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Paul Schultz -- October 2001 -- Walt Disney World (BWR, OKWR)10/18/01-10/22/01 Cast:
January 2001 to October 18, 2001-I saw that there was a long weekend school holiday (a Fri/Mon) in October, I decided this was the time to go to WDW. Booked the flights and a room at the CBR. As I researched and found MousePlanet.com and other sites I eventually discovered DVC and bought DVC and thus our plans changed. By the time we closed on the DVC purchase, only OKWR was available for our stay but we waitlisted for BWV and 1 week before departure, we got the first two nights in a BWV studio, the last 2 at OKWR. Moving would be a pain, but we would get a chance to see 2 different DVC resorts up close and we really wanted to see BWV, which is to be our home resort now. The original plans involved trying to go to all 4 parks in 4 days. Then we realized we were unimpressed with AK when we were there in Feb 2000, and that it would just take too much time away to go there. So we cut AK out completely. Then when MNSSHP was announced to take place while we were there we worked it into the plan. Day 1 travel, day 2 E->MK-break-E. Day 2 MK->MGM-break->MGM->MK. After two days of commando like parks we sleep in on day 3 and go that night to MK for MNSSHP to midnight, then Day 4 sleep in, pool or resort hop, shop or minigolf during the afternoon and take early evening flight home at 6pm. The terrorists made the plan of picking up the kids after school impossible with the need to get to the airport so much earlier, so we got them at lunch time. Flight on TWA uneventful- free movie and headsets (Mission Impossible- I don't know if it was the effect planes have on all movies but this movie was not good) Easy rental of Dollar Rent a Car, and off to WDW. First night- Arrived around 8:15pm. No valet in sight on arrival at BWV, maybe 3 to 5 minutes later they showed up. We checked in-- room 4066, overlooking Luna Park Pool, right near the elevators (hurray!) Ceiling fan was wobbly, we called down to report and then left for dinner at the ESPN zone and a stroll around, purchase some milk at General Store and to bed. When we got back the fan was fixed. First day was the last day of EE at Epcot- Plan- I had always wanted to ride TT and never had, so this was my chance. Idea was do TT, maybe UE and SE and be on our way to MK at or around 9am- the plan was to do the daytime only things or better in warmer weather things at MK (Tom Sawyer, Toon Town, maybe Splash) I got up early as I can easily do on vacation and never do when it means going to work. Family not so eager, they got up later. I first made PS for the Fantasmic Dinner package at the Guest Relations desk for Sat 5:10pm (the latest one available) I also reported that they gave us no spoons in our room- which were the most important utensil to eat cereal in the room. The spoon s were promptly brought up so I could eat my breakfast and go. I made the easy walk to Epcot and right onto TT, very enjoyable, a cute and clever ride, I thought. Shopped a little then met the family in Canada as they came walking in thru WS. We went towards TT again, for them to try it. On the way, the first and one of the best magical moments was when my 5 year old drank for the talking drinking fountain. The smile and look on his face was priceless! We also enjoyed the Fountain with the music, that was really special. TT broke down twice while we rode it together, and the speed was a bit much for my boys, but they were fine and off we went to SE then by that time it was 9am and we did Living Seas. They loved the manatees and the seahorses were so cool! We left and took the monorail to TTC then the boat to MK as the monorail line was huge at this point. It was now about 10:30am and most of the popular rides were posting 40 minute waits. (This is off season? It was also a Florida school holiday and apparently WDW is deeply discounting for nearby locals now that the rest of the country is apparently afraid to fly to WDW.) Back to our trip: We were hungry so we ate lunch at Pecos Bills and I went to get FP for Splash. I get the idiot award here because I was so hurried and not looking at what I was doing, I got 4 FP for BTM instead. While we had been to MK before, I never went on Splash or BTM there before and never used FP there so I got confused-they are not far from each other. So we had a great time walking onto Tom Sawyer, then BTM and then took the railroad around to Toon Town where my 8 year old was crushed to find Donald's Boat closed due to the drought. We toured Minnie's and Mickey's house, no one wanted to wait in line to meet any characters. My 8yo wanted to see if he could ride Buzz but the line was huge, so we exited through Tomorrowland, and caught the bus back to the BWV arriving around 2pm for swimming some of it in the rain. The slide was great. Then we did a little relaxing around the hotel, checking out Community Hall and it's Nintendo game until about 5:00. To get him to leave, I had to promise my son we would come back for Nintendo. Then we walked back to Epcot for dinner. We stopped in to see the living statues in France -cool. And the French movie, which older son used as a nap opportunity. The rest of us enjoyed it, quite lovely and relaxing. Dinner was Tangierine Café, take out-Moroccan for me and the wife, which I carried over to the American Pavilion where the kids got their dinner. From the plaza there, we watched T of Dreams parade. The Moroccan food was very good, especially the side dishes. Shwarma for me, chicken for my wife. The parade was a quite redundant, but what was done over and over was nice. The kids had to have Kaki-Gori after that. I did not realize reading about Kaki Gori here and on other boards that this is basically a snow cone. But the flavors are much richer than our snow cones- strawberry and tangerine and honeydew melon. Then we walked back around to Norway for Maelstrom, about a 10 minute wait. Then while the kids played on the Viking boat, I got us some Norwegian deserts (Choc pound cake- Good and Sweet Pretzel. The pretzel was a huge hit with my youngest son, while I did not really care for it.) We rode Universe of Energy and that was a big hit with the kids, and my first time seeing it since it became Ellen's thing... She is really funny. Then my oldest wanted to close out Innoventions, but this held little interest for the 5 year old. So I took my younger on The Land, which he loved. We had just been to a farm and enjoys seeing how things grow. We met up with the others in Innoventions which they had really enjoyed. We shopped for stuff in Mouse Gear and slowly made our way out having intentionally missed most of Illuminations (too loud for our guys) We walked to the Friendships and went to bed. Day 2- The plan was to do EE at MK, then go to studios around 9 and try to do TOT and WWTBAM, maybe see Hunchback, eat a light lunch - take a break, check in at OKWR return to MGM for Fantasmic Dinner Package and see Fantasmic and if up for it go back to MK for nighttime experience there. Getting up early was hard for the others but at my insistence we did. Bell Services got bags and we drove to TTC. Resort monorail took us around and into the MK. We did Buzz a couple of times, then stopped off in what proved to be an incredibly slow moving line for Indy Speedway. While we stood there, at least 5 cars broke down on this ride which loads and unloads slowly even when all the cars are working. It took up way too much of our precious EE time (the last at the MK ever-for now, anyway) We rode it, then got FP's to Pooh, rode the Carousel, and just then Peter Pan finally opened (it was about 9am now) and as we came off Pan the line was already 20 minutes long. We rode IASW and then did our Pooh FP's. We headed over to get BTM FP's and walked on with a very short line to Splash. The water went right over my little guy's head onto my wife in 2nd row. I, in the front row, caught a big wave and this blocked my older son from getting very wet. Wife and I who got the brunt of the splash-loved it, the boys were not thrilled, they did not like the drop. BTM was a hit again and would be the favorite of both boys. We then left to go to MGM, about an hour or so later than originally planned. MGM First of all I agree that the HAT is both cool and out of place. I would move it to the entry plaza, or the Crossroads of the world or the animation courtyard if they must keep it. From the look of it, it is no cheap thing so I am sure they are planning on keeping it. I would hope they move it. Once inside, I got 12:30 FP's for WWTBAM while the family got snacks. We made our way all the way back to HISTKP only to find it under rehab! No warning on the tip board. Our party was dragging now and cranky and sad. Tears were shed. There is not much of interest at MGM for my kids, they hate 3D movies, my wife gets sick on Star Tours, but everybody likes TGMR so we got on line for that at about 11:40. The line moved incredibly slowly and by 12:05 we were still not on... I wanted to be sure to get to WWTBAM, but the kids wanted to go on the ride... we parted with plans to meet after WWTBAM... Wouldn't you know it, I got in the hot seat! I lost at the 64,000 point question... (What dance style was the predecessor of the jitterbug?- I don't remember all 4 choices but I had it narrowed to Charleston or Lindy in my mind... I phoned a stranger who agreed with my choice and we were both wrong... it was the Lindy) I got the pins, a lanyard, a hat and a nice polo shirt. Out on the street my family was happy to see me, tired and disappointed they weren't there for my moment of glory and off we went to buy a Magical Moments pin and then leave. The pins are cool and do much more at the various attractions than is apparent from what they do when you just touch them... It was a big hit. They need to have a demo at the sales desk of the real show they put on in an attraction, as they were not selling very many. Lots of people who saw mine going off at Fantasmic later or in Haunted Mansion, IASW later, etc. asked me "what is that? Where did you get it? They knew nothing about them... they are not being promoted enough. Of course, we also heard some not very bright people say as we passed the standby lines with our Fastpasses "Hey, how did they get those fast passes?" I mean the guidemaps have a huge ad about FP and it has been around a long time. I can't believe there are still people who don't get it... but I guess I am glad, it makes it easier for those of us who know how to use them. When we got to OKWR check in was fine and a room was ready. Unfortunately, we were in a bad location all the way at the end of Peninsular Road. A handicapped person's room, no tub, bad view, noise from the nearby busy road and not close to anything. Also the darn bed frames were hazardous. Everyone in our party got whacked by those frames at least twice in the two days we stayed there. Supposedly these studios are bigger than the BWV but it did not feel that way to us because they are an odd shape, in the corner. I am glad BWV is our home. We lounged by the pool for an hour or so, in the hot tub, the boys at times in the sand playground, then drove back to MGM and went a bit early for our Fantasmic dinner at Mama Melrose. Our PS was for 5:10, we got there about 4:45 and were seated around 4:50. The grown ups liked their food, the kids did not. I had a steak, my wife the chicken. Service was okay nothing great. Atmosphere, no big deal. My son's cheese pizza was Chef Boyardee bad. I would do Brown Derby next time. We got out in time to catch the Hunchback show, which is nearby, having just missed the first minute or so. My oldest fell asleep, he needed the rest and was not feeling well, though I don't think it was the pizza, since I ate it too and felt fine. The rest of us enjoyed the show. At this point my older son needed a rest, my younger wanted to do something... I took him on TGMR with no line and when we came out my older boy was all better and playing with the 100 Years of Magic kiosks under the hat. When he got a right answer my Magical Moments pin would flash and sparkle. We made our way to Oscars and walked into Fantasmic. We killed time doing the wave the audience. We had bought some camping glow sticks at Wal-Mart (2 for $4) and gave these to the boys to play with rather than buy the more expensive glowy things Disney was peddling. Fantasmic was great! And the pin interacted with the show in cool ways at the end. I am really glad we did not wait an hour for it though, the dinner package was worth it, the seats were fine and as we exited the park we did some souvenir shopping and I had delicious caramel apple. The boys were feeling re-energized so we drove over to MK and rode the monorail and re-entered the MK... it was pretty crowded. Too crowded for Buzz which appeared to have short lines but returning Fastpassers kept the line from moving. My older son won't do Haunted Mansion or even tell us why, but my younger likes it, so I took the younger to HM while the older one and my wife did Aladdin and Pirates. We met up at POC and did it again and then Aladdin with me and the younger boy. WE got spit on as we wanted-it was hot and humid. The ride is a charming addition and clever and well themed. The people saying bad things about it are what I call sour bugs. We made our way through Casey's the gift shops to the end of Main Street but still not in time to get out before Spectromagic started. We waited for the first break in the action, then left. Since there was a big line for the monorail and the boats already, I suggested my wife and kids take the resort bus back to OKWR, I would wait and get the car and meet them at the room... I got back about 45 minutes to an hour later, they had arrived only 5 minutes before me. The OKWR bus did not leave for a while until it was fuller. It left them at Hospitality House making them wait for another bus to take them the 7/10 mile back to where "our" bus stop was (Peninsular). It's another 2/10 mile walk from there to our room-with two tired kids. My wife was not amused nor terribly pleased with the way OKWR worked out for us. Day 3- Slept in, breakfast in the room as usual, cereal, with milk we bought at OKWR store. (We had to use up the BWV milk before the move or it would have gone bad, being unrefrigerated in the move.) It was rainy, so we went back to BWV to Community Hall and spent the rest of the morning relaxing by the quiet pool while the kids played inside-Nintendo, Foosball, Ping Pong, etc. We rented a surrey bike and rode around the boardwalk- great fun but just as we finished, a huge downpour hit us. The kids wanted to see the Yacht Club, so we rode the Friendship over and had lunch at Beaches and Cream. Delicious burgers! They walked around the resort while I walked back to BWV, got the car and picked them up in front of the Yacht Club. We drove over to check out the Wilderness Lodge at this point. WOW! Incredible place and the villa models were gorgeous We will definitely want to stay here in the future. We tried to find some of the Hidden Mickeys and were only partly successful. The rain kept falling. We played a little chess, checkers at the Villas. We really enjoyed this resort. We then drove off property to the Belz outlet mall. There apparently used to be two outlets there, now only one. The kids fell asleep, so I circled with them in the car while my wife shopped but she found nothing either there or at the Premiere Outlets on the way back. We looked for an agreeable off property place to eat along 192. The kids agreed to Denny's and we had a nice affordable meal there of breakfast foods. It was getting close to time to go to MNSSHP. We drove back to OKWR leaving the car by Hospitality House this time to avoid the problems with the bus from the night before. We had to wait around 5 or 10 minutes before the bus came. It was pretty full-too full to take the guy in a wheelchair who had been waiting with us. MNSSHP We all went dressed in Hawaiian shirts with leis, but my Epcot poncho from 1989 obscured the view of mine. It was raining steadily for three hours. Luckily, Wal-Mart helped again, 3- 89cent disposable ponchos were quite handy. The kids were too small, but a CM in a gift shop used a scissors to cut them down and off we went to Adventureland. The party was fairly crowded, but the trick or treating was fun for the kids. I saw plenty of grown ups without kids doing it too, though my wife and I did not. We did Jungle cruise and Aladdin, BTM, Peter Pan, Dumbo, IASW, Riverboat cruise. We got our family portrait, lots of candy, saw a little bit of the parade and enjoyed the Halloween decorations before making our way to Tomorrowland where we were to finish the night. HM was way too crowded all night to try to do again even if we wanted to. The Riverboat cruise had the country bears on it and live music and a storyteller, but it was disappointingly dull. We could not understand the storyteller over the loud speaker, the boat was packed and the decorations on the shoreline were nothing special. That was a waste of precious party time. In Tomorrowland we did SM, lots and lots of Buzz, Indy speedway, and I did Alien Encounter for the first and probably last time. It was okay but I can't see any repeat value to the attraction-definitely did not live up to the hype for me. It was now about 10 til midnight, there were still plenty of people around, though not crowded. My younger son was determined to ride BTM one more time no matter it was as far away as you can be from where we were. He asked which way and started heading in that direction -expecting and finding my wife would quickly follow him I rode Buzz with my son, and could not break the 300,000 mark 295,XXX was as high as I got. We met up at Casey's and made our way out. There was a Mickey/Minnie meet greet at the exit but they had closed the line by the time we got there, so enough, we were hot, wet and tired and ready to return to OKWR. The Halloween noises and colors and projections were fun and my pin did a lot of cool things throughout as we left the parks for the last time this trip. The journey back to OKWR was quick- maybe 7 minutes BUT the bus did not stop at Hospitality House until it went through the whole OKWR complex first this time. By the time we got to our car it was a 25 minute journey and we were frustrated by the inconsistencies of the transportation system... we drove to our studio and slept. Day 4- Slept in, check out was automatic and we were out of the room at around 11am. As usual, I got up earlier than everyone else. I went up and saw the Character Caravan arrive with Minnie, Pluto, Mr. Smee and Hook. This is the replacement since they cancelled Early Entry for resort guests. As an early riser and commando-type guy whose kids have little interest in characters, you can imagine how I feel about this substitution- but what are you going to do? I drove over to look around PO-R and POFQ which I was saddened to hear is to be shut down for now... It was a charming resort. PO-R looked too spread out for my taste and the pool there was nothing special at all. If I were moved from POFQ I would pick CBR over PO-R. I drove over to check out CBR which also was lovely and charming. I loved the pool there, even more than the pool at POFQ which I know many people call their favorite. Once checked out we went over to SAB to swim for the rest of the morning and really enjoyed the pool there. I hope DVC does not lose the pool hopping privileges. No one asked us for any id to swim at YC and I wish they had. If pool hopping is to be maintained for DVC members as a special perk- it is important to reserve it for them only. We packed it in and headed over to DD to spend some of the boys birthday Disney Dollars that their kind uncle had given to them. They bought some cool things, including a Mickey-shaped gameboy with 16 games that kept them busy for the rest of the day, in the airport and on the plane. We grabbed lunch at the convenience store of the service station on Orange Blossom Rd on the way back to the airport and then killed the time at the airport in short lines and just lounging about, playing the gameboy, etc. It was a great flight home and a great trip overall. Summary- On the downside-
I was disappointed that the Internet pin I was supposed to get free with my Magical Moments pin was out of stock. I had gotten a certificate on the Disney Website about the 100 years celebration. On the good side-
DVC member since September 2001 Paul Schultz PKS1687@bjc.org Mail a Comment to Paul Schultz |
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