July 19-21 Trip Report

[Xharryb]

A friend of mine called me up about a week and a half ago with an offer I couldn’t refuse. He’d been offered a huge promotion at work and a week of vacation time prior to starting the new position. Which of course meant it was time to go have a little fun. So he booked a room and we spent 3 relaxing days hanging out at WDW!

DAY 1

We left after lunch on Thursday, checked in at the Coronado Springs Resort around 3:30. This was my second stay at the Coronado and I always find it to be a relaxing atmosphere. A few random shots of the resort:













After settling in to our room, we hopped on a bus over to MGM. It’s a park that holds a special place in my friend’s heart, because he worked there for a little while about 10-12 years ago. I didn’t get any pictures while we were there because… well… I’ve already got plenty of pictures of that park and we didn’t do anything I hadn’t already experienced.

Next it was on to the extra magic hours park for that evening, which was Epcot. I was too busy enjoying my international beverages of choice to take very many pictures, but I did get a few to share…

Had to get some wand removal shots. No debates on the topic of the wand in this thread please. These are merely for the sake of showing the progress:



We did get a few evening showers, but it wasn’t too bad. It cleared up just prior to sunset and the sky was absolutely gorgeous:


Also during this post rain period I got a lovely shot of Space Ship Earth and a rainbow:


We played at Epcot a little while longer, but eventually I’d had enough. I had to put in a few hours at work before we left, so I’d been going nonstop since 6am already. I headed back to the hotel while my friend went over to check out the action at Pleasure Island.

Thus ends Day 1.

[Xharryb]

DAY 2

Since a new school year is starting up soon and my friend starts a new job soon, we decided to head off property for a bit of shopping Friday morning. Nothing exciting to report from this excursion, but I did get myself a spiffy new pair of converse. So, upon returning to our resort, I had to take a special picture for the master trip report poster Mr. Fishbulb…

My old Cons and my new Cons decided to have a special meet and watch Stacey on the resort TV:


After a trip to the pool and short nap, it was time to head over to the Magic Kingdom for extra magic hours. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures during this part of our adventure because my camera has recently decided that it doesn’t like to take night shots. Much fun was had though and I didn channel one of my favorite Micechatters while riding Big Thunder…. Much to the amusement of my fellow riders. We stayed and played well into the night, then headed back to our room for some much needed rest.

So ends Day 2.

[Xharryb]

DAY 3

It was extra magic hours at Animal Kingdom Saturday morning, but we slept right through that. We did eventually get ourselves moving though and headed over for my friend’s very first visit to the Animal Kingdom park. I love this park and don’t spend nearly enough time exploring it, so I was excited to share it with someone who hadn’t seen any of it yet.

The first thing we hit was Festival of the Lion King. It’s been a long time since I actually made the effort to go over there and watch this amazing show, and I’d forgotten just how amazing it is! My friend was absolutely blown away, and dubbed it the best stage show he’d ever seen in a theme park. One fun little side note from the show was one of our fellow audience members. Philip Michael Thomas of Miami Vice fame (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0859365/) was sitting across from us, and got pulled up to demonstrate one of the animal noises. I would have been in an excellent position to get a picture of him but my camera wasn’t cooperating due to the low light levels.

Then we fast passed the Safari ride, and got some great opportunities for animals getting up close. One giraffe practically stuck his head inside the vehicle he was so close! Here are a few of the better pictures my camera decided to take:








I also hit the trail to check out the gorillas. This large one was in a perfect position, walking straight towards me, but just as I went to take the picture he moved away. This was the best angle I could get:


Then there was this gorilla enjoying a bit of a nap:


We also escaped the heat for a bit by catching It’s Tough To be A Bug. It was so oppressively hot and humid though, that we decided we just didn’t want to wait in line for anything else. So we headed out, but my friend is more anxious to come back and further explore this park than any other. Perhaps after the weather cools back down a bit.

Our last leg of the trip involved a bit of final shopping at Downtown Disney. It started raining, so we stayed there a bit longer than anticipated just hoping it would let up a bit. Eventually it did ease up enough that I felt safe getting on the road, though it never really stopped raining the entire trip home.

Over all it was a very nice little trip. I’m so used to making short, one day visits and driving back home the same day that it was really nice to be able to relax and stay there for a couple of nights.

I know I’m kinda lazy when it comes to picture taking, but I hope you all enjoyed my little trip report.

THE……

END….

[Olympicnut]

Yay!! Glad ya had fun.

[DonDuck]

Fantastic pics and TR!

[cyre]

Great report! looks like you had a fun time!

[SorcererMickey]

Great report! I love the artsy fartsy-ness of this picture with the lantern on the rocks. Glad you had a nice time.

[frdeb1999]

Looks and sounds like you had a great time!

[NeverNeverland]

Loved the TR!
and the pic w/the rainbow's so pretty!

[RonNYC]

Glad you and your friend had a great weekend!

[Risa]

Great trip report!

I loved the rainbow over Epcot. Florida always has great rainbows.

I really enjoyed the Finding Nemo show. It does have some pretty catchy songs. I also have always loved the Festival of the Lion King stage show. There is just something about it....

[mikeland]

Very nice! Thanks.

[GrimmGreen]

i miss seeing Stacy every morning...

[Villains Fan]

Great trip report Jason! Glad you had a good time! I love the pictures of the sky in Epcot after the rain <sigh>...oh, and nice Cons, pretty stylin'!

[AK-MJTcast]

Great trip report! Love the pics of resort.