Disney Trip 2009
GUESS WHO'S BACK? BACK AGAIN.
...
Me.
~Shelby's Disney Band Trip of Awesome~
MONDAY
Well, we weren't really in Disney World yet on Monday, but it was the night we left on the bus. The bus trip was pretty ugh on the way down, I barely got any sleep at all! D: We watched a couple episodes of The Office, and then we watched The Dark Knight. And, I realized why that movie just never really clicked with me- it didn't have a complete story arc! It was just like, some stuff happened, and then other stuff happened, and then some dude died, blah, blah, blah. Also, I didn't like Rachel's role... it was like she existed just to be a Woman in a Refrigerator, and well- yeah. That's for another post! XD
TUESDAY
So, Tuesday morning we arrived in Orlando, and had crappy breakfast at McDonalds. Then, we met up with our travel agency guy, who is just really nice and fun. We changed at Bargain World, which was pretty random, but I think everyone was too tired to care, haha. After we got back on the bus to head off to Hollywood Studios (used to be MGM), it started POURING rain. There was a tornado warning and everything! But we headed off anyways, ponchos in tow.
Now, I'd have to say that this was probably my least favorite of the days- because of the rain, and because of our timing for the rides. I'll explain in a bit. First off, we went and got FastPasses for Tower of Terror, and then we headed over to Rockin' Rollercoaster, which is just awesome. I think we waited for about 30-40 minutes, which is not bad at all! Despite the fact that we were running on one hour of sleep, we had a great time on the ride, which is, for those of you who don't know, an indoor rollercoaster that is extremely fast and fun! Donovan made a hialrious face in the picture too, lol.
After that, we went over to The Tower of Terror. It was nice because we got to skip the line with our FastPasses. Shaina, Jessica, and Njeri were all really nervous and freaked out about it, but I was just excited, because I love that ride. XD They were freaking out the whole time, but I had a ton of fun, haha. After having some chicken fingers for lunch (this will become a trend!) we headed over to Star Tours, which was hialriously dated. But, I heard that they're redoing it soon... and I liked seeing all of the robots! R2-D2 <33
Then... was when our troubles began! DUNDUNDUUUUUN. So, Rockin' Rollercoaster was closed down because Corey decided to stick his hand out of the harness.. and when it opned back up, it said that there was only going to be a 30 minute wait... but then they started letting all of the FastPass people in first, and so we ended up waiting for 2 hours. WHICH SUCKED. But whatever.
That night, we got back to the hotel and we were all absolutely crazy from the lack of sleep... but eventually we fell asleep.
WEDNESDAY
We woke up early on Wednesday because we we're going to march in the parade in Magic Kingdom. Now this is really cool, because we got to see the "Backstage" area of Disney... they were all like "Don't take pictures, to *preserve the magic*!" It pretty much looked like a bunch of warehouss, and we got to see all of the props and stuff from around the park in storage... and I saw the Mad Hatter without his hat on... and the disembodied heads of The Incredibles. XD It was hilarious!
Marching in the Magic Kingdom was actually really awesome, though my arms were about to fall off by the end. We were out right by the castle, and ended up around Splash Mountain. After that, we went and did this stupid workshop thing, which I don't really feel like describing, because it was so corny.
And that night, we got into the Magic Kingdom about 5 PM, and that was when the epic win began- here was what we did:
- Got FastPasses for Splash Mountain as soon as we got there.
- Went to The Haunted Mansion, and waited for only about 30 minutes, but it felt short because it was constantly moving... that ride is pretty cool, though corny
- Went to the Mickey's PhilharMagic 3D thing... it was really awesome, actually... thought it was a bit weird to see the 2D animated characters in 3D, but it was cool! :D
- After that, we headed over to The Buzz Lightyear ride... the line wasn't that horrible, and while we were in line, some random guy came up to us and gave us four more FastPasses for the line! That was just awesome. So, we went on that, and while I kind of sucked at it, it was fun.
- SPACE MOUNTAIN! My mom and some of the other chaperones had gotten us FastPasses earlier in the day, so we got to skip the entire line, which was just fantastic, because it was a really long line. Ride was awesome as usual, I loooove it <333
- Buzz Lightyear ride again! :D
- Then, we were literally right on time to watch the fireworks show, which was just epic... IT MADE ME BELIEVE IN MIRACLES lol.
- After the fireworks show, we went straight to Splash Mountain... me and Shaina ended up in the front row, so that was definitely interesting. XD
- Finally, we managed to catch the Electric Light Parade before we left the park... it was pretty cool!
THURSDAY
We spent Thursday at Cocoa Beach! It's about an hour away from Orlando, so I spent the bus ride listening to music and I also finished reading Haruhi Suzumiya, which I rather enjoyed! We spent the afternoon at the beach, and I actually didn't get very burnt! The water was really cold though... I swam around in the waves for a bit, and then I spent the rest of the time by the pool. Some little kid had this giant inflatble whale, it was hilarious,
That night the jazz combo preformed at B.B. Kings, and we got a prepaid buffet, which was nice. The combo sounded awesome, as usual, so it was pretty cool. Then, that night we hung around the hotel... I played some Pokemon, and watched The Office, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock, all of which I enjoyed! It was nice having this chill day in the middle of the trip. ^^
FRIDAY
Friday was Epcot, and I must say, I rather enjoyed Epcot this time! Once again, my Xtreme park planning skillz came in handy. Instead of straight off getting in line for something, we went off and found FastPasses for Soarin', which is this flight simulator that turned out to be completely awesome. After we picked up those, we headed over to Mission: Space, and waited for only about 30-45 minutes, which was nice. I really love that ride... it feels so cool, like you're actually flying! Though I did feel a bit lightheaded afterwards... haha. In the gift shop there, they had a bunch of WALL-E stuff! :D I didn't actually buy anything, but that was nice to see.
After Mission: Space, we walked back over to go on the Finding Nemo ride. It was called The Seas with Nemo and Friends. (Which is funny, becuase Nemo is not even the main character of the movie, but whatever. XD) It was only a 20 minute wait or so... maybe less. The line was rather elabroately themed though, so that was nice! The ride itself was so adorable- it's like one of those rides when you just go through and see things... but the animation and scenery were rather impressive! I picked up a Nemo plush toy and a t-shirt in the gift shop... both are just adorable! <3
We had lunch in Mexico, where I got a yummy burrito... and then we went over to Soarin', and skipped a 75 minute wait thanks to our FastPasses. Soarin' was really awesome, actually... it has this huge panoramic screen that makes you actually feel like you're flying over California... and it was kind of funnuy becuase I've been to a lot of the places that we "flew" over... I was very impressed! After that, we met up with the chaperones, and my mom bought me an Up pin, and traded something else with some lady to get me a WALL-E pin... they are just adorable!
That afternoon, we headed over to Downtown Disney to watch the jazz ensemble play... I bought a Nemo pin while we were over there. Here's my pins, because they are adorrrraaabbbllleeee...
They're kind of blurry here, but whatever! (Notice the SCAD tote that I got from my visit there, haha)
After the Jazz preformance, we headed back to Epcot, and we got a chance to go on Test Track... but first we went on Spaceship Earth (the golf ball ride), which was really corny. But then we went on Test Track, which was okay... we didn't have too long of a wait, which was alright... but they kept playing the SAME LOOP OF MUSIC in the line, and it was really, really annoying. Anyways, after that we went over to our VIP dinner... we had front row seats to the light show, and a delicous Italian dinner. I ended up eating at Mr. Weiss' table, but it was alright because it was awesome. XD They gave us these rainbow glasses that made everything look like Mickey... it's hard to explain. XD
Oooh, pretty...
SATURDAY
The last day! *sniff* We spent the day in Universal Studios Islands of Adventure... and while they have some awesomesauce rides, they just can't do it like Disney. (Their Planet Express Pass system is really stupid, for one.) The first thing we did when we got there was Dueling Dragons... we managed to get on the coaster with only a 30 minute wait... it has two different rides, actually, a blue one and a red one, and they're both dragons... sound familiar?
No, not THOSE dragons, guys.
Since we were in the area, we went on the Jurassic Park ride... just think of it as a more Xtreme version of Splash Mountain... except this time we didnt get wet, because we were in the back row. XD Then we got in line for the Spiderman ride, which was hialrious because Shaina could NOT balance, and it was all spinny in some parts and she kept banging into us... the line was super long though, that was annoying.
Then, we went on THE HULK, which is possibly the best rollercoaster everrrr, though we waited for like... an hour to get on. o_o But it was a ton of fun, and totally worth it. But they kept showing this same intro video over and over for the whole hour, and I was getting SO TIRED of it... After that, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, which was nice because we got to be waited on, and they were prepared for our group so the service was really fast.
Then, we got back on the buses and headed home... I got a lot more sleep than I did on the way there, but yeah. I'm exhausted right now...
I'll be uploaded more pictures sometime this week... but yeah, overall, I had a fantastic time in Orlando! <333