Large Scale Central

Going To visit the mouse

General Discussion
#1

Mickey that is :smiley:

Sunday afternoon Marilyn and I will strap ourselves to an aluminum and titanium contraption fueled by a mix of kerosene and gasoline and get hurled through the sky to Chicago where we will cool our heels and prepare to do it again finally landing (we hope) in Orlando Florida.

Once we arrive, we were promised to be greeted by some nice Disney folks who will take us via a more civilized mode of transportation to the Port Orleans Hotel in Disneyland. We get to stay for a week enjoying the sunshine and unlimited entertainment.

Sometime after we arrive, our youngest son Matthew will climb aboard a coach bus with the rest of his classmates and members of the New Fairfield High School Rebels Marching band and begin the long drive to Orlando by road. The band and Chorus will be performing and competing at Festival Disney. Marilyn and I are going down to support them, and have a good time too.

We havenā€™t been to WDW since 1988. We canā€™t wait :smiley: :smiley:

#2

Jon,

Twenty+ years on there could be some changes. :lol: Have fun! And ā€¦

#3

Have fun, Jon.
Great time to go before it gets too hot.
Congratulations to Matthew and his bandmates, and good luck to them.
Ralph

#4

Jon, Make sure to ride the trainā€¦have funā€¦ Dave

#5

safe trip and have funā€¦

#6

If you have the time you really should try the behind the scenes tours called ā€œThe Magic Behind Our Steam Trainsā€. Itā€™s only $40/pp and you get to back to the roundhouse operations and learn about Waltā€™s love of trains. (You must have park admission as well)

Itā€™s a great tour and the guides are the WDWRR conductors and engineers.

Hereā€™s a link to a description: http://allears.net/btp/tours.htm#rr or http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tours-and-experiences/steam-trains-tour/

#7

Herb -

Thank you for that. I wasnā€™t aware of it and probably will have the time. We are in the park for 7 days/nights with their buy 3, get 4 free deal.

#8

Jon,

We did the behind the scenes train tour and it is well worth it. Enjoy! Great meals at Universal Studios in the evenings at Margaritaville, if you get tired of the mouse. Comes with a free boat ride. :wink:

#9

Bummer - I just called WDW and thus tour is fully booked for the week we are there. Shoulda called months ago.

#10

Jon,
When you get on the jet grab the first totally hot flight attendant you see and ask her if she wants to fly United!!
Have fun and a safe trip!!
:wink:

#11

Have fun Jon. One of my favorite placesā€¦:wink:

#12

Maybe youā€™ll get this cool flight attendant. He definitely puts the fun back into flying.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4743429/12668935
Dave

#13

Jon,

Check on the Train Tour the night before, there may be cancellations.

#14

Let me get this straightā€¦

Youā€™re going to strap yourselves into an aluminum tube to be shot through the atmosphere at over 600 mph under control of a perfect stranger? :o

And people think Iā€™m weird :smiley:

#15

10,000 spare parts flying together in loose formation. There is no such thing as a perfectly good airplaneā€¦ :stuck_out_tongue:

#16

Tom and Steve - Right on!

Ric - That was my thought too.

#17

If you really wanted to do it, I would be standing there at 0645 that morning and have them tell me there is no room. The number in the tour group was not very exact and it is basically the test run of the first train of the day and running all the track. The group we were in was far smaller than the capacity of the train. Just a thought.

#18

What a week! Flew out a week ago Sunday evening. They held the plane in Chicago for a half hour waiting for an arriving connection. We arrived at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort around 1AM and were at Epcot by late morning on Monday. It was non-stop from there, visiting all 5 areas on the property at least once, several twice and loading up on all kinds of great food. By Friday we were really dragging from all the walking, so Saturday we rented a pair of those comfy chairs mounted on an electric trike. We had a blast buzzing around the parks on them, so much so we stayed at Magic Kingdom until the closed at midnight. It was 1 AM Sunday by the time we got to the room. We had a 4:30 AM wake-up so the bellman could collect our hacks and we could check-in to the airline at the hotel. by 6:30 we were on the bus to the airport for a 9AM flight home via Chicago again. We arrived at our door about 8PM and were passed out by 10.

I never did even attempt to get on the steam train tour. It was hard enough dragging ourselves out of bed before 9 to beat the family rush at breakfast. Maybe next time.

Monday AM just after I arrived at work, our main file server crashed. I spent the next 17 hours straight coaxing it back to life, so there was no time to check in here until this evening.

I brought home 8GB of digital photos, many of them taken at the fireworks show in Magic Kingdom. Eventually Iā€™ll get them dumped off the CF cards and will post a few of the best in this thread.

#19

Until you mentioned that you ventured to all of the areas, I forgot to mention that some of Waltā€™s personal railroad (Castlewood Something) are in the lodge at the Wilderness Hotel. All in glass cabinets and spread through out at least one of the side rooms. Took us awhile to find it. Next time I we are planning to be in the same place Iā€™ll bring you a book Jon. Youā€™ll learn why you have such a fascination with trains. :wink: Glad you had a great trip. What are the comfy electric trikes?

#20

ā€œElectric Convenience Vehicleā€

(http://allears.net/pl/ecv.jpg)

The ones at Disney are trikes. Quite quick, turn on a dime and give you 5 cents change :smiley: We drank, and ate in the Fort Wilderness Lodge, but I never noticed any RR stuff.