer, we were able to make the correct connecting monorail which connected to the correct bus. That is one thing I have to say about the staff at Disney, they are all very helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, obedient,... a very scout-worthy bunch. Who knows, without their help, I might still be there "...runnin' off the rails on the crazy train!". Well, we finally made it back to the hotel... is 2a in the morning too late? So, the answer to the question, "can you can do 4 parks in a day?" Yes, not everything, but doable. And what a blast- what a day!