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Steve Simmons -- December 2000 -- Walt Disney World (DL)December 6-11, 2000 Participants:
We flew to WDW via Air Tran.....Traveled between airport and WDW via Tiffany town car....All information was garnished via www.wdwig.com or www.mouseplanet.com. I combined the first two days together because we really didn't arrive until late on Wednesday, December 6th from flying in from Atlanta. We landed in Orlando at approximately 9:30 and our Tiffany Town Car driver, Ronnie For those of you who have never used Tiffany, met us at our luggage carousel, you don't know what you are missing! Ronnie gathered up our bags, ushered us into the town car and we were off for Dixie Landings. But not before we stopped off for a few snacks at the local grocery store. After a quick stop, we proceeded on, getting a guided tour of he area from Ronnie. Before we knew it we were at the front entrance to Dixie Landings. Ronnie made arrangements for our return trip and we went in to register. Registration was quick and we made arrangements for our bags to be delivered to our room and we took off for our room on foot. We were in Building 90, room 9737 That's a water view room. It is a corner room on the second floor. It is just across the bridge and then turn right from the main desk. Although it is not as close as Building 15 to the food court and main bus stop, it still is close enough, yet off the beaten path enough to be quiet. And that came into play this weekend when there was both a pop Warner football tournament and a cheerleading tournament going on, so there were lots of kids staying at both Dixie Landings and also, we found out, at the All Star resorts.......Anyway, let's move on. We found our room and waited for our bags. Ian's still hasn't come down from the trip in from the airport. He isn't used to having someone "waiting on us" yet. The fun hasn't started for him yet. Our bags arrived and we got into them to recover our refillable cups from a previous trip and headed down to the food court for a late night snack. It's almost 11 p.m now so we have to prepare for our first full day. After some food and some drink we headed back to the room and set the wake up call. Day 1 (Yuletide Fantasy Tour / Epcot) The next morning we were up early to get over to Epcot by 8:30. Sherry and I are participating in the Yuletide Fantasy Tour, and while we are on that we suggested that Ian take off by himself to check out Epcot. So we waited at guest relations for our tour while Ian took off on his own (boy was he ever excited about being at Walt Disney World on his own!). We read about this and decided that we would take this as our first "backstage" tour. I was surprised to see that there were several other tours gathering at the same time. It can get a little confusing for a "newbie". Our tour guide, Amy, and our driver, who gave out nametags, met us and then we were ushered off to the "magic sleigh" for the tour. There were twelve of us on this tour, all seasoned Disney visitors. We first headed off to the back of Epcot and entered through the CM entrance to the back lot. I should let anyone who intends to take any of these "behind the scenes" tours know that picture taking is allowed ONLY in the parks. There should be no photographs taken in the back lots or behind the scenes. It was rather difficult for me to keep from taking pictures, but then who wants to see a bunch of old buildings anyway? (Right!)....Let's move on.....where was I, oh yeah, we were in Epcot. Amy took us out into the World exhibits, prior to anyone else (that portion of Epcot had yet to open). We traveled through 4 or 5 of the lands discussing how the holidays are celebrated in each country and how Disney decorates the areas. We ended up in Japan and exited through the back lot to our "magic sleigh" and headed off to Disney Studios. There we again entered through the CM back entrance and after parking, walked through the back lot and out onto New York street near the Osborne Lights. Now it was daytime and the lights weren't on yet, but you could see how large the exhibit was. We then wandered down past the Commissary and then down towards the Tower of Terror. We once again entered the back lot and again were swept away to our next park the Magic Kingdom. There we entered on Main Street and walked about half way up, observing the decorations. Again after a small break we mounted the "Magic Sleigh" and were off to the Wilderness Lodge, our final stop on the tour. We were shown the decoration there and while we were there several of us were able to convince the CM's there to show us one of the hidden Mickey's in the fireplace. From there we were returned to the guest relations at Epcot where our tour ended. It was a pleasurable three hours and very enjoyable. Oh yes, I don't want to forget to say thanks for the little ornament that was given as a gift at the end of the trip! And also a quick "hello" to the ladies who we met on the tour. You were the first members of the RADP group that I met. I should mention that our driver asked us if we thought that a lunch at the Wilderness Lodge would be enjoyed as part of the tour if they were to add it and we all agreed that the lunch would be a welcome addition. So if anyone with the "powers to be" is reading this, please, add a lunch at the Wilderness Lodge. It was about 12:30 when we got back to Epcot and we headed in to Ice Station Cool, where we had arranged to meet Ian at 1 p.m. we walked through Ice Station Cool but did not sample anything (I had been warned about Beverly) and after several minutes, Ian showed up with a huge grin on his face. We asked what he had done and as we headed off to get some lunch in le Cellier he filled us in. It turns out that Epcot wasn't too crowded and Ian headed directly for the Test Track. He got on immediately and when he got to the end of the attraction, the CM asked if he wanted to go around again since there wasn't a crowd yet. So he did. Several times. Five in fact! He said that he got his fill of Test Track and then walked around the lake several times checking out the 'scenery". We were all ready for lunch and ordered some cheddar cheese soup and steam from le Cellier. It was a nice meal. Afterwards we started around towards England but stopped off to watch Off Kilter and then caught the British invasion band play as well. Both bands were enjoyable. If you get a chance, don't miss either one! We moved on and continued around the world stopping off to check out some of the usual things we do such as purchasing a pearl in Japan. I had to stop to find the "bowling ball" in Italy and we finally ended up in front of Germany just prior to the tapestry of nations parade. We parked there in front of the gates so that we could watch the parade both start and finish. After the parade we continued around the lake and decided to do a few things in Future World. We headed over to Test Track (Ian said he would do it again) and this time the wait was an hour, so we used the Single Rider Line and was in in less than 10 minutes. Then after that we walked over to the Art of Disney store to check out some of the stuff in there. From there we walked around and finally ended our day in the globe.. After riding through that we headed back to the hotel. Our first day was over. General thoughts about the first day: The crowd was light, the weather was cool. We skipped the fireworks as we were seeing them the next night from the cruise. We were planning to do Epcot again but after we figured we had covered it enough we decided that our second day would be started in MGM studios. Day 2 (MGM Studios & TON & Illuminations Cruises) We rose bright and early and headed over to MGM. We arrived and immediately headed over to the Rock N Roller coaster. Again it was a light crowd and we were in RNR almost immediately. By the way, have you noticed that I haven't used the words "fast pass" yet? Ian had said that he was not too thrilled about riding a looping roller coaster but we convinced him to go on. He enjoyed it so much that we immediately got back on a second time. After that we went and got something to eat. While we were deciding on where to eat I discovered that my camera's battery had gone dead. It was then that began the biggest complaint that I had during the trip. I found out that there is no store in Walt Disney World that carries the battery for my 35 mm camera (it's a Minolta). Every store I tried kept sending me to other Kodak stores in other areas of the park. One store even mentioned a K-mart several miles down the street. How I was to get there was of no concern to the CM's. O.K.,....I digress. Let's move on. We stopped to eat at a little shop that served sandwiches (and what sandwiches!!!! Then we moved over to the Muppets 3D so that I could show Ian where the key under the mat is. Ian found Annette on his own and after enjoying the show we walked around and ended up walking onto Star Tours. From there we walked across to the Animation Tour. After that we decided that we should leave as we wanted to get some rest and change before heading back to Epcot for the TON and Illuminations Cruises. So we headed back to the hotel and changed. Then another bus back to Epcot. But before we entered Epcot we "rode the rails" I wanted to give Ian the experience of riding up front of one of the monorails so we rode out to the transportation center and got off and walked around and got back on again. We were polite and asked if we could ride up front and got in the first train back. A photo opportunity! And me without a battery in my camera! Oh well! Ian took some photographs. We got off and immediately headed into Epcot. We checked our clocks and set a time of 7 pm for Ian to meet us at the International Exit. We then stood around England during the first TON parade. We parted ways and Sherry and I headed out for the Yacht Club. We decided to take the boat out to the Yacht Club. There we met out skipper for the TON cruise. It was Skipper Ron. Since I was the boat host I picked up the box of goodies and waited for the rest of the party. But before we did, Sherry and I walked though the lobby of the Yacht Club. Very Nice! The rest of our crew showed up, so I passed out all the nametags and skipper Ron prepared the boat. We boarded and he began our cruise. He took us out past the Swan and Dolphin and around and provided some insight to the area. Our cruise finished just inside the lake under the bridge between France and England. There we tied down and waited for the TON parade. It is nice, weather providing as each of the performers in the parade takes time to wave or bow or shake to the boat. Afterwards we returned back to the Yacht Club dock and from there we took the boat back past the Boardwalk to Epcot. We met Ian and we decided to go back to the boardwalk for a quick bite before the Illuminations cruise. We caught another boat over to the Boardwalk and walked along the boardwalk, picking up a corn dog and some drinks. We returned to the Yacht Club where we met up with the others gathering. There were to be six boats going out for the Illuminations cruises. We all got acquainted, boarded our boats and we were off. We had a new skipper this time, and he filled us full of Disney information again. Again we went out the same route as before and anchored again just inside the bridge between England and France. It sure was nice having a comfortable spot, with refreshments and not a large crowd to deal with. If you ever get an opportunity to do the fireworks this way, do not pass it up! When it was over, we were dropped off at the dock just outside the International exit and we made our way back to the front gate to pick up a few things before heading back to the hotel. Second day overall comments: The day was warmer than the first. It was 80 degrees today. The crowds were still rather light. We highly recommend an Illuminations Cruise. Day 3 is the Magic Kingdom and the Adventurer's Club. See you there.... Day 3 (Magic Kingdom / Pleasure Island) It's Saturday morning and we have reservations for an 8:35 priority seating at Cindy's castle for breakfast. So we got up early enough to get to the front gate of the Magic Kingdom by 7:30. We wanted to get in early. It turned out that it was a Surprise Early morning and people were already heading up Main Street. So we headed up to the castle to check in. We wanted a seat at the window so we thought that we'd try to show up early for our seating to see if we could get one. We found that all the window seats were taken, but they took us in early and we were whisked upstairs immediately for breakfast. But not before pointing out the location of Gus and Jacques. Our breakfast was nice, but not as special as it was back in March. It must have been one of those "off days" as we were given the "my lord" and "my Lady" treatment as often as we have in the past. And the characters were not really into it, either. You could tell that Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella were not having a good day. They were dropping their "Disney personality" between tables. You could see them actually "turn on" and "off" their characters. It was awful early in the day for them to be in such a "non-Disney" mood! Oh well....it happens. About the only one who really seemed in character the entire time was Belle. And a note to Jasmine; stay off the pastries....OK.....breakfast is over so we headed over to Tomorrowland for a few quickies. First we boarded Space Mountain and once through (it was a very quick wait)....we walked right into Alien Encounter. Again, this was a first for Ian so I kept quiet, not letting in on any of the effects. He really enjoyed that one!. We were going to go into Time Traveler but it wasn't open yet. So we took a quick break while Ian purchased another pair of sun glasses (he lost his in Space Mountain)...we then wandered over to Frontier land and quickly boarded Splash Mountain. We were going to head over to Thunder Mountain but as we got to the line it developed "technical difficulties" so we moved on. From there we walked up to the Haunted Mansion. We were all into trying to find the "hidden Mickey's" that our skipper had mentioned the night before while on the ToN cruise. We were crushed that we only found the one Mickey near the exit (I found out later that the "hidden Donald" is just a bunch of hooey!). So we wandered from there into Adventure land, because Sherry wanted to check out the New Tiki Room. We arrived just as a show was starting so we went on in. Boy, what a waste. Now I not saying that the original was anything wonderful, but it surely put this to shame! We won't have to visit that one again! We walked by the new area which was closed off for Agrabah Market. We were hoping that it would be open by he time we were there but no luck. So we took a small break and then headed over to Pirates. This was the ride that we waited the longest for in our entire trip. This really could use a "Fast Pass". After getting out of Pirates we decided that there really wasn't much more to do in the Magic Kingdom, other than some shopping, so it was time to head back to the hotel before striking off for Pleasure Island. So we walked down Main Street, stopping in a few stores to pick up some stuff for our friend sat home. We got back to DxL and refreshed. Ian and I decided to take our refillable cups and head off for to see the rest of the resort while Sherry rested. Ian and I walked over to Ole Man River and then back into the dining room and sat down and just "people watched" for a few. We met up with Sherry a little later and after grabbing something o eat we headed off for Pleasure Island. We arrived at Pleasure Island and found quite a line gathering at the entrance. It turned out that there was a concert for Toys for Tots and the first 1,000 who had a toy got in for free. We were in the wrong line!!!! Well, we still had some time so we walked through several of the shops in Pleasure Island, picking up a few more Christmas gifts. At 7 p.m. we headed back to the entrance. This time, we walked around to another entrance and got right in! We walked through the crowd of "teeny boppers" and were standing in front of the Adventurer's Club when we discovered that the AC wouldn't open until 9:30! So we headed over to the Comedy Club and got into the first show of the night. This was our first time in the Comedy Club and it won't be our last. That was very enjoyable. After that show we walked up to the Jazz Club and watched a performance there. Another enjoyable nightclub. Well, it is now getting near 9 so we walked down towards the AC again. This time it is open. And VERY Crowded! I've never seen so many people here. We surveyed the room and headed down to be "initiated". We ordered up a few jungle juices and staked out our space near the doorway to the library. We were initiated and sat through two shows in the Library. We missed the Balderdash Cup but still had a good time. We were feeling no pain when we left for the evening, but we knew that we had a day tomorrow at the Animal kingdom. Kongaloosh! Day 4 (Animal Kingdom) We were going to arrive at the Animal Kingdom bright and early but the jungle juices from the night before got to us so when the wake up call came we didn't. Well, I made it to the shower but was told in no uncertain terms that there would be a delay. No biggie, I headed back to the bed for a few more minutes of sleep. Ah! About an hour later we tried again and this time we were a little better off. So we got ourselves together and headed over to the Animal Kingdom. We immediately headed up to Africa and the Safari. We got there and immediately got in line. 15 minutes later we were boarding a bus for the safari. It wasn't the most animals we've seen, but some were out. Nothing spectacular. Ian enjoyed the trip and afterwards we stopped and ate. We then walked through the Tiger walk and then walked down to "It's Tough to Be A Bug". From there we walked up to Asia and the Kali Rapids. We put on our rain gear to protect us and it was a good thing as Ian went directly under one waterfall himself. After drying off we walked over to Dinosaur and got right on that. Afterwards we took a lunch break and then decided to walk back up and do the safari again. Now, we have always heard that you should do the safari either right at the beginning of the day or near the end of the day, leaving the afternoons go since the animals are not usually out then. Well, we were mildly surprised to find more animals out on the trip we took at 1 p.m. than were out earlier. About the only animals not seen were the large cats. Afterwards we headed out to go back to the hotel. We stopped off to do a little shopping and to look for DeVine. Turns out that she only works during the week and is usually off before noon. Oh well, we missed her. So we returned back to the hotel and began packing. We sat around and finally put together our final meal. We were thinking of going back into one of the parks for dinner but in making calls found that all the good places were packed so we called downstairs to Boatswright's and made reservations to eat down there. So after resting we went down and ate there. This was the best meal we had during our entire trip. The food was delicious. We will be back again. Afterwards we returned to our room, picked up our cups and headed back out to walk. We stopped off and filled up our cups and then proceeded to walk around the resort. We were quite surprised about the walk. It seems like such a large resort when you travel around it via the bus, but the walk around it wasn't that bad. We actually walked from our room all around the river and when we got dome we reversed our direction on the other side of the river. The weather was so warm and it was such a clear night. You really wouldn't have believed it was December. Afterwards we returned to our room and proceeded to pack. Our trip was winding down and none of us were ready to go home. However we had the final adventure....getting everything we purchased into bags to get them home. Travel Home and End Comments The next morning we were up early enough to get everything packed, and we walked over to the food court for one final snack and refill before being picked up by Tiffany Towncar. I stood in what turned out to be the longest line, just to check out. Tiffany was there on time and before we knew it we were back on an airplane heading for Atlanta. Some general comments concerning this trip: As usual, the time frame following Thanksgiving seems to be one of the best for visiting the parks. The weather could not have been any better and the crowds were mild. The only real crowd was the large group of cheerleaders who were here at the same time. Apparently they got to some of the guests here but they didn't bother us too much (except seeing so many "Brittany wanna-be's". Although we were well versed in Fast Pass, we only used it once. The longest we waited for a ride (sorry, attraction) was 15 minutes. We did take advantage of fast pass just once in the four days there. The rest of the time we really felt that we didn't need it. Note that we did use the Single Rider line at Test track. Being young is an advantage. One, you can go longer than your parents (Sorry, Ian, we are getting old) and two, the Cast Members let you ride stuff more than once some times. We don't need to do the breakfast at Cindy's again. Been there, done that and the thrill is gone. Perhaps if the characters had been in a better mood.....Those of you with cameras, check your batteries. Disney does not always carry the size batteries needed and will send you off on a wild goose hunt. As Robin Williams would say...."Bee prepared!" Be polite and ask if you can ride up front. And always remember....Kongaloosh. If you're ever in Atlanta, stop in the Fox and ask for Steve....I'm usually there. Until then, or the next time we run into each other at the World, remember, keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times and no smoking or flash photography please! Steve (Main Street Magic) Simmons Mail a Comment to Author |
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