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Marla Jo Hellwig --July 2000 -- Walt Disney World (CR)If you've already read Marla's Pre-Trip report (it
was posted on the site for quite some time) July 16 - 26, 2000 CAST:
I am a single mom with one daughter and this is a pre trip planner of our upcoming visit with the Mouse and friends. After much decision making on my part, I booked this trip very early in January of 2000. Booked through Magic Kingdom Travel receiving a Magic Kingdom Card (MKC) discount on room at Contemporary (CR) Tower. With summer schedules and room availability, ended up booking trip for last half of July. By arriving on the 16th even saved more money as it was after the 4th, and we even haven't left yet! I started planning this trip by using every guide book I could get my hands on at our local library. Mid March I FINALLY got internet access and wow - a Whole New World Opened up to me. After countless hours of reading, surfing, and posting questions, here is our trip.
Hopefully with this schedule mapped out ahead of time, we can see more than we did last trip. Have 2 full days planned for each park. That way can spread it out some and take our time. FINAL THOUGHTS Plan on using FastPass as often as we can. Have some down time planned, could even head back to CR some days for lay down and we may even hit the pool. Though a evening swim sound better to me. If you can't tell by now we are at least semi commando's about out attacks on the parks. At least in the mornings. Found that using EE last trip was able to cover alot of ground in a short time period. Planning more time at Epcot this time - with K's studies over last two years some things will make more sense to her now. Planning on using Disney's transportation system the whole trip. I love having someone else do all of the driving for a change. I may even get to have a drink with dinner - you never know! Will we get the MK view at CR - who knows - would be nice but we can look at the lagoon too. We will have a balcony a nice way to end the evening no matter what we can see. Hopefully, with shopping on the first day we won't go overboard in the parks but we shall see!! All of our PS's are made except for Cindy's, Tony's, Liberty Tree, and Crystal Palace. Have it on calendar for when to start especially for Cindy's. I may need some Pixie Dust sent my way starting May 18! Want to see every parade that we can. Going to try to be in a lucky spot for K to get picked at MK's afternoon one. Have a few starter pins for trading - hopefully will be able to get some pins also hoping not to go overboard on the pin trading in whole. Have notebook and pen in box - yes have started that first round of packing - the odds and ends plan on making notes as we go along so can write a trip report when we get back. Look for it sometime (hopefully) early August. K's still into the characters so we will be getting those autographs and hopefully no lost or run away books this time (see April 2000 report). Look for us there - K will be the kid with the autograph book stapled to her body. Just kidding folks. Until August!!! DAY 1 - Sunday July 16: - Travel Day, Flying, Checking In, Shopping, Chef Mickey's, and MK: Planes, shuttles, vans, monorails, buses and cabs, oh my - and we even hadn't made into a park yet! After a sleepless night, I kept thinking did I pack everything, finally gave up and surfed and played on the computer. Climbed into the shower around 3 a.m., and Kara woke up around 3:30. My lucky parents, who were driving us to the airport, arrived at 4:30 and we loaded up their car and was on the road minutes later. Arrived at Dayton International Airport at 5 and had luggage checked in and boarding passes in just a couple of minutes. Delta from Dayton to Atlanta. Proceeded to gate and waited about 35 minutes. They started loading the plane, and we left the gate at 6:05 and was in the air by 6:11. This flight just served drinks and bag of mix, but Kara was carrying the breakfast of champions and travelers - pop tarts! "YUM"! This flight was so cold, everyone on the plane was complaining how cold they were. They even didn't have enough blankets for everyone. I finally was able to snag one from the first class section that we could share. Those blankets aren't that easy to share. If we had only known that this was the coolest we would be for the next 11 days! We touched down on the ground in Atlanta at 7:05 arriving at gate B33. Our connecting flight to Orlando Delta was leaving from gate A1. We had quite a hike and our first "monorail" shuttle ride of the day. We left the gate at 8:40. We did leave 70 international guests behind according to our pilot, first we waited for them, but they were having trouble getting out of customs, so our pilot came back on and said we weren't waiting any longer and Delta would have to find them another flight later. Sorry fellow travelers! We were in the air at 8:57. Another snack and drink and I snoozed for a little awhile. I did change from the pants I was wearing into shorts. Let me tell you this was not an easy task in that little stall on the plane! I held up a blanket and Kara changed into her shorts right at her seat. This flight was hot - I figured out later they did this to start body to adjust to the heat in Orlando. At 9:50 we had a very bouncy landing. Was Tigger flying the plane? We pulled up to our gate at 10:00 a.m. and by 10:45 we had our 2nd "monorail" ride, a potty stop, our luggage, and was leaving the airport in the Mear's van. I figured we might be in trouble with the tour groups from South America when we got to the luggage area. There was a large group of teens lying on the floor all around the luggage carrousels. They didn't seem to want to move, and everybody was stepping over them or around them. I know I "banged" a couple of them with my luggage. They finally moved by airport security. We got to see the Boardwalk, Swan, Dolphin, Yacht, and Beach Club resorts while Mears dropped off our fellow passengers with wishes of a good time as each party got out of the van and then we arrived at the Contemporary (CR). On the trip to WDW, did see some of the fire damage. Was interesting to see one tree would be burned and the next one o k. Driver said the plan was to leave the area alone until next spring to see what would grow back. Some of the fire damage was right next to the highway. Our luggage was checked (at 11:30) into the storage area at the CR straight from the unloading area at the front of the resort, and got right into line to check in. Had about a 5 - 10 minute wait. Our CM was very nice and friendly. It did take awhile to check in. They were having printer problems. The other thing that slowed us down was that our CM accidentally sent our refrigerator to the wrong room. But she fixed it by changing our room to the room that the refrigerator went to and reprinted out our Unlimited Magic Passes. Also bought our E Night tickets for Tuesday, July 18th. I very nicely asked if any upgrades were available and we got upgraded to the 8th floor. Not quite the upgrade I was hoping for, but I just smiled and thanked our CM. Our room was ready and we went straight to it - # 4446 was our home for the next 11 days. You add the first two numbers of room number together to get your floor number. Our luggage was waiting for us when we got there and our refrigerator was coming down the hall as the luggage was being unloaded. Our room had a balcony with a MK view. We were at one end of the building. Our room overlooked most of the shops, and at the other end from Chef Mickey's and the Concourse Steakhouse restaurants which are on the 4th floor. As you walk into the room, the bathroom is immediately to your right. There was a large tub with shower head and large counter top with sink in the middle. A large mirror over the sink and top and it was well lighted. There was a hair blow dryer mounted on the wall to the left of the mirror. The toilet, another sink, counter top, lights, and mirror are in a small room connected with a door within the bathroom. The bathroom is black and white tile and was very clean upon arrival. Across from the bathroom was a very large closet with 2 siding doors. There was ample storage space within with a full size ironing board and iron in the closet. Also, the safe is on the floor. Seemed to be about 10 wooden hangers that you could remove from the rod to hang stuff up on. There were 2 luggage racks in the closet. We had 2 queen size beds with a couch / day bed. We didn't use it as a day bed but as a couch to sit on or dump stuff on. Table between the beds with phone. There was a light over each bed with light switches over the table for each light. In the corner by the glass sliding door was a chair, foot stool and a floor lamp behind it. There was a small end table at one end of the couch with a phone and phone books on the shelf below. There was a large storage unit that ran from the closet to the couch that had drawers and shelves for whatever. The television sat on top at the left end of this unit. Had a good size table lamp at the other end that even had a electrical plug in it that worked great for recharging the camcorder batteries every night. The whole room was very clean and bright. The room looked new and didn't see any "worn" spots or areas. The colors were a little strange at the beginning but after a couple of days didn't even notice them. From our balcony, we overlooked the Magic Kingdom. We could see Space Mountain, the Castle, Main Street Train Station, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain. We could even see the flashes from the pictures from Splash! Also, we could see the Seven Seas Lagoon, the GF, part of the P and the monorail tracks. Our room also was over the front of the resort. More on this later. As this was our travel day didn't plan on going into a park right away, but wanted to go to an outlet. The original plan was to go to Beltz, but after talking to CM's at front desk, the plan quickly changed to the Orlando Premium Outlet (on Vineland Avenue) that is closer to Downtown Disney. After a quick change of shirts and the unloading of the fanny packs, we were off! Yes these are 2 gals who love to shop! From the CR, we caught the bus (the bus stop is to the right of the building as you come out. Don't go out the front door, there is a door just to the left of the Bell Services desk that leads you to the bus stop. It is a totally covered walkway. Waited about 5 minutes for bus and caught the bus which goes to Typhoon Lagoon and Downtown Disney. This was where we had our only transportation miscommunication for the whole trip was after we got off the bus at Market Place. Bus driver told us you couldn't get a cab from the Market Place but had to get a cab at Pleasure Island. Back on another bus to Pleasure Island. Caught a cab in about 3 - 5 minutes we were off to Orlando Premium Outlets. This outlet is very new and clean. But was very crowded, and hot!. We only did the Character Premium store here, but did spend about 2 hours looking every thing over. Made out like a bandit here. Caught cab and cab took us directly back to the Market Place. Spent a little time at the World of Disney, made a few purchases with the MKCC discount, and with several large bags, we ended up back to the CR shortly. We will be back never fear!! Back in the room to dump our bags and back down to the Food / Fun Center on the 1st floor to purchase our refillable mugs. One of the best purchases I made. We used the mugs a lot. There were 2 choices of mug handle colors red and purple so we each got one. Back to our room to relax with cold drinks and change into thongs for dinner. We had a Surprise PS at 6:15 p.m. at Chef Mickey's. We checked in at 5:45. We got our names in and our picture taken within 5 minutes. Donald and Goofy were in the lobby area for pictures and autographs. We actually had to wait to be seated though, but according to my notes, we were seated at 6:16 so technically we only had to wait 1 minute past our PS time. CHEF MICKEY'S DINNER BUFFET Sunday, July 16, 2000: Buffet Price 19.95 for Adults, 8.95 for Children 3 - 11 Premium Salad Bar and Soup Du Jour. The soup was Ham, Potato & Scallion. It was good, kinda like a thick, creamy white french onion soup. On the Carving Board: Oven Roasted Prime Rib - YUMMY!, and Bone - In Ham - we both skipped the ham. Chef's Buffet Specials of the Day: Mesquite Beef Tips with Wild Mushroom Demi-Glace - the beef was good but Kara didn't like the glace. Spicy Honey Roasted Chicken - good but spicy, Kara didn't like the spicy part. Baked Chef's Catch with Caramelized Onion-Thyme Butter - we both skipped. Chicken & Serpentine Pasta Alfredo - good. Wonderful Accompaniments: Parmesan Mashed Potatoes - very yummy, goes great with the Prime Rib!!! Texas Ranch Style Baked Beans - these were good but spicy. Green Beans Provencal - good. Garden Vegetable Medley - just normal vegetables. Mandarin Orange Glazed Baby Carrots - these were good and neither of us like cooked carrots. Children's Favorites: Chef Mickey's Macaroni & Cheese Goofy's Cheese Pizza Minnie's Mini Hot Dogs Chip & Dale's Tender Chicken - chicken strips Kara ate pizza, couple of hot dogs and 3 chicken strips (I think). She wasn't impressed with the macaroni & cheese - if it isn't Kraft forget it! The desserts were great - be sure to save room for some. Sundaes, cookies, cupcakes you can decorate, soft serve ice cream with different toppings. The chocolate desserts were yummy! Chocolate french silk pie type and other chocolate items. The ice tea was really good and our waiter brought me a whole carafe of it. I ended up pouring the rest of the tea into my water bottle for later. Kara started out with Sprite and then had milk with dessert. Waiter also filled her water bottle with ice water for her. The characters present were: Mickey, Minnie, and Chip, and Dale who came to our table at least 3 times each. Participated in 2 napkin twirling. Bought the whole picture package - very few times that we are in a picture together. The picture was good too, my hair looked normal (not frizzy from the humidity) and my nose wasn't sunburned yet! Dale kissed me once and Kara 6 times while we were there. Chip played with Kara's braids and gave me some "hair". Kara got big hugs from Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale. At some point Kara had to go to the restroom, I let her go alone. I was just sitting there enjoying my 2nd helping of prime rib and parmesan potatoes when I looked up and saw Chip or Dale practically nose to nose with me. He looked at the empty seat, looked at me and then scratched his head. I told him she would be right back and he got up bouncing. I thought Tigger was the only one who bounced! After an enjoyable dinner and time we zipped, well we actually waddled back up to our room to change back into our shoes and brushing of the teeth, and back down to the 4th floor to catch the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Got to ride up front with the driver. We walked into the MK at about 8:00 p.m. and headed directly to Adventureland. The crowds were very light in Adventureland. We walked right on the Swiss Family Treehouse and was able to take our time looking at every room. Not too long ago, Kara watched the movie so this attraction made a lot more sense to her. Tiki Room was another walk on - we had just missed the pre show, but hopefully we will catch it later. Waited about 2 minutes in the room. Only about 30 people in the whole room. Cute show, we both were singing the Tiki Bird song! Had about a 5 minute wait for the Jungle Cruise. Kara asked if she could drive the boat and her and our captain bantered back and forth the whole cruise. We walked right on to the Pirates of the Caribbean 3 times. Saw little bits and pieces of the 9 p.m. Main Street Electrical Parade (MSEP) but never fear will see it again (and again). Was able to catch a glimpse of Tinkerbell flying and watched the fireworks right around the Crystal Palace. We left the park immediately after the fireworks due to wanting to be up bright and early for EE at the MK in the a.m. Back in room via a quick trip on the monorail and Kara had a bath and was in bed and asleep by 11 p.m. While Kara was in the tub, I made our wake up call for 6 a.m., and set the alarm clock that I brought for 6:05. I never seem to have any luck with the alarm clocks or radios in any place I have stayed, so I just bring my own little clock. I unpacked some, took a shower and was in bed by 12 watching Zorro and the Hardy Boys. Boy this bed sure feels good. The air conditioner is also working well as the room is cool and comfy. It was very warm and muggy outside for it being 10 p.m. I know I made it through Zorro, but don't remember seeing much of the Hardy Boys. Stayed tuned for day 2. The Plan for the day was to arrive hopefully at the CR by 10:30 and shop until we dropped at the Beltz Outlets. Don't plan on going into a park today. PS at Chef Mickey's to help start off our vacation in the right mood. We arrived at the CR at 11:30 and did get to an outlet, just not Beltz. We were glad we did do Adventureland due to the lack of crowds. Boy, the heat and humidity is going to take some getting to though. Dinner was good and was glad had made the choice to start our vacation at Chef Mickey's. DAY 2 - Monday, July 17 MK - EE, Pirate Cruise, 1900 Park Fair: Now the fun begins, our first full day at WDW! 6:00 a.m. the telephone rings. I didn't answer because I wanted Kara to answer and hear Mickey. She didn't even move. 6:05 a.m. the telephone rings again, and this time Kara climbs out of bed and picks up the phone. She said hello and handed me the phone. So her first day, she didn't hear good old Mickey. She started to climb back into bed but I asked "who wants to go to the MK this morning". Boy, she got moving then! We were dressed and out the door and downstairs filling up our mugs by 6:40. This was the only morning I took our cups into the park. We got to the gate for the monorail and it was still closed and locked. It doesn't open until 7:00 a.m. While we were waiting, ate our breakfast of pop tarts and sprite. We were the only ones getting on the monorail at this time. Got to ride in the front cab again. I videotaped our journey this morning. After a quick trip through the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC), Polynesian (P), and Grand Floridian (GF) we arrived at the MK about 7:20. We were about 50 people back from the gate in our particular line. All of the lines that were going to open had about the same number of people in them. Finished putting on that good old sun screen and waited until the gates opened at 7:30. As you went through the gate they passed out a paper called "Surprise Morning" with the following information on what would be open: Restaurants: The Crystal Palace, Main Street Bake Shop, and Cinderella's Royal Table. Attractions: Main Street Vehicles, Cinderella's Golden Carrousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, "it's a small world", Mad Tea Party, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan's Flight, Snow White's Scary Adventure, Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, Space Mountain, Tomorrowland Light & Power Co (video arcade), Tomorrowland Speedway, Tomorrowland Transit Authority (better known as the People Mover). Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square and Mickey's Toontown Fair will open at 8:50 a.m. Of course, I knew what rides were open, but Kara had to pick up a couple of these. Something else for the pack horse (better known as mom to carry for the day!) We quickly walked to Fantasyland as we were 2 girls on a mission - to fly Dumbo first thing. Got to Dumbo and had to wait about 1 minute, they were unloading the current flight - yeah!. Kara and I each got our own Dumbo to fly, as there was nobody behind us. I video taped Kara's ride and she thought mommy was being silly already. As soon as we touched down out and back on again. The wait this time was 3 or 4 minutes and we shared a Dumbo. Upon our 2nd touchdown off to Pooh and friends. The wait times were under 3 - 4 minutes and we were able to ride this 3 times in a row. Now it is about 7:50 and have ridden Dumbo twice and Pooh three times. Kara and I rode the Tea Party once - I don't let her spin as spinning makes me sick. Rode Snow White twice, Peter Pan once and it's small world once. By now it is after 8:30, and Fantasyland is filling up. Thought we did real well with the low wait times and getting the rides in. By 8:30 we had ridden everything in Fantasyland except for the Carrousel and seeing the Lion King show, but we will be back! Started heading out of the park as needed to get started on Kara's next Surprise of our trip. Stopped at the Camera Shop on Main Street and just caught Mary Poppins (in her nanny traveling outfit complete with parrot umbrella) Kara was the last child for this session. We just missed Pocahontas. Walked out of the MK and onward to the Surprise. Kara is signed up for the Pirate's Cruise at the GF. Have to be at the GF's dock by 10:15. We walked down to the water launch for the GF outside of the MK and had about a 10 minute for the boat. While there Kara made another pin trade (her 3rd so far). She got a Bambi from Tokyo. Got to the GF and had about 1/2 hour to wait for cruise. Spent time looking at the boats, birds and having a snack of cheese crackers and water. They started getting the pirates ready about 10:20. Each child gets their life jacket and there are plenty of each size. After parent pays and life jacket on, they get their (blue) bandanna tied on their head, pirate style. When you pay, you will get a receipt. Keep this receipt, you will need it to get your pirate back. The cruise looked like they had about 20 children on it (but didn't count) and Kara seemed to be one of the oldest. I went by height and guessed. The boat left right at 10:30 a.m. As the boat was pulling out, I noticed a CM who was acting like he tripped on a bottle. He held it up saying "look what I just tripped on, think I will throw it overboard". Of course, the pirates started shouting no, there is a message in the bottle. At this point, the boat was out of view. I spent the time talking with another mom and we exchanged e mails addresses and walked around the resort. The GF lobby is nice and pretty. But I "felt" this resort wasn't as "kid friendly". Maybe this was just the impression I got. There was construction going on all over the resort. The roof is being replaced entirely. Walkways were closed, or had temporary coverings over them so something from above wouldn't fall on you. There was a lot of painting going on the outside of the buildings. The lobby is bright and airy. As we walked around the 1st floor, we found Victoria and Albert's. We asked if we could look in and would have been yes but they were just starting a wedding reception. Huge vases filled with fresh flowers (lots of roses). Checked out where 1900 Park Fair was located for later. Rode the glass elevator and walked through the few shops that are on the 2nd floor. Noticed from the 3rd floor and up that there were coverings so that you couldn't look from floor down to the lobby. Are these there all of the time or just up because of the construction? The pool was practically empty, and was just a normal pool. Wasn't big as compared to the CR's one. I did buy Kara 2 card games with the intention of giving them to her at Christmas. She found them the day after we got home. Had these shipped back to our room. Boy do I like that feature! The time seemed to pass so quickly. Soon it was noon and time to get our pirates back. We watched the boat come back. No singing could be heard, but Kara shouted from the boat, "Mom - I solved two of the clues - all by myself". "We also stole the pirate flag". Everyone seemed to have a good time. As you showed your receipt, your pirate (s) were allowed off of the boat and each was given a free pass to River Country. The life jackets have to stay on until the pirate is off of the boat, up the boat ramp, and back on solid ground. They had grapes and juice as a snack while on the cruise. Each pirate had a goodie bag. Kara later counted and had 30 pieces of treasure. Normal carnival type trinkets, but she was pleased to find some rubber frogs and lizards in her sack. I took Kara back into the GF for her to see and ride on the glass elevator. Also found a trash can and emptied the sand out of her shoes. Guess at one point, they were at River Country digging for a clue or the actual treasure. Took the water launch back to the MK with a stop at the P. We did have a little wait for the launch, but it was pleasant wait at the dock with a slight breeze coming off of the water. By now it was around 1 p.m. and we rode the train to Frontierland to check out the lines for Splash & Thunder Mtns. Splash had a 2 hour wait and you couldn't even get near the Fast Pass area to check out when the return time was. Thunder was down when we walked by. Got 2 strawberry bars and sat down near the Thunder entrance. Barely got our bars open and heard a CM say Thunder's open. Off we went. We were able to walk right on and they didn't even make us get rid of our bars. Was able to put bars back into their little bags but they melted during the ride. We got the last seat and it was a really wild ride. I was all over the place and lifted out of my seat several times. We got off ride and got right back in line with about a 20 minute wait. Splash was even worse with wait time and Fast Pass area was totally a zoo, so we wandered around and ended up at County Bear and found a place for the 3 p.m. parade. We sat (as you face Country Bear) just to the right and was right in front. Just as we were sitting down, the poles and ropes were being put up. Kara got to meet and shake hands with Gus. Had about a 35 minute wait for parade. I got to do one of my favorite things - people watch. Kara made friends with the little girl next to us and she shared her cotton candy with Kara. It was good - Kara gave me a little taste. Bubble gum flavor. Kara was picked to participate with the Lion King float. She got to march in a circle shaking one of the big shakers that the silt walkers carries. As soon as the parade was over, we headed for the railroad. Checked on Splash once again and forget it for now. Got right onto the train and got to the Main Street Station just as the parade arrived. Kara was waved to come on out by a fish from the Little Mermaid float, and did the limbo. I couldn't get close enough for pictures but she enjoyed dancing with the fishes. As soon as parade was done, we left getting our hands stamped. It was time to get out of the heat for awhile. After a another quick ride on monorail, stopped and filled up our mugs and back to room to take off shoes and socks for awhile. I was so hot and wanted to take a shower. I told Kara that I was going to stretch out on bed for just a few minutes to cool down, and then we would jump into the shower. Next thing I knew, Kara was asking me if she still was getting her other surprise. It was 5:30 and we had Surprise PS at 1900 Park Fair at the GF at 6:30 for the Villain's dinner. After a quick wash up, out the door and back on the monorail. We checked in at 6:15 and was given a pager. The Red Queen of Hearts was in the lobby area. With her hoop skirt, there is no way she can walk around the restaurant. She was fun and giving the "off with your head" motion many times. Also lobby area has little chairs, television, and table with pictures and crayons to use to keep the kiddies busy while you wait. We were seated about 6:40. 1900 Park Fair, Dinner, Monday, July 17, 2000 Buffet Price 21.95 for adults, 12.95 for children 3 - 11 The menu: 2 loafs of bread were at the table when we were seated. One was a regular yeast type bread and other cinnamon sticky bun type. Both were good with Kara eating all of the yeast bread, and me the other. I barely got a taste of the yeast bread! Assortment of fresh fruits and cold salads. Cold strawberry soup - this was a different item was good though it reminded me of something you would use to dip fruit in. There was another soup on the other side but don't remember what it was. Plain mashed potatoes (with lumps) and potato wedgies. Grilled Chicken - Chicken Newberg - was good. Baked fish and Seafood Newberg - we skipped both. Variety of vegetables - I remember corn as Kara loves corn. Prime rib and ham - once again we both skipped the ham but the prime rib was very good here too! Kids: pizza, sandwiches, chicken strips, and fried fish nuggets - she skipped these too. Had a wonderful chocolate french silk pie type dessert here also, and a piece of several thin layers of chocatle cake with super icing. Captain Hook, Prince John and the Snow Witch were the characters who went from table to table. The first time we saw Hook, Kara told him about helping to steal his flag, and finding the buried treasure. He put both hands on his hips and stomped his foot. He didn't slam his hook down on the table, but we did notice that every time he came by, a piece of Kara's silverware would disappear. Was Hook setting up house and couldn't afford to buy silverware? By the time Kara got to her ice cream she was down to a fork. She thought it was fun to eat ice cream with a fork. Prince John hugged me once and Captain Hook patted me on the shoulder. The Snow Witch on her 3rd time around gave me a big hug. She is not very tall. Kara got several hugs from each of the characters. All 3 characters came around 3 times. I was watching the Snow Witch roam the restaurant and watched her "sneak" up on a lady. I didn't see what she did, but the lady who was sneaked up on, let out a good scream. The organ was loud but fortunately it didn't play much while we were there. Dinner was over an hour, but I was enjoying the comfort of the air conditioning. I did notice that there was never a rush to get you out. Our waiter wasn't around much for this dinner, but noticed he did show up in time for the tip! After dinner got all the way back up the monorail station at the GF and Kara didn't have her water bottle. She zipped back down and it was still seating on the floor by her chair. The bottle I didn't care about but the water strap I did. Back into the MK. Now Kara had whined and begged to ride Splash Mt. since 7:30 a. m. We took the train over there and the wait was 2 hours, and the Fast Pass was closed for the night. I didn't want to wait but we did. Was it ever hot back in there. The wait was actually 2 1/2 hours by the time we actually got on the ride. Missed the first MSEP. I was not a happy camper by now and we left the park as soon as we got off the ride. Tried to get on the train, but it was closed, I think due to the fireworks, so had to walk out of the park. We did catch Tinkerbell fly and watched a few of the fireworks, but the mass of people on Main Street was really bad. I ducked into the 1st shop we could and walked up Main Street that way. The crowds weren't too bad within the stores and the ac was a plus. We were able to watch the rest of the fireworks from the monorail station and was back in our room by 10:15 or so and Kara had a bath and was in bed by 10:30. I continued to unpack, and listened to the 11:00 p.m. MSEP from our balcony. Got ready for our day at Epcot and watched Zorro and Mickey Mouse Club in bed. I did work on trip report a little. Started to watch the Ghost of Buxely Hall and then next thing . . . The plan for the day was after Mickey's wake up call, start off with Dumbo and Pooh. Kara is signed up for the Pirate Cruise at the GF, and have to be at dock no later than 10:15 a.m. Mommy has no plan, maybe some shopping and looking around GF while Kara is off yo ho ho ing! After cruise, back to MK until PS time for the VILLAINS DINNER at 1900 Park Avenue at 6:30 p.m. I just love those villains. Back to MK until they kick us out. We followed the plan for the day fairly well. Well, at least until after dinner. I kept telling Kara that I had a plan in regards to Splash Mountain for Tuesday, but she just wouldn't listen. Oh well, the joys of being a mom. Guess I could have been a meanie and yelled at her, or drugged her out of line, but I was trying to be a good mom. Does Kara learn her lesson in regards to standing in a long line, stay tuned . . . DAY 3 - Tuesday, July 18 - EE, Epcot, Coral Reef, Garden Grill, MSEP finally, couple of rumors, and E Night: If it is Tuesday, it must be Epcot. The telephone rings at 6:00 a.m. and Kara answers it and says hello. The smile on her face told me that she heard Mickey this morning. Kara got dressed while I was in the shower. While I was getting dressed, she went down and filled our mugs. After I got out of shower, noticed that I had developed blisters on both of my big toes. So, with the applying of moleskin and such, we weren't out of room until 7:15 or so. The monorail was open and off we went to the TTC to catch the Express Monorail to Epcot. We were walking up to Test Track about 8:35 a.m. Found the single's line and got in line and walked right into the Pre Show Room (with the video tape) at 8:40 a.m. There are signs that state that all parties will be split up, but Kara and I got to ride in the same car. Loved going 64.8 miles at the end. Out of the building and got back into the singles line. As we were walking, noticed same couple standing in stand by line that had been in line on our first walk through. He stopped me and asked how I had got on ride so fast. I explained about the singles line and if his party didn't mind being split up to go that route. They got out of line and followed us into the Pre Show area at 8:56. This time Kara and I rode in separate cars, she was in the car before me. Back out of the building and back in line and entered the Pre Show area once again at 9:14. This time I got loaded first and Kara was about 6 cars behind me. I ended up sitting in the same spot for all 3 rides, but who cared. The ride didn't break down while we were riding, decided that if we went again we might be pushing our luck. Besides 3 times in about 1/2 hour is good enough for me. At this point Kara said something like "maybe I should have listened to you last night about Splash - maybe you do know something" I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or what. Hey, the kid is finally figuring out that mommy just might be right about some-thing once in a while! Stopped to sniff and take a couple of pictures at Horizons. Talked to a CM here and he told me that the inside rumor is that after all of the Millennium stuff is over that Journey into Imagination will be shut down and re done again. I would have to agree with this. The CM also gave me a website to check out: www.dreamfinders.com. Haven't had time to check it out yet though. From Horizons went to Wonders of Life. All three of the attractions here had waits of about 5 - 10 minutes each. Body Wars made me feel sick to my stomach. I really liked the Making of Me. I told Kara that it was a movie and I would answer questions AFTER the movie, but so far no questions. I thought the movie was done really well. Next we were off to Cranium Command. Both liked this. Even though I have a girl, I imagine I will be going through some of this in upcoming years! I was still feeling a little woozy from Body Wars. I decided to try something with Kara. Even though she is only 9, she is some what independent. I told her I would be outside of the building on the benches we saw going into the building. She would have 45 minutes to explore the rest of the building. If I had to come back in and find her, no more time "alone" while we were on vacation. I found a bench in the shade and enjoyed a couple of conversation with other guests. One was a grandma from Scotland. Kara actually came out of the building with 5 minutes to spare. Said she looked or tried everything she wanted to and was ready to move on. Universe of Energy had over a hour wait to get in and no shade there, so we passed and went over to Spaceship Earth. Another hour plus wait here so on we pressed. Wandered over to the Living Seas, which had hour wait also, and by the time we arrived it was just noon. Had Surprise PS for lunch at 12:40 p.m., but thought we would check to see how soon we could get seated. We were seated at 12:05 right next to the glass. Kara spent the next hour or so looking at all of the sea creatures while we ate. Coral Reef, Lunch, Tuesday, July 18, 2000 I brought home the entire menu if someone is interested. I had the Grilled Chicken - southwest style - pinto bean salad, lime vinaigretk for 16.00. Kara had Ursula's Chicken which was chicken strips with corn and goldfish crackers for 4.99. I had ice tea and Kara another sprite in a take home cup. I had 2 fried banana sticks with my lunch and a half loaf of sour dough bread was served with our drinks. Kara's lunch was free with my MKCC. You need to show it and mention card to server before ordering. We both enjoyed the Coral Reef - the decor was nice and Kara really enjoyed the fish tank. It was almost an effort to get her to eat her lunch. With the restaurant being cool and somewhat dark, I think this would be a good spot for a nap if an secluded spot could be found. After lunch, feeling cool and refreshed, walked into the Living Seas. While waiting for the elevator ride thing there was a little girl that was screaming at the top of her lungs. She actually had her feet planted down and was being drugged on to the ride thing. We got out of line (her family was just before us) and got into another line. Had to wait a little longer but was a lot quieter. She was still screaming when we got off our ride. Noticed a little later, that her dad was buying her something in the little gift shop and she was still screaming! I would like to know what had set her off though. Since we had spent our lunch looking at the sea life, didn't spend a lot of time in the Living Seas. Another good plan on mommy's part. Didn't see anything within the Living Seas that we hadn't seen before either here or some where else. Kara did make a circuit on both levels but seemed to be done in short time. Next, we toured the Land building. Had about 30 - 40 minute wait for the Land ride. This was our 2nd encounter with a large South American tour group. About 40 13 - 15 old girls and man oh man were they loud! They would start singing and clapping and high fiving everyone in line around them. Then they would quiet down for a couple minutes and then off they would go again. I was never so glad to see a group get onto a ride as I was with this group. I only saw one charapeon with this group. Enjoyed our Land tour and Kara listened and looked everything over very carefully. After our boat trip went to Food Rocks. Had about a 10 minute wait here. We both liked the show. I get so tickled at the group "names" and songs. Some of these songs were the ones I grew up with. After Rocks, off to the Circle of Life show. Again about a 10 minute wait and we both enjoyed show. In hindsight, probably should have gotten out of line for the Land ride and came back later. Oh well. From here we went to Imagination! Did Journey Into Your Imagination - I thought this was terrible - couldn't make heads or tail out of the whole purpose of ride. Had no wait for this ride at all - wonder why? Kara didn't remember much about the old ride from 97, but she did ask where was Figment. We did stop in small gift shop and bought each of us a small PVC Figment figure, hats and t shirts and had them shipped to our room. Next was Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. Had about a 10 minute wait or so. The family in front of us was one of the families that had been selected to be the Grand Marshall for the Magical Moments parade on Monday. Parents said it was fun being in the parade, but felt like they couldn't enjoy their day at MK as had to be at a certain spot at a certain time, and felt that they spent the time from being selected around 9:15 to 2:30 clock watching and having to decide on how to spend their day. Said they all got ears with their names on them and a certificate. Honey was the same. Still don't like the snake portion and it felt like there were more mice this time. Also when the dog sneezed, we really got it this time. By now my feet were killing me and we also had a Surprise PS at the Garden Grill at 5:00 p.m. So we slowly walked back to the Land and checked in about 4:50 p.m. We were seated immediately. It seemed like we were about the only ones here. All of the waiters and waitresses were just standing around. In this restaurant you sit facing the Land ride and the restaurant revolves in a circle. It takes just about an hour to go the whole circuit. The Garden Grill, Dinner, Tuesday, July 18, 2000 Adult Dinner Skillet 18.95 and Child Combo Meal 9.95. Prices include one dessert each. You are served family style here. Kara's dinner was chicken strips, very fat french fries, macaroni & cheese, and sprite. My dinner was flank steak, chicken breast, potato wedgies that had a little kick to them, sliced zucchini in a Mariana sauce, corn bread stuffing and corn on the cob. A salad with a vinaigrette dressing already on it was served first. Also you can order catfish - we skipped. You can order more food if wanted. Kara did have me cut the corn off of the cob for her (due to braces) and she ate all of her chicken and fries. Didn't like the macaroni and cheese again. She did have some of my salad, steak and chicken. She also tried the stuffing. We did order more corn on cob. Dessert was a large sugar cookie cut and shaped into a butterfly with icing and gummy worms for Kara and I got a really good strawberry short cake. Kara helped me finish the shortcake. Of course, she didn't share her cookie with me! Plenty of ice tea for me and a soft drink and then a glass of milk to go with the cookie for Kara. When our waitress brought the bill, she brought Kara a clean take home cup. Characters that night were Mickey Mouse, Chip, and Dale. They all were dressed in farmer type clothes. Each character came to our table at least 3 times. Kara had a really good time with Chip and Dale. They both would kiss her hand, she would kiss their nose, and they would stumble over their feet with a hand banging on their chest. Soon we were waddling out of Epcot, got to monorail and rode back to TTC. Transferred to the MK monorail and went to the garden next to City Hall to get our Surprise E Night wrist bands. We unfortunately got on a monorail that was going through some required safety checks, and a training driver and it seemed to take forever to get to the MK, but since it was cool and someone else was driving didn't mind. Back out of the MK and to our room. Wanted to get some rest before E Night started. We walked back into the MK about 9:30, and found a place to watch the fireworks in front of the castle. Met a nice family from Scotland, and talked while waiting for the fireworks. We were able to see Tinkerbell fly from this location and had a good spot for the fireworks also. After the fireworks, we slowly made our way over to Splash Mt. to get a good spot to watch the 11 MSEP so I could video tape it. On the way to Splash, stopped off at the Christmas store and bought some ornaments that were 1/2 price and had them shipped to the room. I have always loved MSEP, and it brings back so many memories of my trips to Disneyland. Found a great spot to watch the parade. We were on the Splash side of the street right before the large gate that the parade comes and goes out of. We were at the "wrong" end for this parade tonight so it was about 11:20 before it reached us. I had a great spot to video tape from and not many people either. While we were waiting for the parade to reach us we met a nice CM. Mike "Big Mike" from Thunder Mountain. He was assigned crowd control right in front of us and in between times of doing his crowd control job was able to talk with us. I asked him if Thunder had been "juiced" up and he explained. Hopefully I have explained it fairly easy so it is understood. As the day goes on, the rails get "hot" The hotter they get, the faster the cars go. It's kinda like hydroplaning on a wet street in a car. He also mentioned that later in the day, the back of the ride is definitely better to ride on. Also asked about Fire Mountain and he said Disney wants to do whole area about the "dark side". Right now Disney wants to do Fire Mt., but the restraint system is back in the manufacturer hands. Currently there would be leg restraints, a waist restraint, and restraint that would come over your head like in Alien. Currently system is made with oil pressure and Disney doesn't want oil on the off chance that a guest would get oil on person or clothes. So it is back on manufacturer to come up with a air system for the restraint system. The new Aladdin ride is to be like Dumbo, but the story is that you will sit on top of the carpets during the ride. Mike & I also talked about trips to Disneyland and the differences between the two parks. He also had been to Paris couple of times so was interesting to hear about differences between the three parks. Said he hoped to get to Tokyo some time also. Kara got a kiss from Alice and a big wave from Pete (from Pete's Dragon). Funny moment during the parade. The dwarf's were dancing along. Just as they passed us, I looked back to catch one more glance and I noticed one of the dwarfs had danced right out of his shoe. He was just standing there looking at it! After a couple of minutes, he kicked the shoe forward and danced up to it and kicked it again. This happened until he reached the gate and was out of sight. The poor thing, with his costume and the lights, couldn't bend over to pick up his shoe. As soon as the parade was over, E Night started for us. Though by now it was close to midnight. We ended up riding Splash twice, Big Thunder twice, and the Haunted House once. By now it was about 1:30 and my feet were almost numb. Kara and I both agreed that it was time to call it a night and very slowly made our way up to the front of the park and to the monorail. We were in our room and Kara was asleep by 2:15 a.m. The monorail people at the CR station were teasing us that we didn't stay until the end. But I had enough. Each of our waits for Splash and Thunder was 10 - 15 min each and Haunted was less than 5. Kara for some reason does not like the Haunted House. This is one of my favorite rides of all times. I was in bed by 2:20. The whole time we were walking out of the park, Kara kept telling me that she would be able to get up at 6:00 so we could ride Rock'n'Roller first thing. Ha I kept telling myself. I made a wake up call for 8:00 a.m. Wednesday is EE at the Studios. Will we make it? Will Kara get out of bed at 6:00 like she told me she would? Stay tuned . . . The plan for the day was to do Future World at Epcot. Have Surprise lunch 12:40 p.m. PS at Coral Reef - Kara's lunch is free with MKCC and Surprise dinner PS 5:00 p.m. at Garden Grill. Gotta do Test Track. It wasn't open when we were there in 97, and Kara is a ride freak - will ride anything and everything! May try to catch one of the Lord of the Dance performances, but tonight is Surprise, one of the 2 E Ticket nights so hoping to do at least one and maybe even both of them, so don't think we will stay for ToN and Illuminations tonight but wait - I have something up my sleeve for tomorrow! We followed the plan pretty well today. Just took it easy and didn't try to rush through any of the buildings. Have at least another full day planned for Epcot. DAY 4 - Wednesday, July 19 Studios, sleep in, Camp Café May, and Illuminations Cruise : What, it's time to get up already! Where did I leave off? Oh yes, Kara stating that she will be able to crawl out of bed at 6 so she can ride Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller first thing. HA HA mommy said! I did make a wake up call for 8:00 a.m. The phone rang and Kara didn't move at all. I answered the phone and promptly went right back to sleep. Oh my legs are hurting this morning. I don't even want to look at my feet. Kara finally woke up around 9:30 and crawled out of her bed and into mine. We snuggled for a couple of minutes and then she said time to get moving mom! Yeah, right kiddo. As I put my feet on the floor, Kara hollered, "Mom look at your feet, bet they hurt." I had developed blisters on my blisters. I quickly found my Motrin and hobbled both of us into the shower. Did feel some what better after shower. Kara is dressed a lot more quicker than me and while I was tending to my poor feet, she went down and filled up our mugs again. For a late breakfast or early lunch we had pop tarts, little cans of peaches and Sprite. We finally made our way to the bus stop around 11:30. I just wasn't moving very fast today. Wonder why? Our bus arrived just under 5 minutes, and we were walking in to the Studios by noon. Boy it is hot today. 99 and humidity is over 100 %. All of the waits were horrible, but got in line for the Little Mermaid show. Wait was 50 minutes - totally forgot about FP. Wonder where my head was - still in bed! Mermaid show good as before and the cool theater felt good. Before we left home, I had purchased little fans that hung around your neck. I also got a new battery charger and rechargeable batteries. These fans worked really well until today. I think the little motors just burned themselves out. Unfortunately, mine died in line for Mermaid. I had looked at the misting fans and decided that they may get "too heavy" by the end of the day to have hanging off your shoulder. The Animation Courtyard Shops, just down from Mermaid had the little fans like we had so we got 2 replacements, as Kara's had started acting up before we got into Mermaid. Bear in the Big Blue House show was not until 2:45, so we found the villains stuff at The Beverly Sunset store next. I found some shirts for me and hats for both of us. They did have some Fantasmic shirts 1/2 price so got one each for both of us. Had stuff shipped to room. Had a real nice CM and he even gave us couple of villain post cards. Made our way back over to Bear and had a 20 minute wait or so. This show is really cute, but the floor is very hard while you are sitting. We were directly in front of the house about 3 or 4 rows back. You can video tape and take all of the pictures you want during the show. 2 little girls were selected to "dance" about half way through the show. Kara was sad that she couldn't get her picture taken with Bear but got one of her sitting on the steps of his house after the show. After Bear, noticed that the Great Movie Ride wait was under 15 minutes so got on this next. We had the gangster version. Kara liked this also. As we came out of the ride found a Green Army Man and Geppetto outside and got pictures and autographs. They were moving the characters from front of Movie Ride due to the parade. By now it was around 4 p.m. and we started making our way out of the park walking down the main street. Wanted to get out of the park before the parade started. We got to the boat dock and waited about 2 minutes for the boat to the Yacht Club (YC) and Beach Club (BC). We were getting ready for a few Surprises. First, we were meeting for the first time another family from another board from Scotland. We have been emailing back and forth since early April when he had posted about sharing an Illuminations cruise. We had Surprise PS at Camp Café May at 5:30 and then yet another 2 more Surprises after dinner. Just as we were boarding Friendship # something it started to sprinkle. Before we had barely pulled away from the dock, terrible lightening, thunder and the skies just opened up. Wondered if the parade got canceled? We made our way up to the BC and walked through and under the covered walkways until we got to the YC. Found the kid area in the corner of the lobby and parked Kara there with our stuff and left her watching television. I found the restroom and tried once again to connect with a girl friend. We had been playing phone tag with each other since our arrival on Sunday. The another (husband, wife and daughter) family arrived about 5. They had been standing in the little lighthouse at the dock for about 1/2 hour waiting for the worse part of the rain to subside. We met and was so nice to finally meet them in person! We got talking and laughing like we had known each other for years. Kara and their little girl (4) had a good time with each other. I had brought them State of Ohio flag lapel pins and 3 of the new dollar gold coins as a remembrance of our meeting. They had brought Kara a really cute doll called Wee Laddy that the wife had made. He is wearing a little kilt and has his bag pipes. I also got a box of candy. We checked in for dinner about 5:20 and was seated right around 5:40 p.m. Both the girls liked the paper on the table that they could draw and color on, and the adults enjoyed the conversation. Camp Café May, Dinner, Wednesday, July 19, 2000 Our total bill was 35.36. This is a huge buffet. Lots of cold salads some with seafood. 2 soups, one was clam chowder and the other was a vegetable type. Kara and I skipped the seafood side entirely, but I think I remember seeing shrimp, clams, and mussels. Barq. pork ribs, mashed potatoes, green beans with onions, steak, all were good. Kids area had: chicken nuggets, fish nuggets (Kara skipped), mini hot dogs, and macaroni and cheese. Desserts here were to die for! Lots of chocolate type desserts. One that was really good was like an Oreo cookie base with whipped chocolate piled on and dipped with melted chocolate. Yummy, went back for another and plate was empty - wonder why! I could have just had my dinner from the dessert section but didn't want to set a bad example for the girls. Kara ate ribs along with her chicken strips. She really likes ribs and gets into them. When she was done, sauce ear to ear and grinning! Dinner was great and we were talking up a storm. At the table next to us, there was a young lady who was celebrating her graduation from nursing school (I think). Some of the waiters and waitresses brought out a cupcake with candle and two balloons for her. Just as we were leaving the table, she came over with the balloons for the girls. After dinner and quick restroom stop, and a good face washing for someone, we lingered in the lobby for awhile. Both of the girls went over to the kid area and watched a little television while the grownups continued chatting away. While we were eating dinner another hard rain started and we had started to wonder about the cruise. The storm quit and we walked outside and let the girls play in the sand for a few minutes. Earlier Kara had spent some of her own money and bought Pip outside of Bear. As she walked onto the beach, she turned to me and cried "Mom where's Pip"? We didn't have him, so I walked back up to the resort with Kara in the background yelling at me to run. Ha, fat chance there kid - I was doing good to waddle after that great dinner. Got back to the resort and went over the kid's area. Yep, there is Pip sitting in the chair watching television. I gathered him up and waddled back (this time a little faster) to the beach area. Kara was relieved to see that I had found Pip and told him was in trouble for running away. We got to the dock between 8 and 8:15 and Captain Laurie met us. We are now ready for our last two Surprises for the day. We're meeting another board member another single mom, daughter and daughter's boyfriend from Mississippi and on to our Illuminations cruise. It was the daughter's 18th birthday. When I booked the cruise, I had asked about birthday, but didn't want to spend the extra money for the birthday stuff. We got the girls fitted into their life jackets and waited for the other crew to show up. We waited until 8:30 and no one showed up. Captain Laurie said we had to get going and another captain said he would run her out to us when they showed up. Cruise price 120.01. We felt bad that we left without them, but with the other captain saying he would run them out, we went ahead and left. We first cruised from the YC and BC over to the Swan and Dolphin and then over to the Studios. From the Studios, we went to Epcot and docked under the International Gateway. Laurie was very nice and filled us with lots of details about each of the resorts and the new walkway - which by the way is almost finished. They were installing the rod iron fences and lights that week. When we got into the boat, noticed that there was a Happy Birthday banner and balloons tied on. I asked about it and Laurie said she noticed that there was a birthday on board that night, but we hadn't ordered the package. She said no one else had requested the banner, and they had the balloons blown up so she gave them to us. At 9 Illuminations started and we thoroughly enjoyed the show. The other little girl doesn't like fireworks too much, but she ended up sitting on Laurie's lap and ended up having a good time. Kara just sat in awe of the entire show. I don't think she moved a muscle the whole time. All of the adults kept grinning at each other. I had my new toy - camcorder. The tape came out great. After Illuminations ended, we slowly made our way back to the YC and BC dock. Laurie took us by the Boardwalk and described the restaurants, dance hall and the resort itself. As we were leaving Epcot, people walking along the river were shouting happy birthday. We just waved and shouted thanks. As we pulled up at the dock we hear "Hey, we finally made it." It was the other group. They had gotten stuck somewhere between Dixie Landings and YC with the Disney transportation system totally failing them. Though, according to the other captain there was still room on one of the other cruises for the next night, and she was to call in the morning to check to see if they could join it. I hope this worked out for them - haven't heard from her since we have been back. As we were leaving the boat, Laurie gave me all of the balloons for the girls to share. It was fun meeting the rest of our group. We were just so sorry that they didn't get there in time. Guess they finally got to the dock about 9:15 which was too late for the other captain to run them out. We then slowly made our way up to Beaches and Cream for ice cream. We couldn't get a table inside (there was a 45 minute wait minimum - no PS's here), so we found a table outside and gathered up almost enough chairs for everyone. Some of us got in line at the carry out register and continued talking. Kara and I got one each a regular strawberry shake (total 7.42) and boy, they were good! Surprised at getting a milk shake with whipped cream and a cherry on top! The 4 year old was fading fast so they left us shortly. The others and I stayed awhile longer, until Kara asked if it was getting time for bed. We then discussed the best way to try to get back to our respective resorts. We finally decided to try a Friendship back to the Studios and catch our buses from there. Had about a 5 - 10 minute wait for the boat. As we got down to the dock, I remembered that I hadn't given half of the balloons away. I then tried to give them to the birthday girl since it was her birthday but she wanted Kara to have them. This group was leaving Friday for a 3 day cruise. We all climbed onto the Friendship and were off to the Studios. As we were making our way, the boat driver announced that that there was 18th birthday aboard and had her stand up and take a bow. After about a 7 minute boat ride we arrived at the Studios. We had a short discussion on whether to stay for the 11:00 show of Fantasmic, but all decided to call it a night. We would have been able to catch the 11:00 show, kinda wished we had but enough was enough for today. We got back to our resort and Kara was in bed and asleep by 11:30. Drats, Diane called again. Hopefully we can make contact tomorrow. Due to the humidity in the air, I was hanging our clothes on the little luggage racks to dry. Some of our clothes were dry, so I started the first round of packing. I decided to try something new this trip. I unpacked everything the first 2 nights and as the clothes dried, I packed them up. No laundry duties for this mom on this trip. It's my vacation too! This system seemed to work quite well except for the last couple of days where the clothes we wore still weren't dry when it came time for that final round of packing. I finished the packing, made our wake up call for 6:00 and was in bed in time to watch Zorro. Boy, my feet look bad tonight. Hopefully, they won't look so bad in the a.m. We are off to another magical day in the a.m. at the MK, and 2 more Surprises. The plan for the day was to hit ToT and RRC first thing and will stay at the Studios seeing the rest of the park until about 4 p.m. when we need to catch a boat or bus from the Studios to the YC and BC. Surprise meeting up with some new Internet friends, Surprise PS at Cape May Cafe at 5:30 p.m. and then on to last Surprise - I have got an Illuminations Cruise booked. Am sharing this cruise with 2 other families from another board. After cruise, all 9 of us will be going over the Beach's and Cream for ice cream and companionship! About half of the plan went out of the window, but as I was crawling into bed Wednesday morning at 2:30, I knew it would be. Just wanted to take it easy today so we would last until the cruise and fellowship we had planned I still feel bad for the one group missing the cruise, Guess one surprise was on them and us. Will we get back on the plan Thursday? Stayed tuned and see . . . DAY 5 - Thursday, July 20 MK - EE, Magic Family Tour, some Magical Moments, and Liberty Tree Tavern: Will we be able to save the kingdom? Will we survive the heat? Will Diane and I ever quit playing telephone tag? Can and do we actually make it out of bed this morning? Does mommy still have feet that are strong enough to make it through another day. Too many burning questions this early in the a.m.! The telephone rings at 6:00 and Kara bounds out of bed and says righto Mickey. We got into the shower and dressed. My feet don't look much better today than yesterday. Kara zips down and gets drinks and another yummy breakfast in the room. We were walking up to Space Mt. about 7:45. Rode Space once and then walked over to Buzz. This was a first for both of us. Kara's score was 13,100 and mine 54,600. Kara started pouting when we got our scores, but in her defense she was too busy looking at all of the stuff during the ride and wasn't shooting much. We were encountering a lot more people this morning. So we ducked onto the good old People Mover. Yeah, I know it has a different name but to me it's the People Mover. I think we were the only ones on the ride at this time. After that, we started moving over towards Toon Town. We got to Toon Town at 8:45. The rope was up and a small crowd was waiting for the rope drop. Couple of CM's were explaining the rules to the crowd. In a few minutes a couple of characters you know and love will be coming down and they will stay on this side of the rope. You can take pictures, but no autographs at this time. Mickey and Minnie soon appeared. Just as they got to the rope, they hugged and kissed each other. They waved to everyone in the crowd and we all patiently waited for the rope drop. Just before the rope drop, the CM's told us if we wanted to see Mickey to follow him, and same with Minnie. Since we had done Mickey and Minnie already, we were off to the Barnstormer. We "power walked" with the crowd behind the rope staying to the far right hand side. We got to the Barnstormer and we were the first ones there. The CM at the entrance said good morning, welcome and there may be a surprise ahead. After quickly walking through the totally empty cues, we got up to the ride and Goofy was sitting in the front car waiting for a lucky person to ride with him. Kara got to ride with Goofy! I had the camcorder out and taped the whole ride. It is pretty bumpy on tape, but I got it! When we pulled in, Goofy got out and gave Kara an hug and climbed back in for one more ride. Another little girl was jumping up and down at this point. We walked out and got squirted by Donald's boat. As we came out of exit, no line so back in line and up to ride. As we were walking in cue, Kara asked how on earth did I arrange her surprise. I told her I didn't, it was just the luck of the draw. Goofy was waving good bye and walking down the exit as we got up to ride. Climbed in and off we went again for our 2nd ride. Back to the station, and nobody was waiting so off we went again for our 3rd ride. Back to station and no one so off for 4th ride once more. At the end of our 5th ride, there was finally guests lined up so we sadly climbed out. We got it again from the boat. We headed over to the Toontown Hall of Fame. Wanted to buy our postcards so could mail them from Epcot tomorrow. The place was almost empty and so cool. I asked one of the CM's (Stan) how would I go about finding out where an employee worked. The message from Diane last night said she was working at Disney today and would try to meet up with us later. He asked me couple of questions and started looking in the computer. He finally found her and called her department. Yes Diane was working today. She was taking her finals in bus driving, she would be done at 6:30, couldn't be reached, but they would take a message and get it to her later today. Left message that we would be in our room at 6:30 and would stay put until we heard from her. Then I asked Stan if he could call Dining to see if we could change our PS to a earlier time. Got that done, thanked Stan for all of his help and turned around and Kara was gone. Another CM came up to me, described Kara and asked if she was mine. I answered yes, he said she was in seeing Pooh and friends and would be right out. Then Stan told me that the building was being evacuated due to a water problem and that I could wait right out side for her and a CM would bring her out immediately. Kara came bouncing out and said I got to meet Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore and got their autographs. I scolded her for not telling me where she went and she replied, but I told that nice man with the Mickey badge where I was going. Kara told me that she asked Pooh how many pots of honey he ate a day and he rubbed his tummy really hard. Tigger and Kara bounced around and Tigger gave Kara a thumbs up on her Tigger pins on her hat. Eeyore gave just a big hug and a kiss. Kara also got lots of hugs and kisses from Pooh and Tigger also. Since we had already done Mickey's and Minnie's house before decided to take a ride on the train. We just missed one and had about 10 minute wait or so. Rode the train all the way around back to Toon Town and then up to the Main Street Station. Look at all of the people. Boy the park is looking full today. As we walked out of the train station, noticed Pinocchio standing in the little garden right next to Town Square Exposition Hall / Camera Center, so got in line. Just as we were getting up front, CM said Pinocchio needed to check in with Geppetto, but would be back in 3 minutes. Since we were in the shade stayed and waited. Had a quiet laugh from the parents behind me. She quietly said to her husband, you know what really needs to happen don't you and the husband shook his head yes. I turned around and nodded also. We all shared that special parent smile. Pinocchio was back out in 3 - 4 minutes and got picture and autograph. From here we walked into the Camera Center to check out if any action was happening here. Surprise 6 of the dwarfs Doc, Happy, Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, and Bashful were in the main room before you get to the cut outs area. Kara got sneezed on by Sneezy, skipped and twirled with Dopey and then Dopey started chasing her around. She had to wake up Sleepy who was asleep on the lamp post. The only dwarf who wasn't around was Grumpy. CM said Grumpy had worked too late in the mine last night and was too Grumpy to come out. I bet Grumpy! Bashful was hiding in the corner. Kara had a good time with the dwarfs, and then we wandered to the right of the center to see if any other characters were out. If you go past the cut outs and little theater, there is another room with a pin station. Here we found Esmeralda, Snow White, and Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). Esmeralda was just getting ready to leave but waved Kara over for autograph and picture. After a quick hug, she started to leave. Kara told her to say hi to Phil and Quasi and she let Kara give her hugs to give to them. A nice touch I thought. Snow and Aurora both looked bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. Noticed Aurora's dress was really detailed and I thought to myself, bet that velour is hot at this time of the year. Don't remember what Kara and Snow talked about but Aurora told Kara that she was feeling well rested and Kara said she should after sleeping for so long. Took Kara's pictures with all of the cut outs on our way out and noticed by now the dwarfs were leaving and CM's said it would be awhile before any other characters would be out due to pressing business elsewhere (lunch time). It's almost time for our Surprise - the Family Magic Tour at 11:30 a.m. I got a MKCC discount when I booked this tour. Made a quick restroom break and made our way over to the City Hall Garden area. We were quickly checked in and given our name tags that we were to wear during the tour. There was fresh orange juice and coffee available and we both had big glasses of juice. We were to meet at the bench just outside of the Main Street Gallery at 11:30 where our tour guide Kathleen would meet us. We waited inside City Hall until then. All of the group met, (there was 5 families taking the tour with Kara being the 2nd oldest of the children). There were 2 families that had little ones in strollers and I was wondering how that would work but it seemed to work out O.K. A CM (not Kathleen) came out and started our tour off by saying that there had been a change of plans and we were first off to see how Disney dealt with the mounds of trash every day. I thought to myself well O.K. But Kathleen came running up and interrupted saying there was a crisis with the kingdom and she needed our help. We got to vote to deal with the crisis or see the trash and the crisis won out. The tour started out with Kathleen having each of us introduce ourselves, our hometown and our favorite character. Then we got down to the business of trying to deal with the crisis at hand. The problem was that Peter Pan had stolen Captain Hook's best Sunday dressed hook - the gold one and the good old captain had given us 2 hours to find his hook and return it. Meanwhile Hook's pirates were gathering over at Pirates of the Caribbean (logical choice in my opinion), plotting on how to destroy the kingdom. Oh my! At this point one of the little girls started crying. We started out with pixie dust and all threw it up in the air to help with our solving of the crisis. After that Kathleen laid out a scroll that Peter had left with her. It had clues written on it and there were 12 clues (I think). The first one lead us to the barber shop where we had to sing "When You Wish Upon A Star" to the customers getting their hair cut. From there we were off to Tomorrowland for the next few clues. At one point we had to walk north 50 paces to the race cars. 5 children got to pick how we would walk 10 paces each. At this point, we were hopping, skipping, marching, baby steps, and walking sideways. What was so funny to me was most of the crowd around us weren't even paying attention to us, but there were others who would stop one of the adults and ask what was going on! One of the funniest parts was watching the kids crawl on their hands and knees through Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café. We had to sneak up on the lounge lizard Sunny, pop up, shout Hi Sunny and then run out of the building. I did not crawl - wasn't sure if I would be able to get up again. Kara was funny - she asked Kathleen so seriously, does my mom have to crawl - don't think she can get up. Kathleen told her mom doesn't have to crawl. After a 10 minute drink and potty break we were off again. First to the wishing well, where everyone was given a penny to make a wish and then we had to say what made us happy. Kara's was seeing a rainbow in the sky and mine was seeing Tink fly, the fireworks over the castle and the MSEP. I had the job of keeping the bag of pennies from the start of the tour until we got to the well. During the tour, a different person got to read one of the clues and try to solve it. Kara was able to figure out the clues most of the time, but didn't know where exactly we had to be. She knew you got your hair chopped at the barbershop but didn't know where the shop was. After another stop behind the castle, we were off to Advertureland. At this point, we had to walk different ways again and then walk clapping our hands and saying Tick Tock to keep Hook away from us. We stopped at the squirting poles across from the Tiki Room, and had to dance in the water. I passed on this since I was video taping but the kids all enjoyed this little break. We came around a corner and there was Hook at the character greet and meet. We all shouted Hook's a "Cod Fish" and ran away again. Running in the heat wasn't a pleasant thing to do but we all gave it our all! We by this time were over in Liberty Square standing at the Liberty Tree looking for Tinkerbell in one of the lanterns. We all looked pretty silly standing under the tree shouting "Tinkerbell"! We finally found a lantern that had one of the panes of glass was missing, so Tinkerbell had escaped Hook. One problem solved - Yeah! By this time, we had found our way to a little shady area somewhere behind the Liberty Tree Tavern. Here we had our last clue and off we were sent to try to find the hook. Kara and another little boy even started looking in the woods off of the path. We called them back and just as Kara turned around out pops Aladdin and Prince Charming. Al was in his street rat outfit and the Prince in his prince uniform. Boy both of these characters are good looking. Al quite looks the part and the Prince with his blue eyes. Oh boy! Aladdin asked Kara what was going on. Said he was flying on carpet and saw us poking around and decided to stop and see what was going on. Prince said the noise we were making scared his horse away, so he was going to have to walk back to the castle. After we all explained what was going on, the Prince asked if this was what we were looking for and he pulled the hook out of his pocket. Yes the kingdom was saved!! We all were able to get pictures and autographs with both of them. Kinda of our own private meet and greet. After we were done, Al and Prince asked if we had time for another adventure. We all agreed and we were off. Aladdin took Kara's hand and they walked hand in hand from that point halfway through the park. At one point, Aladdin and Prince Charming both stopped along the parade route and told us that we should watch today's parade at this particular spot. We all agreed to. Off we were again, ending up at Its a Small World and going through the exit. Our whole group took over one boat and we were off. Aladdin sat with Kara and I and they had a nice long discussion. Talked about Jas and the rest of the gang. Aladdin was so nice to Kara and checked out all of our pins we were wearing on our hats. Towards the end of the ride Kara leaned over and gave Aladdin a big kiss on the cheek and received a really big hug from him. But alas, the magic must end and the ride was over. We walked out of the ride and good-byes were said to all. Kara was so excited and I was pleased on how much fun the tour was. Kathleen was a great leader and was really good with the children. How she stayed so perky throughout the whole thing I really don't know. My hat goes off to her. By this time it was about 2 p.m. and we were both ready for some shade and a rest. We got a snack and cold drink and slowly made our way back over to Liberty Square. We did look around Fantsyland but the wait times were really bad. 45 minutes to 90 minutes for everything - I don't think so. Got over to Liberty Square about 2:30 and staked out our spot where we had been told to be. It was in front of the benches right to the left of the Hall of Presidents across from Liberty Tree. Just as we arrived, the poles and ropes were being installed. The parade started and it came from Splash Mt. Here comes the first float with Prince Charming and Cinderella. As the float drew close, Kara got special waves from Prince and Cindy. I kept looking around for any others from our tour, but as far as I could tell, we were the only ones who showed up. The float stopped just passed us, and Kara looked at me like wonder what is going to happen next. We watched as Prince walked Cindy off of the float and they came straight for Kara. They took her by the hand and walked her out to dance with them. I was so surprised at this. Didn't expect it at all. Due to rude people behind me wasn't able to get the whole dance on tape but did get some. They walked Kara back to me and both gave her a hug. Kara was on cloud nine by now and I could hardly get her to sit back down. By this time I noticed that the 2nd camcorder battery was starting to get low so shut off camcorder and waited to see what would happen when Aladdin's float came by. Once again, special waves from both Al and Jas and the float stopped just past of us. Al and Jas don't get off their float, but Al pointed right at Kara and waved her out. She got to help rub the lamp and play Genie says. At one point she is hopping on 1 foot waving really hard up at Al and Jas. By this time I was floored. Two special moments in just a matter of minutes. We watched the rest of the parade having the time of our lives. When the parade ended we went into the Hall of Presidents. Kara was very interested and watched and listened very intently. I originally had a Surprise PS at the Liberty Tree Tavern for 6:35 but changed it to 4:30. We walked in about 4:10 checked in and went upstairs for a potty break. Boy the restroom in here are small. We missed our name being announced with the ringing of the bell. When we came down stairs we sat down in lobby and our hostess came over and said we were ready to be seated. We were probably seated by 4:20 at the latest. We were in the Betsy Ross room and look like the real thing to me. Liberty Tree Tavern, Dinner, Thursday, July 20, 2000 Adults 19.95, Little Patriots (3 - 11) 9.95. You are served here family style and they will bring extras of anything you want. You start off with the Declaration Salad which has tossed mixed greens, served with our special Tavern Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing. This dressing was very good and even Kara liked it. She ate a little of the salad but I ate the rest. Patriot's Platter has a generous serving of roasted Turkey Breast, marinated Flank Steak and Honey Mustard Ham, accompanied by homemade Mashed Potatoes, Garden Vegetables, Herb Bread Stuffing, and Stouffer's Macaroni and Cheese. Neither of us liked the honey mustard sauce on the ham. Kara inhaled all of the turkey - I didn't even get a bite to try!. She also ate almost a whole piece of the steak. The steak was very good, juicy and tender. Our vegetable of the day were the little glazed carrots and they were good. Matter of fact, between the two of us we ate everything that was served to us except the ham. More good ice tea for mom and Kara had (I think) 3 glasses of milk with dinner and dessert. Yes we even had dessert. Ordered one of the sundaes in the take home glass. It was a beer mug type glass with the Liberty Tree Tavern logo. The sundae was good and we shared it. The characters tonight were Pluto, Minnie, Goofy, Dale, and Chip. Kara got lots of hugs and kisses from each of the characters. It was our first visit with Pluto and him and Kara had a good time kissing each other's nose. From Goofy, big hugs for both of us and I even got a massage from Goofy. Boy, did it feel good. I asked Goofy if he would be available for another one after supper and he started flipping up his ears. All of the characters came by at least 3 or 4 times. One advantage of an early seating there was only one other family in our room for about 1/2 of our time there. All of the characters were dressed in colonial outfits and Minnie's blue dress was really cute. Loved Chip and Dale's white wigs with the little pony tails on the end. After dinner we had both had it by now. All of our magical moments had started to catch up with us and we did want to catch Diane tonight. We slowly moved toward the front of the park stopping at the Camera Center but no characters were available. Just as we walked out Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Tigger, Chip, Dale, and Pluto did a little song and dance upstairs at the Train Station. We stopped to watch this and made our way out of the park stopping to get our hands stamped. We got back to the room and Kara ran down with our refillable mugs while I got my shoes and socks off to check on my poor feet. With all of the walking we did, it took a toll on them. Diane and I finally connected and had a long conversation. She did graduate from her driving school and started Saturday night driving a Disney Bus. If you meet a driver Diane from Orlando - say hi! While talking to Diane, Kara was playing in the bathtub. I think she was in there for other an hour. After her bath asked if she wanted to go back to MK and she said no. She wanted to listen to Story Time and go to bed. Did my ears hear right - Kara wants to go to bed. The poor kid, she was out by 8 tonight. While she was in the tub a severe storm rolled in. Sat on couch and watched the lightening. This lightening was the kind that starts way up and looks like it is touching the ground. Huge bolts. Then the rain and thunder just rolled in and kept on coming. Couldn't hear the early MSEP from balcony - wonder if it was able to run. Did watch the fireworks and heard the late MSEP parade. Did some packing and general room cleaning. Called my mom and reported in. Got ready for our next day. Back to Epcot. Diane was meeting us around 10 and would stay with us until her husband called from airport. He was flying in from New York sometime Friday afternoon. Don't believe I even made it to Zorro tonight. Boy that shower felt good. The plan for the day is to start off in Tomorrowland with EE.. We both have to try out Buzz. Kara rode Alien last time wonder if she will want to try it again? Need to be at City Hall Tour Gardens by 11:15 am for our Disney Family Magic Tour for first Surprise of the day. Wanted to do this last time but couldn't get reservations. Surprise PS for dinner at Liberty Tree at 6:35 p.m. We did real well with the plan for the day. Didn't ride everything in Tomorrowland but have more time scheduled at the MK. Had a blast on the Family Magic Tour and would sign up for this again. Until Kara is 16 this is the only tour she can do that I know of. The tour was a lot of fun. I had heard that Peter Pan sometime shows up at the end but since I hadn't mentioned what the tour was going to be about, Kara had no idea that he might be there. She was very pleased with Aladdin and Prince Charming though. This was the first time either of us had met the Prince. As we were walking I was talking to Kathleen and we got laughing that when I booked this tour earlier it sounded like a lot of fun but hadn't considered the weather. She said it was hard to keep the children's spirit up when it was this hot, but thought our group was really enjoying themselves. I had planned on going back into the park for the parades and stuff after a rest after dinner but with the storms and being tired was glad that we didn't. We definitely needed some down time by now. As we were walking up the monorail ramp, Kara asked me how I had actually arranged for her to ride with Goofy. Also about meeting Aladdin and Prince Charming and riding Small World with them. Sorry kid, can't take credit for them. It was just being in the right place at the right time today! I just so tickled at her asking me about this. DAY 6 - Friday, July 21: Epcot, - a little of Future World, most of the World Showcase and Millennium Center, San Angel Inn, Beltz outlets and the Orlando airport: Epcot, look out the gals from Ohio are coming back! The telephone rings at 6:00 and Kara actually bounds out of bed and answers yes Mickey we are on the way! My feet aren't so bad this morning. I had taken Motrin when we got back in the room and before I climbed into bed so I actually almost felt human this morning. I did take another shower and we were off for the first Surprise of the day. PS at 7:45 at the Concourse Steakhouse for breakfast. Concourse Steakhouse, Breakfast, Friday, July 21, 2000 I have the whole menu if someone is interested Oh boy, real food for breakfast. Kara had the Mickey's waffle. She got two little waffles - one Mickey and other Minnie with maple syrup. 2.99. She also drank 2 glasses of milk. I had the create your own omelette with ham, onions, and cheddar cheese, hash browns and biscuit came with omelette for 8.95. I also drank 2 glasses of milk. This was a quick and fairly cheap meal for us. There was maybe 20 people in the restaurant at this time. Back for teeth brushing and we were off to Epcot for another fun filled day. Once at Epcot, we went straight to Spaceship Earth with about a 10 - 15 minute wait. Kara didn't remember riding this before and she really liked it. I had a little hard time hearing some of the commentary but ride was as good as I remembered it. From here we went over the Universe of Energy to catch Ellen's Energy Adventure. We practically walked right onto this, but missed part of the pre show. Kara loves dinosaurs so she was really happy here. She listened real hard again and hopefully she learned something. Time will only tell. We are to meet Diane at Innovations West at 10 in front of the room where the big TV is. We got there and while waiting for her got an empty computer at the IBM area and sent several photo emails. I "cheated" here. Instead of sending a copy of each one to myself, I sent one to another friend so we were able to send several in just a few minutes. Just as we were finishing up the last one, Diane came up. It was good to see her. We hadn't seen her since our last trip in 97 when we stayed with her for a few days at the start of our last adventure. We walked around Innovations stopping when something caught Kara's eye. She was really interested in some bug display and was here for awhile. From here we made our way to the Ice Station for our first adventure with the different drinks. Had a funny here as we were entering the area where the snow is, heard a little girl ask her dad what was that funny looking stuff on the ground. Kara told Diane she knew what it was. Diane who originally is from Maine also knew! Diane had been here several times and told me her favorite was the lemon drink. Kara and I tried all of them and I wished I had the camera out when Kara drank the Beverly. Diane and I both laughed at her face and she said not funny mom. We both liked the watermelon and lemon the best. Here we also bought 2 of the coke cola water bottle covers. They do keep your bottle cold. We had ice in bottle for most of the day with them. From here, we headed off to the World Showcase as it was just after 11. We started off in Canada. Had a little wait for the movie. While waiting got Kara's passport and got her first stamp. Diane hadn't seen these before and thought they were a cute idea for the kids. The Kid's Station wasn't open yet. Saw the movie and as good as I remember. Wish there were seats here though. From Canada entered the Millennium Village. We spent a lot of time here. Kara got most of her book stamped and or comments written in. I took the time to write below a translation of each comment as I wouldn't remember later on. She played a little golf in Scotland, and got to kick a soccer ball with a young man from Brazil. Did the little show from Saudi Arabia, saw a cute puppet show from the Netherlands. Did the Israel ride also. As we worked our way around the first floor, we checked everything out. Liked the little market area with the different ethic items you could purchase. We never made it up to the 2nd floor unfortunately. Stopped at the little food court and Kara bought a big cookie and Diane tried something. While we were in the village it was thundering but didn't look like it had rained. There was a slight breeze coming off the lagoon and it almost was pleasant today. From the village we stopped next in England. By now the Kid's Center open and Kara started making her mask. Diane went for fish and chips and I hit the shops. Found Kara a nice Paddington Bear book and something for my dad. Had them sent to our room. The British Invasion was playing while we were there. Just as Diane was finishing up her snack, I finished in shops and stopped to pick up Kara. She had done her mask and had started making one for me. Said she asked the young lady if she could and was told sure. From England to France. We didn't see the movie but stopped at the bakery for a loaf of bread for later. We did catch the start of the Living Statue. She didn't interact with Kara but she did run her fingers up and down my back. Saw Esmeradla at the meet and greet. Next wandered through Morocco checking out the shops while Kara was getting her passport and masks done. Diane was looking at the rugs but said she would bring Paul (her husband) back at a later time. In Japan, Kara was more interested in looking at the fish instead of working on her book or masks. I took passport in and got it stamped for her. Noticed, when the CM was signing book, the characters got harder father down in the message. I asked about this and she told us that there is 3 levels of characters for them to learn. The ones with just one or two marks are what you would learn in grade school. Middle school, you add more lines to each character and by time high school and college each of the characters have several lines to them. I thought this was an interesting tidbit of information. From here we arrived at the American Adventure. Kara did the passport and Kid Station. We arrived just in time for the 4:30 show of Lords but didn't sit down as we have 5:00 PS at San Angel Inn. Watched the show for a few minutes but moved on, but never fear we will be back! From here we basically just walked through the countries on our way to Mexico. The drummers from China were playing and stopped and listened for a moment. All of us was hungry and wanted to sit down for awhile also. We checked in about 4:55 and I asked about adding Diane to PS. Told no problem would be seated in just a few minutes. We were seated shortly after our potty stop. San Angel Inn, Dinner Friday, July 21, 2000 I have the whole menu if someone is interested Kara had from the Kid's Menu Two beef burritos with beans, lettuce and tomato. The lettuce and tomato are served on the side. Dinner was to be served with rice but they allowed her to substitute the refried beans 4.99. Diane had the Plato Botana Appetizer which had Taco al Pastor, chicken sope, quesadilla and guacamole for 6.95. Said she shouldn't had the fish and chips but can't resist them. I had the Plato De La Frontera which had beef tenderloin, chicken burrito and hard shell taco served with Mexican Rice 17.95. Kara just about inhaled her dinner. Diane and I ate all of our and had plenty of ice tea with dinner. Both Diane and mine were very good. We were waiting for the check and Diane got talking about she would have to leave for the airport when Paul called. Asked if we would ride along with her to keep her company and they would bring us back afterwards. I started telling her about our adventure getting to the other outlet and Diane asked if we wanted to go to Beltz on the way to the airport. We both said yes. Paid bill and Diane left the tip. We took turns with potty breaks as Kara wanted to listen to the band that had just started playing. When I came out of the restroom, Kara came up to me crying. Her main wire for the top portion of her braces had just broken. The spring had come off and the wire was sticking straight out of her mouth. We got outside in the light and I tried to cut the wire with my little scissors that I had with me. Couldn't do it and Diane said Paul had a few tools in the trunk of car. We walked out of the park, stopping to get our hands stamped just in case, and walked to the employee parking lot. Got to car and Diane started looking for tools. Guess what no tools. We did get to look at Diane's diploma from Disney and again congratulated her. Tried to break the wire again and gave up afraid of hurting Kara's mouth. Did get wire somewhat hooked back in so at least she could finish the night with us. Got to Beltz and stopped at Mall 1 first. Kara had been asking for cotton candy and we found a big bag here a lot cheaper than in the parks. Found some good bargains. Stopped at car and walked over the Mall 2. Didn't have as much time in this store but found a few bargains also. While we were in the 2nd store Paul called and said he had just landed but plane wasn't at the gate yet. Told him to walk slowly and would get him at the pick up area. Back to car and boy the traffic was terrible. Took a little longer to get to airport but we got there. Loaded up Paul and off we went. Said he was hungry and we stopped at a McDonalds. Kara wanted a strawberry milkshake so got her a large one and her and I shared it. Stopped for gas and then they took us back to our resort. Invited them in, but they wanted to get home as Diane started Sat night and Paul was working for Disney on Sunday. He works about 1 weekend a month at the Studios. Said low end job - drink seller but he was having fun with it. Their older daughter also works for Disney. She's currently at the Studios in outdoor food but in September will start her training to become Rafiki, Flik, and somebody else. Diane said training would be about 3 months. Diane told me this when Kara wasn't listening. Paul told us he and KC would both be looking for us on Sunday when we return to the Studios. Will we see them - stayed tuned! We got back to the CR about 10:30. Went in and asked at the front desk about someone bringing up a pair of small wire cutters that I can use for about 1 minute. While CM was calling, bought our E tickets for Tuesday, July 25. Got to room and got Kara ready for bed. We ended up waiting 45 minutes for maintenance to come. When he arrived, said they couldn't loan out tools. I told him it would only take me a minute or less to fix the problem. I got Kara under the spotlight right at the inside of our door, he turned on his big flashlight and Kara held her mouth wide open. I needed to cut the wire at the back of her mouth since couldn't get the hook off of the back bracket, and I did it without any problems. Of course, have done it several times since December so I am a pro at it by now. The maintenance man couldn't believe how quick I got it cut and out of her mouth. We both thanked him and sent him on his way. Kara went right to bed and I followed as soon as got ready for our first day at the Animal Kingdom. The plan for the day is that this will be a "down" morning for us. Think we will need it by now! After Surprise PS 7:45 a.m. at Concourse Steakhouse (CR) , off to dock for boat ride to Ft Wilderness Lodge for a look see. From there, to the Boardwalk for some very slow wandering and or waddling until we can walk into the WS via International Walkway at 11:00 am and right into the countries. Will be getting Kara a passport and hopefully we will be able to get that all stamped and let her visit the Kid booths at every country. Want to see everything here this trip, the last 2 trips haven't seen every thing! Surprise at San Angel Inn PS at 5:00 p.m. with some grazing through the countries in the afternoon. Will try to catch one of the Lord of the Dance performances today. Hopefully seeing both ToN's tonight and Illuminations again. The plan was basically thrown out the window for today. Had our breakfast and to Epcot. We finished up Future World area though today, and have just a couple of countries to visit (at least to get Kara's passport stamped). We will be back Tuesday. Saw just a few minutes of Lord of Dance and didn't catch ToN or Illuminations either. We did have a fun day with Diane and was fun to catch up. Also getting to the Beltz Outlets was something that I didn't plan on since we had gotten the Premier outlet Sunday. Will we get back on "track" tomorrow. Who knows. . .? Do we care . . .? Not much - hey we are on vacation at WDW!!! DAY 7 - Saturday, July 22 - Animal Kingdom, Rainforest Café, Tapestry of Nations and Illuminations: Ready for a wild day with the lions tigers and dinosaurs oh my! The telephone rings at 6:00 and jump into the shower. Was ready and ate our lovely breakfast of yes pop tarts and diet coke this morning. We get outside to the bus stop at 6:59. The bus came right at 7 and we are off. Had to make a stop at the campgrounds but there wasn't anybody up and at them here. Arrived at the AK and got into line at 7:20. I made a note of the time due to a surprise that is arranged for later in the trip. At about 7:50 CM's and characters start showing up at the gate. We were in the park and on our way to Kilimanjaro Safari just at 8. Just as we were about to walk up to the entrance a CM told us that the safari was currently down. We got a fast pass and looked at map deciding where to go in the mean time. Heard one CM telling another CM that they didn't know when the safari would open due to the rhino or hippo. It all depended on what he decided to do. I asked about it, but no further information was given. To this day I wonder what either the hippo or rhino was doing that the safari couldn't be opened! Kara had seen the safari hats with the Mickey ears at the Mickey Hometown Parade we went to last year. We stopped to get her a hat and she wanted to wear it today. We got the large size that way both of us can wear it. It is really cute on her, and she got a lot of cute comments whenever she wore it during the rest of the trip. Just as we were walking out of the store safari hat on head, heard a CM say the safari is open. Off we went. There wasn't many in the cue and we got right onto a jeep. We had a female US driver and we were off. Saw lots of animals including 3 cheetahs, and the male and female lion. They were both walking around their "Pride Rock". Even saw a baby hippo in the water with mama. Didn't particularly care for the poacher side trip, but Kara was very concerned for Big and Little Red. We "saved" them and arrived safely back. Wasn't time for our return on Fast Pass so off to the Pangano Forest Exploration Trail. A couple of meekrats were standing up on guard and just saw a couple of the gorillas. Kara really likes animals so she spent a lot of time looking at each and every animal we found on the trail. It was time for our second safari, decided to do the safari since we had the fast pass. This time had a young man from South Africa as our tour guide. Saw about the same number of animals on this trip. The male lion was still awake and sitting on his rock. The female was no where to be seen. Couple of more elephants had moved down to the watering hole and the baby hippo was out of the water. Came around a corner and there were several rhinos right at the side of the road. We could have touched them they were that close. Did notice that since the crowds were more heavy now, the jeeps kept "catching" up with each other. After safari wandered through some of the shops but didn't buy anything. Caught the next Wildlife Express Train and we were off to the Conservation Station. Upon arrival, my one foot was bothering me, so I found a bench and sent Kara up on ahead. Told her to go into the station and not go anywhere until I got there. Caught up with Kara after moleskin and sock adjustments. Didn't seem like there much to see here, but we did run into Meeko and Rafiki. Kara got into line for Meeko and her pen wasn't in her fanny pack. I borrowed one from a CM and she stayed close to get her pen back. Also borrowed it for Rafiki. She said with a laugh that Meeko and Rafiki were terrible about giving back her pens. Said she lost about 10 a day. Looked at all the exhibits but skipped the petting zoo area. Oh my, look at the time it's 10:30 and we have a 11 Surprise PS at the Rainforest Café. We caught the next train back from the Conservation Station with plans to return later. Checked in at the Rainforest Café right at 11 and walked in to our table. This restaurant is outside of the AK and you need to get your hand stamped for return. Rainforest Café, Animal Kingdom, Lunch, Saturday, July 22, 2000 I had the Mojo bones, 1/2 slab that came with waffle french fries, and cole slaw. Kara had the Dinosaur Chicken tiblets that came with their house chips. Neither of us liked the chips, Kara ate most of my fries. The ribs were really good, tender and juicy and the meat just about fell off of the bones. Kara ate a couple of ribs also. We shared one children's sundae for dessert. I had a gift certificate from more.com for 25 dollars here that we used. I thought the food was good though a little pricy for lunch but heck we are on vacation! Think our total bill was about 5 dollars. After a nice lunch and potty stop we were off to Dinoland USA. Kara i |