Trip Report from October 2010

The night before we left for Disney, both Mr. Arb and myself did not get to sleep as early as we should have. He had been out that evening seeing one of his favorite semi-local singers perform for the first time, and hadn't even started packing until after he got home. I had done most of my packing earlier in the week, but after I had finished tossing in all my last-minute items that I had been using during the week, I came to the conclusion my suitcase was much bigger than I actually needed.

So at around 10:00 PM, I decided that it would be better overall to unpack my ginormous suitcase and re-pack everything into my two smaller ones, taking one as a carry on. Around the time that Mr. Arb was home and we were both packed and ready to go, it was nearing 11:30 PM. We went to bed and I begrudgingly checked the alarm clock make sure it was set for our wake up time...4:35 AM.

Considering that I was waking up for Disney as opposed to going to work, it was surprisingly easy for me to get up in the morning and make sure we had everything together. This was also helped by the Starbucks Double Shot Energy Drink I'd purchased the day before. Our flight was leaving at 7:45 AM, and we were first driving my car to Mr. Arb's mom's house, and she was going to take us to the airport.

We left our apartment at 5:15 AM, and it was around this time that the lack of sleep first started getting to me...when I tried to open the back doors of my car using my car keys.

After I finally realized there was no keyholes back there, I handed my keys over to Mr. Arb and told him that he was going to drive to his mom's house. We made it there around 5:40 AM, and after a quick luggage transfer to her van, we were off to the airport.

We arrived there around 6 AM, and since I had done online check in with AirTran the night before, we went straight over to security, and got through with no problems. As we were walking to our terminal, Mr. Arb was using Foursquare to update his location on Facebook, and it kept trying to tell him that he was already in Orlando. Ahhh, if only it were that simple!

Can you tell who is sleep deprived and who is overly caffeinated?

They began boarding our flight around 7:00. The flight itself was extremely uneventful, and we made it to MCO at 9:35 AM, 25 minutes ahead of schedule. After we got off the plane, we followed the crowd towards the airport train system, and continued to follow about 75% of the people on our flight over the the DME check in.

We were seated towards the back of the bus, and we were able to watch the Welcome video for the first time - last year something was wrong with the GPS on our bus, so the video never knew when to start playing. It was cute and definitely getting me in the Disney mood.

And then, through my window, I saw this:

Look at that glorious sign - you can actually see the joy and excitement radiating from it!

Okay, maybe that's just because there was a smudge on the window. But that's besides the point. We had finally arrived!!

We arrived at POP, our home for the next two nights, around 11:30, and I took a couple lobby pictures while we were waiting to check in.

Not surprisingly, our room wasn't ready just yet. They handed us our folder full of park info and our anniversary pins, and sent us on our way. Considering neither of us had really had anything to eat for breakfast, we were both extremely hungry and went off in search of some food.

It was pretty busy when we first walked in, so Mr. Arb went to grab us a table and watch our stuff while I got in line. Nothing was really jumping out at me, so I just decided to get something that I don't often have at home, shrimp lo mein and carrot cake.

After I got back, Mr. Arb went up to grab his food, a chili dog with mustard, and some unpictured apple slices.

After we were done eating, we sat around for a bit relaxing and trying to decide what we wanted to do. Because it's a liquid, all of my suntan lotion was packed in my checked bag, which we wouldn't see until we got to the room. We're both extremely fair skinned, so heading out into the Florida sun on our first day with no protection wasn't an option. I'd seen some pictures of the decor around the resort, so we decided to check it out for ourselves.

I'm a huge Beatles fan, so I had to get a picture of this:

After we walked through the 50s and 60s sections, I was started to get pretty overheated. I'd packed a pair of capri's in my carry on bag, so we headed back towards the main building so I could change in the bathroom. As soon as I got back to Mr. Arb, I noticed I had a text message - our room was ready!

After a quick stop back to Everything POP to get two Vinylmation figures, we went to find our room. We had one of the easiest room numbers ever to remember - 2222. It was in the 50s section, in the building with the jukebox. We gathered our things and went back in that direction.

I also took the time to open up my Vinylmation boxes to see what I got. One I loved, and the other...not so much.

I wasn't too discouraged about getting a Vinylmation that I didn't care for. I'd heard that recently you could go to the resorts and Downtown Disney and engage in some Vinylmation trading, so I was excited to have an opportunity to do so! I'll go into more detail about the trading later.

About 15 minutes after we got to the room, our luggage was delivered to us. I was pretty shocked at how short our wait was, and excited that I could start to get on sunscreen and get ready to visit the parks. Mr. Arb and I both got ready and hopped on a bus to go to Hollywood Studios.

The 3:00 parade was about to get started as we were walking in the park, so we quickly moved to the sidewalk and made our way towards Tower of Terror. I think the wait was around 40 minutes, so we decided to get a Fastpass and come back before we left the park. Once we had our Fastpasses, we decided to go to The Magic of Disney Animation.

I think I did an old version of this as a kid, but Mr. Arb had never gone, and it was something he specifically requested we try to do on our trip. After the short video with Mushu, we got in line for the Animation Academy. We were the last two people let into the room, and sat up in the front row with the drawing pad on our laps. Today we were drawing Daisy Duck. About halfway through the drawing, I decided to sneak a peek at Mr. Arb's artwork. Oh my. I was doing my best to hold my laughter inward and definitely failing.

What was so funny, you ask? Behold:

Let's take a closer look at that, shall we?

I kept hoping that later on in the trip I could get a picture of Mr. Arb and Daisy, but it never worked out.

Here is my much less entertaining drawing:

Once we were finished, we decided to make our way over to Toy Story Midway Mania to see what the wait time was:

110 minutes? I don't think so. I knew since we'd gotten to the park late there wouldn't be a chance of getting Fast Passes, so I figured I would just do it later in the week.

Before I go too much farther, I want to interject a quick note - Going into this vacation there were two rides at Disney that I had never been on and was determined to make it to on this trip: Space Mountain and Toy Story Midway Mania. I really didn't care if I was unable to get anything else on my Must Do list done, I just really wanted to go on these rides.

We continued on to the Backlot Tour, which has always been a favorite of mine.

As our tram was riding around the area near Lights Motors Action! I noticed something very interesting that I had never seen before...

As soon as we got off the ride, I went to inspect further...

I've never been to Disney in the winter, so having a chance to see all of the Christmas light decorations being put up was a real treat. I also had no idea they started putting them up this early into the Fall. Mr. Arb and I agreed that when we get to plan our next trip to Disney World, it would definitely be at a time when we can see the lights in action.

Since we were in the area, I got a picture at an old classic:

Mr. Arb's knee was starting to bug him, so we grabbed a bottle of water and sat for a few minutes outside of Pizza Planet. Since we were nearby Muppet Vision 3-D, we decided it would be a nice break out of the heat and were able to walk directly into the theatre.

Since the theme of the afternoon seemed to be things that I had never seen in Disney before, I don't know why I was so surprised by this one. Guess what was actually open:

The show itself wasn't that great, but we did have a lot of fun in Sound Works, the area after you exit the theatre, but before you go outside. They had machines where you could provide your own voiceovers to different Disney films (the two I saw were Snow White and Mickey & the Beanstalk), as well as creating your own sound effects.

When it's open, I believe you can just walk right into the Sound Works portion, so I'd recommend to skip the movie part and spend a little time in there.

After we left, I saw my absolute favorite thing in all of Disney and got my number 1 Must Take picture:

NOW it felt like a Disney vacation!

It was now time to use our Tower of Terror fast passes, so I snapped some pictures along the way.

The Streetsmosphere people were performing, so we stopped to watch them for a few minutes

And then, it was time!

By now, we were both getting incredibly hungry, so we decided to hop on a bus to the Poly and see if they would seat us early for our reservation at Kona. We checked in with the hostess around 7:15 PM, and went to the bar by 'Ohana while we waited. Mr. Arb noticed that has a variety of beer he had never tried before, so he ordered one of them (I do not for the life of me remember what it was). I'm not much of a drinker, and all the stools at the bar were occupied, so I decided to head to the Poly gift shop and have my first adventure in Vinylmation trading.

I definitely prefer Easter Bunnies to teeth!

I went back to Mr. Arb, and around 7:45 our buzzer went off. In addition to their normal selections, people on the dining plan can select their food from a prix fixe menu where in addition to the entree and dessert, you also can get an appetizer. I decided to select from that, and Mr. Arb ordered off the regular menu.

Pot Stickers - wok-seared duck dumplings with creamy ginger soy sauce

They were delicious, and I'm really happy I ordered them, because we wound up waiting about half an hour for our entrees, and I am not exaggerating. The tables on both sides of us received and finished eating their entrees before we even got ours. We never got an explanation for the wait either, but I was definitely annoyed for the rest of the meal.

Teriyaki-style New York Strip - sirloin strip grilled with pineapple teriyaki glaze (on the side) served with rice and stir-fried broccolini

Pan Asian Noodles - Asian egg noodles with sliced chicken, pineapple, seasonal vegetables, and a housemade sweet and sour sauce

Fortunately, our deserts did not take as long:

Kilauea Torte

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

And they brought us out some anniversary cupcakes, which we barely ate because we were stuffed by this point.

After we were finished dinner, we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom to catch a bus to POP, and were able to see some of Wishes from our window. We arrived back around 9:45 PM, where we had one last surprise waiting for us...

I was ready to slip off my shoes and just collapse in bed, but something on the table in our room caught my eye...

My parents had a small gift sent to our room!

Thanks Mom and Dad!!

I gave my Mom a quick call after we opened the gift. She was really relieved to hear that we had gotten it, since apparently they were supposed to give it to us at check in. She was getting nervous when she hadn't heard from us all day, and wanted us to spend it on a couple souvenirs for ourselves. I think we could manage to come up with a few things we wanted.

We both slept great that night, at least until the family next door to us started to get ready. We both woke up somewhere between 6 and 6:30, and we able to hear every single word they were speaking through the walls. Not exactly the Disney magic I was hoping for on my first morning!

About an hour later, we finally got up and started getting ready. As I jumped in the shower, Mr. Arb went to Everything Pop to grab some breakfast. He got a bagel and bacon, and got me a cinnamon bun.

After an uneventful bus ride, we arrived at Epcot around 9:30, and of course had to get some obligatory golf ball pictures.

Our first stop was to the Festival Center to check out some of the Food & Wine Festival Merch. Now, last year Disney made messenger bags out of the Food & Wine Festival banners from the previous year. They were a hot commodity and sold out fairly quickly. I mean, Mr. Arb and I were there opening week and never even saw them. Luckily, we didn't run in to the same thing this year, and I finally able to get one!

Here's the one I wound up getting:

Once we left the festival center, we went over to Test Track to get some Fast Passes, then we decided to head over to Innoventions. On our way, we saw three guys playing percussion music using ovens, pots and pans. Their name escapes me at the moment, but we were very impressed.

When they finished, we entered Innoventions and walked straight into Test Lab.

We had a good time playing around with everything, including trying to break a TV

As we made our way around, we saw something I had heard about and was very excited to try!

For those of you who haven't experienced this yet, Sum of All Thrills is an activity where you create your own virtual roller coaster, then get to ride it. You sit in a little pod attached to a large mechanical arm which moves you all around and gives you the sensation of going down large drops and loops.

At the end of your ride, a number comes up on the screen that tells you what the Sum of Your Thrills is, and we got a 636. Don't ask me what that number means, or how it compares to others, because I have absolutely no idea.

After we left Innoventions, we decided to check out Living with the Land. This is one of the rides that I really remember from my childhood, but hadn't ridden sense then, so I was looking forward to it.

After the ride was over, we both thought it might be interesting to do the Behind the Seeds Tour. We went to the info desk to get the details about it. We didn't have time to do it then, because we had lunch reservations in about 20 minutes, but planned to try and go later during our trip. (As a side note, that never worked out, but we DID go on our trip this past June, and it was GREAT! Highly recommended!)

We left The Land to make our way over to The Living Seas...and get very lost and confused trying to find where exactly the Coral Reef entrance was. After walking in circles a few times, and finally finding some helpful cast members, we arrived!

After a very short wait, we were seated for what I think was my favorite meal of our trip.

Mr. Arb ordered the Grilled New York Strip Steak - served with horseradish smashed potatoes and asparagus.

While I had something new on the menu: Rainbow Seared Trout - with warm salad of white beans, arugula, tomatoes, crispy bacon, aged balsamic vinegar and brown butter

I cannot say enough about how delicious that was. My mouth is watering right now just thinking about it.

We ended things with a classic Baileys and Jack Daniel's Mousse - topped with a ganache and chocolate cigar

After we finished lunch, we decided it was time to cash in on our Test Track FPs. On our way there, Mr. Arb spotted Chip & Dale, and said he wanted to get in line for a picture. Back when he was a kid on his first trip to Disney, one of his mom's favorite pictures was of him and his brothers with the chipmunks, and he thought she'd really enjoy having an updated picture.

I decided to get in on the action also.

When we got to Test Track, even the Fast Pass line seemed a bit slow going, but it gave me time to get some pictures in the queue area.

When we got on the ride we were seated in the backseat - just like every other time we've ridden. I think I just need to go to the World with a group of 6 so I can make sure I get to be seated in the front!

After we got off Test Track, we made our way to the World Showcase.

We briefly stopped in Karamel Kuche, but it was so crowded we just did a quick walk through, and then went right back out. Hopefully next time it won't be as crazy and we'll actually attempt to order something.

While we were in Germany, I had to stop by and see the trains.

During the Food & Wine Festival, it seems that they add in miniature versions of a few of the booths to the train displays. I loved all the details they included.

We continued walking around the Showcase...

... when I heard something that I absolutely wasn't expecting.

"Hey, UMBC!"

I was wearing a shirt with my alma mater's logo, but was really taken off guard when someone knew who it was! We're a relatively new school in Maryland (started in 1966), and not really well known outside of our local area. I located the person shouting at me, and turns out she was a '77 alum and extremely excited to find someone representing her school. She and her husband moved down to the Florida a couple years ago, and we spent quite a bit of time talking about the school, Disney, and ended the conversation with her suggesting that we have an alumni event at Disney. I told her I thought it was a fantastic idea!

Mr. Arb's knee was starting to bother him by this point, so we made our way back towards the entrance. As we got closer, we noticed the wait for Spaceship Earth was only 5 minutes, and figured it was as good a time as any to hop on.

Without saying anything to each other, we both decided to try and make a goofy face for the camera.

I'd say we were pretty successful, don't you think?

We made our way off the ride and walked outside...when I realized I'd left my camera case on the seat where we had been riding. Mr. Arb, bum knee and all, sprinted back indoors to talk to the cast member at the ride exit to see if she could help. She disappeared, and about two minutes later returned with the camera case! I was so relieved, since I didn't want to spend the rest of my trip worrying about my camera getting damaged in my bag. We thanked her, left the park, and hopped on the bus bound for POP Century.

When we arrived, we went to the concierge desk and spoke to someone about getting our bags transferred from POP to Port Orleans - Riverside the following day. They told us to just take our bags to the luggage people before we leave to go to the parks in the morning, and they'd take care of the rest. Content with that answer, we made our way back to the room and were greeted with another fun surprise:

We spent about an hour resting and relaxing, and around 6:00 we made our way out out of the room to walk around the other areas of the resort, then catch a bus to DHS for our Sci Fi ADR.

We boarded a bus to DHS at 6:30 PM, but that wasn't where we'd end our night...

This concerns me: I kind alike that Vinylmation. That scuba one is cool! The teeth one made me think "WT* is that??" Good idea to trade it for the Easter bunny one! Haha. Like I need another Disney collection to start...but they are growing on me the more I see....

Thanks for sharing!