~ The Big Four-oh! Vegas & Orlando, Dec '08 - Day 19 ~

[Reetser]

The Big Four-oh! Vegas & Orlando, Dec '08 - Day 19. 31st December 2008

Introduction can be found here.
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6
Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day10 Day11 Day12
Day13 Day14 Day15 Day16 Day17
Day18

Hello again and thanks for dropping by

DAY19

New Years Eve!

Today we set EPCOT as our park because we had a planned Dibb Meet arranged for the Rose & Crown at 6.30pm, so that we could all be together in the UK for 7pm which would be midnight back home in the UK!

We had heard many horror stories about crowd levels in EPCOT and we had decided that we must be in early to ensure the park didn't close and so that we could get on Soarin again as I had promised Nana we would!

We left the apartment at 8am and were parked up by 20 past. We already took note of the fact that the car park was busier than when we arrived on Christmas day at close to 10am! The first thing (as per normal) was for me to run on to The Land to secure some Fastpasses for Soarin. I arranged to meet with the others in Mouse Gear as the Tink outfit we had bought for Katie a few days earlier was the wrong size.

Rees came with me and we jogged up the ramp and into the Land only to look over the balcony in horror at the number of people below. Those familiar with the layout in the Land will know you drop down the stairs to the left hand side and Soarin is over to the right hand side. At the foot of the stairs was a queue which I had 'assumed' was the regular line so I zipped through and headed over to the FP area. It didn't take long for me to realise however that the line I had skipped through the middle of was in fact the FP queue! I went back along to find the end of it. The line simply snaked its way through the restaurant area and into the food court area before doubling back! At one point it actually crossed itself like a 'figure 8!'

I joined the back of the line and waited patiently. After about 5 minutes a Cast Member wandered through the line to inform us that the FP line was approximately an hour wait! It did cross my mind that we might be better calling the others and joining the regular line but when I sent Rees ahead to look at the wait time he came back with 95 minutes!

About 20 minutes in (when I finally got back to the bottom of the stairs) a lady came down and looked a little forlorn to see the length of queue so me being the kind person I am offered for her to stand in front of me. The fact that she was quite cute to look at which would make the time pass a bit quicker had nothing to do with it

Anyway about 5 minutes in she took a call from her Husband who happened to be much further up the line than we were and so she invited me to join them near the front! One good turn and all! This little manoeuvre meant that within another 3 or 4 mins I had secured my 6 Fastpasses for 2.30 - 3.30 (and this is still before 9.20am!)

This picture really doesn't do the line justice but it comes from the right and zig zags around through the left hand side.



We then wandered over to Mousegear and caught the start of the marvellous Jaminators in the Innovations under cover area which were as entertaining as ever! The others had just about finished in Mousegear with the exchanges and additional purchases and so we headed out the back door for a quick restroom stop. As we had all done Test Track on Christmas Day we knew that as long as we did Soarin again today we wouldn't be bothered with doing Test Track. Whilst the others rest roomed I couldn't help notice the line weaving past us to the left so I felt compelled to go an investigate.

This is what I found (and note the time!)



Just in case that hasn't come across in the picture, the time says it is 10am and the Standby time says 150 minutes and even the Single Rider line says 90 minutes!

I tried to capture the length of the line on camera but once again I don't think it actually does justice. What you must remember when looking at these is that there is already a massive line inside the building. This first one is taken from in front of the displays in the above picture.



I walked a little further up the line under the monorail and snapped the 'second half' of the line. You can see that it foes off in front before turning left towards the Innovations under covered area.



I decided that what we would be better doing now was heading up to World Showcase before the masses! After all, with the lines at Test Track and The Land behind us there can't be anybody else in the park! I had actually thought that WS opened at 10 but a quick look at my guide showed it actually opened at 9.30 so I felt under pressure to get everybody moving a little. As we turned the corner, heading left towards Mexico I was delighted to see so much open space and was pleased with myself for suggesting the move. What I hadn't planned on was that we would then stand for the next 20 minutes at the coffee stall waiting for 3 Lattes! It felt like we had lost all momentum!

As Epcot is Karen's least favourite park she normally drags her heals around and as such we haven't 'done' World Showcase for a few years. We finally got ourselves to Mexico and popped inside to ride 'The Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros.' Nana & Grandad hadn't ridden this before but as we weren't allowed to ride with our newly obtained coffees Grandad chose to sit this one out. The pace on this one was right up Nana's street and when she got off she decided to re ride it with Grandad and the kids as it was still walk on.



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[Reetser]

I grabbed the usual picture of the kids in 'silly' hats and I am convinced they only stock these for pictures like this as I have never seen anyone ever buy one!



Whilst in Mexico we noticed the 'new' Passports that they now sell for World Showcase. I say 'new' because as I said we we haven't been around WS for sometime so I am not sure when they were introduced but basically for those who don't know what they are they are a Passport that the kids can take into each country around the world and they get them stamped (like your real one at immigration) and they get a little message in the language of the country along with lots of stamps and stickers to fill the pages. We have previously done the mask collection and although the masks are free and these cost we decided that it might be a nice change for them and a nice souvenir so the kids agreed with us that we would only do the Passport.



Here they are getting there first stamp and message.



Next up on our world tour was Norway and in particular a ride on Maelstrom which was another new one on us. Fortunately it only had a 20 minute wait time so we entered the line and were delighted when we were seated inside 15. As I said this one was a new one on us and whilst it will never go down as great we actually quite enjoyed it.

On our way out of Norway we found time for more silly hats!



Here is one of Karen, Rees & Katie!



Next up on our 'World Tour' was China. Because we had so much time to kill before our fastpasses and because we knew we were in 'for the day' we decided to just take things real slow. We had managed the two rides in WS and we had FP for the only other thing we wanted so there was no panic. The kids hunted through with Karen to find Kidcot which is the place to collect their China stamp. I thought a nice touch in here was that the welcome note from them contained their names in Chinese!



As we viewed the pathway around WS you could see now how it was steadily getting busier. I zoomed in to take this shot across to some of the other countries and you can see one or two more bodies crowding the areas.







We spent a little bit of time around the model village in Germany spotting hidden mickeys whilst some of the party rest roomed again. I was actually starting to enjoy really looking at the themeing in the park because as I have stated many times before my aim this trip was to take a step back from the chaos and simply absorb the surroundings.



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[Reetser]

As we made our way a little further towards Italy I took this next shot to show just how the crowds were starting to form and it was still only Midday.





We decided to have a little chill around here so I took some photos back across the lake towards the Ball.



Rees was feeling particularly strong at this point and thought he would just hold up the ball in case it started to fall!



We had a little wander into Italy next to find Kidcot at which point Mum & Dad took 5 mins in the shade of "Doges Palace in Venice"



Next up after Italy was America where once again the theme was 'relaxation'! We sat here for quite a while whilst we tucked into some already prepared sandwiches and a nice cold beer! Whilst we sat here a marching band came and entertained us briefly.





After lunch the kids went over to the kidcot zone to get their passports stamped and unfortunately whilst here they were given a mask by the lady. Now this is where it would pay to have had an adult with them rather than us watching from 20 yards away because and adult would've said "thanks but no thanks" to the kind lady, but instead the kids said "thank you!" This now meant that 6 countries in we needed to back track to get the other 5 on their masks!

We checked our watches and decided that we could now do with making our way back towards the Land and Soarin. As I said we were over at America which basically is just about as far away as possible to the Land so we decided on a little plan. Nana and Grandad would take the boat over to the other side of the lake and we would walk back the way we came with Rees and myself darting back into each country to obtain stamps and artwork for the masquerades. Katie at this point settled down in the stroller for a power nap. We arranged to meet again where we had purchased coffee from earlier in the day which should give Grandad enough time for his own power nap!

The walk back round felt like we were heading down a one way street the wrong way. The amount of people coming against us was (particularly in the bottle neck at Mexico) quite scary. We survived and met with Nana & Grandad and wandered over to The Land. On the way (between Innoventions West and The Land) there are some digital screens showing the wait times on various attractions around the park. I took a couple of pictures to share with you what some people were actually prepared to do!





Now just in case the camera hasn't actually picked those times up for you I will repeat!

MISSION SPACE 160 Minutes
TEST TRACK 180 Minutes
Soarin' 285 Minutes

Now I know you are all very good at maths but I still feel the need to translate that last time for you. That is
4 hours and 45 minutes!

Who?

Why?



We fought our way through the crowds in The Land and made our way onto "our flight". On Christmas Day we had managed to get a nice CM who accepted our request for front/top row but with the crowd levels today we thought we wouldn't push it and accepted our middle row seats. I have to say having ridden this many times now in all rows there is nothing like the front row and if anyone is reading this and heading out for the first time, please ask for front row as you will not regret it!

CONTINUED...

[Reetser]

After riding Soarin' we decided that we would now continue our "world tour" and so we headed over to the boat pontoon to make our way over to the far side. Whilst waiting for the boat I snapped a few shots of the countries across the lake.









As I took that last one a and noted the crowd levels at the water's edge I couldn't help wondering if people were actually getting their positions for the Fireworks in 4 hours time!

We sailed over to Morocco where we decided to split slightly. Katie really wanted her Passport and mask stamping but really didn't want to move to do it so Rees and I set off on our own mission. We back tracked slightly to Japan, then back to Morocco and on to France before hitting the UK and Canada. Katie took the opportunity to have another sleep (to be fair she didn't get much of the last one) and we all met up in the UK.

The time now was fast approaching 5pm (2 1/2 hours before Fireworks) and it was obvious that we would need to start setting up camp if we wanted any decent photos and video. We found a space against the railings in between UK and Canada which allowed me to put my tripod over the railings out of people's way. We had a great chat here with a couple of lovely CM's who had lots of time to talk. I asked one of the CM's about the crowd levels and if they were close to closing at any time in the day and she confirmed that they had been on 'stand by' for a little while. She went on to say that the maximum level for the day was 82,000 and they had peaked at 76,000! She also said that 2 out of the last 4 years the park had closed so it is clearly a 50/50 chance in this one. She also told us that Magic Kingdom HAD closed for a short time during the day but s their capacity is much lower and the park tighter it always seems so much busier than here.

Grandad went off to find some Fish and Chips from the take away section by the Rose & Crown which went down quite nicely Whilst I set up my camera for later. I am always disappointed at Epcot because I never seem to get a completely clear shot. I always seem to have some form of branch over hanging or a torch (or both!)



After our little munch Karen, Rees and I headed off to see what we could see around the UK as our Dibb meet was scheduled for 6.30. We first attempted to get into the Rose & Crown but as the time was now 5.45 and kids aren't allowed in after 5pm we were promptly turned away by Security. We decided to have a wander through the masses but we couldn't spot anyone so we took 5 minutes out to go and collect our free top hats and party blowers that we could see were being distributed on the little island in the 'English Channel' (Jersey or Guernsey?) that is situated between the UK & France!

On our next 'sweep' though the UK we spotted Bill & Barbara (billbarbara229) stood outside the UK wearing Dibb Lanyards and name badges! Shortly after BenH and family strolled on up to us followed by Vron (Vabeth) and family along with Lisa (Lisa123). A short time after that Sarah (Emilot) popped out of the Rose & Crown to say "hi" in between courses!

I hope that Ben doesn't mind but I pinched his picture that was kindly taken by his mum and was posted previously on another thread.



If I were to attempt to arrange a meet for another busy night like tonight I would definitely look for a bit more organisation! With hindsight to expect so many people to find each other with the crowd levels as they were was always going to bring limited success. We later learnt that there were a few others hanging around but in small pockets within the big crowd.

Our little party hung around and chatted until 7pm when we all sang Auld Lang Syne (badly ) and wished each a HAPPY (UK) NEW YEAR! After we wished each other well for the coming year we departed and headed back to our camp in anticipation of the upcoming fireworks.









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[Reetser]

For some reason all blurded and not my usual quality

Now I know we only watched these fireworks 2 nights earlier on the Illuminations Cruise but I simply can never get tired of this show! Worth the entrance fee alone! Well that and Soarin'

As the fireworks finished we, like everyone else in the park decide it was time to leave. BIG MISTAKE! By the time we hit Canada there was such a bottle neck it was actually quite frightening. The main problem being that the were so many trying to get out of the park at the same time as so many were entering for the later show. Most people leaving at this time were families with small children taking the opportunity to get them home to bed and most people arriving were adults in 2's, 3's and more. Basically those coming in seemed to have little or no care for those going out with little ones. It was also the first and only time I have ever felt that Disney couldn't cope. I have always marvelled at the way they have dealt so efficiently with volume but tonight the CM's seemed to lack experience. They tried to form a rope centre line with traffic flow on onside heading out and on the other in but the volume of people in such a small space didn't work (or listen) and it became quite dangerous. :angry:

We decided that we would turn on our heels and find a spot on the wall by the band stand and let the crowd go. We grabbed ourselves some lattes and cookies and let 3/4 of an hour pass by before trying again. We were now in luck and as we moved through Canada the problem had gone and we walked straight through under the Christmas lights and on to the fountains. Just before the fountains was a Disco playing some great tunes and it was fantastic to see so many people in the open air boogying to the beat and having a great, spirited New Years Eve. We even decided to have a little dance ourselves whilst the mood took us!

(Grandad on the camera this time whilst I videoed!)





We managed to get home for around 10.30 which after our 8am departure time was a little later than planned but at least we were safe! The others all went straight to bed with out the need to be rocked too much whilst I stuck it out until about Midnight as I watched Lee Evans on my ipod. I find sometimes I need to take my mind of a busy day otherwise I don't sleep so a little bit of comedy from this stand up genius helps me settle.

As I switched off the lights I could hear masses of cheers around the resort as people celebrated the New Year!

Tomorrow said rest day and right now I was not going to argue!

SEE YOU REAL SOON!

Day 20 can be found here.

[walt4it]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Now 4hours and 45 mins to wait in line- someone ( or should that be 76,000 people) are having a laugh. :angry:
Don't know how you managed to stay sane with that amount of people in Epcot.
Good to see the dibb meet happened- after all the efforts before your trip I am glad others managed to make it too despite the crowds.

Super day and will use your advice for soarin'

[summersun]

omg what a busy epcot! its just madness.

great pics and day.

[pepsicube]

A great day, but a tadge busy?

[Reetser]

Originally Posted by pepsicube

A great day, but a tadge busy?

See more...

Your probably right and under normal circumstances we wouldn't have done it but as it was NYE we made an exception. I feel that we have been lucky over the years because although the kids are still only 4 & 8 they have 'been' a good few times and I think they are getting more conditioned to things each time.

That said with the pace we set for the day, stopping and relaxing a lot I think helped. The only real manic bit was the after thought masks and the running in between countries for me and Rees!

Can't wait for that rest day now though!

[florida girl]

Great report and photos.

Can't believe how anyone would want to stand in line for so long they must be crazy.