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Shelly Theriault -- November 2001 -- Walt Disney World (ASMoR)Summary
The trip was definitely an unexpected surprise. My husband and our best friends went in November of 2000, so I thought it would be years before we would make it down South again (being what the exchange on our Canadian dollar is, you know!). But obviously my husband took my pleading to heart when my only reply as to what I wanted for Christmas was a trip to "The Happiest Place on Earth" again. The gift was given on Christmas Eve. We had just returned home from my parents' place. I ran through our side door on a mission (heading straight towards the bathroom!), when my husband and my oldest daughter said, "No wait, we can't wait any longer. You've got to open your gift NOW!" Since I loved receiving and opening gifts, I put my trip to the bathroom on hold and Jennifer and I opened our joint gift from Ashley (my 15 year old daughter) and Daniel (my husband) right away. Wrapped inside a big box was an envelope. Inside the envelope was a gift certificate (of a sizeable sum) from a local travel agency. I dropped it (the envelope and my jaw), jumped up and down while hugging my husband and oldest daughter, and screamed how this was the best Christmas gift I had ever received! Poor Jennifer still didn't comprehend what this meant. She said, "why are you so excited, Mom?". I said, "Because this means that you and I are going to Disney World!!!" WELL, then she and I started jumping around like crazy. The tears started flowing and unfortunately so did I. Remember... I was on my way to the bathroom when they stopped me to open my gift?!? My family hasn't stopped teasing me since... a grown woman peeing her pants! We were using our air miles for our flight, flying directly out of our city (a first for us!) with a change of planes in Toronto and then on to Orlando. I knew I wanted to go in November 2001, because we really enjoy the lower crowds of November, but I had absolutely no choice on what week to go because I think we took the last 2 available seats on any flights to Orlando that would have us there and back in one week. It was a long countdown. I pretty well drove my husband, my coworkers and my family crazy with a countdown that lasted 11 months. My husband is begging me to not plan so far ahead next time. Fast forward to Wednesday, November 14, 2001: Our flight was to leave at 6:20 a.m., so we woke up (what am I saying...I barely slept a wink!) at 4:00 a.m. and quickly got ready. To my surprise, my oldest daughter had set her alarm and was determined to see Jennifer and I off at the airport. God love her...she's 15 and loves to sleep, but she insisted she wanted to wave good-bye to us at the airport. Naturally, being a mother, I worried the whole day that she hadn't had enough sleep and would come down sick at school! I wish there was a "worry-off button" on me. We arrived at our airport with an hour to wait. The line up was very long, which surprised me at first until my husband reminded me that he had taken this early morning business flight to Toronto plenty of times and that it was always full. So needless to say, it was a plane full of business travelers. Jennifer and I were the only two casually dressed with huge grins ear-to-ear. I'm glad we got there an hour in advance as there was just enough time to check in, go through security and board our flight. We expected to be patted down, bags rummaged through, etc., but all we did was put our knapsacks through the scanner. Our flight was non-eventful, with the usual muffin and refreshments served. We arrived in Toronto on schedule and have never been more confused by an airport's layout! This has to be the worst laid out airport ever. We had to stop twice to ask for direction on how to get to our gate. Again, regarding security, all that we were asked to do was to put our knapsacks through the scanner. We boarded our flight, a bigger and nicer plane this time, received our earphones to watch taped Everybody Loves Raymond episodes. I would have loved to sleep, but we were just too excited for that. I've got to say that since September 11th, I certainly eyed each and every person on the plane. Something I would not have done before - well - then again - I do enjoy people watching... We FINALLY arrived in Orlando at 1:07 p.m. to dark skies and showers. It didn't matter to us though...we were here...exactly where we wanted to be...and nothing was going to stop us from having our trip of a lifetime...our mother-daughter trip that we would talk about for years! Now this is a well laid out airport. Toronto could take a lesson from them. We quickly made our way to baggage claim area. Why does our luggage always seem to be the last ones on the carousel? Very frustrating when you're so excited to get going and Jennifer was more than ready! We had never used Mears before, but found our way to the counter on the floor below (or two - I can't remember - I do know we used the elevator to get down to a lower floor though). We were shocked at the line-up that we had to wait in. But once at the counter ($40 return for one adult and one child), it took no time to receive our tickets. With tickets in hand, we made our way out to the sidewalk where we checked in. Good Lord, we could have baked a cake in the time we had to wait for the All Stars bus to arrive. Every bus that pulled up was going somewhere other than the All Star Resorts. We did talk to a mother-daughter from Georgia who loved our accents and wondered where we were from. Loved OUR accents??? I never knew we had one! But their Georgian accents, on the other hand, were absolutely enchanting. Throughout the week, Jennifer and I, on numerous occasions, broke into our newly adopted Georgian accents (and the word "y'all" was used excessively)! Too funny! They asked a lot of questions about Canada and our weather. Sometimes I wonder if some Americans (especially those in southern states) think Canadians are all Eskimos! LOL! After close to an hour we were very happy when a bus pulled up and the All Star Resort name was called out. Although, we still weren't 100 percent sure if it was All Star that the Mears attendant yelled out...I could hardly understand him at all...I'm not sure what accent he spoke with. Whatever the accent, we encountered numerous people on this trip that sounded like his. Very hard to understand. We asked the bus driver if he was going to the All Stars and he said yes, so we boarded the bus. It headed straight for the All Star Resorts...with the first stop being Sports, second, Music and thirdly Movies. We checked in just after 3:30 p.m. with no problem. We were sure to give the bus driver a tip when he passed us our bags and wished us a great vacation, but I noticed that we were the only people to do this. That's too bad. I had stayed at the All Star Movies in November 2000, so I knew just what to expect, but this was Jennifer's first time staying on-site, so she was speechless when she saw the lobby. There was virtually no line-up, but it quickly filled up behind me. I had requested Toy Story, with a room on the 2nd or 3rd floor facing Andy's room. I didn't want 1st floor because last November we found lots of tiny wormy-like things crawling in our room (they sprayed our room for us twice before they moved us to a 3rd floor room). This time we were assigned a 1st floor room...but we decided to throw caution to the wind and took it anyway. We were just too tired at this point. (FYI...not a worm to be found on this trip!) Jennifer was absolutely amazed at the huge icons that adorn the buildings at the All Star Movies. She was in Disney movie icon heaven! She absolutely adored Andy's room and would spend a few minutes there each morning while I was finishing getting ready. We called home to say that we had arrived safe and sound and quickly took everything from our suitcases and put them in our dressers for our week long stay, changed into our shorts and headed toward the Downtown Disney bus stop. This trip, the bus service was excellent (except for once, which you'll read about later). Either the bus was just pulling up as we walked to the bus stop or it was there within the first 2-5 minutes. This was a complete turnaround from last year when it seemed like we waited our whole trip for busses. We were starved for food, since all we had eaten was airplane food for breakfast (need I say more?), so we headed straight for Rainforest Café at Downtown Disney's Village Marketplace. It was not at all busy and we walked right in. Jennifer and I especially loved the animal stools at the Rainforest Cafe bar. Be sure to check these out and have your picture taken sitting on them. It makes for a really cute picture. I had the Turkey-Caesar salad wrap and Jennifer had the chicken finger kids meal. Jennifer's drink came with the meal and I had a Coke. The bill came to $25.09. It was a good tasting meal, but I was shocked at the price. I don't even want to know how much that would convert to in Canadian dollars! Yikes! We finished our Downtown Disney trip after slowly walking clear from Marketplace to the West Side, where we thought we would get on the bus at the West Side. To my great dismay (I suffer from Plantar Fasciitis and my feet were absolutely killing me) there was a sign by the bus stops stating that this bus station was closed and to please make our way back to the Pleasure Island bus stop or the Marketplace bus stop. Now, could they not have put this sign at the beginning of the loooong path that leads to the bus stop? Aaargh! We made our way back to the Pleasure Island bus stop, but first stopped to buy Jennifer a candy apple ($2.83) at the Candy Cauldron (gotta love this store!) and then onto a little store where we found our first great buy for Jennifer (great buy #2 a little later in my report). It was a hair headband that had a two coiled wires attached to it. On the end of these coiled wires were 2 electric blue sparkly Mickey shaped heads, which bopped all around with her every movement. She wore this headband every day and it got her a lot of attention from the cast members (more on this later). We plopped ourselves on the bus back to our resort where we ordered ourselves a wake-up call for 7:00 a.m. and literally dropped into bed at 8:45 p.m. Day 2 - Thursday, November 15, 2001 Received our Mickey Mouse wake-up call with Mickey urging us to get "up an' at 'em pal". For the duration of our trip, I picked up the phone when it rang, said a loud hello and then pressed the phone to the ear of my sleeping Jennifer. Then I stood back and watched for the grin that came each and every day of our trip. How I would love to have a wake up call like that for her here at home! We quickly got ready, grabbed our refillable mugs (which I had purchased on our November 2000 trip) and headed toward the food court. I was really disappointed that they had erected a huge fence painted in the God-awful color of army green around half of the pool patio which led right to pool side. What a shame as it really took away from the beauty of the pool area. I asked a life-guard what they were doing behind the fence and he said that they were doing repairs to that area. I commented on the color that they chose to paint the fence and the lifeguard was in total agreement. We both thought that sky blue would have at least blended in with the color of the pool. What an eye-sore. I found that the food court seemed to have gotten better since last year. I can't quite put my finger on why, but we were very pleased with all the choices offered at each meal. I chose the western omelet, which came with a biscuit and fried potatoes (which were absolutely delicious and a wonderful change from last years tasteless potatoes) - $5.99. Jennifer had a side of potatoes and sausages - $3.78 (which she loved). It was really nice having a warm breakfast each morning. At home it seems like we just don't have the time, so we just grab anything and run out the door. We took our refillable mugs back to the room, left a tip on the pillow of the bed for the housekeeper and headed toward the bus stop. While walking through the lobby, we noticed a crowd had gathered in the lobby. Upon closer inspection, we noticed characters were there. The line-ups to see them were unspeakable. There was no way we were going to stand in that! So off we went outside to find the Magic Kingdom bus pulling up. Yahoo! We arrived at the Magic Kingdom and got in line to have our knapsacks checked by security. What a sad site. It was a solemn reminder of the events of September 11th. It put a lump in my throat and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach to see that everyday. I did find from day-to-day and park-to-park that the security checkers were not consistent in checking baggage. I made it a habit to open each knapsack compartment and call off what was inside. They must be instructed not to physically touch inside the bag as they never rummaged through them themselves. I was asked on a few occasions to turn on my camera for them. The time was 8:22 a.m. and as we waited at the turnstiles, we were delighted to see Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter come out to have pictures taken with guests and to give out autographs. The Mad Hatter was a hoot! Very much in character. They let us in a few minutes before 9 a.m. What a feeling it is to see Cinderella's Castle at the top of Main Street. It's a sight I yearn for while at home daydreaming about Disney World. We stopped to offer to take a picture for a family standing on Main Street and asked if they would return the favor and take one of us too. This is something I did often during this trip. It really surprised a lot of people. It made us feel really good. We quickly made our way up Main Street and took a right before the Castle to cross over to Tomorrowland where we rode Buzz Lightyear. My score was 98,100 and Jennifer is a little too embarrassed for me to pass along her score. She had never ridden Astro Orbiter and since there was no line, up we went. We nearly froze our butts off up there, but we enjoyed the view from up that high. On our way to Fantasyland, we saw and had our picture taken with Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. We went on to the Winnie-the-Pooh ride which was cute, but that's all. Next it was on to Peter Pan. We both like this ride. They really put a lot of thought into this ride. Very well done. We hummed the "we can fly, we can fly" verse for quite some time after this ride. Up next on the list was the Haunted Mansion. We really do love this ride. I love how the cast members at this attraction can really play with you (keeping a straight face while staring dead at you. I remember this creeping me out (in a funny way) as a kid and I'm sure Jennifer will when she's all grown up too. Our favorite part is the hitchhiking ghost. We sit as close to each of the sides of our doom buggy as possible so that the hitch-hiking ghost will be in the middle, we then lean our heads into the middle of the doom buggy a little and pretend we're giving kisses on the ghosts' cheek, while checking the image out from the corner of our eyes in the mirror. LOL! After the smooching, we made our way to Big Thunder Mountain, our all-time absolute hands down favorite. We rode this 3 times with absolutely no wait. We then headed over to Splash Mountain, which Jennifer tried for the first time. Or should I say for the first and last time. She nearly jumped out of her skin when we went down the last drop. She said she was glad she tried it, but in her words, "never again, Mom, never again". I think she went on it so she could tell her older sister that she did it. Well, let me tell you...I was the designated human sponge on our log. Our log mates couldn't believe how soaked I was and how dry they were. And nobody, and I mean nobody, has uglier hair after it gets wet and is made to dry out on its own without the aid of a hair dryer and curling iron. The photos that I was in for the rest of the day are really hard for me to show people now without me going into great explanation about how my hair was made to dry on its own after Splash Mountain. We then took a ride with the Pirates of the Caribbean and then headed towards Fantasyland to search out Scuttle's Landing for a frozen Coke each ($4.58 for both). Heading back towards Main Street, I was lured into Main Street's Bakery, where I purchased 4 Toll House chocolate chip cookies -$6.36 (I ate one and put the other 3 in my knapsack) and Jennifer had the Worms in Dirt dessert - $2.75 (which she barely touched, I might add!). I never use to like sweets, but I'm singing a different song lately. Each and every dessert looked so good in there. I think on my next trip I'll break with tradition of buying chocolate chip cookies and buy something different until eventually I have tried each and every thing! Doesn't that sound good? Anyone want to join me! It was noon now and we had done our favorites, plus a few new ones, at the Magic Kingdom in 3 hours. Whew! We headed for the resort monorail and stopped at the Contemporary where we looked around for a little. We then took the monorail to TTC. When we asked to ride up front, we were told to come on up. There was already another couple up there. What a wonderful view it is to enter over and circle around part of Epcot. Jennifer received her co-pilot license as well. Very nice touch. The retired couple that we shared the monorail cab with were wonderfully seasoned Disney vacationers that had actually vacationed in our province and raved about what a beautiful and clean city we live in. We headed for Spaceship Earth and rode that and then I gently pleaded with Jennifer to try Test Track, which she did. Poor thing though...her teeth were literally chattering and her whole body was shaking - she was that nervous. Luckily, she absolutely loved it. We made our way into World Showcase to ride Maelstrom and then headed back to Honey I Shrunk the Audience, which she wasn't crazy about. As a matter of fact, she jumped on my lap several times and was happy when it was over. We then decided that we should make our way to MGM Studios for our priority seating at 50's Prime Time Cafe. We arrived there at 4:00 p.m. and was so looking forward to all they put you through at this dinner. Unfortunately, our waiter was not in the mood for fun and didn't do one single thing (other than, of course, take our order and serve us). I purposely kept my elbows on the table for most of the meal and was never told to take them off. Bummer! I wanted so badly for Jennifer to see me scolded! Last year, we had such a great time with our waiter, so needless to say I was truly disappointed, especially since I had told her how fun this restaurant was. The whole time she kept asking "when's the fun going to begin". I now wish I hadn't said anything to her beforehand so she wouldn't be disappointed. Our section was deserted - not one other family with us. We split the chicken dinner ($12.99) and a chocolate milkshake($4.49), which was just right for the two of us. We left and headed to Star Tours (Jennifer's favorite at this park), then on to the Great Movie Ride and lastly, 5 minutes before closing, headed towards the Backstage Tour. On the Backstage Tour, it was only Jennifer and I and another family of four. Even though the Osborne Family Christmas Spectacle of Lights wasn't scheduled to open until later next week, most of them were up and they were testing them, so we had a great viewing of them. Amazing! It blows my mind that over 5 million lights are used in this display. We walked out of the deserted park at 6:45 p.m. to head back to our resort, where we shopped in the gift store, picked up our parcels at the front desk that we had purchased the night before at Downtown Disney, had a quick snack in the food court and went back to our room to watch a bit of TV in bed (we don't get the WB or the Disney Channel at home and enjoyed watching them for a little bit each night at bedtime). Day 3 - Friday, November 16, 2001 Mickey's voice woke us up this morning at 7:20 a.m. More smiles from Jennifer! This morning we headed out for the Magic Kingdom. We skipped breakfast as neither of us were hungry. Later in the morning, however, we snacked on the Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies that I had purchased earlier yesterday. We rode Buzz Lightyear first, then Haunted Mansion and then on to Big Thunder Mountain which we rode 10 times in a row! All this in less than 2 hours! Of course, we did have the help of a very wonderful cast member. I only wish I would have taken notice of this wonderful persons name. She went above and beyond, in my opinion. The first time we went on, she noticed Jennifer's Mickey headband. She announced to everyone, as she pointed to Jennifer, that they will be lucky to be riding Big Thunder Mountain with an alien (headband) onboard. The next ride, she asked her if she was able to pick up any radio stations with those things. This continued on like this for the next 6 rides. She asked if we had ridden at the very back of the train and we said no, so she told us to follow her (which we did through a back door, which led us back in without going all the way through the line-up). After that she asked us if we had ridden at the very front of the train, which we hadn't, so through the back door she led us again. On our 10th time, we asked her if she would like to ride with us, which she did! She was a real sweetheart. She also gave us a free pass for 2 to ride Splash Mountain without a wait (like a Fastpass). Wow - was this pass hard to give away! As Jennifer didn't want to ride Splash Mountain again, we thought we would give the pass away to somebody. We positioned ourselves at the entrance of the stand-by line for Splash Mountain and tried to give it away, but two different couples refused them. Huh???? Finally the 3rd couple (teenagers) happily took them. People must be very suspicious by nature. We ate lunch at Pecos Bills, which is by far the best fast food eatery at the Magic Kingdom. The toppings bar is very, very yummy - fried onions and mushrooms! I had the cheeseburger basket ($5.49) and Jennifer had the hot dog basket ($5.39) and we split a Coke ($1.99). Jennifer decided she would like to go back to the hotel for a swim. She really liked to swim in the hotel pool. It was about the only time I wished that she would have had somebody her own age to play with during our mother/daughter trip. Myself, I prefer to go in the pool for a quick dip and then dry out in the sun. Jennifer wouldn't hear of it...so I was shriveled up like a prune by the time I dragged her out of the pool. Strangely enough, our room wasn't made up (3 p.m.), but we showered anyway and made our way to the bus stop. We made it to the Boardwalk, via Downtown Disney. We hopped on a bus that took us first to both the Dolphin and Swan and then onto the, can I just say WOW, Yacht and Beach Club. If this is how the rich live...I wanna be rich!!!!! It was fully decorated for Christmas and it was absolutely breath-taking. The grounds were beyond immaculate. For some reason, I felt really small. We walked along until we reached the beach area and were wowed by the pool area. Now that looked like fun! We found our way to Beaches and Cream that I had heard so much about on-line and sat ourselves at an empty counter. We really liked the atmosphere here. Again, it was decked out for Christmas. I had a cheeseburger platter and Jennifer had onion rings and we split a chocolate milk shake ($16.81). Very good cheeseburger. We made our way to Epcot's entrance where the security guard, while searching Jennifer's waste pack, asked if she had any M&M's. She said she didn't, and he said, "O.K., I'll let you go this time, but when you come out of the park tonight, I want to see some M&M's in your waist pack for me. I especially like the chocolate covered peanuts, O.K?" It was very funny to see the expression on Jennifer's face. She really believed him and was quite insistent that we try to find them for him. I assured her that he was just kidding and that we wouldn't even be going through that same gate to get back to our room at closing that night. We rode Ellen's Energy Adventure. I love that show. Very clever, very funny. I think I could do without the actual ride and just watch the pre-show instead. LOL! We then, upon Jennifer's insistence, stood in a verrrrrrrrrry looooooong line for Test Track (the Fastpass machine was not in service at this attraction for the duration of our trip). After this, we walked around World Showcase until we reached the Kaki Gori stand. Jennifer just had to try one out...she loved it, but then again, what kid wouldn't? We found a spot to watch Tapestry of Dreams, but unfortunately, due to high winds, the show was cancelled. We slowly made out way out of the park, hopped on a bus to get back to the All Star Movies. You know, it really is a small world. I had my "Canada" sweatshirt on and while on the bus, an older gentleman asked if I was really from Canada or had I purchased it at the Canadian pavilion. I told him I was from New Brunswick, Canada and he said he was too. It turns out that he lives 1 hour away from the city from where I live and one of my former bosses is his next door neighbor. He and his family were so nice to talk to. He told me that he tries to go to Disney World every other year. This year, they had taken their children and grandchildren. He didn't think he wanted to do this again though (he said to me quietly). He said he sees the magic in Disney World and his family doesn't (all they see are long lines, expensive food, etc.). I whispered to him that maybe he was my long lost relative. LOL! We browsed through the gift shop at the resort. I am drawn to that gift shop nearly every time I pass it. I don't buy too much from it, but yet strangely I'm still drawn to it. Back at the room, Jennifer and I watched a bit of TV and turned the lights out. Day 4 - Saturday, November 17th, 2001 Looking at my trip journal, I didn't write too much in about this day, so there may be a few things out of order. We woke up to Mickey's voice at 8:00 a.m. Had the usual breakfast at the resort food court and boarded the bus for Animal Kingdom. Jennifer and I got the last 2 standing spots on the bus and had a pleasant conversation with the bus driver. He was so friendly and used the PA system a bit on the drive there to point out interesting facts about Disney. I wish all the bus drivers were like him. Upon our arrival, we headed straight for Kilamanjaro Safari along with the other lemmings. Not much of a line-up and I think we saw more animals on this safari than any other year. We had an absolutely fantastic up-close view of the male and female lions. Jennifer and I were surprised to hear that it's the female that hunts and captures the food for both herself and her male mate. It seems to get very warm at this park, so we stopped in Africa at a small food card and got a bottle of water ($2.50). I had brought my water bottle strap that I had purchased last year, so Jennifer attached her bottle to it and put it over her shoulder. She was happy to have water to sip throughout the morning. We happened upon a group of limbo dancers performing in front of Tusker House Restaurant in Africa. I wish I could remember this groups name. They were really entertaining. I could have watched them the whole morning. They asked for children from the audience to come join in, but Jennifer is too shy for that. Oh, if only I was a child again! We then headed towards Kali River Rapids where we passed drenched riders. That's when I decided to break down and buy a poncho. I didn't want a repeat of what happened to my hair on Splash Mountain. Jennifer had never been on this ride before, and was a little apprehensive about going on it, but it turned out to be fine. As a matter of fact, she thought it was a little too tame. I have to agree with her this time. Everyone in our round raft was fairly dry when it was over and it didn't seem as thrilling to me as past rides. Still, it was fun and we'll definitely do it again. We also ran into another favorite of mine (and a new one for Jennifer) - DeVine! She is so interesting. We literally followed her around for quite some time to see what reactions she can draw from people. I don't hear a lot about her, but she's a "must find" for me. Next we headed for one of my favorites shows - Tarzan! Hey, who doesn't love a man in a loin cloth! Hubba hubba ding ding! Where do they find these Tarzans? Again, this was a new one to Jennifer and I was really hoping that she would like it. She did! I made sure we got a seat as close as we could to the front rail on the 2nd level as I knew that a lot of the action takes place in front of this area. We managed to snag ourselves 2nd row of the 2nd level on the far left. Middle would have been better, but there were none close enough to the front rail. Jennifer was speechless throughout the entire show (now that's a rarity!) and she is determined that she wants to become a dancer in the show when she's older. Of course I'll encourage it - hey- anything to get me closer to Tarzan! The songs in this show had us humming them throughout the rest of the day. The whole cast does a fantastic job. This show is a must do for me! Jennifer was then wanting to head back to the hotel for some pool time, but I begged (yup, I begged) her to give Dinosaur a try. Can you spell M-I-S-T-A-K-E. She was a little mad at me for begging her to go on. This ride really tosses an adult around, so I can imagine how this must have felt on her little frame. Bad, bad mother! The picture they take of you mid-ride, showed me laughing and her with her eyes closed. After this, and to try to make up for the begging episode, I happily agreed to go back to the resort for some pool time. We caught a bus back to the resort where we quickly changed into our bathing suits, went to the food court to buy a late lunch and ate it poolside (child's chicken strips and fries for Jen - $3.99 and cheese steak and fries for me - $6.49. The cheese steak sandwich is excellent - I am craving it now!). Writing this right now, I wish I was poolside right now. It's the little things (or times) like this that a person yearns for when back home in the snow. After showering and changing, we headed towards the Magic Kingdom for the only showing of Spectromagic during our stay. We arrived extra early so that we could snag ourselves good front row. This, however, turned out to be a very frustrating venture (see "A few observations" at the end of the completed trip report). This parade is my absolute favorite. It wins hands down over Main Street Electric Light Parade. I love it! I did notice, however, that a few of the floats were not in it, so it was shorter than what I'm used to seeing. That being done we headed back to Jennifer's favorite...Big Thunder Mountain. We were really hoping to see the same wonderful Cast Member tonight as I wanted to get her name and to tell her that she was doing a great job of spreading the magic, but she wasn't there. The line-ups were long, but that didn't stop us from lining up 3 times. It feels like a different ride at night and we really enjoyed seeing the Magic Kingdom lit up from the top of the steep incline. Oh, by the way, the crowds, up until tonight, were not big at all. But starting today, until we left on Wednesday, November 21st, the crowds definitely picked up big time! I'm sure vacationers were flooding in for the American Thanksgiving. We then made our way back to the bus stop and eventually back to the resort. We were hungry as we hadn't eaten since 1:30 that afternoon. Since we were on vacation, Jennifer wanted a Banana Split for supper and I again wanted the Cheese steak (yup, it's that good!). Following our, what then seemed like our routine, we got into bed, watched some T.V. and went to sleep. Day 5 - Sunday, November 18th, 2001 Had the usual Mickey wake-up call at 8:10 a.m. and went for our usual breakfast at the food court. Today was to be our Blizzard Beach day. I had been there before, but Jennifer hadn't. I think I still prefer Typhoon Lagoon. The sun was out in the morning, but it quickly disappeared when we arrived at Blizzard Beach. We kept our fingers crossed that it wouldn't start to rain. It was still very early, yet this water park was packed. We finally snagged ourselves two lawn chairs and headed towards Cross Country Creek (or as we like to call it, "The Lazy River"). We had just found 2 inner tubes and started down the river when it started to rain. I don't mean a light little sprinkle, I mean the skies opened up and rained heavily on us. I couldn't believe how cold this rain was. I almost froze my butt off. Of course Jennifer didn't mind it at all. It finally let up to a sprinkle and we continued around 3 times, while blue-lipped I was praying for sun. The wet stuff finally let up 1.5 hours after we arrived there - stubborn, aren't we? We went back to our lawn chairs to find our towels soaking, sopping wet. Luckily, the sun was out, so we wrung out our towels and headed towards the Toboggan Racers. Jennifer was apprehensive about it, but decided to try it out in the end. She absolutely loved it. Of course, I think a persons weight has a lot to do with winning the race, so she never was able to beat me. The second time, I even let her have a bit of a head start, but I still beat her. I must say that the stair climbing to get to the top of the Toboggan Racers is exhausting to me, so I stayed at the bottom and watched her come down 3 more times. Jennifer, now satisfied with riding that enough, decided that we should head back to the wave pool (Meltaway Bay). Jennifer really enjoyed this, but it worried me a little when she went out farther than me. I find the current really, really strong in this pool. Again, Jennifer had it in her head that she wanted some pool time by at the resort, so we packed up our still soaking towels and headed towards the bus stop only stopping long enough to follow the aroma of freshly baking donuts. I'm not sure the name of the little hut that sells them, but I would definitely recommend finding it if you are at Blizzard Beach. It's a small little hut directly in between Lottawatta Lodge and Cross Country Creek. The tiny donuts were fresh out of the deep fryer and were absolutely fantastic. I wish I would have bought more - the bag was gone before we made it to the bus stop. Back at the resort, we quickly changed into our swimsuits and made a stop for 2 cheese steaks and fries (for Jennifer this time too) and headed poolside with them. Aaaaahhhh this is the life! We were starting to feel tired, as anyone does when vacationing at Disney, so we had a short nap in our room before we showered and changed to head towards Wilderness Lodge to look around. We hopped on the Magic Kingdom bus and then boarded a boat to Wilderness Lodge. If you're not it too much of a hurry, it's a wonderful way to get go. Jennifer was really impressed with Wilderness Lodge and said she would love to stay there sometime. I reminded her that as Canadians, it would cost a whopping amount to stay there. I tried to explain to her that the American dollar and the Canadian dollar are not equal and that we have to pay more than $1.50 for every American dollar spent, which can add up very quickly for just one night at the Lodge. I think she understood, because she said, "ah, that sucks". I agree...it does suck! It looks like we'll always be All Star Resort vacationers. We both enjoyed the gift store at the Wilderness Lodge. Jennifer purchased a pair of earrings for her best friend Gillian, but lost them IN THE STORE. Let me explain. As soon as we walked into the store, she found earrings that she knew she wanted to buy for Gillian and since she had her own money, I told her she could buy them while I was still looking around. She bought them, had them in a bag and we both continued to shop. We bought a few more things and left the store. It wasn't until we were out of the store that I noticed that Jennifer didn't have her bag with her. I checked all through my bag and knapsack to see if it was in either. They weren't. We went back into the store to ask the staff at the gift store if anyone had turned a bag in, but no such luck. They suggested we go to the front desk to file a claim with lost and found. It was obvious to us that somebody had found the bag in the store and had taken it. Jennifer and I were both shocked that someone would do this. Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I know that if I were to find a bag with a pair of earrings and a receipt inside, I would have no hesitation in passing it in to the gift store staff. It's very sad to me that someone would keep something that isn't theirs to keep. We ended up purchasing another pair and leaving the Lodge on a boat that goes to Wilderness Campground and then back to Magic Kingdom. What a mistake to leave at that time as the Magic Kingdom was just closing and the sea of people, combined with the line-ups at the bus stop was nauseating. We ended up waiting 1 hour before we were finally able to board a packed bus. We got back to the resort to eat our very late supper of chicken strips and fries for each of us - $5.99 and $3.99) at around 9:30 p.m. and went directly to sleep after. Day 6 - Monday, November 19th, 2001 We got our wake up call at 7:25 a.m. and did all the usual morning stuff and headed out to MGM Studios today for our free character that we received with our Canadian 7 day park hopper passes. We decided to eat at Hollywood and Vine since we had never eaten there before and we thought it would be a good chance to get Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale's autographs. We had priority seating at 9:00 a.m., but when we got off the bus we could see that even though they had opened the turnstiles, the line up to go through security was unspeakably long. We finally tracked down a cast member to ask what we should do so that we were not late for our priority seating. She instructed us to go to the far right line that is specifically for early priority seating guests. When we arrived there (at the farthest right line, which was as long as the others), we asked several people if they were in this line for early PS's. I received a no each time I asked, but luckily somebody in the same position as us, also trying to find this far right line that they were told to find as well, overheard me and kind of took charge. They were quite aggressive people, so we just followed them as we cut to the front of the line and explained our situations. We hated doing this, so if we cut in front of anyone that morning that happens to be reading this...we apologize! We finally made it onto Hollywood Boulevard and Jennifer saw a cast member with a sign that said something like "priority seating guests". We told her we had a 9:00 a.m. PS at Hollywood and Vine, so she let us through and told us to go quickly. We made it to the podium and were ushered in immediately. I know that we were late, but not by much. This restaurant is a lively and loud place. We only wish that we would have requested a later PS time as neither of us were very hungry. It is an all you can eat breakfast buffet and unfortunately we only went up once and neither of us finished what we had on our plates. We weren't overly impressed with the food here and wouldn't go again. I can't put my finger on why, perhaps it has something to do with us not being hungry. After breakfast, we headed for Indiana Jones which Jennifer had never seen. She enjoyed the show as did I. We then did Star Tours 2 times. On the 2nd time on Star Tours, there was no sound that accompanied the ride, so they let us ride again without going back through the line again. After all my trips to Disney, I had never been inside Toy Story Pizza Planet Arcade, so I had some money changed into tokens and we spent the next little while playing games. That is something I never do at home! We had a ball! Really, sometimes I don't know who is the bigger kid...Jennifer or I? On our way out, we saw a statue of a toy soldier from the Toy Story movie. I asked Jennifer to take a picture of me standing beside it and I would take her picture with it after. Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened next...the darn thing wasn't a statue...it was real! I just about jumped out of my skin and I'm sure everyone heard me scream when the soldier make a move to hug me! Too funny! Next up was the Muppets Show and then we headed back to see if the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Move Set Adventure was opened but it was not. We did find those large doughy pretzels at the Studio Catering Co. and were just about to leave to go to see Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It, but again the skies opened up and down poured for a while. When it was reduced to a sprinkle, we made our way up Mickey Avenue to find the entrance. We waited for about 5 minutes at the front of the building (what we thought was the entrance to get in), only to be told by a cast member that the entrance was at the side of the building and to hurry and we should have no problem getting in. We ran there only to be told by a not so friendly cast member that we were a minute or two late to get in. I was not a happy camper. We decided to move on to the new Walt Disney: One Man's Dream exhibit/movie, which is a must do if you're a Walt Disney (the man) fan. Jennifer actually enjoyed this too. It think it gave her some insight as to the man (and the Mouse) who started it all. We then went to see up close and personal Mickey's Sorcerer's hat that they have erected for Walt Disney's 100th Birthday Celebration in front of The Great Movie Ride and this is where we purchased a wonderful gift for Jennifer. It was the hand held Mickey computer game (read more about this at the end of this trip report under the heading of "A few observations"). We next headed towards Rock'n Roller Coaster which is a must do for me. I knew there was no way that I would get Jennifer on this one if she didn't enjoy Splash Mountain, so I asked her if she would mind going through the line-up with me until we get to the "limo's" where I knew those who weren't riding could go through a door which leads to the gift store. It's a wonderful way for those who don't want to ride, to see what the limos look like and just how fast they go at take-off. I knew she would be fine in the gift shop while I rode and I didn't feel a bit apprehensive doing it as I knew just how short this ride is. While in the line-up, however, we met a wonderful family with 4 children, all of whom are home schooled. Now this just fascinates me as I don't know of one single person in my city who is or has been home schooled. The children were amazed at Jennifer's hand held Mickey game and they all had a great time figuring it out. It really made the hour wait go by fast. The mother and I talked non-stop and the kids were the same. It was in this line-up that we also met up with A LOT of kids in matching orange t-shirts with a school name on the front of it. I asked where they were from and they said they were from Georgia. When they asked where we from and I told them Canada, well...you would have thought that I said outer space! Their jaws dropped and their eyes grew wide. I asked them why they were surprised and asked if they thought all Canadians were Eskimos and they said "yeah"! I couldn't believe it! It was priceless. I swear throughout the rest of the wait in the line-up they stared at us non-stop while asking us questions about Canada and snow and cold, etc. It was too funny. I guess Americans (at least these kids) don't learn a lot about their North American neighbors. LOL! We then found a spot on the parade route to watch the new parade. I am so relieved to not have to watch the Mulan parade again. How many years was that MGM's parade? Too many, I say! We found a spot on the stairs in front of the old Super Star Television (I think that's what it was called). That was a great spot to watch as there are no viewing spots across the street from where we were, so we always had the characters turned our way to wave to the crowd on the stairs, which is great for taking pictures! We really enjoyed this parade and appreciated very much the work they put in to making the cars which are the floats. We were getting hungry, so we made our way to the ABC Commissary where I had the Cheeseburger with fries - $5.99 and Jennifer had the Child Fish and Chips - $3.49 and I had a medium Coke - $1.99. We were getting too tired to go on, so we headed back to our resort to buy and write out postcards for our loved ones back home. We went to the food court to buy a single scoop of ice cream in a cup for Jennifer and we watched TV before saying goodnight. Day 7 - Tuesday, November 20th, 2001 This was our last day at the parks and we were "up an' at 'em" at 6:55 a.m. We ate breakfast at the food court and made our way to the bus stop to head to the Magic Kingdom. It's a really good idea to get there first thing in the morning. We were able to ride Big Thunder Mountain 5 times in a row before we moved on to the Haunted Mansion. We then went to Pecos Bills for their hamburgers with their yummy toppings bar. We made one last stop at Scuttle's Landing for our last Disney Frozen Coke before we headed to the bus stop to head back for the resort pool. We got back to the resort at around 12:30 and stayed by the pool until 3:00 p.m. We showered and changed and went straight to Epcot. On this night we went to Ice Station Cool were we sampled all the drinks. Oddly enough, Beverly is not that offensive to me. It was to Jennifer, however! What a face! LOL! We headed towards World Showcase and took a right towards Canada where we spoke to the Cast Members who were very happy to be talking to somebody from "home". We made a quick stop at the Rose and Crown at the United Kingdom to make sure that our PS's were showing up on their computer and also to state that we were keeping our fingers crossed that we would have outside seating tonight. As usual, they said that they couldn't guarantee it , but would do their best. We then went directly to France to see the Living Statue where I absolutely coaxed Jennifer to go have her picture taken with her. Red cheeked, she finally agreed to do it. Of course the statue grabbed Jennifer's Mickey Ball headband and held them up so Jennifer had to jump to get them back. She got off easy as a man, who had a knapsack on, was posing with the statue while his wife/girlfriend took his picture, had his wallet stolen from the statue (I don't know how she unzippered his knapsack that fast without him knowing). As he was walking back to his spot, she showed the crowd his wallet which she held way up over her head (and of course, she's on a raised pedestal) so he couldn't reach it. She finally put her hands behind her back and leaned over motioning to her cheek that she wanted a kiss. Of course, he kissed her cheek, so she gave the wallet back. Again, he was on his way back to his spot among the crowd when all of the sudden she showed us that she had managed to get some money out of his wallet. Well, of course the audience was really laughing now so he turned around to get his money back. She motioned to the ground, so he had to get down on his hands and knees and beg for the money back. It was hilarious! We made our way around to Japan to wait for the 6:30 pm Tapestry of Dreams parade where we purchased a Kaki Gori for Jennifer and found a nice spot on a bench on the Japan/America border close to the Funnel Cake stand (which of course we had to have - see what they have done differently to the Funnel Cakes since September 11th at the end of this trip report under "A Few Observations"). Again, we met a nice family that consisted of an elderly mother and father who had taken their 40 something single daughter with them. It was very sweet how caring they were to each other. The mother was in a wheel chair (and from what I could see had no legs) and the father was a very frail elderly man. We had a great conversation with them while we waited for the parade to begin. Jennifer had never seen this parade and absolutely loved it. The puppets came down several times to her and we both are absolutely in love with the music. We are so disappointed that we didn't find the CD with that music on it before we had to come back home. We hummed that music for the rest of the evening and every once in while, even now, 2 months later, one of us will break out humming it. After saying a fond farewell to our wonderful bench-mates, we headed back towards United Kingdom where we had a PS at the Rose and Crown for 7:30 p.m. Once there, we heard my all-time favorite musical entertainers (yup, even more than my countries very own Off Kilter!) - British Invasion! Jennifer was totally mortified when I started to sing along with the crowd and half started to dance. She threatened that she would run away if I didn't stop. LOL! Do you think that stopped me? Not a chance!!!! So instead I plunked her at a Kidcot Station to make a mask (something I tried to talk her into throughout each trip to the World Showcase on our trip, but she said no way. This time she was so happy to get away from her embarrassing mother that she couldn't wait to sit down and make a mask!). I slipped a few feet a way to get a closer look at British Invasion and kept a close eye on Jennifer. When it was getting really close to our PS at Rose and Crown, I actually had to drag her away from the Kidcot Station. She was surprised at how much fun it was to make the mask and blamed me for not making her do it earlier in the trip so she could have gone to each country for a stamp. Go figure!!! We presented ourselves to the check in area at the Rose and Crown and received our "Cricket Palm Pilots" as we liked to call it. This was new since November 2000. It is about the size of the hand-held Sega Game Boy and it comes with a little pencil-like pointer. It's not easy to describe, but it has a computerized map of Epcot and when you point to each area, it gives you a small description of each area and, if I recall correctly, it shows you a picture of some of dishes at the Rose and Crown (and maybe other eateries as well. I wish I would have written about it in my trip book as it's hard to remember now). When it is your time to dine, you hear Crickets chirping. Unfortunately, the battery in ours died twice, so we had to turn it in twice. One hour later (8:30), we were still waiting for a table and a little worried that we wouldn't be able to have any seating for Illuminations (and since this was our last night at Disney, we wouldn't be able to return to see it later in our trip). I made my way up to the podium, just to inquire if maybe there was something wrong with their "Crickets". I was told that, yes, they were having problems with them and they seated us immediately while apologizing profusely. We had hoped to get on the lower level outside, but instead were seated under the canopy on the top level, which was fine as well. The place was full and by the time we ordered, Illuminations had started. They were very quick at bringing our meals though. Jennifer ordered the child's hot dog plate - $4.99 and I ordered the Sampler Pies (yum!) - $15.99 and coke - $2.00. We both absolutely loved Illuminations. It just seems to get better with every passing year. It takes my breath away! I can't even tell you how happy we were to be sitting there. Another misty-eyed moment (there were many this trip). We slowly headed the long way around World Showcase talking about our trip and how much fun we had. At the bus stop, we ran into a family who now live in the U.S., but they had lived in Bathurst, New Brunswick which is only a 3-hour drive from where we live. They were really happy to be talking to somebody from "home". Back at the resort, Jennifer was exhausted and fell asleep, so I went to the front desk to request an early check out. A bus must have just dropped off 20 people at the beginning of their vacation and they were lined up to check in. What a long wait only to be told that somebody would have been at the desk at 4:30 a.m. when we were being picked up by Mears. I shuffled by exhausted body back to our room, requested a wake up call for 4:00 a.m. and packed both mine and Jennifer's suitcases. It was lights out for me at 1:30 a.m. Can you spell T-I-R-E-D? Day 8 - Wednesday, November 21st, 2001 (my sister's birthday and our return home day) Sure enough the wake-up call came at 4:00 a.m. and since I had only gotten to bed at 1:30 a.m., I was in a daze and wanted so badly to roll over and go back to sleep. But I knew that my husband and oldest daughter would be really disappointed if we didn't get off the airplane at home (not to mention my office the next day!). So up we got (it was not easy getting Jennifer up at this hour!) and got ready and reluctantly left our room to find Mears just pulling up at the bus stop. There was another mother and her two kids (ages 3 and 4) already in the van. They were from Texas and she had taken a mother/daughters trip as well. I'm still amazed that she did it alone with 2 young children. She said she was totally exhausted and applauded me for choosing to take one daughter at a time and said that is what she will do from now on. We talked the whole way to the airport - it kept us awake. She said she would be home long before lunch and felt bad for us when we said we won't be home until supper time. Our terminal was first, so out we got. It was a long wait until our 8:15 a.m. flight and very hard to stay awake. We were so happy to get on the plane so that we could lean our heads on something and close our eyes. We knew we needed to get some shuteye as we had a 3 hour wait in Toronto, Ontario. However, we finally made it home save and sound at 4:45 p.m. to find my husband, our oldest daughter and Jennifer's best friend waiting to welcome us home. Jennifer's friend had even made a sign out of Bristol board welcoming her home and brought it to the airport. Very sweet. You know, as much fun as it is at Disney World, it's always good to be home! A few observations, tips, miscellaneous, etc.: Just a few words about the turbo toilets. I don't remember hearing them in November 2000. This trip, I heard them loud and clear and very, very often. Loud enough to wake me up. Regarding facing Andy's room at the All Star Movie Resort. Be aware that kids, young and old, are drawn to this area like magnets. And they are by no means quiet when they are playing there. The noise started as early as 5:30 a.m. and lasted until well after midnight. I do have to confess though that on our trip of November 2000 (when it was an adult trip only), my best friend and I got a wee bit tipsy from the yard of ale we consumed at the Rose and Crown, and upon our return to the All Star Movies late one night, I was determined to climb to the top of the blocks in Andy's room to have my picture taken. Well, you can imagine all the laughter that went on as my husband and our friends tried to shove me atop the blocks. (It never occurred to me until we had our photos developed that I was on top of the blocks that spell out "Buzz", and yup, I was buzzed alright.) When I told my friends about how noisy it was facing Andy's room and asked the question of why couldn't the parents control their children late at night from making so much noise, she smiled and quickly reminded me of all the noise we must have made that night while trying to get me up on the blocks. Uh-oh!!!!! LOL! The refillable mugs have to be the best value ever! My husband and I purchased them on our November 2000 trip and thankfully we remembered to pack them this time and got lots and lots of use of them. What a great deal! Tip to all future travelers. Buy a new knapsack that has only one zippered area. Not knowing any better, I brought a knapsack that has 3 front zippers and two smaller ones on either side. It took a lot of time to go through each and every compartment when entering each park's security check. That is the best tip I can give to anyone. Great buy #1: the headband I bought for Jennifer with Mickey shaped heads on the springy coils (there's gotta be an easier name for these!). What an attention getter! She got so many comments from cast members. They mostly asked her how many channels she could pick up with those things. She was also called an alien. Many of them just simply came up to her and pulled them just to see them spring back and forth on her head. She especially liked the attention you get from the characters while wearing them. She wore them our whole trip, including the plane ride home. Great buy #2: The hand held Mickey computer game (Magical Moments Game - $19.99). Jennifer never once complained (after we bought it) about the line-ups or waits in restaurants. It really kept her satisfied and definitely caught the curiosity of other people as well. We had some great conversations with people that asked about the game in line-ups. Bus service was incredible, but do they have to make turn the air conditioning up quite that high? Housekeeping was fantastic. Jennifer was absolutely thrilled to find her stuffed animals arranged in a different way for her almost every day when we returned to our room from the parks. Two arrangements that really stick out in my mind, however, were: her "stuffies" were propped up at the end of the bed with one holding the remote control pointed towards the television (which was turned on to the Disney Station). Very cute. The other arrangement was housekeeping had put a towel over a chair in our room and put all of Jennifer's "stuffies" on the chair. The chair was then pushed up to the window (with the curtain pulled around to the back of the chair). Of course, it looked like Jennifer's stuffies were watching and waiting for her to get back. She was always so anxious to get off the bus and back to the room to see what little piece of magic the had constructed for her. Weather was not as good as last year. It showered a little more than I thought it would. It is a wonderful thing to do a Mother/Daughter Disney trip. Half the time, as we were walking around hand-in-hand, with silly grins on our faces, I felt like we were in a Disney video commercial. I am so happy Jennifer and I had the opportunity to do this and I would highly recommend it. My oldest daughter Ashley and I are already planning our next trip, which will probably be in the fall of 2003. If you've made it this far...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING THIS!!!! It was definitely a labor of love. I would be more than happy to answer any questions! Shelly Theriault ashjen@nbnet.nb.ca Mail a Comment to Shelly Theriault |
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