The Tigger Family WDW Trip Report

Day 1

Day 1 is our arrival day.  Due to some traffic issues that we experienced yesterday, we arrived at Old Key West at around 2 PM…later than we had hoped.  The good news was though…we could get into our Villa.  This trip, since we have the flexibility of a car…we were not going to prefer our usual Peninsular Road location…we ended up with a villa at the end of Miller’s Road.  It’s a quiet location…past the bus turn-around…so no bus traffic.  Our villa also has the desirable aspect of being near a quiet pool but not next to it.

As is usually our tradition…our arrival date is used to visit Epcot.  The plan had been to not to bother seeing any attractions that were ride-based and just watch some of the World Showcase movies/shows.  After a long day and a half of travel…getting our Annual Passes and our Tables in Wonderland Card…the kids wanted to go on rides…no shows.  We like to travel to WDW with a Touring Plan…but as with the Pirate Code….it’s often more like guidelines than actual rules.  We didn’t have lot of time before our dinner ADR, but we did manage to ride Mission: Space, Ellen’s Energy Adventure and Grand Fiesta Tour.

Our dinner ADR was at the Coral Reef.  I know this restaurant gets panned quite often, but I’ll be honest..we’ve never had a bad meal there and this restaurant is our usual arrival date dinner restaurant.  Tonight I had the grilled Mahi Mahi and butterscotch creme brule for desert.

After dinner, we returned to Old Key West…finished unpacking and got to bed for our first full day at Walt Disney World.

Day 2

Today is our first full day at WDW and we’ll be going to the Magic Kingdom and starting the day with breakfast with Cinderella. Since our daughter Caitlin is a full-blown Disney Princess Fan…visiting with Cinderella is a high priority for us.  As we usually experience…the character interaction was top notch and the food was the typical fare and relatively good, but honestly…who goes to this breakfast for the food?  It’s all about Cinderella and her friends…this time being Snow White, Princess Aurora and Jasmine.

Since our breakfast was prior to park opening, we had the advantage of being at the entrance to Fantasyland prior to rope drop.  After a number of failed attempts in prior visits, Caitlin was able to wake up Tinker Bell.  While this was cute and nice, with all the hype I’ve heard about this special moment, it was in reality quite under-whelming.  It wasn’t bad…just not what I was expecting.

Surprisingly..the crowds at Magic Kingdom were not bad.  Wait times were shorter than we were expecting.  Because of this and the good weather today and the promise of rain later in the week, we stayed in the park all day rather than return to Old Key West for the afternoon.  Because we stayed, we were able to take care of most of Fantasyland, see the Monsters Inc. Comedy Club and ride Buzz Lightyear, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, watch the Country Bears and most importantly….visit the Disney Fairies.

As expected…the wait was long…it was listed as having a wait of 60 minutes, but in reality it took us about 80 minutes to get through it.  While the experience was enjoyable I’m not sure why the wait was so long, since we didn’t end up spending a lot of time with the fairies.

We finished the day with dinner at Tony’s, then watched Spectromagic and Wishes.

Day 3

We started today off with an early breakfast at Olivia’s (Old Key West), then drove to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for some movie related fun.  After the security check and entering the park, we walked (swiftly) to Toy Story Mania.  This was my wife Cindy’s and my daughter Caitlin’s first visit to Toy Story Mania (me and the boys experienced the AP Preview last year).  It was great to see the details in the queue again. Upon completion of the ride, we immediately got Fast Passes for it for later in the moring.

We then rode Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, The Great Movie Ride, Muppet Vision 3-D and then rerode Toy Story Mania.

After lunch at the Backlot Express…we decided to head back to Old Key West for a well deserved rest and naps.

After freshening ourselves up, we drove back to the Studios for dinner at 50′s Prime Time Cafe.

We had a lot of fun with our “cousin” Courtney, including her asking our soon to be 23 year old son, Joe for his ID (including quizzing) and using ketchup to keep David’s elbows off of the table.

After dinner we squeezed in a ride on the Tower of Terror prior to experiencing Fantasmic.  Waiting for the show had the typical crowd entertainment, including The Wave.  The most interesting form of entertainment was the use of my Blackberry Storm and many of the people around us with their smartphones to follow the various weather radar applications because as we waited the sky was looking more ominous.  We all were wondering whether we’d get rain before the show or not.  As it turned out, we escaped the rain storms and we were able to experience another great Fantasmic show.

Day 4

Today was our day to experience the Animal Kingdom…and today also being an Extra Magic Hour morning.  We took advantage of this to experience Expedition Everest and the Kilamanjaro Safaris.  This morning was our daughter, Caitlin’s first time riding Expedition Everest.  Not surprisingly, Catilin thoroughly enjoyed the attraction…once again, the Imagineers and their magic was successful.

After Kilamanjaro Safaris, we stopped at the Tusker House Bakery for some pastry and juice.

We then wandered over to Dinoland, where we ran into our DPN friends Barb and Steven (aka Meerkat) where we rode Primeval Whirl together.  We almost ran into Lou (BMSLOU) and his family but when the showed up we were in line for Primeval Whirl and missed them other than a wave and a cell phone chat.  While I chatted with Barb and David chatted with Steven, Cindy and Caitlin rode Triceratop Spin.

We then went off to Yak & Yeti for lunch which was good as usual for us.  We have always found the food here to be pretty good and even reasonably priced though the service here has varied in quality…today the service was pretty good.

After lunch, we went back to Old Key West for a rest and a dip in our quiet pool near our villa.  The use of the pool is always something the kids look forward to. Normally, we’ve used the main pool at Old Key West and we were pleased with our first experience using one of the quiet pools.  It was nice to have the pool to ourselves and 1 0r 2 other families.

After the pool we got cleaned up and drove over to Epcot for dinner at the Garden Grill with Mickey, Pluto and Chip & Dale along with watching Illuminations.  Illuminations…which we never miss during our trips to WDW…was impressive as usual, though it did get interesting when it started to rain during the last few minutes of the show.

Day 5

Today was an Extra Magic Hour morning at Magic Kingdom, but we got a late start to it arriving at close to 8:30 AM…yeah..we missed a rope drop.  We were able to get on Peter Pan and It’s a Small World prior to our ADR at Crystal Palace.

After breakfast we returned to Fantasyland and experienced Mickey’s Philharmagic, rode Pirates of the Caribbean, got our FastPass for the Jungle Cruise, and watched the Tiki Room.

While at lunch at Cosmic Ray’s, we met up with Barb and Steven again.  After lunch we used our FastPass to the Jungle Cruise, watched the Country Bears

then rode the Haunted Mansion.  When we got out of the Haunted Mansion it wasn’t raining…it was pouring.  Because it was raining they were allowing people to go through the “servants entrance” and ride it again…which David and Steven did.  Since we had a dinner ADR at Ohana in a few hours and we were going to need to dry off and possibly change out of some wet clothes, we said good bye to Barb and Steven for the day and headed back to Old Key West.

After drying off and changing some clothes, we headed over to the Polynesian Resort for dinner at Ohana.

We first experienced Ohana for dinner a few years ago and loved it but hadn’t had the chance to eat there again until now.  The food there is wonderful and it’s in such a great atmosphere.  Since they give you all of the food in waves you can get stuffed full there very easily without realizing it since you never really have a lot of food in front of you at any one time.

After dinner, during a break in the rain..we returned to Old Key West for the night.

Day 6

We woke up today to have breakfast with the princesses at the Princess Storybook Breakfast.  For the first time among all of the times we’ve attended this breakfast, we had Ariel in attendance..along with Snow White, Princess Aurora and of course Belle hosting the breakfast.  This breakfast is one of Disney’s better character breakfasts in my opinion when you consider the general food options/quality and the characters.

After breakfast we rode Soarin and Test Track prior to heading over to World Showcase and the United Kingdom Pavilion for the World Showcae Players and “King Arthur and the Holy Grail”.  This little show has become a family favorite.  We all find it to be funny and well done.

After the show we wandered around World Showcase stopping in Japan for a little shopping trip for the kids.  David loves shopping here for Pokeman items…may of which we don’t seem to find locally in our local stores and Caitlin enjoys shopping for Hello Kitty items

Next we went over to The American Adventure where the kids had lunch and Cindy and I shared a funnel cake.  We then watched the show of The American Adventure show.  We have always found this show to be impressive.

After the show we continued to wander around World Showcase checking out the various countries until we got close to our dinner ADR at Le Cellier.  As always has been the case for us…we had a wonderful meal here.  Our server Jason had a wonderful sarcastic sense of humor that made our experience even more enjoyable.  I had the steak and it was prepared wonderfully.  All of the adults finished with the Maple Creme Brule which has to be one of the most scrumptious deserts on property.

After dinner we watched O’ Canada, then I listened to Off Kilter for a bit while the rest of the family returned to Future World for Spaceship Earth and some shopping.

In the mean time I had heard that it was Lou from Beyond Main Street was finishing up his WDW trip tonight and I wandered over to the Rose and Crown to finally meet up with him.  When I got there I found out that Barb, Steve and Steven along with Earl, Mel, Matt (Matt Frompa), Matt (theEsquire) and Jenn were also there.  I stuck around for a bit to visit then returned back to OKW for the evening with the family.

Ahh….but this was not the end of our day.  When we started getting everyone ready for bed we noticed that David had developed a bad ingrown toenail.  He’s had these in the past and unless treated quickly, they can get very bad, so we decided to visit the urgent care center at Centra Care, near the Crossroads Shopping Center.  When we got there, it was very busy.  Luckily were were out of there with some antibiotics in a couple of hours.  At this point we headed back to OKW for good for the night.

Day 7

We started today bright and early by getting up and heading over to Downtown Disney and the World of Disney at 6:15 AM for the Passholder Sale that would begin at 6:30 AM.  When we arrived the line was already around the store and along the parking lot access road.  We had heard that people started lining up at midnight and had to get removed by security and then again at 2 AM.  When we finally got in we saw people that just went for the free or doorbuster items, some went only for the items on sale and then there were people like us who bought what we were normally going to buy later in the trip and if it was on sale, all the better…and still pick up any free items.  It was interesting experience…not as chaotic as I expected it to be and not as much on sale as I had expected either.  My only criticism of the event was other than the crude map they gave us…it really wasn’t clear what was on sale and what wasn’t.

After the sale we returned to Old Key West, woke up the kids and headed to Animal Kingdom for Extra Magic Hour, but because of the sale we got a bit of a late start so we only got to do Expedition Everest and get FastPasses for it to ride later.

After Expedition Everest, we went for breakfast at Donald’s Safari Breakfast with Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Mickey.

After the character breakfast, we went on Kilamanjaro Safaris and then went to watch Finding Nemo the Musical.  This show is now one of our favorites.

Since we got out of the character breakfast late and we had an early dinner scheduled, we decided to munch for lunch.

After munching we went over to Camp Minnie-Mickey for the Legend of the Lion King show.  We have not not seen this show in a few trips for one reason or another.  This show is still very good.

We then got pictures and autographs from a few of the characters located in the Character Trails, then did some people watching before heading over to theAnimal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma.

This was our first time eating at Boma.  We found the food selection and the atmosphere to be very good and really liked it…though I have to admit I don’t see what all the fuss is about on the Zebra Domes…they were okay, but nothing great…just okay.

After dinner we explored the resort a bit and found the great savanna overlook.  The area is very nice though we didn’t see a lot of animals out there.

Day 8

We started today off with breakfast at Ohana and their character breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto.  As character meals go…the food is pretty good and the character interaction is great.  I would recommend this breakfast to anyone looking for a good character breakfast.

We then hopped the monorail on to the Magic Kingdom, and since this was Joe’s Birthday, we let him decide the plan of the day.

Some of the highlights were going on Splash Mountain where Caitlin got wet, going on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin where Cindy got wet from a spitting camel and going on the Jungle Cruise where we saw a duck attack one of the fierce crocodiles of the attraction.

We had dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern where we celebrated Joe’s Birthday complete with a birthday cupcake and singing Happy Birthday to Joe with the help of the CM’s.

After dinner we rode It’s a Small World, Winnie the Pooh and the Mad Tea Cups where we found out that we can’t squeeze two adults and a teenager into one cup anymore.

Maybe our best present to Joe was to leave and return to Old Key West and let him wander around the Magic Kingdom alone by himself for a few hours.

Day 9

Today was an Extra Magic Hour morning at the Studios, so we took advantage of it to ride Toy Story Mania and get a FastPass to re-ride it again later.  After Toy Story, Caitlin and I planned on riding Rock ‘n Roller Coaster but when we got there the wait for Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was only 10 min., so we rode that instead.  When we got off we met with everyone else for some breakfast at Starring Rolls Bakery.

After breakfast, we took a trip to Endor with Captain Rex on Star Tours, and rerode Toy Story Mania.  As you can probably guess, this ride has become a family favorite for us.

We had a early ADR for lunch at Sci-Fi Dine In.  As is usually the case, the wait to get seated took a while.  Once we got seated we found the food we ordered fairly well prepared, though the service was a bit slow.

After lunch we got a call from my Sister-in-law.  They were going to join us for part of our trip and they had just arrived at the Studios.  While they were moving through the Studios to meet us…we went to see Muppet Vision 3-D again.  When they finally met with us, we rode the Great Movie Ride and finally got the Bank Robber skit instead of the Gangster.  I think  this has to be the first time for the bank robbery for us in maybe 3 years.

Even though they had only been in the park less than an hour, they needed to take a smoke break.  After their break ended we were able to coax my Sister-in-law to ride Rock ‘ n Roller Coaster with Caitlin, Joe and myself.

After we regrouped, they wanted to to see Playhouse Disney, while we took our kids to the Animation Building to see the characters from UP.  When we got there we only saw Russell and Carl out and we were a bit disappointed because Dug wasn’t there.  By the time we worked our way up the queue, they had gone on break.  When the characters came back..Russell and Carl came out with Dug.  The kids were pretty happy about this.

After the character meet, we regrouped and sat and talked and people watched.  Soon it was time to head to Mama Melrose’s for dinner.  Each of our meals was prepared well and was very good.  The service we got there was very good.

After dinner, we returned to Old Key West and spent some time at the pool prior to calling it a night.

Day 10

Today was our morning to head over to Downtown Disney for the kids after eating breakfast at Olivia’s.

Even though we had gone to the Passholder Sale, today for was for the kids to get somethings at Once Upon a Toy and the Lego Store and a quick stop at the World of Disney.  As we left the World of Disney, Caitlin got dusted with Pixie Dust.

After we finished shopping, we went for lunch at the new T-Rex restaurant.  Going into this meal, we were expecting it to be a lot like eating at the Rainforest Cafe…and frankly that wouldn’t be good in our opinion.  Honestly, our experience at T-Rex was a lot better than what we were expecting.  While there was some noise…the noise made by the dinosaurs and mammoths was vastly less annoying than the noise generated by the jungle animals at Rainforest.  The service and food was also significantly better than what we’re used to experiencing at Rainforest.

After lunch, we went back to Old Key West and rested.

After resting up, we drove off to Fort Wilderness and dinner at the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue.

Hoop Dee Doo has become another family WDW tradition for us.  Hoop Dee Doo is something we need to do on every trip.  Even though the show has not changed and we know the show…we still enjoy it…it’s still a lot of fun for us.

After dinner, we drove back to Old Key West and spent some more time at the pool prior to going to bed.

Day 11

Today was going to be our last day at Epcot and as it turns out our last park day before heading home.

We spent the morning hitting all of our Future World favorites, which included  Soarin’, Spaceship Earth, Mission: Space and Test Track.

We ate lunch at Sunshine Seasons and even though it was very crowded and difficult to find a table to eat at…but we were impressed with the food selection.  I mean…really…where can you find a good, think pork chop for lunch at a quick service eatery?

We spent the afternoon at Character Spot to meet Donald Duck, Pluto, Mickey:

and Minnie:

David also wanted to see the World Showcase Players do King Arthur again.  When everyone else went to Mexico for the Gran Fiesta, I went to watch Off Kilter for the last time on this trip.

We finished the night off with dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh, where I had the Lemon Chicken and everyone else had the Beef Shish Kabab.  Yummy!!!  Is there anything more to say?

Day 12

The plan today was to head to the Magic Kingdom, but the weather forecast was for very hot weather (Heat Index of 103 degrees), so we change our minds and stayed at Old Key West to pack and visit the pool, which we really enjoyed.

Later in the afternoon we cleaned ourselves up and headed over to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner at Whispering Canyon with my Sister-in-Law and her family, where they surprised me and my wife by announcing that we were celebrating my birthday and our 25th Wedding Anniversary on this trip.  This was very much a surprise and done very well by the cast members…it was a lot of fun.

Day 13

We finished packing this morning, loaded the car up in what seemed like 80% humidity…then headed up to the Polynesian Resort for a late breakfast at the Kona Cafe.  I just had to have some Tonga Toast before we left for home.

The only annoying thing today was the housekeeping staff bugging us off an on as to when we were going to be leaving and finally when we shut the door asking us whether we were finished.  As annoying as this was it was even more irritating was that this started at 9 AM….HELLO….we have until 11 AM to check out.  Needless to say, we made stop at the front desk and spoke with the manager of the resort about this.

Overall we had a very enjoyable vacation…even though it was very hot, we were able to deal with it and made accommodations for it.  The kids were great even with the heat.  Believe it or not…even as long as we were at WDW there were things we wanted to do but never got to do.  Caitlin wanted to try to do the Kim Possible thing at Epcot but never got around to doing it.  We’ll have to make sure we put this on the top of the list for the next trip.