Spring Break in Disney World

[LAFFfan4lyfe]

For the last week, I have spent time in Florida for my senior year Spring Break. I went to all four Disney World parks, Universal Islands of Adventure, and Blizzard Beach Water park over a span of five days, and I decided to let you in on what my hellish trip was like.


Friday: We left for Florida by bus around 3:30PM. No major highlights, just dinner at KFC.
Saturday: Arrived in Florida around 6:00PM at the Rosen Centre Hotel, which is a four star hotel fifteen minutes from Disney World. I wonder how we got to stay there?
Sunday: Ok, we had a 7:30 breakfast at the hotel and began to load the motor coaches around 8:30. We drove backstage at Epcot to begin our three and a half hour workshop with a music man there named Allen, the same guy from my 2003 trip, which won't be on here. Anyways, we played the ending of The Little Mermaid and put it to the actual movie, and we played "Trashin the Camp" from Tarzan, and the directors had to make funny animal sounds. Until that day, I didn't know there were dogs in the jungle. Okay, so around 12:30PM, we got to go into the Epcot park, and we headed to Spaceship Earth (otherwise known as the big ball). It was a fifteen minute wait, and pretty boring, but kind of interesting at the same time. After that, we walked over to Mission Space, the new ride, and ended up waiting two hours for a two minute ride. I got a bit nauseous on Mission Space, and had to sit down for a second. I ended up okay though, and so we headed over to Test Track, the longest wait of the day. It was easily over two hours of a wait, but it is the coolest ride in the Epcot park. Though I'm not a car fan, I loved it. After Test Track, we headed over to watch the Universe of Energy, bad idea. I was really bored on that one, but my friend Kimmy said to go there for a break. So we did. After that, we walked over to see Journey Into Imagination with Figment, and it was really cute. I recommend it for kids or teenagers who are extremely hyper and want to laugh, like me! Since it was right next door, we ended up going over to Honey I Shrunk the Audience afterwards, and though I had already seen it, I thought it was okay. Not the best 3D show I've seen, but it was okay. After dinner at the Electric Umbrella, we headed over to the World Showcase, and began to make our way around. We rode Maelstrom, the Norway ride, and though it is a bit historical, I didn't mind it. It was fun. After that, we just walked around and viewed a few of the countries, since we had a short time until chaperone check in at 8:45. We started to wait for Illuminations, our ending thing of the day, and there was a delay because of technical difficulties. So the show started around 9:10, and after seeing it twice, it is the best fireworks show I have ever seen. If you go to Epcot, it is worth waiting till the end just to see that show. I have to say though, the backstage area at Epcot isn't as glamorous as the rest of the park, and so if you go back there, some Disney magic might be lost. The park was really crowded, and that shocked me a bit, since it was Easter. Waits were no longer that two and a half hours, with the longest being Test Track. We returned to the hotel around 10:00, and had curfew at 11:00.
Monday: Monday was the reason we were going there. We were performing at Epcot. That morning we had a 6:20 call time, it was brutal. We went out to Fantasia Gardens Golf Course to have breakfast with the other groups down there at the time. Let me tell you, it was a rip off. They promised us great food and all the Disney characters being there. The breakfast tasted like camp food, and we looked like we were at camp. I don't think the actor who plays the chick from the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire attraction at MGM and Mickey Mouse walking around for five minutes counts as entertainment. Even my band director was bored with it, and the people will be hearing complaints. It was freezing that morning, and it was still cold when we headed over to Animal Kingdom after breakfast. In my opinion, I kind of think that if I was paying fifty dollars that day to go to Animal Kingdom, I'd feel ripped off. We decided start off going to see It's Tough To Be a Bug, which was really cute with all of it's interactions and stuff. Then we decided to ride the rides over at DinoLand USA, and went to Dinosaur. It was almost a walk on ride, with maybe a two minute wait once we got down the queuing lines. I love the loudness of the ride and the dinosaurs are always interesting. After we got off Dinosaur, we headed over to Primeval Whirl, Disney World's version of Rajun Cajun. There was a five minute wait, but I love that ride anyways. It was fun, especially when you close your eyes during it. Okay, so after Primeval Whirl, we decided to go on Dinosaur again, and afterwards, we decided to go see Tarzan Rocks. Let me tell you, I had so much fun in that show because of Billy. Billy is the male singer in the show, and he's wayyy to into himself. He could be a good pop star. Tarzan was huge, we thought he was cute too, except for the dreads. After Tarzan Rocks, we only had a small amount of time before we had to go to our chaperone check in at 1:15, so we decided to eat lunch at the Flame Tree Barbecue, (don't recommend their barbecue chicken salad, blah!), and then we went towards the front and waited for check in. After Check in, we jetted over to Epcot again, and went backstage to prepare for our 3:45 performance on the Future World West Stage. We did our performance, and it was awesome. We had so many of our hometown supporters who flew out to see us perform, and it was awesome. Once again, going through Epcot's backstage kind of ruined a few things, not mentioning them, but anyways, we changed and received our "one size fits none" t-shirts, our Magic Music Days pins, our banner for the band room, and our magnet things telling our performance time. I met up with my dad afterwards, because they drove from their hotel in Daytona Beach to see me, and we walked around. Kimmy and I bought some ice cream, yummy, and went to go watch the strings perform at 6:15. Immediately following the strings, we were bused over to the Magic Kingdom for their extended hours. My friends and I had a little argument, so I left them all to ride the rides I wanted to ride. I ran over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and got through the Queuing line in fifteen minutes. Awesome ride, before Monday, I don't think I had even been on the ride. After Big Thunder, I raced over to Splash Mountain, and it was a walk on. On that ride, I realized they were walk on rides because the Mainstreet Electrical Parade was going on, and people were lining up to see the new Wishes fireworks. So after splash mountain, I headed over by the castle, which was decked out in gold because of the fifty year anniversary of Disney, and watched the fireworks. I met up with my girls after that, and we went over to Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't' get how they got a movie out of that ride, but anyways, it was fun. We sang the entire boat ride, and screeched and squealed in the front row, and probably scared a few children. Afterwards, Kimmy wanted to go to the Enchanted Tiki Room, so we went to see the little show. We were first in line, and got in quickly. I thought it was weird, but it was cute too. We ate at Pecos Bill's Cafe, and watched the second round of the Mainstreet Electrical Parade. Check in with our chaperones was at 11:45, and we returned to our hotel shortly after midnight, it was a long day.
Tuesday: Tuesday we had a call time at 8:00Am, and we headed over to The Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom for breakfast. Everything was amazing, so much better than Fantasia Gardens. So after breakfast, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom, and spent the whole day there. I can't find my map for the Magic Kingdom, so I'll try to remember it all. The first thing we decided to do was go and get fast passes for Splash Mountain. When we were over there though, the guy didn't scan my pass, so after that, we went straight over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and got fast passes for that too. We left the madness of those two lines, so crowded, and headed over to Mickey's Philarmagic. I think this is the best 3D, wait a second 4D show I've ever seen. It includes all your favorite Disney sequences with Donald trying to get Mickey's sorcerer hat back. We waited about twenty minutes to see it, but it was totally worth it. After Philarmagic, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion, and without realizing it, we tried to smash three girls, who aren't all the thinnest girls on the planet, into one of those black cars. I was so uncomfortable. My hip was being crushed, and so I didn't exactly enjoy that ride like I should have. It was about a thirty minute wait, but we had a first timer with us, so we had to go to that ride. Plus, I like the ghosts. After Haunted Mansion, we had to go use our fast passes, and since my friend Denise and my friend Kim my and I had different fast pass times, we had to wait for ten minutes for Denise at the top of the line for Splash Mountain so we could ride together. We still waited for around five minutes, but it was good. We got wet, and since it was almost 90º, it was worth the mist. After Splash Mountain, we headed to use our Fast Passes for Big Thunder, and got through the line in two minutes. I enjoyed it since I was with people this time, and it was great. After this, we headed over to Pirates again, and sang the yo ho yo ho while taking pictures. After Pirates, we headed all the way over to Tomorrowland to see our Jazz Band perform at Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe. They rocked the house, and even got everyone on their feet for their last song. Well, everyone who supported them. The others in the place thought we were crazy, but we didn't care. After dinner there, we headed over to Buzz Lightyear, and rode it. It was fun, but I lost against Kimmy, who has ridden the ride before. After that, Kimmy and I split from Denise, Renee, Jill, and Allison, since Kimmy wanted to see the Cinderellabreation show. I couldn't find my cell phone during the show, so I was running around the magic Kingdom looking for my phone. Luckily, it was just hidden in an enclosed pocket in my bag. After Cinderella, we shopped for a few, and met up with our chaperones for check in at 8:00. After this day though, the trip went downhill fast. That night, I opened the door to let my roommate Sara in, and three chaperones and my band director were standing outside the room. I asked what was going on, and they shut our door and told us not to worry about it. So we tried to fight to look out the peep hole in the door, but saw nothing.
Wednesday: Well, the next morning was so tense. Everyone knew something was going on. People who usually hung out were avoiding each other, and no one was really talking. Rumors were flying around about the room across the hall from us. We had breakfast at 8:30, and were told to go to Salon Room 9 for a group meeting. In this meeting, we found out that the room across the hall from us, though not directly mentioned, was caught drinking alcohol, and two of the four girls had been sent home for breaking the rules. As of now, there are still at least six students under suspicion. I later learned one of the group of girl's good friends ratted them out, so friendships were probably destroyed. anyways, this meeting made us late for our day at Universal Islands of Adventure. We arrived at Islands Of Adventure around 10:30, and headed straight for the Adventures of Spiderman. It was the about a hour and a half wait, but there was a DJ out in the back of the ride queuing lines, and we tossed a beach ball around, and played loud music while waiting. The ride is awesome, and I wouldn't have waited for it if I knew it sucked (hence why I didn't wait for Stitch's Great Escape at Magic Kingdom the previous day). After Spiderman, we headed over to see the Mat Hoffman Crazy Freakin Stunt Show, which was awesome. I love watching skateboarders and BMX bikers, but Kimmy wouldn't let me get pictures with them afterwards, so I was a bit pissed. On a side note, Kimmy is scared of most of the Islands Of Adventure rides, so that day kind of sucked. We went over to The Cat in the Hat, and after it broke down, and got working again, we ended up waiting 45 minutes for it. It's a cute ride. after that, that is all Kimmy wanted to do, so I waited with her until dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, and my chaperone Mrs. Brill presented me with a fast pass to The Incredible Hulk. I told Kimmy, she was pissed, and I spent the rest of the night at IOA by myself. I waited fifteen minutes in the fast pass lane to ride The Incredible Hulk. I love that ride. The energy rush in that launch is awesome. After that, I headed over to Dr. Doom's Fearfall, and waited fifteen minutes to ride. It was awesome, I love any kind of launch or drop. I decided to take a walk over to dueling dragons, but would have been late if I rode it so I didn't get to ride it. Checked in with my chaperone at 9:00 and we headed over to City Walk for about an hour. It was dull, Downtown Disney is much better. We went back to our room and fell asleep after packing all my stuff.
Thursday (Last Official Day): At 7:30 we had our breakfast at the hotel, and headed up to our rooms for last minute packing. at 8:30, our chaperones came up and checked our rooms, and after that, we called a bell boy to bring our bags down. On the way up to the room, my heavy bag marked up my shoulder, and I was wearing a tank top that day, so I didn't want to sacrifice another shoulder. So we arrived at Blizzard Beach Waterpark around 9:30AM, and lost Denise, so we spent around 30 minutes looking for her. By then, we had like two hours, so we went in the wave pool, and then went up to one of the slides (don't remember the name). We did two rounds in the lazy river (45 minutes a piece), and went to shower and get ready for MGM Studios. We waited a half hour to get the Disney buses to take us there, and arrived around 2:00PM. Immediately after putting my sweatshirt and wet beach stuff in a locker, we headed over to Rock and Rollercoaster, my favorite ride in all of Disney World. We waited almost two hours, and saw most of our fellow classmates there too. Its awesome, I love the dark, and the neon signs, and Aerosmith rocks! After that ride, we went over to the Great Movie Ride, kind of boring, and waited for fifteen minutes for it. We went to Star Tours, and waited ten minutes, and laughed at the southern kids make fun of this ride attendant named Zachary. They wanted him to ride the ride with us, and they were idiots. After Star Tours, we went over to the Toy Story Pizza Planet Arcade, and got our food, and walked over to Hollywood Scoops for check in. After check in, we went into the Hollywood Hills Theater to watch Fantasmic. That show is completely awesome, with the fire, and the characters, and the water. There couldn't have been a better way to end our trip. We got on the buses after Fantasmic, and began our trip home.

Though there were many ups and downs, the trip ended up okay. And though I missed a few things, I don't regret the trip, it was fun, and I wish I could go in 2007.

[twixmix0303]

Wow. Do you have Tourette's? (yes I had to look that one up)

[LAFFfan4lyfe]

tourettes?? do you mean like a guide? If that's what u askin, then no, we didn't, just a strict schedule.

[w00dland]

LoL, I think he was talking to Batman's stupid post before...

[Ilovthevu']

That must have taken a long time to write this trip report. As always thanks for sharing. I feel bad for you having some bad times at the parks as long as your hotel. I'm also glad you've gotten to go on your favorite rollercoaster and favorite ride. I guess that's what really matters.

Sometimes, you just never know if your favorite ride will even be open. When I was there last year (I think), that Dr. Seuss also broke down when I was on it.

I don't know if you just didn't mention it, but you missed Space Mountain which in my opinion is a really good ride. (This is my brother's favorite ride. I usually don't like most of the rides he does and vise versa, but this ride is an exception.)

[LAFFfan4lyfe]

I love space mountain, unfortunetly, when i got there that day, it was broken down, and no fast passes were being issued.

[twixmix0303]

LoL, I think he was talking to Batman's stupid post before...

Yea, I was.