Disney New Years Trip Report.
Ben Wern
any sort of coherent form whatsoever.
Fresh from the still sleep-deprived (and running solely on adrenaline) mind
of Ben: Ben's New Years WDW Trip Report.
The group we went down in was composed of mostly well-disney experienced
friends of mine (we all still fit in the elder teenage catagory.. although as
a group.. we often lower that to about a 6th grade level. :) )
We spent two full days in the parks. Day one was Thursday Dec. 30th. We
arrived at "Disney's Carribean Beach Resort" about 7:00 (after driving down
from Jacksonville, and meeting with some friends of ours who live in Orlando).
We filled out all the neccessary paperwork and set off for the parks. We ended
up in the Magic Kingdom (mostly because it was the first bus to pull up.)
Crowds were unexpectedly low. We waited about 20 minutes for Splash Mountain
and about 15 for Space Mountain. Other waits were about the same. We gawked
at the big christmas tree they have up (which they have in all the parks)
while one of my group pondered eating the huge plastic popcorn that was
adorning it. After a few hours here, we headed over to Epcot. Waiting times
here were shorter than over at the MK (although I guess that's expected..).
We went on Imagination, Body Wars, Cranium Command, Spaceship Earth, and had a
nice late lunch in about 4 hours. At this point, most of us had been up since
3:30 or so.. so we headed back to the hotel, got our room assignment, and
promptly died.
After a refreshing 3 hour nap, we headed over to MGM. Or more accuratly, we
stepped outside, began to hard-freeze, rushed back in the room and put
on several more layers, and THEN headed over to MGM. Sorry. It was cold to us
Floridians. :) Wait times at MGM were the longest of the day... but they still
weren't anything you could call long. We stayed until park close, and then
headed back.
New Years Eve - Day Two
We slept in a little, expecting to be up late that night. Instead of heading
to the parks we roamed around in the car and took in some of the great hotel
decorations. After roaming aimlessly we took the car back to the hotel and
headed back into the parks. We hit the Magic Kingdom again first, because
we figured it would be PACKED later in the day and we weren't gonna be there.
Too late... It was already pretty packed, so we only stayed for a bit. We made
it over to MGM for our lunch reservation at the Brown Derby at 1. We had a
great dinner (NY Strip Steak for me.. and most importantly.. CHEESECAKE), and
took off for a quick tour of the Animation Studio. They've still got the
Aladdin cells and models up in the main room and had changed the ones at the
theater to just Lion King stuff. We spent our usual three years stareing into
the animation room before moving into the store, where we spent 45 minutes
playing around and wishing we had enough money to spend on all those cells. :)
They had the Sega Aladdin game on display, with two demo units set up. After
this we headed back to the Carribean and slept even more.. (All of which
was later used up..).
After our little nap, we kicked into high gear. We headed over to MGM once
again and ran through almost all the rides at high speed. (Well.. ok.. so
the rides were actually going normal speed.. but it sure didn't seem like it.)
After our little adventure here, we went over to Epcot, where we ended up for
the big event itself. We joined in a great dance-type party that was being DJ'd
by the Communicore fountain. Really cool to be able to party with people from
all over the world like that. An unforgettable experience. We got a congo line
going with just about everyone imaginable in it. We had teenagers and seniors
and even a few wheelchairs in on the act. Great show. We did that until 11:10
when we took a spot for illuminations. They showed illuminations at 11:45, and
tacked on a special additional final segment the had the countdown and a ton
more fireworks. WOW. Definatly a good show to all cast members involved. As
soon as the show was done, a lot of the people crammed toward the exits.. but
not us. 2 more hours till close! We joined another congo line going around the
world showcase. It was led by what I'm guessing was a group of Cubans. They
were singing some traditional New Years song in thier native language and we
joined in as we went around. This was a little tiring, so we sat out the next
round and went over to Body Wars for another ride. The cast was begining to
break it up a little.. playing with the scripts, etc. As left the pavilion,
we saw little groups of them 'dancing in the streets', so we joined them.
After the park had been closed for about 45 minutes, we decided to take off.
The park was largely empty, which I always enjoy. Nothing like it. We got
lucky and got one of those bus drivers who can only be the result of really
bizzarre chemical testing. A great way to finish the day.
We had to leave the next morning, but we'll be back. (I'll probably be back
down there for the stockholders meeting...)
All in all, a GREAT SHOW to the cast of WDW. This is definatly something I
will be doing again next year.. and I would reccommend it to anyone who can
make it down. (Although I would also suggest bringing major amounts of energy)
There. I'm done. Now if I can only find enough energy to actually send this
off into the world before I collapse into bed..
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Ben