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Annony"mouse" -- May 2001 -- Walt Disney World (BWR)Annony"mouse" -- May 2001 -- Walt Disney World (BWR) CAST OF CHARACTERS
You can read my previous trip reports from August 1999 and September 2000. PLANNING Resort We joined the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) in May 2000 while we were planning our Sept. 2000 trip. We immediately started planning for a spring trip and made our reservations 11 months in advance at our home resort - Boardwalk Villas. We got everything we were wanting. Five nights in a 1BR with a weekend break to visit my brother and his family in West Palm Beach and another 4-night stay in a studio. We were given a studio-plus, which has a little day bed for a child. Passes We have annual passes that we purchased in September '00. DD3 was not yet 3 at the time, so we will purchase an Annual Pass for her when we arrive. Transportation This will be our first car trip to Florida since the kids were born. Dad and I drove in '94, but we flew for the last two trips with the kids. We'll need the car this time for our trek to West Palm Beach anyway. Disney Dollars and other money I've been saving my rebates and rewards money (from Freeride and Mypoints) to take for our trip. I'm going to see if I can get enough together before May so that I only need cash for the AP and the off-property stuff like groceries. Life's Interruptions In early March we realized that there was a very good possibility that Dad would take a transfer with IBM soon. The timing was a bit strange because after all was said and done with the job search and interviews, he needed to start his new job in late April. We were worried our trip was in jeopardy - but I am happy to report that it worked out as planned. We did have a few ties back to the real world during our vacation unfortunately. Our house was on the market during the second week, Dad had some conference calls to make and some email to keep track of for his new job, and we were starting to research the housing market in Austin, TX (our home to be). We did our best not to let these things get in the way too much - and they really didn't. I am also happy to report that we had an offer for our house by the trip home. Needless to say, our moving plans and activities kept me from getting this report done in a timely manner. I wrote most of the report before we left NY - but had to put the rest on hold. ITINERARY Here's the plan as it stood months before our trip.
Park Hours:
TOURING PLANS AND HOW WE FOLLOWED THEM Two years ago I read the "Unofficial" guide to WDW - and this year I just got an updated pocket version. I still recommend this book for first-time visitors and those who do not visit very often. It really helps you to get a handle on when and when not to do certain attractions as a general rule. Once you're familiar enough with the parks, you can plan on your own to avoid crowds most of the time. THE PLAN for Friday, May 4 - Travel day - head start
It wasn't hard to live up to this. We added this to our schedule when Dad's job location changed and he ended up with some extra time on Friday. Using our AAA trip-tik, we hit the road with a quick stop for Wendy's supper on the way. We were a bit slow in starting as our headlights needed to be adjusted along the way. We did 212 miles in 4 1/2 hours and stopped in NJ (almost to the border) for a night in a hotel. THE PLAN for Saturday, May 5 - Travel
Since we had gotten a few hours of driving in the night before, we didn't have quite as heavy a schedule today. We did 595 miles in 12 hours. The kids traveled pretty well. We had an activity bag for each of them that included books, a couple battery-operated gadgets and drawing pads. We got the magic color ones so there wouldn't be any accidents. It also helped that our Volvo has a third seat in the back. DD5 spent most of the trip there so each of the girls had plenty of space. We stayed in a hotel in SC. THE PLAN for Sunday, May 6 -Travel and DAY 1
What actually happened... We were on the road by 9:10am and drove the remaining 450 miles today. We stopped for about an hour and a half for church in SC and got lunch to go at Burger King. Total travel and stop time = 9 hours. We arrived at the Boardwalk about 6:30 pm and it took us a while to "clean" out the car. It's a bit embarrassing when you have to spend 15 minutes collecting trash and putting things into bags while the bellman waits for you. We checked in and found our way to our 1BR standard view villa. It was #3123 and was on the last bend of the hallway next to the parking lot. It was not a typical 1BR - it was large because of the turn in the building through the "turret". Our kitchen was larger than normal, and the balcony was huge. We had a quick supper in the room (pb and j and bagels and cream cheese). We had to change our plans for the evening because of our late arrival. MK was closing at 8pm, so we headed to MGM via the walking path from the Boardwalk. It took us about 20 minutes to walk to Guest Services where we bought DD3's annual pass (301.04 w/ discount). Since MGM was having the Star Wars Weekend and it was open later than the other parks, it was pretty crowded. There really wasn't much open at this time for us to do. I should have checked the entertainment schedule before we left to see what times the shows were. Fantasmic was full - which didn't surprise me. We decided to do the Muppetvision 3D movie and got in to the waiting area about 8:27. The show started closer to 8:30 and was our only attraction for the day. It wasn't a big hit with DD3 who was disappointed that she didn't get to "do" anything. But, we were not too disappointed because we have many days ahead to enjoy WDW. There is a new piece under construction. It is the start of the sorcerer's hat in front of the Great Movie Ride. It is huge. I understand it's to be the location for pin trading during the "birthday" celebration next fall. We were leaving the park at about 9pm and were able to see fireworks from Fantasmic while we walked back over to the Boardwalk. Mom got the kids ready for bed while Dad did the grocery shopping. We finally got to sleep around 11:15. THE PLAN for Monday, May 7 - DAY 2
We woke up to Mickey's wake-up call at 6:00am. The girls took turns hearing Mickey on the phone each morning. Today was DD3's turn. She jumped out of bed and started getting ready. We had breakfast in the room (cereal, etc.). We were at the bus stop by 7:05 am. The bus came at 7:30. This was a bit disappointing because we wanted a really early start on the early entry today. We got to the park at 7:45, which seems early, but the line had already formed at Dumbo, so we put that off for another day. We got on the Winnie the Pooh ride at 7:55 with no wait. At 8:05 we got in line for the Tomorrowland Speedway (a priority for us this trip since the kids have never been on). I knew the line for this is unbelievably long later in the morning and into the afternoon. We were happy to find a 5 minute wait...actually it was less. DD5 and Dad rode together behind DD3 and I. The girls "drove" - sort of. The girls were ready to give this ride a good rating, when we had a little problem. At the end of the ride, drivers are instructed to not bump into cars in front of them. Someone 2 cars behind DD5 didn't heed the warning and bumped into the car behind DD5, and it bumped her. She hit her upper lip on the steering wheel. It didn't bleed, but she had a bruise there for the rest of the week. At 8:22 we got onto the Teacup ride with no wait. Dad surprised me and actually went on this ride. He's not usually into the spinning rides. There was scaffolding at Cinderella's Carrousel, but we were pleased to see that it was still running. We rode without a wait. DD3 was happy to be "doing things" this morning. By 8:35 we were finished riding the carrousel and picked up a fast pass at Peter Pan. We rode Small World at 8:40 with no wait and came out at 8:52. Coming off the ride, Dad recognized one of his new co-workers and his family. We knew they would be in WDW at the same time, but were amazed to run into them on our first morning. We made plans to have dinner together another day. At 9:00 we used our fast passes for Peter Pan. A line had started to form for this ride. At 9:10 we got in line for the 9:20 show of the Legend of the Lion King (first one of the morning). I love early entries in Fantasyland. There are so many rides that the kids love so close together with very little wait time -it's worth getting up at 6:00am! We walked over to Toontown to ride the Barnstormer at about 10:00. There was a 10-minute wait posted, but it was actually 5 minutes. This is known as "DD3's first roller coaster" from our last visit. She rode again this year and seemed to enjoy it, but as you'll see, we didn't make it back for another ride this visit. There were long lines at the Toontown fair, so we just walked through Mickey's house and skipped the character areas. There would be plenty of time for characters later. We walked to Tomorrowland - but not on the quiet path - because we had left the strollers by the barnstormer. I learned how to do this right the next time. We got to Buzz Lightyear to get fast passes at about 10:20. There was a 30 minute wait in the stand-by line and our return time was for 11:00-12:00. We went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority to pass the time and relax. We got on at 10:30 with no wait and rode for about 10 minutes. DD3 still doesn't like the dark parts of the ride, but they don't last very long. We left our strollers near Buzz and walk to the castle. We had tried to get breakfast reservations by calling ahead 60 days at 7am with no luck. We were told to call 2 days in advance at 7am for cancellations, but I never remembered to do that. We were able to hop on one of the horse-drawn trolleys from the hub by the castle and ride to the entrance on Main St. This was a first for our family, and a nice way to relax and enjoy the park. You'll see that I have a goal to do many firsts for my family or for the kids on this trip. This was not a planned one, but it was special. It's usually a one-way trip, but we were able to stand in the back for the return trip to the castle. On the way, the Barbershop Quartet jumped on right next to us and serenaded us with "My Wild Irish Rose". That was very cool. I love Barbershop quartet music. We left the trolley to jump on our spaceship to defeat Zurg (at Buzz Lightyear) at about 11:05. We were out by 11:10 with decent scores. We try to do our part to protect the universe. We made our way to the Crystal Palace at about 11:20. There was a long line at the podium. After a wait, we were seated among the first tables for our Character Lunch ($65). We got to see Piglet, Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. Piglet was the main draw for us, though since he's DD3's favorite. As we were told, the characters follow a set pattern around the tables and it usually takes them about an hour to get around. The characters seemed rushed to get around and didn't spend much time at all at the tables. The last character reached us a little over an hour after we started and we were ready to leave at 12:45. We headed for the exit and were on a bus right away (12:55). Generally, the food was good at this buffet, but we probably won't repeat this meal because of the rushed feel. Our bus made a stop at the Yacht Club and we decided to get off because a little one in our group had to use the facility. We then walked to the Boardwalk from the Yacht Club and got back to our room about 1:40. We were able to get a rest and do some errands until about 3:00. I took this time to overnight the contracts with our realtor from the Conference Center at the Boardwalk Inn. We decide to change our afternoon plans and go for a swim first. The girls were really looking forward to swim time. It was a bit breezy this week, especially in the evenings. We swam until about 4:15. The girls each had a swim tube in a "suit". They work very well and give the girls some independence in the water. They're both taking swimming lessons at home, but aren't swimming on their own yet. These tubes allow them to kick around on their own while Dad and I stay close by. There are also life jackets available at the Boardwalk clubhouse, but we've never tried them. Dad and I each had a turn down the Keister coaster water slide. It was fun, but it was cold standing at the top waiting for a turn. We had a light supper in our room at about 5pm and started over to MGM at 5:50. Again, with nothing on the entertainment schedule for the evening, we were left with the Great Movie Ride at 6:15 (no wait). We enjoyed this, but I had to hide DD3's eyes on the Alien part. We got in line at 6:50 for the 7:15 show of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? The line filled quickly, but I'm not sure how close to show time people were able to get in line before it filled up. This was interesting to see once - or maybe twice, but DD3 did not want to be in this attraction for some reason. I thought I'd have to take her out, but she was fine. I'm not sure what bothered her - perhaps she was just bored. We decided to try for Fantasmic since we were in the park. This would free up another night later on. We got in to the seating area around 8:00 and sat to the left of center in front of the water screen. This is when I almost broke down and bought sweatshirts because it was much cooler than I expected it to be. We didn't even bring jackets on the trip since we had left 90-degree weather in NY before our trip. Realizing that the last thing I needed before moving to Texas was another sweatshirt - I decided to tough it out in my short sleeves. I did get a snack, though ($6.00 - 2 soft pretzels). Fantasmic was great, but we got sprayed quite a bit because of the wind. I don't think the pictures were as clear because of that either. We were at least a dozen rows up - but there was a pretty good wind that night. When you wait an hour for a show, you sometimes get talking to those near you. I started talking with a woman behind me about the last time we had seen Fantasmic and how it rained right up until the show time. We then realized that we were at Fantasmic the same week in Sept. if not the same night. Weird, but cool. We also did the wave for a good long time. Near the end it was moving in slow motion. I'm not sure how that got started, but it was cool, too. I must have been too cold or tired to take notes, but we got out of MGM with the crowds after Fantasmic and bumped into Dad's co-worker and his family on the way out. After that we did eventually get back to the villa to go to sleep. The path was great to get to/from the park when we wanted to...no waiting for buses, boats, etc. THE PLAN -Tuesday, May 8 - DAY 3
We awoke at 7:20 am to another call from Mickey. It was DD5's turn today. We were out of the room by 9:00 after having a light breakfast in the room. We changed the plan to include a couple MGM attractions we missed on Mon. We walked to MGM again and got into line for the Voyage of the Little Mermaid at 9:00. Since the Animation Tour wasn't starting for a while, a cast member recommended we try this plan: Little Mermaid; Bear in the Big Blue House; and then the Animation Tour. When we were going into the theatre, DD3, with fear and trembling, said she did not want to see the LM show - and she meant it. So, she and I continued across the seating area and out the door. DD5 and Dad stayed to watch the show while DD3 and I got in line for Bear In The Big Blue House. DD3 said she remembered the Little Mermaid show and that it was scary - so we'll blame it on Ursula. We were among the first several in line for BBBH. It was to start at 10am. The line grew fast from 9:30 - 9:40. Then, when the LM show let out, the crowds swarmed over to join the line. Dad and DD5 were able to get in and we sat together (on the floor) for the show. This is a 15-minute show and is a lot like the television show (although I've only seen it a couple times). Of course the kids liked the show and got to participate. When the show ended, we had to move quickly to make it the Animation tour that was starting around 10:20. The kids enjoyed the movie clips and the animation demonstration with Robin Williams. It's always interesting to get a look at Disney's next release. Of course, by the time I get this report together, Atlantis will be released --- maybe even on video at my current pace. It was nice to do a couple "new" things this morning. I hadn't been to the Animation Tour since '94 and the kids had never seen it. BBBH was new to us all. After the tour we did another new thing for our family...we went to the Honey I Shrunk The Kids Playground. The kids really loved this. There are places to explore and slides and a big web of rope for climbing. There are a couple scary "ant holes" that are pretty dark. I had to follow my kids around a lot of places. The kids played there until just before noon. Then it was time to leave the park and head back to the room. We got to the room just before 1:00 and had some lunch and a rest. The walls were being painted in the halls near our room from this morning up to even the following week when we returned. We had a quick lunch and rest and were ready to move again. We were at the bus stop by 2:10 and at the Magic Kingdom by 2:30. That was one of our quickest trips to the MK. We got fast passes for Splash Mountain (return time 3:45-4:45). BTMRR was down and we wanted to avoid the parade crowds, so we went over to Tom Sawyer Island on the raft. (Another family first.) We got some ice cream at Aunt Polly's (open 11-4). Four ice creams were $10.18. We sat down to eat and watched what we could see of the parade from the island. We explored the island a while until it was time for DD5 and I to go to Splash Mountain. Dad stayed with DD3 a while longer and then they met us under Splash Mountain in the play area. This is a very small play area with one tiny slide for toddlers and pre-schoolers. It worked out very nicely with the fast passes, we don't have to baby swap, because the waits are pretty short and DD5 uses DD3's pass for her second ride. DD5 and I had about a ten-minute "wait" (3:45-3:55). Dad and DD5 were going to the line at about 4:10 and were finished with the ride by about 4:35. Our day of "firsts" continues with the Liberty Belle Riverboat. We were in the waiting area early. The next boat was to leave at 5:00. So, we asked the cast member at the rope if we would be able to ride with the "captain". She said that would be okay since she was the captain on the next trip. When we got on the boat, she took us up to the small "captain's" area at the top of the boat. The girls took turns "steering" the boat and got a certificate for it. The captain asked how we heard we could have the kids be junior captains. She said that not many people ask to do it. I told her I read about it in a trip report. :) After the Riverboat ride ended at about 5:20, we took the monorail to Epcot, arriving at about 6pm. We had made plans with Dad's co-worker and his family to have dinner at Le Cellier ($70 - just our family) at about 6:30. We actually ran into them on our way into the park. (This is the 3rd unplanned meeting now). Our PS was for 6:30, but we weren't seated until 6:45 because of the size of our group. Their two girls and our two girls sat together on one end of the table and seemed to be having a good time. I think they ate a little, too. The adults were able to have some conversation with our meals. Maybe it was the busy time of day, or something, but this was not as good food-wise as our last year's visit to Le Cellier. Dad did not enjoy his steak. I may not be able to convince him to visit there again any time soon. We were at dinner until 8:20. We decided to go ahead and try to find a spot for Illuminations. We found a spot just past the bridge to France near the VIP area. It wasn't the best. There were some trees blocking the view of the earth, but for getting in as late as we did, it wasn't bad. Of course about halfway through, I had to take DD5 to the restroom, so we missed the fireworks. We were heading back to the Boardwalk through the International Gateway after Illuminations and were back to the room by 9:35. This is one of the big advantages of staying at the BW. Most of the crowd probably hadn't reached the parking lot or bus stop by the time we were in our room. If you're paying close attention, you'll see that I don't stick to my plans as if they're in stone. Some days go just by the plan with few changes, and other days get changed for one or many reasons. I still think it's good to know what your plan is, and then be flexible enough to change it and not get stressed out about it. THE PLAN - Wednesday, May 9 - DAY 4
We were up at 6:00 and had cereal in the room. We had the car brought up by valet so we could drive to Animal Kingdom. We got the car at 7:30 and were in line at AK by 7:50. The park hadn't opened but the talking-moving trashcan was out entertaining those in line. From 8-9am we did the Safari and the Pangani Exploration Trail. There were no wait lines but lots of animals. The Safari ride wasn't quite as rough as our ride in '99. On the Exploration Trail, the gorilla area really is great. Most people seem to hang around there for a while to watch the gorillas...unlike some other animal areas or zoos where you just look and then move along. DD5 and I decided to go get wet on Kali River Rapids. She had never done this, so she was just a bit apprehensive, but ended up liking the ride. Meanwhile, over at Camp Minnie-Mickey, DD3 was shmoozing with the characters and getting pictures and autographs. We met over at the Boneyard area afterward for a few quick slides down the big curly tube slides. Then we got in line for the Tarzan Rocks show at about 10:00. Show time was 10:30. We were seated by 10:15, which gave Dad enough time to fit in a quick nap before the show started. It was interesting to see almost all different performers for this show than we saw last September. Those performers were still in my mind since we have them on video. After the show we went back to the BW and used valet parking. (free to guests, but the tips add up). We picked up some bread at the store on the Boardwalk ($2.69) and went to our room for lunch at 12:00. The girls had PB&J and Dad and I had frozen pizza. Well, we cooked it first. We were ready for naps but only got a short one from about 12:30 - 1:30. By 2:00 we were back at the bus stop and got a bus to the MK at about 2:06. We walked up Main Street and asked which way the parade was going. A cast member said it would start in Frontierland. We took the road that leads to Adventureland and then took the first right over the little bridge that leads to the back of the Liberty Square shops. There were some characters there a couple times we took this path...usually characters from Jungle Book and Robin Hood. As I got the Liberty Tree Tavern, I asked some cast members which part of the parade stopped there for the crowd participation. They said it would be The Little Mermaid. (Last year we had the Beauty and the Beast float and the final float). We found a nice spot for the parade right in front of the Liberty Tree Tavern sign. We set the strollers up along the edge of the path (they eventually put the ropes up). We were in just a bit of shade along the little wall. That's always nice to have when you're camped out for a half-hour or more for a viewing spot. We usually use this time for a snack like fruit or something. The cast members were right about the Little Mermaid part. When that part came, the kids went out and did a limbo dance with the fish. We also had the Lion King float stop in front of us where the kids played little drums that looked like tennis rackets and marched around with the animals. At the end of the parade, it's good to have a plan as to where you want to go next, because everyone else is going there too, and you have to be quick. I had checked out the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon Revue schedule and found that their next show was at 3:45. We ducked right inside after the parade and got a table and some ice cream ($14.51). Okay, we got cookies, too (for later). This was another first for the girls. Dad and I had seen the show in '94, though I can't say I remembered much of it - or perhaps it has changed. Either way, it was entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the singer who improvised a "school skipper" song of doom when he found out someone was out of school to visit a saloon at Disney World. There was also a magician and the can-can dancing girls. This isn't the type of show where you have to stay for the whole thing. People do get up and move around during the show. The show was over at about 4:20. We headed over to yet another ...yes you guessed it...first for the girls and Dad...The Jungle Cruise. I hadn't even been on this since '88. We had a female cruise skipper who handled the dry punny humor very well. There was no wait here. We did the Swiss Family Treehouse next. I don't know if we did this in '99 or not. I guess I could read my old trip report, but that would keep me from this task. The girls wanted to go up again, but once was enough for me up those stairs. I wanted to check out Main Street to find the Barbershop. I really wanted to get DD3's first haircut there. She's 3 1/2 and still has not had her hair cut. Well, she may make it to 4, because the Barber Shop was closed because of renovations - and is actually being moved. The cast member I spoke to said he didn't have a date for it's expected re-opening. As we were leaving the MK, we saw the end of the flag-lowering ceremony - just after 5pm). We got to the bus stop to find a bus waiting for us. We got to the BW about 5:30. On return trips, the bus goes to the Yacht/Beach Clubs first and then around to BW. We were able to see the construction for the DVC Beach Club Villas. I'd like to stay there sometime...once it's finished, of course. We had some pasta and salad in the room for supper... and those cookies from the Diamond Horseshoe. We decided to take it easy this evening since we had already done Fantasmic, Illuminations and had the Spectromagic Parade and Fireworks ahead of us the next evening. We borrowed "Toy Story 2" from the BW clubhouse (by the quiet pool) and watched it in the room. After the movie, the girls had a quick bath so we could go out on the balcony to watch the fireworks from Illuminations. Dad missed them because he was returning the video even though it wasn't due back until the next morning. If it was late, we would have been charged $30!! Crazy, huh? It was cool to hang out on the balcony with the girls to watch the fireworks. By the end of our second week, we pretty much knew the pattern of fireworks. We skipped the Wilderness Lodge Villa tour today to do some other things, so that will come next week. Also, it really didn't make sense to return to MGM so late because the shows were not running that late. THE PLAN - Thursday, May 10 - DAY 5
We took it easy this morning - getting up at 8:00. We had our same old cereal for breakfast in the room and left the room at 9:50. Dad took the girls over to the Living with the Land while I went over to get Fast Passes for Test Track. The return time was 2:30 - 3:30, so I waited a minute or two until the return time was 2:40 - 3:40. I wanted to give us enough time to return to the room for lunch and rests before coming back for Test Track. I got to the Living with the Land and joined the others in line at 10:30. There wasn't much of a line, but it was moving VERY slowly. After that, we waited a bit for the next show of Food Rocks. The show was from 11:00 - 11:15. It didn't seem as loud this time. This was actually our first WDW show that we did with the kids in August '99. At 11:30, Dad went to see Honey, I Shrunk the Audience - 3D. We figured it would be too much for even DD5 - the Splash Mountain queen. The girls and I went into Image Works and I let the girls play around a bit with the "stuff". I was able to go in the side entrance and I took the stroller in with me. Then, I started back to the room with the girls. They were getting tired, and we only brought one stroller, so they had to take turns walking. We got to the boat launch at 12:05. I was wishing I had brought both strollers and my Prince Lionhart connectors. We had lunch in the room and rests until about 3:00. DD5 and I headed to Epcot again to do Test Track and Dad stayed in the room to finish his conference call for work and to let DD3 sleep a bit longer. At 3:45 we were at Test Track. We had a blast on this. It is so cool to see DD5 giggling and having fun on these rides. She's a little wild woman. We left Test Track about 4:00 and started wandering around. We saw that the characters were in the greeting area at the front of the World Showcase lagoon. We got in line for Daisy and Donald and Chip and Dale to get autographs and pictures. Dad and I had purchased 2-way radios on ebay. (Cobra Microtalk 315) They worked pretty well most of the time. As soon as Dad left the room at the BW, we were able to communicate on the radios. I was able to tell him where to meet me. At 4:30, we met at the Friendship Boat dock. Dad and DD5 went on Test Track. They were late for their Fast Pass return, but I had asked about it and explained that he was back in the room with a sleeping girl. The cast member said it would be okay for them to be late. I had heard that the characters would be returning to the greeting area around 5:05, so I planned to be there with DD3 to do some autographs and pictures while we waiting for Dad and DD5. DD3 wanted to get into the line to see Minnie, and then Pooh. We were about to get into another line when I noticed that Daisy had come back with Donald. We got in that line next and still had time after that for Chip and Dale. Other characters there were Tigger, Miko, Turk, Pluto, and Mickey. We met up with Dad and DD5 and walked the long way around WS to get snacks, etc. ($3 for pecans on the way to WS). We wanted to get Jasmine and Aladdin's autographs in Morocco, but Jasmine was gone by the time we got there. The girls were too tired to even get out of their strollers to see Aladdin. I hope we didn't hurt his feelings. The kids were enjoying a pretzel from Germany ($3) while we strolled along. We stopped in France to see the Living Statues. DD3 and DD5 each took a turn going up to the statue. We were getting tired, so I took the Friendship boat back to the BW with DD3 (6:10) and Dad and DD5 went back on the path. They beat us there by a couple minutes. We had a quick snack in the room and we got ready for our late night out. Dad had another conference call for work from 7-8, so I planned to go to the MK on my own with the girls. I would need both strollers to hold our parade spots, so I was carrying one, and pushing one, while DD5 walked. After a long wait for the bus, we were finally on the way to the MK when I realized that I didn't have DD3's park pass with me. Dad usually had her ticket, and I usually had DD5's. I was planning to beg for mercy at Guest services when I realized I would need another dose of that mercy. I had left my fanny pack in the room with my park pass, DD5's park pass, my identification and all of my money. The Guest Services cast member was actually able to issue replacement annual passes to the girls and me. It took a while, but I was very glad I didn't have to go back to the room. I lost time that I could have used to hold a nice spot for the parade, but with Main Street pretty full already, I knew I had to head back to Liberty Square or beyond. This was our only night to see Spectromagic and the Fireworks. We would be in West Palm Beach on the weekend and heading home by the following Friday. We found a spot at about 8pm. Not many people were lined up here yet, so I got a nice spot just a few yards down from the spot we had for the 3pm parade. This time I was between the Liberty Tree Tavern and the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon. I was able to hold a spot for Dad with the strollers. It got later and later, and I was not hearing from Dad. I knew the 2-way radios were only good enough to pick him up once he entered the park. It always seems that I get to know the people around me as we wait for parades and such. One guy let me use his cell phone to call Dad on his cell phone to find out if he was going to make it for the parade. That was very kind of him and I greatly appreciated it. When Dad was in the park - trying to get through the crowd on Main Street, I was giving him directions to where we were on the 2-way radio. Just going on 9, when the Spectromagic parade was about to start, he finally found us. I think there were some cheers in the crowd around me when he appeared. My phantom husband was actually real...and had made it in time for Spectromagic. Yes, this is another first for the family. We had seen the Main Street Electrical Parade on each of our last two trips. We had very little videotape time left and no more tapes in the park. (They were back in the room.) That was too bad; we would have liked to record more of the parade - maybe next time. After the parade, we headed through Liberty Square to Fantasyland, avoiding the crowds around the castle. I had read that you can get a nice view of the fireworks from there...more over head than when you're on the other side of the castle. I knew it wasn't ideal, but it was better than the crowds at this point. Some of my newfound friends from the parade route also followed us there. The girls went on Cinderella's Carrousel while we waited for the fireworks. We were standing next to the carrousel looking up at the castle to see Tinker Bell. We could see just a bit of her wire, so we watched there for her. We were able to catch a glimpse, but when the fireworks started, we were trying to find them. They were on the far side of Fantasy land just left of Ariel's Grotto. We had to adjust our spot towards that side, but we still had a decent view and again...no heavy crowds. Getting out of the park was a different story, but we made it out slowly with the masses. We had a long wait for the bus and almost didn't make it on the first one. We got back to the Boardwalk just before midnight, but decided to get some ice cream ($8.50) before heading up to the room. I also got some bottled water for the next day from the Boardwalk store ($3.50 - 1.5 liter) since ours was running out. We got to bed by about 1am. Friday, May 11 - DAY 6 (WPB)
We changed our plans for today since we had already been to Le Cellier. We got up around 8:15 and packed. We were out of the room by 10:00 and ready for breakfast. I was wanting an egg breakfast after all of our cereal mornings and thought we could do our second character meal for today. I had called to make PS arrangements the morning before and Chef Mickey's was booked, so we decided to do the 1900 Park Fare Character Breakfast instead ($70.00). We had just done this last fall, but Mary Poppins was a no-show. Our PS was for 10:50. We hit the tail end of the breakfast with Mary Poppins, Alice, The Mad Hatter, Pinocchio and Geppetto. I like buffet with the exception of the eggs. (Funny since that was what I really wanted). They're kind of runny. But, at least they're consistent at this buffet - the eggs were runny the last time. You'd think I'd learn. They did have very yummy hot chocolate - I had seconds. The character interaction was okay. I think they were gearing down a bit. When most of the guests had left and there were just a few tables of people left, they seemed to start interacting with each other instead of directly with the guests. Some guests actually got to have Mary Poppins sit at their table for a bit, but we didn't. After breakfast, we took the monorail from the Grand Floridian to the Magic Kingdom (we had a three-hour parking pass at the GF). We went straight to Space Mountain for Fast Passes. DD5 said she wanted to ride so we got our 4 FP's and would use them later in pairs. Our return time was for 1:00 - 2:00. I think we picked them up at about 12:15. We headed over to the Carousel of Progress to enjoy that during our wait time. They were letting a group in at 12:20 as we approached the ramp. We were able to get in right away. Recently I was reading about the Sherman Brothers who wrote much of the music for Disney in the 1960's. I'm pretty sure this is one of the songs they composed (as well as "It's a Small World" and the songs for Mary Poppins). We were ready for our return time to Space Mountain at 1:00. DD5 and I rode together, but she wanted me to hold her hand. I sat in the front and she sat behind me. I had to reach back over my seat to hold her hand, but it was worth it. This was her first ride on Space Mountain, and she liked it. We were finished at 1:15 and she went back on with Dad. She gave him instructions on how to hold her hand during the ride. DD3 and I were able to get Fast Passes for Buzz Lightyear with two of our passes. The other 2 didn't work. Probably none of them should have worked because of our Space Mountain Fast Passes but I thought I'd give it a shot. Since 2 worked and 2 didn't, the cast member there helped me to get two more. Our return time was 2:00 - 3:00. It was fairly crowded in Tomorrowland at that time and there wasn't really much for DD3 to do, so we went to see how Fantasyland was. It was crowded there, too, but we had to wait for Dad and DD5 - and our Buzz FP time, so we actually...yes, ACTUALLY...waited in a 15- minute line for the Tea Cups...gulp. It wasn't so bad, really I don't even think it was 15 minutes- I definitely don't do this kind of thing often, but I gave DD3 a choice between the Tea Cups and the Barnstormer and this was her choice. By the time we were in line, Dad and DD5 were calling us on our 2-way radios. I let them know where we were and they were able to join us. The cast member let DD5 in to ride with DD3 and I in our cup. We got to Buzz Lightyear about 10 minutes before our Fast Pass time, so we sat down to wait it out. There was a show going on just beyond the Buzz building. As soon as it was finished, people were pouring into the area where we were seated. We got up as soon as we realized what was happening and we ended up waiting in a line to get in to use our fast passes. Still, it was only a couple minutes. DD3 was excited about this ride now after just seeing Toy Story 2 again. We were finished at about 2:15. By that time we had overstayed our welcome at the Grand Floridian, so we hopped on the monorail and retrieved our car. We would spend the next hour or two fumbling around, trying to get out of the Orlando area. I made Dad make a wrong turn and we ended up on the very painfully slow route out of town - the name of the road escapes me now... We eventually made it to West Palm Beach for a 3-night visit with my brother and his family. Tips (hotel and valet) approximately $21. Saturday, May 12 - DAY 7 (WPB)
Sunday, May 13 - DAY 8 (WPB)
Monday, May 14 - DAY 9
We drove back to WDW from 8:20 to 11:20 and arrived at the BW to check in. We were planning to just leave our bags and go back to the parks until the room was ready, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that our room was actually READY. (Unbelievable - but true.) I understand this is rare and that you should never plan that things will happen this way. We were in room 3097 - a standard view studio-plus. A studio-plus is an non-connecting studio that has a very small daybed. It was fine for my 3-1/2 year-old, but I wouldn't say it would suit anyone over 4 or 5. It was the first room around the corner to the left in the wing that goes between the pools and the road to the parking lot. We wouldn't have a great view of the fireworks since the Boardwalk Inn was somewhat in the way...a better view can be had farther down the hallway. The room numbers go up from here into the 3100's -odd numbers on the parking lot side, even numbers on the pool side. We walked over to MGM to do some shows and get some lunch. We decided to return to the Commissary (12:30) ($19.87) since it was a favorite for lunch last year. It is not a favorite anymore because they discontinued the lunch boxes and changed their menu. This is when I found out that there was no more Doug Live! It had its last show the Saturday before. I wasn't keeping up to date on DIS message boards before our trip because my moving plans basically took over my life, so I hadn't heard this news. I was bumming to say the least because I would have made an effort to see it during our first week had I known. Bad lunch, no Doug.....time to go for a ride! We got fast passes for Tower of Terror (4 pass method again as DD5 had decided to ride). At 1:00 there was a 45-minute wait in the stand-by line, and our return fast passes were for 2:45-3:45. We went over to the Rock 'n'' Roller coaster to ride while we waited. There was no wait - really, just the 5-10 minutes or so it takes to get in to the "pre-show". The fast pass returnees were getting into line at the same speed as the stand-by line riders. DD5 is not tall enough for this ride yet - but next time she'll be on it. Dad and I each took turns riding while the other waited outside with the kids. You can't take little ones in for a baby-swap because of safety concerns. I love this ride. It definitely is better with "Walk This Way" than any other song I've heard during the ride. I wish you could just stay on and ride again... We went to the Hunchback show at 2:00. We got there in time to see most of the juggling act. Matt the juggler is quite entertaining. The kids always enjoy his crazy juggling and even his jokes are fun. Almost all of the cast members in this show were different from any that I had seen. There was just one of the "statues" that was the same. Nonetheless, the show was excellent as usual and still one of the best in the parks. I was a bit disappointed when no confetti fell at the end. What happened to the confetti?? It's okay, really, I'll live, but I was looking forward to the confetti. Luckily I have a supply at home that DD5 collected on previous visits. As you can see, we are way off the schedule today. What are you going to do? Things change. At 2:45 we returned for our Tower of Terror rides. DD5 and I went first. I tried to prepare her for the scary story and the holograms. I figured that that would be the part that would get her, not the drop so much. You could tell it was a thrill for her by the look on her face and the way she held my hand during the drops. It turned out to be a good kind of thrill though as she wanted to go again with Dad. They got to be in the front for their ride (we had been in the back row...as I always have been). DD3 enjoyed a Minnie bar during my ToT ride. She was a pink mess by the end of it. I had a Mickey ice cream sandwich on our walk back to the Boardwalk. I think I walked away drip-free. Dad and DD5 joined us after their ride. We went swimming in the Luna Park Pool until sometime after 5:00. At 6:00, we were ready to have supper over at the World Showcase. Dad and I got Samurai combos (beef and chicken) from the Yakitori counter service ($15.59). The kids had a hot dog over at the American Adventure counter service ($6.71). We ate while we watched the Tapestry of Nations Parade (6:30) in front of the American Adventure. We were able to sit and eat on the short wall and walk up to the parade route edge just before the parade came by. We then walked around counter-clockwise and picked up a couple snacks along the way. Dad had ice cream at the American Adventure, DD3 had a pretzel from Germany, and DD5 got a slush, but I can't remember where. We walked up to Spaceship Earth while the kids enjoyed their snacks. There was no wait. Afterward, we played with the lights in the sidewalk for a while. They are so cool. The kids had fun chasing them around and watching the patterns. At 8:45 Dad and DD3 went back to the Boardwalk while DD5 and I stayed for the Honey I Shrunk the Audience 3-D movie. This would be a first for both of us, but Dad had warned me of a couple parts that I might want to be aware of...for DD5, of course. She did fine, but I think she closed her eyes (or I covered them) on a couple parts. And I think she took her glasses off for a little while too. We were walking out as Illuminations was going on. We got to see the fireworks on the bridge to the Boardwalk. It is really cool how much we get to see these fireworks either from the room or on the way to the room. We got back to the room at 9:30. Dad did our food shopping at Publix while I gave the girls baths and got them ready for bed. We went to sleep still undecided about tomorrow's schedule. Tuesday, May 15 - DAY 10
Our wake-up call was for 7:00, but we slept in until 7:45. The kids hung out in bed until 8:30. Overall it was a lazy morning. We decided to skip the water park one more year. The kids like swimming, but we didn't think they would be into the other stuff enough for it to be worth the extra money. Instead, we would follow Wednesday's schedule for the most part - adding in some stuff we missed last week. We had breakfast in the room - cereal, grapefruit, etc. At 10:30 we were at the Magic Kingdom. It took us a while to get there because the bus took a different route. Instead of going straight to the park, it went to the Yacht/Beach, Swan/Dolphin and then to the Magic Kingdom. We picked up a fast pass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at about 10:50. Our return time was 11:25-12:25. We decided to the Country Bear Jamboree in the meantime. Our timing wasn't great as we had a 15-minute wait for the next show. Actually, now that I remember, it worked out just fine because DD3 had to take a trip to the little girls' room not long before the show started. When I returned I couldn't find Dad and DD5 in the waiting area. It had filled by this time, and I didn't know what had happened to them. I tried to call him on the radio - when someone told me he had gone outside to answer a call. He carried his cell phone while we were on vacation because our house was on the market (as well as a rental property we own). It was the realtor calling with some news and Dad couldn't hear in the crowd of people. We found each other and were able to get in to the show on time (11:10). I guess you have to have a certain sense of humor for this show...and I guess I have it. I like this show. I didn't see it in September, but had seen it the year before. We then returned to Big Thunder for our rides. DD5 and I went first and got a seat in the front. Dad took DD3 under the Splash Mountain ride to play in the kiddie area. We swapped places again for Dad and DD5 to ride. DD3 got to choose next since she had been "waiting" (not really though, because she likes this little play area). She chose the Barnstormer. We walked through Fantasyland and OH MAN!! The crowds!!! UN-believable. What a major difference there is in this area of the park between early morning and now! You really have to avoid this mess...heat, lots and lots of strollers, lots and lots of kids - many tired and cranky, lots of parents tired and cranky, too. It really is ugly. Okay, have I made my point?? No? Okay, there's more. There was a 20-minute wait at the Tea Cups and a 20-minute wait at the Barnstormer...both of which we decided to skip. DD3 was okay with this - in fact we gave her the choice to go on - knowing she would have to wait for it. We decided to have lunch instead. We took the quiet path between Toontown and Tomorrowland to have lunch at the Plaza Pavilion. This was my first meal here. It was a good place to eat. It was shady, out of the crowds, decent menu. Price - another story as usual. $21.95 for 2 adult and 2 kids meals - simple stuff like peanut butter sandwiches for the kids, a sandwich for me, and a salad for Dad. At 1:00 we took a boat to the Wilderness Lodge so we could check out the DVC Villas. The boat got us to the Wilderness Lodge dock at 1:20. We walked around to the DVC area and took a quick tour of one of the rooms. The atmosphere is nice and I could see staying here sometime in the future. It might be good for a family get-together because of the game areas and places to hang out near the lobby. We're looking for an add-on but we decide to wait and see if we can get a Boardwalk re-sale. If that doesn't work, we can wait for the Beach Club Villas since the location would be about as nice as the Boardwalk and the pool is great. Update: We lucked out and got an add-on through Disney for Boardwalk on Aug. 1st. They had a small number of points that had become available. We left the Wilderness Lodge and waited for a bus to go to Downtown Disney. This always seems to take a long time. We missed the first bus because I misread the signs and was waiting at the wrong stop. Then we had a very long wait for a bus at the TTC in the hot sun. There was no cover over the bus stop, just a couple umbrellas at a sitting area near-by. We got to DD about 2:20. We walked through a few stores trying to find a nice bathrobe - we never did find one we liked. Ghiradelli's is always a nice break here. We enjoyed ice-cream, milkshakes and our little free chocolate bar (DVC member benefit) ($14.88 2 1-scoops, 1 2-scoop and a milkshake). We continued shopping at 3:10 in World of Disney, still looking for that bathrobe. I forgot about taking extra clothes and water shoes for the kids to play in the water...oops. The girls looked for a little souvenir as well. We always seem to end up with some kind of pens or markers. This time they found Pooh activity packs with pencils, markers and paper. These items were on sale and I was able to use my annual pass discount at the Pooh Corner store (but not at the Reading and Writing store where we found these items first). ($21.37 for a zip-case and a mini-case.) We let the girls play in the water even without the change of clothes since I had to do some extra running around to get the discount. We took the bus back to the Boardwalk at about 4:30. We had supper in the room and got ready for our campfire night. I have no notes from this evening, so I'll do my best to remember how it went. We drove to Fort Wilderness and parked in the guest lot. This might have been about 7:00. We were headed to the bus stops to find the right one and one of the cast members directed us to another bus that was waiting there. It wasn't the one we needed, but they said they could take us to the campfire. The only problem was, this driver wasn't used to this route and didn't know where the campfire was. We ended up going around and around until we finally got to the right place. You can't see the campfire area from the road, so he didn't know we actually had the right stop near the beginning of our search. You have to go through or around the little store to get to the path that leads to the campfire. I was thinking it started at 7:30 - and the campfire was actually going then, but the singing didn't start until maybe 7:45 or 8?? Fuzzy memory here. We bought the kit (complete with sticks) to make the s'mores. We were sitting on the bench enjoying our snack when Chip and Dale were on their way out. I did not have the camera or the video camera out - and I really wish I had. Dale came up the center aisle and took our empty stroller to the front of the stage. It was empty, but even so, it was hard to push across the gravel on the ground. I told DD3 to go up and tell Dale that it was her stroller. She did - and it was so cute. They put her in the stroller and he couldn't even budge it in the stones. That made the sing-a-long a bit more special for us. We had a good time singing and getting marshmallow-sticky. The movie is actually a DVD on a huge screen. It was very good quality. They had listed "Winnie the Pooh" as the movie for the evening, but said they couldn't get the DVD, so they showed "The Tigger Movie" instead. It started about 8 or 8:30?? We wanted to go to the beach to watch the Water Pageant, so I told the girls they wouldn't get to see the whole movie. I'm not even going to bother to say what time it was due to come by the beach. These are things that you can call and find out about. We were pretty clueless about the exact timing, so we asked the cast members at the campfire. We were given directions to walk to the beach area. It was a bit dark in places along the way. We would have benefited from having a flashlight and bug repellant (I left ours in the room). We waited on the beach and the kids drew in the sand for a while until the Water Pageant started. It was cute, but less than I expected. It's really not worth a lot of effort, but we enjoyed relaxing under the stars. We waited for the bus to take us back to the parking lot, returned to our room and called it a night. Wednesday, May 16 - DAY 11
Obviously plans were different today since we had done a lot of Wed.'s plans on Tues. I sat down and wrote up a revised plan for our last two days. It was just a rough idea of a few attractions we wanted to see before we left. Today's plan would be for Animal Kingdom. Our wake-up call was for 6:45. We were a bit slow to move at first. We got to the bus stop about 8:00. There were cast members at the bus stops some this week asking everyone which park they were going to. A bus came pretty quickly for the AK and we were there by 8:30. Our plan was to let DD3 play in the Boneyard while we went on Dinosaur. DD5 was ready to brave yet another ride with the big people. Unfortunately, the Boneyard doesn't open until 9:00, so DD3 and Dad just waited while DD5 and I rode. We had no wait since there was practically no one in Dinoland at this time of the morning. DD5 did pretty well on the ride, but I had to hug her closely a couple times. She did want to ride again with Dad. So, DD3 and I went to Camp Minnie-Mickey to see the characters. On our way we picked up Fast passes to see It's Tough to Be a Bug later. We saw Minnie, Mickey, Pluto, Piglet, Pooh, Tigger, Brer Rabbit, and Brer Bear. We took lots of pictures and got autographs. Their books were getting pretty full by this time. (This is the third trip we've used these books.) It was hard to find pages for the characters to sign. We were at the character greeting area just after 9:00 were among the first to see them. There was a Lion King show going on and that was to let out just about 9:30. We wanted to make sure we got to the Pocahontas show before that crowd emptied. We had plenty of time and DD5 and Dad were even able to join us to visit characters before we had to leave. (I radioed to Dad to let him know where we were and had him get two more fast passes for ITTBAB.) We went over to the Pocahontas show and the girls reluctantly sat with the other kids in the first 3 rows. We sat back a bit on the right. This was another first for all of us. It was okay - which is exactly why I put it off for so long. The girl playing Pocahontas wasn't the best singer I've seen in Disney. She was a bit weak. I don't think the kids were terribly impressed with the show either. Next, we did another attraction I had been avoiding - the train ride to Conservation Station. We didn't spend much time there, but it was decent. We brushed the goats and sheep for a while and watched the talking trashcan. We were able to spot the "secret" behind the talking can and actually enjoyed figuring that out. The can led us inside the building. Sorry, I don't know the names of these places. We were able to get an autograph with Pocahontas and Milo. Rafiki was also there, but we didn't get into his line. We poked around a little at the museum-like interactive displays. We did like the song of the rainforest booth - not so much for the story, but for the effects. It's a dark little room with a bench and a bunch of headsets hooked into the wall. You sit in the dark and listen to the sounds of the rainforest. DD3 didn't care for the darkness but she was okay without the headset on. We didn't stay long - it was a little crowded and we wanted to fit in a couple more things before lunch. At 10:40, DD5 and I used our fast passes for It's Tough To Be A Bug. We waited for a very long time outside the theater doors in a very stuffy atmosphere. I started to feel like a bug. I'm not sure what the delay was, or if we just happened to get there as the other show was starting. There was a Flights of Wonder Show at 11:00. I was hoping we'd still get there in time. DD5 enjoyed the Bug movie. I figured if she could handle the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience movie, she could handle this. She thought it was funny - especially when Mommy got stung. The girls in front of us were pretty funny, too. They were probably in their early 20's and had a pretty wild reaction to the exiting bugs. Once we were out of the theater, the radios helped us find each other. Dad and DD3 were watching some birds nearby. So we planned to meet at the Flights of Wonder. We had just enough time to get there, but we were able to get into the show just as it was starting. This is another simple show that I enjoy. We did miss the singing bird we had seen last Fall. Instead, they had a bird that did math - well kind of. Dad and DD5 went to use their fast passes at ITTBAB. They were late and the cast member was perhaps not going to let them in, but Dad told them we had been over at Conservation Station and took longer than we planned. They were able to get in, but, I guess the lesson is...don't count on being able to use your fast pass past your return time. I stopped to check out the character pictures on the way out. At Camp Minnie-Mickey, Disney's photographers take pictures of your kids and then give you a stub to go see and hopefully buy the photos. I was weak and bought a picture of each of the kids and one of them together. ($30.68 for 3 photos) Yikes!! What is wrong with me?? I'm usually so strong when it comes to these things. They were really cute (the kids, that is) and the photos were maybe only a little better than the pictures we took of the kids. After my moment of weakness, DD3 and I headed for the bus stop. We waited, and waited, and waited...a long time. Dad and DD5 got to the bus stop in time to get on the same bus we had waited so long for. We got back to the BW at about 1:00 for lunch and a rest. My altered plan for today was to hit Stormalong Bay for a nice long swim. We did that from 3:45 - 5:45. That's where we met OhioMinnie from the DIS who was so kind to take a digital picture of DD5 being buried in the sand. I didn't know she was on the DIS when we met; we mostly talked about being new DVC members and such. Thanks Minnie for the picture! We rented tubes ($6.00 - 2 tubes for 1 hour) and floated around a while, did the waterslide a couple times, let the kids to the kiddie water slide a few times, hung out in the sandy area for a while, and then finished our time under the waterfalls. All in all, it was a great afternoon. We went back to the room to get changed and to have supper. At 7:15, DD5 and I went to MGM to do the Tower of Terror. Dad had a headache so he stayed back with DD3 for a while since there wasn't much for her to do at MGM anyway. DD5 had requested the ToT, so when we found that it had a 45-minute wait, I asked her if it was worth it to her. She said it was, so we got in line. Since Dad wasn't up for the ride, we wouldn't have to bother with the baby swap or anything. DD5 and I were able to get a front row seat this time. That was great. She really loves this ride - and says it's her new favorite - beating out Test Track as her old favorite. She's a wild little 5 year-old. I decided to get the picture since we could actually see DD5 in the front row. ($11.61) I know - I still hadn't overcome this photo weakness today. Dad and DD3 had arrived at MGM by the time we rode. Dad said he could hear us on the drops. He would have had us on camera, but the tape got tangled up at this point. That would have been cool. Dad and DD3 were enjoying an ice cream when we got out and he let me go on the Rock 'n'' Roller coaster while they ate. DD5 joined them while I took my solo ride. That was a great way to leave MGM for this trip. We were able to see the Fantasmic fireworks on our walk back over to the Boardwalk at 9:00. Since I missed out on the ice cream, I decided to indulge in a choc. chip cookie on the Boardwalk ($2.65). Actually, I took it to the room so I could have it with milk. :) The kids were asleep by 10:00 - pretty much right away. We had had a full, fun day. Thursday, May 17 - DAY 12
Since we had missed out on Dumbo on our other early entry morning, we decided to give it a shot this time. It was DD3's request and she had been a real trooper about waiting and doing other things while we did the rides she couldn't do. We were up at 6:00 and at the bus stop at 7:00. We waited for a long time and finally got to the MK at 7:40. I know that sounds early, but the park was already getting crowded for an early entry and we had a 10-minute wait for Dumbo. That was okay though, because the line grew after we arrived. DD3 had a great time flying Dumbo. I'm just glad we were able to ride without a very long wait. DD3 got the next pick, too. She chose Pooh. There was no wait. I'm glad we were able to do these rides on our last day. They are DD3's favorites. DD5's pick was Peter Pan. There was about a 5-minute wait. DD3's next pick was the Carrousel. We were first in line during a 1-ride wait at about 8:25. Since we had skipped Snow White's Ride the other day, we rode it next. We were done with Fantasyland by 8:35 and headed to Buzz Lightyear...BUT not so fast. Where is the stroller? It was not near Dumbo where we left it, but one exactly like ours was there. We thought we were never going to find that stroller. It didn't look like the strollers had been reorganized, and that matching stroller near our spot made us think someone had taken off with it. Dad searched Fantasyland while I checked with the Cast members nearby. He did find it on the other side of the Carrousel, so we're not sure how it got there. End of trauma. There was a 10-minute wait for Buzz, so we decided to check out Space Mountain for one more ride. This also had a 10-minute wait. Dad and DD5 took the first ride on Space while DD3 and I went on Astro Orbiter. This was a first for both of us. I never even knew how to get up there. DD3 didn't like the rocket ride, but she really liked that green elevator. Go figure. Dad had gotten me two fast passes for Space Mountain so DD5 and I could ride after they did. Our return time was 9:05-10:05. While DD5 and I were on Space Mountain, Dad and DD3 got on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride. We couldn't have planned it better. Dad and DD3 were entering the Space Mountain section of their ride and saw DD5 and I on the ramp of the roller coaster. We were talking on the radio and I knew they were there, so I screamed loud on the ride so they could hear us. They did. We picked up fast passes for Buzz Lightyear because we had a PS arrangement at Tony's Town Square Café for Breakfast...and we were ready to eat. We got to Tony's a bit late - 9:35. It didn't take long to seat us, and it we were served VERY quickly. This was a nice relaxing breakfast - good food and no interruptions to sign autographs. ($30.60) When we finished, we were going to go back to use our fast passes right away when we saw Dopey on the steps near Tony's. We definitely wanted to do the autograph/picture thing since this was the first time we had seen Dopey and there was not much of a line. When we got up to the front of the line, Dopey led us into the building (name? - next to Tony's). They said it was too hot for Dopey in the sun and that Cinderella was also waiting inside. We got a double bonus - air conditioning and Cinderella. You can't beat that. After our autographs, we took the train to Frontierland to try to squeeze yet another fast pass in. I got off the train to get the passes, while Dad and the kids stayed on the train to Toontown and took the quiet path to Tomorrowland. I think we were trying to let DD3 ride the Barnstormer again, but she either didn't want to, or there was a line. At 11:20, we were definitely late for our fast pass return, but we would try once again to use them anyway. No problem - we were able to ride Buzz Lightyear one more time. I had a very low score this game - just couldn't get any good stuff. When we left Tony's, we left our strollers to get on the train, figuring we could just get them later. DD3 was fading fast in the heat and really wanted her stroller. There was a show at the castle stage at 11:30, so I sent Dad and DD5 over to get a spot for it. DD3 was stubborn about the stroller thing and ended up having to walk with me to get the strollers instead of waiting for me to bring them to her. Dad and DD5 had a pretty good view of the show, but by the time DD3 and I got there it was half over and we had to work on finding a spot where we could see. The sun was strong by this time and we were all feeling the effects. I was happy to have those fast passes for Splash Mountain. We were ready for some cool water. Somehow we got the brilliant idea to take DD3 on Splash Mountain with us. We knew she was tall enough but had passed on the ride before. She protested a bit, but we were on before she could do much about it. Are we awful or what? She did very well with everything. The thing she didn't like was the dark part. She didn't really have a comment about he plunge. I'm not even sure she noticed. She was probably just glad to see daylight again. We'll see if we scarred her for life... At 12:30 we were finished with Splash - and were a bit damp. But what really cooled us off were the frozen lemonades we bought on the way out. :) We were back in the room for a snack and a rest. I really needed the sleep by this time, because I was feeling like I could get cold. Dad did some work while the girls and I had naptime. We had Trash and Towel service today. I left a modest tip and ended up with 9 bath towels, 9 face towels and 7 wash clothes. And I only had one more shower to take!! Oh well. About 3:30 we were back in business and looking for an early supper in Epcot. Dad and I had a hard time deciding on a restaurant. He wanted to try something new, and I couldn't find something new that sounded good. I'm not into spicy or "different" foods. That's not exactly a good match for many places in Epcot it seems. We ended up in Alfredo's after a long walk around most of the WS. While I was scouting out the restaurants, Dad had gone to Test Track to get some fast passes for us. Alfredo's ended up being a bad choice for us. The kids hardly ate any of their food, and our entrees weren't worth the high prices. The waiter offered to take DD5's chicken fingers off the bill because she didn't even touch them. She ate some of DD3's spaghetti instead. At first I said "no thank you" because we were just going to take them with us and I didn't want to take advantage of the situation. But then he persisted saying it would be no problem, so I gave in thinking that we'd be leaving in the morning and I didn't really want to deal with leftovers. Well, it turns out that he didn't take it off the bill, and we didn't get the leftovers either. We didn't notice this until we had left the restaurant and it just didn't seem worth going back in for. ($73.64) This late afternoon was probably the low point of the trip for me - indecision about where to eat, a pricey meal that didn't please and a noticeable increase in temperature from the rest of our trip. We dragged ourselves around to Future World. Things would improve from this point and by night's end, this would prove to be a great trip ending. From 5:00 - 6:15 we were in the Wonders of Life seeing Cranium Command and playing with the interactive stuff. I stayed a bit longer there with DD3 while Dad and DD5 went to Test Track for their fast pass return. After playing for a while, I asked DD3 what she'd like to do. She wanted to go to the "ball" again. So, we went to Spaceship Earth and rode with no wait. She's overcome her fear of the darkness in this ride since I pointed out that some of the things we had studied in our home schooling lessons are in the ride. She started pointing to scenes saying, "we read about that". Even now when she talks about Spaceship Earth, she tells me that we read about those things. We met up with Dad and DD5 so I could do Test Track with DD5. Dad took DD3 to The Living Seas. DD5 and I hit a snag at TT. We were next to get into a car when the ride stopped. We had to wait a while to get on the ride, but once it was going, it was fine. After our ride, we met with Dad and DD3 and we all decided to do Spaceship Earth AGAIN (7:30). This time, we let the kids sit up front together and Dad and I got to sit together in the back. We had always sat parent/kid before this. I think we're on to something here though. We watched the fountain for a while at 7:45 and then hit Ice Station Cool to let the kids try a couple flavors. I only gave them the good ones though. Next, we wanted to get a good spot for Illuminations. Since it was the last night, and we hadn't really gotten a good view of it this trip, I was willing to stake out a spot early. We went just left of center facing WS. We were to the right of the boat dock. We claimed this spot at about 8:00. My plan was to get ice cream somewhere and enjoy it during the wait. I ended up having to go the Land for the ice cream since I couldn't find any closer. Of course, by the time I returned, it had started to melt a bit. So now I could enjoy the ice cream. Not so fast... the girls needed a trip to the rest room. We weren't too far from that so we did a quick visit and came back to ice cream that was a bit more melted. No problem though. We're enjoying our ice cream, we've used the facility and we're ready for the show. I even got a cookie to share as an extra treat. (4 ice cream cups and 1 cookie = $12.93) I've forgotten to mention until now about the brush fires near the parks. We smelled smoke for about a day or so in the Boardwalk and in certain other areas. This evening the smoke had made it's appearance over Epcot. It was thick and made it difficult to breathe. We wondered whether this would cause a problem for Illuminations, but it didn't. Illuminations was terrific. We had a great view of everything and were close enough to the earth and other effects on the water. There was a speaker nearby pumping out the music to add to the excitement. It wasn't overwhelming, though. Illuminations was a wonderful ending to our trip. We walked out in the opposite direction of most of the crowd to get to the Boardwalk. When we were walking past the pool area to get to the elevators, the pool was looking very inviting. I had woken up with a stiff neck and thought the hot tub would be the icing on the cake. So, I took the girls out for a special night swim and then Dad was going to come get the girls and take them back to the room to get ready for bed while I soaked in the hot tub. We swam until just after 10pm. The hot tub was just what my neck needed - it felt great. All in all a wonderful day (except Alfredo's :( ) Speaking of which...both Dad and I admitted later that we what we were really craving was a hamburger, but neither of us wanted to disappoint the other by taking away a nice meal. We should have gone to the Electric Umbrella! Friday, May 18 - DAY 13 and Travel Day
We did pretty well traveling a long time today. We finally stopped about 2:00 am past Baltimore, leaving ourselves a fairly short trip for Saturday. We drove for 1039 miles today for 17 hours and 5 minutes!! Saturday, May 19 - Travel Day
We got home in the afternoon since we had traveled so far the first day. I must have been glad to get home, because I didn't record the time or mileage for the day. SUMMARY TIPS I think I can summarize my tips into this: be prepared. If you do your research on the parks, plan out what you want to do and then use your knowledge to either schedule on paper or just do your touring spontaneously, you should have a more enjoyable, less frustrating time. By research and knowledge I mean that you should know how the crowds move and what attractions get crowded/less crowded at different times. If you do this "work" ahead of time, you can focus on your family and having fun when you get there and when your plans need to be changed, you will be able to make adjustments without stress. HIGHLIGHTS Mom's
DD5's
DD3's
STROLLERS We took our Instep umbrella strollers again but left the stroller connectors at home. This worked out pretty well. Even though DD5 is 5, she still wanted to be in the stroller most of the time past the first day. Many times we just took one stroller and let the girls take turns. Having two strollers after the late nights or to wait for parades was very helpful. It seems that a lot of people have bought those instep umbrella strollers - they were everywhere - unlike our last trip. Maybe my plug for them in my report last fall boosted their sales. :) VISITING IN MAY This was my first spring visit. Lately we had gone late Summer, and early Fall. I expected it to be a bit warmer - especially in the evening. Our first week was pretty windy and even cool in evening. By the second week things were more like I expected. We hardly had a drop of rain for two weeks. Of course that is not a good thing, especially since the dry weather had been around longer than we were. The one night it poured (after we were in bed), we thought it was great - but then we discovered that it was the lightning that night that started the brush fire. We were used to rain on a daily basis during our past visits. WHAT I'D LIKE TO DO NEXT TIME I did so many firsts this trip, which was definitely cool. It was great to have so much time to relax and do the things we never took time to do - like the Riverboat. By the time we make our next trip, I'm sure there will be new things and even some old things we've never done...like those water parks! I'm going to get there one of these years - really. I want to take some of my family with me again on our next trip. We'll plan to stay for about 10 days and see who can join us for part of our stay. Sorry, but I'm not currently adopting sisters, brothers, or other extended family members right now. FINANCIAL SUMMARY I wish I had time to do this summary as I did last year, but as it is I'm months behind in posting this because of the move. I tried to include $ amounts throughout the report - so a lot of the information is there - it's just not compiled. Thanks for reading! Mom Mail a Comment to Mom |
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