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Grace Veach -- May 2001 -- Walt Disney World (CSR)5/1-8/01 Pre trip planning Cast of characters:
We have made four trips in the last 2 years, with one more coming up in December before we take a breather. The challenge this trip is to find some new things to do, do some old favorites, and somehow, shift out of commando mode (somehow, I'm always in it...). Also, Vince turns six this trip, so looking for some birthday magic. As a pin-carrying member of Disney dollarless, here are my money saving strategies for this trip:
We already have Disney APs, Universal seasonal passes, and Vince has a Sea World AP, since it was cheaper than buying him 2 days of admissions!
I'd like to try the campfire sometime on this trip also. Day 1, Tues. May 1 Well, I was awake by 2 a.m. (alarm set to 3:30) & Vince was up by 2:45, so we even had time to eat breakfast before we left. We were out of the house by about 3:50 (25 min. ahead of schedule). My first hidden Mickeys of the trip: a speed limit sign with orange warning flags in each upper corner. No problems with any of the flights (Airtran, connecting through Atlanta). We reached Orlando about 11:20 a.m. We had rented a car through Priceline & got Budget. There was a very long line, which took Steve about 35 minutes to get through. When he got to an agent, he found out that there was no key for us, so we had to wait another 15 min. before they brought the keys in. We were pretty hungry, since we hadn't eaten since 3 a.m., so we went to Bennigan's for lunch (I had a $35 voucher). We had the southwest appetizer plate, chicken salad, fajitas, kid's hot dog meal & drinks and the voucher just covered it. We went right across the street to the new Fairfield Inn in the Marriott's complex at Lake Buena Vista-- our first two nights would be here, paid for by Freeride. The room was fine; there was a nice little fridge. Vince took a nap. We got to MK about 4 p.m., rode the ferry over since we hadn't done that for a couple of trips. We split up, and I went to Guest relations to get a birthday button, while the guys went to Tomorrowland. I was so quick that we met up before they had time to do anything. We grabbed a FP for Buzz, then rode TTA-- as we were going through SM, we saw NO LINE, so as we got off, we went over there and rode it. The guys did a couple of pin trades-- Steve traded for a Pirate Mickey which I was very jealous of... By then it was time for our Buzz FPs, so we rode it, then walked to Toontown. We hopped on the train (first time for all of us), and rode all the way around. I saw an alligator in the river, that was sort of neat. After we got out back in Toontown, Vince checked out Donald's boat, but there was no water (because of the drought?), which we greatly appreciated! The weather & crowds were perfect! We went through Mickey & Minnie's houses, but didn't wait to see them, then rode Barnstormer and headed toward Fantasyland. Pooh had a 65 minute wait & was out of FP. We rode Snow White (one of Vince's favorites) and IASW. Peter Pan had a huge line, so we skipped it & went to Haunted Mansion. As we walked toward the entrance there was NO ONE else in line. Vince got a little nervous..."Are we the only ones here? I WON'T GO if we're the only ones..." Fortunately we were soon joined by some other folks, so we got to ride it. There are still some parts of this ride that make Vince a little nervous, especially the part where the doors are being pushed open from behind like something's trying to escape. We skipped the mountains on this side of the park because Vince had had enough roller coasters, so we did PoTC and Jungle Cruise. I loved the fog on the river-- don't know if that only happens at certain times, but I didn't notice it again when we did the ride later. By now it was closing time (8 p.m.) and we had done almost everything we wanted to do at MK-- and we hadn't even planned this as a park day. Made a quick stop at Publix for groceries & back to the room. Day 2, Wed. May 2 Had continental breakfast at the hotel. Today was a Sea World day. Vince has annual pass, Steve & I had free admissions earned through My Points. We started with Kraken & Journey to Atlantis, doing kid swap on both. Vince is tall enough to ride Journey to Atlantis, but rode it once and decided he didn't like getting wet. Both of these are among my favorite rides anywhere! Meanwhile, Vince was spending souvenir money on a stuffed flamingo & moray eel. (We each get $5/day during the trip). (Note: he got 10% off on every purchase he made at park stores & restaurants, plus deals on the food you could buy for the animals because of his annual pass. Likewise at Universal parks, everywhere we went we got discounts from the annual passes. Only Disney is so stingy with its perks!) At 10, when the rest of the park opened, we headed to wild Arctic, which I think is one of the best animal display areas ever constructed! Then on to Terrors of the Deep, followed by lunch. (I forget the name of the place, we had a roast turkey sub, kid's ham & cheese meal, watermelon, giant rice krispy treat, total $16.55--I forgot to ask for the discount!) Then we saw the penguins and fed the sea lions before Clyde & Seamore's show. That is the best animal show-- all the other shows are a total bust compared to Clyde & Seamore! Vince wanted to play at Happy Harbor for a while, so we did that for 40 min. or so, then caught the Pseudorca show (used to be dolphins, I guess they moved them to Discovery Cove). That wasn't much-- only a 12 minute show. We bought some fish & fed the dolphins (one of them flipped us with his tail & Vince & I got soaked). We visited the stingray pool and the coral reef exhibit, then went to Cirque de la Mer. At that point it was about 4:30 & we decided to head back to the hotel for a rest & swim before dinner. I always enjoy getting to interact (feed & touch) the different animals at Sea World-- it's a unique experience! Back at the hotel, we went swimming, met a nice fellow from Connecticut & Vince got to playing with a little boy from Scotland. After a nice break, we cleaned up for our trip to Boma! It was great getting to see AKL, there were many aspects of it that were done very well. The meal was our best meal of the trip! Steve & I love trying new foods, and we tried a bit of almost everything. Both of us fell in love with the saffron rice. The oxtail soup was also good (watch out for bones, though), and we enjoyed the lamb meatballs and curry pasta salad (well, I enjoyed all the salads & all the vegetable dishes!) Even the lemonade was better than usual! The desserts were great also (our waiter told us there were 16 different kinds; we only tried about 8 each!). Total: 51.76 + tip. We were going to try to do Fantasmic, but by 8, when we got to the Studios, we were told that it was SRO, so we went to the last showing of Millionaire instead. We had not seen it before, so were quite taken by the faithful reproduction of the TV show. Unfortunately, the evening ended with my chair #1 on the leader board, but no more contestants! That's quite the letdown! Day 3, Thurs. May 3 Got up early enough to check out of Fairfield Inn (very nice place, no complaints) and check in to Coronado Springs. We had an AP rate, and I had originally asked for Port Orleans, but the only availability was at CS. Well, CS became my absolute favorite resort; I can't imagine staying anywhere else now. I just fell in love with it! We checked in early; I had requested Building 9B, and they told me I could have a room immediately in one of several other buildings, but I held out for 9B and was glad I had (walks seemed very reasonable from this building). The original plan was to go to Blizzard Beach today, but the highs were predicted for low 80s & good chance of rain, so we changed our plans. This turned out to be the only bad weather day of the trip; the rest of the days were low 80s and sunny! We went to Islands of Adventure, one of our family's favorite parks. Started out with kid swaps on Hulk and Spiderman (both totally awesome rides!), then back to Pteranodon Flyers, where the lines were short enough that they were letting adults ride without kids, so I got to experience this for the first time. It was (to say the least) an ill-conceived ride. 80 seconds long. We stayed in the play area while I rode Jurassic Park. As I came off, Vince came running up. Somehow he had lost Steve & gotten out of the play area, but had found an IOA staff in the Jurassic Park store and had seen me getting off the ride. We had our 2-way radios (they came in very handy every time we split up!), so quickly got back together. While Steve rode, Vince found the water-squirting areas, and before I knew it, he was totally soaked. Because it was time for lunch & I knew he would be cold in the AC of the restaurant, Steve (bless his heart) went all the way back to the parking garage & got him a dry change of clothes (our suitcases were in the car since we were changing hotels that day). Vince & I went to Hard Rock Cafe since I had their card (forget what it was called) with $10 free on it. I had a Tupelo chicken strips appetizer & Vince had the $6.99(!) kids meal hot dog. When we went to pay, turns out the card had $20 instead of $10, so the meal was free except for tip! Good deal! Back in the park, we split up, Steve to ride Dueling dragons, Vince & I to do some Seuss stuff. We were going to go on Cat in the hat, but it closed as we were walking up, so we tried out the Express Pass. Because we have seasonal passes, we get 3 express passes. These are better than FastPass because 1) you can have more than one, and 2) you can choose your return time. We got 1 for Cat in the hat and 1 for One Fish Two Fish, since the line was 25 min. long. We went on the Caro-Seuss-el, and by that time our Express Pass was due for Cat, so we did that. It had started to rain by this time. Vince wanted to play in the playground, so I sat in the little house there (my standard waiting spot) and kept dry. Steve returned, so we put Vincent's wet clothes back on him so he could get wet at this playground. After about 30 min. of playing, we decided to do Dudley do-right. He was already soaking wet but wanted his poncho put on anyway (whatever...) The rain had died down to a sprinkle by this time. Dudley was very fun except that we were in line with a bunch of really rowdy high school kids who were spitting, etc. (The only problem crowds we had this whole week were local school field trip kids, who tended to be quite obnoxious wherever they were). The ride itself was great-- I really love this one, although I've heard a lot of derogatory comments about it by other people. We were also going to ride on the Bilge rat barges, but Vince was about 1" too short (height requirement 48"), so we didn't do it because I didn't want to split up the family. He played on the Olive for a while, then we got and Express Pass for the Flying Unicorn and went to see the Sinbad show, then returned and rode the Unicorn. It was time for the birthday party, and since Vincent's birthday is tomorrow, we decided to go. We put on birthday hats and watched a show with some of the Seuss characters. Everyone got a piece of birthday cake & some of the characters came around for pictures, etc. Vince ended up with a Grinch balloon. I called CS and got our room number, then we went on One Fish Two Fish. By the time we got off the ride, it was raining quite hard. We quickly ran to Cat in the hat and went on it again. It was still pouring as we got out, but we put on our ponchos and left the park. We drove back to CS and unloaded & unpacked. We had PS at Cape May for dinner, drove over there, had a really good meal, but it seemed more expensive. (This was our most expensive meal of the trip, coming in at just over $70 for the 3 of us). This was our third time there, and because of the expense, we decided to probably skip it the next few trips. Because Vince had gotten two outfits wet that day, I decided I needed to do laundry (I had packed one extra outfit, but not two), so I spent the rest of the evening doing laundry and watching the Survivor finale. It continued to rain anyway, so we appreciated the little rest. Vince was very excited about his birthday and was telling us how the Birthday Fairy was going to come and put birthday hats (which we had saved from IoA) out for everyone. Day 4, Fri. May 4--VINCENT'S 6TH BIRTHDAY Well, the Birthday Fairy did come and put out party hats, with Vincent's hiding the "It's my birthday" pin I had picked up at MK earlier in the week. Mickey called and woke him up, and he was so excited to see the fairy at work! Vince and I went to "refill our mugs" (secretly a chance for Steve the birthday fairy to work some more magic), and we all met up at the bus stop. As we got on the bus, the bus driver wished him a happy birthday, and when we arrived at EPCOT, she announced to the whole bus that it was his birthday, and so he had many happy wished from our fellow passengers. Since it was his day, we let him call the shots, so first thing was Spaceship Earth, one of his favorites (mine too). We had 8:10 PS for Garden grill, so went over there. This was a great meal of watermelon, cinnamon rolls, biscuits & gravy, blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, potatoes, pork, sausage, coffee & orange juice. Dale came around with a present for Vince (I had given it to them as we were seated). All of the characters noticed his button & wished him a happy birthday & asked how old he was, etc. Pluto gave him six licks + one to grow on. Our waiter stood him up in the chair & they sang a special birthday song for him, and brought a cake for us-- it was quite large and we could not eat it all, since we were already full! (around $49 for this meal, the best character meal of the trip!) The Land was just opening up and we got on the first boat ride of the day. The CMs said Happy Birthday to Vince as we got on. We were in a boat with a toddler who screamed at the top of his lungs through the whole ride. I felt so sorry for the parents. When we got off the ride, the CMs who worked loading/unloading had a cupcake for Vincent (they must have gotten it from the food court). I thought that was so sweet! Unfortunately, we were all totally stuffed, and we couldn't carry a cupcake around the park, so we found a family with 2 little boys & gave it to them. As we were leaving, we watched them enjoying it, so that was fun too. We picked up a FP for Test Track & headed for Wonders of Life. I traded pins with the CM outside & she saw Vince's button & took him up to the phone for a happy birthday phone call from Goofy. We did Body Wars (first time for Vince). I had to close my eyes for the last half of the ride, or so. He told me his peacock (the present he had gotten from Dale) got queasy & fainted, but he was fine. We played with the exhibits some, then did Cranium command & it was time for Test Track. I did another pin trade at the pin station & the guys bought me a Coronado Springs pin for Mother's Day. We headed back to the room because Vince was anxious to see if he had any presents. Steve had decorated with a Birthday banner and balloons that we brought from home and we had brought some of his smaller presents along. He got a ViewMaster with some reels, a card game, and some water toys. We went to the pool for a couple of hours-- Coronado Springs has a great pool area! I was beginning to feel sunburned (even with SPF 45 sunscreen on), so I suggested we leave. Sure enough, I got quite a sunburn on my shoulders that day. We took a bus to MK (a family had been waiting 1 hour for this bus, which caused them to almost miss the afternoon parade. We, on the other hand, had great luck with busses this trip, and never waited more than about 10 minutes for one. Usually one was just pulling up as we approached the bus stop.) Since we had seen this parade twice in the last 2 years, we decided to skip it, so we got a FP for Buzz (Vincent's favorite ride), rode TTA, went shopping, rode Buzz, and then walked up to Toontown again. Vince had received some money from a friend and was determined to buy a stuffie (his word for plush animal; he has almost 200, probably, but loves them all...) He finally picked out Figaro, appropriate since our friend is a cat lover. We did Barnstormer & Minnie's house again (he only wanted to do Minnie's since it has the neat stuff in the kitchen), then back to Snow White. On the way out, we caught the end of the Sword in the Stone, which we had never seen before. I was now time for our PS at Crystal Palace. This was quite a wait, as it always is, before we got seated (at least 20 min.). I didn't like it as much as the breakfast & lunch we have had there in the past. They did do a birthday celebration, but it was for all the kids who had birthdays, so it was not so personalized as the one in the morning. We went out & did Big Thunder Mountain, and were deliberating whether to try to go to MGM for the last Millionnaire show, when Vince asked to go on Jungle Cruise. Since it was his birthday, we agreed. The CM handing us down into the boat noticed his pin, and as we were leaving he told the skipper. She asked him if he wanted to pilot the boat, and let him come up & he piloted the whole cruise! (We got the whole thing on video!) It was the perfect end for our day! She made several references to how well he was driving, and he was so impressed, he kept saying "Did you ever think I'd get to drive the boat?" Well, no I didn't, and it was way excellent Disney magic!!! Home (CS) for a birthday call to Grandma, and then to bed. Day 5, Sat. May 5 Even Mickey makes mistakes Had breakfast in the room. Today was "Millionnaire or bust" day. Saw the first show, an "Amy" was in the hotseat (Amy Keen, are you sure that wasn't you?) She did very well, getting to the 125 or 250,000 point level, and walking away. The question was on what Frances Hopkinson was known for, and I chose the flag, so when she left, I was on top of the leaders list. So there I was in the HotSeat. The host was a lady named Alja (sp) who was very nice. Got the 5 easy ones, some of the next bunch were on Jon's last name in Garfield, pick the non-Ivy-league school, religion using a prayer rug, and on one of my favorite movies, Chariots of Fire. The show was over & we had to wait through the break so I could continue. Coming back for the 64,000 pointer, they were on fashion designers birthplaces, July birthstone (used 50/50), ballet dancers, and Alanis Morrissette video (used Ask the audience). This got me to the 1,000,000 point question which was "Which state first celebrated Arbor Day?" (Ohio, Colorado, Washington, Nebraska). I'm not an Arbor Day scholar & had no clue. Used my last lifeline & called out to the street, getting some woman who told me she was pretty sure it was Washington. Well, Vince had been telling me he didn't want me to go to New York. Steve had been telling me he did want to go to New York. I knew I was giving up 4 pins if I missed. But what the heck. So I guessed Washington, it was wrong (answer: Nebraska). Got to go backstage, where they gave me my loot (10 pins, lanyard, baseball cap, polo shirt, CD-ROM). We left then, since Vince had by that time sat through almost 3 Millionaires in a row (he memorized the film at the beginning and would say Regis' lines right along with him-- not the whole thing, only Regis' part. It was too funny). By the time I got to the car, I realized I was missing one of my pins (the 16,000 pointer). Don't know what happened to it, whether I never got it or it fell out of the bag :-( The rest of the day was planned for Blizzard Beach. I had brought along snacks and Vince & I ate a little in the car. We got there and had to wait quite a long time to buy tickets. I wanted to do the AP special from the Mickey Monitor. The cashier I got was busy counting money or something, and Vince was having a bathroom emergency. When I asked her to perhaps sell me some tickets, she suggested I walk him over to the mini golf course (when the water park with its bathroom facilities was mere feet away, separated from us by the wide gulf of unpurchased ticket media). So I start this transaction and this person comes and says to Vince "Do you have to go to the bathroom?" and whisks him away before we knew it. We got our tickets eventually, and now to locate our son. We think he has been taken into the water park, so Steve tries to go in the direction he saw this girl take Vince but he is stopped and told he can't go there. No one else saw her take him, so no one knows for sure where they are. Finally a CM takes Steve back in that direction and loooong minutes later they all come back. Sort of a Disney Magic moment with some fear attached-- on the one hand, it was nice of them to help us prevent an embarrassing accident, but on the other hand, it's always sort of weird when someone takes your kid & you don't know where he is. So we go in, get lockers, change, find a place in the Tikes Peak area. We all go take a float around the river, then up the ski lift. (During this time, a thief is lifting my Coronado Springs mug from my beach bag). At the top, we decide to ride the family raft ride. The park was very crowded and the wait was about 40 minutes. The ride was really fun, but Vince had gotten into trouble by mixing it up with some bigger boys during the wait, so it has sort of a nasty memory in my mind. This spat caused Vincent to lose the remainder of his souvenir money for the rest of the trip. After this, we decided to ride a tube ride, Vince & I in double tubes, Steve alone. After another long wait for tubes, it was up up up up up (etc.) stairs. I guess I am at an age where the fun of sliding down does not equal the pain of climbing up. So, that was it for the slides for me. Back to Tikes Peak, where I basically spent the rest of the afternoon reading a book. Steve eventually took Vince around to the other kids' area, but overall we were really disappointed by this park (not that I'm blaming it all on the park-- it was a Saturday, crowded, our mug got stolen, our kid got in trouble, my feet can't take the barefoot walking anymore, just a lot of factors here.) I don't see us going back here in the near future. When we got back to the room, the maid had left a cute balloon bouquet with an autographed picture of Mickey that said, "Kristin, we hope you enjoyed your visit to WDW." We never did find out who Kristin was, but we kept the picture. We had tickets for a kids' dinner theater at 6. This was the Merry Mystery dinner theater, done by Sleuths. When we got there, we were surprised at how few people there were. 3 families (including us), and a girls birthday party, total about 20 in the audience. But the performers really interacted with the kids, learned all of their names, let them take part in the show, etc. Vincent and the 7 year old girl at our table were roaring with laughter, so I'd guess that's about the age this is aimed at. (The girl's 11 year old sister was clearly bored, though well-behaved). The food was ok (not as good as Disney), and Vince & the birthday girl each got a present & song, and we all had cake. After the show, the performers all stayed around for autographs and pictures. This was well worth the money & time, Vince loved it! Day 6, Sun., May 6 Early entry day at the Studios. I loved the Star Wars weekend opening stuff (storm troopers on the roofs wondering how to capture the bad guys in the brightly colored clothing with lots of flesh exposed, etc. Very funny). We let Vince decide what to do first, and he chose Muppets. On the way back we did Star Tours. Then we went over to Millionnaire-- at the very end, Steve was #1 on the list, but they didn't bring up a player, of course. We split up, and I stayed for another show, while Steve took Vince to the playground, then to the Indy show. After Indy, I took Vince to Sounds Dangerous, while Steve took in another Millionnaire show (as you can tell, we enjoyed them, but they did seem really short. More playing, less talking, please). We had lunch PS at RFC, so we headed over to AK. We shared the appetizer sampler, then I had meatloaf, Steve shrimp pasta of some kind, and Vince the kids' fried chicken meal. I had FreeRide GCs plus a Safari Club free entree, so this meal was free except for tip. (Total cost before tip was $46 something). Our first stop at AK was the Safari-- there really weren't many animals out, but this was the first really hot day. We stopped & picked up FP for Kali, then went to the Tarzan show, which we had not seen. This was not our cup of tea. Mildly interesting, won't need to see it again. Back to Kali, hoping to get wet and cool down. Guess what? None of us got wet at all. Bummer. We had promised Vince playtime at the Boneyard, so back we went. I was really thirsty and wanting some Frozen Lemonade, but every stand was closed. I finally settled for a root beer float. We let him play for a while, and headed over to Dinosaur (our first bravery surprise--Vince was going to ride). When we got there, we were told the park was closed. Well. My information from the web had said closing at 6 today, but 5 it is (this had happened to us at AK before, with opening times). So, we caught a bus to the TTC to go to lost & found-- I was going to see if my mug or my pin had by some remote chance been turned in. No luck. I was toying with the idea of going to the campfire (even had marshmallows in the backpack today), but after realizing the hassle we would have getting back to the resort (we were using bus transportation today), and finding out the movie was George of the Jungle, I told Vince we would just go back to the room & watch cartoons & eat marshmallows, and he was fine with that :-) So, we went to MK, just wanting to do the big 2 (Spl Mtn, BTMtn.). We arrived about 7:30 and the FP for Splash were all out. We grabbed them for BTM instead, and waited in line for Splash. (Bravery surprise number two: VINCE RODE!) This was my first time on this ride for a long time, since Vince always balked at it, and it's one of my all time favorites! We got much wetter here than on Kali, not from the drop but from being sprayed & dripped on. Then we barely had time for that last ride on BTM, before our trip home (CS) to marshmallows and cartoons. Day 7, Mon. May 7 THE BRAVERY CONTINUES We had a priority seating for 7:30 at Kona Cafe, because I had to try the Tonga Toast. We drove over & self-parked. We were seated and served really quickly! The Tonga Toast was all I hoped it would be. Steve loved it too. Vince enjoyed his Mickey pancake. All in all, great breakfast. (about $26 before tip, I think). We had decided to go back to AK for the morning, since our visit was cut short the day before. We grabbed a FP for Safari and walked the Pangani trail while we waited. The construction really ruins the atmosphere, in my opinion, and, for this early in the morning (9 am) the path was already incredibly crowded. It's very hard to enjoy nature & wildlife when about all the wildlife you can see is your own species. We saw many more animals this morning than we had at 2 pm the day before. It was one of our best safaris ever. Then back to Dinosaur, Vince rode with us (Brave act #3). He was fine, but we all had our fingers in our ears through the whole ride. Boy that is loud! I bought the 5 pin AK set just to have some to trade, and I gave the guys 2 millionaire pins each (low level) so they would have some to trade too. We wanted to use our water park pass one more time, so we headed to Typhoon Lagoon. Even though we got there before 11 on a Tuesday, it was incredibly hard to get a chair in the kids' area. Every single one seemed to be taken. Steve went off to do some slides, and I took Vince to the big pool. Even though he doesn't really swim, he loved to body surf in these waves. He would go way far out and just throw himself at them and get washed about 20 feet in, then do it again. He would have done this all day, happily. (Bravery #4). We did the family raft ride (boy is that short, compared to Blizz. Beach), then went to the shark reef, where Vince at first thought he would try it, but decided no go (a good choice, I think), so we took turns going across. I took Vince down under so he could see the fish. I didn't see any sharks this time while I was snorkeling, although I did underneath. We went back to Ketchakiddee creek & I read while Steve did slides & lazy river. As much as I didn't like Blizz. Beach, I love this park. It is just so beautiful & restful. So I guess this is where we'll be, water-park-wise. Went back to the room to clean up, then to Studios for Fantasmic dinner package. We had time to ride Tower of Terror, and Brave Acts #5,6,7, Vince rode this! Now this is a ride I was never going to even ask him about, since he had ridden it when he was 4 and cried the whole way through. He just said to me, "I'm thinking about riding Tower of Terror.....I'm going to ride it." This made me so happy, since this is my very favorite ride, and I hate having to ride it by myself, but we're always doing the baby swap. Well, Vince said it was still scary but not too bad, and he didn't seem too distressed afterwards. (Maybe turning 6 makes you braver...) It was time for our meal at Hollywood & Vine. This was ok, nothing great for me. I promised Vince a stuffie for his bravery and politeness of the last couple of days, so we visited a few stores until we found a Pumba that he liked. We did one more Millionnaire (I played Vince's keypad & he got in the top 10). Over to GMR, walked around a little, then to Fantasmic. We were really pleased with the seating we got with the package, we'll probably do this again. Day 8, Tues., May 8, our last day Had to pack up & check out of the hotel. I totally loved CS! Can't wait to go back (when we got home, I changed our Dec. ressie from Port Orleans to CS). Went to EPCOT for early entry. Did Test Track, SSE. I traded two of my yucky Africa pins for the Mickey fire chief pin and white rabbit. Stopped at the Fountainview Cafe where they had 2 for the price of 1 doughnuts! (Only time Disney's ever given me something for free!) I had a toffee mousse something, total $6.00. My quest for the day was to find a CD with the music from SSE. I thought maybe the CD making machines at Image Works would have it, so we went over there, but they didn't. Since we were in the area, we rode the totally yucky Journey into Your Imagination (Vince agrees that it is the most boring ride). Steve wanted to spend some time in Innoventions, so I went to look for my CD. After trying every shop I could find, I determined that they don't sell it, but I did pick up a Mannheim Steamroller does Disney CD. When World Showcase opened, we rode Maelstrom, then headed to UK for the World Showcase players (a first for us). Vince & I shared some fish & chips while we watched this. Then on to France, where Vince & I had pastries while we watched Cyranose. We stopped at the bug garden playground for a few minutes, and rode the Mexico ride on the way out. After a final stop at Ice Station Cool (where everyone loved watermelon & hated Beverley), we said goodbye to Disney for this trip. (stifling small sob). We hadn't been to Universal yet, so that's where we headed. We picked up Express Passes to ET, Back to the Future, and Men in Black, then watched the stunt show. Back to use our passes (and brave acts #8 and 9, when Vince rode Back to the Future and Men in Black). Men in Black is one of the neatest rides out there, IMO. I wanted to repeat it over & over, but we didn't have time. We let Vince play for a while at Fievel's playland, had a last ride on Woody's barnstormer, then said goodbye to Universal for now. We stopped for dinner at Don Pablo's, one of our favorite Orlando places (we don't have them in our town). It was so amazing to see a "real-world" meal price again! Made it to the airport in plenty of time, easy car check-in, and back home (arrived about 12:30 a.m., 1:30 a.m. Orlando time). It was a GREAT trip! Highlights (no particular order):
Lowlights
Dollarless notes: I wore my pin every day, didn't see another one like it, even though I had promised $2 in extra spending money to the first family member who spotted one. This trip cost $1980. This does not include admissions, since they were already paid for by APs. Grace Veach grace51601@yahoo.com Mail a Comment to Grace Veach |
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