WDW Trip November 2006

November 25 2006: Our Delta flight left on schedule from PDX around 11:10pm. We arrived safely in Atlanta at 6:37am EST Sunday morning. They indicated that our connecting flight was at terminal T02, so we caught the tram to that location, walked the length of the terminal, only to find that it was not the correct gate, we had to go to A16. We made it with no problems and arrived in Orlando at 9:15am. The only problem we encountered was that Cam discovered that he had lost his credit card just after getting through security at the airport. He determined that the last time he used it was at Fred Meyer and sure enough, they had it. They held it safely for him until we returned.

We have both wanted to test drive a Chrysler 300 so that is what we rented. It was brand new, only 17 miles on it. So far we have really enjoyed it.

We got to the Caribbean Beach Resort about 10am, checked in and they had our room available so that was great too. Here is a picture of the view just outside our door:

They had a room for us when we arrived so we got to check in early. Got something to eat and a few of the supplies we couldn't take on the plane. Came back to the room and took a nap. Got up about 2pm, showered and went over to Epcot. First thing we did at Epcot was go through the ride in the sphere, the story of communication. Then we went though the new Living Seas exhibit. They had a cute show with Crush, the turtle from Finding Nemo where it interacted with the audience. It was pretty cool. We then went to a couple more rides, Journey to Imagination, which was different from the last time we were here and Honey I shrunk the Audience. Then we watched Mickey, Minnie and gang light the Christmas Tree at Epcot. It was a touching moment for both Jeri and Me as many around us were singing Silent Night! We then walked around the world showcase and caught a program that featured a orchestra, singing group and choir singing Christmas carols with intermittent narration of the real Christmas Story. The narrator was Basketball legend, David Robinson, the great center for the San Antonio Spurs. It was getting cooler as that program ended so we high tailed it back to the car and buzzed back to are room and ordered pizza. IT HAS BEEN A GREAT DAY. God has blessed us with a great time.

Day 2 November 27 2006: Went to MGM Studios today. It was much more crowded than we expected, but didn't effect our wait times through the various venues. We rode Terror of Terror twice in a row with only a 10 minute wait both times. We both love that ride.

Sorry for the quality of these two pictures, it was taken with our camera of the picture we purchased at the theme park.

We also went to several shows, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Muppet 3D, Great Movie Ride and the Stunt Driving show. All were very good. We also went though the exhibit for Walt Disney which is always fascinating. As it got dark and the Christmas lights came on we were in the City Streets section of MGM which has a great Christmas light show with music. It even snowed, yes snow or Disney's version of it in 70+ degree weather. We closed the night at MGM by watching Fantasmic, a wonder show with about 5000 people or so in attendance.

One of the memorable moments today actually occured as we arrived at MGM. As we rode the tram to the entrance area, we had Fred as the tram host. He was a real hoot, sounded like Buddy Hackett or Joe Pesci. Was very funny. Went back to him when we arrived to let him know we appreciated him and he was so happy. Said appreciation was more valuable to him than his paycheck.

Tuesday November 28, 2006: Today we went to Animal Kingdom. First show we went to was the Lion King show. It was great. Here is a picture as they were finishing the program:

We then went to on a jungle walk to see the Gorillas. Here is a picture of one of them:

We also went on the new coaster at the park called Expedition Everest. It was real good.

After leaving Animal Kingdom, we stopped at Fantasia Golf and played 18 holes. Then if it was off to Olive Garden for diner.

We are continuing to have a great time. It has been a great break that we really needed.

Wednesday November 29 2006: We thought about going to Epcot today, then taking the monorail to Magic Kingdom, but as we left this morning it started to rain and boy did it rain. So we bought an umbrella and went over to downtown Disney marketplace first and did some shopping. Later we did go to Epcot and decided just to spend the day there. Went through Soarin and Test Drive. Soarin is really cool. It's like hang gliding in front of a Imax theater screen as you fly over various places in California. Walt would have loved it, but said it was to short, needed to last another couple minutes in my opinion. Test Drive is where you are in a car and it goes through all the road testing the engineers do to test a car. It was OK, but nothing special.

As we were walking around we heard some music behind the Great Brittan exhibit so walked over there. The group was called British Invasion and was a Beatle sound alike group. They were very good.

We stayed late to watch Illuminations, the night time fireworks show. They appeared to be having technical difficulties with the show. The fireworks were good, but the show was not as good as previous shows.

Thursday November 30, 2006: Today we went to the Magic Kingdom. Rode the ferry from the parking area to the kingdom. After getting through security and into the park we did a little shopping before heading over to Adventure land. On the way to Adventure Land, Jeri took this picture of me next to the bronze of Walt and Mickey.

Went through the Swiss Family Robinson tree house, then on to Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates has changed a little from the last time we were here. There are several scenes with Captain Jack from the movies and the beginning seems to be different than it use to be. Anyway, always a fun ride. After that is was on to Splash Mountain, then the Mark Twain river boat while we had a frozen lemonade. Then the hall of Presidents. Then it was time for the afternoon parade during which we had the only rain drops during the day. Here are some pictures of the parade.

We then went over to Space Mountain, the carosal of progress and the WEDway People mover, though it is called something else now. After all that it was close to the end of the day fireworks so we staked out our spot neat Cinderella's Castle.

Friday December 1, 2006: We have arrived at our last day at Walt Disney World. We had a relaxing day, went to Epcot, took the Monorail to the Ticket/Transportation location, then the Ferry to the Magic Kingdom. Were checking out the MK as it appeared and was reported they may be shooting the Christmas Day parade today. Saw many signs of that, but didn't see Regis and Kelly who were suppose to be hosting it. Probably will happen tomorrow and we'll be on our way home.

Sunday December 3 2006: We arrived home on schedule last night. Out friend Dino was there to pick us up and we were at home around 10:45pm Saturday night. With the exception that our plane out of Orlando was delayed an hour and 15 minutes, all went as scheduled. Fortunately, our connecting flight in Atlanta previously had a 3 hour layover, so with the delay, it was just a two hour layover. It is amazing to be on the east coast of the United States one afternoon and a few hours later, be on the west coast! The flight from Atlanta flew northwest, toward the Dakota's and then directly west from there. They hadn't shown the route that way and were showing other things on the TV monitor, so I didn't know really were were were until we were in Oregon and it showed our location and a map of where we had flown. It was amazingly clear just about the whole flight. Saw a lot of snow on the ground.

Will update this page later today with more pictures and clean up the information. For those of you that have been following along, hope you enjoyed our updates.