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Kevin Lloyd-- April 2001 -- Walt Disney World (ASMoR)Summary:
Pre-trip: In May 2000, we visited Disneyland Paris, staying in the Cheyenne Hotel for a five-day vacation. We'd always fancied the idea of a holiday in Walt Disney World Florida but didn't really know what we'd think of a theme park holiday as opposed to our usual beach holidays. Well, we enjoyed ourselves so much in Paris that we were soon planning and booking our trip to Walt Disney World. We spent many hours surfing various sites until we'd come up with a fairly loose plan of how we'd spend a 14 day vacation and weighed up all the pros and cons of each Disney resort. We'd never considered staying off site so it was just a question of what resort took our fancy and fitted our budget. The final choice came down to All Star Movies and the Caribbean Beach resort. After much deliberation, we chose the All Star Movies resort deciding that we'd spend the difference in cost between the two resorts on the many off site trips we'd planned to squeeze into our first visit to Florida. Saturday 14 April 2001 - The Journey The day started at 4am with us excitedly getting ready for our 7am taxi journey to Birmingham International airport. We were at the airport for 7.30am and checked in with no problems. The flight was delayed by about 20 minutes but at 10.25am we were on our way to Orlando International with a brief stop off at Newcastle to fill the 'plane with more passengers. At this time of year it's difficult to fill a 767 at Birmingham so it's either an hour spent at Newcastle or Glasgow where the plane is also refueled. The flying time was about 9 hours from Newcastle with the highlights being when Tracy and Jonathon were invited into the cockpit shortly after clearing the shores of Ireland and also the views of the East Coast of the USA as we headed down the coast to Florida. We arrived ahead of time and were told by the pilot that the temperature was 90 degrees! Our excitement grew, as we're not used to experiencing temperatures anywhere near this in the UK. In fact, it was warmer 5,000 feet above Orlando than it was in the UK when we left. We were wowed by the size of Orlando International airport making Birmingham look like a bus stop in comparison. Clearing customs and immigration took a whole two hours and we were very relieved to finally board the coach that would take us to the All Star Movies resort. Our first impressions of the resort were good. It was a doddle checking in and we got our requests for late check out and express check out with no problem at all. The room was plenty big enough for the three of us and was well furnished and clean. We'd asked for a quiet room with a pool view but hadn't expressed a preference as to which building we'd wanted to stay in. This seemed to us an extra source of excitement; the surprise of not knowing which building we'd actually been allocated. We were placed in the Mighty Ducks building in room 3910 and we were certainly not disappointed. At this time, the day's travel was starting to tell on us so we decided that, as it was already 9pm, we would have an easy first evening and spent the next hour unpacking and settling in. Jonathon had his wish fulfilled in being able to press the pizza button to have pizza delivered to the room. He's not usually this easily pleased! We ordered two 16-inch pizzas and some Coke's. Bad mistake! The pizzas were giant and we couldn't manage the two of them between us. They were very nice though so we had a good go. Sunday 15th April 2001 - Magic Kingdom We set the alarm for as early as we could possibly bear following our long day's journey yesterday. By 8.30am we'd breakfasted at the food court, breakfast platters all round at a cost of around $22 consisting of bacon, scrambled egg, hash browns and biscuit, bought some bottled water from the hotel shop, and, were in the line for the Magic Kingdom bus. The bus was quite full but we were pleasantly surprised by the short wait time and journey time. We'd read so much about the crowds during the spring break so were expecting the worst. We hurriedly made our way into the park and were soon heading up Main Street towards Tomorrowland for our first rides; ExtraTerrorestial Alien encounter and Astro Orbiters. They were soon followed by Space Mountain and a host of other rides throughout the Magic Kingdom. Later in the afternoon we decided to have a break at the resort and try out the pool. We ate in the food court, double cheeseburgers with fries were surprisingly good, and then set about booking our priority seatings for the next two weeks. The first two met with "nothing available" and we started to fear that we wouldn't get any priority seatings at all. However, we got the remainder of our requests with no problems. Suitably refreshed from our dip in the Duck Pond Pool, we decided to head back to Magic Kingdom for the evening. We did more rides, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and, our favourite from Paris, Big Thunder Mountain. We then tried to find a good location to view the fireworks. They were great and it was a great way to end our first day at Walt Disney World. It was so pleasant to walk back to the bus stops in our T-shirts and shorts, still very warm and listening to the crickets chirping away. Monday 16th April 2001 - MGM Studios The alarm went off at around 6.45am again and we were soon on our way to MGM Studios. The bus service was excellent again and it wasn't too long before the Hollywood Tower came into sight. We'd been looking forward to riding the Tower of Terror for some time and I'd been looking forward to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster just as much though Tracy and Jonathon had vowed that they wouldn't ride any roller coaster that took you upside down. Tower of Terror was as good as we'd hoped and we went on to ride 7 times during our stay. At the last minute, Jonathon plucked up enough courage to ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and it certainly lived up to expectations. His immediate reaction after leaving the ride was "I'm never riding that again" but he was asking to re-visit the very next day and we went on to ride another 4 times over the next week or so. We tried for a walk in at the Sci Fi diner at about 2pm but the last walk in slot had literally just gone and the next was for 8.50pm! Expecting that the other restaurants and cafes would be as bad, we decided to eat back at the All Star Movies food court again and follow up with a swim. Luckily, we found the food at the All Star Movies quite good and reasonable in price so it wasn't too much of a hardship eating there. The pool was busy again but not too busy to have a relaxing hour or so unwinding in the cool water. It was back to MGM that evening to do some of the rides that we hadn't done that morning and early afternoon; Sounds Dangerous and The Great Movie Ride amongst others. We'd also read so much about "Fantasmic" we couldn't wait to experience it. We got in early and got some good seats - that's location wise, not comfort! We sat for an hour on those benches and it was pretty uncomfortable. The show lived up to expectations though so it was worth the wait. We bought soft giant pretzels from the food vendors who did a good job winding their way through the audience prior to the show with snacks and drinks. We weren't too impressed with themn, mind you, and thought they would have probably been better to sit on rather than to eat! Tuesday 17th April 2001 - EPCOT We'd heard a lot about the lines for Test Track and that Fast Pass was usually taken up by late morning for the whole day during busy periods of the year so we headed there straight away and got 3 Fast Passes. While waiting for our time, we did Spaceship Earth and visited a few other attractions before returning. The wait was well worth it, it's a great ride. Lunchtime saw our first priority seating; a character meal at the Garden Grill. Jonathon had said for some time that he wasn't particularly keen on the character interaction; you know how pre-teens can sometimes try to be too cool but he really enjoyed the antics of Chip and Dale along with Mickey during our meal. The meal was an all you can eat buffet with the food being delivered to your table in a skillet. It was a meal we all enjoyed in the slowly revolving restaurant. We'd now got a predictable pattern to our days so it was back to the resort pool for some relaxation and then a return in the evening for further EPCOT attractions. We had a priority seating for the Rose & Crown restaurant in the UK at World Showcase. After a fairly hasty walk around the lagoon we reported to the check in desk. We all ate the prime rib and Yorkshire pudding and it was very good. I had the EPCOT millennium desert, which was, basically, an Easter egg filled with Guinness moose. It was delicious and very filling. We found a good vantage point for Illuminations, Reflections of Earth and were stunned by this. I don't think you'll find anything quite like it anywhere else in the World! One thing that may be worth bearing in mind is that we spent nearly two hours in the Rose & Crown restaurant and only just made Illuminations. Although the service was excellent, it was a little slow. Wednesday 18th April - Animal Kingdom Up until today, we'd had temperatures of 90 degrees each day. Today, however, the temperature dropped right down to about 70 degrees and it was a bit of a shock. There was a cool wind blowing through the Animal Kingdom and our red legs were rapidly turning blue! We had a great time regardless riding the Kilamanjaro Safari and Dinosaur amongst others. It was too cool to do Kali River Rapids as we'd heard that you get quite wet and we just didn't fancy that on a day as cool as today. Tough to be a Bug was a great show full of surprises some of which I'd heard about but managed to keep from Tracy and Jonathon. We ate at the Rain Forest Café. There was a 30-minute wait but the food was good and we shared a Volcano desert between the three of us. We decided to visit Disney Quest later in the afternoon as we figured it would be quieter today rather than on Saturday when we'd originally planned to go there; the Unlimited Magic Pass gives you free entry. It was still pretty busy in there and there were plenty of teens playing the arcade games and riding the attractions. We rode the virtual roller coaster where you can design your own coaster or ride one of the pre-built ones. It was quite strange to be strapped into a seat that then took you through 7 inversions including barrel rolls and loop-de-loops. It wasn't really much like the real thing though. We did a few more attractions and had a general look around the place but I don't think that any of us were particularly impressed and were glad that we hadn't had to pay to get in. Thursday 19th April 2001 - Universal Studios This was the first of our off site days. We'd booked Mears for 8am but were disappointed when they didn't seem to show up at the Mears stop out front of the All Star Movies Resort. We quickly decided to pay the extra cost and jumped into a cab. It cost about $30 to get there but it was nice to know that we had no pre-booked return time and that we could just jump in the first available cab when we were ready to come back. Universal Studios was really quiet in comparison to the Disney parks and it was a pleasant stroll along the wide pavements. The attractions were entertaining with Jaws being the best of the lot. We found Twister to be a bit of a let down, however, as I've experienced more wind on my way to work in Wolverhampton! We ate at a burger bar, near the Jaws attraction, the name of which escapes me, but the food was good and there were plenty of tables to choose from. That evening saw our next character dining experience at the Liberty Tree Tavern. This was the longest we had to wait for one of our priority seating, 40 minutes. Chip and Dale were up to their usual tricks, at one point dragging Jonathon away on his chair to the other side of the restaurant. He made his way back sheepishly dusting down his street cred and hoping noone had seen what had happened. The food was good, all you can eat buffet served to the table in a skillet. We left just in time to see Spectromagic and that concluded another fantastic day in a place that had grown on us immensely over the past few days. Friday 20th April 2001 - Sea World I'd cancelled the Meres booking the previous evening as we didn't want to be let down again and we opted, instead, to get a cab. Cost was about $30 again but we're on holiday and we really enjoyed the convenience of not being tied to pre-booked times. First stops were Journey into Atlantis and Kraken. Journey into Atlantis is a water ride not unlike Splash Mountain. The theming was excellent and we got a lot wetter! Tracy didn't ride as she didn't want to be spending the day wet through. Next was Kraken. Jonathon took a look and said "No way" so I was riding alone. This was the scariest ride I'd ever been on as it was floorless, very fast and had a number of sudden drops and inversions. We saw the Shamu show from the splash zone but didn't get a soaking much to Tracy's relief as she really didn't want to get wet. The Clyde and Seamore show was also very good and though we had front row seats, we didn't get splashed; yes, that's right, Tracy was pleased about this. We ate at a burger place; incredibly crowded and a major achievement to get a table but good food. We were really impressed with Sea World and all agreed that we'd go again as there were still some attractions we'd like to see. Our final visit was to the Dolphin Nursery where we watched some playful Dolphin babies. At this point, as we leaned towards the rails that surrounded the pool, one mischievous dolphin decided to splash the audience by thrashing his tail onto the surface of the pool. Tracy was soaked from head to foot and this was met with uncontrollable laughter. That evening was our most expensive meal of the holiday, Artist Point restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge resort. It cost $97 for the three of us but it was a great meal in beautiful surroundings so we didn't mind paying the extra. Our server, Puk, was very attentive and made us feel very welcome and we said we'd eat there again next week though this didn't happen. We caught the boat from the Wilderness Lodge Resort quay back to the Magic Kingdom and then boarded a bus back to the All Star Movies Resort. Saturday 21st April 2001 - Downtown Disney We'd promised ourselves a "down day" halfway through the holiday where we could have a bit of a lie in and have a rest from the parks. There was also the matter of getting some washing done as we'd tried to keep the luggage to a minimum by bringing a week's worth of clothing rather than two. We figured Saturday morning would be very busy in the parks and so the laundry would be relatively quiet. It was very quiet and within an hour and a half we'd got two lots of washing sorted. The laundry facilities were located near the Duck Pond pool. Each wash cost $2 and the tumble dryers cost a further $2 for 30 minutes drying time; don't overfill the dryers though because it'll probably cost you more in the long run - unless you like wearing damp clothes that is. That afternoon, we visited Downtown Disney and did some souvenir shopping. We ate at Planet Hollywood, walking straight in with no wait. The food was excellent but it was very noisy in there. The remainder of the day was spent in the pool and around the resort. Sunday 22nd April 2001 - Gatorland Another day that we'd planned as an easy day. We'd come across the Gatorland web site while looking for information about Florida's attractions and we all fancied visiting. As it had been advertised as a half-day attraction, we treated ourselves to another lie in and got a cab out to Gatorland at about 10am; cost about $30 again and took less than half an hour to get there. This turned out to be a great day. The shows were very entertaining and amusing, particularly the alligator wrestling. We had photos taken with a live 'gator and a snake and after feeding the gators in the morning, we visited Pearl's Smokehouse and ate one for lunch! We all agreed it was worth trying the gator sampler platter consisting of nuggatts and ribs once. After lunch, we saw another couple of shows; one featuring snakes and scorpions, and the other featuring crocodiles of the world. We also enjoyed the swamp walk but unfortunately couldn't walk through the breeding marshes as they wer closed for some sort of rehab work. We ate at the California Grill this evening. The food and surroundings, on the 15th floor of the Contemporary resort, were fantastic but this was probably one of the smallest portions we'd eaten in the USA so we had to fill up with snacks late that evening from the All Star Movies shop. Monday 23rd April 2001 - Islands of Adventure Another off site day, this one promising to provide some more intense rides and attractions. We were now into our second week and this would be the quiet week as the spring holiday was now over in the USA. This certainly showed as we entered Marvel Super Hero Island and found no wait times for Spiderman, Hulk roller coaster and Dr. Doom's Fearfall. There are some great rides here from those in Marvel Superhero Island, through Toon Lagoon, Jurassic Park and the Lost Continent. The Dueling Dragons were particularly impressive floorless coasters that we really enjoyed. We ate at the burger bar called Thunder Falls Terrace. It was awful! The lady serving seemed as though she really couldn't be bothered and the food was lukewarm. The cheese on Tracy's cheeseburger hadn't even melted. The line was too long for us to go up and complain and the server came across as the kind of person that wouldn't really care if you did complain so we ate our fries and walked out. Don't eat there! Jonathon had now turned into some sort of roller coaster freak and spent most of the time persuading me to go on rides that I would normally have to coax him into trying. That evening, we ate Polynesian style. We'd booked 'Ohana at the Polynesian, an all you can eat barbecue style buffet. Our server seemed genuinely surprised at just how much steak, turkey and pork we managed to put away that meal. The desert was diced pineapple with a delicious caramel dip although Tracy and Jonathon didn't really care for this and would have preferred a chocolate pudding of some sorts. Entertainment was provided in the form of coconut racing and hula-hoop dancing to the background of a South Sea style crooner. Tuesday 24th April 2001 - EPCOT and E-Ride night Our second visit to EPCOT to do a few favourites, like Test Track, and some attractions that we'd still to do. We spent a bit more time around World Showcase this visit enjoying the attractions of each of the countries represented. We ate lunch at the Rose & Crown restaurant and the fish and chips were pretty authentic. This evening we'd booked E-ride night tickets and booked priority seating for Cinderella's Royal Table. This meal was one of the best we ate at Walt Disney World; we'd definitely recommend the Kingdom Feast. Our server treated us like royalty and we thoroughly enjoyed the experience. E-Ride night was a real bonus. We rode in two hours what would normally take a whole day with no waiting in lines. At 11.30pm we made our way back to the All Star Movies very tired but after having a really great day. Wednesday 25th April 2001 - MGM Studios Another visit to MGM Studios. That must mean more Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster! It did as well as other attractions we'd yet to do such as the Backlot Tour and Muppet Vision. We got our priority seating at the Sci-Fi Dine-In and it was very good. The old movie clips are really quite funny but this restaurant doesn't do a great deal for conversation as you're seated in rows of two in mock-ups of cars. We had priority seating for La Cellier this evening but we've eaten a lot of steak this holiday and we really weren't up for it. Instead, we decided to order pizza to our room at the All Star Movies. Thursday 26th April 2001 - Kennedy Space Centre This trip had been pre-arranged for some time. I'd sold some software to a company based in Orlando some months earlier and as part of the deal they'd arranged for us to be transported by limo to the Space Centre and the whole day was paid for. The limo turned up promptly at 8am, a white stretch with two TVs, VCR and drinks cabinet. It was one of Jonathon's must do's to ride in a limo when visiting the USA so this deal had really worked out well. It took about an hour and 10 minutes to get to the Space Centre and on the outskirts we'd seen wild alligators basking near the roadside and three bald eagles soaring above. After getting the Chauffeur to take a few photos of us posing with the limo, we entered the visitor's complex. We were soon boarded on the first bus and on our way round the Space Centre. It was very impressive and the sheer size of the place really shocked us. We spent about six hours all in all around the Space Centre before climbing back into the limo to be driven back to the All Star Movies resort. That evening we had priority seating for Boatwrights at Port Orleans Riverside. We walked straight in and suspected that we probably didn't need the priority seating after all. The food was good; Tracy had the steak, I had the jambalaya and Jonathon chose from the children's menu. Desert was cheesecake all round; strawberry and very much of a homemade quality. This was a resort that we'd been interested in staying at and this meal and the walk around the resort afterwards reinforced that possibility. We were already thinking about our next trip to WDW and had been weighing up all of the resorts we'd visited with the Caribbean being the favourite so far. Friday 27th April 2001 - Animal Kingdom Our last full day and we decided to go back to Animal Kingdom and do the attractions that we'd missed from our previous visit. We started with breakfast at Donald's Breakfastosaurus. We'd booked this using the Flex feature of our package and it was a really great way to start our final day. We were a little late for our priority seating but that was not a problem we were seated shortly after checking in and had our picture taken before sitting down to eat. We would definitely recommend the Breakfastosaurus, especially if you like the character interaction. Our server, Mike, was very entertaining, performing magic tricks before we went to collect our food from the buffet. We had photos taken with Donald, Mickey, Mini and Goofy. The food was good and we ate enough to keep us going until late in the afternoon. We did Dinosaur again which we thought was the best simulator type ride both at Disney and at the off site venues we'd been too earlier in the holiday. We also did a few shows; Pocahontas, Lion King and Flights of Wonder. Today was a return to temperatures in the low 80's so we managed to do Kali River Rapids this time round. We got quite wet, mainly our backs, but not as wet as we'd got at Toon Lagoon during our visit to Islands of Adventure on Monday. We decided for our last evening that we had to go back to MGM Studios for our last rides on Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. We got a fast pass for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and rode Tower of Terror three times while we waited. We had priority seating for the Brown Derby at 7.30pm and just made it in time. The meal was good though probably a little over elaborate and we all skipped the desert having not been suitably tempted. Saturday 28th April 2001 - Departure Day It was not a good feeling to wake up today and know that the holiday was over. This was the longest vacation we'd ever taken as we normally never take more than a week at a time when holidaying in the UK and at the end of that week we're usually looking forward to going home. It was a bit of a frustrating day; not quite enough time to have a good day in the parks but too much time not to do something. We spent an hour or so packing and were pleased when it all just about went back into the cases we'd brought. We'd already decided not to get up too early as it would be a long day and this proved to be the case. Checking in at Orlando International was a hell of a lot easier than arrival and we were soon awaiting the announcement to board the 767 that would take us back to the UK. The seating configuration had changed from that on the journey to Florida and so we were a lot more cramped for the return journey. We didn't sleep a wink during the near 8 hours flight, arriving in Birmingham on Sunday morning at around 9.30 UK time. Post trip: Well, we'd definitely caught the Disney bug and we're now making plans for our return next year. We've decided on the Caribbean as the resort appealed to us all and we decided to try the summer months so will probably return in late August. We're already looking forward and starting to plan. Kevin Lloyd kevin.lloyd3@btinternet.com Mail a Comment to Kevin Lloyd |
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