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Randy Banks -- July 2000 -- Walt Disney World (ASMoR)July 24th - 31st, 2000 Well, I have been meaning to write this for some time now. I am hesitant to call this a trip report, more of an itinerary of things we did and the highs and lows of our trip. Although this was our ninth trip to the world, it was to be a very special trip. You see, this was to be our very first family vacation, just myself (Randy- 30), my wife (Paula- 30) and my two daughters (Cassie and Alecia- 8 and 10). Every other year we have had parents, nieces etc... along for the trip. We live in southern Illinois and found a great Southwest Airlines deal flying out of Louisville, KY. We were departing Monday, July 24th and returning the following Monday and staying at the All Star Movies resort. Keep your hands and arms inside the car, the trip is about to begin... Pre-trip (Sun 23rd)- As I stated before, our plane was flying out of Louisville on July 24th but since I only had to work a few hours Sunday morning, we decided to drive on down and spend the night. The plan was to find a hotel with free airport shuttle and the girls could spend the evening swimming and resting up for the big vacation. I found a Holiday Inn that looked good over the net - newly remodeled, Olympic sized pool, close to 3 malls and just 3 minutes from the airport. Talk about false advertisement, this place was a DUMP!!! Nasty rooms, a tiny indoor pool, no restaurants or shopping remotely close, very rude and at least 20 minutes from the airport (not counting the 30 minutes waiting for a driver). To top it all off, we got to the pool at 3:30pm and were told that we had 30 minutes to swim. I pointed out that the posted time was 10 - 10 and he said sharply, "Well, we're doing maintenance!". We checked back a couple of times and never saw anyone so much as cleaning the pool. You know that Holiday Inn policy that says if something about your stay was unsatisfactory they will refund that part of your stay, do not believe it. Oh well, it cost about the same to stay there and leave our car as what it was going to cost to park at the airport. We ended up watching TV and going to bed early. Day 1 (Mon 24th)- Although our plane was not scheduled to take off until 12:40pm we left for the airport at 10:30. This is my only Southwest complaint, first come first serve. If you want your family to sit together, you had better get there early and get your boarding passes first. The trip started out fine, we left Louisville promptly at 12:40 and arrived in Birmingham at 12:40 (pretty cool huh). We were only supposed to have a 45 minute layover but found out due to severe thunderstorms in Orlando, our plane was still at MCO waiting to take off. We were supposed to arrive in Orlando at 3:45 but ended up not getting there until after 6:00. This sounds bad but it gave the storms a chance to dissipate. We heard that several flights had to land in Tampa and Jacksonville and then bus their passengers into MCO (now that would have really sucked). Anyway, when we arrived our Tiffany Town Car driver Mohammed was there to meet us. I can't say enough about TTC, they are a great company and Mohammed is the best. We retrieved our luggage and were on our way to the ASMoR. There is something magical, I always get goose bumps when I see the Mickey and Minnie welcome to WDW sign. We were checked in and unpacked by 8:00 and spent the rest of the evening swimming and walking around this awesome resort. Day 2 (Tues 25th)- I was up extremely early due to the flight, time change, sleeping in a strange bed but mostly excitement. I let the rest of the family sleep and I got dressed and went for a 5am stroll. It sure is peaceful this early and there is a lot of wildlife out. We stayed in Fantasia 7 and the hammock was right outside our front door, this was one of my favorite hangouts (pun intended). The rest of the gang finally got up and we were off to the MK. We had 8:30 PS for the Crystal Palace. This was our first time eating here and really enjoyed it, the food was good and the characters spent a lot of time with the girls. We picked up a couple of posters from Wal-mart before we left. One was Pooh characters for my older daughter and one was princesses for my younger one (she wants to be a princess when she grows up- pretty ambitious). The characters thought this was a cool idea and really did some neat autographs and artwork. Eeyore drew a black rain cloud over his name and Pooh drew a honey pot with bees flying around it. With all of the Pooh characters done, we set off for the real challenge- finding every princess. Ariel was in her grotto, Cinderella was in her castle, Snow White and Aurora in Toontown, Jasmine in Adventureland and Belle in the camera center- too easy. The face characters also thought the posters were a cool idea and did some really elaborate autographs. If you are looking to spend some quality character time, try the camera expo center. We walked in and all of the dwarves, Goofy, Max, Pluto, Minnie, Belle and the Fairy Godmother were all there with no crowds. The girls spent about an hour just playing with characters. We rode a few rides throughout the day but this was E-ride night so we were not too concerned with riding the big attractions. We stayed and watched the afternoon parade and it started raining so we went back to the resort to eat and rest up. We made it back in time to get our wristbands and claim a spot in Frontierland for MSEP. While waiting we noticed a lot of people pointing and taking pictures of the castle. I have never seen anything like it before, there was a perfect rainbow that started behind the castle and stretched up toward the front of the park- very cool. We enjoy MSEP but really prefer SpectroMagic and can't wait until it returns. Fantasy in the Sky was new and we really liked how they included park attraction music. E-ride was not very crowded so we were able to ride everything that we wanted to twice and still leave by 1:30. This was the girls first time on Alien Encounter, it did not scare them too bad but neither wanted to ride again. Day 3 (Wed 26th)- Naturally after E-ride night we slept late. It was 10:30 before we were out of the room but this was a day of leisure. We decided on Whispering Canyons in WL for lunch. We love eating there, the food was good as always but they were hosting a convention luncheon so could not get too rowdy (although my girls did get into a napkin throwing war with a couple of CMs). We were stuffed so we decided to walk over to FW. We had a blast in the petting zoo and the girls got to ride ponies. They wanted to bring Sugar and Blueberry home with us but I didn't know if I could fit 2 ponies in the luggage with all of the souvenirs. We spent the afternoon shopping and exploring at Downtown Disney and letting the girls play in the fountains. We had planned on playing mini golf at Winter Summerland but when we arrived it started to storm so we walked over to CS and ate at the Pepper Market. By the time we returned to our resort, it had stopped lightening so we swam the rest of the evening. Day 4 (Thurs 27th)- We were up early and at the AK at 7:00. We are not big fans of animals or exploring so this is our least favorite park. The plan was to do the few attractions that we do like and be out by noon. We walked straight into ITTBAB and Dinosaur. The girls begged me to ride Kali, I didn't really want to walk around in wet underwear for the rest of the day but I couldn't say no. We rode and I barely got wet but they were letting guests stay on for a second trip- BIG mistake. When I got off, I was SOAKED and had to take my shirt off to wring it out. We headed over to Camp MM to wait for FOTLK to start. There were lots of characters out with no crowds so the girls enjoyed playing over here. After the show we left for Epcot. We ate lunch in the Land and were able to do all of the FW rides and shows very quickly. We had FP for Test Track for 6:30 and spent the afternoon walking around WS and the MillVill. Our FP time came and of course TT broke down so we ended up waiting over an hour for it. We all agreed that it was not worth the wait but last time we were here, there was no FP and 2 hour waits so we skipped it. It was time to get our great viewing location for TON (Thanks Mike). Myself and Cassie loved this parade, Paula and Alecia hated it. We followed the parade onto the International Gateway bridge to watch I2K:ROE. This show is incredible and Disney Imagineers have really outdone themselves. We hung around for about an hour just watching the fountain, listening to the music and letting the girls play on the fiber optic walkways. Day 5 (Fri 28th)- My brother Kenny who lives near Bradenton drove over today to spend the day at MGM with us. We met near the Fantasia pool and were off to the park. Cassie had been bragging to all of her friends that she was going to ride her first upside down roller coaster. When we got to the RNRC entrance she was nearly in tears. Kenny and I went on with only a 10 minute wait while the others went for TOT FP. When she saw that we had had fun and assured her it would not hurt her she decided she would be brave and give it a go. Once again it was only a 10 minute wait and we were on. She loved it! Our TOT Fastpass time was up so we went on. This was Kenny's first time at MGM and as luck would have it, he got the lap belt seat on his very first ride. He really liked it although he said it felt like he was going to hit the top of the elevator. We were all getting hungry so we decided on 50's PTC. "Uncle Tim" made us go to the bathroom to wash our hands and made us use our manners. The food was very good and we had a fun lunch. We spent the afternoon on the backlot side riding and watching shows. The HOND show is our favorite and I hope the rumors that it is closing are not true. We found a spot and watched the Mulan parade, they had added a few things from the DL parade since we saw it last but all agreed it is time for a new parade. After the parade, Paula and Alecia went back to the resort for a nap and Kenny, Cassie and myself stayed to ride. The park was not very busy and Fastpass worked to perfection here. We were able to get a FP for TOT, ride RNRC and by the time we got off our time for TOT was up so we could get another for RNRC. We spent over 2 hours just going back and forth between these rides with very little wait times and getting new FP each time we got off. We must have ridden each 4 times. It was time to meet Paula and Alecia to get our seats for Fantasmic! We got great seats center and half way up. The hour wait was not too bad because we ate supper and Dellman the bellhop came out to perform. Fantasmic is our favorite nighttime show (when SpectroMagic is not running). Hot tip, If you have a Sony Handycam camcorder use the program button and change it to moonlight setting. My F! recording came out perfect. My brother had a long drive back home so we went back to the resort, said our goodbyes and went to bed. Day 6 (Sat 29th)- We were up early today, we had 9:00 PS for Chef Mickey's. This was our 3rd visit and will probably be our last. The first year we went the food was great and the characters really spent a lot of time with the kids. The next year the food was terrible but the characters were still fun and they started taking family pictures with Chef Mickey which is a good idea. This year the food was bad, instead of a picture with Mickey they rushed us in front of a background with Chef Mickey's logo on it and the characters seemed like they were to busy playing with servers and taking breaks to acknowledge the kids. At one point Minnie was posing with my girls for a photo and Chip and Dale came up from behind and each grabbed an arm and drug her back to the break area- how rude! We finished off the morning exploring the monorail resorts. After an afternoon swim break we headed out to look over some more resorts. We started by walking around the Boardwalk, this whole area is beautiful. We then went to PO and walked to DL or was that French Quarter to Riverside- oh well? We ate at the Colonel's Cotton Mill, there is something about this food court that we really enjoy. We took the Sassagoula river cruise to the marketplace and shopped some more and watched a band from Wildhorse Saloon perform at the stage. We gave the girls the option of watching the Electric Water Pageant or swimming and of course we swam then went to bed. Day 7 (Sun 30th)- Can't believe it is our last day already. We got to the MK early, the girls wanted to do the fantasyland rides. We were able to ride Snow White, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh, small world and the teacups all before 10am. Toontown was now open so we went for a couple of rides on Goofy's Barnstormer. The girls wanted to ride Buzz Lightyear again so we picked up FP and watched the Disneymania show while we waited. After the ride, Cassie was not feeling well at all so we took her to first aid and let her rest for a while. We decided it was a combination of the heat and upset stomach so they gave her some Immodium and we went back to the resort to let her rest. She started feeling better late in the afternoon so we left for MGM. We watched HOND again (love it) and did a few things that we did not get a chance to do before. We ended up the evening by watching Fantasmic again and headed back to the room after shopping at MGM. Day 8 (Mon 31st)- How depressing, I can't believe the week went by so fast! We got up, packed and checked our luggage as Mohammed was not picking us up until 3:00 for our 5:30pm flight. The girls wanted to walk down and eat at the glorified McDonalds but mom and dad were not ready to return to reality quite yet. We went to FW for breakfast buffet at Trails End, this is a nice place to eat and the food is always top notch. Afterwords we headed back to the All-stars, we got off at the Sports and looked around there and at the Music before heading back to the Movies. IMHO the Movies is the best, especially the food court. The girls had been wanting to get a hair wrap all week so they had just enough time to get them before our towncar showed up. Believe it or not, our flight home (direct flight) was delayed for an hour due to severe thunderstorms in Louisville! The trip home was uneventful. It was a magical trip and we will definitely be back next year for Walt's 100th birthday bash. Sorry this was so long but I knew if I did not write it all when I had time that it would never get finished. Hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed reliving the memories. Feel free to e-mail with any comments or questions. Randy Banks Banksie@webtv.net Mail a Comment to Randy Banks |
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