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Suzanne Payne -- March 2004 -- Walt Disney World (BWV, BCV)Cast of Characters
Introduction We have gotten on an every other year plan for WDW. I teach school full time and work part time for an educational software company. My husband is a farmer and cannot take time off in the summer, so we’ve resigned ourselves to spring break (March) trips. This year the company I work for part time was having their National Conference in Orlando during our spring break. I was a little bummed because I didn’t want anything to interfere with my WDW trip and I was hoping to get to visit Orlando twice in one year. Oh well, you’ve got to take lemons and make lemonade. We decided to leave 3 days before spring break started so we could have plenty of time when I wouldn’t be working. I am a planner and have an excel spreadsheet with each day planned and all our priority seating numbers. It’s a sick disease, but I’m a born over organizer. We typically follow fairly close to our plan, but deviate when necessary. At the beginning of each day I’ve listed our original plan and the description following tells what we actually accomplished. Wednesday, March 10th Plan: Arrive at Boardwalk, eat supper at Beaches & Cream, get Lauren’s hair wrapped Everything went very smooth with our flights and we arrived in Orlando about 4:15 that afternoon. As we exited the plane, I could smell the smell that warms my heart...CINNABON!! We do not have a location in my hometown, so we decided to pick a 4-pack up to enjoy for breakfast. We rented our car and were off to Albertson’s for some groceries. As we left Albertson’s we were getting hungry and figured we might as well go ahead and grab something to eat. So we drove through Chick-fil-A and blazed a trail to BWV. Check in was super fast and the CMs were very friendly. Lauren was carrying the Cinnabon box and one CM kept telling her that it would cost 4 cinnabons to get our room. We were in room 3085, a dedicated standard studio. It was located right at the Y in the hallway and directly across from the staircase and windows over looking the Keister Coaster. It was also next door to the ice and vending, but we never heard a sound from that room. We dumped our stuff and went down to get a hair wrap. By this time it was dark and very cool. We checked out a few of the stores and stopped to watch the clown. After that we headed up to the room to unpack and catch the upper fireworks of Illuminations. Thursday, March 11th Plan: Epcot, Lunch at Garden Grill, Illuminations We arrived at Epcot just before opening. I was really surprised how small the crowd was waiting to get enter. As the rope dropped, we headed to TT with everyone else in the park and grabbed FP. We strolled over to the Universe of Energy, but it unfortunately broke down just before entering the dinosaur room. We walked off and went through Innoventions to Spaceship Earth. After riding we noticed the character bus by the Leave a Legacy (tomb)stones. We were able to get lots of autographs and pictures! We walked back through Innoventions, stopping briefly to check out the Segway demo, then on to Test Track. Next we went over to the Imagination Pavilion. We picked up FP for Honey I Shrunk the Audience and went on Journey Into Your Imagination. While the ride was improved somewhat, it is still a lame ride with many areas where you’re looking a nothing. We stopped in Image Works to play around and send postcards to family & friends. We hadn’t seen HISTA in 4 years and enjoyed the show. We headed over to the land for our PS, but I grabbed FP for Living with the Land first. It has been about 7 years since we had eaten here and the food was fine. It was not bad; it just wasn’t cooked or seasoned the way we like. Our PS was for 12:30 and the restaurant was not crowded at all. The character interaction was wonderful! Each character came by about 3 times. I got the cutest picture here. Lauren was leaning on the railing watching the boats go by, and Pluto came up, put his arm around her and looked over the side with her. It was so cute!! We rode LWTL and started our trek back to the International Gateway. We stopped in Canada so Lauren could start her Kidcot mask and ran into the bears from Brother Bear. We also stopped at the UK to work on the mask and saw Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet. Lloyd decided to go back to the room to rest, but Lauren and I wanted to see Miyuki the candy artist in Japan. But first we saw Aurora on the IG path, so we HAD to stop, then we saw Belle & Beast in France, and Jasmine in Morocco. This was such a big change from our last trip when the characters had been taken out of World Showcase. We couldn’t throw a stick this time without hitting a character. Miyuki was great and made Lauren a yellow dragon and we trekked back to BWV to swim. The pool was freezing and it was crowded, but Lauren made a friend and had a great time going down the slide together. After our swim and a rest we went back to Epcot to see the American Adventure. Lauren and I both love this show. Lloyd is the reluctant WDW traveler and doesn’t get into everything as much as we do, but he was still having a good time. We walked around to Norway and Mexico to ride the rides and get some pressed pennies. We also got Lloyd some food from the Sommerfest and Lauren a hot dog from Liberty Inn. It was getting to be about time for Illuminations, so we stopped in front of the Japan pavilion and staked our spots. The crowds were so light that right at show time we were able to walk right up to the fence to watch. The show was amazing as usual. Friday, March 12th Plan: Magic Kingdom, Crystal Palace breakfast, Ohana for supper We had an 8:05 PS at Crystal Palace, but were running late. I made sure we stopped and had our picture made by one of the photographers in front of the castle. Lloyd is not much of a breakfast eater and didn’t want to spend the money if he wasn’t going to eat, so he decided to wait outside. I asked the hostess if he could come sit with us but not eat and she said that was no problem. Breakfast was very good. The characters seemed a little slow and we finally left without seeing Tigger. Next we headed to Tomorrowland. I went to get FP for Space Mountain and Lloyd & Lauren went to get in line for Buzz. They rode Buzz one time through, then we met up and rode it again. After Buzz we went on the TTA and Carousel of Progress. Finally we were ready for Space Mt, but right as we were ready to board…it broke down. All the lights came on which was neat, but it took about 30 minutes to get it going again. Next, we got FP for Mickey’s Philharmagic and caught Alice, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter & Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum by the teacups. We ran into Toontown and saw Snow White and all 7 dwarfs coming down the path. They stopped near Mickey’s house and sat in the grass. You couldn’t get autographs or individual pictures, but it was a great photo op. Around the corner we saw some other characters including a penguin from Mary Poppins. I had never seen him before. We took a quick spin on Snow White and went over to Philharmagic. We all loved it!! We headed into Liberty Square to get FP for Haunted Mansion. We bought some hot dogs at a stand and sat on a bench by the Hall of Presidents to eat. We walked into the foyer of the HoP to look around, then went to ride HM. After riding Haunted Mansion we were pooped and started back for the BW stopping to buy our picture on MS. We headed to the pool for some R&R and the craziest thing happened. We all noticed this little girl and thought she looked just like the little girl Lauren had played with on our trip 2 years ago. We spoke to her parents and sure enough it was her!! Talk about a small world!! There was a water balloon toss by the pool, so they were partners and picked up where they left off. We took naps and took off for the Poly. We checked in at Ohana and waited about 5 minutes before being led to our table. I had planned our PS so we would be able to see Wishes. We weren’t directly by the windows facing the water, but we still had a great view. The food was wonderful and Lauren had a great time with the coconut races and hula hoping. Wishes started about 8:00 and it was really magical. I could not wait to see it from in front of the castle! After supper we called it a night. Saturday, March 13th Plan: Blizzard Beach, MGM, Fantasmic! We ate in the room and hit the road for Blizzard Beach. We got a locker and grabbed some chairs in the Ski Patrol area. Lauren played in that area for a little bit then we rode the ski lift to the top to ride the family raft ride. We also rode the toboggan sleds and played in the wave pool. We took a spin on the lazy river, then got some lunch at Lottawatta Lodge. The food was fine and we went back to the wave pool for a while, then headed back to the room. After a rest, we went to MGM. Our first stop was The Great Movie Ride. Next, Lauren and I rode Star Tours and then we all ate at the Backlot Express. A cheerleading competition was going on at the Indiana Jones arena, so we caught a few minutes of that and went to the sound booth by Sounds Dangerous. Then it was time to grab a spot for Fantasmic. We had missed it on our last trip and I had forgotten how wonderful it is!! After this we were done for the night! Sunday, March 14th Plan: MGM, Pizza Planet for lunch, Magic Kingdom We headed first to get FP for ToT then walked on to RnRC. I love that ride!! We immediately headed back to ride again and this time we were in the last seats. I won’t do that again. It’s a whole different ride back there and Lauren was feeling a little queasy afterward. Our time for ToT had arrived, but Lloyd sat it out and Lauren decided she wasn’t feeling too good either and sat out. So, off I went on my own. It was great! Next I grabbed FP for Who Wants to be a Millionaire and we caught some characters in front of the hat. We stopped in One Man’s Dream and the movie was about to start so we ran to the theater. After that we rushed around to WWTBAM. I didn’t get to spend at much time in OMD as I had hoped and we never made it back. Oh well, something to do next time. It was our first time for WWTBAM and we really enjoyed it. We stopped in the Honey I Shrunk the kids playground and got some great photos. We had been promising Lauren since our last trip that we would eat at Pizza Planet. The food was typical fast food fare. Lloyd and I both got salads & pizza and we all 3 shared. We went back to rest/swim and do some laundry. Lauren saw her friend again and had fun playing with her. That night, Lauren and I went to the Magic Kingdom because it was going to be open till 11:00. We got FP for Buzz then headed over to Aladdin, saw the Tiki Birds and took a trip to the Caribbean. We caught the train around to Toontown and saw Cinderella. We were getting hungry so we stopped in Cosmic Ray’s for a bite to eat. This was a great surprise! I know we had gotten fries in here before, but it had been many years since I had been inside. I got the Italian Stacked Sandwich, Lauren got vegetable soup and we shared French fries. My sandwich was huge and very fresh!! Lauren is picky and doesn’t eat burgers or sandwiches, but loves soups!! We were pleased to find something fast other than burgers. It was time for Wishes, so we found a spot in front of the castle. Again it was amazing! I love it!! We went against the crowd to Splash Mountain. After that we rode the train to Toontown again and hit our FP for Buzz. By this time we were played out and headed back to the room. Monday, March 15th Plan: Animal Kingdom, Flame Tree Barbecue for lunch, check in at Rosen Plaza We were checking out today so we had bell services hold our bags till we came back after lunch. We stopped at It’s Tough to be a Bug then got FP for the Safari. We caught the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Lauren loved the petting zoo and we also saw Meeko & Pocahontas. Lauren was searching and searching for the talking trashcan, but he was never around. We took our safari trip then went to get Lauren a FP for Kali River Rapids. Her FP was for 2:00 and we weren’t sure we would still be around, and on top of that it was currently closed due to maintenance problems. About that time we noticed some of the boats coming by and sure enough it reopened. We sent Lauren on her journey and made sure to spray her when she came by the elephants. We quickly toured the Maharajah Jungle Trek because it was starting to rain. We went over to Flame Tree for lunch. It was very crowded, but we really wanted to try it. On our last trip it had been closed due to cut backs. We found us a table in a nice shaded area and thoroughly enjoyed the food. My husband thought the ribs were the best! We both took advantage of the meal plus plan, which is a bargain!! We needed to leave so we grabbed our drinks & ice cream that came with the meal plan and headed out. We checked in at the Rosen Plaza. It is an okay hotel. There was a persistent smell of mildew that wasn’t overpowering, but always present. I had a meeting that evening, so Lloyd & Lauren hung around the hotel and swam. Tuesday, March 16th Plan: Adventures in Cooking, Typhoon Lagoon Lauren had done Alice’s Tea Party & the Pirate Cruise, so this time she chose to try Adventures in Cooking. I had a meeting, so Lloyd was in charge of getting her to the Grand Floridian. It was raining very hard, so they valet parked and Lloyd hung around the lobby while Lauren did her class. She had a good time and they came back to the room. I had the afternoon off so we were going to visit Typhoon Lagoon. Unfortunately this was our one day of hard rain. It ended up being a great day for a nap. Later that rain stopped and we went over to Macaroni Grill. We love Macaroni Grill and don’t have one at home, so we were anxious for this meal. It was a little disappointing. We all 3 got lasagna and it was very dry. We decided to go over to Downtown Disney Marketplace and get some shopping done. Once Upon a Toy was fantastic. We had a blast creating our Mr. Potato Heads on the computers and printing them out. Wednesday, March 17th Plan: Suzanne working, Lloyd & Lauren explore Orlando, Regional dinner at Planet Hollywood Today I was working all day, so Lloyd and Lauren decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon. They had a blast in the wave pool and ran into Lauren’s friend again! That evening, I had a dinner at Planet Hollywood. Lloyd & Lauren were able to come as well and we decided to drive by Pop Century beforehand. My brother has always collected license plates from the parks and resorts so I was going to pick one up for him. I looked and asked, but they didn’t have any Pop ones. We were off to PH where the food was very good. I have eaten at a couple of PH in different locations and never thought the food to be spectacular, but this was surprisingly good. We ran back to World of Disney to grab a couple of more souvenirs and called it a night. Thursday, March 18th Plan: Suzanne working, Lloyd & Lauren to Daytona Beach Again I was working all day, so Lloyd and Lauren wanted to go to Daytona. They actually decided it would be easier to go to Cocoa Beach. They had a good time and even saw one of the Disney Cruise Ships with Donald waving from the back. That evening a coworker and myself had to take 2 VIPs to eat. Her sister is a resident of Orlando and recommended Bonefish. This was a great restaurant. Nice and expensive. My steak was so tender I could have cut it with a butter knife. If you want a nice meal off site, this is the place. But, be sure to not get it confused with the restaurant across the street called Fish Bones. Friday, March 19th Plan: Suzanne work till noon, Typhoon Lagoon, Check in at the Beach Club Villas, Epcot I worked till noon then we loaded up and headed straight to Typhoon Lagoon. We played forever in the wave pool, then Lloyd and Lauren went to a swim through Shark Reef. We took a lap around the lazy river and went down a couple of the slides. We decided we were tired and headed to the Beach Club to check in. We were in room 414, just off the elevators. We had a wonderful view of the quiet pool. I needed to do some more laundry, so I took off in search of the laundry room. Well, it was right across the hall! Very convenient! We opted to go to Chevy’s at the Crossroads and go to bed early. Saturday, March 20th Plan: Epcot, Princess Storybook Breakfast, Magic Kingdom Lloyd chose to sleep late and Lauren and I went to the Storybook breakfast. This was our first experience at the PSB and the food was a little disappointing. The cinnamon rolls looked as if they had been sitting there for 2 days. They tasted okay, but not overly fresh. Lauren is picky about her bacon and if you can’t hold one end and have the rest stand straight out, she won’t eat it! Well the bacon didn’t even look close to done, I’m not that picky and I was kind of grossed out. I asked if our waitress if she could bring some really crispy slices out. What she brought was not much better. I was just not impressed with the food. The princesses though, were great!! We saw Snow White, Belle, Jasmine, Mary Poppins, Aurora, and Mulan. I might be tempted to eat here again just to see all of them. When entering the park that morning we picked up a Goofy Guide. (I can’t remember the exact name.) During breakfast we worked on it and finally figured it all out. After breakfast we rode Journey Into Your Imagination again and walked through Innoventions. Lauren turned in her Goofy guide and received a certificate. Our mission today was to complete her Kidcot mask. We were back at Mexico by 11:00 and ready to go. This year for my scrapbook I took a picture of her with the CM in each country and one of her holding a little flag from each country. We also had each CM write her a message on the back of the mask in his/her native language. Everyone was very nice. We were trucking along fine when we got to France. Lauren was also making pressed pennies and realized she didn’t have her m&m case with the pennies. We thought back and realized she left it at the American pavilion. I raced back and there it was at the Kidcot station. It wouldn’t have been a big tragedy as she only had about 20 cents, but getting a hold of a bunch of pennies would have been a pain! We decided to have lunch so we got in line at the Pastry shop. This is one of those vacation only type of meals. As we went through the line my Lauren saw the Cake of the Day, which was chocolate…we’ll take one slice of that, then we saw the Palmiers (elephant ears), yummy…we’ll take 2 of those (one for dad back at the room), the coconut pyramid looks interesting…I’ll take one of those, and those croissants look fresh…I take a plain one. OINK, OINK. We grabbed a table in the back of the souvenir shop next door and I ate half of my croissant and Lauren ate her chocolate cake. We did actually take the rest back to the room. Everything was so fresh and good!! We went back to the room to swim at Stormalong Bay. That evening we had PS for Le Cellier. On our way in we stopped at the UK to watch the street show. I had seen it, or one like it, about 15 years ago. It was funny and we enjoyed it. We checked in at Le Cellier a little early and were seated about 10 minutes later. We had heard lots of people rave about Le Cellier and being the big meat eaters we are, we couldn’t wait to give this a try. I made sure to order the cheese soup and the waiter even recommended that we dip the pretzel bread in it. (I didn’t let on that I already knew this tip!) Very good, a little peppery, but goooood! Lauren ordered the steak and fries and declared this the best steak she had ever had. I had the filet mignon, which I could have cut with a butter knife. Lloyd ordered the New York Strip. Unfortunately our server typed it in wrong and brought him the filet mignon also. He immediately apologized, brought him a new one and didn’t charge us. Lloyd said it was fabulous. We enjoyed everything about this meal. After that we watched the O Canada movie. I love the Canada song. We sang it all night. We were tired after that and didn’t stay for Illuminations. Sunday, March 21st Plan: no real plans, possibly a character breakfast and some shopping We still wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain and MK and Lloyd wanted to ride Splash so we decided to go there. Although it was Early Entry, we needed to check out and pack our stuff, so we decided to be there at regular park opening. We got there, immediately hopped the first train, got FP for Splash and ran to BTMRR. BTMRR wasn’t open yet, I think they were trying to get some staff in place, and it opened just a few minutes later. After the ride we went to Pirates, then around to the Country Bear Jamboree. We got to meet a few of the bears for pictures and autographs then went on to Splash. After Splash, I really wanted to ride Small World. Lloyd & Lauren decided to ride Buzz and we said we would meet at Cosmic Ray’s. Lloyd had not been with us when we ate here before and it was packed at lunchtime. I can see where others don’t like the setup of the restaurant when they want food from the different areas. All the lines were very long. We ordered an Italian stacked sandwich, chicken Caesar salad, and veggie soup. Lloyd and I shared the sandwich and salad, which were both wonderful. They had actually not been able to ride Buzz because the line was long and instead picked up FP. It was still about an hour till we could ride and we really wanted one last swim at SAB. We found a family of 3 to give our FP to and headed out. We changed in the restrooms at the BC and spent a wonderful 2 hours at the pool. It was hard to believe that we would be back at work the next day. We again changed in the restrooms and headed to the airport. Monday, March 22nd Back to reality..... Observations Characters were everywhere and this was a big change from our last trip. Lauren only had 2 pages unsigned in her autograph book. Before our last trip we gave Lauren opportunities to earn Disney Dollars by doing chores. About a year before this trip she started recycling cans to earn money. She used her own money for her hair wrap, souvenirs, and Mickey Ice Cream bars. It really made her more selective about what she purchased and no begging. I highly recommend this! We still love the Boardwalk the best, but the Beach Club is a close second. Next trip we’ll stay our first 3 nights at the Beach Club in a studio and the remaining 6 nights in a 1 bedroom at the Boardwalk. We had a wonderful trip. Crowds overall were very manageable and we felt it was the perfect time of year. We’re already planning again for March ’06. Suzanne Payne slpayne@cox.net Mail a Comment to Suzanne Payne |
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