Discussion Boards | Reviews | News | Trip Planning | Shop | Travel | Site Map

Disney Trip Report Archive An archive of reader-submitted trip reports

- Look in: MousePlanet WWW

[ Return to Index Page ]

Janice Hubbard -- September 2000 -- Walt Disney World (CR, PO)

September 9 -16, 2000

Cast:

• Janice (Me), Thirty-something Office Manager
• Craig (Hubby), Thirty-something Construction Worker
• Louis (Son), Four Year Old Honey

WDW Experience: Infrequent (Hoping to Upgrade This Status)

This trip evolved quite a bit from the time we decided to do it. I really bought into the Millenium hype and wanted to go in the year 2000. My husband and I had two days each on park hopper passes left from our trip in February, 1999 that were burning a hole in my pocket. Plus I was armed with tons of information that I had gleaned from the Internet, as well as what we learned from the 2/99 trip. My husband, however, wasn't convinced he wanted to go.

The deciding factor to go in the year 2000 came in May with a postcard from Disney that said, "See ya real soon" and advertised a summer special at the deluxe resorts--$159 a night for the Contemporary garden rooms. Well, I called that night and got a reservation for the weekend following July 4th at this great rate. After much debate and changing the ressie umpteen times, we settled on going the weekend following Labor Day. My husband is a construction worker, and he agreed to the September 8 departure date since he thought it would be better for him work-wise. Of course, the summer special was no longer valid, but I was able to get an MKC rate of $178 for the Contemporary garden wing.

I must tell you that we were really spoiled by the February, 1999 trip because we stayed at Coronado Springs, courtesy of my in-laws. Right after that trip, I was thinking that our next trip to WDW would be off-site with a rental car to make it more affordable. However, neither one of us really wants to drive around Orlando. We found the WDW transportation so easy and enjoyable to use during the 2/99 trip. I started pricing things out, and it didn't seem like it would be that much more expensive to stay on site. The amount of money we would wind up saving just didn't seem worth all the extra hassle to stay off-site.

Anyway, as our trip drew closer, my husband was feeling more confident about going for a longer period of time, so we changed our 4 nights at the Contemporary to 3 nights there and 3 nights at Port Orleans. We settled on the dates of September 8 through 14. In July, I purchased non-refundable tickets from Continental at the great rate of $169 each round trip.

About three weeks before the trip, hubby called me at work to say that it would be O.K. for him to take the entire week off, and if I could change the plane tickets, we could stay an additional two nights. Well, I immediately called my travel agent who told me there wasn't anything she could do about the $75 change fee per ticket. So I called Continental and got the same story. Well, I wanted to stay those extra nights in the worse way, but I wasn't about to pay $225 for the three of us to change our flights. So I called a different 800 number I had for Continental, and lo and behold, got a kind agent who agreed to waive the fee. We only had to pay an extra $20 per ticket to change to an 11:00 a.m. flight back on Saturday, September 16. Of course, I was very happy with this deal. That evening, I added two nights to our reservation at Port Orleans.

So, here we were with eight nights at WDW-the first three at the Contemporary Resort and the last five at Port Orleans-leaving Friday, September 8 and returning on Saturday, September 16 (our fifth wedding anniversary).

Tuesday, September 5

I sent what I thought was a nice note to the Contemporary Resort's room controller, asking if they could give us a complimentary upgrade to a Tower room, this trip being for our fifth wedding anniversary. I would have sent it on Monday, but that was Labor Day and I didn't have access to a fax machine.

Thursday, September 7

Sent a fax to the Port Orleans room controller asking for a smoking room on the second or third floor. I also mentioned we would be celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary.

Friday, September 8

Hurray! Our trip begins today! We hired a limo to take us from our house in Bergen County, New Jersey to Newark airport. It was a local guy whose garage bore a sign with his company's name and number. On our 2/99 trip, we hired a towncar service from a Val-Pak advertisement, and we had trouble with these people, starting with the driver not being able to find our house. We nearly missed our flight, so we decided this time we'd pay a little more to avoid this anxiety.

I want to mention (sorry if this is boring) that I am an office manager at a large company, and I make a lot of limousine reservations for travelers and visitors. Unfortunately, my company has a pretty strong policy on "kickbacks" and the limo companies I deal with at work are pretty expensive, so I didn't use one of them. Well, these two companies always send their cars fifteen minutes early. And it's what I expected this local guy to do. We were to be picked up at 7:15 a.m. for a 9:15 flight.

Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but at 7:05 there was no sign of the guy and I started getting antsy. At 7:10, still no car, so I called the guy. He was a little nasty-said that our reservation was at 7:15 so what's the problem, he's on his way. He did show up at 7:20, but I was a little annoyed. After all, he wasn't the cheapest way to the airport, but I chose him because I expected him to be reliable. Anyway, he was pleasant enough on the ride to the airport and did present us with both a professional receipt and reservation slip for our ride home on the 16th.

Now, it almost seemed like the Heavens did not want me to have a good trip. About three weeks before the trip (after the change to eight nights), I fell on the sidewalk while out on an evening walk. I hurt my left ankle and right knee pretty badly. Fortunately, I didn't break anything, but I had a few scary hours before finding that out. I was mostly healed by trip time, but it still bothered my knee to lean on it.

A few days before the trip, I started getting very congested with a sneezy nose and itchy eyes. It being ragweed season and me having hay fever, I assumed this was the problem. But it was pretty bad by trip time despite me taking allergy medication, so I figured I was getting a cold. I brought Benedryl with me to take during the flight after the morning dose had worn off.

Well, we get to the airport and my husband has a fit about me taking my carry-on bag. "It's so bulky! What a pain! Can't you check it?" So I do, and on the way to the gate, I remember that the Benedryl is in that bag. Well, my ears are not the best when it comes to flying, and with all this nasal congestion, I was really worried, so I went to a Newstand and paid $8 for a box of Benedryl. I figured that if the congestion was a cold and not allergies, I'd really need it in Florida.

It took a while to check in because the Continental agent needed to collect the additional $60 we owed for the change in departure. When she was finally done, she gave my son, Louis, his "wings" and he was very glad to get them.

Another 4 year old boy was sitting in the seat directly in front of Louis on the flight. His name was Steven, and he and Louis played together throughout. I talked to the boy's mom a bit and asked where they were staying. I was hoping at one of our resorts so the boys could continue their friendship, but they were off to a time-share condo. Oh, well! As if there weren't going to be enough children at WDW!

Anyway, this was the best flight I'd flown in recent years-no big wait to take off. We landed about 7 minutes earlier than we were scheduled (1:20 p.m.). We found our Tiffany Towncar driver (Tony) with no trouble, and he was very sweet toward Louis. It took an extraordinarily long time for our luggage to come out, and then we were on our way.

We stopped at a Publix (don't ask me which one-I haven't a clue) and stocked up for our week at the World-beer and a Styrofoam cooler for Craig (hubby); bottled water for me; juice, boxed milk, and breakfast (mini-muffins) for Junior, plus assorted snacks for all of us.

Tony needed to show the guard at the Contemporary gate our yellow confirmation sheet in order to get us in, and I must tell you that was the one and only time that sheet was used. We got in line to check in, and another CM came on duty to help us. Well, she had no record of the fax I'd sent so I knew then we weren't getting any upgrade. She just told us we'd be in a garden room and that we would love it. Oh, well! It didn't hurt to try, but we were a bit disappointed anyway.

Our room was ready (it was now about 2:30), and a Bell Services CM led us to there with our baggage. First, we went through the lobby, then it was a long walk on concrete to the South Wing. Next, it was another long hike to our room. My heart was sinking because this really wasn't what I had hoped for. Yeah, yeah, I know I should have expected it, but I was still not too happy. Plus my whole head was completely clogged with fluid at this point, and I had a terrible headache to boot.

Anyway, the check-in CM didn't cut us a break on anything. We had a view of the parking lot, and while we were disappointed initially, this worked out better (I think) than a garden view. We could see the monorail coming and going (how Disney is that!), plus the top spires of the castle and some of the Polynesian Resort and the Grand Floridian. Bay Lake was right there as well, so we saw lots of boats. The view was very interesting, and we wound up enjoying it.

I had read so many times that the Contemporary has the largest rooms on Disney property. The Bell Services guy told us as we entered the room that it had been renovated very recently. However, this room just didn't look that big. I think this is because it was really jammed with furniture. With so little floor space, the room didn't seem all that large.

Upon entering the room, there was a large closet on the right and the bathroom on the left. On the left side of the room, you have two queen-sized beds with a nightstand in the middle and a large club chair with an ottoman alongside the bed nearest the window. On the right side of the room past the closet is a long dresser with a daybed next to it. Alongside the daybed, next to the window, was a nightstand and in front of the daybead was a large oval table. There was some floor space between the beds and the dresser/daybed area, but not a lot. So like I said a little earlier, all this furniture left the room looking not too spacious.

I tipped the Bell Services guy and we starting unpacking the things we would need for the next three nights. Craig got busy setting up his cooler. We hadn't eaten much at this point, so we walked down to the Food & Fun Center (the Contemporary's food court) for lunch. I had an excellent chili-cheese dog, Craig had a good bacon cheeseburger, and we got Louis a child's macaroni and cheese meal, which he barely touched. We tried it, and it was pretty nasty, although I think he didn't eat it because he was so excited. He saw the "Fun Center" and wanted to go there and play games, not waste his time eating!

We let him play some games and saved the tickets for check-out day, assuming we would accumulate more during our stay. We wanted to go swimming so we headed back for our room. We saw that the pool was chained off, and Craig went to find out why. Turns out they spotted lightning in the area so were closed until it was all clear. We went back to the room and put on our bathing suits for when the pool opened. The sun was shining, so we knew it couldn't be long.

I went through a wrestling match with Louis to get his sunscreen on. I had to go through this with him every morning of the trip, and I don't understand why. If someone wanted to rub lotion on me, I'd love it! Anyway, there's no way he's going out in the Florida sun without sunscreen. When we were children, my younger brother and I got fried during a WDW trip-I had giant blisters all over my nose! If I ever get skin cancer, I'll know what to blame it on! So I am not going to allow the same thing to happen to any kid of mine.

We went to the pool area, snagged a couple of lounge chairs in the shade, and went to borrow a life vest for Louis. Boy, I still can't over how the CM who signed it out to us went on and on about the importance of returning the vest directly to them (not the front desk and don't leave it in your room!) as if I wanted to pack this thing in a suitcase. We spent a good couple hours swimming and relaxing by the pool. And the next thing we couldn't get over was the lifeguards here. Talk about overzealous!

These people stood at the edge of the pool, life-saving devices in hand, watching like hawks for even the slightest infraction. What's up with that? Did someone drown here a week ago? I'm a swimmer and have been to many, many pools in my life, and I can honestly say these were the toughest lifeguards I've ever encountered.

The main pool is a free-form shape. On one end, it has a tall water slide that Craig and I enjoyed. Louis was afraid of it so we didn't push him to try it. Toward the middle of the pool, a separate hot tub fits into the center curve, and jets of water stream into the pool around this curve-sort of like a barrier between the pool and hot tub. The other end of the pool has a large fountain in the middle-don't even think about touching it! The Gestapo lifeguards (as we called them) were on you in two seconds if you tried.

In one corner of the pool area is a fountain play area for children. The ground is covered with a cork-like material, and the fountains shoot up from the ground. Between the main pool area and the lake is a separate round pool fenced in with its own set of beach chairs. I'm not sure what purpose this pool serves-it's 3 feet deep around its parameter and 4 feet in the center-so it's not a kiddie pool. It's too shallow for diving or swimming laps so I guess it's there for overflow during the busy seasons.

Our dinner plans for the evening were to go to the Boardwalk and eat at ESPN-we figured we'd take the monorail to MK and the resort bus to the BW from there. I got Louis a hot dog meal at the Food & Fun Center around 6:00 p.m. since it looked like it would be a while before we got to the restaurant. After showering and what not, it was around 8:00 when we headed out.

On our way to the monorail, we ran into Chip & Dale meeting a couple of folks in wheelchairs on the fourth floor concourse. Louis spotted them and was very excited to meet them. We went over to say hi, and one of the wheelchair gentlemen was quite taken with him and his reaction to the characters. It was a magical moment.

We waited a good 10-15 minutes for the monorail and had to take it four stops to get to MK. Well, shortly after the first stop, Louis fell sound asleep in his stroller. We moved onto the Polynesian Resort and waited for the monorail to leave there for quite a long time while we debated on what to do. Craig thought it would be a good idea to exit here and eat at Ohana's. We had PS there for the following night, but I wasn't sure what the wait would be like right now. We had waited so long for the monorail to come in the first place that I didn't want to wait for another train if Ohana's was too busy for us.

The deciding factor was Craig reminding me we'd have to hold Louis on the bus to BW and go through who knows what on the return. So of course, just as we decided to try for Ohana's, the train finally left the station. We stayed on for a full circle and got off to find Ohana's practically empty.

They seated Craig and Louis while I used the restroom-you have to go downstairs to do this. When I got to the table, Craig decided he needed to go too. While he was gone, I was looking over the drink menu, and the server came over with our appetizers and salad. Well, it was 9:00 p.m. by now so I guess they weren't looking for us to be there all night.

We went to this restaurant during our 2/99 trip and loved it. This visit, it just wasn't as good. I guess the lateness of our arrival had a lot to do with it, but it also didn't help that I was a mess with my head so clogged up. I could feel fluid sloshing around all the down to the bottom of my neck-it wasn't very comfortable.

Our waitress was very nice, and she and Craig played around together. She asked us if we wanted any more appetizers-dumplings and spring rolls which, by the way, were delivered lukewarm. He said, "oh no, I'm not falling for that trick." And she said, "what trick?" He went on to say that he thought they were trying to fill him up on the appetizers so he wouldn't eat too much shrimp. When she brought out the skewers of meat, she gave him an entire one of shrimp, saying she didn't care how much shrimp he ate. They bickered back and forth on this subject, and it was pretty funny.

Anyway, Craig wanted to relax there with another cocktail after dinner, but I was feeling really lousy and just wanted to go to bed. Of course, we took the monorail back with our little one sleeping in his stroller the whole time. He never woke up that night in spite of me changing him into pajamas once we were back in the room.

Saturday, September 9

Despite everything I had read about the busyness of MK on Saturday, I really wanted this to be our first park. It was mine and Craig's favorite, having visited it a few times each in our childhoods when it was the only thing there. So we got up that morning at 6:30 a.m. (are we nuts?) for early entry. Fortunately, most of my congestion had dried up over night, and I felt a lot better. Also, I knew now that it was my hay fever acting up and not a cold-thank God! I have a long history of getting sick on vacation!

We had two days left on our park hoppers from the 2/99 trip, but I wanted to save those for later in the week so I bought Craig and I each a ticket to MK with a one-day bounce-back ticket that had to be used by the next Tuesday. Louis didn't need tickets during our 2/99 trip since he was still two years old then. For this trip, my in-laws bought him a 4-day park hopper for his fourth birthday, which was in August.

We didn't make rope drop, but we were into the park by 8:15 a.m. We headed straight over to the Speedway ride to avoid the good half-hour wait we had for this during our last visit. That trip was in the first week of February, and therefore off-season, so this was just about the only line we waited on during that whole trip.

We were on in about 10 minutes and were very glad we did this. Later in the day, the line looked to be 30 to 45 minutes. Next, we went to Dumbo, and it was the same thing-we were on in 10 minutes and later in the day it looked like a very long wait. After Dumbo, we did the Many Adventures of Winnie Pooh. We all loved this new attraction, especially me! I was amazed by the effect they did of Pooh going into his dream and found the rest of it completely delightful. Louis got a big kick out of Tigger saying, "Heffalumps and Woozels-steal honey." He repeated that in a deep voice to mimic Tigger many times during our trip, cracking himself up.

Following this visit to Fantasyland, we moved onto Toontown Fair. I showed Louis Goofy's Barnstormer, but he wanted no part of it. He wanted to meet characters so it was off to the County Fair or whatever they call it. I must say this was rather time-consuming. I think character meals are a more time efficient way to meet the characters, but what could we do? Louis was just aching to meet some characters. He spotted the Chef Mickey's advertisement in our room at the Contemporary resort and was begging to go. I did call that morning to rearrange our dinner plans because we'd been to Ohana's already. So we were now planning to do Chef M's dinner that night, but he just couldn't wait to meet some characters.

I thought the waiting area here was very cute, with the mouse-eared cheesecake. First, we met Goofy (Louis's favorite character) and Minnie. Of course, this was the longest line. It was full of little girls wanting to meet Minnie. When we got in the room, all the other families wanted to see Minnie first so we got some quality time with Goofy. We did see Minnie afterward and then left the room to get on line for Donald Duck and Pluto. Louis had his stuffed Goofy with him, and Donald Duck picked it up and spanked it. This was hysterical, but Louis was so serious about it. All day long, he asked me why Donald Duck hit his Goofy.

Anyway, we decided to skip the Pooh line since it had grown quite long, and then we did some shopping at the County Bounty. Wow, what a great store for kids! If you can't find a stuffed character here, they don't make it. We bought a Jiminy Cricket since Louis has wanted one for months and a thick pen for Chef Mickey's dinner that night.

This brought us to lunchtime and I decided Cosmic Ray's was where to go. I thought Louis would like Sunny Eclipse and after lunch we'd be close to the Buzz Lightyear ride, which we wanted to do next. I got on line for our food, while Louis gave Craig a hard time about where to sit. Craig is such a pushover with his son-I always have to be the tough guy. So of course, after we got our food, I had to straighten Louis out.

Craig and I each had cheesesteak sandwiches, and we loved the fresh mushrooms from the toppings bar. We got Louis the hot dog nugget meal and had trouble getting him to eat them. He hadn't eaten much since we left New Jersey-I know it was because of the excitement. He was starting to act real fresh, too-overtired, overstimulated, whatever-he was starting to get me very angry.

After lunch, we did Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. This had just opened during our last trip, and we rode it then. This time, though, I was able to bask in the details more. Wow! What a great attraction! The standby line said 20 minutes, but the line moved steadily until we were on the ride. It was nowhere near a 20 minute wait, so we got right back on line for another spin-literally. You see, Craig let Louis man the joystick that ride so he spun it around constantly, and they were dizzy as can be when they got off. Craig was not too happy, and I was cracking up. I saw this happening during the ride and heard Craig pleading with Louis to stop. Serves him right for being such a pushover all the time. Louis would never have gotten away with it if I were in that vehicle.

After this, we went to see the Carousel of Progress. This is a great attraction! I must have seen this as a child, but I don't have any memory of it.

Well, it was getting hot and crowded at the MK. We started seeing lots of wristbands for that night's Night of Joy. So we decided it was time for a rest and maybe a swim. What good luck we had at this point-we got back into our room and looked out the window to see the heavens just had opened up. What rain, but it turned out to be the only rain we saw during our whole trip.

While we were relaxing for a while, Louis picked up the Chef Mickey's card again and started bugging us about going there. I told him if he took a little nap, we'd go. Well, naps are total anathema to him and even the prospect of Chef Mickey's did not convince him to try to sleep. So we decided to go back to MK (well, I was the one who wanted to).

Of course, the nap hater fell asleep on the monorail ride back to MK. We went to the left of the hub this time. In case Louis woke up, we'd want to start on the rides in Adventureland. By now though, the park was getting packed for the Night of Joy thing. There were tons of teenagers, and it was a very different place from that morning. There was nothing we could really do with Louis sleeping in the stroller anyway. We wound up walking through Fantasyland and cutting through the castle to exit.

We got back to the room and I tried, as gently as I could, to put Louis in bed so he could nap more. He woke up, naturally, and immediately started in about going to Chef Mickey's. After our showers, we headed to Chef M's. On the way in our building's hallway, we ran into a CM delivering packages to guests' rooms. A couple of packages had balloons tied to them, and Louis noticed these and started talking to the CM. She asked who his favorite character was and he told her Goofy. She asked me what our room number was and I told her, thinking we'd get an autographed picture like we did at our stay in Coronado Springs in 2/99.

To Chef Mickey's we go! And boy, did I feel sorry for those characters with my son there harassing them. He was completely out of control. He had a blast, but it was really tough for Craig and I to eat, trying to keep him in his seat. He had his autograph book and pen and was hitting the characters with them--"Here! You need to sign this!"

Boy, what a party this place is for kids like him! Oh man! They were standing on their chairs dancing, twirling their napkins. At one point, the characters had them doing a limbo dance. I can't tell you how much fun Louis had here! The food was great, but like I said earlier, it was tough for us to really eat and enjoy the food since Louis was being such a party animal. The characters were Goofy and his son Max, Donald Duck, Mickey, Minnie, Chip, and Dale. Great interaction, too!

After dinner, we walked back to our room. There's a beautiful Mickey ear sculpture just outside the door of the main building. It lights up and changes colors at night. Louis played around it a bit and then we went into our room. On the table was a Goofy beanie baby with three balloons tied to it. There was the picture I expected with the inscription, "Gawsh, Louis, I sure hope you're having a great time. Your friend, Goofy." As if he didn't have enough excitement already! This sent him completely over the top! He actually thought the gift came from the "real Goofy."

Craig crashed on the bed right then and there, but I knew I had to get Louis down from his character high before he could sleep, so I took him first to the arcade for a few games and then to the observation deck. Wow, this place is beautiful and a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Next, we went out to the beach to watch the Electric Water Pagent-excellent! Well, I guess by now you can see how much the Contemporary has grown on us.

Finally, we went to bed. In the middle of the night, I got very sick. I guess eating too much at the buffet while I was jumping up and down chasing Louis, plus all the excitement, got to me. But fortunately, this was the last of my sickness problems for the trip.

Sunday, September 10

This was to be our day for relaxing at the Contemporary, but looking back, I'm not sure we relaxed all that much. Louis had his typical breakfast of four Hostess chocolate chip mini-muffins; Craig and I just had coffee. Louis came with me to buy the coffee-there's a coffee bar in the lobby of the Contemporary-I think it's called Common Grounds. Anyway, I love hazelnut coffee and asked for it. What they had instead was flavored syrups so I tried the hazelnut one, and it did make a tasty cup of coffee.

I had been dying to see the Wilderness Lodge, and I knew Louis would love a pony ride so the plan was to take the boat from the Contemporary marina to Fort Wilderness and then a bus to WL from there. We walked out to the dock and had to wait 10-15 minutes for the boat. It was a very enjoyable wait as a nice breeze was coming in off Bay Lake, and we were able to watch someone parasailing. There were a few ducks in the lake, quacking away at us for a hand-out. Louis and I often go to Van Saun Park in Paramus, New Jersey to feed the wild ducks (if you're ever in North Jersey with a young child, go to this place-it's marvelous) so of course, he wanted to feed these guys in Bay Lake. There was a bubble gum machine with fish food, but it was nearly empty. Fortunately, I had a bag of cookies that the food court gave us with the children's meal. They were a little crushed, but perfect for the ducks. We gave some to a little girl who was also waiting for the boat so she could feed the ducks too.

(My sister's husband will have a fit when we tell him we did this. He's really into wildlife and the environment-we call him "Mr. Nature." He tells us that wild animals should not be eating human junk food. In July during a week in the country, we fed a bag of Cheese Doodles to some deer, and he went nuts on us. My feeling is that animals who come in contact with a lot of humans are used to eating this stuff.)

Anyway, after a lovely and scenic boat ride, we were at Fort Wilderness. Craig was really impressed with this place; he liked the golf carts and wondered if he could get one if we stayed here. We meandered around a bit, then found the petting farm. The pony ride here is great! Far better than any we had ever done. You see, there are trails that go throughout the farm. What they do is have one parent lead the pony while the child rides. You choose your own path-it's not just a big circle like most of the ones we've done-and you can do it for as long as you like.

Louis picked out a pony named Cinnamon and the girl who rented her to us warned us not to feed her or let her get near the feeders. The fee for this is only $2! What a bargain, if you ask us. It was almost like real horseback riding for Louis.

If you want to feed the goats here at the petting farm, you can buy feed, and they even have a handwashing station. This place is wonderful, and I would fully recommend it as a nice way to spend some time when you're not using a park pass.

Following this, we took the Crockett bus to Wilderness Lodge. Wow! This place is every bit as special as I expected and then some. I took some video of the lobby, and we wandered around by the pool area. We went to Roaring Forks for lunch and enjoyed it very much. I got the day's special of a patty melt on homemade rye bread and it was excellent-the bread was very special. Craig got a cheeseburger, and Louis, the child's chicken strip meal, which he actually ate. From this meal forward, his appetite really improved, and he ate well during the remainder of the trip.

After taking the boat back to the Contemporary, we changed into our bathing suits for an afternoon at the pool. Now, I have to say that we encountered nothing but the nicest people during our entire trip, but I have a pet peeve and I've run into it at most resorts I've stayed at. That is people who leave stuff on a lounge chair and then disappear for most of the day. Come on, folks, if you're not really using a chair, don't take it up. It's not fair to the rest of us.

Anyway, we did manage to find a couple of chairs in the shade and set ourselves up for the afternoon. Craig got us the most excellent pina colada's at the Sand Bar. They float a shot of rum on top and you swizzle it in as you drink. Now this is living!

We had our drinks while Louis played in the fountain area. He was so funny-he got hold of a couple of paper napkins and was trying to stop up a fountain hole with them. He'd come over to me and say, "the lifeguards are going to be really mad at me"-all proud of himself. I guess he heard us complaining about them and figured he'd pay 'em back a little. Then, we gave him our empty, plastic cups from the pina colada's, and he got very busy trying to float them on top of the fountains. Other children were playing here, and we chatted with some parents. All in all, it was a very pleasant afternoon.

After we'd had enough sun, we relaxed a while in our room. Wow, time flies here! We had PS at 7:30 for the Cape May Buffet, which was our favorite meal during the 2/99 trip. Louis was looking pretty tired, so at around 6:00, I went to the food court to microwave one of his Kid's Kitchen meals-I brought some from home. He scarfed it down and around 7:00, we went via the monorail to MK for the bus to the Beach Club. He fell asleep on the bus ride, so we put him in his stroller when we got there. We checked in at the podium and asked for a table where we could park a stroller.

Our meal here this trip was just O.K. They didn't have steamed oysters or garlic butter like they did last time, and I was really looking forward to these items. They also don't include soft drinks in the price of the buffet anymore. It wasn't a big deal, but this buffet didn't seem to be the value we thought it was last time.

The clams and mussels were also disappointing this trip. We'd take what we thought was a huge serving only to find way more shells than meat. The beef dish this time was good (flank steak), but last time it was much better-filet mignon tips in a mushroom sauce. The dessert table was also a let-down. They didn't have nearly the selection as on our first trip although I did have a couple of key lime tartlets topped with a fresh raspberry that I loved. I'm not sure if we'll do this one again. If you ask me, I'd say no, but Craig still liked a lot for some reason.

We took the bus outside to the Downtown Marketplace and then the bus that the Contemporary shares with the TTC from here. What's that all about? It goes to the TTC first which doesn't seem fair to the folks paying big bucks to stay at the Contemporary.

Louis woke up for a bit when we got back to the room and that aggravated me. I was really tired and in no mood to play. Craig entertained him this night, while I was the one who passed out.

Monday, September 11

This is moving day! From the Contemporary to Port Orleans, we'll go. Packing was easy since we didn't take out too much, but between the three of us, we had a good amount of laundry. Craig did his own packing and somehow managed to take only three pairs of underwear for an eight-day trip. What a brainiac! Next trip, I'm doing his packing especially since one pair was nearly in shreds. What was he thinking? I bought him a 12-pack of briefs for Fathers' Day in June so it's not like he doesn't have any.

Louis went with me to return the life vest. On the way back, three wild ducks came out of a bush and started quacking at us. I had a couple of bags of the free cookies in the room so I told Louis we'd get them and feed these ducks. Well, he proceeds to have a whole conversation with the ducks, saying, "Don't worry, guys. We have snacks for you. We just have to get them. Don't worry, we'll feed you. Stay right here." I was cracking up because he really seemed to think the ducks understood him, but they did quack knowingly back!

We called Bell Services to get our things around 11:00 a.m. I tipped the CM and told him to take good care of our stuff. We left the room feeling a little sad that our stay here was over. In spite of our initial disappointment with the room location and view, we really enjoyed ourselves here. We went to the arcade to cash in the tickets we'd accumulated to find that for a few more, we could get a decent prize, so we played a few games. Craig and I were hungry so we split a chili cheese dog meal. Louis had eaten a bunch of stuff in the room a little earlier, so he wasn't ready for lunch yet.

From here, we took the monorail one stop to the TTC, and from there, a bus to Downtown. I needed to do some souvenir shopping. First, we allowed Louis to play a while in the Lego activity area. In hindsight, I should have left Craig there to watch him while I started at the World of Disney. I never got to do all the shopping I wanted to do on this trip. Neither of my boys are big on shopping. Anyway, after the Legos, we took Louis to the McDonald's for chicken nuggets, and then all of us went into the World of Disney. I was able to get my shirt shopping done, but that was it. We stayed there for as long as those two could stand it, and then we took the boat to Port Orleans.

We enjoyed the boat ride there, and the scenery was far more rustic-looking than I had expected. We sailed past the Disney Institute and I have to say this place is looking pretty rundown. I wouldn't stay here unless they did extensive renovations. Well, at least two bungalows had contractors working on them, so maybe they are.

It was about 2:30, and we checked in to find that our room was ready and our luggage had come from the Contemporary. So far, we like this place-I had really stressed myself out before the trip on whether this would be a good choice. Our room was in building two, third floor, smoking, just like I requested in my fax, and it faced toward the pool. The room was so pretty, all done in golds and greens, and almost seemed more spacious than the Contemporary, given the extra floor space. I loved the dressing area with its double pedestal sinks and green wainscotting. Craig was a little taken aback by the smallness of the bathroom. Hello! Don't you remember our room at Coronado Springs? It was the same thing.

We got set up in the room and I put a load of laundry in the wash. After getting the clothes in the dryer, I changed into my bathing suit, and we set out for the pool. We all swam some in the main pool, and then Louis wanted to play in the kiddie pool. Fine with us, we can relax with a drink while he's here. I met the nicest girl (Patti) from Elmwood Park, New Jersey, which is not far from where we live. Her son's name was Luka, and he and Louis hit it off and were playing together, while she and I shot the breeze. By the way, the lifeguards here at Port Orleans were normal ones-they sat on their chairs and watched the crowd, occasionally blowing a whistle to admonish a guest for running or rough housing. They were not over-the-top vigilant like the ones at the Contemporary.

That evening, we nuked another Kid's Kitchen for Louis and then debated on whether we wanted to eat at the food court, get room service pizza, or go to Boatwright's. Louis fell asleep so we decided on take-out from the food court. Craig got a fried chicken dinner, and I got the cajun meatloaf. I also purchased a refillable mug since the food court was so close I knew I'd use it for morning coffee. We loved the food, but it is highly seasoned, so I can see why it might not be for everyone. By the way, the bill for all this was around $24-not bad, we thought.

Craig and I stayed up this night for a little adult time while our son slept. Tomorrow's MGM day.

Tuesday, September 12

It's the last day to use our second-day bounceback ticket. None of us have ever been to MGM so this seems like a good park to use a full day's ticket on. We headed out on the bus and were there so quickly! It must be pretty close in distance.

My first impression of this park is that it's more urban looking that I expected. There's a lot of concrete here. We stopped at a toy shop on the way in. Louis wanted a Buzz Lightyear souvenir since we had stopped him from buying a huge one at the Magic Kingdom that would have been difficult to pack for the flight home. Plus it wasn't all that unique and I was sure we could find the same one at a store back home. Anyway, we asked for it to be delivered to our room at Port Orleans. Well, moms and dads out there, here's a piece of advice-never do package delivery for a 4-year-old's souvenir. He gave us a hard time all day because he didn't believe we really bought it!

(Note: One of my all-time favorite trip reports was one written by a lady named Patricia Aliventi, and she warned about the dangers of using package delivery for your four year old. If only I had listened! Patti, if you're reading this, I loved your report on your winter 2000 trip. It was very entertaining-Marc sounds a lot to me like my Craig. Hope everything is going well for you and your family, and you delivered a very healthy baby in June.)

We headed off to our first attraction: The Great Movie Ride. Now I finally understand what people mean when they refer to the Cowboy or Gangster side. This is a wonderful attraction although the witch unsettled Louis a bit-poor thing, he was sitting right next to where she comes out!

Following this, we saw the Little Mermaid show. When the mermaid first came out, my husband whispered to me, "Is that a real girl?" And to tell you the truth, if I hadn't seen footage of this show in the planning videos, I wouldn't have been so sure.

Next up, Bear in the Big Blue House. I was very keen for Louis to see this since he loves the T.V. show, but this is when my frustration with him really kicked into high gear. Everyday that we went into a park, he had a real exhaustion attack around midday. Would the kid ever rest or nap? Of course not. He'd grouch at us and give us a hard time until he got a second wind.

So here we were up in the front of the audience and instead of him enjoying this live character show, he's rolling on the floor, fussing and complaining. Well, we stayed through the whole show, and I thought it was very cute and well-executed, but I don't think he got anything out of it.

When it was over, Craig started in with me about doing rides: "What is this place? Where are the rides? It's all shows. I hate shows! Why did you drag us here?" Can you imagine how angry I was at the two of them?

Our next attraction was Muppetvision 3D. Things got worse during the pre-show. Louis was carrying on the whole time about being there, and Craig was copping a major attitude. However, Louis liked the actual show, and Craig lightened up a bit. Then we went for lunch at Pizza Planet. Boy, what a disappointment! It didn't look anything like the movie in any way, shape or form. Boo! And the pizza wasn't very good either.

I really wanted to see Fantasmic, and it was like pulling teeth to get Craig to agree to go. I wanted to do the dinner package because I thought it might make it easier for him to enjoy. That morning, I made a PS at Mama Melrose with Guest Services at Port Orleans. I checked on whether Hollywood & Vine would have characters for dinner, and they don't or I'd have picked that.

As you might be able to tell, I did a ton of research for this trip, and it included restaurant choices. At home in New Jersey, if we go out to eat, my husband orders one of three things: veal parmagiana, prime rib, or zuppa di pesce (seafood in tomato sauce over pasta). Well, I know Mama Melrose had a dish similar to his beloved zuppa, so that's why I picked it over the Brown Derby.

Sorry for going off on a tangent, but after the Pizza Planet lunch, we went over to Mama Melrose to look at the menu that Craig was now dying to see. I had printed this and other menus off the computer and attempted to show them to him at home, but he refused to look at them, telling me he didn't care that much and trusted my judgement to pick out places he'd like.

Well, now we get to Mama Melrose, and he's giving me a hard time because he had a lot of shellfish at the Cape May Buffet, and he wants veal tonight. "Why don't they have regular Italian food here?" he was asking me. I was ready to kill him. O.K., forget it, no Fantasmic dinner package, but we're coming for the show.

So then we saw Al's Toy Barn, and Louis went wild to meet Buzz and Woody, who are among his all-time favorite characters. There's no Toy Story dinner so I was willing to put up with this big time waster--I believe it took an hour to meet Buzz, Woody and Jessie. Now, I wanted to do the Backlot Tour and hoped these two ingrates would like it.

On the way there, we came across an area that resembles the Washington Square Arch in New York City (I went to college not far from the real place). Anyway, a whole bunch of characters appeared and some really different ones! Wow, Louis the character hound will be thrilled. NOT! He was having one of his exhaustion fits again and could care less who was there at that point.

We queued up for the Backlot thing, and the beginning part looked like another show. Hubby was griping at me for this. We went into the tram and then he brightened up. Wow! A vehicle, maybe it's an actual ride. We all went on to enjoy this attraction.

When we got out of there, everyone was hot and grouchy, so we figured it was time for a break at the resort. We spotted Goofy in a tented area nearby, and Louis ran right over to him. Goofy's handler yelled at him for paying attention to Louis, who'd cut in front of a line of kids waiting to meet him. I apologized and tried to get Louis back by me, but Goofy dissed the handler and kept playing with Louis. I caught this on video, and it was pretty funny. On the way out, we met each of the Pooh characters outside their trailers. Fortunately, there were no lines to speak of, or I would have had to put a stop to this, since I knew we'd be having dinner with them at the Crystal Palace later in the week.

We passed the Brown Derby and I told Craig we might be able to do the Fantasmic dinner package there, so we went in to see the menu-but I already knew there was no way he'd want to eat there. So back to Port Orleans we go. I was hoping in the worst way that Louis would fall asleep on the bus. If he took a nap now, he'd be awake for Fantasmic, but of course, he fought that cursed sleep.

Back at the resort, we swam for a while, and I met up with my friend Patti again. Her son was napping so Louis didn't have him to play with, but he did take up with some other kids. This is quite possibly his strong suit in life-he makes friends very easily, and his peers all seem to like him. He has an engaging personality, and I can't say I ever seen him run into a child who he couldn't get along with, even when there's an age difference.

Anyway, after our swim and showers, he was looking very tired again, so I heated up our last Kid's Kitchen meal. We snacked on some stuff I bought at the Publix and decided to eat dinner after Fantasmic. I knew it would be relatively easy to get to the Boardwalk from MGM via the boat, so we agreed to eat at ESPN, where Craig had been wanting to go for years.

Louis didn't fall asleep in his stroller until we were walking up the ramps to the stadium-wow, they seemed awfully long. At the top, we had to park our stroller. I asked if we could stand somewhere with it, and the answer was no, either leave the stroller or leave the show. Craig agreed to hold him.

It was about 7:20 when we got in there, the show was to start at 8:00, and the stadium was already packed! We found seats in a handicapped section near the top-the ushers allowed us to sit there I guess because they figured the handicapped were all there already. After a little while, the bleachers were full, and it looked like they were ushering people to either the exit or a standing room section. One woman was begging a CM to let her stay, but he kindly told her no. The poor thing looked like she was in tears, but hey, lady, get a clue-this show is known to fill up long before show time.

We watched Delman, the bell-hop, do a ridiculous show. Some people seemed to enjoy him, but we both thought he was really jerky. Finally, it's show time. I wanted to see this show so badly during our 2/99 trip, but we didn't even make to MGM that trip.

Well, we didn't like it-we both found it totally underwhelming. First of all, a good chunk of the show takes place on water screens-arcs of water shot into the air on which they projected movies. It sounds cool, but in reality, it's still only movies you're seeing. Next, the dragon effect didn't look anything like it does in the videos I'd seen. Was it not working correctly or do they doctor the video? It seemed like a lot of effort to get there in time for the show, and neither one of us thought it was worth the hype. Oh, well, I don't regret going because now I've seen it.

We left during the finale and made a bee-line to the stroller area. We practically ran out of the park in order to beat the huge crowd that would be exiting Fantasmic in a few minutes. We got onto the boat which was going to the Boardwalk, but had to stand. It wasn't a problem since it emptied out pretty well at the first stop, which was the Swan/Dolphin, and we got seats then. The boat ride was very scenic, even at night. Next trip, we'll make sure to take this boat ride during daylight.

We got off at the Boardwalk and went to ESPN for our dinner. It was disappointing since the menu was so limited. My nephews ate here during the 1998 holidays and loved the fajita's so that's what we planned to order, but they're not on the menu anymore. I ordered the barbecued pork sandwich and Craig got a sandwich with roast beef and cheese. The waiter offered him onions or mushrooms for an additional 75 cents, so he took the onions and joked with the guy, saying, they'd better be cooked. Sure enough, the sandwich was PACKED with onions that were barely fried. He picked most of them off, but we didn't complain. My sandwich was O.K., nothing I'd go out of my way for. It looks like this is a place to drink or snack, but I wouldn't try a meal here again.

After this, we took a bus outside the Boardwalk to Downtown, and the bus to Port Orleans from there. Louis never woke once and I put him to bed when we got to the room. We followed soon after. This was our worst day of the trip, but for me a bad day at Disney World is better than a good day almost anywhere else.

Wednesday, September 13

This was our relaxation day at Port Orleans, and it actually was until nightfall. Anyway, today we had a little breakfast-Louis had a side order of breakfast potatoes and Craig and I split an egg, bacon and cheese sandwich. You know, I think on a lot of things, Disney has their pricing out of whack-not always on the expensive side, either. The potato side order was under $2, but you got four of them so it wasn't a bad deal. However, the sandwich was a bit over $5. It was good, but boy, this is a high price for an egg sandwich!

We ate the breakfast stuff, then got on our bathing suits for a full day near the pool. Time passed more quickly than you can imagine. We had a couple of cocktails each during our day, and I met up with Patti again in the afternoon. I would have exchanged phone numbers with her, but I barely have time to spend with the friends I already have in New Jersey, so I figured it would be pointless. Today was their last full day at WDW. They were leaving late in the day on Thursday.

We had lunch in the food court. I ate a baked potato with bacon and cheese, Craig had a meatball parmagiana sandwich and Louis, a chicken strip meal. I just love the way this place is decorated-it's so unusual and airy-but my son was a little undone by the masks. Ha-ha! Here's something we can threaten him with-behave or we'll sic the masks on you.

Louis and I found ducks to feed, and we saw a bunch of bunnies along a brick path in front of our building. The path was so pretty-short palm trees flanked either side of it to form an archway. We nicknamed it the bunny trail. Louis talks to these creatures like they can understand him, and I think it's so funny and cute.

Let me tell you-we really love this resort. It's so compact and therefore very user friendly. The pool, food court, gift shop, bus stop, marina, and guest services were ALL a stone's throw from our room. Unlike the other two Disney resorts at which we have stayed, it's not a project to go and get whatever you need.

Craig needed more beer. I wanted him to suck it up and pay the prices at the gift shop, Jackson Square. But it drove him crazy to think he'd have to pay $7.75 a 6-pack (or something like that). Hey, the next two days were sure to be hectic ones as we would be using our two days from the park hoppers. It's not like he was going to have time to sit around and suck them down. So I didn't want to kill my feet walking to the Crossroads from the Marketplace for his beer, but he was adamant.

As any married human being will tell you, sometimes you just have to give in. He had something on me-I really wanted to see Illuminations at Epcot. On the 2/99 trip, he hated Epcot, and now he was saying that Illuminations was probably as bad as Fantasmic. So at around 6:00 p.m., I fed Louis a hot dog meal from the food court, and then we set out on the boat to Downtown.

On the way down Hotel Plaza Boulevard, Louis fell asleep. First, we went to eat at Red Lobster. Yeah, it wasn't great seafood, but we went on my brother's recommendation. He and his family did a 21/2 week WDW trip this past August and liked it so much, they went three times. I couldn't figure out what they ordered. They told me about some shrimp with lobster special where they got two lobster tails instead of one like they would at home.

There was a really nice young man going around the tables to make elaborate balloons for the children. We called him over and had him make a T-rex balloon for Louis. The really disappointing part of going here was that the bill was the same as we were paying at Disney's restaurants, about $70 for the two of us. (We do order a cocktail or two each in case that seems high.) So we didn't save any money eating here. We crossed the street and went to Goodings for Craig's precious suds. I still think he should have just paid Disney prices. A case runs $10 less here than Disney's gift shop so I don't think it's worth the effort to walk.

Before we left our room that evening, I looked up a couple of taxi cab phone numbers. I tried calling two of them from the pay phone at Goodings to see what the price of cab ride back to Port Orleans would be. Forget it! Yellow cab (aka Mears) wanted $18-20 and some other company wanted $14. Good night!

We walked back up the boulevard and went for the boat back to Port Orleans. One was just filling up as we got there and did not have room for us. So we waited and waited for the next one. Well, God only knows how many people got in line behind us. I guess with the parks closing early, everyone goes to Downtown at night. Finally, they pulled a boat up and told us they were making an executive decision-it was supposed to go to the Westside, but they would take it to Port Orleans and Dixie Landings because of all the people waiting. Yeah! The first group of us had to get on the far side of the boat to weight it down so a guy in a scooter could get on.

Again, our little darling slept through this whole adventure. This night, I went down to the hot tub to soak my feet while Craig drank some of his beer. I met a bunch of wonderful people down there and had a good time conversing with them.

Thursday, September 14

Well, we'll finally start using our park hopper tickets. We all slept a little late this morning so we didn't leave for the bus to Animal Kingdom until 10:30-this bothered me a bit, but it is supposed to be a vacation so I sucked it up.

I must say that during the 2/99 trip, I enjoyed all of our bus rides. Call me crazy, but it was fun to see the vastness of the Disney campus. This trip, I guess it was all a little more familiar, so I didn't enjoy the bus rides as much, and sometimes (like this morning) I found them irritating. The AK route from Port Orleans is PO first, 3 or 4 stops at Dixie Landings, Blizzard Beach, then finally AK. Between the late start we'd had and all these stops, I couldn't wait to get off the bus.

My touring plan had us doing "It's Tough to be a Bug" first. On the way over there, Louis was taking a fit to buy a souvenir. We stopped at a kiosk and bought a Safari Donald Duck-this is a very cute stuffed animal, but apparently, it wasn't enough for Louis. He and I started locking horns over this. For his trip souvenirs, we cleaned out his piggie bank and got about $150. We told him he could get one item per day using this money. Up to now, we didn't have too much trouble with this plan, but for some reason (i.e., overtiredness rearing its ugly head), this morning he was throwing fits to buy stuff.

We headed into the Tree of Life, and Craig and I both were amazed by the animal carvings in the queue. We got to an indoor waiting area, which was blessedly air conditioned. It seemed extra hot out today! They do have several signs posted about this attraction scaring young kids, but I really wasn't worried about Louis. He's not overly afraid of any of the things they mentioned in the signs: loud noises, fog, the dark, insects. In fact, he doesn't even seem to notice bugs that much. (One of my nephews at his age was fascinated by them. That kid would catch and save them-he loved them!)

Anyway, we got seats slightly to our right of center stage. Louis was fussy at this point-isn't he supposed to have outgrown fussiness by now? He wanted to wear the glasses, so of course, we let him. Well, shortly into the show, there is a very LOUD noise and out pops Hopper, the evil grasshopper from A Bug's Life, directly in front of us. It was a very life-like puppet thing (an animatron?) and it scared the pants off Louis! He was crying (not loudly though-some kids behind us were really screaming out loud) and buried his face into my side. Poor thing! But do you know something? Craig and I were loving this show, and this kid had been torturing us the whole trip with his overtiredness, so I figured too bad-he could take a little fright.

Craig and the guy next to me were hysterical laughing throughout most of this attraction-it's a great one! Louis nearly hit the ceiling when he got stung and then sat on top of me so he missed the next effect-good thing. Craig was still laughing as we walked out of there, but I was starting to feel guilty over Louis getting so scared.

We went to the Safari next to get Fastpasses and then went to walk the Pangani Exploration Trail. I read a trip report in which the author suggested doing this, and it worked out really well. This same author-I'm sorry I don't remember who you are, but thanks all the same-suggested doing this here, at Kali River Rapids, (i.e., getting a Fastpass for it and walking the Maharani Tiger Trail while waiting for your time) and at the Dinosaur ride (i.e., do the Boneyard while you're waiting for your Fastpass time). This is excellent advice for touring the Animal Kingdom and I recommend it.

We all enjoyed the Pangani Trail. Louis loved playing with the computers in the naked mole rat room. He and I really liked seeing the gorillas. I could watch these guys all day! I think they're fascinating. We saw only one of them during our last trip; this time, a whole slew of them were out, including several babies. Louis really enjoyed watching them because they were so active and seemed to be in trouble with their parents.

We timed our Pangani walk to end with the beginning of our Safari Fastpass time and did that next. It was around 12:45 at this point, and I have to say that it's true on hot days-do the Safari either first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon. We saw hardly any animals on this Safari, and I'm sure it's because they were hiding from the heat of the afternoon sun.

Our CM was really into the tour-she was hamming it up, but our truck didn't go through the part where it seems the bridge is going to collapse. I guess the bridge was there because the CM said something about it not holding up, but the effect just didn't happen. This disappointed Craig because he got a real kick out of that during our last trip. I tried to videotape this attraction, but was worried I was getting only people's heads and the roof of the vehicle. However, on seeing the tape at home, it didn't come out as bad as I thought it would. If only there were more animals on it!

After the Safari, we went for lunch at Tusker House. It seems like people really like the food here, but we thought it was just O.K. and didn't think much of the small selection. I forget what they had for a kid's meal, but I know it was something that Louis wouldn't eat so Craig and I shared our food with him. I did get him a small lemonade, and Craig and I shared a large unsweetened iced tea. Craig got the fried chicken, which was a generous portion with pieces that added up to half of a chicken, and I got the hot ham sandwich. The best thing here was the mashed potatoes that came with the chicken.

From here we went to Kali River Rapids, got our Fastpasses, and walked the Tiger Trail next. This place is a lot fun, but boy, the heat! I think this park feels so hot because most of the attractions are outdoors so you can't cool off in the queues and attractions like you can in the other parks.

In the Tiger Trail, I was astonished to find no visible barrier between guests and the giant bats. I thought there was a window in front of the exhibit and was shocked to be able to put my hand in-what was I thinking when I did that? When we got to the tigers, a lovely CM was talking about them to the guests that had gathered. Someone asked whether the tigers were full grown, and she said no, they're three to four years old. Louis yelled out, "I'm four years old, too!" Everyone laughed at this-it was cute.

We were ready to get wet on the Kali ride. This was a really fun thing to do on a hot day, but I agree with other reports I've read that the burning logs make no sense. A completely drenched teenaged boy rode in our raft; he told us this was his tenth ride in a row. He just kept getting back on line. I stowed my shoes, tote bag and camcorder bag in the middle compartment. This didn't look too sturdy, but it served its purpose, and my stuff stayed dry.

After this attraction, Craig agreed to see one (and only one) show, so we chose Tarzan Rocks. Louis really wanted to see it, and we saw the Lion King show during the 2/99 trip. I absolutely loved that show, but went for the one we hadn't already seen. It was after 3:00 by now, and I was hot and tired so at that point, I didn't mind that we missed the fabulous Lion King show this trip. Of course, now that I'm home, I wish we made time for it.

We had some time before the start of the Tarzan show so we stopped for a snack. I got a frozen lemonade while Craig and Louis split a chocolate-covered Mickey bar. I was so hot I had trouble eating my lemonade-kept getting brain freezes.

The Tarzan show was excellent in our opinion. Louis and I found the whole thing fascinating, and Craig loved the music. We have the CD at home since he's a major Phil Collins fan. I can see why this wouldn't be for everyone, though. It was loud and was more like a concert than a stage show. I couldn't get over the talent of all the performers. Where does Disney find them all? I'd read a lot about the great physiques of Tarzan and Jane, but I thought the lead singer was the biggest hunk on the stage. What a man! I think his name was Billy.

We headed back to Port Orleans after the show, and it was close to the park's closing time of 5:00 p.m. Our bus back was packed, so I had Louis sit on my lap so a young lady could have a seat. She and I chatted the whole way back to Port Orleans, but she was going onto Dixie where she was staying with her in-laws. She was recently married and telling me how beautiful she thought Louis was. She hopes to be a mom herself soon so I wished her luck with that. Louis, of course, heard her telling me how adorable he is, so he hammed it up and charmed her like crazy. He's a shameless flirt!

We took what would be our last swim of this trip. By now, Louis was really comfortable using the slide and got into playing there a while before he moved onto the kiddie pool. After our showers, Craig discovered three more pairs of underwear in a pocket of his suitcase. Thank God he's not so stupid! After he told me he brought only three pairs earlier in the week, I was really worried that half of Louis's genes came from him.

As we had been doing most of the trip, I got some dinner for Louis around 6:30, and around 7:30, we were on our way to Epcot. Epcot on the 2/99 trip was the equivalent of MGM on this trip-Craig was not looking forward to going except that he loves fireworks. We had a PS at Le Cellier for 7:15 that we were late for. This is one tip I want to share-don't worry too much if you're late for your PS time. It seems they still seat you ahead of the walk-in crowd, although behind the people who are on time for their PS.

Much to my chagrin, Louis did not fall asleep on the bus this time. When we entered the park, it was still a little light out, and all the park's lights had been turned on. Wow! It was so beautiful here, and as we approached Spaceship Earth with its 2000 sign, I began to cry. Oh, my goodness, this was one of the most gorgeous and spectacular sights I'd ever seen! You see it in pictures and on T.V. and the planning video, but you can't imagine how beautiful it actually is until you're standing underneath it. I told Louis to try and make a picture of this sight in his mind, as it was very special and something he could tell his grandchildren about. I'm not sure if I got through to him; he'll probably remember my little lecture more than Spaceship Earth's 2000 sign.

We checked in at Le Cellier and they gave us a beeper telling us it would be a 30 to 40 minute wait. No problem! I really want to see more of this park. We were able to go as far as the U.K. pavillion with the beeper so that's where we went to watch the Tapestry of Nations parade. I didn't mention the existence of this parade to Craig even though I wanted to see it. My brother said he thought it was the lamest thing he'd ever seen Disney do, so I was afraid to force it into our schedule. If it was lame as my brother said and we rushed there to see it (thereby taking up precious beer drinking time), I wouldn't have heard the end of it from Craig.

However, here we were waiting for our table at the restaurant, so what else could we do? Well, it turns out we did not agree with my brother's opinion. We all really liked it, especially me. I thought it was beautiful and unique and just loved the music. As the parade was winding down, we got the page for our table. Louis was still awake, but behaving himself for a change. He stayed in his stroller throughout our meal because we thought he might fall asleep there and played with a couple of his toys.

I ordered the hard apple cider and Craig got a Molson. He ordered the mussel appetizer, and I ordered the cheddar cheese soup. For entrées, he chose the prime rib (what else!), and I selected the filet mignon stuffed with mushrooms.

Well, in a very short time, two servers came out with our entrees. They ran away so quick after dropping the plates we couldn't complain to them. We flagged down our waitress who seemed incensed that they would do this, and she took the plates away. Craig told her he hoped we're going to get fresh entrees. In no time flat, another guy was back with the appetizers.

The food was delicious! We tasted some of each other's dishes and enjoyed dunking the breadsticks into our broths. I still had about a third of my soup to eat, and while I was sipping some cider, the guy who brought the appetizers out tried to take it. Excuse me! I'm still eating that. Sorry, ma'am. Then the same thing happened a few minutes later to Craig with his mussels. Boy, they wanted us out of here!

It was just about 9:00, but they were still seating people, so we didn't understand what the rush was. Our waitress came over to see how we were doing, and Craig tried to joke with her, asking where the fire was. She had no clue what he was talking about.

We got refills on our drinks and our entrees came out. I really liked the apple cider-similar to champagne, but with an apple flavor--and here was a place I thought the pricing was all out of whack. The drinks and appetizers all seemed quite inexpensive-$3.25 to $3.75 for the drinks and my soup was a mere $3.95-but the entrees were on the high side.

Anyway, our food was very good. My filet was everything a filet should be, tender and tasty. I loved the vegetables that accompanied it, especially the golden beets. Craig loved his prime rib and the sauce they used on it, as well as his cheesy potatoes. Toward the end of our eating, the wait staff gathered in front of the restaurant and asked for everyone's attention. It was the last night of working there for four of them, and they wanted to sing Oh, Canada as a tribute. Two of them were young ladies and they cried through the whole thing. It was touching, and maybe this was the reason for the bad service (although our waitress wasn't one of those leaving). Was there a party scheduled at closing? Or did they already start the party in the kitchen?

We were now done eating, and our waitress was nowhere in sight. We were tired and wanted to leave, but waited for what seemed like an eon for her to appear. Finally, she did, but threw the check down and ran away. Oh, no, this isn't our bill! Whoever this check belonged to ordered wine and two soups plus different entrees. It wasn't even close.

Where is she? Again, we waited a good ten minutes before she showed up. I was steamed, but Craig was really angry. After all, they rushed us through our appetizers, and now we were stuck just sitting here. Craig is usually a pretty mild-mannered guy, but he does have an explosive temper at times. I was telling him to calm down and not make a scene. He didn't want to leave a tip, but I felt bad because of the departing colleagues thing so I left what amounted to 10%. We gave 20% every other meal of our trip. I'm a believer in Karma and wait staff really rely on tips, so I usually tip well, thinking good fortune will come back to me.

Anyway, he said something to our waitress near the door as we were leaving. He didn't want to upset me by making a scene at the table, but he told her he was very unhappy with the service and if it were his decision, she wouldn't have gotten any tip. The whole episode put a damper on the night, and I doubt Craig will ever go back there even though the food was good.

The park was closed now and we obviously didn't get to see Illuminations tonight. Since we left our room for Epcot so late, Craig promised me that we'd do it the following night. We stopped in Mouse Gears to get a little something for Louis because he was a perfect angel in Le Cellier. He was asking for a "fire stick." What he meant was a flashlight with a long red light the CM's were using to direct the crowds. Of course, they don't sell these things to guests, but I figured we'd find something he liked here.

He picked out a light-up Goofy keychain since it was the closest thing we could find to a fire stick, and I got a box of character cookies for his day care class. I told the CM at the cash register that's what the cookies were for, and she asked how many children were in his class. I told her 15 kids and assumed she asked me so she could tell me if I needed another box. She ducked away for a minute and then gave me 15 small shopping bags so we could hand the cookies out in them. After all, she said, what child doesn't like to get a Disney World bag? Well, I thought this was so nice and thoughtful of her. And I do think Disney is the only place where you find such kind salespeople.

It was easy to get the bus back because the crowd had really thinned out by now. It was about 10:00 when we left. Louis fell asleep on the bus ride. As we walked through the Port Orleans lobby, someone was performing live music. On closer look, it was a man with a synthesizer thing who was an excellent singer.

The song was "Bad Leroy Brown" and I started dancing in the lobby while pushing the stroller. Craig got embarrassed by my doing this, but I couldn't help it. In spite of the whole Le Cellier fiasco, I felt just great! Tomorrow would be our last full day at the World, but I wasn't thinking about that. I was thinking how wonderful Epcot was to see in its Millenium splendor and what great credit it is to the human race-truly one of the most marvelous places ever built by man.

Friday, September 15

How can this be? Our last full day at WDW is here! After all the planning and anticipation for this trip, now it's nearly over already.

We decided to spend our last day at the Magic Kingdom, our favorite park. So after getting ourselves ready-including the usual wrestling match with Louis to get his sunscreen on-we headed out for the bus. What an easy ride from Port Orleans the MK is! This bus is not shared with Dixie Landings so you're there in no time flat.

We went to the left of the hub for this visit, so we could do the attractions we missed on that side of the park during Saturday's visit. I found it a little hard to find my way around-they have a lot of this side of the park boarded up for the Jungle Cruise rehab. I wish we could have done this attraction-I have fond memories of it from my childhood. We missed it on the 2/99 trip also because the line was huge. Oh, well! We'll be certain to do it on our next trip.

The Pirates of the Caribbean was our first attraction. This is an all-time favorite for Craig and me both. We did it on the 2/99 trip as well, but it's odd how much of it I didn't remember. First of all, the queue is huge! I think they need to shorten it since it's taking up a lot of prime real estate. And it seemed so dark, especially after being out in the sunshine. The first scene really scared Louis. It's a pirate skeleton steering a ship and has thunder and lightning. When we got past there and were able to see all the pirates' exploits, he brightened up and really seemed to enjoy it.

We exited into the pirate gift shop, where I thought Louis might want a hat. He and his father wound up spending a lot of time in the shop, choosing (of all things!) a gun. I will not buy my son any guns. Other people can, but I will not. When that awful tragedy happened in Columbine, and I vowed that I would never buy any child of mine a toy gun. The scary thing is that without having any toy guns, he still likes to shoot. It must be a male thing, but at least a year ago, he started making a gun with his finger and pretending to shoot it. One of my friends feels the same way I do, and when our boys play together, we've seen them do this. It must be some primal male thing-there's no other explanation because neither of these boys had any toy guns. The pirate gun his father bought that day is only the second toy gun my child has owed. The first, one of his uncles gave him, and it's a rifle thing that shoots ping pong balls.

Anyway, it was interesting that the gun had a tag on it telling you to pack it in your checked baggage if you're taking it on an airplane.

From the pirate gift shop, we went to get Fastpasses for Splash Mountain. I've been dying to do this ride and thought Louis should try it. To prepare him for it, I'd taken him on the log flume at Great Adventure a few times this summer. He did O.K. there, so I figured he could handle Splash.

Our Fastpass time was about an hour later, so we back tracked to the Country Bear Jamboree. I haven't done this one since I was a teenager, and it was great! Louis's eyes nearly popped out of his head when the creatures on the wall started talking. Even Craig liked this show.

Out of there, and we're onto Splash Mountain. A CM stopped us as we entered the queue to measure Louis's height. They also did that the day before at Kali River Rapids. After we came home, I saw him take a measuring stick and measure his stuffed animals before they could take a ride on the slide he constructed on his bed. I heard him tell the animals, "let's see if you're big enough for this." It's so funny what sticks out in a child's mind!

Well, it was tough for me to enjoy this attraction because I was really worried about the final drop terrifying Louis. I do think this is one of the best attractions in all of WDW (therefore, the rest of the World). The ride got stuck for some reason when we were near the exit. We were about three logs from the exit and had to wait there a good five minutes. Louis handled the ride quite well. He ducked and kept his eyes closed during the big drop, but he didn't cry or scream. He was fascinated by Brer Rabbit, so we got him a beanie baby one in the gift shop at the exit.

We were hungry now and decided to have lunch. We went to Pinnochio's Village Haus so we'd be in Fantasyland when we were done eating. We sat where you can see the boats starting off in "It's a Small World." Louis had a hot dog meal, and Craig and I had cheeseburgers. They had fresh mushrooms in the toppings bar, and I love these. One thing about WDW-every food court we ate at, whether in the parks or the resorts, had great topping and condiment bars that were always clean and well stocked.

After lunch, we went to Winnie Pooh and got Fastpasses. We had a little over an hour to go, so we did "It's a Small World," then "Peter Pan" and then hiked all the way over to Buzz and did that. Back to Pooh, and we got on in about five minutes. We like Fastpass!

Following Pooh, we did some shopping (Tinkerbell's Treasures or something like that) and then headed over to Main Street for the 3:00 parade. We went nearly to the end so we'd be close to the exit when the parade ended. We found a great spot on the curb and it was after 3:00 at that point. During the short wait for the parade's beginning, the Dapper Dans came by to entertain the crowd, and we found them delightful.

Louis loved the parade! It was a highlight of his trip! He was so thrilled to see all the various characters live and in person. The Lion King float stopped in front of us, and a zebra picked him to beat on a drum in the float. He was thrilled with this, and we were glad to see him so happy.

As planned, we left the park after the parade and went back to Port Orleans. We had PS at the Crystal Palace for dinner at 6:45 and were really hoping we could get Louis to nap. Of course, he didn't, but it was worth a try.

Following a couple of hours' rest at the resort, we went back to MK. I shopped a bit in the Main Street stores on our way down to the Crystal Palace. We checked in at the window and waited on the porch. After about ten minutes, a hostess came along, saying, "Pooh and his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood request the Hubbard family to join them for dinner." It was so cute.

We ate lunch here during our 2/99 trip and completely enjoyed that meal. So we looked forward to this meal, and it was the best one of this trip! The food was excellent with plenty of variety to choose from. The characters were adorable; each one adopted the personality of the character they were playing. So Pooh and Piglet were sweet and kind, Tigger was kind of rowdy and rambunctious, and Eeyore was down in the dumps. I taped a lot of this, and it's great to see now.

Midway through the meal, I tried a small amount of "sweet white onion soup." It was delicious-the best thing I tasted all week. I went back for a bigger helping and talked Craig into trying some. He loved it as much as I did. We chatted with our waiter and he told us it's a favorite among the CM's there. It's creamy, but has a bite to it, and it's also sweet. Excellent stuff! I highly recommend trying it. For dessert, they had a big pan of crème brulee-my all-time favorite, and it was very good here.

Of course, Louis completely harassed the characters, but it was emptying out as we got there, so they gave him lots of time and attention. He really enjoyed himself here. I think this restaurant is gorgeous, and the look of it alone does a lot for me. Soft drinks are included in the price here, and since you can't order alcoholic beverages, the bill was quite reasonable. I don't remember the exact price, but it was under $60 with tax and tip. We were glad to pay this for such an enjoyable meal.

We finished there at about 8:00 p.m. and the CM's steered us toward the exit. I taped the castle as we walked out, catching it change colors a couple of times. The park was nearly empty since it closed at 7:00 so I got some great footage of the castle without any tourists in the way. I was a teary eyed walking out of there since it's likely we won't be back for a couple of years.

We took the monorail to the TTC and ran to catch the Epcot train there. We met and chatted with another family on the way. The husband was so funny, he was saying, "I've been on trains, buses, boats and God knows what else in the week we've been here. I can't take it anymore-I'm not leaving my house for a week after we get home."

We made it to Epcot with about 20 minutes to spare before Illuminations. Louis asked again about buying a "firestick" so we got him a Sorcerer Mickey thing that lights up and spins around. He loved this toy and played with it for the rest of the night. We stood near the Mexican pavillion where we found a decent place to watch the water. Illuminations 2000 was wonderful! Craig and I loved it; Louis was too busy with his Mickey light to notice it much. We were really wowed by the show-way better than Fantasmic.

We took our time leaving the park since we knew there'd be a big line for the bus anyway. We stopped in Mouse Gears and shopped a bit here, getting my in-laws a beautiful picture frame of the castle. The big fountain in the middle of Future World was doing a show, so we watched that and marveled at the fiber optic sidewalk as well. I could have stayed all night! The CM's were wearing big Mickey hands and waving good-bye to the guests. Good bye for now, beautiful, wonderful place. We'll miss you!

There were huge lines for both the Dixie Landings/Port Orleans and the Caribbean Beach Resort buses, but Disney was on top of it and sent in "Special" buses to get the guests home. We were on the third bus that we'd seen. Louis fell asleep in his stroller while we were waiting, and I carried him while Craig got the stroller.

Walking through the Port Orleans lobby, we again heard that talented gentleman playing music. We really wanted to stay for a drink and listen to him, so we parked Louis's stroller in a corner of the outer room of the lounge and got a table off on the side. He slept there while we each had a couple of drinks. I don't know if anyone noticed him sleeping there; if they did, they probably thought we were the worst parents in the world. But what can I say? We were on vacation, too, and the kid napped once during the whole week. We really had no choice but to drag him around sleeping in the stroller.

Back at the room, Craig borrowed a couple of chairs from the pool, and we sat outside with the door propped open so we could hear Louis if he woke up. We reflected on our trip, and both agreed it was the best vacation we'd ever had. However, we agreed we want someone else to come with us on our next trip, either my sister and her husband, my brother's family, or my in-laws. It was really nice during the 2/99 to have someone to stay with Louis while we went off on our own. It was also great being able to share our WDW experiences with our extended family. If any of them had been on this trip, they would have totally flipped over seeing Louis at the MK parade. And my husband could spend more time at the resort drinking beer if I have someone else to go to the parks with me.

Saturday, September 16

Tiffany Town Car was due to pick us up at 9:00, so I set the alarm for 6:30. We still had all our packing to do. We also needed to return the life vest we borrowed for Louis. I took it down to Guest Services since no one was working at the pool that early. She didn't have a problem taking it from us and told us people often do (remember the admonishments of the Contemporary lifeguard). I saw a sign there that said to tell them about your stay so I tried to express how happy we were with everything at Port Orleans. Well, I began crying pretty hard so this poor woman didn't know what to make of me!

We had one more bag of the free cookies to feed the ducks, but we didn't see any on the grounds. So Louis and I walked down to the river and threw some cookies in there, thinking it might bring the ducks. Well, the water bubbled up like it was boiling-it was fish eating the cookies! They were voracious, and Louis got a kick out of feeding them.

While waiting for TTC out front, I took some tape of the lobby and food court. I needed this to show my sister since we want her and her husband to come here with us someday. We had a different driver for the return. His name was Brian, and he was a very nice man. We chatted with him throughout the ride, and he pointed out that they're expecting a lot of rain that night and the following day. Looks like we really lucked out with the weather during our week, which by the way, was hot (low 90's) every day of the trip. Some days seemed more humid than others, but we got almost no rain. After the cold and rainy summer we had in the Northeast this year, we couldn't have been happier with the weather we got in WDW.

The flight home was very good and landed a bit early. Louis asked us when we got settled in our seats where Steven was-the boy he had played with on the flight down. How did he remember him? This plane had video monitors in the ceiling, and they loaned you earphones to watch them. They played an old Odd Couple episode that was very funny.

Our limo driver was nowhere to be found in baggage claim. I called his 800 number, and he was outside somewhere, unable to park because of construction. He told us where to meet him and we found him easily enough. P.U.! Has this guy taken a bath since last week? He looked very disheveled so I didn't know what to make of him. Was he in a bar till late last night? What a stinky old geezer--I don't think I'll use this limo service in the future.

Well, our wonderful trip is over now--how depressing--but I have a lot of great memories and this trip report to cheer me up. I can also start planning for our next trip. Unless my in-laws spring for another trip or my brother drives down and has room in his car for us, we won't go for at least another two years. We can't afford a trip like this every year. I estimate it cost about $3,700 for everything. And I will not go into a debt for a vacation. Much as I enjoy traveling, I believe you go into debt for a house or car, but not something as frivolous as a trip. We charged less than $250 total during this trip-around $185 for the two bounceback tickets and $60 to Continental for the flight change-which we paid off immediately. Hard as it seemed sometimes to save for the trip, it was really wonderful to come home and know it was paid for.

We do think that dollar for dollar, Disney World gives you the best bang for your family entertainment buck. And we really enjoy the resort experience as much as the parks. If you can get a decent price on their resort rooms-we paid $178 for the Contemporary and $99 for Port Orleans-you just can't beat these places. You should see what $99 gets you for a room at the Jersey shore.

In terms of WDW's food pricing, while it is high, it is also similar to everywhere else we go for family entertainment, and all of WDW's food courts were clean, attractive, and had well-stocked topping/condiment bars. We go to Great Adventure in New Jersey fairly often where the food pricing is nearly the same as WDW, and I have yet to find anywhere to eat there that I enjoy. Their floors are always completely disgusting, either greasy and slippery or sticky-yuck! Also, WDW's parks offer so much to see and do for the price of your tickets. We paid over $200 for four of us to see Blue's Clues Live in Radio City and that was for a 90-minute show.

So here's my list of favorites, disappointments, and tips.

Favorites

Port Orleans! We had a nearly perfect stay here. We can't think of much we didn't like here. And now I have a new dilemma. Do we go back here or try Caribbean Beach or Dixie Landings for our next stay? It has always been my dream to stay at as many of the Disney resorts as possible, but our Port Orleans stay was so great, it's going to be tough to choose somewhere else.

The two newest rides at the Magic Kingdom are the best--Pooh and Buzz are fantastic! Use Fastpass if they're crowded, but don't miss them. The Magical Moments parade was unexpectedly fun. Our little one just loved it. Sweet white onion soup at the Crystal Palace is delicious. So is the crème brulee.

Epcot is gorgeous at night all lit up. If you're going in the year 2000, great for you! It's worth it to see Spaceship Earth all dressed up for the Millenium. Illuminations and Tapestry of Nations were fantastic, too. Definitely don't miss them, and you have to see this place at night anyway.

It's Tough to Be a Bug was tough on our little one, but I can't remember when I've seen my husband laugh so hard. He loved this attraction and the audience's reaction to it.

Disappointments

Our room at the Contemporary resort was really far away from everything. The Contemporary itself was disappointing in how "urban" it is. It could have been in New York City. There was nothing Floridian or tropical about it, and this was something I was unhappy with. I love the sight of palm trees, and there isn't a single one on the grounds.

Neither the Contemporary nor Port Orleans did anything to acknowledge our fifth wedding anniversary. It wasn't that big a deal, but a remark from a CM to the effect of "Happy anniversary, Mr. and Mrs. H." would have been nice.

Our dinner at Le Cellier was a bummer because of the lousy service. We would have been happier grabbing something at a food court and spending our time seeing more of Epcot and watching Illuminations. However, if I ever get to come here with someone other than my husband, I think I'd try lunch here. The cheddar cheese soup was outstanding and a decent buy at $3.95.

MGM is a not good park for my husband. We missed the "Beauty and the Beast" show and that was something Louis really wanted to see. Oh well, next time we will. Also, Pizza Planet was a big disappointment for not bearing any resemblance to the one in the movie.

Tips

The pony ride at Fort Wilderness is fabulous if you have any days in which you're not doing parks. This was very worth the $2 fee and produced the best videotape of the trip. Craig and Louis look so sweet together with that pony!

Changing resorts is a fun thing to do. It almost felt like we were taking two trips in one. Also, we could never afford to stay at a deluxe resort for a whole week. Next trip, I'd like to stay at the Wilderness Lodge or Polynesian for two or three nights and then switch to a moderate resort, possibly Port Orleans again or the Caribbean Beach if I find out it's been completely renovated.

We bought a number of "Magic Towels" for Louis during our trip. They're little packages that you soak in water, and then they turn into wash cloths ($3 a piece). I didn't realize it while at WDW, but I really needed these wash cloths. I was still using baby wash cloths for Louis's baths, and they were getting kind of small. Not only are these cute souvenirs, but we now have a nice set of good-sized wash cloths at home. Hint: there's a great selection of these at Mouse Gears in Epcot.

We saw a special on the snack menu at Scat Cat's (the lounge in Port Orleans) that sounded like a great deal. It was 12 buffalo wings, a plate of potato skins and a pitcher of beer, all for $14.99. Check with the Crystal Palace to see what night they're serving sweet white onion soup during your stay and go then. This stuff is out-of-this-world delicious-even better than the cheese soup at Le Cellier.

Going to WDW with a 4 year old is the most fun you can have legally! Yes, he probably won't remember a lot of it, and he was a real pain sometimes, but it's fantastic that everything is still so real to him. He keeps asking me why all the characters wear gloves! I think this is so funny and so good for his development. I believe that when you stretch a child's imagination in such a positive way, you are helping that child's mind develop to its fullest potential.

Other guests at WDW are wonderful! We met and talked to so many nice people during our trip. I've read lots of reports where the authors described other guests who were rude or inconsiderate, but our encounters with other guests on this trip were all enjoyable. Are people nicer in the off-season because there's less pressure to get things done? Or am I extra tolerant of the human race? (Sometimes, my husband calls me "Marcia Brady" because he thinks I'm goodie two-shoes nice, but even he, the original Grinch, agrees that other guests were a pleasure to meet on this trip.

This isn't a tip, but an observation. The DVC seemed to have a much more visible presence during this trip than it did during our 2/99 trip. There were information desks at both our resorts and a lot of stuff on Disney's television. I guess it's because of the villas they're building at the Wilderness Lodge and the Beach Club. It's not that it bothered me or anything like that, but it does make me wonder whether Disney figures vacation ownership is the way of the future.

I read all the trip reports on Brian Bennett's website-I love doing this and right now, it's the closest thing I have to a hobby. I want to thank all of the authors, especially Sue Holland for her prolific writings. (Sue, if you're reading this, I read all of your reports and enjoy them very much. Obviously, since I have a four year old, my Disney trips are way different from yours, but I want to tell you that you write very well and give descriptions that make me feel like I'm in the Florida sun with you. Thanks for sharing your life with us. You are a lady who is certainly living her life to the fullest, and I really admire that. You also sound like a very nice and caring person-thanks again for all the entertainment.)

I really hope my report helps you as much as others have helped me. By the way, I must you that I was very glad I wrote my own report on our 2/99 trip. In the weeks before this trip, I re-read it a bunch of times. Not only did it get me pumped for this trip, but it also helped to remind me what we missed that trip.

There's one last thing I really want to share. It's that you have to see and do things for yourself before you can decide whether you really like them. For example, most of what I'd heard and read about Fantasmic had me believing that it would be the best show ever, but we didn't find it so. Also, my brother complained a lot about the lameness of Tapestry of Nations and what I'd read had me thinking he was right. But we liked it a lot and wish we saw the whole thing (we missed the beginning). So I'm telling you to take my report with a grain of salt because it's all just my opinion and your tastes are probably different.

Till next time, I wish you and your families well, and hope all your trips are as wonderful as ours.

Janice Hubbard

janice.c.hubbard@unilever.com

Mail a Comment to Janice Hubbard

[ Return to Index Page ]