| When: May 6-14, 1995
Where: onsite, at the Grand Floridian Building 9, 4th floor, Room 9417
Who: 3 grownups (Carol & Shellie duBois from Massachusetts, and
friend [and Godmother to kids] Diane from California)
2 kids (Evan and Justin duBois, ages 7 and 2.7, respectively)
How: Delta airlines from Boston, non-stop $268.50 each
Last trip: Never!! This was the first trip for all of us!!!
It was kind of a "dream trip" for me, a goal. :-) We all had, though,
been to Disneyland many times, as Diane and I grew up in Southern California,
and Shellie and I take the kids there whenever we visit.
We were picked up in the morning by Armstrong Limo at some ungodly hour
like 5:45 AM. Armstrong did their usual good job with us and we left Boston
at 7:30 AM on Saturday, May 6. We arrived (non-stop!) at Orlando at 10:30 AM,
which I thought would give us plenty of time to get to WDW early and start
having fun! *BUZZ!! Wrong! Avis was having some kind of trouble and it
took them forever to a) get through the line, and b) to find a car for everyone.
Avis' system for calling people once the car was ready relied on their voice
projection and other people's hearing in a busy place and we sat, unknowing,
while they apparently called us many times. *sigh. In the meantime, National
had long since helped all their people, and they helped me with directions for
fast food, for by now we were starved.
After a jaunt to Taco Bell, we arrived at the Grand Floridian. Valets swarmed
around our car, eager to help. It was our first taste of the luxury to come.
While the rest of my family directed the valet, I checked in. As I ordered
the LOS/BOG passes for the rest of my family (including Diane, the kids'
godmother), I suddenly realized that I had forgotten my AP voucher at home!
Not *too* panicked, I decided to rely on the great Disney service I based my
trust in, and asked them to bring it up on their records so I would not have
to buy another one. As they faltered along, never giving up, my spouse came
up and told me that the bag with the AP voucher had been packed at the last
minute after all, and so I was saved. :-}
I had gotten a really good special of $175 a day (plus another $15 for the
3rd adult) and though Ashton, my original cast member who made my reservations,
had told me it had a Lagoon View, everything after that had said that the view
wasn't guaranteed, so I was prepared to fight or beg, as needed. I had my
notes along with me, as Mike Scopa had suggested in this file. However, that
wasn't needed at all, and I got the BEST ROOM I've EVER had. It was wonderful!
Room 9417. It *was* a lagoon view, *right* on the water, *very* close to the
lobby and *very* close to the small white sand beach. Fourth floor, the room
had total privacy because neither people across the lagoon, nor people on the
water (except maybe once) could see into the room. From the balcony (complete
with a table and 2 chairs) we could see the nightly fireworks at Epcot and
the sound and light show on the water. Wow. Our 2 year old was too big for
a crib and too small for a big bed, so we turned the couch/daybed around and
used it as a modified crib. I would have liked to use it for a couch, but it
was too much trouble to keep turning it around. :-}
Double sinks, queen beds, lots of drawer space, and even a BLOW DRYER in the
room for our hair (I actually only used it as a miniature clothes dryer once).
We also got a refrigerator in the room, in addition to the minibar that they
provide. In some hotels it apparently costs an extra $5 for the refrigerator,
but not in others. As I signed the paperwork checking in, it also said that
the local newspaper was included in our room fee. I told the castmember that
we wouldn't be reading it (nor anything else of the "real world") and she
said to just leave it outside our door, and the cost would be taken off our
bill. It wasn't, but I was already gone from WDW before I remembered, and
opted not to fight it.
BTW, I *lived* in shorts, as did my entire family. We never felt uncomfortable
at the GF. Some people were dressed up, some were like us, there was quite a
variety, but as far as I know, no one looked down their noses at us.
We were all just amazed by the view. Even the kids were impressed. There was
even some construction going on and we didn't notice it for DAYS. A tree was
perfectly in our line of sight to the new GF wedding buildings being
constructed, so all we saw was green trees, birds *right* outside the lanai,
green grass, lovely water, white sand beaches...well, you get the idea. :-)
I want to go back just for the hotel. :-)
It took us a while to get out, which I should have realized was a warning
of things to come. First of all, there's 2 small kids. Diapers, diaper bag,
changing clothes to conform to the 90 degree weather, has everyone gone to
the bathroom?, etc. Then there was the problem of just the way people are.
Nearly every morning, Evan (age 7) and I would be up and rarin' to go, while
everyone else was snoring away. I expected that to happen the first morning,
as we were all catching up from lack of sleep, and Diane's body was 3 hours
earlier than ours as she had flown an all nighter Friday night from San Diego.
However, what I found was that it was rare for us to get out before 11:00 AM
*every* day. By the time I figured out it wasn't going to change, I still
couldn't figure out how to work around it. For Evan and me to get ready and
get out, we would have run the risk of waking everyone else. Plus it was
*very* hard for us all to split up and meet in the middle of the day. The
"baby" still needed a nap every afternoon, and it would take a few days before
we would be able to figure out how the excitment would affect the time of the
nap.
Our schedule finally ended up being: we all leisurely get up (*sigh :-( ),
get coffee for the slowpokes from Gasparilla's grill (the cast members said
they might have free coffee on the porch outside of 1900 Park xxx restaurant,
but I never found it), have breakfast mostly of the things we bought at
Goodings supermarket, hop on the monorail (*loved* the monorail access!) and
hit about 2 rides before Shellie and Justin would head back to the hotel for
Justin's nap. We would meet them again at dinnertime at a restaurant or other
location in Epcot.
HIGHLIGHTS and other lights :-) :
The monorail - LOVED it. It was *so* nice to have this access, both to TMK
and to Epcot. I really didn't expect to use it much to Epcot, but it was
very convenient with a) tired children, b) small children who considered it
a fun adventure, even over the course of 9 days!
***
The buses - much better than I had expected. We usually used the buses to
get to MGM. Most of the drivers were quiet, but some had a sense of humor.
First bus ride:
Guest: "How long will it take us to get to MGM?"
Bus driver: "About 45 minutes."
MANY Guests, among themselves: "45 minutes! What's he doing: detouring
through ORLANDO?"
10 minutes later we arrive at MGM :-)
Me, to bus driver: "45 minutes, huh?" :-)
Bus driver: <grin>
Another bus driver answered Disney trivia questions, offering a prize to anyone
who could stump him. The prize: a free bus ride. ;-)
There still is no direct access from GF to Typhoon Lagoon. One valet nearly
begged me to write to management about this. It's their most common complaint,
he said.
***
TMK - surprisingly, we hardly spent any time here. In 9 days, you'd think we
could do everything. HOWEVER...that only works if either a) you get out fairly
early in the morning (at least by 9:00!) or b) you are visiting at a time when
the parks are open late. Sooooo, TMK is something that had lots of rides my
older son had done at Disneyland, and though I wanted to see things like
the new Lion King show, he didn't since he expected it was just a recap of
the movie. ("Mom, I've already *seen* the movie! Let's do something we
*haven't* done!")
I did do (with various people) Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder
Mountain (I must miss the Rockies...), Carousel of Progress (an old DL
favorite of mine), jets, Tomorrowland Transit Authority something or other
(better than DL's People Movers!), Fantasy in the Sky, Small World, and Mickey's
Starland stuff (twice, but the maze was closed both times, which really
disappointed Evan). I also looked for the animator Harry Holt over by
Disneyana Collectables, but he retired a year ago and no longer signs and
gives away the free cells. :-(
One other special thing that happened for us at TMK was about Diane. It turns
out that her father, who died *many* years ago, used to be an animator for
Walt Disney. He worked on Pinoccio and possibly on Fantasia. His name was
Frank Hoffman. Shellie and I decided that we should check out to see if his
name was written on a Main Street window or could be found somewhere else,
so I went to Guest Relations and asked. They checked all they could and got
another office involved, too, but couldn't find anything. They also directed
us to MGM to the animation gallery, but didn't mention that the place to help
would be closed on weekends, so we waited until the next time we went to MGM,
and the office was closed (not the gallery, but the place they called). They
did give us 3 phone numbers, including 2 for California, in hopes we could
find something at Disney*land* with his name. I was disapppointed, but pleased
enough with the service.
***
EPCOT - we spent a lot of time here, but unfortunately a) we spent it mostly
late in the day/evening, when only the World Showcase was open, and b) I had
learned that the most useful way of doing things for us is to see things as
they come, and most of the good attractions in the other area (Future World?)
is out of the way, not on the easy path to World Showcase. Because of this,
I didn't ever see Honey, I Shrunk the Audience or several other rides I would
have liked. On my last day (in my last few minutes) I did see Figment, and
got to ride the Imagination ride and play at the grownup playground - okay,
it's not really a grownup playground, but I had a blast!! The highlight for
me was when I walked into a nearly empty room with just colored hexagonal
lights (projected on?) the carpet. As I walked in, a family was leaving and of
course the kids were jumping from light to light, but I didn't think anything
of it. I looked around for the controls on the wall, and was surprised to find
none. So, not knowing what else to do, I stepped on one of the colored lights,
too.
A chorus of Angels sang.
I blinked. I stepped on another. Angels, again, in a different key.
What joy!! I hopped around like a kid, listening to men's choruses, women's,
percussion, etc. It was *great*!!! :-) It was a lovely way to end my time
at WDW!
Other things about Epcot: We did get the World Passports, and they were great.
The kids really didn't have much interest in checking out the different
countries, except to eat or buy things (Evan was really into spending money,
and spent almost all of it the first few days - over $60!!).
I never saw any of the street performers, probably because we were there late,
but I didn't know that would preclude me from so much of the fun.
Justin has tubes in his ears so couldn't do anything where he'd get really
wet. There's a section between Future World (Blythe Danner, where are you?)
and the World Showcase which is a lovely little area with miniature fountains
of water springing up at various intervals. Several children would be playing
in the water, getting soaking wet, but we couldn't let Evan join them because
his brother would want to, also. So one time when Evan and I had the day
to ourselves (the rest of the family went to Kennedy Space Center) we *both*
played in the water. It was loads of fun, and I managed to handle the
embarrassment when a couple on the monorail said they recognized me as the one
who had been playing there. :-}
One thing I really noticed at Epcot, but which happened pretty much everywhere,
was that 2 year old Justin was *really* afraid of noise. I don't know if it's
because of the tubes in his ears making noises louder, or if it's personality
or what, but whereas he loved watching some things, he was still really
frightened of them because of the noise. For instance, he was frightened of
Illuminations, partly from the fireworks/explosions, but also just the music
being so loud. He was also frightened of Aladdin's parade at MGM and of
Muppet 3D at MGM for the same reasons. When we covered his ears then he
would be a lot better, but by that time he also kept his head averted most
of the time, too.
My thanks go to the people at Morocco. Once when the family was watching
IllumiNations (the second time), Justin insisted that we *not* watch it,
so he and I went to a shop in Morocco. The shopkeeper was just closing up,
but he let me do a quick walk through, and then I was able to stay in the
Morocco area for the entire time. To my surprise, I realized that there were
many things I could have easily stolen, as there was only a single rope between
me and much of his (now closed) shop, and I could have *reached* many of the
things without ever going past the rope. Additionally, there are some lovely
vases in a courtyard where Justin and I spent much of our time. I was
surprised that they left these things out, and hoped it meant there wasn't much
theft. For whatever reason, it made it much more pleasant for me, because it
gave me something to look at while I held Justin and kept him happy during the
show. I was so grateful, too, that no one hustled me out, as I expected them
to do (especially with so many things accessible to theft). It was a
different world. :-)
I do agree that toward England is where you want to be for IllumiNations.
Many other places have their view obscured by islands. It was a delight
being in the Rose and Crown in England for IllumiNations. Two reasons: it had
a good viewing place inside so I could hold Justin and watch the fireworks
while he didn't have to hear them so loudly, and all the staff got together
to sing their song when the lights turned to England. They came right up
behind us on the steps outside (I was outside at first) and sang with gusto. :-)
The Rose and Crown also had great fish and chips, and a good beer sampler (and
I don't usually like or drink beer!). All us grownups enjoyed it.
Advice: MAKE RESERVATIONS FOR EPCOT! I finally herded my family a little
and starting making reservations, else we never would have been able to eat
in some of the places we wanted.
Oh, and Morocco was a GREAT place to eat! We ate at the Marakesh. My goodness!
Yes, the food was good, but the bellydancer was outstanding. I've seen a few
others, and was quite disappointed with one in Colorado because she would
totally ignore our table, which had all women. The dancer at the Marakesh
was beautiful, talented, and good with people. She gave us as much attention
as anyone, had a beautiful smile, and brought children from the audience to
dance with her. We had a front row table, too. :-) BTW, mint tea is a
dessert tea. If you want to drink something during dinner, you should order
an additional drink. Shellie had guessed this, and we asked, so we were fine,
but they didn't volunteer the information.
***
MGM - This may have been my 7 year old's favorite place. He loved Star Tours,
and was proud of himself for doing so well on it, after he had hated it in
DL a couple of years ago. He also enjoyed Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, which
I *never* thought he would go on, or *want* to go on. Muppet 3D and the
Indiana Jones stunt show were also things he liked.
I really liked Indiana Jones, and would suggest either sitting in the middle
or toward the left of the theater (as you face it) for the full effect. It
starts loud and scary (after the casting of the extras) so warn little kids.
It is *much* more exciting than other stunt shows I've seen.
TZTOT was not as exciting as I had expected. Of the 3 of us who rode it (Evan,
Diane, and I), I was the only one at all disappointed, but I expected more to
the ride. It seemed that it was just a little build up and then the drop.
I expected to ride around more, like you do in Splash Mountain or other rides.
What was there was fun, though. I liked the various little effects, like the
cup of coffee in the basement which had sat there for all these years. :-)
One of my greatest highlights took place at MGM at the Aladdin Character
Breakfast. The breakfast itself was good. Good food, good variety, and Genie,
Jafar, and Mickey (surprise!) came around to the tables and signed autographs
and such. I, personally, had really been looking forward to seeing the Jasmine
with the 15-18 inch waist I had read about here. We waited in line, and I
peeked around the screen to see a rather largish Jasmine (looked the part, but
definately not the one I had hoped for). I asked the cast member controlling
the line (Scot) whether the other Jasmine still worked here. I didn't know her
name, so I just described her as I knew her. He knew immediately which Jasmine
I was referring to, and while the characters were on break, Scot disappeared
and found out for me that she would be working tomorrow, which was my last day.
He arranged it so I could come back and see her, even though I wouldn't be there
for the breakfast. :-) Sooo, on my last day at WDW, I scooted out before
anyone else in my family, caught a bus to MGM, and ran over to the character
breakfast. They had my name, and Scot was staffing the line again. I waited
in line, and found that he had *told* Jasmine about me!!! I was embarrassed,
but also pleased. Aladdin graciously offered to let me have a picture without
him in it, which I accepted, and then had Scot take one of me with both of
them. If I hadn't been so self-conscious, I would have loved to have had just
a picture of Jasmine. I'm afraid I'm going to look *huge* next to her! As it
is, though, I am still anxious to see the pictures. :-} I complimented Scot
to the supervisor on duty, and then took off to meet up with my family again.
MGM is also where I spent my birthday lunch. We went to the Prime Time Cafe.
Now, originally, I did *not* think I wanted to go to this restaurant at all.
I wasn't bringing my mother with me, and I didn't care to have someone else
give me a hard time for not eating my vegetables. However, it looked really
cool, and Diane swore that she would let me put my vegetables on her plate
so I wouldn't get into trouble. So, I made reservations.
Instead of Mom, we had our big brother serving us. He was nice, and was busy
enough to act more like a waiter than an overseer. Diane, though, who is 48
years old and a minister, decided that it was fun to test her brother, though,
so she constantly put her elbows on the table just to see if he'd notice.
He did, and she was chastised like the "little sister" she is. He probably
likes her better, anyway, because she knew the answers about washing up before
lunch. ;-)
Brother: "Did you wash up for lunch?"
All of us: "Yes!"
Brother: "What color was the soap?"
...uhhhh
Me, panicking and thinking of my 1990's soap: "Yellow!"
Brother shakes his head disapprovingly
Diane: "Pink!"
Brother smiles and nods approvingly.
*sigh :-} At least he didn't make me wash up "again". ;-)
Anyway, lunch was good for everyone, and I did eat some of my vegetables, but
not being one to take chances, I hid most of them under Diane's lettuce.
Brother came to take away the plates, and asks how everything was. "Great!"
says Diane, "but Carol hid her vegetables under my lettuce!"
Remind me to get her back some day.
I had suspected that Diane had told him that it was my birthday, and the
waiters came in and sang me Happy Birthday. They brought me an entire cake (!)
which we shared with the other tables around us. It was simple, but quite
good.
Another wonderful thing that happened at MGM is the Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles, specifically Donatello. They've apparently changed the way the kids
get the autographs now, so that the kids line up at the sawhorses and put
their books on the wood, open to the right page. The turtles and April then
go down the line and stamp them (April signs them and talks with people, so
not everyone got her autograph). One thing that was good was that my 7 year
old got all their autographs. I had prepped him to expect 1, maybe 2, so this
worked well. However, something that impressed me just as much was Donatello,
and his kindness. A few children, apparently physically and/or mentally
challenged, had access to the Turtles behind the lines. It wasn't a good
view of the show for them, but the Turtles spent time with them that they
didn't spend with the other kids. They even did this 1 or 2 Turtles at a time,
so the other kids didn't feel short-changed. Donatello spent so long talking
with this one girl that he missed his ride out of there. He chose to stay and
make her happy and to find his own way back (presumably through a crowd of
excited children who hadn't seen the show). He and the girl seemed to be
having a really good time, and it really made me feel good to see the choice
he made. :-)
***
TYPHOON LAGOON - apply sunscreen more than once! This is the only place that
any of us got sunburned. I was there for only half a day and only did 2 water
things and I *still* got sunburned!
The kiddie area was great. Both of our kids preferred to be there, and both
really enjoyed it. Evan (7) spent all of his time in the miniature Castaway
Creek. The big one had scared him after a while, even though he and one of us
adults had shared a double raft and did nothing more than float. He *really*
liked the kid version. Justin (2) spent his time in the alligator pool,
where there is a very shallow pool, medium/large "wooden" alligators, and
no splashing water. He also spent a lot of time playing in the sand.
***
FOOD - I don't think I was *really* impressed with any of the food I had,
except at King Stephan's Banquet Hall. However, I wasn't as disappointed with
some places as I expected, either.
KING STEPHAN'S BANQUET HALL - Evan and I went here while the rest of the family
was at Kennedy Space Center (which they all enjoyed). I had no idea what to
expect, and it had gotten mixed reviews in the file. The signs outside said
you had to have reservations, but we were looking for a 4:00 lunch :-} so I
tried anyway. We got right in.
The prices were much higher than I had expected, but I'm glad I stayed. I had
great prime rib, and Evan proclaimed his cheeseburger the best he had *ever*
had (no idle compliment). The atmosphere was *great*. I'm a fantasy role
player, and I *love* the idea of being/living in a fairy tale castle. I was
disappointed there wasn't more to see (like at Disneyland, where they have
the Sleeping Beauty story). When I first entered the banquet hall :-) I was
struck by the cobalt blue glasses and the rose candle glass. It was lovely.
It was a very, very nice splurge.
HOOP DE DOO - for my birthday. Having a birthday there is no big deal for me;
they didn't embarrass me or anything. However, it was a fun show, so it was
nice *for me* to have that being how I spent my birthday. I was surprised
that I enjoyed the corny jokes as much as I did. Evan, of course, was roaring
at the jokes. Food was good, better than I expected.
MICKEY'S TROPICAL LUAU - we sat way in the back. It was hard to see the
characters, but it worked since Justin was again scared of the noise. He did
better once he saw characters, especially Mickey.
Toward the end, they invite the kids to dance with them. Evan wasn't going
because he thought only girls danced, but Diane pointed out that one of the
people dancing and leading the kids was a man (there were actually several,
I think), so Evan danced "with" him (in front of him) and he seemed to have
a good time.
Autographs went poorly. I stood back out of the crowd, and my 7 year old
*tried* to stand in line, but there were no lines. He unintentionally got in
front of one child, and the mother glared at me. Evan got 1 autograph out of
4 characters, and was in tears. They did hand out autographed papers (not
pictures) afterwards, but he didn't know that until after he was so
disappointed.
WHISPERING CANYON CAFE - My son ordered catsup and then blamed it on me.
Those who have been there will understand.
***
KIDS: One of the surprising thing was that one of the highlights of their
trip was the beach at the GF. Our kids wanted to go there every night and
lots of times in between, once they discovered it.
The autograph books were okay. The kids really didn't make a big deal about
them, and there were lots of characters that we saw that we didn't get
autographs from. If it wouldn't have bothered the kids to do without them (and
I didn't ask), then it would be easier not to have to fuss with them. Each day
we had to make sure we had both of them, and standing in line to get an
autograph or hug or photo could take a *long* time (like at MGM's Sunset Blvd
to see Mickey).
The parades (and nearly everything else) was too loud for 2 year old Justin.
It would have been better for us to be farther away. I think he would have
enjoyed it *much* better. Evan usually wanted to sit toward the front, and
so if I had to do it over again then I would split us up and take Justin toward
the back.
I had prepared Justin for the size of the characters, and took it slow in the
beginning. While my family stood in line for Mickey at MGM, Justin and I sat
in front of Mickey on the other side of the ropes and watched all the kids go
up to Mickey and hug him, etc. This helped, and he was fine with it after just
a few minutes. We didn't have any problems with Justin and characters.
Justin's favorite Disney character (besides Mickey) is Winnie the Pooh.
I had heard that Pooh walked through the GF lobby a lot, so expected to see
him. I also tried to make reservations for the Pooh character breakfast in
case all else failed. Bad things happened here. 1) When I called to make
the reservations 2-3 weeks before the breakfast, the cast member told me that
they weren't making the reservations yet and I should call back within a week
of the breakfast [I repeated this and made sure she didn't mean they were
booked up], 2) a week and a half before the breakfast I talked with another
cast member, who told me that they were all booked up [again, I made sure that
is what she had meant, and told her what the other cast member said].
Our last day, Shellie heard from a guest that Disney only fills 30% of the
seats by reservation and the other 70% is walk-in. Too late for us.
Also, I never saw Pooh at the GF. I finally asked for help at Guest Relations
at the GF our last day. I explained and asked if Pooh was going to be at
Epcot (where we were going). He wasn't, and the cast member told me that
Pooh is at the GF every morning until 11:30, but NOT in the lobby - rather he
is in one of the restaurants (1400 Park Faire, I think) and not visible unless
you go in there. Once again I missed out, which was a problem for my child.
Luckily, during the trip Justin never asked to see Pooh. I think he forgot
Pooh was there. I am still waiting for him to bring it up. He did bring it
up the other day, asking if Pooh lived there, but hasn't yet said anything
about why he didn't see him.
Places I commonly saw characters who weren't in shows at the time:
MGM - 1) all along Sunset Blvd and 2) by the restrooms in the back street
between Little Mermaid and...special effects place. TMK - 1) front entrance,
near Mickey floral face, 2) by the entrance to Mickey's Starland where it meets
with Fantasyland. EPCOT - I don't think I ever saw any, but from what I
understand they usually stop showing at 5:00ish, and we usually were there
late.
One last thing about the kids: I color coordinated their shirts each day.
They would both wear yellow or both red or both a certain shade of blue, etc,
which made it much easier to keep track of them. My spouse had thought I was
foolish, but after seeing how well it worked, praised me for it. :-)
***
SERVICE: Most of the service was GREAT, especially at the GF. We used valet
parking every time, and noticed the contrast when we pulled up to Wilderness
Lodge for dinner one evening. At WL, I had to go get the valet myself.
That happened at GF once or twice, but it was rare.
I liked that the cast members would go out of their way to answer questions.
I didn't like that if I didn't ask them, they wouldn't volunteer. This
happened several times - one example is when checking in I mentioned my
Gold Magic Kingdom Club card, but forgot to specify it when buying the BOG
passes until after it was rung up. Then I remembered, and I still got the
discount, but the cast member had *not* said anything about it, and he admitted
(volunteered; I didn't ask) that he knew and should have said something.
Again, reading this file helped save HUNDREDS of dollars.
I had another problem with service. The GF put my bill under my door and
I just skimmed it, not expecting any problems and not having kept a record of
what I spent where (just charged it to the hotel room). Luckily, though, I
*did* skim it, since I saw 3 entries for room rates of nearly TWICE what I
had signed up for! I went to the front desk, fully expecting that this would
be an easy matter of me just pointing out the change and them just quickly
fixing it. I was cheerful and friendly. Unfortunately, the cast member
defended the change, saying "the computer" (or similar words) "couldn't figure
out" why I was only being charged $190 for the room instead of the normal
price of $340, and so it had "fixed" it.
Excuse me?
I really had to push back on this one. He wanted me to prove that I should
be charged the $175/190 (remember the extra $15 for the 3rd adult) with my
reservation number. Well, I had left that up in my room (in another
building), since I hadn't expected to need it since check in. He finally
went into a door (presumably to a boss) and backed off, giving me the rate
I was supposed to have. Their mistake would have cost me an additional $450,
plus taxes (lots of tax).
In the process of this discussion, I had told him to send the corrected bill
(in *writing*) to my room while I was out playing at MGM and that I would
look at it when I got back. I told him that we were doing a late check out,
for no extra cost. I had gotten that approval the night before, since we
would have had no place to nap the baby. The cast member on the phone was
very gracious about it, since normally they would have charged a half-day on
the room for anything after 2:00. We got approval to keep the room until 3:00
for no extra fee. Soooo, this cast member at the front desk told me that he
didn't see any record for this. Once again I had to push back and cited
exactly who and when I got this approval. Once again, he went into the other
room. He came back with a smile and said it was recorded there.
Most of the time, though, the service was *really* good. We had great,
friendly help with the bags, the car, and with sleeping children. Even when
they screwed up, they usually tried to fix it quickly. For instance, when
we were leaving, one of the cast members scrunched my brand new Indiana Jones
hat. :-} Within a week of returning, I had a new one. :-) I was *really*
surprised and pleased that it was sent so quickly (and by Fed Ex!!).
What other hints can I pass along? For us, it would have been wise to take
our 7 year old to the Character Shop VERY early on, so he could spend his
money and get my MKC discount. He wanted to buy something every day, and
didn't care about the discount, so his money went quickly.
Enjoy the valet parking. It's a treat. :-)
If one of your party buys something - especially a kid! - *mark* whatever it
is with your name. Evan bought a camera the day before we left. He then
lost it. Of course, it was like any other camera with Mickey on it, so when
Lost and Found had one the next day, we couldn't be sure it was his. We took
it anyway, giving our name and address to the cast member with instructions
that if any other kid came by with the same description that we would send the
camera to them if the pictures showed it was theirs. In just a few hours,
it was lost again. I don't know if it even made it out of Lost and Found. :-}
Luckily, no one else has called to claim it.
Weather - rain wasn't a problem. Rains came hard and then were gone almost
immediately. It was HOTTER than I expected, though. 90 or higher each day,
I believe.
Water - it *really* helped to have a water bottle with us. We got HOT!
Doctor - of course we ended up using the local doctor, contacted with the
info from the hotel. Justin got an ear infection (102 degree fever). We
discovered this in the morning (9:00 ish) and the doctor was at our hotel at
noon. He already had the antibiotic with him, so it was very easy. He was
even able to take a credit card!! :-) AND...he was so gentle, that Justin
SLEPT THROUGH the entire exam! And Justin *hates* to have his ears checked!!
We were impressed. :-)
That's about it. I looked for Tracy, but we didn't see each other, and I was
so busy that I forgot to call her! I never did get to do many of the things I
expected to do, like check out the other hotels and their pools, or go to
Universal/Nickelodean, or even to see all of the parks!!!
I would advise families to talk about their plans ahead of time, and try to
work out a split with a meeting for lunch if it turns out that your family
is like ours and mixed on whether early mornings at the parks are better than
early mornings spent sleeping.
One last piece of advice is to consider whether you'd like another adult with
you if you have kids. We chose Diane carefully. We wanted someone who would
be able to take over with the kids almost as easily as we could. We also
wanted someone who wouldn't *add* any stress to our vacation. It was very nice
to mix and match who got to go where, especially when the baby's needs were
different from those of the rest of us (like when he had to be taken back to
the hotel for 2-3 hours to nap). Diane turned out to be even more flexible
than we had hoped for.
Most of all, though: enjoy! We did! :-)
Carol
|
| Abrams WDW Trip Report 5/26/95-6/3/95
Warning! I somehow managed to write 19 pages!
"It's the happiest place on Earth, until someone
tries to stand in front of you."
-- The woman sitting on the curb next to us, after waiting
with us for nearly 2 hours for the Spectromagic parade, and
chasing away numerous attempts of people to sit in from of us.
Who are we? Bill and Diane Abrams. I (Bill) work in MCS
Network Services in Rochester, NY as a Network Consultant.
I've been with Digital 11 years. Recently I was added to your
list of distinguished Disney conference moderators. Diane is a
Supervisor of Network Telesales for Unisys.
We have no kids, so for now, we can afford to travel once or
twice a year. We've been to WDW many times since we were
married in 1983. Our trips together and otherwise in the past
are:
1978 Apr Orlando Quality Inn (High School trip, Bill)
1984 Sep Sheraton Lakeside
1985 Oct Sheraton Lakeside
1987 May Horizon Inn
1988 Mar Ramada Maingate at the Parkway
1990 Apr One-day side trip to Typhoon Lagoon
1990 Sep Contemporary Resort
1992 Feb Short visit during business trip (Bill)
1992 Sep Beach Club
1993 Sep Beach Club (plus 1 night Port Orleans)
1994 Jan Contemporary Resort (Bill takes sister & nephew)
1994 Oct Ramada Maingate at the Parkway and Vacation Club
1995 Jan Wilderness Lodge (Bill takes brother)
1995 Jun Contemporary, Dixie Landings, and Beach Club
199? ??? The 25th
199? ??? When does Diane get to go with her friends or family to catch
up?
Vital Statistics
USAir Rochester -- Orlando for 2, $560
2 Nights at the Contemporary Resort, $509, Tower Magic Kingdom View
2 Nights at Dixie Landings, $248, Bayous Corner King Room
4 Nights at the Beach Club, $1040, Lagoon View
Hertz Car Rental, 8 days, $121
MKC Discount 5-Day WorldHopper Passes (2), $350
The Plan
The excuse for this trip was to visit our Walk Around the World
Brick. In reality, we made different plans for the fall, and
can't stand to wait until next year to visit our brick. OK, we
went to visit our brick. We also figured that this was an
*opportunity* to experience all the magic, braving moderate
crowds to see the on-season shows: Spectromagic, Magic Kingdom
fireworks, and Sorcery in the Sky.
The Reality
Whoa, that crowd in the Magic Kingdom on Saturday of Memorial
Day Weekend -- yikes. More later, but we did really enjoy the
parade, and, Sorcery was unexpectedly delightful. Oh, and one
more thing... it s*cks to be sick at Disney World...yes, you
will thank me for sharing.
The Food, Food, Food
--------------------
I confess. I love the food at Disney World. From Dole Whip at
the Sunshine Tree Terrace to Lobster Nantucket at Ariel's, a
huge part of the fun is planning each day's food and restaurant
reservations. Here's the play by play of our meals and what we
spent if you're nosy.
5/26 Din $ 14.83 Food Center@CR, Snacks, salads, yogurt
5/27 Brk $ 17.53 Coral Isle Cafe@PR
Lun $ 43.47 Narcoosee's@GF
Din $ 7.54 Food Center@CR
5/28 Brk $ 33.46 Character Breakfast Buffet@CR
Lun $ 13.15 Rosie's Red Hots@MGM
Din $ 48.76 Prime Time Cafe@MGM
5/29 Brk $ 12.78 Food Court@DL
Lun $ 10.08 Junk Food
Din $121.39 Ariel's@BYC
5/30 Brk $ 0.00 Free Coffee
Lun $ 21.00 Food Court at The Land, @EC
Din $ 45.56 Cape May Clambake@BYC
5/31 Brk $ 8.16 Starring Rolls@MGM
Lun $ 49.87 Mama Melrose's@MGM
Din $ 50.14 San Angel Cafe@EC
6/01 Brk $ 18.27 Coral Isle Cafe@PR
Lun $ 29.91 Whispering Canyon Cafe@WL
Din $ 13.31 Food Center@PR
6/02 Brk $ 0.00 Free Coffee
Lun $ 42.41 Akershus@EC
Din $ 71.96 Ariel's@BYC
6/03 Brk $ 6.00 Beaches&Cream@BYC
Lun $ 30.00 Planet Hollywood
Day by Day, Friday, May 26
--------------------------
I took the day off to get ready. With the packing done, the
cats fed, and the mail held, I headed off to pick up Diane from
work and then head for the airport. We had extra time, so we
stopped at Friendly's for lunch. As we relaxed, and tried to
begin shifting into vacation mode, I felt my throat getting
painfully sore. I had been sick with a nasty flu a few weeks
earlier, and couldn't get rid of the cough and congestion, so
at this point I was on the 8th day of a powerful (and
expensive) antibiotic. Even after the medicine the symptoms
were coming and going. I could only hope that it would be
getting better with the medicine.
I extracted Carol's trip report before leaving as a surprise
for Diane to read on the way down. I read it myself and was
unsettled by the report of someone having to see a doctor while
on vacation. Then, I read the USAir Magazine and found ANOTHER
item about someone having to find a doctor while on vacation.
Is this a foregone conclusion?
The plane was full of Disney-bound families. We connected in
Philadelphia, and arrived on time in Orlando at 7:45pm. The
descent into Philadelphia was quite painful due to my head
congestion, so I took an early second dose of decongestant for
the second leg, and it was at least bearable coming into
Orlando. We picked up our "express" Hertz car (no bargain to
be sure) and were driving down the Greenway by 8:15pm. We
could see progress on the new roadways at the end of the
Greenway.
We checked in quickly at the Contemporary, and were in our room
by 9pm. Our tower room's view was great, although the Magic
Kingdom was not operating late that night. The ferries and
water shuttles were still operating. The lights of the ferry,
Polynesian, and Grand Floridian reflected in a glassy Seven
Seas Lagoon.
Channel-surfed for a while, and found my favorite show that I
would have missed -- Babylon 5. Ahhh, it doesn't get any
better than Babylon 5 at Disneyworld!
Sidetrip
--------
Here's the details of new roadways coming soon:
The Greenway now ends at the intersection with Routes 535 (to
Lake Buena Vista and Kissimmee), 536 (to Epcot Center Drive),
and the end International Drive. It will soon continue on
curving to the left (south), then crossing 535, then crossing
US192 between Old Town and the I-4 intersection. It then
curves around to head due West. I imagine it will link up with
I-4. It looks like there will be an interchange with US 192,
as well as with the Disney development of Celebration, which is
underway with the first building taking shape. In addition,
From I-4 you can see a new bridge overhead which comes out of
Disney property between Epcot Center Drive and US192. I
confirmed that it is part of a new road that will travel from
the new Greenway extension, across (but no exit) I-4, south of
MGM, over World Drive right at the MGM entrance (and perhaps
the new preferred route in from the Airport to MGM), continuing
across World Drive and ending at Buena Vista Drive between
All-Star and Blizzard Beach. That part of the road is already
built. This makes it an ideal route in for the new Wild Animal
Kingdom.
The New Greenway Extension and WDW Roadway
(Crude but somewhat accurate)
Lake // MK, EC, MGM, WAK: Main Parks
Buena ++ AS: All-Star Resorts
Vista // \\ CEL: Celebration
MK // \\
|| // \\
++===== // World \\
WAK || EC \\ // Mariott||
|| +==++=========++======== Greeway
++===++====// // || . to Airport
// , ||MGM // || .
AS ,,||,,,,,//,,,,,,+.....||.
|| // . ||
======++===++========+=====++==US192
// CEL .. Kissimmee
// ?.....
Legend:
===== // \\ || Existing Roads
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The new Disney roadway
............... The new Greenway Extension
Day by Day, Saturday, May 27
----------------------------
Let the marathon begin! The plan: We know it will be crowded
for Memorial Day weekend. Make the best of it with an early
start in the Magic Kingdom, a break in the afternoon, and
return after dinner for parade and fireworks. Since it's an
early opening day at the Magic Kingdom, and we want to eat
breakfast, we have to get up at, well, how about we just try to
get up early? Amazingly, we got up at 6:30, and had to wait
for the Monorail to start up at 7:30. We hopped over to the
Polynesian, and had breakfast at the Coral Isle Cafe, for my
favorite Disney breakfast: A Coral Isle Delight, hold the
granola. It looks like a banana split, but it's piles of
blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries between a split
banana, covered with strawberry yogurt.
Are you hungry yet? You will be. (Yoda accent) You willll
beeee.
The Orlando Sentinel had a picture of a crane over the Earful
Tower at MGM, as giant blue goggles a la Horace Grant of the
Orlando Magic. Everyone was SO exited about the Magic's run
into the playoffs. They had won the first two over Indiana at
this point and EVERYONE was wearing "GO MAGIC" pins, stickers,
clothes, and there wasn't anyone who didn't want to talk about
it! Another note: Many parts of Florida south of Orlando were
getting a new area code, 941, that night. The article said
many parts of Florida will be getting new area codes now that
uniform dialing has freed up new area codes.
We hopped back on the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We sat
next to a group of guys that had just picked up tuxes at the
Grand Floridian. "Who's getting married?" we asked. "How did
you know?" they replied. I resisted the "Duh!" answer, and
simply pointed to the monkey suits in plastic bags. They told
us about how smooth the wedding planning service had been.
It's like coming home to walk up toward the Mickey flowerbed...
and, first things first: Find our Walk Around the World Brick.
It's there, and there's no bird poop or bubble gum on it! It
does, however, have a slight crack in it... maybe that's a
reflection on the buyer.
We bought our 5 day parkhopper passes ahead of time at the
local Disney Store. This meant waiting in the guest services
line, behind every person with a BIG PROBLEM. They really need
to set up a separate pass picture line. We waited 15 minutes,
behind 6 parties. Finally, someone came out and started
picking people out who only needed pictures. Here's what
happens: They put your pass in a special ticket printer, aim a
pen-sized camera out the window's round hole in the plexiglass,
and voila! Your picture prints out in a dull, ugly grey wash
on your pass.
Through the turnstiles we go. Hey! that machine printed the
date in the second day's place and took TWO days off the side
where it says "X days of Disney Magic left." They assured me
that the number of date stamps would be the rule, but I
regarded each day's entry with suspicion until the fifth day.
IMPORTANT: Early admission is now checked at the turnstiles.
If you are arriving from a hotel which is not a Disney resort,
you may have to wait at the turnstiles to get in. You used to
be able to go into Main Street, and early admission was checked
at a rope line at the end of Main Street, but not any longer it
seems.
Few attractions were open that interested us, so we went on
Dreamflight, and then waited for the first show of Timekeeper
in the Transportarium. I saw this in January, but it was
Diane's first. It's a wonderful addition. I'm amazed at how
Robin Williams is uncredited for the effort. He makes the
show. My favorite ad-lib: The robot "9-eyes" (it's a
circle-vision theatre, with 9 screens -- get it?) has
materialized somewhen in time, underwater, with a group of
divers being pulled by motorized propeller sleds. The
TimeKeeper (voice of Robin Williams) exclaims "There goes
Suzanne Somers being pulled by a blenderfish!" Maybe you had
to be there. (What are you waiting for, a loan from the
treasury department?)
We went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (I will call it
WEDway forever), and then I got Diane to go on... Space
Mountain. Apparently it's been enough years since I got her
on it that she forgot, or, had a moment of weakness. Diane says
she won't be going back on anytime soon! It was closed for
refurbishing in January, and the result is a repacking for
FedEx's sponsorship (it was RCA before.) The nicest change is
a set of monitors in the last queue area tuned into PNN --
Planetary Network News? I watched fashion reports by Ray
Cathode, weather by Cheryl Beryllium ("Mercury will be sunny
with a few puffy poisonous clouds.") In the displays leaving
the ride, I was surprised to see that the robotic RCA dog lives
on, tied into a new theme.
The new arcade looks huge from the outside, but a rather
inefficient use of space inside reveals a game area which is
smaller than I expected. There's an array of high-tech
interactive games. Not bad, and I like the fact that it's not
"in your face" the way the Main Street arcade was.
We rode Mr. Toad and Snow White next. At the end of Snow
White, there's a stone bridge overhead. There was a can of
some kind of cleaning fluid or perhaps compressed air sitting
upright in plain view. How incongruous!
We took the riverboat, and watched dozens of turtles swimming
alongside. It was already getting real hot, and lines were
long, so we decided it was time to go for a swim. On the way
out, we checked on the status of the shops along main street.
None of the closed space has opened yet, but the bookshop has
been temporarily relocated into the camera store. We also
stopped in Disneyana, but there was nothing about future
projects on display.
We went to Narcoosee's for an early (11:30) lunch, and then
back to the Contemporary for a swim and a nap. The
Contemporary has always been my favorite place for convenience,
room comfort, and location...but forget it when it comes to
outdoor facilities and pools. All that will change: there is
a huge project underway to create a themed pool and water fun
area. The guest services desk told us there would be slides,
jumping fountains, and to make room all those ugly cabana
buildings along the back would be demolished. It's all to be
done by summer 1996. Diane thinks she didn't have a clue, but
made up a nice story for us since we asked. I have it in
writing. The outer pool is closed now, and gradually all
outdoor areas in back will be closed and redone. It sounds
like the Contemporary will be a contender again!
An aside: Just before we left, we learned that Diane's company
award trip for next February will be at the Contemporary. If
Diane qualifies, we'll be back again! However, the pool
reconstruction is not scheduled to be done by then...even if
only one pool is open, it will be an ugly scene with hundreds
trying to crowd the pool. Of course, a select group of us will
be lounging at Wilderness Lodge or the Beach Club...what price
should we set on the information about how to sneak in and
blend in at the other pools? How about drinks every night at
Pleasure Island?
Back to the present, er, Saturday. Is it still the first day?
I promise the days will get shorter as this trip report
progresses. (What happens is that my stamina for note-taking
wears down...) Back to the Magic Kingdom. We look for
everyone's bricks and take pictures (which I have sent off to
the respective families): LaPoints, Badgers, Ames, and
Feeleys. C'mon, everyone, cough up your 90 bucks before you go
again. Better yet, Let's plan on a group photo at the 25th
with each of us standing on our bricks. We'll borrow orange
flags (from you-know-who) and take the picture from the ferry.
In line for the turnstiles (yes, at 6pm, long lines...) we had
an interesting exchange about Walk Around the World Bricks. I
put a reply in that topic a couple of weeks ago if you haven't
already read it.
We took the Railroad around to Frontierland. Hey, look at
these crowds! Yes, I can honestly say it was crowded beyond my
worst expectation. Shuffle, bump, sorry, sir... Hmm, did you
know the line for Splash Mountain can come all the way up to
the bridge, and back toward Adventureland?
It was too crowded to get into any line. We walked around a
little while, when noticed people were staking out places for
the parade--at 7pm, and the parade was at 9pm! Like lemmings,
we did likewise and got one of the few remaining curb spots
anywhere. People were getting angry by 8pm that they couldn't
find a spot. Many would try to sit in the road in front of us
(we were at a corner with a side road, so they though they
could just sit in the road area that the parade would not go
though.) We who were there first, would take turns
"explaining" to the latecomers that there was no way they could
stay there in front of people who waited over an hour.
Finally, some crowd control showed up, led by an interesting
woman named Caliope, which she claimed is Greek for the Godess
of Music and Poetry. She said her father is from Greece, where
your "name day" is more important than your birthday. The
culture lesson is free to reader of this conference.
This is when the person next to us uttered the phrase that I
stole (with her permission) to use as the title of this trip
report. While waiting, and watching passersby, Diane exclaims
"That's Kathy M.!" Her travel school instructor and now friend
was walking by. It's a small world after all... C'mon,
everybody sing! Even more peculiar, they were in a room at
Dixie Landings within 100 steps from the room we were to check
into there the next night! After two hours of waiting, my butt
was comatose (which qualifies me as brain dead), but the parade
began.
The Serious Part
Disney World imprinted itself on me in 1978 when, as part of a
high school marching band, I played trumpet in the day's
parade, and then watched the spectacular Main Street Electrical
Parade. I have never seen that matched those lights and that
music...until now, 17 years later. SpectroMagic brought it
back for me, and it exceeded my wildest expectations. It is a
celebration of all things Disney, with the same kind of
spellbinding music, lights, and an excitement that you wish
would not end. My favorite thing in the parade was the crazy
globes that move randomly down the street, each with a
hysterically laughing person/creature seated upon it. Does
anyone know if they are from any particular Disney story?
Back to Reality
Sadly, it was over all too soon. We contemplated, for a
moment, whether it would be better to go back to our room to
watch the fireworks. Moot point. We couldn't move ANYWHERE.
The crowd was so thick, with everyone just waiting there for
fireworks. So, like Meerkats, we stood and waited, looking up
at Cinderella's Castle. The hour passed slowly as people tried
in vain to get through the crowd. The worst was watching
people try to get strollers and wheelchairs through.
Finally, the show began, and Tinkerbell made the opening trip
across the sky. I hadn't seen fireworks over Cinderella's
Castle since 1978 either, and I was glad we waited.
When the fireworks ended, it was 10:30pm, and another parade
was coming at 11:00pm. THOUSANDS of us tried to move toward
the front of the park to exit. HUNDREDS were coming IN to see
the late parade! We all COLLIDED the entire length of main
street. The crowds really left a bad taste.
We stopped in the food center for a take-out dinner/snack, but
the cupboards were almost bare. Had to settle for yogurt and
beer.
Day by Day, Sunday, May 28
--------------------------
Hey, we made it up early again! Went downstairs and had
breakfast with Goofy (the Contemporary Character Breakfast.)
We like to buy the nicer pullover shirts with each Resort's
Logo on it, so we went looking for the Contemporary's version.
Found it. Hated it. They've changed the Contemporary Logo
from the traditional //== symbol to a strange amorphous splash
of colors. We didn't buy them. That'll teach them a lesson.
;-)
We packed up, and drove over to Dixie Landings, to pre-check in
for the second part of our stay. We pulled up, expecting to
place our luggage in storage. Nobody helped us, even after we
asked what to do. We had to lock the luggage in the trunk
instead. [Later in the day there was all kinds of help out
front...I don't know what happened.]
Took the bus to MGM. Went to MuppetVision, and saw the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles walking down New York Street. The next
day, we read in the paper that the contract for the Turtles was
ending that week. We was one of the last shows. They cited
waning interest by kids...which was NOT evident by the
enthusiastic crowds we saw! I suspect they want to make room
financially for something else. Why do I say that? Because in
my guide book, the entry for the Turtles is
13. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles r
(c) 1992 Mirage Studios, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" r is a
registered trademark of Mirage Studios, based on the characters
and comic books created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
Exclusively licensed by Surge Licensing, Inc. Appearances
are subject to change.
Had lunch at the market on Sunset Blvd. We found out that
expansion for Sunset Blvd. is on hold. Then we went through my
favorite at MGM -- Animation. They're working on Hunchback of
Notre Dame and The Legend of Mulan. We've talked about both of
these in the film topics. When you go here on a weekend, you
usually don't see much activity. Worse, I saw a disturbing new
trend: All the desks were COVERED with Pocahontas stuff, so
that you couldn't see what was really in process. I don't know
if that's to protect new work, or to promote the current
release...or maybe a little of both. Pet Peeve: After 1,001
warnings about not taking pictures or video, I always see at
least one person violating that rule.
Boy was it hot that day. We saw people wander by with plastic
bottles of Coke and Diet Coke, which is a great idea since you
can carry it with you, slip it in a pocket, and recap it.
Plus, you don't get 9/10 cup of ice and 1/10 drink.
Sorry, but I have another complaint: Where's the Lion King
merchandise? The store that was dedicated to Lion King was
redone completely for Pocahontas. They distributed remnants of
Lion King stuff to other stores, and very little at that. I
was on a mission to round out my small figures collection, and
get a large stuffed Rafiki. They told me the warehouse is
empty, and they hadn't seen a Rafiki, or many others, for
months. I think that's a big mistake. Thousands of kids
entered the parks every day wearing Lion King clothes! (me
included.)
On the positive side, I am very impressed by the advance
marketing for Pocahontas. The merchandise is moving! Little
girls were especially enamored with the Indian Princess and her
friends.
We headed back to Dixie Landings to check in, and once again
had to wait until 3:00pm exactly. This happens a lot, and
drives Diane nuts! I have visions of housekeeping rushing to
report in at 3:00 with rooms that are ready for check-in.
Actually, it turns out the room that was pre-assigned is still
not ready, so they had to switch us to another. Why couldn't
they do that at 2:00 when we asked? We ended up in #3756, a
nice corner room on the second floor of a building right next
to Acadia House and the North Depot. Good location! If you
take your luggage to your Bayou building yourself, take the
time to walk to your room WITHOUT the luggage, and find the
easiest way back to the car. The paths wind around, and the
best staircases are well-hidden. Don't wander around like a
fool carrying too many bags like I did.
We rested, cooled off (it's still HOT!) and took a swim in the
small pool. Each cluster of buildings in the Bayous, and each
pair of Manor Houses has a pool. Ours is quite small, and we
noticed (as did many others) a strange odor and taste to the
water.
We headed back to MGM for our reservation at Prime Time Cafe.
We've never had a meal here before and looked forward to being
abused. Gosh, I hate to complain again. We're rally having a
good time, and it all gets better later. Well, as Kevin Kline
said in "A Fish Called Wanda:" DISAPPOINTED! Brother Alan did
nothing but take our order, forget our drinks repeatedly, and
bring our food and check. The only thing he said was at the
end as I read the check and found "Mom says be home by dark," I
read it out loud and laughed and he admonished me with "Are you
making fun of Mom?" I did see other waitresses giving other
tables the full treatment. Perhaps they don't abuse couples as
often as they do families. Also, the food was not of quality
according to its price. Diane's Caesar Salad was loaded with
Anchovy; be careful.
We wandered back out to Hollywood Boulevard, in front of that
store with the remnants of Lion King merchandise, and what do I
see? Rafiki! I apologize to whoever I may have knocked down
racing to grab that Rafiki. They claimed it was "under a
counter" being reserved for someone who never came back for
it. For weeks? A note: If you, too, look for Lion King stuff
and can't find it, the selection was far better off site at the
souvenir stores all over town.
On the backlot tour, we could see the Earful Tower's Horace
Grant goggles. Go Magic! Whoops, there's a couple from
Indiana behind us. We also managed to get in a short line (30
minutes) for Voyage of the Little Mermaid. I love that show!
The crowds at MGM were actually quite bearable that day. I
heard later that the same craziness continued at The Magic
Kingdom, though. Fireworks were scheduled for 8:50, and at 8:00
we could see them setting up rope lines at the top of Hollywood
Blvd., cutting off the landscaped circle in front of the
Chinese Theatre. We grabbed a front row seat, and everybody
began sitting on the ground as well, stretching back to the
stores. Much more civilized than in the Magic Kingdom. There
was one group which insisted on standing at the rope, until
they finally felt real stupid and sat down. While we waited we
were kept very entertained by Kym from Ithaca, New York. She
normally works the Beauty and the Beast Show, and was on crowd
duty for the evening. She was very funny, and very good with
kids. Unfortunately, her supervisor didn't think much of her
performance (we clapped a lot) and she was disciplined right in
front of us. I hope she's still there and still entertaining
the crowds.
Then the show started. It's hard to say whether I liked
Sorcery in the Sky better than SpectroMagic or the other way
around, but this was also a first class show. The exodus after
the show was orderly, and easy. They kept extending the hours
and including the show, so from our room later in the week at
the Beach Club we watched several shows -- we could even hear
the music!
Day by Day, Monday, May 29
--------------------------
After two intensive days, and since this was Memorial Day, we
planned to take it easy today.
We had a quick breakfast at the Dixie Landings food court, and
drive to the Marketplace to buy beach towels. I had seen a
Lion King towel I wanted, but couldn't find it, so I bought a
different Lion King towel. Later, I found first design so I
bought that too. After that, I saw a third Lion King design I
liked better than the first two, but, no, I did not buy it.
American Express White Glove Treatment: If you check in to any
Disney resort for two or more nights using the American Express
Card, you get these benefits:
- You can ask for preferred seating when making restaurant
reservations
- You get 10% off purchases in Disney Marketplace by showing
your resort ID (of course, Magic Kingdom Club also gets this)
- You can get a portrait taken with Mickey Mouse
- You get a free fanny pack (gifts for my niece and nephews!)
- You get 10% off dinner shows
- You get 10% off boating activities
Then we drove to Blizzard Beach. Right away, we could see many
improvements over Typhoon Lagoon in space, facilities, and food
and drink services. We got our bearings, and climbed the
mountain (I recommend aerobic training before doing this) to
the top, where you can access the two insane people's slides,
and Teamboat Springs, a pleasant, tame, family raft
ride...NOT. You need 4 people to ride, but they will pair a
couple up with another. The first thing that happens is we
enter a curve, and Diane's side of the raft rides UP THE WALL
90 degrees. Oh, the warning at the beginning says to hold on
to the handles. It should say HOLD ON TO THE HANDLES. HEY
YOU! LISTEN TO ME. Diane screamed at me the whole way down...
But it was fun nevertheless. It's supposed to be my job to
check all these rides out first, but I convinced her to get on
without keeping my end of the bargain.
Diane opted to rest for awhile, and I explored. I found Runoff
Rapids, which is 3 slides, one of which is completely enclosed
so you never know what's going to happen... cool. The line is
split, wait to the right for the covered slide, left for the
two open slide. The wave pool is smaller than Typhoon's and
does not do crashing waves.
Blizzard Beach is laid out with many coves and small shady
areas. Even when there's a big crowd you don't notice it until
you get in a line. The chairlift is quite the gimmick: wait
in a 30 minute line to get on it, then get off at the top to
wait in another line for the slides. I have three important
notes about Blizzard Beach:
1. Wear aqua socks or flip-flops everywhere. The ground and
sand get horribly hot. They sent workers out to water down
some walkways about noon that day.
2. Stash the guide map; it's useless. It doesn't help you find
anything. Wander around and ask people who look wet what they
just came from and how to get there. There are many paths that
end in observation areas or entrances to the "lazy river" (I
don't remember it's real name.) I saw hundreds of people
trying to find things, and I gave directions dozens of times
myself. There are very few signs to help you find things.
3. The glare from the landscaped "snow" is very intense. I
wished I could wear sunglasses walking around but wouldn't want
them on a water slide.
The pre-teen area looked like fun. The kiddie areas are now
all open except for one "mogul" slide.
Finally, those big slides. The smaller one looks dangerous;
the taller one looks fatal. There are several observation
areas, including several set back at the bottom of the plunge.
This places you behind the victims as they try to get up and
rearrange their bathing suits...not that I looked. Much. Be
warned if you ride that someone will get quite a view of your
wedgie. Go to the observation area right at the bottom of the
plunge and LISTEN...the sound of the water being pushed ahead
of the slider is amazing.
The crowds built to the point we didn't want to stay by 1:00,
so we headed offsite to shop and then back to Dixie Landings
for a short rest. Then we took the boat shuttle to the
Marketplace, had out Mickey picture taken, and took the bus to
the Beach Club for dinner at Ariel's. I "discovered" Ariel's
for the first time last January with my brother, and it now
holds first place among Disney restaurants for me. I hoped
Diane would be as impressed, and she was. Narcoosee's used to
be first, but the service has become a little more casual over
the years, and it's becoming crowded (I learned it was featured
in a local news story and ever since it has become locally
popular.)
Ariel's is still a bit unknown. Even during these days of high
crowds, and full resort occupancy, we could have gotten a table
with no notice up till 8pm. I asked for a table near the
kitchen (I like watching the chef at work) which is open to the
restaurant. Diane had Shrimp & Lobster Pasta; I had Seafood
Nantucket (which used to be Lobster Nantucket, but not has some
scallops to defray rising lobster costs.) We shared a bottle
of wine, and then Diane had Chocolate Silk Cake and I had
Passion Fruit Creme Brule for dessert. Not a single thing was
out of place: The service was extreme, the food was arranged
so well you wanted to take a picture of it, and the people
extraordinarily friendly.
We reluctantly finished and got back on the bus to Pleasure
Island. We spent an hour at the Adventurer's Club. Many of the
players were the same that I remembered from January, except
the voice of Babylonia, which was remarkably different from all
the times I had heard it before.
We went to the boat shuttle dock, where quite a line was
waiting. The next one filled quickly and the driver told us
the next would be another 20 minutes. Well, as she pushed away
we could see the lights of the next boat, so it was only 5 more
minutes. The ride along the canal in the dark is quite
pretty. They also will drop and pick up at a new dock by the
Treehouse villas, too, as well as Port Orleans and Dixie
Landings.
Update on my flu: My antibiotic run was completed Sunday, and
I had no reoccurrence of that sore throat. It was like having
a bad head cold, so a daily dose of 12 hour contac and some
cough syrup at night was keeping it under control. It didn't
seem to be slowing me down.
Day by Day, Tuesday, May 30
---------------------------
We packed up and drove straight to the Beach Club to
pre-check-in. The usual level of service was, as always, very
pleasant. Things were starting to really look up: Our room
was available and ready for us! Number 2559 was on an end near
the quiet pool looking out over the lawn and lagoon. Two pairs
of ducks inhabited the landscaping below us and kept us
entertained. We had a good view of the progress at Boardwalk
(which I've detailed in another note.)
We then walked into EPCOT, and since World Showcase open at
11:00 had to walk around to FutureWorld (there was no bus to
take us like there was in January.) We could feel the heat
building into a scorcher of a day again. We went through
Imagination, and then got in line for "Honey, I shrunk the
Audience." Even though the line looks horrible, we were inside
in 5 minutes, and in the preshow area in another 10 minutes.
I saw this last January, so this would be Diane's first time.
Now, let me tell you I think it's very important that those of
us who have seen this show NOT tell others anything about the
fun. In fact, half the fun is listening to your wife AFTER the
show complain loudly, and often, that you should have warned
her, told her everything, you lousy sadist! The interesting
thing is that the 3D effects are so good that she could see
them. Diane had eye surgery as a child to correct eye muscle
problems, and to this day her eyes don't usually coordinate to
see 3D effects.
We had lunch in the Land's food court, then went upstairs to
see the new movie, "The Circle of Life." This is in the
Harvest Theatre, where they used to show "Symbiosis." What a
pleasant surprise. "The Circle of Life" is a bit of a fable,
in which Timon and Pumba are damming the river to build a
resort. The young adult Simba tells them about other creatures
(man) who did similar things...and what terrible consequences
it can have if not planned and managed properly. Sound
familiar? That's the pleasant surprise. Much of what Simba
describes is shown to us using footage from "Symbiosis." Now,
the same story can be told but in a way that will catch
children's attention, too. It was an elegant way to improve
the appeal without losing the importance of the message. I
wish they would let people know that "Symbiosis" still lives,
with new voices.
Boy, was it hot again that day. It was hitting 95-97 each day,
with high humidity as well. We then visited Spaceship Earth.
I saw this in January, but this was Diane's first time without
Walter Cronkite along for the ride. Outside, the new fountain
was performing to a new musical number. It now seems to
alternate between the original and this new show.
We wandered back into World Showcase, (with a stop for
Watermelon drink in Mexico), saw the Chinese acrobats, and
admired all the landscaping for the Better Homes & Gardens
Showcase that was going on for the month of May. The best
sight was the free-floating islands of orange flowers in the
lagoon to the left and right as you approach World Showcase
from FutureWorld. Each was about 3' across and densely covered
with orange flowers. On the backstretch we had a snack of
Kaki-Gori and headed back to the room to rest and prepare for
dinner.
We had dinner at the Cape May Clambake, then went out to drive
around and shop for a while. We watched TV and turned in
earlier than usual, because I didn't feel real well...
Day by Day, Wednesday, May 31
-----------------------------
Tried to get up for early opening at MGM, but couldn't do it.
I was starting to drag. By the time we got there, which was 10
minutes after the normal 9:00 opening, the line for Tower of
Terror was already 70 minutes. We had breakfast at Starring
Rolls, then went to Star Tours which, the board said, was only
a 10 minute wait. Well, that depends on whether you're more
important than everyone else and even though there is only one
line open, you jump to the other side anyway and they don't
care at the end and let you on ahead of everyone in the real
line. If it had really been a long line I hope everyone would
have stopped that.
We then went to Monster Sound Show, and now the Tower of Terror
line was 40 minutes so we got in line. It was only 30
minutes. Oh yes...on TV the night before I saw a Disney promo
for Florida residents that mentioned something about a "new
ending" for the Tower of Terror. I made sure not to spoil the
surprise for Diane. (Will I ever learn?) So, in we went, and
sure enough there was a new ending... e-mail me if you really
want to know the details. Needless to say, Diane nearly broke
my hand holding on!
We visited Animation again to see the place in action. Now, we
could see lots of camera work for Hunchback of Notre Dame, and
artwork for the Legend of (Mulan or whatever it really is.) I
watched a computer graphics animation station for a long time,
as the artists worked on a sequence of a whale swimming along
the contour of the ocean bottom. Then, it replicated the whale
into a pod of whales swimming along the ocean bottom. This was
clearly the same technique that is shown in "the Making of the
Lion King" for the creation of the wildebeest stampede. Then
they worked on a wireframe running zebra, and again with a
Japanese warrior riding it.
We had lunch at Mama Melrose's. Our waitress was "Tamy," who
saw me writing notes and asked why. Now she wants a copy of my
trip report! How will I get it there? And oh yes, if I don't
say Tamy is the best server at Mama Melrose's I'm in big
trouble... We had a nice chat with the couple next to us, who
were on their honeymoon. All four of us ordered the chocolate
& strawberry gondola dessert. Yum!
We caught the end of the Aladdin Parade, shopped a while, then
returned for a swimming break to the Beach Club. The pools are
all quite warm at about 84 degrees. The sinking sands in the
pool are broken, and the slide was closed for refurbishing.
You can now rent tubes for $3 per hour or $10 per day, and
those weird foam noodles to play with for a price that I'm sure
pays for it the first rental.
Now it caught up with me. We moved to the quiet pool and I
curled up in a lounge chair and fell asleep, feeling really
lousy and like I had a fever. The nap seemed to help, though,
and we headed into EPCOT for dinner. We arrived at San Angel a
little early, so we rode El Rio De Tiempo. Dinner was good,
but not quite as good as I remember it was from my January
trip. (Darn! Now I've got that second worst WDW tune running
through my head! La la la la la, la la la la la la, ...)
After dinner, we went to the World of Motion, to perhaps say
good-bye to it. We did learn that when GM does decide to go
ahead with the replacement, it will be much bigger, expanding
out behind it into the employee parking lot. The plan for now
is that Horizons may open while the new attraction is built.
Details are sketchy, but it sounds like the new GM attraction
will be a simulation of a high-speed ride of some kind. There
is no new sponsor on the horizon for Horizons. Heavy sigh.
It's Diane's favorite.
We found out these facts and much more at Ask EPCOT. We found
a really talkative person at the counter. He also showed us
the Disney area on America OnLine, which I have never seen (I'm
on CompuServe, and the Internet.)
More from Ask EPCOT: That new building on the south side of
US192 across from the "Parkway" is the first building of
Celebration (see discussion elsewhere.) One of the first
things to be kicked off is the new school system projects,
which are being developed jointly with Osceola County Schools.
We also learned from a friend who is relocating to Orlando that
there is a 5 year (or more!) waiting list already for families
who want to live in Celebration. On resorts, the Coronado
resort is still on hold. The third All-Star Resort, which may
be themed to board games (!), is on hold. The land is cleared
for the 4th theme park, which we now all know is to be Wild
Animal Kingdom. On Alien Encounter: He says it was redone
for better sound effects, and warned that claustrophobic people
should avoid it because of the "scanner" that fits around your
head down to your shoulders (not unlike a roller coaster
shoulder bar.) While playing with America OnLine, I learned of
an urban myth about Cinderella's Castle. Some claim that it
was designed to be dismantled in 24 hours in case of a
hurricane. Cranes can come in, and the whole thing comes
apart. The Ask EPCOT person said he's heard it as low as 20
minutes, from someone during his new employee training. There
is NO official statement on this that he knew of, and he just
couldn't say if it was true or not.
Another interesting thing we learned was in our room materials
for the Contemporary Resort. The frame was put up, and the
rooms each manufactured on site and then inserted into the
frame by a crane. This design allows for the rooms to be
removed, redone, and reinserted. This, of course, has never
been actually done. I know they redid all the rooms a few
years ago, and did not use this technique. Another cast member
told us why: It seems that the swampland under the resort has
caused the building to settle, and the rooms are now locked in
tight!
We played some Disney games in SegaLand, but only Disney games
(I love The Lion King game), then back to the room where we
watched Sorcery in the Sky. A late dip in the pool ended the
day.
Day by Day, Thursday, June 1
----------------------------
Got up late again. This was to be a non-park day, so we drove
to the Polynesian to have another Coral Isle Delight for
breakfast. We noticed the main restaurant has reopened as
"Ohana" -- a themed restaurant. At breakfast there are
characters. At dinner, it's a family style meal of
all-you-can-eat salads, six different skewers, and Hawaiian
style storytellers.
We drove over to Wilderness Lodge to spend the morning at the
pool. You can find towels at both doors of the south wing at
ground level, even though the usual policy is to bring your
room towels. I'm secretly hoping to talk Diane into staying
here on a future trip, I love the theme. We hopped in the
pool, and then I promptly hopped back out with my soaking wet
wallet from the pocket in my bathing suit. Everything
survived, but the paper money doesn't dry very fast!
Lunch was at Whispering Canyon Cafe. It's OK to order catsup
at lunch.
On the way out, we saw a car from out of state with the license
DSNY KID. Must be a regular. Driving out, we saw a white van,
Florida plates, license DSNY FAN, and the van was covered with
Disney scene custom paintings! Do they have a life or do they
spend all day, every day, at Walt Disney World? Wait, that's
THE life!
Next we went to the Marketplace for more shopping. They're
putting up a new Exxon & Tiger Mart across from the Pleasure
Island entrance. Also, they are (trumpets, fanfare) finally
putting up a traffic light for those poor Caribbean Beach
Resort guests! Back to the hotel, to rest by the pool. I feel
real sick now, and all I can do is sit in a chair and try to
sleep. Later, I recovered enough to try a light dinner. We
took the bus to the Magic Kingdom, and a boat to the
Polynesian, to snack at Captain Cook's. I was hoping for a
good selection of ice cream, but I was wrong...should have gone
to Beaches and Cream. On the boat, we saw the Wedding Pavilion
still under construction. In another note, I mentioned that
only two weeks later, a miracle occurred and the Pavilion was
shown for its live first wedding.
From the boat driver, we learned that when the monorail breaks
down they quickly put on extra boats to accommodate the resort
guests. Also, there is a monorail tractor that can tow a stuck
train off the track in about 20 minutes, including the time for
the beam switch to operate. A monorail had just failed,
shutting down the resort ring for about an hour.
We took a bus to Pleasure Island. The driver was quite funny.
He made us all sing the Mickey Mouse Club song in order to get
off the bus. He also asked trivia questions. At the
Adventurer's Club, there were many different players playing
the characters. I was chosen to be one of Baylonia's
bodyguards. If you've witnessed this, then you know that since
Diane has it on tape I have to do whatever she says forever or
risk it showing up on "Hardcopy."
The funniest thing I've seen in the Club happened during the
9:50pm New Member Induction Ceremony. Normally, the Club
Treasurer starts it off, explaining that we will learn the club
salute, creed, and song. He started, instead, by pointing
toward the stairs and loudly exclaiming "Ladies and Gentlemen,
will you please join me and salute the stars and stripes!" We
all turned to see that three young women had just arrived and
were standing at the edge of the room in front of the stairs.
They wore tight blouses, one in blue stars, and two in red and
white stripes. Everyone began laughing uproariously, and, to
make it much, much, worse, the three of them TURNED TO LOOK
BEHIND THEM TO SEE WHAT EVERYONE IS LAUGHING AT. Now,
everyone's stomach was hurting, and even the cast of characters
are completely broken up. Someone managed to tap one of the
three and point out that they are the object of our fun...and
boy did they turn red. I think they were first timers, still
trying to understand what the heck this place is, and then...
The whole place was quite bawdier than usual that night, even
though many people brought their kids along. Oh yes...Prudence
the Maid awarded me a free Membership for my extraordinary
performance as Babylonia's bodyguard. You'll have to wait for
that episode of "Hardcopy..."
Day by Day, Friday, June 2
--------------------------
We started with the bus to the Magic Kingdom. Another funny
bus driver entertained us by explaining that we would be there
in three days. When we arrived, advised children to "take
small parents by the hand."
The lines were quite reasonable today. We started with a dash
to Splash Mountain, and almost walked on even though it seemed
like hundreds of people ran past us. We did Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad, the Haunted Mansion, Tom Sawyer Island, and
Pirates of the Caribbean. All had almost no wait, except
Pirates, which opened the second line as we approached.
We then took the monorail to EPCOT, and on the way in we saw a
crew set up for filming on the bridge over the lagoon between
FutureWorld and World Showcase. Remember those floating
flowers? They had a woman in a pretty dress sitting in a
rowboat among those flowers, being positioned by a swimmer in a
wetsuit. Watch for a commercial or something!
We had a late lunch at Akershus, just to get out of the heat.
While inside it rained, so we could add some steam to that heat
as well. We headed to FutureWorld and went through Cranium
Command (cracks me up every time!) and then we looked up Mike
Scopa's friend, Mike Bounds, who works in the Apple Computer
display at Innoventions.
Now for some side notes about our conversation with Mike
Bounds. He's been working for Disney for quite some time --
about 13 years! He mentioned that the Wild Animal Kingdom
project was scaled way down, from $130M to $80M. I don't know
if the recent announcement changed that. He said that
expansion plans for Sunset Boulevard in MGM were on hold, and
that $35M was cut from it. There's an expansion planned for
the Animation Department to allow them to work on much more
locally. They would expand the current building with a 5-story
addition into the loading area for the Backlot Tour, which
would be moved to the Washington Square area. He also told us
something that the newspaper confirmed: There is a labor
crisis at the parks. They can't get enough people to work
there. The last few days we were there Disney help a job fair
to attract people to put in applications. Mike said that there
weren't enough people to cover shifts and that many areas were
on mandatory 6 day weeks. Here's a funny one: He says that
before Alien Encounter opened the FIRST time it had $5M cut
from its budget. To get it fixed, it was costing $8M. He also
talked candidly about working for Disney. It seems that
corporate America has invaded paradise. Disney lost many of
its imagineers to Univeral Studios. The cutbacks affect many
areas that employees value. It seems that people who wish to
one day work for Disney may not find that Garden of Eden. I
saved the best for last: Mike says that Cinderella's Castle
does indeed disassemble, and that he even saw the cranes set up
during a potential hurricane in the mid 80's. Those of you on
America OnLine -- fill us in on the rest of that exchange...I'm
dying to find out the truth.
The rest of the day had intermittent rain, heavy at times. We
went to the movies in Canada, and France. Outside of France, a
total stranger walked up to me to say "Nice shirt!" Weird, I
though, it's just Jimmy Buffet T-Shirt titled "Parrots of the
Caribbean"...maybe he's a "parrothead" (Buffet fan)...then he
points at his own shirt, which is identical.
We headed back to our quiet pool, where we were the only ones.
We sat in the spa in the rain.
We had dinner at Ariel's with that friend who is relocated to
Orlando. In addition to the waiting list for residency at
Celebration, he told us about the fact that three builders were
selected after they first proved themselves capable of meeting
Disney's standards with other projects in the Orlando area.
Then we turned in. I had a restless night fighting off my
cough.
Day by Day, Saturday, June 3
----------------------------
My nasty cough kept me awake most of the night, and I ended up
watching the sun rise and then took a walk around the quiet
grounds once I was sure I wouldn't be mistaken for a prowler.
Security guards roam the grounds often at night. I found
something really cool: At night, an army of ducks moves into
Stormalong Bay (the Beach & Yacht Club pools). They are very
tame, and spend a lot of time looking sideways up at you hoping
you have a snack for them. I wandered around the midst of
them, and learned to make very bad imitation duck noises, but
good enough that they would quack back at me. Despite the
early hour, there was lots of interesting activity. A small
maintenance cart was replacing street light bulbs (well,
actually, a man with the cart was doing that). Al's Heating
and Air Conditioning was fixing something at Hannah's Grill. A
man was preparing to wash down the lighthouse with a bleach
mix. Bleach mix? I wonder what the fish and birds think of
that draining into their lake?
Beaches & Cream serves breakfast starting at 6:30am, and coffee
is free that early. I wandered back up to the room, and then
we both went back down for breakfast at Beaches & Cream. We
came dressed for the pool, and took a dip after breakfast.
Then we finished packing and got ready to leave. I went down
to the desk to turn in the minibar key (I am proud to say we
bought all our supplies out and did not pay triple price for a
can of soda.) While I was at the desk, a woman was complaining
(in a nice way) about the decision to have the pool slide under
maintenance, and how disappointed her kids were. The manager
came out and offered her one day passes for the whole family to
the water park of their choice. That's what I call outstanding
public relations!
We said good-bye and drove off. We still had a few hours to
kill before getting to the airport, so we went to the
Marketplace again, to get our second Mickey picture taken, and
then we had lunch at Planet HollyWood. We only had to wait
about 15 minutes even though it was a Saturday and the whole
Marketplace was teeming with crowds of people. The meal was
quite good, in fact it was better than I expected. We spent
about $15 for the two of us and filled up. The place itself is
fascinating; it can hold your attention for hours between the
projection screen and all the artifacts of TV and movies.
Then we stopped briefly at the Mall of Florida, and finally at
the airport. Everything went smoothly except for that nasty
pressure during the flights from my sinus congestion. An extra
dose again made the second flight bearable.
Conclusion
----------
Despite the crowds on the first two days, and my persistent
flu, we had a great time as always. A lot of delightful things
happened. Our favorites were
- SpectroMagic
- Sorcery in the Sky
- Having our room ready at the Beach Club at 8am
- "Finding" Ariel's
- The boat ride from the Marketplace to Dixie Landings at night
We're getting ready to plan our next trip now...and so should
you! The resort desk in the Magic Kingdom's City Hall agreed
with me when I suggested that it isn't too early to make
plans. He expects most of the hotels to sell out quickly once
plans for the 25th Anniversary are announced and mailed.
We're thinking about possibly staying at Wilderness Lodge, the
new Boardwalk Resort, but of course, the Beach Club always
calls to us.
Oh yes, about those Magic... my condolences.
Hope we see you at the 25th!
|
| A few things of note (in case you don't want to read the entire
trip report):
If you are a member of AAA, there is special parking
that is MUCH closer (In fact you don't need to
take the Tram if you don't want to, which came
in handy when the Tram lines were long. Epcot and
MGM parking is really close, Magic Kingdom is a
little bit of a walk but not too bad). You just
need to show your AAA membership card.
They are having a special 20% off selected restaurants
for dinner when you have lunch at some restaurants in the
parks (It's not clear which restaurants you can get the
coupon at. We got them at Rosie's Hot Dog stand and the
Soundstage Restaurant in MGM, and The Land Food Court
(Actually called Sunshine Season Food Fair) & the Electric
Umbrella in Epcot.) Sometimes you needed to ask for them
and sometimes they just gave them out automatically. There
are some pricy restaurants on the list, so you could make
out very well in the deal. Here's what the coupon says:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This coupon is good for a 20% dinner discount (including alcoholic
beverages) for your party of up to 10 people on the same evening of
the day that you purchased lunch. This offer is good only at the
following restaurants:
Magic Kingdom Park Epcot '95
------------------ ---------
Liberty Tree Tavern Pasta Piazza Ristorante
Tony's Town Square Restaurant Electric Umbrella Restaurant
The Crystal Palace Sunshine Season Food Fair
The Plaza Pavilion The Garden Grill Restaurant
Liberty Inn
Disney's Contemporary Resort Restaurant Akershus
---------------------------- Biergarten Restaurant
Concourse Steak House Restaurant Marrakesh
Contemporary Cafe Tempura Kiku
San Angel Inn Restaurant
Disney's Polynesian Resort Nine Dragons Restaurant
--------------------------
Coral Isle Cafe Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park
Tangaroa Terrace -----------------------------
The Hollywood Brown Derby
Disney's Grand Floridian Beach Resort Commissary
-------------------------------------
Flagler's Disney's Beach Club Resort
--------------------------
Disney's Yacht Club Resort Ariel's
-------------------------- Cape May Cafe
Yacht Club Galley
Yachtsman Steakhouse
All coupons must be accompanied by your CASH REGISTER RECEIPT
from lunch and CANNOT be used for Early Evening Value Meals or
with any other promotion or discount. Can be redeemed after
4:00 p.m. for a dinner entree the same day issued. Reservations
are suggested at all table service locations.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the Circle of Life film at The Land, when you enter
you can either go to the left or to the right down the
stairs. The left goes to the front section, the right
to the back section (The theater is split into two tiers,
once you are in a section, you can't get to the other).
We sat in the back section which worked out fine for us
since we had small children. It seemed to us that the
front section was much louder since the speakers were
nearer that section (but not having gone in the front
section, we couldn't be sure).
Alien Encounter has a 48 inch minimum height requirement.
Since each person has a harness type thing on their shoulders,
it is not easy (in fact you can't) lean over to the person in
the next seat, therefore it is hard to calm a scared child.
Also, at different times the harness gets pushed down further
on your shoulders (as if someone is stepping on it), and it is
uncomfortable and can be scary for a child. Also, when it gets
dark, it is pitch black, which can scare a child. If you take a
child on this make sure that they are prepared and can handle it.
Pocahontas and John Smith characters are out for autographs,
but they seem to be in secluded spots. One of the spots
is in Epcot at the American Adventure, in the garden section
behind an "animal skin" so that you can't see them until you
are next in line. Many people did not even know they were
there. We also saw them just past the bridge into Liberty
Square from the Main Street hub. There was a Pocahontas shop
set up outdoors. And again in MGM outside the Tower of Terror
in the courtyard where you exit from the ride (this was the
only place of the three that didn't seem to be specially set
up for them).
A good place to view the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom is
between the Dumbo ride and Cinderella's Carousel. You should
stand on the side of the Carousel to see Tinkerbell's flight.
When watching Sorcery in the Sky at MGM, you should sit on the
right side facing the Theater (we sat on the left and some
trees blocked the large fireworks.)
The Lion King Behind the Scenes movie is now a Pocahontas
Behind the Scenes movie (changed over on June 23rd).
The "New York Street Party" isn't there anymore. Yeah!
Make sure you bring a spare pair of shoes. We got caught
in a rainstorm at the beginning of our trip, and Jennifer
and my shoes didn't dry out until the end of the trip
(Everyone else's only took a day or so to dry). Good thing
we all had a spare pair of shoes.
Diamond Horseshoe Jamboree now says no reservations needed,
you just show up at the door at show times. Also, they are
serving sandwiches again (when we went last August they only
had snacks, not sandwiches, and you needed reservations)
This was the first time that we ran into so many things that
were temporarily closed because of technical difficulties.
Although they did get them running, it caused other lines to
be longer and also we ended up waiting in lines without
getting on the ride.
Now for the trip report:
Who: John, Gail, Jennifer (7), Kenneth (almost 3), John's Mom,
and Gail's Mom
When: June 23rd to July 2nd
Friday, June 23rd
-----------------
Arrived in Orlando, and checked into the house. It was
great, it had a very open floor plan for the living area
and then 3 bedrooms which worked out well for us. Also,
the TV was located as far from the bedrooms as possible,
so we didn't disturb the kids when we had it on late at
night. We found that it took us about the same amount
of time (and sometimes quicker!) to get to/from the
parks as it did when we stayed at Fort Wilderness last
August and used the Disney transportation.
We went to Tangaroa Terrace at the Polynesian for supper.
The Italian buffet is now an Oriental buffet (which was a
disappointment to us). Our guess is that it is the same
food that is served at the Luau which makes it easier for
them. The food was okay, some of it was too spicy for us.
Luckily they also had mini hot dogs, macaroni & cheese, and
salad so Jennifer and Kenneth had plenty to eat. It was our
(John & Gail) 11th anniversary, so Jennifer (with the help
of her grandma) told the hostess and they brought a brownie
cake with candles and a "Happy Anniversary" mylar balloon over
to our table. We took the leftover cake home with us and
finished it off during the week.
We then took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom and worked our
way past the parade crowd and headed to It's a Small World (we
walked right on). John & Jennifer went to Space Mountain while
Kenneth & I went on Dumbo (not too bad, only a 25 minute wait).
The Grandmas watched Kenneth & I on the Dumbo ride, then the
four of us watched the Fireworks. A good place to see the
fireworks is between the Dumbo ride and Cinderella's Carousel.
We met up with John & Jennifer after the fireworks, changed
Kenneth into his pajamas, and took the Ferry Boat back to the
parking lot (the monorail was mobbed). Kenneth was asleep before
we left Disney property.
Saturday, June 24th
-------------------
My mom, John, and I went to my niece's wedding, while John's mom,
Jennifer, and Kenneth stayed at the house to swim and Kenneth
also took a nap. When we got back from the wedding Kenneth was
still sleeping, so we took a short nap, then headed over to
Epcot. We all went on Spaceship Earth then went to the Pasta
place in Innoventions for supper.
The Grandmas, Kenneth, and I went on the Mexico ride. Jennifer
wasn't feeling well, so she and John sat out. We decided to call
it a night since Jennifer still wasn't feeling well. I changed
Kenneth into his pajamas at the Baby Care Center and Jennifer
stopped at the First Aid station to lie down for a few minutes.
She had some water to drink and felt better. John and Jennifer
went on Spaceship earth again, then we left. Kenneth didn't fall
asleep this time since he had a long nap.
Sunday, June 25th
-----------------
We went to MGM. First was the Muppet 3D movie, Kenneth liked
this better than last time, but it still wasn't a favorite of
his. John, Jennifer, and I went on Star Tours while the Grandmas
and Kenneth walked around. Next John and Jennifer went on the
Tower of Terror while the rest of us watched Mickey, Pluto, and
Goofy on Sunset Boulevard and then headed to meet John & Jennifer.
We had lunch at Rosie's Hot Dog Stand (where we got our 20% off
coupon. Just as note, John ordered for Jennifer and Kenneth and
got the coupon. The grandmas each ordered for themselves and
neither got a coupon. So you need to make sure you ask because
they don't automatically give them out.) John and I had teriyaki
from one of the nearby stands.
After lunch we all went on the Tram tour, then to the Honey I
Shrunk the Kids Playground. Both Jennifer and Kenneth enjoyed
the playground. We then got into the line for the Sprit of
Pocahontas show, but before it started we had a DOWNPOUR in
which we all got soaked. The thunder and lighting were very
close! We waited in one of the shops until it slowed down.
Next we went to the Legend of Pocahontas (behind the scenes
show, it used to be the Lion King, but they just changed it
over). Next was Little Mermaid since there wasn't a line,
then we got ice cream and headed over to the Magic Kingdom.
First we all went to Timekeeper (I think it's actually called
the Transportarium, or something like that). John & Jennifer
went on Space Mountain while the rest of us went on Dreamflight,
and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority.
Next we went to the Crystal Palace for supper (used our 20%
coupon). It rained while we were eating, but stopped by the
time we were done. We went to Pirates of the Caribbean, Kenneth
loved this (last time he didn't like it). It was raining when
we came out so we walked around the stores and then went on
Pirates again (there was no wait, we walked right on and had
a boat to ourselves!). It was only lightly raining now, so we
decided to head home before it started up again. (We never
really dried off the the soaking at MGM, in fact my sneakers
didn't dry out until the end of the week, good thing we brought
spare shoes). We changed Kenneth in the car so that he wouldn't
get his pajamas wet, he fell asleep on the way back.
Monday, June 26th
-----------------
Went to Epcot. Headed over to Journey into Imagination since the
Figment ride said that there was no wait. However, when we got
there we found that the Honey I Shrunk the Audience was broken
and the line from there had gone to the Figment ride, so it took
about 10 minutes. When we were done, Honey I Shrunk the Audience
was open, so we got in line for that, but it broke again. A Cast
Member said that the building was hit by lighting the day before
and they were still trying to recover. So, we went to Image
Works. Both Jennifer and Kenneth enjoyed this. When we were
done, Honey I Shrunk the Audience was just opening, so we decided
to give it another try. This time we got in. Kenneth did not like
it at all, but the rest of us thought it was good, although the
images were a bit blurry and doubled in the beginning. I knew what
to expect, and still I was impressed. I thought that the delay
effect with the mice was great. At first I thought that our seats
were "broken" because I didn't feel the effect but heard the
screams in front of us, then I realized it was a delayed effect
as I heard the screams work there way through the theater.
We then headed to the Land and went to the Circle of Life film.
When you enter you can either go to the left or to the right down
the stairs. The left goes to the front section, the right to the
back section (The theatre is split into two tiers, once you are in
a section, you can't get to the other). We sat in the back section
which worked out fine for us since we had small children. It seemed
to us that the front section was much louder since the speakers were
nearer that section (but not having gone in the front section, we
couldn't be sure). We had lunch at the Land Food Court and got our
20% coupon which we were planning to use at the Cape May Clambake.
We all went to Food Rocks (Kenneth was unsure about this but at
the last minute decided to go, and he liked it). Next was the
Land Boat ride, then we went to the Living Seas.
After the Living Seas, we took an ice cream break and then went
to the Teacher's Store/Ask Epcot where I got information on some
of the expansion projects happening. Next it was World of Motion,
then Universe of Energy, then Wonders of Life where John and
Jennifer went on Body wars, the Grandmas rested, and Kenneth ran
around to let off some energy while I tried to keep up with him.
Next we walked through the International Gateway to the Beach
Club for the Cape May Clambake (20% coupon came in handy here).
When we got there they said it was a 20 minute wait so they gave
us a beeper so we could walk around. We no sooner got outside
by the pool, when they beeped us. We all stuffed ourselves and
thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The big joke here was all the
dishes that got broken (not by us, but by other people). I think
the soup dishes fell at least three times, as well as numerous
other things.
After supper we took the car over to the Magic Kingdom (we
weren't sure that we could get back to the car at Epcot before
the transportation stopped since Epcot closed at 10pm and the
Magic Kingdom closed at Midnight). When we got to the Magic
Kingdom, Jennifer & I headed over to BTMR, while everyone else
went to Tomorrowland. We had about a 20 min wait for BTMR which
worked out great since we saw the fireworks while on the ride, it
was pretty neat. John and Kenneth saw the fireworks while they
were on the Grand Prix Race Cars. John and Kenneth also went on
the Tomorrowland Transit Authority while they waited for Jennifer
and I to get there. We all went on Dreamflight, then TTA, then
the Carousel of Progress. I changed Kenneth into his pajamas at
the Baby Center and we took the ferry boat to the T&TC. Kenneth
fell asleep before we left Disney property.
Tuesday, June 27th
------------------
We stayed at the house and swam in the morning. We had peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch (Jennifer had the leftover
Macaroni & Cheese from Saturday). Then we went to the Magic
Kingdom. We headed for the Attraction Board, where we saw that
BTMR was closed (although it did open back up later). Also, Space
Mountain was down for part of the day. We all headed over to
Tomorrowland where John, Jennifer, Kenneth, and I went on the Astro
Orbitor's while the Grandmas searched out a cool place to rest.
Next was the Grand Prix Race Cars, John & Jennifer were in one car
and Kenneth and I in another.
John, Jennifer, and I headed for Alien Encounter while the
Grandmas and Kenneth went on Dreamflight (twice), TTA (twice),
and then went to the Galaxy Search show at the Tomorrowland
Theater. The line at Alien Encounter was moving well until one of
the theaters broke (we were not having good luck). Unfortunately
I don't remember a lot of this ride because Jennifer was scared,
and I spent the entire time telling her it was just pretend. Since
each person has a harness type thing on their shoulders, it is
not easy (in fact you can't) lean over to the person in the next
seat, therefore it is hard to calm a scared child. Jennifer said
that next time she wouldn't be scared because she knew what to
expect (she wasn't prepared for the alien to eat people, and I
didn't know that was part of "encounter"). Also, at different
times the harness gets pushed down further on your shoulders (as
if someone is stepping on it), and it is uncomfortable and can be
scary for a child. Also, when it gets dark, it is pitch black,
which can scare a child. If you take a child on this make sure
that they are prepared and can handle it. We met Kenneth and the
Grandmas at the Tomorrowland show.
We all took the Skyride to Fantasyland (since we had our own
stroller, we were able to fold it up and take it along, otherwise
this doesn't work out if you have to leave the stroller behind).
We stopped at the Diamond Horseshoe Jamboree, the doors were open
and a show had just started. The Cast Member outside told us we
could just go in and find seats, we went in but there weren't any
seats down below for all of us. We watched a few minutes and
then decided to go eat supper at the Columbia Harbor House. The
portions are large here, you could easily split two meals between
three people (unless you have really large appetites!). Next we all
went to the Haunted House. Then the Grandmas, Kenneth, & I went
to Tom Sawyer's Island (visited the Fort, went on the suspension
bridge, the barrel bridge, and walked around) while John and
Jennifer went on BTMR (it had reopened). John and Jennifer were
just coming out of BTMR when we got off the raft from the island.
John, Jennifer, and I went on Splash Mountain while the Grandmas
and Kenneth went on the Train (they did an entire loop) and then
they watched people coming down Splash Mountain as they waited
for us to come off the ride. It was now time for the parade, we
watched some of it from the Riverboat. After the Riverboat we
headed for the Lion King show but found that it had already
closed for the day. John & Jennifer headed for Space Mountain
while the rest of us watched the fireworks, then we headed for a
Dole Whip but the machine was broken (just our luck!). I changed
Kenneth into his pajamas at the Baby Care center and then the
Grandmas, Kenneth, and I went on Cinderella's Carousel. We met up
with John & Jennifer and took the Ferry Boat back to the T&TC.
Kenneth was asleep before we left Disney property.
Wednesday, June 28th
--------------------
Went to Epcot. We had lunch at the Electric Umbrella (got the 20%
coupon). They have nice salads here. Jennifer had a tossed salad,
John had a cheeseburger, Kenneth had a hot dog, and the rest of us
had Chef Salads. We walked through Innoventions, stopped at Dr
Digital while Jennifer and Kenneth played with the drums and
keyboards. Kenneth and I walked around while everyone else went to
the Magic House Show. We were going to go to Disney Vision (Virtual
Reality Magic Carpet ride, but it was broken, they were rebooting
the system and said it should be open later).
It had started to rain again, so we quickly headed to the Land.
We were all going to Food Rocks, but Kenneth decided he didn't
want to go, so I stayed out with him (then of course once the
doors were closed he wanted to go in). We all went on the Land
Boat ride, Jennifer had some ice cream, then we all went on the
Figment ride.
We went to the Imagineering Lab and Disney Vision was now open so
we all went there. Next was the World of Motion, then we headed
over to China to watch the Acrobats. Unfortunately they had been
canceled because of the earlier rain. So we went to Norway, but
there was a power failure while we were waiting which closed the
ride. We saw them helping the people out of the boat that you
can see from outside.
We headed over to Mexico and went on the ride there. It was a
long line, but it moved fast (less than 10 minutes). There was a
singing group outside the restaurant that we watched while we
were in line. We went to the Yakatori House (fast food in Japan)
for supper.
We started to head back to Norway to see if the ride was open
yet. On the way we stopped at the American Adventure to see
Pocahontas and John Smith in the back garden. This was well
hidden, most people did not even know they were there. Went on
the Norway ride, then we were going to take a bus over to France
but it was the last bus of the day and we didn't all fit. We
decided we didn't want to walk anymore so we headed back to the
car. I changed Kenneth into his pajamas in the car, he fell
asleep on the way back.
Thursday, June 29th
-------------------
Went to the Magic Kingdom. We had our picture taken in front of
the Castle by one of the Disney photographers. We were on our
way to the Jungle Cruise when we spotted Rafiki and Timon, just
before the bridge to Adventureland. We stopped and got their
autographs and picture of them with John & Jennifer (Kenneth
didn't want to get close). Pocahontas and John Smith were just
past the bridge going to Liberty Square. We all went on the Jungle
Cruise, it was a long line.
We headed for Cosmic Ray's for lunch, but when we got there we
decided not to eat there (menu didn't appeal to us and it was
crowded). We then headed for the Plaza Pavilion and stopped to
see the "Every Day is a Holiday" show in front of the Castle. We
did end up having lunch at the Plaza Pavilion. They had a nice
tossed salad (one of Jennifer's favorite things to eat) for a
dollar forty something, which we thought was a good deal.
Actually, all the food here seemed reasonably priced.
John & Jennifer went to Space Mountain while the rest of us
watched the Galaxy Search show at the Tomorrowland Theater.
Kenneth remembered this from the other day and didn't want to
stay around for the dragon part, so he and I went on the Grand
Prix Race Cars (it was only a 10 minute wait!), then John &
Jennifer went on the Cars and we bought frozen lemonade and headed
over to Splash Mountain.
The Mickey Mania Parade was going on, but it didn't make the
lines at Splash Mountain any shorter. John, Jennifer, and I had
a 65 min wait to get on Splash Mountain. We filmed the ride so
everyone else could see what it was like. The Grandmas and
Kenneth watched the parade and walked around. Next John and
Jennifer went on BTMR while the rest of us took the train to
Mickey's Starland. The Grandmas sat in the air conditioning of
Mickey's house while Kenneth and I went on the playground, the
Petting Zoo, and the maze.
John and Jennifer met us at Mickey's Starland and John, Jennifer,
Kenneth, and I went on the Tea Cups. We all went on TTA, then
it started to rain, so we all went on Dreamflight, then to the
Plaza Pavilion for supper (this time we all had pizza). We
picked up the picture that was taken in front of the Castle and
we were off to MGM (Monorail then the car).
We went to the Sprit of Pocahontas which was really good. The
interesting thing is that I seem to remember someone posting an
article that said Disney wanted to cut down some trees in Central
Park so that people could see the Pocahontas screens better. Yet,
at the Sprit of Pocahontas there are four trees in the sitting
area that block some people's view of the show. Go figure!
Next we got a table for the fireworks. John & Jennifer went to
Tower of Terror then came back in time for the fireworks. They
are best viewed from the right when looking at the Theater (We
were on the left and the large fireworks were blocked by trees).
We took our time getting back to the tram, put Kenneth's pajamas
on in the car, and headed back. Kenneth was asleep before we
left Disney property.
Friday, June 30th
-----------------
Stayed at the house and swam in the morning. This was nice
and relaxing. Headed to MGM for lunch, we ate at the
Soundstage Restaurant (20% coupon here, although we didn't
use it for supper). The Soundstage restaurant is now half
set up for Aladdin, and half for Pocahontas. There is a
Grandma Willow tree to pose in front of for pictures.
Next we went to SuperStar Television. John was detective
Mike Mullins (Golden Girls). Kenneth didn't want to go in,
so he and Grandma Arnold walked down Sunset Boulevard and
watched the characters while the rest of us went in. John
did a great job.
The Grandmas and Kenneth went to the 3:00 Beauty and the
Beast show while John, Jennifer, and I went to the Tower
of Terror. We figured that would take up some of the time
while we were on the ride. Well, there was NO line, we
walked right onto the elevator which wasn't even full!
This has changed since August. Back in August there was
just one big drop and you felt like the cartoon characters
that get stretched out when they go off a cliff. This time
you drop a significant amount (I couldn't tell how many
floors), then you go back up (in fact you can't tell, at
least I couldn't, when you change directions, you just
realize that you are now going up), then you drop again
but it's not the "stretched out" feeling like it was before.
When we got out Pocahontas and John Smith were there so
Jennifer talked to them for a few minutes and then we
went on the Tower of Terror again (no wait again). This
time of day seemed to be a good time to be at MGM, I think
most people come first thing in the morning or at the end
of the day to see Sorcery in the Sky. We headed over to the
Beauty and the Beast show (there was still 7 minutes left of
the show). It was packed and we couldn't tell where the
grandmas and Kenneth were sitting, so I went to wait at the
stroller while John & Jennifer got a soda.
When the show was over, we went to see if Pocahontas and
John Smith were still there, but they had gone already. Next
we all went on the Animation Tour. John & Jennifer went on
Star Tours twice while the rest of us went to the Honey I
Shrunk the Kids Playground.
Next we headed over to the Disney Marketplace to get a hat for
Kenneth and to see what was happening for the Kid's Fest. There
was a man on stilts, jugglers on unicycles, a train, Puppet show
(this weeks show was about drugs), and a person making balloon
animals. These were the best that I have seen, when I looked at
Kenneth's I thought that it looked like Simba, and Jennifer had
a neat parrot sitting on her shoulder (they twisted part of her
shirt into the balloon so that it would stay on her shoulder). We
went to Mickey's character shop where we got a Goofy hat for
Kenneth, then Jennifer and Kenneth took a ride on the train ($1
each), we watched part of the puppet show and went to supper at
Minnie Mia's.
Next we went to the Magic Kingdom. We all went to the Lion King
Show and Cinderella's Carousel. Kenneth & I went on the Dumbo
ride, and then the Grandmas, Kenneth and I went on It's a Small
World while John and Jennifer went on Mr Toad's Wild Ride and
Space Mountain. We all met at the fireworks by Dumbo. Next,
my Mom, John, Jennifer, and Kenneth went on the Tea Cups. We
all went on Mr Toad's Wild Ride (left side, Jennifer and John
said the right side was better), then all of us went on the
Tomorrowland Transit Authority (it seems we would go on this
a lot since there was never a wait). Changed Kenneth into his
pajamas and took the Monorail back to the T&TC. Kenneth was
asleep before we left Disney property.
Saturday, July 1st
------------------
Took our time in the morning and did most of the packing so
that we could stay late at the parks and not worry about
having to pack when we got back. Headed over to Wilderness
Lodge and looked around the store and bought a few things.
Then we had an early lunch at the Whispering Canyon Cafe.
They don't do the water guns anymore because it was getting
too dangerous with puddles all over the place (our waiter
said that it had really gotten out of control). It was a
really nice lunch and everyone enjoyed it.
Parked the car at the T&TC and took the monorail to Epcot.
We all went on Spaceship Earth (the ride stopped three times
while we were on it, all of them while we were headed backwards
down the ride). Next, we did the AT&T Global Neighborhood.
Then we all went on the Figment Ride. Grandma Arnold (John's
Mom) and Kenneth went to Image Works while the rest of us went
to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. I wanted to see what it was
like when I didn't have Kenneth on my lap, and I was wondering
if the first part of the movie was any clearer. Well, it still
was double images in parts (even with the glasses on), but I
still thought the effects were great. We met Kenneth and
Grandma Arnold outside and everyone went to Image Works.
We headed for World Showcase and took the boat to France. When
we got there we had Chocolate Mousse for a snack. John and
Kenneth walked around while the rest of us went to see the
Impressions de France movie (we couldn't convince Kenneth to
go see it even though he loved it last August). Cinderella
was outside giving autographs, so we got in line. This was
the first "character" that Kenneth went up to on his own and
we got a great picture of him sitting on her lap (She knelt
down and put him on her lap because he was so small). We also
got a great picture with Jennifer (but that's not so surprising
since Jennifer will pose with any of the characters!).
Since we weren't able to take the bus last time, we decided to
try to get one to Norway. Of course Jennifer and Kenneth wanted
to sit on top, but there wasn't any room. As I was explaining to
Kenneth that we couldn't sit on top, the bus driver said that
the kids and I could sit up front with her if they wanted. They
thought that was the best thing. Our driver (Jenny) was so good
with them. She announced that Jennifer and Kenneth were her
co-pilots for the trip. She had Jennifer push the button to start
the bus and had her announce our passing of the United Kingdom.
She had Kenneth "push" one of the dials (I think it was the
temperature gauge, but she pushed the horn at the same time so
he would think he had done it), and also had him announce that
we were at Canada. When we started up again, she had Kenneth
push the start button, he wasn't pushing hard enough, so Jennifer
helped him out. They had the best time doing this.
We went on the Norway ride, the Mexico ride, then took the
monorail to the Magic Kingdom. For supper we got a variety of
things and met at Lumiere's Kitchen (outside eatery near Dumbo).
Jennifer and I picked up a salad at the Plaza Pavilion for her,
John picked up a Smoked Turkey Leg from the Launching Pad which
he and I shared, Kenneth had Chicken Nuggets from Lumiere's
Kitchen, and the Grandmas split a Ham & Cheese sandwich from
Lumiere's Kitchen..
Next we headed over to the Keel Boats, but they were already
closed for the day. John and Jennifer went to Splash Mountain
(once) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (twice). The rest of
us headed over to the Swiss Family Treehouse (Kenneth & I climbed
the treehouse while the grandmas rested). This time the Dole
Whip machine was working, so we had a treat then we went on
Peter Pan's Flight, It's a Small World, then the Grandmas and
Kenneth went on Cinderella's Carousel. We watched the fireworks,
and discovered that we could also see Tinkerbell (at least part
of the flight) if we stood on the side of the carousel instead
of behind it like we had been doing earlier in the week. We
met up with John & Jennifer during the fireworks. After the
fireworks, John & Jennifer headed over to Space Mountain (they
didn't actually go on because the line was too long), they were
going to go on Carousel of Progress but it was broken, so they
went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Kenneth & I went on
Dumbo, then the grandmas, Kenneth, and I headed over to Mr Toad's
Wild Ride. We met John and Jennifer on the way so we all went
on, this time we went on the right side, which we all thought was
better. Then we all went to Peter Pan's Flight, and headed out
though the parade crowd. We managed to see the entire Spectro
Magic Parade as we walked down Main Street (John carried Jennifer
and I put Kenneth on my shoulders). Amazingly enough we were
able to get the first monorail back to the T&TC. The lines for
the tram were long, so we walked to the car (AAA parking came in
handy here). I changed Kenneth into his pajamas in the car, and
he fell asleep before we left Disney property. Jennifer fell
asleep on the way back too.
Sunday, July 2nd
----------------
Packed up the car, checked out of the house, and headed to the
airport.
|
| WDW Trip report
May 13 - 23, 1995
Details:
Bert and Debbie Grubbs
Flying United using a free companion ticket, Colorado Springs to Orlando
with a stopover in Denver.
Alamo rent car for 10 days at the HOJO rate
5 days EACH at Beach Club and Port Orleans
5th wedding anniversary trip (we honeymooned there too)
Friday May 12 - day before trip
===============================
This is the last day at work for Debbie. Yahoo, she's REALLY going to enjoy
this vacation! Drive into town, drop the dog at the kennel and take care of
last minute banking and post office business. Stop by the airport and bring
home a rent car so we don't have to leave our vehicle at the airport. Why
you ask? 2 reasons: 1) CS is notorious for hail storms and they can
chew-up and spit out a car....parking at CS airport is not covered.
2) We live out in the boonies (30 miles NE of town) and don't want to have
to wait/rely-on a shuttle service to find us and take us in time. The airport
is real convenient to get a rent car and it's about the same price as shuttle
for our remote location to the airport. This night we finish packing,
preparing, letting neighbors know we'll be gone and where, etc. Pack the
car with all but the carry-on.
Saturday May 13 - departure day
===============================
Up at about 7:00, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, shutdown the
rest of the house, pet the cats, and head to the airport. Drop luggage
at curbside check-in, return rent car, checkin at United gate for the flight
to Denver. Everything is ontime, weather is good, connection works smooth
through Denver and we are on the ground In Orlando at 5:00pm. Pickup
bags and take the Alamo shuttle bus. This is where the fun begins. Wait
in pretty large line at Alamo (about 30 minutes) to get a car. Went ahead
and purchased gas from Alamo since I knew I would be driving 10 days, including
a trip to Tampa, and would most likely run the tank out. Everything is fine
with the reservation and the good deal rate Jay put me onto through HOJO.
Walk out to the car spot and can't believe my eyes. This car is a piece of crap.
It's covered with cigarette ashes and red stains inside, barely cleaned off
shoe polish on the windows, looks like someone had a graduation party in it.
Talked to parking lot attendant, clueless as usual and can't do anyhing about
it, says go back inside. So I head back in and go back to the person who
wrote everything up and talk to her over the shoulder of the next person
she's helping. Manager comes out, told him the story, he's says 'no problem'
he taps some keys and assigns me a new car, two class upgrade for same price.
So I go out again. This car is better, but still not as clean as it should
be. They must have the half-assed car cleaning crew working today. Decided
it was good enough, don't want to waste all day at Alamo, so I pick up
Deb at the curb with the bags. It's now 6:30pm heading to WDW. Traffic
flows pretty smoothly, arrive at Beach Club, let the bellhop unload
the bags, valet park the car. Head to Guest Services and buy Premium AP
certificates. Head to checkin, CM says gives me all the info and my resort
id (for one day). I ask about getting one for the whole time all at once...
they don't do it that way, you have to checkin for each reservation and
get a knew resort id for that period. That kinda sucks, but ok. I can live
it. I have the 1st night at BC at MKC price and then the next four nights
at the AP special rate, then five nights at PO on MKC rate. Head up to
the room, bellhop arrives moments later with bags. Room is 3rd floor,
off in the wing toward EPCOT Center. Room is nice, small balcony, double
sinks, not all that different than the CBR as I remember it. OK, enough
monkey business!!! We change into shorts, drag a comb through the hair,
grab the camera and AP certificates and we're off. We exit from the beach
club on the end nearest EPCOT and it's a very short walk over the bridge
to the international gateway. Get through turnstiles with AP certificate
and head to front of park to make the real AP with photo, quick stop
to ride Spaceship Earth since there was NO line. Man has this ride changed!
We sang 'tomorrow's child' anyway at the end, what we could remember of it. 8^}
Monorail to TTC, Resort monorail to Contemporary. Got on the list at the
Contemporary Cafe, they gave us a beeper which went off 10 minutes later.
Always enjoy a good buffet, this one is still great! After dinner it's
about 9:30, or so. We walk around to the escalator to go up to monorail
level and there's a CM saying it's not running. She doesn't know why or when
it will start. Ok, we decide to go down to street level and try the
bus. Omygod, everyone is waiting on a bus and I hear people grumbling about
how long it's taking. Time to use foot power, geez it's only about a 10
minute walk to the front MK turnstile from here! When we get to the turnstiles
I see what's happening. The park is abosultely OVERWHELMED. We thread our
way down mainstreet and elbow into the middle of the street to catch the
10pm fireworks. Good show, missed tinkerbell, AGAIN. The park is absolutely
packed. Decide to go grab a parade spot on the Splash Mountain side of
where the parade exits back in Frontierland. Waited till about 11:30
for the parade to finally come through. About halfway through it we
bolt to Splash Mtn, there's about a 10 minute line, yeah! I've been dying
to ride this again, since on my DL trip last year it was closed. Browsed
through Main St. on the way out. Now a problem. It's after midnight. We can
take the monorail to EC, but that park is long closed and no way to walk back
through to the Beach Club. We decide to take the ferry boats to TTC (MUCH
faster than the monorail when it's really crowded), catch a bus to PI, then
another bus to go back to Beach Club. It took nearly an hour to get back!
Lesson learned, we need the car from now on if we stray past EC.
Sunday May 14
===============
Got up late, headed down to checkin for next four nights and to get new resort
ids. Breakfast at Cape May Cafe, 10:30 reservation. Character buffet,
with good food. Characters were Admiral Goofy, Chip 'n Dale, and Pluto. We
had a GREAT two person table at the back of the restaurant right next to where
the characters come in and out. We got to see them a little more since they
would exit for a little while then come back out and stop at us each time!
After breakfast, we sauntered over to EC. This was to become a pattern.
On the whole trip, the only park we EVER got to before the ropes dropped was
Blizzard Beach, and that was because they opened at 10. 8^}
Entered through International Gateway, did some shopping along the way to
Imagination. Rode the ride (we LOVE Figment), saw 'Honey I Shrunk the
Audience' and LOVED it, especially the mice! This show is pretty intense,
and I thought a lot of parents did not heed the warnings and were fooled
by what they know of the 'Honey..' movies. Headed back to the Beach Club, went
to storm-along-bay, drank some drinks, got some sun, had a good time
swimming in there. Got back to the room about 5:00, showered, napped,
walked back to Living Seas and toured the place until our Dinner reservation
at 7:30pm. Dinner was all-out. It's a 5th anniversary celebration. Started
with glasses of white wine, bread, mickey butter, and fried Calamari. Salad
was interesting since it was a Garden Celebration at EC the chef had put little
extras on the salad like oregano, and other types of cut flowers on the stem.
The rasberry vinagerette dressing was good to. I had the mahi-mahi, Deb
had a seafood pasta, with fish and scallops. Topped it off with cheesecake.
All very good food! As we exited we saw the fireworks part of Illuminations
and headed back to the room to get some rest for an early start the next day.
Monday - May 15
================
Got up early and left for Tampa/Busch Gardens. The week before I had called
and they said opening was 8am. Sounded a little early for a weekday to me,
but ok. We got there and the opening time had changed to 9:00. Another
lesson learned, when not dealing with Disney parks call the day before or
day of, to verify opening time. We weren't the only ones. Lots of people
were waiting like us. One good thing, we got there so early the parking
booth wasn't open so we drove past it and parked for free. Hey, take it
whenever you can get it. Gates opened and we headed for KUMBA. Rode it
four times in less than an hour. Man, that is one cool roller coaster!
Headed off to do the other coasters, at least 3 times each. Once in
front, once in the middle, and once in the back on each one. Ate some
bbq chicken for lunch, and started touring all the animal habitats, seeing
the animal shows, took the brewery walking tour (the canning, bottling
machines are awsome to see when they are running), drank our free beers
at the hospitality house, took the monorail and skyway tours of the
Serengeti plain area, and won Deb a Shamu stuffed animal in the
midway game area. The park was nearly deserted so we got done nearly
an hour before closing time. You couldn't see this whole park if it was
crowded. It's laid out real stange because the brewery is in the middle.
It's like a 'Y' in the road at the main entrance and a 'Y' WAY at the back
of the park where the roller coasters are....there's nowhere to cross in
the middle. Drove back to Orlando. Showered/changed, and walked over
to Juan and Only's in the Dolphin. 2 for 1 margaritas celebrating cinco de
mayo, all month. Good Tex-Mex food. Strolled back down the boardwalk
taking pictures and feeding ducks. Turned in tired, but satisfied.
Tuesday - May 16
================
Took the boat from Beach Club over to MGM. got there about 1 hour after
opening. Waited 45 mins for Tower of Terror. WORTH EVERY MINUTE OF THE WAIT!
We would be back for this ride! Went on to see Little Mermaid, Muppets,
lunch at Sci FI Dine-In, Animation Tour, Backlot Tour. Next we went to
see a show called 'Making of the Lion King'. Again I think parents didn't
heed the warning of what this show is about. For a kid who wants to see
Simba, Scar, Puumba, and the gang, this is mostly a bunch of talking heads
about how the animation and voices etc were done. We though it was a good
show. There were lots' of edge seated walkouts who had little kids. Next
we did the special effects tour. They have lots of really cool Crimson Tide
movie props at the front end in the waiting area. Nothing much has changed
about this, most of the soundstages were empty. This one needs some kind
of overhaul as does the backlot tram tour. It's about 1 hour to closing
now so we walk over to TWToT and get on in 10 minutes. I noticed in the
Library there's a book from one of the episodes with some unitelligible
writing and a postit note stuck underneath those letters that says 'To Serve
Man'. That episode is one of the only Twilight Zone shows I remember besides
the William Shatner/Gremlins episode. Rode the boat back, got the car and went
to PI. Planet Hollywood is closed for a Private Party. Head to Adventures
Club, bought a few drinks and settled into a side chair in the main room to
wait for the 'Radio-thon'. This place is a gem in an otherwise lackluster (to
me anyway) nightclub alley. Got back to the room late.
Wednesday - May 17
==================
Got up and drove to Universal Studios. Got there about 15 mins after gates
opened. Rode Hanna Barbera, ET, Back to the Future,Jaws,and Earthquake.
I got picked to be the earthquake stuntman that falls from the top of the
rigging. Can you believe my wife had to actually ask me "that wasn't
really you falling from up there, was it?" I'm still laughing about it.
All I told her until the end of the day when we left is 'Man, that fall is
better than the Tower of Terror'. I also got a certificate as an official US
Earthquake Stunt Double. 8^} Next we rode King Kong, than ate some pizza
for lunch. It's about 12:30 so we start in on the show schedule (Western Stunt,
Animal Actors, Beetlejuice), also saw the newly opened Casper set display, and
the Ghostbusters show. Let me tell you. The Ghostbusters show has improved
DRASTICALLY since the first time we saw it five years ago. It's worth the
wait now. Really great pre-show. Where'd they find that guy that looks
like the nerdy accountant from Ghostbusters? Anyway, we finished seeing
everything we wanted to see about 2 hours before the stunt show was scheduled
and the lines had built on the best rides so we headed out. Went back to the
room, showered, packed all the stuff except for souvineers, valuables, beach
bag with swim stuff, change of clothes, and bathroom stuff to be ready for
transfer the next morning. Drove to the Wilderness Lodge and ate at Whispering
Canyons. This place is excellent! It's on my list to stay at next time we go.
Thursday- May 18
================
Up early, called bell services to pick up the bags for transfer. The bellhop
told us there were a lot of transfers because a big ATT convention
was coming in that day and filling the resort. No problem since we
won't be to PO until 5 or so anyway. Loaded the rest of the stuff in
the car. Had the HUGEST cheese danish I've ever seen at Beaches and Cream.
Got to MK for early open. Rode Space Mtn 4 times in a row. Then, astro-
orbiter,skyway to Fantsyland,Big Thunder Mtn.,Peter Pan,Small World,Snow White,
Mr. Toad, Priates of the Carribean. Ate a chili dog for lunch. These are
getting harder to find in MK. Used to be everywhere you went. Looks like
the healthniks have gotten a lot of menus changed. Too bad for us
over-indulging on vacation types. Back to the TTC, got the car and drove to
Typhoon Lagoon for the last 2 hours of HUGE wave making, than over to PO
to check-in. Room was ready. Stopped by Bell Services on the way to the car
and gave them the name and room # to bring the bags up. Got settled in and
Bell Services called in 15 minutes. Guess what? 8^} They didn't have the
bags! I was prepared. We were tired and hot from a full day anyway and
had packed some clean clothes in the extra bag we took with us. Showered
and relaxed while they rounded up the bags. About an hour later the Bell
Services Mgr knocked on the door with the bags. He apologized and said
the Beach Club would like to rectify the problem. We agreed to let them
send up a large, four topping pizza and 6 pack of cokes charged to the
Beach Club. 8^} That was perfect. We didn't have much energy or desire
to go anywhere, and it was pouring down rain anyway. The bad news is
this is about where Deb started getting a cold with sinus problems, coughing,
etc. We hoped it was mild and fleeting. Only time would tell.
Friday - May 19
===============
Deb gets up still having problems. She took some cold medicine and like a real
trooper "I've waited a year for this trip, cold be damned, we're going
swimmin!". We packed up the swim stuff and got to Blizzard
Beach as they opened the front gate. Stowed our valuables in a locker, and
queued up on the bridge to wait. It's amazing what a little sun and Disney
Magic can do for you. Deb was 100% ready at this point. The ropes
dropped promptly @ 10. We were at the bridge directly in front of Meltaway Bay??
instead of the one by the lockers, so we grabbed a chair in the sand by the bay
real quick, and headed to the 'ski lift'. Rode to the top, did it just
this once since it takes so long and is really a ride unto itself. Next
we rode Summit Plummit. Cool ride, but we only did it once. It's a real
slow line so do it first thing. Next, we did the family raft ride,
then the innertube slides. You GOTTA ride the center tube! It's fully
enclosed...like space mtn on water. You never know which way it will turn
or drop until you blast out into the sunlight at the end! BTW this ride
has 2 lines to wait in 1) to get a tube at the bottom of the hill, 2) which
slide you want to ride after you climb the steps. The sidewalk has
a yellow line down the center, where left side is for either 2 open top slides
and the right side is exclusively for the enclosed middle slide. You can
guess which is longest. Next we rode the toboggan rides. Another tip, there
was a real long line at the bottom of the side-by-side slides to get the mats
you need. The lines were only 2 or 3 deep at the bottom of the other 'mat'
slides. It wasn't too crowded so we used the short line to get mats for both
rides. I noticed that some of the tobaggan mats had a blue stripe and some
didn't. Maybe on more crowded days they restrict you to only using strip
marked mats on one ride, non-striped on the other. That was all the rides,
so we caught a little sun, played in the wave pool, where the waves are much
smaller and tamer than TL. Did a circuit on the float creek, and then packed
up and headed back to PO. Got cleaned up and staked out at Bonfamilles at
4:45 so we could get seated right as they open. This is a pretty good place.
Drank some Dixie Beer, had jumbalaya with shrimp and more cheesecake for
desert. Headed over to the Pleasure Island AMC 10 Theater for opening night
of Die Hard 3. My kind of action movie.
Saturday - May 20
=================
Debbie's cold has deteriorated but she insists we go on. It takes a little
longer to get going, but after some cold medicine and breakfast she's ready.
Arrived at EC @ 9:00am. Did these rides: Body Wars, Universe Of Energy,
World of Motion, The Land boat ride, and harvest theater, then started
counter-clockwise on the countries doing all the rides and movies, taking
in all the shops as we went. The only exception was Norway, cause the line
was very long. Ate dinner in Mexico and this is still a VERY good restaurant,
nice strong margaritas, too. Rode the monorail over to MK. Ate a piece of
carrot cake at the Main St. bakery. Decided to head to the back of the park
for the 10pm fireworks while the 9pm Spectromagic parade was going by.
TIP: as you come to the end of main st. turn left. There are bunch of
umbrellas and tables by the iron rail. If you go about 2/3 of the way down
there is a huge opening in the trees which gives you a complete unobstructed
view of the castle and fireworks AND you can sit down to watch them. There's
a big patch of fenced off grass between you and the next sidewalk so knowone
can stand in front of you. We just camped here at about 9:30 and stayed
till the fireworks were over. You can see about 1/3 of Tinkerbells flight
down the wire from the castle but that's good enough. After the fireworks,
we shopped, and then took the monorail back over to Epcot to get the car and
go back to PO.
Sunday - May 21
===============
About this day we are realizing our time is short. We decided to head
over to MK and see the things we haven't been on. Also, we had made
a vow to try new things on this trip, so I made reservations for this
night at Morrocco, and for Askershus the next day at lunch. Got to MK
at 9:00, headed straight for Lion King show. Kind of a puppet re-enactment
of the movie. Then: Dumbo, Jungle Cruise, tried Splash mountain but the line
was already 45 mins so we jumped the train that just arrived and headed to
Mickey's Starland. Toured this stuff but didn't stay for the show or
try to get a Mouse autograph. Walked over to Tomorrowland and rode:Dreamflight,
Carousel of Progress, Transportarium (this one's a 360 movie with Robin
Williams as the time travel guide!), and the people mover. Went back and got
the car to drove to Epcot. Walked by Norway and the ride was closed this time
due to technical difficulties. Walked through Int. Gateway to get on
boat to MGM. TIP: if you want to do this DON'T take the boat launch
immediately to the left as you exit EPCOT....it only goes to the Beach
Club and Dolphin. Instead take the 5 min. walk to the Yacht CLub pier and
catch the boat direct to MGM from there. You'll save a lot of time this way
unless the boat just arrived at the launch immediately to the left of the
Epcot exit. Got to MGM and rode Tower of Terror with only a 10 min wait.
Bought some stuff we had eyed on the last go round through the shops. One
funny thing happened, one of the street performers that plays a 'plumber' went
through a whole routine with a girl from England that had her nose pierced....
you know 'third nostril' jokes, and having her take it out and put it back in
to his screams and cries of revulsion. 8^} Anyway, we went back to EPCOT for
dinner at Morrocco. This place is really neat inside, and many more people
were eating here than you would believe if you just watched the menu and
people's reactions out at the entrance to the country. We ordered 'Diffa for
Two'. Everything was delicous from the soup and brewats, to the mint tea and
pastries for dessert. I don't know why we never ate here before. We will
definitely have this on the list EVERYTIME we come to WDW so we can try new
thing beyond the 'diffa for two' items. Stopped by Italy on the way out and
bought some excellent dark chocolate bars. Took a tour through innoventions
and I have to say I wasn't really impressed. One side was like a big home
show, and the other was a video arcade. The words are promising in
the descriptions on the EPCOT MAP, the execution is lacking. To me it looked
like a parents worst nightmare....here you are with the kids, family vacation,
a little relaxation away from everyday rigors at home and the first thing
you walk into is this huge arcade. The kids couldn't give a crap about
the rest of EPCOT from that point on, what with unlimited SEGA games to play.
Geeezzz was all I could say to myself. After Illuminations we headed back to
PO.
Monday - May 22
===============
Got up late, Went to the pool at PO for a few hours. Showered, changed,
drove to Epcot. Ate lunch at Askershus. Very well done buffet.
I tried a little of everything. I'm not so hot on the pickled
fish, but all the other salads, including the smoked fish I really like.
All the hot foods were good too: lamb, meatballs, sausage, roasted potatoes,
mashed rutabega, and red cabbage and all kinds of interesting bread. Had the
apple type dessert, forgot what they called it. Oh yeah, Rignes is excellent
beer, too! After lunch we rode the Normway boat ride and watched the short
movie. Strolled over to the Land to see Food Rocks. IMHO, this beats the hell
out of what was there before. If your into modern rock music you'll enjoy the
tunes and parody of the singers the different foods portray. Next we went to
Canada, Great Britain, and saw the show at the American Pavilion. Decided to
head over to Pi and see Crimson Tide. After we got out we went into Planet
Hollywood, had a beer and got seated in about 40 minutes....the time
flies though cause there's a lot of movie stuff to look at. It wasn't
too crowded since this was about 10:30 pm on a Monday night. Also
don't let the line outside fool you. They do that to divert people
to the right places for eating or just touring, and to take names for
dinner seating. The guys down at the bottom can tell you how long
it takes to get in vs. how long to get seated to eat. Again, it's
expensive for a hamburger joint, but then again it's a tourist attraction
in it's own right. I think we spent $17 on hamburgers,coke, and tip and about
$10 on drinks waiting to get seated.
Tuesday - May 23
================
Departure Day, going out with a Bang. Loaded the car and headed to MK by
rope drop time. Rode Splash Mtn,Haunted House, Space Mtn (took an hour because
we got 10 people from loading and the ride hung up and they had to reset
everything....wasn't no way I was walking out by then!). Toured through
the lands and bought the rest of the collector cups we needed (total of
6, 1 in each land except Mickeys' Starland). Ate a nice sit-down
lunch at Tony's town Square Cafe. Got a good table next to the window looking
out on the big turnaround at the front of Main St. Ate leisurely, had
dessert and coffee. After lunch, we finished shopping and saw the
Hall of Presidents. At 3:00 headed for the Airport and a 5:00 flight
back home. Flight home was ontime, smoooth. Got blasted by Colorado
when we walked into the terminal at CS wearing shorts, t-shirts, Mickey Hat,and
it's like 40 degrees and overcast. Had to dig out the long pants and
flannel shirts from departure day 10 days earlier. Rented another car
to drive home from the airport.
SUMMARY
=======
We managed to stay on budget, see everything we hoped to see, and still
have a very relaxing vacation. In retrospect the only real advantage the
Beach Club had over PO was location. There wasn't a whole lot of difference
in the rooms for the price. Premium AP's are great! We'll definitely be back
before they expire on May 13 of next year! Epcot has had some improvements
making it a much different park than when we last went. MGM has a great new
ride in TWTT, but some of the other stuff is getting old. MK, is well...the
MK. There's nothing there that I wouldn't want to ride again over
and over. It's timeless. As for eating, best food for us on this trip
has to go to Whispering Canyons, worst was fast food at Busch Gardens.
Oh yeah, we finally made it over to the Character Wharehouse. It's kind
of like a flea market...you never know what you are going to find. We
bought a Simba Shirt and an MGM fanny pack for $15 total. Also,
it never hurts to stop into those 'touristy' Florida tshirt shops just
to see what they have. Debbie found a really nice Tigger shirt that
was unlike any of those we had seen at WDW parks, resorts, or the village.
As to getting sick while on vacation, what can you do? I'm sure with all
the kids around it's easy to get exposed...add to that the drastic temp.
change from Colorado (50) to Orlando (95), and a pretty hectic schedule
and you have the perfect recipe for sickness. I have to hand it to her,
she was tough, and usually felt good once we got going and doing things.
|
|
Walt Disney World Trip Report for the Steinhardt Family
Ken, Eva, Tara (age 10), Alana (age 10), and Eric (age 7)
Wednesday November 8th through Saturday November 18th, 1995
Disney's Polynesian Resort (Samoa).
I apologize for the belated nature of posting this trip report, as I've had
many other priorities since returning. Having not had the
pleasure of seeing the Digital Disney notesconference since leaving
Digital in November `94, I'll also apologize up front for any and
all comments and observations that are redundant to what has been posted
in the notes conference during that time. While I have WWW
access these days, it's just not the same. As always, this
report is lengthy, and long-winded. You've been warned! It is also
more chronological and detailed than my last trip report, so you've been
warned again!
Although late in the year, this trip allowed us to keep to my goal of having
a family trip to WDW every two years, having previously taken
full-family trips in May 1993 and May
1991. This was our first trip with just our immediate family (without
grandparents).
Highlights:
- Overall, this was our best trip, ever!
- Eleven days on property is very easy to get accustomed to.
- Low crowds, noticeably smaller crowds 11/13-11/18 than 11/8-11/12.
- The Polynesian Resort is wonderful, we will probably stay there again on
our next visit.
- The overall level of excellent service and cast member interaction on this
trip was noticeably the BEST of any visit we have made to WDW,
much higher than in previous years.
- Space Mountain re-opened early, so despite having expected to not be able
to ride it this trip (The official Disney schedule had it planned
for reopening 11/20/95), we rode it four times.
- Disney theme park maps, program schedules, and special event schedules
have been consolidated into a single document, which is printed
new EVERY WEEK.
- It was unseasonably cool (highs in the 60s most days, as low as high 30's
at night), we had to wear sweatshirts or coats (or sweatshirts AND coats)
almost every day. One day it hit 85, which fortunately for us was
our one day at Blizzard Beach.
- Not a single drop of rain fell on us during the whole 11-day stay.
- We felt like we were wearing signs that said "pick us!":
*Eva was picked to do the kissing sounds and Leilani voice-over in the Murder
She Wrote show at Universal.
*Tara was picked to be the baseball player at Superstar Studios, and was one
of 10 kids picked for background noise and sound effects at Murder She Wrote.
*Alana was picked to hold the slime at Ghostbusters at Universal, and also
was picked for the noise and sound effects at Murder She Wrote.
*Eric was picked to be the Texas Ranger in the Hoop-Dee-Doo review, and also
was picked for the noise and sound effects at Murder She Wrote
... and finally...
*I was picked to 1) Do the Hula on stage at the Polynesian Luau
2) Do the voice of Martin Short and run the
electronic panel at the Monster Sound Show
3) Be the falling stunt double in Earthquake at Universal
4) Do the voice dubs for Professor Astrid at Murder She Wrote
5) be the foil for Samantha Sterling, Pamelia Perkins,
and Inga the Maid in the Adventurer's Cabaret at
the Adventurer's Club (in a BIG way, details to follow
below...).
- Two new excellent restaurants have opened: 'Ohana at the Papeete Bay
(formerly the
Papeete Bay Verandah), and more importantly The California Grill (on the 15th
floor of
the Contemporary Resort, where Broadway At The Top used to be) which gets a
unanimous vote from Eva and I as the BEST restaurant at WDW, I'll describe
why below.
- Lunch at The Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge is the best VALUE
for a meal
at WDW.
- The banana stuffed French toast (Tonga Toast) at the Polynesian has
IMPROVED! (and
some thought it wasn't possible...)
- I have mixed feelings about the TZTOT reprogramming - I like the two drops,
but I don't like the fact that some effects have been pulled out of the first
flight that the elevator
stops at. In any case, it's still a great attraction, we did it five times.
- I predict that Skippy (from Alien Encounter) will become at least as
popular as Figment (from Jouney Into Imagination), if not more.
- We finally got to see Spectromagic, and videotaped it.
- Timekeeper is great!
- The new Tomorrowland "looks cool".
- My son and I were able to see an Orlando Magic game at the O-Rena (vs. the
Indiana Pacers).
The Details:
Wednesday, November 8th, 1995.
I had been carefully monitoring the weather prior to departing, and the
Orlando
temperatures had been consistently in the 80's all the way up to our day of
departure.
While packing the night before our flight, Eva had included multiple
sweatshirts for the
kids. I told her that they were too bulky to pack and that we should only
bring one light
warm-up or one light sweatshirt each (probably only needed for the flights),
so the sweatshirts were not packed. BIG mistake...
The alarm went off at 3:30 A.M., and no one had any trouble getting out of
bed despite it
still being very dark out, let alone very early. As to be expected, there
was almost no
traffic on the Mass. Pike, and we arrived at Park and Fly at Logan airport by
5:30, giving
us plenty of time to make our 6:30 United flight. We connected through
Washington
Dulles, both flights departed on time, and we arrived at Orlando airport a
bit early, about
11:30. Although the Dulles to Orlando flight was listed to include merely a
"snack", it
was a bit more than the expected cellophane encased donut - we had cereal,
milk, yogurt, fresh fruit, muffins, and juice, and it was good.
Having once had a checked bag "delayed" for over a week by an airline, I'm
always apprehensive when waiting for checked luggage to arrive on
the carousel. I always try to
avoid checking anything unless necessary, which is easy to do when traveling
alone on
business, but impossible for a long family vacation. I breathed a deep sigh
of relief when all of our bags arrived.
We had reserved a full-size four-door from Avis, and due to my having Avis
Preferred
status, we were able to bypass the counter and the lines and take our luggage
straight to
the garage. Avis often provides an upgrade for Avis Preferred renters, and
this was to be
such a fortuitous circumstance. Waiting for us right at the closest end of
the row,
immediately next to the Avis booth, was a brand new dark metallic-green 1996
Cadillac
Sedan De Ville, and it was loaded with what seemed to be every conceivable
option than can possibly be installed on such a vehicle. Avis
also let me apply an incentive cash
discount coupon that United Premier had sent me, on top of the already
discounted rate.
The net of this all would be that we would have a new, loaded Cadillac for
eleven days for
what turned out to be a total cost of $250 (all taxes, taxes on taxes, and
miscellaneous
fees included). Upon our eventual arrival back in Massachusetts, the kids
all declared that
my own humble Dodge Spirit that had faithfully transported us to Logan had
"shrunk",
and they wanted to know when we could buy a Cadillac. To them, playing with
the options and electronics on the Cadillac rivaled those at EPCOT's
Innoventions...
We drove on the new Greenway to WDW, parked in the main Polynesian parking
lot, and strolled into the Great Ceremonial House to check in. Having endured a
nightmare during
the check-in at the Caribbean Beach Resort during our last trip (if it's
still there, see my
trip report from May 1993), I was very curious to see how the difference in
price between the Caribbean Beach and the Polynesian would affect service.
What a difference!
There was no line at all, and a cast member behind the desk gestured for us
to come on
over, greeting us with a bellowing "A-Lo-HA!" (the first of MANY). Check-in
was a pleasure, as we were given all necessary paperwork, schedules, resort
ID/Credit Cards,
and information with a smile. By presenting an American Express card for
payment, we
were told that we would be given the Disney/American Express "White Glove
Treatment", which included a complimentary fanny pack, some additional
discounts, and
preferred seating. I had assumed that the "White Glove Treatment" was 99.9%
a marketing gimmick, and that the sum total of the added value would be some
cheap fanny
pack. As expected, we did get the fanny pack, but we found it to be much
more than a
gimmick in the service and discounts that we received. These discounts
included most of
the Magic Kingdom Club discounts, such as 10% off of the dinner shows and 10%
off at
the Disney Village Marketplace, but also included some discounts beyond the
MKC, such
as 10% off of all watercraft rentals. Eric became the owner of the fanny
pack, and Eva
and I both noticed that during the entire stay whenever a cast member
observed Mickey's
distinctive "white glove" logo on the fanny pack, our family immediately
received some
form of special attention or special service. This included subtle things
such as being
INVITED to ride in the front of the Monorail before asking, having our own
private log
on Splash Mountain, and having someone from our family picked almost always
whenever
there were people to be picked for something from a crowd. As for preferred
seating, we
received front-row near-center tables for both the Polynesian Luau AND the
Hoop-De-Doo Revue. Coincidences?
Although it was only 12:30 (check-in is after 3:00), we were cheerfully given
the keys to
our room, and were driven by tropical painted golf cart to our car to collect
the luggage,
and then directly with our luggage to our room. We had a garden view room in
Samoa.
Samoa is located on the waterfront, and is the most north and west longhouse
at the
Polynesian Resort. It is surrounded on three sides by water, with half of
the rooms facing
out on to the Seven Seas Lagoon, and the other half of the rooms (like ours)
facing back
onto the gardens between Samoa and Fiji. Facing North toward the Magic
Kingdom from
Samoa, the Polynesian marina is on the right, and a beach and inlet from the
Seven Seas
Lagoon is on the left. At the end of each room, first floor rooms have an
open patio, third
floor rooms have a balcony and terrace, and second floor rooms just have
windows. We
had a third floor room, and although it is billed as a Garden View room (with
nice views
of bamboo, coconut palms, fan palms, bird of paradise, hibiscus, and other
flowers),
walking through the sliding glass door and out onto the balcony we also had
clear views of
the water and marina to our left, and the beach and lagoon to our right.
Very nice.
Samoa is one of the smaller long houses, and is quite secluded and quiet.
The sound
proofing must be amazing, as in our room we never heard any indication of
anyone other
than ourselves living in the building, despite running into our neighbors in
the halls and elevator.
After unpacking, we explored the grounds, and they are beautiful. On our
way, we encountered many ducks and ducklings, and several Patagonian Cavies.The
Patagonian
Cavy looks much like a small rabbit with shorter ears, and they are almost as
prevalent as the lizards.
Upon passing Moana Mickey's Arcade, we stopped in for some quick video game
playing,
with Eva and I hoping that the kids would get the video-game mentality out of
their system early.
The center of the lobby in the Great Ceremonial House is a masterpiece of
waterfalls,
fountains, pools, lush tropical vegetation and flowers, and three scarlet
macaws. The
entranceway is lined with similar outdoor gardens, and the pools are filled
with very large
koi. We traded in the value of some unused days from the last stay toward
some new five-
day park-hopper passes. While everything that I had heard said that you were
required to
get photos for the new passes, the concierge at guest services downplayed
this as a
requirement. When passing by the TTC we had the photos put on anyway, but no
one ever looked at them when we entered the parks.
We had a quick snack of fruit and cheese at Captain Cooks (open 24 hours),
and took the
monorail to the Magic Kingdom to search for our brick on the Walk Around The
World.
I think that we're going to be spoiled being on the monorail line, it really
is a lot more
convenient than driving. Our brick took a while to find, as the bricks are
not laid out in
sequential order, but rather are in close proximity to bricks of similar
numbers. We did
find it, and close to where it was supposed to be on the map, #15432. It's
on the walkway
at the end of the bus loop, such that people coming off of the ferry from the
Ticket and
Transportation Center walk right over our brick, with the entrance corral for
boarding the
ferry at the Magic Kingdom just to the West. Some bricks are in better shape
than others,
our is pretty average, I was just glad that it was not chipped or discolored
as some bricks were.
We took the local monorail back to the Polynesian, and were able to ride in
front. I
videotaped the view from the front, and coming into the Contemporary resort
reminded
me of the view in the return to the space station at the end of Star Tours.
The torches were now lit along the walkways at the Polynesian Resort, adding
greatly to
the South Seas effect. We relaxed a bit in the room, put on some warmer
clothes, and
merely had to step outside our door to be on the walkway entrance to the
Polynesian Luau
for the 6:45 show. As you enter for the pre-show, you are greeted with a
shell necklace,
and a rousing chorus of A-LO-HA! from everyone. We were now beginning to
notice that virtually everyone at the Polynesian greets you with Ahhh-Looooo-
HaaaAAAA!, and
you are expected to return the greeting, even louder. The host was inviting
kids up to do
the hula and play some percussion instruments, but our kids let it be known
clearly to us that they were WAY too old for such things.
It was VERY cold outside, maybe in the mid 50's at best. Our table was in
the very front,
just off from the center in the middle section. The food was tasty, but very
basic and other
than the fruit I'd say that it was anything but authentic Polynesian. The
meal consisted of
fresh fruit, barbecued half-chickens, mixed fresh vegetables, and ice cream
with strawberries over frozen pineapple slices. The show was entertaining, the
dancers were
beautiful, and the fire dance seemed to be the highlight. When the fire
dancer made his
entrance, he asked the audience "are you cold?", and before an answer could
come forth, he responded "ME TOO!!!", as he was wearing only a
loin cloth and some leaves, and
seemed glad to have some fire. A highlight of the Luau for me was watching
Tara and
Alana reluctantly join all of the other kids in the audience on stage in the
beginning of the show to learn a hula. They professed that their
attitudes were along the lines of "jeez, I'll
just go along with this, but this is sooooooooo embarrassing and un-cool!"
despite the fact
that on video it sure looks like they were having fun. Late in the show when
it came time
for the dancers to pick a handful of guests to be brought up on stage to
learn and then perform the hula, yes, I was picked. The woman who
chose me was an extremely beautiful native Hawaiian
(and it's not just the complimentary Mai Tais talking) who
proceeded to attempt to teach me a hula. My performance basically looked
like a laughing
tourist shaking his butt all over the stage, but I surmised that this was
indeed what they
were hoping for, and the audience was obviously "enthralled". It was all
captured on
video by a diligent Eva. Our overall rating for the Polynesian Luau (on a
scale of 1 to 10) - Show: 8, Food: 3. Once is enough.
Before returning to our room, the timing was perfect for viewing (and
videotaping) the
water pageant from the beach just to the west of Samoa. The light effects
were cool, and
included a sea serpent, dolphins, an octopus, king triton, and others. As
the day had started very early, we were all then ready for some sleep.
Thursday, November 9th, 1995
This was an early admission day for the Magic Kingdom, and the "unofficial"
word that I
had been given by castmembers was that early admission could be as much as 90
minutes
prior to the public opening (9:00 A.M.), so I wanted to be up early., but we
slept until
about 7:15. We had some croissants and juice from Captain Cooks, and also
bought a Polynesian Resort thermal mug for $7.50, which turned
out to be the best bargain of the
trip. You can refill it for free anytime during your stay at Captain Cooks
with anything on
the taps, which included coffee, tea, sodas, Hi-C lemonade, and Hi-C fruit
punch. I would
estimate that if we would have had to pay the normal Disney prices for what
we put into
that mug, as many times as we did put something into that mug, it would have
cost us at least $50.
The monorail delivered us from the Polynesian to the front entrance of the
Magic Kingdom by 8:25, and we were able to head straight in to the new
Tomorrowland. The
new Tomorrowland style is fun with lots of metal and lots of multi-colored
neon at night.
First stop: Alien Encounter, which was new for all of us. The first pre-show
is clever,
with many subtle comedic lines that appeared to go over the heads of most of
the audience. Do these people understand English? Not much response from the
crowd. The
second pre-show introduces Skippy, whom I believe will go on to become as big
a hit (if
not bigger) than Figment from Journey Into Imagination. The special effects
are clearly a
few generations beyond Mission to Mars... I made a mental note to videotape
this second
pre-show (Skippy and the robot animatronic) at a later time in the trip
(which I did).
Finally, we enter into the circular chamber for the actual Alien Encounter.
After the collar
and bar came down, I made another mental note to be sure to sit as tall as
possible and raise my shoulders as much as possible for future
"encounters", as the automatic height
adjustment seemed to lock in just a little bit low for me on the first time
through. This
made it a bit uncomfortable, especially when the Alien was moving around the
room and
pressing down on the collar. Overall , Alien encounter was fun, but not as
"scary" as the build up would have one believe. I was expecting
to actually have animatronic alien parts
or such running around wild in the chamber, but instead outside of the
central transport
tube it was merely some simple air and water effects, similar to at Muppets
3D and Honey
I Shrunk the Audience. You would have to let your imagination go well beyond
what is actually provided in the attraction to get scared here.
Eric, Tara, and I liked it, Alana
didn't, and Eva thought that it was merely "OK". Everyone liked Skippy
though, and
upon leaving Alien Encounter we bought Eric a Skippy T-shirt, that has a
picture of
Skippy in the transport tube on the front, and "Scruffy" in the tube on the
back. While he was wearing this shirt during the trip, numerous
Disney cast members commented how much they love Skippy.
Next was the new, or should I really say the old, Carousel of Progress, with
the "It's a
Great Big, Beautiful Tomorrow" theme. I still prefer the old theme, but the
updated sets look much better.
The pre-show wait for Timekeeper is rather hypnotic and boring, but once
inside...wow!,
wait a great new attraction, mostly due to the voice talents of Robin
Williams. There were
so many quick one-liners that you can't help but miss many of them with the
audience
laughing so much. I made another mental note to be sure to videotape this
later in the
trip, although I'd obviously have to limit the view to one screen only of the
nine being
projected by "nine-eye". No problem, the bulk of the action is to the front
screen anyway, and Robin Williams' patter is the best part of the show.
Since we were still in Tomorrowland we took a quick ride on Dreamflight prior
to heading
toward the "mountains". Space Mountain, as had been planned, was closed for
refurbishment and not scheduled to open until November 20th. This greatly
disappointed
Tara as it is her favorite ride, and also disappointed Alana and Eric who
were looking
forward to their first rides on it. On the way to Adventureland by way of
Fantasyland, we
could see that there was no line for the Haunted Mansion, so we stopped in to
see the 999 ghosts.
Next was Splash Mountain, which is probably our family's consensus favorite
ride. The
wait was only about 5 minutes, with none of the exterior corrals yet being
used. When
we reached the loading area the cast member who was doing the loading made a
comment about Eric's "white glove" fanny pack, and then gave us
our own private log. Hmmm. I
noticed that the hopping animatronic of Brer Rabbit that once hopped along
next to your log on the left side is no longer there. I suppose
that some imagineers somewhere
determined that the effect never did really work all that well, but rather
had looked like a
stuffed rabbit on the end of a scissors-like robotics arm. I suppose now it
will wind up as
a prop hanging from the ceiling of the Comedy Warehouse at Pleasure Island.
The jumping fish animatronic (being hooked by Brer Frog) was one that I didn't
remember
from previous rides, and stood out clearly now, making us wonder if it was
new. In any
case, the jumping fish effect works quite well. Since we had our own private
family log,
and the picture on the drop had come out well, we had to buy a copy. The
convenience of
being able to have them send the finished photo directly to your room on
Disney property
was well appreciated, and the next day when we returned to our room the
picture would be waiting for us, in the room!
The wait for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was only about ten minutes, and I
decided to
brave attempting to videotape it. The kids sat in the row just in front of
Eva and me, so
that I might possibly capture some of them in the video as well as the ride.
After the first
climb through the cave, and on the very first banked turn, I realized that
trying to look
through the viewfinder was not a good plan, as with no ability to really see
what was
coming next, the camcorder was bouncing all over the place. For the rest of
the ride I
simply held the camcorder up and pointed it in the general direction of what
I wanted to
shoot. Upon later review of the tape, although this was hardly a perfect
approach, it did
work better, and I got to enjoy more of the ride. Everybody loved BTMRR, as
always.
Upon entering Pirate of The Caribbean, we fell into the highly advocated trap
of "always
try the line on the left". It seems that just about everyone has now heard
this somewhere,
and as a result, at this particular time there was a 10-plus minute wait for
the left line, and
less than 5 minutes for the right. From here on out, we made a point to
scrutinize the
entry patterns and lines more carefully, and we found that either line might
be faster,
sometimes dramatically so. The most common case was exemplified here at
Pirates of the
Caribbean - almost EVERYONE was heading for the left line, and while the
physical
corral for the right line is indeed longer, the number of people in it was
far fewer. It helps to pay attention to open corrals with no people in them!
It was time for an early lunch and some tacos at El Pirata Y El Perico, and
then a little of
Eva, Tara, and Alana's favorite Disney activity: shopping!, this time in the
Caribbean
market and nearby shops. Afterwards, we staked out a spot to view and video
the Mickey
Mania Parade from the porch of the mile-long bar in Frontierland. The kids
each scooped
up several of the red, blue, yellow, and black pompoms that are shot out of
the back of the
vehicles at the end of the parade, and had me carry them all in the camcorder
case.
We followed the parade through the east end of Adventureland, and then headed
for
Fantasyland to see the Legend of The Lion King. The kids thought that it was
"OK", but were not overly enthusiastic.
The girls seemed to be sending a message that they were
getting a little old for shows such as this, and were now at an age where
they prefer the
rides. All right then, message received, we headed back to Adventureland and
rode Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again. The
corner of the Magic Kingdom
where these two rides reside seems to be rapidly becoming the family's
favorite turf.
A long traverse took us back to Tomorrowland for one more "Alien Encounter"
before leaving the MK for the day. Eric, Tara, and I rode while Alana and Eva
shopped. I video taped the "Skippy/Scruffy" portion, and it came out great.
Both monorail trains had just left as we exited the MK, so we took the ferry
back to the
TTC, walked to our room to get some warmer clothes, and then drove to MGM to
ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror before closing.
As I was the only member of the family that had been to the TZTOT before
(October 1994), everyone else was very anxious and a bit apprehensive. The was
setting, and what
better time could there be to ride the TZTOT than at twilight, with all of
the lights having
just been lit. The wait was brief, maybe 10 minutes. We rode the left side,
then walked
right back around through the entrance and rode it again, this time on the
right side,
before it had any time to sink in. The kids had noticed that the Twilight
Zone items in the
two libraries are not identical. They found a copy of "To Serve Man" in the
library on the
left. Afterwards, Alana and Eric admitted that they were a bit scared, and
did no want to ride again (at least for the moment).
The TZTOT has changed since I had first been there. On the first level that
the elevator
stops at, there used to be quite a bit more. The window in the back used to
come through
the hall almost all the way to the front, now it just stops and breaks in the
back of the hall.
Other Twilight Zone icons used to pass through the starfield at this level,
now there were
none. On the second level (the fifth dimension), the laser/light/whatever
thing at the end
of the hall used to appear almost out of nowhere. Now, it is very visible as
two light strips
(of unknown configuration) on the very ends of two black doors that slide
horizontally.
So much for the negative changes, now the positive - at the end of the fifth
dimension,
when you come face to face with the brick wall at the end of the elevator
shaft, instead of
going up (old version), you go into a freefall drop, then stop, then have a
quick second
drop, and then quickly climb all the way to the top! From the top, the ride
is the same as it was, with a quick one foot drop, and then the big plunge.
After leaving MGM, since we were in the neighborhood, we drove over to the
Yacht and
Beach Club and had dinner at Beaches and Cream. We had one of the three
tables with a
remote jukebox selector, and we found that it worked. Monster Mash seemed to
be a popular choice. Despite a full meal, Tara somehow managed to
actually put a dent in her giant dessert.
The main parking lot at the Polynesian seemed to only have spaces way in the
back, but
we discovered a small separate parking lot on the extreme west end of the
property, that
while it appeared to be used mostly for cast member parking, was not marked
as cast
member parking (other than some special "cast member of the month" reserved
spaces),
so this became our secret parking area for the rest of the stay, as it was
actually closer to our room than the main parking lot. We also
got to wave and say AaaahlooooHAAAA to
many castmembers that were either coming or going from work, who all seemed
to park here. None of them indicated any problem with us parking there as well.
It had been a very long first day, and I think that everyone was asleep
within 5 minutes or so.
Friday, November 10th, 1995
The morning started again with a quick breakfast of yogurt and juice from
Capt. Cooks,
and then a drive to MGM studios. First stop: Star Tours, always a favorite,
and now at age 7 Eric was not only old enough to not be
terrorized by it (as on the previous two
trips), but he loved it. There was no line at all, we had walked straight
through and into
the loading area. Next were Muppetvision 4D, also with no waiting, and then
the Great Movie Ride (Western side), again without a wait. We
just missed making a show of
Voyage of The Little Mermaid, but since there was no line at all we became
the first in line
by the doors for the next show. Despite the water effects, I decide to video
tape it, and
my camcorder seemed none the worse for wear despite a few drops on it.
They've
changed the show from our previous trip, as Ariel no longer "swims" through
the air.
Still having not encountered any lines, we boarded the trams for the
backstage set tour and
catastrophe canyon. We were sitting in the very first car, so had the
opportunity to see as
well as hear our guide and driver. After unloading, I noticed that if we
timed things
perfectly we should have just enough time to walk back for the next show of
Superstar
Television, and then could leave promptly from there to make the next show of
Beauty and The Beast. Despite some grief from the rest of the family about my
"schedules", they
went along, and we strolled briskly to the casting area for Superstar
Television. With the
kids positioned carefully to the front and center, we were hoping to have
them cast. On
our previous trip, my father in law had been cast as the butler with the
Three Stooges, and
on the trip before that I had been cast as the guy in the soap opera, so we
were hoping for
the family luck to continue. Sure enough, after asking for any "sports fans"
in the crowd,
Tara was asked to step on up to the platform. When asked what her favorite
sport was,
she answered "tennis" to which the casting director announced "BASEBALL!".
As Tara
giggled on, she was then asked who her favorite baseball team was, to which
she replied
"the Minnesota Twins", only to have the casting director smilingly announce
"THE NEW
YORK METS!". Yes, Tara was about to be cast in the heroic role of hitting
the game
winning home run (off of Nolan Ryan, no less) for the Mets, and then to be
interviewed by Howard Cosell on Speaking of Sports. Despite the
NO VIDEO rules for Superstar
Television, there was no way that I was going to miss this, so with the
assistance of some
chewing gum from Eva, I made a makeshift gum cover for the red record light
on the camcorder, and videotaped her segment, the final group scene, and the
credits. I was able
to pan quickly between the large video monitor and the live blue-screen set,
but mostly
caught the monitor, hoping that the video police would not toss me out. Tara
was great,
and was grinning from ear to ear while swinging for the fence and delivering
her lines.
After the show, I noticed how careful the castmembers were about who they
returned the
kids to, making sure that not just anybody picked them up. Of course, I had
to ask Tara
the immortal question "Tara, you've just hit a grand slam in the biggest game
of the year,
what are you going to do next?" to which she replied "Daaaad (roll eyes
here), we're already AT Walt Disney World!".
It would be close, but with some hustle we made it to the new theater on
Sunset Blvd. just
in time for the beginning of the Beauty and The Beast stage show.
Fortunately for us,
there wasn't too much of a crowd, so we could get pretty good seats despite
walking in just as the first notes were played.
It was lunch time, and we had made reservations at the Sci-Fi Dine-In
Theater, but the
cast member running the desk informed us that they were running about twenty
minutes
behind on reservations. No problem, we simply went over to nearby Star Tours
to take a
quick pre-lunch ride, and then came back. The food at the Sci-Fi is good but
not great, and the prices are a bit steep, but the service was excellent. The
environment is of course
very unique, and what you come here for. Some of the movie clips and
commercials have
changed from our last visit, but some of the old favorites were still there,
like Monster
Robot and Attack of The Fifty Foot Woman. We were disappointed to learn that
Leinenkugle beer was no longer available, as our waiter explained that
despite the cast of
the Sci-Fi advocating it as the best beer they served, very few people had
ever heard of it
other than people like ourselves that had once lived in the greater
Minnesota/Wisconsin
geography. The good news however was that they now carried Blackened Voodoo
beer, which for those of you that are unfamiliar, is the top
micro-brew from the French Quarter
of New Orleans. I had first enjoyed it on tap at the House of Blues in New
Orleans, and
the only place outside of the South where I'd seen it served was at the House
of Blues in
Cambridge, Mass. (only in bottles). So, the Sci-Fi had traded the ability to
serve one great
unknown beer for another great unknown beer, with the new one not having had
to travel quite as far to Florida. As always here, the kids sat
in the front, and we sat in the back.
After lunch we went to the Animation Building. There were
several changes here,
including some new footage in the final animation movie, and the extensive
use of SGI
workstations in addition to conventional manual animation. Next was the
Monster Sound
Show, and we arrived just prior to the casting of a new set of Foley Artists.
When the casting director asked for volunteers, I raised my hand,
was immediately chosen as the
first one. I was to have the pleasure of running the electronic sound panel,
but more importantly, I would be doing the voice of Martin
Short's character. Of course, I hammed
it up ridiculously, and added in a few extra lines.
Since crowds were small, for the first time we were able to spend a good
amount of time
in the sound effects area at the end of the Monster Sound show. We had the
opportunity
to really play with everything there without feeling hordes of other guests
breathing down
our necks, or pressured to have to move off of things quickly. It was a rare
treat, as we basically had the sound room almost to ourselves.
Of course the only major ride that we had not yet visited on this day was the
TZTOT, but
Eric and Alana wanted to pass. They went through the Library and into the
boiler room
with us, but were then escorted to the lower level where they waited for
Tara, Eva, and
me. Tara is starting to really like this attraction. We asked to ride in
the front row, and
since the wait wasn't long, we waited for one extra elevator, to guarantee
our choice of
seats. We were unanimous that the front row is the way to go, there is
nothing quite like
looking out over the front of that elevator at the top, with nothing but air
out in front of you beyond the "Hollywood Tower Hotel" sign.
We drove back to the Polynesian Resort, parked the car, put on some warmer
clothes, and
took the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom. The MK was staying open until 10PM
on Friday and Saturday nights, so this would be our first chance to see
Spectromagic, which
was scheduled for 8:00 P.M. Upon arriving at the entrance to the MK, we now
understood why MGM had seemed almost empty - the whole world seemed to be at
the
MK! I guess that everyone else wanted to see Spectromagic as well, and as
MGM, and
then EPCOT were closing, the crowds seemed to descend upon the Magic Kingdom.
It was so crowded that we abandoned an attempt to walk down Main Street toward
Adventureland, it just wasn't possible! Hmmmm, time for plan B.... We
headed up to the
train station at the main entrance, and waited with a mob for the second
train, riding it to
the Adventureland stop. We then migrated with the massive throng of people
from the
train toward the parade route in Adventureland. By a miracle, we were able
to get an
acceptable vantage point on the deck at the mile-long bar, and watched
Spectromagic
along with some very nice couples from Reading, England. We were at the end
of the
parade route, so despite the 8:00 parade start, the beginning of the parade
did not reach us
until almost 8:30. I was able to make a fairly good video tape, but the
changing lights
sometimes confused the auto-focus circuitry of the camcorder, so on occasion
I would get
a colorful blur as the camera's artificial intelligence system attempted to
try and figure out just what it was looking at.
Spectromagic is most definitely a healthy jump up in technology and spectacle
from the Electric Light Parade. It was particularly enthralling
when entire floats and groupings of
floats would change color patterns right before your eyes. The music was
great. I just
missed Chernabog's big wingspread opening, but was able to video him closing
his wings just before he passed in front of us.
With Spectromagic finished, the vast majority of the crowd headed for the
exits. Not us,
we made a beeline straight for Splash Mountain, and were surprised to find
virtually no
wait. We had a special treat, when just as we reached the top of the climb
for Chick-a-pen
Hill, the fireworks started! What a view, right at the top of Splash
Mountain, a second or
two away from the drop, and the fireworks are going off straight in front of
us. They
were still going off as we rounded the bend in our log to head back into the
attraction for
the final scenes, but were done by the time we exited. Since the line had
been so short, we
went right back into the corrals and rode Splash Mountain again. Only one
thing to do
after that with the park still open and the crowds thinning fast, and that
was to ride Big Thunder Mountain railroad, which we did, twice.
OK, listen up: Big Thunder Mountain railroad isn't just a little better in
the dark at night,
it is MUCH MUCH MUCH better in the dark, at night. This was the unanimous
opinion
of all of us. Some of the special visual effects aren't even noticeable
during the day, and
some just outright are not effective during the day. Some of the effects are
based upon
lighting that renders them invisible during the day. Not being able to
really see which way
the train is going next almost gave a Space Mountain-like feel to BTMRR at
night. We
almost rode it a third time in row, but wanted to try and avoid the final
10:00 exit rush as
much as we could. Besides, we could not complain, we had just ridden Splash
Mountain twice and Big Thunder Mountain twice, in less than one hour.
Since we had not yet taken the local Polynesian Resort launch yet, we
surmised that this
might be a good time to try, as the lines for the ferry, the local monorail,
and especially the
express monorail were all backed up all the way to the MK gates with guests
trying to
exit. As it turned out, the quickest route would have been to take the local
monorail, but
we didn't mind too much as everyone waiting to exit was treated to a repeat
performance
of the Water Pageant on the Seven Seas Lagoon. The small launch for the
Polynesian
stops first at the Grand Floridian, then on to the Polynesian, and then back
to the Magic
Kingdom. Given the large size of the crowd, and the small size of these
resort launches,
we had to wait for three round trips to occur before it was our turn to
board. Of all the
modes of transportation however, this one would deposit us closest to our
room, as it
unloads right at the end of the dock at the Polynesian Resort marina. We
were back in our room by 11:00.
Saturday, November 11th, 1995
After three straight days of unseasonably cold (but clear!) weather, Saturday
was forecast
to have temperatures in the low 80's, and it was fortuitous that I had
planned for this to be
the first day at the water parks, specifically our first-ever visit to
Blizzard Beach.
Typhoon Lagoon was closed for refurbishment, and as it turned out, this was
the ONLY
day of this trip suitable for visiting any water parks. It did indeed reach
the 80s, and this
was the only day of the trip where the temperature had even come close to
that mark.
We slept late, and then had a wonderful breakfast at the Coral Isle Cafe.
The banana-
stuffed French toast (Tonga toast) was the best I've ever had. On our last
visit, it was a
bit sweet, but this was PERFECT, and didn't need anything else on it. The
kids had
Goofy toast, which they also enjoyed. I like the fact that when you order
orange juice, it
is from a bottomless orange juice pitcher. The service was excellent. This
was to be the
first of several meals at the Coral Isle Cafe, all of which had excellent
food and service.
The Coral Isle Cafe is located on the second floor of the Great Ceremonial
House on the
West wing, with the entire side by the entrance open out toward the central
waterfalls, garden , and birds of the lobby, just one flight up.
There is a new road that leads to Blizzard Beach when coming from the Magic
Kingdom
area, and when we arrived at 11:00 there was a medium-size crowd already
there.
Blizzard beach is themed very well , and appears maybe just a little bit more
stark than
Typhoon Lagoon, but it is obvious that they have learned much from Typhoon
Lagoon.
Our favorite ride was Teamboat Springs, which is a very long five-person
white water raft
ride. Unlike the ridiculously short multi-person raft ride at Typhoon
Lagoon, here you
don't have to carry the raft up. A conveyer belt does it for you, and a life
guard at the top
hands it to you. Teamboat springs is not only a long ride, but it's great
fun as you get
some speed, some whitewater, some high banked turns, some drops, and some
surprises.
The summit at which Teamboat Springs is boarded from also includes the two
big speed
slides. These slides were the only things that we did not get to ride at
Blizzard Beach, as
the lines were prohibitively long (mostly with teenagers). OK, OK, and we
wimped out
too, but the lines really were long, anyway. Humunga Cowabunga at Typhoon
Lagoon is
plenty for me, and both of the smaller of the two drops here looked bigger
than that, with Summit Plummet looking MUCH bigger.
While I love both of the main tube rides at Typhoon Lagoon (Keelhaul Falls
and Mayday
Falls), the tube rides at Blizzard Beach are an improvement, even with a
little less scenery.
At Blizzard Beach they load and unload for all three tube courses at the same
places.
They also give you a choice of riding on a single tube, a two person tube, or
a three
person tube. Each has a separate line at the bottom, and the single tube
line seemed to
move the fastest despite being the longest. At the top, each course breaks
into individual
lines. The middle course is completely in the dark, and allows single tubes
only, but the other two courses allow any of the tubes.
The long, slow tube float around the perimeter is not decorated as much as
the one at
Typhoon Lagoon (waiting for vegetation to grow in?) , but it seemed longer.
The water
that falls on you in the ice cave was actually very icy cold, and was best
avoided. Tara got
caught under a waterfall in the cave, and thought that she had lost a contact
lens in the frigid water, but it had stayed on.
Blizzard Beach has done a great job of creating an area for kids that are a
bit old for the
kiddie areas, but not quite ready for the big slides and tubes. It's called
the Ski Patrol
Training Center, and it was very busy. Our kids liked it, but were clearly
on the older side
of being able to really enjoy it, and we didn't stay too long. I would say
that it is ideal for
kids aged 6 to 9, where at Typhoon Lagoon Ketch-a-kiddie Creek is best suited
for kids
aged 2 to 6.
We took several runs on the mat courses. You collect the mats at the same
place, and
then have a choice at the top of which course to ride. One is a continuous
slalom course,
with three separate lanes. It's fun and fast, I was catching air on almost
every banked
curve past the first two. It empties you out into a pool. The other course
is a straight,
eight lane toboggan-like run that lets you race against up to seven other
racers. It has a
few dips, and ends with you still in the lane at the bottom, on your mat.
The wall at the
end of the course sure looks like it is coming up quickly, and I put on the
brakes hard to make sure that I didn't hit it.
One nice touch was that we noticed that they seemed to play a lot of music at
Blizzard
Beach. It was mostly "wintry" music at the bottom of the mountain, and
mostly tropical
and Caribbean music playing all over the top half of the mountain. We heard
Jimmy Buffett, Bob Marley, calypso, reggae, California beach music, and
Caribbean"island music" in general. Cool.
Overall, we all really liked Blizzard Beach, and it is a good compliment to,
and definitely
not a replacement for Typhoon Lagoon. It was very nice having the kids now
being old
enough that they could not only ride everything (OK, except for the two big
speed slides,
although Tara and Alana are both pros at the speed slide at Water Country in
NH), but that Eva and I didn't have to worry about them doing
something stupid or drowning.
When we returned to the Polynesian, fearing that this might be their only
chance given the
cold weather forecast, the kids all went swimming in the main Polynesian
pool. The main
pool was just across the marina from our building. A second, smaller pool
(without a
slide) is located further East on the property, beyond the Great Ceremonial
House. The main pool is nicely themed, not quite as nice as the
main pool at the Caribbean Beach
Resort, but with an unusual unique feature - there is Polynesian music piped
in through
underwater speakers that can only be heard when you are under water in the
pool! The
slide is well done, as you must walk through a waterfall and up though a lava
tube to then
head down the curvy slide. There is a thatched-roof hut bar by the pool, and
a stand for a
woman who does hair wraps. The girls decided that they wanted to get hair
wraps later in the week.
Since the kids were acting so "grown up", and the girls were only a few
months away
from attending baby-sitting classes, Eva and I decided that this would be as
good a time
and place as any to test their level of responsibility. After everyone had
showered, we
ordered pizzas and drinks for them from Capt. Cooks, and made reservations
for just the
two of us at `Ohana. As we would be less than 100 yards away as the crow
flies, this seemed to be pretty safe.
Upon flashing that resort ID with the White Glove Treatment rider on it, Eva
and I were
given a CHOICE of tables in the main dining room, for immediate seating. We
chose a
large table just to the side of the main grill. `Ohana is new, and has
recently replaced the
Papeete Bay Verandah. It is dinner only, one price for all, and the place to
go if you are
REALLY hungry, or haven't eaten in a few days. As we were seated, our
hostess
explained everything about `Ohana, including that the word "`Ohana" means
"family",
and that for the rest of the evening (or at least as long as we were at
`Ohana), we would
ALL be family. Our waitress and hostess referred to us as "cousins" all
night, as in "what
incredibly delicious, freshly made item can I get for you now, cousins?".
The centerpiece at `Ohana is a very large, wood-fired grill, upon which large
sausages,
chicken, turkey, beef, and Cajun shrimp are grilled with wonderful
seasonings. These are
accompanied by lazy Susans full of different salads and dim sum, which were
truly outstanding. The way it works is that after the salads and dim sum are
delivered, your
waiter or waitress will bring you a sample of each of the cooked items
(whatever you
want), and then will bring you whatever you want, in whatever quantity you
want it. The
cooked items are all prepared on long metal skewers, and taken straight to
your plate from
the grill on these skewers, where they will be removed in whatever quantity
you request.
There were several different sauces for dipping the meats and shrimp, and
they were
delicious. We had a nice bottle of wine to accompany all of this, and it was
veritable feast.
During the feast there was live entertainment, including some Hawaiian sing-
alongs, coconut races for the kids, and a kids parade through the dining room.
We will definitely go here again on our next trip, and will fast all day
prior to going! We
recommend `Ohana very highly. The food was excellent, and the service was
excellent.
But be forewarned, it is not cheap, but you get what you pay for. Thus, if
you are VERY
hungry, or can eat, say an entire moose for example, you will love `Ohana.
The kids had not only managed to get along fine with each other while we were
gone, but
actually appeared to have eaten their dinner in addition to watching the
Disney channel.
Since it was still relatively early in the evening, and everyone was well
rested, we all took
the bus to Pleasure Island for a brief visit. We could not make it past the
Superstar
Studios without stopping in to do a video. We weren't yet up to doing a
group video, but
since Alana had been the lead in Online Repertory Company's production of
"Annie" last
year, she not only did the video, be re-recorded the vocals to "Tomorrow"
prior to
recording the video portion, so that she would be lip-synching to her own
voice. The
passerby that had wandered in to the studio were blown away. Two women could
not
believe that it was actually Alana singing (and not the pre-recorded version
that the studio
keeps) until they heard her sing along with the final copy. After the final
copy was
finished and broadcast on the main screens, the crowd gave Alana quite an
ovation.
We just barely missed making it into line in time for the next show at the
Comedy Warehouse, so of course the only logical alternative was to go to the
Adventurer's Club.
We stayed through the second initiation of the evening, and the Radiothon
Broadcast
show in the library before leaving. While several of the cast on this night
seemed new, it
was the same maid (the best!) from our last two trips in `93 and `91.
We had a nice view of the new Planet Hollywood while waiting for the bus back
to the Polynesian. It is bigger than I had expected, and I was surprised to see
that it really is round, and shaped like a globe.
Sunday, November 12th, 1995
We had some donuts, juice, and coffee on the car (from Capt. Cooks) on the
way over to
EPCOT center. With "Honey, I Shrunk The Audience" being the only full new
attraction
at EPCOT since our last trip, this was to be the first stop. It's great, a
few of the 3D
effects are amazing, and are even beyond those of Muppetvision, particularly
the crash into the sign, the lion, snake, and dog. The moving seats adds to the
effect. The preshow is new, and is based upon a theme of
imagination and creativity with a format very
similar to the previous pre-show that uses lots of Kodak photographic images,
of course.
Since it was adjacent, we next went to Journey Into Imagination (no line) and
the Imageworks (no crowd!). We practically had the Imageworks to ourselves, and
everyone
got to do multiple faces on the touch screens, and walk right up to a station
for everything
else. Attractions like this are MUCH more enjoyable when you don't feel
rushed by
someone in line behind you waiting to use the same station., and making you
feel compelled to be quick.
We crossed Future World to ride Body Wars, but at a 20 minute wait (boy, are
we spoiled) we decided to wait and ride it later. Instead, we saw Cranium
Command and The Making of Me, and explored the Sensory Playhouse a bit.
There have been some significant changes made to Spaceship Earth, including a
whole
new monologue, and the addition of all new things during the final descent
back to the base, themed on modern and future communications. The new Global
Neighborhood at
the exit of Spaceship Earth had a few interesting things. The most popular
portion of the
Global Neighborhood seems to be these large tubes that you stand in that move
as a film is projected in front of you, inside the tube,
demonstrating the movement of global communications.
We had made reservations for lunch at the Coral Reef at The Living Seas based
upon
recent positive reports, and some sample menu items in the Disney restaurant
guide. This was our first, and will also be our last meal there.
The food was quite good, but portions
were small, none of the advertised items from the guide were on the menu that
day, and it
was WAY WAY WAY overpriced. I can't imagine what it must be like for dinner,
as this
lunch was one of our most expensive meals of any kind on the trip. Maybe
we're just
spoiled living in New England, and as such are accustomed to good seafood at
reasonable
prices, but even so this was ridiculous. Although I can't say anything bad
about the
quality of the food, the Coral Reef wins my award for the WORST meal value at
Walt Disney World. Yes, we did have a very nice table with a clear view of the
large aquarium,
and yes we did get to see a scuba diver doing special things with the aquatic
life just for
those of us dining in the Coral Reef, but is that worth a ridiculous mark-up?
I didn't think
so. It was also a looooong, leisurely lunch, which to my way of thinking was
taking up
way too much valuable park time! How expensive was it? Lunch for two adults
and three kids: $175.
After lunch we spent a good amount of time in the Living Seas, and then saw
the new Food Rocks and Circle of Life shows at The Land.
The main fountains at EPCOT are spectacular. Every hour on the hour there is
a computer controlled show, with music, lights, and incredible fountain
effects. Worth seeing.
The line for Body Wars was now down to less than 5 minutes, so we all rode
it, turned back around, and then rode it again. Alana was
disappointed that Horizons was closed, it
has always been one of her favorites, so we kept going over to World of
Motion.
When you get off of the World of Motion ride, the exit has changed, as it is
clear that the
construction for the new attraction was already well underway, even as the
old one
continues to run. We had walked all the way to the far side of the building
by where the
new GM cars are, before realizing that there was no longer an exit there! We
had to walk all the way back to the makeshift exit, which was
past the restrooms.
World Showcase seemed a little more crowded than Future World, as our wait
for the Maelstrom was about 10 minutes. The kids voted to head to Innoventions.
Eric and Tara rode the Sega Virtua Racing cars, and had fun with it. There
are eight large
racing cars that actually move in all planes. With one racer in each, and
their own very
large monitor in front of them, it's about as close as it comes to the real
thing. Eric was in first place for much of the race, but was
edged out in the last five seconds, and finished
second. Tara sort of motored along happily, finishing in eighth place.
To my surprise, the kids were not all that enthralled with Innoventions.
Tara's favorite
part was probably playing one of the digital keyboards, which she did
oblivious to the
audience that had gathered around her admiring her playing. Eric seemed to
enjoy the
basic Sega video games best. Alana seemed bored. I was especially surprised
that the
kids didn't care much for the virtual reality tour of St. Peter's Basilica,
which Eva and I
thought was way cool. The kids wanted to use the VR goggles, and merely
watching the monitors didn't excite them.
The pace of the first few days was possibly starting to take its toll, so
instead of staying
for Illuminations, the majority vote was to head back to the Polynesian
Resort for an early
night's sleep. On the way out, we noticed that they have place fiber optic
lights in the
GROUND outside of Innoventions. It's a very neat effect, as it looks like
the ground
suddenly illuminates with hundreds of tiny lights in random patterns, and
then the light disappears.
We picked up some quick food at Capt. Cooks, and turned in early.
Monday, November 13th, 1995
With a good nights sleep, we were up and out early to Universal Studios.
After five days
of having not left the Disney property, I most definitely came to appreciate
why Disney
refers to customers as "guests" by comparison to Universal Studios. While
almost
everyone at Universal is cordial and professional, I just kept getting the
feeling that we were "customers", versus WDW where I really did
feel like a guest.
We took the quickest path directly to Back To The Future. On our previous
trip, we had
somehow always managed to wind up on the top level, but on this morning, we
rode from
the lower level. The view from the lower level is BETTER! I've heard that
the middle
level is supposedly the best, but we've yet to get there. This was Eric's
first time on BTTF, and he loved it.
Next was Jaws, and our longest wait of the day (about 20 minutes), being the
newest
major attraction. Our boat guide was outstanding, and obviously hoping for
greater acting
opportunities someday. Jaws was fun, and we did get a little wet, but not
soaked. The
giant great white shark hanging by its tail near the entrance makes for some
fun photography. While you are walking through the corrals in the queue for
Jaws, there are
some creative and comical faux television broadcasts from Amity to keep you
entertained.
From Jaws we strolled along the back road in San Francisco to Earthquake.
Almost as soon as we entered the pre-show waiting area, I was picked to be a
participant in the
show. I was handed a jumpsuit, and the audience was told that I would be
dropping from
40 feet up on a rope. I was psyched to actually do it, and was a bit
disappointed when
told that I wouldn't really be putting on the outfit, but rather just waiting
backstage, and
then acting dazed when emerging from where the audience would see a dummy
(supposedly me) fall from 40 feet. At least the dazed part I could handle,
and I rolled around on the floor a bit while feigning injury from the fall.
King Kong was next, and we got a full blast of banana breath.
ET has been one of our favorite attractions at Universal, but they still
don't seem to have
the bugs worked out of the ET voice at the end that is supposed to thank you
by name.
On our last trip, it had worked one out of two times. This trip, it didn't
work right on either time through.
Next was the Animal Actors show, which included a Maine cooncat, a horse, a
cockatoo, Benji, a chimpanzee, Mr. Ed, Beethoven, and some birds. It was cute.
After lunch we were just in time for the Murder She Wrote show. With a
motivated cast
and a good audience, this can be very good. It must have been Steinhardt
participation
day, as Eva was picked to totally embarrass herself by doing the kissing
sound dubs, all
three kids were picked to do miscellaneous noises and sounds on stage, and I
was picked to do the voice dub for Professor Astrid.
As if this wasn't enough next at Ghostbusters, Alana was picked in the pre-
show to don a
Ghostbusters suit as a Student Ghostbuster, and hold the slime. With her
being one of the
only three people chosen to participate from the audience, this was a thrill
for her. She did
great, and unlike those that have preceded her (as evidenced by the slime
stains all over
the floor) she did NOT drop any slime, despite them adding more to her pile
mid-way
through the pre-show. The actor that was running the show and working with
her was very good.
We went all the way across the park to make the Western Stunt Show, which was
a bit long, but allowed the stunt actors to show off their stuff.
Another full traverse took us to Nickelodeon Studios. Unfortunately, there
was nothing in
production, so we did some shopping and watched the slime geyser erupt a
couple of
times. Tara and Alana each bought different Universal Studios sweatshirts,
and Eric bought a character model of Crumb from Real Monsters.
As it was now getting on in the day, it was time to prioritize any last
attractions to visit
before leaving. The vote: Jaws, Back To The Future, and ET. We went on all
of them,
with just enough time to get a spot for the big spectacular on the lagoon,
complete with speedboats, lights, and pyrotechnics.
Universal was offering a second free day option, so on the possibility that
we might come
back later in the week, I traded in my tickets for the second day vouchers,
but we didn't
get to use them. They should improve this process, as the line was quite
long to make the ticket trade.
With the cold weather, we decided that it would be wise to secure some more
warm clothes, so we went to the Character Warehouse at the Belz Factory Outlet
complex.
Yikes, at least 60% of the stock was all Pochahontas-oriented, and there
were virtually
NO basic sweatshirts, of ANY kind. While you never know what you will find
on any given day at the Character Warehouse, this was the worst selection of
merchandise I've
ever encountered there. Eva and I had both planned on buying sweatshirts,
and finally
were able to find some pullovers with an embroidered Mickey on them, but the
pullovers
had an unusual cut, with a half zipper in the front coming down from the
collar, and a lace
cord passing through the collar. At least they were warmer than T-shirts.
These were the
ONLY sweatshirts/jacket type things there, and they were available only in
adult sizes, so
we couldn't get anything for Eric. That's right, there were NO kids
sweatshirts of any
kind, and it was 50-something degrees outside. At the Nike store down the
road on
International Drive we were finally able to find a sweatshirt in his size,
with a street hockey graphic.
Just a little further South on I-drive is Jose O'days at Mercado, and we
stopped in for an
excellent Mexican dinner. The portions there are large, and the prices very
reasonable,
especially when using the free drink coupons (including Margaritas for Eva
and me) for the entire party, from the flyer at Belz.
Tuesday, November 14th., 1995
This was another day to sleep late, get some rest, and take it at a slower
pace. We didn't
get up until about 11:00 or so. by the time we got over to the Coral Isle
Cafe for
breakfast, it was too late for breakfast, so we stayed and had lunch instead.
Lunch at the
resort hotels means that you practically have the place to yourself. The
Blue Plate Special
was a Szechwan stir-fry, and the very large portion did come on a very large
blue plate.
The menu said that they would temper the heat to your request, so I ordered
it extra hot,
and it was extra hot, yum! Our waitress gave me a few looks, and seemed
shocked that I not only ate it, but enjoyed it.
We drove over to the Disney Village Marketplace to do some shopping, and
again the
crowds were non-existent, which made it a lot more pleasurable. Eric bought
tons of
Orlando Magic paraphernalia from Team Mickey's, and the cast member who had
started
up a conversation with him told me how surprised she was that a 7-year old
from
Massachusetts would be so knowledgeable about the Magic, and such a big fan.
I told her
that Shaq had been his idol for some time. Alana bought a Pooh and Tigger
watch that
she had admired at one of the stores in the Polynesian Resort, but at the
Character Shop
we could buy it at 10% discount. The kids all bought things to bring back
for their classes, I bought some giant taffy-filled coffee mugs for my two
administrative assistants
at EMC, and Eva bought a really nice embroidered Winnie the Pooh pullover
jacket.
With the temperature being a balmy 68 degrees, the kids all went swimming in
the
Polynesian pool when we returned, and we made our lone laundry run for the
trip.
Laundry is not as convenient as at the Caribbean Beach Resort, as there is
only one
laundry room at the Polynesian, and it was quite a distance from our building.
After some showers to warm the kids back up (after leaving the heated pool),
we headed for Pioneer Hall and the Hoop-De-Doo review. This was
our third time at the HDDR,
and for the third time the same cast member was playing Claire. If you've
been there, you
know her by her distinctive voice and infectious laugh. Our waiter, Alyn,
was the best
we've had from our three visits, and was attentive, involved, and funny. As
if I have to
say it, our table was in the very front row, one table left of center as you
are looking at the
stage. The food was good, the show was excellent, and the beer was watered
down (possibly non-alchoholic?), but drinkable. As it became time to cast the
Spectacle, from
the very back of the room Dolly spied Eric leaning on the stage, ran up to
the front, and
dragged him up to be the Texas Ranger. Eric did his part with a perpetual
grin, and
afterward received not only some kisses from Dolly and Claire, but a Pioneer
Players
certificate, and a Polaroid photograph of him on stage flexing his muscles in
full character.
A nice way to end the day. Eric received several comments from other guests
as we were leaving regarding this major launch of his acting career.
Wednesday, November 15th, 1995
We were able to sleep a little bit later than usual, as this was to be the
Wonders of The
World class day for Tara and Alana, and they were supposed to meet their
groups at the
main entrance to the Disney/MGM Studios at 9:15. Tara would be taking the
Art Magic
class, and Alana the Show Biz Magic class. That leaves Eric to be Itinerary
Master For
The Day, and we let him have decision power for where to go and what to do.
Since we were already at MGM, we suggested that he should
consider choosing things that were there first.
First stop - Star Tours with no line, so the second stop was...Star Tours
again!
All week Disney had been running two ads in the local papers - one for the
new Ace Ventura show on New York street, and the other soliciting
for additional actors that were
Jim Carrey look-alikes/act-alikes to play the role. We caught the show, and
it was OK,
not worth seeing more than once. The music was a highlight, and that sort of
says it all.
The actor that played "Ace" did have the mannerisms and voice down cold.
Basically,
"Ace" drives in from down the street, is interviewed by a reporter, and then
climbs to the
top of the adjacent building to catch an elusive white owl. Not worth the
time expended.
The Backstage Special Effects Tour has been changed since our last trip. The
pre-show is
now based upon the new Denzel Washington/Gene Hackman submarine movie from last
year, complete with video clips and props from the movie. I kept looking to
see when they would be casting the volunteers for the water tank section,
since I've previously had the honor of being "Captain Duck", but the crowd was
told that it was so cold (high 50's, going to low `60's) that they would be
using a mannequin instead! The tour has been shortened, some pieces have
been eliminated, and it now ends right after viewing the sets
and props from the Bette Midler "Lottery" clip.
There were no active productions in progress, just some sets being torn down
from the previous day's filming. Eric, being a Shaquille O'Neal
fanatic couldn't believe that he had
missed his hero by only one day - evidently the sets that were being taken
down had been
from a candy bar commercial that Shaq had been filming there the day before.
They had
done both video and still shots, across two soundstages. I haven't seen the
final result anywhere yet, other than the candy bar itself.
Eric's biggest request was to ride the Gran Prix Raceway at the Magic
Kingdom, so that's
where we headed next. We've always avoided the Gran Prix Raceway due to the
long wait, and the fact that you can do the same thing at Canobie Lake Park in
N.H., but with
this being "Eric's Choice" day, he'd finally get his wish. Even on a low
crowd day like
this, in a low season, the wait was about 20 minutes. Eva rode with Eric,
and I videotaped their lap (as much of it as I could see) from the grandstand.
As we walked back toward the center of Tomorrowland from the raceway, we
noticed a
peculiar traffic pattern heading to the East, and YES YES YES!!!, Space
Mountain had
been re-opened early!!!!! It was not scheduled to re-open until after the
end of our trip,
but the refurbishment must have gone on or ahead of schedule. They have
added new TV
monitors in the inside corrals, and they show a mock Inter-Galactic News
broadcast. It
has some pretty funny stuff, including news, sports, weather, traffic, and of
course, some
FedEx commercials (the sponsor for Space Mountain) featuring space aliens.
The ride is
as good as always. The post-ride has also been changed. This was Eric's
first-ever ride
on Space Mountain, and although he was a bit nervous, he loved it, so after
riding on the
right side, we came right back in and rode it again on the left side.
We were now in a full-swing mountain mood, so next came Splash Mountain and
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I videotaped the entire ride on Splash Mountain,
and it came out surprisingly good, with only a few low-light area "gaps" in the
continuity. On the
drop, I just held the camcorder up, and pointed it in the general direction
of the fall.
Lunch was at a new place in Liberty Square that now serves healthy foods like
veggie
salad pockets and such, and it was very good. We had an outside table
against a low ivy-
covered brick wall with a great direct view of the castle, providing both
privacy ( a rarity in the MK) and a scenic view.
Our final stop of Eric's whirlwind tour of the MK was to see Timekeeper, and
I remembered to videotape it so as to catch all of those Robin Williams one-
liners.
We were supposed to pick up the girls back at MGM at 3:30, and it looked as
if we'd be
cutting it close, since we had to fight through the 3:00 Mickey Mania parade
crowd to get
out of the MK. We arrived just a couple of minute late, but neither class
had returned yet.
Alana was the first to show up. The good news was that she had been in a
class of only four people, including herself. The bad news was that the other
three were not only "boys!, ugh!", but three brothers. This meant
that on democratic votes that the castmember running the class
put to the group for what to do next, everything seemed to
be 3 against 1, with Alana being the 1. She was also the only one of the
four that actually
had significant "Show Biz" performance experience, so she felt a bit alone.
Although she
seemed a bit downtrodden immediately after the class, later that day and week
the more
she talked about what had actually gone on during the class, the more she
seemed to
realize that maybe it really had been fun after all. Alana's class had spent
a good deal of
time at the Magic Kingdom, and she related how fun it was to be able to cut
the entire line
and ride the Jungle Cruise with no wait. She also enjoyed being able to
spend most of the
time "backstage" at WDW, and she got to meet one of the performers from the
Diamond Horseshoe Revue.
Tara's experience was obviously a very different story when she arrived about
ten minutes
later. She was bubbling over with enthusiasm for what a GREAT time she had
in her Art
Magic class. There had been seven kids in Tara's class, and it seemed to
make a
difference that it included "other girls", about her age. Tara's class had
stayed at MGM,
and she also enjoyed the behind-the-scenes experience, especially in the
animation
building. She proudly showed off the expertly hand-painted Mickey cell that
she had
completed, as well as some of the drawings that she had worked on during the
class, with
the guidance of the Disney cast. She also felt special when being able to
cut the lines, in her case at Star Tours.
As Alana, Eva, and I (and especially Alana) are big fans of sushi, we had an
early dinner at
Kobe on route 192 in Kissimmee. The dinner specials were excellent, but the
sushi was
only fair and not particularly fresh. On a previous visit, I had eaten very
good sushi there, maybe that chef was elsewhere on this night.
The early dinner was to enable us to spend a full night at Pleasure Island.
We parked the
car back at the Polynesian, put on some additional layers of clothes, and
took the bus to PI.
We were determined not to miss the Comedy Warehouse, so we waited in the
corrals
(with drinks in hand) for the next show, and managed to (again!) get front-
row seats.
The show was great, and included a couple of the same comedians from previous
years.
The kids got a kick out of the cast using one of my "improvisational"
suggestions ("A Wizard!") to determine one of the contestants for
the mock Jeopardy show skit. The
comedian who played the wizard was hilarious, so it must have been the
suggestion that made the part...
Of course, the next stop was the Adventurer's Club, for the third member
initiation of the
evening. I should have known that great embarrassment lay ahead, as the cast
were already having conversations with the kids (and not me) prior to the next
show. The next
show in the library was the Adventurer's Cabaret. Those of you who are old-
time
members of the Adventurer's Club will know that this is a modified version of
what for
years was known as Mandora's Cabaret, but the character of Mandora has been
replaced
by the character of Samantha Sterling, who is just a little less sleazy a
character than
Mandora had been. Yes, we had a front-row table, right in the center.
The cast member who was playing Samantha Sterling on this particular evening
was outstanding. Maybe it was her voice. Maybe it was her rustic beauty. Maybe
it was the
fact that she made me get up on stage with her to dance. Maybe it was
because she made
me introduce the entire family to the audience, including Eric who was now
soundly
sleeping with his head down on the table (hey, it had been Eric's Choice day,
and he had made the most of it). Her public comment on Eric was
something to effect that possibly
Eric had had "one too many rides on the tea cups at the Magic Kingdom" today.
Hold that thought, as for the rest of this show, whenever any reference to Eric
was to be made by an Adventurer's Club castmember (and several references were made), he
would be known as "Tea Cup".
Well it seems that Samantha is so taken with my dancing, that she wants me to do
the "bump and grind" with her again for the audience. I asked her if that was
something like slam-dancing, to which she replied that it could
be, depending on the situation. Of course,
I took full opportunity to dance as ridiculously as possible. As Samantha is
trying to stay
in character and not crack up laughing, she informs the crowd that they've
"never seen
dancing quite like that, what exactly was that???" , and I'm invited (with
the cast prodding
on the audience, who are now cheering/laughing wildly) to dance solo on the
stage one
more time, as Samantha brings the attention to Eva, ("front and center!"),
to have the special "seat of honor" to enjoy the show and be driven wild by my
"animalistic charms".
There is so much commotion that with perfect timing, Eric awakes, still half
asleep, to see
his father alone on stage, with the cast looking on. Samantha asks the
rhetorical question:
"Hey Tea Cup, is he ALWAYS like this?" Eric has no idea why this strange
person in
safari garb is calling him "Tea Cup" in front of a packed-house audience.
All this time, Tara and Alana are laughing so hard they're crying.
The cast had been doing it's homework. As Inga, the maid, makes her
entrance, she
informs Samantha that she has just been awakened from this horrible
nightmare, where she
states "some strange guy named Ken, who manages product marketing for some
company
called EMC, was doing this bizarre ritualistic dance that scared me half to
death!".
Shortly, the club president, Pamelia Perkins makes her entrance, asking
strange questions about computer data storage.
Needless to say, for any and all remaining parts of the show that required
any form of
involvement with or reference to the audience, Samantha, Inga, and Pamelia
looked no
further than the Steinhardt table. At the end of the show, Samantha said
good bye
personally to Eva, Tara, Alana, and "Tea Cup", gave me a kiss, and then took
off her own
Adventurer's Club membership pin and pinned it on me. Pamelia was next, and
gave me a
big long exaggerated kiss, and finally came Inga. Inga got the kids
attention, pointed to
the back of the Library yelling "Look kids, it's Mickey Mouse!", and as the
three kids all
turned to look toward the back of the room, she quickly lifted up her maid's
dress and
flashed me (yes she had frilly maid undergarments on, it IS Disney, you
know!), and then
turned to Eva saying, "it is a kid's show after all, you know", as the kids
missed the
flashing. One last kiss for me, and then I sure got some pretty interesting
smiles and
comments from other guests on the island for the rest of the night, as in
"hey look, there's Ken!".
With "Tea Cup" fading fast, and informing us that he didn't like being called
"Tea Cup", we watched the New Years Eve show, and then took the bus back to the
Polynesian for some sleep.
Thursday, November 16th, 1995
This was yet another morning to sleep late, until about 10:30 or so. Every
morning the
local Orlando newspaper would be outside our door, and this morning Eric had
secured
the paper before anyone else was awake. Despite being only seven, he was
able to zero in
on an article in the sports section stating that 200 tickets to the Orlando
Magic vs. The
Indiana Pacers had just been made available for their game that evening in
the O-Rena.
He came charging in the bathroom while I was taking a shower to inform me of
this, and
promising to be a perfect child through the year 2217 if I could only find
some way to see
if we could get some of those tickets. Eva and I discussed it, and agreed
that if I could get
tickets, that Eric and I would go, and she and the girls would have a "girls
night out" somewhere along the monorail route.
While there may have been 200 seats available, only two pairs of them were
immediately
adjacent to another seat. One pair was in the $100 court-side section - no,
I don't think
so, especially with Shaq still out of the roster with his thumb injury.
But...., Yes!, there
were two seats available together in the lower section of the first balcony,
and at about
$60 for the pair, including tax, it seemed like a winner. When I gave Eric
the news that
he and I would be going to see the Magic that evening, he was ecstatic.
The girls were off to the pool area to get hair wraps. They had tried
earlier in the week,
but had never been able to catch the woman who does them when she was
working.
Alana's was fairly quick, but Tara has very long blonde hair, at $1 an inch
plus extra costs
for additional beads or jewelry, hers cost $30 to Alana's $18.
This was a day that we had set aside to meet with my Aunt and Uncle from
Tampa, who
drove out from Tampa to join us for lunch. While I had seen them during
business trips to
Tampa, the last time that they had seen Eva was at our wedding, and they had
never met
the kids. We decided to try the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness
Lodge, and all piled in to the Cadillac to drive over.
The Wilderness Lodge is impressive, and if we only had two (or fewer) kids
instead of
three, I'd definitely consider staying here. The lobby is huge and
impressive, and the grounds are interesting.
I would classify lunch at the Whispering Canyon Cafe as the best meal value
of the trip,
and the best meal value that I've encountered on-property at WDW. It's an
all-you-can-
eat affair, and the food had variety, was tasty , and was plentiful. The
salad bar was
excellent, and the chili was surprisingly good. Don't have a big breakfast
if you're coming
here for lunch. During the lunch, the castmembers roped an unsuspecting
person having a
birthday, and "dragged" them around the dining room. I can't imagine what it
must be
like for dinner, I suppose that you'd want to go the whole day without eating
before
dinner there. The total for all seven of us for lunch was about $60, and we
pigged out.
compare this to our lunch for five at the Coral Reef, where we got much less
food...
After walking around the grounds at the Wilderness Lodge for a while, we bid
my Aunt
and Uncle good-bye, and while Eva read in the room, the kids and I went out
on the
Seven Seas Lagoon in water sprites. If you show them that you have the
American
Express "white glove treatment" (and we did), you get a 10% discount on all
watercraft.
Not wanting to be late, Eric and I left for downtown Orlando and the O-Rena
around
6:00. We had no problem finding the O-Rena, and having been conditioned to
what
parking is like at the Boston Garden/Fleet Center, it was a pleasant surprise
to be able to
find ample convenient parking in a garage directly across from the O-Rena,
and for only $5.
We picked up our tickets, and when the main doors opened we found our way to
our
seats, and split a large Coke and a pizza for dinner. I was able to deduce
that the possible
reason for tickets becoming available may have had something to do with the
fact that virtually the entire starting lineup for the Indiana Pacers had been
suspended for this game
due to a brawl that had occurred during another game a few days before. So I
suppose
we'll have to see Reggie Miller and Ric Smits another time.
Although Shaq was still sidelined by his thumb injury, he was court-side with
the team, and looking very dapper in an electric-blue suit.
The best part of watching a game live is that you can see the entire court
and court
movement without being biased by the camera's perspective and focus. The
greatest
revelation for me was seeing what an incredible defensive player Horace Grant
is, by
watching him on defense away from the ball. I now know why the Chicago Bulls
needed
to get Dennis Rodman, and it was to fill a huge defensive void left by Horace
Grant having
been traded to Orlando. I've never seen anyone play defense as well as
Horace Grant was
playing in this game. Needless to say, the Magic lead the whole way, and won
the game.
It all appeared to seem incredible to Eric. During the team warm-ups he made
comments
like "Daddy, that's the REAL Penny Hardaway over there! Daddy that's the
REAL Dennis Scott over there!" and so on. Eric was dressed in a Magic shirt,
Magic shorts, and
a Magic hat, wearing a Magic button. A typical Massachusetts resident...
During half-time, I bought an 8X11 framed picture where Eric's face was
superimposed
from a blue-screen digital photo over someone wearing a Magic uniform on the
Magic
bench, alongside Shaq, Penny, Horace Grant, Nick Anderson, and Dennis Scott.
It came
out great. The booth that was doing these photos was sponsored by a local
childrens charity.
We returned to the Polynesian to learn that the ladies had enjoyed a pleasant
low-key
evening staying at the Polynesian, having had a very nice dinner at the Coral
Isle Cafe.
Eric eventually stopped talking about the game, and we all got to sleep.
Friday November 18th, 1995
This was to be the family "greatest hits" day, when we democratically let
everyone help
decide what are the favorite attractions that we should visit on our last
full day in the parks.
Per requests from Tara, Eva, and me, we began with the TZTOT at MGM. Alana
and
Eric decided not to ride, and waited in the lower level. After we made it
into the boiler
room, we noticed that no one was walking toward the left-side elevators. We
figured that
the worst that could happen if it wasn't running was that we would have to
walk back, but
found to our surprise that it was running, and for some reason no one was
going this way.
Thus, Tara, Eva, and I had our very own private elevator!!! I had already
made up my
mind that I'd have to buy the drop photo from this, and we all sat in the
front row.
The ride went great, but just after our elevator came to a stop at the end of
the big drop, it
REALLY came to a stop, and with us on the ground in the very bottom of the
elevator
shaft, the ride went dead! The work lights came on, and we could see a sort
of flexible
screen in front of us, and a wall behind us that was supposed to move so that
our elevator
could back up and head out. A cast member behind the wall asked if we were
OK, to
which of course we responded that we were fine, and it was a lot better being
stuck at the
very BOTTOM than at the very TOP, unless of course another elevator car was
on the
way down. She told us that they were re-booting, and that things would be
moving again
in a few minutes, and she checked in with us about every 30 seconds. We sat
for about
five minutes, and when we finally backed out, they offered to let us stay on
and
immediately ride again without even having to go back up to the loading
level. Since
Alana and Eric were waiting for us, we declined, but they gave us coupons to
let us bypass
the line on a future ride, and told us to just come back through the lower
level to where
the ride unloads, and they would let us get right back on whenever we wanted.
Just in
case, we picked up coupons for Alana and Eric as well. They were a little
worried, since
they saw many people that had been in line with us all come out, and we're
beginning to
think that maybe there might be something to this Twilight Zone stuff about
guests vanishing in the TZTOT after all!
Next was the Great Movie Ride, on the Gangster Side (the cars in the back).
I think that
this is the better side to ride, as you not only get the live "Gangster"
portion, but you get
the Western side show as well, only minus the live action. On the Western
side, you don't
get any of the Gangster side active portion, as the car simply passes through
on its way to the Western side active portion.
We can't go to MGM without riding Star Tours, and I was trying to figure out
how many times we had been on Star Tours this trip. Six? Seven?
One last show at Muppetvision 3D, and then it was back to the TZTOT to use
those line-
cutting passes. We were able to persuade Alana to ride, but Eric still
wanted to sit it out,
so he waited in the lower level while Alana, Tara, Eva , and I rode it for
the last time this
trip. Having been able to see the tower from the top of Blizzard Beach, we
all made a
point to try and look for Blizzard Beach at the top of the TZTOT when the
doors opened.
sure enough, there it was in the distance, just a little bit to the right.
That was it for MGM, and we left for EPCOT Center, and the San Angel Inn at
Mexico for lunch.
The food and service at the San Angel Inn was as outstanding as always, and
they make a
great Margarita in addition to the great Mexican food. The kids were kidding
me about
yet again, being able to make it through the entire meal without my speaking
anything but
Spanish with the staff. When the Mariachi band began to play, Alana got up
and took some photographs for a school project.
It's was only proper to ride El Rio De Tiempo after lunch, and then Tara
collected some Mexico travel brochures for her school project.
None of us had ever seen the Wonders of China film here, although I was
assuming that it
was the same film shown at Disneyland, which I had seen, but not anyone else.
It was the same, and it is excellent.
We made it to the American Adventure just in time to catch the end of the
Voices of
Liberty show, except we were then informed that due to some problems with the
American Adventure show, it would not be open until later. Oh well...
As we strolled further around World Showcase, we could not help but hear the
drums coming from Japan. We watched most of the drum show, and
then took the boat launch back to Futureworld.
Our final rides in Futureworld, by popular request, were Honey, I Shrunk The
Audience, Journey Into Imagination, and Body Wars. None had lines.
We dropped the car back at the Polynesian, and took the boat launch directly
from the dock at the Polynesian marina to the Magic Kingdom.
The choice for the first attraction to visit was unanimous: Space Mountain.
This is Tara's
favorite ride. Alana had never been on it, and was a bit jealous that Eric
had been able to
ride it before she did, as she had been in her Wonders of The Worlds class on
Wednesday when Eric rode it with Eva and I. We rode it twice,
and Alana loved it.
We grabbed some quick food for the kids, and then did Splash Mountain and Big
Thunder Mountain Railroad, each two times.
Eva and I had 10:00 dinner reservations at the California Grill in the
Contemporary
Resort, so with time running short, we let the kids make one final attraction
choice before
leaving the parks. Eric and Alana chose Peter Pan, and rode with Eva, while
Tara chose
the Haunted Mansion, and rode with me. We regrouped back in Fantasyland, and
made our exit just as the fireworks were starting overhead.
It was quite a way to make an exit, especially the last exit from the theme
parks for this
trip. We walked through a packed crowd in front of the castle and all
through main street
as the fireworks were lighting up the faces of everyone looking to the North,
and we headed South toward the MK exit and the monorail back to the Polynesian.
We put the kids to bed in the room, and went to take the monorail from the
Polynesian to
the Contemporary. We were the only ones boarding at the Polynesian, and the
Monorail
pilot asked us if we would like to ride in the front with her! There was
already one other
couple in the front, who had just finished dinner at the California Grill and
were on their
way back to the Grand Floridian. They told us that the California Grill was
wonderful,
and that we would enjoy it. They were not exaggerating! They mentioned that
they were
dining when the fireworks had started, and that the restaurant dimmed the
lights and piped in the music direct from the MK during the fireworks.
The California Grill is new, and replaces the space where the Broadway at The
Top show
had been. It is VERY California, with an open kitchen, west coast decor,
good wine list,
and has a spectacular view of the Magic Kingdom. From our table we were able
to look out on the incredible volume of multi-colored neon lighting that now
dominates the new
Tomorrowland, and we could see every flash of the camera strobe at Splash
Mountain as yet another log of guests plummeted down into the briar patch.
Our "Menu Coordinator", Jennie O., was quite possibly the best waiter or
waitress
(excuse me, "menu coordinator", a term that she herself shared jokingly) that
I can remember ever having had the pleasure of being served by in any eating
establishment,
anywhere. She was knowledgeable, funny, friendly, attentive, and engaging.
Although we
were to learn that she was from a large Chinese family from the mid-west, she
had the casual, laid-back "California attitude" down cold.
The food was absolutely exceptional. The salads were of fresh, classic
California field
greens. Although there were appetizer portions of sushi, Eva and I ordered
the dinner
portion to split as an appetizer. We were agreed that it was the best sushi
either of us had
ever eaten, and I've eaten sushi all over the world, including in Japan. The
pieces were
fresh, expertly prepared, and magnificently presented. The wasabi was
outstanding. The
ginger was fresh, and perfectly cut. The contrast to what we had eaten at
Kobe a couple
of days earlier was dramatic. When we told Jenny O. to pass along our
compliments to
the sushi chef, she told us that the sushi chef, Yoshi-San, had as suspected
come to WDW
directly from Japan, where he had obviously been a master of his craft.
Since it was an
open kitchen, she pointed him out to us, as he was feverishly preparing
another table's
order, with a large smile on his face as he worked.
We both ordered the pan-seared yellow fin tuna steak with black beans and
Asian slaw,
and it was simply wonderful, and cooked perfectly. It was accompanied by an
excellent Sauvignon Blanc. Midway through the meal, Jennie O.
suggested that if we were
interested in a souffle for dessert, she would need to notify the souffle
chef now, so that
adequate time would be available to prepare it. Why not, so we ordered a
fruit-flavored
souffle. The souffle was good, not great, but it went down well with some
freshly brewed cappuccino.
All in all, we rate the California Grill as the best restaurant that we have
eaten at in the
WDW area, and one of the best anywhere. It is not inexpensive, but despite
the quality of
this meal and the service, it cost LESS than our meal at the Living Seas, and
there was no comparison between the two.
I also preferred the spectacular view over the Magic Kingdom at night,
especially with the
very bright and colorful new Tomorrowland, to that of the Living Seas
aquarium.
It was simply a perfect final dinner for the trip.
We had lingered over the last of the wine, and Jennie O. had pulled up a
chair to chat for a
while, so as we closed down the California Grill for the evening as their
last guests, we
had not realized that it was so late that the monorail had already stopped
running! Our
only option to get back to the Polynesian was to take a bus back to the TTC.
This would
normally not be an issue, but since we had expected to be on the monorail
only, we had
not brought jackets with us, and the temperature was now in the 50's, so we
froze a bit
outside waiting for the bus to the TTC, and then moved VERY quickly through
the grounds of the Polynesian back to our building, which of course was the
farthest from the TTC (Samoa) of any of the Polynesian longhouses.
Saturday, November 18th, 1995
We all decided that we should have one final "tropical" breakfast at the
Coral Isle Cafe, so
we packed quickly, and called for the bellman to bring our bags to the car.
Our bellman
was hilarious, as he told jokes and fooled around with the kids, often faking
random turns
as he drove the tropical golf cart with us and our luggage though the
winding, flowered
paths of the Polynesian and to the parking lot. He then offered to drive us
back to the main entrance, for breakfast.
Let's see, how many times is this now that we've eaten at the Coral Isle
Cafe? Four? Five?
Of course, Eva and I had the Tonga (banana stuffed French) Toast. The kids
ordered banana milkshakes with their meals, which although not on the menu, our
waiter graciously made up special with fresh bananas.
We did some last and final shopping at the Disney Village Marketplace, filled
the rental
car with gas at the new gas station across from the Marketplace (gee, these
Cadillacs do
use a bit, and it's premium-only gas, too), and we drove the Greenway back to
the airport.
Our flight from Orlando to Washington, Dulles was on time, and in Dulles I
ran into Jim
Hughes from Digital, who had just come in from Europe and was also on the
same flight
back to Boston. Jim got me up to speed on the latest happenings within
Digital, since I'm now an alumnus.
The flight into Logan was fine. When arriving at Park and Fly to pick up our
car, the kids
all gave me grief about how "tiny" it is, compared to the Cadillac, and how
my car doesn't seem to have nearly enough buttons and gadgets...
And so ended our third family trip to Walt Disney World since 1991. Ugh,
back to the real world on Monday!
Favorite Attractions:
Ken (30 something): Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, Splash
Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Raiload, Back To The Future, Honey I Shrunk The
Audience, Teamboat Springs at Blizzard Beach, the Adventurer's
Club (Kungaloosh!)
Eva (30 something): Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad, Timekeeper, Honey I Shrunk The Audience
Tara (10): Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Timekeeper, Star Tours
Alana(10): Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,
Ghostbusters, Timekeeper, Star Tours, Back To The Future, ET Adventure
Eric(7): The Orlando Magic vs. The Indiana Pacers, Splash Mountain, Big
Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Alien Encounter, Star
Tours, Timekeeper
Favorite Restaurants:
Ken: California Grill at the Contemporary Resort, `OHana at the Polynesian
Resort, San
Angel Inn at EPCOT (Mexico), Jose O'Days at Mercado, Whispering Canyon Cafe
at the Wilderness Lodge, Coral Isle Cafe at the Polynesian Resort.
Eva: California Grill, `Ohana, Coral Isle Cafe
Tara: San Angel Inn (Mexico)
Alana: Coral Reef Restaurant at The Living Seas (she didn't have to pay for
it!), San Angel Inn
Eric: Coral Isle Cafe at the Polynesian Resort (home of Goofy Toast)
We'll probably be back in about two years, and we'll probably stay at the
Polynesian Resort again.
Feel free to send comments to:
[email protected]
Cheers,
Ken
32
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% Subject: Trip Report (this should work!!!!)
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