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Grace Veach -- January 2000 -- Walt Disney World (Offsite)
We spent 9 days in April, 1999, and I wanted to get out of the cold for New Year' s. By the time I booked the trip (in May) Orlando was out of the question (we don' t like the crowds anyway). So we chose Tampa & had a great time! I couldn't stand being so close and not going over, though, so we drove over for one day, using passes left over from the trip in April. I wanted to do RnR & ToT, and let Vincent see Bear in the Big Blue House, so MGM was a must. Then I asked Vincent to choose another park and he chose EPCOT (Spaceship earth is his favorite ride). So that was our plan. BTW, the date of our trip was Tues., 1/4. We left Tampa about 6:50 and were waiting at the MGM gates by 8. (There was no one in the parking booths, and after about 5 min. a Disney employee drove up & waved us in). They opened the park at 8:30 (main street area, or whatever you call it, only). Vince & I had a pastry from Starring Rolls, yum! ($4.03 for 2 rolls & 2 waters). At rope drop we went to RnR and did baby swap. Vincent really wanted to ride, since he loved Scorpion at Busch Gardens, but he still has some growing to do. Steve & I both loved it, but I found it a little painful (neckwise). This took about 1/2 hour, with babyswap & all. Tower of Terror was next, which Vince was tall enough to ride (and really looking forward to). Unfortunately, the themeing worked well for him and he was totally spooked out by the time we got on the elevators. By the first drop he was sobbing (bummer). Steve & I both loved it, though. We did Star tours next, new for Vince, and he loved it. By then it was almost time for Bear, so we hopped over there, stopping to get Vince a little Tutter (mouse from Bear). The show was not much for anyone over 5-- the Barney show at Universal was much better, but Vince liked seeing the gang. We made it to Doug live, which none of us had seen before. It was over Vincent's head, although he likes watching the cartoon when he can. After this we just played at that infernal playground (Honey I shrunk the kids) until our PS for Hollywood & Vine at 12:30. The lunch was ok-- it's so frantic that it's hard to relax to eat. I like Crystal palace much better for atmosphere & food, but the food was pretty good & Vince got quality time with Pluto, his favorite character. ($49 something, with tip). We decided it was time to head to EPCOT. We got there about 2 (had to pay parking this time!). Of course the first thing we did had to be Spaceship Earth. We went over to Test Track and at 2:15 they were giving out fastpass for 6:40! We got a fastpass, then headed toward Ellen. Just as we got in line, Vince had to go to the bathroom, so we went up into Wonders of Life. So as not to waste the trip, we watched the Anacomical players, and Steve got picked to be the game show contestant. Pretty fun. We then headed back toward Ellen and got right in to the pre-show. Vince was bored by this whole ride (except the actual dinosaurs) and finally went to sleep. Steve & I found the ride pretty boring too. I thought Vince might sleep a while, so Steve was going to mess around in Innoventions until I came & got him, and Vince & I stopped on a bench. Of course, Vince woke up right away and saw someone with cotton candy, so we got a snack (cotton candy & coke, $4.50). After our snack we went to find Steve. I went through Innoventions twice & couldn't find him & started getting panicky and finally figured that he went into the WRONG Innoventions, and sure enough, there he was in Innoventions West! I have to always remember that he doesn't know as much about the parks as I do (like there are 2 innoventions...). We checked out the new Imagination ride, but none of us liked it much. The old one, with Figment, had been my favorite ride at EPCOT, and this is no comparison. Very lame. We headed over to the Millennium Village and enjoyed a lot of what was in there-- the Brazil game, the little maze in Saudi Arabia, mini golf in Scotland. Vincent isn't quite old enough to enjoy learning about other cultures, so I didn't get to spend as much time as I'd like. By December (our next trip) he will have started home school, so we'll build a little curriculum around the village for the next time. We also did the Israel ride which was not worth the wait (about 40 min.). After playing a game of culture (which Vince & I won, yay!) we did Spaceship Earth once more and then did our fastpass for Test track. The ride went down while we were waiting so we ended up spending about 1/2 hour in line. Unfortunately, this one made Vince cry too, mostly just from the barrier (he thought we were going to hit it). But by the time we were climbing out of the car he was saying it was fun. We went to Canada and had a beaver tail (hazelnut/chocolate) and then found a place for the parade. Vincent was drumming and dancing up a storm! Found a pretty good spot for Illuminations right afterwards, but I was disappointed in the Illuminations 2000. I thought there was too much video on the globe, not enough other stuff. And I loved the old one, with Beethoven's 9th! We headed back for Tampa, and got back about 11 p.m.-- not too bad. Summary: here are the things we did for the first time:
Of these, we thought the first 2 were great, the shows were so-so. Test Track was fun, but not worth a long wait, and Journey was a waste of time, and it was a walk-on. Our favorites of the day:
If you have any questions about Busch Gardens, we spent two days there, so feel free to ask! Grace Veach grace51601@peoplepc.com Mail a Comment to Grace Veach |
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