Monday morning, Stacey and I got up pre-dawn and hit the road for the most Magical (and most visited) place on Earth. Because we only had a day, we had drawn up a crazy plan to hit all four parks. Our priorities were favorite attractions that we knew were fun and also attractions that we hadn't done before. Obviously, we avoided the attractions that we had done before that weren't fun. We couldn't do everything, but boy did we sure try!
Our first stop was the Coronado Springs Resort Hotel, where we were able to check in at 7:30 in the morning.
Being resort guests would allow us to hit the Early Magic Hours at the Animal Kingdom and stay for the extra Evening Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom.
Once we got checked in, our first stop was the Animal Kingdom.
Great AK-themed tree outside the front gate.
Had I been a quicker thinker, Stacey would be in this photo.
After Everest, we went and rode Dinosaur!, then headed out of the park. We had a schedule to keep.
Stacey doing her best Aladar face.
One of us was very surprised.
Our next stop was at Disney's Hollywood Studios, where we got a great parking spot near the entrance, then we stood in line to get into the very crowded park. We were there by the time the park opened, but the lines were so long it took us 15 minutes to get from the back of the line to the turnstiles. 
Because the lines for Toy Story Mania! were already at 90 minutes by the time we got into the park, we altered our plan and headed for the Rock n' Roller Coaster,
after which we rode the Tower of Terror with FastPasses.
After these two adrenaline-filled rides, we grabbed some FastPasses for Star Tours (the FPs for Toy Story were already gone for the whole day, and it wasn't even 10:30am!) then headed out of the park and back to the Animal Kingdom.
The motivation for returning to the Animal Kingdom was to see Finding Nemo: The Musical, which I missed out on the last time we were at Disney World due to a sick child. While waiting for the Nemo showtime, we grabbed some lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, which, I must say, was fabulous. Great portions and good tasting food--we highly recommend it!
After the BBQ, we headed into Finding Nemo and were not disappointed. They really do their musicals well at the Disney Parks.
After the show, we were finished with Animal Kingdom for this trip. We would have loved to have done Kilimanjaro Safaris, but that will have to wait for our next trip!
One of the biggest motivations for this trip was the fact that we were there at Christmas time and we really wanted to see the Christmas decorations. Another motivator was the fact that we've had extended stays at WDW twice and never really gotten to do much in the World Showcase at Epcot. As such, it was on to Epcot!
We did nothing in the Future World section of Epcot, simply because of our limited time and our desire to do things we hadn't done before. Additionally, the World Showcase portion of Epcot was the part that was decked out for Christmas. They had "Holidays around the World" storytellers at each of the lands, and we were able to catch a couple of those, including Pere Noël in France.
In addition to the Christmas fanfare, we went and watched O Canada!, Impressions de France and Reflections of China, as well as visiting the pavilions of most of the other lands. We watched Chinese Acrobats and Japanese candy makers, and visited (and sniffed) a life-sized gingerbread house in the American Pavilion.
Because the lines for Toy Story Mania! were already at 90 minutes by the time we got into the park, we altered our plan and headed for the Rock n' Roller Coaster,
after which we rode the Tower of Terror with FastPasses.
After these two adrenaline-filled rides, we grabbed some FastPasses for Star Tours (the FPs for Toy Story were already gone for the whole day, and it wasn't even 10:30am!) then headed out of the park and back to the Animal Kingdom.
The motivation for returning to the Animal Kingdom was to see Finding Nemo: The Musical, which I missed out on the last time we were at Disney World due to a sick child. While waiting for the Nemo showtime, we grabbed some lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, which, I must say, was fabulous. Great portions and good tasting food--we highly recommend it!
After the BBQ, we headed into Finding Nemo and were not disappointed. They really do their musicals well at the Disney Parks.
After the show, we were finished with Animal Kingdom for this trip. We would have loved to have done Kilimanjaro Safaris, but that will have to wait for our next trip!
One of the biggest motivations for this trip was the fact that we were there at Christmas time and we really wanted to see the Christmas decorations. Another motivator was the fact that we've had extended stays at WDW twice and never really gotten to do much in the World Showcase at Epcot. As such, it was on to Epcot!
We did nothing in the Future World section of Epcot, simply because of our limited time and our desire to do things we hadn't done before. Additionally, the World Showcase portion of Epcot was the part that was decked out for Christmas. They had "Holidays around the World" storytellers at each of the lands, and we were able to catch a couple of those, including Pere Noël in France.
In addition to the Christmas fanfare, we went and watched O Canada!, Impressions de France and Reflections of China, as well as visiting the pavilions of most of the other lands. We watched Chinese Acrobats and Japanese candy makers, and visited (and sniffed) a life-sized gingerbread house in the American Pavilion.
We grabbed some goodies at the Patisserie in France--yumm!
After a counter-service dinner from the China and Mexico pavilions (which we *don't* highly recommend), we headed back to Hollywood Studios for the nighttime attractions.
We got to Hollywood Studios and headed over to the Osborne Family lights. They were, in a word, spectacular. There were so many lights (I read that there are more than 3 million) that it was a tremendous sensory overload. It was fun to just watch them dance and twinkle without having anywhere else to be.
From there, we rode the new and improved StarTours, for which we had grabbed FastPasses earlier in the day. They did a good job revamping this erstwhile stale ride, making it a 3D ride and adding a randomizing feature which makes the ride different every time. When we go back, we'll do this one multiple times!
Rex, the incompetent Droid pilot from the original ride, is preserved in the queue.
After getting a good dose of Christmas cheer and battling the Evil Empire, we moseyed over to Toy Story Mania! just to see what our chances were of getting on. As it turned out, they were very good! The line was only 33 minutes, and the Orlando version has the kind of queue you don't mind spending a half hour in. Yee haw!
She really WAS pointing to Colorado!
While we were in Toy Story, we shut the park down (8pm), so we had no alternative but to go to another park! The last stop on our whirlwind tour was, of course, the Magic Kingdom.
We got there just in time to catch a glimpse of the Main Street Electrical Parade, then we hit a mix of rides that we loved or had never done. These included Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (it was too cold to do Splash Mountain by this time of night), after which we went to the hub and watched the Fireworks show.
We got there just in time to catch a glimpse of the Main Street Electrical Parade, then we hit a mix of rides that we loved or had never done. These included Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (it was too cold to do Splash Mountain by this time of night), after which we went to the hub and watched the Fireworks show.
It was fun, but I wasn't wowed like I was by the Disneyland show (did I just say that?!).
After the fireworks, we grabbed a Dole Whip Pineapple Float in Adventureland and went to watch the Country Bear Jamboree (Stacey took a nap). 
After the Bears, we toured the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse, then headed over to Tomorrowland for the People Mover (Stacey took a nap), Stitch's Great Escape (Stacey took a nap) and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I guess there was a reason that Buzz Lightyear was the only one of these we'd done before--it's still a whole lot of fun!
After Tomorrowland, we went to Fantasyland to try to see what we could see of the expansion construction (not too much in the dark, but we caught a glimpse--very exciting stuff!), then we watched Mickey's Philharmagic (we both took a nap; this is actually a really fun show when you aren't dead tired) then took a spin with 999 happy haunts in the Haunted Mansion (I think Stacey took a nap). When we got out of the Mansion, it was 1:30am, and we decided to call it a day (and a half!). We were spent.
After a quick night's stay at the hotel, we checked out and spent the morning shopping at the very large hotel gift shop in Coronado Springs, then over to Downtown Disney for some last-minute souvenir shopping. After that, it was on to the Airport and our flight home.
While there was so much more we would have loved to do if we'd had more time, we were pretty pleased with what we could accomplish on just a one-day pass! We scratched the Disney itch for a while and got to see their Christmas offerings. The only word I can come up with is "supercallifragilisticexpialidocious".
After the Bears, we toured the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse, then headed over to Tomorrowland for the People Mover (Stacey took a nap), Stitch's Great Escape (Stacey took a nap) and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I guess there was a reason that Buzz Lightyear was the only one of these we'd done before--it's still a whole lot of fun!
After Tomorrowland, we went to Fantasyland to try to see what we could see of the expansion construction (not too much in the dark, but we caught a glimpse--very exciting stuff!), then we watched Mickey's Philharmagic (we both took a nap; this is actually a really fun show when you aren't dead tired) then took a spin with 999 happy haunts in the Haunted Mansion (I think Stacey took a nap). When we got out of the Mansion, it was 1:30am, and we decided to call it a day (and a half!). We were spent.
After a quick night's stay at the hotel, we checked out and spent the morning shopping at the very large hotel gift shop in Coronado Springs, then over to Downtown Disney for some last-minute souvenir shopping. After that, it was on to the Airport and our flight home.
While there was so much more we would have loved to do if we'd had more time, we were pretty pleased with what we could accomplish on just a one-day pass! We scratched the Disney itch for a while and got to see their Christmas offerings. The only word I can come up with is "supercallifragilisticexpialidocious".
3 comments:
wow! looks like fun!
Wow, that is a lot of lights! Looks like you two had a wonderful time! We would love to visit Walt Disney World sometime soon.
My husband loves the new star tours. I think he has seen all the different scenarios now. Looks like you guys had lots of fun!
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