Brian Bennett -- April 2001 -- Walt Disney World (VWL)

Barb and I have a regular cycle for our WDW trips. In one year, we travel in the Fall (October, usually) and visit WDW for a couple weeks. For that trip, we purchase annual passes. The second year, we travel in the Spring for a week or so, then return in the Fall just before the annual passes run out. The third year is a repeat of the first, and so on.

This is the second year of the current cycle. We visited in October, 2000 with Barb's parents and had a great trip. We spent one week at Old Key West Resort, but preceded that week with a four night stay at Westgate Lakes Resort, offsite -- but the price was right.

This Fall, we'd planned a return visit to WDW with friends of ours -- Tony and Kathy Wiedbrauk, along with their daughters -- but the Wiedbrauk's chose to spend their vacation money on a condo of their own in Central Michigan, so they begged off for this time. That left us with a dilemma about what to do in September (I'll write up report that answers that in a few weeks). In the meantime, we figured we had a few more Disney Vacation Club points than normal to spend this time around.

Well, we could lengthen our visit. That was an easy decision. We could also consider staying at the Boardwalk Villas or the Villas at Wilderness Lodge. Boardwalk Villas would be more conveniently located for the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival, which is an event that we usually plan our Spring trips around. On the other hand, the Villas at Wilderness Lodge are brand new and should be relatively easy to get reservations for (although they will "cost" us more points). We decided to splurge on the Villas at Wilderness Lodge, and decided to go for an eleven night stay in a studio. We'll arrive on a Sunday afternoon and depart on a Thursday, which means we'll actually be on-site ten full days and parts of two others. No weekend moves to an offsite resort to save points this time...we're just going to go and do it.

We decided to try for reservations during the week of April 28-29, when the Flower & Garden Festival has it's "Green Thumb Weekend." This is the weekend when all of the gardening experts descend on Epcot -- and the best workshops and lectures are always held then. This will be the first time we actually made it for that weekend, so Barb's pretty excited about it.

With our dates set, and our hoped-for reservation ideas in mind, I called member services and was able to book a studio at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge without any problem. This is exciting, because we haven't stayed at Wilderness Lodge since 1997. This (the Villas) will be a new resort for us to visit, and it will only have been open six months or so when we arrive.

I typically make motel reservations for the drive down and back, but this trip we've decided to wing it and just get a room on the road. We're hoping to stretch the first driving day down and back to make the second day a bit shorter (I'd love to get into the Villas in the early afternoon if at all possible). Beyond that, there isn't much else to concern ourselves with until the week before departure.

*April / May 2001*
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
					20 Get the traveler's checks, do the last of the packing, etc.	21 Leave home and drive approximately to Sweetwater, TN (halfway)
22 Arrive at WDW and Check in at VWL!	23 Spend the day in the parks!	24 Spend the day in the parks!	25 Spend the day in the parks!	26 Spend the day in the parks!	27 "Green Thumb Weekend"	28 "Green Thumb Weekend"
29 "Green Thumb Weekend" (Visit Bible Baptist Church in the Morning)	30 Spend the day in the parks!	1 Spend the day in the parks!	2 Spend the day in the parks!	3 Check out and drive approximately to Sweetwater, TN (halfway)	4 Drive home :(	5 Spend Saturday recuperating from the trip...and doing the laundry

Once again, we're in a weird position regarding the planning of our trip. In April, we brought a baby home for adoption. However, just a few days later, the birthparents changed their mind and we had to return Michael Scott to them. On December 29th, though, we got another call from the agency and were told that the birthparents were going to place Michael for adoption after all. We were so excited! We drove down and picked up the little guy that Friday night. The court date, during which the birthparents agree to give up their parental authority, was last Friday (February 2nd). It was a nail-biter, after what happened in the past with these folks, but we're now beyond that and looking forward to having two boys on our upcoming trip! The link above gives the whole story.

Having Michael with us (we'd planned our Fall trip around having him complete with a grandmother to help with the work, but of course, he wasn't with us) will be a challenge. We've never done a two-stroller trip before, but I think Allan (four years old now) is still young enough to need one. Maybe we'll buy that Combi double stroller I have my eye on...

Another drawback to having two kids will be the crimp it will probably put on Barb's Flower & Garden Festival touring. I'll do my best to keep her free to attend the workshops she wants to see, and with the extra time we have on the trip, I wouldn't even feel bad about spending some hours back at the resort with Allan and Michael while Barb does her thing. Of course, it would be fair to expect her to write up a separate report on the festival if we do that, don't you think? Perhaps we'll just do an update on the Magical Gardens of Disney section of MousePlanet. We created that section after our first trip to the Flower & Garden Festival. An update with pictures would be nice.

Well, I just counted off the days. From today, February 5th, there are exactly seventy-five more days to go before we depart. I can't wait!

Today was departure day. It's a very ironic thing, because exactly one year ago today we drove back to Southfield, to Christian Family Services, to take Michael back to his birthparents. What a huge difference a year makes! Instead of a terrible, tragic day, this is a fun-filled one. We're taking Michael to Walt Disney World for the very first time!

We hadn't actually planned on leaving until Saturday, but the bug bit me bad, and several days before, I starting laying plans to get out early. The final version had me working a half day, getting home in time to pack the van, having lunch on the way out of town, and driving until we were tired of driving.

That's pretty much the way it worked out. We left home shortly after Noon (we'd targeted 11:30am, but things are more complicated with two kids than they were with one). Lunch was the pizza buffet at our local Pizza Hut, then we hit I-75 and headed South.

We stopped for dinner at a Perkins in Northern Kentucky, and found the food to be palatable, but the service to be exceedingly slow.

Eventually, we got as far as Lexington, Kentucky. We were pretty much "done" at this point, the boys were both zoning, and it was time for us to settle down for the night. The only problem, is that horse racing is big in the Lexington area on the weekends... and this was a Friday night. We stopped at one exit, and checked several different hotels. All were booked solid. There was one Baymont Suites that had just finished construction (the parking lot area was still ripped up). They offered me a suite for $89, but it was more money than I wanted to spend just to sleep.

We ended up driving on to Richmond, Kentucky (another twenty or thirty miles) and found a room in a Days Inn for $60, including all taxes. It was more than I wanted to spend, too, but for a first floor, non-smoking room with two small boys and all of the stuff I had to lug, I considered it acceptable.

We moved everything into the room, got Michael's Evenflo "Happy Camper" set up, and we all crashed for the night. It was close to 9:30pm before we got settled, but had taken a big chunk off of the drive to WDW.

We got up and moving at around 7:30am and including the continental breakfast, left the Days Inn just shortly after 9:00am.

We drove until we had lunch at a Wendy's in Southern Tennessee, then made our way over to Fort Oglethorpe, just across the border in Georgia, and visited the Chickamauga Civil War Battlefield. We didn't do the battlefield in a very detailed fashion -- we skipped the movie and didn't even make an attempt to figure out what happened during the battle when we took the car tour of the field (I already knew what happened, and no one else in the car really cared). The main thing, though, was that we took a break from driving and got the boys out of the car seats for a few walks around the cannon and split rail fences.

After visiting General Thomas's field of glory, we continued on down through the state. Barb took over the driving for awhile and took us through Atlanta to just North of Macon. We stopped for dinner at a Cracker Barrel (I had my normal chicken tenderloins and Barb had her usual, the pot roast).

After dinner, we drove another twenty minutes or so and stopped for the night in the town of Cordele, GA, staying at the Colonial Inn Best Western there. The hotel was nice, not exceptional, but had a larger room than the night before. The price was right, too, at only $39.00 with continental breakfast.

We hauled in the luggage (upstairs this time) and got settled. The boys were allowed to just run (or crawl) around and play for a bit before we had them get settled and down into bed.

This morning we got up, loaded the van, and made our way back to the lobby for the continental breakfast. The hotel had a pretty decent spread with bagels, muffins, pastries, yogurt, cereals, juices, coffee, milk. My son, Allan the purist, told the people at the next table that we were going to "Walt Disney World." It wasn't "Disney." He didn't say, "Disney World." My four-year-old son gave it the full-handle... "Walt Disney World." I was proud of him.

We got on the road and started our last leg of the trip down. Barb took a little nap and was surprised when she awoke and we were already in Florida and south of Lake City. The nice thing about our three-day drive (using parts of three days, and starting late on Friday) was that we had only a few last miles to go from Cordele to Walt Disney World. Instead of it being a marathon ten or twelve hours to get in, we only had to drive five or six.

I drove all the way to Ocala, where we stopped in a remedial KFC for lunch. If we wanted it, we had to ask for it -- butter for our biscuits, forks for our dinner, plates to put our food on... each required a return to the counter to ask for them. Eventually, we finished our meal and returned to the van for the last few miles.

We stopped to gas up the van just a mile or two before we reached SR-192 as we drove down US-27. There are a few gas stations there that have pretty decent prices compared to the 192-corridor and WDW proper. (Gas at the Citco where I fueled up was $1.55 per gallon for 87 octane. The same stuff at the WDW car care center later in the evening was $1.77.) After a quick stop at Publix on 192, to pick up some swimming diapers for Michael, we drove onto the property and to Wilderness Lodge.

The Lodge is a beautiful resort. The pine stands and the rustic-looking building make for a lovely place to stay for vacation. We parked the van and walked into the lobby to check in.

Check in was easy. I hinted that an upgrade would be nice, but I'm sure every DVC member makes such a comment when checking in, and I'm sure they're all brushed aside. I did, however, ask for a room on the first floor (to avoid the elevator with the two boys, the double stroller, etc.) and that request was granted. We ended up in room 1547, about halfway down the long part of the villas building on the East side.

The room is a nicely laid-out studio. Instead of two queen beds, we have a queen and a pull-out sofa bed. Allan slept on the sofa bed without us pulling it out into a bed. The arrangement gives us a nice open area for the boys to play, too, so it's nice.

We also have a 20" TV, a refrigerator, microwave, and wet bar setup, plus a two-sink vanity. The toilet and combination tub / shower are in a small room by themselves. There's a ceiling fan over the beds, which is really nice to keep the air moving, and a small table with a couple of chairs. We are obviously part of a lock-off, because there is a door into the rest of the villa, but of course, we're stuck in our small little studio.

After checking-in, I pulled the van around and bell services helped us with our things. The valet took our van away, and we followed bell services to the room. Things went very nicely.

(There was one small glitch, but nothing that ruined the trip or anything. The bell hop agreed to request a high-chair for our room, but apparently never did so. Later in the evening when we returned to the room, it still hadn't been delivered so I called housekeeping and requested it again. It took almost another half hour, and by now it was close to 11:30pm, but we finally got the high-chair and crashed for the night.)

While Barb unpacked, I took the boys down to the mercantile to get milk and orange juice for the morning (we had other things for breakfast that we brought from home). I paid $6.55 for a half gallon of milk and a half gallon of orange juice! Pricey, but it was either that or head back off-site to Goodings or Publix.

After getting settled, we walked out to the bus stop and caught the next bus to Epcot. When we arrived at the park, Allan wanted to ride Spaceship Earth to "show Michael." That's already a strong theme of this trip. Allan wants to show Michael everything he's missed over the last twelve months of his life here at WDW... and his big brother is just the guy to show it to him.

After riding Spaceship Earth, we walked over to Guest Relations to pick up a Flower & Garden Festival guidebook, so Barb could plan what she wanted to see during the trip. Then we walked through the plaza, around the Fountain of Nations, and around World Showcase Lagoon. Along the way, we noticed that many of the topiaries that had, in the past, been located in various pavilions in World Showcase were now located in Future World. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Aladdin, Mary Poppins, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, the Fantasia 2000 topiaries, and others were all located in Future World or in World Showcase Plaza. We'll have to scout the rest of World Showcase to see what's located there now.

Our destination for dinner was Tangierine Cafe in the Morocco Pavilion. There was a percussion and gymnastics group performing while we were trying to order... and it was VERY loud in the restaurant. We ordered a chicken and a lamb platter, a child's pizza, beverages and spent $26.65. All in all, the food was disappointing (no where near as good as Marrakesh, the sit-down restaurant further into the pavilion. The lamb and chicken was dry, the side dishes were tasteless and dry, and for the money, I'd rather spend more and enjoy the wonderful meals we've had at Marrakesh. Next time we will.

Another thing that was a let-down was that we missed tapestry. Since we were eating in Morocco, and Tapestry only runs from Mexico to Japan now, we didn't see the colorful puppeteers. We will see Tapestry sometime before the trip is out, but was Allan very disappointed it wasn't this evening. He'll live.

Desert at Boulangerie Patisserie. We got a couple of chocolate chip cookies (for Barb and Allan), a chocolate crème, and a mocha cake (like a tiramisu) and three white milks for $13.80. I spoon fed the crème to Michael (he would have just inhaled it if I'd allowed him to) and Allan decided he needed some, too, so I "forked" some over to him, too. I'm amazed that Barb is able to eat dinner when she's shoving food into Michael's mouth, too. Actually, it was a good bonding time for me and Michael, because he's still very attached to Barb and isn't quite so sure about me. I'm hoping that this trip will be a breakthrough on that... so far it seems to be.

We made our way back to Future World and spent some time riding Journey into Imagination (still a miserable excuse for a ride, in my opinion) and some time in Image Works (much less fun than the old hands-on area upstairs) and then walked over to see Sea Base Alpha at the Living Seas.

Allan had never seen the movie or ridden the ride underwater before (we'd always "cheated" and walked in through the hyrolators at the back of the pavilion), so this was a new experience for him. Unfortunately, the oceans, seas, waterfalls, rain, dripping water, water vapor, and other bodies of water gave the little guy a lot to think about. He really had to use the bathroom after all that, so we skipped the ride, took the handicapped exit to Sea Base Alpha, and found the rest rooms ASAP. After taking care of business, we walked back to the ride loading area and rode through all by ourselves. Allan and Michael both enjoyed looking at the fish and the one dolphin and one shark that we saw.

By this time, it was close to 8:30pm, so we left Sea Base Alpha and headed back to our bus stop to return to the resort. We waited ten, maybe fifteen minutes, for a bus then rode over to the resort without complications. When we arrived at the resort bus stop, I left Barb and the boys to get themselves back to the room, and I made a detour to get my sunglasses, Allan's blanket, and a small bag of dirty laundry from the van. The valets let me get the stuff myself, fortunately, the van was parked very close to the front of the resort.

On the way back to the room, I picked up a 20 oz Sprite for Barb and dropped another $2.47 into the Mercantile's coffers... Will I ever learn? (By the way, when talking to another guest staying at the Grand Floridian, he told us that his 20 oz soft drink cost him $3.17! Perhaps prices are escalated even for sundries at the deluxe resorts?)

On the side, we really like the Villas here. The room is very nice, not as big as a studio at Old Key West Resort, but with the sofa bed instead of two queens, there's actually more room for the boys to play.

When I got back to the room, we got the boys down to bed, and I tried to log onto AOL to check my email. None of the Kissimmee numbers worked (there was a message from the phone company that I had to dial "1" and the area code to dial). Hmmmm... sounded like long-distance, although I was assured by the front desk that Kissimmee calls were local ones. I called the front desk to ask again, and was connected to the resort operator. Mackenzie checked a bunch of exchange prefixes for me and I confirmed that all of the Orlando AOL numbers are local to the resort.

The clock went off at 6:30am today, but neither Barb nor I were really motivated to get out of bed. Fortunately, Barb got the energy more quickly than me... and started the morning ritual. While she took her shower, I shaved and did some other housekeeping chores. By the time my shower was done, the boys were in the middle of breakfast. With two of us, we quickly got the boys ready and were out the door right around 8:00am (our normal planned departure time in the mornings here).

We walked over to the boat dock at the Lodge, and got there just as a boat to the Magic Kingdom was arriving. It was extremely crowded (the boat services both the Lodge and Villas plus Fort Wilderness Campground). Also, there is a sign posted that guests with wheelchairs or personal electric vehicles may not be able to board the boat due to low water levels on Bay Lake. Sure enough, there is a good five inch drop from the dock to the boat deck now, normally it's flush.

The park was already open when we arrived. Allan expressed interest in riding the horse with the trailer (the horse-drawn streetcar), but it wasn't running when we walked up Main Street.

Instead, we did a tour of Fantasyland. We rode Peter Pan and "It's a Small World After All" (as Allan calls it), the Carousel, Snow White, and the Legend of the Lion King in short order. We passed on Pooh because of the long lines, deciding to return another day. The line for the Tea Cups was pretty short, though, so we did do that.

Allan really wanted to ride Buzz Lightyear, too, but we were concerned with the long line there, too. We solved that problem by picking up Buzz Fastpasses (although Allan's AP didn't work, I had to get another Fastpass from the Cast Member in the area) then killing a half hour. We did that by riding on the TTA (we saw Space Mountain with the lights on, and I took a few pictures -- not great ones, but I'll put them up on the site sometime just for kicks, and I strolled around Tomorrowland taking a bunch of other pictures for future use.

Finally, we rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I got 104,900 points with Michael. Barb got 81,400 points with Allan. (Barb points out that Allan was driving, but I blew her away with 304,500 when Allen drove for me last Fall... either way, she's just a sore loser when it comes to saving the universe from the Evil Emperor Zurg.)

After Buzz, we stopped for lunch at the Plaza Pavilion. We ordered two pizzas with breadsticks, an Italian sandwich, two fries, and beverages and paid $27.24 for far too much food. Lesson learned -- we can cut back and have BOTH boys share our meals. The quantities are certainly big enough.

With lunch in our bellies, the boys and I took the boat back to the Villas, while Barb took the monorail over to Epcot to catch a couple of gardening presentations (this week is focusing on Topiary). She'll be writing some separate articles for MousePlanet in the upcoming weeks.

The boys and I got settled in the room. I put Michael down in his crib, but he didn't fall asleep for an hour or so. Allan watched some cartoons while I worked on the trip report. After an hour or so, shortly after Michael feel asleep, Allan and I crashed, too. We had a nice two-hour or so nap before Michael woke up and Barb returned from Epcot.

After our naps, we went out to the pool for a short, refreshing swim, then returned to the room to get ready for the evening's excursion.

We started by driving (we got the van out from Valet parking) over to the All Star Movies Resort. Barb wanted to see the huge Buzz Lightyear and Woody in the Toy Story area. Allan had never seen them, either, so it was a fun side-trip to see them and snap some pictures with the boys.

Our next stop was Animal Kingdom Lodge. What a spectacular place! The architecture and theming are just perfect here. We self-parked the van, just so I could approach the resort on foot and snap some exterior pictures. The lobby seems to be larger than the one in Wilderness Lodge. It has a rope bridge spanning the interior, to provide access to guests on the upper floors. There is a huge glass wall at the back of the lobby the looks out over the resort's savannah, and the light streaming into the building just makes it look large, airy, and inviting.

We eventually found some elevators and made our way out to the Savannah viewing area. The lobby, it turns out, is on the third floor, with the savannah outlook on the second, and the pool area and restaurants on the first. The rooms, for the most part, are arranged in a U-shape around the savannah. 80% of the rooms, reportedly, have a view of the animals. The rest have a pool view, or worse, a parking lot view (I was surprised at how many rooms looked out over the parking lot. It's pretty obvious, since they each have personal balconies.)

The savannah outlook provided a great view of some of the animals on display. Zebra, watusi, and several other animals were there in abundance. Later, when we saw some giraffe by the pool area, Barb was told that the animals are rotated each night, so the animals you can see from your room change every other day. Also, just a point to make, the first floor rooms are obviously the best locations for animal viewing. They are closest to the animals. The higher floors do not provide any advantages, since there is no obstruction blocking the views.

We went back to the elevator and took it down to the pool area next. The pool is very, very large, but not spectacularly themed in any way. It's nice, and has a small slide, but the theming isn't as lush here as it is elsewhere in the resort. We strolled around the pool area, found a children's playground (where Allan worked off some excess energy for a few minutes), then made our way back to the Lodge. I, of course, was snapping pictures like the winner of a "lifetime supply of free film" contest.

We got back to the building and put our names in at Boma, the resort's all-you-can-eat buffet. Originally we were told we'd have to wait forty-five minutes, but when I started to beg-off (Michael would never have been able to wait that long without getting very, very crabby on us), we were told we would be seated in thirty seconds. Quite a turn-around, and a very pleasant occurrence for us. Boma was a fantastic experience! The food was excellent and a bit exotic. There were several meats (prime rib, lamb, chicken), African salads and relishes, side dishes (the couscous was excellent), and a desert bar that was not to be believed! Of course, I have pictures of all... so check out that photo tour. :)

Dinner took quite a bit of time, but when we had stuffed ourselves silly, we paid our bill ($58.00 including tax and tip), and waddled back to the elevator to head back up to the lobby. After strolling through the resort shop, which has a very nice selection of African arts and crafts as well as the usual WDW resort items, we finally went out to the van and made our way back to the Villas.

Animal Kingdom Lodge is now, in my own opinion, the best-themed resort in all of Walt Disney World. It's perfectly executed. Boma was fun and excellent, too. We'll definitely be back... both to enjoy the resort and to gorge at Boma.

Upon our return to the Villas, we got the boys ready for bed. I worked on the report for a bit, dumped the pictures from the camera into the PC, and checked email. Then, we relaxed for a bit before calling it a night.

This morning was pretty odd. Our destination was the Studios, but we arrived before the park really opened. I took advantage of the situation by taking pictures like a board member of Kodak (or Fuji).

Barb answered a survey about her admission media. One of the things that we learned from talking to the Cast Member that gave the survey is that WDW is going to barcode admission media! Thank goodness for that! The East coast parks finally get something good, in terms of systems, from the Disneyland Resort.

After I snapped lots of pictures in the Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset, and Echo Lake Areas, the park finally "opened" and we were able to do some fun stuff. We started the day by enjoying MuppetVision 3D. We walked right onto that attraction. After MuppetVision, we spent some time on the fire engine (the one next to the Muppet character shop) that Allan loves to "drive" while we waited for 10:00am. Just a few minutes before ten, we queued up across the way to see the Toy Story characters at Al's Toy Barn. Woody and Buzz both came out, and Allan enjoyed meeting them. We got some great pictures, too.

Next on the list, was allowing the boys -- Allan, actually -- to play in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playset. On the way to the Playset, though, we found Goofy out on New York street, so we stopped to say hi to one of Allan's favorite characters. Then, we went in to the Playset. Allan had a ball climbing to the top of the "spider web," walking up stairs and sliding down slides (the roll of Kodak film was a particular favorite), and wiggling through the various caves and tunnels. In the meantime, Mom, Dad, and Michael pretty much camped out... keeping an eye on Allan as needed, but allowing him to have some free time.

After we finished up at the Playset, we walked back out to New York Street and out to see the Hunchback of Notre Dame show. It's been a long time, probably a couple of years, since we've last seen Quasimodo, Esmerelda, and the others perform. Seeing Matt the Juggler's preshow was a treat, too. Matt does a great job of showing his skills as well as keeping up a funny banter as he does so.

Unfortunately, during the show, Michael started to melt-down a bit. He was getting hungry (this kid is ALWAYS hungry) and a bit tired... and the show didn't seem to keep his attention. So as to not ruin the show for the other guests, Barb took Michael out (I was preparing to do so, but she volunteered). Allan and I watched the rest of the show, the joined the others out on New York street.

From there, we walked back out to Hollywood Boulevard to see if we could be seated for lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby. As it turned out, there was plenty of tables available. As soon as we were seated, we asked for some crackers for Michael, to get him started on eating something. Instead, they brought out (fairly quickly) a side order of fries. It was a good thing. Michael loves his fries. The rest of the meal came very quickly, too. Barb just had a children's hot dog meal, Allan had the mac & cheese, both shared with Michael. I had the signature Cobb salad. The Cobb is always a good choice at the Brown Derby. I've always enjoyed it... in fact, it's why we had lunch here today.

Michael was ok as long as we were eating, but it was clear that he was tired and still hovering close to melt-down, so we skipped desert and went back to the resort for a break. We all had a nice nap, and the pool time was refreshing (Allan in particular loves to swim).

Afterwards, we took the Boone bus to the TTC, walked to the Polynesian Resort, and I snapped yet more pictures.

We had dinner at Kona Cafe. I had the teriyaki beef, with rice and spinach. Barb had chicken soup (which she says was very good, unusually flavored -- it had some spices and herbs that made it different, and they used spiral noodles -- but the flavor was excellent.). Allan had a PBJ sandwich while Michael munched off of Allan's fries and bread. For desert, I had the famous koko puffs (cream puffs with chocolate inside and a cream on top -- like an "inside out éclair"), Barb had a turtle brownie, served warm, that was excellent. Actually, I liked the brownie better than the koko puffs, but the reviews I've read have been so lavish that I just had to try them. Someday, we'd like to go back and try the volcano chocolate cake. All told, dinner set us back an even $58.00 including tax and tip.

After dinner, we rode the monorail over to the Contemporary. I took some more pictures there, while Barb and the boys did some shopping. Then we rode the monorail to the Magic Kingdom where we caught a boat back to the Lodge (without any wait).

This morning, we decided to go over to Animal Kingdom. When we arrived, the Pocahontas animal training session was just about to start, so we made our way over to Camp Minnie-Mickey to see it. On the way, we saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto greeting folks, so we stopped over to say hi, too. The training session was anti-climatic. It was interesting, but a bit dry with two small kids in tow. When the boys get older, I suspect they'll enjoy that kind of thing a bit more.

Next, we walked back to Africa to see the safari. We took the standby line, which was listed at 35 minutes, but didn't wait more than 20-25. Kilamanjaro Safari never ceases to amaze me. The design of this attraction is excellent. You can't take a ride without seeing a great many animals... and seeing things each and every trip that is different than the last one.

After the safari, we walked clear to the other end of the park, in Dinoland, to see Tarzan Rocks. This is a show that's been around for quite some time, but that we've never gotten around to see. It's a good show, with spectacular trapeze work, rollerblading, and music. It's a very loud show, not unusual at Disney's parks, but even louder than Festival of the Lion King. The amazing thing, is that Michael fell asleep in Barb's arms just before the show started... and the kid never woke up! Unbelievable! One other comment... before the show, I went over and bought some frozen lemonades to share. Just for the record, they cost a cool $3.00 a piece!

After the show, we walked back to the boneyard and allowed Allan some more time to play and dig. It was his first time at the boneyard, and he enjoyed it very much. The boneyard is quite a bit larger than the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playset at the Studios. Of course, there were a lot more people milling around in there, too. The place was quite crowded.

After spending twenty minutes or so digging up fossils, Allan and I left the boneyard, found Barb and Michael, and walked back to the other end of the park (again) to see the real Pocahontas show. This is an ok show, hardly one that needs to be seen every trip, though. The trained animals are fun to see, but the preachy environmentality message was pretty heavy. I don't mind conserving as long as it's convenient to me, but I don't go overboard with the Greenpeace thing, either. Well, to each his own...

After Pocahontas, we walked back to the other end of the park (yet again) to have lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue. I had a chicken salad, Barb had a chicken salad sandwich, and Allan had the children's PBJ sandwich. The PBJ was interesting, because it was more like a PBJ pie. He seems to have liked it, he downed the whole thing, but be aware that it's not the usual sandwich.

After lunch, we returned to the Villas for our usual R&R. While Barb took the boys back to the room, I walked about to take some pics of the Villas and Lodge. I was also able to join a tour of the Villas and so I got some great pictures of the model one-bedroom villa and studio. After that, I walked over to the Lodge and asked if I could take pictures of a junior suite and a regular Lodge room. The answer was "yes," and Randall, a guest relations cast member, took me on a personal tour.

After my stroll, I returned to the room and we all crashed for a nice long nap. We skipped the pool run today, for reasons that I'm sure Allan would prefer that I not go into -- suffice to say, he's been a bit strong-willed today.

So, after the break, we just went right to the bus stop and caught the next bus to Epcot. When we got to the park, we walked straight over to the land. Barb got us walk-in seating at the Land Grill Room for dinner, so we jumped aboard the rotating carousel and had an excellent dinner of flank steak, chicken, catfish, smashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables... for kids, chicken strips, mac & Cheese, fries... strawberry shortcake, cookies with frosting, gummie worms. All told, dinner set us back an even $58.00 (exactly the same as last night) including tax and tip.

As an aside, there are no high chairs allowed on the lower level. We were offered a booster seat for Michael, instead, and accepted that, but we learned something valuable... don't do the lower level with a one-year old. The booster seat didn't keep him situated and Barb spent a great deal of our dinner time holding onto the little one. The sad thing is that the upper level doesn't have the fun view of the Living with the Land attraction.

The fun thing about dinner here, though, was the appearance of Chip, Dale, Pluto, and Mickey. We saw all of them for at least a short while. Pluto came by three times, in fact. Allan had a ball hugging each one as they came by... Michael wasn't so sure. These giant-sized fuzzy creatures are still a mystery to him, and he's not sure if the unknown is a good thing or not. He never got totally freaked, but at the same time, he wasn't acting like Mr. Congeniality, either.

After dinner, we walked downstairs and rode the Living with the Land boat ride. It's a perennial favorite for our family as Barb is such an avid gardener and I'm such a techno-dweeb. Living with the Land is a fun combination for us.

That's it for today. It's funny, but we ended up spending an entire evening in the Land pavilion. I didn't know it was possible... but now we know it is. After the bus ride back to the resort, getting the boys settled, handling our email, and dealing with the other chores, we settled down for the night.

We started today at the Magic Kingdom. We planned a short visit, just to see Adventureland before leaving the park for other activities. We enjoyed the Jungle Cruise, a regular favorite of Barb's (and Allan's, too). After we got back to civilization, I dropped a buck in the machine to buy a token, so Allan could drive one of the small electric Jungle Cruise boats. That was fun, too, but we only had a short drive (a couple of minutes, maybe) for the dollar we spent.

Next, we strolled through the new Agrabah Bazaar. The shops aren't much different than the old Adventureland shops that they superceded. In fact, the interiors didn't even change at least in one case (the shop that has the table with the carved giraffes and other animals... it hasn't changed a bit since last Fall). The magic carpet attraction is looking pretty good. It's going to be a colorful addition to this part of the park. What Adventureland really needs, though, is a new E-ticket. It would be great to add Indiana Jones (either the Paris or DL version, although I'd prefer something original but on the lines of DL's Temple of the Forbidden Eye) or some other thing.

We next made our way back to see the Pirates of the Caribbean... Allan had been agreeing to ride this attraction for months now, even though I know he's quite afraid of the waterfall. He was actually more affected by the dual waterfalls at Disneyland, but since the Magic Kingdom's Pirates has a waterfall, it's just as bad in his book. During the ride, I could tell that Allan was terrified because I could feel him trembling as I held him. After the short drop, though, he was fine and he settled down and enjoyed the ride.

As we exited the attraction, Allan's motivation for riding Pirates became clear. I'd promised him, last Fall, that if he rode the ride with me that I'd buy him a pirate gun that he had his eye on. He declined at the time, but as soon as we got off the boat and walked through the shop, he made a beeline for the gun rack and pointed out the "rifle" that he wanted as his reward.

I'm not much of a gun control guy. Personally, I believe that the world would be a better place if criminals were justly punished for their misdeeds... and plenty of guns remained in the hands of law-abiding citizens to ensure that the government doesn't get too high and mighty. Even so, in the aftermath of Columbine High School, guns are a scary thing to show off. I think, it might be better to allow Allan to have a toy gun now, and strictly reinforce the fact that guns are NOT to be pointed or fired at people. At the age of four and a half, it will be good to let him know that guns are for hunting and nothing more. Later we can discuss war and the correctness or not of such uses of firearms. Certainly we can discuss the proper use of guns for self-defense. We need to very strongly teach that guns are NEVER to be used to do anything that is against the law. I'd rather teach than put my head in the sand and ignore something that could potentially destroy lives and families. We bought the rifle... and Allan has done very well in "handling it" correctly and "using" it for only the right purposes (pretend hunting of animals only).

After we armed ourselves, we headed out of the park. We strolled the shops on the West side of Main Street, from Casey's down to the Emporium. Then we headed across town square to see which characters would be available in the Exposition Hall, but found it completely deserted. That was a disappointment.

Next, we exited the park and caught a boat to Fort Wilderness Campground. While we were there, we toured Tri-Circle D Ranch, visited the petting farm, and allowed Allan a pony ride (the main reason why we came over to the campground). While we were there, we strolled around and saw just about all of the settlement and meadow areas before walking back to the Lodge. There's a very nice wooded walkway that runs between the Lodge and the Campground. I've been wanting to walk it every since I read in Mike Scopa's 1994 trip report that he and his son had enjoyed a morning run to the campground and back. It was a good twenty minute walk for us, pushing a double stroller but walking at a brisk pace.

When we got back to the Lodge, we stopped in for lunch at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. We ordered ala carte, with Barb having the burger while I enjoyed the smokehouse club sandwich (excellent smoked turkey and beef brisket) and Allan had the childrens PBJ. We also ordered all-you-can-drink shakes for all three of us. Michael, of course, shared from all of us, but particularly enjoyed Barb's fries. We dropped $44.00 including tax and tip on lunch, but were stuffed to the gills.

We spent the rest of the day right at our own resort. We had a swim, then just had some snacks for dinner since we were still so full from our lunch. We allowed the boys some extra time to just play and run and crawl around the room before we all got ready for bed.

Today we started the day at Epcot. We arrived before rope drop, so we walked around the plaza for awhile enjoying the fountain and taking some pictures. Eventually, the park officially opened, so we walked straight to the Living Seas, only to find that the pavilion was closed and wouldn't open for a half hour longer. So now, not only does World Showcase not become available to guests when the park opens (the entire World Showcase opens two hours later than does Future World), now individual pavilions open late, too. I was a bit peeved, so I asked Don, the CM from Living Seas, to show me on the guidemap where it says that Living Seas opens late. He couldn't, but explained that the tip board did say so (I never confirmed that, so I'll have to take his word for it). We figured we'd just kill a little time, so we walked over to the Land to see the Circle of Life film, one of the few things we hadn't done there yet, only to find that it, too, was closed. The Circle of Life, it turns out, doesn't open until 10:00am. How absolutely irritating!

We ended up killing the time that was left by riding Living with the Land again. It's getting to the point that we can all give the spiel ourselves, "On the left is cacao, the plant that chocolate comes from. Underneath the Cacao are some sweet potato plants. Growing two crops in the same place simultaneously is called 'intercropping.' Next, also on the left, you can see some peanuts. Peanuts are grown here, then a crop of rice is grown. The peanuts leave behind a large amount of nitrogen in the soil, which is needed by the rice. This type of planting is called crop rotation." -- well, you get the drift.

After seeing the Nestle, Nasa, and Epcot scientists doing their thing (intercropping, crop rotation, vertical growing, fish farming, aeroponics, and hydroponics) and learning about what's going on in the world of food production and distribution ("In Japan, we're learning that composting leaves provides us with higher crop yields") we walked back to the Living Seas to visit Sea Base Alpha again.

In an incredible display of rudeness, crassness, and otherwise poor treatment of the guest (that would be me), my "favorite" Living Seas cast member, Don, saw us approaching the pavilion and literally bowed before me (on hands and knees on the pavement) and apologized for the inconvenience of the pavilion opening late. I wasn't irritated with Don personally until that moment. Before that, all of my angst was directed toward WDW management. Don, however, made it personal. I have yet to go to guest relations to complain, but I plan to do so before the trip is over.

When we finally, belatedly saw Sea Base Alpha, we had the opportunity to see a feeding in the tank. It was pretty cool to see the divers in the water and the feeding frenzy that occurred when they used the "broadcast buckets" to feed the fish. There's a regular schedule of feedings at 10am, 1pm, and 4:30pm... Dolphin presentations at 10:45am, 2:15pm, and 4pm... and several marine biologist presentations throughout the afternoon from Noon to 7:30pm.

Next, we stopped off at the Kodak courtesy lounge to dropped off a present for a friend of a friend. Michelle Smith's friend, who works at the lounge, is expecting and we delivered a small gift for Michelle. Unfortunately, Wendy was presently enjoying her own vacation on the Disney Cruise Line, so we just dropped the gift off. We were invited to have a quick beverage before we left, and we did take advantage of that gracious offer.

For lunch we planned to eat at the Cantina across from the Mexico Pavilion. We walked by the Odyssey center on the way, to take pics of the baby care center, then continued to the Cantina. The food there is very much like fast-food Mexican. It's quite a bit like Taco Bell style food, not really that great but ok for the price.

We then continued on to Norway, where Allan played on the Viking boat while I walked through the bakery line to get some rice cream and cookies. I'd been wanting to try the rice cream for quite some time now, it has been highly recommended to me in the past. It was indeed very, very good. I'll definitely make a point of having some again sometime in the future.

After our little snack, we rode Maelstrom. However, I had completely forgotten about the waterfall that you slide down after seeing the three-headed-troll. I thought Allan would freak, but he forgave me for incorrectly telling him that there were no such thrills on the ride (I had warned him about the storm in the North Sea, but that was anti-climatic after the flume drop... tame as it is).

We decided to stay for the Norway movie. I've always enjoyed it, and I consider it a part of the attraction and the experience of visiting the Norway pavilion. Only a small percentage of people apparently agree with me, though. I'm sure that at least half, if not more, of the riders of Maelstrom skip the film. It's a pity, they're missing out.

We continued our walk past China, the outpost, and Germany. As we arrived in the Teutonic region, a Friendship just was coming up, so we walked to the dock rode back to World Showcase plaza, and from there made haste back to the resort for a break.

We spent the evening at the Downtown Disney Village Marketplace. Except for our dinner, which we had at Wolfgang Puck's Express, we didn't drop a dime tonight. That's kinda weird for us, but we really were just trying to see what grabbed us for purchasing later in the trip. We decided to come back one morning after we've spent a late night at Epcot to see Tapestry and Reflections of Earth. A good sleep-in day, with a late morning spent at the Marketplace, will be a good thing to do.

After our dinner and stroll, we drove back to the resort. On the way we saw TONS of buses all over the complex. Some were parking over at the West End, others were going up Bonnet Creek Parkway directly toward the Magic Kingdom. In all cases, the passengers were bound for Grad Night at the Magic Kingdom. The park closed early tonight (and tomorrow) to allow for this. The sad thing is that we'll miss Spectromagic on this trip because the weekends are completely booked with Grad Nights. Since the park won't be open late at all during our stay, we'll have to catch the parade next Fall.

This morning we visited the Studios. Since the park wasn't yet opened, though, we decided to take the time to shop for some new sunglasses for Barb. For years, whenever we visited WDW, Barb forgot to bring her sunglasses. For the last several trips, though, she's done really well. Yesterday, though, her frames broke so we needed to replace them. I certainly wouldn't want to spend a lot of time in Central Florida without sunglasses. We ended up finding some in the Mickey's of Hollywood shop on the left-hand side of Hollywood Boulevard as you enter the park.

When we exited the shop, there were some "streetmosphere" characters hamming it up. One of the guests they were teasing was celebrating a birthday, and they sang to her... "Here it is your birthday song, it isn't very long." That was it.

I made my way on down Sunset to ride the Tower or Terror next. It's not an attraction that Barb enjoys so much that she felt that she had to baby-swap with me so she could ride, too. So, I went solo... and thoroughly enjoyed the first (and as it turned out, the last) thrill ride of the trip for me. Of course, being alone I just had to request "the seat" and I got it. Having no lap bar heightens things considerably, I think. In any case, I am still absolutely convinced that the tower is the best executed attraction theme in all of Walt Disney World. Nothing else is even close.

After my drop in the elevator, we strolled over to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Ariel was cute as a button, but the girl didn't give up much when she sold her voice to Ursula. She couldn't have sung her way out of a wet paper bag.

We still had some time to kill, we had plans at 11:00am, so we strolled along Mickey Avenue and saw Tigger, Pooh, and Mickey with very few other people around. Allan, of course, was beside himself. Michael is still trying to figure out these furry speechless creatures. He doesn't panic, but he's hardly brimming with joy at the prospect of meeting them either.

Finally, 11:00am was nearing, so we walked back over to Sunset Boulevard to go to the Theatre of the Stars. We haven't seen the Beauty and the Beast stage show for a long, long time... and today was a good time to do so. Even before the main event, we really enjoyed listening to Four for a Dollar, an acappela pop quartet that sounds just fabulous. They've been performing at the Studios for a long, long time now. The first time I remember hearing them was on our 1995 trip. I'm glad they're still around.

The Beauty and the Beast show was pretty good. Belle had a tremendous voice and the performance was a quality one for all of the performers. The show lasts a good twenty-five to thirty minutes, but is still too short to really tell the whole story without some abbreviation. You get the gist, though, and if you've ever seen the movie it's more than sufficient.

After the show, we walked across Sunset and had a simple fast-food lunch at the Farmer's Market. The burgers were very, very good and it was nice to have pleasant seating with tables spaced sufficiently far apart so that claustrophobia doesn't set it. Barb commented that, in most of the fast food venues, the tables are so close that you never get out of the park crowd. At the Farmer's Market, we were able to relax.

After lunch, Allan wanted to do the ride where "she stands in front and talks to you and you ride," so we did the Great Movie Ride. I always enjoy the Great Movie Ride, but I won't mind if and when it's replaced... as long as it's replaced with something different and better.

During today's break, I actually drove over to the Villas at the Disney Institute to snap some pictures (it's one of the few resorts that I didn't have enough pictures to do a photo tour of... but that's been rectified). While I did that, everyone else took a small nap.

By late afternoon, it was time to get at it again. We drove over to Caribbean Beach Resort (and saw the Reddy Creek Fire Department there in force, but why we couldn't discover). Then we drove over to the Beach Club. We considered Cape May Cafe for dinner, but with the big crowds and the heavy seafood menu, we decided against it again. Someday we really will eat there, really.

Instead, we walked into Epcot and checked at the Rose & Crown. We were told it would be about 30 minutes, and we jumped at it since we were pleasantly surprised that a table would be available at all. During our wait, we strolled the pavilion. Also, while I took a bunch of exterior shots of the buildings, Allan enjoyed the Kidstop where he was able to make a mask on a stick. Magic markers, stickers, and other decorations were available to dress up the masks, and Allan's, of course, turned out to be a work of art. Of course, Michael insisted on having one too, since big brother had one, so Michael got his own mask (without decoration, since he wasn't quite up to the task).

All in all, we ended up waiting about 50 minutes for our table, but sat down inside the pub (the first indoor table I've ever sat at here) and enjoyed an excellent dinner of prime rib with Yorkshire pudding. The service was pretty good. It wasn't the best we've ever had at a WDW restaurant, but it was pretty good for the Rose & Crown (which is infamous for being deliberate, in my opinion).

After dinner, we passed on desert and made our way over to the International Gateway Bridge where we camped out with thousands of others to see Reflections of Earth. Of course, as we stood there a couple of ladies squeezed in and took over the place that some folks other had staked-out. That kind of behavior is very irritating to me, but it didn't affect us at all. I just felt bad for the young couple that got boxed out.

I must make a comment here on the valet parking that is available at some of the Deluxe resorts. Frankly, it's a great deal and very, very convenient for us. We've used valet parking extensively on this trip (since it's available for free, with only the cost of a tip being required). With two boys now, and a stroller and a bunch of other stuff to lug, we've found that the valet parking is a very nice feature.

After we got in the van, we drove back to the Lodge (using the valet parking again, of course) and went back to the room to deal with email and so on before it was time for sleep. I'm enjoying reading an excellent book by Robert K. Massie called "Dreadnaught" all about the politics in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries... the years leading up to the First World War. It's fascinating stuff. Really, it is.

This morning, as is our custom when we're on vacation at WDW, we went to Church in the morning at Bible Baptist in Kissimmee. The Sunday morning service was unusual, because the church was honoring the law enforcement agencies in the area... the Kissimmee Police, Osceola County Sheriff's Department, Department of Corrections, Florida State Police. It was a fun service, even though we don't live in the area.

After Sunday School and church, we went to the Sizzler just up the road for lunch. Just after we paid and started getting ready to eat, though, several tour buses pulled up (apparently pre-paid) and people began to pour into the restaurant through the back door and right into the serving line (Sizzler is a buffet restaurant). There was no possible way we would be able to deal with a line of -- literally -- two hundred people with two small kids, so I went back to the counter, asked for and received a full refund, and we left. We ended up at a very similar restaurant called the Golden Corral, ended up paying about $10.00 more, but didn't have three bus loads of people to deal with in line. I must admit that I think the food at Sizzler blows the Golden Corral out of the water. Even so, we couldn't have even had our meal, much less enjoyed it, at the Sizzler.

After lunch, we just drove around the Kissimmee area for awhile. We've never done that, since we've always stayed right on the SR-192 strip, but we wanted to see some of the town and figured that this was as good a time as any.

When we returned to the resort, we all went down for a short nap. After an hour or so, Allan and I went over to the big pool area, where he splashed around in the kid's pool with several other younger kids. I stayed high and dry, planning to read some of my book, but I ended up just watching Allan. I didn't mean to be overly protective, but I know I would never forgive myself if he got hurt just because I wasn't paying close attention.

After our brief break, we took the boat over to the Magic Kingdom. We didn't get much done. The park was closing at 8:00pm, and it was already after 6:30pm when we arrived. Barb and Allan did manage to get on the Grand Prix Speedway while I got Fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear. After those two attractions, it was after 7:30 and time to pack it in.

We grabbed the monorail and rode over to the Grand Floridian to get something to eat. We considered the Gasparilla Grill, but ended up at the Grand Floridian Cafe. I had the turkey club sandwich while Allan had PBJ (again) and Barb just had a bowl of soup and desert.

After dinner, we rode the monorail back around to the Ticket and Transportation Center, then caught a Boone bus back to the Lodge.

Animal Kingdom was our destination this morning. Like almost all of our mornings at AK, this one started with a walk back to Harambe and a ride on Kilimanjaro Safari. This attraction never ceases to amaze me with the incredible opportunity to see African wildlife in an environment that seems (at least to my amateur eyes) to be a dead ringer for the real thing.

After we got off the safari, we walked back to see "Tough Bug," as Allan calls it. It was a fun show, and much more intense (with Hopper, the bug spray, and spiders) than I'd remembered. It's an excellent show.

We walked back to Asia next, to see Flights of Wonder. We have never seen this show at the Caravan Stage, but only at a temporary location a couple of years ago when the Caravan Stage was being renovated. Seeing the birds fly so low and so on was interesting but not something I feel we have to see every trip, though.

After the show, we walked to Dinoland USA to have lunch at Restaurantosaurus. We've eaten here a few times in the past, and have never had good service at the counter. This time, though, we had much better service than we've ever had on our previous visits. Keep in mind, this is still just a counter service restaurant, but the service on all of our previous trips was so slow that just typical counter service for here was noteworthy.

After lunch, Michael and I went shopping while Barb supervised Allan as he played at the boneyard. I wanted to go to the Island Supply store to see if there was, as I'd been told by a cast member on a previous visit, a book with a list of the carved animals in the Tree of Life. The clerks in the store said there was no such book.

After Barb and Allan joined us, we left the park, but on the way I stopped at Guest Relations to ask about the list one last time. I was told that there are over 300 animals carved into it, but that the "legend" was that the tree had different animals appear and older ones disappear over time, so no list could capture everything.

Ok, so there's no list available. Maybe I'll make inspecting the entire tree a trip project some day.

As we left the park, Dale and Timon were carousing with a bunch of kids out in the entry plaza (outside the park). Allan and Michael joined in. Both characters were great with Michael, especially, allowing him to touch their "fur" and being very, very gentle with him. We got some great pictures, too.

When we finally arrived at the bus stop, we saw that there was no bus for the Lodge, but that one of the new buses was sitting at the Old Key West stop. I took a few pictures. The bus driver told me that there were now about 18 of the new buses in use, with another 30 or so on order. The new buses are more square in shape, have a lot more window surface, have much lower floors (only one step from outside to the main floor) and have a very, very wide main aisle. all of the main seats are side-facing, so it leaves a lot of room down the middle. in the back of the bus, there's a raised platform with several additional forward-facing seats. All-in-all, the bus driver told me, the maximum capacity (I would presume, including standing room) of the new buses is 100 people versus the 75 of the old buses. After I checked out the Old Key West bus, we ended up having one of the new buses come to pick us up for our ride to the Lodge.

We took our typical afternoon break, but I received a phone call that my grandfather had passed away this morning. There's no way we can make it back for the funeral (which is Wednesday), and my Mother said that everything was under control and that she was ok. I was stressed about missing it, but unless they changed the time of the service, we wouldn't be able to make it home then back to the Detroit area in time.

After the time off, caught a bus to Epcot. We started by walking back to World Showcase and going around the promenade counter-clockwise from Canada. When we got to the United Kingdom, Barb decided to take some pictures of some topiary-style wreaths that were on the trellises. She learned how to make them at a workshop she attended during our first week here at WDW. While she was taking the picture, the guys that perform as the Beatles in the back courtyard of the pavilion came out of one of the doors that Barb had her camera pointed at. When they saw Barb, camera in hand and ready to go, they assumed that she was preparing to take their picture. There was more than just a little surprise when she put the camera down and told them that she didn't want their picture at all.

We worked our way around the promenade all the way to Italy, where we had priority seating arrangements made for dinner at Alfredo's. Dinner was ok, we've never really had a spectacular dinner here, but we keep trying it because it's such a popular restaurant. Frankly, the food here is very typical of any Italian restaurant across the country. The Olive Garden chain comes to mind, in fact. I did order the fettuccini Alfredo, the house specialty, and the cheese and butter were melted together to perfection, but the meal was quite plain. Barb had lasagna, and had pretty much the same opinion. For desert, I had tiramisu, of course (I'm a coffee-flavor freak) while Barb had chocolate mousse. The desert was good, but again, nothing more spectacular than you can get at any restaurant at home. One highlight of the trip, of course, was that Michael put on a show for some grandparently types sitting nearby.

After dinner, we left the dining room and I went to use the restroom. When I got in there, there were a bunch of ladies washing their hands. How dare they use the men's restroom! Of course, I turned several shades of red when I figured out that I was the trespasser, not they. Of course, I didn't immediately share that information, with Barb, but it did come out later in the trip.

We continued around the promenade as I took more pictures. We did stop to allow Allan to play in the bug adventure garden located in between Germany and the Outpost.

We also ended up waiting to see Tapestry of Nations, since several days earlier we'd promised Allan we'd watch the parade before the trip was over. Tonight was the night, and we saw the entire production from just in front of Akershus in Norway. I'm convinced that now that the parade has been "consolidated" (you can only view it from Japan to Mexico now, it isn't performed from Morocco to the United Kingdom any longer -- also, it's one long parade, not several smaller ones), the best performers were kept. I really thought that the cast members of the parade were much better performers as a group than I'd ever seen before. There was a lot of energy, more personal interaction with the guests, and so on. I just think it's a better parade now (even though the drum floats, puppets, and music are identical, of course.

After Tapestry, we skipped Reflections of Earth and walked back to the bus stop for our ride back to the Lodge.

Today we spent our last time in the Magic Kingdom for this trip. We got to the park before rope drop and ended up spending several minutes in Cinderella's Castle waiting with the masses for the opening speech. When the rope finally did drop, Barb took Allan to ride Dumbo, while Michael and I got Fastpasses to ride Winnie the Pooh later in the morning.

After I got the Fastpasses, I went over to Dumbo and saw that Mickey was riding the airborne pachyderm along with the kids (and parents) that were there in the first few cycles of the ride. Barb later told me t hat Chip, Dale, & Pluto were riding the carousel at the same time. I did get a picture of Mickey riding, and of course, got several of Barb and Allan riding too.

After Dumbo, we asked Allan what he wanted to do next and surprisingly, "Snow White" was his reply. We ended up riding Snow White, Peter Pan, and It's a Small World in rapid succession, even though we had to crisscross Fantasyland to do it.

One of the goals that Barb had for our trip, which resulted from our October trip, was a desire to meet up with the Fairy Godmother to give her a picture of her and Allan and give her a brief note thanking her for how nicely she'd treated Allan on that previous trip. We figured that we'd probably be able to see her over at Cinderella's Royal Table, so we went over to the Castle to see if we (or at least Barb) could go and give her the picture and note. We weren't permitted to do so, so Barb just left the note and picture at the reception desk of the restaurant. Hopefully, she'll get it.

While Barb was dealing with that issue, I stepped into the castle throughway to take pictures of the murals depicting the story of Cinderella. I've been wanting to do that for awhile, but never thought of it when the crowds were small enough to make it feasible. Now wasn't perfect, the traffic was pretty steady, but at least the bottoms of the murals weren't obscured by the rope drop crowds. With a little time and patience, I was able to get pretty good pictures of all five panels.

After we finished up at the castle, we walked around and rode Winnie the Pooh using the Fastpasses that I'd gotten earlier. While we were in the queue, I noticed a guy in line just in front of us had the old RADP logo pin on, so I introduced myself. We didn't talk long, we were both getting ready to load into our hunny pots, but it was nice to see a fellow newsgroup reader (although I lurk more than anything now adays). I did ask his name, and game mine, but for the life of me I can't remember it now (I'm finishing this trip report at home, and it's been several days now).

After riding Pooh, we walked over to Ariel's grotto and stood in line to see the mermaid. This was the very first time we've ever done that, although the grotto has been around for five years or more now. The water fountains weren't turned on (which was just as well, since it was still a little chilly in the air), but the kids in line were all excited about seeing Ariel. The girl playing Ariel was pretty good, too. She didn't overact, but she interacted with the kids pretty well -- especially considering how limited she is in her movements in that costume (looks like Sebastian finally got his wish and had her fins nailed to the floor).

We had another plan for the late morning, so after saying goodbye to Ariel, we walked slowly through Fantasyland, browed through Sir Mickey's shop (there's a great leather coat that I'd love to have, with patches from all of the parks at WDW, but I didn't even bother to look at the price), and eventually made our way around the castle to Storybook Grove, where, at 11:00am, Belle would tell us a story. While we waited, Allan and I went and bought some strawberry swirl soft serve (and a frozen lemonade for Allan) from Enchanted Grove to snack on while we waited. The swirls were excellent and were definitely something we'll do again. Michael had every other spoonful of mine, but my share tasted really good.

Belle, of course, did a small audience participation presentation of her own story. It was pretty good, with several kids from the audience playing the roles of Belle's Father, Gaston, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, Chip and so on. Allan, true to form, turned down the chance to get involved. In a couple of years, I'm sure he'll jump at those opportunities. Right now, he's not quite comfortable in front of a crowd like that.

After Belle finished up, we walked back to Frontierland and rode the Liberty Belle. Allan was able, again, to pilot the huge sternwheeler. It's a highlight for him to do that. Unfortunately, he was a bit uptight about it as the captain hadn't yet arrived up on the upper deck until quite awhile after we boarded. We should have just walked off the boat to make the point that he needed to behave (we did that at Disneyland when he really pitched a fit about riding Mark Twain last year), but before we thought that one through, the captain had arrived and Allan and Barb were up in the pilot house. Michael feel asleep in my arms, so I ended up holding him throughout the voyage. He didn't know it, but we strolled around the entire boat during the trip. After we docked, Michael and I walked down to the bottom deck and disembarked with the crowds. We waited on a bench for Barb and Allan to get down. As they turned the last corner, a couple of crewmembers (the captain that had Allan up in the pilot house and one other) shouted "Captain on Deck," and saluted Allan as he left the boat. It was pretty cute.

We walked around the back of Frontierland into Adventureland to catch a quick lunch at El Pirata y el Perico Restaurante, but found it closed. I suppose that it only opens during the busier times, and certainly late April is not that. Instead, we walked back out to the hub and made our way to the Plaza Restaurant. We were seated within just a few minutes, and sat down for a nice meal... although I'm still irritated that the chef's salad isn't available any longer. I had a club sandwich with fries, while Barb had the grilled cheese sandwich with fries. With our beverages, and the brownie sundae that we all shared at the end, we dropped $31.40 for the meal.

After lunch, we walked through some of the Main Street shops. At one point, as we were walking through a doorway, the stroller wheel got stuck and as I tried to get it cleared, Barb ran right into my back and bounced off. I sharply called her, "Keystone Cop," a nickname that stuck for awhile during the trip.

When we got to the end of Main Street, we walked over to the Exposition Hall to see what characters were about. The Expo Hall has been a bit disappointment for us, after the incredible luck we had in meeting characters here last Fall. This time, just as we were arriving, Snow White was getting ready to leave. Before she did, though, she took a few minutes to go over to say hi to Allan and Michael. After Snow White left, Pluto and Timon can into the room, and All and Michael had the two characters almost to themselves for quite a while - probably a good ten minutes or so between the two of them. After that, Allan just wanted to walk around the Expo Hall playing in the picture sets of 101 Dalmations and the Seven Dwarfs and "driving" the old car.

After we finished up there, we walked back out of the park and caught the next boat to the Lodge. Our luck on transportation waits has been really good on this trip. Except for a few unusual examples, we've hardly waited more than a few minutes for buses and boats.

Before our nap, unfortunately, Allan and Daddy had to have a discussion about Allan's behavior. The near meltdown on the Liberty Belle and continued rude behavior at lunch were hot topics. Over the recent years, we've found that it's very hard to keep discipline on vacation. The lack of a regular routine, the extra exertion from walking and enjoying the parks, irregular meal times, the excitement of meeting the characters: all of these things take the kids out of their normal conditions. One thing that Barb and I discussed later in the trip was that we need to do a better job of immediately restricting things when behavior is bad in the parks. For example, we should have immediately left the Liberty Belle this afternoon -- that may have made an impact and it may have helped to remind Allan that he needs to behave courteously and obediently.

After our talk, we all laid down for a much-needed nap. A few hours later, when we got up, Allan announced, "I'm having a struggle with my toe, it's having a bad day." We're not sure, exactly, what his toe was struggling with, but we had a good laugh over his remark.

This evening was pretty laid-back. We drove over to the Marketplace to do our big shopping trip. With the CDs, earrings, necklace, and Mickey telephone we dropped about $170 which will be borne by our household budget.

After shopping, we drove over to Port Orleans Resort Riverside, the resort formerly known as Dixie Landings, and had dinner at Boatwright's Dining Hall. The prime rib was pretty good, and we enjoyed our meal very much. After dinner, we strolled the lobby area, bought some diapers at Fulton's General Store ($7.25 for 14 diapers, but simpler than driving off-site to buy them). I also noted, for the first time, the compass that is painted on the floor of the entry hall of the resort. I noticed a stylized "W" on the floor just outside of Fulton's and wasn't sure what it was. When I saw a similarly stylized "S" a few feet away, I took another look and quickly saw the "N" and "E" as well. Another neat touch that I've never noticed before.

While we were there, I also asked for a new map of the resort. Nothing has changed names, except for the overall resort itself. The map still shows the old resort names, and our receipt from Boatwright's mentioned Dixie Landings, but nothing else mentions "Dixie Landings" at all. When I asked them about it, a couple of cast members in the store said that the old "Dixie Landings" logo products sold very quickly in March, after the name change became official.

We returned to the Lodge and crashed for the night. Tomorrow, unfortunately, is our last full day in the parks.

This was our last day in the parks, and we started today at the Studios. We made a beeline to get Fastpasses to see Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Play it!, over on Mickey Avenue (the road that goes past Voyage of the Little Mermaid toward the backlot tour).

After that, we ended up just killing time. Frankly, we've done that quite a bit on this trip in the mornings. The Early Entry times allow you into the park to ride the most popular attractions, but with two young kids and no grandparents or baby swap with, we didn't do many of the E-ticket rides at all. This morning, for example, the Tower of Terror, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and Star Tours were the main things open. All of them are great attractions, but this just wasn't that kind of trip for us this time. Barb and I would prefer to stay together than do a lot of baby swapping when it's just our own immediate family.

Eventually, we strolled back to to Millionaire just to get in the standby line. We were directed in to the Fastpass line, even without Fastpasses (ours were for a later time), and ended up pretty close to the front of the queue. After a few minutes, a cast member came out and asked trivial questions to determine who is allowed to sit in the ten fastest finger seats. Keep in mind, EVERYONE plays the game here, the fastest finger seats are only there for window dressing, but it's still kinda neat to sit there.

I did answer one of the questions, "name the body of water in front of the Magic Kingdom," with "Seven Seas Lagoon" being the answer, of course. Again, sitting in those seats wasn't much of an advantage in sitting there (in fact, all of the people that got into the hot seat itself came from elsewhere in the audience).

The rules of the game are similar to what you see on TV, but you shoot for points, instead of dollars... and you can only "phone a stranger" (someone picked at random from the queue out on Mickey Avenue is your "stranger") although "ask the audience," and "50/50" are the same as the TV version. The host of the show looked and acted more like Jim Carey than Regis, but that wasn't all bad.

One other thing that is a big part of the setup... the ENTIRE audience plays along with the questions. After the first fastest finger question (when the first hot seat person is selected) the other contestants are all taken from the top scorers from among the entire audience. The highest I ever got was fourth place (they show the standings periodically), so I never even got close to the hot seat, but it was still fun.

My bottom line? Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Play it! is fun, but not something I'd have to do every trip. Barb, on the other hand, enjoyed it so much she said she could do it five or six times in a row.

After Millionaire, we just bummed around the park a little bit. We went over to try Sounds Dangerous (believe it or not, I've never experienced this attraction yet, although it's been around for a long time), but decided against it with the warning about darkness and loud noise (Allan would have hated it). We did stop in at the Animation Gallery for a little bit, too. We always enjoy looking things over, but really didn't want to take the entire tour with the boys this time around.

With that, we figured we'd pretty much covered the Studios as well as we wanted to with a four-year-old and a one-year-old. We left the park and walked out to the boat dock to catch a Friendship boat to Epcot. The boat ride was fun, it was our only views of the Swan, Dolphin, Boardwalk, and Yacht Club Resorts this trip (although we did see them all when driving past them at one time or another). I took some pictures of the resorts, of views that I don't think you can get except from the water. I'm looking forward to see how they turn out.

When we arrived at the second park of the day, we walked right over to the Yorkshire County Fish Shop to get some Fish & Chips for lunch. I'd been wanting to try a quick meal here for awhile, and this was the perfect opportunity. When we made our order, the total price was completely messed up. Apparently the cast member rang up an extra order, then had to give me a hand receipt for the corrected total because the computer was down. Barb speculated that the cast member may have been a bit devious in trying to steal some money from an unsuspecting guest while the company couldn't keep tabs on her. That would be the worst case scenario, I guess, but I just think she made a mistake, then didn't know how to fix it efficiently.

After lunch, which we enjoyed on the edge of the lagoon (the seating for the Fish Shop is small, but very scenic), we walked over to the Canadian Pavilion. We were just going to exit the park, but since a serious rain was brewing, we decided to take the opportunity to see Oh Canada to avoid the deluge. Sure enough, during the pre-show and the show itself, a substantial rain came down. Fortunately, we missed the worst of it completely.

We spent another hour or so walking about the World Showcase Plaza and Future World taking pictures of topiary and other garden features. We did that mostly together, but at one point I took the boys with me over to Guest Relations to complain about the scattered opening of the park (you can see my comments on that from our bad experience on Friday, 27 April 2001, if you've forgotten.) Anyway, in exchange for taking the time to make my voice heard, the cast member at Guest Relations cleared us to view IllumiNations this evening from a special viewing area in Italy.

After that, we took the next bus back to the Lodge, and Barb took the boys swimming while I did some MousePlanet work that I just had to get done (laying out an article that was due for publication soon). I didn't get much of a break at all, today, but at least I got that job accomplished while the others swam and rested.

After that, we took a bus right back to Epcot. Going back to the park we'd just left was very, very unusual for us, but we really wanted to finish our trip with a nice meal... plus, that IllumiNations offer was pretty enticing.

When we got to the park, we walked back to the plaza and caught a boat to Morocco. We had plans (although no priority seating arrangements, to eat at Marrakesh for dinner, but the entire pavilion area was blocked off by a group of gymnasts and the crowd that their performance caused. They were pretty good, I must say. The contortionist, especially, was incredible. I have no idea how he was able to do some of those things. I'm in pain just thinking about it.

We did enjoy our dinner at Marrakesh. The food there is always excellent. Unfortunately for me, the belly dancer was performing just as we entered the restaurant, then she was done and gone and didn't return until after we'd left. The other drawback to the evening was that Allan didn't behave as well as I would have liked. We ended up dropping almost $70 on our Shish Kabob Dinners with a Beef Brewat appetizer.

Unfortunately, the combination of disappointed (at the belly dancer's disappearance), irritation at Allan (for his behavior), or sticker shock (at the price of the meal) led me right into a pretty nasty headache. After dinner, my thoughts were of leaving the park and just going back to the resort to rest my head, but I hesitated because I really didn't want my vacation to end on such a sour note.

It was Barb's idea to just take some time right there in the park to rest a bit. As a result, we strolled through Morocco and over to France. We walked around to the International Gateway side of the pavilion and just sat on one of the quiet benches over there. Finally, we walked in to see Impressions du France. By the time the travelogue was over, I had an intense desire to visit France AND my headache was mostly gone.

We walked toward Italy, and made a small side-trip to stroll through the Mitsukoshi store in Japan. Barb mentioned that she really wanted to buy one of the silk kimonos that are on display. While she was over looking at the kimonos, I noticed, for the first time ever in life, a bunch of clocks that were mounted on the wall just inside the main doors (the doors closest to the promenade) on the left hand side. Several of the clocks had notices on them that they were "motion clocks" and that customers should ask for a demonstration. So I did. All of the clocks were very cool. Many of them had some kind of musical presentation, several had pretty fancy movements, and all of the "motion clocks" had some special surprise motion, too. One, for example, opened up like the petals of a flower opening to the morning sun. Another had a small window open and some animatronic figures showed up. It was very cool to see them. Perhaps in a future trip, we'll have to set aside some money to buy one of these things.

After spending altogether more time than we'd planned in Japan, we quickstepped over to Italy to see IllumiNations. We got there a few minutes before the show started, and so I asked the two cast members that were screening entry into the area and to find out how you could get into this area (other than making complaints, as I had done). I found out that Disney Club members can request permission at guest relations earlier in the day. This is not a documented Disney Club perk, and only 40 people are permitted in the area, so if you're a member and want to take advantage of this you should probably visit guest relations early in the day.

In just a few minutes, Reflections of Earth started. We've seen the show probably a dozen times over the last year and a half, but this was by far the best view I've ever had for it. Being close to the rail and with such excellent sightlines made it very nice.

After the show Barb and I walked behind the masses toward World Showcase Plaza. The two cast members that I had talked to earlier walked with us. Barb and I both enjoyed talking with them about Walt Disney World, the cutbacks (they viewed it mostly as a positive thing to keep cost under control), and living like locals in the area. Eventually, they went right to make their way back to guest relations while Barb and I plunged into the crowds to the left side (exiting the park) of Spaceship Earth.

We had a pretty long wait for a bus tonight, but we all got on the first one that showed up. After the ride back to the Lodge we got the boys to bed then began the process of packing for the morning.

We got up at about 4:45am this morning to finish the packing, get the boys (and ourselves) ready. I took a stroll down to the lobby to deal with our accumulated bill ($6.35, all for local phone calls). Then we got the bags packed, and I called bell services to help us with our bags and the valet to bring up the van. The bell-hop showed up, and helped us with our bags (and we had a LOT of stuff) then, as I got the boys situated in the van (which was already pulled up), actually helped Barb load the car! He was a tremendous help, and got a much nicer tip as a result. From the time I called to the time we hit the road was about twenty-five minutes. Not too bad, considering what we had to deal with in packing the van up.

I drove and drove and drove and drove until mid-morning when Barb took over for awhile. Unlike our normal driving days, when I drive until lunch and Barb then relieves me for a couple hours, I was pretty tired after the late night and early morning. It was nice to have that break.

We stopped for lunch at a Pizza Hut somewhere in Georgia just North of Macon. I have no idea what was wrong at that place, but the pizza buffet was mostly empty, many tables were terribly filthy (and as long as we were there, none were cleared and cleaned), the restrooms were terrible... All in all, it was not a nice lunch.

We continued on to mid-Tennessee and ended up finally getting a room at a small AAA-approved (but non-chain) hotel called the Lamb's Inn in Lake City. As a place to sleep without frills, it was ok. I wouldn't recommend it, but it met our needs at the moment.

Dinner was at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, then we settled in for the two-hour conclusion of Survivor. I still can't believe Colby chose Tina over Keith (he would have been a shoo-in against Keith, but lost a tight race to Tina). Dumb move.

Today we got up and loaded the van (a much easier task, since Barb had carefully planned and kept us from having to take too much stuff in the room the night before). We walked across the parking lot to the restaurant where our free breakfast was made available, and dealt with cold toast, raw pancakes, and other delicacies. Jumping in the van to commence our drive was not such a bad thing at that point.

The drive home was mostly uneventful. We did stop for lunch at a Wendy's along the way. We also stopped at Spring Hill, the garden supplier, in Tipp City, Ohio, but Barb didn't find anything she needed so we continued on our way. We had to stop due to construction on US-23 between Ann Arbor and Flint, in fact we were delayed for over an hour and a half, I'd say. Due to the delay, we stopped for a brief dinner at a Big Boy restaurant before finishing the trip.

We got home safe-and-sound. Unpacking was a chore, which we didn't finish until the next day. I also had a bunch of trip report writing to finish up and an expenses table to complete.

Some excerpts from the trip report, which highlight things that we particularly enjoyed, didn't enjoy, and learned during this trip:

Search just the Trip Report Archive.

Brian Bennett -- April 2001 -- Walt Disney World (VWL)