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Anne Campbell -- February 2000 -- Walt Disney World (PR)
First, a little background on this trip! I took four trips to WDW as a kid, but I've been hooked on it lately and have taken five more trips in the past 15 months. Last May, I told my grandmother that I was taking off soon for yet another visit, and she said she was envious - we were there together in 1990, but she hadn't been since. The wheels in my head started turning, and in June I bit the bullet - I bought her a copy of the latest Birnbaum guide for her birthday and enclosed a note saying that if she was interested, I'd love to take her with me on a trip next spring. She was delighted, and we started planning right away! First, I called CRO to get a reservation - just anything would do, but I hoped to get a good deal on one of the deluxe resorts through the Magic Kingdom Club or my Annual Pass. No discounts were yet available for spring 2000, so I booked us at the All Star Movies at rack rate and kept my fingers crossed. In August, I heard on rec.arts.disney.parks about a special "Millennium Insider" rate, available only to people who'd received a special postcard in their _Disney Insider_ magazine. I hadn't received a postcard, but I figured I'd try calling anyway - the worst they could say was no. Sure enough, after calling a couple of times, I talked to a reservation agent who found me a room at the Polynesian for about $195 a night, including tax! I jumped on it, of course, since the regular rate would be about $309. One thing led to another; I took trips to WDW in August and October; and before we knew it, it was February and time to pack! Day 1 - Saturday, February 5, 2000 On Saturday, February 5th, I got up at a reasonable hour for a change - I'm so used to having to leave San Francisco at the crack of dawn, but this time I had a 12:10 flight. My flights to St. Louis and to Orlando went smoothly and fairly quickly, and I landed at MCO at about 10:30 PM. I went straight for Gram's gate, met her with no problem (she'd just landed too), and we headed down to the baggage claim to meet our Tiffany Towncar driver. Our driver was named Ann Marie, and she was pretty amused that our names were Anne and Marie. She loaded Gram's one checked bag into the car, we had a pleasant chat, and we arrived at the Polynesian at about 11:30. At that time of night, nobody was waiting to check in and they already had our room keys ready to go. I had called a couple of days before to request the Rarotonga building, which is nonsmoking and right next to the Great Ceremonial House - and sure enough, we had room 2807, about halfway down the building. Bell Services helped get our stuff into the room - it was huge! When I was last at WDW in October, we stayed at the All Star Music, and boy, there really is a difference in room size. The All Star was certainly adequate, but this was very comfy. The decor was brand-new, too - I would never have known that this was a 29-year-old resort. We were both hungry, so we went down to Captain Cook's and brought a danish, bottled water, fruit salad and a refillable mug ($16) back to the room. I called my dear husband, we chatted a bit, and we were in bed around 1:00. Day 2 - Sunday, February 6, 2000 We woke up at 7 to a wake-up call, but the Mouse didn't give us his personal greeting. :( In fact, not once during the trip did we hear his cheery voice - I wonder what happened. We opened the curtains to see a beautiful Florida day and a nice view of the quiet pool. I took a shower, got dressed and went down to get us breakfast from Captain Cook's: bran muffin, croissant and coffee, $4. It may have been sunny, but it was *cold* outside! The weather report said it was about 45 degrees. When we'd had our breakfast and were all ready, we made our way to the monorail, but just as we got into our seats, we realized we'd forgotten Gram's park pass. I ran back to the room for it, and we got to the Magic Kingdom at about 9:30. I had to stop at Guest Relations to have my Annual Pass voucher converted to an actual pass, and they had some trouble finding me in the computer, but soon we were squared away. Then we got in line to rent a scooter for Gram, and by the time we got it, it was almost 10:00. No worries, though - it was quite un-crowded in the MK because it was the day after an Early Entry day. We went straight to Fantasyland and checked out the line for Winnie the Pooh - it was 20 minutes, so we got our first Fastpass of the trip and did Snow White and It's a Small World with no wait. Then we checked out Peter Pan, which was also a 20-minute wait, but a Cast Member there waved us into the handicapped entrance for the ride and we walked right on. It was good as ever. Gram had a bit of trouble navigating the scooter out of a tight parking space, but she soon got used to maneuvering it. By now, it was almost 11 and I had a date to meet up with Deb Wills of the WDW Information Guide, so Gram stayed in Fantasyland while I took off for the rose garden by the castle. Deb was there shortly and we had a great chat! She walked me back to Fantasyland to say hello to Gram, and on the way, we asked a CM to take our picture by the castle. Deb had to take off then to meet some friends at Epcot, but it was great to meet her. Gram and I used our Fastpasses to do the Pooh ride, and she liked it a lot! Then we meandered over to Liberty Square to do the Haunted Mansion with about a five-minute wait, and we looked around the shops in Liberty Square for a few minutes while waiting for it to be time for the Hall of Presidents. In the Christmas shop, I knocked over a whole row of pricey Christmas-caroler dolls, but managed to catch them all before they hit the floor. Nobody seemed to notice. *whew* The Hall of Presidents was better than I remembered. I liked Maya Angelou's narration, and it was fun to watch all the presidents fidgeting during the speeches. Gram and I had been trying to figure out how many presidents she'd seen in her lifetime, so we counted as they did the roll call - twelve. She was born during Hoover's administration. My score was only five: Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton. I'm such a baby. We were both getting hungry, so we headed for Pecos Bill's. There was a huge line, so Gram waited there while I ran off to get Fastpasses for Splash Mountain. When I got back, she was still in line! I picked up the food while she found us a table, but I wandered around for a while before finding her - that's a big place. We had a cheeseburger and fries, salad, bottled water and Coke for $14. I love the salad there - it usually has chicken, but I order it without the chicken and it's still a filling meal because it has nice bits of cheese in it. It comes with a great lime vinaigrette, too - not your standard Kraft dressing in little packets. By the time we finished eating, it was time for our Fastpasses already. We waited about 10 minutes, but that was a lot better than the 30-minute standby line. Gram asked if she was going to get wet, and I said "Just a little" - I always sit in the back of the log to stay drier - but she got stuck by the waterfall and got a lot wetter than she expected! For the rest of the trip, her refrain before we got on any ride was "Am I going to get wet?" In spite of the dampness, she loved the ride and wasn't a bit nervous about the big drop. We were winding down, so we decided to take a round trip on the WDW Railroad. Just as we got to Main Street, though, we overheard someone mentioning that the parade was about to start, so we hopped off and watched it from the second floor of the station. We had a great view, and Gram loved the parade. Then we rode the train back around to Frontierland, picked up the scooter, and went back to the front of the park. The CMs there saved the scooter for us to pick up later, which I thought was great - we didn't have to take our chances at getting another one. We were going to take the monorail back to the Poly, but the boat was there waiting, so we did that for a change of pace. It had warmed up considerably to about 70 degrees and was a great day for a boat ride. We had a bit of a hike back to the room, though, since we didn't know our way around! We hung out in the room for an hour or so, and I had a lovely nap. We went back to the MK about 6:00. Pirates was our first stop, and then we headed for the Jungle Cruise. Gram parked the scooter at the top of the steps leading down to the queue and we chatted with a CM as we were coming down the steps, but Gram missed a step and fell on her knee. Luckily, the CM dashed over and managed to half-catch her and break most of her fall. He was very concerned and offered to have First Aid come and help her out, but she said she was fine - only her ego was injured. We took one of the last Jungle Cruises of the night, and just as we finished, the fireworks began. We watched them from the bridge near the Crystal Palace. We wanted to get dinner, but couldn't find anything open except the Crystal Palace, and we didn't want such a big meal - so we slowly made our way down Main Street, saw the "goodnight kiss," and took the monorail back to the Poly. Back to Captain Cook's we went and got a chicken sandwich and cheese pizza ($13 with bottled water and a cookie). We took them back to the room and hit the sack early. Day 3 - Monday, February 7, 2000 We got up at 7, but still had no Mouse on the wake-up call. I brought breakfast back to the room (muffin, croissant, hash browns, juice and coffee, $~7), and we took the monorails to Epcot, arriving about 9:45. We picked up a scooter for Gram and headed straight for Journey Into Your Imagination, bypassing the big line at Spaceship Earth. JIYI had no wait at all, and Gram enjoyed it quite a bit. It's not one of my favorites, but I don't think it's as horrible as it's been made out to be. Then we took a trip through the Living Seas, which Gram hadn't seen before - she liked it very much, especially the big tanks and the dolphins. I noticed one very positive change: when you enter the first pre-show area, the United Technologies movie is gone and you have the option of either watching the sit-down "rained...and rained... and rained" film or proceeding straight to the hydrolators. We skipped the movie, of course. After we ascended to ground level, we did Living with the Land, also with no wait, and Food Rocks with just a few minutes' wait. I used to love the old Kitchen Kabaret show, but I was a little disappointed with this one - it looked low-budget. It was fun and full of puns, though. By this time it was after 11, so we headed to World Showcase. I had made priority seatings for us at both Le Cellier and Rose & Crown, figuring we could just look at both the menus and decide which sounded better. Since neither of us had been to Le Cellier before, we decided on that. Good choice - it was fantastic! We had their famous breadsticks (pretzel, multi-grain and sourdough; I liked the multi-grain best), and I tried to convince Gram to try the cheddar cheese soup, but she wasn't hungry enough for it. (I'm sure I'd like it, but it's made with bacon and I'm a vegetarian.) She ordered an open-faced Reuben sandwich, which turned out to be *enormous*, and I had goat-cheese-and-mushroom ravioli with roasted garlic, asparagus, and cherry tomatoes in a balsamic/fennel broth, sprinkled with fried wontons. It was fantastic. The bill was only about $30 with tip - I'll definitely go there again. We saw "O Canada" with no wait at all and then moved on to Millennium Village. We browsed through Brazil, Scotland, Saudi Arabia and Sweden, at which point it was time for a little puppet show from the Tivoli Gardens in Denmark. It was simply done but very charming, and a good story by Hans Christian Andersen about a farmer trading his horse for a cow, then a sheep, a goose, a chicken, and a bag of rotten apples, but finally cashing in the rotten apples for two bags of gold. We got in line for the Jerusalem ride, but while we were waiting, a CM came by to take Gram's scooter since it wouldn't fit in the theater. A few minutes later, she came back to tell us that the scooter had quit working and that she was going to get us another one; and by the time we got out of the theater, it was there waiting for us. A lucky break, since we didn't miss any park time! The show was pretty good, but nothing I'd wait that long for again (we waited about 15-20 minutes). We finished up with the rest of Millennium Village, then went on to the UK to listen to the British Invasion as we shopped. Gram bought a silver tea strainer for my dear husband, and porcelain tea bag rests for herself and her best friend. We had them sent back to the room, which she thought was terrifically convenient. In France, we saw "Impressions de France," again with no wait - our timing was great. A Living Statue was entertaining outside, so we watched her for a bit and then decided to take a break. On our way out of the park, there was no wait for Spaceship Earth, so we did that before returning the scooter and getting the monorails back to the Poly. Boy, that's a long walk up the monorail ramp at Epcot! It wasn't until our last night that we discovered the elevator. We got back to the room a little after 5 and I took a nap from 5:30 to 6:30 while Gram rested and read her book. We headed back to the park in time for the Tapestry of Nations. We got to Mexico about 7:45, so we had time to catch El Rio del Tiempo before staking out a spot near Norway for the parade. While Gram held down the fort, I ran to the Kringla Bakeri and got her a roast beef sandwich and myself a cheese danish ($~10 with bottled water). The parade was wonderful as ever. I had tried to describe it to Gram before, but it's one of those things that you just have to experience for yourself, and she loved it. When it was done, we just turned around and had a front-row view for IllumiNations 2000: Reflections of Earth. She was very impressed by that too, especially that they do this every night of the year! We were both freezing, though, so we made our way as quickly as possible back through the park (which wasn't very quickly, owing to the crowds). The monorails, however, weren't too crowded at all. We got back to the room about 10:30 and went to bed. Day 4 - Tuesday, February 8, 2000 Today was our "day off" from the parks, and I woke up at 11:30! Gram was already up and dressed, so I got ready quickly. I was starving. We had planned to have tea at the Grand Floridian sometime this afternoon, but we found out it didn't start until 2:00, so we decided to have lunch at the Grand Floridian Cafe instead. We took the monorail over, and although we didn't have a priority seating, we were seated in about five minutes. Gram ordered a club sandwich, and I had their Mediterranean vegetable pasta with Feta cheese. Both dishes were tasty and pretty huge, but we restrained ourselves because we knew they had Gram's favorite for dessert - Key lime pie. We asked to share the dessert, and the server made it magically appear on two plates, each with a good-sized triangle of pie. It was different than we expected - more of a creamy, thick consistency than a chiffon - but it was very yummy. There were dabs of kiwi and mango sauces on the plate and chocolate drizzled over. With a Coke and coffee, the bill came to $36. After lunch, we looked around at the beautiful resort a little bit. I had stayed there for one night on our honeymoon in November of '98, but it was just a taste - I'd love to spend a whole vacation here (someday, when I hit the jackpot). We saw a bride and groom getting off the elevator - apparently on the way to their wedding, since they looked terrified! I told Gram that I've been trying to convince my dear husband that we should renew our vows at the Wedding Pavilion. He agrees, but we differ on one point - he thinks it should be for our 10th anniversary, and I'm pushing for the 5th. We'll see! We took the monorail back over to the Poly and looked around in one of the shops for a few minutes. Against my protestations, Gram bought me a James and the Giant Peach pin (which claimed to be retired) and a Polynesian 2000 pin. I added them to the rapidly growing collection on my backpack. Then Gram went back to the room to take a break, and I filled my refillable mug and got on the bus to MGM. We had decided to split up today because I have an Annual Pass and she was using a 4-day hopper - she only planned to have the four park days, but she wanted me to get my money's worth out of the AP. Never fear - I don't usually have trouble with that. ;) We stopped at the Grand Floridian again before proceeding to MGM. I found the bus service at the Poly to be quite reasonable, even though it's shared with the GF and the Wilderness Lodge, because the Poly is always the second stop, whether you're coming or going. That means you never get to your destination nonstop, but you also never have to go to *two* resorts before you get there. Once in the park, I checked the tip board. It was a few minutes before the Mulan parade was going to start, so the waits for my favorite rides were short: 10 minutes for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and 0 for the Tower of Terror. I picked up a Fastpass for RnRC to use later and got in the standby line there - I waited less than five minutes. Then I got a Fastpass for the ToT (yes, I cheated! I used my AP for one pass and my room key for the other), and waited less than five minutes in the standby line at ToT as well. Both rides were great fun, as ever. It was about 3:50 now, so I decided to hit the 4:05 Hunchback show. I got caught briefly in the end of the parade, but consulted my map and took an alternate route through the Animation Courtyard and Mickey Ave. I had never seen the characters' 'trailers' back there before - go figure! Minnie was out greeting her fans. I actually made it to the show a few minutes early and got to see the end of Matt the Juggler's act. Hunchback was wonderful as ever. The funny thing is that I've seen it so many times now that I noticed a couple of little glitches! A panel of lighting instruments went out briefly; the explosion didn't happen at Esmeralda's entrance; and Phoebus missed a cue. Nonetheless, the cast and crew are so polished that I never would have noticed the problems if I hadn't seen it umpteen times before. I never get tired of this show. I returned to Sunset Blvd. the way I had come, and caught a glimpse of Pluto and Donald on the way. It's amazing, the stars you can see at MGM. ;) As I passed the Brown Derby, I checked their menu just out of curiosity - sure enough, it had changed quite a bit since the last time I was there, so I picked up lunch and dinner menus for the WDWIG. I wished I could have had a meal there, but there just wasn't time and I wouldn't have wanted to go without Gram, anyway. That's a wonderful restaurant. I used my Fastpass for the RnRC, and as I entered the G-Force Records building, I found three more unused ones on the floor! I picked one up but left the other two for someone else. Again, I waited less than five minutes. For some reason, there was no "Chris" CM in the pre-show room, but it didn't make much of a difference. Then I used my Fastpass for the ToT, and not one but *three* bellhops picked me out of the crowd and made scary faces at me! I must have had some kind of vibe going on. :) I had the seatbelt seat for this ride, which is always fun. Then I used my windfall Fastpass again on the RnRC. There was a 25-minute standby wait, but I breezed right by. All three times that I used Fastpass on that ride today, I was the *only person* I could see in that line - everyone else was on the standby side. I don't know why more folks don't use Fastpass - I wonder if they just don't understand how it works, or think they have to pay for it. The trick, though, is that when you're zooming through the Fastpass line, you have to make sure *not to look* at the people in the standby, since you're almost guaranteed to see someone giving you a dirty look. I really don't understand that at all. Anyway, on this last ride, I was in the back car of the coaster. That was a little jarring, and I don't think I'll do it again. It wasn't bumpy, exactly - I guess the G-forces are a little stronger back there, as you get whipped around the corners, and it made me a tad dizzy. It was still fun, though. The bus back to the Polynesian was waiting for me. When we stopped at the Wilderness Lodge on the way there, I spotted three deer grazing by the side of the road, completely ignoring all the cars and buses going by! They were beautiful. I still had a bit of energy, so rather than going straight back to the room at the Poly, I walked around the resort and took some pictures. As I wandered down the beach, I heard the luau going on and slipped between the bushes to take a peek for a minute. They were celebrating the birthdays of several "cousins" from the audience. Then I walked as far as the wedding pavilion, which was just gorgeous in the setting sun. I noticed something interesting - the Walk Around the World bricks near the pavilion have the names and dates of people who've been married there, and at least half of the bricks had names that were recognizably Japanese. In front of the pavilion, there was a sign listing which weddings were happening that day, and two out of three were Japanese couples. I wonder what the story is with that. I wandered back to the room, where Gram was well-rested from her day off. We watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the room (!) and decided to have dinner at the Kona Cafe. The decor there is very cool - it fits the Polynesian theme very well, but is a little more updated. Near the entrance to the restaurant were enormous edible sculptures - a dragon made out of dark chocolate and a woman made out of white and colored chocolate. They were just incredible. Gram ordered their sesame chicken fettuccine, after the server assured her that the sauce wasn't too spicy, and I had the artichoke ravioli with tomato-ginger sauce. I couldn't taste any ginger, but the ravioli were nonetheless yummy, and Gram loved her chicken. We asked the CM if we could use my AP to get a free dessert, and she bent the rules to allow it even though the deal was only supposed to be before 6:00 (it was 8:30 now). Their famous KoKo Puffs were our choice, and they were just wonderful - like little round eclairs, but filled with chocolate pastry cream, topped with a vanilla custard sauce and sitting in a pool of chocolate. It would have been way too much for one person, but it was just right for the two of us. The bill was about $39 with tea and Coke. Today was laundry day for me, so I gathered up all my stuff (plus Gram's sweatshirt, since some of the chocolate sauce had landed on it) and went down to the laundry room. It's in the same building as the Neverland Club, so I saw the very cool entrance where kids climb through the window to get in. In the laundry room, one guy was waiting for a machine to open up, but I spotted a double-load machine that was empty. I asked him if he wanted to use it, but he said he really needed two machines, so I popped my clothes in and went back up to the room for a bit. When I came down later, a dryer was available, and I switched the clothes over and read my book in the comfy waiting room - it has couches, chairs and a TV, much nicer than at the moderates and All Stars. There are bubbles painted on the walls, one of which is a Hidden Mickey complete with facial features. We were in bed about 10:30, refreshed from our relaxing day! Day 5 - Wednesday, February 9, 2000 Today was Animal Kingdom day, so we got up at 6, had our usual breakfast and got the bus to AK, arriving at about 8:15. Gram didn't think they rented scooters at this park, for some reason, but they sure do, so we got her one. We wandered through the Oasis a little bit and had our picture taken in front of the Tree of Life (forgot to look for it later, though). While we were there, we headed toward It's Tough to Be a Bug. Gram was just amazed by all the detail in the Tree of Life as we made our way through the queue. We also had a good laugh at something I'd never noticed before in the waiting area of the show: a giant "dung ball" supposedly used in a production of "The Dung and I." Only at Disney! We enjoyed the show - Gram was surprised by all the effects, especially the last one, which is my favorite too. (She parked the scooter and sat in a regular seat.) We had intended to do Africa next, but hit Asia first, so rather than backtracking, that's where we stayed. A CM tried to lure us into Kali River Rapids, but I remembered Gram's refrain of "Am I going to get wet?" and steered us away! We did the Maharajah Jungle Trek instead. It was a chilly morning, so the Komodo dragon wasn't out yet and only one bat was braving the cold, but we saw plenty of birds, a tapir, several Elds deer, a blackbuck, and five of the tigers lounging in the sun. The CMs here were very knowledgeable and told us all about how tigers are endangered, and about the mating dance of a particular crane species that's new to Animal Kingdom. Next, we went on to Africa, picked up a Fastpass for Kilimanjaro Safaris and did the Pangani Falls trail. I've never been lucky enough to see the okapi in their viewing area, but we spotted two of them (or should I say "striped?"). We also saw two hippos underwater, many birds and fish, and several dik-diks and meerkats before getting to my favorite part, the gorillas. As he usually is, the silverback was napping near the glassed-in area. The bachelor troop, however, were out in full force. We watched the 5-year-old romp around on his side of the river and the older guys on their side. The CM there pointed out the leader of the bachelor troop, who's a bit older - I had noticed on my last trip that his back was starting to turn gray, so I was proud that I'd made an accurate observation. I adore gorillas and could stand there all day taking pictures of them, but it was time for our Fastpass on the safari. We skipped some of the line with our passes and then were directed toward the wheelchair area. It was very well planned for this ride. Several CMs were there to answer questions - we didn't have any, but behind us were a lady who was four months pregnant and her elderly mother who had back problems, and they were a little concerned at all the warnings. The CM assured them that if they didn't mind driving over potholes in a car, they'd be fine on the safari; and he made sure they sat in the front of the bus where it's less bumpy. He also advised the driver to go a little more carefully than usual, and he really did. Careful as the driver was, though, he was also extremely sarcastic ("This is all part of the wild Africa we're trying soooo haaard to preserve"), and made sure we knew that he did this spiel many times a day. Nonetheless, in spite of his best efforts, it was a wonderful safari. We saw two cheetahs, who are often hard to spot (so to speak), many giraffes, a whole herd of zebras in the distance, sable antelope (whom Gram liked a lot), and the male lion dozing in the sun. Gram was suitably impressed by our adventure. I bought some popcorn and a zebra mug filled with Coke, and we headed to Camp Minnie-Mickey for the Lion King show. We were a little early, so we ate the popcorn and soaked up the sun for a little while. I used the bathroom, and it's beautifully themed - it has birch beams holding up the ceiling, Adirondack-style lights, and low, kid-sized sinks. They really think of everything at Disney. When it was time for the show, we zipped right in and got a seat in the front of the giraffe section. What a great place to sit! The dancers and all the action were right in front of us. Gram loved the show - I had thought she would, since it's tied for my favorite show with the Hunchback one at MGM. Our last stop at Animal Kingdom was Dinoland. I picked up Fastpasses for Countdown to Extinction for us, and we wandered around the land. The Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton they were working on, "Sue," was all finished and they were now working on something called an Albertosaurus. A CM outside answered all our paleontology questions - like, how can they find just a few pieces of bone and know exactly what animal they came from? or how could they tell that this was a young Albertosaurus and not just a skeleton of some smaller, similar species? He was very interesting and helpful. Gram also wanted to know what the giant tube was in the room - it's a huge vacuum to pick up all the dust and debris, of which there was a lot. I know if I worked there, I'd probably accidentally vacuum up some priceless specimen. I once broke our home vacuum cleaner by sucking up one of Drew's socks. We browsed through the Dinosaur Jubilee tent and the Cretaceous Trail, sat in the sun again for a bit, and then it was time for our CTX Fastpasses. Gram didn't quite know what to expect from this ride, but she liked it! They say it's recently been toned down, but it was still quite bumpy, though not as overwhelming. The only major change I noticed was that the very last Carnotaurus was missing - the one who jumps out just after the meteor lands. We had fun, anyway. I love watching the security cameras in the exit area, seeing all the Dino Institute staff try to catch the errant dino. I noticed that he's the same one we see in the trailer for the new "Dinosaur" movie coming out this spring - it'll be interesting to see what the connection is. We were both hungry by this time, so we stopped at my favorite counter-service place in Animal Kingdom, Pizzafari. Gram got the hot Italian deli sandwich on my recommendation, and I got my usual veggie one. She *loved* it, especially the crunchy bread - I think this was her favorite meal of the trip. We went back to the Poly via the Wilderness Lodge at about 3:00, and Gram agreed that it's gorgeous there. We fully intended to go to Epcot later and do the rest of World Showcase, but I took a nap, then another nap, and we were just too lazy. At about 9:30, we realized we hadn't had dinner, so I went down to the food court and got us a highly balanced meal of chicken tenders, potato chips and apple danish. I talked to the dear husband a bit on the phone, and we went to sleep about 10:30. Day 6 - Thursday, February 10, 2000 This was our last full day. :( Our wake-up call came at 6:45, we had our usual breakfast, and then we got the monorail to the Magic Kingdom to do Tomorrowland - the only part of the park we hadn't seen on our other visit to the MK. We rented a scooter and entered the park about 9:15. A Timekeeper show was about to start, so we scooted in and enjoyed it very much. I hadn't stood right up front before, so it was great to get a clearer view of the Timekeeper and 9-Eye. Then there was just a 10-minute wait for Buzz Lightyear, so we did that on a lark. Gram liked it more than she had expected! She scored 1,000 to my 259,800 - not bad for a first-timer. Since the Carousel of Progress wasn't open yet and we didn't want to do Space Mountain, Alien Encounter or the race cars, that left the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which Gram also enjoyed. I love just putting my feet up and relaxing on this ride. I pointed out the Hidden Mickey on the belt buckle of the lady having her hair done. Gram needed to get some souvenirs for folks in our family, so we wandered through the Emporium for a while and bought a big pile of hats and T-shirts. We were just about to leave the park when the Magic Kingdom Band came by - they sounded great, so we sat and listened to them for a while as they marched around the square. When we got to the counter to return the scooter, a man and his wife were standing there waiting. The guy cornered Gram and asked, "Are you returning that scooter?" When she said yes, he explained, "Then we're going to rent it, because my wife has three artificial parts." We had a hard time not laughing, but we managed to restrain ourselves from asking "Which ones?" As soon as they were out of earshot, we lost it, and we took the monorail back to the Poly. It was only about 11:30 - too early to take a nap! We rested a bit, had a Coke, and headed off to Epcot at about 1:30 to do the rest of World Showcase. We started in Mexico, where Huitzilin were performing - they wear beautiful Mayan-style costumes and play very rhythmic music. They had a group of little kids dancing and accompanying them on maracas. I stopped inside the pavilion to use the bathroom, and as I have been many times before, I was tempted to buy a beautiful ceramic figure of a pregnant woman. I decided to bypass it, though, and took a picture instead. We had already done El Rio del Tiempo a few days before, so we continued on. In Norway, some musicians (*not* Fossekallen - I don't know who they were) were playing and we stopped to listen. When we were ready to move on, Gram put the key back in the scooter and it just made a strange beeping sound and wouldn't move. She pulled the key in and out a few times - no dice. Some guy came over with an air of "Let *me* help, little lady," and his brilliant idea was to pull the key in and out a few times. Needless to say, it didn't work for him either. I corralled the first CM I saw - a greeter outside Akershus - and he offered to trade it in for a working scooter. He said he'd be back in about 10 minutes and park the new one outside Akershus, so we stopped in the Kringla Bakeri to get a ham and cheese sandwich for Gram and a rice cream for me. Unfortunately, they don't have any vegetarian offerings there that aren't sweets, but I just needed something in my stomach, and the rice cream did the trick. As we were sitting there, we overheard the conversation of some guests chatting next to us. They were complete strangers, but it turned out that not only did they live in the same town in the Midwest, but one of the families had bought their house from the grandfather of the other family! All together now: "It's a small world after all..." By the time we were done, the new scooter had arrived, and it worked just fine, so we got in line for the Maelstrom. At that ride, folks in wheelchairs need to wait in the regular line until they get inside the building, at which point they're diverted to a back entrance to the ride. We waited dutifully at the wheelchair entrance...and waited...and waited...but no one came to help us. Meanwhile, several CMs were standing around at the tourist information desk, doing nothing. I finally went over and asked them for some help, but they assured me that someone would be out soon. Indeed, a CM appeared shortly and took us right on the boat. We enjoyed the ride but skipped the movie. *blush* When we got to China, the Pu Yang Acrobats were performing in the courtyard, so we watched them for a little bit. It's nothing short of amazing, what those kids can do. One girl stood on her hands and bent her legs around backwards so that her rear end touched her head! Yow! We didn't feel like seeing "Wonders of China," but we looked in the shop a little bit and tried on a rice-paddy hat. In Germany, we made up for the fact that we hadn't bought anything in World Showcase so far - Gram got several pretty Christmas ornaments, including one for me and Drew, and I bought Drew some Mozartkugeln chocolates for Valentine's Day. As I was in line to pay for them, a small boy and his mother were waiting in front of me. The kid had his hands completely full of candy but kept swiveling his head this way and that, and he turned to his mother and said "Mom, are we going to come back here?" She said "Yes, we'll probably be back to Disney World in a couple of years." He said "No, I mean are we going to be back to *this* shop on *this* vacation?" "No, I don't think so - why, what do you need?" "I just want *everything*!" he cried. We went quickly through Italy, just pausing to watch a guy spinning plates outside the pavilion and take a picture by the Neptune fountain. It was getting close to time for an American Adventure show, so we headed there next. There was a concert going on at the outdoor theater for Black Heritage Month - a singer named Sissaundra Lewis - and it sounded great. There was a private dinner going on inside the pavilion building, though, so the front hall was blocked off and neither the Voices of Liberty nor American Vybe were singing. We took a hidden elevator to the second floor and a CM led us to the entrance of the theater, where we waited five or ten minutes for the previous show to end. This meant that we were treated to a muffled rendition of "Golden Dreams," which is surely my *least* favorite of all Disney attraction songs. Ugh! I dozed a bit in the show but woke up just in time to hear "Golden Dreams" all over again. Gram enjoyed the show, anyway. She noticed the semi-subtle American Express sign in the Depression gas station scene. In Japan, we marveled once again at the amazing landscaping in this pavilion, and wandered into the back where there was an exhibit of toys that combined modern technology with traditional Japanese art forms. There was a cool animatronic dragon that you could control with a joystick; a folk tale told with electronically controlled porcelain figures; and several nifty marionettes. It was a nice diversion. I was hungry again, since I'd only had a rice cream in Norway, so we went to the Tangierine Cafe in Morocco. I had the vegetarian plate: tabouli, hummus, tomato and cucumber salad, lentil salad and marinated olives, with some kind of wonderful bread. The olives were the regular black and green California kind, not the stronger Middle Eastern olives, but that was my only disappointment - everything else was great. Gram went to the adjacent Moorish Cafe and got a cafe au lait and a little orange-chocolate mousse cake. The pastries there looked fantastic! I expected it to just be variations on baklava, which is nice enough, but there were quite a few elaborate selections. I pointed out the beautiful tile work on the table, which had one tile missing. On the Hidden Treasures of World Showcase tour in October, we'd learned about how Muslim artisans always make one small 'mistake' in their work, since only Allah can create perfection. Gram was impressed. As we finished eating, we heard the music of the first Tapestry of Nations parade starting, and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures and watching. I think I could watch that parade every night and never get tired of it. Gram said she enjoyed it even more the second time, because the first time, she almost didn't know where to look, she was so overwhelmed by it. When it was done, there was another perfect photo opportunity: a star and the crescent moon floating right next to the tallest mosque tower in the pavilion. It looked as if Disney had put it there on purpose. We had already seen the France, UK, Millennium Village and Canada pavilions the other day, so we just stopped briefly in France for pastries to bring back to the room: a peach tart for Gram and chocolate croissant for me. The CM in the bakery called me "Madame," which tickled me since I'd always been "Mademoiselle" before. We made our way to the exit, but when we got to the Leave a Legacy monoliths, we remembered that we'd wanted to look for the tile that Drew and I had bought in October. There was no CM by the station where they can look up the location of your tile, but I noticed a hinged door concealing the keyboard of the computer. It wasn't locked, so I lifted it up and started typing away. Just as I was about to finish, the CM came back and asked cheerfully if she could help me. I was embarrassed, but she didn't seem to mind that I'd hijacked the computer! She gave us directions and we found the tile with no problem - it looked great. I was glad to discover that it was quite low on the monolith - it would be lousy if it was too high up to see clearly. We drove the scooter over to a bench by the exit and Gram waited there while I returned it and got her deposit back. While she was waiting, she struck up a conversation with a man who turned out to be from Nepal, taking an extended trip all over the US. When he found out I was from San Francisco, he said he'd spent a couple of days there and loved it. He had been calling his family every night on the trip to see how they were doing! I'd hate to see his phone bill when he got home. We took the monorails back to the Poly and were in the room by 8:15. We packed our bags for tomorrow, ate the wonderful pastries from France and hit the sack. Day 7 - Friday, February 11, 2000 We woke up at about 8:30 for our last day. :( For breakfast, I had a croissant and juice while Gram had coffee, juice and the rest of her peach tart from last night (that thing was *huge*!). We finished packing our things and decided on the logistics of how to get to the airport - my flight was scheduled for two and a half hours after Gram's, so we decided that she'd take Tiffany Towncar back to the airport and I'd get a Mears shuttle. That way, I could have a couple more hours in the parks instead of sitting in the airport for 3 1/2 hours. I called Mears and arranged for a 6:15 pickup. Once we were all packed, we called Bell Services to come and get our stuff; and we took the monorail to the TTC and the bus to Downtown Disney. Gram hadn't been here since way back in the days when it was the Walt Disney World Village, so it was quite a change. We wandered around the Art of Disney and 2 R's stores and then hit the big World of Disney. Gram bought a Mickey paper clip holder for her desk at work and two more T-shirts for family members. We ogled over the Lego sculptures for a little while, but we were suddenly hungry, so we decided to have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. I had never been particularly interested in eating here, but it was a pretty cool setup. We sat next to a huge tubular aquarium and watched the inhabitants swim around while we ate. Occasionally, a thunderstorm would take place or the nearby elephants would start trumpeting. Gram had a hamburger and fries, which she said were just fine, and I had vegetable potstickers, which were okay but a little too sweet. I was glad I'd just ordered an appetizer - it was plenty for me, and a main dish would have been way too much food. Gram treated me to lunch, which was very nice. We took a quick look in the Disney at Home store (I want everything in there, but Drew begs to differ) and then got the bus back to the TTC. It was 3:00 and Gram's driver was picking her up at 4:30, so she decided to go back to the Poly and let me go straight to Epcot from there instead of accompanying her to the resort. I wouldn't have minded, but she insisted. She said she supposed this was her last trip to WDW, but I said she'd have to come back sometime soon to take her first great-grandchild. She said "Sure, but only when the great-grandchild is old enough to push me!" We said our goodbyes and took our separate monorails. Little did we know - Gram's flight was over two hours late leaving Orlando because of weather conditions in Boston. We could have both gone to the airport at the same time after all. :P I got to Epcot about 3:30. My mission was to get a couple of last souvenirs in World Showcase, but I figured I'd stop by Test Track first to get a Fastpass. Unfortunately, the return time was between 6:30 and 7:30 and the standby line was an hour, so I scratched that idea! On to World Showcase, where I finally did buy the pregnant-lady ceramic figure in Mexico. I'd been eyeballing it for five trips now, so I figured it was worth buying. I don't regret it - it looks beautiful on my bureau at home. I checked the guidemap and decided to try to see American Vybe at 4:05. I had a quick stop in Norway to buy a Fossekallen CD for Drew and then tried to make a beeline for the American Adventure, but I was foiled - the drawbridge between China and Germany was up so that the floats for Reflections of Earth could get through. While I was waiting, though, I watched the Pu Yang Acrobats for a bit, so all was not lost. I got to the American Adventure just as American Vybe was starting, and their show was wonderful as usual. They sang "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing," a gospel number, "Happy Birthday," and a love song called "Honeysuckle Rose" or some such. When they were done, I left the pavilion without seeing the main show - I had heard "Golden Dream" one too many times this trip! I took a leisurely stroll through Japan, Morocco and France, taking pictures along the way. When I got to the UK, my feet needed a break and the British Invasion were playing, so I sat and listened to them for a while, then took some more pictures in Canada. I had a sudden craving for a frozen banana, but apparently they don't sell them in Epcot. :( As I made my way to the front of the park, I wandered through Innoventions East a bit, then did Spaceship Earth one last time before getting the monorails back to the Poly. Bell Services had a bit of a hard time finding my bags, since Gram had taken the receipt for them and I didn't have the number. Finally, though, a bellhop came puffing out with them and I gave him $5 for his trouble. I was scheduled for the 6:15 shuttle, and I sat on a little island in the driveway to wait. The bellhop told me that the shuttle would be on my left when it came to pick up - that they did pickups on the left and drop-offs on the right. At 6:20, a shuttle appeared on the right and I heard the driver talking to another of the bellhops, but I thought he said that he was dropping off and not picking up, so I didn't get in the van. Lo and behold, he was indeed picking up, so at 6:30 I realized that I had missed it. No matter, though - there were two other families waiting for the 6:45, and I knew I would still be at the airport on time. One family had a little boy who'd bought one of those wooden rifles in Frontierland and was systematically shooting down all cars and passersby while singing "Yo Ho, Ho-Ho, a Pirate's Life for Me." He got into a standoff with a boy from another family, who had no rifle but compensated by making his thumb and index finger into a revolver. Meanwhile, another family had a little girl who pranced around waving a pinwheel and singing "We're Off to See the Wizard, the Wonderffizzard of Oz." (Those were the only lyrics she knew.) Her mother escaped to inside the Great Ceremonial House while her father kept an eye on her. As we were all waiting, a scantily clad fire runner happened by as well, but he managed to avoid being targeted by the boy with the rifle. Finally the shuttle came and we all piled in, filling the van to capacity. I got to the airport with enough time to buy some magazines, have french fries at Burger King and get my flight to St. Louis. I had no problems on that flight or the one to San Francisco - I had a row to myself on the second plane, in fact. I landed at SFO at about 1 AM, waited in a long taxi queue, and got home around 2. Final Thoughts This was a great trip! It was wonderful spending the whole trip at a deluxe resort for the first time, especially one on the monorail line. The weather was next to perfect - about 70-75 degrees during the day and 45-50 at night, so I was glad I brought layers. It was just like winter in San Francisco except without the rain, and it was certainly a good break for Gram from the Boston winter. Crowds at this time of year were quite light - they were about the same as when Drew and I had been there in mid-October. I think the longest wait we had was for the Journey to Jerusalem ride, and that was just because we'd just missed the previous show. It was great having the scooter for Gram! We had no problems renting them at the parks - we were lucky enough to always find at least one left, even when we arrived in mid-afternoon. In the morning, up to about an hour and a half after park opening, there were always plenty to be had. It really saved Gram a lot of walking and allowed her to do more than she otherwise would have. Best of all, it was great to spend some time with my grandmother! We'll definitely have to get her back there some day. Anne Campbell waxwing@sirius.com Mail a Comment to Anne Campbell |
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