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Margie McCann -- December 2001 -- Walt Disney World (ASMoR)12/12/01 - 12/20/01
This is a much different trip than when we went to WDW last year. When my husband, Chuck and daughter, Allie and I went to WDW, we flew down, stayed at the Contemporary, said we didn't want to stay anyplace else and then figured we would go back in a few years. What can I say? Things have a way of changing. The 100 years of Disney Celebration looked really nice, so I made reservations to go in December 2002 and stay at the Dolphin. The original thinking was so that we could see the 100 years of Disney and go back at Christmas time again with our daughter only missing a few days of kindergarten. However, because of the tragedy of September 11, the tourist industry has been hit really hard. While I was surfing the net today (October 19), I kept seeing all of these discounted resort prices. So, I called Chuck in work and told him that I was seeing all sorts of good deals for Downtown Disney hotels and wouldn't it be nice to boost the economy? Being the wonderful husband that he is, he said, "Let's do it!" We booked the Lake Buena Vista Best Western for $39 per night, plus tax. Once we worked out work schedules, the dates we are going are December 12 through the 19th. We will be driving to WDW this time, instead of flying (Chuck has never been a big fan of flying). We are also not staying at a monorail hotel. Here is our itinerary so far: 12/12 - Leave Philadelphia approximately 3am. Stop someplace on the way down. 12/13 - Arrive in Orlando. Check into hotel. Dinner at 5:45pm at Chef Mickey's. 12/14 - Visit Magic Kingdom. Dinner at Hollywood & Vine at 6pm 12/15 - Visit Animal Kingdom. Dinner at Concourse Steakhouse at 6pm 12/16 - Breakfast at 1900 Park Faire and MVMCP 12/17 - Visit Disney Studios. Dinner at Le Cellier at 5:30pm 12/18 - Visit Magic Kingdom 12/19 - Leave Orlando early in the am. Stop someplace on the way home. 12/20 - Arrive Home :( Other things we would like to do:
We still have 2 days left on our 6-Day Park Hopper Plus Passes as well as all of the "Plus" options. We are buying 4 day Park Hoppers using our Disney Club discount ($550). This is going to be an economy trip to the World (if that is possible). I would like to get a PS for Cinderella's Castle breakfast, but haven't been too successful since we decided to book this trip less than 60 days prior (but I will keep on trying). So, I booked a character breakfast at 1900 Park Faire instead. I also booked Chef Mickey's for dinner for our arrival date and Hollywood and Vine for a dinner another day. I am looking forward to this trip. It's been a hectic year for everyone, so I am hoping for a fun and peaceful vacation. We've driven to WDW before, but this is the first time we will be driving down with our daughter, so entertainment in the car should be a challenge. I am looking into either renting or buying a TV/VCR combo for the car, but haven't decided on anything yet. Here is how reality set in for our very quickly planned vacation: I thought that everything was set and ready to go. I was wrong! Since internet surfing helped bring about this vacation, I am out there almost everyday. One day as I was "researching", I began to read all sorts of horror stories about the Lake Buena Vista Best Western, the most disturbing of which was that they were beginning major renovations where restaurants, as well as the lobby would be closed. Being the type "A" personality that I am, this was not sitting well. After debating for a few minutes, I called the Disney Club 800 number to find out about reservations for the All-Stars. The DC rate was $77 per night. I asked the CM if they had any rooms available for the CQM code (that I found on Mousesavers). That rate was only $59 per night, so I had her book us. Because of all of the problems with the mail, she told me to make sure I sent my check as soon as I got the confirmation. They don't take VISA over the phone, but if you fax them all of your credit card information, along with a letter, they will take it that way. So, history repeats itself. I need to call my husband and tell him what I did. He said that he didn't want to have to deal with remodeling construction either and added that our daughter will be thrilled. (When we initially told her we were going, she asked if we were staying at the 'Temporary. When I told her no, she asked if we were staying at the Dalmatian hotel!) I am going to try to get either Toy Story or Dalmatians. Wednesday, December 12 We left Philadelphia at 2:40 am. I never bought a TV/VCR for the car. Instead, I packed books on tape, colored pencils and paper, a borrowed Game Boy and a couple games, Disney Guesswords, CD's, and some surprises. Everything we brought with us got used, so we didn't need the TV/VCR for the trip. The long ride down was uneventful. We packed juice, soda and some doughnuts for breakfast in the car. Stopped at a Burger King for lunch in North Carolina $14 and $20 for gas. We drove as far as Kingsland, Georgia (which is 3 miles outside of the Florida border). Had dinner at the Cracker Barrel $36 (I am rounding the dollar amounts that we spent. The amounts include tips). We stayed at the Best Western in Kingsland, $66. The hotel was quiet, almost empty. We got a free breakfast the next morning, which were bagels, muffins, waffles, fruit, cereal, juice, coffee and tea. We would definitely stay there again.
Thursday, December 13 We leave Kingsland around 9am. We had an uneventful trip to Florida. The only bad traffic we hit was around Jacksonville and compared to Philadelphia, it was nothing! We pulled up to the All Star Movies around 12:30pm. We never told my daughter that we changed hotels, but she did notice that it didn't look like the picture of the hotel that she had seen. The lobby had a large Christmas tree that was decorated with film as garland, clapboards, and film canisters as ornaments. It was so cute. Chuck and Allie went to sit and watch "A Bug's Life" in the lobby while I went to check in. Four days before our arrival date, I had faxed a request to be in the Toy Story building and on the first floor (we've always found the first floor to be good with kids). Not only was our room ready, but I got everything I asked for! We were in the Buzz Lightyear building, room 0701. We walked out to the car and drove around to the Toy Story buildings. As soon as Allie saw the "buckets of toy soldiers" on the buildings, she started yelling about the Buzz hotel! She was so surprised! Our room was the first room directly next to the giant Buzz. When you opened the door in the morning, you saw the giant Woody, Bo Peep and Rex! It was really cute. Once we unpacked, we walked to the food court, which was about a 3-minute walk with a 4-year-old. We bought 3 refillable mugs and a box of character cookies ($34). We walked back to the room and since it was 80+ degrees, decided to hit the main pool. They were doing work at the pool near where Sorcerer Mickey stands toward the back. It didn't matter to us. It was December, and we were swimming! I picked up a cheeseburger platter and a chicken finger platter for us for lunch ($12). I made my first stop (of many) to the hotel gift shop to buy some postcards and stamps ($9). I mailed those right after I wrote the up. (We still ended up beating them home!). After swimming, we got cleaned up and wandered around the hotel to look at the other buildings. The Dalmatians building even has Kanine Krunchy bones in the cement walkway. I can see why this hotel is so popular with people with little kids. We drove to the Contemporary for our dinner at Chef Mickey's. We stopped and bought an autograph book in the Fantasia gift shop $5 and then headed over to check in. It seemed like there was an awful lot of people in line, but most of them were walk-ins and were being told it would be about a 45 minute wait. I walked up and checked in and they told us it would be about 10 minutes or so. We got our picture taken and we ended up buying them again, $26. The picture would have been better if Chuck hadn't decided to wear the same shirt he did in last year's picture:)! We have them hanging side by side on the fridge at home! Dinner was once again wonderful. Prime rib, turkey, maple carrots, cheese, salami, ham, roasted chicken, salad bar, shrimp and of course, the Parmesan mashed potatoes. Same kid's meal as last year - pizza, chicken fingers, little hot dogs, and Mickey mac and cheese. They had the make your own sundaes as well as the cupcake decorating, cheesecake, chocolate mousse cake and key lime pie. We saw Goofy, Donald, Chip, Dale and Mickey (Minnie had gone home sick). Dinner was $65. We wandered around the gift shops and then decided to hop on over to the other monorail resorts. When the next monorail appeared, I asked about sitting in the front. Since there was only room for 2, I sent Chuck and Allie up front. Allie really liked that a lot (so did Chuck). No licenses were given out, but Chuck said the driver was very friendly. We walked all around the Poly. It seemed quite busy and there were a lot of people around. I bought a couple Ariel necklaces and a Princess bracelet in the Trader Jack's Outpost $22. We went to the Grand Floridian next. That also seemed pretty crowded. We looked at the gingerbread houses, big and small (it always smells so good!) There was a band that was playing all sorts of music on the first floor that everyone was enjoying. I also wanted to see where exactly 1900 Park Faire was since we had never been there before. I liked that they had a sign out in front that told you exactly what characters were going to be at each meal, along with a copy of the menu. We took a look and decided everything sounded good! We headed back to the Contemporary. Allie had some spending money that relatives had given her for the trip and she already decided that she wanted to buy the Wedding Day Ariel and Eric Barbie-type dolls, $35. She had broken her sunglasses in the car, so we picked up a new pair for her that were Minnie $8. We drove back to the hotel, filled up our mugs, gave Allie a bath and hit the beds. I set a wake up call for 7:27am. Tomorrow, the Animal Kingdom and Hollywood and Vine for dinner.
Friday, December 14 I am up at 7am, so I am showered and dressed by the time that Mickey calls. Allie just loves that. She gets such a big smile on her face when she hears that voice. I get her dressed and we walk to the food court to fill our mugs. They have a nice selection of fountain sodas here, including Cherry Coke, Caffeine Free Diet Coke and Fresca! Yum! We brought Pop-Tarts to eat in the room, so we were out at the bus stop by 8:15 to go to AK. We didn't have a very long wait for the bus, not quite 10 minutes. The security check was no big deal. I sent Chuck and Allie through the "People with No Bags" line and I got in the "People with Bags Line". If you had everything unzipped when you got up to the table, the check went fast. It was the people who didn't who were holding things up. The gates opened a little before 9am. Allie decided she needed to use the bathroom right about that time. Chuck said they only had a short ceremony before they opened the park, nothing like last years. We grabbed a map and entertainment guide with all of the times as we were going through the turnstiles. Chuck went to rent a stroller $8 with a dollar back when you turn it in (Brief Rant: I wish Disney would let you purchase a week long stroller pass so that you didn't have to wait in line each time to get a stroller. Pay for it the first day and have a "Fastpass" kind of line available for the people with the pass! End of Rant!) I took Allie to see Terk and King Louie, who were waiting as you entered the park. Some little girl ran in front of Allie when she had first walked up to King Louie. He was very good and just sort of turned his body away from the little girl who had cut in line. We also stopped and saw Minnie who was around the bend. Our first stop was the Safari. We really enjoyed this last year, so this was a must do attraction for us. We walked right on without a wait. Last year, we sat in the very last row. This year, we were directly behind the driver. We saw lots of animals again. Because of being behind the driver, the Big Red/Little Red story was more prevalent for us. At one point, as we were driving past the lion and lioness, Allie said that they looked just like Simba and Nala. The driver overheard her and agreed with her while doing his spiel "That's exactly right, just like Simba and Nala". They must have fixed the bridge, because you could really hear and feel it this time. Poor Allie was scared we were going to fall in the river where the crocodiles were! After the ride, we wandered around Harambe. We headed to Camp Minnie-Mickey to see the Festival of the Lion King. We got in line and got inside and Allie started crying. She didn't want to see the show, it was too noisy. I brought earplugs for her and they weren't working for her, so we left. I left Chuck and Allie sitting on a bench while I ran to the rest room. Mickey was standing across the way, waving for me to come over. After the rest room, I went back and got Chuck and Allie to go see Mickey. Not just Mickey, but Minnie and Daisy Duck too! Allie had never met Daisy before, so she was very excited. Since there was no one around, we got our picture taken with all three together. Daisy also told us (in her special character way) that Allie needed a hat because of the sun! We had been looking for one, but couldn't find any that we liked. One of the photographers took our picture and told us it would be ready at noon (which it wasn't, so we left without it). We wandered around to Dinoland USA and saw the Triceratops Spin and the Hester and Chester area (neither of which we were impressed with). We also stopped at the Island Mercantile and browsed for awhile. We bought Allie a purple Tinkerbell bucket hat, $17. We had an early lunch at Pizzafari. It was a little after 11, and there was no one in there. We walked in and the entire staff cheered, "Yeah! Customers!". We got 2 Hot Italian Deli sandwiches, 1 small cheese pizza, 2 sodas, and 1 apple juice $23. Just as good as last year! We ran into Pluto and found Piglet for pictures. We then decided to head over to MGM to catch the Stars and Motor Cars parade. We waited about 10 minutes for the bus.. We went through the security check again without any problem. We took a look at the giant hat. We liked it! Of course, we're not big fans of the Great Movie Ride either, so that may have something to do with it too. We walked back to Al's Toy Barn to catch the last Toy Story appearances of the day. Allie and I got our pictures taken with Buzz and Woody (last year, she didn't want to, so I had to go by myself). Near the Toy Barn was a cart that was doing temporary tattoos. Allie got one with all 6 princesses on her leg, $8. We staked out a relatively shady spot near the Star Tours ride since that appeared to be where the parade route started and grabbed 2 Mickey Ice Cream bars and 1 Chipwich, $9. After I took Allie to rest room to get cleaned up (which was right across the way), we bought 2 Cokes from the cart too $5. We started to see a couple of characters walking - Gideon, Stromboli, and Jafar. They just kind of waved, except Jafar was doing a kind of dismissive wave. We saw Mulan walking too. Allie was yelling "Hi" to Mulan and wanted her to sign her book. Mulan told her she couldn't stop, but she would make sure she waved to her during the parade. Allie was kind of disappointed, but then she saw Mushu and started yelling "Hi" to him too. Mushu came over and patted her on the head and tickled her! She was so excited. At least I caught that on video. The parade was getting ready to start and we had some guy (sorry, I forgot to write down his name) that was acting as our MC. He was asking trivia questions of the crowd, and the woman next to us got one right so he made her stand up and wave to the crowd! The parade finally started. We absolutely loved this parade! I even liked the MC's bad jokes. "Mushu, have you met Miss Piggy yet? I think you two would be great together. I just love Mushu Pork!" (drum roll, please!). There were so many characters and the cars were really amazing. The Aladdin car (shaped like the Genie) and the Villains hearse were our favorites. When Mulan's car came past us, Mulan made sure she waved and said hello to Allie. She was beside herself. We saw a lot of characters in this parade that we didn't see anywhere else - The Star Wars gang (Allie didn't like the looks of Darth Vader, but liked R2D2 as he came wandering around), Kermit and Miss Piggy, but Allie didn't like Sweetums. (I had forgotten how big he is!), Hercules, Meg, Pain and Panic (one of which put his face in my camcorder), the people from Atlantis, Sulley and Mike (who wiggled his ONE EYE all around for us), PBJ Otter, etc. Can you tell we really liked this parade? There was a lot of good character interaction with the crowds, but without the kids (and parents) running out into the parade route. All you can hear through the video is my daughter hollering hello at her favorite characters. It definitely makes for funny viewing later. After the parade, we saw the new Playhouse Disney show. The new show is much better than the old one. Allie was disappointed that PBJ Otter weren't in it, but really liked the Book of Pooh and Stanley segments. After that, we checked out the lines for Who Wants to be a Millionaire - too long a line and no Fastpasses left. We ran into Pooh and Tigger outside of their trailers, so we got pictures and autographs from them. We stopped at the Sound Stage cart and bought a Who Wants to be a Millionaire long sleeve shirt for my dad, a tank top for Chuck, and a cool pen $46. We saw Baloo, Eeyore and the Queen of Hearts near the Giant Hat. The Queen of Hearts was really in character. She tried to flick one of the kids' hats off as he was leaving her! We also browsed in a few more stores and bought a Pooh Xmas frame for my sister and brother-in-law ($20) and a Baby's First Pooh shirt for a friend's daughter ($13) at Mickey's of Hollywood which we had shipped back to the hotel. Boy, did we use that feature a lot! (More on that later!) We had a 5pm PS for Hollywood and Vine. When we went to check in at the podium, the CM asked us if we were on the Fantasmic package and I told him no. He informed us that they had seats available, if we were interested. I declined since Allie didn't want to see the big dragon. It was just as well because we decided to see the Osborne Lights tonight. We liked dinner. Some of the items that we enjoyed were the marinated flank steak, rotisserie turkey, sweet potatoes with root beer, Yukon gold potatoes, green beans and tomatoes, tossed salad and southwestern chicken Caesar salad. Allie had chicken nuggets, meatballs in BBQ sauce, and hot dogs. They also had make your own sundaes, red velvet cake, cherry cheesecake and a chocolate brownie cake that was wonderful. Allie took a bite of the brownie cake and then decided it was hers! Dinner was $56. After dinner, we headed back toward the Osborne Lights. We made sure we got our glasses. They were angels this year. They had a cute opening ceremony where they also had the snow maker cranked up full blast. The Osborne Lights were absolutely amazing! It is really a jaw-dropping display! We walked through the whole thing twice. I videotaped a lot of it the first time around, and then spent the second time just soaking it all in! This is a must-see attraction. If this doesn't get you in a holiday spirit, then nothing will. There were Christmas songs playing as you walked through. We also saw a couple nutcracker soldiers, a snowman, and a penguin from Mary Poppins. The penguin stopped us and kissed Allie's hand. She reached up and kissed his beak! It was so cute! Our tired feet headed to the bus stop. Everyone in line seemed to be dragging. We were waiting at the bus stop while the driver was loading someone in a wheelchair, when another bus pulled up. We jumped on the new bus and had a really funny driver. We had stopped at the AS Music hotel to drop off people and there was a middle-aged couple making out at the bus stop. Our driver had just shut the door when the kissy faced woman banged on the door of the bus and demanded to know why he wasn't going to Epcot. He very nicely told her that he was only dropping off from MGM. When he closed the door, he said "She would have known that if she would have bothered to take her tongue out of that guys' throat"! The people that were left on the bus were all hysterical laughing. We headed back to the room and just collapsed. Tomorrow, we are going to try the Magic Kingdom.
Saturday, December 15 We slept in a little this morning. We had soda refills, juice and Poptarts in the room for breakfast. We were out at the bus stop by 9:30am. Do not go to the Magic Kingdom on a Saturday. I cannot stress this enough. It was so crowded! Between the fact that it was a Saturday and the unseasonably warm weather (80+ degrees), it was a recipe for disaster. We were there when the gates opened. Chuck grabbed a stroller and we headed toward the castle. We stopped and watched the first Cinderella's Castle Celebration show. It had a lot of characters in it - Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Beast, the Princes, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Mulan, Shan-Yu, Wicked Queen, Fairy Godmother, Peter Pan and Captain Hook. After the show, they announced that characters would be available for pictures and autographs. We immediately started searching for Mulan. Guess what? No characters that were in the show were out for pictures! Instead we saw Goofy and Max together, King Louie, Timon and Rafiki together, and Launchpad McDuck from Tailspin. We headed off to Fantasyland where Chuck and Allie rode Dumbo (after about a 30 minute wait). I went and rode Snow White to see how scary it was. Definitely not for Allie this time. I stopped and bought a bottle of water and a Coke $5. We headed over to Small World. Yeah! Air Conditioning! Allie just loves this ride. We headed over to Ariel's Grotto to say hi to one of Allie's favorites. We all got stickers for coming to meet her. None of the fountains were working, but that didn't stop the kids from running around and trying to turn them on. We grabbed lunch at Pinocchio's, which was OK. We had 2-1/4 lb hot dog meals, 1 kid's meal hot dog and 2 regular drinks $19. After lunch , we walked over to the Character Festival. Prince John and Governor Radcliffe were there when we first walked up. A CM came over and told us that they were going to go in for a few minutes, but then would be right back out. A few minutes later, Prince John and Jafar came out. Prince John wanted everyone to bow to him, but no one would. He kept dismissing everyone with a wave of his hand. He was very good. We headed over to Frontierland. While we browsed in some shops, we decided to buy Xmas hats. We had been seeing lots of people with them around the parks. I got a Minnie Santa hat for me, a Pooh Santa hat for Chuck, and a Mickey Santa hat for Allie $36. It was a little hot to wear them now, but I wanted to wear them for the MVMCP! We found some good (shady) seats across from the Liberty Tree Tavern to sit and wait for the Share a Dream parade. Allie had been wanting one of those Tinkerbell light spinny things, so her dad bought her one $16. I bought a big container of popcorn and 2 sodas $10. We did not like this parade at all! It was very short and the people were very rude and inconsiderate. They were jumping in front of kids in strollers and folks in wheelchairs who had been waiting for the parade to start! There was also no Princess snow globes in the parade! I know they exist and had seen pictures of them, but there were not in the parade we saw. I also don't like it when they pull kids to try to get them to dance and do stuff with the characters. You can never make out what they are supposed to do and you get kids who weren't picked running out and then their parents go running out too! Ugh! (End of rant. Sorry!). We were going to try to stay and see Spectromagic, but we were totally disgusted by the crowds and their demeanor. We grabbed the first bus back to our hotel and stopped at the gift shop to pick up our package from yesterday. It was time to grab a dip in the pool to relax! We stayed in the pool for a few hours and then grabbed dinner at the food court. Cheeseburgers, chicken strips, fries, a Mickey ice cream bar, and 2 slices of chocolate cake $25. We stayed in the room and relax for the rest of the evening. We watched some TV and played games. Tomorrow, breakfast at 1900 Park Faire and MVMCP!
Sunday, December 16 We slept in again and got ready for breakfast at 1900 Park Faire. We saw the Character Caravan in the hotel lobby this morning before we left for our breakfast. We saw the White Rabbit, Chip and Dale. The Queen of Hearts was also there, but we had already seen her. It was pretty organized. It's no replacement for Early Entry, but it's a nice touch for the kids. We drove over the Grand Floridian and made our first mistake of the day. We didn't valet park, but used the self-park. Had we realized how far away that was, we would have used the valet. As we were walking up, the Character Caravan was in the front. The characters on that bus were Minnie, Pluto, Mr. Smee, and Captain Hook. Allie was carrying her Tinkerbell light and walked up to Mr. Smee and showed it to him. Unfortunately, they were all getting ready to get back on the bus. Mistake number two, had we valet parked, we would have been able to get autographs and pictures. However, Mr. Smee took Allie's Tinkerbell light and showed Captain Hook. Captain Hook was trying to get Tinkerbell with his hook, but Mr. Smee pulled her away. Mistake number three, I didn't have the video camera out! Sigh. I took a couple of regular photos, but they're just not the same. We headed into 1900 Park Faire. The characters on the sign outside were Mary Poppins, Alice, The Mad Hatter, Pooh, and Eeyore. Nice mix of characters! After we checked in at the podium, we went over to see Mary Poppins. She was all dressed in her fancy white outfit (and looked a lot like Julie Andrews!). Allie was so excited to meet her. We were called to our table about 10 minutes after we checked in. It was quite crowded in there. The room was nicely decorated with the carousel animals and balloons. The first character to come over to our table was Eeyore, a few minutes after we were seated. In the middle of breakfast, Alice and the Mad Hatter came over together and then we saw Pooh right before we were leaving. Eeyore came back for a second visit and a hug from Allie. The food was wonderful! We really enjoyed it. We tried scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, cheesy hash browns (our favorite!), Mickey waffles, pancakes, cheese blintzes, muffins, and fruit. They also offered made to order omelets, grits, and Danish. We left stuffed. Breakfast was $55 and definitely would come back again. We decided to head to Downtown Disney to do the bulk of our souvenir shopping and use our Disney Club discount. Even though it was 11:30 in the morning, there were already sections of the parking lot marked full. Uh-oh! I guess everyone had the same idea. We went to the World of Disney. They now have baskets available to carry your stuff in. I could have used a shopping cart! We bought T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, picture frames, dolls, little figurines, etc. It came to $298 with the discount. Yikes! Of course, I had everything shipped back to the hotel. Did I mention how much I love that feature? Since last year's debacle at Downtown Disney where Allie had a total meltdown, we searched out the stroller rental. It was kind of out of the way and very small. It was also a dollar more than at the parks and we were told you couldn't use that rental card to get a new one at the parks:(. That doesn't quite seem fair. We headed over to the Xmas store. I think that may be my favorite store in all of WDW. We bought Princess and Snow White storybook ornaments, a Pooh stocking holder and advent calendar and few other miscellaneous ornaments. Our total was $165 with the Disney Club discount. I had these packages shipped back to the hotel too. Our next stop was Ghiradelli's. They discontinued their Dark Chocolate and Raspberry candy, so I actually left there empty-handed! We sat down for a few minutes while Allie and some other kids were playing in the fountains. She got absolutely drenched from head to toe! We dried off in the sun for awhile and headed over to the sports store. I bought Chuck a Monday Night Football polo shirt $38 as a Christmas present. We wandered in and out of a few more shops and then made our last stop the Lego playground. I stayed with Allie while Chuck went and returned the stroller. We headed back to the hotel and hit the pool for a few hours to relax. We ate dinner at the food court again. It took forever for them to cook 2 cheeseburgers on the grill, like 20 minutes. I was not happy. Allie wanted macaroni and cheese. It tasted as if someone dumped celery salt on it! So, she ended up eating my cheeseburger. I was so disgusted, I didn't want anything. Dinner was $14. We boarded the bus to the Magic Kingdom (with our Santa hats in tow) (Side note, this was the first time that any of us wore long pants since we got here.) The bus was SRO. We got to the Magic Kingdom around 6:40pm. We were each given a bracelet and were herded (sorry, directed) to Tomorrowland, since there were still people leaving the park! We got in line to get our pictures taken (with our hats!) and were riding Buzz Lightyear before 7pm. We actually rode Buzz twice in a row so that we could take turns riding with Allie. My high score this time was 52,900. I won't embarrass my husband by posting either of his scores! Next ride was the Indy Raceway. Last year, Allie remembered she rode with Chuck, so I had to ride with her this time. I drove, but she was helping me :). Over to Fantasyland, where we run into the Tweedles, who were on their worst behavior! Dum had snatched Allie's Santa hat off of her head and decided that he was going to wear it. He had it on his head, his face, was waving it up in the air, was hitting Dee with it, etc. At one point, Allie was yelling at him to give it back to her, but he just wouldn't listen! Finally, the CM that was with them reached over and took it away from him and gave it back to Allie. Now, in our house, they are referred to as "those bad Tweedles". We rode the teacups, Pooh, and then the carousel. We bought a MVMCP T-shirt for Chuck and sweatshirt for Allie, $30 (The sweatshirts were 30% off. I guess they weren't selling in this heat!). We started looking for a place to buy a couple of sodas. We saw part of the early parade as we were walking through Frontierland. We stopped and watched it for a few minutes and then kept looking for sodas. We found a cart open in Adventureland. Three sodas, $7.50. We made our way over to the new Aladdin's Flying Carpet ride. We thought it was cute! I know Allie just loved it and told us it was her favorite ride. Poor Chuck, the camel squirted him right in the ear! We actually rode that twice in a row. By now, it was time for the fireworks. We watched them from Liberty Square. Fireworks surrounded us. It was just amazing!. We walked back to Fantasyland to ride Small World again. We headed back toward Main Street. We also saw the end of the Christmas Forecourt show, which was nice. By now, a lot of people had already left and the crowds were definitely thinning out. We went into the Emporium to do a little browsing (OK, buying!). We picked up a few more shirts and a couple of mugs for $59 and had those sent to the hotel. Allie had fallen asleep in the stroller, so we sat down for a few minutes on Main Street while we waited for the start of the parade. We woke her up a few minutes before the parade was starting. We really enjoyed this parade too. We saw quite a few characters we hadn't seen before like Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, and Dumbo. They had the snow machines going throughout the parade. Since there weren't that many little kids still awake, Allie was getting a lot of interaction with people in the parade. They had a gingerbread float with Mrs. Santa and elves making cookies that smelled like gingerbread as it went by! The bus was again SRO. There were two, very obnoxious women on the bus ride home, who were yelling and carrying on the whole time. They acted like they were drunk. Everyone on the bus was so tired, no one even bothered to say anything. We fell into bed exhausted around 12:30.
Monday, December 17 We slept in this morning and decided to head over to Epcot this morning. We waited at the bus stop for about 15 minutes before a bus appeared. The bus was a combination Blizzard Beach/Epcot bus. Since we are the last of the All-Stars to be picked up, it was unbelievably crowded! After a good number of people got off at Blizzard Beach, we were able to grab some seats on our way to Epcot. We got our picture taken and then walked around Future World. We stopped in Innoventions to send a few email postcards (my mom got hers about 2 hours after we sent it). They also have cool sound effects when you open them later. We walked over to Ice Station Cool so we could taste the sodas. Allie couldn't wait to give her dad "the yucky soda" (it's funny what kids remember). Of course, Chuck drank the Beverly and I caught his reaction on video (you know that's a keeper!). I lost Allie's sunglasses, so I bought another pair for her at the Trading Post at the International Gateway. I found Tinkerbell sunglasses $8. We saw the character bus approaching. The characters on the bus were Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Baloo, Pooh, Pinocchio, Pluto, Chip & Dale. We had to go see Mickey & Minnie, Donald & Daisy, Pinocchio, and Baloo. By now, we were getting hungry. We went to the Electric Umbrella for lunch. Two grilled chicken sandwich platters, a cheeseburger platter, and 3 sodas $25. The food was pretty good and the toppings were good too. We decided to visit the countries, so we started at Norway. Mexico was really crowded for some reason, so we skipped it. Allie found the Kidcot station in Norway and sat down to make her mask. We ended up walked back to Mexico so that she could get her stamp from there. This was the beginning of our trip around the world! The nice part was that we would take turns sitting or standing nearby as she was working on her mask, so the other could go into the shops or watch the entertainment. We saw a few of the Holidays around the World performers in Germany and Canada. We enjoyed watching the train display next to Germany. We also saw a performance troupe in Italy do an interesting show. Almost everyone who was working at the Kidcot stations were very nice. The woman in Italy didn't even try to talk to any of the kids and was more interested in talking to her friends who were behind one of the buildings. The woman in China was wonderful. She sat and talked to each of the kids. She asked each child their name and she wrote it in Chinese on the handle of their mask. Then she asked how they were so that she could stamp the symbol for the year they were born (Allie was born in the year of the Ox. Believe me, it fits!). She really seemed to enjoy talking with the kids! The only country that we couldn't find a Kidcot station at was Japan. We made it to all of the others! When we were in the American Adventure, Mr. and Mrs. Santa were there for pictures and autographs. I tried to get Allie to go up and see them, but she wanted no parts of them. I don't get it. She will get her picture taken with the Queen of Hearts and Jafar, but won't go see Santa? Weird! I stopped and bought a couple of Beatles magnets at the UK cart ($11). By the time we made it to Canada, we caught the last of an Off-Kilter show. We had a PS for 5:30, and it was a little after 5pm. I checked in at the podium and they said it was no problem to be seated early. Chuck and I each had Caesar salad, which was very good. He had prime rib and I had a filet. Allie had a kid's cheeseburger. The pretzel breadsticks were delicious as always, but it was just too hot for soup this time. Dinner was $77. We would definitely come back here again. By the time we left the restaurant, there was quite a line outside. We were just in time for the tree lighting ceremony. It was really beautiful. We stopped in Mouseworks, but didn't find anything we liked. We also stopped at the photo shop to look at our picture, but we were all squinting, so we didn't buy it. We were all too tired to try the Candlelight Processional, so we walked to the bus stop. We only waited a few minutes for a bus as we headed back to hotel. The gift shop at the hotel had called and said our packages were waiting to be picked up. When I got to the counter and gave the CM my name, she told me she was glad I was here to pick up my bags and did I bring anyone with me to help me carry them! Boy, was my face red! Chuck and I managed to carry all of the bags back to our room without any difficulty. That package delivery is a dangerous feature! We refilled our mugs a few times and then hit the beds. Tomorrow is our last full day here :(.
Tuesday, December 18 Mickey called and woke us up this morning. We decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom for our last day at WDW. The bus was fairly crowded again. We got there about 8:30. When I walked through security, the office told me that I didn't have enough stuff in my backpack. He mentioned that I had my wallet, so I should make sure I bought lots of stuff! I told him I had already! We got in line to go through the turnstiles and saw Dopey and Alice entertaining the people waiting. The gates opened around 8:45. Chuck stopped and got a stroller and we saw Friar Tuck standing all by himself in front of Exposition Hall. We also got our picture taken on Main Street with the castle as a backdrop. We walked through the castle (no show until 10:45 or so) since it wasn't blocked off. While Chuck and Allie were looking at the murals inside the castle, I stopped by Cinderella's Royal Table to see if they had anything available. I was told it would be about a 15-20 minute wait. No problem! Allie was so excited! I actually lost count of all the times I called to get a PS for this! We were seated in less than 5 minutes. The characters were Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, and Prince Charming. Breakfast was delicious again. We especially liked the potatoes! The character interaction was very good. The only character we hadn't seen by the time we were finished breakfast was Prince Charming. One of the waitresses (not ours) had stopped by and asked if we needed anything else and if we had seen all of the characters yet. I told her we were still waiting for Prince Charming. She told us that we're all waiting for Prince Charming! We just cracked up! Breakfast was $50. Little girls who love princesses should not miss this meal! We headed into Fantasyland and rode Pooh, Dumbo, Small World, Teacups, and the Carousel. We made our way over to Toontown. We walked through Mickey and Minnie's houses (love the popcorn in Minnie's kitchen!). We walked over to the Toontown Fair and saw that the characters that were there, we had seen already. I asked the CM that was there if Mulan was available for pictures. She made a couple of calls and told us that Mulan is not one of the characters that does that. She asked if Allie had seen Snow White yet. She told us that she would be next to Small World between 10:25 and 11:35. We walked over to Small World and saw that Snow White and Dopey were just leaving for a break. So we went to Adventureland and rode the Jungle Cruise. No lines there, we just walked right on. We walked back to Fantasyland and saw Snow White and Dopey. They were set up at the old Skyway station. After that, we went back to Adventureland to ride Aladdin. We saw the Genie next to the ride, so we went to see him. I asked if Princess Jasmine was around, but was told not today! Once again, we get all of the princesses but Jasmine! Maybe next time! We rode Aladdin two more times. I wanted to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean, so I went by myself while Chuck and Allie rode Aladdin again. I had forgotten how dark it is inside the Pirates. Allie would have been definitely crying! I enjoyed the rides a lot, except for the boat behind us who kept screaming until we got to the parts where the ships are firing their cannons. I met up with Chuck and Allie and we looked in a few more stores. We didn't want to try the Share a Dream parade again, so we decided to head back to the hotel. We walked to the stop and waiting about 10 minutes for a bus. We grabbed our mugs and ate a late lunch at the food court, 3 chicken finger platters $16. I wasn't feeling too well off and on throughout the trip and this afternoon, I just crashed. Chuck and Allie went to the pool, and I stayed in the room and took a nice long nap. I woke up a few hours later when Chuck and Allie got back from the pool. We decided to eat dinner at the food court. One large, plain pizza $14. The pizza was pretty decent. I put the order in at the window and it was going to be a few minutes, so I walked over to the gift shop. I was looking for another set of Ariel and Eric dolls for a friend. I had seen them earlier in the day, but of course, they were gone now. The CM at the desk was very, very helpful. He called the other two All-Star resorts, as well as the Coronado, but no one had them. After dinner, I called Fantasia, the store at the Contemporary. They had them and would put one aside for me. Back one last time to the Contemporary, (which we really do love!) and got the dolls (and a few other goodies), including a beautiful globe that is resting on our mantel $95. We got back to the hotel and did the unpleasant chore of packing everything up. We got some dessert ($9) and I don't know how many refills on our cups until everything was done.
Wednesday, December 19 Mickey calls us one last time as we are up and dressed and out the door by 6am. We are about an hour away from the hotel and I realized that I didn't see the camcorder bag in the van! I called the hotel and told them what happened. They asked if we still had our keys. The CM on the phone told us to come back and check in the room because housekeeping wouldn't be around until after 9am. So, we turned back around and got our bag from the room. On the way back to the hotel, Allie throws up the Pooh juice box she had been drinking! After we got our camera, we stopped back at the food court for a light breakfast $12. A discussion starts where or not we should just head to a park or get back in the car. Unfortunately, the car wins out. We got back on the road towards home. We stopped for a late lunch at a Chick-Fil-A in Kingsland, GA, $14. We got gas while we were there $20 and then didn't stop again until we ate dinner at a Cracker Barrel in North Carolina, $32. Once again, we loved the Cracker Barrel. We debated about finding a hotel, but decided we were going to keep driving. Everything was fine until we got right outside the Fort McHenry tunnel in Baltimore. One of our tires blew out. I pulled onto the shoulder. The tire was just shredded. Directly in front of us was a sign "For Roadside Assistance, Dial XXX". How's that for perfect placement of a sign! Within about 3 minutes, a state trooper pulled up behind us with his lights flashing. About 2 minutes after that, a tow truck appeared. The state trooper asked me if I had run over anything. I told him that I hadn't seen anything. Apparently, the same thing had happened early in the night about the same spot! The tow guy changed our tire, and wouldn't take any money for it. He couldn't have been any nicer (especially when they saw all of the stuff that was in the trunk that had to be taken out or moved around before we could get the spare out!)! I drove (only 55 mph) the rest of the way home. We got back home around 5 am. I left a voicemail for my parents and then we took the phone off the hook!
Final Tally and Thoughts
Margie McCann Margiemc@astro.temple.edu Mail a Comment to Margie McCann |
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