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Amy Gourley -- March 2001 -- Walt Disney World (ASMuR)
The Plan I found out probably last August or September that my friend would be getting married in Tampa on March 2. I was excited about the wedding but also about sneaking a few days at WDW in. We decided to fly to Tampa Thursday night, spend half of Friday at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg (I've been wanting to go there for a long time) and the other half at the bridal shower (me, Jason will probably sleep) and rehearsal dinner at Ryan's Steakhouse near the hotel. Unfortunately, it's a Friday during Lent, so I'll have to have fish or pasta. We are staying at the Wingate Inn in Tampa. All day Saturday is the wedding and we will leave Saturday night for Orlando. We decided to stay at the All-Stars since we were only vacationing for a few days. We wanted All-Star Movies but when we called they were already booked for those dates. I decided that I wanted to stay at All-Star Music since I already had stayed at Sports. Fortunately, we were able to book a room for 3 nights there. We decided to only do MK and Epcot, hitting MGM only for RRC and ToT. We only have two priority seatings for dinners at the San Angel Inn and the Kona Café. We've had lunch at Mexico the last few trips and decided to try dinner there. We have heard good things about dinner at the Kona Café, especially the desserts. Our other plans are an e-ride night and the MSEP, my favorite Disney parade. I want to go to the Pooh store at DD to look for Piglet merchandise and probably World of Disney just to look around. We also want to go to DQ, Jason to play PoC and I want to play the Inca jeep game. Maybe a little time at the Adventurer's Club and the Comedy Warehouse too. We'll see how our trip goes. Our priorities for flight times were to leave late Thursday or early Friday, and return late afternoon Tuesday. Living just outside the DC beltway near Alexandria, VA, we always prefer to fly in and out of Reagan National (DCA), although Dulles (IAD) or Baltimore Washington (BWI) are also acceptable. Considering our destinations, we also preferred to fly into Tampa and out of Orlando. Of course, getting a great price is important too! After keeping an eye on travelocity.com since December and drooling over the $99 round trips that were only valid up to the middle of February, we finally settled in for $180.50 per person round trip. We found that flying in and out of BWI is always cheaper than DCA or IAD, but more so leaving BWI. So we fly out of Baltimore late on Thursday, and arrive in Tampa just after midnight. We then fly out of Orlando on Tuesday around 6 PM, arriving in DCA around 8PM. So we get to experience 4 different airports in one trip! To get from home to BWI, we are going to do a one way car rental for a couple of hours from DCA (which is easy to get to by walking to our nearby Metro station and taking the train) using Dollar which we will return at BWI. Total cost will be about $45 (including taxes/fees), similar to airport transfers except we get to set our own time leaving home and don't have to ride all around the greater Washington DC area picking up other passengers. It seems so strange to me renting a car just to drive to Baltimore! Ground transport in Florida will be via one way rental from Dollar out of Tampa returning at Orlando. Using the KISS code mentioned in numerous trip reports, our rate is $23.99 per day, plus taxes/fees. Day 1-2 We decided that the fastest, cheapest and most flexible way to get from our home to BWI airport, about a 50 minute drive away, was to rent a car from National airport, and return it there. So after Jason got home from work, he took the metro (subway) to National Airport. Following the directions to the Dollar rental counter, he got on a bus, which drove him in a circular route for about a mile, dropping him off about 1000 feet from where he started. He waited about 10 minutes to take this ride. Oh well, live and learn. He got the car (no choice, a 2000 Neon, which he would have wanted anyway) and noticed that they are very security conscious there. They walked him to the car, made sure he got in the right one, and then stopped again right before leaving the lot to inspect the car for about 3 minutes to make sure it is the right one. Quite a contrast to the Tampa experience described below. We got out the door a little late, and arrive at BWI airport about 50 minutes prior to the departure time. We enter the car return area and got lost as we missed the little tiny sign the said where to go for Dollar returns. After parking we had to wait about 5 minutes for the guy with the computer to come to check us in. Unfortunately, because we had rented the car only a few hours before, we were not in the portable computer and would have to go to the main counter to finish the process. Luckily to get there we only had to take a short ride on a courtesy shuttle, and found the counter after only getting lost twice. We waited in line for five minutes, explain the situation to the counter clerk, she looked confused and started typing. And typing. And typing. And calling the rental counter at National Airport. With only 25 minutes until departure at this point, Jason asked if we were still needed for the process. She said no and she would mail the receipt to us. So we left. This worked out well, total cost about $45. We got the USAir check in counter at about 9:05 for our 9:25 flight, and were disappointed not to see e-ticket check-in. We flagged down a passing employee who said to skip to counter and go directly to the gate for check-in. We did this arriving at about the time when they were boarding rows 25-29. The gate counter was empty, so we asked one of the employees checking boarding pass (there were two) what to do, and she said to meet her at the gate counter in a minute. We did this, got checked in, and everything was fine. I'd like to complement the USAir employees for their friendliness and patience. We learned our lesson about leaving for the airport early enough to leave time for misadventures. The flight to Tampa was uneventful, and we arrived approximately on time a little after midnight. We were the last ones out of the plane because our carry on was stored behind us, and we were polite and did not push our way back to it. We had all carry on (due to our lateness), but that apparently didn't save any time as luggage was already on the carousels when we got there (car rental counters are right next to it). Jason got in the Dollar car rental line with about 10 groups ahead of him and two workers processing people. Lines at all other counters (National, Avis, etc) were nonexistent, probably because Dollar is the cheapest. The vast majority of the people in front of us were college students on spring break. One of whose credit card was declined. And had a credit card customer service department who didn't care about him. So there was really only one person working the counter who was making progress in renting cars. So we waited, and waited and waited. By the time Jason got to the front of the line, the employee dealing with the declined credit card put the college student on hold and started processing our car. About halfway through, progress was made with the student's credit card company, so Jason was put on hold. The other agent finished processing her person, and took the person in line behind Jason. More trouble with the credit card company. The person behind Jason's processing was completed, and the other agent called the next person in line, but Jason's agent intervened, and that agent did Jason instead. THANK YOU. The workers were doing there best, there were just too many customers, and not enough agents. They even called other Dollar counters in the airport to try to get help, but they were swamped too. Also apparently one of them was supposed to have left, but stayed anyway. So this was a management not scheduling enough workers issue. Total waiting time, in excess of one hour. During this time I read an entire Reader's Digest magazine. We were assigned our car (another 2000 Neon) and got our keys at the counter. We got to the car, got in, and drove away. No security at the exit. We arrived at our hotel at approximately 2 AM. Friday and Saturday we spent most of our time in Tampa doing wedding stuff. On Saturday morning before the wedding, we went to St. Petersburg to see the Salvador Dali Museum. Dali is my favorite artist and I've been wanting to see the museum for a long time. St. Petersburg is such a pretty town. We took a tour of the museum with a docent, which was great. Jason, who didn't know much about Dali, now really likes his art. I like the museum too and am especially glad that we took the guided tour. The rest of the day consisted of wedding related stuff. We left Tampa for WDW around 6:30 PM. On the way to WDW, we decided to make a stop at the Belz Outlet stores and visit the Disney outlet store we've heard many people talk about on RADP. We really had no idea where it was but luckily we saw signs for it on I-4. We got off at International Drive and unfortunately went the wrong way on the road. Big mistake as it was really really crowded, probably due to spring break. But Jason enjoyed it because he got to see what people built as "secondary" (and "tertiary") attractions in the area. Once we went the right way on International Drive, we were fine. The Character Warehouse was ok but I really didn't see much I wanted. Jason decided to buy the WDW 2000 picture souvenir book which was really cheap. We were both amused to see foam cup holds from California Adventure's Grizzly River Rapids (99 cents). After our Belz excursion, we arrived at WDW and All-Star Music. We were assigned a room in the Broadway section. Jason has stayed at ASMU before, but I hadn't. After checking out our room, we decided to check out the food court. Jason was still a little hungry so he got a pepperoni pizza. I am not a big fan of Disney pizza and also not too hungry so I just got a Mickey ice cream bar. The pizza was not as good as the ones you can get in the parks, specifically at MGM, according to Jason. We had planned to maybe go to Downtown Disney but were too tired and went to sleep instead. DAY 3 Today we got up at 6:45 and we were in the MGM parking lot before 8. We always go to MK as our first park at WDW. Jason said since this is a short vacation then it really doesn't count. Ok, I guess. Our goals at MGM were RRC, ToT and the Animation tour, the latter which we missed during our December trip. Just as planned we first went to RRC then ToT. I think I like RRC more and more every time I ride it. ToT was great as usual, one of my favorite rides. We decided to have breakfast at Starring Rolls. I was disappointed to see that they no longer had the raspberry jelly roll I had last time I was there. I got the apple strudel, Jason got a whole-wheat bagel and we split a piece of grapefruit cake, perhaps not the best thing for breakfast though! We wanted to do the Animation tour next but we were too early for the first tour. We walked around instead noting how empty the park was since it was very early. We decided to do the GMR. They were only running the cowboy side, which was ok since I think we've had the gangster the last several times. By the time we left the GMR, the Animation tour was open. I loved seeing the drawings from Atlantis. When we exited, it had started to rain as it had been threatening to do all morning. It was pouring by time we left the park. In the parking lot-harder. The rain, rain came down, down, down... It was still raining when we went to catch the tram at the MK parking lot. The poor announcer on the tram was having all kinds of trouble getting people to sit down on the tram (they were busy folding their ponchos) or stop boarding the tram. Finally, we left for the TTC from where we took the monorail to the MK. It was an odd feeling walking through the town square and not seeing a Christmas tree! I had been to WDW 7 time previously, 6 at Christmas time. The last time I saw the parks without Christmas decorations was 1986! Our first stop was the Emporium where I exchanged my Mickey earrings I got in December. The little rhinestone had fallen out after the first time I wore them. They exchanged the earrings with no problem. Our traditional first ride in the MK is Buzz Lightyear but we opted for fast pass this time since the line was long. We went over to CoP but a CM told us that it would be closed for a few hours. We rode the TTA instead. We then did AE. I was scared the first time I saw it but I think it then loses it shock value. We hadn't done it in a few trips though so it wasn't too bad. We used out BL FPs , and Jason outscored me again, 249,100 to my 19,700. We next headed to Adventureland to check out construction on Aladdin. We went to the Agrabah shops which we thought were very nice. The Aladdin store had some nice Aladdin merchandise. We went to Pecos Bill's for lunch and had burger and fries. I loved their toppings bar with the grilled mushrooms and onions. I hadn't been there before and was surprised how much seating there was. From there we walked onto the Haunted Mansion and then got FPs for Pooh. It looked like everybody had congregated in Fantasyland. We went on POC next, another walk on. There weren't much lines anywhere all day mostly due to the rain. We then went to CoP which had reopened. I noticed that the boxing scene on the TV still wasn't working -- it does work usually, doesn't it? This is my favorite all time ride so I hate to see anything wrong with it. The theater was more than half full, which was good. When we got out of the show, it had stopped raining finally! Space Mountain had a posted 25 min wait but it was less than 10. We next used our Pooh FP. I found a Piglet T-shirt (my trip goal-to find Piglet merchandise) but they only had XL and XXL. We next made our way to Main Street to look at some of the shops. We played Millionaire in Town Hall and between the both of us we "won" the million. We hadn't taken the railroad the last trip so we took the train to Frontierland. With all the rain earlier, I hadn't planned on going on Splash Mountain. Now that it cleared up, we decided to ride. The wait was about 10 minutes. We headed over to Adventureland to do the Jungle Cruise. We went up the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse mainly to see the Aladdin construction which wasn't too interesting. We had also worried that it may have continued raining and cancelled the MSEP. Luckily, the parade was still on so we made our way to Main Street to find a spot to sit. On the way, we stopped by the candy shop and got some chocolate marshmallow fudge -- yum. We ended up sitting at the town square facing the train station -- a spot we had sat at previously. It was much less crowded this time than in was in early December. The parade was great and I was sad to see it for the last time at the MK. I have never seen SpectroMagic but I don't think it can compare to MSEP. We had 8:15 reservations at the Kona Café but arrived at 7:50 and were seated immediately. We decided to go to Kona after seeing many great reviews on RADP. We were shown the dessert bar and were told we could go up at any time and ask questions about the desserts. I convinced Jason that we should order the seafood pot sticker appetizer and we both thought it was delicious. Jason ordered the beef teriyaki and I ordered the barbecued shrimp. They both were great. We split the koko puffs, cream filled pastries, for dessert. I thought they were great and Jason thought they were ok (he's not a fan of that kind of dessert). When we got there the table next to us was empty. A group of people was seated there, checked out the menu and left. The waitress asked if the had left, and we said that we guess so. Another group was seated, asked the waitress if the served sandwiches, she said no and recommended Captain Cook's, so they left. Jason assured the waitress that it must be the table, not her. We spent some time walking around the Poly. I really love the coziness of the entire Great Ceremonial House. We also walked around the grounds a bit. I decided that I definely want to stay at the Poly in the near future. I really want to stay at the Wilderness Lodge too in the near future. Decisions, decisions. We drove to DD to go to Disney Quest. We wanted to do PoC but the line was always too long. We played Treasure of the Incas-I like the game but am not really good at it. We did Aladdin's Adventure which I really like. I played the Toy Story create a toy game which was fun. It was neat that you could buy the toy you created at the gift shop; I didn't though. I played in the old video game section Frogger and Digdug. I love Frogger but never heard of Digdug but it's the kind of game I love to play-not too hard. Jason played the Tron video games. The one thing we did that we had not done before was the Buzz Lightyear bumper cars thing. Jason drove while I shot the balls. That was pretty fun but hard to get the hang of. We also explored the top floor, where I had never been before. We left around 11:30 and were to sleep at midnight. DAY 4 We had set our alarm for 7:30 but didn't get up until 8:30. It was pretty cool today but sunny. We arrived in Epcot around 9:45. The 2000 sign was down but the new Epcot sign wasn't up yet. I do like the signs but I also miss SE with no decoration. After walking around for a while and making a stop at the pin station (although I didn't trade many pins this trip), we went to the Sunshine Food Fair for breakfast. We had another "healthy" breakfast of a strawberry shortcake (me) and bagel and muffin (Jason). Actually, I guess Jason's breakfast wasn't too bad. We did Living with the Land, about a 15 minute wait, our longest line of the day. We wondered what all the construction was and figured out after we got home that it was probably for fast pass. We went to the Land gift shop where I bought some jellies for ourselves and for our cat sitter. We next went over to the Living Seas which we haven't done in a while. We actually spent a fair amount of time in there. We watched the ...and it rained, and rained, and rained movie. We spent a lot of time just looking at the fish and dolphins and watched a cast member presentation at the manatee exhibit. We also played with the interactives for a while. I was really surprised that I actually enjoyed myself there. I still think it really needs a rehab though especially with the interactives. We went to the Wonders of Life next to see Cranium Command, which we missed in December. A show had just started so we decided to leave and do Universe of Energy instead, another miss in December but probably my least favorite Future World attraction. We arrived after all the benches in the pre-show area were taken, but, as usual, when the cast member made the announcement about the start of the pre-show, some people got up to join the crowd at the doors that won't be opening for another five minutes, so we took their seats. We went back to CC and saw the very cute and amusing show. Jason wanted nachos for lunch and I wanted fish and chips so we split up to get to food and met in the UK. The fish and chips comes with 3 fish strips but I ended up with an extra one hidden under the fries. We ate at the VIP viewing area for Illuminations, which was very nice. We walked slowly around the WS doing research for tomorrow's mission (read Day 5 to find out our mission!) We ended up at the American Adventure just in time to see the Voices of Liberty. Another thing, that I don't remember without Christmas music. We decided not to see AA as we just didn't feel like it right then. We watched some cute live entertainment in Italy. It was mime juggling, doing tricks and interacting with the kids. We then headed the rest of the way around the WS and headed to Innoventions for a bit. Test Track had been closed for rehab and scheduled to reopen the next day but we found out that they were doing a soft opening. We did the singles line for the first time and Jason ended up in the car in front of me. Next was Spaceship Earth and playing with the Alice Tell-a-Vison after. That's a really neat interactive television that works on voice command and you get to tell Alice what to do. We tried to do Maelstrom but didn't feel like waiting in the long line. I am so glad that it is finally getting fast pass! We arrived at Mexico at 6:15 for our 7:00 PS. We wandered around the pavilion until we were called around 6:45 via a pager. We shared the nachos appetizer-Jason thinks they are the best nachos he's ever had (they use an unusual type of cheese). I got the chicken mole and Jason got some kind of beef dish. I've wanted to try mole for a while and it was pretty good. We got a dessert but I forget what it was as I didn't write it down. I think it was something with chocolate. We went to DD again, this time to look at shops at the Marketplace. The Pooh shop and World of Disney had the Piglet shirt I wanted but still XL or larger. I ended up buying the die cast Pooh ride vehicle (but no Piglet in the vehicle). In December I only saw a few of the die cast vehicles but saw many more during this trip. We spent the rest of the night at the Adventurer's Club, seeing shows in the treasure room, mask room, and library. I could really spend the whole night there, something Jason wants to try the next trip. We got back to the hotel, packed for departure tomorrow and went to sleep around midnight. DAY 5 Today we were up at 7:45. We used express check out which included calling an automated service at the front desk to let them know we left. We arrived in the Epcot parking lot at 8:45. We were ending our day at Epcot but starting at the MK so we took the monorail to the MK. Our goal there was to do rides we missed from the other day. We started with Peter Pan. On the spur of the moment we decided to ride the carousel, which neither of us had ridden in years. Next we rode Snow White (I was just reading my trip notes and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what I meant by SW until Jason just figured it out!) We also got a fast pass for Pooh. Jason called US Airways in case our flight home might have been cancelled today. We worried since a major snowstorm was supposed to hit the East Coast. As it turned out, DC didn't get any snow. We headed over to TL to ride Buzz again and also TTA. We took the quiet pathway to Toon town, which I've wanted to take. We toured Minnie and Mickey's house while we were there. I especially like Minnie's house. They're both so cozy! We went on Pooh as our last ride in the MK. We headed out of the park stopping at the candy shop to getting 2 of my favorite Mickey pretzels. On to Epcot for our mission! My mission, which I mentioned in Day 4, was to eat my way around the World Showcase. I already ate at the U.K. (fish and chips) and Mexico (chicken mole and nachos) yesterday so under my rules, those counted. Jason decided he would help me in my mission. I headed to Canada for my first food item while Jason HAD to have a rice cream from Norway. I got a Killaloe Sunrise beavertail, sugar and lemon. Jason did help me a little. We saw O Canada to let the beavertail digest a bit. In France, we shared a strawberry crepe from the vendor which was really good. I was tempted to get something from the bakery but thought better of it as I might not be able to complete my mission then. I got my main course in Morocco at the Tangerine Café, a shawarma chicken sandwich, which had some type of marinated chicken, lettuce and hummus. It was pretty good-I usually don't like hummus but it was pretty good with the sandwich. Jason got his main course at Japan a steak on a stick and a chicken not on a stick combo, which he said he didn't care for because he expected the chicken to also be on a stick. I got a honeydew kaki gori-yum! Jason don't like kaki goris. At the Liberty Inn, we decided to split a piece of apple pie. I couldn't believe how crowded the place was there, but Jason wasn't because he figures that it's the only place in WS were they have food for picky kids. The pie was ok but I was starting to get full. We decided to go light in Italy and share pistachio biscotti from the outside vendor. In Germany, we shared a bratwurst on a roll from Sommerfest. It was pretty good with mustard on it. Almost there! In China, we got egg rolls in at the Lotus Blossom Café. They were different than other egg rolls I've had at Chinese restaurants. I really didn't care for them that much. Our final country-Norway! I've always wanted to try something else besides the rice cream at the Kringla bakery. However, we ended up splitting a rice cream as everything else seemed too big. My mission accomplished! We had a little time before we left for the airport and decided to do JIYI before we left. Jason dislikes it more and more each time he rides it but I think it's ok, but just ok. I do hate what they've done to Image Works though. We had no troubles returning our rental car. We had an uneventful flight back to D.C. I, understandably, did not eat much of the dinner served on the plane. Amy Gourley amy@pressroom.com Mail a Comment to Amy Gourley |
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