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Charley Hannon -- August 2002 -- Walt Disney World (PORR)August 14 to August 22, 2001 WHO
TRANSPORTATION
LODGING
Experience in group
PLANNING The planning for our WDW trip began during the summer of 2001, actually right after my wife and I had taken a trip by ourselves to Mexico to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Consumed with guilt (well a little) at leaving our children I suggested that we have a good family vacation the next year. The slowed economy brought WDW into our budget reach. At first I thought that the terrorist attacks on September 11 might mark the beginning a long period of instability, and stopped planning our trips but as things returned to normal in the early winter of 2001 we continued to plan. We relied heavily on websites and guidebooks plus talking to friends and relations who had recently visited. How did people plan vacations before the Internet? Plans I am eligible to join the Disney Club through work for $30 a year which we did in January. We watched the discount codes for accommodations on Mousesavers.com, and airfares on expedia.com. I had originally thought that airfares would be $250 per person and out of our reach, plus we would stay offsite because Disney resorts would be $150 per night for five people. We initially booked USAirways through Disney Club which let us make our reservation without ticketing immediately at $195 per person, but then in March Air Tran Airlines entered our market and we booked that at around $170 per person non-stop to Orlando on their website. If we had been gutsy enough to wait another 2 months the airfare would have gone down about another $10 per person. In addition we were able to rooms at PORR for about $95/night + trundle bed using a discount code through Disney club. We also moved our trip a week earlier into August and lengthened it by a couple of days. We also requested an American Express card through our Fidelity account to take advantage of any American Express details. We purchased discounted 6 day park hopper plus passes using a discount at work since my employer is a Disney Partner. This would also let us access a VIP lounge at EPCOT. We also wanted to rent a car to have the flexibility to travel outside of Disney. I have National Emerald Club through work, although that didn't get us a minivan at a great rate so we reserved a full-size. We were later able to get a van for the same price through Dollar. We were disappointed to learn that early entry days had been eliminated since that eliminated valuable hours of touring time. To save time and money we planned to eat breakfast in our room, and brought cereal boxes and granola bars and a fold-up cooler with us. Day 1 --August 14, 2002 PLAN: Arrive in Orlando in the evening Dinner outside the park Check-in to PORR ACTUAL: No problem arriving at the airport two hours before our early afternoon flight, parking in the shuttle lot. We were chosen to have all five pieces of our luggage inspected, and then were all wanded and had our carry-on searched at the gate before boarding. I didn't know that they wanded children. Plane took off about 10 minutes early and arrived in Orlando 10 minutes early, the flight was probably 90% full. We retrieved our luggage without a problem, and made our way to the Dollar rental counter where there were only one or two people ahead of us. Our van was a nice silver Chrysler Town and Country with about 12,000 miles on it. Everything on the car worked satisfactory. We were a little misdirected when we got off 417, but finally arrived at Port Orleans. Showed the guard our hotel voucher and got right in. There was no line to check in. The castmember who checked us in did not ask for our Disney Club card so I guess that it wasn't a Disney Club rate. Since we were paying with AMEX we received AMEX/WDW lanyards and a pin. We had asked for a room in Alligator Bayou 14 or 15, but were assigned 3711. This turned out to be an ok location. Nice and quiet, a bit of a walk to things but not too bad. Other people have not remarked favorably on PORR, but I thought it was great. We had enough room for five in the room although we filled up all available drawer space. The room was in good shape. Unlike some non-business hotels the phone had a data-port so it was easy to plug in the modem since I would need to keep in contact with work. The trundle bed was ok for a 4 ft 8 inch nine year old. The main pool on Ole Man Island is having some work done but is still serviceable and quiet pool that we went to was very nice. The children and adults at the pool and on the water slide were generally well behave. I had heard that the lifeguards were superstrict, but they were actually pretty fair. Later we borrowed a flotation device from the marina office for our 5 year old, although he didn't wear it very often. We drove around a little and had dinner at Pizza Hut on 192 (approx $40.) We ordered an appetizer because we were hungry and wanted something right away, but the had to redo the order and we ended up getting our appetizer and pizza at the same time. Day 2 --August 15, 2002 PLAN Morning Epcot, Lunch PS at Askershus in Norway Swim at hotel in afternoon Return to Epcot for evening parade ACTUAL For the first couple days of our visit "Stitch" was the voice on the wake-up call, after that it just rang. We were up and at the bus stop at about 8:50 after having breakfast in the room, trying to hit the 9AM EPCOT opening as close as possible. The bus ride ended up being Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, causing my older son, who is prone to airsickness, to throw up on the bus just was we got near EPCOT. The bus driver helped us get another bus which took us back to POR, we got him cleaned up and we drove to EPCOT arriving at about 10AM. I would say crowds were light. There was no line to go through bag check or at the turnstile. All our passes worked. We looked at the big silver ball and then did some things in Innoventions. We hit the Living Seas which was interesting, we saw the manatee, who was eating lettuce. After that it poured so we broke out our dollar store ponchos for the first time. We ducked into The Land and did the ride there. When the rain let up a little, World Showcase had opened so we wandered in that direction. We had a PS at 2 at Askershus and tried to hold to that time, visiting China first to kill a little time. Finally at 1:30 we went to a practically deserted Askershus. Our server at Askershus was earning her ears, and did a nice job describing the buffet. The food was very good and even the kids tried some new stuff off the buffet. Bill was about $50. After lunch we caught the character caravan and got in line for our first autographs. The rain seemed to have emptied the place out so the lines were short. We walked over to Ice Station Cool to sample the beverages. Honestly, I think that Beverly is better than some of the very fruity drinks they have there. We left Epcot and went back to the hotel, napped a little and swam in the closest quiet pool until it rained. In the evening we wanted to catch the Tapestry of Dreams parade so we drove to the Boardwalk to park and take the boat over. Security at the BW waved us through when they saw our Port Orleans parking pass. We had dinner at EPCOT in the Liberty Café which was practically empty. I felt that the hotdogs there were probably the worst food that we had. After eating, we walked a little and then staked out a place in front of Japan to watch the parade. The Tapestry of Dreams was just fantastic, the puppets are unbelievable. We could get right up and interact with the puppets, and get many good photographs. After the parade we walked back to the gateway and caught the boat back to the boardwalk. Day 3 --August 16, 2002 PLAN Magic Kingdom with hotel break in the afternoon Lunch PS at CRT (yes I know there are no characters there for lunch) ACTUAL Stitch got us early again. We had a quick breakfast in the room and then got to the lobby for the 8 AM Character Greeting, getting the Queen of Hearts and a couple of others. We also picked up some of the refillable mugs. We drove to the Magic Kingdom, parked in Goofy, took the tram then the monorail and arrived just a little after 9AM. There was no real line at bag check. We did a modified Unofficial Guide touring plan, cutting through the park to Fantasyland where we rode Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh with no line, then It's a Small World with no line, and Peter Pan's Flight with about a 5 minute wait. Then we split up to ride Snow White's Scary Adventure (walk on) with the braver children and then Dumbo (a surprising 15 minute wait, what a slow loading ride) and Cinderella's Carousel (walk-on) We exited Fantasyland and went to Liberty Square to ride Haunted Mansion. We asked to do a switch off, but the first castmember didn't know what we were talking about, so we rode separately. Maybe you can't do a switch there. We took a short rest on Tom Sawyer Island, but it was about noon by this time and we needed some air conditioning, so we watched the Hall of Presidents (good place for young children to nap.) George W. Bush gives his speech. We were hungry and checked at 1:30 to see whether we could get in a little early at CRT for our 2 PM PS. No dice. We went over to Tomorrowland, got a Buzz FP, and rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority to kill some time. It also rained and since we were still hungry we shared a couple strawberry swirls at the Enchanted Grove. We rode Buzz (our training run to figure our the guns) and then over to CRT to check in.
The podium at CRT was crowded because people w/o PS who wanted to eat there, but lunch was just about over. We waited about 10 minutes in the waiting area and then went up. If you haven't seen the inside of the castle, its nice. The adult menu is very sophisticated; we both had the beef pie and ice tea. Two children had cheeseburgers and one had the hot dog rolls. Service was attentive and prompt, and the place is pretty active with children. As we finished, Cinderella ducked into the kitchen but never came out. Bill was $59. We exited the park at this point and went back to the hotel. Since it was sunny we walked to Ole Man Island and swam in the big pool. The kids tried out the water slide. We had dinner at the food court ($33.21) and browsed the gift shop getting some post cards. At the food court I broke a Disney rule by trying to buy two beers at once (they weren't both for me.) We also made a PS for the Aug 19 Fantasmic dinner package at Mama Melrose's. A 4:40 PS was the latest I could get for 5 people. We didn't get back to the park and were in bed by 9:30 Day 4 --August 17, 2002 PLAN Water Park and Animal Kingdom ACTUAL This would be our other early day at MK so we put together a plan to hit the other must do rides we hadn't done the day before. It was up early (I think our last day of Stitch on the phone) then breakfast in the room, and of to MK. We arrived around 8:30, and parked. It was a crowded at the monorail and we arrived at the admission gate before it was actually opened so we waited behind the turnstiles for the opening. Once inside we went to the left toward Adventureland. We picked up FP at Jungle Cruise as we passed, then went all the way back the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and rode that as a walk on. Next we did Splash Mountain as a walk-on, very nice ride, we were in front although we didn't get very wet. I did not realize that there is a whole story at the top of the ride. Next we back tracked and used our FP for Jungle Cruise which really wasn't necessary since it was a walk on. Our guide was into the puns. With those two out of the way we took a little breather and rode Alladins Carpets. After that we split to ride Pirates of the Caribbean since some of the kids thought that it looked scary. The ride was pretty much a walk on and has a nice air conditioned lobby, with restrooms. This day we decided that it was better to eat early than late so we had lunch at Columbia Harbor House. At 11 AM there were no crowds and the sandwiches were pretty good ($31.15) Before we ate we got FP for Peter Pan's Flight (return 11:50-12:50) which we rode after lunch, also getting FP for Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (return 12:45 to 1:45.) After the rides we waited for Ariel in her grotto (woo-hoo.) We walked to Mickey's Toon-town Fair, where there is no shade, waited 20 minutes for the 1 minute ride of Goofey's Barnstormer, and decided we were done. We took the train back to Main Street and had Mickey Bars before getting back to the hotel. We swam at the hotel and then went to our PS at Whispering Canyons at the Wilderness Lodge. No problem getting through security. We waited about 5 minutes after checking in at the podium. Kids didn't want the barbeque so we ordered ala-carte: meatloaf, ribs, hotdogs and grilled cheese off the kids menu (total $77.21). We participated in the ketchup thing, and went back to our hotel. Wilderness Lodge would be nice to stay at if it were ever in our price range. Day 5 --August 18, 2002 PLAN Mass at Polynesian/non-park day PS at O'hana for Character Breakfast ACTUAL The big surprise of the day was that after checking two websites and calling the Polynesian a week before our trip to confirm that Catholic Mass was at 10:15, we arrived at the Polynesian to see a sign that said that Catholic Mass was no longer offered, it was at the Our Lady of the Universe Shrine. We had a character breakfast anyway, which was disrupted when our youngest gagged on something and threw-up (Goofy, I swear it wasn't your fault.) The staff was very nice about helping us get things cleaned up, but that did kind of kill my appetite. Nice parade with the kids. Bill was $72.49. Characters were Mickey, Goofy, Chip and Dale. We went down to route 192 and did some shopping, getting some Disney clothing items and other things. Lunch was at the McDonalds ($15.50) at t Crossroads Shopping, after hitting the Goodings. I didn't think prices here were that exorbitant. The prices on national brands were what we were used to when things are not on sale. We later did make it to the Shrine for the evening Mass. The priest celebrating the Mass gave a nice explanation why they don't say masses at the hotels anymore. The shrine was built specifically to minister to the tourists in the Orlando area, and as a shrine, is a place of pilgrimage, almost another tourist destination. With a large church there wasn't any reason to celebrate mass in a hotel, especially since Catholics have a duty to make an effort to attend Mass, even if it is inconvenient. The shrine seats 2000 people and was almost full for the evening mass we were at. There is a gift shop that was open and had some beautiful religious items. Traffic makes it a little cumbersome to get out of the shrine, but it is only a couple of minutes from Downtown Disney. There is a Saturday evening Mass, three Sunday morning Masses and a Sunday evening Mass. We grabbed dinner at the Taco Bell drive-through ($9.45) with drinks in our mugs from the food court at Port Orleans (plus some salad and cookies to supplement the stuff from Taco Bell.) Day 6 --August 19, 2002 PLAN MGM Dinner at Mama Melroses/Fantasmic ACTUAL No Stitch on the phone this morning. We were up and breakfasted and on our way to MGM by 8:30. We arrived at the turnstiles just when they opened at 8:50 and proceeded to the Tower of Terror, being stopped by the rope. After the rope drop I got one FP for myself and then we all went to Playhouse Disney. Playhouse Disney was a very nice show for young children. We were walking back to the Tower of Terror when we saw that a showing of Voyage of the Little Mermaid was starting and we were some of the last admitted. Again a very nice show, it is multimedia combining puppets, projected images and human actors. After that I did get into the Tower of Terror while the others rested. I think that the standby line would have been 30 minutes, but I had a FP. Tower of Terror is an extraordinary ride, the detail and effects make it; the actual drop doesn't seem that exciting. After meeting the rest of my family again we made our way to the Muppets 3D, a nice air conditioned break, and good 3D effects and then saw Woody and Buzz at Al's Toy Barn. Buzz borrowed one of our misters to cool off. It was after 11AM by this time so we decided to eat at Backlot Express. I had a tuna sandwich with very dry bread, and there isn't a real good children's menu here. We did find out that you can order a child's drink even if it isn't listed alone on the menu and that the kids could split the regular sandwiches. I had a taste of the cheeseburger here it was very good. Bill was about $34. It was very warm by this time so we exited the park and went back to the hotel to swim. We drove back to MGM about 4 in a torrential downpour. We broke the parking rules and got up front in the Goofy section, and waited for it to let up a little before we walked in. Slightly damp we managed to find Mama Melrose's and were seated a couple minutes after we checked in at the podium. The service here was quick and attentive and the food was good. There is pizza and spaghetti on the childrens menu, and several pasta items plus a steak on the regular menu. For some reason the children's drinks came in regular size (16 oz) cups here. A word of advice: don't let your 6 year old drink 32 oz of chocolate milk in one setting. We had our Fantasmic voucher and a couple of hours to kill. We watched the Hunchback of Notre Dame show and then the kids played a little in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground, which was pretty uncrowded. We looked at doing other attractions, the line at the movie ride seemed too long. About 7:30 we started the walk up the path to Fantasmic and sat in the Ursala section which is to the right of center. You need to check in by 8 or they open his reserved section to everyone. We sat in the dinner package section, we probably could have gotten comparable seats going to the left. We were about 10 rows from the bottom on the far left of the set of seats. Terence the CM selling merchandise near us kept everyone entertained and we did the wave until our legs were burning. The skies cleared near showtime and there was a rainbow. Some day I'll stitch together the shots I took to make a panorama with the rainbow. The show is very exciting, with live characters on the "stage," boats in the water and projected images. My daughter was frightened by the nightmare parts but survived. They set the water on fire and you can really feel the heat. It finished about 9 and we did very well getting out of the park and back to our resort. Day 7 --August 20, 2002 PLAN MK Dinner PS at California Grill for fireworks ACTUAL We had made our PS for California Grill months in advance to coincide with the MK fireworks and I was looking forward to it, even though we weren't guaranteed a window table. As we progressed through the trip it was evident that the kids might not be up to a 7:45 dinner in a nice restaurant. So we cancelled it and booked a Chef Mickey dinner on 8/21 at 5 PM. We still planned to see the MK fireworks on August 20. Up early again with breakfast in the room we got to the Animal Kingdom just as it opened at 9AM, parking in the Peacock section. We walked straight back to the Kilimanjaro Safari and rode with just a couple minute wait. We saw a number of animals and got good photos, but I have to say that it is like a number of zoos that I've visited. We did the Pangani Trail next and it is also like a good zoo. We took the train to Rafiki's conservation station, the highlight of which was seeing Pochahantas at the character greeting. We ate lunch at the Flame Tree Barbeque, which is good, even the kid's portion of franks and beans. The only other item on the kids menu is an Uncrustable PBJ sandwich, which looks gross but my daughter enjoyed it. There are no kids sandwiches but it is easy to share sandwiches. We misjudged the schedule of both Legend of the Lion King and Tarzan Rocks and missed both. We saw Pooh, Tigger and Eyor at the character greeting and later Daisy duck at Camp Minnie/Mickey. We went to the Dinosaur section, which is kind of a funky carnival with a dinosaur motif. Some people think it's tacky, but I think it's supposed to look that way. I was outvoted on waiting for the dinosaur ride. At this point it was starting to spit rain so we decided to leave. I was disappointed in Animal Kingdom, I don't think that I knew what we wanted to do there and left feeling that we hadn't done anything, except get character autographs. We went back to the hotel and swam. That evening we had dinner at the food court at POR, $34 for the five of us. I had the spaghetti and meatballs, I don't recommend that. At 6PM we went back to MK, no one was directing parking so we went right up to the Minnie section and found a spot in the second row. At this time of night there were no FP left so we had a "classic" Disney experience waiting 40 minutes for Winnie the Pooh, but It's A Small World was still a walk-on. After that we grabbed a couple of Dole Whips and camped out to watch the fireworks. Softserve ice cream at the Magic Kingdom is the food bargain. You get a huge mound of ice cream for $2.49. Again the sky cleared and there was a rainbow over the castle (I have a photo.) We had a good view a Tink and watched the fireworks. It wasn't too bad getting out of the park, a manageable wait for the monorail and we could walk to the parking lot. Day 8 --August 21, 2002 PLAN No preset plan ACTUAL We woke up a little later than usual and went to the food court to eat (pancakes and stuff) and then saw the 9AM character caravan in the lobby. It seems to be almost the same characters everyday we were there (Queen of Hearts, Minnie, Pinnochio, Giapetto.) We did get Giapetto. We had dressed with our bathing suits on and left right from there to Typhoon Lagoon. We were able to park in close and got some lounge chairs in a spot with partial shade, which moved away during the day. We started with the wave pool, lots of fun, then did the river float over to the kiddie area, and then did the family raft ride. We got a nice photo at the start of the raft ride which we purchased later. Later, I did the two big slides (Humunga Kowabunga and Storm Slides) on my own with almost no wait. I was surprised at the small children on the big slides and in the deep part of the wave pool. I swam out to the deep part of the wave pool but never really rode the wave. You are lifted up and seem to be plunging into a crowd of people, but I didn't land on anyone. By noon we were getting fried and it was getting crowded so we went back to the hotel. We changed quickly and grabbed some subs at the food court and got to the MK. The parking people had the barricades set so we had to park out in Donald and take the tram in. Our goal for the visit was do a couple of attractions, see the parade and then go to our 5PM PS at Chef Mickey. On this day and the day before we had seen a large crane next to Cinderella's Castle. Turns out that they are painting it. We hit Peter Pan's Flight first, it was a 35 minute wait, the FP was return was 5PM (at 2:30 in the afternoon.) After exiting the ride we went back through the castle and saw the end of the parade. It was very hot so we tried to stay out of the sun. We rode Cinderella's Carousel as a walk-on and then sought out some air conditioning. We walked to Tomorrowland and saw that the Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin FP return was in 35min and the standby line was 35 min. My own philosophy is why wait in line when you can do something else. We took the FP and rode Tomorrowland Transit Authority to rest and check out some stuff in the stores until we could use the FP. As we exited Buzz we saw immense dark clouds building up and decided to make our way to the monorail. We checked into Chef Mickey at about 4:45, had our photo taken and were given a pager since they don't seat until just about 5. At 5PM we were escorted to our table and the heavens opened up. We were near the windows and because of the rain you couldn't see 5 ft. This may have stranded some diners since the place was pretty empty for a while, so we got a lot of attention from the characters. For a while Mickey had to "look busy" since there were no tables to visit and ended up looking out the window. I enjoyed the buffet at Chef Mickey, there are carved meats, fish, pasta, and chicken strips, mac and cheese and pizza on the children's buffet. A non-alcoholic beverage is included in the price and we were very thirsty when we got there and our server kept our glasses full. For dessert there is soft serve ice cream, cupcakes and cakes. The room and presentation are beautiful, however there is a large number of children going through the buffet, so be ready to see things roll of off plates and the occasional broken dish. The staff is extremely courteous and helpful. Characters were Mickey, Minnie, Chip-n-Dale, and then Donald and Goofy at the podium. My wife and children went out to the lobby to snag Donald while I waited for the check and also to pay for out photo. While I was alone at the table both Mickey and Minnie came over to see me and both gave me a kiss (not that there's anything wrong with that.) Total bill came to $90.39, plus $27 for the photo package. I found this meal to be a highlight of the trip. It was still raining, when we took the monorail from the Contemporary to the TTC and hopped a tram to our car. We'd be packing wet sneakers to take home the next day. Day 9 --August 22, 2002 Check-out/Fly home We got up at our usual time, ate our last breakfast in the room and packed the last stuff. Our bill was on the door knob and all charged to AMEX so there was no need to go to the front desk except to get coffee at the food court. I think they recorded every 1-800 call I made to check voicemail and email at work at $0.75 apiece. We took 417 to the airport. At first I thought the traffic at 8:30 AM would be an issue, but with the $2 toll to go 17 miles, I think mostly tourists use this road. We had no problems dropping off the rental car and there was a porter there who loaded up our bags on his cart and led us to the AirTran counter, which is quite a distance. There was a line to check in but we had plenty of time. We got to our gate and waited about 90 minutes. When boarding began we were AGAIN chosen to be wanded and have our carry-on searched, this time by brand new TSA employees. The plane took a few stand-by passengers and with storm clouds moving in we took off on time. We arrived in time in Rochester and got home with no problems. Conclusion While I'm still amazed at the people who visit Disney four times a year or even yearly, I have to admit that WDW makes for a great vacation, and I think that you get your money's worth. It must be frustrating for them as a company since they seemed to have peaked in the 1990's, building to take advantage of huge crowds and are now seeing lower demand. I had initially wondered what we would do at the parks for 6 days, but actually we didn't get to a lot of things. General comments
Charley Hannon cwhannon@sprintmail.com Mail a Comment to Charley Hannon |
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