The Spring Break trip's (March 2011) main destination is Orlando, Florida (Fl.) but how each of us plan to spend our time there was made flexible by the organizer.
We moved from campus on Sat (5th March 2011), midnight, reaching Jacksonville, FL on Sunday morning (6th March 2011), where we spent the day in Kennedy Space Centre. Evening, we went down south to Orlando, checked in our hotel, and for the following 4 days we were given a few options on how we'd like to have the trip. The organizers did encourage to take the 2-days pass to Disneyworld, coz if we had enough people, the group rate wud be cheaper for each individuals. Of course, some didnt. There are a lot more other fun things to look fwd to in Orlando, which include SeaWorld, Universal Studios, some other fun parks like Wet n Wild, Ripleys.. etc. You have to have more than a week if you were to cover all of these places.
First.... I was not very keen on going to Disney as I thot I am over the disney phase of life. Man... I couldnt be more wrong...
After considering it... I opted for the Disney 2 days pass....
Fyi, Disneyworld is very huge, compared to Disneyland (California). Both are special in their own ways, Disneyland being the original and Disneyworld for being huge (and has many more parks).
There are 4 major theme parks in
Disneyworld - [Magic Kingdom], [Animal Kingdom], [Disney's Hollywood Studios], and [Epcot]. I was determined to cover all of them since the 2 days pass allow us to hop in between parks for 2 days. So, I thought, 2 parks a day can be possible. I didnt have friends when I first joined the trip, but met some in the process :-) At first, Uyanga and Xinrong both planned to just go for 1 day Disney trip and then decide on next, later. But, if they were to do that, it will not be as efficient as they will only be allowed to do one park a day, and it costs around $80+ per day for one park... whereas it's only arnd $130 for 2 days park hopper (can hop between parks). I seduced them into joining the 2days pass, and go together to try cover all 4 parks in 2 days.....and yey! We did!
First day (7th March 2011, Monday) started a bit late as we had to wait for all the rest to gather (causing some delay), as well as there was some ticketing problem that cost us some time as well. As soon as we got our tickets (at the ticketing centre), the 3 of us ran to the bus area, to catch next bus to Disney's MGM Hollywood Studios. Felt like we were in a Amazing Race or some sort.. haha.
*shuttle bus within these parks are free.
the centre of MGM studios (the magic hat is the centrepiece for this park),
Pixar studios, Disney animations
the Indiana Jones show - best gile
I carried a pamplet that has map of each of the parks. So every park we 'touched down', we go by the map. This was to ensure all parts of the parks were covered :P However, we were not able to go on all rides. Actually, it was almost impossible as it was during SpringBreak, crowd was crazy and most of the Rides have almost more than an hour waiting Time! We were not going to waste our time waiting. Though some Rides seemed to be interesting, but they are merely Rides.... more or less like any other Rides in theme parks. Ok... ok.... but with some interesting twist to it lar. I would have taken all the rides if I had one whole week to spend in Disneyworld :P Anyway, we did cover all the places, managed to catch some shows (ouh, I especially love the Indiana Jones show... coz I love Indiana movies so so much since I was a kid), hop on some rides and took a lot of pictures :-)
We arrived at this park at around 10.30am and left the park at around 1pm...... and headed back (by bus) to the Ticketing Centre.... our next destination was Magic Kingdom, and we had to take either a monorail or a ferryboat from the Ticketing Centre to this park.
Monorail sounds faster.......but oh wait... we toook the ferryboat :P
... because the monorail was closed for a while when we arrived.... No waiting policy, we went straight to the dock, and it took about 10minutes before the next ferry came, and about 15minutes to get to Magic Kingdom. It was just perfect.... at least we get to take the ferry ride. Wonderful ride, it was windy in the scorching sun and excitement racing through my inner childly imaginations as the boat get nearer to our destination.
I was so excited.... Ouh I felt like a Kid again....
the Main street Philharmonic was playing when we arrived.
as I walked to the centre... where the Magic Castle stands...
suddenly... I felt some drop of tears.....
I miss my niece and nephew so much!!!!!! This is something I would love to do with my family. Then, I remember my unfulfilled promise to my niece to bring her to Universal Studios Singapore.... ouh, it breaks my heart! :( And I am here all by myself.......... *cricket sounds...**
I was awaken by the sound of the moving crowd, kids shouting in joy. I quickly got back on my feet. Ouh, I was not going to ruin the day... so I decided to enjoy to the fullest... on their behalf too rite, hehe... and also, the child in me deserve it just as much :P
Back to disney advnture.
We got another pamplet from the park, that listed all shows / attractions, and we were just in time for the "Dream Along with Mickey" show, that took place at the Magic Castle. So kiutt.. hihihhi.... njoyed it very much :D
After the show, we proceeded to another area but keeping close to the 'parade trails' as the Parade was just an hour away. We got a shady spot, and waited... and there they were again.
Then we spent the rest of the day in Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is sooo big, hoho... adeh... and has the most attractions compared to other parks.
The crowd was just crazy...... too many people @_@ but well... we brushed through anyway. Again, some of the rides could take forever just for waiting. We did some rides and went in for some shows, we even enjoyed ourselves with the flashmob they had.
And nite folds in.....
Its time for the Main Street Electrical Parade.
It was getting chilly.... but everyone waited in patience, getting a good spot to see the parade. Fortunately, it was worth the wait (sambil mengetap bibir kesejukan)... :D
Then the fireworks!
The problem was, we were told to be at the bus parking lot (which is at the ticketing area)... by 9.30pm. I kinda feel it was a bit inconsiderate since magic kingdom opens until midnight. They could have made it 10.30pm or 10pm.... because the "Wishes Nighttime Spectacular" (fireworks) starts at 9pm every night, and take about 15 minutes.
Would we have enough time to get back in 15minutes time??? We didnt even know how long the monorail would take to get back to the ticketing centre... but we took the risk... confident that we would make it on time. So we quickly strategized our exit plan. We started to walk back on Main street heading towards the exit but making sure we didnt lose sight of the magic castle, where the fireworks would be fired from. Main Street has a good view..... but the challenge is the thousand or zillions of people in the crowd...so we really had to tiptoe or find the best angle.
As the fireworks splashed some colors in the dark sky....we walked... we stopped to admire.. then we walked again... until we were quite near the exit.
It was a perfect ending for the day!!
We waited until the firework show officially ended.. Looking at each other....
.....
"Ok.... LET's RUN FOR IT"
And we ran.... the crowd were moving too, some walking fast to reach the exit... but we ran like we were running for our lives... hahaha... while searching for the monorail....and raced to the monorail. We got in the monorail, without having to wait in a long queue... constantly checking the time.
9.20pm.
We walked fast / ran a lil back to the bus, and we made it right on time 9.30pm sharp! Haha....
But... we had to wait for others, who came after 10mins and the last guy... it was 10pm++ by the time he made it to the bus. Then we were informed that for the next day, our bus would not be driving us there, instead we could catch a shuttle bus from the hotel. Only then, we knew there was free bus service going to/from the hotel, and the latest bus from the ticketing place was at 11pm. What? why weren't we informed earlier? Hmmm.... welll..... it's ok... We did really utilize our time to the best and did everything we wanted, so no regrets there. Kinda adventurous now that I think of it.... hahahaha....
amazing race asia, anyone? :P
