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Ruth Smith -- April 2001 -- Walt Disney World (Dolphin)April 26-29, 2001 We went down in a rush specifically to see Lausanne Live, a High School Band and Chorus from Memphis perform and compete in Disney's Magical Music Days. I am proud to say that our Chorus won the competition! Their trophy is huge and they had a blast. We did four parks in two days and managed to see the performances. Here is a recap of the best and worst of our trip. Kids went down on a bus. Me and my 10 year old drove down by ourselves. Best: Dinner at Boma in the new Animal Kingdom Lodge, the flowers at EPCOT, and Fastpasses. Worst: No Spectromagic, no MK fireworks the night we were there, no late hours, and high season prices for the resorts. Pleasure Island gets ugly after midnight, too much like Bourbon street, not enough Disney Magic. We arrived at 6p.m. Thursday at the Dolphin. No one was in line to check in and we were in our room in 5 minutes. We were on the 10th floor, east wing, close to conventioneers and far from most amenities with a view of the roof. I guess that is what you get with a teacher's discount. Housekeeping left a little to be desired, found lipstick on a glass that I almost drank out of. Yuck! Found that the Disney desk only operated from 7:30 to 5 p.m. and passes would have to wait till morning. Quick dip in the pool, slide closed at 6 p.m. Off to Animal Kingdom Lodge for stroll around the Savannah. Saw some animals, just missed the giraffes and zebras. Apparently they are out all night but wander to the back at dark. Boma was wonderful, had PS for 9 p.m. Had to give a credit card with a $ 10 per person penalty if you don't show. It worked out great but kind of scary when we were on the road that day and so may things can delay you. The service was excellent and it is a buffet. Best prime rib I have ever had anywhere and the zebra dome dessert was chocolate with Kahlua mousse inside was heaven. Hit the desk for Unlimited Magic Passes at 7:30 a.m. Quick and easy but could not charge them to the room, had to carry my credit card with me each day to the parks. Room card only works for charging inside the Dolphin resort. Happy to say everywhere took the Diner's Club. Disney busses arrive every 20 minutes at the Dolphin but we never waited more than 5 - 10 minutes. Stops for the Swan/Dolphin were always close, usually stop #2. Found the Main Street Bakery closed for rehab. Rats! No giant rice krispie treat. Went first to Fantasyland and walked right on to everything, Pooh first then Dumbo. Last time we were at MK was the night before the Pooh ride opened and they were having cast member rides only. That was disappointing and really built the anticipation for riding it this time. We were disappointed. My daughter, the huge Pooh fan, was mildly pleased but I missed Mr. Toad. I did scream, "were gonna die" just for old times sake when the ride started. Same track as Mr. Toad. I guess I thought it would be interactive or something like Roger Rabbit in DL so I thought it was kind of lame, but the little ones seemed to love it. Rode the Tomorrowland cars for the first time ever, usually the line is too long. My kid is a lousy driver and I'm not looking forward to trying to teach her in the future but it was fun anyway. Did Toontown with no waits and took the train to Frontierland and did Pirates and the Jungle Cruise. We still love JC and our captain was great. Next our Lausanne Live band played at Cosmic Rays where Sonny performs. Due to a schedule conflict the band had to choose between performing and competing and chose this performance. It was neat for them because they took them underground at Pirates and set them up and they came up form out of the floor playing and left that way too. It was great. I think everyone enjoyed the band. Got a Fastpass for HM, ate at Liberty Tree Tavern, the clam chowder in a bread bowl is a tradition with us, and walked on HM after lunch. By now the 3p.m. parade was clogging up main street so we did Buzz Lightyear and left. I was afraid that Timekeeper was closing because it was no longer on our map. It seemed to be open but I could not talk my kid into wanting to do it. Passed the parade and monorailed to EPCOT. This was great. I love the way the monorail takes you through a loop inside EPCOT before it lets you out there. We could really see and appreciate all the flowers. Did Spaceship Earth and then sent a postcard picture of us to Dad back home via e-mail from Innoventions. Played with some things in Innoventions and went to Test Track to get a Fastpass. It was about 4p.m. and the Fastpass came out for 8:40 - 9:40pm! I could not believe this but it worked out perfectly. We did Body Wars, Ellen, HISTA (all with no wait) and then ate and shopped our way around the World Showcase. Late afternoon to early evening is perfect for enjoying light crowds in Future World but puts you in WS too late for most of the Kidspots where they have activities for kids to participate in. Italy was still making masks at 8 p.m. and we did this. We saw illuminations from FW and got to Test Track at 9:30. I think the only people they were letting on the ride were the Fastpassers and we walked right on. This was great. I like to sit down at the Electric Umbrella and have a drink with gummy bears in it and watch the fountain while the park empties out. The fountain was not going so we took the bus back to the Dolphin. Great day but a long one. I took 3 pairs of shoes and got 3 sets of blisters in 3 different places. Saw busses going like crazy into MK and was told it was grad night. No wonder there was no E nights while we were there. Saw the grads again Sat. at PI. Saturday we started out early at the AK. It was about 8:20 when we got back to the Safaris and there was already a 30 min wait. We got a Fastpass, had breakfast and returned to walk straight on at 8:55. This Fastpass thing is wonderful and I don't know what I did without them. Still I heard people in lines standing there waiting saying, "those Fastpass things are so stupid." I can't believe everyone doesn't take advantage of them. We went next to the river rapid ride and walked on. They were even letting people stay on the ride and go a second time. Woohoo! Got a Fastpass next for the Dinosaur ride and played at the Boneyard playground for 30 minutes and walked right on. This ride is too dark for me, I want it to be like Indiana Jones at DL but it is nowhere near as good. Finished with AK before noon and headed to MGM. Got as Fastpass for Millionaire and did the Great Movie Ride. Asked for the gangster and got front row. I was glad to see they updated the movie clips at the end to include some of the newer movies. Millionaire was neat. I have never seen the show but my kid had. The first question was, Rank these subatomic particles in order of their discovery: electron, proton, neutron, and quark. Half the audience was laughing thinking this was a joke but it was the real question and by the time I figured out the buttons a young man from New Jersey had done it. He was a nice young man, probably 18-25 and did well. He got past the first two round of prizes he could keep and then missed a question about what BVD stood for. I think he got 3 or 4 questions away from winning the trip to NY. The audience really liked him and was rooting for him. It was hard to keep the audience from saying answers out loud, and not always the right ones. It was really fun and went really fast. We got a Fastpass for Star Tours and ate at the Pizza Planet. This was the longest line I stood in for the entire trip. I took 30 minutes to get through what seemed like a short line. Kid just had to have the pizza. Star Tours was a walk on for everyone after lunch and it was fun. There was a 6 year old boy who's father tricked him into going on it. He ended up liking it but cried at first when he realized he had to sit down and buckle up because his dad had told him they would walk through and exit and he did not have to ride it. It worked out but I have taken the chicken exit whenever my kids decided they did not want to ride. Went back to the Dolphin to swim to find out the pool with the waterfall and slide closed at 4p.m. and they were setting up chafing dishes for a convention closed party. Spent some time in the little pool and went back to MGM by boat to see Fantasmic. If I had known the pool wasn't really available, I would have stayed at MGM because we ended up in SRO and glad to get it. We had arrived back just before 8 p.m. but it was already full. The cast members had their work cut out for them trying to keep people in the SRO area. NO sitting on the rails, no crossing the yellow line, no standing in the sidewalk area, no sitting on the trash cans. People went into the seating area anyway, only to return to SRO because they were really full. Hated to stand at the end of a long day with blisters but Fantasmic was great. I did not know it had been cancelled the night before until I read the post, maybe that is why it was so crowded. Went to Planet Hollywood for dinner. Fun but took from 10 - 11:45 to get seated and served. By then the bridge to PI was closed so we watched from a bench under the bridge and saw the fireworks and confetti fly. Crossed the bridge at 12:05 and haven't seen so many people staggering around since Bourbon Street. Kids are allowed with adults but there weren't may around. We tried the Adventurer's Club but were out of place. Looks like fun if you stay long enough to meet the characters. We took a quick look around. Artifacts were neat, interesting adult conversations were taking place in the ladies room, and a lone couple was really making out hot and heavy in the room to the left of the mask room. We like live theatre experiences and I'll go back really early some time with the kids or if it is late again, I'll take my husband. What a long day! No wonder I never make Downtown Disney. We have always been too tired from the parks, even though our passes have always included it. Sunday we have a tradition of doing a character breakfast then heading home. This time we tried Ohana at the Poly and it was great. Food was served at your table in big woks full of everything. Characters marched the kids around the dining room. We met Goofy, Mickey, Chip, and Dale. It was nice. We shopped for last minute items and were on the road by 9a.m. Only 14 hours later we were back home in Memphis at 10 p.m. Long drive all by myself, but if I can do it, anyone can. A fun but really quick trip. Feel free to ask me any questions. Ruth Smith rssmith@memphis.edu Mail a Comment to Ruth Smith |
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