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Christin Yannacci -- July 2000 -- Walt Disney World (ASMoR)

July 31 to Aug. 6, 2000

The Last Hurrah! Ron and Christin's Trip Report

(Why a last hurrah, you ask? I am starting graduate school in the fall, thus becoming a poor student for 4 years, and, more than likely, this will be our last WDW trip without children.)

Cast-

• Ron, 30, 2nd trip to WDW, professional theatre technician, working to find his own voice as a Disney fan, lover of the ToT and the Adventurer's Club, less than enthusiastic about screaming children, although beginning to accept that one day he will have screaming children of his own, continually reminds his wife that this trip is both needed and justified. Favorite Disney movie: Mary Poppins, with Robin Hood as close second.
• Christin, 29, 6th trip to WDW, diagnosed dependency on Disney since the age of 5, storytelling and teacher of creative drama, lover of Brer Rabbit = addiction to Splash Mountain, less than enthusiastic about strollers running up heels and across toes, although beginning to accept that this is one of the prices of going to WDW, and planning on days of revenge when she one day has a super-powered stroller of her own, stressed about their future financial situation, thus the need for her husband to justify the $$$ spent on the trip. Favorite Disney movie: Currently, Mulan, with honorable mention to Little Mermaid for its killer soundtrack.

Prologue: My parents were so proud that they could give my brother and I a WDW vacation. My father, the American History prof, was still working hard for tenure at a small university, and my mother, was currently not working but considering returning to school for her master's degree. But, the Christmas of 1976, they had $500 and a camper. We spent a week at Fort Wilderness and the Magic Kingdom, and thus, at age 5, I began a life-long addiction to all things Disney. I watched the Wonderful World of Disney every week, I chose Walt Disney for my Great American in History report, and, after reading a book where a girl lived in secret at the Metropolitan Museum of Art ( I think "From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frank weiler???), I wrote stories of me and my friends living in secret at WDW. As a family, we went two more times. The third trip was special. It was during another Christmas season, I was 13 years old, and a month before, my father had been in a commuter airplane crash. He was on the athletic committee traveling with the university's basketball team for a tournament. The emergency landing in Jasper, Alabama knocked the plane in two, causing the roof to collapse, and a fire to begin in the center. My father escaped from the emergency exit on the wing. Luckily the fire never reached the fuel, and everyone escaped with only minor injuries. My father returned to us on a chartered bus, and we DROVE down to WDW in December. On Christmas day, he gave me a stuffed Brer Rabbit doll. (For years, my father had been reading me Brer Rabbit stories from the Disney book he had bought from our first trip.) We understood that our present was the trip in itself, but my parents always managed to pick something special up at the parks as a surprise. My next trip was in 1992, with a group of college friends from the theatre department. We were in Orlando for a theatre convention looking for summer work, and we stayed in tents at Fort Wilderness. Thanks to Mom and Dad, I knew how to do WDW on a college student's budget. I had not seen MGM, but one of my friends insisted we go to Universal instead. So we went to Universal and...whatever...not much there...I should have known not listen to him as he is a clown...literally, with Ringling Brothers, until he quit to marry someone- but this is my story, not his. Well, little did I know at the time, but my future husband was at the same theatre convention and his friends took him to Universal as well. Ron had never been to WDW and didn't know what he was missing. We met four months after the convention, being hired by the same theatre company. 5 years pass. In this time, Ron accepts my Disney addiction, as I accept his Star Wars/Indiana Jones addiction. So, when we decide to get married, the choice of honeymoon is obvious (after I explain the MGM connections) Concentrating on the wedding planning ourselves, we let a travel agent plan the WDW trip. She booked us at the newly opened Coronado Springs. Fantastic trip! We had the deluxe plan, including all tickets, food...the only $ we spent we on drinks and souvenirs. We ate almost exclusively at full service restaurants and loved the variety.

SHIFTING GEARS

OK- here is the deal. Everything up to this point, I wrote before the trip. Now it is crunch time- classes start Wed. for my new Ph.D. program, so this trip report has moved from a leisurely storytelling journey of my life with Disney to a summary account of our great trip earlier this month.

Time frame- 6 nights, July 31st-Aug 6: six nights was a good amount of time for us, one more day than we had on our honeymoon

United flight- I won't get started because I might not be able to stop. Suffice it to say, I will never be flying United again after this summer. On this trip, United got us there 4 hours late- killing some first day plans with our LOS passes. But at least we got there, unlike my trip to Austin earlier in July where I spent the night in Dulles...right, sorry, moving on...

Resort- All Star Movies: I liked it at least as much as I liked Coronado Springs. The room was great for 2 adults, and wasn't even that bad when Ron's sister stayed a night with us after driving up from Ft. Myers. Food court was fine, gift store was great, and the guest services people went out of their way to help us will all our plans. Transportation was great to all the parks, but a nightmare to Downtown Disney. Bus Transportation- we relied on the busses, having not wanted to spend extra $ on a rental car. Most of the time, this was fine. Getting to Downtown Disney took the longest by far, and the buses seemed really irregular. I thought this might just be All Stars, but we waited for 45 min. at the Wilderness Lodge after a dinner there. Also, All Star Movies was always the last stop for the busses home. They told us some would go to Movies first, but we never experienced that. We spent a lot of time trying to find the best way to get from resort to resort, since we were eating a resort restaurants. We normally took a bus to either MK or Epcot, then a boat to the resort. I loved riding the boats to the Hoop-de-doo and Artist Point at Wilderness Lodge- yes it took longer, but it was relaxing and enjoyable.

Comedy Warehouse- I was inspired by this group to try this club for the first time, and had a great time. We are both in theatre, and these performers are really well trained- very quick and very funny. The only performer we saw that matched this quality was the maid performing the night we went to the Adventurer's Club. Did they always put whip cream on the kungaloosh's?

Blizzard Beach- the day we went, it was completely over run by teenagers. I had gotten through many a cold PA winter evening thinking of the relaxation of the lazy creek- not quite the relaxation I had envisioned having to wait a 1/2 hour for a tube, then getting constantly splashed by loud teens. And, I really like teens- just not on that day.

Disney Quest- I so wanted this to be better than it was. Perhaps it was just too many crowds, but the virtual reality wasn't as great as people had described it. The one thing I really wanted to do, the animation drawing, was impossible to get into without lots of planning and time investment.

Animal Kingdom This was our first trip to AK, as it wasn't open in '97. We loved it. The landscaping is beautiful- I kept wondering how they got everything so lush in 2 years. Ron's sister, the lover of animals, came up for our AK day. We spent a lot of time on the trails, looking at the meerkats and lemurs, tigers and gorillas. Since she has back issues, we saved Dinosaur for another day. Some reflections: *Legend of the Lion King- good, but not all that it was hyped up to be for me. I enjoyed it, but didn't walk away "wow"ed. On the other hand... *Tarzan Rocks- I can't believe I hadn't heard more about this show. We went on a whim, since we were passing by and the show was starting. The music, the scenery, the stunts and movement through the stage and audience was all fantastic. The performers were all talented, and even those primarily doing the stunts had great personality and stage presence. *Dinosaur- ties with RnRC for my fav new ride. We fast passed this twice, loved the movement and special FX's, sound, light, wind... great. *best theme park shopping at AK, IMHO- we spent most of our souvenir $ here.

Epcot Always a favorite, always see something new. Thank goodness we went on Spaceship Earth- was a great rehab! Great use of fiber optics at the end. I went by myself on the boat ride through the land and thoroughly enjoyed it- Ron and Carrie went to the Living Seas- the fish or plant which is more interesting question. Thanks to all who recommended the Fountain View bakery- had two great mid-morning breaks there with iced cappuccinos (yum) and croissants. Test Track- loved it! Rode single riders, but we got to ride together because of some line alteration. We tried to ride again on the last day, but it was closed- took home two fast passes for posterity. Mil. Celebration was exciting, especially... *ToN- we saw this the first day and it was awesome. We sat on benches right in front of the Germany entrance/exit parade point. Even though we could see into the back stage area, all the cast members were aware of this and remained '"n character" while they were in sight of any guest. I loved the interaction with the children and the puppets, and the music was addictive. The drummers and drums were great- Ron said that would be the job he would want. We saw Illuminations 2000 that same night, and loved it also. Incredibly, it was my first Illuminations, and the lasers with the smoke looked fantastic. A great time was had by all. *Mil. Village- our least fav. Part of the Mil. Celebration. It looked like a trade show, and half the pavilion was a gift shop. It was really crowded, and when in doubt, we chose the outside heat over inside crowds.

(***a brief note about the summer crowds/heat dilemma. Yes, we heard all the warnings, "don't go in the summer, it is too hot, too many people, blah, blah, blah. We could only go at this time and we were determined to have a good time, to zig when the crowds zagged, to beat the heat with summer survival techniques. And we did have a great vacation, but we really had to work at it at some points. I could have handled the heat, I could have handled the crowds- but both together were at times overwhelming. We often deviated from our plans, because we just gave up. We missed a few thing on this trip, such as Fantasmic, Magical Moments parade, Star Tours, Kali River Rapids- but that is the nature of a Disney vacation, and I will be back. All the same, I would probably chose a peak time like X-mas over summer next time to avoid the heat. Line aren't that bad with the right people, and who needs to stand in lines with Fast Pass, our saving grace of the trip. Praise Fast Pass, my new religion. (curse me, if you please)

(Question: was this ever listed among pet peeves at WDW, people walking in front of you that suddenly stop to no apparent reason, so that you nearly collide with them? I can't count how many times this happened to me. With crowds of that size, the concept of personal space got thrown to the winds.)

MK- We both became Buzz Light-year fanatics, enjoyed Winnie the Pooh, enjoyed the sentimental favs- PoC, HM, PPan, and the 3 mountains. Didn't much care for the Tiki Birds update, and found the biggest crowds here no matter what the day.

MGM- RnRC was a great surprise, I had no idea how much I would love this. Ron enjoyed ToT (I enjoyed it enough the first time I went, that I feel I never have to do it again.) The animation tour this time felt rushed- we both wanted more time to investigate the new art work. The movie at the end has some great editing, merging Disney music and various scenes from all the movies. And, the Muppets, as always, kick ass. This was the hottest park, IMO, with the least shade. I never got as hot at AK as I did here.

Dinner Reviews- (we ate mostly counter-service for lunch in an attempt to save money, yeah I know we should have done lunch at full service to save more money, ya-da-ya-da-ya-da, but we really enjoy romantic dinners, and these were definite highlights of our trip.

• Rose and Crown/ Lord of the Dance- one of the best things we planned in advance, thanks to the friendly cast member at WDW-DINE. Loved the show, screamed and carried on like a giddy school girl- face it, the Lord is a cutie, much more so than the original Lord, Micheal-whats-his-name- sacrilege, I know. I couldn't tell what was pre-recorded and what was live, so I gave up and just enjoyed the show. We had stopped by the Rose and Crown before the show to see what chances we might have at a good outside table for Illuminations. We encountered a frazzled English girl who told us we would have to take our chances when we arrived at 8:00. When we got back at 8, she looked even more frazzled as a man stood over her insisting on an out side table- I felt for her, and said we would sit where ever she wanted to put us. She smiled, and took us to a table on the porch for two, right on the corner, with a great view of the show.
• Hoop-de-doo- a sentimental fav., although I hadn't been since I was 14. Ron Loved It. Especially after the waiter brought pitchers of beer and sangria to the table. The sangria is strong, folks. Perhaps this is the key to really enjoying all the jokes- I would have laughed at most anything after two glasses of this stuff. Chicken and ribs were both great- we ate ourselves silly. We though one of the performers looked like a woman we had seen as the maid at the Adventure's Club back in '97. Being a theatre history buff, I enjoyed for the first time the traveling players theme of the evening.
• Crystal Palace- We planned this dinner because Ron's sister was up for the day, and she is pretty picky about food. We heard they had many choices. We got a great table by the window with a view of the castle. The food was all right, but nothing to write home about.
• O'Hana's- might have been my fav. meal of the trip. Carrie stayed for dinner and I was worried she would like it, but she loved it as much as we did. The first course, with salad, spring rolls, wontons (?), and sauces was wonderful. Mistakenly, we asked for more- then came the salmon, lo mein, turkey and beef, shrimp and sausage. My favorites were the shrimp and turkey, Ron and salmon and beef. Carrie even tried one of everything. Once again, we ate ourselves silly and loved every bite.
• Flying Fish Café- OK, maybe this was my favorite meal. Great atmosphere, great service, fantastic food, elegant presentation. I had the potato-wrapped snapper in the merlot reduction. Now, I am not normally a fish person, but this was incredible. Ron ordered the stripped bass, and decided he didn't want dessert. Thank the Lord (of the Dance, this is- or is it Lord of Fast Pass?) I ordered the Banana Napoleon- it was exquisite, layers of fillo, creme brulee, homemade caramel sauce, whip cream, bananas- someone here had said they wanted to lick the plate clean- my thoughts exactly
• Artist Point- This was our favorite meal on our honeymoon, so we had to come back. It was as good as we remembered. When I told the waiter I couldn't' decide between the halibut and the buffalo, he combined the two, half of each for a surf and turf dinner. Perfect halibut, pan fired, with heirloom tomatoes, and the buffalo was as good as I remembered. Ron had the salmon and raved. We shared a spice cake for dessert, which was good, but no comparison to the banana napoleon the night before.
• Mama Melrose- we had lunch here our day at MGM with Carrie, Ron's sister. Ordered two pizzas and one salad to share between the 3 of us and had plenty of food, plus got two desserts with the MKC card. This lunch is where I developed my theory about quality/price meals at WDW. We found it a much better deal to eat at full service restaurants than at the counter-service. You pay a little more at full service, the quality increases significantly and, for us at lest, was well worth the few dollars more, and gave us a much needed break in the day.
• Spoodles- we had lunch here mid-week, and sampled the tapas menu. A green salad, lamb kabobs, chiriso sausage with white beans, and a red pepper salad. The feta dip and humus were served with a sunflower seed topped bread which we loved. As good as it was, I think I preferred our dinner there in '97
• San Angel Inn- we had lunch here the last day. Great atmosphere, very theatrical lighting indoors to suggest evening romance (we had a hard time going back out into the sun later). We both did appetizers, Chicken nachos and the queso fundidto- I had to ask for it as it was not listed on the lunch menu. Both were great, the sangria a real treat, and we filled up for the last time.
• Other lunches- Tusker House, Electric Umbrella, ASMo food court.

Well, that it. Let me know if you have any questions. I know I left a bunch out, but I have to start reading my books of performance theory and dramaturgy. Thanks to all for the great info I got from obsessively reading your posts. Having the right info really saved this trip for us, which could have degenerated in the crowds and heat.

Christin Yannacci

yannacci@mail.utexas.edu

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