Trip Report Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!)

draybook · 09-20-2008, 07:09 AM

Ok, so I finally have all of my pictures uploaded and ready to go. I'll be short and to the point. The only two things that bothered us on this trip were the humidity, which is saying something because we live near Memphis and it's humid here too, and the high concentration of rude people.

Other than that, it was a blast. We arrived on the 7th, which was two Sundays ago and was one day early. We stayed at the Seralago. While this hotel was nice due to the low cost and pool, which we used every night, I was highly disappointed with the lack of internet in the room and the lack of choices on the tv. Half of the channels seemed to be in Spanish and that's not my language.

Anyhow, on to the show!

Magic Kingdom Day 1 9-9-2008

Almost there!

The pearly gates!!(well, almost)

Space Mountain as seen from the monorail

Me and the kids in front of the Main Street station

The kids and Snow White

Sure, it looks crowded, but looks are deceiving.

The kids and Daisy Duck

Cinderella's Castle

Splash Mountain

Mine and the kids favorite ride, the Haunted Mansion.

My wife's(and most women's) favorite person

Yeah yeah, more Sparrow

One of my favorite pics because my daughter is getting good at posing

Dreams Come True Parade

The old Fantasyland SKyway station

Justin enjoying Minnie's chair

And now on to the MNSSHP portion of Day 1......

These were some of my favorite costumes

My little Prince Caspian and Snow White

The kids and Minnie

Boo to You Parade

The Gravediggers. I loved when they did their spins and made the sparks on the ground

Main Street on the way out

That wraps up day 1. The MNSSHP was fantastic, and having those extra five hours in the park was fantastic and well worth the price. We didn't get that much candy but we did have fun. Day 2 coming up shortly.

tayakaleb · 09-20-2008, 07:32 AM

I would love to see some pics of the Seralago. I have always wondered how the hotel is... Love the pics so far. The one of your kids with Aladdin and Jasmine is priceless!!

draybook · 09-20-2008, 07:39 AM

Alright, day 2 is coming up. Be aware though that since we didn't get back to the hotel until roughly 1:30 in the morning, we slept in the next day and decided to do the Animal Kingdom, since we heard it was actually a half day park.

So, we arrived around 12:20 that afternoon and entered the park. On to the show!

On the tram

The kids and Balu

Petting the little croc/alligator, whatever it was

EE

Waiting on the parade

Goofy

Donald Duck

Lazy bums

Minnie and friends on the way out

That wraps up day 2. Like I said, we only spent about 4-4.5 hours in the park. It rained lightly for a little bit and overall I don't think any of us were that impressed with this park. It just didn't feel like Disney for some reason. We did however use our first fastpasses ever on the Safari. Anyhow, on to day 3, which would be Hollywood Studios.

Stitchy · 09-20-2008, 08:03 AM

Great pictures!!!! Your kids are adorable....just like all Mississippi kids. But, then, I'm partial...my daughter was born in MIss. haha.

I love the Mario and Luigi costumes. I thought about that the other day. I told my husband he could be Mario, I could be princess and our daughter could be Toadstool. Neither of them liked that idea.

draybook · 09-20-2008, 08:08 AM

Ok, here comes day 3, at the Hollywood Studios. We had a blast here. The only thing that stunk was that it rained a bit later in the day but it was light and didn't stop our fun. We also got to use more Fastpasses, for TSMM of course. Anyways, enough yacking, here come the pics.

Sleepyhead #1

Sleepyhead #2

Kids in a hat

The kids and Frozone

The kids in the HSM parade

Mickey and kids

Yellow Power Ranger

Red Ranger

White Ranger

Pink Ranger

The kids with Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable

Justin and me

The Topiary? Water Tower

Justin at TSMM

Ashley at TSMM

The kids and the Army Man

Prince Caspian and man, this guy sounded just like him and looked the part too!

Woody and Buzz

The kids in the BPB(Block Party Bash)

The PoTC Organ. I'd like to take credit for this picture and I think it came out very well.

Tower of Terror

B&B at Fantasmic

Mickey and the Sword

Ok, that wraps up day 3 at the Hollywood Studios. This was a great park and our next time in Orlando we will be doing 2 days here. TSMM was an absolute blast as well, but there's no way I'd ride it without using Fastpasses. All fastpasses were gone by 12:30, but I had already gotten 2 sets. It was crazy because when I got the second set at 12:30, the return time was 6:20-7:20.

My wife took our daughter on ToT, because I am admittedly a sissy and my son is too. It's not that I get sick as much as it is that I have slight motion problems and I tense up and start to hyperventilate in certain situations.

We also had a blast in the Animation Academy and we got to draw Chip. Fantasmic was awesome and we had fun doing the wave while we were waiting for the show to begin.

Ok, on to day 4, which is MK again and so is day 5. There were more days on this trip but since they weren't Disney parks I will post them in the other forums.

draybook · 09-20-2008, 08:47 AM

Ok, day 4 here. MK once again and I might not be putting that many pics up for the next days days. Day 4 was EXTREMELY hot, especially in line to meet Ariel. It was listed as a 40 minutes wait but it was actually just under 1 hour.

Here we go.

Meeting Ariel

The kids and Pooh

Belle

Cinderella

Aurora

IASW

Rafiki and Timone

The Haunted Mansion

View from the Swiss Family Treehouse

Pirate Show

Wendy and Peter Pan

Tomorrowland

More TL

Mary Poppins and Bert(sp?)

Pluto

Waiting on Spectro Magic Parade

Chip & Dale

Cinderella and Prince

the River

Justin saying goodbye to the park

We had fun this day and we got almost every signature we needed for the kids books. The only ones missing were Alice, Goofy and someone else who I can't remember.

Ok, on to our last day, in which we also decided to do another MNSSHP, it would be our last day in Orlando as well.

Disneyland Daddy · 09-20-2008, 08:53 AM

Nice report!

mikeland · 09-20-2008, 09:25 AM

Great report! Thanks for sharing.

draybook · 09-20-2008, 11:47 AM

Ok, last day of Disney coming up. We didn't take quite as many pictures as before because this day was meant to ride all the rides and get stuff we missed before. However, on with the show!

Magic Kingdom day 3

Once again a deceivingly light crowd

Some old timer folks

The Mayor

Zurg and his two cell mates

Kids and Stitch

Space Mountain from the TTA

Goofy and the kids

Pirate Chess Tournament

The Castle from Liberty Square

Ashley on the Indy Speedway

IASW at 4pm

Lounging in Adventureland

Liberty Square

More Liberty Square

And now on to the 2nd MNSSHP of our trip

Waiting on Boo to You Parade

Jessie and the kids

Kids and the lady that sits in front of the HM

Cinderella's Carriage

Tom Sawyer's Island

Hook at the Parade

Dancing ghosts

Pumpkin head fella

Justin in his hybrid Caspian/Pirate costume

One last look at the park before we head home

Well, that wraps up the Disney portion of this TR. I have to say that although there were lots of people at the parks, wait times were very low. I think the longest we waited for any ride was 15 minutes, and that was Peter Pan.

My only complaints were that the international visitors were very rude and the humidity was pretty intense. Other than that it was a blast.

We're already planning our return trip for next year, but in the first two weeks of December so it will be cooler and so we can see the Xmas setup.

Thanks for looking at my trip report and please feel free to PM me with any questions or comments as well as any tips for our next trip. Thank you.

JoseyDisney · 09-20-2008, 12:11 PM

Great pics!! And you're children looked gorgeous in there halloween outfits!!

In relation to your comment the "international visitors were very rude", I would like to say that in all nationalities there are rude people and polite people, irrelevant of there country of origin. I'm not picking on you here but quite a few people on MiceChat say things of that nature and I think its a foolish thing to say as there are rude people from ALL nationalities. As much as I'd like to say there aren't

Anyhoo, a great read!! Glad you had a good time!

draybook · 09-20-2008, 12:29 PM

Yeah, I hope people know that I'm not saying that all foreigners are like that, I'm just saying that 95% of the ones we experienced at the parks(Sea World included) were rude. Most of them would bump not only me but my kids as well, without so much as an excuse me or even a look. Now granted there were Americans that did the same, but the ratio was much lower.

I think it's just that "I paid for this vacation and my family is the most important" syndrome that many vacationers get. I couldn't tell you how many people would either bump into us and not say excuse me or they would work their way in front of my kids at the parades until I said something and fixed it.

That's the only thing my wife hates, the fact that I will say something to someone, regardless. I'm not going to wait in a spot for 30 minutes to an hour just to have someone else get in front of us, at least not my kids.

jordan__edge · 09-20-2008, 12:45 PM

where did you meet frozone, buzz, and woody?

Rixter · 09-20-2008, 12:50 PM

I am going to repeat the question that was asked previously. Can you give us a review of the Seralago? I'm curious because it gets wildly different reviews on Tripadvisor, but the rates are always very reasonable.

Your thoughts?

draybook · 09-20-2008, 12:52 PM

Frozone was inside the Animation Academy building and then Buzz and Woody were right across from TSMM at Studios. Buzz is also outside of Buzz Lightyear at the MK and Woody is down by the Frontierland Shooting Gallery.

draybook · 09-20-2008, 12:56 PM

The Seralago was a pretty good hotel.

Pros:

Nice clean rooms
Friendly staff
2 Huge pools + 2 spas + kiddie pool
Very conveniently located with restaurants and other needs located within 3 miles or so, plus it's only a 5 minutes drive to WDW

Cons:

No internet in the rooms(only in lobby and cafe)
Lack of tv stations

I'd suggest it to other people but I probably won't book us there next year because we prefer to have internet access in our room.

09-20-2008, 07:09 AM	#1 (permalink)
draybook The Last Dragon Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southaven, MS Posts: 511	Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Ok, so I finally have all of my pictures uploaded and ready to go. I'll be short and to the point. The only two things that bothered us on this trip were the humidity, which is saying something because we live near Memphis and it's humid here too, and the high concentration of rude people. Other than that, it was a blast. We arrived on the 7th, which was two Sundays ago and was one day early. We stayed at the Seralago. While this hotel was nice due to the low cost and pool, which we used every night, I was highly disappointed with the lack of internet in the room and the lack of choices on the tv. Half of the channels seemed to be in Spanish and that's not my language. Anyhow, on to the show! Magic Kingdom Day 1 9-9-2008 Almost there! The pearly gates!!(well, almost) Space Mountain as seen from the monorail Me and the kids in front of the Main Street station The kids and Snow White Sure, it looks crowded, but looks are deceiving. The kids and Daisy Duck Cinderella's Castle Splash Mountain Mine and the kids favorite ride, the Haunted Mansion. My wife's(and most women's) favorite person Yeah yeah, more Sparrow One of my favorite pics because my daughter is getting good at posing Dreams Come True Parade The old Fantasyland SKyway station Justin enjoying Minnie's chair And now on to the MNSSHP portion of Day 1...... These were some of my favorite costumes My little Prince Caspian and Snow White The kids and Minnie Boo to You Parade The Gravediggers. I loved when they did their spins and made the sparks on the ground Main Street on the way out That wraps up day 1. The MNSSHP was fantastic, and having those extra five hours in the park was fantastic and well worth the price. We didn't get that much candy but we did have fun. Day 2 coming up shortly.

09-20-2008, 07:32 AM	#2 (permalink)
tayakaleb Can't get enough! Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 731	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) I would love to see some pics of the Seralago. I have always wondered how the hotel is... Love the pics so far. The one of your kids with Aladdin and Jasmine is priceless!! __________________ Come check out my new blog: www.disneylovinmom.com

09-20-2008, 07:39 AM	#3 (permalink)
draybook The Last Dragon Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southaven, MS Posts: 511	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Alright, day 2 is coming up. Be aware though that since we didn't get back to the hotel until roughly 1:30 in the morning, we slept in the next day and decided to do the Animal Kingdom, since we heard it was actually a half day park. So, we arrived around 12:20 that afternoon and entered the park. On to the show! On the tram The kids and Balu Petting the little croc/alligator, whatever it was EE Waiting on the parade Goofy Donald Duck Lazy bums Minnie and friends on the way out That wraps up day 2. Like I said, we only spent about 4-4.5 hours in the park. It rained lightly for a little bit and overall I don't think any of us were that impressed with this park. It just didn't feel like Disney for some reason. We did however use our first fastpasses ever on the Safari. Anyhow, on to day 3, which would be Hollywood Studios.

09-20-2008, 08:03 AM	#4 (permalink)
Stitchy NOT of this world. Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: On a Hawaiian roller coaster ride. Posts: 9,034	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Great pictures!!!! Your kids are adorable....just like all Mississippi kids. But, then, I'm partial...my daughter was born in MIss. haha. I love the Mario and Luigi costumes. I thought about that the other day. I told my husband he could be Mario, I could be princess and our daughter could be Toadstool. Neither of them liked that idea. __________________ Some heroes wear capes. Mine wears combat boots.

09-20-2008, 08:08 AM	#5 (permalink)
draybook The Last Dragon Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southaven, MS Posts: 511	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Ok, here comes day 3, at the Hollywood Studios. We had a blast here. The only thing that stunk was that it rained a bit later in the day but it was light and didn't stop our fun. We also got to use more Fastpasses, for TSMM of course. Anyways, enough yacking, here come the pics. Sleepyhead #1 Sleepyhead #2 Kids in a hat The kids and Frozone The kids in the HSM parade Mickey and kids Yellow Power Ranger Red Ranger White Ranger Pink Ranger The kids with Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable Justin and me The Topiary? Water Tower Justin at TSMM Ashley at TSMM The kids and the Army Man Prince Caspian and man, this guy sounded just like him and looked the part too! Woody and Buzz The kids in the BPB(Block Party Bash) The PoTC Organ. I'd like to take credit for this picture and I think it came out very well. Tower of Terror B&B at Fantasmic Mickey and the Sword Ok, that wraps up day 3 at the Hollywood Studios. This was a great park and our next time in Orlando we will be doing 2 days here. TSMM was an absolute blast as well, but there's no way I'd ride it without using Fastpasses. All fastpasses were gone by 12:30, but I had already gotten 2 sets. It was crazy because when I got the second set at 12:30, the return time was 6:20-7:20. My wife took our daughter on ToT, because I am admittedly a sissy and my son is too. It's not that I get sick as much as it is that I have slight motion problems and I tense up and start to hyperventilate in certain situations. We also had a blast in the Animation Academy and we got to draw Chip. Fantasmic was awesome and we had fun doing the wave while we were waiting for the show to begin. Ok, on to day 4, which is MK again and so is day 5. There were more days on this trip but since they weren't Disney parks I will post them in the other forums.

09-20-2008, 08:47 AM	#6 (permalink)
draybook The Last Dragon Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southaven, MS Posts: 511	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Ok, day 4 here. MK once again and I might not be putting that many pics up for the next days days. Day 4 was EXTREMELY hot, especially in line to meet Ariel. It was listed as a 40 minutes wait but it was actually just under 1 hour. Here we go. Meeting Ariel The kids and Pooh Belle Cinderella Aurora IASW Rafiki and Timone The Haunted Mansion View from the Swiss Family Treehouse Pirate Show Wendy and Peter Pan Tomorrowland More TL Mary Poppins and Bert(sp?) Pluto Waiting on Spectro Magic Parade Chip & Dale Cinderella and Prince the River Justin saying goodbye to the park We had fun this day and we got almost every signature we needed for the kids books. The only ones missing were Alice, Goofy and someone else who I can't remember. Ok, on to our last day, in which we also decided to do another MNSSHP, it would be our last day in Orlando as well.

09-20-2008, 08:53 AM	#7 (permalink)
Disneyland Daddy "Snoring In" 2009 Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Anaheim Native/Corona Resident Posts: 14,694 Blog Entries: 3	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Nice report! __________________ *Happy New Year ~ David* Cancer Survivor - Remission October 11, 2007 Grandma Ru-Ru - Remission October 9, 2007 Cousin Manuel - Remission October 16, 2007 Cousin Beola - Remission November 2008

09-20-2008, 09:25 AM	#8 (permalink)
mikeland World Traveler Join Date: May 2005 Location: Aventura, FL Posts: 3,465	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Great report! Thanks for sharing. __________________

09-20-2008, 11:47 AM	#9 (permalink)
draybook The Last Dragon Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southaven, MS Posts: 511	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Ok, last day of Disney coming up. We didn't take quite as many pictures as before because this day was meant to ride all the rides and get stuff we missed before. However, on with the show! Magic Kingdom day 3 Once again a deceivingly light crowd Some old timer folks The Mayor Zurg and his two cell mates Kids and Stitch Space Mountain from the TTA Goofy and the kids Pirate Chess Tournament The Castle from Liberty Square Ashley on the Indy Speedway IASW at 4pm Lounging in Adventureland Liberty Square More Liberty Square And now on to the 2nd MNSSHP of our trip Waiting on Boo to You Parade Jessie and the kids Kids and the lady that sits in front of the HM Cinderella's Carriage Tom Sawyer's Island Hook at the Parade Dancing ghosts Pumpkin head fella Justin in his hybrid Caspian/Pirate costume One last look at the park before we head home Well, that wraps up the Disney portion of this TR. I have to say that although there were lots of people at the parks, wait times were very low. I think the longest we waited for any ride was 15 minutes, and that was Peter Pan. My only complaints were that the international visitors were very rude and the humidity was pretty intense. Other than that it was a blast. We're already planning our return trip for next year, but in the first two weeks of December so it will be cooler and so we can see the Xmas setup. Thanks for looking at my trip report and please feel free to PM me with any questions or comments as well as any tips for our next trip. Thank you.

09-20-2008, 12:11 PM	#10 (permalink)
JoseyDisney I Miss WDW Join Date: May 2007 Location: Peterhead, Scotland (i.e. Way too far away!) Posts: 259	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Great pics!! And you're children looked gorgeous in there halloween outfits!! In relation to your comment the "international visitors were very rude", I would like to say that in all nationalities there are rude people and polite people, irrelevant of there country of origin. I'm not picking on you here but quite a few people on MiceChat say things of that nature and I think its a foolish thing to say as there are rude people from ALL nationalities. As much as I'd like to say there aren't Anyhoo, a great read!! Glad you had a good time!

09-20-2008, 12:29 PM	#11 (permalink)
draybook The Last Dragon Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southaven, MS Posts: 511	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Yeah, I hope people know that I'm not saying that all foreigners are like that, I'm just saying that 95% of the ones we experienced at the parks(Sea World included) were rude. Most of them would bump not only me but my kids as well, without so much as an excuse me or even a look. Now granted there were Americans that did the same, but the ratio was much lower. I think it's just that "I paid for this vacation and my family is the most important" syndrome that many vacationers get. I couldn't tell you how many people would either bump into us and not say excuse me or they would work their way in front of my kids at the parades until I said something and fixed it. That's the only thing my wife hates, the fact that I will say something to someone, regardless. I'm not going to wait in a spot for 30 minutes to an hour just to have someone else get in front of us, at least not my kids.

09-20-2008, 12:45 PM	#12 (permalink)
jordan__edge never late, never early Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: jackson, ms Posts: 13	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) where did you meet frozone, buzz, and woody?

09-20-2008, 12:50 PM	#13 (permalink)
Rixter Home, sweet home. Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: I Heart Oceanside! Posts: 689	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) I am going to repeat the question that was asked previously. Can you give us a review of the Seralago? I'm curious because it gets wildly different reviews on Tripadvisor, but the rates are always very reasonable. Your thoughts? __________________ Rick

09-20-2008, 12:52 PM	#14 (permalink)
draybook The Last Dragon Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southaven, MS Posts: 511	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) Frozone was inside the Animation Academy building and then Buzz and Woody were right across from TSMM at Studios. Buzz is also outside of Buzz Lightyear at the MK and Woody is down by the Frontierland Shooting Gallery.

09-20-2008, 12:56 PM	#15 (permalink)
draybook The Last Dragon Join Date: May 2007 Location: Southaven, MS Posts: 511	Re: Dray's Family WDW TR(16 years in the making!) The Seralago was a pretty good hotel. Pros: Nice clean rooms Friendly staff 2 Huge pools + 2 spas + kiddie pool Very conveniently located with restaurants and other needs located within 3 miles or so, plus it's only a 5 minutes drive to WDW Cons: No internet in the rooms(only in lobby and cafe) Lack of tv stations I'd suggest it to other people but I probably won't book us there next year because we prefer to have internet access in our room.