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Grace Veach -- December 2000 -- Walt Disney World (Offsite, DL)

Trip Report Dec. 12-21

Cast of Characters:

• Grace: 37, 4th trip (me)
• Steve: 40, 4th trip
• Vincent: 5, 3rd trip

This will be a summary report

Transportation

We flew from Bloomington, IL to Orlando, connecting in Detroit. Because of the weather we had problems both ways, ended up overnighting in the Hyatt at MCO on the way home. Northwest was the airline, I was not impressed (not blaming them for the weather, BTW, but all of our luggage came back somewhat damaged, one suitcase totally broken, etc.)

Rented a car through Priceline, got Alamo for $13/day for the 9 days. We had no problems with them at all, although the car we got (Geo Metro) was the worst rental car my husband had ever driven, just in terms of noise, handling, etc. It had over 24,000 miles on it and was quite dinged up, but it got us around.

We did use Disney transportation on some of the days we were onsite. It ended up being about 50-50 which we preferred. We definitely prefer Disney buses for the MK, but other parks we'd just as soon walk from the parking lot, especially when we get there early. When we took the car, we ended up getting lost twice trying to get from a park to our hotel (DXL). The signs just didn't quite make it clear enough.

We almost had a problem getting from MGM to Downtown Disney for the gospel brunch. We didn't know that the buses don't start on Sunday until after 3.

Lodging

We stayed 4 nights at the Ron Jon Resort on west 192. It was a nice resort, but way too far away for me. I will not stay on 192 again, especially since when we're offsite we tend to visit the northern parks (Universal, Sea World, etc.) Then we moved to Dixie Landings for 5 nights. This was my first experience onsite, and while it was nice, I'm not sure that it justifies the extra expense. Maybe Disney "magic" freezes below 50 degrees. We got exactly the room I asked for (bldg 14, corner room, 2nd floor) but for $34 less per night we had been staying in a condo with a free breakfast.

Budget

We went with some splurges and some savings on this trip.

Splurges: staying onsite, eating one big (i.e. sit down) meal every day, pirate cruise for Vincent, House of Blues Gospel brunch, Family Magic tour

Savings: annual passes for: Disney, Universal (seasonal) and Sea World (Vincent only-- cheaper than 2 days regular entry), adult Sea World passes from Mypoints, $150 on Webcertificate credit card from Freeride bought a lot of snacks & souvenirs! $65 in Rainforest Cafe gift certificates from Mypoints, Ron Jon rate was $65/night through Magic card, DXL $99 through MKC, refillable mugs (go mugs! go mugs!), took cooler and brought/bought groceries for some meals, $30 off on Arabian nights through internet coupon

Food

Here were our "big" meals:

• Wed. Liberty Tree--excellent food, too crowded/noisy for me.
• Thu. Margaritaville--will not go again. Did not like food, too expensive
• Fri. Arabian Nights--will not go again, prime rib was fatty, rolls were hard, waiter did not serve coffee
• Sat. Rainforest (AK)--will go only if free, food was ok but I thought it was too expensive. Did join Safari club, though.
• Sun. House of Blues Gospel Brunch: ok food, not much variety
• Mon. 1900 Park Fare Villain dinner: excellent food, lots of variety, best meal this trip. For those who don't think the villains are "villainy" enough, consider that their main audience is little kids. Vincent would have freaked out if they had been really mean. As it was, he LOVED this meal, said it was his favorite of the trip. He was able to pull "tricks" on them by giving them a pen with no ink, and loved watching their reactions. He was a little scared and a little intrigued-- a perfect mix.
• Tue. Cape May buffet--still Steve's favorite Disney restaurant, and I like a lot also. The desserts can't be beat.
• Wed. 'Ohana--had changed since our last time there in April '99-- they don't bring you as much food, although they say you can still have as much as you like. Loved the pork dumplings, we got seconds on those. Vincent was free with our annual pass, good thing since he ate only the bread (!). Of the meats, Steve liked the pork the best, while I still love the turkey (yum!). We asked for and got a second pineapple/caramel dessert! This is a great meal!
• Thu. Crystal Palace character bkfst.--really good food, but typical character meal atmosphere (hectic, noisy). Long lines because of kids (didn't notice this so much at the other buffets).

We ate at the Dixie Landings food court a couple of times. I had the pepperoni pizza and a meat calzone. Both were very good, and I didn't think the prices were too out-of-line. We loved the refillable mugs, filled them at every opportunity!

favorite snacks (no particular order)

• dots
• chocolate croissant from DXL food court
• cinnamon roll at Gasparilla Grill while waiting for Vince to get off pirate cruise
• churro
• Butterfinger cheesecake from The Land food court (ok, this was the best!)

We gave Vincent yogurt/applesauce in the morning for breakfast on days when we didn't get a free breakfast, and also had milk, cheese, crackers, pop tarts, etc. in the room for quick meals. These weren't too appetizing, so Vincent & I ended up eating snacks or fast food more than we planned. Overall, though we ended up spending less than $70/day for the family on food-- about $50-$60 on a big meal, then $10-$20 on snacks/fast food/ food court.

Parks

Magic Kingdom--was always too crowded to really enjoy. On our other trips we have gone in early December (1st week), 1st week of Jan., and last week of April. I think that the Disney parks were all the most crowded this time of any of our trips, but in MK it was the worst & most noticeable. I was able to make it a good visit by taking advantage of early entry, using fastpass, and just avoiding any line that looked too long. We did the Family Magic Tour this time.

Epcot--we were able to do most of what we wanted to do in this park. I never get to see enough of World Showcase because of the youngster (World showcase is where I have my most vivid fantasies of being childless). Didn't get to Wonders of life or the Canada-UK section of WS. I really enjoyed the holiday storytellers, but we only got to see two of them.

MGM Disney Studios--one of our favorite parks, but we tend to ride the thrill rides over and over, Tower of Terror for me and Rock n Rollercoaster for Steve. This trip we missed Beauty, Indiana Jones, Hunchback, animation tour, and the playground (if it was open-- we didn't even check).

Animal Kingdom--spent only one day 8-2 there. It still doesn't seem like there's enough there, even though we missed Kali, Dinosaur, Tarzan, Conservation station, Pocahontas, and the trails. Again, this park was very crowded. You seem to spend most of your time trying to go somewhere.

Universal Studios--the Universal parks, in contrast to the Disney parks were not at all crowded this time. With the Annual Pass, you get front of line access until 11:00, but we never needed it. This is the way I much prefer theme parks, and I would say I enjoyed the Universal Parks better than the Disney parks this trip because of crowd levels. As far as employees, I thought they were excellent everywhere we went. I didn't notice any difference between Universal and Disney employees-- they were all good. The exception would be a couple of the Disney waiters we had who were barely a notch above surly.

Islands of Adventure--what a great park! It's so beautifully themed and has so many headliner rides, and lots of stuff for the little guy to do, also. We just love it here!

Sea world--another of my favorite parks, where one day is never enough to do it justice. We got to most of the major shows and did all the rides, though.

Weather

We had one week of great (80's) weather and one week of miserable (freezing cold) weather. I had packed sweatshirts & jackets to layer, but even with 2 sweatshirts and a jacket & gloves I was cold. The parks were still crowded, too. I have since decided that I'd rather be in 4 degree weather dressed adequately than 30 degree weather dressed inadequately! Of course, normally in weather like that I'd not be spending all my time outside, either.

Best (Me, Steve, Vince)

• ride: Tower of Terror, Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear
• parade: Main Street Electrical Parade
• special show: Candlelight Processional, Fantasmic
• attraction-type show: Clyde & Seamore, Muppet 3D
• meal: 1900 Park Faire, Cape May Buffet
• overall highlight: Candlelight Processional, Osborne lights
• park: Sea World, Islands of Adventure

Worst

• cold weather
• waiting in Bloomington airport for 7 hours
• missing the whole first afternoon/evening of our trip
• crowds at Disney parks
• South American teenager tour groups
• people who send one member of their party ahead, then all cut in line in front of you to get to that person
• smokers who ignore the smoking areas
• Arabian Nights (Grace & Vince)
• signage to Disney resorts
• cold weather
• not getting to ride Splash Mountain because of cold weather
• Country Bears show
• Margaritaville
• not having any pictures of Osborne lights

New experiences

• pin trading--we loved this. We all participated, having bought about 6 pins each over ebay before we went. Mostly we traded with cast members, but Steve actually traded with another "real person."
• Candlelight Processional--Vince slept through it, I was enraptured, transported, what have you. Steve thought it was beautiful, but was not transported.
• Disney transportation--see above
• Pirate adventure--Vince liked it, but I gather he was thrown off the ship for bad behavior.
• Family magic tour--really fun, worth the $$.
• Electrical Parade--I had really looked forward to this and was not disappointed
• staying onsite--see above
• Pooh ride--ok. Certainly not worth more than a 10 minute wait. Vincent liked Snow White much better
• Kraken--excellent coaster. The day we were at Sea World we had 4 walk on rides & each took the front & back. Not as wild as Hulk.
• Hulk (Steve)--thrilling, fast, smooth, great initial acceleration!
• Spiderman (Grace)--amazing ride. Would have to ride about twenty times to notice everything!
• Poseidon--neat water tunnel effect. A bit of a let-down overall.
• Sinbad--really fun. We had front row seats because of the Annual Pass. Vincent loved it.
• Flying Unicorn--Vincent loved it-- basically a kiddie coaster. I found it a little painful.
• Dudley Do-right--I liked it a lot. We used ponchos but still got bottom of shorts wet.
• Popeye bilge rats (Steve)--got soaked, but it was fun
• Men in black--great ride, puts Buzz Lightyear to shame!!! A strong contender for best ride of the trip
• Flights of wonder--typical bird show
• Osborne lights--way more than we expected. I'm so ticked that we were out of film! Well, that's something to do next year.

What will we do the same?

• more pin trading!!!
• not sure about on vs. offsite. We may do similarly and switch resorts mid-trip. I hate to lose the early entry privilege, mostly.

What will we do differently?

• Vincent was pretty timid and elected to child swap on a lot of the rides he was big enough for, such as Spiderman, Jurassic Park, Men in Black (he rode once), Tower of Terror, King Kong, Back to the future. Of course, some of these I think he was wise to duck out on. I won't let him do Twister-- we live in tornado country.
• He did ride Star Tours, Space Mountain, Test track, backlot tour (with coercion), haunted mansion (with coercion), great movie ride (which he was scared of last time due to the shootout/alien scenes). He's better at straight thrill rides than rides that try to be scary.
• more midday breaks, shopping, relaxation (I always say this....)
• take film to Osborne lights
• see more of the storytellers in WS

What will we never do again?

• Arabian nights
• Margaritaville
• Drive to MK if we can take the bus
• Go when it's cold (like we'll know in advance...)
• stay on 192

Grace Veach

grace51601@peoplepc.com

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