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Glenn Gillen -- January 2002 -- Walt Disney World (SOG)When: January 21-26, 2002 Who: Myself, my wife, our 4-year-old daughter, my mother-in-law and father-in-law Stayed at: Shades of Green Having read about the cutbacks at WDW, I was a little bummed out that our trip in January would not include Early Entry or an E-Ticket night. We were able to see and do most of what we wanted, but having those options would have been nice. For several years now, my daughter has had it ingrained in her mind that when she turns five, she would go to Disney World and hug Mickey. She doesn't actually turn five until early February, but this was close enough. Since this trip was geared toward her, we put an emphasis on the kid-friendly attractions first, sprinkling in some adult rides along the way. In researching WDW, I stumbled across a mention of Shades of Green in the Unofficial Guide. I subsequently read about it on various Web sites and decided this might be a good option for us, as my father-in-law is retired from the Coast Guard. What follows are highlights and impressions from our trip. Monday, January 21 -- We knew the parks would be more crowded on MLK Jr. day so we used this as a traveling day. For folks driving in on I-95, be sure to stop at the Florida Welcome Center for a free glass of orange or grapefruit juice. Be prepared for an unusual smell pervading the area, however. A friend told me that the area around Jacksonville, FL has a lot of paper processing plants, so that's where that odd funk emanates from. For the first few miles in FL, you're also treated to road construction that looks like a natural disaster struck. Not a pretty intro to the Sunshine state. We picked up my in-laws at the airport in Orlando and checked into Shades of Green. Took the monorail from the Poly to the contemporary for dinner at Chef Mickey's. The Dale character was great! Wrapped my daughter's necklace around his nose and pretended to steal my hat and backpack. Mickey walked by our table a few times and my daughter finally staged a hunger strike and refused to eat until he stopped and hugged her. After she finally hugged Mickey, she wolfed down her food. Watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the deck area on the side of the Contemporary. Tuesday, January 22 -- Took my daughter over to the Poly for the Character Caravan. She hugged even more characters and was in heaven. Monorailed to Epcot. Test Track supposedly had a 15 minute wait. We were on it in 10. Did some other rides and attractions and did the character ice-cream social at the Garden Grill in the land. This is the best deal as far as character meals go. The cost is about $6.75 per person for a decent amount of ice-cream. Mickey and Chip and Dale were there and interacted well our daughter, stopping several times and spoon-feeding her ice cream. Our longest wait was at the boat ride in The Land, probably 12-15 minutes. The Tapestry of Dreams parade is not to be missed. There are no Disney characters and the floats, drums and giant puppets created a carnival-like atmosphere. Illuminations was also well worth the wait until 9 pm. My wife later tracked down a CD of the music and purchased it. Wednesday, January 23 -- Disney MGM. One of the most pleasant surprises was the pre-show entertainment at the Beauty and the Beast show. The entrance of the a cappella group, Four for a Dollar, totally caught the audience by surprise. No lines for any of the rides, except for the water battle portion of the backlot tour. The battle and Catastrophe Canyon were great, but the rest of the tour was pretty boring. Star Tours was great, but after all that excitement, shouldn't they let you see the Death Star exploding? Muppets 3-D was also fun, and I hope Disney doesn't buy the Muppets and soften their mischievousness. The Little Mermaid show was in rehab, but our daughter thoroughly enjoyed the Disney Playhouse Live show, as it was the only one that encouraged the kids to get up and dance. Fantasmic is also one of those shows that has to be seen to be believed. I can see why people park hop to MGM at night just to see it. Thursday, January 24 -- Our daughter didn't want to go to Animal Kingdom, so the in-laws went there while we decided to do two shorter days at Magic Kingdom. No lines in MK. I had read that Big Thunder Mountain had long lines because Splash Mountain was in rehab, but that was not the case. Walked onto it twice. Another good tip we received was to do the stop-and-load ride like Dumbo, the Flying Carpets and the Teacups first, as lines for them start forming as the day progresses. Burgers at Pecos Bill's were good, especially due to the freshly sautéed onions and mushrooms. I slipped into Alien Encounter while the wife and kid were shopping. It definitely is the most intense attraction in MK and I would not recommend it for young kids. I think having a shoulder harness lowered unto to you to keep you in place increases the fright factor for kids. By mid-day, wife and daughter headed back to the hotel, so I hopped to Animal Kingdom. Dinosaur is another ride I would not recommend for small kids, not necessarily because of the dinos, but because its very dark and you get physically shaken around quite a bit. Dinner at House of Blues was a nice adult way to end the day. Friday, January 25 -- Magic Kingdom again, except with the in-laws this time. It was definitely more crowded, perhaps because it was a Friday and the park was open an hour later and also because this was the only day this week that the Spectromagic parade was scheduled for. We hit the major animatronic rides we did not do yesterday. Saw Legend of the Lion King and repeated some kiddie rides. Rested at the hotel and went to Downtown Disney for dinner and dessert. Ghiradelli's served what we consider to be the best ice cream sundaes and chocolate sodas we have ever eaten. Finally capped off the night with a performance of Cirque du Soleil, a nice adult wrap-up to the visit. Don't be turned off by the $75 price. Yes, it's expensive, but their touring shows can cost $65 and their show in Las Vegas can run $100 a pop. First timers may be put off (it can get loud and there's so much going on, you don't know where to look) but once you've seen this or other Cirque shows, you cannot deny that you've seen a unique entertainment with some of the world's most amazing acrobats. That's all. Had breakfast at the Kona Cafe at the Poly on Saturday and headed out. The food and coffee were delicious, probably our best value in terms of quality of food for the price. A few notes on Shades of Green. It's relatively secluded and relaxing, but be forewarned that the pools stay open until midnight and you can hear the kids splashing about if your room faces a pool. I did not eat at the hotel but others in our group did and were not impressed by the food at the main restaurant. They said the food at the little bar and grill (which functions as the clubhouse for the golfers, I believe) was much better. All in all, the value of the rooms is great and is a nice benefit for active and retired military. The Shades of Green bus system was great and one of the drivers (I believe her name was Arlene) put us in the right mood every morning by having everyone sing Disney songs. A few other tips: I believe their "Stars and Stripes" park hopper tickets were the lowest I've seen, including Disney Club and AAA. The hotel also has a gift shop that was relatively cheap compared to other on-site Disney stores. Finally, some things we didn't get around to but would have liked to have done/seen: the Electric Water Pageant, Spectromagic (offered only on the Friday we were there), and the Lion King show in Animal Kingdom. All in all, it was worth it for the look of pure bliss our daughter displayed whenever she hugged a character -- and boy, did she hug a lot of them! Glenn Gillen gillens@mindspring.com Mail a Comment to Glenn Gillen |
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