We left home at 7:15 am on Sunday and arrived at the newest gate to Disney World after a little more than 8 hours on the road. We took the new Western Way exit off of 429. If you are driving straight to Disney, you no longer have to take I-4! It saved a bunch of time and was much more pleasant.
The new Western Way entrance is very nice and very few cars on the road, for now anyway. It's exit #8 off of 429; the
Hartzog - Western Way exit. The road dead ends into Buena Vista Drive which is one of the main roads near Pop Century and pretty much everything else. The neat thing is that when you are on 429, you can see the icons from the parks at different times. I think we saw the Epcot "ball", Cinderella's castle, Expedition Everest, and Space Mountain. Western Way takes you in on the back side of Animal Kingdom. Really neat and saves time.When we got to Pop, Katie got a magical moment certificate for bowling in the lobby after we checked in at the desk. We got a great room in the seventies on the fourth floor facing Hourglass Lake. The room was right next to the elevator and not too far from the food court, so it was very convenient.
We all changed clothes and headed for Magic Kingdom. It was Extra Magic Hour this night and the park would be open until 2 am. We didn't quite make it until 2 in the park. However, due to a problem with our room key, we didn't actually go to bed until around 2:30. Thankfully, we got the problem resolved with our key, which was giving us problems with our dining plan, too. We've never had that happen before, so hopefully it was a fluke and not a sign of things to come. It does appear that there were less cast members working this trip. The crowds were a little lighter than normal, but it was disproportionate with the number of employees. I will say that everything looked as clean as usual which is a good thing. Also, no rides broke down when we were there which I think is a first.
At Magic Kingdom, we let Jake stop at the VMK shop to pick up his quests after we watched most of SpectroMagic. We ate at Casey's which was the most unpleasant event of the trip. Fries didn't come on the dining plan meal. What? Also, the dining plan wasn't working on our cards. The staff at Casey's didn't do a very good job handling the situation. I've never encountered this before and I let a member of guest services know this later on. This was a first time experience for us, so do not be concerned if you've never been to Disney World.
Other things we did this night included Haunted Mansion, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Cinderella's Carousel, Snow White's Scary Adventures, Teacups, Laugh Floor Comedy Club, and Buzz Light Year. The Laugh Floor Comedy Club is new and really cute. It involves the characters from Monsters, Inc. and a lot of audience participation.
We stopped by the Main Street Bakery on our way out for a snack before leaving. We were exhausted from an eight hour drive and six hours of fun in Magic Kingdom. When we got back to the room, we finally got our dining plan and room keys fixed by a nice cast member from Puerto Rico. Eddy said he was too funny for 1:30 in the morning.
That was pretty much it for day one -- a day full of adventure. I'll add pictures to all of this as time permits.
No comments:
Post a Comment