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John T. Brock -- December 2001 -- Walt Disney World (ASSR)This report covers only the planning for John's Upcoming Trip. THE CREW:
THE TRIP:
THE PLAN: This is our third trip report to be posted on Brian's web site. Our other two reports were for October 1997 and June 2000 trips. The October 97 report contained just about every tip and technique I used to plan that trip and I have used most of them for every trip since then. Of course you are more than welcome to read those reports and see if anything there will help you. I won't repeat everything here but I will include a few things I've learned that have saved us time and money. This trip started when we received mail from WDW offering $49 a night rates, for a limited time, at the All Star Sports Resort. In all our trips to WDW we've never stayed on site so this offer got our attention. We hadn't planned on going back to WDW until possibly late 2002 or early 2003. We had made our last trip in June 2000 and had just sent my daughter and new son-in-law down in late April (honeymoon trip). Plus, we had done a quick two day trip to Disneyland during the summer (one of those spur-of-the-moment things). No planning, no reservations, no tickets. It was fun but I enjoy the planning part of these trips too. As much as I would love to go see Mickey every other weekend the time and money constraints have to be considered. But, only $49 a night to stay on property? How could we refuse that? I've stayed in roach motels that cost more than that! So, we sat down with a calendar and calculator to see if we could take Mickey up on his offer. We knew we couldn't stay long but maybe we could pull off a long weekend trip. After checking everything we decided on the second weekend in December. I called the CRO and didn't have any trouble getting the dates we wanted. However, about two weeks after I made the reservations we discovered we would have to move the date. We needed to slip the dates by one day. Our wedding anniversary is December 5 and I had hoped to be in WDW that weekend. But, no such luck with the new dates. No available rooms. OK, how about the next weekend? No deal again. Every room was booked solid. What was I to do? Simple. Use a trick I learned by reading trip reports for the last several years. I hung up and called right back! Got a different cast member and guess what? "No problem Mr. Brock. I can change those dates for you." Wink, wink, grin. Love those trip reports! We still couldn't get our anniversary weekend but she did get us the next weekend. I asked for a non-smoking room and ground floor close to the bus stop. Right before we go I'll call the resort and see if I can't swing something in Touchdown or Surf's Up (buildings 1, 6, 7, or 10). I also read somewhere that some of the resorts have wheelchairs that registered guests can use while there. Does anyone know anything about this? We always rent a wheelchair (or ECV) at the parks but getting one at the resort would be a big help too. Wouldn't make any difference which building we were assigned if Paula could ride instead of walk. If any of you can give me some pointers on wheelchairs at the resorts I'd be greatly appreciative. My email address is at the end of this report. For a rental car this time I've chosen Budget Rental Car. We've selected a Ford Escort with unlimited mileage for around $75 for a three day rental. This includes all taxes, airport fees, and a $15 discount coupon I found (almost hidden) on their website. I have always used BreezeNet to find a good rate and they've never let me down. The link to their Orlando site is: http://www.bnm.com/orldo.htm . The discounts through BreezeNet are better than I can get going directly to the rental company or using a Lockheed Martin/American Airlines corporate rate or discount. As a back-up I managed to get an $88 rental from National with a free two-class upgrade. Chevy Monte Carlo for the price of a Cavalier. We'll probably go with Budget just to save the few extra bucks. Of course, the larger car would be nice, but we won't be in it that much anyway. Besides, just because I'm from Texas doesn't mean I own one of those Cadillac Land Yachts with the longhorn steer horns mounted on the front of the hood. I own a Toyota. I'm "accustomed" to a smaller size car. We'll be flying into Tampa instead of Orlando (again) because of the type of tickets we'll be using. If you're interested (or just curious) as to what I'm talking about you can check the June 2000 trip report for an explanation. It has to do with Paula being an American Airlines employee. Since we only have two full days we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom on Saturday and MGM on Sunday. That's also the Early Entry day for both parks. Again, this will be our first stay on WDW property so it will be our first time to try the Early Entry perk. I'm looking forward to that. We also chose those two parks because they have the greatest "amusement" factor for our ADHD son. Not to mention the fact that I have a special fondness for those two parks myself. I plan to buy the two day/two park passes since we don't plan on doing any park hopping anyway. I could buy four day park hopper passes and keep the unused portions for next trip but this way is cheaper for us right now. For the half day on arrival Friday I have a little surprise planned for my wife. I have a reservation made for her at The Spa at The Disney Institute. She is going to experience the 50 minute "Aromatherapy Message". The brochure the spa faxed to me makes it sound great. The reservation also allows her to use all hot tub, steam room, Jacuzzi, exercise equipment, and other "stuff" they have available either before or after her 5:30 appointment. This will be a little extra "happy anniversary" surprise from me to her. While she's there Lane and I may try the miniature golf course or see if we can ride in the nose of one of the monorails. Before her appointment we will check in at the All Star, do a little exploring, and get into that Disney frame of mind. After her spa appointment we'll have dinner at Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I made a Priority Seating (PS) the same day I made the Spa appointment. I've read the menus from Deb's website and it sounds very interesting. Making a PS for Boma requires a credit card and a fee will be levied if you're late or don't show. We'll eat simple at the Magic Kingdom and will probably try our luck without PS at the Sci-Fi Dine-In while at MGM. Depending on MGM's hours we may try for PS at the Whispering Canyon Café on Sunday night. The rest of the meals will be simple and fast. Monday will be early morning check out and back to Tampa for the return flight home. That's the plan up to now. I know things will quite possibly change after we arrive and we will make adjustments as required. Now the waiting part. ---------------------- Well, a lot has changed since I wrote everything you've just read. Everything above was written before September 11. I hadn't sent the report to Brian for posting because I wanted to have more and final details about our plans for dining. I started to go back and change everything to match events and requirements as we now know them but I didn't. Everything I said was true at that time and expressed my thoughts, feelings, and desires at that time as well. You can only imagine how my wife's work life has been. That was her "family" on those two American Airlines flights. Even though we're thousands of miles away and could not have done anything to prevent those horrible events she still feels partly responsible. You see, they were flying on her plane. She is American Airlines. They were trusting American to get them safely to their destination and again, she is a part of AA. We've talked a lot about how it wasn't anyone's fault other than the hijackers. You know the crew of those 4 planes tried to do everything they could to protect the passengers and themselves. Not only was it their professional duty to protect others, but their own will to survive as well. And apparently this even applied to the passengers of the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, as they tried to take back control of the plane. But, nevertheless, Paula has had a harder time dealing with this senseless tragedy than I have because of her connection with the victims through American Airlines. Me? Well, my military and defense background keeps coming out - I'm ready to bust some heads! I work for Lockheed Martin doing security on automated software test stations for the F-16. That's about as detailed a description as I can give and not get all of us in trouble. Guess what my job has been like since September 11? But I guess in some way we are all victims of these attacks. We have all lost something or even worse, someone, and it hurts. A lot! So, here's my way of denying these terror-creeps their sought after victory. My way of turning towards the east, raising my clenched fist over my head, and then raising my middle finger for them to see. I'm not changing my WDW plans. I'm still flying to Tampa and I'm still going to the Magic Kingdom! They aren't keeping me out of my "laughing place"! Those dirty @#$%&! I'm not going to hide in my living room, or change how I live my life, or where I go, or how I get there. Whatever sympathy I had for them and their "cause" is now buried under a million tons of World Trade Center rubble and stained with the blood of 6,000 innocent lives! You non-human scum want America to pay for our past foreign policy? OK, we'll change it just for you! Our new foreign policy, thanks to you and your actions, has one single purpose. That purpose is to hunt you down and destroy you in the cesspools where you hide and breed! How do you like our foreign policy now, dirty @#$%&? Sorry, I had my emotions explode on me again. I'll send an update to Brian if major changes have to be made. Otherwise I'll send in the full report after we get back. Feel free to email with any questions or comments you have. God bless America! John T. Brock jtbrock@bigfoot.com Mail a Comment to Author |
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