Paddy and I arrived in the area a day early, which was good, because we got acclimated to the roads and the locations of the theme parks.
Sunday November 11, 2007, we checked into the Polynesian.
POLYNESIAN RESORT:
Very beautiful resort, Monorail stops inside the main building, boat rides to other Disney areas at dockside, restaurants, gift shops, large pool, lagoon beach with white sand.
From the Polynesian, we got on the monorail, traveled to the Transportation and Ticket Center, transferred to another monorail and headed to Epcot. Our first area within Epcot was the World Showcase, which is a series of pavilions from different countries. Workers in each area were natives of their country and wore their native dress. Some pavilions sported rides and movies but all had a gift shop and a restaurant with native food.
NORWAY:
We heard good things about the Akershus restaurant so we stopped by, made a reservation for dinner and had lunch at the a cafe which was 100 feet away. While in Norway, we rode the Maelstrom Viking boat ride and saw a movie on modern Norway.
CHINA:
GERMANY:
AMERICAN ADVENTURE:
These nine singers were excellent. They sang patriotic songs and paid tribute to our veterans. Moving into the large theater we saw an inspirational show about America.
JAPAN:
ESPECIALLY FOR THE KIDS:
CANADA:
We saw an excellent Circle-Vision 360 movie on Canada which was both humorous and informative.
We went on to Mission Space and took the 'green team' mission to Mars. During the first day of our visit to World Showcase there was also a wine festival going on so Paddy posed by the Argentina poster.
WILDERNESS LODGE, ARTIST POINT RESTAURANT:
We heard great things about this restaurant, so we made a reservation. After a couple of connecting boat rides, we arrived at the Wilderness Lodge. Our host came to our table to introduce the restaurant to us and later chef Jim discussed Paddy's food allergy (no fish) so there would be no problems with our meal. The food, with a Pacific Northwest theme, was the best we ate at Disney World. First Class all the way !
Monday November 12, 2007. We revisited Epcot, enjoyed an English street play and had lunch at the Rose & Crown Pub. We rode the free-flying hang gliding adventure ride called 'Soarin' and took an energy adventure ride hosted by Ellen DeGeneres going back to the dinosaur era. In the 'Living with the Land' environmental area we took a boat ride that showed many plants, including watermelons, growing from trees.
FRANCE:
AKERSHUS RESTAURANT IN NORWAY:
We returned to Norway for dinner at the famous Akershus restaurant. While visiting kids had their photos taken with the 'princess', Paddy and I elected to visit the appetizer table. During dessert, our server and other pretty girls came by for photos. The food was excellent.
After dinner, our timing was excellent: 200 feet from the restaurant was the lagoon where we enjoyed the 'IllumiNations' show with 1,100 super fire works and many lights set to music !
Tuesday November 13, 2007. Breakfast with a view, at the Polynesian, then onto the boat toward Wilderness Lodge. Along the way, we passed the Grand Floridian Resort, the Magic Kingdom and the Contemporary Resort.
Our plan was to take a bike ride through the wilderness, which we did. The paths were easy and we turned around at the Disney Ranch.
We ate lunch at Wilderness Lodge and then travelled by boat to Magic Kingdom. Our first choice was a ride on the steam train.
A trip down Mainstreet USA. We came across a very nice sounding saxophone quartet, complete with bass sax. We met the "mayor", his wife and a very talented piano player who provided entertainment while we had Ice cream.
The famous Disney parade.
Then back to the Polynesian for dinner at the Kona Cafe and then a visit to the gift shop.
Wednesday November 14, 2007. We visited Disney-MGM Studios with Art Deco buildings and roving actors doing their thing.
We took the "Disney-MGM Studios Backlot tour and tram ride explaining the history of movies.
A most interesting stop was the "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular" showing how an action movie was made.
We visited the "Walt Disney One Man's Dream" and saw a most interesting movie on the life of Walt Disney and of Disney Land and Disney World, mostly narrated by Walt. We then took a tour of the many historic displays and visited an area of action figures for the kids.
The famous MGM Christmas parade (yes, more than a week before Thanksgiving).
We had an excellent dinner at the Brown Derby restaurant and used our combo package to get special seating to the show "Fantasmic" which is part live, part movie, light and sound spectacular.
After dark, MGM turned on 5 million lights. A splendid view indeed.
Arriving back at the Polynesian in time to see fireworks across the lagoon at Magic Kingdom. Yep the kids were still swimming in the resort pool.
Thursday November 15, 2007. Disney's Animal Kingdom. We chose to ride the Everest. It was very fast and kept one on the edge of the seat.
This beautiful and amazing woman, in a plant costume, walked on foliage stilts and was able to blend into the forest. With her face toward the foliage, you would not see her at all !
We took a train ride and a caravan ride through the jungle.
Lots of interesting things to see and do here.
Finished the day with dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.
Friday November 16, 2007 (last full day). We got on the monorail and went back to Epcot to visit Mexico and check out the Cantina. We took the Gran Fiesta tour boat ride and they gave our boat a Dream Fast Pass, which would let you jump ahead of the normal lines for rides.
After the boat ride we perused the Mexican art and the artists in action.
Next, we visited the aquarium, had lunch at the Coral Reef restaurant and took the "finding Nemo" boat ride. We did find Nemo at the gift shop.
One last visit to Magic Kingdom to buy some gifts. Christmas was in full swing, this week before Thanksgiving.
We ended the trip with dinner at the Kona Restaurant in the Polynesian and then to the snack room for a wonderful view of fireworks across the Lagoon from the Magic Kingdon.
WOW, what a great vacation !
Disney World is huge, click on map to enlarge.
