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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 |
