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Kelly O'Connor -- November 2003 -- Walt Disney World (CBR, Offsite)

Introduction

The Cast

Kelly (32) – Report writer. Grew up in Southern California with probably close to 500 Disneyland trips in the past 32 years. A lover of imagination and fantasy at heart, my interest in Disney peaked around 1990 when I saw the Party Gras and Celebration USA parades and realized I wanted to be a part of the Magic. I was a cast member from 1992-1998 and still hope to return someday. Only two trips to WDW, in 1996 for the 25th anniversary with my best friend and in 1999 for a shorter solo trip. Animal Kingdom had opened, but RnRC had not, so I am excited to see the new things like Mission:Space and Mickey’s PhilharMagic as well as any other changes that have occurred since 1999.

Bill (38) – Grew up in Winter Park, FL and watched MK and Epcot being built. Went to the MK every time a family member visited from out of town, so although not a Disney fanatic, was very familiar with the original park. Had never been to DL until I changed all that in 2001 with an annual pass as a birthday present. Has become quite the Disney fan ever since, although not nearly at the same geek factor level as Kelly. (UPDATE: He’s catching up to me pretty quickly!) Is looking forward to discovering how much his hometown has grown and changed in 20 years, and I’ll be sure to have the ammonia on-hand in case he passes out when he sees it.

Why

Having established Disney as a viable entertainment option for the two of us through constant immersion in Disneyland, I thought it was time Bill saw what’s happened to the swamplands he remembers from childhood. I haven’t been back in almost 5 years and him around 20 years, so it was definitely time for a visit! We really didn’t have the money set aside for a trip of this magnitude, but I felt now was as good a time as any, so I started saving up several months prior.

When

November 13-22, 2003

Planning

At first, talk of a vacation to WDW was just that – talk. We’d be at Disneyland, and I’d mention the differences of attractions at both parks, and through those talks there were a lot of “Yeah, we should go there eventually” type comments. Well, then came the infamous Fairytale Vacation package. I am almost always one to book my way through a vacation with Priceline or inside connections, shying away from packages because they usually have markups, but seven nights for the price of four? Even Mary Waring exclaimed that this was an unheard-of deal, and I agreed. This will be the first time I visit WDW as a full-paying customer rather than a CM, so even though I am used to much better pricing than even the Fairytale package, I still think it’s a great deal.

I wanted to make this trip somewhat of a surprise, actually an early Christmas/Birthday present for Bill, so I made the initial reservations on my own. Procrastinating as I always do, the Fairytale booking deadline of June 30, 2003 (I think?) came up out of nowhere. I remember that Bill and I were out doing our usual weekend errands and I realized I had to get online that very night before I lost the best deal of the decade. I waited until Bill was asleep and went to the computer to find Disney’s website running as slow as molasses. I obviously wasn’t the only person trying to grab this deal at the last moment! I tried to be patient, trying out all different combinations of dates and resorts, finally settling on November 12-20 which, I believe, were the last days of the package. My reasoning was that hopefully most guests would have completed the package by then, resulting in lower crowds, plus it was after the Soap Weekends and before Thanksgiving, yet still during the tail end of the Food & Wine Festival. I chose the All Star Movies resort, having usually stayed offsite with only one night at Wilderness Lodge in ’96, but I knew Bill wanted to be on property for his first trip back to his hometown so I complied while trying to save money as well. Everything was set – then came the final payment web page. The site was so overloaded that it was having a terrible time taking my credit card number. After what seemed like hundreds of tries, the clock struck 9PM (Midnight in Florida), and the deal was gone – without my getting a confirmation number. The web page calmly switched over to a screen which explained that “The Walt Disney World website is currently down for overnight maintenance. Please try your request again tomorrow.” Aargh!! Had I just been dealt the consequences of my own procrastination? (Not to mention, am I slipping into verse like Paul Frees in Adventure Thru Inner Space?)

Knowing that Disney is the king of exceptions to the rule, I went ahead and called 407-W-DISNEY the next morning as soon as I could get outside the house without being caught. There I was on my cell phone, pounding the pavement of my own tract neighborhood in quickly-mounting summer heat, waiting for a rep to answer. Finally, I got a friendly older lady who could see all the activity I had tried last night on the internet (they have record of each and every click of the button, basically) but no completed reservation. She told me she could see at least 2 times where a credit card authorization was attempted but failed, not because my card was declined but because the site was too busy. I asked politely if she could still give me the same rate I had displayed online the night before even though the deadline to book the Fairytale package had passed. She tried a few things, but eventually had to transfer me to a supervisor. This woman was just as friendly and was able to force-sell the package to me. The only drawback was that I wouldn’t be able to view or make changes to the reservation on Disney’s website. No biggie; it’s fun to check on your ressies online from time to time, but getting the best deal was worth this forfeiture. That done, I applied the $200 deposit and was all set to wait a few months for November to arrive. My plan was to give Bill an early Christmas card with a copy of the reservation enclosed, but this was not to be. In some other conversation, he mentioned that we needed to go to Disney soon, and I had to say, “Uh, we already are.”. I don’t think he understood that I had made the real booking already, but eventually it became known that this was really going to happen! We were both happy and started counting down the days. Then one day about a month later, I began thinking – I’d read in many people’s trip reports how they would sometimes call reservations to inquire about the cost of making changes to their original package and were surprised at the small amounts they were quoted to upgrade. I knew Bill wasn’t too happy about being booked at a value resort, and even I was getting a little nervous that I might be disappointed in the sparse room décor and noisy kids. So out of nowhere, I called 407-W-DISNEY yet again and asked how much it would be to change my resort from ASMoR to Caribbean Beach. To my GREAT delight, I was quoted somewhere around $225 more for the entire time to upgrade. That’s about $32 extra per night. Looking at the rack rates to each of these properties ($77 and $133), the true difference in value was $56 per night so I thought this was a great deal and happily accepted. I no longer had to worry about us not liking our hotel. I had walked the grounds of both Caribbean Beach and Coronado Springs on my last visit in ’99, so I was very familiar with the fact that I would be surrounded by sandy white beaches with hammocks, a nicely themed main pool, and endless bodies of water. Great! Using tips from online, I will fax the hotel directly 2-3 days prior to arrival and ask for what I think will work best for us: ground floor, non smoking in either Trinidad North, Aruba or Jamaica, the three “villages” closest to Old Port Royale, where the food court is located and where we can replenish the hotel’s refillable mugs as often as we like. I omitted Martinique because it looks huge on the map and I am going for a more intimate location, plus, I know Martinique is one of the “preferred” price villages.

I must say a HUGE thank you to everyone involved with the creation and maintenance of MousePlanet, MiceAge, WDWIG, Mousesavers and RADP websites. The daily updates, articles, message boards, dining menus, discount codes and trip reports are infinitely helpful in planning a trip and I have read most of these sites daily the entire time (don’t tell my job that.) The Unofficial Guide and PassPorter have also made for excellent reading on my commute to and from work every day, helping to build the excitement. Thanks to all the great information I found, I was able to make a list of restaurants I wanted us to attend, as well as even pick menu items from WDWIG to give me an idea of how much money I would need to feed us for 10 days. Food wasn’t a priority on my last two trips, mostly due to finances, and I missed out on a lot of unique dining experiences. This time, we are going all out and trying everything we possibly can in the time given. Around mid-August, I had all my priority seatings arranged and printed, ready to go. They were based mostly on trip reports from Mouse Planet, and personal favorites I wanted to repeat from the ’96 trip such as O’Hana and San Angel Inn. Then, I started to see some less than favorable remarks about a couple places I had booked in the Unofficial Guide and on RADP. On top of that, Disney released the park hours and entertainment schedules for November around mid-October, which gave me an idea of what time would be best to eat at MK hotels in order to see fireworks. In other words, I was back at square one. It is now October 8, 2003 and I am revising the whole trip plan to better reflect what I think will make a better combination of meals. Unfortunately, I “narrowed” my list down to a mere 24 full service restaurants <g> I would like to visit in 10 days! I know some will have to wait until a future trip, but I’m still hoping to fit in as many as possible, even if some are only for a snack or dessert. UPDATE 11/10/03: I see now that Wishes is running nightly and Spectromagic 3 times a week, totally contrary to what the schedule was last month! Aargh…this is great news, but it throws off my priority seatings once again. Since Spectro is one of my favorite events at WDW, it’s imperative that I see it every time it plays, so I pushed back a couple meals to later times that will coincide better with parade schedules.

The Touring Plan

We will arrive in Orlando via Delta from Los Angeles at 6AM on Thursday the 13th. I chose a red eye from LAX because it will give us that much more time at Disney on the 13th, and since the package includes the Ultimate Park Hopper pass good from the moment you check in until midnight on the last day, I thought why not take advantage and USE it? The Fairytale package is the first 7 nights, then we will switch to a non-Disney hotel for the last 2 nights and visit Busch Gardens and Islands of Adventure, each for one day. I will try to put us at the early entry park as many mornings as possible, switching to a different park in the afternoons to avoid the crowds and take maximum advantage of what it means to stay on property. We chose to rent a car mostly out of convenience. I’m sure we will use the Disney transportation somewhat, but I would never want to rely on it solely, especially after the horror stories I’ve read online. I booked a small SUV from Budget at 254.97 for the entire 10 days, which I thought was a great rate for a vehicle that size. As much as I can’t stand SUVs for their rough ride, obnoxious size and gas guzzling qualities, it was a good choice for us this time because we will be bringing a wheelchair with us for Bill to use in the parks. He can walk, but with arthritis and neuropathy causing horrible leg and feet pain, it will make for a much more leisurely touring plan for him to simply let me push him and save his legs for things like Downtown Disney, Typhoon Lagoon and touring of all the other Disney hotels. Besides, I’m the one that knows where everything is, lol! As a side note, this is in no way used to circumvent lines for attractions – in fact, at Disneyland, we usually park the wheelchair with the strollers and either use FastPass or wait in the regular queues. I’m actually looking forward to the added exercise I’ll get from this, and have already bought 2 pairs of insoles as well as moleskin for the feet. Next up is a new pair of good walking shoes that I will break in at home for a few weeks beforehand. UPDATE 11/12/03: We shopped and shopped for decent walking shoes and spent way too much time in way too many stores. Bill ended up with some nice white Filas from Big 5 Sporting Goods at 29.99 and I with Pro Spirit (Target brand) jogging shoes on clearance for 13.47! I also found Coleman rainsuits at Target for 9.99 each, which are nicer than ponchos because they have zipping jackets with long sleeves and separate pants you can wear over your regular pants. Gawd, I love Target! The only thing I couldn’t find that I wanted to buy were the Brita water bottles that you can carry around and refill with drinking fountain water and have it filtered as you go. I think it was Sheri Niklewski who mentioned this in one of her trip reports, and I was intrigued. Well, no matter how many Wal-Marts I’ve visited, none have it. The only place I could find them was online, and the shipping charges were just too ridiculous, so I finally gave in and decided I will either drink the damn fountain water, buy drinks, or use the refillable mugs from CBR.

Some Gentle Warnings

Folks, I want everyone to enjoy reading this report and gain knowledge from it, but I feel I should put in my own little disclaimer before we begin. There will be many, many comparisons between Disneyland and WDW in this report. Having lived and breathed Disneyland for my whole life, it’s natural that I’m going to favor it at times, while at others I will recognize that WDW has the edge. This goes both ways, so you will read cheers and jeers for various attractions at each and every park. Please don’t be offended if I decide to massacre one of your favorite rides or shows in my own personal ratings because they are just that – MY own ratings. Variations of opinion are a good thing – I read the Unofficial Guide’s ratings and sometimes am dumbfounded by their observations but that’s OK, they represent an opinion and I can choose to take or leave their advice. I have also found that preferences can have a lot to do with 1) where you live and where you are from and 2) who you bring along on your trip and 3) whether you are a local who visits often or a tourist who only gets to visit every few years. We are from Southern California (Bill isn’t originally, but has been here long enough to be considered so) , are 2 adults traveling with no children, and are on a trip to a place we know, but don’t know inside out such as with Disneyland. I know already that this will make for vastly different assessments of the WDW experience that what many of you regular trip writers would expect. With that said and all the politically correct garbage out of the way, let’s begin!

The Actual Trip

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

THE PLAN:

Work until 12:00, Bill will pick me up with our Dalmatian Allie in the car, drive to mom’s house in the San Fernando Valley, have dinner with mom, hang out until time to leave for LAX, get Allie used to staying with mom for 10 days

ACTUAL:

I decided to work half day today since our flight doesn’t leave Los Angeles until 10:25PM. I figured if I took the whole day off, it’d be that much harder of a wait until our takeoff time. Bill chose to take the whole day off though, which is probably a good idea for him. Since 9/11, he has manifested a terrible fear of flying and has been worried sick about things that may or may not happen. He also fears we will forget things in our packing or will lose all our money, credit cards, etc etc etc….basically, if there’s something to worry about, leave it to Bill! To counteract this, my attitude is simply if it’s our time to go, it’s our time. At least we’ll be together. But seriously - I know everything will be fine and by the time we begin our descent into MCO, he’ll be singing a different tune. We have sleeping pills to take on the flight so we can hopefully sleep for a few hours, since we know that as soon as we arrive, my commando planning schedule begins!

Yes, I went all out to geekus maximus levels and created an 11 x 17 Excel spreadsheet detailing what our activities should be for 10 days. I wouldn’t normally be this obsessive about planning, but knowing how few & far between our trips to WDW may be, I wanted to make sure Bill saw everything the World has to offer! That, coupled with my desire to eat at as many full service restaurants as possible, required the assistance of Microsoft. However, thanks to the many trip reports of fine folks such as Sue Holland, I’m vacillating on the idea of getting into DVC, which would make my trips to Florida more frequent.

I feel like the poster boy for travel today because by the time we arrive at WDW, I will have used a personal car, commuter bus, commuter train, city bus, my own two feet, another personal car, a plane, a monorail and a rental car to get from my bed to CBR! In Southern California, if you want to live in a halfway decent home and still have a halfway decent paying job, you have to live in one county and work in another. That explains all those extra travel methods before the actual plane.

Since our flight takes off at 10:25pm, I’m going to count it as part of Thursday.

Thursday, November 13, 2003

THE PLAN:

Have mom drop us off at LAX, fly Song from LAX-MCO on red eye, arrive and pick up rental car from Budget, check in early at CBR, have breakfast at Kona Café, Catch up on sleep at Typhoon Lagoon & have lunch there, get some essential groceries, get to MK in time for Spectromagic, dinner at Boma, then at least 1 show of Comedy Warehouse.

ACTUAL:

Wednesday night started on a very scary note – an extremely rare rain cell hit the Compton/South Gate/Lynwood area of LA around 6pm. Bill and I had planned on arriving at LAX about 2 hours prior to flight time to allow for increased security, but then we saw all this hype on the news. This was a disaster that occurred out of nowhere and got worse from there – cars were driving around in 4 feet of water, the 105 freeway was a solid stripe light of stopped traffic in each direction, and worst of all, air traffic to LAX was being diverted to other smaller airports! This is all Bill needed to produce a complete nervous breakdown, and even I started having doubts that we would ever make it to Florida on time. We decided to take the Flyaway bus (A local service that transports LAX customers direct from a stop in the San Fernando Valley) since mom was using my convertible which tends to leak in heavy rain. When we were dropped off, there wasn’t a drop of rain in sight and noone seemed to be panicking about missing flights. The slow ride to LAX down the 405 freeway took a full hour at snail’s crawl pace, but we arrived about 8:30. Checkin actually went fast and smooth, even with a wheelchair. The entire process of full service checkin, bag screening and security check only took 30 minutes, leaving us 90 minutes to flight time. As it turned out, the storm never hit LAX directly so all flights were running as scheduled. I was kind-of pissed at the news for making it seem like a statewide disaster when in fact it only affected a few small cities and then dissipated into another starry night.

Our Song (Delta) flight was awesome. This was my first time on Song and I still don’t quite understand the difference, but I’m assuming this is Delta’s attempt at a bargain airline to compete with Southwest. The aircraft was quite nice with faux-leather seats with a fair amount of legroom. The best part was that it was only half full, which yielded Bill and I each a full row of 3 seats on which to recline. After so many full flights, getting the middle seat and feeling like a sardine, this was the best news I could hope for. The casual-acting crew announced that since they were all based in Orlando and that every guest was checked in, that they would like to leave early and get home faster and were sure we wouldn’t mind either. The result? The flight was a mere 3 hours & 50 minutes! I couldn’t believe it – just as I was getting comfortable and into the next sleep cycle, we were getting ready to land.

Unfortunately the good luck ended there because the agent at the Budget counter was less than cordial. He coerced me into accepting the lowest possible insurance coverage on my SUV by twisting words. When he went over the bill with me and I said no, I didn’t need any insurance, he just huffed and reprinted it, while matter-of-factly mentioning, “I DID ask you.” I said something like, “No, you chose it for me and then got pissy when I refused to accept it”. So to get back at me (I think), he made up this garbage about how it would be a few minutes before he got my key. Meanwhile he checked in 3 other customers with no wait while we sat in an empty airport at 6am. Finally the key came and the car was fine, although it was not in the stall that he told me to go to. I chalk that up again to his hostility. I was more concerned for Bill having to wait because he is more impatient than me in these cases, but we managed and got on the highway. The map from Budget said to take 528 west to I-4 south to WDW, but I couldn’t find that so we ended up taking the Turnpike to the Greeneway to Osceola Parkway. It worked, and it cost $2 in tolls, but I have a feeling WDW regulars would laugh at me for taking this less-than-efficient route. Bill saw a ton of the new homes that had sprung up along the Greeneway, which shocked him, since he says all these roads were one-lane and strictly rural 20 years ago when he last drove them.

We finally arrived to the familiar archways welcoming us to the World, which was a great feeling. I thought these looked better when they had the big 25th year logos all over them, but of course all special events have to end. It was easy finding CBR thanks to well-marked signage and we pulled up to the Custom House to check in. There was only one party ahead of us so the wait was minimal. The room requests I had faxed in 3 days prior had somewhat been granted – there was a note that I wanted ground floor, but we had been assigned the second floor instead….so the man checking us in got that switched to ground floor in Jamaica, room 4432. He remarked that he thought it was funny that they purposely gave me upstairs and simultaneously noted in my reservation that I had requested downstairs. Best of all, though, was that the room was READY, at 6:30 in the morning! No checking bags, no calling later to find out my room number, nothing! I guess they must be really slow this week. The parking lots around the villages are maybe 1/3 full. At any rate, I am happy with the room. It faces the parking lot but that’s no biggie – most people here leave their blinds/curtains closed anyway so what would we be looking at to begin with?

The room has a nice, casual tropical look to it. There are two beds with wooden frames (A little clumsy to get around and easy to bang your legs on, but still cute), a round table, armoire with miniscule TV inside, chest to store clothes in, separate dressing area with 2 sinks (a big plus) and small bathroom with toilet and shower. Pineapples etched in the headboards remind us that the theme of this property seems to be “welcome” as there are many pineapple references throughout the resort. Some have said the curtain that separates the dressing area from the bedroom is awkward but it doesn’t bother me. Bill usually gets up way before me at home so if he does that on this trip it will be good for keeping me from waking up to his coffee-making noises. I love the matching curtains and bedspreads which have subtle Mickey heads mixed in with the more obvious floral print. Best of all is the green palm leaf carpet, which is so much nicer and more in theme than plain color carpet would be at a similar midrange hotel.

As I write this, it is after 11pm and since the moment we checked in I haven’t heard a single sound from outside whatsoever. If this keeps up, I’ll have nothing negative to say about noisy kids at my hotel!

After unpacking, we drove over to the Polynesian for breakfast. I was able to make a PS from my room for 30 minutes later – obviously, they weren’t busy! When we arrived, the restaurant was full, so the wait was about 15 minutes past my seating time. No biggie – we were here on purpose to try the famous Tonga Toast that never ceases to show up on message boards. Bill had this along with a cup of Kona Blend coffee while I had a simple ham & cheese omelet and raspberry smoothie. I’m happy to report that the Tonga Toast was indeed a hit – with both of us. I wouldn’t normally like something so sweet for breakfast, but this thing was delicious, hands down. Our server warned us that the accompanying syrup would probably not be needed and she was right. This is definitely an item worth repeating. Our server said she had been serving this to her guests for over 25 years, so it must have been a menu item even before Kona Café existed. (I think it was called Coral Isle café before but not sure?). Service was very friendly, albeit a little slow, but I almost expect this from Disney as it’s been this way as long as I can remember, including at Disneyland.

We checked out the shops in the Great Ceremonial House, and I told Bill that the Poly would be my first choice of where to stay if money was no object, and he said it looked pretty cool as well. His first choice is Grand Floridian, but to me something that fancy doesn’t meld well with the casualness of a Disney vacation. We didn’t stroll the grounds because we will be back later to have dinner at O’Hana and also at the Luau on another night.

We already had our swim suits on so we went directly to Typhoon Lagoon. The parking lot was about half full at 10:30am and it was warm – upper 80s I would guess. This was our first trip here and we both thought it was great. I especially enjoyed the wonderful variety of plant life in the park. Anyone can make waterslides and lazy rivers, but the immersion into the jungle atmosphere here was masterfully done. We tried each slide once and liked them all. I got a kick out of the fact that one of the tubing slides (the one that uses yellow tubes, not blue tubes) has little “speed bumps” built into the watercourse which really liven up your ride. Give it a try! I also noticed that many of the water attraction’s water content shares with other rides and you would see it crossing over walkways and stairways into eachother, which was a cool touch that went along with the theme that a shipwreck had left the place in shambles. Bill’s legs were starting to hurt, so I suggested we lie out on one of the white sand beaches for a while before leaving. It was hard to find a shady spot that wasn’t taken, but we eventually did in the quiet area called Out of The Way Cay. We both fell asleep for a short while and when we woke up, were much more relaxed and quickly realizing we really were on vacation now. I remarked that if I lived closer to WDW and had an annual pass, I’d love to come hang out here and sleep or read on the beach for a few hours every weekend.

We came back, showered, and headed to Publix for some groceries. Someone on RADP had made note of a location particularly convenient to CBR and Pop Century and he was right – it took less than 10 minutes to get there, which was great! The prices were good and the store clean, so I didn’t feel like I was being gouged with Gooding’s prices as I had been on past trips. I came back to Disney property via the 192 to show Bill how much Kissimmee had changed. Heck, it even changed since my last visit in ’99! The medians were finally finished and it looked much better. It’s still an odd collection of various ages of hotels, motels and side attractions, but at least it’s significantly cleaned up and a worthier option for offsite guests.

After unloading the groceries, we went to MK a little early because Bill was pouting about not having hit a park yet, and we had been in Orlando a whole 9 hours, lol. We had time to ride Space Mountain twice and the TTA once before it was time to find a spot for Spectro. Bill was in a wheelchair at this point, and the kindest, most caring cast member I’ve ever met named Gerry helped us load and unload for Space and even asked if we’d like to ride twice in a row since we had on such cool Hawaiian print shirts. Maybe he was just an exceptional CM, but I think *maybe* he liked either or both of us just a little ? Space was fun and it was so nice to be on it after being deprived of it so long in Anaheim. I still think DL’s version is better overall, but I appreciate certain aspects of the MK’s version too. Especially nice to see was the elaborate exit queue fed by WORKING speedramps, which help extend the ride theming even beyond the coaster itself. At DL, you were lucky if the speedramp was even working, let alone seeing anything but FedEx ads or arrows of where to buy your on-board photo. Now, if only they could work on the bumpiness of the vehicles and add some on-board sound, they’d have a true E ticket once again. Either way, I hope to get in a few more rides on this on our trip. The TTA was great for me as it reminded me of how much I loved the Peoplemover at DL and how I really hope the rumors about a new one coming after ’05 have some merit. In fact, in general Bill and I were so incredibly happy to see a Tomorrowland fully functioning the way it should be! Even with Alien Encounter down, the land still had a kinetic energy to it that has been lost in Anaheim since the mid nineties. One sour note was that Timekeeper was closed. It had reopened to funnel crowds from Alien Encounter along with Carousel of Progress, but was published that it was currently closed and only opened seasonally. To me, that means they opened it briefly, realized the CoP alone was enough to handle the capacity, and shuttered poor Nine Eye once again. Damn! I was really looking forward to seeing this one. The only other time I caught it was at DLP’s Visionarium, with the tourist headphones in the back row so I could hear the English translation. I was really hoping to see this version too but alas, I think it may be the victim of budget cutting once again.

We found snacks in the confectionery store on Main Street and ate those while waiting for my beloved nighttime parade. It was great to see Spectro again! My last solo trip was made solely to bid farewell to this show and usher in the Electrical Parade once again. At that time, we had no idea that Spectro may or may not return. The main differences I noticed in this incarnation were that the Spectromen in the opening unit all had brightly lit faces that changed colors well, Genie had replaced Roger Rabbit, and the finale rope carriers now carried a lit tube instead of a glorified piece of string. I guess they spent some money on redoing the fiber optics in the opening unit and it looked much better. I wasn’t thrilled with the Genie because it wasn’t Robin Williams’ voice anymore, but this was probably more a legal decision than a desire to change a character. Sadly, though, the performers seemed to have much lower energy than years ago which shows heavily to someone like me with lots of performing background. Not to mention, WDW parades in general can’t hold a candle to those of DL’s because the former walks and waves, and the latter DANCES. Oh sure, Spectro has a few choreographed moves, but nothing that takes any true dance talent. I’ll still love and watch Spectro as much as I can, but I always fantasize about the changes and improvements I’d make to it if given the chance to be show director for a season.

With the parade ended, we got back on the Monorail to the TTC then wheeled Bill under the bridge to the handicapped parking and drove over to AKL for dinner at Boma. We were a little early, so we explored the viewing Savannah a little bit but it was so dark and there was really nothing to see except a couple zebras. This was our first trip to this resort and I thought it was beautiful and would love to stay there at some point. The lobby is reminiscent of those of the WL and GC, but missing was music. The others have either recorded or live music playing in the lobbies at all times but this one was silent. I felt a track of tribal mixes would have suited the AKL quite nicely. The pool area looked lovely and was still pretty active with guests even though it was cool and the wind was blowing. Jiko looked much better in person than on websites. I just love the lamps that look like flying birds, and the whole place had a lot more color than I had realized from pictures.

Dinner at Boma was very good. The food selections are not typical American fare except those found at the children’s pod (Mac & Cheese, Chicken Tenders, and Pasta) but the selection and quality of food were great. We tried a lot of new dishes and enjoyed most, but noted too high a reliance on both spice and sugar. I had to try the Zebra Domes made famous in other trip reports, and I wasn’t the least bit disappointed – these things are awesome, and I don’t even like desserts that much! I had two, and now, 4 hours later, I still feel them in the pit of my stomach. Regardless though, try these on your vacation, you’ll love them. The dining room is noisy with lots of wild kids, but still worthy of your visit, I think.

On the way out, we browsed the gift shop and bought a few AKL-exclusive things. We were both so exhausted from this extremely long first day that we decided to skip Comedy Warehouse for tonight and just try to get in the jacuzzi back at CBR. I knew that I wanted to see Carol Stein perform as accompanist at the shows and that this was one of her regular nights, but I checked her calendar and found that there were 2 other nights during my trip when I would be able to visit PI at night, and decided to move this to the night of 11/16. Carol is longtime friends with one of Bill’s computer clients at home, and he told us to make sure to go see her when we went to WDW, so we are complying and from what I hear, her piano playing is not to be missed.

The jacuzzi attempt at Old Port Royale was a bust. I found a spa the size of a bathtub holding 10 raucous teenagers, right next to the sign stating “5 persons max”. I was outraged to find a resort with over 2,000 rooms had a single whirlpool that accommodated 5 people at a time. Who the hell designed this?

Out of spite, I used the pool instead but it had gotten so cold that I had to cut the visit short. Bill was too cold to try so he stayed on a lounge chair wrapped in towels. This was my first major gripe with CBR. The rooms and layout are great, but come on – you couldn’t build a larger spa or at least add a few more smaller ones to the various villages? I know this is a mere “moderate” resort, but I can name plenty of REAL moderate resorts like Courtyard, Hilton Garden Inn, Radisson, Ramada, etc…that ALL have large Jacuzzis at each property and charge far less than your moderate rate. Since Bill and I love spas so much, and especially because they help alleviate Bill’s leg pain so well, I would seriously consider not staying at CBR again in the future because of this minor missing amenity.

We bought our refillable mugs in the food court and were glad that hot chocolate was included because it was getting colder by the minute. We drove back to our room, I updated the trip report while Bill fell asleep. I left a wakeup call for 6:34 in hopes of getting Mickey on the line instead of a generic recording and told Bill to answer the phone in the morning. He doesn’t know about Mickey calling, but at home sometimes on Saturday mornings, he wakes me up and says “Mickey just called, he wants us to go to Disneyland today”. I thought, wouldn’t it be funny if Mickey finally did call him for real?

FRIDAY, November 14, 2003

THE PLAN:

Animal Kingdom Early Entry, breakfast at Tusker House, Lunch at Flame Tree or Restaurantosaurus, nap at hotel if time, Jammin Jungle parade, dinner at Rose & Crown followed by Illuminations.

ACTUAL:

Mickey did indeed call at 6:34am as scheduled and Bill answered. I think he was so dazed that he didn’t realize who the voice was but eventually he got it and thought it was cute. Maybe so, but it was way too early and I was exhausted! However, knowing I was on a very expensive vacation with a host of activities to be done every day, I dragged myself to the shower and got started. I was feeling neurotic about making it to AK as early as possible after hearing how quickly the Safaris filled up.

We made it to the park by about 7:50 and I wheeled Bill through security and the entrance. Right on time, although getting out of the hotel was less than pleasant at that hour. The sight of the Oasis was beautiful. I had been here once before on a solo trip but it was almost like a totally new experience sharing it with Bill this time. We quickly glanced at some animals through the pathways and arrived in front of the Tree of Life where they were holding the guests until official opening. The rope drop was about 5 minutes late and we immediately headed to Kilimanjaro Safaris. We were on the ride vehicle pretty quickly and FastPass was not even operating, which, as I’d find out later, meant today must be a fairly light attendance day. The safari was lots of fun – not a huge number of animals out, but enough to keep us interested. Last time I rode this, I seemed to remember an audio-animatronic person at the end in the Big Red sequence but all I saw this time was the poacher car with the AA elephant in the back. The Orlando weather had changed this morning and turned quite cold, which required more layers of clothing but also lent a nice brisk feel to both the safari and the morning in general. There was absolutely no humidity which made it feel a lot like home which was a welcome change from the day before. One note to parties with wheelchairs – you have a separate loading area, and it can take longer than the regular queue – so if you are able to leave your wheelchair out front, just stand in the regular line.

I should mention that by this time we had noticed that WDW does an absolutely exceptional job at providing easy, efficient wheelchair access to their attractions. The signage, navigation and, most importantly, the cast member interaction was top rate. We vowed to write glowing letters of praise at the end of the trip. We are used to fairly friendly and cordial CMs at Disneyland, but I’d say 90% of the ones we ran into today were beyond anything you’d expect from a mimimum wage employee. Our great thanks to the many wonderful people we met today who helped make our ride experiences superb.

After the Safari, we went thru the Pangani Forest Trail and saw some beautiful creatures. We loved the underwater viewing areas for the African Cichlids which had gorgeous colors. We didn’t see any Hippos, but I had last time so I knew they existed. I wanted to shop in Harambe but was intent on seeing all 3 of the big shows in one day so we made a beeline to hit the first Lion King show. With a short wait, we were seated in the Giraffe section and enjoyed a wonderful show. We were both in tears by the end – Bill, because the overall presentation was so good and the Circle of Life story is so universally known and loved, and I because of the many great memories the show brings back of my years performing in the Lion King Celebration parade at Disneyland. The floats currently in use in the AK version are recycled from our parade and although they are chopped up and look a little different, they still reminded me of what a spectacle our parade was when it first opened. The pride and emotion felt by the cast was unmatched in any other Disneyland production and I still haven’t seen the same devotion and spirit as at that time. Despite my nostalgic longing to be back in that time and performing again, I still loved seeing this new version, which has its own unique spirit and energy. The recent enclosure of the theatre made for a more intimate experience which I thought must be a welcome relief in the summer.

After drying our tears of joy and posterity, we went to see Tarzan Rocks. This show was great too in a different way. The two lead female vocalists in particular were awesome and we certainly do appreciate good singers! I hear a lot of mixed reviews on this show and I can see that it wouldn’t appeal to every audience but for us, it was simply like a rock concert set to Tarzan music. I’d gladly see it again.

Leaving the theatre, we could see the construction for Expedition Everest in full swing, which gave us a reason to come back in a couple years without a doubt. There are no signs telling the general public what’s coming – most people had no clue what was being built but I kind-of liked it that way; it lent a sense of wonder to the average park guest.

Next up was Dinoland, USA. I was expecting a cheap carnival, and that’s what I got…but it didn’t bother me that much. Primeval Whirl was a lot of fun and although it made us both a little nauseous on the spinning part, we found that it was an overall better experience than our Mulholland Madness at DCA. We got to ride twice in a row thanks to a little comment I made to a CM which was cool – although our tummies probably would have preferred we hadn’t. I wandered into Chester & Hester’s which was themed really well. They have the full set up of the attraction pieces with the Monorail and hotels which are currently selling all over the resort which made me want to complete my collection even more. Knowing this would all be at Downtown Disney later, I instead just bought some of the die-cast attraction vehicles because I noticed a handful of them were on sale. If you collect these, note that there are no sale signs, you have to turn each one over and find which ones are marked down.

Behind the shop was a dinosaur that I climbed on and took a picture with. This is a smoking area that Bill used and he met 2 very nice people from Texas back there as well. Since they were kind enough to take a picture of us together, I offered to do the same with our digital camera and email it to them as soon as I download again. I think this is a nice way to do something special for people I meet in the parks – at least those with email addresses.

We then crossed through to Dinosaur and rode. This was cool! When I rode last, it was still known as Countdown to Extinction and I have no idea if any changes were made other than the signage out front, but it seemed basically the same. (I liked the old name better, though!) Bill was a little shaken up by this one but I remarked that now that he knew what happens, he could ride without being panicked the whole time. This ride uses the same system as our beloved Indiana Jones at DL, but I’d have to give the edge to Indy. It’s just a more enjoyable ride overall, whereas Dinosaur is tense and foreboding. Still, I’d ride it over and over again any time I was at AK.

We chose Flame Tree BBQ for lunch because as soon as I found out that Restaurantosaurus was nothing more than McDonald’s cleverly disguised, I knew it wasn’t worthy of our Disney Dollars. We both got the meal deal for 11.99 which includes an entrée, drink, plus coupons for ice cream bars and water or soda to use later at the vending carts throughout the park. This is a great value and a great idea that I wish all the parks (including Disneyland!) would use. The food was very good - I had the St. Louis ribs and Bill had the BBQ chicken sandwich. The meat was a little dry, but I expect that any time I’m ordering this kind of food from a counter service place because the food is almost always made before you order. No biggie – it was good food at a decent price. The best part was the atmosphere. This place has wonderful seating behind it at various terraced levels overlooking either gardens, water features or the river. We sat at the lowest point level with the river overlooking the Everest construction. It was so peaceful and beautiful and made for the perfect mid afternoon break. I also couldn’t help but be amazed at the detail that went into this park in design – everything is so detailed and so beautiful and you truly feel immersed in the experience. To think that 3 years later a bare bones park like DCA was built is hard to fathom. I guess AK got the tail end of the big spending years of the 90s, and I’m glad for it – it shows! And once Everest opens, it will make it that much more of a “complete” park.

It was now time for Kali River Rapids and luckily it was still warm enough out to not worry about putting on our rain suits to avoid getting wet. The posted wait time was only 15 minutes and FastPass wasn’t being used at all. We boarded a raft all to ourselves (we used the handicapped entrance) and had a blast. What a great ride! I’d heard so many reviews of how short it was, which was true, but it didn’t matter at all because the theming and landscape were excellent. We loved the simulated fire area as well as the drop and eventually ruled that this was more fun than Grizzly River Rapids at DCA, even though Grizzly does have two drops instead of Kali’s one. We also loved that the Kali drop didn’t have the spinning feature built in like it does on Grizzly, because that always makes us dizzy and I wish they’d cut it. We got wet, but not soaked, so what did we do? Ride again without getting out. Yep, the CMs hadn’t noticed early enough that we were in a handicapped raft and I commented, “Of course, you could just let us go again”, and we did. Got much more soaked this time, damnit. But our spirits weren’t dampened, only our Hawaiian print shirts, so we left happy and energized. I forgot to mention what a beautiful queue line this ride has too – wow!

It was only an hour until parade time so I had to give up the prospect of taking a nap and just stay at the park. I honestly didn’t think AK would have enough to keep us occupied from open-close but it indeed did. Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade turned out to be better than I expected. I prefer big floats with lots of skilled dancers and sound coming from the house as well as the floats, but even without these elements we still loved it. The original song created for the first and last floats was very memorable and made me drop 19.98 for the Parade Memories CD later in the day. I was also totally impressed that each unit of the parade had it’s own unique music – that practice was abandoned at DL years ago. Bark and growl and screech and roar!

We watched the parade from the entrance to Africa so we ran over to Harambe to shop after the last float passed. We were impressed with the merchandise not only here, but in every shop we’d been to so far. There seems to be a lot more variety at WDW vs. DL as far as things to buy and although most of the shops have the same stuff, there were enough unique items in each store to make it worth our while to visit. We’re not big pin buyers but we do like to look and find a few cool ones, and there were plenty to choose from at AK. When we finished in Africa, we waited a few minutes to catch the parade again as it wound back around the Tree of Life to backstage. I used our drink coupons from earlier to get a Coke and water and we started to head out for the day.

We encountered our longest line of the day at the exit where we waited to see our photo at Garden Gate Gifts. It was worth the wait though because the picture came out perfect so I got a 5x7, as well as that Parade Memories CD and the CD soundtrack of the Festival of the Lion King show. We checked out the entrance to Rainforest Café and found some adorable dog and cat supplies in the shop just outside the park entrance, then went back to CBR to relax briefly before heading out to Epcot for dinner.

Bill lay down to try to alleviate a little leg and feet pain while I crossed over the bridge through Parrot Cay to refill our mugs at the food court. It was already dark and this was a really pretty walk which I’ll want to show Bill on another evening. I was wishing we had time to take a nap in the hammocks on the beaches but we simply didn’t so I went back to the room and we got re-dressed. I had never entered Epcot through the International Gateway but I knew it would be the best option since we were only going in the park to eat at Rose & Crown and watch Illuminations. I parked at the Beach Club, another resort I had never seen, and wheeled around with Bill until finding the walkway to Epcot. We both really thought this was a beautiful hotel. I’m not usually into the nautical/seaside theme thing but everything was so crisp and clean that I couldn’t help think I’d like staying here some time. The walk to Epcot was pleasant and pretty and we made it just in time for our PS at 7:20. I requested a patio table and got the usual spiel about how it was noted but not guaranteed. We were seated not on the lower patio, but one level up which is enclosed by plastic which is rolled up right before Illuminations starts.

We started with the mushroom medley which was absolutely awesome. We both love mushrooms and this was a perfect way to serve them. I remarked that I’d be happy with a dinner size portion of just these ? I ordered the Fish & Chips and Bill had the steak & prawns, both of which were very good. I had never seen a piece of cod this big – it was about a foot long with no separations and hung off the sides of my plate, lol. Bill said that this was Florida fish, not like at home! I could barely finish which is saying a lot for me since I usually clean my plate and still leave hungry! I had heard good things about the chocolate flourless cake at one of the Food & Wine booths, and I kept whining at Bill that I wanted to run and get one. He didn’t want me to leave but finally told me to just go get it so I did. The booth was only a few steps away so I was back in less than 10 minutes. The cake was good, but…um…it was fudge. What is this fancy “flourless cake” title all about? It was a silly piece of fudge cut in the shape of cake! At any rate, it was yummy and again way too much to eat at once so I left half of it at the table. I’m sure our lovely, courteous server Elaine wasn’t too thrilled that I had bought dessert from somewhere else and brought it to my table at R&C, but she didn’t say a word either way.

I hadn’t seen Illuminations since ’96 and this version was totally different. I’m not sure how many versions there have been since then, but I’m pretty sure this was the same version that came out in 2000 for the Millenium Celebration since it used the music from that CD. I was glad since I love the “We Go On” theme and wasn’t sure if the show had been changed or not. Sadly, even with the plastic curtains moved, our seat for the show was less than ideal because a canopy blocked the view of the fireworks bursts. We saw them going up, but never saw them “pop”! Plus, I felt the music wasn’t nearly loud enough to fully immerse the viewer. It seemed like it was only coming from speakers in the center but should have also come from all the countries. Maybe I was just in a bad location, but I definitely want to see it again from, maybe, American Adventure. I feel that’ll be more centered and unobstructed and allow for a better possibility of eliciting some tears from us two saps.

We strolled out of the park slowly so as to avoid crowds, which worked beautifully. The Friendship boats were operating quickly, but I didn’t know how big of a deal it was to load wheelchairs on them so we just walked back to Beach Club. I felt I had enough energy to keep going, so we continued around and checked out the Boardwalk, stopping in at the Atlantic Dance Hall, peeking in Flying Fish, and glancing at Spoodles. I was looking for Beaches & Cream but forgot it was at Beach Club, not Boardwalk….duh! Bill couldn’t believe that the Boardwalk was also a hotel – and all one big one, at that. I remarked that it would be cool to have a room above the shops to be able to sit out on the balcony and people watch. I thought about popping over to the Dolphin to see the big fountain in front up close, but nixed that one as it was getting to be late. We continued the loop around Boardwalk and back over the bridge to Beach Club, checked out the lobby and Cape May and Ariel’s (I guess this used to be a restaurant?), took a picture of the cool fish chandeliers there, and headed back to CBR.

This was an awesome day for both of us. We loved AK, had great meals, and are thoroughly exhausted. I would skip the trip report updates until I get home except that I know I’ll forget half of what we did, so I’m the one who’s still up at 12:11am when I have Mickey set to call at 6:02! Aargh. Tomorrow – MGM early entry!

Saturday, November 15, 2003

THE PLAN:

Early entry at MGM, Lunch at Sci Fi, Nap or pool at hotel in afternoon, MK at 6:00 for Spectro & Wishes, dinner at Artist Point

ACTUAL:

This morning was just as miserable getting up. The nights are getting shorter, but the call of early entry (sorry, Extra Magic Hour is just too silly of a term for me to embrace) was strong since we knew that the Tower of Terror and Rock & Roller Coaster both were waiting, tempting us with short lines. Bill said that Mickey had a different wake up call greeting this morning but I didn’t get to hear it.

We arrived at MGM right on time and bought a new camcorder tape quickly at the camera shop on the right, then barreled on down to ToT. The line was posted at 13 minutes but it actually took longer – only one side was running. I think today was the first day that the attraction came back up to full operation after a rehab of each elevator shaft one at a time. It took until mid-morning for the other side to open up, so the wait was more like 20 minutes but it gave us that much more time to soak up the excellent detail in the queue line and hotel lobby. The ride itself was awesome. I was sick as a dog last time I rode in ’96 and didn’t remember the 5th Dimension room at all, so it was all new to me.

After the ride, we didn’t buy the picture but knew we’d want one before we left. Next up was RnRC which also took 15-20 minutes. I think they were still getting into the flow of operating since it was so early because later on when we rode again the line moved much faster even though it was longer.

The crowds seemed pretty large but then again it was a Saturday so I imagine there were more locals and annual passholders than usual. We headed for Voyage of the Little Mermaid but didn’t make it in time for the first show so we looked under the BAH (Big-Ass Hat) at the pins and such. We still have not seen passholder exclusive pins like we do at DL. It’s becoming clear to us that passholders are a much smaller percentage of the population here than at DL which is a good thing that I will explain my feelings on later.

We waited in standby for the 10:05 VLM and sat in the back row where there was plentiful wheelchair access. I knew the show was short from last time I saw it but I had no idea it hacked up the original story so badly! It reminded me of Snow White’s Adventures at DL where the ride is 75% scary forest and threatening witch, then all of a sudden everyone lives happily ever after with no buffer zone of storytelling. I guess this was mostly done to shepherd the droves of guests through that much faster, but I felt a little cheated that one of Disney’s best films was rushed through so quickly in this attraction.

We noticed a cart of Haunted Mansion merchandise and talked to the CM and her Lead a little about how much more Mansion stuff there was here than at DL. DL has tons of great new HMH merchandise, but during the rest of the year there is hardly anything so it was great to see more souvenirs available for an older ride. This reminded us to go see the movie prop displays later.

Next was Great Movie Ride which was lots of fun. I love rides with lots of AAs and this one was no exception. We got the gangster version which was the only one I’ve ever seen, come to think of it. I wonder if the CMs like this side better or do they even have a choice? One funny thing was Sigourney Weaver’s wig was tousled up and the ends were pointing in towards her mouth as if she was chewing on them. I wondered if this was a little CM joke or just a lack of wig maintenance, lol. Either way, it was funny and I caught it on video. Earlier in the morning I had stopped to get some flavored slushes next to Starring Rolls and the CM there told me that GMR had been “updated” as of last spring. I knew that was BS, and that it had simply been in rehab, but I wasn’t about to play know-it-all guest so I just nodded my head and said, “oh, cool, thanks!”

We then made it to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. I generally don’t care for these kinds of shows, plus most trip reports rate this as mediocre, and I had to concur. The few stunts we did see were really cool and fun to watch, but the amount of prep time between each scene coupled with the silly dialogue and backstory were kind-of in need of a redo. I’d see it again but really feel it would benefit from shaving about 10 minutes off it’s running time.

We had FastPasses for ToT that expired soon as well as a PS at the Sci-Fi much too soon. On the way back to ToT I called to check for a later seating at Sci-FI and they had it. We made it back on ToT much quicker this time and enjoyed the different drop sequence, then did RnRC one more time with a Fast Pass as well. Then it was time to head over for lunch.

The whole area where Sci-Fi is, as well as Star Tours, MuppetVision and the backlot was all new to me. I had seen the Hunchback show before but didn’t recognize where it used to be. The restaurant had a ton of people in front waiting but we checked in and ended up waiting about 20 minutes past our PS time which was no big deal. To kill the time, I updated the menu vs. what was published on WDWIG and will send it in when I get home. Basically, one soup was changed and one steak became a steak sandwich with different trimmings. Also, about half the entrees increased in price by 50 cents since the Spring. We loved the Sci-Fi for the atmosphere and the food was better than most reports say. Bill had the Shrimp Penne Pasta and I tried the Flat Iron Steak Sandwich. We started by sharing the Marinated Tomatoes appetizer. I wanted a glowing cube drink but without alcohol so I ended up with a kid’s souvenir sipper of Sprite with a flashing cube. It’s now about 10 hours later and I just now figured out how to turn it off! You have to press REALLY hard on the button to make it go off. Damn! I guess it won’t last very long at home now that it’s been on all day. Doesn’t look like the battery is replaceable, either – oh well. Bill also had a vanilla milkshake which was better than most.

Even though we had a lot more to do and see here, I was running out of steam so we headed back to CBR for a quick nap. I placed a wake-up call for 4:30 and got up closer to 4:45. We parked at WL since we were having dinner there later and thought it would be easier than taking the Monorail back to the TTC, then driving over. We strolled down past the pool and waited for a boat to take us to MK. Unfortunately, the first boat was the one to the Contemporary and the correct one was taking forever. By then, there was only 30 mins until Spectro started and I knew how many more steps there were involved to get through MKs gates and resigned myself to the possibility that we may miss the beginning, my favorite part. To top it off, our boat went to FW first! I think this was only because Hoop Dee Doo was starting soon. We finally pulled up to the MK dock at 5:55 and I wheeled Bill as fast as I could through security and the entrance gates just as we heard the first notes of “On This Magic Night”. I refused to step into the parade in progress so we endured 15 minutes of hell weaving around traffic to get to a better spot ahead of the parade and ended up roughly across from the CBJ in Frontierland. I was right next to a snack stand and grabbed a Coke for Bill and Hot Chocolate for me to help calm down after the aerobic exercise I had just gotten. We arrived with 5-10 minutes to spare which was a relief.

After the parade, we made our way toward the exit to Town Square and saw Wishes. We started heading towards the exit as the last notes played but I made sure not to miss anything in the interest of getting back to the boat dock – instead, I insisted on seeing the show in it’s entirety as the producers intended. Some of the pyro was blocked by the Main Street buildings from this vantage point, but it was still a good show. My first impression of Wishes was that it was basically Believe with bigger, taller pyro and with a slightly weaker soundtrack. I liked it, but it wasn’t powerful enough to produce tears. More on the show later.

We were still first in line for the WL boat so it wasn’t too bad. We got back in about 15 minutes and had enough time to stroll the grounds a bit before our PS time at Artist Point.

This meal was excellent! I had only eaten at Whispering Canyon before so this was a nice step up. Bill had the scallops and I tried the pork chop with macaroni & cheese after a starter of smoky portabello soup. The butternut squash tasted just like sweet potatoes drowned in butter which was sinful. We had planned on having the cobbler/berry/vanilla bean ice cream dessert thing but were just too stuffed. We took a bunch of pictures of the grounds and the lobby, which was newly decorated for Christmas, then headed back to CBR. I’m getting better and making it to bed by 11:00 tonight which is a good thing because tomorrow is our first full day at MK. Since it’s an EE day, I’m expecting huge crowds and congested walkways but I’m just hoping to see as much as possible.

Sunday, November 16, 2003

THE PLAN: Early entry at Magic Kingdom, lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table, Share a Dream Come True Parade, Nap or swim at hotel or Food & Wine Festival, Coral Reef dinner, Downtown Disney/DisneyQuest to round off the night.

ACTUAL: Knowing that the Magic Kingdom is the hardest park to get to due to the need to use the Monorail, we were up especially early today to ensure being at the front gates for EE. Mickey called somewhere around 5:30 and we did pretty well and actually made it to the gates by 7:30 and faced a half hour wait in the early morning sun. The air temperature wasn’t bad, but the sun in Florida is brutal at any hour. I was very glad that we had lathered in sunscreen this (and every) morning back at the hotel in preparation.

This is the first day of the trip where I didn’t write out the report that very night because I was just too exhausted. I simply made notes before bed that, now that it’s 10 days later, might not be as detailed as the first days (stop rejoicing) but I’ll do my best.

Early entry was a big plus this trip due to the short park operating hours, and this morning was no exception. Since we had already been on Space Mountain on Thursday night, we headed for Splash first. There was a rope up at the Liberty Square bridge, so naïve me just thought someone hadn’t dropped it yet so I planned to get to Frontierland thru Fantasyland. We went thru the castle, beared left, and found another rope near the old Skyway station. It was at this point that my limited experience of EE showed - I had forgotten that Frontierland wasn’t at all part of the extra magic hour! I felt stupid, but quickly recoiled and, wanting to take full advantage of what was left of that first hour, went straight to Winnie the Pooh. There was noone in line at all which was a blessing. I had been anticipating this ride for months after having only experienced the bare bones version which debuted at Disneyland earlier this year and wondering how much better this one would be. I’d say it was a fairly big improvement over DL’s version. The sheer length of the track alone was much, much longer, most likely due to the size of the former Mr. Toad show building being more vast than our former Country Bears theatre was. This, of course, resulted in many additional scenes which helped tell a more complete story. The bouncing ride vehicles in the tigger section were a nice touch and more fun than the slow kind-of “wave” that the DL cars do. Unfortunately, even this version was merely a collection of blacklit cutouts in 2-D, which I was hoping would be more of an immersive, 3-D experience. I will give a few plusses to our Disneyland version: the sound system in ours is awesome and must be newer technology than WDW’s; our ride vehicles, while bulky and big, seem to be a little more accommodating overall and feature cute theming on the backs; and the rainy day room in ours is laid out better and seems to be longer rather than just a quick corner of a room. Also, our colors seem more vibrant and bright, where WDW’s reminds me more of the older Fantasyland rides that could use both brighter bulbs and more generous coats of luminescent paint. I didn’t see any homages to Mr. Toad although I’m sure they are there. I know in DL’s version, the three heads on the wall from Country Bear are still in the ride (although not in the same position and no longer animated) and the spot where Teddi Bearra (sp?) once glided down on her swing is now the spot where Winnie bounces up and down in his hot air balloon in the Heffalumps room.

Next up was Peter Pan which also had no line. What a huge treat, as this one’s queue at DL is filled within the first 20 minutes. I really like the conveyor belt system of loading here. It was much easier for Bill to transfer from his wheelchair onto these slow moving pirate ships than have to worry about holding up the ride and making it go “101” like at DL. Also, DL’s ships stop and start rather abruptly, not smooth like the other Fantasyland rides. As with Pooh, this ride is much longer in physical length here than at home. However, since DL’s ride was rebuilt in 1983, it has a bit newer technology which makes for prettier views flying over both London and Neverland. Also, music plays a bigger role in DL’s version whereas in the first room in WDW’s, it was almost silent. I’ve also heard that WDW’s ride system is falling apart due to age, but it didn’t seem unsafe to me in any way. If anything, I feel like DL’s ships make too much motor noise lately and that they are the ones that need more attention! Overall, I like WDW’s for sheer track length and loading system, and DL’s for use of music and show elements. And I couldn’t forget to mention that DL’s ships make a few “dips” during the ride which add to the feeling of flying more than just hanging from a suspended track.

We had tried skipping breakfast today, knowing how much we would be eating for lunch & dinner but I found it difficult by about 10am. Since half the morning every day was spent waking up from the previous night’s short amount of sleep, it was imperative to at least have a snack so we stopped by Sleepy Hollow snacks and got some juice and a chocolate muffin. Actually, during this whole trip, I learned that breakfast was extremely important in determining energy levels for the rest of the day. With the pushing of a wheelchair every day, including many uphill sections, I had to have something in my stomach early each morning to make it work. Sometimes it was a huge struggle making it to lunch time without pooping out, but I made it, albeit grumpy at times.

Speaking of Sleepy Hollow, this was one example of how totally and completely amazed I was during this whole trip at the sheer number of snack outlets, restaurants, food carts, merchandise carts, and stores that were open at WDW! I mean, there is no corner at any of the four parks where something was closed – well, Chakrandi Chicken Shop at AK was closed but that’s the only one - and this is supposed to be the off season! At DL, unfortunately, it often seems you are in a ghost town and if you want to eat, you’d better do it between 11am and 5pm or you’re out of luck. This simply wasn’t the case anywhere at WDW and I was SO impressed with the number of choices guests have here. A place like Sleepy Hollow at DL would only be open on the most crowded Saturdays of summer and sit dormant the rest of the year. Worse yet, it might even be permanently shuttered if the numbers didn’t come in high enough. Not at WDW. It was so cute when I made my purchase here too, because when I placed my order I took note of the lady’s home city on her nametag. Then when I moved over to the pickup window and looked at the man’s city, they matched. I matter-of-factly said, “That’s your wife over there, isn’t it?” to which he said “Yep, 40 years”. This was just heart warming, and I thought what better way to spend one’s retirement than working part time in a nice shady spot at the Magic Kingdom with the one you love.

I noticed a store between Fantasyland and Liberty Square whose sign said that it sold Smuckers brand jellies and other kitchen utensils and since Bill loves to cook, I took us in. Inside was a complete selection of Villains merchandise instead, lol. I thought this was funny, since they hadn’t changed the outside signage at all - even the park printed maps didn’t say anything about Villains either. So although I had hoped to find what was really on the sign, it was great to see this shop. Disneyland used to have a Villains shop in the castle forecourt which has since changed names a few times. These days, it’s rarely, if ever, open and has crappy plush and cheap toys like all the other shops so it was a nice remembrance of the good old days to see this fully-stocked Villains store with new and interesting merchandise.

I think we then made it over to Splash and rode with no wait. Again, what a treat since DL’s line often exceeds 2 hours even in the slow season due to the new, lawsuit-proof logs which reduced our capacity to only 5 people per log instead of 7-8. This ride is vastly superior at WDW. Not only are the logs bigger and therefore offer better capacity, but the whole show is so much better executed that it really made me sad for DL’s poor neglected Splash. There are many more characters in this version and the lighting is much brighter. At DL, if you ride during the day in the sun, you miss half the interior show waiting for your eyes to adjust to the dark! WDW also has fully dimensional greenery hanging from the ceilings which create a much more realistic sense of what the Laughin’ Place is really supposed to be. There are many additional soundtracks here, too. Even in the queue line, there are little bird houses humming away which were adorable. Overall, the maintenance was much better here as well. I still found plenty of animatronics in need of adjustment and sprucing up, but nothing compared to the sad state of DL’s version. The only thing I can say in DL’s defense is our original America Sings animatronics really come off as higher caliber than the imitation ones that were created over a decade later for WDW’s version. Our eagles, alligators, and the whole cast on the showboat at the end are original America Sings figures from the 70’s, and I feel they were made just a little bit better back then. Maybe I just miss America Sings…

It was time for our 12:00 PS at Cinderella’s. We checked in at the podium outside, and soon were allowed into the waiting room which is inside the castle. I had never been in here and thought it was gorgeous. Basically, it was a big hall with loud kids waiting to eat lunch, but the theming was great. There are even tiny Gus and Jaq figures up in the rafters worth looking for while you’re waiting. After a little bit longer wait, we were told our table was ready and to either take the elevator or stairs up to the dining room. Again, upstairs the theming was very well articulated. The restaurant closes between meals and we were the first to arrive for lunch so it was cool entering a room full of empty tables. It gave us a quick chance to snap photos and check out the whole place before it (quickly) started to fill up with hungry guests. I knew that this was the hardest PS to get in all of WDW for breakfast, and it definitely showed - the carpet here was worn and dirty, no doubt from the masses of diners who eat here three times per day without fail. I imagine it would be quite a feat to close this place for rehab and disappoint so many young princesses (as the little girls here are referred to by the servers). I overlooked it, and enjoyed the place for what it was – charming. I had The Coachman, a turkey sandwich on focaccia bread, and a blueberry smoothie in the souvenir glass. Bill had Major Domo’s Favorite Pie which is described as sliced prime rib crowning a light pastry. My sandwich was good and the smoothie was excellent, if not a bit too sweet, but Bill’s dish was the best. The meat was more like brisket to me and, combined with the puff pasty, just made for a delicious lunch. I definitely know what I’ll be ordering if I ever have lunch here again! At a table below us (the seating is terraced), there was a Hispanic family of 2 adults and 3 kids having lunch. I couldn’t stop watching them because I was so impressed with the way the mother kept her kids in line. They were roughly 5,7 and 13. The 13 year old was very well behaved, but the other two kept trying to erupt and Mom simply wouldn’t have it. She was this beautiful, dignified thing who would talk calmly to her husband and then lash out at the little ones whenever they misbehaved. All in Spanish, of course. I nicknamed her “Evita” in my mind because of how regal she held herself. Not to mention, she had her hair up in a fancy bun like the former Argentinian might have, lol.

After lunch, we went to Tomorrowland and did the Timekeeper, which had miraculously reopened. I had only seen this once in France with English headphones in the back row so this was like a new experience for me. I knew that this, along with Carousel of Progress, would be open in place of Alien Encounter during our trip. To me, this was a total win-win. I never thought AE was anything special, and am a big fan of CoP, so to have two large capacity attractions open in place of one that I didn’t particularly care for was a big treat. Timekeeper was cool. I didn’t realize that Robin Williams voiced the lead character and he did a good job following his outstanding performance in Aladdin a couple years earlier. This isn’t the kind of attraction you repeat on every trip, but I’d see it once a year or so. This may contribute to why it’s been closed for years now, which is sad. I’d much rather see American Journeys in a Circle-Vision theatre myself, but just the fact that it was open was great. I remarked to Bill that I wondered how hard it was to resurrect attractions like this that had been closed so long. I wondered if it was bad for animatronics such as the Timekeeper and 9-Eye to sit idle for so long and then be put into daily operation suddenly. If anyone knows the answer to this one, I’d love to hear from you.

We then did Buzz Lightyear which has this awesome ride vehicle that accommodates a wheelchair. Bill was wheeled right up inside and didn’t have to move a muscle. Very impressive. The ride was fun but is definitely more geared to kids. I could see lots and lots of wear on the ride vehicles in missing paint spots, etc but it was understandable given the number of kids who ride this daily. We ran into Gerry again at this ride and he was wonderful again, helping us load and letting us ride twice in a row. On the second ride, Gerry got in the car behind us and rode through to have a competition on who scored the highest. As expected, he almost flipped the reels, so to speak, with some astronomical score. Bill and I, on the other hand, came in under the 3rd classification down on the board. I forget what the official title for that level is, lol. Our picture came out great but for some reason we didn’t buy it. I kept the ticket for it in case we wanted to buy it later. We then took a picture with Gerry in the “jail” scene in the exit area of the ride. I had been on Take Flight in 1996 and appreciated the fact that the original track layout had been preserved here as a slight homage to the past. I also noticed that the shape of the sign out front was the original from If You Had Wings, Dreamflight and Take Flight. I’m sure this was done to save money, but I preferred to think of it as another nod to the past, a feature which I like to see in the Disney parks. I noticed later that one of the signs over by Alien Encounter was in the same shape and realized that it must have been one of the original signs for Mission to Mars.

We took another picture with Gerry in front of CoP. Again, I was thrilled that this was open and available and we saw the show. Unfortunately, there were awful signs of neglect here. The outside building was terribly faded. When we were taking the picture in front of the entrance sign, I took a closer glance and actually found a wasp nest lodged in between a couple of the letters! And not an old one, but a live, active one. I almost told Gerry about it but didn’t want to seem like a nitpicker. I also didn’t feel like getting stung so I left it. If any of you visit CoP soon and have a can of bug spray with you, please do the honors, lol. The show was wonderfully nostalgic as always, and I hope this remains a part of Tomorrowland for a long time, or at least gets shipped back to Disneyland. Each of the “dad” animatronics was in a different condition, which was interesting…I noticed the ones in the first and last scenes were working better than the other ones. The carpet was horribly stained – so sad.

Our last item of the day at MK was the Share a Dream Come True Parade. Since we were leaving right after the parade, we chose a spot in Town Square so we could make a quick getaway. Unfortunately, the day parade starts in Frontierland, unlike Spectromagic which starts at Town Square, so there was a delay before it reached us because this parade stops for short street shows. And since the weather wasn’t brutal, they didn’t need to cut any of those street shows which made it that much longer of a wait. This reminded me of when I was in the Lion King Celebration at DL because it also had 4 show stops along the parade route. As the temperatures climbed, show stops would be cut, allowing us to pass by that segment of the audience only doing the parade travel loop. We’d always look forward to getting at least one of the stops cut <g>.

Anyway, this parade was not too bad, but not too great either. I think the main ingredient that makes a Disney parade enjoyable to me is the music. It has to be a catchy tune that you will carry with you after the parade is over and want to sing to yourself later, such as is the case with the Jammin’ Jungle Parade. It also should be one that makes you want to dance while you’re watching. This parade’s tune is pleasant enough but just has a simple rolling melody that never really reaches a pitch or crescendo and ends up just being elevator background music. It seems the creators of this parade instead chose to focus on character voiceovers rather than the music. Visually, it’s nice to look at and certainly superior to our Parade of the Stars at Disneyland, but I definitely liked the Remember The Magic parade of ’96-’99 much better. Given that even WDW seems to be running a 4-5 year interval of changing day parades, maybe SADCT is almost over anyway, so by our next trip I’ll look forward to something better. The sad news is that there’s been rumors that DL will receive this parade and re-work it as it’s 50th anniversary parade. Let’s hope not; the snowglobes-rolling-down-the-parade-route idea is just too merchandise oriented to me.

We left MK mid afternoon in search of the Wal-Mart in Kissimmee to get some more batteries for my digital camera. It was farther down the 192 than I had remembered from my last trip, but we eventually got there. Along the way we passed by the Gator Motel, which is a place I stayed at for 2 nights on my last trip. I noticed it was for sale and wished I could buy it and restore it to a true kitschy motel of the 70’s like it was meant to be! Alas, I didn’t have the courage to call and find out how much they wanted. I hope it’s still open next time I pass by. I also saw the Viking Motel across the way which is another place I tried for a few nights (I took my last trip with limited funds and went from motel to motel as I pleased). If any of you are looking for rock bottom priced accommodations, this is a cool little motel. Give it a try. We spent a little too long in Wal-Mart looking at the cheap non-Disney souvenirs but made it back and went to Epcot. This was the last day of the Food & Wine Festival so I wanted to experience a few booths while they were still open. We started at Mexico and made our way around to Canada where I had a PS for dinner. We contemplated skipping dinner and just loading up on F&W samples, but I knew Canada was one of the better restaurants (even CM Gerry had advised us not to skip it) so we just ate small bites. The quesadilla in Mexico was very good. I honestly don’t remember many of the other things we tried but I’m sure I spent around $20 on these little tidbits of culture. The lemon chicken at Morocco was a bit disappointing since they were all drumsticks and no white meat. Bill tried the Sangria from Spain which even I thought was good even though I don’t drink. It was still too early for dinner, so we stopped and watched part of a set from Off Kilter. I had read so much about this group from other trip reports that I felt I owed it to myself to see what the hype was. Well, they did not disappoint. These are some very talented musicians and they had more than their share of crazy female groupies in the front row. Before the show, I felt like standing up and yelling, “Is there a Sherri here?” but couldn’t risk the embarrassment. Unfortunately, they played so loudly that it almost hurt our ears so we left after 4-5 songs. I can understand the draw here, but I don’t think I would stop to watch very often simply because of the very high volume. I did find the bagpipes player very cool, though.

We headed over to Le Cellier to check in and my name was not there. The host then went inside to check the paper list of PS’s against the one on the screen, and still nothing. In the meantime, I was getting my itinerary out of my backpack to show him the confirmation number in case he needed it. Lo and behold, what do I find? Le Cellier was for the FOLLOWING night, not tonight! OMG, total embarrassment. Bill remarked that I finally made a mistake on this trip after being Mr. Perfect and organized all along. I had sunk to new lows! I apologized, and said we’d be back at the same time tomorrow night ? Worst of all, though, was that tonight was actually booked for dinner at Coral Reef, and it was already too late to sprint back to Future World to make it. I had really wanted to keep this one just to see the atmosphere there. I knew, based on reviews, that the food would probably only be mediocre and overpriced at that, but I still wanted to add it to my list of places I’ve been to. Instead, we ended up trying more F&W samples and finally being full enough to call it a night.

At some point in the evening we rode Maelstrom because we happened to be passing by and it had almost no wait. I had only been on this once before so it was fun to see it again. Short ride, but very cool – I wish every Epcot pavilion had such a good ride! Bill had never been, so I kept it quiet about the boat reversing itself for the little drop. Unfortunately, the boat clanks so much right beforehand that it’s pretty obvious that you’re not about the go forward out into the walkway below <g>.

We met Gerry at around 8:40 for Illuminations in front of Japan. He had suggested his favorite viewing area but it was already taken so we ended up somewhere near the Japanese arch that’s out in the water. We watched the show which was much better than when we had seen it from Rose & Crown, and I filmed it. My only complaint is that the earth ball sits there and spins much too long after it reaches it’s resting point. After the show, we walked towards Gerry’s cast member parking place and said goodbye near the Odyssey restaurant. It was so nice meeting this guy and we hope to see him again on our next trip. We headed towards the front entrance and noticed Mouse Gear was still open, going on 10pm now so of course we had to stop. This is The Emporium of Epcot, so there was plenty good stuff to be had. It was still early in our vacation, though, so we just made mental notes of what we wanted here and didn’t buy anything. On the way out, we walked through the Leave a Legacy tiles (or as Gerry told us is referred to as “The Mausoleum” by cast members). When I was here in ’99, they were working on this and had walls up all around the old planters. After seeing it myself, I’d say I found the idea of etching people’s faces onto metal kinda neat, but it ruined Epcot’s lovely entrance. I’d much rather they had stuck with the wide open planters. Worst of all, the clear sculpture that was in the planter in the center was gone! To me, this was always “the” icon of Epcot, changing colors at night while it sat silently as a beacon towards Spaceship Earth. Now, it must be in storage collecting dust or, worse yet, discarded. I can only hope it returns someday and that the Leave a Legacy could be moved somewhere else not quite so prominent.

This was a LONG day and we collapsed back at the hotel. I think you can definitely tell why I wasn’t able to write this report that very night!

Monday, November 17, 2003

THE PLAN: Visit Port Orleans, take boat ride to Downtown Disney to see the Treehouse Villas along the way, visit Old Key West, Disney Quest if time, lunch at Olivia’s at OKW, Epcot early afternoon, monorail to MK for Spectromagic, monorail back to Epcot for dinner at Le Cellier, stay for Illuminations if desired, over to Boardwalk to check out nighttime entertainment and possible dessert at Beaches & Cream

ACTUAL: When we were at AK 3 days ago we stopped at one of the million DVC booths scattered around property. Since one of the things I wanted to do on this trip was look into the possibility of purchasing, I went ahead and made us an appointment for this morning to get the official scoop on the Program. I had previously planned to purchase at Old Key West via resale because OKW has the lowest dues and I was looking to get into this with the smallest cash outlay possible.

We met with Kelli Jo from DVC at the Boardwalk office at 8am and spent about 90 minutes there. She started off by asking how much we knew about DVC already and tailored her spiel accordingly. Kelli was very knowledgeable about the whole program, as she had been selling DVC for 10 years! Of course, she knocked OKW pretty royally and when I said “But I hear most of the owners there love it?” she replied that “That’s because it was our first resort and they don’t know any better.” I thought that was a little snobbish, considering she was probably quite the proponent of OKW when it was new, but let it pass and we looked at the models for Saratoga Springs and Beach Club. We loved Saratoga, as it features dark woods in the furnishings which lends to a more warm atmosphere in the rooms. Beach Club is nice too (they all feature pretty much the same room layouts) but the pastel furnishings aren’t as inviting to me. A shame, too, because I absolutely loved Beach/Yacht Club from the outside, and it has a great location to boot. We also asked for some examples of how many points it would cost if we wanted to stay at the Contemporary or Polynesian sometimes. It turns out to be a very poor value and you’re better off paying for those separately, but this was where I appreciated Kelli Jo even more. She liked to insert her opinions a lot in our conversations and was very honest as opposed to the canned standard Disney responses you might expect when being pitched a timeshare. She said that she loves staying at the Contemporary herself when touring the parks with her family, but doesn’t like the Grand Floridian because “there’s lots of oompa loompa kids there”. In other words, the snotty rich ones who have everything handed to them on a plate. I thought that was so cool of her to be so open and honest! Personally I prefer to use the terms uppity, pretentious or fru fru, but Bill and I understood exactly what she meant. In fact, we saw plenty of those oompa loompa kids at the Contemporary, too <g>.

After the presentation, we concluded that we will think about it for 6 months or so and decide whether to buy direct from Disney or continue with the resale idea. Disney was offering a nice incentive of 100 free points to be used once only before May of 2004 when you buy at Saratoga, or a $5 per point credit towards your purchase, both of which were nice perks. The only disappointment I had about Saratoga was that all the concept art of the place depicts it as being primarily painted in shades of green (no relation to the military resort) when in fact it’s shaping up to be a collection of various pastel colors – a little too cartoony for me.

After the presentation, I wanted to squeeze in a quick visit to Disney Quest so we parked at DTD and walked over and found that it didn’t open until 11:30! That idea got thrown out and we walked the long way to the Marketplace instead. We grabbed a small breakfast at McDonald’s and took a few pictures of the great Lego displays outside in the water. I loved the snoring lego man sitting on the bench! (3 weeks later back at DL I realize we have the exact same snoring guy in front of our Lego store too, and he’s in better condition because he’s newer – who knew? lol) We took quick ganders in the Christmas Store, Once Upon a Toy, the scrapbook store, and the pin store. This was basically to get an idea of what was available at DTD vs. what we might have to buy in the Parks instead. I left Bill at the wonderful Mickey “barrels” fountain in front of World of Disney while I went back to get the SUV. We then went to OKW for the first time.

OKW is a lot more secluded and “close to nature” than I had envisioned. All the villages seem to back up to forest, which really makes you feel like you are in a remote area which was nice, since you’re actually right there in the heart of everything. We went into Olivia’s for our lunch PS and were seated quickly. I ordered the buttermilk chicken breast because I had read good things about it and Bill had the penne with asagio cheese. He also started with the conch chowder, something he had remembered from the days of living in Florida. Everything was excellent. We were full, but Bill wanted to try the Key Lime pie (another favorite from childhood) and when our server came to get the dessert order, I said I wanted one bite of the caramel apple crumble but was too full to actually order it. He returned with the Key Lime pie AND the crumble and told me I couldn’t leave until I finished it! It was delicious (I made it about halfway through it) and he didn’t charge us for that or the conch chowder, since he had forgotten to bring it before the meal. The whole experience was a pleasure and I’d definitely eat here again. We had originally booked a breakfast PS here but changed it after reading multiple bad reviews, so I’m glad we changed it to lunch.

After lunch I took a few pictures of the lobby and pool area while Bill sat out by the dock in the sun to warm up. I didn’t see any jacuzzis, only a kiddie pool, and I hope that indeed this resort has them, since they were sorely missed back at CBR. I felt that this resort was maybe a tiny bit neglected maintenance-wise because it was the oldest of the DVCs, but aside from peeling paint on roofs and faded colors on buildings, I could live with it for the lower maintenance fee price!

On our way out we drove through and saw all the different buildings to get an idea just how big the resort was, then left for Epcot. It was hot today – ok, probably only 85, but with the humidity and intense sunlight, it felt like 95 browsing around OKW taking pictures.

At Epcot we did Test Track, Mission Space and Universe of Energy. The latter I noticed had new signage in the front which I think I had read on MousePlanet was being done. I’m not sure why ExxonMobil spent the money to do this as they really didn’t look that much different than the old ones other than perhaps changing to a more “modern” font. I thought the money could have been better spent inside the attraction, or maybe putting in a working fountain in the pool out front, but hey, at least this ride still HAS a sponsor! Anyway, the ride was pretty much as I had remembered. Ellen’s role is cute, but the whole movie and ride goes on too long. I absolutely love the ride vehicles and how they move through the scenes technology-wise, but this ride could use an update. At the end, when you come back and see the final film part of the attraction, I noticed I could hear the dinosaur sounds pretty loudly from the ride-through section which is actually right next door blocked by a curtain. I asked the CM if it was always like this and he told me that actually the electric wall that normally separates the film room from the dinosaur room was broken and there was no way to block the sound from the dinosaurs because they were always on. I felt bad for the poor ride that this bit of maintenance wasn’t being attended to! I was very surprised, though, that the animation was on continuously all day, because truthfully the ride vehicles only pass by, at most, once every 45 minutes. That means that poor Ellen animatronic is working her tail off for noone, lol. At DL, the Primeval World that you see when riding the steam trains only comes on when a train is about to pass and rests the rest of the time. Considering this is a 60’s installment, I was very surprised that a more sophisticated attraction like UofE, built 20 years later, didn’t have this feature.

We took the monorail over to the MK for Spectromagic and to hopefully buy our Buzz Lightyear picture that we had taken the day before. Luckily, it was still in their computer and we were able to purchase it. Good thing, because last night I had called the store from Guest Relations in Epcot and got nothing but a busy signal. Turns out the phones in the photo location didn’t work at all according to the CM there that rung me up! Since we were in Tomorrowland, we got ice cream at Auntie Gravity’s which had no line (a nice change from DL’s ice cream locations!) and went over to Spectro, which was great as always. We were right in Town Square to make it easier to catch a monorail fairly quickly back to Epcot. Unfortunately, Monorail Lime had broken down which caused them to have to use ONLY the resort line to serve everyone while the TTC line was down. While waiting, we saw Lime being towed along the track, poor thing. It took forever to get back to the TTC and since we weren’t on the usual track, we couldn’t just walk over to the Epcot line without going back down and up the ramps again. This normally wouldn’t be a problem but with a wheelchair and after another exhausting day, it was not welcome! On the other hand, it was nice that the Epcot station has an elevator - a reminder that this station was newer than that of the TTC.

We made it back in plenty of time for our PS at Le Cellier (on the correct night this time!) and noticed along the way that most of the Food & Wine booths were still up, but closed. Some of them, like the Kitchen Kabaret area, also had temporary walls around them which disappointed me because I never got a chance to see the former characters of this beloved AA show. Le Cellier is such a popular restaurant at dinnertime that even with a PS and in off season, we still had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated. It was well worth it, though, what a great meal! The comments I had read about how dark and dingy this place was were totally unfounded as we loved the atmosphere. Our server Will was from Quebec and brought the food out quickly. We both had the cheese soup which totally rocks (I need to get the recipe from WDWIG) and the mushroom filet as our entrée. We were much too full for dessert but were totally satisfied here and this will definitely be on our list of repeat restaurants. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to see O Canada beforehand and never did make it on this trip. I know it’s outdated, but I mostly wanted to see it to hear the song loudly, plus Bill had never seen it.

On our way out we rode Spaceship Earth finally, my favorite ride at Epcot. The wheelchair entrance is through a side door to the Global Neighborhood and the CMs were as accommodating as ever in loading us. It helped that the ride was almost deserted by this time, too. The ride seemed to be the same as it was in ’96 and ’99 which made me happy, but I thought the video screens at the beginning that tell you to remain seated, etc etc etc, were new. I also noticed that the multi-color “waves” behind them weren’t lit brightly at all anymore, and thought that this might have been due to the new monitors’ brightness in the room ruining the effect. Another casualty of safety precautions, I guess. Other than that, I enjoyed the ride and the bumpiness of the cars seemed to be better than before. I really hope the rumors of this ride being turned into a roller coaster will never happen. I’m not against thrill rides by any means, but I don’t think one of Epcot’s remaining classics should be cannibalized for it. SE is exactly what Epcot should have been to me – educational, unique in construction, and makes you dream and wonder. I especially love the descending half of the ride. Sure, some of the fiber optic effects look dated, but it doesn’t matter to me – in fact, in anything it serves to remind me how amazing Disney was in general in the 70s and 80s. So, rather than complain that the ride is old and tired, I simply place myself in the past and imagine what it must have been like for those first riders. I can still keep that magic alive thanks to imagination, and I hope many more of Epcot’s guests do the same. I’m very curious about the chronology of changes to this ride and have posted a thread at MP asking if anyone knows the full history, since I missed everything that happened prior to 1996. (UPDATE: I got quite a few responses to the thread which helped fill in the blanks for me. It turns out there is a lot of history there, and it’s too bad I’ve missed some of the earlier incarnations of the ride).

On our way out we felt like we were the only ones in all of Epcot – kind of eerie, but nice too. Both Epcot’s and the MK’s parking lots today were empty, so I guess indeed we picked the right week to visit. Back at the hotel, it was time to do some laundry or we wouldn’t have anything to wear tomorrow so I ended up doing 2 loads. At $2 each shot + 1 extra dry cycle, it cost 10 bucks which I thought was a little over the top. The laundry room at Jamaica was absolutely freezing and the thermostat was locked so I couldn’t even adjust it. While waiting for the laundry I wanted to swim a little but our pool was still too full of screaming kids to make it look appealing. Instead, I walked next door to Aruba’s pool. The parking lot of this village was totally empty when we came home, so much so that I thought they might have even closed this section due to low occupancy. Everyone must have just been late getting home because by the time I got there, the pool was in use just like ours. I bit the bullet and swam a little while, dried off, and went back to a hammock in front of Jamaica to wait for the dryers. As much as I love these hammocks, they get moist at night from the humidity so it was kind-of icky to sit there. But damnit, I wanted to experience lying there and looking up at the stars, and that I did. Bill knows nothing of all this, since he was fast asleep by this point! I had hoped this would be an earlier evening getting to bed but as usual it didn’t happen. And that’s OK, I’m still at WDW on vacation!

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

THE PLAN: Pick a park or Disney Quest or DTD in the morning, lunch at Marrakesh in Morocco, Wishes at MK, monorail to Polynesian for dinner at O’Hana, Electrical Water Pageant from Poly beach.

ACTUAL: We chose MGM as the park for this morning, mainly because we hadn’t been there much and still had attractions left to do, plus we wanted repeat trips on ToT and RnRC. We arrived slightly after the early entry time, but this was actually good because we didn’t have to wait in front with the masses and instead just strolled in. By the way, it was almost comical how severe some of the CMs were at the entry gates on the EE mornings during this whole trip, making sure we all had resort ID’s and reminding us that this one solitary hour was for resort guests ONLY. They were just doing their job, but you almost felt like if you were at the front gates and were not a hotel guest, that you would be severely scolded for even being out of bed that early.

We did ToT first with a very short wait then went to RnRC to find that it was having a delayed opening, so I got FastPasses instead. With each new morning I was learning that it was not wise to skip breakfast so we stopped at Anaheim Produce to get a fruit bowl and orange juice. This is just a little food stand, not a full restaurant and I was amazed that it was open in the off season and right when the park opened. Once again, at DL, places like this only open on peak days, and even then only like 11-4, or what they consider “peak dining times”. At any rate, I was happy to see this and paid my Disney Dollars.

Bill wanted something sweeter so I took him to Starring Rolls, knowing it’s the breakfast place at MGM most mentioned in trip reports. It was a decent bakery – nothing out of this world, but nice to have in the park. Bill got a cinnamon roll and I had to try one of the jelly rolls since they reminded me of raspberry Zingers in appearance. It was quite good and full of jelly (duh) rather than fake cream and I’d definitely have another one if I was here in the morning again! We finished quickly, and found that most of the rest of the park wasn’t open yet, so we strolled through a few stores. Most of the merchandise was the same stuff we had seen everywhere else, but we enjoyed the watch shop on Sunset Blvd. and chatting with the CMs there. As we were getting ready to leave, I noticed a huge bug crawling along and pointed it out to the elderly lady CM who was telling us about the watches. She jumped away and some other CM ended up squashing it for us. I don’t know what it was, but it was about the size of a Palm Springs date (us California natives aren’t used to bugs this big and a date was the first thing that came to mind as being roughly the same size and color, lol) We then went back to RnRC to use our FastPass and I was scolded by a CM from the east coast about taking pictures inside the waiting area. I’m fine with rules like that, but she was ridiculously rude about it which I didn’t appreciate.

We made our way over to the Studio Tram Tour and were in line for the first tour of the morning. I had remembered this tour being not nearly as cool as Universal’s, but I still wanted to see it to see if anything had changed. In the first demonstration area with the water, the show had been altered a little bit. In ’96, my friend was chosen to go up and I remember they put a yellow raincoat on him and he was steering a ship and getting water sprayed on him. This time was different, but it had the same jist to it. It’s always funnier when someone you know is on the stage!

The tour itself was fine, nothing special, but our well-articulated tour guide from Louisiana was pleasant. She did the spiel almost robotically with over-accentuated English that made you think she was probably tired of the repetition, but it came off as professional which was a nice change from, say, some of the tram operators at DL who often give their spiel as if you’re at a rock concert. I almost felt as if we were traveling through a museum because it was very quiet backstage – which goes right along with the rumors about WDFA – Florida about to close. I felt more like we were being escorted through backstage at DL, what with all the costumes and wigs from the parks that we saw as opposed to more film-based props and sets. It was sad to tram past the former site of Residential Street, knowing that yet another stunt show was coming to MGM (Indy was boring enough, now they want to add another, albeit better, one?) and I mourned the loss of my beloved Golden Girls’ home. After the tour I asked our tour guide where the former Hunchback show was located and she pointed in some direction but I never did make it over to see if the theatre was still standing. That, along with the Hunchback Festival of Fools at DL, was a great show that I wish was still playing.

We then stood in the short line to tour the sets and props from the Haunted Mansion movie. This was a really nice display of the ballroom set, but the CM spiel was a little silly, plus the gentleman giving it wasn’t exactly polished. It was tough to stand up in there and watch the film they showed since there is nowhere to sit and I was tired, but it was still nice to see.

By this point the late nights and early mornings were catching up to me and I could barely push the wheelchair anymore so we left for CBR to take a nap. When we got there, the normal entry to our corridor was taped off for painting. As we walked towards the door to get a closer look, a gardner snake jetted out from under a bush and crossed the path into the bushes on the other side. Wow, those things move FAST! I guess they’re not of a poisonous nature but it was still creepy to see one only a few feet from our room. From that point on I stopped leaving the door propped open with the security bar and closed it tight each time <g>. I placed a wake up call for an hour later and we were out cold within seconds. Mickey called on time and I think I answered the phone this time but I’m not even sure if I remember hearing his recorded voice or not.

We parked at the Poly since we had a PS for O’Hana tonight, and rode the Monorail over to the MK. We hadn’t been to Adventureland at all yet so that was our first stop. Bill needed a smoke break so we stopped at the most beautiful, serene smoking area just at the entrance to Adventureland. WDW certainly wins points in aesthetics for smokers, sheesh. I certainly don’t condone it, but they’ve made the areas very liveable for them. I figured out that this area was formerly part of the outdoor dining for the Adventureland Verandah. I had read on some fan site about the history of this place, which was very interesting. Always being the nostalgic who longs for the past (including the past I was never part of!), I peeked in some of the doorways trying to locate the main dining room and caught a few glances of the 70’s alive and well behind locked doors. It was nice to know that, should Disney one day make the smart decision to reopen this location, that the infrastructure is still there ready to go. Of course, WDW already has 5 times as many restaurants as DL, so I won’t hold my breath.

The sight of Aladdin’s Magic Carpets didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would, so I was okay with it being there - at least it adds ride capacity. It was nice to see the spitting camels, which I’m pretty sure were the exact ones plucked from the float that I worked in front of during DL’s Aladdin’s Royal Caravan back in 1993. That’s now two places where DL parade parts have been salvaged to be used at WDW! We were starving by this point and we had decided yesterday to skip today’s lunch PS at Marrakesh, one because it wasn’t convenient to go to Epcot just for lunch, and two because I had planned on ordering the lemon chicken but after tasting it at F&W, knew it wasn’t for me. Instead, I was pleased to try Pecos Bill because I had read about the toppings bar. I think I could live on mushrooms, I love them that much and this bar has them sizzling in a skillet with a LIVE body there to cook them for you! The only topping bar I can think of at DL is in Taste Pilot’s Grill in DCA and there, it’s simply tomatoes, lettuce, onions and condiments – nothing prepared in front of you and certainly no CM there to keep it going. I was truly impressed and wished we could get something like this at our Hungry Bear or Tomorrowland Terrace locations at DL. The Share a Dream Come True parade was going by so it was quite a feat to get here from Adventureland, but we were rewarded with no lines at all to get the food. I couldn’t believe the size of the dining room for this place! Fantastic use of space. I had to wonder, though, if it ever filled up with guests on busy days and, if so, I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to be at the MK on a day like that. This was one of many times where I realized just how much more packed the MK must get than DL does - it showed in the sheer size of the restaurants alone. I saw the empty seating area of El Pirata y El Perico through closed gates and thought geez, is this yet another overflow seating area for this place? It wasn’t until later when we went on PoTC that I realized this was a separate restaurant. Anyway, Bill got a cheeseburger and fries combo while I went with a double bacon cheeseburger with carrots. That was way more food than I needed, but then again when you add 2 lbs of sauteed mushrooms to any dish it can become too much. I was so impressed, though, that they gave you a choice of carrots over fries – DL definitely needs to add a healthier option like that.

I forgot to mention that earlier when we were fighting parade crowds to get to Pecos Bill, we stopped in front of the CBJ which was closed for the Christmas makeover. A very sweet older lady CM was in front and not only did she tell us how to get to Pecos Bill the fastest, she also “whispered” that the CBJ Christmas version might be open sooner than it’s official date and we might want to check back early. I thought that was cute.

Splash Mountain had a little bit of a wait so we got Fast Passes and went on PoTC instead. I had been on this on both previous trips but had forgotten how absolutely awful it is! The order of the scenes is so horribly executed, plus so many elements of DL’s version are missing. I could finally say that I was proud of something from home vs. what I was seeing here at WDW. I would love to see this classic get a complete makeover at the MK. Between DL’s and DLP’s awesome version, this one gets a D- from me.

We went to the Tiki Room but found it has limited wheelchair seating and we had missed the current show, so we got Dole Whips and headed back only to miss it again. I wasn’t about to miss one of my favorite older animatronic shows, so we sat there and waited for the next show. I enjoy this new version, unlike many trip report writers who long for the old one. I guess I can feel this way because I have the original right in my own backyard that I can visit anytime so in essence I have the best of both worlds. They put wheelchairs on the side closest to the exit doors which would have been fine except that the tiki goddess who pops up in the center where the pineapple fountain used to be doesn’t really face that way very well. I was impressed with her in ’99 when I first saw the show and was sorry I didn’t get to study her movements better. She seemed a little less fluid and polished from 4 years prior, though. I made Bill wait for everyone else to exit so that we could hear all of Iago’s “closing” remarks which were funny, especially the one about taking a nap in the Hall of Presidents. I love it, a direct jab at your own park made in jest, like it should be! I loved the carved wooden exit doors and the sign above them stating “Caution – Automagic Doors” in groovy 70’s font. It’s touches like these that remind me of Disney’s great past. By the way, The Dole whips are as good here as they are at DL, but served in ridiculously tiny plastic cups! I couldn’t believe how small the single serving of whip was. They do offer a swirl of vanilla and pineapple whip, though, which DL doesn’t, probably because our Tiki Juice Bar is so limited on space.

We took care of our Splash FP and had another great ride, then Bill wanted something sweet so I got him a rice krispy treat and I tried a sugar free peanut butter cup. They were both good and surprisingly the latter didn’t have an after taste at all. It was about time to start finding a spot for Wishes and I noticed people sitting at a little landing at water level below the Plaza Pavilion. We went over there and asked the CM at the rope if this was a wheelchair section and she appeared flustered, like there was a whole story here to tell. After gathering her thoughts, she told us that this was an area that people reserved in advance, but since we were there, to just come on in. This was so sweet! We gave her absolutely no reason to extend a courtesy like this to us but she did anyway, and that was going above and beyond in our opinion. In fact, it was instances like these throughout our trip that reinforced my notion that if you are pleasant and polite to CMs, they will return the favor. So many guests approach CMs with an irate attitude and I think they deserve to be rewarded laterally. At any rate, we thanked her profusely for the offer but didn’t stay there because we felt it should be left to the people who actually reserved it. We ended up getting an equally good spot along a narrow pathway between the Hub and Tomorrowland. This is a great place to see Wishes – noone stands or sits in front of you, it’s quiet so you can hear the soundtrack as it’s intended, and the view isn’t obstructed at all. While we were waiting, I went to get Bill a drink. I hadn’t been to Cosmic Ray’s and I loved the 70’s looking outdoor seating that I had seen from Tomorrowland’s entrance, so I decided to get the drink there. It was great inside – this is another place where time has stood still at the MK and it still looks like it would have in the 70’s. So much of DL’s past has been altered or razed that even though the MK is a newer park, in some places it actually feels older and I enjoyed the trip down memory lane. I heard some music and found that it was Sonny Eclipse, an AA figure in the dining area. It was so cool that they had some kind of entertainment like this for the diners. It was just like being at Chuck E. Cheese in 1985 when there was a piano bar type room separate from the screaming kids where Dolli Dimples or Artie Antlers entertained diners for free.

I filmed Wishes tonight and it was much better from this vantage point than from Town Square the previous time. Overall, I think it’s a great show, but I tire of the Disney medleys. I would have preferred a lot more original music and more verses of the “Wishes” song instead of a rehash of the biggest money making Disney movies of all time. It’s funny how big of a hype it’s become even among the WDW cast members. I guess they don’t realize that we’ve had Believe…back home at DL for 4 years and that choreographed pyro is nothing new to us. But there were several new types of fireworks in this show vs. even Believe, so it was very impressive to watch. I overheard someone saying that Michael Eisner liked Wishes so much that he wants it brought to DL for the 50th anniversary. Fine with me, but at least create a new soundtrack unique to DL rather than cloning an existing attraction like you’re so infamous for doing. We took an extra long time to exit the park to avoid the Monorail lines. I went into Uptown Jewelers because I had wanted to get prices on some collectibles behind the watch counter but the two CMs working there were too busy to even notice that I was there. One of them was involved with a cast member who was returning merchandise from another department for a credit. It was a big fiasco because it was from another department and the register didn’t want to recognize the bar codes. The girl doing the returning was obviously a merchandise CM herself, because she kept trying to tell the old fogie behind the counter which buttons to push but he wouldn’t listen and kept trying it “his” way. I never did hear the end of it because I gave up and left, but I bet this poor girl learned to just have her supervisor process her return, in her own area from now on!

We got back on the Monorail fairly quickly and checked in at O’Hana. The CM at the podium was funny – she was obviously a little tired or worn out from the constant flow of guests. Bill was a little ways away from me when I checked in, and she said, “Is this cousin with you?” All I could think was poor girl, here she has to call everone “cousin” as per the rules of the restaurant, but when it’s said in such a lethargic tone, it comes off as comedic. Anyway, we were seated about 15 minutes after our assigned time and were in the quieter area in a corner which was just what I wanted. I wasn’t interested in competing in a hula contest, and there were no fireworks to see out the window, so this table was great. The food here was excellent and remains one of my favorite dining establishments in all of WDW. Last time I was here in 1996, I was so sick with the flu that I couldn’t taste my meal at all so it was almost like a first visit for me. We loved the pineapple spear with caramel sauce that comes after your meal. Excellent! It almost seemed that they screw themselves out of dessert revenue by including the pineapple at everyone’s table, but I wasn’t complaining. We ordered dessert anyway – Bill got the passionfruit cheesecake to go, and I got the Beach Bomb which is their name for shaved ice. Snow cones and the like are one of my favorite desserts and I was dying to see what was so special about this one to make it 4.95. It did not disappoint! This was a plastic sand pail that a kid would use on the beach, filled with ice, with a plastic shovel to boot! I had asked our server, “Is this gonna be like every other snow cone where it’s all ice at the top and just a little syrup at the bottom?” He told me, “I’ll make sure it’s not like that”. He didn’t lie – my dessert was more like a quart of mixed syrups with a few ice particles floating in it than a true snow cone! What sheer heaven. I couldn’t even finish it, which was rare for me. If you like shaved ice, or the Kaki Goris from Japan in Epcot, definitely try this – but you might want to share it with the whole table; it’s big!

Back at CBR, I checked the jacuzzi at Old Port Royale once again to discover it full of adults, and with no jets on. What’s the point of sitting in hot water? I could do that in the bathtub. Which is exactly what Bill did – took a bath. I gave up once again on the prospect of soothing my tired muscles compliments of CBR and just refilled our mugs and wrote trip report notes.

With each passing day we kept remembering that we hadn’t visited the Disney outlets like we wanted to, and were worrying that we might be purchasing stuff at full price in the parks that we could find later on sale. More on that later.

Looking ahead on the itinerary, we also notice that we only have one more day of the Parks and feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface. I really want to go to Busch Gardens on Thursday since I haven’t been since before Gwazi opened, but then it hits me – the Fairytale Package came with Ultimate Park Hoppers for the entire length of your stay, up until midnight on the date of checkout (the 20th). That meant that we actually had admission available to the Parks on the 20th as well, which I hadn’t realized at all (idiot!) Well, the choice of driving to Tampa and paying over $100 more for 1-day admissions vs. another day of four parks at no extra cost was pretty easy to make. I can’t believe I didn’t catch this, and it made our package that much greater of a deal. Since we arrived so early on our first day, we actually got 8 full days of admission with our 7-night package!

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

THE PLAN: Epcot early entry, lunch at Nine Dragons, MGM afternoon & see Stars & Motor Cars parade, Fantasmic dinner package with Brown Derby, Downtown Disney, pack up for move to other hotel

ACTUAL: We made it in plenty of time for Epcot’s early entry opening and got the same amusing feeling from the CMs working at the gate – that this whole one hour early thing was a very exclusive, clandestine operation that were were privy to, lol. I suppose in theory that if the resorts were full, more than 15,000 guests could be “privy” too – but this morning, there were but a couple hundred. This was our first and only day of rain throughout our entire trip, which I know is rare for Orlando. I was actually glad to see the rain – I am always so amazed at the flora of this area that I find myself hoping for rain at least every few day