January 2007 trip log notes

[cstephens]

Saturday, January 6 - arrival date

The Caribbean Beach Resort is *really* nice. This is our second visit to WDW and our first staying on property. We're staying in the CPK village - Jamaica - their color is yellow, and the room numbers are like diamonds, so from a distance, the rooms all look like they have the CPK symbol on their door. I also keep having "Kokomo" pop into my head every time we're driving in our resort ("Aruba, Jamaica, ooo, I wanna take ya").

Only complaint - Disney apparently thinks that taco lettuce (aka shredded lettuce) is acceptable on hamburgers and other sandwiches. Blech. Have to live with it because I have no other choice but I prefer leaf lettuce.


Sunday, January 7 - day at the Magic Kingdom

The castle doesn't look nearly as huge as I remember from last time. Still didn't go on Tiki Room. Pirates was fun - same changes as at DL. Mansion was fun, even though I think I like DL's better. Two cast members commented on my Haunted Mansion Holiday shirt, so the trolling worked. Stitch's Great Escape was ok but still had flashbacks of Alien Encounter. Pooh ride was fun. Small World is so much smaller. Still hate that most of the food is either sit-down table service or counter service with only hamburgers and chicken really as options with nothing in between or different.

Highlight of the night - "Wishes" was a great fireworks show. *LOVED* the frowny face. It was also nice knowing people to call back in California to ask about a good spot from which to see the fireworks. But even with as good as the show was - it doesn't hold a candle to either "Believe" or "Remember".


Monday, January 8 - day at Epcot

I think Epcot is going to end up being my favorite of the parks. Test Track was fun. Mission Space cheater green version (as opposed to more intensive orange version) was just the right amount of fun. The new Nemo ride was outstanding, and the aquarium addition is pretty awesome too. Spaceship Earth was fun. Maelstrom (Norway) was slower than I remember, but I think it was just my mis-memory.

Highlight of the day - the Segway tour we took in the morning - Oh my goodness. So much fun and so worth the money. I was really hesitant going in, but it won me over pretty quickly. It would be so awesome for shopping. After doing World Showcase on a Segway, walking just isn't the same.

Second highlight of the day - Illuminations - It was just as good I remembered it being from when we saw it in 1999. How the heck do you describe this show to someone who's never seen it? It's a difficult as explaining Fantasmic. And then the kicker of having Tapestry as the exit music was killer. Is it really possible to miss a show this much that you've only ever seen once?

On Tuesday, it's Disney-MGM day. Looked at the guide map and there aren't that many things we want to do (lots that we've either seen and aren't interested in seeing again or are outright not interested in at all), so not sure how we're going to occupy our day long enough to stay while our friends watch Fantasmic. No way we're interested in seeing that show again.