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Lance Caros -- June 2001 -- Walt Disney World (Offsite)June 24 through July 8, 2001
Part 1 - The Pre Trip Planning Chapter 1 - The Dedication Thank you to all of the people who helped to make this a wonderful trip. First and foremost thanks to my wife, daughter and son for filling my life with joy and sharing in two of my passions, travel and Disney. Thanks to my Mom for igniting those passions at an early age as well as instilling a deep love of family and friends. Thanks to the rest of my family including all of my in-laws for being my foundation and putting up with my Disney obsession. Thanks to all of the people on Mouseplanet for their hard work, especially Brian Bennett, Kevin Yee, Sue Holland, Al Lutz and the Krock's. Thanks to Pete Werner and the wonderful community of message boards at The DIS. Thanks to Deb Wills for a great site. Finally, thanks to everyone who has written trip reports, I've read every single one of them on Mouseplanet. I've learned more from them than any other single source and they have provided lots of entertainment. This report is dedicated to the memory of Max Fisher. Chapter 2 - The Cast
Hometown - Carnation, WA a beautiful rural area in the Cascade foothills about 30 miles east of Seattle. It's the former home of the Carnation company (now owned by Nestle) which used to provide the ice cream at Disneyland. Chapter 3 - The Prior Reports Before starting you should be aware that my trip reports go into a lot of detail. If you enjoy concise summary style reports then now would be a good time to back away slowly and find a different trip report. This report will be like a short novel. If you would like to see our previous trip reports they are posted at www.mouseplanet.com. In my opinion it's the best site for Disney information anywhere on the Internet. The direct links to the reports are below. April 2000 Trip | March 1999 Trip Chapter 4 - The Photos Most of our vacation pictures can be found here. Chapter 5 - The Decision Our April 2000 trip had ended and we were debating where to vacation in 2001. We had already decided that we would return to Disneyworld for spring break in 2002. Since we had visited two years in a row and had another trip planned for the year after next we thought we would try something different and cheaper. We originally thought of taking a long vacation and driving down to California to visit Disneyland, Magic Mountain in Valencia and relax in Palm Springs. Jenny also wanted to visit Hearst Castle again. Eventually, we added enough things to the agenda where we were going to be fairly pressed for time during the two weeks. Also, the thought of driving that far with the kids wasn't all that appealing. They are good and very seasoned travelers but a couple of days driving on each end of the vacation would be a lot to ask of all of us. Our next plan was for Hawaii. My mom has a condo on Maui where we could stay for free. However, airfare was running pretty high at almost $600 per person. Jenny and I have both been to Hawaii many times and the kids had been twice but somehow we could never get very excited about it this time. We eventually also ruled out Hawaii. So, we were left with the decision of where to vacation relatively inexpensively for 2001. For a couple of years I had been trying to convince Jenny that we should get WDW annual passes and try to fit two trips in within a year. We typically visit for two weeks each trip so the annual pass would save a lot on admission. I also had secret hopes that if we got an annual pass we might find some incredible rate for staying at an on site property for the first time. Jenny, however pointed out that the timing wouldn't work out if we continued to visit at spring break each year. So, I brilliantly countered that I'd been reading about a lot of people saying that the first part of June was not too bad of a time to visit. She hit back with the fact that Megan's school doesn't let out until late June. So, I proposed a compromise by taking Meg out of school in mid June. She's a great student so I figured no problem. Meg's teacher however felt that it was important to be at school to close out the year and wrap everything up. We respected that and decided against taking her out of school. As it turned out she did end up missing the last two days of school which didn't end until June 26th! My challenge then was to convince my lovely wife that Walt Disney World in late June/early July was a wise idea and that we could do it on a budget. She showed me the various charts for weather and crowd levels for that time of year. I told her that since we were getting pretty familiar with the place that it would be a laid back, non-commando type trip. We would take lots of breaks, stay out of the heat and rain as much as possible and avoid the crowds. We could get the annual passes, which would mean no admission costs for next year. I would find a cheap place to stay and good airfare and car rental deals. Despite her vastly superior intellect I eventually wore down her resistance with my tenacity (and a lot of whining and pleading). Chapter 6 - The Flight Plan Now my mission was to find airfare. In the latter part of 2000 airfare was running about $200 per person to Orlando. Unfortunately, the fares were not yet out for June. I kept checking but unfortunately the really cheap fares ended up being in March or early June. I was getting a bit worried when the best deals for our time were about $400. I finally found a great fare of $175 per person and tried to book it online but the seats were all gone by the time I finished the reservation process. The fare then went back up and I was getting worried they would not come back down. I was checking Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Qixo, Farebeater and Farechase on a daily basis. Then I got a call from my mom (the best mom in the world) who said that she had sold a rental house, made a nice profit and was paying for part of a cruise for my sister. Despite my protests that I was happy for my sister and that nobody was keeping score to make sure that they were mom's favorite, she insisted on paying for all of our airfare to Orlando. Did I mention that she is the greatest mom in the world? I eventually found a $300 fare on Northwest, which is where we have most of our frequent flyer miles so that was a good fit. The only catch was that we would leave Seattle on Sunday instead of Saturday but we could give up a day to save (mom) over $100 per ticket. The flight leaves bright and early at 6:45. That means we will have to get up by 4AM that morning but we will get to Orlando at 5:15PM which is the earliest we've ever arrived and should help us adjust better to the day of travel and time change. Chapter 7 - The Lodging Plan Jenny and I both agree that a regular hotel room for two weeks with all four of us would be something akin to torture. We love our kids dearly but a 400 square foot hotel room would push our poor hotel neighbors and us to the brink of insanity. Maybe things will change when the kids get older but we really like having plenty of room on vacation. On our last trip we visited a rental house and had been kicking around that idea. I was checking into prices and while they were very reasonable at around $150 per night for a 3 bedroom house with pool (in the peak season) it was still a bit more than we wanted to spend. We had read a few trip reports that mentioned some great annual passholder rates for the wilderness homes at Fort Wilderness. Unfortunately, the rates were not valid in summer. $200 a night was definitely more than we wanted to spend for a 2-week stay. Chapter 8 - The DVC Debate We started toying with the idea of buying into the Disney Vacation Club (DVC). I'd been reading Brian Bennett's great information about DVC and his own trip reports for years. We've visited Old Key West (OKW) and the Boardwalk Villa's several times and would love to stay there but could never justify the price. Later, Pat Edaburn, did an excellent write up about the costs of buying into DVC. Pat had done all of the math that I had been half-heartedly playing with for years. I studied it in detail and determined that it just wasn't for us for a variety of reasons. The primary reason though being cost. While there is no place I'd rather stay than at OKW, the fact was that buying into DVC would still cost significantly more annually for lodging than we cared to spend. I understand that the costs of renting offsite will only increase but still when there are currently very nice offsite 2 bedroom condos in the $100 a night range, I'm too cheap to pass up those deals. I know they are not as nice as the Disney properties and I know we miss out on having the magic 24 hours a day but I'm unwilling to spend approximately 3 times as much for that privilege. I'd rather stay offsite and take a nice long 2-week vacation as opposed to staying onsite for only a week. I know, to each their own. DVC is a great thing for many people, just not for us. Chapter 9 - The Nail in the Onsite Coffin My last attempt at staying onsite came after my daily perusal of another of my favorite Disney website www.wdwinfo.com I don't usually visit the DVC boards but decided to check them and I learned all about the commercial renting of DVC points (and many DVC members abhorrence of the practice). I was off to the DVC point calculator to plug in our 14 night stay for a 2 bedroom unit at OKW (we could get by with a one bedroom unit but that extra bathroom and bedroom for the kids sure would be nice). Let's see, 592 points. That doesn't sound too bad. How much are points renting for again? OK, $10 per point. Time to test out that fancy fourth grade, Jethro Bodean like education of mine and do some cipherin'. Hey, that's almost $5,920! After I revived myself, I resigned myself. Once again, as always, our hopes of staying on site were put to an end. Still, someday when money is no object we will be there. Guess I'll have to start buying lotto tickets. They sound like a wise investment for a guy of my intellect. Maybe I can do some more of that fancy cipherin' to calculate the odds. Chapter 10 - The Lodging Dilemma Solved Two years ago we had stayed at the Hampton (now owned by Starwood) Oak Plantation in Kissimmee and really enjoyed it. Although it's further from the parks than Cypress Pointe where we stayed last year it was a much nicer atmosphere. The only reason we didn't go back last year was that the best rate we could find was $140 for a 2 bedroom unit. Cypress Pointe ended up being $90 a night including all taxes for a two bedroom unit. Cypress Pointe was a great bargain but the place just didn't suit us like Oak Plantation did so we won't return there. Jenny called up Oak Plantation and found that the two bedroom units were still in the $140 a night range. However, the one bedroom units were under $100 per night. We hated to give up the extra room and bathroom but the $500+ difference in price (for the length of our stay) was too great to pass up. Jenny went ahead and booked the room. A few weeks later I was surfing on the "Entertainment" book (The one with all of the 50% off coupons. I told you I'm cheap. We use it a LOT.) website. I was looking through the lodging section in came across the Oak Plantation. Why didn't I see that in the actual book? Jenny said she saw it before we were considering WDW again and had forgotten about it until I mentioned it. She gave Oak Plantation a call back to see if we could get a better rate with the card. It turned out to save about $10 per night on the one bedroom unit but the exciting news was that the rate for a two bedroom unit was about $100 per night which is what we were originally going to spend for the one bedroom. We very happily switched to a two bedroom unit and reconfirmed out request for a ground floor unit near the fountains. The total for the 15 nights came to $1,503. Chapter 11 - The Frequent Flyer Mile Bonanza A couple of weeks later I joined the Starwood Preferred Guest program (www.preferredguest.com) which the Oak Plantation participates in along with Sheraton, Westin and several others. The program pays 2 points for each dollar spent at a participating property. Each point can be traded one for one for airline miles. In addition there is a promotion running right now that will give us an additional 5,000 points for our stay. That combined with charging the room, rental car (with it's own bonus miles), airline tickets (with their own bonus miles) and annual passes all on our Northwest Worldperks Visa will help for another frequent flyer ticket. Chapter 12 - The Rental Car I had been checking all of the rental car companies websites and Breezenet for good deals and wasn't finding much even with the various Entertainment book, Costco, and frequent renter cards. We've always rented a minivan because that's what we have at home and as with the lodging we like to be comfortable on vacation. Having both kids in a small backseat of an economy car would be inviting a daily battle of the siblings on the way to the parks. Not a good way to start or especially end the day when everyone is tired. It's much better with their own separate row in a minivan. After getting a bunch of horrendous minivan quotes though I was almost to give up and go with a full size car which had a very good rate. Once again though, having read through each and every single trip report on the Mouseplanet site paid off. Someone mentioned the FVG rate code for Dollar and that came through with a $209 weekly rate. After all assorted taxes, fees and price gouges the total comes to about $525. I tinkered with the idea of using Priceline because I had read about some minivan deals going for $20-$25 a day but I really like Dollar and I didn't want to chance getting an offsite rental company. Chapter 13 - The Vision Right before Thanksgiving Jenny took the leap and had LASIK surgery. What an amazing procedure! She walked in the clinic with 20/400 vision, got zapped with the lasers for 30 seconds and was immediately able to see without glasses or contacts for the first time since she was Megan's age. Despite it being quick and relatively pain free it's still surgery on your eyes so I was impressed with Jenny's courage. She says she would do it again in a heartbeat. Her life is much easier now without the daily contacts routine. The best part is that now she can fully enjoy the water parks without worrying about losing a contact. We also get to shave a few minutes off our morning getting ready ritual. Chapter 14 - The Lifestyle Change I've always been a big guy. I'm 6'2" and have weighed over 200 pounds since I was a teen. "Husky" was a term I heard a lot when I was a kid. Unfortunately, I've been pretty sedentary for the 15 years I've been working in a cubicle, typing on a computer and talking on a phone every day. The last few years especially I have been packing on a lot of extra weight and surpassed the 250-pound mark. My dad died of cancer when I was 20 and not a day goes by that I don't think about him. As my kids kept growing vertically and I kept growing horizontally I started thinking more and more about having to get in better shape. I don't want them to grow up without a dad. Then a couple of days before Christmas my 38 year old cousin had a heart attack and passed away. We weren't as close as we were as kids but Max was a really sweet, fun loving and kind soul. He was a big guy like me and his size almost certainly had something to do with his death. It really hit me hard. It took me a few months before it really sunk in that I had to at least have some physical activity and had to start eating less rather than eating as much as I want of whatever I want whenever I want it. I could do it in my 20's but it wasn't working now and I was getting a hunch that it wouldn't get any easier to change my ways as time passed. Part of my motivation was also to get my feet in shape for all of that walking at Disneyworld. I started slowly. One day in early March at lunchtime I took the 2.2 mile walk around the area where I work that includes the Microsoft and Nintendo campuses. I was passed repeatedly by groups of power walking older ladies. As I sat back down at my desk short of breath and with my feet aching it finally motivated me for a change. I really enjoyed the walk and although it was a small step, I knew I had to start somewhere. I did that same walk every workday until we left for the trip. Every day it got a little easier and I got a little faster. I even managed to start passing up some of those other walkers and upped the length of the walk to 3.3 miles many days. I also started to cut down on the quantity of what I ate as well as avoiding the obviously bad stuff (burgers, fries, Coke, ice cream, and really good buttery popcorn), all the stuff that was the staple of my diet. I had been a major carnivore but slowly I started cutting meat out of my diet, which along with switching to Diet Coke were the hardest things. After a couple of months though I didn't miss them at all. After 35 years of no self-control I figured I had enough stored up to finally use some. I was pleased to be losing weight but my real goal was just to be healthier. I was really thrilled when my blood pressure came down (from borderline high) to normal or below normal levels. The week before the trip I ended up being 40 pounds lighter than I was the day of that first lunchtime walk. Last year I bought another new WDW guidebook (I've got them all) "Vegetarian Walt Disney World" by Susan Shumaker and Than Saffel. It's a very well researched and written guide. I highly recommend it. In keeping with the health theme I'm trying to go mostly vegetarian on this trip. I know I will cave in at 'Ohana and eat a few of their wonderful skewers of meat. I'm hoping to keep some of my newfound willpower while on vacation. We'll see how it goes. Chapter 15 - The Packing I alluded to my wife's organizational skills in "The Cast" chapter. She's amazing. With the clock-like precision that she runs our family's schedule I would swear her ancestry was German rather than Norwegian. In all of the years we have been together I have never had to pack. I just pick up my wallet and keys and drive the car, which works out well for a guy with my intellect. Jenny started packing over 60 days before the trip and basically had everything ready and all of the checklists gone over twice by the two week out mark. She's put a lot of thought into taking things along that will make our life easier. For the heat we've got a couple of tiny fans for the kids ($5 at the Disney Store), a Squeeze Breeze ($6 at Walmart), water bottles, sunscreen, sunglasses, hats, $.99 rain ponchos and lightweight clothes. We have fanny packs and backpacks to carry all the gear along with a soft sided cooler that fits into the back of the stroller for our water and snacks for the kids. We have that antiseptic hand cleaner, baby wipes, change of clothes for the kids, camera and video camera to fit in also. My Fathers Day present was new Cobra14 channel with 38 subcode FRS radios and I'm really looking forward to using them. Our old set with just the 14 channels and no subcodes worked fine but it will be nice not to hear so many other conversations all the time.
Chapter 16 - The last minute snag Thankfully it wasn't really last minute but there always seems to be something that comes up before the trip. Two weeks prior to leaving Bryce had chest pains that were later determined to be an asthma attack. He's had lots of ear problems and has had three sets of tubes, the last being T-tubes. Even so, one of them came out and he ended up with an (unknown to us) ear infection. The mild asthma he has combined with the ear infection led to kind of a scary night for us. He's such a sturdy and good-natured little fellow that sometimes it's hard to recognize when he's sick since he doesn't complain. So, we finished up antibiotics a couple of days before we left but we will bring his bulky nebulizer for asthma with us. Hopefully we won't need it. As another little added concern, the day before we left Bryce woke up in the morning and threw up. He seemed fine after that though so we didn't worry too much about it. Chapter 17 - The Plan Every year we take things a little bit easier and get further and further from the commando touring of our past. Even so, we like to have a plan. Over the years we've seen most of what WDW has to offer. The property is so vast though that we still feel the need to have at least an outline of what we want do. Otherwise we might forget some of the little things to try or something that we really enjoyed in the past. So, after months of planning here is our official itinerary. We tried to make sure we listed everyone's favorites and new things we wanted to try. We came up with options for each day if the weather or our moods don't cooperate. Caros family WDW trip plan 2001 Early entry days Magic Kingdom - Monday, Thursday, Saturday Epcot - Tuesday, Friday Disney Studios - Wednesday, Sunday River Country closed Monday, Friday and Sunday Disney Club toll free number 1-800-933-3975 Sunday, June 24, 2001. Travel day. * Northwest flight #x leaves SeaTac at 6:45AM. Arrives in Minneapolis at 12:03PM. Flight #x leaves at 1:10PM and arrives in Orlando at 5:25PM * Pickup rental minivan at Dollar reservation #x. $209.99 per week. Approximately $525 with all taxes. Use Fastlane card and NW Worldperks number. * Check in at condo (see map). Reservation for 2-bedroom villa, non-smoking, bottom floor unit. Approximately $1,503.82 with all taxes included. Confirmation #x. Use Starwood Preferred Guest # x Oak Plantation Vacation Ownership Resort 4100 Enchanted Oaks Circle Kissimmee, FL 34741 Resort Telephone Number (407)847-8200 Resort Fax Number (407)847-7948 Reservations 1-800-578-0140, or direct at (407)-852-4630 * See map for directions from the airport to the condo. * Find roll of quarters for tolls. * Go to Super Walmart for groceries. Monday, June 25, 2001. Epcot. Open at 9AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Buy premium annual passes at guest relations. Use the Disney Club card for discount. Trade in old 4 day hopper passes. * Fast pass attractions: Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Test Track, Maelstrom, Living with the Land * Test Track * Honey I Shrunk the Audience then Journey into Your Imagination. * Go to the Land and ride Living with the Land and see Food Rocks. * Send IBM postcards from Innoventions. * Go to World Showcase at opening and buy a new passport for the kids. * Lunch in Mexico at 11:30AM. Nachos and Dos Equis. Priority seating #x Check for AP or DC discounts. * Wander through all the countries and see as much live entertainment as possible. * See Impressions de France at the France pavilion. * If it gets too hot in the afternoon then go back to Future World for indoor pavilions. * Eat around World Showcase for dinner. Lefse in Norway, yakitori and kaki gori in Japan, hummus in Morocco, dessert in France, and fish & chips in England. Optional plans -Disney Studios, Animal Kingdom, Epcot Tuesday, June 26, 2001. River Country. Open at 10AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Stake out a spot in Kiddie Cove. * Bring picnic lunch. * Stroll along the Cypress Point nature trail. * Must have Arctic Dots. Dinner at Scat Cats at Port Orleans Optional plans - Disney Studios, Animal Kingdom Wednesday, June 27, 2001. Magic Kingdom. Open at 9AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Priority seating #x for 8:00AM at 'Ohana. * Bring bagels, sandwiches and snacks for lunch. * Fast pass attractions: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan * Fantasyland first for Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan's Flight. * Toontown for the characters at the County Fair then ride Goofy's Barnstormer * Take hidden path from Toontown to Tomorrowland. * Pick up Fastpasses for Space Mountain. * Ride Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin. * Alien Encounter if Megan wants to see it. * Carousel of Progress * Go to the Haunted Mansion. * See the Tiki Room show. * Try one of the chocolate and M&M covered marshmallows on a stick. * Dinner at Ohana in the Polynesian at 5:10PM. PS#x AP discount for free meals for the kids? Optional plans - Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom Thursday, June 28, 2001. Typhoon Lagoon. Open at 9AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Camp out at Ketchakiddee Creek and let the kids run wild. Look for spot in new section of Ketchakiddee Creek away from most foot traffic. * Bring a picnic lunch. * Go to Belz Outlet Mall for Character Warehouse and Character Premier stores. Dinner at Chevy's with gift certificates from Milesource. Optional plans - Animal Kingdom, Disney Studios, Epcot Friday, June 29, 2001. Disney-MGM Studios. Open at 9AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Fastpass attractions: Rock N Roller Coaster, Star Tours, Tower of Terror, Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones, Muppet Vision, What Wants to be a Millionaire. * Rock n' Roller coaster first then Tower of Terror. * Try to catch the first Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid shows. * Go to Star Tours. * Muppetvision 4D. * Hunchback of Notre Dame show. * 11:35AM snack at Sci-Fi-Drive In. Stick to appetizers and desserts. PS#x Check for AP or DC discounts. * Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. * Animation tour. * See the new Drew Carey Sound Show. * Go to the Great Movie Ride. * See Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. * Dinner at Mama Melrose at 5:50PM. PS#x Check for AP or DC discounts. Optional plans - Magic Kingdom, Disney Studios, Animal Kingdom Saturday, June 30, 2001. Blizzard Beach. Open at 9AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Snag a good spot with shade in Tike's Peak. * Take along a picnic lunch. * Afternoon at Celebration. * Dinner at Max's. Check for AP or DC discounts. Optional plans - Epcot, Animal Kingdom Sunday, July 1, 2001. Morning at Disneyquest. Open at ?? Afternoon at Downtown Disney. * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Pontoon boat rental from Captain Jack's Marina * Explore Downtown Disney and the West Side. Use DC discount. * Dinner at Cheesecake Factory in Disneyquest with gift certificates from Etour. Check for AP or DC discounts. Optional plans - Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom Monday, July 2, 2001. Animal Kingdom. Open at 8AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Fastpass attractions: Dinosaur, It's Tough to be a Bug , Kilimanjaro Safaris * Kiliminjaro Safari * Camp Minnie-Mickey to see the characters * Pocahontas and Friends * It's Tough to be a Bug * Lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue (sit by the river). Visit the AP lounge! * Tarzan rocks * Dinosaur * Walk the Cretaceous Trail * Play at the Boneyard * Explore the Tree of Life Gardens Early dinner at the Rainforest Café at 4:30PM. Priority seating #x Check for DC or AP discount. Optional plans - Disney Studios, Epcot
Tuesday, July 3, 2001. Typhoon Lagoon. Open at 9AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Stake our claim in Ketchakiddee Creek. * Take a picnic lunch. * Afternoon at Belz. * Evening at Boardwalk. * Rent a surrey bike. * Dinner at Beaches and Cream. Check for AP or DC discount. Optional plans - Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Disney Studios Wednesday, July 4, 2001. Pool day. * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Dinner at Scat Cats * Watch fireworks from the beach of the Grand Floridian. 9PM. Thursday, July 5th, 2001. Epcot. Open at 9AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Fast pass attractions: Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Test Track, Maelstrom, Living with the Land * Test Track * Honey I Shrunk the Audience * The Living Seas * Lunch at San Angel Inn at 11:30AM. PS#x Check for AP or DC discount. * Tour World Showcase again. See whatever entertainment we missed on the first day. * Must see Off Kilter in Canada. * Universe of Energy Spaceship Earth Optional plans - Disney Studios, Animal Kingdom Friday, July 6th, 2001. Magic Kingdom. Open at 9AM * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Fast pass attractions: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Winnie the Pooh, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan * Dinner at Chef Mickey's at 6:15PM. PS#x Check for AP or DC discount. Optional plans - Animal Kingdom, Disney Studios Saturday, July 7th, 2001. River Country. Open at 10AM. * Bring the Squeeze Breeze! * Visit the Animal Kingdom Lodge in the afternoon. * Dinner at Boma at 6:00PM PS#x Check for AP or DC discount. Optional plans - Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Studios Sunday, July 8th, 2001. Travel back home day. * Northwest flight #x leaves Orlando at 11:20AM and arrives in Detroit at 2:05PM. Flight #x leaves at 3:25PM and arrives at 5:15PM in Seattle. Part 2 Chapter 1 - The 13 hours of travel with two young children Sunday, June 24th 2001. Travel day. 76, humid and very rainy in Orlando. I got up at 3:30 then got the kids moving at 4. They were in a good mood so that made life easier at the early hour. We were on the road by 4:30. One of the nice things about leaving at that time was the lack of traffic. On the drive I told the kids that I had three rules for the trip. #1 was listen to Mom and Dad, #2 was no fighting and #3 was no whining. Jenny said she had just one rule, we had to have ice cream every day. What a suck up! Guess who the kids favorite parent was on the trip? We arrived at the Airstar parking lot and had a very cold 5-minute wait for the shuttle. This will be the last time we will be cold on this trip. There was quite a long line at Northwest but I got our Fastpasses...er, make that E-ticket boarding passes. I love E-tickets. I know there can be problems if you need to switch airlines but I really like the smug feeling of breezing by all the people in the regular lines. The bonus miles for booking online and getting E-tickets are also nice. Our big suitcase weighed 60 pounds much to Jenny's relief. She was concerned it would be over the weight limit. It's a great new suitcase with a nice long handle and wheels so I didn't have any problem lugging it around. That and one other small suitcase were all we had to check. Not too bad for going across the country with 4 people for two weeks. Our plane was at the gate when we got there which is always a relief. We boarded about half an hour early and took off right on time at 6:45. The seating configuration was two seats on each side of the plane with 5 in the middle. Our seat assignments were for 4 of the middle five seats. Thankfully they didn't put anyone in the very center so we got to have a little elbowroom with that seat empty. As always Jenny had pre-ordered kids meals and they came out before the regular meal service. Their breakfast consisted of Honey Nut Cheerios, milk, banana, unsweetened applesauce and a banana nut muffin. Jenny and I got ham and egg biscuits, yogurt, banana and plain cheerios with milk. We both gave our biscuits to Megan who normally loves them but didn't care for these since there was no cheese. I got her applesauce. Yuck, I guess I'm accustomed to sweetened applesauce. I added some Nutrasweet which helped. We couldn't see the movie screen very well so we passed on watching "Air Bud" which the kids have seen many times anyhow. The flight was remarkably easy. Every year the kids seem to do a little better and Jenny and I get to relax a little more on the plane. We landed in Minneapolis early at a few minutes before noon. It's a very nice airport. There were lots of nice shops and good places to eat. Of course we didn't choose one of them and instead had our only McDonald's visit of the trip. Bryce insisted on a hamburger which he then ignored. Megan ate it though. We all shared a large order of fries. Bryce and I made our first pressed penny of the trip. It was a lion from the Minneapolis zoo. While waiting for boarding I discovered I could bend the handle of Bryce's stroller up. It had been getting lower and lower and it wasn't designed for someone tall to begin with. My back was very thankful for the discovery throughout the rest of the trip. The boarding of the plane was a few minutes late and once we got in our seats Bryce had to go to the restroom (despite being asked before getting on). So, we held up the plane taxiing for a couple of minutes while Jenny took him to the restroom. As it turned out there were 8 planes ahead of us waiting to take off. We finally got airborne about 45 minutes late. Kind of funny how the first flight was early when we didn't care about it because we had time to kill. Then this flight is late when we really want to get to Orlando. Oh well, no big plans for the night so a few minutes won't matter. This plane seating was a row of 3 seats on each side of the plane. The kids and I were in one row with Jenny directly across the aisle from us. The kids did very well once again. It was an easy flight. Their kid's meal this time consisted of "natural" applesauce, which was sweetened, a really cute round crustless PB&J sandwich, and baby carrots. We must have the only children in America who don't like peanut butter and jelly so they ignored those. Jenny and I got ham and turkey sandwiches which we gave to the kids and they enjoyed. We also got Ruffles potato chips and an apple. I had the apple, applesauce, carrots and a diet Pepsi. Bryce fell asleep the last 20 minutes of the flight, which would be his only nap of the day. We had made up some time in the air and actually arrived on time. It's funny how the airlines pad the flight times. It's kind of like the posted wait times at Disney. They are usually overstated. We got off the plane and onto the monorail and once I heard Jack Wagner (the voice of Disneyland) it really started to feel like vacation. I took Bryce with me to get the rental car while the girls went to get the luggage. There were about a dozen people in line for Dollar but thanks to my Fastlane membership I got to go in that empty line and get in front of all of them. Another Fastpass-like experience! I don't understand why more people don't sign up for the frequent renter car programs. I joined Dollar, National and Alamo for free. You get discounts, little or no wait at check in and other perks. My Fastlane membership had my preference for no insurance (I'm already covered) and I got a little bit of an attitude from rental guy who quietly said "No insurance, very risky". I was about to unload on him and see if he really wanted to get into a detailed discussion of my insurance needs but the credit card company interrupted us. Dollar's card reader had problems with my Visa so he had to try it a few times and then input it manually. Apparently, this combined with the fact that I was using the card 3000 miles from home caused some concern on Visa's part. When I got home 2 weeks later there was a message from their fraud department making sure we knew a lot of money was being charged in Florida. The girls called on the radio and actually got the luggage and met us at Dollar before we were done. We all went across the street to get the keys. There was a family in front of us taking forever. They appeared to be getting upset. Finally the lady with the keys told them that there were no minivans available and they stomped out of there. That made me a bit nervous since we had a minivan but we got our keys to our white Dodge Grand Caravan. I was relieved to find the integrated child seats that I was pretty sure would be there. I had convinced Jenny to leave our car seat at home and I would not have been a very popular guy if the van didn't have them. We took the south exit to the 417 Greeneway and paid our $1.50 in tolls before we got off on the John Young Parkway. We made a quick stop at a minimart for beer and soda. We arrived at the Oak Plantation and it was just as we remembered it. The front desk staff were so friendly and everything went smoothly. It really felt like coming home in a way. OK, it's not the same as the "welcome home" you get at Old Key West but still I really like this place. I was excited when I found out we got the building we requested and a ground floor unit. We went to the room and it was a fantastic location. Went inside and discovered it was only one bedroom! Great room in a great location but not what we had reserved. I went back to the front desk and they discovered that somehow Starwood had not changed our original reservation for a one-bedroom unit. It was a corporate thing and I was really trying to be patient and the staff were really trying to help me but there were no two bedroom units available. I spoke to the manager who again was very friendly and concerned but insistent that there were absolutely no 2-bedroom units available for the night. Arghh. They agreed that they would do everything they could to open one up but for tonight at least this was the only unit. I went back to the room disappointed because I really wanted the convenience of the separate bedroom and bathroom for Bryce and I. Jenny and Meg would have got the master bedroom with the king size bed and Bryce and I would have had the other bedroom and each had our own twin bed (as nice as it would be to put the kids together in that room it just wouldn't work. They would stay awake playing, giggling and/or fighting all night). So, I got the fold out queen sized sofa bed in the living room. I did ask for and receive a rollaway single bed for Bryce so at least I didn't have to have him kicking me all night. The rest of the family was OK with the room. It really was a great location and a one-bedroom unit was big enough. So, this was to be our home for at least tonight. When I unloaded the luggage (I love being able to park right by your room) I discovered that Northwest had pretty badly damaged our brand new suitcase. I had to remind myself where I was and that we were still going to have a great vacation. We will worry about the room and the suitcase later. I took the kids to the Super Walmart about half a mile away while Jenny stayed and unpacked. I like this place for its diversity. You see every culture you could imagine shopping at one huge store 24 hours a day. It's like a Benetton ad, "The united colors of Walmart!" I don't really enjoy shopping there though because it's always busy. Two years ago it was busy at midnight when I was there. This time it was PACKED at 9PM on a Sunday night. We got the necessities; beer, water, soda, juice, cereal, Pringles, crackers, bagels, bread, cookies, Popsicle's, napkins, yogurt, coffee, butter, etc. Total of $70.46 spent. The check out line was huge. We waited about 15 minutes just to get up to the register. We took about an hour shopping. So it was time for a quick late dinner from our favorite fast food, Taco Bell; A taco salad for Jenny, a Santa Fe chalupa for Megan, bean burritos for Bryce and I and a side of rice for me. Can't beat a $6.90 dinner. We quickly chowed down and went to bed at 10:30. The early start for the day really worked well. Despite it being only 7:30 back home we were all tired and ready for sleep. It was nice not to have our hours out of whack. Chapter 2 - The Epcot Death March Monday, 6-25-01. 90 and mostly sunny. No rain. Low crowds. Jenny was up early and woke me at 6 so I could shower before getting the kids up. I got the kids up at 7 and we enjoyed breakfast in the nook overlooking the fountains. Apple cinnamon Cheerios and yogurt for me and Reese's Puffs for them. We started the morning ritual of the kids turning on cartoons, me telling them about 20 times to get dressed, them watching cartoons, me telling them about 20 times to brush their teeth, them watching cartoons, me telling them 20 times to hold still and quit whining while I put sunscreen on them, etc. I eventually learned to turn off the TV in the mornings. We left the condo at 7:45 and went slightly back up out of our way to the John Young Parkway so we could take the uncrowded Osceola Parkway ($1.25 in tolls) to Epcot. We got a great parking spot up close and unpacked all of our gear and made it to the guest relations window at 8:15. We had a friendly CM from Morocco helping us and I had a tall order for him. 2 adult and 2 child premium annual passes with a Disney Club discount, refund for the $6 parking we just paid and credit for two old one day hopper passes we had. The passes were $1,762.62 with the Disney Club discount. A ton of money I know but next April's vacation will have no admission expenses now. The CM forgot to apply the parking and ticket credits so he gave me approximately $120 in cash. It took about 15 minutes to get everything taken care of. We had our first biometrics scan as we entered the park then stopped and had a photographer take three different poses of us in front of Spaceship Earth (the one we eventually selected is at the beginning of the report). We noticed how empty the Leave a Legacy monoliths looked. They obviously weren't as popular as Disney hoped they would be. We slowly made our way over to Test Track and ran into what would be a recurring theme throughout the trip. Bryce was scared. We had been talking about all of the rides for months now and Bryce said the only things he didn't want to do were the Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster. He had seemed excited about Test Track but now that we were here he wanted no part of it. I tried to talk him into it but I didn't want to push. I get kind of ticked off when I'm in an attraction or show and there is a terrified child wanting to get out and the parent is ignoring them. I wasn't about to be one of those parents that push a kid into a ride they clearly don't want to be on. So, I took him over to get Fastpasses while the girls went on with no wait. We waited for them in the gift shop and he had a good time arranging all of the magnets on display. The girls came out with big grins and thoroughly enjoyed their first attraction of the trip. Jenny said that as they were going through one section of the line where they merge with the single riders there was a guy who had stopped there and told them to go ahead of him. Jenny said "are you sure" to be polite and the guy testily said "Ma'am, if I wasn't sure, I wouldn't have said it!" It turns out he was trying to wait for his buddy behind him in the single rider line so they could ride together. What a jerk!
We let Bryce decide where to go next and his choice was Ice Station Cool. Even though he hates soda he loves the snow. We got the full blizzard on the way in. I looked like a snowman when we got into the shop. It was already hot and humid out though so it felt good. We did our usual trick of loudly telling each other to try the wonderful Italian soda Beverly. It must have been mostly experienced Ice Station folks around though because I didn't see anyone take our bait and try the vile brew. We usually sucker in a few poor unfortunate souls. Yes, we are an evil family. Bryce requested that we take a ride in Spaceship Earth so we got right on with no wait. We seemed to get in the lull after the first wave of people that go directly here when the park opens. As we were walking in we spotted our first Brazilian tour group behind us. I know they get a lot of bad press but we saw many of them throughout the trip and never ran into any problems. They all seemed to be well behaved and having a good time. Spaceship Earth was a good choice so Bryce could get over some of his fear of rides. We all enjoyed our visit. We all went back to Test Track and Bryce still didn't want to ride so we got a kid swap pass. Meg and I rode first using our Fastpasses while Jenny and Bryce waited in the gift shop and car showroom. We didn't really need the Fastpasses, as there was no standby line. I enjoyed the ride more this year for some reason; the outdoor speed section was longer and faster than I remembered. Megan said this ride seemed faster than the first. When we got off Jenny and Meg went on through the exit using the kid swap pass while Bryce and I gave our remaining two Fastpasses to a nice British family getting Fastpasses for later. They seemed excited to be able to go on the ride right away. Bryce and I continued on to the Wonders of Life pavilion and saw that the Anacomical Players show was about to start. I'd never seen them before so we pulled up a seat and absolutely loved the show. It was hilarious. Meg and Jenny found us about half way through the show. They did that thing where they get four guys from the audience to sit on buckets then lay back in each others laps then remove all the buckets. As they got to the last bucket one of the performers said they would have the audience vote on whether to remove it or not. Then the other one reminded him that this was Florida and the vote could last months! They asked if we all had annual passes. They removed the last bucket and the guys looked like a human coffee table, very funny. The show was a real find. I love Epcot for stuff like this. There is always something new to see. Jenny sat at the back of the theater and pulled a "McGyver" and fixed Bryce's portable fan that he dropped and broke earlier. After the show we did Body Wars which Bryce loved last year. He was a bit nervous this time but I talked about the ride with him as we waited to get into our simulator. We got in and he did fine and had a good time. We definitely are going to have to take things a little slower in the thrill ride department with him though. We left Wonders of Life and went back past Test Track, around the old Odyssey Restaurant and into Mexico in the World Showcase. We were starting to get very hot so the dark, cool, Mexican pavilion was a welcome relief. We went got to the San Angel restaurant right at our 11:30 priority seating time but they had not yet opened up the restaurant. I asked to wait for a table by the water. They gave us a pager and we explored the marketplace while we waited. The kids always love playing with the maracas, sombreros and other fun stuff there. Our pager went off in about 10 minutes and we were led to the same table we sat at the previous two years. We now consider it "our" table. It's a great one. Right on the water. The restaurant was less than 1/4 full so it was nice and quiet and we had very good service. The chips were warm and fresh. The salsa was just OK. The kids both ordered chicken quesadilla's while Jenny and I both had Dos Equis beer and the Ensalada Mexicana. The salad was fantastic. It was a deliciously different mix of greens, cactus, mexican parsnip, tomatoes, cheese, a flavorful creamy dressing in a huge flour tortilla shell. I forgot to order it without the grilled chicken so I scooped that off and gave it to Meg. I devoured the whole salad. It was very good. Jenny really enjoyed it also but only made it through about half of it. Megan finished her meal. Bryce mostly just ate his rice and beans, waved at passing boats and whined about wanting to leave. Lunch at San Angel was a perfect break from the heat and the relatively light meal didn't weigh us down too much for the rest of the day. The salads were excellent and a lighter alternative to the nachos we had planned on. Our server was Fermin and he did a great job, very friendly and attentive but then again the restaurant wasn't full until we left. The total with tax and tip was $49.34 which was about eight times more than we paid for our dinner the night before but was still well worth it. As an added bonus we got to see Huitzilin perform in front of the restaurant during our meal. They helped entertain the kids a bit and added to the wonderful Mexican atmosphere. After lunch we took a quick ride on El Rio Del Tempo which had no line of course. Everyone enjoyed it again. We left Mexico at 12:45 and then went to Norway. The front of Maelstrom was under construction and there was wet paint signs inside. It appeared to be for adding Fastpass. We had a five minute wait which was just enough time for Bryce to decide that he didn't want to ride despite talking about this attraction for ever since he got back from our trip last year. I told him he could sit on my lap and we would fight the trolls together and that seemed to appease him. He remembered everything on the ride and actually seemed to enjoy it by the time we got off. He loves those trolls. We briefly toyed with the idea of seeing the movie again but decided to blow past it as usual. It's a nice film but the kids weren't long on patience at the moment so we continued our long hot march around World Showcase. The character bus was out near China. Both kids hugged and got a picture with Chip and Dale. Megan hugged Snow White. Donald, Mickey, Pinocchio, Pooh, Tigger and Goofy were also out. We didn't hang around too long though because it was getting really hot. We kept moving until we got to Germany where we walked through some of the air-conditioned shops. That felt very nice. Back outside we found a bench in the shade and had an ice water break. The kids went over to watch the model train that they love. I got a few paper towels wet in the bathroom and draped them over my neck. That helped quite a bit to cool off. Then I doused my hat in the water, took a couple of shots from the Squeeze Breeze and I was ready to brave the sun again. We took the long hot walk to Japan. Did I mention it was hot? In the words of Matthew Broderick in Biloxi Blues "This isn't just hot, this is like Africa hot!" It was so hot it gave me the inspiration for the title of this chapter. OK, so the title of this chapter was actually lifted from a really great comedy CD called "Show me the Buffet" by John Pinette. He's got some very funny stuff about visiting WDW in August. I really recommend the CD for a good laugh although some of it is a little tasteless and there is occasional swearing so don't let the kids listen. We of course stopped for Kaki-Gori's; strawberry for Meg and Bryce and the delicious honeydew melon for me. Jenny played cleanup literally and figuratively. She sampled a little of everyone's as we couldn't finish them and then she broke out the handywipes and cleaned up our red stained children. Jenny boycotted her favorite pavilion, Italy, in protest of Nova Era no longer being there. Hopefully they or Rondo will be back next year. There was a lot of construction going on but they had a fairly clever cover over the whole thing that was painted to look like the pavilion beneath it. Looked kind of tacky up close but from a distance it was a pretty good way to hide things. We caught the Friendship boat in Morocco and were relieved to find that not only could we wheel Bryce aboard in his stroller but that it was also blessedly air-conditioned. We had never been on these boats before and this was a nice way to get out of the heat and head back to Future World. We had enough heat for one day. We made another stop at Ice Station Cool where I filled up my hat with snow for the walk out of the park. We had to see what was new at the Art of Disney store where Jenny bought a new poster ($25) of Mickey and Minnie that now hangs in the kid's playroom at home. Our final stop was the Camera Center where we bought the picture that is at the start of this report. We also got a very nice new Disney photo album. Total of about $37. We took the easy walk (not much further than the resort bus stops) to the van, which was easy to spot with the lime green "D.I.S" ribbon tied to the antenna. The van was surprisingly not too hot. The sunshade that Jenny had packed really helped a lot as did the deeply tinted windows, which is another reason why we like minivans. We found the Osceola Parkway easily, paid our $1.50 in tolls arrived back to the condo within 20 minutes. I checked the pedometer and saw that we logged 5.5 miles at Epcot. I took the kids to the pool while Jenny went to the store for a few more groceries. The kids love all three of the pools here, which are all in the same area. I worked on the trip report in the shade nearby while keeping an eye on them. The humidity was high but it was bearable as long as you weren't in the direct sun. I jumped in the pool a few times with them to cool off. Bryce was timid at first of the big pool but he had water wings on and Megan eventually got him to "swim" alone with them. The kids had a great time jumping off the edge of the pool. At one point though Bryce had taken off his wings to go into the one-foot deep kids pool. When he returned to the big pool he forgot he didn't have his wings on and he jumped in and sank. Meg immediately started pulling him up as I stood up to get him but before I got there a very nice nearby dad picked both of them up and lifted them out of the water. That was scary for a couple of seconds, no harm done other than a mouthful of pool water but it was a good reminder for me of how closely kids need to be watched in the water. There were lots of very nice folks there and we later found out many of them were from a large church group that drove down in a bus from Connecticut. The pool was not at all crowded though. In fact throughout our whole stay we never had a problem finding plenty of lounge chairs and tables with umbrellas where we could have shade. We stayed at the pool for two hours. Back to the room to shower up and I called the front desk to check if a two bedroom unit was available. There was nothing today but they said maybe tomorrow. The manager had alerted everyone that we had top priority in anything that opened up. We decided to try the Scat Cat Lounge at Port Orleans French Quarter for dinner since we had enjoyed it a couple of times last year. When we got there though the place was completely empty and the live music didn't start until 8:30. So, we decided to take the boat to Downtown Disney and eat at the Rainforest Café. We got in a long line of people waiting and the boat came after a few minutes and filled up before we could get on. We had a 25 minute wait for the next one. I remembered that I left a Rainforest Café gift certificate in the car so I ran back to retrieve that while Jenny and the kids waited at the dock. When I got back Megan was complaining that her stomach hurt. It's not an uncommon complaint with her so we didn't think too much about it but she kept feeling worse the longer we waited. The boat finally arrived and we got on with Megan really not feeling well at all. We figured that she was just hungry and dinner would help. When we got about halfway to Downtown Disney she said she felt like she was going to throw up. I guess we should have listened more to her and passed on the boat ride. This was not a good place to be when you have an upset stomach. When we got to the dock we told boat driver that our daughter wasn't feeling well and asked if we could just stay on the boat to return to Port Orleans. He said "no problem" and asked how she was. We said she was just a little queasy but it wasn't from the boat ride! He then made a quiet call on the radio for another boat. There were a couple of people waiting to get on but he told them another boat would be there in just a minute. He then took back off with only us on the boat. I couldn't believe it, that was so sweet but we all did feel a little guilty having our own private cruise back. Poor Meg was really feeling sick so she leaned over the port side of the boat both for the breeze and just in case. Once again the driver amazed me. He called all of the boats coming in the opposite direction and told them to do a "starboard to starboard" pass. He had to slow down, stop and go out of the way a few times all just so Meg wouldn't feel uncomfortable having people in the other boats looking at her. I was amazed at how thoughtful that was of him. Of course that also made for a much better experience for the other guests as Meg eventually lost the battle (several times) to settle her stomach. The driver even had a towel to help her clean up a bit after she was through. She seemed to feel a little better after that and we were soon back at Port Orleans. He led us off the boat and took the towel to a hazardous waste bag by the pool and wished us good luck and a speedy recovery. So, Jeff from MN, thank you for going above and beyond the call of duty and making the absolute best of a bad situation for a little girl. Megan made sure to remember his name so I wouldn't forget to mention him in the trip report. No need though. We will all remember his kindness for quite a while. We made a stop at the food court for some ice water for Meg and then got in the van to head home. Both kids fell asleep on the way so we figured we would make a quick stop at Taco Bell again for dinner. I thought I could make a shortcut off the Osceola but I took a wrong turn and went a couple miles out of our way. As we turned around Meg woke up and said she had to throw up again. We quickly passed back a plastic garbage sack just in time. Poor kid, she was being a real trooper about it. We passed up Taco Bell of course and just went directly to the condo as quickly as possible. I put Bryce to bed while the girls got settled and I then I went back out alone though the Taco Bell drivethru for 2 bean burritos for me and a taco salad for Jenny which came to exactly $5. I got back at 9:30 and Jenny and I ate quickly then she settled down with Meg to try to get her to sleep. I wrote trip report notes until midnight in between getting up with Megan. Meg woke up and threw up again at 10:15, 11:45, 12:15 and at 12:45. We were really getting concerned that she wasn't getting better. After the 12:45 bout I drove to the nearby Kash N' Karry to look for something to help settle her stomach. I found a $7.33 bottle of something called Emetrol that promised a safe, gentle and effective control of nausea. What a crock! Maybe it's effective in some situations but it really had no effect with poor Meg. She took it twice then threw up again both times shortly after. It was one of those really long nights as a parent where you wish you be the sick one and just give your child some relief. Finally near 3AM sleep came for a few solid uninterrupted hours.
Chapter 3 - The "Yes, Megan you still can go to River Country" chapter Tuesday, 6-26-01. 90, sunny and hot. No rain. Low crowds. We all woke up around 8 and Megan said she felt better and really wanted to go to River Country. She ate some yogurt and it stayed down so we proceeded with that plan unless she got sick again. I got the kids dressed and put sunscreen on them then the front desk called and said a two bedroom unit had opened up but it was on the second floor so we passed. At 9:15 we reluctantly left for River Country worried that Meg would be sick but she insisted she was fine. Of course as we got near River Country Megan threw up then immediately said "Can we still go to River Country?" Poor kid, we really didn't want to disappoint her but didn't want to go if she was feeling ill. She said she was fine after that and it had been the yogurt. So, against our better judgment we pressed on to the Fort Wilderness parking lot and caught the bus to River Country. We arrived just a few minutes after the 10AM opening and found a good spot with an umbrella. Megan was in a good mood and said she felt well so Jenny took off with her to the slides before the lines got long. Bryce and I played in Kiddie Cove. I absolutely love the soundtrack that plays at River Country. I really wish they sold it. It's a big part of the whole experience there and sets the mood perfectly. When the girls returned Jenny and I traded places. I didn't want Meg to overdo it though so we spent a lot of time in the lake just swimming around. We watched Goofy go on the T-bar slide and then one of the water slides. We had fun watching him and later Megan swam up close to him and said hi and he waved to her. We relaxed a bit more before going back to Kiddie Cove. We were starting to get a bit hungry so Megan and I shared a bagel with cream cheese we had brought with us while Bryce generously distributed one potato chip to each of us while he stood sentry as Protector of the Pringles. Jenny waited in a very long line for a beer but eventually found a cold one. It really felt good to be back at River Country. It's always one of our most relaxing days and we all like the atmosphere. It was a good day to go. It seemed no busier than our normal April visits. We did have to kind of chuckle at two women who were so loud and obnoxious. One was whistling across Kiddie Cove to get the attention (unsuccessfully) of a family member. The other one was doing the same thing but yelling instead. They both were walking along then stopped right next to us to whistle/bellow. They were both alone and apparently able bodied so why they just didn't walk over to meet the other person was beyond me. They certainly didn't seem to get the relaxing point of River Country. At about 1PM Megan said she wasn't feeling well so we packed it up and walked back to the bus where a big crowd of people got off and we were the only ones to get on. The bus driver was a friendly guy who asked where we were from and then said he was from Portland, OR. It was a good to see another Northwesterner. He said wages were terrible in Orlando and he really missed the pay scale back home. We told him it was all relative though with higher housing, gas, groceries and one of the nations worst commutes back there. We got to the van and found our way to Victory Way past the new Pop Century Resort under construction and found the Osceola Parkway for the $1.25 ride back to the condo. We stopped at a Walgreens on the way to pick up some Pepto-Bismol and chicken noodle soup for Megan. We had tried the Emetrol again and it didn't seem to help at all. We gave her a good dose of the pink stuff and she slept for 1 1/2 hours. Bryce and I had shower then I tried to convince him to nap but instead I dozed off for a bit on the couch while he played quietly. Jenny went out to the mall across the street to pick up some more water, ice and socks for Megan who had outgrown most of hers and now wears women's sized socks! Wait, when did that happen? She's got to quit growing so fast. She'll always be my little girl though or at least I hope so. When Jenny got back she got Megan up and showered and then we all went for a walk around the resort and ended up at the playground. The resort really is a nice complex. They have lots of nice amenities like a playground, lots of outdoor grills and picnic tables, an arcade, basketball court, tennis court, car wash area all in a beautiful setting of an oak forest. It's really amazing how this is tucked in only a couple of blocks from sleazy 192 yet you feel like it's in it's own little world. Megan was feeling well so we gave her the choice of what to do for the evening and she picked the Boardwalk so we packed up the gear and drove to the Beach Club where we got a 3 hour parking pass from the guard. Bryce fell asleep in the car so I loaded him still sleeping into the stroller and we all went to Beaches & Cream. I asked to wait for a booth and they said it would be 15-30 minutes and gave us a pager. The delay worked out well since it allowed us to explore Stormalong Bay. Bryce eventually woke up and we all played a bit in the arcade until our pager went off after 30 minutes. They really need more than three booths in this place. Megan said she was hungry so that was a good sign. We had a fantastic server, Arthur, who took our order of a beer and a chicken sandwich for Jenny, veggie burger and lemon diet Coke for me, chocolate milkshake for Megan, vanilla milkshake for Bryce and a shared kids grilled cheese sandwich meal. Bryce normally eats so little that we figured Megan could have most of the kids meal and we would just give him fries from our plates. As it turned out Arthur brought each of them a plate with their half of the grilled cheese sandwich and a whole order of fries. We had enough fries to feed several families! That was really nice of him. During dinner a family with three young children was having a tough time with the youngest. The approximately 18 month old was having a meltdown. I felt bad for the poor parents trying to keep things quiet but I have to admit thinking that I was so glad that it wasn't us for a change! Every year gets a little easier vacationing with the kids and the family memories will last a lifetime. Despite the usual negative comments from some to the effect of "they won't remember it at this age" or "why would you want to travel so far with children?" I feel it's very important to travel with kids. Travel is probably the most enriching and mind expanding gift that my parents gave me. If you wait until the kids are "old enough" you've both already missed out on a lot. We were all stuffed and had no room for dessert so we paid our $44.22 with tax and tip. Megan was tired and didn't feel like walking around the Boardwalk so we just went back to the condo. I decided that the Osceola Parkway the whole way back to the condo wasn't saving us much if any time and was costing $1.25 each way so we went back 192 and I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, it's still a garish embarrassment but now that most of the construction is done the traffic moves very well. As we pulled up to the condo gate the car in front of us stopped then the driver rolled down her window, then she got her purse from out of the backseat, then she rummaged around in it for a minute then she finally opened the gate. I'm generally a pretty patient fellow but I started whistling while waiting behind her. OK, I guess that was rude and immature of me (at least according to her finger gesture) but come on folks. If you have to use a key to open the gate then plan in advance a little before you get to the gate! We were back in the room at 8PM and I got some quality trip report note taking done in between watching the Brady Bunch episode where they go to the Grand Canyon. I love that one, what a great show. Meg was tired but couldn't sleep after her long nap. Eventually she nodded off at 9:30 and Bryce and I fell asleep soon after. Chapter 4 - The Exposition Hall expedition Wednesday, 6-27-01. 92, sunny and hot. Light afternoon showers. Low crowds. We were all up at 7:00AM and everyone felt good and was in a good mood. Meg's stomach felt fine, hallelujah. What a great day to go to the Magic Kingdom! We had forgot salt and pepper for the eggs (we later snagged a bunch of the little packets from a restaurant) so the kids and I had cereal and milk for breakfast. We were putting on sunscreen and Jenny was drying her hair when the power went out. Jenny was not amused. Thankfully it came back on after 30 seconds and we finished getting ready and left the condo at 8:00. Instead of going to the Magic Kingdom parking lot I did a bad thing. I went to the Polynesian and told the guard we were going to 'Ohana for breakfast and was given a three hour parking pass that I then put in the glove box. I didn't feel quite as guilty when the parking lot was very empty and we parked near a back row. It's just that darn tram at the Magic Kingdom. At every other park we are able to park close enough in the morning that we just walk to the front gate. You can't do that at the Magic Kingdom. You have to take the infernal tram, which requires major packing and unpacking of our stroller. We travel with lots of stuff and the tram just makes that really difficult. I guess I shouldn't rationalize it because I know it's wrong but there you have it. I'm an evil person. We went through the lobby, up the elevator and took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Our game plan was Fantasyland first so after stopping on Main Street to get our picture taken we went into the castle and waited for the 9AM opening. We got there at 8:55 and they opened 5 minutes late so it was a sweltering oven in there. Everyone was just dripping by the time the ropes dropped. Thank goodness for the Squeeze Breeze! I immediately took the kids to Dumbo while Jenny went to get Pooh Fastpasses. We were on the second ride of the day. Meg wanted to ride alone so she went in the Dumbo ahead of us as I tried to convince Bryce not to be scared. He did fine and raised and lowered us repeatedly as he always does. After, we went to ride Snow White but Bryce said it was too scary. This was not a good sign. Our fearless 3-year-old last year had changed into a 4-year-old ride wimp! I remember Megan going through a very similar phase where she was very brave for several years and then one year she refused to go on rides she had been going on for years. I certainly didn't want to make it worse though so I took him to ride the Carousel while the girls went on Snow White. We all met back up again and went to Peter Pan where Bryce didn't want to go. I was amazed. He loves Peter Pan, watches the movies all the time, and has a hook, eye patch, sword and the whole bit. He's been on this ride dozens of times and loved it so I tried my best to distract him and walk through line with him. He eventually made me carry him through the line and then sat on my lap in the ship. Once we got on he had a good time and didn't seem scared at all. What a little monkey! We went across the way and rode It's a Small World. It's always such a let down to see the entry of this ride compared to Disneyland but at least you get the nice air conditioned load/unload area here as opposed to the blinding sea of whiteness in Anaheim. An annoying person behind us taped the whole ride which was fine with me but he had on the big ol' video light which was glaring right into my eyes if I didn't stare straight ahead. We used our Pooh Fastpasses to get around a 45-minute standby wait and enjoyed the ride again. You've got to love the bouncing and the floating sections. Bryce requested the Teacups so I took him in one cup and gave him a really good spin while Jenny and Meg took it nice and slow in another. We had an ice water break then Jenny took the kids to the restroom and towards Toontown while I jogged over to get Buzz Lightyear Fastpasses. It was really warm and humid and my jog left me dripping. The Squeeze Breeze really came in handy. We all went on Barnstormer after convincing Bryce that it wasn't too scary. He enjoyed it of course as always once he was on it. We went to the Toontown Fair Judges Tent for our first line of the day. It was 10 minutes of sweet air conditioned relief. I didn't mind a bit waiting inside. We eventually saw Pooh and Eeyore and got hugs and pictures with both them before going back into the heat. I stopped at the market next to Barnstormer and got a $3 bowl of pineapple that we ate as we walked the secret path from Toontown to Tomorrowland. We didn't saunter as usual because it was just too hot so we hurried over to get Space Mountain Fastpasses. I got in a line with only one woman there but she was a Brazilian tour group leader getting at least 50 Fastpasses. She had a huge stack of tickets that she was plugging into the machines. It was 11AM at that point and I felt bad for the standby people at Space Mountain out in the sun. One of them was a southern dad with a wonderful drawl who asked me if I could explain what Fastpass was. I gave him the full rundown while waiting for my Brazilian friend to finish. He seemed pretty excited to find out he could get a Fastpass and come back later rather than waiting in line. After finally getting the Fastpasses I met up with Jenny and the kids to go on Buzz Lightyear. I continued my pathetic streak of consistently scoring fewer points than my last ride. I was down to 100,000 this time; Jenny had about 30,000, Megan 3,000 and Bryce 1,000. I still love the ride though, what fun. Just wish I could get better at it. I had such high hopes after my first ever ride scored almost 800,000 a couple of years ago. Tomorrowland was getting very busy so we went for a quick ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and then the Carousel of Progress. I sure hope that wasn't our last ride on COP and the rumors of it closing are just rumors. Our whole family loves it and "There's a great, big, beautiful tomorrow" is almost as catchy as "It's a small world". It's a classic. We still had a bit of time before our Space Mountain return time so the girls went on Alien Encounter while I took Bryce to the arcade. This was Megan's first time on Alien Encounter and she did fine. She said it wasn't too scary. We were a little leery of letting her on but left the decision up to her this year. She knew the story and had read the description in the Kids Guide to WDW. We have seen (and heard) plenty of kids older than her terrified by it. This is definitely a show you want to read a little about before you go dragging your scared child into. When the girls were through watching Skippy get fried, they used Space Mountain Fastpasses and bypassed the 85-minute standby line. Then Megan and I took a ride while Jenny waited with Bryce in the arcade. It was a great ride as always but like Pirates of the Caribbean I'll always prefer the Disneyland version. Tomorrowland was very hot and very crowded so we got the heck out of there. We stopped at the Plaza Pavilion for lunch and found a nice table by the water but in the shade. I ordered 3 ice waters, a large diet Coke, a pepperoni pizza meal with salad, a cheese pizza meal with salad and an order of breadsticks with marinara for a total of $16.86. I was entertained in line by a group of young Brazilian kids chatting in Portuguese with a restaurant CM. They seemed so excited to have someone who spoke their language. Megan had the pepperoni pizza and Bryce had a small piece of the cheese pizza. Jenny and I each had a salad then split the breadsticks and the kids leftover pizza. The salad here was very good. I've been really impressed by Disney salads in the past 5 years. Gone are the days of the wilted iceberg lettuce with a few shreds of carrot, cabbage and a package of dressing. I could see the chef preparing the salad fresh as I was waiting in line. There was a nice assortment of greens in it and it was dressed well and interestingly, not just the typical Italian dressing. In retrospect we should have found somewhere air-conditioned to eat. We got right back into the heat and knew that we didn't have much left in us. So, rather than push it we walked down Main Street and stopped for a Mickey premium ice cream bar for Bryce and a strawberry bar for Megan. We walked down to Exposition Hall to check out our Main Street picture from this morning but it wasn't very good so we passed. I remembered Brian Bennett mentioning in his trip reports that this was a nice and relaxed place to see characters. So, we went around the back and found Donald Duck, Prince John from Robin Hood and Rebecca from Ducktales all alone. We had about 5 minutes with them all to ourselves, what a find. Thanks Brian, Exposition Hall was our favorite new experience of the trip. Bryce gave Donald a high five and when Megan tried it Donald spun around and had Meg chase his hand around for about 3 circles. We were all cracking up, what a fun place. We took pictures with all of the cutouts in the back area and the kids had a lot of fun playing with those. We sat down and watched about 2 minutes each of Steamboat Willie and The Band Concert in the cool, dark and relaxing theater. On our way out we saw Mary Poppins along with a penguin and Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). We got a few more pictures and then decided to say goodbye to the Magic Kingdom. On the way out of the park at 2:45PM it was very windy which felt wonderful and it was starting to get quite cloudy. The pedometer said we walked 4.9 miles at the Magic Kingdom today. We went up the resort monorail entrance and asked to sit in the front and were told no problem. Jenny sat in the car behind with the stroller and gear while I took the kids up front. As we approached the Contemporary Bryce was convinced that we were going to Chef Mickey's. I told him it was another night but he just wouldn't hear of it. He was convinced we were going and he was in a foul mood and in need of a nap. Megan said something that irritated him and he purposely hit her in the nose with his elbow! Meg is prone to bloody noses anyhow so this started her up. We were stopped inside the Contemporary and the monorail pilot was out and I was frantically trying to find a tissue. Thankfully my wonderful organized wife had packed tissues in my fanny pack and we got Megan's nose under control. I told Bryce that we were not going to Chef Mickey's today because he hit Megan. Was that terrible to use as a punishment since we weren't going anyhow? What can I say? I was tired and grumpy too. He sulked in the monorail for the rest of the ride but was quiet. On the way to the ticket and transportation center the pilot stopped the monorail because a warning light came on that showed a door open. She looked in the mirrors and called somebody on the ground that confirmed that all doors were closed and we continued on our way after 5 minutes. We got off at the Polynesian and Bryce started to have a meltdown as he realized we really were not going to Chef Mickey's. He had a good cry in the car for about 3 minutes before falling asleep. Megan and Jenny also dozed on the way back to the condo. I took the Osceola Parkway again on the way back and got a good look at the construction of the Opryland Hotel. It's an enormous structure. The building itself looks like it would be right at home in Vegas. I was surprised though at how it really seemed squeezed in on a fairly small piece of land between several highways. Of course the landscaping was still a long ways off so maybe that will help but it was hard to envision it with a nice resort feel. Back at the condo Bryce slept another hour and a half, I dozed for 45 minutes, Meg watched TV and Jenny went to the mall across the street for more socks for Meg and some bottled water. It felt good to cool off and rest up after a bit of a taxing morning. We got cleaned up and left the condo at 5:45 for Downtown Disney. On the way there I was really ticked off by the guy in the luxury car next to us who was driving like a maniac, weaving in and out of traffic, going way too fast, etc. When we pulled up next to him at a stoplight we saw it was a guy about my age with his wife in the front seat and two girls about 4 & 5 bouncing around in the backseat without seatbelts, let alone car seats! Wow, does that get my blood boiling! Please at least buckle up your kids if you aren't going to put them in car/booster seats. It's not only the law; it's your kid's lives you are risking. OK, sermon is over. We got an awesome parking space at Downtown Disney right outside the World of Disney store, which was our first stop. Jenny bought a poster and Pooh picture frame for Bryce's room, Megan got a "How to Draw the Characters from Snow White" book, Bryce got a Toy Story 2 box of stickers and I got the new Official WDW Music from the Parks CD which I love. While I was paying, the kids were doing something cute instead of fighting for a change on the CM told me what a nice family I had. That made my day! I ran the stuff out to the car and noticed that it had rained just a little while we were shopping. I met back up with the rest of the family and we walked over to the Rainforest Café for dinner. I went up to the podium and the people in front of us were told the wait was one hour and 45 minutes. I smugly pulled out my Safari Club card and was handed a ticket to go to the elephant room where we had a 10-minute wait before getting a great table next to the elephants. We had an excellent server, Costas, who arrived right away and took our drink order. Jenny and I each had the quart of Foster's lager and the kids both got Oreo milkshakes. Jenny ordered the China Island Chicken Salad, I had the Plant Sandwich and the kids each got the Jurassic Tidbits (chicken nuggets). The kids didn't each much and could have easily split one milkshake and one meal. We took the leftovers with us though. I somehow made it through my entire sandwich (which is my favorite thing on the menu) and waffle fries while Jenny finished about half of her salad. I was mentioning that the Plant sandwich was technically not vegetarian since the Caesar dressing contained anchovies and Jenny said something about being tired of me obsessing about it so I ate a piece of her grilled chicken out of spite. It wasn't one of our finer moments but it was quickly forgotten and we finished up and left very full. I used the free entrée certificate I had as an anniversary present from the Safari Club and a $25 gift certificate from Milesource. I left $35 cash to pay for the rest of the bill, tax and tip. I left a good tip for what I've found to be rare good service at the Rainforest. They never seem rude, just busy, distracted or missing in action so this was a pleasant change. After dinner I took the kids quickly through the Disney at Home store while Jenny went to the Art of Disney. We met back up at the Gourmet Pantry where I was suckered into buying $2.50 character iced cookies for the kids. Pooh for Bryce and Goofy for Megan. They sure have a lot of fun (and expensive) treats in this store. No visit to Downtown Disney would be complete without a stop at the Lego store so we went and let Bryce run wild in the play area. Meg played for a bit but was pretty tired. We eventually pried Bryce loose after 20 minutes. He would stay for several weeks if we let him. We got back to the condo at 9. Bryce watched TV while I wrote notes for the report. The girls watched TV in the bedroom then fell asleep at 9:30. Lights out at 10 for Bryce then 10:30 for me. Chapter 5 - The Wheelchair Day Thursday, 6-28-01. 85, very cloudy all day with a few sprinkles. Low crowds. We got up at 6:30 and the weather forecast was for a very cloudy day. Our original plan was for Typhoon Lagoon which would still have been fine but we didn't want to pass up spending a cooler day at the Animal Kingdom since it always seems much warmer there with less air movement. So we got the kids up at 7 and made a quick breakfast of eggs, toast and cereal. Meg was very tired and moving slowly. We go to the Animal Kingdom a couple of minutes after the 8 opening and Megan said her stomach hurt. We were worried that she was nauseous again. She had to make a stop at the restroom where Jenny gave her some Kaopectate. Poor kid, at least she wasn't nauseous. She wanted to stay at the park but we were worried she wouldn't last long. We took it slow and went to get Fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safari. Megan was feeling a bit worse so we debated leaving but instead offered to get her a wheelchair (she's way to big for a stroller) and she liked that idea. On the way to get the wheelchair though we stopped to see It's Tough to be a Bug. Bryce was once again scared even though he had seen and enjoyed the attraction last year. He didn't refuse to go and seemed OK with sitting on my lap so we stayed through the show. The part with Hopper seemed to be the only thing that truly frightened him but we held on tightly to each other and did fine. Afterwards Megan and I went back to the park entry to rent a wheelchair ($7) while Jenny and Bryce went to Dinosaur for Fastpasses. Megan seemed mostly just tired and the wheelchair made a world of difference. She seemed to do a lot better when she didn't have to walk. While we were seated near the Flame Tree Barbecue waiting for Jenny and Bryce a bird pooped on my arm. Megan got a very good laugh out of that and it seemed to help her feel better. I got cleaned up with napkins and a nearby drinking fountain. We all went to use our safari fastpasses and bypass the 45-minute standby line. As we got to the entrance I asked if we could take the stroller through the line and the CM said no problem, that there was stroller parking further up in line. So, we also wheeled Megan along with the thought that we would leave her wheelchair there also. When we got to the stroller parking area we tried to leave the wheelchair there but the CM insisted on taking us through the back wheelchair route. We really felt guilty as we weren't trying to get any special treatment with the chair but they insisted. The safari was as awe inspiring as always. There were a lot of elephants and giraffes very close to the jeep and at one point a rhino walked beside and brushed up against where Bryce was sitting. That was exciting. We also saw 3 or 4 cheetahs prowling as both the lions were just lounging on the rocks. After saving Little Red Megan was feeling much better. We really anticipated that we would be back at the condo by now based on how she was feeling earlier but we were all glad she had stuck it out and ended up feeling fine. We walked through the Pangani Forest Trail where it was Jenny's turn to get plastered by one of our fine-feathered friends. She got it much worse than I did but thankfully all in washable areas and we had diaper wipes with us. She had a good sense of humor about it. Along the path we smelled the gorilla long before we saw him. He was having a good time playing with a backpack that I assume and hope was intentionally in there. We took the back path from Africa to Asia with a brief stop at the secret path so the kids could run around it about half a dozen times. As usual there were no other people on the secret path although the back path had a full area of smokers (in the designated place). I was getting very warm and was parched so I got a frozen Coke for $2.50 on our walk. Megan felt fine now and wanted to roll the wheelchair by herself but we kept pushing her and told her to take it easy. We went to Dinosaur and got 4 more Fastpasses on the way into the ride where we bypassed the 30-minute standby line. This was Bryce's first time on the ride and I fully expected him to be scared and I would wait outside while the girls rode. He was a bit nervous but bringing back Aladar intrigued him and seemed to help him get through the ride. I was really surprised at how well he did. Outside of clinging to me a time or two when the carnotaurus pops up he was a brave little guy. Lord knows I would have wet myself and been screaming at his age (or Meg's age for that matter). The ride broke down twice while we were on it. The first time for only about 15 seconds during an intense part and the second time for over 5 minutes as we were the next vehicle to unload. One ride was enough for Bryce and I didn't want to push our good luck in getting him on the ride so I took him to the Boneyard while the girls used the Fastpasses for two more rides on Dinosaur. It was getting much more humid than earlier in the day but surprisingly the Boneyard and the Digsite were not too hot. Just as we were about finished exploring the girls called to say they had finished their Dino-fest and they were hungry. We all met up at the Flame Tree Barbecue and went to the annual passholder lounge there. I wouldn't go out of my way to go there again but it was still a neat little perk of having annual passes. I'd love it if all 4 parks had one of these. They had lots of neat books and a few board games among the comfy chairs and couches. We took the opportunity to refill our water bottles from the water cooler there and made a priority seating for the Sci Fi Drive In for our Studios visit on Saturday since we were switching our itinerary around a bit. We went a bit farther down by the river and found a great table with no one around. I took Megan to Asia to find lunch for her and Bryce after a quick restroom break. She was in the mood for chicken satay so we got that for her and an ear of roasted corn for Bryce. Total of $6.58. When we came back Bryce had to go to the restroom so I took him there and back then finally got in line at the Flame Tree for lunch for Jenny and I. I ordered the fresh green salad and Bud light for Jenny, the fruit salad and diet Coke for me, two ice waters for the kids and a seasoned french fry basket with cheese sauce on the side for everyone. Total of $27.43 Jenny's salad was another very good example of how far Disney has come in their fast food service. It was very good with BBQ chicken in a tomato/parmesan shell. My fruit salad was also great with a huge slice of ripe watermelon, a quarter of a small (and not very ripe) pineapple, a large bunch of grapes, strawberry, lots of cut up cantaloupe and honeydew melon along with a strawberry yogurt dip. It was very refreshing and very filling but I managed to get through most of it with some help from the kids. Once again we thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing meal at the Flame Tree. It was getting quite warm by the time we got moving again and as we wandered by the Tree of Life I decided to get Fastpasses for It's Tough to be a Bug. The return time was for 2:30 though and it was only a little after 1 so we continued over to Camp Minnie-Mickey. Along the way we stopped at the restrooms in Pizzafari where the air-conditioning felt heavenly. As we were leaving Pizzafari I saw the same jerk from last night that was driving recklessly and had the unbuckled children! It seemed oppressively hot at this point and we were starting to wilt. We got to Camp Minnie-Mickey just as the Festival of the Lion King let out and the place was mobbed. Seeing the long lines for the characters we turned around and left. We stopped for frozen orange juice bars for both kids ($5) on the way. We made it to Safari Village where we had to duck into a shop for a few minutes to cool off. We took a quick spin through the Tree of Life gardens where the kids liked the capybarras and thought that it was cool that they were basically big rats. Bryce had to visit the restroom again so I took him back to Pizzafari and when I called the girls we all decided it was too hot and we should just call it a day. On our way out there was a family coming in and they were talking about It's Tough to be a Bug which reminded me of our Fastpasses. I reached into my pocket to give them to the family and noticed that I only had three of our annual passes. Bryce's was missing. Panic! I assumed that I must have left the pass at the Tough to be a Bug Fastpass machine. I held onto the Fastpasses since they had the time listed of when I was at the machine. A nearby CM suggested I go back to the Fastpass machine and ask about the pass. The Fastpass CM there had several passes but not Bryce's. He said to go to guest services and they could take care of it. What a long walk when you are worried about losing a $400 pass! I walked up to guest services dripping sweat from the heat/humidity/worry and entered a calm air-conditioned oasis. I went and explained the situation to the CM who took the other passes while I was explaining and had Bryce's new pass issued by the time I finished my story! It took all of 30 seconds for him to turn around my day and he did it with a smile and a "no problem, it happens all the time", what a typical Disney moment. Megan and I then returned the wheelchair and got our one Disney Dollar refund. Jenny and Megan caught the tram back to the car while I pushed Bryce in his old pack mule stroller. Boy is that thing loaded down but I'm sure thankful to have the ice cold water, snacks, change of clothes for the kids, first aid items, etc. that the lovely missus always keeps on hand. The pedometer said we had walked 7.1 miles at the Animal Kingdom today. We left the Animal Kingdom parking lot at 2:30 and when we got to the condo we had a message that a two-bedroom ground floor unit had opened up. I went and got the key so we could check it out. It was the perfect unit because it was on the end and there was no unit above it. It had vaulted ceilings and was in immaculate condition. The only down side was that it was right in front of the pool. The breakfast nook and all windows looked right at the pools, which were not 20 feet away. The kids would have been in heaven but it would have given us absolutely no privacy and probably quite a bit of noise since the pool closed at 1AM. So, we passed and the front desk said they would keep looking for us. We took the kids to the pool where they had a great time playing in all three pools for about an hour and a half. Bryce was getting very brave at swimming (with the water wings) and neither child wanted to leave the pool. I spent half the time playing with them and the other half writing trip report notes and listening to my MP3 player which has got to be one of the best inventions in the past 10 years. My playlist included Jason Wade's version of You Belong to Me, Rufus Wainwright's version of Hallelujah and the Proclaimers with I'm on My Way, all of them from the Shrek soundtrack which is an outstanding movie and soundtrack by the way (even though it's from Dreamworks). Also on the play list was Off Kilter's Miracle Fingers, Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade which always reminds me of the Boardwalk, Wipeout by the Surfaris and Kokomo by the Beach Boys because they seemed fitting for the water parks, a couple of Tree of Life songs from the Animal Kingdom CD which is excellent, a couple of Rondo Veneziano/Nova Era tracks for Jenny, Yo Ho a Pirates Life for Me, Grim Grinning Ghosts and Everybody has a Laughing Place from the old Official Music from the Parks CD. Back to the condo where our plan was to go to dinner at Bahama Breeze and then shopping at the Character Premiere store at the Premium Outlet Mall. Megan was really tired though and just wanted to stay in the condo for the night and get some rest. We didn't want to push her so no problem there. Instead I packed Bryce up in the car and went to the mall while Jenny stayed back with Megan and did some laundry. Bryce fell asleep in the car so when I got to the mall I put him still asleep in the stroller and got some quality shopping time in peace and quiet. I stopped at a toy store that was going out of business and everything was 90% off. Things were very picked over but I managed to find half a dozen small things for the kids for $3.98 total. I really liked the mall. It's so neat to have an open-air mall like this. We have one back home but it's not the same when it's gray and rainy for 9 months of the year. I found the Character Premiere store and it seemed to be just like the one at Belz which I love. As always I had a hard time not grabbing almost everything I saw because the prices are so good. I used some restraint though because I knew we would be back so I ended up with just a few things. I noticed that some of the same merchandise we saw in the parks was here. Although some of it was not discounted (such as the Official Park music CD) and some of it was (the die cast ride vehicle toys were half price). I got a $.49 River Country bumper sticker, the Animal Kingdom Field Guide $12.95 marked down to $2.99, the Millennium pictorial souvenir book $7.95 marked down to $2.99, an Animal Kingdom baby doll for Megan that had a regular and a lion king outfit and a portable train toy set for Bryce that included icons from all 4 parks and Blizzard Beach. Total damage was only $20.67 On the way out I had to look all over for the van before realizing I was on the wrong side of the mall. Bryce woke up about this time and helped me look for it. We eventually spotted it. On the way home I figured I would be clever and drop down International Drive to either 535 or 192. I forgot that I-Drive does not go North to South in that area. My shortcut eventually brought me out at Seaworld and added 20 minutes to the trip home. On the way I stopped for dinner at where else but Taco Bell. I swear we don't go there more than once a month back home but for some reason it's the staple of this trip. I picked up a chicken taco salad for Jenny, and two bean burritos for me for $6.99. I figured the kids could eat their left over Rainforest Café chicken nuggets. When I got back to the condo I found both girls asleep. Jenny woke up and said the front desk had called and a two-bedroom unit had opened up two doors down from our current place, which would be perfect. I went to the office to have the room switched. Since Megan was asleep for the night and we were all too tired to move we decided to do it the next morning. I go the bill straightened out and we ended up paying $83 per night for the one bedroom unit and then $100.67 for the two-bedroom unit. We were all asleep by 9PM. Chapter 6- The Tube Ride Friday, 6-29-01. 90, warm and humid with afternoon thundershowers. Average crowds. Jenny woke up at 6AM and started getting ready for the move. I went to the office at 6:30 and the computers were down so I couldn't get the keys to the new unit. Once again though the front desk staff was very friendly and helpful. They called a maintenance person who gave me a ride to the unit in his van and opened up the door for us. It was a great unit with lots of space. It was the same layout as the other unit, which was nice, but with a bigger living room and the extra bedroom and bathroom of course. The second bedroom had two double beds and since Megan had been feeling ill for a couple of days and sleeping with Jenny, Bryce and I claimed the second bedroom as the boy's room. It was very nice to have a real bed to sleep on and a quiet area at night where I could have Bryce separated from the girls (since he tends to get a bit hyper and likes to play at night). We moved everything in about 45 minutes and I made breakfast of eggs and toast for the kids. After we got them into their swimsuits and sunscreen we left at 8:15 Megan was feeling good today and that was a relief. We made it to Typhoon Lagoon quickly and parked right up front at 8:35. We were let in at 8:50 then lined up at the bridges for the official 9AM opening. The song playing when the park opened was Glenn Miller's version of Moonlight Serenade. How cool! Jenny went ahead to claim a spot around Ketchakiddee Creek with an umbrella. She snagged a perfect spot and it was not busy at all so we had a good look around the recently remodeled Ketchakiddee Creek, which was very well done. The girls took off for the tube slides while I introduced Bryce to his sister's favorite tube ride when she was still small enough for this area. He loved the tube ride as much as Megan did and did not stop going on it until the girls came back an hour later. He went dozens of times and just had a blast. Jenny took over watching him go down the slide while Megan and I went on one of the tube slides first and then into the wave pool. We swam across the wave pool and she loved the big waves. I taught her how to dive under them. That's my girl. I'll have to teach her how to surf (if I still remember how!) one of these years in Hawaii. Megan really wanted to try Shark Reef so we went there next. This was a first for both of us as well as Megan's first time snorkeling. She did great though. She picked it right up and was snorkeling across the area in no time. I guess that's another thing she will love as much as I do on the next Hawaii trip. She was really excited to see the rays and sharks. One of the sharks was probably about her size. She was proud of herself when we got done and I was so happy we had gone. It was a great experience and much better than I had anticipated. I had read that you are kind of hurried across the lagoon but we took our time across, no one rushed us and we really enjoyed it. I noticed one of those open an oyster and get a pearl stands that seem to be popping up around WDW. What's up with those? I remember them as a cheesy relic from the 70's in Hawaii and to a lesser degree we even had a few back home. Perhaps it's because Hawaii and Seattle have such a large Asian population that the oyster and pearl fad hit many years earlier and is just now coming to Orlando? Meg and I went back to the wave pool where it was just bobbing waves this time. She was chatting so much that she took a couple of mouthfuls of water a time or two and half drowned once. I guess she was excited about her snorkeling experience and to finally be feeling well. It felt good to have my little girl healthy and happy again. We went back to the kid's area and we all ate bagels with cream cheese, Pringles and diet Pepsi. Megan then took a turn helping Bryce down his favorite tube ride. He just couldn't get enough. Jenny said he hadn't taken a break the whole time we were gone. I guess he is going to sleep well later. After Bryce had his fill for the time being of the slide I convinced them to go on Castaway Creek which ranks as one of my favorite attractions at Disneyworld. Bryce and I kicked back in our tubes and relaxed while Megan chatted incessantly. At least she was feeling better! There was a photographer in the creek that took pictures of us. That was new. I noticed there was no longer mist in the rainforest section. The park soundtrack also seems to have changed. It used to primarily be Beach Boys type surf rock and is now more reggae which was kind of a nice change although I love both types of music. The music at all of the parks including the water parks really sets the mood. I wish each park had it's own CD as the Animal Kingdom does. I could float around this creek all day but after two circles around the park in about an hour I figured Jenny would start to wonder where we were. We went back to Ketchakiddee Creek and all played there some more. I love the water cannons they have. You can really soak each other! Bryce of course went down his favorite slide over and over again. I went to the nearby stand for Arctic Dots. I love these things, so much so that I'm glad we don't have them back home or I would weigh 300 pounds. I ordered chocolate for Bryce and chocolate mint for Megan. I got a spoonful of each. I know the dots are common in malls in various parts of the country but we have only had them at WDW and I just associate them with the Disney waterparks. About 2PM we had enough and started packing up. A quick but heavy rain shower started. It was funny to see those of us accustomed to cold rain quickly take cover. We gave our table away to a nice British family and made our way out. On the way back to the condo I stopped for gas. $1.39 a gallon, I wish it was this cheap at home. When I left it was $1.69 per gallon. $21 later, we got back to the condo where Bryce and I had a short nap. At 5:30 we left the condo again for dinner at Bahama Breeze. We were pleasantly surprised to find that although the parking lot and bar were packed, the restaurant wasn't too full and we were seated right away. I love this restaurant. I love the décor, I love the ambience, I love the menu and I love the food. It's just our kind of place. There's one opening up at home later in the year and I can't wait. We had an outstanding server, Micky, who was very friendly and attentive. Both kids got chocolate milkshakes and both parents got our favorite beer in the world, Red Stripe from Jamaica. Megan ordered the mac & cheese while Bryce got the grilled cheese sandwich and french fries. Jenny had a half order of salmon pasta. She asked if the mushrooms could be left out and Micky said no problem. Since we had such a friendly server I asked her advice for choosing between the portobello sandwich and the jerk chicken pasta and she said the pasta was their biggest seller and was very good. I love anything jerk so it didn't take much to convince me. So much for staying vegetarian and low fat but it was well worth the indulgence. All of our pasta was the bow tie variety. Jenny's had pea pods and mine had asparagus and mushrooms. Both were excellent. The jerk chicken was very good since it was thin lean slices of breast meat. It was a great dish but I was a little disappointed that it was not very hot like typical jerk. Still it was flavorful and filling. Jenny's half order turned out to be more like 3/4 of an order. We were all very pleased with our meals. The total with tax and tip came to $55 so I left $45 in gift cards from the short lived Red Lobster Overboard Club and $10 in cash. We got back home at 7:45, relaxed, watched TV and made it an early night. I wrote trip report notes and turned in at 10PM. At 1AM Megan woke up and threw up again, just when we thought she was over whatever illness she had. Thankfully she went right back to sleep and seemed to do fine throughout the rest of the night without further problems. Chapter 7- The Fear Factor Saturday, 6-30-01. 90, warm and humid with afternoon thundershowers. Average crowds. Up at 7AM this morning and Megan seemed to be feeling fine and was in the mood for eggs and toast for breakfast so I put on my short order cook hat and got cracking. As we were going through the morning sunscreen ritual we noticed Bryce's forearms had got a little pink but nothing too bad. I made sure to give him a very good coating today. It really worked out well putting the sunscreen on in the morning and giving it a good chance to absorb before we got out into the sun and/or water. We were out the door at 8:20 and parked pretty close so we walked to the entrance of the Disney Studios. Jessie, Baloo and Eeyore were out posing for pictures but we didn't linger. It was a very warm morning already and we didn't want to stand around in the sun and get overheated this early. We made our way to Sunset Boulevard and lined up for rope drop. The song that was playing when the roped dropped was once again, Moonlight Serenade by Glenn Miller. Wow, the song seems to be following us. Very cool though since it's one of my favorites and seems very appropriate for Sunset Boulevard. I went over to the Little Mermaid with Bryce to get Fastpasses while the girls went to the Tower of Terror. They radioed to say that they had overheard that Rock N' Roller Coaster was not open. I went over there to check it out and they were correct. They were having technical difficulties and I couldn't get Fastpasses since I had just got them for Little Mermaid. I went over to the Tower and asked a CM at the entrance how the kid swap worked and she handed me a Fastpass ticket and told me to come back when the other party was done. Cool, I wasn't expecting her to give me a pass since we weren't all together but I definitely wasn't going to turn it down. It was really hot and humid already so Bryce and I went to the gift shop to cool off with some air conditioning. Bryce chatted for quite a while with a very friendly CM who asked him all about where he was from, how he liked riding on an airplane, what his favorite character was, etc. What a nice guy, he really made Bryce feel special. When the girls came off the ride Megan and I went back around and used the Fastpass and rode with very little wait. We did have just enough time in the lobby for me to show Megan the sign where some of the letters have fallen off and formed a new message at the bottom. Megan thought that was just the coolest thing although she wasn't buying my story that the letters just fell that way and nobody placed them there. The tower was awesome as always. We sat in the front row and did a "sleeping" pose at the part where they take your picture. It turned out pretty funny. We should have bought it. While they were waiting Jenny bought Bryce a "gurglin gutz eye" for $4.24. It was a great big eyeball filled with liquid and you squeezed it to make disgusting noises. Very gross but he liked it. We then went over to the Little Mermaid to use our Fastpasses but Bryce was having none of it. Ursula was too scary and he was not going to see the show. So, the girls went to the show while I took Bryce to get Fastpasses for Who Wants to be a Millionaire. We then went over to the "Honey I Shrunk Myself in this Sauna of a Playground". Actually they had the fans going and with it being pretty shaded it wasn't as bad as it would likely get later in the day. Bryce had fun getting sniffed by Quark after he stuck his arms up Quark's nose. We walked back down to where the character trailers are and got a hug and picture with Tigger. We met the girls there and since we had some time to kill before our Fastpass time we decided to go to the AFI showcase area. This was kind of a neat area because we were the only people there! They had a few interesting pieces but the real attraction was the air-conditioning. On our way out I went ahead and got a large diet Coke ($2.39) at the Studio Catering Company. Jenny called me on the radio to hurry back because painter Goofy had just come out in the Goofy's Paint Barn area and and I had the camera. When I got there the kids were having the best time with him and there was no one else there! They were dancing around together, hugging and just playing. We had him all to ourselves for almost 10 minutes. We got lots of pictures and made some more magical Disney memories. After our Goofy encounter we went to Millionaire and found that we really didn't need our Fastpasses. There was plenty of room and no real crowds when they opened up the theater although it did eventually almost fill up. I was really excited about this and had absolutely no doubt that I would get into the hot seat. My rampant hubris led to an inevitable humbling though when I found out that my unlucky seat #89 did not have a functioning keypad. It always answered 'B' no matter which or even if I didn't push a button. I was further shamed when I missed a couple of the questions anyhow. It was quite a blow to realize that I was not the single greatest trivia master in the universe. The host was very good and made the show entertaining although we all got a chuckle out of her misreading a question about the '1977' movie Titanic. The first person in the hot seat was a young gal (late teens or early twenties) who seemed very shy and nervous. She said she was from Washington State so we rooted her on. She missed out on the 1000 point question though and looked so sad and nervous. We felt bad for her, it didn't look like she enjoyed the experience. We noticed her dad was on the leaderboard throughout most of the rest of the show but he didn't make it to the hotseat. I love this show and think it's a great new addition to the Studios. I could happily see it many times but Bryce didn't have the patience to sit through even one full show (and who can blame him at his age) so this was our first and last visit this trip. During the show Jenny was amused by some totally nervous and neurotic lady next to her who kept up a constant stream of chatter about not understanding the rules of the game, how you got to the hotseat, how the keypad worked, etc. She was like a high-strung toy poodle! After the show I hurried the kids over for our 12:05 priority seating at the Sci Fi Drive In while Jenny went to get Fastpasses for Rock N' Roller Coaster. People without priority seating were being told it was a 90-minute wait and they were being seated at the picnic tables rather than in the cars. We were told we could wait in the bookstore so we hung out there for about 20 minutes. Jenny even got back before they called us so I checked back and they had lost our card even though I had already checked in. They weren't very apologetic and we had another 10-minute wait but at least with the priority seating we were guaranteed a car, which made the wait worth it. The kids both ordered cookies and cream milkshakes while Jenny got a Bud light and we all got ice water. We've never been terribly impressed by the food here but we like the atmosphere so we stick to appetizers and desserts which seems to work well for us. We all shared an order of onion rings and fries. The kids split a kid's hot dog meal and Jenny and I both got the house salad. The salad was excellent with big chunks of blue cheese, candied walnuts, mixed greens and a very tasty dressing. Bryce loved his milkshake and not only drank every drop of his but also worked over some of Meg's when she couldn't finish. The kids were so full from their shakes that they passed on dessert which shocked me since they have both been talking about the cookie monster since our visit here last year. Total for the meal with tax and tip was $38.86. After lunch we ran into some snags with Bryce not wanting to go to any shows because they were too scary. I pleaded with him to go to Muppetvision since it's one of my favorites and he always enjoyed it in the past but he said the Swedish chef shooting the cannon was too scary. I even took him into the Stage One Company store and tried to bribe him with a bag of chocolate coins and Skittles ($3.65) without success. He then nixed Catastrophe Canyon and Star Tours despite liking both of them in the past. It was frustrating but he's still a little guy and I can clearly remember clinging desperately with fear to my dad on Pirates and Haunted Mansion when I was almost Meg's age. Oh well, sometimes I can talk him into certain rides but I never insist or force him to go and this was one of those times when he just didn't want to ride. It put a crimp in our day but it's a stage he's going through and we had to respect his choice. So, we went back down to the Animation Courtyard. All Bryce wanted to do was to see the Bear in the Big Blue House show so I took him there while Jenny and Megan used their Rock N' Roller Coaster Fastpasses. Thankfully we only had a 5-minute wait in the outside line for Bear because it was a seething oven out there. Once inside we had a 10-minute wait for the show to start and we both almost fell asleep. I noticed it was the same host as last year and she was just as perky this time. That's got to be tough to keep up that amount of energy and enthusiasm after so many shows. The show was once again very entertaining and it got Bryce in a good mood again so it was well worth it. It's a cute show and well done but definitely something you can afford to miss if you don't have anyone under 6 with you. Afterwards we met up with the girls (I love the FRS radios) and Megan and I went on Rock N' Roller Coaster. She said she had sat in the last row with Jenny and it was very bumpy and she got thrown around a bit. This time we were in the middle and the ride was very smooth. So, Megan's tip for everyone is that the middle and the front are a much smoother but less wild ride. I love the launch on this ride. It's almost as good as the Incredible Hulk launch at Islands of Adventure. Just when you think you can't go any faster you hit that loop. What a rush, it's a great ride. After hearing "Walk this Way" Megan requested that I put it on her MP3 player. I was proud of her good taste in music. We met up with Jenny and Bryce who had purchased a bunch of Pirate paraphernalia (treasure bag of marbles, eyepatch, telescope, shackles and a Captain Hook pirate hat) for $20.57 It was very hot and we all decided that we had run out of gas so we left the studios at 2:30. The pedometer said we walked just over 5 miles today at the Studios. All four of us took a good nap back at the condo. Bryce continued to nap so Jenny stayed with him while Megan and I took a quick trip to the Character Premier store. She found a bunch of things she wanted but I was really proud of her for going through everything and deciding what she really wanted and putting the rest back. Of course, since she was spending her Disney money that she had saved she had more of an incentive to be choosy but still she's becoming aware of prices and how to stretch her money. She got a really cute vest, a T-shirt and a Little Brother (Mulan's dog) barking beanie baby for a total of $17.99. I broke down and got the coolest Pirates of the Caribbean T-shirt for $8.99 that was less than half price. We went back to the condo, picked up Jenny and Bryce and left again at 5:30 for a visit to Coronado Springs. We always enjoy the Pepper Market as a kid friendly place that's a step above most of the food courts. There was a very friendly host there who chatted with Bryce for quite a while about all of his pirate gear that he had taken with him for the evening. Our server brought out our drinks, Coke for Meg and ice water for the rest of us. Megan got her nose bent out of joint because the ice water came with lemon and she said had she known that she would have gotten water instead of Coke. What a princess! I went to the kid's station and got a hot dog meal with potato chips and a cookie for Megan and a slice of cheese pizza, orange wedge and cookie for Bryce. Jenny got her favorite market nachos and since Bryce wasn't eating much of his pizza and Jen had a ton of nachos I just got a $2 cup of pineapple and cleaned up what everyone else didn't finish. Bryce only had a couple of bites of pizza so I got most of that. He did polish of his cookie and most of Meg's as well (what a sweet sister for sharing). The pineapple was so good; it was perfectly ripe and as sweet as candy. It's my favorite fruit. Jenny's nachos were as huge as always and were plenty for us to share. We should have ordered it without chicken though. Jenny and I are both really picky about shredded chicken and only like white meat. This was a mixture of dark and white so we picked around it. The total for the meal was $24.14 and we were all stuffed. After dinner we strolled over to the Dig Site. They had the area around the pyramid in the pool boarded up so they must have been doing some work on it but it appeared the water slide was still open. We went to the playground and enjoyed the still warm but much more pleasant evening. The kids ran around and climbed while Jenny and relaxed on the swings. It was a beautiful night out. We went into the nearby game room where Bryce soundly "defeated" me at air hockey. He's actually getting pretty darn good at it although he's a little too into winning. After each goal he would say "ha ha!" and pump his fist in the air. It was kind of cute since he was wearing his pirate outfit. Occasionally he would throw in an "arghhh matey!" for good measure. He was really into being a pirate today. I played Galaxian and Ms. Pacman and was transported back 20 years in time. It felt just the same as playing them when I was a teen except now I really suck at them! I could play each of those games for at least 1/2 hour on one quarter back in the day. My feeble attempt lasted about 5 minutes on each but afforded lots of time for Megan and Jenny to giggle at my tongue wagging, foot moving playing style. Hey, Michael Jordan did that and Shaq still does. OK, so I'm not Michael or Shaq but I still had fun. After the girls good laugh at my expense we went back home and saw lots of lightning off in the distance. We were in bed by 8:30 and watched a Vault Disney special on the Disney Channel of Walt Disney hosting the "Tencennial" at Disneyland. I love those old shows with Walt. What a genius, the world doesn't get many of his likes. I was the last one to turn in at 10PM. Chapter 8 - The Virtual Pirate Battle Sunday, 7-1-01. 92, partly cloudy but no rain. Average crowds. I got up this morning at 7AM and shaved for the first time in a week. I was starting to feel like a grizzly bear. The kids had frozen blueberry toast and toaster scrambles heated up in the toaster. Apple cinnamon cheerios for me. We did the usual sunscreen routine and left at 9AM for the Wilderness Lodge. We walked around the lobby for a while which I think is one of the most beautiful places in WDW and a real architectural triumph. We then found our way to the boardwalk and explored it, went past the geyser and made our way over to the villas. What a gorgeous place, I'd love to stay here but not at the current rates. Jenny pointed out how the long hallway of rooms kind of looked like something out of "The Shining", very cool, in a Tower of Terror sort of way. The villas had that typical Disney attention to detail with great elevator doors and fireplaces. We sat in the Iron Spike Room for a few minutes and it was interesting to look at all of Walt's train memorabilia. After we had a good look around we went to the marina and rented two water mice. Bryce and I in one, which seemed kind of burdened by my weight and the girls in the other which seemed much zippier. They sped circles around us but we still had a great time and it was fast enough. Bryce and Meg loved them. We circled around Discovery Island (R.I.P., boy do I miss that place) and went by River Country, which was closed today. We then cruised over to the Seven Seas Lagoon and saw all of the resorts. Megan was flabbergasted at the view from the wedding pavilion. I see a very expensive WDW wedding in my future! We had lots of fun going over the wakes of the other boats and just turning circles. Boating has got to be one of my favorite Disney activities. We were only out for half an hour and the total cost with the 10% annual pass discount was $35.99. It was well worth it and we will definitely do it again. We went back to the car and then drove over to Disneyquest. I was glad that the parking on the West Side is much easier than at the Marketplace. When we got up to Disneyquest we saw that strollers were not allowed inside so we parked ours and loaded up my fanny pack with the kids water bottles and all of our gear. When we went inside our passes didn't work. The CM there was nice and tried several times to get them to work but was very loud and complaining about how Disneyquest is like a forgotten stepchild in the Disney empire and things like this always happen to them. So, she directed me right outside the door to guest services and the CM there said our passes must have been demagnetized and he reissued new ones for all of us. Thankfully the whole process only took 5 minutes. Back inside, the new passes worked fine but we were now behind a tour group of about 50 Brazilian teens. We eventually got into the elevator and enjoyed the neat effects on our way up to the third floor. The kids spotted the Mighty Ducks air hockey tables so they made a beeline there. Bryce beat me once again. They really need more than 2 air hockey tables in a place of this size though. There was always quite a line later to play them. We decided we better go to some of the bigger attractions before things got crowded so we went to the first floor to try Virtual Pirates of the Caribbean but Bryce was too scared. We finally talked him into the Virtual Jungle Cruise since he could see the people on it and how it worked. We had a 5-minute wait and it was well worth it. We all really liked the ride. You get a pretty good workout paddling as fast as you can but it did seem difficult to control where you were going. We all enjoyed going over the waterfalls, getting splashed and avoiding the dinosaurs. Bryce seemed to be warming up to the place so we gave Virtual Pirates a try. He was nervous so I had to reassure him throughout most of our 20-minute wait. When we finally got on our ship Megan decided to be the captain. What a speed demon she was too! She navigated well but did not realize what the throttle was for until half way through the ride. It felt like we were on a hydroplane. This ride is awesome! It's my favorite new attraction we experienced this year. The theme, storyline and 3D are all very good but the game play totally rocks. Blasting those cannons just as fast as you can pull the rope is a rush, you can pump out several shots per second. We loved how you pounded the other boats and the sea serpent but we especially relished pummeling the ghost ship and ghost pirate into submission, what a cathartic experience! Our ship took a lot of hits though and while we damaged a lot of other boats we only sank a fraction of them and got their treasure. We ended up with just under 3,000 points. I could go on this ride all day. After our battle the girls went up to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster which Bryce was too short for so we played on the Lost Treasure of the Incas cars. We had lots of fun but quite a few of the cars and consoles were not operating. It's a very clever idea and well-done attraction but they need to work on the reliability of it. Meg came back with a headache from bending over and loading the blaster then another car would bump them causing her to hit her head. They both said the ride was OK but nothing too special. I decided I could miss it. Being the good husband I am I stayed with the kids (OK, so I had even more fun here than they did so it wasn't much of a burden) while Jenny went back to the condo for some pool time. We waited for an air hockey table to open up and then played several games since no one was waiting behind us. Then it was up to the 4th floor where we sent an e-mail postcard to my sister and played on the internet for a while. The kids were hungry since it was now 1:30 so we went up to the 5th floor and I ordered fries, cheese nachos and a refillable (for $1) mug of diet Coke for a total of $9.17. There were several stations of ice water so I filled up the kids water bottles and after they were done eating I got diet Coke refill for $1.06. The seating area was a fairly relaxed oasis in the middle of the Disneyquest chaos. It would be a good spot for the non-gaming types to hang out while waiting for their serious gaming companions. After our healthy (not!) lunch we played a few of the tabletop video games, rode a motorcycle video game and played skeeball for a long while. The skeeball machines normally take a separate card that you have to purchase but for some reason they were free today although they were not giving out any tickets. We found the photo sticker booths and were going to try them since I had read they were free but they cost $5 now which is the going rate for the machines elsewhere. I was disappointed they were no longer free here so we skipped them. I was too cheap to let the kids play the ticket redemption games that cost extra when there was so much else to do so we went back down to the third floor to the classic games section. I found my utopia here. I couldn't believe how many great classic games they had. I remembered each of them fondly like old friends. There was Space Wars, the very first video game I ever played and was quite advanced for its time. It predated and was vastly superior to Pong which later really started the video game revolution. I played Joust, Defender, Asteroids Deluxe, Spy Hunter, Burger Time, Tempest, Beserk and Moon Patrol. Moon Patrol was the only game that I was still good at but I had fun with all of them. I did get a laugh at how clueless I was on Defender. I could play that game for hours on a single quarter but now I felt like I was trying to pilot a 747 with no clue how to work the controls. The kids played a lot of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man but eventually got bored and dragged me out of there. We went down to the second floor and spent a lot of time at the Living Easels and the Magic Mirror. They were both a lot of the fun and I let the kids play as long as the liked since I got to play my favorites already. We started to do the Radio Disney Songmaker but while we were in the booth Jenny called to say she was back. We met her down at the Treasure of the Incas and played there for a while at Bryce's request. It had been a long day in a frenetic environment and both kids were getting a bit whiny so it was good to have Jenny back. The kids didn't want to leave yet so we went on the Virtual Jungle Cruise again after deciding the Pirates line was too long. We got much farther down the river on this trip and had lots of fun again. Megan really wanted to do the Animation Academy so we went there next where they taught us how to draw Pluto. It was really fun. I was doing pretty well too until Bryce cleared my screen. He wasn't too into it so I left in the middle and took him over to the Magic Mirror. He enjoyed putting long hair, a pigs nose and an eye patch on my picture. We went and saw the girls finished Pluto drawings and they were awesome. Meg's was one of the best among the whole group. It was so neat that we had to buy it and for only $4 which included a certificate and a how to draw Mickey booklet it was a real bargain. As we were waiting in line to buy Meg's picture a group of three people cut right in front of us, some people! I took the opportunity to explain to the kids (loudly enough for the people to hear) why it's important to wait our turn and not be rude and cut in line. We finally left Disneyquest at 6PM and walked around the West Side. I stopped at Bongos take out window and got Megan a croquette jamon, a deep fried little minced ham thing that looked like a small fried cheese stick. It was only $.75 and I should have got a few of them because Megan loved it. We went over to Magnetron and spent about half an hour there. The kids loved looking at all of the magnets. Since we were next door to the Candy Cauldron we had to stop. They were making those Sue Holland chocolate covered marshmallow on a stick things so the kids each got one. Meg had the plain milk chocolate one while Bryce got the one covered in sprinkles. Total of $3.24 for the two. The plain chocolate one was much better than the one with sprinkles according to both kids who shared. Bryce only ate one of the three marshmallows on his stick so I polished off the other two. I didn't like it much though due to the sprinkles. The pedometer showed that we walked 2.715 miles today. We drove back to the condo and decided to spend the evening at the pool. I took the kids there about 7:30 while Jenny went to pick up dinner at where else but Taco Bell. The kids were having the best time at the pool and when Jenny returned they begged us to let them eat at the pool. We looked at each other and said what the heck and were declared the best parents ever by our children. It was a beautiful night out and the kids thought it was a real treat to sit at one of the tables by the pool and eat dinner. Chicken taco salad for Jenny, 2 bean burritos for me, Santa Fe chalupa for Megan and sides of beans and rice for Bryce which I ended up eating most of. I can't believe how many times we have gone to Taco Bell this trip but the beautiful setting of Oak Plantation by the pool, our happy children and a pleasant evening made it a wonderful meal for less than $10. So it wasn't Victoria & Albert's but it suited us just fine. After dinner we went back into the pool (without waiting half an hour, we are such rebels) and the kids played while the R.E.M. song "Nightswimming" went through my head since it was now dark. I finally dragged the kids out of the pool after 9 and we got cleaned up and into bed.
Chapter 9 - The Blizzard Beach Bash Monday, 7-2-01. 92, sunny, humid and hot, hot, hot!. Brief afternoon shower. Average-high crowds. We got up at 7AM and Jenny wasn't feeling too well. She was a bit nauseous but mostly just very tired. We were worried that she might have whatever Megan had. She was a trooper though and said we should go ahead with our plans. So, I got the kids fed, dressed and covered in sunscreen. Bryce was particularly pokey today so it was a bit of a challenge to get ready in time but we left at 8:20 and got to Blizzard Beach at 8:45 to find very large lines already. We were let in about the time we got into line and Jenny went up ahead to Tike's Peak to await the official 9AM opening and snag a good spot while I took the kids and got a locker and a life jacket for Bryce. I also found a house phone and tried to make priority seating for Chef Mickey's for tonight but none were available. While I was on the phone there were 3 obnoxious children running around the phones, being very loud and using very inappropriate language for their age. Their mother was just watching them while everyone on the phones glared at her. We met up with Jenny who had found our usual good spot with a picnic table under a shelter. The girls immediately took off for the slides since it looked like it was going to be a busy day. They went twice on the Downhill Double Dipper and said it was very fun and fast and then went twice on the Snowstormer mat slides. Bryce loved the kids tube ride here almost as much as the one at Typhoon Lagoon. He went on it continuously for the 45 minutes the girls were gone and had a blast. When we all met again we walked up the many stairs to the top of Mt. Gushmore and got in a very long and very hot line for Teamboat Springs. Bryce was nervous about it and wanted me to hold him in line, which made for a very hot wait. It was about 15 minutes but it was worth it for the world's longest family raft ride. This raft ride is so much longer, faster and better than the one at Typhoon Lagoon and the best part is you don't have to carry your raft here. This was the only time Bryce wore his life jacket. I think the ride was a little bit intense for him but he didn't seem upset after it was over. The rest of us loved it as usual. Jenny took Bryce back to Tike's Peak while Megan and I took a quick ride on the tube slide in the Ski Patrol area before going to Melt Away Bay. We bobbed in the waves for 1/2 hour and had a good time keeping cool in the water. When we went back we all had our lunch of bagels and Pringles. We are such creatures of habit. After lunch we all went in Cross Country Creek. There were lots of people in the creek and most of them were relaxing and having a good time but there we a few assorted obnoxious yahoos and teens who were splashing around without tubes. We chatted for a while with three very friendly teens that struck up a conversation with us. They were really nice kids. They asked us where we were from and we compared notes of how many tour groups we had seen and how best to avoid them. Bryce didn't like the ice cold water in the cave and some of the other opportunities to get wet along the way so once around was enough for him. The girls stayed on for another lap while Bryce and I went back and played at Tike's Peak. When they came back I took the kids to get snowcones. $6 later we had cotton candy and bubblegum for Megan and strawberry and cotton candy for Bryce. Meg ate about 1/4 of hers while Bryce ate half of his before it melted and he drank the rest. I can't imagine how sickly sweet that must have been but what the heck, he's a kid. He then worked over most of Megan's which we had put in our cooler and was still mostly frozen. We've probably turned him into a diabetic. Jenny and I then took turns taking Megan to Melt Away Bay to play in the bobbing waves that she loved. Jenny was still not feeling too great and was really running on empty so we left at 2:30 and went back to the condo where she took a nap with the kids. I waited for housekeeping (amusingly titled by Starwood as "environmental service associates") to let them know that we just needed towels today since everyone was sleeping. Everyone had at least an hour nap then got up and showered. Jenny went to the grocery store for a few more things. She ended up going most days because we went through so much water (well over a gallon per day) and ice (3 pounds per day). Right after Jenny left there was a huge rainstorm. It was coming down in buckets. We get a lot of days of rain back home but it's mostly drizzle or light rain. It probably rained as much here in an hour as it does in a whole week of rain at home. Jenny got caught in the middle of it. Tonight we had decided on the Big River Brewery for dinner. We got to the Boardwalk at 6:30PM and it was almost deserted. We noticed a lot of construction going on at the main Boardwalk Inn building. At Big River we got seating right away. The tables were very close together here and it wasn't a very kid friendly place but what should we have expected from a brewpub? Thankfully it wasn't very busy so we weren't too uncomfortable. The menu is very limited but there were some good choices. Jenny and I both got pints of their flyer lager, which was very good. We prefer light lagers so this fit the bill well. For dinner we split a chicken quesadilla and a grilled chicken and cashew salad with artichoke hearts, tomatoes and feta cheese. The quesadilla was small and not very good. The salad was OK with lots of cashews but it wasn't particularly memorable. Megan ordered the kids spaghetti and Bryce got the kids hamburger and chips. We thought it was kind of odd that they didn't have fries but the chips were good. After each child had two bites of their dinner they both decided the others meal looked more appealing so they switched and were very happy. They both cleaned their plates. As we were eating a couple came in with 2 kids and about 2 minutes after ordering they got up and left. They were apparently quite upset about the wait for their food! The funny thing was that we had waited longer than them (but still only about 5 minutes) and Jenny and I had just discussed how quick they were at preparing the food. I felt bad for our poor server. The dad seemed to be giving him a lot of grief as they left. I watched the family as they continued to have an animated argument out on the Boardwalk. What a strange deal since they had only waited a couple of minutes. What did they expect? I made sure to personally thank and leave a nice tip for our server since we thought he did a very good job. Total bill with tip and tax was $41.76. Overall the meal was all right but there are much better choices nearby so we won't be in a hurry to return. After dinner we hopped on a waiting boat to Epcot since we had never gone through the International Gateway into Epcot. We enjoyed our quick ride and thought about going to France for dessert but Jenny was still not feeling too well so we stayed on the boat for the trip back. We then thought about staying on the boat for the ride to the Disney Studios but instead got off at the Boardwalk and went to Seashore Sweets for dessert. Jenny and Bryce had cones of cookies and cream, Megan had a cup of strawberry and I had a cup of chocolate/vanilla swirl nonfat yogurt. Bryce got a tube of mini M&M's and Meg got Nerds for later, total of $10.99. We sat out on a bench on the Boardwalk and enjoyed our ice cream. While sitting there a "mentalist" set up a little table and did a bunch of card/mind reading tricks. The kids really enjoyed watching him. We also saw a guy pedaling a bike that had a piano attached to it that he was playing! I read later in Deb Will's All Ears update that these were new performers who had just started during our visit. We went back to the condo and turned in early so Jenny could have a good long sleep before our big day tomorrow at the Magic Kingdom. Chapter 10 - The Magic Kingdom Part II Tuesday, 7-3-01. 92, partly cloudy, hot and humid but no rain. Average-high crowds. Up at 7AM today and we went through the usual routine. The kids had an assortment of toast, toaster scrambles, blueberry toast and cereal for breakfast. Jenny was feeling back to normal today so that was a relief. We were out the door at 8 but as soon as we got on 192 by the Wal-Mart the police had the entire highway closed in both directions. They were redirecting traffic to a back street but we made a U-turn and went to the Osceola Parkway then up World Drive. We parked again at the Polynesian (yes, I'm a bad person) and took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Despite our traffic detour we still got through the turnstiles right at 9. We missed out on being in the first wave of guests to the attractions but it didn't seem to matter. It was a very quiet morning. We went and got Fastpasses for Splash Mountain then went straight to Big Thunder Mountain. Bryce had been excited to try this for quite a few months but when we started going through line he got very nervous. When we got ready to get into the train he started to freak out a little so I took him across the seats to the exit. The train was less than half full with no one waiting but there was some lady a few rows in front of us freaking out, looking at us and saying, "what are those people doing?" I spent less than 10 seconds getting Bryce on and then off the train so I don't know what her problem was. I guess I threw her Sehlinger Unofficial Guide touring plan off by 10 seconds and altered the course of her entire day. I suppose we once were commando like that too but at least we weren't rude (I hope) to anyone in the process. Bryce and I waited at the exit and when the girls came out Meg and I went back for another ride. We walked right up to a waiting train again which wasn't full. You could have probably gone on this ride half a dozen times before any sort of a line formed. We enjoyed our ride and the fact that it seemed like the crowds were going to be light today. Splash Mountain was next and we got a kid swap Fastpass that the girls used since our regular Fastpass time was not up yet. Bryce of course didn't want any part of the ride so I waited with him in the nearby Pooh gift shop so we could cool off. It was already getting very humid. We enjoyed the rocking chairs and air conditioning. We sat next to a very sweet grandma waiting for her family to return from Splash Mountain. She asked us if we had seen the Winnie the Pooh show and Bryce explained (with some help from me) that it was a ride and we told her about Fastpasses. When the girls came back Jenny waited with Bryce in the shop while I rode Splash with Megan using our Fastpasses. They turned out to be unnecessary though since there was no line at all. We liked our ride and rocked the log from side to side as usual and the people in the front of the boat seemed to get a kick out of it and joined in. When we came back Jenny and Meg decided to use our last two Fastpasses and take another ride on Splash. They later said that there was only a small line and Fastpass still wasn't really necessary. While they were riding Bryce and I went to Adventureland and got Fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise. We then got in the very hot line for the new Aladdin ride. There is no shade here and the sun was blazing and the humidity was high. I was glad to have the Squeeze Breeze along. I couldn't have got through the wait without it. Thankfully we only had to wait through one cycle of the ride before we got on. Jasmine was riding and waving to everyone from her carpet. We sat in the back of the carpet and controlled the pitch forwards and back while a little girl and her dad sat in the front and controlled the height of the carpet. They made sure to keep us on the same level as the camel ensuring that we got spit on often. It felt good though and Bryce really enjoyed the ride. It was a good way to get him started on some rides and over his fear. The ride was very Dumbo-like. We tried to get a Dole pineapple whip but they weren't open yet so we walked back towards Aladdin and heard the girls calling on the radio but discovered that our batteries were going out. Unfortunately, we had forgot to bring our stash of batteries with us today so I had to shell out $6.89 for four 'AAA' batteries at the Agrabah Bazaar. The Tiki Room show as about to start so we went there next. I really like this new version. Iago cracks me up and you have to love that "hunky tuna tostado" line. Bryce sang along and danced through most of the show. We were glad he was in a good mood. I finally did some videotaping for the first time this trip. I kept the camcorder in my fannypack so that made it a little handier than getting it out of the stroller but yet cooler than carrying it around my neck. I can't believe we are 10 days into the vacation before we used it but it's been so hot that we haven't really been in the mood. Also, it seems that each year we tape a little less and take fewer pictures. Our pictures now tend to be just of the kids rather than the scenery. Our Jungle Cruise Fastpasses allowed us to bypass 20-minute standby line. We walked right onto a waiting boat. Our female skipper was very lame and delivered her lines with no enthusiasm or inflection. We noticed how murky, dark and dirty the water seemed to be. Still, I prefer this Jungle Cruise compared to its Disneyland counterpart. We then went to Pirates of the Caribbean, which has a neat queue, but the ride itself is always disappointing to me compared to Disneyland. Bryce liked hearing "dead men tell no tales" and singing along to "Yo, ho". We stopped in the Plaza Del Sol Caribe Bazaar on the way out and the kids loved looking at all the pirate paraphernalia. Megan bought a pirate Minnie and Bryce bought a pirate Goofy beanie baby. Total of $14.84. The magical siren call of the Dole whips was beckoning me in that direction. I stopped and got a veggie egg roll for $2.50 on the way, which Meg loved and ate most of. I then got just one whip for us to share. For some reason I broke my 35-year tradition of pineapple whips and lived on the edge by getting a pineapple/vanilla swirl. It was good and not too much different but I'll stick to our old favorite from now on. I also got an absolutely delicious pineapple spear for a total of $4.24 spent at Aloha Isle. When we finished our snack we walked back the other way to check out El Pirata y el Perico and Pecos Bill's since we had never ate at either place. They were both pretty crowded since it was 12:30 and we decided it was just too hot today to have a big lunch so we kept going. The Kit Carson salad at Pecos Bill's though looked awesome and I'll definitely try that on a future trip. Continuing onto Liberty Square we found the Hall of Presidents and enjoyed the nice cool lobby. They have George "W" Bush's bust on display in the lobby. I guess he will be in the attraction on our next visit. During the show we noticed Clinton's speaking part was gone so it was just Lincoln doing the talking this time. Afterwards we went to the Haunted Mansion and I kicked myself for not picking up a Fastpass earlier. There was a long standby line outside of the covered walkway. It said a 20 minute wait so I got a Fastpass for 30 minutes later. We killed time by looking at the shops of Liberty Square and enjoying their air conditioning. It was very hot and humid out now and we didn't stay outside for long although we did all take turns ringing the Liberty Bell. I'm not entirely sure you are allowed to ring it but we heard someone else do it and figured what the heck. If they didn't want it rung they wouldn't have put in the clapper. When our Fastpass time came up we got in line and realized that we should have just waited in the standby line. The Fastpasses saved maybe 5 minutes of the wait and the Haunted Mansion line always moves so quickly that even a 20 minute wait is not too bad since you are moving most of the time. Bryce was a bit nervous but he enjoyed it once we got into the stretch room and he recited almost the entire ghost host spiel. I can't believe he has that almost memorized. We have a recording of the entire ride though and he listens to it often. I never get tired of this ride and enjoyed it as much this time as I did when I was Bryce's age (probably even more since I'm not so scared of it now). We had finished seeing most of the half of the park that we had missed on our first day at the Magic Kingdom. Since it was sweltering out and we saw lots of kids and families having meltdowns we figured it was time to leave before we had one of our own. We had so much fun at Exposition Hall last week that we decided to stop there on our way out. We saw Prince John again along with Dopey so we got pictures and hugs. Back at the theater the kids spotted the Sheriff of Nottingham kicking back in a seat watching the movie! The kids sat down next to him and had a good time. He made gestures a couple of times like he was laughing at the movie. It was great because there were only a couple of other people around. After a few minutes an official looking CM in a suit came out and jokingly scolded the Sheriff for not being with the other characters. It was once again a perfect place to relax and cool off before we made the exit out of the park and up to the monorail. We got back to the condo around 3PM and had a rest. We left again at 5 for another trip to the Character Premiere store since Jenny hadn't been there yet this trip. I got the Millennium screensaver ($3.99) and a cool pencil holder ($10.50) as part of my ever-growing Mickey Executive Collection. Bryce got a pair of Mickey water socks ($2.99), an Atlantis activity book ($4) and an Atlantis read along book, tape and CD ($4.99). Megan just got nice character bracelet ($2.99) and Jenny got a picture frame ($4.99) and a refrigerator magnet picture frame ($2.99). We made a pretty good haul for $39.69. Jungle Jim's at Crossroads was our dinner destination so we drove over there and found it practically empty. We were amazed. On all of our past March, April and May trips everything at Crossroads was always packed. We were seated right away and had a very friendly server, Renee. She was great and really seemed like she should be a Disney CM. We had a coupon for a free appetizer from http://www.couponsalacarte.com/orlando/coupons/jung062100.htm so we ordered the nachos. They were OK, not great but certainly plentiful and you couldn't beat the price. Jenny had a Bud light, Megan had lemonade, I had a diet Coke and Bryce had water. Since the nachos were so big and filling we shared our meals. Jenny and Megan shared a Monte Cristo, which was excellent. Meg had never had one before and she loved it. It was the relatively light version (not deep-fried). It was huge and filling though and they could only get through about 3 of the 8 pieces of it. I ordered the "Buffaloed" garden burger that had hot wing sauce on it and it was hot! I love hot and spicy foods so it was great but definitely had me sweating. I went through three diet Cokes cooling off. Jenny also had another beer and our server was prompt with the refills every time. Bryce ate french fries from my plate. Actually, it would be more accurate to say he ate ketchup and used the fries as a tool to get at the ketchup. I do believe that ketchup could be considered a beverage rather than a condiment in our house! We were thoroughly entertained by a very big buff guy at the table next to us trying polish off the Headhunter burger, which is a full pound burger with lots of bacon, several cheeses and a ton of condiments and fries. If you clean your plate you get one free on your next visit. This guy started strong and given the size of him I really thought he could do it but once he hit the half way mark he slowed considerably and didn't get much further. We then saw a large family where four people ordered them. It was funny because there was one very large teen boy who looked like he might be up to the task but the other three people were all fairly slight or petite. We didn't get stick around long enough to see if they did it. We had a great meal and really missed the Jungle Jim's that we used to have back home and have since closed. Our total tab with tax and tip was an insanely cheap $30.03. It was a fantastic deal for the amount of food, fun atmosphere and great service we got. We got back home by 8PM and everyone turned in early. I wrote trip report notes for a couple of hours then slept soundly. Chapter 11 - The Fourth of July Celebration Wednesday, 7-4-01. 92, mostly sunny, hot and humid, no rain. Average crowds. We all slept until 8AM then got ready quickly and were out the door by 9. We first went to Celebration to see if we could find out what Fourth of July events were planned. We arrived in the downtown area to find it packed for an upcoming parade so we drove around through the residential areas. The estate homes were amazing of course (and should be for the prices) but all of the different homes were beautiful and charming in their own unique ways. We liked the garden homes a lot and they were relatively affordable (at least by Seattle standards). We drove around for quite a while and dreamed of moving here. After our Celebration tour we went back to the Wilderness Lodge to rent water mice again. Bryce and I went together again and scored with a much faster boat this time. In fact we were able to go a little faster than the girls were. The CM's on the dock were very friendly and fawned over Bryce with his cute Tigger sunglasses. We went the same route on the lake then the lagoon. We also took a while to scope out all of the various beaches around the lagoon to see which would be best for watching tonight's fireworks. We didn't plan on being here for the fireworks but if we found some great hidden spot we might have considered it. We were going to stay out a full hour since they had a special price for that but after 1/2 hour we were too hot to keep going so we decided to go back. There was a long line at the rental counter so the girls went into the lodge while Bryce and I waited to pay for our rental. The lady at the front of the line spent about 15 minutes haggling over renting a surrey bike and where she would be allowed to take it. I have no idea why she made the process as difficult as getting a second mortgage. Some guy ran from the dock and cut in front of me. I politely showed him the end of the line and he said, "I'm just returning a boat" and showed me his slip. I said, "so are all of us in line" and showed him my slip. He sulked back to the end of the line. We finally paid our $35.99 after the AP discount and got the heck out of the beating sun. We left the lodge at 11 and drove to Disneyquest again. We had no problem with our passes this time. We went straight to our favorite ride, Virtual Pirates of the Caribbean, and rode twice with a 10-minute wait each time. I was the captain for our first voyage and did a terrible job! I went into the harbor area and discovered there were no other ships there and I kept bumping into the land. Still the rest of the crew did an awesome job blasting the other boats and we once again defeated the ghost pirate and finished with just over 3,500 points. Jen was the captain on the second trip and did much better than me. We didn't hit quite as many boats although we did still beat the ghost pirate and finished with 3,400 points. We all loved this attraction and desperately wished they would build a Disneyquest in Seattle. Bryce and I went up to Cyberspace Mountain and designed a coaster while Jenny and Megan went to Aladdin. Jenny loved it but Megan got kind of lost and frustrated during most of it although she said it was very cool. Meanwhile Bryce and I were designing our level five (scariest) coaster. We ended up with six inversions and when we met up with the girls Bryce had fun telling them it was really tame and not scary at all! Meg and I then rode it. What a rush! It wasn't as fun as Virtual Pirates or a real coaster but it definitely wins second place at Disneyquest. We were all hungry so we went up to the 5th floor to the Cheesecake Factory. I had three $10 gift certificates from the now defunct E-Tour program and we used one at each of the three stations. Megan ordered the kid's fettuccine Alfredo meal and I got a refill of diet Coke in my mug from the pasta station for a total of $5.83. In the meantime Bryce was having a meltdown over not being able to play skeeball. It was free the other day but now it required the cards that you pay separately for. I looked all over without success to find someone to purchase a card from. We eventually distracted him with the promise of french fries so I got some for $2.07 from the burger station. Our third and final stop was at the wrap station where Jenny and I got a cold Chinese chicken salad wrap for approximately $7. We ended up having the lunch free and getting about $15 cash back from the certificates; can't beat that deal! The food was all very good. The wrap had too much dressing but it was very tasty. After lunch we made a quick exit back to the condo and went straight to the pool to cool off. We had a great time playing in all three of the pools. They were making root beer floats by the pool so Megan got one while Bryce got just the ice cream. It seemed very appropriate to be at the pool eating ice cream on the Fourth of July. Bryce was really getting more confident each time we went to the pool and he "swam" everywhere (under close supervision and with his water wings). There was a girl about 13 years old and a guy in his early twenties that were roughhousing in the pool near the kids and they were kind of ticking me off. About half an hour later I saw the guy at the edge of the pool talking to someone else and the girl was by herself several feet behind him in the middle of the pool. I glanced at her and it looked like she was fooling around again by going under and coming back up gasping for breath. After about the third time under though I noticed that she didn't get a breath when she came up. She did this one more time and I realized that she might be in trouble. Jenny and I were talking and I cut her off and told her I thought that girl might be drowning. I took off my sunglasses and stood up to jump in the pool for her just as the guy turned around, saw her and started laughing. I don't think he realized right away that she was in trouble but he went to her and pulled her over to the side. A pretty good-sized crowd had gathered by that time. Several employees came out and immediately closed the pool and put a bunch of chemicals in it. It was a very bizarre incident. The girl obviously didn't know how to swim and they should never have been fooling around in the pool like that and she should not have been left alone. The whole thing had me kind of scratching my head trying to figure out their relationship. They were different races so I guessed they were not related (although that's a big and very possibly wrong assumption). All in all it was just a weird and scary deal. We went back to the room soon after and cleaned up and then drove to Port Orleans French Quarter for dinner at Bonfamille's only to discover that it was no longer there! So, we tried to catch the boat over to Downtown Disney but they were not operating because there was a storm about to hit according to the CM at the boat launch. He said it would probably reopen in 20 minutes. We thanked him and then walked to the Sassagoula food court rather than wait. The CM came running after us and said he just got word that the boats would reopen in 5 minutes. We thanked him for being so conscientious and running about 2 blocks after us but we decided to still just eat at the food court. I ordered an ice-cold Corona and red beans and rice for Jenny, a root beer and kids hamburger meal for Megan, an ice water and order of fries for Bryce and red beans and rice, a bowl of gumbo and a diet Coke for me for a total of $20.29. Megan loved her two mini burgers. The gumbo was good with a nice deep dark roux and plenty of okra but could have used more seasoning. It was kind of bland for gumbo and would have benefited from some heat. The red beans and rice were a disappointment as they were very bland. We finished up dinner at 7:45 and went back to Celebration. There was a huge line of cars to get in with lots of police directing traffic at every intersection. We finally got away from the downtown area and out on Campus Lane. We parked about half a mile out and then walked to the downtown area. It was completely mobbed. Bryce had gone to sleep in the car so he was now asleep in his stroller and oblivious to it all. It was a fun atmosphere with lots of things going on (bands, food stands, alcohol everywhere, bounce houses, Velcro walls, etc) but it was a bit too frenzied for us. We had to find a restroom and should have stopped at the Market Street Café, which I didn't realize was the new incarnation of Max's Café that I had been looking all over for. Instead we went into the restrooms at the Celebration Town Tavern. Jenny had a very long line at the women's room and as she was waiting some very intoxicated gal came running in and threw up just missing Jenny. We had far too many vomit experiences on this trip so we got the heck out of there and went to a quiet park at the corner of Celebration Ave. and Campus Lane. We sat at the base of a flagpole with Old Glory waving above us and watched the fireworks, what a perfect setting. There were some buildings in front of us so we missed some of the low fireworks but we saw most of the big ones. It was a very good show (not the same caliber as the theme parks fireworks but still better than most towns) and we loved being able to relax in the park, drink our ice water and enjoy the Fourth of July. As they ended we walked quickly back to the car and zipped out of Celebration ahead of the streaming masses clogging the roads behind us. Bryce woke up as I was loading him in the car and asked where the fireworks were. Thankfully there were some going off in the distance and that seemed to satisfy him. We were at home and in bed by 10:30. Chapter 12 - The Jerk Thursday, 7-5-01. 91, partly sunny, humid with a big afternoon thundershower. Average crowds. 7AM found us all awake today and after our morning routine we left the condo at 8. The van needed to be filled up with gas so $24.16 later we were gassed up and good to go. At Epcot we got another great parking spot up front and within an easy walk of the entrance. We went in at 8:45 and Jen took the kids onto Spaceship Earth while I tried to get Fastpasses for Test Track. Unfortunately, it was down and they were not allowing anyone to get Fastpasses. So, I went to the other side of the park to get Honey I Shrunk the Audience Fastpasses but it was not yet 9AM so it wasn't open yet. I reunited with the family and we all went to Honey I Shrunk Audience. There was a CM there who seemed kind of surly. As we were walking into the building she was waving us into the pre-show like there was some sort of rush to get there. She seemed ticked off that we weren't hurrying. We had about a 5 minute wait and watched the true colors slide show. Bryce was starting to get anxious and making noises about not wanting to see the show so I let him sit on my lap during the show. He's seen it many times but near the end he started saying he wanted to leave. I kept him on my lap and made him tough it out. Bad dad! So, much for my earlier sermon about taking your kids out of a show if they are really scared. He wasn't loud though or disturbing anyone and I knew he liked it in the past so I figured he could handle it. Journey Into Your Imagination never seems as terrible as most people make it out to be so we went there next. I do agree that it was a better attraction before the remodel but it's not horrible. The kids enjoy it and I think the butterfly effect and upside down rooms are cool. As we exited we played in Imageworks for a while. The kids liked conducting the music the best. Jenny and I tried to send an e-mail photo postcard but the image was grainy so we skipped it. The kids were having a good time so I stayed in Imageworks with them while Jenny went over to Test Track for Fastpasses. I was watching a guy send an e-mail postcard and noticed that it came into focus later in the process so I called the kids over and we gave it a try. We sent it to someone at work, my sister and Jenny's sister. We met back up with Jenny who was unhappy with me for not doing the postcards as a family. I had forgot that was a tradition for us. I told her we could just go to Innoventions and do another and what would be the difference? I wasn't being very sensitive to how she felt but I didn't understand why she was upset. I then said something that I really regretted as soon as I said it. I told her that I didn't even have to tell her that we had sent the postcard and maybe it didn't go through anyhow and why was it such a big deal? The whole thing started off with me just being clueless to her feelings but then I got angry and when I said that it made her cry. It was the low point of the trip. Making my spouse cry in front of our children made me feel about as worthless a jerk as I've ever felt. The guilt made me feel like an abusive husband. It's not something that I ever want to happen again. We walked in silence for a while and went into the Land Pavilion. I apologized to Jenny and she was OK but I still felt awful. We went to Food Rocks and watched the show while I had a good long think about what I did and how I would try to make up for it and make sure it didn't happen again. After the show we seemed to patch things up a bit and put the whole thing behind us. We tried to go on Living with the Land but the line was very long and the Fastpass time was for an hour later so we decided to leave the Land. On our way out me made the mistake of walking by the food court where both kids whined about needing ice cream. We convinced them we would have lots of treats around the World Showcase in just a while though and that seemed to work. It must have been a sign that things were better because we both agreed to go to Innoventions and do our e-mail postcards. We made a couple of neat postcards and sent them off to a whole bunch of friends and family members and we were all happy again. As we left Innoventions we saw the last few minutes of Kristos. They are amazing with their strength and flexibility and are a lot like some of the performers in various Cirque du Soleil shows. World Showcase was now open so we went there after buying a bag of cinnamon/sugar glazed pecans for $3. They were as delicious as we remembered. Bryce even liked them and he generally does not care for nuts. Our journey started in Canada this time and after looking around briefly we wished that Off Kilter (and all World Showcase entertainment for that matter) performed earlier in the day. We took some nice photos at the garden area. Everyone was getting hungry so we stepped over to the United Kingdom and got an order of fish and chips, large diet Coke and two ice waters ($8.70) from the Yorkshire County Fish & Chips takeout stand. We enjoyed our meal in the completely deserted garden area in the back of the pavilion. It was so cool having this entire area to ourselves. It was really surprising since it was noon and no one showed up during our 20-minute stay. Megan saw Mary Poppins out on the street so I took her over for a hug. After that we all went through the shops. The kids really liked seeing a lot of their favorite books, characters, TV shows and toys that originated in the UK. Jenny and I both wanted to catch Impressions de France so we walked over to France but just missed the start of a show so we continued to Morocco. I really like wandering around this pavilion. There is a lot of great detail and the CM's are friendly. The girls split off and saw Aladdin and Jasmine. Since Bryce wasn't interested in them I took him over and got an expensive ($3.13) but delicious small piece of baklava from the Tangierine Café. Bryce liked it despite the nuts. He ate about half and shared the other half with Megan who inhaled it. My Greek relatives would be proud, both children love baklava, olives, lemon and calamari. Once again it was getting very humid so we went over to Japan for a quick bite at the Yakitori House which always seems to be a cool and calm setting to take a break and enjoy a light meal or snack. Megan was so excited to get her favorite snack, yakitori and rice so I ordered that along with a couple of ice waters and green tea ice cream for $7.11. Megan promptly started devouring the yakitori as usual and Bryce and Jenny weren't interested in the ice cream so I went and got another order of yakitori for $5.04 for the rest of us to share. It was excellent as always. The ice cream was good but I was the only one who tried it. We stopped on the way out of the pavilion to look for rice candy but they said they were sold out. The American Adventure was our next stop and we arrived about twenty minutes prior to the next show. Meg took Bryce around the lobby and read all of the quotes on the wall. After just a couple of minutes American Vibe came out to perform. We all loved them and much preferred them to the Voices of Liberty that we have always seen in the past. They were outstanding and we taped most of their performance. The kids were a bit bored by the American Adventure but once again I liked it and got a bit weepy during the Golden Dreams movie. The picture of Walt Disney got me started but then the images of Jim Henson and Ryan White really got to me. I was able to wipe away a couple of tears and get my manly, stoic game face back on before the lights came up. When we exited the sky was starting to look very ominous with huge dark clouds. We decided we should head back to Futureworld where we could visit some more of the indoor pavilions. Jenny went back to Japan though to wait for the Matsuriza show while I continued with the kids around the World Showcase Lagoon. They were both still in a snack mood so we stopped for a bucket of popcorn for Megan and a frozen orange juice bar for Bryce. We passed by the huge line for the first Blast show and were glad we weren't waiting for that (Jenny later said it was cancelled). When we got to Mexico it started to rain so we picked up the pace. We were headed to the Living Seas but it was really starting to pour so we stopped in the west breezeway between Innoventions and the Fountainview Café. After a couple of minutes it was coming down in buckets and Jenny called to say that Matsuriza had been cancelled due to the storm, she had her rain poncho on and was making a run to us. In a few minutes we saw a blaze of blue flash past the sea of yellow ponchos; it was Jenny going into Innoventions so we called to tell her that we were around the corner. We reunited then the thunder and lightning started, it was a monsoon! The kids enjoyed watching the rain come down so heavily and we rarely get thunder and lightning at home so it was kind of a novel experience for them. When they got bored they went and visited a very nice young CM selling those big balloon/ball things. He was handing them out to all of the kids in the area to keep them entertained. He was having as much fun playing with the kids as the kids were playing with him. I don't think he sold any of the balls during that time but he kept an awful lot of antsy children entertained and I sure appreciated it. I took the kids into the restrooms by the Fountainview Café and they spotted the dessert counter so we had to go over there for a look. Meg was drooling over everything but especially the Snickers cheesecake. I'm glad they didn't have the chocolate toffee pyramids out or I would have indulged. I eventually dragged the kids out of there surprisingly without too much of a fuss and without a purchase. Our wait lasted about 45 minutes before the rain slowed down and we were able to venture out again. We were about ready to call it a day but we all decided we wanted to go to the Universe of Energy to see the show. Bryce really enjoyed it this time and loved seeing Jenny get spit on by one of the dinosaurs. I think the addition of Ellen a few years ago was great and adds a lot of humor to the nice long air conditioned ride. The rain had completely stopped by the time we came out but we were all tired and decided to leave. On the way out we tried to find the ATM that appears to be shown near Guest Relations on the guidemap. We looked all over and then asked a CM who showed us that it was actually outside the gates. We decided we didn't really need more cash though and instead went up and took the monorail ride to the TTC since we hadn't done that yet this trip and we always like the ride. The view is pretty through the pine forests and it's a long ride. Bryce napped in his stroller most of the way. We stayed on at the TTC and made the return trip to Epcot, got off, found our car and went back to the condo at 5PM. On the way home we stopped at an Olive Garden and got a take out menu for later. Nothing looked to appealing though so we just went back to the condo and had a relaxing evening in the room. Jenny went back out to Taco Bell for what I swear will be our last meal there on this trip (although none of us were tired of it yet). She got the usual assortment of items for $6.90. After dinner we were going to go over to the arcade but it was raining again so I made trip report notes while Jenny cleaned up the condo as fast as the kids could mess it up. We all fell asleep around 9PM. Chapter 13 - The Kid's Favorite Feast Friday, 7-6-01. 92, sunny and humid with no rain. Average crowds. 7:30AM arrived and found us all awake today. We leisurely got dressed, fed and sunscreened then went to the pool by 10. Once again we played in all three pools and had a lot of fun. I spent quite a while working on the trip report, Jenny relaxed in the sun and the kids spent so much time in the pool I'm surprised they don't have gills now. Megan also made a new friend, which didn't go over too well with Bryce. He didn't like being the third wheel and he was kind of a pill for a while but he eventually joined in their fun. Meg's friend was nice but her mother was a chain smoking, totally neurotic New Yorker who talked/shrieked loudly on her cell phone for half an hour. We had our lunch of tuna sandwiches and the ever-present cans of Pringles. It was very warm and humid and we tried to videotape a couple of times but the "dew indicator" on the camcorder kept turning the darned thing off. It was very nice to be able to jump in the pool every so often, play with the kids and cool off. We eventually netted our two fish about 2PM and dragged them back to the room for showers. After cleaning them up I decided to take them to the All Star resorts so Jenny could have some time to start the ugly chore of packing. We went to All Star Movies and I took all of our accumulated change to spend in the arcade. We played lots of the games that dispense tickets and didn't do particularly well on any of them but we had fun trying. As I was following the kids around at one point I noticed a guy staring at me. I looked at him and he continued staring so I stared back at him with my "I'm a big, scary looking guy you don't want to mess with" look. I saw him a couple of minutes later with his wife and daughter and he came over and gave me 70 tickets and said they had to leave and we could have them. Seemed like a nice guy. Boy, did I feel like a jerk for giving him the evil eye. We cashed in the tickets for the typical bunch of junk but the kids loved it. We went outside and took a walk around the pool then went over to Andy's room. It was very hot out and I could tell it was getting to the kids because they didn't even want to stop at the playground we passed. We spent some time looking at the Toy Story characters then went back inside to the gift shop so we could cool off. We didn't find anything interesting so we hopped back in the van, cranked up the air conditioning and drove around each of the All Star resorts. Each is nice in its own way and for the price you pay but just not our style. We drove back home and Bryce popped Meg's whoopee cushion she got at the arcade so a sibling battle erupted. This was the third whoopee cushion of hers he has broken so I can understand her being upset. It was 5PM when we got back to the condo. We picked up Jenny and then went right back out to the Contemporary. The guard just showed us where to park and didn't give us the three-hour pass or question why we were there. Our priority seating for Chef Mickey's was still a while off so we went to the arcade to spend the rest of our quarters. We played lots of air hockey. Jenny played a racing game and was in the zone. She would have out raced Jeff Gordon on that machine. She played for about 10 minutes on the same game. Looks like we will have to send her to the Richard Petty Driving Experience at the Disneyworld Speedway on our next trip! Eventually we wandered up to Chef Mickey's, checked in, got our pager, had our picture taken, visited the restroom then sat and waited for 5 minutes for the pager to go off. While we were seated on the circular couch Goofy sat down on the other side and scooted over very slowly so Bryce didn't notice him. Eventually Goofy was right next to him and Bryce looked up and got a big surprise. That was fun and got the dinner experience off to a great start. We were seated in the section straight behind the restaurant entrance. We had never been in there before and were a little worried we wouldn't like it as much especially since we were at a table instead of a booth. It turned out to be a great spot. The table was along the back wall and there was plenty of room between the tables. We had a friendly server (Judy) who brought a Bud light for Jenny, Sprite for Megan, diet Coke for me and water for Bryce. I took the kids to the buffet first. Bryce took a little of everything from the kid's section and Megan did the same as well as trying quite a few of the regular items. I loaded up on the Parmesan mashed potatoes, salad, grilled vegetables and a delicious pasta dish with mushrooms in a creamy pesto sauce. I was trying to go vegetarian for the meal since I had lapsed several times during the trip but the call of the worlds greatest chicken fingers was too strong. I loved those on our previous trips. I tried it and it wasn't that fresh though. I can live without them now. When we came back Jenny took her turn through the buffet and got similar items. She also tried the prime rib and said I didn't miss much, it wasn't very good. We had a great meal as always. The food was good and the character interaction and liveliness of the restaurant make it a kid's paradise. At home I take the kids out every Thursday (Kid's Night Out) to give Jenny some time alone to pay bills, do laundry, chores, etc. We go out to wherever they want for dinner and then some fun activity like a park, arcade, mall, museum or movie afterwards. Invariably when I tell them they can go anywhere they want for dinner on Thursday they say Chef Mickey's and I have to explain the 3000 mile one way trip isn't going to happen. Anyhow, Chef Mickey's is their favorite restaurant and they talk about it all year long. The napkin waving was a big hit with the kids and we saw each character (Chip, Dale, Mickey and Minnie) twice before dinner was through. There was a big table across from us that included a group of teenage boys. As Chip approached them one of the boys said, "look, here comes the hamster". That got Chip's attention! He stood the kid up and marched him over to the corner and made him stand there. His parents were cracking up and his buddies were almost crying with laughter. The kid tried to leave a couple of times but Chip would always catch him and shake a finger at him or coming running clear across the restaurant to put him back in the corner. Chip eventually let him go back to his seat after a thorough scolding. It was very funny. The desserts were great. I got a slice of key lime pie, which was very good, Megan got a slice of cheesecake, which she loved and Bryce and Jenny had ice cream sundaes with nuts and M&M's. The kids also did the cupcake thing. They like the idea of making your own cupcake much more than the actual finished product. Neither of them ate very much of it but they had stuffed themselves pretty full earlier so who could blame them. Our total bill with tax and tip was $84.05. It was 7:30PM when we left the restaurant and we walked over to the monorail and told the kids we were going for a ride. We got off at the Magic Kingdom and they were full of questions about what we were doing but Jenny and I wouldn't tell them. We went to the train station and hopped on for two complete circles around the park. Jenny brought out two of those lighted spinning character toys that they sell in the park at nighttime. Megan got a Sorcerer Mickey and Bryce got Winnie the Pooh. It was just getting dark so they really liked playing with their new toys and declared Jenny "the best mom in the whole world". We noticed that the park was very busy tonight. After our two laps of the park we got back off on Main Street at 8:45 and lined up in a great spot behind a couple of strollers and wheelchairs for Spectromagic. None of us had ever seen this parade before but we all love the Main Street Electrical Parade so we were eagerly awaiting this. We were able to sit on the ground and have a great view. The kids were really excited to see it. It was very humid waiting in the crowd but Jenny had packed ice cold water for all of us and our wait wasn't too long. Spectromagic was very good but it didn't hold a candle to the Electrical Parade. I guess it's just one of those things where we all grew up with the other parade so you get pretty attached to it. It was well worth seeing Spectromagic though and it was a fun and relatively rare evening in the parks for us. Since the parade started on Main Street we were able exit ahead of all the streaming masses out of the park. We further lucked out and got on a waiting resort monorail while a huge line developed for the express monorail. We got back to the van and stayed ahead of the crowds with smooth sailing all the way back to the condo. We were in bed by 10PM and asleep soon after. Chapter 14 - The Last Day Saturday, 7-7-01. 92, sunny and hot with no rain. Average crowds. We were up at 8 today and after going through the morning rituals we left the condo at 9 bound for River Country. We parked at Fort Wilderness and took the bus to River Country. We were a bit early for the 10AM opening so we walked over to the Trails End Buffet and looked around inside to decide if it was worth a visit on our next trip. It looked nice enough and the prices were very reasonable so we will probably give it a try. We wanted to get a good spot again at River Country so we lined up about 10 minutes early in the hot sun. It was not yet 10AM but this was probably the hottest I had been during the entire vacation! Our Squeeze Breeze was working overtime. We finally got into River Country, got a great spot, then jumped into the water to cool off. That's more like it! I relaxed with Bryce in Kiddie Cove while Jenny and Megan went straight to all of the slides. When the girls returned Megan and I went on all the slides. The line was really getting long for the tube ride so we only went on it once. We went back to Kiddie Cove and I found a lifeguard to tell them the area music hadn't been on yet this morning. She kind of shrugged her shoulders and didn't seem too interested so I later as I saw an "activity coordinator" walking by I stopped and told him. He jogged off and in a few minutes the music started. River Country is just not the same without the music! We had our usual lunch of bagels with cream cheese and Bryce once again shared a Pringle or two with the rest of us. After lunch we spent a couple of hours in the big pool which was pretty crowded but lots of fun. Goofy went down the Slippery Slide Falls, which drop you about 6 feet above the water for a big splash. He got a thunderous round of applause from everyone watching. Jenny then went on it and managed a small, professional diver-like splash. I took a turn and looked like Keiko doing a belly flop. I'm not sure but a Tsunami warning siren might have gone off while I was under water for what seemed like 2 minutes. It's a fun slide but it does beat you up a bit. I was flabbergasted at the family in front of me that sent their son who couldn't have yet been 3 down the slide. The dad went first then the mom sent the son down who had on a life jacket at least but I couldn't believe such a small child was on this thing! About 2:30 we had our fill and we packed up and went back to the condo. Bryce was napping by the time we got home and Jenny wanted to finish packing so she stayed with Bryce while Megan and I went back out. I had told Jenny we would be back in two hours to pick them up for dinner so I told Megan we could do whatever she wanted in that time. We talked about some options and she was most interested in the Disney Studios so we went there. We parked in the very last row but there was a tram waiting and we got into the park pretty quickly. It was still very warm and humid out but thankfully it was getting overcast and very windy. That helped to make walking quickly through the park bearable. Our first stop was Rock N' Roller Coaster. We were going to get a Fastpass and then do Tower of Terror but the Fastpass was for about an hour away and the standby line said 20 minutes so we just got into the standby line. I hated not using Fastpass but it did turn out to be almost exactly 20 minutes until we got into our limo. We sat near the front this time and had another great ride. We assumed that we wouldn't have time for Tower of Terror but we went over there and they had the frequent "13" minute wait listed so we got into the standby line and it was about 10 minutes until we got on. We both loved the ride and it was a fitting goodbye as our last ride and last visit to a Disney park this year. We had gone on both attractions in just over an hour so we felt fortunate that the crowds were low today. I was really happy to have some special time alone with my beautiful girl on two of my favorite rides. We hustled out of the park since we were running short on time and we caught the tram after a couple of minutes waiting. I'm always amazed at the clueless people who run up to the tram as the CM's are saying "no more boarding" and hold up the tram. Just as we were finally about to go a woman walking by stopped and asked the driver a question that required a long answer. We finally got moving, found the car and made our way back to the condo. Jenny and Bryce were waiting for us so we all hopped in the van for our first visit to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was nice taking the Osceola Parkway all the way to the Lodge itself. The landscaping as you approach the lodge really sets the mood. It wasn't hard to imagine that you were in Africa. We parked and went into the lobby and everyone thought it was beautiful and similar in scope to the Wilderness Lodge. It didn't have that same jaw dropping grandeur though as the Wilderness Lodge. Its appeal is subtler I think. The more we explored the more we appreciated it. The suspended bridge way up over the lobby was a neat idea and the huge windows facing out to the savannas were spectacular. We found our way down the first floor and located Boma right at our priority seating time. We had just a 5-minute wait before our pager went off. The host that led us to our table was so friendly. He picked out a bunch of crayons for each child from a huge basket and gave them each a couple of coloring pages and explained the kids buffet to them. He then told Jenny and I about the rest of the buffet and some of the wines they are known for. We were seated at a fantastic table right next to the buffet. Our server, Beverly, was very friendly and encouraged us to try everything and not pass up anything because it sounded too exotic. We told her that was what we were most looking forward to and that even the kids were very adventurous diners. She brought out a diet Coke for me, Sprite for Megan and Safari Amber Draft for Jenny. I took the kids up to the buffet first and we were amazed at the variety of foods. It was really neat to be able to see all of the chefs and others preparing the food right in front of us. It was definitely not the typical steam table type of buffet. They were continually making new dishes, putting them out and taking away the old ones. Everything was so fresh it was great. The kids took a little of a lot of different things but stuck with some old favorites from the kid's buffet. I got a bowl of mulligatawny soup that was excellent and worked on that while trying to get Bryce to behave. He was kind of a pill tonight and not wanting to sit in his chair and eat. Jenny went through the buffet but didn't get too much past the salad and bread stations. She came back with some fantastic looking salads including one with a delicious chili and lime dressing. She also tried some of the African breads along with hummus and some other spreads that were all delicious. As I was about to go through the buffet Bryce took the opportunity to spit out a meatball from his spaghetti which then rolled on the floor. He was not making this a fun meal! We reminded him of the need for good restaurant manners especially if he wanted dessert. I went up to go through the buffet and I heard a crash of breaking china. It was Bryce! He had accidentally knocked his bowl of fruit onto the floor. Our waitress came right over and cleaned it up. He was upset because he lost all of his strawberries so I took him back up to the buffet but all the strawberries were gone. He wasn't very happy about that and started crying and was on the verge of a tantrum when a very sweet CM from the buffet asked him what was wrong. When she heard she got one of the plastic kids bowls (which I wish I would have seen originally) and went in back and came back with a full bowl of strawberries. She was very kind and talked with him for quite a while and averted what was turning into a potential meltdown. I got him settled and finally did some serious buffet cruising. I ended up with some of the salads and breads/spreads Jenny had as well as two more bowls different soups. The vegetarian station had lots of great items and I stuck mostly too that. However, when I saw mahi-mahi in a blackened chili and pumpkinseed crust I had to try it. It was awesome. The fish was moist, flaky and delicious. It was very spicy. I was surprised at how much heat was in the spices. Again, it wasn't your typical buffet fare. I thought the soups were the best part of the dinner (and I liked everything). There was a coconut curry that was so good I considered trying to sneak the whole kettle of it to our table. Jenny and I both loved it. I also had some excellent seasoned roasted potatoes and other mixed vegetables. After we had stuffed ourselves silly we decided that we couldn't leave without trying the desserts. We had to try the infamous zebra domes and they didn't disappoint. They were so good. Kind of a chocolate mousse texture with hints of Kahlua and a crispy cookie crust. I had two of them and then finished Bryce's! So much for the diet tonight! Meg, our cheesecake (and pumpkin pie) lover, was thrilled to find little pumpkin cheesecake tarts. I lost count of how many she had. We all liked the shortbread fruit tarts also. The selection of desserts was great and we tried many things. We paid our bill of $75.31 with tax and tip and left the restaurant fat and happy. The buffet was definitely a new favorite for both Jenny and I. The kids liked it a lot and had they never been to a character buffet I'm sure it would have also been their favorite. I liked it so much that as we were leaving I videotaped the whole thing so I could remember what all of us ate. Here is the list although it doesn't include the main hot entrée and carved meat stations. Kid's station - Chicken tenders and fries; spaghetti and meatballs; mac and cheese Vegetarian station - Vegetable lentil kafta; stir fried vegetables; potatoes with Afritude; Moroccan vegetable stew; creamy spinach casserole; fufu Soup station - Mulligatawny; saffron rice; Moroccan seafood stew; coconut curry chicken stew; spicy lentil; oxtail stew; 3 bean gumbo with sausage Salad station 1 - Avocado, grapefruit & papaya; melon salad with port; fried plantain corn salad; cous cous salad Salad station 2 - Pasta salad; kool slaai; black eye pea salad; watermelon rind salad; fennel smoked fish salad Fruit station - Grapes; strawberries; pineapple; honeydew melon; canteloupe Salad station 3 - Balsamic vinaigrette; apple vinaigrette; potato salad; mango vinaigrette; chili cilantro vinaigrette; mixed field greens Bread station - Lots of breads and delicious spreads Dessert station 1 - Banana bread pudding; crunch N'dizi Dessert station 2 - Tropical fruit tarts; vanilla sauce; zebra domes Dessert station 3 - Chocolate mousse crunch; pineapple cashew cake; pineapple spice cake; passion fruit meringue; guava jam squares; tamarind cake with caramelized bananas Dessert station 4 - Pumpkin cheesecake; brownies The rest of the evening was devoted to exploring the lodge. We went outside to see the pool and were impressed by the size of it. It was also cool how the bottom was a green color rather than the typical blue. The green shade really made it fit in with the rest of the surroundings. We strolled out to one of the savannas but the large playground distracted the kids so they played there while Jenny and I looked at the animals. There were lots of them out. Many gazelles, zebras, giraffes, and other grazing animals that I have forgot the names of! The setting was spectacular though. We looked longingly up at the top floor and the huge suites up there with sweeping views of the savanna. That must be the life! We wandered around to another savanna and looked at more critters. There were very few people around so it seemed like we had the place to ourselves. As we eventually walked back to the lobby we saw the African storytellers out by the firepit. It looked and sounded interesting but it was quite crowded and appeared to be finishing up as we walked by. We went into the lobby to explore it more. I liked the comfortable outdoor lounge type areas near the stairwells. The kids spotted the TV in the lobby, which was playing Toy Story 2 so they parked themselves in front of that while Jenny and I took turns exploring. We reluctantly left the lodge and Disney property for the last time this year. Actually I tried a different route out of the lodge parking lot and ended up coming to a dead end. When I went back to where I came from there was a gate and I had to buzz the guard and tell them I had went the wrong way. Megan and Jenny got a laugh out of that. Back at the condo we finished cleaning a few things up and prepared for our departure the next day. We were all asleep by 10PM. Chapter 15 - The Farewell Sunday, 7-8-01. Everyone woke between 7 and 8 today and we were in no hurry so we leisurely got ready and ate breakfast. We did a pretty good job finishing most of the food we had brought with us or bought during the trip. I went to the front office and checked out. They were just as friendly and helpful as always. I'm going to miss this place even if we do end up staying on Disney property in the future. The only real drawback is the distance to the parks, which for us wasn't a problem. The total bill came to slightly less than $1,500, not bad for 15 nights. The nice part was that local calls and calling card calls were free of charge. The only additional charge on our bill was the $2 for the kids root beer floats on the 4th of July. We were all ready to go at 9 and since our flight did not leave until 11:20 we took a quick drive out to Celebration for a last look around the downtown area. We just drove through to see everything in the daylight since it was so packed when we were there on the 4th. We didn't stay long because we wanted to get to the airport in time so we caught the toll road that runs to the airport. After driving for quite a while I discovered that I had missed a turnoff for the airport and gone about 5 miles out of the way. I eventually found the right way but was a little concerned about the time. Now here's a piece of marital advice for men. Don't ever forget to fill up a rental vehicle with gas before returning it. I frantically looked for an exit with easy access to a gas station but I knew there weren't any around the airport. I had fully planned to fill up at the station by the condo but had forgot. With a sinking feeling in my stomach I told Jenny about it and we decided that we would just have to take the car back and live with whatever price they charged us. I eventually got to Dollar and proceeded to get gouged at $4.50 per gallon. They must just estimate how many gallons, which in our case was 10. The additional $45 put me in the doghouse with the missus for a few minutes and I got the silent treatment. For a change though I was smart and kept my mouth shut and all was forgiven but not forgotten, she still loves to tell the story to anyone who will listen. Thankfully we had a very quick car and then airline check-in and we were at our gate about 45 minutes prior to departure. It was a very short wait until boarding started and we left just a few minutes late. I'll spare the boring details of the flights home. They were fine. The kids did OK. The Detroit airport is not nearly as nice as Minneapolis but we had a fairly short layover. We arrived on time at Sea-Tac and as we got off the plane and went towards the escalators we ran into my Mom and stepfather. The kids let out a big squeal and ran to them. Lots of hugs and kisses ensued. The kids were then really blown away to see my sister (Sonya) and her husband (Dom) who are the kids godparents and favorite aunt and uncle. They live in Tucson and had been up visiting. Unfortunately, this was our only chance to see them on their visit but at least we got to see them. We can't wait until they move back to the area next year. We all went down to the baggage claim and found our two bags right away. Our new suitcase, which had been damaged on the trip down, was even further damaged now. We were all tired and just wanted to get home but my mom said we should really go to the Northwest baggage office to file a claim. Of course she was right but it was hard to not just go home. Jenny and mom went to the baggage office while I went to get the shuttle to pick up the car. Sonya and Dom stayed with the kids. Jenny and I each had our FRS radios and we kept in contact about our progress. I quickly picked up the car (approx. $120) and she quickly got a brand new replacement Skyway piece of luggage that was bigger and nicer than ours that was damaged. She said it was a hassle to unpack the old suitcase and repack, although she just threw stuff into the new suitcase but it was well worth it to have a nice new suitcase for our damaged one. I met everyone at baggage claim, we loaded up with lots more hugs and kisses all around and we made the hour drive back home. It was a bright sunny day and still light out so it was nice to let the kids play outside while we got the house back in order. Epilogue If you've made it this far in my magnum opus I'm amazed. Thanks for your patience in this verbose, and I'm sure at times, sleep inducing account of the minutiae of our trip. There were a few low moments but overall it was another fantastic family vacation. Shortly after we returned home, the airfare to Orlando dropped to $149! I'm amazed that you can fly across the country for that amount. It's too bad those fares aren't valid all the way through to our trip next April. It got me thinking about a trip over Thanksgiving. Later the heavily reduced annual passholder rates for most of the on site properties came out and really tempted me. All of the sale airfares were gone by that time though for Thanksgiving so it looks like it will be April 6th through the 21st for our next trip. Hopefully there will be a great rate at the Wilderness Cabins and we can have our first on site stay. If you have any questions or comments about the trip report please feel free to e-mail! Lance Caros lancar@netzero.net Mail a Comment to Lance Caros |
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