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Jackie Reichert -- November 2000 -- Walt Disney World (CSR, ASMuR)
Pre-trip Planning Rick had reluctantly decided to allow me to plan another infamous Disney Vacation. This time, we both have full time jobs and Rick is not in college, so we went all out. Well, we went all out for US. I decided that we would stay onsite the whole trip. I called to make reservations in February, I managed to land myself a MKC discount for Coronado Springs for 7 nights. I also wanted to try out the All Star resorts since they're more affordable, just for future reference. So I tried for 2 nights at ASMovies for 2 nights at the beginning of our trip...sold out. Okay, how about ASMusic....availability but no MKC discount. Okay forget that. So I did end up finding a MKC discount for ASMusic at the end of our stay so the plan was 7 nights at CS then 2 nights at ASMuR. We decided we would try out Coronado Springs this time since it sounded like such a beautiful resort. We stayed for 2 nights at Dixie Landings last trip and enjoyed that also, we would stay there again. But we thought we'd try something a little different on this trip. I got a great deal on 2 day Universal Passes straight from Universal back in April. They had a 2 day pass with coupons and Citywalk party pass for $74/person, we ordered them by mail. For our anniversary this year, I treated Rick to a visit to Discovery Cove, since that sort of thing is what Rick really loves. I made the reservations in June for our November trip. 7 days admission to Seaworld is also included when you purchase admission to Discovery Cove. Then onto the Disney passes, I purchased a 4 day hopper pass for Rick and a 6 day hopper plus pass for me since I will be going back in February with my mother and sister. I managed to buy these from my local Disney Store during that infamous promotion where you got a $15 gift certificate for every $75 spent. You know that one that they accidentally forgot to say it wasn't good on park passes?? Well, I got myself $75 worth of free gift certificates and bought a lot of Christmas presents! Such a deal! The plan was 4 days at the major Disney parks, 1 day at Universal Studios, 1 day at Islands of Adventure, 1 day at Discovery Cove and 1 day at Seaworld. What a jam packed trip this turned out to be! There are a lot of other things on our agenda too you will notice as you read. So here goes.... Day 1, Sat. Nov. 4, 2000, Arrive in Orlando, Check-in CS Well we had a direct flight from Syracuse, NY to take off at 8:30am to arrive in Orlando at 11:30am. Arrived at the gate only to be informed it had been delayed because fuel was leaking from one of the engines!!! Good Lord!!! I'm already afraid enough of planes, now this?? Well the saga continued for another hour before they canceled the flight all together. Next flight out not until 3:00 PM!! So we sat at the airport, toured the airport, slept in the airport, read an entire book, magazine, had breakfast and lunch and finally got on the plane and arrived in Orlando in the dark at 6:00pm. Tired and cranky we picked up our luggage went to catch the Alamo shuttle. No problems there, it pulled right up and we were at Alamo 15 minutes later. I told Rick he was in charge of all the luggage and upon arrival at the Alamo building I was going to sprint ahead of all the people on our shuttle to be first in line. Well that worked, and on top of that nobody was in line at the Alamo rental desk at my time of arrival!! Yay!! I reserved my compact 4-door car on Alamo's website at a total including taxes of $190 for 10 days. I used my debit card to pay for the rental and the very slick, pushy rental agent tried to sell me insurance at $7.99/day!! I told him my insurance covers me. He very snippily asked how much my deductible was and who I was insured by. I told him it was none of his damn business and that I did NOT want the extra insurance, thank you very much!! He then asked me if I would like to upgrade my car, I said no. He finally gave me my number and off I went. We had a 4 door white Alero, peachy keen! Arrived at Coronado Springs at about 7pm with no line at Check-in. A very friendly CM by the name of Anthony greeted us and said, "Welcome Home". I said thank you and smiled. Next thing I know Anthony is asking what part of NY we're from. I still to this day, have no idea how he knew we were from NY just by saying a couple words to him. I even double checked to make sure I wasn't wearing anything that had my address on it! Anthony said he could tell just by the way I spoke that I was from NY state. All I said was "Thank you"!! Very Twilight Zone-ish. Anyway, turns out Anthony was from Long Island, NY originally but Syracuse is no where near there so I still don't know.... I faxed the Room Controller 2 days prior to our arrival and requested a room in the Casitas on the top floor near a quiet pool. Also asked for an upgrade to a water view and king bed. We purchased our E-Tickets for Monday at check-in. We were assigned Casitas 4, top floor, corner room with a beautiful view of Lago Dorado, no king bed. Oh well, 1 out of 2 ain't bad! The whole room-view thing at Coronado is silly anyway, there aren't any balconies to sit on and we barely opened up our curtains, so I wouldn't actually ever pay for a water view, but since it was a free upgrade, I'll take it! Casitas 4 had a bus stop right out back, the grounds in that section were very lush, green, fountains everywhere, it was beautiful. I decided that the Casitas were my favorite section after browsing pictures on line, then when I actually got there, I was more impressed with it. There was also a quiet pool right outside the building and our building was adjacent to La Vida Health Club (which we didn't use). We were impressed with everything about Coronado with the exception of the Pepper Market Food Court. Our first impression was that 10% extra gratuity was a little annoying so we decided to take out our food every time and eat in the room. Later in the week we would find out even more why we disliked the Pepper Market, more on that later. We headed over to the Wilderness Lodge after we unpacked a little. The plan was to catch a quick bite to eat at Roaring Forks, walk around the grounds and watch the Electrical Water Pageant pass by at 9:35. The Lodge at night was very enchanting, the grounds were beautiful, everything very subdued, we could never afford to stay there though. We ate our food outside since it was absolutely gorgeous and warm and savored the atmosphere. We watched the Electrical Water Pageant from the WL dock then headed back to Coronado. Off to dream land. Day 2, Sun. Nov. 5, 2000 Universal Studios & Dinner at Bongo's I had purchased our 2-day Universal/IOA tickets by calling Universal Florida back in April. Both passes were a total of $152. With a 2 or more day ticket, you were given a Universal Express pass (at the check in gate) to use in line from 9-11am. We used ours a couple times and it came in handy. We arrived at 8:50 for the 9:00 am opening and decided to use Sehlinger's Unofficial Guide's touring plan since neither one of us had been there before. (Parking at Universal was $7) We headed first to ET, Back to the Future (Rick only), Men In Black, King Kong & Earthquake with no lines. Then to Twister which had only a minimal wait. Jaws was closed for rehab, I was mad!! The Sehlinger's guide really had it right on the money in this park, touring early in the morning paid off for us greatly. We found Universal to be pretty crowd free when we were there. I really enjoyed this park, since this was our first visit, I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought the ET ride was awesome. The part where you're pedaling through the sky with ET in the bike carrier, gave me chills. As you will find out, I do not do Roller Coasters or Motion Simulators as I have an extremely weak stomach so Rick went on all that stuff alone. I also liked MIB-Alien Attack, although I was relatively rotten at shooting those aliens. I thought the ride was very well put together and very real. It was way cool! I even bought a MIB badge w/ lanyard for $5 at the gift shop along with some glow in the dark alien babies (I still have no idea what I'm going to do with them). We walked out onto Citywalk to find somewhere to eat. We ended up at Margaritaville. We sat out on the patio, it was sunny and warm, the palm trees were swaying, music was playing, very festive. I had a hamburger platter, Rick had a Turkey Club, came to $25 with tip. We headed back into Universal and walked around some more, bought some souvenirs, a Betty Boop figurine for my co-worker, some postcards for my album. Left Universal around 4pm, on the way out through Citywalk, we had to stop in the Sports store to check the Miami Dolphins game score (Rick is a MAJOR Miami Dolphins fan, nothing irritated him more than to know that we were in the state of Florida for 2 weekends and Miami had 2 away games!) Miami was ahead, he was happy, we took the long trek on the moving sidewalks back to our car. Showered at Coronado Springs and headed off to Bongos Cuban Cafe at Downtown Disney. We had a coupon for PS and a free dessert from a lady online that couldn't use it and offered it to the first person who emailed her, I was the lucky one! Thanks again!! Anyway, the PS part of the coupon really didn't work since we wanted non-smoking only, not first available. She told us it would be about a 35 minute wait, handed us a beeper and off we went to the Virgin Megastore to browse and wait. On the way out of Bongos, I heard Ricky Martin playing on the radio, I liked this place already! I am a HUGE Ricky Martin fan!! We shopped for about 25 minutes when our buzzer went off, we returned to Bongo's and guess who was on the TV's in the bar?? Yes, Ricky Martin!! He was up there shaking his bon bon, I'm a puddle of mush when I watch him! Okay okay, I was with my husband, I couldn't turn into mush....we were seated and the bilingual waitress came over and explained everything on the menu, what plantains were and the different dishes she recommended. Rick got some kind of beef with lime sauce that ended up being VERY garlic-y (but good). And I got a half breast of chicken that I didn't even come close to putting dent in. We both got the green plantain, which were more on the salty side, they were good, very different. Neither of us were hungry for dessert but since the coupon offered it for free, we got it anyway. The coupon was actually good for 2 free desserts, not just one, that was an added bonus! I got vanilla pudding with cinnamon and Rick got Cuban style chocolate custard. Both were delicious. Overall we liked the place a lot (playing Ricky Martin certainly helped). On the way out, we purchased a postcard for my photo album and the picture on a key chain that they lady came and took of us while we were there. In the gift shop, guess who was playing on the radio?? Hint: He's Latin and I love him! We hit Disney's Marketplace and the World of Disney was mobbed. Rick doesn't like mobs and doesn't like shopping so needless to say, we left. Back to CS, took a dip in the pool and sat in the Jacuzzi at the main pool. Wow, I LOVED that added amenity of a Jacuzzi at the moderate hotel. Day 3, Mon. Nov. 6 Animal Kingdom, and E-Ticket Night This is the first day we encountered large crowds and didn't know we would run into this all week. Hey this was supposed to be VALUE season!!! Arrived at 8am for the opening of Animal Kingdom, there were already an abnormally huge number of cars in the parking lot. This was our first visit to Animal Kingdom. We headed straight to Kilamanjaro Safari but there was already a huge line, so we opted for fast passes, good for 9:40-10:40am. We headed over to the Pangani Trail, the gorillas were my favorite attraction. They were such hams! They'd start pounding on their chests, then posing for pictures, they were adorable! We headed back over to Africa around our Fastpass time and ate the snacks we brought in from home, pop tarts & granola bars, drank our water we had brought in the water bottles. Saw a lot of cool animals, Rick made me take a zillion pictures, he loves animals. By 11:00am I was getting hot and realized that there were far too many people in this park. We walked by ITTBAB and the line was ridiculous! So we headed over to Dinosaur and got fast passes, I didn't feel well at all by then, but we wanted to at least hit Dinosaur, but we had a half hour to kill so we went and caught Tarzan Rocks. I decided I didn't want to do Dinosaur because I wasn't sure all that it involved, so Rick went alone. While I waited for Rick, they announced over the PA system that AK would be staying open an extra hour tonight. This is when I realized that this must have been an abnormally high attendance day and they hadn't anticipated this. This is the point where we decided to leave. We returned to CS and got our first of many take out lunches from the Pepper Market. Rick thought the 10% gratuity just to sit in the place was absurd, plus we saved money not ever getting beverages there. We stopped at the grocery store and purchased a Styrofoam cooler, soda, milk and bottled water. We drank this with our lunches and dinners and refilled our water bottles frequently. I had a salad with chicken & Italian bread, Rick had a pizza and an order of fries (total: $18) Then we laid by the pool to get some sun, took some pics of the pyramid at the main pool, sat in the Jacuzzi and vegged. We headed back to the hotel and decided that we didn't have enough time to go someplace for dinner and we didn't feel like wrestling with the crowds at the MK so we got take out from the Pepper Market again. This time I had a personal pizza and Rick had a cheeseburger and fries. We headed out the door to the MK for E-ticket night and fireworks at about 5:30pm. Since parking at the MK is a royal pain, having to take a boat or monorail from the TTC, we opted for the bus that was right out back of our building. The MK bus had pulled up just as we got there, such luck! This would be our only bus ride of the trip. We just don't like riding on the busses and standing in line to catch one. We'd rather sit on the tram and jump in the car because the car is always there! Arrived at the MK, got our wristbands at City Hall and got an ice cream sundae ($3.00, not bad at all!) then headed over to the garden near the bridge to Tomorrowland to watch the fireworks and have a good view of Tinkerbell's flight. The fireworks and music always give me a nice feeling! The kids around me were mesmerized, their little smiling faces in awe as Tink flew over. Such a nice moment! Then reality hit me that there were a TON of people in this park!!!! I commented to Rick that I hoped most of these people left by the time E-ticket started, which was from 7-10pm. After the fireworks, we headed over to Alien Encounter with no wait. Then over to Space Mountain where Rick had to wait about 15 minutes (remember I don't do roller coasters). After this we headed to Haunted Mansion, no wait and then to Splash Mountain, 5 minute wait. Splash mountain was running very slow, the logs kept getting all backed up it was weird. Little did we know that some guy had lost his life on that very ride right after we got off!!!! We didn't find out until the next morning when we saw it on CNN!! How disgusting, talk about a non-Disney moment. BTMRR was closed for rehab, we headed back over to Tomorrowland. While on our way, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Chip and Dale were in front of the castle. So I went over to get my picture with Pluto and Chip & Dale. I even got Rick in for a picture that the CM snapped of both of us with Chip! The lines for Mickey and Minnie were too long so we continued on to Tomorrowland and Rick got in line for Buzz, which was about a 10 to 15 minute wait. I sat outside and people counted, talk about crowded!! I counted over 500 people getting onto Buzz in a matter of 10 minutes. This was about the time when I realized that my feet were really starting to bother me, they weren't used to all that walking. I can't believe the crowd of people that were at E-Ticket night, not that it really hindered us in any way, I just wasn't expecting that many people. The longest line was at Space Mt. and Buzz. We were still happy that we went though because we got all those rides out of the way so that the day we went back to MK, we wouldn't have to do all those rides again! We would eventually come back and ride Splash Mountain again later in the week, but that's the only one we repeated. Rode the bus back to Coronado, waited about 10 minutes for the bus to arrive. We went back to the main pool (which btw, was about a 7 minute walk from Casitas 4) and sat in the Jacuzzi (which became my favorite past time!). My aching feet said thank you. After this we headed off to bed. Tomorrow is our Hidden Treasures Tour and EPCOT. Day 4 Tues. Nov. 7, 2000 Hidden Treasure Tour & EPCOT It took a miracle to get this tour booked, but I did it!! I waited until 2 weeks before our trip to book Hidden Treasures and it backfired! I knew it was a long shot but I was still disappointed! Although I was able to secure a spot for Rick and I eventually. Used American Express for the 20% discount, total came to around $81 for the two of us. I really wanted to do this tour because both Rick and I are very interested in the World Showcase and the history of the countries. I knew Rick would be kicking himself for letting me talk him into another Disney trip so I thought perhaps he would think the Hidden Treasure tour to be rather interesting. Arrived at EPCOT at 8:45am and checked in at Guest Relations, who sent us to sit by the yellow umbrella and a girl would be checking us in there. We found a CM by the name of Stacey who was wearing a shirt from the Disney Institute. She gave us our nametags, which Rick threw a miniature hissy fit about wearing. I finally just gave him "the look" which meant I didn't want to hear it and he put it on and never said another word about it. We went into the gates when everyone arrived and off to World Showcase we went. Stacey told us that she would always try to stop us in the shade to talk. It was actually quite beautiful that day being that it was so early in the morning, it really wasn't very hot yet. As the day went on, it did get quite a bit warmer. But none of the days ended up to be very hot. As a matter of fact, the weather was perfect! Except for a couple of the nights when it was quite chilly. Enough that I had to wear jeans and a sweatshirt.....sorry major digression! Stacey told us about the history of WS and we headed off to Canada and worked our way around counterclockwise. I don't want to tell you all about what we learned so I won't go into much detail about the tour. When we got to the Japan pavilion, Stacey asked us to stop by the soldiers on horses that were guarding the castle, one on each side. Stacey asked us why we thought one horse & soldier was facing out and the other facing in. Rick thought he'd take a stab at it, his explanation... "Wishing a Safe Return from Battle". Personally, I thought that sounded good, but he was not right. I won't ruin it for those of you who haven't gone on the tour! At our first bathroom break on the tour, Rick and I sat down on a bench and Stacey came up to us and asked me if I was "JakeFlake" from the internet! I looked stunned, I thought Rick was going to choke! Of course she was right, that's who I was! She said she read the internet boards all the time and she saw my post when I got shut out of the Hidden Treasure Tour and then finally got in and it ended up being a tour that she was the tour guide to! So she made a point to say hello to me. So Stacey, if you're reading this, you a most graceful host for our tour and we enjoyed it thoroughly! Disney's attention to detail on the World Showcase pavilions was very interesting to learn about. Stacey took us backstage and it was like night and day. I've always enjoyed World Showcase and learning more about it was a highlight of my trip. I would give this tour my highest recommendation if you're already interested in the World Showcase. The tour ended in Mexico right around 12:00 noon. Rick and I were intensely happy that we ended up on that side of WS since we had a 12:30pm PS for Restaurant Akershus in Norway! We arrived for our PS a little early, but it didn't matter, nobody seemed to be there yet. I decided to try out Akershus, not because I found the menu to be all that wonderful, but Rick is obsessed with the Vikings. The actual Vikings from Norway that is. He is into period reenactment and is in several medieval groups and clubs including the SCA. So I thought Akershus would be a neat idea. We did enjoy our meal there, although I knew we weren't going to find all that much we'd like, as neither one of us likes any kind of fish at all and Norway is BIG on fish. I told Rick he would have starved as a Viking. There was a hot and cold buffet, we both had almost the same thing, rigatoni w/ a white Alfredo like sauce with ham, wheat rolls and butter, meatballs with brown gravy, and there was this fabulous potato soup with bacon. Rick was totally taken with the Stave Church in Norway. He said the churches were from the Viking time and we had to inspect every inch of it! We went inside to browse around the gift shop, when Rick wasn't looking, I bought him a pewter Viking ship key chain for a stocking stuffer! At the cart outside the Norway pavilion, Rick bought a T-shirt with a huge Norwegian flag on it, he was happy as a clam. We also went on Maelstrom with about a 10 minute wait, Rick examined and scrutinized the wall murals inside the queue area. Then we even watched the quick movie on Norway, there was no ducking away from ANYthing in Norway, not with my Viking husband! LOL! We then started our way counterclockwise back around WS after hitting the Mexico pavilion again. In Mexico I bought a beautiful linen/cotton dress that was on clearance for $37! It was beautiful! And a miniature piñata shaped like a bull for $5. Charged it to our room and had it shipped there also. We managed to make it back through every country right up until Morocco then we pooped out. We still had about 3 countries to go plus Millennium Central. But we decided we needed a little break and headed back to CS before going to MGM for Fantasmic. Before leaving we hit a few of the Food and Wine Festival's tents. I had Kielbasa & a pierogi from Poland ($3) and Strawberries with white, milk & dark chocolate dipping sauce from the next tent over. I am 50% Polish and 50% German by the way, so I was raised on all that Slavic food. I will have to admit that both the kielbasa and pierogi were excellent, though not nearly enough for $3. Oh well, I guess that's why they call it a sample! We also managed to hit Spaceship Earth on the way out with no wait and then headed back out of EPCOT to the car. Little did we know we would be back later that evening. We got take out once again from the Pepper Market, can't remember at this point what we had, seemed like we always had either pizza, salad or French fries! The plan was to go MGM and catch Fantasmic. We arrived at MGM at 6:00 and got to park in the front row! We arrived at Fantasmic at about 6:10 and they were already into standing room only!!! Rick was NOT impressed! There was no way on earth he was going to stand there for an entire hour never to get a seat. So we decided that we would head back to EPCOT for TON and Illuminations. On the way out of MGM I told Rick to go catch RNRC since stand by was only 20 minutes. I went to browse the shops while he was waiting. After about 10 minutes I walked by the chalk board where they were writing wait times and I just glanced at the RNRC and it said, "temporarily delayed". So I sprinted back to get Rick who by that time was wandering around aimlessly. They at least gave him a fast pass to use anytime he wanted. We drove back to EPCOT and checked on Test Track's wait time on our way over to WS to secure a place to watch TON. Test Track was on a 55 minute wait, needless to say we didn't do that. We decided on a spot across the street from the Stave Church in Norway next to a garbage can so nobody could get ahead of us. It was approximately 7:00pm. Explaining to Rick why we "needed" to be sitting on the road an entire hour before the parade started was not going well. If sitting on the road for an entire hour is the only way to view something, he just assume not do it at all. So I had to be extra nice, I went over to the Norwegian bakery and bought a piece of chocolate mousse cake for us to share, which was delicious!! While cashing out the Norwegian CM saw my T-shirt from Woodstock Ô99 that I was wearing and asked if I had been there. Of course I said yes and also I live in Rome, NY where Woodstock Ô99 was held. He asked if I saw Limp Bizkit, which I told him no but that my husband did. He said he was planning on going to see Limp Bizkit when they came to Orlando in December and also told me he saw them in Germany once, the he gave me the thumbs up sign! He was very friendly and talkative not to mention happy! As the night went on we would notice a lot of "joy" in the air among the CMs in Norway. As the time grew closer for TON to start, the CM's in Norway got out their sticks that looked like Star Wars Light Sabers to guide foot traffic along the roped off areas. Then at 8:10 pm the music for the TON parade came on and they all were smiling and dancing and singing (the parade starts way over on the other side of WS so we had a while to wait). The Norwegian CM's looked as though they were having the time of their lives, even though they've probably heard that Millennium music a billion times already. Although I guess it's possible it was a brand new pact of CM's! Though TON was great, the music really adds to the overall effect. The puppets bent down and touched the kids that were sitting next to us and they seemed mesmerized by the whole thing. It was very different and very beautiful. I was a little disappointed in that I thought there would be a little more to the parade than just the large puppets and drummers. I don't know WHAT else, but I thought it needed just a little something else. After TON was over we turned around to get ready for Illuminations, which we ended up being behind people because we couldn't have it both ways. Either we had great seats for TON or great seats for Illuminations, but not both. At least not from where we were. If I had it to do over again, I would opt for the great viewing for IllumiNations. since the puppets were 12 foot tall in TON, we could have been back 4 rows and it wouldn't have made a difference, you could still see everything. I wasn't impressed with IllumiNations. 2000. While it was good, it wasn't as moving as Fantasmic later in the week would turn out to be and I also thought TON was better. All the pictures that are projected on the globe seem to be just that much too far away to see good and that part was waaay to long. It got boring. I have 20/20 vision and I could just barely make out what the pictures were from where I was standing. After Illuminations was over Rick and I sat down at Mexico's Cantina and watched the endless crowd walk by to leave. We had no intentions at all of being herded out of EPCOT only to have to sit in gridlock traffic. So we sat and talked and watched, then about 20 minutes later, we walked right out of EPCOT to a crowd-free parking lot. On a side note, after the amount of walking we did at EPCOT today, I thought my feet might actually not make it for the rest of the week. Tomorrow morning would be the first of many days when I woke up to my feet not working at all. After being still all night long, when I would step out of bed, it felt like someone had run them over with a steamroller. This was not good. Back to CS to go to sleep and of course, check out the results of today's big election. Little did we know we'd be checking CNN every single night for the rest of our trip for the results of the "big election"!! LOL! Tomorrow we're off to Islands of Adventure. Day 5, Wed. Nov. 8 2000 Islands of Adventure, Lunch at Confiscos Grill Rick woke me up at 4am this morning to catch the latest on the election results, which had just changed from Gore to Bush to undecided. I told Rick I was going to kill him if he didn't turn off the TV NOW!!! We had to be at IOA by 9am! Mickey woke us up at 7:30 and we ate our daily mini cereal and granola bar before we left. We parked in the parking garage at IOA/Universal ($7) and were in at 8:55 AM. They gave us those Express Passes again at the turnstile for having 2 day passes. Again, since neither one of us had been there before, we decided to use Sehlinger's Unofficial Guide's touring plan which worked well for us earlier in the week at Universal Studios. So off we went first to Dr. Doom's Fearfall, which had no wait, to The Hulk Roller coaster (both Dr. Doom and Hulk, Rick rode by himself). Rick said that on Dr. Doom's "fall", the levitation to the top is much worse than the "fall" back down. At this point, it still appeared that this park had little to no people in it yet, so we were doing well! Next we went on Spiderman, Sehlinger loved this ride, I thought they should have added in a minor motion sickness warning. It would have been twice as cool if I had been able to keep my eyes open for a lot of it! The whole ride was a bit of a motion simulator but the ride really did move, so it was different. Overall I thought they did a great job, it wasn't my favorite because I got very dizzy on it with my weak stomach. We skipped Bilge Rat Barges and RipSaw Falls as we were not in the mood to get water dumped on our heads. I don't mind those kinds of rides at water parks, but at a park where I'm not swimming, that's a major uncomfortable situation. So we went right over to Jurassic Park and rode the River Adventure with no wait. However, because there was no wait, I didn't have enough time to get my poncho out before we boarded so I found myself getting it out as the ride was already in motion. Again, I wasn't in the mood to get drenched. The guy sitting next to me asked me if I was a girl scout when I was little since I was came "prepared". I found myself missing a good part of this ride getting ready to get wet so it ruined the experience. And that was really disappointing to me because I am a huge Jurassic Park fan. I was looking forward to this part of the park and I kind of rushed right through it. Oh well, live and learn. Still following the Sehlinger's guide, we headed out of Jurassic Park over to Dueling Dragons Roller coaster. Rick rode the Ice dragon (blue). He got off and told me it was totally "awesome"! We walked through to Poseidon's Fury and did that. There was way too much hype and no excitement at all at this attraction. I was totally unimpressed. We waited 25 minutes for it too, which was a major waste. It was about time for lunch so we headed through Seuss Landing to go over to make PS at Confiscos Grill for lunch. But I got detoured in Seuss Landing because my favorite character of all time was there, THE GRINCH!! I had been waiting a lifetime for that moment, I was so excited! Rick took a picture of me all smiles and giddy like a kid! Thank goodness that the Grinch at IOA still looked like the old Grinch from the old movie and not the new Jim Carrey Grinch, who I think looks different and scary. I didn't want to leave the Grinch, but I had to. We walked over to Confiscos at about 11:15 and made a PS for the character lunch at 12:00. We killed a little time in the gift shops in Seuss Landing where I made a mental note of all the Grinch stuff I had to come back and buy. At noon we entered Confiscos for lunch. Rick and I both had burgers and fries and while we were there Woody Woodpecker, Spiderman, Beetle Bailey, the Grinch (yay!), and a couple other characters came in. They all handled the room very well, making their rounds, spending a good deal of time at each table. The Grinch was very friendly and I was so happy I got to meet him again. I, of course was wearing a Grinch T-shirt, Grinch shorts & Grinch socks that day and the Grinch noticed my t-shirt and gave me the thumbs up sign! I must have been grinning from ear to ear! The lunch at Confiscos cost about $22 with the tip, very reasonable and meeting the Grinch again was a huge highlight for me. It was a nice restful lunch after being in the park all morning. After lunch we headed back to Seuss Landing where we rode The Cat in the Hat and I bought $30 worth of Grinch stuff from the souvenir shop. It was very difficult to find the "old" Grinch vs. the new Grinch and I was afraid of that. I don't know, there is just something totally evil about the new Grinch, I just don't like him! We then headed counterclockwise back around the park, we stopped in Jurassic Park again and did the Discovery Center. We wanted to do the Triceratops Encounter, but the line was too long (story of our lives that week)! So we headed out of the park this time and said goodbye to Universal, IOA and Citywalk for this trip. For our first trip to the Universal Parks I think we did pretty good at beating the crowds, they were very different parks and we had a great time. We will definitely go back someday. The only thing I really wanted to do was to go over to see Portofino Bay Resort and we unfortunately never got over there. Perhaps on my shorter trip in February I will check it out. We returned to CS, had take out dinner from the Pepper Market and Rick wanted to relax so I headed out on my own to Downtown Disney to do some stress-free shopping without Rick. Rick does nothing but make me nervous shopping, he hates crowds, he hates shopping which adds up to major crankiness. So I drove our car there and found the whole parking area to be confusing at Disney Marketplace, Downtown Disney etc. There appeared to be no easy way to maneuver your way around there. There are one way streets and "no entry" driveways, I quickly got mad with that whole process. I ended up parking in the valet lot which appeared to be a free for all this night. Nobody was paying any attention and there was no valet attendant to be found. The World of Disney was a mad house!!!!!! AGAIN!!! I managed to get the world's slowest CM in the fine jewelry dept. and finally ended up purchasing a couple pairs of earrings for gifts and for me and a few other souvenirs. I tried, very unsuccessfully, at every single park and souvenir shop to find something with Roo on it for a co-worker of mine that likes Kanga and Roo and THERE WAS NOTHING ANYWHERE! It became an insatiate obsession while we were in Disney World! Of course we had to check out the election coverage every moment we got this day. It was just becoming apparent that something in Florida was drastically wrong. Rick and I felt very happy that we had turned in our absentee ballots in NY before we left. We couldn't believe that the president of the United States might be elected by such a narrow margin. Well, the saga continued, as you all know.
Day 6, Thursday. Nov. 9 2000- Animal Kingdom, EPCOT & Fantasmic Well I'll have to admit that my itinerary called for Magic Kingdom, dinner at Marrakesh and TON and Illuminations but we did NONE of that. Because we had done E-ticket on Monday, we decided to save the rest of MK for Saturday (why oh why would I do that?!) And we didn't have any plans in my original itinerary to go to AK more than once but since we missed 3 of the major attractions because of the crowds on Monday, we had to go back so onward...... Arrived at AK promptly at 8:00 am, this time there weren't quite as many cars as Monday, which was a nice change. The plan was to go to Kali River Rapids, Maharajah Trail, ITTBAB & Conservation Station, then off to EPCOT to finish the countries then since we had already seen TON & IllumiNations, we decided this is the night we HAD to do Fantasmic after the whole fiasco on Tuesday. We made our way back to Kali River Rapids and there wasn't another guest in sight. Rick rode all alone with no wait, he sat in one of those big tubes solo. I didn't want to get wet especially that early in the morning so I stood up on the bridge and squirted him with the elephant trunk! That made my entire day! Next we went to ITTBAB and waited about 15 minutes or so, which wasn't bad. We did stop along the way to eat a Mickey Ice Cream bar & Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich ($5). We managed to do the trail and Conservation station and be out of AK by about 10:00 AM. I bought a T-shirt at AK that had pooh with a magnifying glass out on a safari looking a big tiger in the eye with the caption, "Tigger, is that you?". There was a Spanish one too that I almost bought "Tigger, eres tu?". But Rick talked me into the English one, even though I thought the Spanish one was cuter! Jumped back in the car and headed over to EPCOT. We detoured over to Test Track where fast passes were being given out for like 4:00, yeah right! So forget that AGAIN, we continued over to WS. We skipped by Canada and went into Millennium Central. My first impression of Mill. Central was that I didn't really like it, nothing very special. We quickly became rather interested in Saudi Arabia since they had couches to sit on and play with lap top computers to learn about Saudi! Rick and I sat here for about 10 minutes to rest our feet. Then Rick went in to watch a movie about Israel and I shopped for a bit. I ended up buying some bath salts and soap derived from the dead sea. I had them charged to my room and sent to Coronado (such a lovely little perk of staying at the Disney hotel!) We continued and hit Germany, Italy and ended up back in Morocco so I could purchase a small bongo drum ($8) which reminded me of the one Ricky Martin played in the 2 concerts I saw, LOL! We were done and headed out of EPCOT at about 2:30pm. We took a dip in the Casitas quiet pool and relaxed a bit before getting ready to leave for Fantasmic. We arrived at MGM at 4:55 and headed right for the stadium. We got in and sat dead center about 15 rows up, our seats were perfect. What was not perfect was that it was 5pm and the show didn't start for another 2 hours!!!! How ridiculous is that?? Rick went down and bought us a pretzel ($3) to munch on since we never ate any dinner. Then since it was only 5:20, I told him to go use his Fastpass he got when RNRC shut down earlier in the week. I figured that would keep him occupied a little more even though that meant him leaving the amphitheater. Which resulted in less whining and overall grouchiness because of how long we had to get there in advance. I sat and read then Rick returned 25 minutes later and he read too. We waited and waited, watched the preshow and waited some more and promptly at 7:03 pm, Fantasmic started. The show was great, I told Rick it better be outstanding for this amount of wait time!! I thoroughly enjoyed it and the live action with lasers and fireworks was better than any show or parade I've seen in Disney World ever. I don't know if I would wait 2 hours ever again to see this, but I might do the dinner package next time! We tried to do that earlier in the week with no avail, all packages were sold out because of the high crowds. We arrived back at CS at 8:30 and I sent Rick over to the Pepper Market to fetch us some dinner, this would be the night I would call to talk to the Pepper Market Supervisor. Rick got back at about 9:30pm with our food, 2 personal pizzas and some French fries. My pizza tasted just like someone had rolled it in charcoal, it was disgusting. Now, it didn't LOOK burned, it just tasted charred. I hemmed and hawed about calling the manager and I finally bit the bullet. I called the front desk and they put me in touch with a manager. He apologized and asked if we'd like to get sometime else. Being that it was already almost 10pm now, we had settled in for the night, so I declined. He told us to come down tomorrow and ask for Gerard and he would take care of anything we wanted to eat. Well, I knew this wasn't going to work, since we were off to Discovery Cove and then had plans to eat at Dan Marino's restaurant. So I thanked him and decided to deal with it tomorrow. We watched some more of the never ending election saga and headed off to bed at about 11:30pm. Tomorrow would be Discovery Cove where Rick was finally going to get to swim with dolphins. Day 7, Fri. Nov. 10, 2000 Discovery Cove, Titanic Exhibit & Dinner at Dan Marino's Town Tavern Our visit to Discovery Cove was an anniversary present from me to Rick back in May. I called to make reservations at the end of June. Rick has been fascinated by Dolphins for as far back as I can remember so I thought this would be a great treat. We had discussed going but we decided we couldn't afford it on this trip, but I decided later this would be a great anniversary present. The cost was $179 for Rick who would do a dolphin encounter and $89 for me as a companion. Just FYI, you must have one person swimming with the dolphins for every companion admission. My admission included everything except the dolphin encounter. We arrived at park opening, 9:00 am, parked the car (free parking) and were admitted into a huge registration area. The girl asked for my last name and we were asked for photo ID then she took pictures of both of us and assigned Rick a dolphin swim time (9:55am). We headed over to another desk where she handed us our laminated, photo ID's with lanyards (a very nice souvenir!). A tour guide then gave us a mini tour of the park. Along the way, a photographer took our picture, which they give you at no additional cost. We went to get our wet suits and other gear and changed. Thank goodness everyone was in the wet suits, I didn't feel so awkward in those skin tight outfits! They were short sleeved/short style wet suits that were blue and yellow with a Discovery Cove logo on the front. They require everyone where these when in the water so they can keep track of you. You could also get just a vest to wear but with my bathing suit, I felt like I was naked underneath, so I opted for the wet suit. Also available at the counter was unlimited free aquatic-safe sunscreen. You were asked not to wear your own as it could harm their sea life. We didn't need any sunscreen though, we never burn. We stashed our stuff in the lockers and headed off to our cabana for the pre-dolphin info session. The briefing included a movie, a discussion about dolphins and how they look, communicate and maneuver. Then we headed out to the lake and I stood on the shore to take the pictures. About 6 or 7 people are assigned to a trainer and you get right into the water and they do a variety of things with the dolphins. Because Rick was by himself, he had a lot of interaction time. If you plan on taking your family there, you may opt to go separately so you can #1. have more time with the dolphins and #2. so someone can take pictures or video tape from the shore. While I thought I got some good photos, you really are pretty far from the whole dolphin interaction, so unless you have a mega zoom lens, the odds of getting any great pictures are pretty slim. There is a professional photographer in the water the whole time taking good shots though. After about 25 minutes of the dolphin interaction, they took us to a hut with I-Mac computers to view the pics the photographers took. You can buy individual 5x7's for about $16. There are other packages you can buy also if you are interested. You view all the pictures right on the computers and place your order by yourself and pick it up later at the photo store. The photographer took quite a few shots of Rick and we ended up purchasing just one of him hugging the dolphin, it was very cute! The park itself is very tiny, there was no problem navigating around. We decided we better get in and eat since we were starved! Our admission included choice of 1 main entree, 1 salad, 1 dessert and 1 n/a beverage for lunch. They had burgers w/ fries, chicken fingers w/ fries, large Caesar salad plate, large chef salad plate, chicken and beef fajitas, and stir fry as the main entrees. I opted for the burger & fries, small garden salad w/ Italian dressing, chocolate pudding w/ whipped cream and lemonade. Rick got the fajitas, small garden salad, cheesecake and Pepsi. There were plenty of tables outside in under umbrellas so we headed out. The park seemed very un-crowded even though it was a sold-out day. Because DC only allows a few hundred people in each day, there aren't really any lines or crowds. Ahh, what a nice feeling! After lunch we headed over to the chlorinated lagoon pool, shaped like a big circle, where you could practice snorkeling and go under waterfalls and swim around. As you swim your way around the huge circle, you go under bridges and waterfalls and go through the bird sanctuary. We stopped to feed the birds which was a highlight of the trip. They give you small bowls of either fruit or small worms and the birds come right down and land on your wrist or arm and eat. There are small birds & large birds, all very colorful and friendly. My suggestion would be to go there early in the day, as the birds are particularly hungry and interact more with the guests. Having the birds just come down from the trees and eat out of your hand, was such a cool experience, a very nice touch. Then we swam back out again and finished our round. The next stop was the sting ray pool. There is a small pool filled with sting rays (with no stingers, they remove them) where you can wade around with them. They are very fascinating looking and slimy to the touch! The pool is only a little deeper than waist deep and the rays aren't really afraid of people. They swim together in a circle and if you're standing in the way, they simply go around you. They are actually quite beautiful creatures. The only pool left now was the snorkel pool with salt water. This is a man made snorkel pool with several different kinds of fish, coral, rays, and sea life. There are also sharks but they are on the other side of a glass wall that you snorkel by. It's actually quite strange swimming along and seeing a shark because you can't really tell they're behind glass at first! Rick had a great time swimming around in there. I had to go get a life vest to put on as I'm not a very good swimmer! We decided we would go lay out by the dolphin lagoon for awhile to catch some of those Florida Rays. They provide lounge chairs with umbrellas on the white sand beach by the dolphin lagoon. We watched others still on their dolphin encounters and Rick took some pictures for himself. I went and got us a couple drinks at the concession stand which I charged on our admission badges that also had charging privileges if you left a credit card number at registration. That was very convenient since there really wasn't anyplace to put money in those wet suits! The drinks were pretty reasonably priced, much cheaper than at Disney World, I think I paid $5.50 for a beer for Rick and orange soda for me. I also stopped over and picked up our free photo and Rick's dolphin photo (also charged it using our admission card). We laid out by the lagoon for about an hour and a half and by that time it was nearing 3:30 or so. I decided to go take a shower to get all that salt water off and do my hair. They provide you with warm showers in each of the bath houses and there is shampoo and shower gel in dispensers on the wall. I brought my own, but it is there should you need it. There is an infinite supply of towels in each bathroom along with large hampers. There are also built in hair dryers to dry your hair, with large mirrors. Rick reported that there were hair dryers in the men's room as well. I brought my cordless curling iron also to touch up my hair after washing it. Just as I was leaving the bathroom, it looked as though a lot of people were just starting to come in to take their showers. So if you want to beat the crowd, I would suggest getting into the bathrooms around 3:30pm or shortly thereafter. On our way out, around 4:15 pm, they asked us to fill out a short survey on our visit then we were on our way. The park officially closed at 5pm and we had been there since it opened at 9am. I was pretty apprehensive about our visit to DC being that this was a hefty amount of money we'd be spending. But in the end it was definitely worth it. Our admission included free souvenir picture, lockers, towels, snorkels, masks, sunscreen, wet suits or vests, lunch w/ N/A beverage and 7 days admission to Sea World Orlando before or after your DC visit and your dolphin interaction of course. Then all the convenient features like showers, hair dryers, mirrors, no lines etc. It made for a very relaxing day on our tired aching feet and a day away from the crowds was also very nice. I couldn't get over that the park was sold-out that day and while there were people there, it never seemed crowded or congested. I was so glad we visited DC, our feet thanked us also. We went back to CS and changed for dinner. Tonight we would go to Dan Marino's Town Tavern and then head over to the Titanic Exhibit. For those of you who don't remember, Rick is a major Miami Dolphins and Dan Marino fan. When Dan Marino retired last season, I thought Rick might go into major depression but he did live, which was good. Dan Marino's is located at the Pointe, Orlando shopping center. We stopped by FAO Schwartz which was there and I acted like a little kid! Rick had fun at Dan Marino's looking at all the pics on the walls. The service was great, the food was good. Rick had ribs and a beer, I had a large chicken tossed salad, the total bill came to about $30 w/ tip. Of course we couldn't possibly leave the place without a souvenir, so Rick bought a t-shirt which I got a 10% discount on by mentioning an ad in a travel guide I had. Total with tax $15! Very cheap, very cheap! We got back into the car, paid our $2 parking fee for the garage and headed over to the Mercado to Titanic. I had been waiting to see this exhibit for quite some time as I am a Titanic buff ever since the movie. The motion picture Titanic really had an impact on me, I watched it at the theatre 5 times and of course pre-ordered it when it came out on video. This Titanic exhibit in Orlando is phenomenal, very well put together. It cost $17 per person, I had a coupon for $3 off though so our total with tax was just under $30. We were given a ticket with a passenger's name on it that we were to represent. I won't go into elaborate detail, but I did enjoy it immensely. There is a replica of the grand staircase as well as actual artifacts from the ship recovery missions. It is very well done complete with period tour guides who knew a great deal about the history. We had one 2nd class passenger tour guide who was absolutely phenomenal, I wish I had remembered her name so I could write a letter. They let you take as many pictures as you want in the exhibit during your tour the you can go back by yourself to read through the rest of the exhibits if you choose. If you are into Titanic or the Victorian era, I would highly recommend this tour, I give it 4 stars! We stopped at Gooding's at the Mercado and bought more film (I cannot believe how many pics I've taken on this trip!!!) and some soda. We stopped at the Pepper Market so I could find Gerard and ask him if we could get our breakfast comped tomorrow since the whole incident with the charcoal pizzas. He gave us a card to use at breakfast the next morning. Back to the room to pack as we would check out of CS and into ASMusic in the morning. It was quite chilly tonight so I couldn't take a dip in the Jacuzzi because I would have froze walking back to the room after that! Day 8, Sat. Nov. 11, 2000 Check-in ASMusic, EPCOT, Magic Kingdom Well we did pretty darn good I'd say for not being morning people! We were packed and showered and out of our room at CS by 8 AM and to the Pepper Market for our free (because of the problem two days before) breakfast. Rick and I both had scrambled eggs, home fries, bacon and toast with OJ. We actually ate IN the Pepper Market for the first time. After we were done, we took up Gerard's card to the cashier, who happened to be another manager, and he took it and told us to have a nice day. That was easy. I'll take this opportunity to say that in the end we did not care for the Pepper Market at all. The food was at best, mediocre if not bad all together, depending on the time we went. The whole seating you thing then having to go around to the various grills then waiting in line again to cash out was very inconvenient. We did manage to escape the 10% gratuity, which was also a little irritating, by eating take-out in our room where we could also drink the sodas and water we had bought from Gooding's. Personally, I guess I just didn't care for the place. Okay, we drove off to All Star Music to check-in. Rick dropped me off and I went to stand in line, which wasn't long at all, but seemed to take forever to get up there! No greeter CM's like at CS. You can immediately see the difference in the resorts here in the lobby of ASMusic, it's very bustling and noisy. But that didn't bother me, it was just different, many more children. I got up there and told the CM I was checking in, she said that we could check in this early, but the room wouldn't be ready until 4:00. I asked her if there was any way at all to get in earlier, since we had PS for dinner at 4 tonight. She told me she'd put in a request. In the meantime, she asked if I'd like charging privileges on our room keys, I gave her my MasterCard. Then she asked how I would like to pay the balance of the one night I had left. I told her to also put it on the MasterCard. She was mumbling out loud then said, okay that will be $94 something or other. I thought hmmmm, why is that so high? So I asked her why that was the amount, she replied that one night's rate was $82, I told her that I had a MKC discount on my confirmation letter (which I of course had buried in my luggage-what was I thinking?? I was otherwise, very very organized!). So for like at least 3 minutes, she hemmed and hawed and punched and typed and typed and punched and sighed, until she said, "Oh, yes, yep, there it is, Magic Kingdom Club.....that'll be a total of $74 with tax." Now I must ask, why the heck would that come up in the system after I had already paid my deposit? The computer must know by the confirmation number what amount was due on the bill!! Interesting, my MKC discount disappeared mysteriously. She gave us a card w/ a number to call later to get our room assignment and see if it was ready early. Off we went to EPCOT. This would be our 3rd time visiting EPCOT this trip, our mission was to hit Future World and Test Track. We headed right in, not as much of a crowd at 9:30 this morning. We headed over to Test Track, which was already giving FP's for noon. Oh well, forget about that, I guess we weren't meant to go on TT this trip! We would be in the MK by noon. So over to Journey Into Imagination, wasn't terribly impressed by this attraction, it was okay though. We went over to Living with the Land, which is one of my favorites. It never ceases to amaze me how they get those veggies to grow so perfectly!! Rick and I toyed with the idea of going on the $6 tour, but decided against it since we still needed to go to the MK that day. I did stop to buy a rock w/ piglet on it for my mom's herb garden. We headed over to Innoventions and walked through pretty quickly, I was bored with these buildings this time. Maybe it was because they were overly crowded, or maybe because it required too much brain activity. After being at every theme park in Orlando for the last 7 days, my brain was on overload. We decided at this point that we had done everything we felt like doing and I talked Rick into taking the monorail over to the MK. I figured that would be easier since you have to park the car at the TTC anyway. We arrived at the MK at about 12:00noon, only to find out that it was terribly crowded!!! Thank goodness we had done E-ticket on Monday, if we hadn't, we'd still be at the MK trying to do stuff as I type this!! We went over to Pooh, which had a 70 minute wait, so we got a FP, which was already for 4:45-5:45 PM! Then we tried to make our way over to Snow White and IASW, but Fantasyland was sooo mobbed, we couldn't move. It was unbearable, there was no moving around. So we went into the castle gift shop to look around. This is my favorite shop since it has all the castle memorabilia in it. The castle is easily my favorite thing to stop and gawk at in all of Disney World. I bought a bell with Tinkerbell as the ringer with Cinderella's Castle on the top. It's a Christmas Tree ornament. We sat down outside to castle to re-group. We decided to go over to Splash Mountain and get fast passes with our room keys since we already used our hoppers for the Pooh FP's. Splash's FP's were for the same time frame as Pooh's by now (5pm-6pm). Then we decided we needed to get OUT of the MK before we tried to kill someone in the happiest place on earth!! We drove back to ASMusic hoping to find our room ready. The CM (who tried to rip us off) at the front desk earlier did at least tell us that our room was going to be in the Broadway Building (which I requested on a fax early the week before). I called the number and it was ready, top floor (which I also requested) of Broadway. I actually liked the room. I didn't think it was all that much smaller than the one at CS, the decor was very bright, the TV was sitting on the dresser, unlike CS where it was in the armoire. Oh well, what did I expect for Disney's "basic" amenity resort?? LOL, for $75 I could have stayed offsite in a full suite. I digress, anyway, everything was fine until I walked into the bathroom, where I found a large amount of black hair on the floor. Long ones, short ones, coarse ones, it was gross!! I thought, no big deal, I shall just call housekeeping and have it cleaned up. So that's just what I did, I politely told the lady about the problem and she told me she would send someone up. In the meantime, we went down to the piano pool to take a quick dip and check out the area. The pool was crowded, but it didn't matter, we were only there for a quick swim. Then we headed back off to the MK to use our FP's. The hair on the floor still had not been touched. We got back to the MK just in time to use our Pooh FP's, we had to wait about 15 minutes still in line. I thought Pooh was cute, but not worth any wait over 15 minutes if you didn't have young children to appreciate it. Or unless you're a die-hard Pooh fanatic! Rick and I searched the store outside of Pooh for something with Roo on it for my co-worker. But alas, it was hopeless, we had made it an ongoing search for the entire week and we would leave Roo-Less. Next a bee-line over to Splash Mt. where we had a 15 minute wait with the FP. This is where I encountered the rudest CM I have EVER dealt with. I made it a point to remember his name so I could write a nasty letter to WDW about him, but now I can't remember what it was!!!!! All I know is that he was from Tucson, Arizona. Rick and I got down to load and we were to be in the front, I told the CM that I did not want to get wet, could we not sit in row 1? Well, he looked at me as though I had just asked him to jump off a bridge. He gave me the dirtiest look then nastily said, "step aside" in a tone that I wouldn't ever use with my customers. He almost stepped right on me, to let on the other group behind us sit down. Then finally he told us to sit in row 3, blew me off completely, never cracked a smile, never even made eye contact. I have never been encountered by a ruder person in my entire life, never mind at WDW, which prides itself on guest service. It left a sour taste in my mouth and my entire night was ruined. I know that's pretty drastic and I'm not usually one to let stuff like that bother me, but in this particular case it did. This CM being so short and abrupt with me just caught me so off-guard that it really bothered me. Rick made sure to tell me that Splash Mt. was much better in the dark than in the daylight. I agree. We walked back through Fantasyland to hit anything we missed and ended up getting ice cream sundaes and sitting on our butts watching the never-ending mob go from attraction to attraction. It was still so crowded that we decided to leave early and catch some dinner off-site. So off we went to change our clothes at ASM. Upon arrival in our room, I went to check the hair situation in the bathroom. The maid had indeed been there, she cleaned the toilet, left a few more towels and washcloths but she DIDN'T clean the hair off the floor!!! Okay, time to call the manager, I was on hold for what seemed like forever, only to be told that the manager was on a phone call and to call back later. So we left to go to dinner. We ended up at the Magic Mine Steak House (or something like that) out on Irlo Bronson Highway. I had prime rib w/ salad and potato for $9.99 and Rick had steak for about $13. Both were delicious, the service was great, our server was very friendly making conversation. He even gave us a coupon good for 10% off our next dinner. I will try to use it when my mom, sister and I go back to Orlando in February. After a little souvenir shopping, we headed back to ASM to turn in for the night. Tomorrow would be our last full day in Florida, we were headed to Sea World to use at least one of the 7 free days included in our Discovery Cove admission. Day 9, Sunday, Nov. 12, 2000 Sea World We were up and at 'em and at Sea World by opening at 9am. We actually arrived about 8:45 AM, and were admitted but then had to wait for the rope drop inside the park. Our Discovery Cove admission badges were scanned at the turnstiles for admission, but we still had to pay to park. At the advice of Sehlinger and my own remembrance from 2 years ago, we headed straight to Journey to Atlantis and Kracken. Rick rode Kracken with no wait then came back out to say he wanted to go again, so I waited for him again. He told me Kracken was on his list of favorite roller coasters in Orlando. We the stepped right next door to Journey to Atlantis. which had no wait at all. Now we have been on this ride before, but this time the smidget of roller coaster part, seemed a bit more violent. But I did enjoy it, one of the few "rides" I can go on without being sick. While Rick was riding Kracken I looked at the map and time schedule to plan out our day and was very disappointed to see that the 2 main shows Shamu and the Dolphins were both not running. That didn't exactly leave all that much to do for us. A baby killer whale had been born on Tuesday, only 5 days before we got there so the whales were bonding. But they did have 10 minute nursery presentations where you got to see videos of the baby being born and then they did a short presentation with the bigger whales. We also got to see mom and baby swimming around (baby was 300 pounds when it was born and about 6 feet long) The baby looked so dwarfed next to the bigger whales, it was so cute. Anyway, no big Shamu show but they did have one of the whales splash everyone in the splash zone. We learned our lesson last time at the Shamu show, we got so drenched, I was wetter after that encounter than I got at some rides at Blizzard Beach! So this time we opted for the second level. Dolphin stadium was closed for refurbishment. so the dolphin show was not running. It's a good thing we had gone to Discovery Cove and Rick got to swim with the dolphins on Friday because otherwise he would have been very disappointed. They did have Dolphin cove open where you could buy fish and feed the dolphins at certain times. We stood by and watched and got to pet the dolphins while they were swimming by. They are such beautiful animals, we went to the underwater viewing also and watched for a good amount of time. They also had a pool where the baby and adolescent dolphins are kept. They were all playing with a ball, they just might have been the cutest things I ever saw! They would nose the ball and throw it in the air and sometimes it would get bounced out and a employee had to go get it, then they would all come over to that side of the pool and "talk" to her. It was so fascinating to watch them, they were just like little kids. We did catch the Clyde and Seamore seal show, which was very cute. The preshow guy had me in stitches!! He was a mime and was interacting with the guests coming in for the show. I could have watched him for another hour! It was getting pretty hot at this time even though it was only in the mid 70's. But we decided to pick our seat in the sun, BIG mistake. By the end of the show, sweat was pouring down my back! I was very uncomfortable. Live and learn! We ate lunch at one of the fast food restaurants, the name escapes me now. It was good and the prices weren't as high as Disney Parks. We both had burgers and fries, came to about $16 with sodas and an extra pickle! Before we left, we did manage to hit the manatee exhibit. Those are some strange looking animals, they were having a snack while we were there. They were eating romaine lettuce, their snouts remind me of vacuum cleaners! They were very cute though, but very large! If they eat romaine lettuce, you'd think they would be skinny! LOL! We left Seaworld at about 1:30pm and headed back to ASMusic where Rick just HAD to watch the Miami Dolphins game, otherwise he would have disintegrated, I'm sure you ladies know the drill! We walked back into the room and the maid had been there to make the bed and clean. Would you believe she STILL hadn't swept that floor?? The same hair in the same place. I had it! Off I stomped to the front desk to complain IN PERSON. The manager I spoke to looked as though he could care less, and said he would send someone to our room to clean it. I told him we already tried that. He said he would personally call maid service. And I left. I thought sending up a fruit basket or something would have been nice as an apology but alas, we were at a value resort and the service really sucked. We will never, ever stay here again. I would more than likely stay offsite before staying at any of the all stars again. There are just too many things that Disney purposely does to make you want to stay at a moderate or deluxe resort. The blatant services they leave out started to get on my nerves, the slightly smaller rooms, no towels at the pool, sucky service, no sit down restaurant, no greeter CM's at check-in, not much themeing inside rooms etc etc. For the money I spent on a room here, I would easily stay offsite at a very nice resort that had better service. Back to the trip...we had about an hour before the Miami game started so we headed down to the main pool this time. There were quite a few people out there, but there were some chairs left so we laid out to catch some rays. I hated to know we were leaving Florida tomorrow, waahhh!! We had planned to go to Giordanos for dinner. It's an Italian restaurant on Irlo Bronson Highway and we found this place the last time we were in Orlando. The pizza was to die for! It was a Chicago style stuffed pizza, and it was delicious! I would highly recommend this restaurant if you're looking for a good offsite meal. We ordered a small pizza and a salad for the both of us and we couldn't finish it all. The small pizzas are plenty for 2 people (and my husband likes to eat!). Dinner came to like $22 with the tip. We did a little souvenir shopping offsite and then back to ASMusic where they had finally cleaned up the hair! We watched more stuff about the election, which seemed like it would never ever end! And as I type this more than 2 weeks later, it goes on and on and on.... Before I went to bed I called the front desk to inquire if we could have a late check out and she obliged me with 12:00noon instead of the standard 11am. Our flight wasn't until 7 pm so we thought we'd take our time. Day 10, Mon. Nov. 13, 2000 Check out and final thoughts We got up and started packing and I quickly realized that there was no way all the crap I bought was going to fit back in our luggage so after trying to stuff to no avail we headed out to Mailboxes Etc. where we bought a big box for $4 then over to Eckerd drug store to buy a marker and packing tape. We piled the box high with souvenirs and found a post office in Kissimmee to mail it at. We had a good time driving around looking at the area outside the resort areas in Orlando. Everything looks so desolate out there, grass is browner, not as many trees. It cost us $14 to mail the package with $2 to insure the package. I can't believe we bought that much stuff!! We went back to ASM and laid by the pool for awhile then went out offsite sight seeing again. This time we drove into the town of Kissimmee, I wasn't impressed. I thought we'd see a really cool place, instead it was very basic and the houses seemed very run down. Maybe we were just in a bad neighborhood, who knows! We returned the car at Alamo at about 5:00 and that went very smoothly. Drive in, drop off Rick and the luggage at the curb, drive and park the car, the agent comes over and prints the receipt and off you go. We were at the airport by 5:30 and sitting around with nothing to do. So we ate hot dogs at one of the food courts and went to wait for the plane. Had a very very turbulent flight on the flight home. It wasn't relaxing at all, it was scary. I hate planes more and more every time I fly. But after the first hour, it got better and the flight was much smoother, so that was good. Arrived in Syracuse at 10:30pm, instead of 10:00 since the flight was slightly delayed in Orlando. It was cold and damp, and the forecast predicted snow for the next 3 days. YUCK!!!! Final thoughts..... We had a great time on this trip and were very happy that we reserved and pretty much paid for most things before we left. All of our park passes to Disney, Universal, Discovery Cove and Seaworld were taken care of. We only had to pay for meals and souvenirs, which proved to be a lot more than I budgeted for! I had a schedule that I wanted to stick to, but in the end all we really did was stick to the skeleton outline of it. On the days I had planned to do Disney parks we did, but the parks I had planned to go to backfired with the huge crowds we encountered. We had a couple dinners planned at Disney that we ended up bailing on because we were either not hungry enough to spend a lot of money or we ended up not being in the right park at that time because I had to change things around. In the end I think everything worked well, we did end up doing everything we wanted to. We took time to smell the roses and enjoyed ourselves. We only did commando touring at the Universal Parks, but even slowed ourselves down there after we hit the major attractions. I will probably never go during this time again though, it was too crowded. I don't know if it was conventions, New Jersey people or Millennium Celebration, but whatever it was, I wasn't impressed. I purposely chose to go during low season and it baffled me as to why there were so many people there. I had no idea how much my feet were going to hurt during and after this trip. There was no fixing the hurt for 5 full days after I got home! I wore good quality canvas sneakers and socks while walking around the parks everyday, but it didn't do a bit of good. I think we packed too many parks into the week, the only day we had a chance to recover was the day we went to Discovery Cove, which didn't require much walking at all. I was actually contemplating going to see a doctor when I got home, the balls of my feet hurt so bad for days! If it weren't for that Jacuzzi at CS, I don't think my feet would have made it. Okay, I think that's it! Wow, is anyone still with me after all those pages?? Let me know if I can answer any questions for you! Take care, Jackie Reichert JakeFlake@aol.com Mail a Comment to Jackie Reichert |
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