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Kaye Leszczynski -- Kaye 2003 -- Walt Disney World (ASSR, Offsite)Cast
Airline – Air Tran Airways – Milwaukee, WI to Orlando, FL Rental Car – National – Compact Car Lodging – All Star Sports and Days Inn, Lake Buena Vista – Standard Rooms May 17, 2003 – May 20, 2003 As I begin to write this report in mid April (with a mere 31 days until our trip begins) I am anticipating that this report will be very long and detailed. Personally, those are my favorite kind! I plan to take lots of notes so I won’t miss any details this time. I have truly enjoyed reading all of the reports here and I hope if you make it to the end it is either entertaining or helpful as all of the reports have been both to me. I am a very lucky DW as my DH is just as big a Disney fan as me and we both love to plan our WDW trips. We are extensive planners for our Disney trips, for us half the fun is planning it’s also a fun way to pass the time until we get there. We make it to WDW usually once a year sometimes more if we are really lucky and have visited the parks in January, March, and May and have found mid May to be perfect. The weather’s not too unbearable yet and the crowds have been minimal. The past two years we have scheduled our trip for the same week each time and this year we have done the same. We have our fingers crossed that the crowds and weather will be as good as they have in the past. The Disney leg of this trip will be for four days with us spending the rest of the week in Georgia for my brother’s graduation. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. We’ll arrive on Saturday afternoon and drive to Georgia on Tuesday evening then drive back to Orlando on Sunday morning to depart for home. When it came time to pick a resort three things factored in to our decision.
All things considered and factoring in the code we were able to use to get All Star Sports for $74.00 per night it was not hard to decide to stay there. I have read mixed reviews of the All-Stars but All-Star Sports was our first taste of the Disney resorts and we loved it so we are more than happy to go back. We did request Home Run Hotel as that was the building we had last time and thought it was pretty convenient but quiet as well. The size of the rooms may be a bit of an issue for families but with just the two of us it’s not a problem at all. That the room is CLEAN is the most important thing! Next was a car. With the help of Mousesavers codes and my Disney Club discount I was able to get a compact car for 8 days for only $171.00 all taxes and fees included at National Car Rental. I was really happy about the rate. With the resort and car decided we needed to plan which parks we would visit on what days. We planned to spend Saturday evening at Downtown Disney and maybe get to bed early since the next few days will be packed with activities. Sunday we will definitely be at Disney MGM for Star Wars Weekends. DH is a HUGE Star Wars fan and we made it to the Star Wars Weekend in 2001 and the smaller scale version last year and have enjoyed the Star Wars festivities. Monday we will tour the Magic Kingdom like we used to do before we bought Park Hoppers. In other words spend the entire day there. We are excited about doing rides that even after all of this time we have never gotten around to doing. We also want to move at a slower pace and just enjoy being at our favorite place in the world. (Magic Kingdom is particularly special for us as this is where we got engaged.) Tuesday we will be checking out of the All Star Sports and spending the day at Islands of Adventure then traveling to Georgia. As I mentioned earlier we love to plan and part of our planning is reading our favorite guidebooks. We always purchase the updated editions of the Passporter, Birnbaum, and the Official WDW guide. We have gotten so much information from each of them. I also visit a few websites for even more information. Mouseplanet for trip reports, Mousesavers for the best deals, DIS for anything and everything, and WDWIG for menus and park hours. A combination of all of the above helps us to have the best trip possible. We also purchased all of our trip supplies this weekend. We bought lots of film, as well as toiletries (blister block is a must), batteries, etc. That was fun because we knew all of this stuff is for our trip so even a trip to Wal-Mart is fun when you are thinking about Disney. Now there’s nothing left to do but wait! April 20, 2003 - Only 26 days to go, it’s coming fast now, but not fast enough! Today I was surfing around on the DIS boards and discovered a great post! More E-Ride nights had been announced for May!! And best of all one was during our trip – Saturday night. Now to take advantage of this E-Ride we would have to change our plans slightly. Our one and only E-Ride night was May 2001 and we had such a blast it was on of our best memories of the trip so we decided that even though we wouldn’t be arriving until Sat afternoon and hadn’t planned to visit any parks the first day we would change our plans. We had 3 days left on our 5 Day Park Hopper and only planned on using 2 of the days for this trip but we decided to do something that probably wasn’t wise economically but would work out best for us and that was using the 3rd day to enter the Magic Kingdom on Sat night and participate in the E-Ride night. We would spend the beginning of the evening at House of Blues for dinner and shopping at Downtown Disney then head over to the Magic Kingdom around 8:45 so we would have our tickets exchanged for wristbands by the time the event began at 9:30. This may not be an option for everyone as we will basically pay $62.00 a piece (The original park hopper was $207.00 divided by 5 days plus the $12.00 for the E-Ride ticket) for this night but it’s worth it to us to not only enjoy the rides with less crowds but to start our trip off at the Magic Kingdom! Now 26 days and counting! April 22, 2003 – 22 Days to Go! I make a habit of checking rental car rates about once a week just to make sure that I have gotten the best deal. I was really happy with the deal we got with National so if I got anything better that would just be icing on the cake. Well I did check our reservation with National again, putting in all of the same codes and seeing what kind of rate I got. Well it was $3.00 cheaper, not enough to cancel and rebook, etc. but I did notice something called “Quick Rent” that I hadn’t noticed before. I read what info they had on the website and then called National as well to confirm that I understood everything correctly. And I couldn’t believe that I had never heard of it! Now granted it could be more difficult than it seems but if this works as well as it sounds than I am a National customer for life! You fill out all of the “paperwork” online with your drivers license info, deciding on insurance that you want to purchase or not, etc. and then instead of going to the counter, you proceed to the parking lot to pick any car that’s available in your class. Then you drive to the exit, show the same credit card that you booked the original reservation with and you are all set. This sounds great! Any extra time I can get at my favorite place in the world is ok by me! I had to cancel my current reservation and rebook using this system so I saved the $3.00 after all (that’ll pay for an extra iced lemonade ?) So you’ll have to keep reading to see if it’s as good as it seems but I have my fingers crossed that it will save us a good ½ hour. May 16, 2003 May 17, 2003 Arrived in Florida and we could tell we were there the minute we stepped off the plane – it was HOT! We headed to baggage claim and noticed something I never paid attention to before. There was an electric sign as you left the gate area that displayed where each airline’s baggage would be. I usually just look around until I see people I remember seeing on the flight. Obviously this is not as reliable as the sign! ? Stopped in at the new WDW store and immediately saw 100 things that we wanted. We looked through the store and thought it was very nice – much better than the previous store and seemed to have lots more stuff as well. We also browsed through the Universal Store picking up our 1 Day 1 Park Passes. ($110.65) Off to baggage claim and we timed it just right as the luggage was just beginning to come out. All of our luggage arrived – YEAH! Now off to find the National Car Rental section of the garage. It took a few minutes to find as we went to the wrong floor of the terminal but quickly found where we needed to be and headed out to the garage. I mentioned in the planning we were utilizing QuckRent for this trip and I can’t say enough good things about it! We walked by the National counter on our way out and noticed there was only 1 person in line but it was still nice to walk right by the line! This was our first time using National and we were very happy! We selected a burgundy Mitsubishi Lancer that had only 3,000 miles on it. The car offered lots of legroom, a great AC (a must!) and even a CD player. I love being able to pick the car I like best, that’s a lot more fun than getting stuck with whatever they choose for you! After selecting our car we went through the line and though there were several cars in each lane we were out of the garage within 10 minutes. I highly recommend National and more specifically QuickRent! It made the whole process faster. Only one thing left and that was checking in to the room. So far this trip had gone perfectly smooth so my fingers were crossed that the same would hold true for our reservation and our room requests. We arrived around 4:00 to the infamous long lines but we didn’t care, Grim Grinning Ghosts was playing and we were finally here! DH waited in line to check us in while I went over to Guest Services to see if I could go ahead and pick up the E-Ride tickets for tonight. I was helped by a great CM named Antonio (who I sent a letter to WDW and ASSP management about) he was very helpful and began processing the tickets, he asked for our room number and I showed him our confirmation sheet and explained my DH was in line to check us in. He said he would need a room number to sell the tickets but it wasn’t a problem because he could just check us in himself. I felt bad about “breaking in line” so to speak but there was no one else waiting in the Guest Services line so I decided to think of it as a “pixie dust moment” and accept his offer. (Please don’t hate me! I never break in lines! ?) Antonio was a great CM and being that he was the first one we came in contact with it was a great start to our vacation! He handled all of our requests easily and with a smile on his face. I gave him $500.00 cash as a credit for charging purposes, he checked our Park Hoppers to be certain we had the days left we thought. 3 days left just as we thought, good! Then we were on our way. I was happy to see we had been assigned to Home Run Hotel as I had requested. It was time for our first purchase (always an exciting moment for a shopaholic like me!) It was a Pal Mickey and an antenna topper to help us locate our car in the parking lots. DH picked the Mickey Sorcerer Hat ($54.51) The CM who checks us out was really nice talking to us about how great Pal Mickey was. Then it was over to the food court for our refillable mugs another thing that just seems to scream, “We are at WDW!” for us. I’m not sure why but it does. We both like the travel ones best and DH picked the green one and I picked the red one. ($23.52) The CM here was friendly as well asking how long we would be there, etc. We filled up the mugs and headed out to check out our home sweet home for the next few days. We were in Building 8 of Home Run Hotel and the room was a great location! It was on the corner just steps from the parking lot and far from the pool. We were so happy to have a quiet location it was exactly what we wanted. (Thanks Room Assigner!!) The room was very clean and we made sure to turn the AC down right away and started unpacking. As is our tradition we turned on the WDW info channel. We were ready to visit Downtown Disney and DH decided to set up the camcorder to video the channel while we were gone so we would have it to watch when we were having WDW withdrawal in the future. I thought that this was a great idea. We didn’t have our tripod so DH set up the camcorder on phone books and we headed to the House of Blues, we were starving. We were seated right away in the side area under the ceiling fans and it felt so nice to relax and we kept saying, “Can you believe we are really here?” We felt like two kids! That’s the point of WDW isn’t it? We love House of Blues and had been really looking forward to eating here again. We started with the catfish nuggets and capers, DH then had the Elwood and I had the Shrimp Po Boy with mashed sweet potatoes instead of cole slaw (I wasn’t even charged extra for the switch). The food was delicious, the server very nice and attentive, and it was one of the best meals we’ve had. (Total with 2 sodas and tip $ 43.00) Next we headed over to the House of Blues Company Store, which has a lot of interesting things. (In fact one of my favorite kitchen magnets came from there, it says “Be Nice or Leave – Thank You.”) We saw a lot that caught our eye but decided to wait until later in the trip to buy anything. Next was the Virgin Megastore, since we didn’t know that the car would have a CD player we hadn’t brought any CDs so that was a good excuse to pick up the new American Idol CD of love songs (which is pretty good.) ($15.97) It had looked like rain ever since we arrived so DH decided to pick up a Virgin Megastore poncho, I wanted the classic yellow Mickey one which I got later ($6.03) As it worked out the ponchos were great insurance as we were never caught in the rain and they are now waiting in our suitcase for our next trip to WDW. We walked over to the Marketplace with plans to get our picture made at Studio M and to hit a few shops before going to the Magic Kingdom. We were so disappointed to find Studio M closed and it looked to be permanent! In my last report I mentioned how great it was to have one on one time with Mickey so it’s really too bad that it closed. We looked around Team Mickey and saw a lot of t-shirts we liked but didn’t buy anything yet. Next on our list was Once Upon A toy, which we hadn’t seen yet. Wow – what a great store! It’s huge and in typical Disney fashion very detailed. It was lots of fun to explore. DH picked up the Disney exclusive Star Wars figures for his collection ($63.90 for 6 figures) There were lots of stuffed animals but we wanted to wait and see what the World of Disney had before we bought our traditional first night stuffed animal to add to our collection. We looked briefly through the new pin store which was very nice – I’m not really into the pins very much, I just buy ones for the rides or characters that we really like or ones that catch my eye but I haven’t done any trading as all the ones I have I want to keep! We usually buy a few to add to our lanyard hanging up at home. Time was flying by so quickly but we wanted to hit the World of Disney before we left so we headed over there. Lots of new things, which was great! Last year they seemed to have a lot of things from the year before and 100 years stuff and that was it. This year there were a lot of new things, and new designs for the t-shirts. And all new pajamas – a must buy for me each year! We looked at everything but went somewhat quickly, we would have more browsing time over the next few days. We were really disappointed in the stuffed animal selection, now had all of the various characters, even unique ones, were at the toy store and the World of Disney just had huge quantities of the more popular characters. We decided to buy an animal at Magic Kingdom instead. At the World of Disney we ran into my brother in law Dan and his girlfriend Kathy. They were also visiting Disney and had arrived the day before. We had different itineraries for our trips so this was the only time we ran into them and it was a great surprise to see them and hear about how their trip was going so far. We said good-bye and checked out with our purchases. ($37.28 with DC discount). We dropped back by the hotel to leave our packages and for DH to recharge the camcorder battery as we had filled a tape with the WDW info channel. While there I made a wake up call request for 7:29 instead of 7:30 to insure we heard from the mouse himself! (One of the many tips I picked up during my hours of research.) Off to E-Ride night on a very nice night – warm but not unbearable. We didn’t realize how close the All Stars were to Magic Kingdom – it was a very short drive. We parked very close to the front and walked up to the TTC to catch the monorail. When we arrived at the Magic Kingdom we were glad we were arriving instead of leaving as huge crowds streamed past us. It was about 9:55 and we had seen the fireworks overhead as we walked up the TTC. We traded in our tickets for armbands and headed up Main Street. (For people who have been to E-Ride nights in the past, they have made a change in the tickets, instead of a paper ticket you now get a resort card type ticket that says E-Ride Ticket.) I tried to pick up some fudge at the bakery but you couldn’t even move it was so crowded so I decided to try again later. The feeling of walking down Main Street was indescribable. We were so happy to finally be standing in the Magic Kingdom. We walked down to the Haunted Mansion and Pal Mickey started talking and telling jokes right away. We thought he was so much fun and we were just getting started! DH picked up one of the WDW bottle straps to clip him to ($6.00 bottle strap and a bottle of water), which turned out to be a great idea, we were then able to keep him close as he doesn’t speak loudly and we didn’t want to miss anything. This made it much easier to catch everything he said and it’s already packed back into our luggage for the next trip. Pal Mickey seemed a little nervous about Haunted Mansion but we went on anyway ?. DH loved Madam Leota’s tombstone and we both agree that the Haunted Mansion is even better at night. Hands down it’s our favorite ride at WDW and we were glad we were able to make it our first ride. We next went over to the Splash Mountain gift shop still in search of our first stuffed animal. We have the frog and bear so we picked up the fox ($ lost the receipt for this one!), which is so neat looking! As we were walking across the bridge we noticed lots of logs with no one in them so DH decided to ride on it while I babysat Pal Mickey. He reminded us to “keep him from getting wet.” Pal Mickey played a game with me while we waited. It was a cute game where he named 20 attractions and I pressed his hand if it was in the Magic Kingdom and his tummy if it wasn’t. I got all 20 right and he was good company. DH was able to get right on and since the picture was so good he picked it up as well as a great Splash Mountain frame. ($39.36) Next we headed over to Tommorowland to try Buzz Lightyear for the first time we both loved it. DH liked that you could spin yourself too. I beat DH but it was close, I can’t remember the exact scores but neither of us did well. There was no line so we went again and this time my score was a lot better. I hit something in one of the first rooms that gave me 100,000 points. Beat DH again! We really enjoyed this ride – it was on our list of rides to try and hit this trip that we hadn’t in the past. It’s not on our “must do” list for future trips but for an E-Ride night or a 10 minute wait it’s definitely something to try. I should make a note that we are having a BLAST at E-Ride night. No lines, no wait, E-Ride is Great! (Disney should make that the slogan for E-Ride nights ?) Worth $12.00 no doubt. We decided to pick up a large coke ($2.44) and ride the Tommorowland Transit Authority and relax for a few minutes. I just love this ride, it’s so underrated. It was so nice sipping our coke, looking at Tommorowland all lit up, and talking about how great our trip had been thus far. Just enjoying the moment – something you forget to do sometimes at WDW with all of the running around you have to do. After our spin was over, DH headed to the Space Mountain “line” where he was stopped by a castmember to talk about Pal Mickey – (This would be a trend throughout our trip and added a lot of fun to our experience) I went to the arcade and was disappointed to find Tetris gone. It had moved further and further back into the arcade each year so I guess it must not have been very popular. I tried a few other games but didn’t find anything that I really liked. DH showed up and we decided to bypass Alien Encounter and go over to Casey’s Corner for hot dogs. As usual we weren’t disappointed, their hot dogs are the best. (4 hot dogs and 2 sodas $17.41) DH also played a little baseball pinball at the machine in the corner. We headed out via browsing the stores. A CM in the Emporium talked to us about Pal Mickey and said that her husband worked over at Tower of Terror and that he was great there so make sure we took him and say hi to her husband if he was there. She was very nice and we enjoyed chatting with her. I picked up a bracelet with dog charms, a postcard, and a Haunted Mansion antennae topper for Halloween. ($19.97) We decided to call it a night and head back to the resort. We jumped on the next monorail and after a short walk to the parking lot and a short car ride we were in the bed. It was a long day but so great we didn’t care we were exhausted, we were in the happiest place on earth! May 18, 2003 Monday, May 19, 2003 We opted not to see all of the characters or visit Pooh in the center in favor of trying to get on Peter Pan in Fantasyland before the lines got too long. It was already very warm out so we were anticipating a hot day! We waited about 10 minutes for Peter Pan’s Flight. Another first for us. This ride we never rode before because the lines were so long when we would make it over here and the Fastpasses were for a much later time and we weren’t sure we would still be in the parks. We both LOVED it! What a fun ride, we thought about riding again but by this time the entire park was open and we wanted to go for another ride on the Haunted Mansion. There was virtually no line here; in fact DH didn’t even have time to video Madam Leota’s tombstone. It was another great ride. I always see something I didn’t notice before. Today the Haunted Mansion souvenir cart was open and we did A LOT of shopping here! We had to have among other things, the bobble head ghosts, the Haunted Mansion Mickey and Minnie beanies, the Haunted Mansion CD (which is great), a magnetic bumper sticker that says “I Brake for Hitchhiking Ghosts,” a magnet and I am probably forgetting other things but we were excited that they were finally offering a wide variety of Haunted Mansion merchandise!! (Total - $75.60) Next we went to Jungle Cruise but it was closed until 11:00. We hopped on Pirates of the Caribbean with no wait. We both really enjoy this ride; it is a lot of fun. We were having mechanical problems though we got stuck right before the little drop for about 5 minutes. It was weird to have the lights come on and a CM right there next to you pushing buttons. We got going again but stopped again for about 5 minutes closer to the end. It would have been a better ride without the stops but it was still fun. We could have probably gotten right on again but decided to go to the Hall of Presidents – another ride we had never done before. (You are probably wondering WHAT DID WE RIDE on other trips? We were always more into shopping and soaking up all the atmosphere and riding anything that there wasn’t a big wait for than waiting in line for the big rides.) Hall of Presidents I am not sure why we never made it here as there aren’t usually lines but today it was on my list of rides to definitely try. We didn’t have time to really look around, as the show was about to start. There were few people in the theater, it was nice and cool and we were looking forward to seeing this show. Hall of Presidents is outstanding! The animatronics were unbelievable. They were so lifelike. I especially loved the slight moves that they made, like one president slightly swinging his foot. We were very impressed with this show and were glad yet again that we tried something new. We had now hit all the rides we had planned to do today except for Jungle Cruise so our next item on the agenda was Mickey and Minnie’s houses. The last time we visited them it was late in the afternoon and was very crowded. We stopped on the way at Tink’s Treasures DH’s favorite store at the MK. We never buy anything here but we love to see Tink “fly” across the store. Mid morning turned out to be a much better time to try Toontown it wasn’t crowded at all. I took a whole roll of film and we got to really explore everything. I got a great shot of the Mickey pumpkins in back, which will make a great wallpaper for our computer in the fall. We took the train around to Frontierland to try Jungle Cruise, as it was now 11:00. The train is a nice way to travel around the park, a nice break for your feet! We stopped in the Briar Patch to pick up the last of the Splash Mountain characters – Brer Rabbit ($17.04) The line for the Jungle Cruise was already at 30 minutes so we decided to just save this ride for our list next year. We wanted to stop and try the Dole Whips I had heard so much about – I have to say…. YUCK!! DH and I each took one taste and into the garbage it went. I know some people love them but they just weren’t for us! We decided to do our shopping now and made our way to the Pirates of the Caribbean store where I picked up the Pirates of the Caribbean Mickey in a bottle. ($23.43) It is a great, unique souvenir! We took a trip over to Tomorowland to get our annual Star Wars picture. We usually get this done at the Universal Studios park but this year we only bought 1 day 1 park passes to Islands of Adventure so we are having it done at Walt Disney World. Basically they take your face and insert it into classic pictures. We always pick a Star Wars one and have them hanging in our bedroom. Unfortunately I didn’t look at the picture good enough before purchasing it. ($38.29). This photographer didn’t do a very good job. Our faces look like we’re part green and he didn’t center DH’s face correctly. Oh well, you can’t really tell this while it’s hanging up but it’s definitely the worst one we have had done. Just a tip – make sure you look over the picture carefully so you won’t be disappointed later. They will take multiple pictures until you are happy with it. We shopped our way out of the park, bidding farewell to the Magic Kingdom for this trip. We took the boat back to the TTC noticing that they don’t play music on the ferry anymore. I wonder why? There were only about 25 people on the ferry as it was only about 12:30. We took the walkway to our car. It was very nice to blast the AC after the morning out in the heat. We decided to take our chances that Mousekeeping would be done with our room and try to take another… NAP! Can you believe it? I can’t believe we took not one but two naps on this trip. Usually we are your typical commandos going from one thing to another. We live for these trips so we hate to waste one second! This trip was very relaxing though – partly because of the naps I think! With the heat it was especially nice to be inside during the hot afternoons. So much to my surprise I am suggesting it to others…consider a nap even if you normally go, go, go on your trip. It will surprise you how good you feel taking that little break. We stopped at the food court to get our cups filled and I got a Mickey Rice Krispy treat. We went to the room and noticed Mousekeeping’s cart was right in front of our room so we sat in the car listening to our new Haunted Mansion CD while waiting for them to finish. The CD is great by the way. The room was well worth the wait! When we went into the room Shri Khan was sitting in a cat bed made of towels, the rest of our animals were sitting up on the bed with the remote in Brer Fox’s hand watching Toon Disney! We took lots of picture and videotape as well. We just love the extra things Mousekeeping does. It makes your trip so much more special. (I included this in my letter to WDW and ASSP as well.) We laid down for our nap and after a little sleep I was laying there thinking about our souvenirs and where we were going to put them. I then got the idea to decorate our dining room in Disney “stuff”. We had a great poster from Star Wars weekends as well as shelves and lots of room for all of our accumulations over the years. It’s a room we don’t use but is visible from our living room so we could enjoy seeing it and nothing would suit our personalities better. As soon as DH woke up I told him about the idea and he was as excited as I was. He suggested picking up the new Disney retro “coffee” plates, mugs, and accessories to complete the room which I was all for! He couldn’t remember where he saw them but knew it was at Downtown Disney somewhere. OK naptime was over we were ready to shop! We had a Priority Seating for ‘Ohana but decided to cancel as weren’t hungry enough for an all you can eat meal so this will be on our list for our next trip, as it was something we do want to try. We decided to spend our evening at Downtown Disney beginning with House of Blues again. We had a great server and began with the chicken fingers appetizer that also came with fries which was very good but the catfish is still my favorite appetizer here. DH and I both had the Shrimp Po Boy with me getting the mashed sweet potatoes in place of the cole slaw. Another great meal (Total with 2 sodas and tip $49.00) at a great place! We did more browsing at Virgin Megastore picking up 2 older Disney DVDs we had been looking for – Fun and Fancy Free and The 3 Caballeros ($48.89). DH also surprised me with a little Mickey and Minnie book called “I Thought of You Today and Smiled.” He is such a great, thoughtful guy! ? We decided to drive over to the Marketplace as it looked like it might rain. We went first to the World of Disney hoping they would have the set so we could use our Disney Club discount but they didn’t have the plates. I wanted to try and purchase the entire set at one place as I was going to have it shipped home. We checked next at the Gourmet Pantry and BINGO there it was! It took a little while, as I had to go through several plates in each design to find ones with no scratches and chips. I picked up four mugs, four plates, and the small coffee tin set ($118.45 including shipping home – UPS Ground which took about two weeks.) We hit Once Upon A Toy next where we picked up some of the new die cast vehicles for our collection – Peter Pan’s Flight, and Buzz Light-year. ($12.78) and wished we had somewhere to put the monorail model and all the accessories. We did a little more browsing before leaving. Though this was my last night at Downtown Disney, one of my favorite Disney places I didn’t feel as sad as I thought I would. We had come to Downtown Disney every night and had so much fun that I was just happy things had gone so well for our trip and we still had another day to go! We stopped at the food court to fill up our mugs and do some browsing at the ASSP store before returning to the room. Back at the room I started to gather our thing together. I have to admit packing is so depressing –it’s amazing how quickly your trip goes by. I wish we could stay for another week but we had packed quite a lot into our short trip and had so much fun and we also had the trip to my family’s to look forward to so I was happy with this part of our vacation. While I packed DH decided to go try and catch a last ride on the Tower of Terror hoping for short lines with Fantasmic going on. He had been gone for about 15 minutes when I heard something outside. I peeked out the window to see the kind of downpour only Florida can produce. I had my fingers crossed that DH hadn’t quite made it into the park, as he hadn’t taken his poncho. He arrived a little while only slightly wet. He had just pulled into the parking lot when the rain started so he decided not to take that last ride after all and come back to the room. After finishing up the packing we started watching Martha Inc a movie that was on. After the rain stopped DH took all of our bags out except the one we would need tomorrow morning. That would be one less thing to do tomorrow morning. We decided we were hungry so DH went down to the food court, refilled our mugs and came back with a foot long hot dog (DH) and a sub sandwich (me) both were very good. We have yet to have a bad experience at the All Star food court. I would definitely suggest it for a quick bite or snack. We were never there during busy times but I am sure it can get very crowded around meal times so off times are probably best for minimal lines. We watched the end of the movie, made a wake up call for 6:59 AM. We weren’t able to use the Express checkout as we had put a cash credit on the account so I wanted to give us a little extra time in case of lines in the morning. We then fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow! Tuesday, May 20, 2003 We noticed that one of the counter service places on the right sells Krispy Kreme doughnuts – might be a good idea for breakfast if you are looking for something quick. We always start in Marvel Super Hero Island. We decided to switch “jobs” today. I would do the videotaping and DH would do the picture taking. We thought maybe we could get different pictures and video than we usually do this way. While DH rode the Hulk I shot some video of the Marvel Super Hero Island and the islands that you could see out over the water. There was no line for the Hulk and by the time I walked over to the exit he was done. DH gave it 2 thumbs up as always. He tackled Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall next, again no line. I waited in the arcade and he was out in just a few minutes. Next was Spiderman, which was down. We decided to do our shopping and pictures later and concentrate on getting all of the rides done. Jurassic Park was where we headed next to the River Adventure. DH loves this one as well. And the trend continued, no line! In fact DH was the ONLY one in his boat. The exit here is nice, you can wait right at the exit and watch the boats take off and come back in. We decided we had to get his picture because beside the fact that it was great, how often are you going to be the ONLY person in a ride photo??! ($ 21.29 with plastic frame) The Lost Continent was next, Dueling Dragons had no wait but DH decided to pass on this one in favor of getting back over to Spiderman before the line was too long. We stopped in Seuss Landing to try the Cat in the Hat (another first for us). Again no wait. I didn’t like this ride at all – too much spinning!! DH thought it was an ok ride but I think it would have been a lot more enjoyable (at least for me) if it was more along the lines of the Winnie the Pooh ride where you just ride through the scenes as opposed to spinning through them. That one’s off my list for the future. We went to try Spiderman again and found where all of the people were! The line for Spiderman was 45 minutes and DH said we could just skip this year but I knew we were both looking forward to it and said we should just jump in line and it would probably go fast, anyway we were ahead of schedule. Then I thought of the Universal Express pass and we decided to try and see how that worked for this ride. The kiosks are across the street and there weren’t any lines to use them. We were given a choice of two different times and one of them was only 15 minutes away. This is a nice feature, being able to pick from more than one time. We got a coke to share and looked through 2 shops and then it was time to get in line. The attendant checked our express tickets then let us in line. If you’ve ever been on Spiderman you know the queue area has lots of interesting things to look at as it’s set up like you are walking through the newsroom. The express pass line is set up the same way with smaller rooms and different things to see but the same attention to detail. That was a nice touch. We waited two minutes tops to get in our car and we were off. Their express system works extremely well, at least in this, our first experience. Spiderman is unbelievable. It’s an amazing ride – my absolute favorite non-Disney ride and DH’s favorite ride of all of the parks. I’m not a thrill ride kind of car but the technology that this ride incorporates and the details are just fantastic. It’s worth a try, even if you are a little wary of these types of rides. I was terrified during our short wait the first time I rode but now it’s a ride I look forward to doing on each trip. We made our way back through the park stopping in the Marvel shops first where DH made some purchases ($ 17.03). Comic Alley was next. It truly is like jumping into the pages of the Sunday Comics. Everything is very bright and colorful and there are lots of fun photo opportunities. DH had read about coin-operated water guns that let you spray people on Popeye’s water ride so we went off in search of them. They are located right on the bridge as you are going over to the Popeye ship “Me Olive.” As well as along the fence on the right side before you reach the bridge. We were so glad we were able to find these (and that we had tons of quarters!) because we had a great time. It took a couple of times to get the timing down but we were pros quickly. Most people on the ride didn’t seem to know where the water was coming from and some of the ones who did figure it out soon joined us on the bridge to participate! It was so much fun to basically add water to a water ride! If you have some time and some extra quarters take a few minutes to try it out. Next stop Jurassic Park. I love the entrance here and how you are then surrounded by lush green plants. The themeing is so well thought out and very good. We shopped a little more at the River Adventure store. DH found a great picture frame for his River Adventure picture and it was on sale. The clerk couldn’t find a box for it so she wrapped it extra carefully in tons of bubble wrap and took 10% off the total ($14.38) That was a nice surprise. She was very nice and went out of her way to make sure the frame made it home with us safe and sound (it did.) Burger Digs was our lunch pick today and we really enjoyed it. There was a large seating area that was nice and cool (did I mention it was hot again today ?) with Jurassic Park theme music playing. There was also a small outdoor seating area. We’ve eaten at several of the IOA food spots including Blondie’s, Green Eggs and Ham, Mythos, and now Burger Digs and not a bad meal yet! If burgers are what you are looking for this is a good place. We got 2 cheeseburger value meals great burgers with a very nice fixings bar. (Total $ lost this receipt but around 15.00 I think) We strolled through the Lost Continent after lunch and found a great picture spot right to the left of Mythos where you can get great panoramic pictures of the rest of the park. We spent some time taking pictures that came out very well. This area is also somewhat secluded and quiet so it would be a nice spot for a break. We walked through Seuss Landing and were back at the entrance by 12:30 – hard to believe we had packed so more once again into one morning. We were way ahead of schedule for our trip to Georgia so we stopped for an icee ($3.19) in Citywalk and DH picked up a Curious George t-shirt in the Universal Store. ($23.38) We were back in our car and the Disney/IOA leg of this trip was over by 1:00. Now it was time to get on the road to Georgia. Saturday, May 24, 2003 We really had to work to get everything to fit into our luggage but we managed and left the hotel right on time. We considered staying and visiting Downtown Disney for the day and leaving on our original flight at 6:30 that night but decided that the opportunity for a direct flight was too good to pass up. So we bid farewell to Lake Buena Vista, Florida and headed for the airport at 8:00 AM. We made a quick stop at the gas station on the way to top of the gas so we were sure it would be full. ($5.00 appx) And next thing you know we were at the airport. I believe that the Orlando International Airport is extremely easy to navigate. We have never had trouble getting to where we need to be. No problem turning in the car, service was really fast. I give National an A+ I would definitely use them again and must say again – use Quick Rent – it’s fabulous! It was on to the Air Tran check in counter that had a line but nothing like some of the other carriers. We were through the line and had given the agents our luggage within 30 minutes. DH checked out the Universal Store while I bought a few magazines ($ 7.01) We hit the Disney Store together and bought lots of last minute souvenirs. ($97.93) We didn’t take a lot of time in the store like we originally planned because we didn’t know how long it would take us to get through the security line. This did go pretty quickly and was very efficient. We both had to take our shoes off and put them through the x-ray machine as did our entire line. I don’t know if this was the case at all of the lines though. Our last ride for the trip – the Orlando International Airport monorail. Once at the gate we took turns getting breakfast/lunch and looking at the shops. By the time we were both done eating it was just a few minutes until we boarded. I will note that you really need 2+ hours at Orlando International Airport. That turned out to be perfect time wise for us but if we had to check in at some of the other carriers with huge lines we would have had to really hustle to get there I think. If last minute shopping is on your agenda and you want to get a bite to eat 2-3 hours should be sufficient unless it’s a very busy travel day or you know the carrier you use tends to have longer line. Orlando International Airport is a great airport and if you should decide to get there extra early just to be on the safe side you shouldn’t have trouble finding something to keep you occupied until your flight. Our trip home was uneventful and by we were waiting for our luggage at the baggage claim another successful Disney trip complete. Only one question left to answer - How much longer until we are going back? Final Thoughts Things To Do Next Time:
And so begins the list for the next trip…. If you have made it to this point I admire your stamina ?. My hopes for this trip report were to be as detailed as I could as that was what I loved about other trip reports and I wanted to return the favor. Hope you all have a Disney Day! Kaye Leszczynski kayeandjim00@msn.com Mail a Comment to Kaye Leszczynski |
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