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Paula Sillars -- October 2001 -- Walt Disney World (Offsite, ASMuR)Cast
Notes All prices are in US$ unless otherwise stated. Currency conversion was approximately $NZ1=$US2.40 – which meant everything seemed outrageously expensive. Imagine going on holiday and spending 2.5 times as much for everything – ouch! Planning About one year ago, we decided to try planning another trip. Initially we planned for Sept/Oct for four weeks. We kept an eye out for cheap airfares and did our homework on what we would do, where we would stay and so on. No cheap airfares were advertised so a friend who is also a travel agent found a fare with Qantas for $NZ2495 (about $US1100) which would take Robert and myself on a 30 hour trip from Christchurch (New Zealand) to Auckland (New Zealand), then Sydney (Australia), then Bangkok (Thailand) then London (England). We would stay one week in England and then fly from London to Orlando for three weeks. We would return home with a one-night stay in LA then back to Auckland and then home to Christchurch. We had to travel after 1 Oct due to the ticket conditions, so moved our dates to arrive in Orlando on 9 Oct and leave Orlando on the 31st. This sounded good and although it was a longer journey, it would save us a considerable amount of money over going directly to Orlando. Mum would be traveling independently from us and would meet us after our trip to England at Orlando. We arranged to meet at the Disney store at the airport – where else? When the terrorist attack occurred, it was about 3 weeks from our departure date. We were unsure whether we would be able to travel or if it was safe to do so. Our insurance would not cover modifications or cancellation of our journey. We kept up with the current events and felt that it would probably be as safe a time (if not safer) to travel now. Also we would be doing our part to keep the travel industry going. The only risk was that if something did happen again, we could be trapped in America, it wouldn’t be an option to take a bus or drive home. Robert and I had an uneventful, albeit very long trip straight through to England. Approximately 30 hours door to door. We had a last minute change due to flight cancellations and traveled via Singapore rather than Bangkok – however all airports look alike and we only had 1 hour on the ground anyway. The increased security was very noticeable. Even leaving the aircraft in Sydney to wait in the transit lounge for the next flight, we had to go through metal detectors and security again. While in England we visited the following – Warwick Castle, Sheffield, London, Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon. Feel free to contact me for further information. Seeing our trip was so long, I won’t go into a day-by-day blow but instead will summarise my thoughts under headings. Getting there and Accommodation We drove directly to Kissimmee. We’d not booked any accommodation before we left and decided to stay in a cabin at the Tropical Palms Resort (TP) near Old Town on 192 for the first week. We’d stayed here in 1994 and found it to be a very pleasant resort. $59/night + tax. They have a 24-hour pool – not themed, rooms are serviced on request, and towels can be exchanged for clean ones at the reception. The room itself had two double/queen beds and an upstairs loft (suitable for children), which had inflatable beds. A full kitchen with stove, microwave and a dishwasher is in the cabin. There was an air conditioner but the loft area was still very warm – we dried towels over the railings. Also the air conditioner would turn itself off and on when the temperature was reached which we found to disturb our sleep somewhat. They have a small café near the pool, which offered breakfast and lunch. We breakfasted there twice but for $3.99 you could get a buffet breakfast on 192. The nicest thing about TP was the wildlife. We are all very fond of animals. We found lots of Armadillos and Squirrels. There were Alligators in the pond. However the highlight was one night we were awaken by noises on the roof. It sounded like a cat or a possum. Robert and I went to investigate, only to startle two large Raccoons. They looked at us very indignantly before scampering off. We didn’t see or hear them again during our stay. After about 4 nights at TP we needed to either move on to other accommodation or extend our stay. We thought we’d see what prices on site were like as we’d seen signs on 192 for heavily discounted hotel rooms. We rang and we offered $49/night +$10 for the additional adult at All Star Music or All Star Sports. I am not sure if that was a special rate for annual pass holders, which I said we had, however we weren’t requested to show this on check-in. I booked 2 weeks at All Star Music and was given a confirmation number. On reaching the security gate on the morning of our check-in we had to give the confirmation number to the guard and show photo id (driver only) and were allowed in. Subsequently going through this security we had to show photo id, only twice were we requested to use our room key to lift the gate. We were assigned a non-smoking room in Broadway, near the car park. This wasn’t far from the smaller piano pool. It was a considerable distance to the Reception/Food Court but we tended to drive and then head off for the day, or stop off on the way back to the room in the evening. The room was very quiet; it was only noticeable that anyone else was staying at the weekends. The car park varied from being nearly empty to struggling to find a space when we returned in the evening. We hit the parks! We activated our passes immediately and went straight through Future World to get a spot for Illuminations at 9pm. All we could say was WOW! What a fantastic start to our Disney Holiday. The following day we went to Magic Kingdom as we thought that Robert needed to get the idea and feel for what it was all about. General Observations The longest line we saw the whole time was 80 minutes on Kilimanjaro Safari towards the end of an afternoon. Typically most wait times were 10-15 minutes for the popular rides. The shortest wait we encountered was Splash Mountain when the cast member asked if we’d like to ride again without getting off – who would say no? Food Both Robert and I are vegetarian and on the whole there wasn’t much variety, vegetarian hamburgers or pizza. However after a week of these, you tend to want something else. Another nice meal was at the Columbia Harbour House – the Coral Reef Sandwich (hummus, coleslaw and tomato on toasted bread with either fries or carrots). I wasn’t impressed with the Vege chili in a bread bowl at CHH, it had no taste. We carried a plastic water bottle with us at all times and filled it from a water fountain, the one bottle lasted the entire trip so was very environmentally friendly and we saved a fortune on drinks this way. It’s also much better for you particularly on hot days when you can get very dehydrated. We did buy the occasional soft drink and got a large one to share between the three of us. Badly behaved children A lot of the poorly behaved children could have been attributed to hot, overtired kids who just needed a beak and some time to cool off. On one occasion we encountered a child who screamed through the entire showing of Cranium Command. She’d obviously been through some of the high intensity shows and thought we were in for something frightening. However instead of removing her from what was a perceived terrifying experience her mother made her sit through it while the rest of the audience had to try and hear over the screaming. Did this child enjoy her experience? I don’t think so; I doubt she knew what was happening as she was so wound up and beyond reason. Another badly behaved boy was in a similar situation at Disney Quest. We were waiting in line for Pirates and he kept asking what it was about. His parents said they didn’t know and he was terrified about what it might be and really playing up so he wouldn’t have to go on it. Now if I had a child that scared (and I don’t have any children), I would have either experienced the ride first or asked a cast member to explain to the boy what was the ride was about. It’s a shame to say that it’s the good children you don’t notice and they were in the majority. Worse Behaved Adults People littering – particularly the car parks. If you can travel to the parks with the rubbish in your car, you can travel home with it and put it in a rubbish bin (trash can). Obviously some people seem to think that as get into your car, you just remove the rubbish and leave it in the car park. What a lovely example this sets for children! Magic Kingdom Alien Encounter IMO is a waste of space and certainly not worth queuing for. BTM and SM we rode many times. I never get bored with these two. SM is my favourite MK ride. IASW – I love it. It for me is what Disney is all about. I even like the song. I think I may need therapy… We were lucky to have Mickey Mouse on our Liberty Bell cruise and had plenty of time with him to take photos. Animal Kingdom I have travelled in Asia (the continent, not the theme park land) and you could really think you were in there. The whole of Asia is cleverly themed, as you can’t pick one Asian country; it encompasses a number of them. Kali River Rapids has a great themed queue area. The ride was wet, short and wet! Luckily it was 88 degrees the day we rode so we chose a good day to do it. We enjoyed Kilimanjaro Safari and rode a number of times. We saw a Wildebeest give birth which was amazing! And it was nice to see a few days later that the calf was alive and well. It is a great attraction as it is different each time but it pays to ride more than once if possible as you don’t always see all the animals. It’s best seen in the morning on a hot day. I don’t see how people can say this is a half-day park, it might be if you just do the rides and rush past the animals however there is so much to see and do and lots to explore. We really enjoyed It’s tough to be a bug. I am not sure what is best, the show or the audience reaction. Apart from small children, everyone leaves the theatre laughing. Watch those stingers though - they hurt! Epcot After reading that Tapestry of Dreams wasn’t as good as Tapestry of Nations, I wasn’t expecting much but I loved it! We saw it about 4 times. It is a beautiful parade and very catchy music. I’d love a copy of it, I got the CD of the Music of the Parades but it only has a tiny section from ToD. We sent digital postcards from Innovations to friends at home. It would have been nice if they were more Disney themed. We’d have loved to send proper emails but were unable to find anywhere to do so. Coronado Springs have facilities at the cost of one arm and a leg. Watch out for deer when leaving Epcot, on two occasions we saw them, once along the side of the road and the second time from the monorail. They would leave a large expensive dent in your car if you hit one. MGM Don’t miss Fantasmic – it truly is fantasmic. Tower of Terror is the best thrill ride I’ve ever been on. It’s better since they have added the extra drops. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is very smooth and takes your breath away with the launch. Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach We found that if you visited after 3pm that a small locker is only $3 with a $2 refund. Two hours was plenty of time to cool off ready for another park or shopping. We were very conscious of not getting sunburnt as in NZ we have constantly drummed into us the dangers of skin cancer. We all enjoyed floating around the rivers at both parks. The various hydro slides were fun too. Teamboat Springs at BB is excellent! Robert insists that he was keen to do Summit Plummit but unfortunately in our last week, it was too cool for swimming so he never got to prove it. ? Disney Quest The vege wraps and pasta here were very good. A lot of the games were broken or needed some sort of maintenance on them. Pleasure Island Day off to Kennedy Space Centre Security was much tighter here than Disney. No bags were allowed and all visitors went through metal detectors. All cameras were checked too. $25 to get in. The tour bus only made one stop. I am sure there are supposed to be other stops but nothing was said about it. We saw the Apollo display at our stop. Even so, KSC is a full day with plenty to do. I suspect it was busier than expected as there weren’t many showings of most shows. We queued for the last of one of the shows and it was full before Conclusion Highlights for us were the low crowds, tapestry of dreams, Fantasmic, Illuminations, being able to afford to stay onsite, Kilimanjaro safari, desserts at Morocco, there are so many they’d be longer than the trip report. Lowlights – living so far away that frequent visits are impossible! Poor state of the NZ$ making everything expensive. We hadn’t been home long before seriously thinking about our next trip. Roll on Sept 2003… Paula Sillars paula-and-robert@clear.net.nz Mail a Comment to Paula Sillars |
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