Trip Reports

• Time of Year: Summer
• Travel Method: Personal Car
• Resort: Offsite
• Accommodations: Standard Room
• Ages Represented in Group: Adult
• WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent
• Comments: Kerry and his wife, Catherine, stayed offsite during their 1996 trip. They covered a lot of WDW territory.

7/13/96 - 7/21/96 Trip Report - Before we leave...

Welcome to my first-ever WDW trip report! (This is mainly due to the fact that this is my first WDW trip since I found the RAD* news groups.) I am actually not leaving for a few more days, but I thought it would be interesting to explain our plans for the trip, and then compare the actual trip itself to our plans. If this sort of info doesn't interest you, just skip to the next file.

This will be our first trip to WDW since our honeymoon five years ago, and we really want to see and do everything that we can while we're there. We've been scrimping and saving for a while for this trip, but we still are trying to go as cheaply as possible, so we've reserved a room off-site at the Quality Inn Lake Cecile. It's about 10 minutes from the WDW gate, includes a daily continental breakfast, and it's $36/night, incl. tax. Also, I've talked to a fellow RADP'er who stayed there just recently, and he said that it was clean, safe, and someplace that he would stay again, although it's nothing fancy. Sounds like what we were looking for.

We plan to get to the park gates right about at the scheduled opening time each day. The Unofficial Guide says to get there a LOT earlier, but I AM on vacation here - I refuse to get up at the crack of dawn every day, and then go stand in a crowd WAITING for the gates to open. Since the parks all open at 9AM, we figure we can sleep 'till about 7:00, get ready to go by about 8:30, and get to the parking lot, park the car, and take a tram to the gates by about 9:00. If we find that doesn't work, we'll modify our plans accordingly. The plan is to travel light: I'm going to wear a fanny pack, which I just bought a couple of days ago, and I know it will hold our pocket 35mm camera, an extra roll of film, both pair of sunglasses, and a pack or two of crackers/granola bars. It also has a thin zipper pocket in the back (i.e., up against my belly) where we can carry the essential IDs: our WDW passes, both driver's licenses, credit cards, ATM card, checkbook, and traveler's checks. I found that the plastic card case that came with my business cards is a perfect fit for the passes, and hopefully it will protect them from getting crunched in my pocket, or wet, if we get caught in the rain (or get soaked on Splash Mountain). It will also hold our IDs and credit cards. That way, I don't have to carry a wallet, my wife doesn't need a purse, and the pack is in front of me, so that it should be harder for someone to steal anything out of it. I guess someone could steal the entire pack, but hopefully that will be harder to do than grabbing a purse or picking a wallet out of my pocket.

As I said, we are trying to go as cheaply as we can. However, we don't want to do something that will lessen the enjoyment of our trip, just to save a couple of bucks. For instance, we are driving to Orlando instead of flying, and doing it in one day (about 800 miles). That should save us about $200 all told. However, we are not going to leave the parks at lunch time to eat a picnic lunch or go to McDonald's, even though it would be cheaper, because that would really break up the day and take a lot of time. And besides, part of the fun of a WDW trip is going to some of the unique eateries there. Our plan is to get our free breakfast and coffee in the lobby first thing every morning, munch on them in the room as we get ready to go, and take crackers or granola bars in my fanny pack to tie us over when we get hungry during the day. Then, we'll eat a fast-food lunch in the park someplace, probably during an off time when the lines are shorter. We plan to eat dinner each day at a moderately-priced sit-down restaurant (so V&A's, California Grill, Coral Reef, and others are out of our price range). By only buying two meals per day, and the occasional soft drink or ice cream, we can also save quite a bit of money. We're hoping to keep it below $100/day for the two of us.

The only thing we are worried about is that my wife, Catherine, gets some pretty bad motion sickness sometimes. She has found that taking ginger pills helps a lot, but doesn't completely fix it. But we just bought her some wrist bands at a local boating supply store that are supposed to help. Basically, they have a marble in them which you position on a certain point on each wrist. They work on the principle of "accupressure", which uses pressure at certain locations on the body to help various physical problems. Sounds crazy, but for five bucks, it's worth a shot, and she says that they do help her feel better when riding in the car. She plans to take her ginger each day, and wear the wristbands, and hopefully she'll be able to ride Star Tours, BTTF, and the other rides that give motion sickness warnings. I hope it works-I'd hate for her to miss them.

That's about it. The one thing we still haven't decided on is whether we want to follow the Unofficial Guide's touring plans. We'll see how we feel at the time. The following files will be the accounts of our trip, and descriptions of how well our plans worked. Hope you enjoy them!

Saturday, July 13 (Day 0)

We have been following the progress of Hurricane Bertha for several days, hoping it would not hit either Orlando or here (Tidewater, Virginia). We lucked out. The Outer Banks of North Carolina, about 2 hours south of us, got socked pretty hard by it, but it easily avoided Florida, and by the time it got to us, it was nothing but a big thunderstorm. Our son's second birthday was last night, and we had a little party for him. My wife's parents came in to town a few days ago, and beside giving us some pocket cash for the Disney trip, they are also keeping the little guy for us while we go to WDW. I have GREAT in-laws.

Anyway, this day was our anniversary, and we spent it on the road. We had planned to leave the house at 6:00, but it was actually about 6:45 before we got out of the driveway. The weather was still pretty bad, but only for the first couple of hours. By the time we hit the Virgina/North Carolina state line, we were in beautiful sunny weather, and we had it the rest of the way. When we take long car trips, we take along a book, and whichever of us is not driving reads the book aloud. Yeah, I know we could take books on tape, but they seem to hypnotize me. And besides, the books on tape cut a LOT of stuff out. We prefer to read them ourselves. For this trip, the book of choice is John Grisham's newest, "Runaway Jury." With the book and the good weather, and the new higher speed limits, the miles just flew by. We did stop fairly often, and even took long enough to eat supper at Shoney's instead of fast food, and we still got to Orlando at about 9:15. Not bad!

Once we got off onto US192, the traffic was bumper-to-bumper, and we were moving VERY slowly, and were also exhausted, but we finally found the hotel. The room is your basic motel room, although it's a little bigger than most, clean, and we feel pretty safe. Catherine was a little nervous about some of the folks that were in the lobby downstairs, but once we got to the room, we decided we'd stay, at least for tonight. Also, when we made the reservation, we had just reserved a room with two double beds, because a king bed would have been an extra $10 per night. But, when we got to our room, we had a king-size bed! After double-checking with the front desk to make certain that we weren't being charged extra, we decided that they must have had no more non-smoking "basic" rooms available. So, we called the folks back home to let them know we had arrived safely, unpacked, left a wake-up call, and decided to call it a night.

Sunday, July 14 (Day 1)

Despite our exhaustion from our long drive the day before, we didn't get much sleep Saturday night. Gee-wonder why?? As planned, we got up just before 7:00, and while Catherine showered, I headed downstairs to check out the free eats at the breakfast buffet. As expected, it was nothing special-bulk corn flakes, big muffins cut into fourths, and small powdered sugar donuts, plus milk, coffee, and juice. Still, it was fairly filling, and it kept us from needing to buy breakfast in the park. We were ready to go at about 8:15, and when we headed downstairs, we decided the place looked much less scary in the light of day. We agreed it was okay to stay here after all.

Before we left, Cat called to make dinner reservations for tonight, and was able to make "priority seating" reservations for just about anything we wanted, even though we're not resort guests. Since we had already decided what we wanted for the next few nights, she made reservations for all our dinners through Wednesday. It may have helped that we wanted early times-usually 5:30 to 6:00 -- but we had no trouble. Also, we were choosing some of the less well-known restaurants, thanks to recommendations from RADP and the Unofficial Guide, and also to Deb Wills' web page, where we had read many sample menus (thanks, Debbie!!).

The drive back down 192 towards WDW was a LOT quicker than we thought. Last night, it was packed and we were pooped, and our hotel seemed to be miles from the interstate. This morning, there was almost no traffic, and it turned out to be a pretty quick drive to the main gate -- no more than 10 minutes. We also noticed there is a Publix almost directly across the street from our hotel, so when we need to restock our drinks-and-munchies supply, we don't have far to go.

When we got to the TTC, the line for the monorail was crazy, so we headed to the ferry, which was just starting to board. Now, my wife swears that she's not really there until she has actually seen the castle with her own two eyes, and halfway to the ferry loading point, I stopped her and pointed across the lake-where the Castle could easily be seen above the trees. After taking a moment to pinch ourselves and say "wow-we're really here!", we climbed aboard. Within a minute, a speedboat began chasing us, carrying Pinocchio and Goofy, who waved and jumped up and down while they chased us about halfway across the lake. Our first taste of the "Disney magic"!! We were ready for more.

We had brought along a copy of the UG's Touring Plan, but we still hadn't decided whether or not we really wanted to ping-pong all over the park. We started out with it, though, and the first stop on the plan was Alien Encounter. This was also our first look at "New TomorrowLand", and we really like the new look! We lined up for AE right away, and about 5 minutes later, a CM came out and said it was down for now. So we jumped over to another attraction new to us:

TimeKeeper. This was our first test of Cat's new "magic wristbands", since CircleVision movies have been known to cause her to get motion sickness in the past. They really work - she had no problem at all! The movie was a lot of fun, and Robin Williams' voice for the TimeKeeper was a riot!! When the show was done, we had a quick debate about whether or not to go with the touring plan, and decided not to. So we stayed in TomorrowLand, since the lines were pretty short, and in almost no time we rode Take Flight, the TTA, Space Mountain, and the Carousel of Progress. We came back to look at AE, which was now open, and the line had gotten to be huge. We decided to try again later.

We headed to FantasyLand next, where we rode the new Snow White ride (and were only mildly impressed), and then headed to the Legend of the Lion King, which was already letting people in. Just as we got close to the door, the CM at the turnstiles started asking each group for the number in their party. I commented to Cat, "Man, I'll be ticked if we have to stop right here!" And, of course, the line was stopped with only one group in front of us-at which point the guy in that group turned around to look at me, and we all cracked up. Once we finally did get in to see Lion King, we decided it was definately worth the wait-what a neat show!! By this time, we needed some lunch, and we ate at Pinocchio's Village Haus, where I got a burger and Cat had a turkey sub. It wasn't great, but not as bad as many RADP posts have made the WDW food out to be, and it certainly was enough to fill us up.

After lunch, we got in line for Peter Pan, which is one of our favorites, and walked across from there to Small World. I agree that the song drives you nuts, and it's a litle sappy, but somehow, it wouldn't seem like we had really been to WDW if we missed it. From there we stopped to get an ice cream bar, and then it was time for the ride that is probably the #1 favorite for us both: the Haunted Mansion. We still LOVED it! By the time we got back to Liberty Square, it was almost time for the MickeyMania parade, and people were already staking out prime parade spots. So, we found a spot very close to the Hall of Presidents entrance and waited. Unfortunately, we were in the direct sun, but it was a pretty good spot to see everything. The parade was great, and as soon as the final float went by, we dashed into the pre-show area of HoP and sat in the a/c until the next show started. I know some people think HoP is dull, but we have always loved it. For the most part, I like the new changes. Maya Angelou is a terrific choice for the film narrator, and I like the fact that Clinton, being the current president, has a short part in it. I hope this tradition continues. However, if I remember right, the old film had the "citizens" reciting the Preamble to the Contitution, rather than the intro to the Declaration of Independence. Am I wrong? Both are beautifully written prose, but I think the Preamble is better for a group to recite, personally. Also, I didn't think that either Clinton's or Bush's "doubles" were very good likenesses. Anybody else feel this way?

Since we had early dinner reservations at 'Ohana, in the PV, we began to head for the monorail. Since we had a little bit of extra time, we decided to go the long way, through Frontierland and AdventureLand, on the way out. When we got to Pirates, which is another big favorite (it's probably second only to the HM), the line was completely empty, and we just couldn't pass it up. Once inside, it turned out there actually was a line, but it only took about 15 minutes, and we were really glad to be back on this ride after so long away. We left PoC and hustled over to the main gate, just in time to catch the next resort monorail. We arrived at the PV with about 5 minutes to spare, and found 'Ohana nearly empty. What a great dinner! The salads and sauces were delicious and the different meats were ALL simply awesome. At $17.95/person for all you can eat, this was also a MUCH better deal than we expected to find anywhere in WDW. We'll definately go back again!

After dinner, it was back to the MK, and we started at AdvLand this time. We walked right in to Swiss Family Treehouse, but the cool "running water" system wasn't running!! We also saw the Tiki Birds, and then got in line for the Jungle Cruise, which was probably the longest line we had all day (about 35 minutes). Our next stop was Big Thunder Mt, where the line was pretty short since people were starting to line up for SpectroMagic or to head back to their hotels. After BTMR, we decided to skip the first SpectroMagic parade, and we headed to Splash Mountain, which neither of us had ridden before. What a terrific ride-pure Disney magic! This immediately became added to our list of favorite MK rides. By the time we got off of SM, it was dark, and we decided to just stand at the rail on the bridge near Tom Sawyer Island to wait for the fireworks. It was a very good place to watch from, with no trees in our way, and the show was terrific, as always. Once the fireworks ended, it was a short walk to the Country Bear Jamboree, and I was glad to see that they had changed it back to the original show. We enjoyed it much more than the "Vacation Hoedown" show that was there in '91.

By the time the bears were done, we were getting pretty tired, and the park was getting empty. We chose a good spot to see the 11:00 SpectroMagic parade, where we could actually sit on the nice, wide edge of a median in Frontierland, but no one could stand in front of us. The parade was just great. The Queen of Hearts stopped and ordered me to kiss her hand, but I refused when she then wanted me to kiss her foot!! She obviously got very angry at this, and started gesturing as if to say "Off with his head!!" It was a blast.

As our last stop for the day, we headed back to AE, where the line was very short, and got in with only a five-minute wait. Unfortunately, this is the one thing we did all day that we didn't like. Actually, as one lady we overheard on the way out said, "it scared the s**t out of us". Sorry, we didn't find AE fun at all, and actually found it very different from "the Disney magic". This was really a big disappointment to me, and I doubt we'll ever ride it again. It was now just a few minutes until park closing, and we realized that we had managed to see almost everything in the MK in one day, with no rain!! We would like to go visit Mickey's Toontown, but we were ready to pack it in after a VERY full day. We'll be back.

Monday, July 15 (Day 2)

After a good night's rest, we headed to EPCOT, once again carrying a copy of the UG touring plan with us-and once again, we decided to ignore it. We started with Spaceship Earth, and enjoyed it as much as ever. Our next stop was HIStA-what a scream!! The 3D effect was very good, and the "extra effects" were amazing. It seems kind of out of place in EPCOT, but it was a lot of fun. We watched the jumping fountains for a while and let the crowd die down a bit, then rode Journey into Imagination, one of Cat's favorites. After the ride, we played for quite a while in the hands-on stuff upstairs before deciding it was time to move on. We wandered through Innoventions on the way across FW, and our next stop was Horizons. I can't believe they're going to close this ride! This is one of the best things in all of EPCOT!

We headed next door to see Body Wars, but there was a 60-minute wait posted on the sign, so we walked back out and got right in to the next show at UoE. I remember really enjoying the pre-show film, with the rotating cubes, when I was here in '91. But since they are now just showing it on flat screens as an interim until Ellen's Energy Crisis opens, I found that the film itself is actually pretty dull. I guess I just thought the constantly-moving wall was cool. Anyway, the dinos were great as always, and the final film was a real yawn as always. I hope the new "Ellen" films are better.

Next, we wandered back through Innoventions and went to the Land food court for lunch, where we both got italian subs-pretty good, actually, and the prices weren't bad for WDW food. We were hoping to take the boat ride here, but the line was slammed, and we were getting pretty tired. After two straight 15-hour days and not enough sleep, we needed a nap, so we headed back to the hotel.

A couple of hours later, we woke and headed back to EPCOT for our dinner reservation at Restaurant Akershus. This is one of those places where I never would have even considered eating if not for the recommendations of a number of RADPers and the UG, but it was delicious. I was brave enough to try several dishes I ordinarily would not touch, including a few different herrings and both smoked and poached salmon, and of course had to sample a Rignes. For dessert, I had heard so much about the rice cream that I just had to order it, and we also got the apple cake. Both were very good, but I have to admit I would not order the rice cream again. Catherine liked it a lot, though, and I preferred the apple cake, so it all worked out fine. We were very glad that we decided to try this place, and we will highly recommend it to anyone.

After dinner, we rode Maelstrom, which I still think is well done, but a little short. I also think the film afterwards is one of the best films in WS. From there, we backtracked to Mexico, where we took the boat ride (still VERY dull) and wandered through the shopping area. We also took a look at the menu at San Angel, to make sure they had "*THE* appetizer": it's called queso fundido, and we had it when we were here in '91. It was one of our favorite foods from that trip, and we were glad to see it was still there. We agreed to try to come back later for it, even if we just got it and some dessert.

After Mexico, we strolled through China and watched their CircleVision film, and then continued around the WS lake. After a quick look at the outpost, we looked through the shops in Germany. The toy store, which had some neat items, was especially enjoyable. Next, it was on to Italy, where a really cool quintet was playing in the plaza: an oboe, a synthesizer, a cello, and two violins (I think) created a wild sound that was somewhere between classical and electronic syntho-pop. We listened for quite a while before moving through the stores and back out to the main walkway.

At this point, we took a break at the gondola landing, and, since it was about 9:20, decided to camp here until 10:00, since we had a perfect view of the ball and the fountains that are used in IllumiNations (the one Disney fireworks show that we missed in '91). The show was amazing, and our spot at the top of the steps was perfect. We were able to see all the cool laser effects in the fountains and on the ball, and had an unobstructed view of the entire show.

We had talked earlier about trying to leave EPCOT after the fireworks and go back to the MK, but we decided to just wander through some of the shops in FW instead. When we finally left, it was nearly midnight, and we were really beat.

Tuesday, July 16 (Day 3)

This was our day to go to MGM, and we had a terrific time. However, last time we were there (the only time we have ever been), we remember being able to do it all in one day easily. We had actually planned to be done by mid-afternoon, and maybe ride some things again before our 5:55 reservations at Mama Melrose's. Instead, we were there all day and still couldn't get it all in. I guess they have added a lot more to MGM in the last five years than I realized.

Anyway, this was the day that we followed the UG touring plan most closely, and it started at the TZToT right off the bat. Now, my wife was really not sure about riding this one. She had asked everyone she could think of about it, including people standing in line around us the last couple of days, but she still was pretty scared of it. But, since she didn't want to miss it, she took a deep breath and got in line. The detail on this ride may be the best that Disney has ever done! The queue area in the hotel lobby is neat, with a lot of fun "little touches" (the AAA "13-diamond award" on the wall was my favorite) to make it really interesting. The pre-show with Rod Serling is great, for those of us who are TZ fans from 'way back. I have to admit, though, that I was a bit disappointed in the ride itself. I had heard so much about the elements of the ride BEFORE the drops that I was expecting them to last for several minutes. Instead, there were only two stops, both pretty short. But it WAS a cool ride, and I really wish we had been able to do it again, so that I could ride it knowing what to expect. The best part was that the drops did not feel scary at all. It was obviously a controlled fall, and halfway through the first one I actually heard Catherine exclaim, "hey -- this is fun!". She was right.

The next stop on the touring plan was the Little Mermaid show, but it was closed temporarily, so we went on to the next stop: the Great Movie Ride. This was our absolute favorite MGM attraction in '91, and we still love it. Although we rode it several times that trip, we didn't find out until recently that there are two different "action scenes" in it. Apparently, we got in the same half of the queue every time in '91, and only saw the cowboy scene. This time, we got the back car, saw the gangster scene, and were amazed that we had no idea all of that stuff was even there! When we came out, we realized that we had been inside when one of Florida's summer rainstorms had come through. People all around us were drenched to the skin, and now the sun was shining! This was the only time it rained during our entire trip-how lucky can you get?!?!?

From the GMR, we went on to Star Tours, and once again, Cat's magic wristbands worked wonders. She wasn't able to ride this one last trip, and this time she had very little problem. She really enjoyed it. We headed to MuppetVision 4D next, which was still a riot. We didn't remember the pre-show area silliness, but it kept us totally entertained while we waited.

It was now time for our lunch reservation at the Sci-Fi Dine-In. It was neat eating in the car, but the table was so narrow that we could hardly use it, and the light was so dim that we had a very hard time reading the menu. Still, the atmosphere here was fun, and Catherine said her reuben was very good. My burger was only so-so.

After lunch, we decided to check out the new Ace Ventura show. This was one of my few complaints at MGM. The show was pretty good, and the guy playing Ace did a SUPER job. But instead of doing this show in a theatre, they just set up an area for it in a little dead-end road, and the crowd just stood behind a barricade to see it. When we got there, I figured we were just standing there until they let us into a theatre, but then we began to notice all the props that were placed around, and realized that this was it. While much of the action took place above our heads, it was still not good for small kids, who ended up standing between adults and had no chance to see the parts of the show that were at ground level. My wife is just over 5 feet tall, so she had the same problem. I'm tall enough to see over most folks, so I was able to see most of it, but the vast majority of people there could not. Also, there was no shade at all in the standing area, so we just baked in the sun for 20 minutes before the show and then for the 15-20 minutes of the show itself. If this is the best that Disney could do for staging this show, then they should not have done it at all, IMO. At the very least, they should let folks know that you have to just stand in a crowd, rather than sit in a theatre, so that they can plan to get there early enough to get a spot in the front.

Our next stop was the new HoND stage show. This show was just OUTSTANDING-nearly Broadway-quality sets, staging, and especially voices. If the guy playing Clopin wasn't lip-synching (and I don't think he was), he was awesome. The show is also pretty long, which was fine, but after two long waits and two outdoor shows in the July heat, we decided to take a Coke break at the Soundstage and plan the rest of our day.

We realized then that all of the remaining attractions at MGM were some sort of show, instead of rides. While some, like the Monster Sound Show and SuperStar TV, are short and run continuously, many only run a few times a day, and you need to figure out which showing you want to attend. Since we had seen both the MSS and SSTV, we decided to skip them (they're both cute, but once was plenty). Still, the show times at the other shows made it so that, even though it was now only about 2:30, it was impossible to see all of them-especially if we wanted to make it to our 5:55 reservations at Mama Melrose's. We finally came up with a plan of attack, called to change to a later dinner time, and headed toward the parade route. We chose a good spot at the corner of Hollywood and Sunset, which was a perfect location to see the Toy Story parade. This was terrific! I noticed that the Green Army Men no longer have the big platforms atached to both feet, as they show in the WDW commercials, but now they have small ones on each foot. I assume they had too hard a time walking on the old design.

As soon as the last float went by, we headed down Sunset to the BatB stage show. As the crowd was filing in, we were entertained by a FABULOUS a capella quartet named "Four for a Dollar". We could have just sat and listened to them for a couple of hours and been quite happy, but they did stop so that the show could go on, and once again we were very impressed. I personally thought that the HoND show was better, even though BatB is my favorite Disney film. Then, we headed back across the park to see the Indiana Jones stunt show. They announced at the start of the show that they were using reduced pyrotechnics, which I thought was just part of the show. But in the scene with the airplane, there were just a couple of small fireworks. I thought that I remembered a pretty good explosion, with lots of flames, when we were there in '91 -- am I wrong? Anyway, I remembered being a little bit disappointed with this show before, and I still felt that way. It's not bad, but I just don't think it's very exciting.

Our next stop was the Backstage Tour, which was pretty good. I got soaked, even though I was on the right side of the tram. After we left Catastrophe Canyon, the next few times we stopped, the water that had collected on the roof of the tram would slosh down the side directly onto me!! I wouldn't have minded if it happened in CC, but getting four or five "baths" after that was maddening-especially since I ended up with my shorts getting completely soaked! By this time, we were just a bit late for dinner, so we hustled over and waited about a few minutes to be seated. We had decided to skip the fireworks tonight and plan to come back for them later in the week, so we now relaxed and enjoyed a nice, leisurely dinner. We were VERY glad that we did, since Mama Melrose's was terrific. It reminded us a lot of the Macaroni Grill, which is our favorite "chain" italian eatery. We both ordered the same meal: grilled chicken, portobella mushrooms, and pancetta bacon all chopped and mixed with penne pasta in an asiago cream sauce. It was AWESOME, and also one of the cheaper items on the menu. Get it if you can-you won't regret it.

The fireworks were just ending as we left, and we had a hard time getting to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, because many of the streets were blocked until they ended. But we managed to make it in to the last showing of the day, and thought it was great. We especially liked the laser effect in the mist above us that made it look like we were "under the sea", and the way the walls of the theatre added to the look. After we surfaced, we had a few more minutes until park closing, and we ran in to the GMR for another ride -- we were the last ones they let in! This time, we rode in the front car and saw the cowboy scene. I think I still prefer it to the gangsters, but I was glad we were able to do both. Like yesterday, we had thought we might go to the MK after this park closed tonight, and once again, we decided to just stroll the shops and head back to the hotel instead.

Wednesday, July 17 (Day 4)

Since we were going to TL today, we slept a little later-no point in taking a shower before swimming! We got there a little before 9:00, and had no problem getting a locker right away. After stashing our passes and other valuables there, we waited for the park to open, which turned out to be at almost 9:15 for some reason. After claiming a couple of beach chairs and an umbrella overlooking the wave pool, we dropped our cooler and towels and headed for Shark Reef.

We had been really looking forward to SR, but we had a few problems. For one thing, the water was so cold that Catherine had a hard time breathing through the snorkel, and she ended up getting a lifeguard to help her get out. That would have been okay, but the lifeguard was pretty crabby about it. My problem was different-I have a mustache, and no matter how I adjusted the mask, it kept filling with water! It was neat to see live sharks and the other beautiful fish right below me, but I could only see them for a few seconds at a time before I would have to dump my mask. The CMs at the Reef said that I was free to swim around some, since it was empty, but I just gave up.

From there it was on to the water slides, and the real fun was on! Cat had never been in a body slide before, and they were the first thing we came to. She had a great time, and after a few runs in the different body slides, we decided to keep moving and get a feel for all of the options in TL while the crowds were still small. The next stop was the speed slides, and Cat decided to wait while I tried them. It was fun, but there was no way to keep water from blasting up my nose. Cat decided to pass, and I decided once was enough.

The next adventures were the inner tube slides. We rode together in the "family sized" tubes and had a lot of fun. We rode this one two or three more times before moving on to the next two rides. Both of these were also inner tube rides, but for individuals, and we tried them both out. One seemed to be a little bigger and faster than the other, so we rode it a few extra times.

At this point, we figured we had tried out all of the rides at least once, so we backtracked to the family tube ride for a couple more runs. The lines were starting to get longer, so we wandered back to the body slides for a few more runs. Then, with the lines continuing to grow, we decided it was time to try Castaway Creek, and so we strolled down and snagged a couple of passing tubes. This is a pretty cool way to relax! We made the complete circuit around the park twice before getting out and taking a break at our chairs while we watched the wave pool action. We finally waded out into it ourselves and spent quite a while body surfing before the number of bodies that we were crashing into became unbearable. We were also getting to be pretty hungry, so we dried off and got lunch at Typhoon Tillie's. We decided to finish the day with another drift around Castaway Creek, then dried off, collected our things, and left.

Back at the hotel, we compared sunburns (Catherine won-hers was worse than mine), and took a nap. We woke in time to shower and go to our early dinner reservation at Whispering Canyon in the WL. We had never been there before, and we really enjoyed it. It was much like 'Ohana, in that they have several different grilled meats that they keep bringing to your table, but I think we liked the food at 'Ohana a little better. Still, we had a lot of fun. They had a barrel full of stick horses that they used to have races around the dining room- one race was all the little kids, and one was because the waitress in the back dining room discovered that she had two tables of honeymooners and one couple on their 25th anniversary, so she decided they needed to be announced and made to race. We agreed to keep OUR anniversary quiet here.

With our bellies full, we decided to explore WL for a few minutes. Wow!! What a beautiful resort! We walked around the pool area, checked out the other restaurants and the arcade, and looked through the hotel shop a bit before moving on. While we were exploring resorts, we went to Shades of Green, mainly because I wanted to go to the pro shop. I have a Mickey golf shirt that I bought in '91, and it's getting worn out, and I had been looking all week for one to replace it. I still hadn't found the right shirt yet, so after a quick stop in the hotel lobby, we went shirt shopping. I found a couple of possible candidates, but I decided to wait until after we went to the DVM (the next stop we had planned), since we can get our MKC disount there. We had dressed up a bit for dinner, so we headed back to the hotel for a quick change before tonight's excursions to the DVM and PI.

On the way out, we decided to go take a look at the All Star resorts. We have talked several times since we got here that we really preferred being in an on-site resort, and maybe we should have spent the extra for the AS's, so we decided to take a look. Now, I know many people like these, but after looking at them, we both felt that we would rather stay off-site if they were the only on-site place we could afford. While the giant icons were kind of neat, the place just had a really "cheap" feel. Even when we were in the parking lot, before we even got out of the car, they looked gaudy, a little dirty, and it felt like we had pulled up to a really tacky Motel 6. As we walked around, we found a room where the curtains had been left wide open, and we were able to get a good look inside. What a dinky room! Granted, my opinion on rooms in the WDW area has always been that you're rarely in them, so who cares, but I would have been really upset to be out $79/night for a motel room that I would not have paid $25 for elsewhere. We both are MUCH happier where we are.

Heading back to the hotel, we saw the sign for Celebration Place and decided to take a look. The welcome center was closed, but we just wanted to look around anyway, so we drove to "downtown Celebration" and looked around a little bit. What a beautiful community this is going to be! It was amazing to see the amount of homes and businesses that are all being built at once, but we were surprised that the lots were so small. The homes are really close to each other. Even the "estate lots", which are pretty big, just had much larger homes on them, so that there was still very little space between them. Since it was nearly dark, we left after just a short drive through and a look at the map of the community plan.

We finally made it back to the hotel, changed, and headed to the DVM. The shops were packed, but we managed to find me a golf shirt and my wife a Mickey nightshirt, as well as a few small things to take home to our son. Then, it was on to PI. Even though we were already pooped, we had a great time here. We checked out the jazz club first. We liked the atmosphere, but the band was between sets, so we left it for later. We skipped the dance clubs, since neither of us are big dancers, and went to the Adventurer's Club for a while. The first show we saw was in the Mask Room, with the aviator club member being abused by the talking masks (pretty funny). The next show was in the main hall, with another club member and the guy on the wall just doing jokes with everyone in the place. This was fun, but the crowd just wasn't into it, and after a while we decided it was too crowded and left. We wandered into a few shops, then got in line for the Comedy Warehouse. Since it was nearly midnight, we were able to see the nightly New Year's Eve party on the stage, which was a lot of fun, before being ushered in. We had very good seats, and the show was a riot! We had been here in '91, and that time the show was only fair (that happens often with improv comedy) but this time, it was HILARIOUS!! Very fast-paced, hysterical jokes, and a good crowd.

Still chuckling, we wandered around a bit more, peeking in briefly at the Neon Armadillo and the Fireworks Factory. The band at the NA was pretty good, but we were too pooped to stay for long. We picked up some ice cream at the candy store and took one more peek at he Jazz club, but they were done for the night-rats! By this time, it was almost 2AM, and we were really dragging, so it was time to head back to the hotel. This was supposed to be our "easy day", since we were not going to the parks, but man, were we beat!!

Thursday, July 18 (Day 5)

This was our only "non-Disney" day-we went to Universal Studios Florida. We had really been looking forward to USF, but it didn't go as well as we had hoped. It started fine-taking the advice of the UG and a number of RADP'ers, we had purchased passes a couple of days ago at one of the official Tourist Info Centers, and we were glad of it: USF doesn't have enough turnstiles to handle their opening crowds. However, the lines for those of us who had already purchased tickets was almost as long as the other lines, but it did save us one hassle at the start of the day.

Once in the gate, we passed T2, planning to hit it later, when the lines were shorter, and lined up for ET. We really enjoyed this one, despite the 45-minute wait. Our next stop was Jaws, and this is where things started going downhill. The sign at the start of the line said 60 minutes, and since we were used to WDW's conservative time estimates, and all the lines we saw were pretty long, we decided we would give it a try. This queue sprawled all over the place, with no USF CMs in sight, and several people around us were smoking or cutting in line with abandon. One guy even had a boom box with him, cranked and blasting the sounds of some alternative group or another for all to endure. This made the wait seem long enough, but then they announced that the ride had malfunctioned, and we would have a little bit longer wait. They made this announcement several more times, and by the time we finally got to ride, we had been in line nearly two hours!! The ride seemed VERY short to us after that wait, and it wasn't particularly great anyway. We were seething by the time we got off.

It was already time for lunch, and we had only done two attractions!! Still, we needed a break to let our nerves settle a bit, and we chose Cafe' La Bamba. They had a good variety of choices, and while Cat's chicken fajita salad was not great, my burger was pretty tasty and very filling.

Things did get better after lunch. While the lines were very long all day, we managed to see almost everything we wanted to. We enjoyed Ghostbusters, and we really liked Kongfrontation-I think this was my favorite ride of the day! The detail on this ride was cool, including the queueing area walking though the subway station while watching news reports about Kong's rampage. We also thought that Earthquake was fun, although Catherine liked it more than I did. Surprisingly, it was also one of the shortest waits we had all day- just under 30 minutes.

We had continually passed by BTTF, hoping that the line would get shorter, but so far it was staying at about 75-90 minutes' wait. We didn't want to miss it, but we also didn't want another wait that was that long. On one of our passes by BTTF, we went in to see the Gory, etc. Makeup Show, which was not bad. It was neat to see how they did some of the effects, but the format of the show was annoying, with this obnoxious "host" doing inane banter with a movie makeup expert. Fortunately, the makeup expert was pretty good, so we still had a good time. We also saw the Animal Actors Show, which was kind of cute. It included a lot of familiar animal stars, including Benji, Lassie, Mr. Ed, and Beethoven, doing a variety of stunts. Catherine really liked this show a lot.

We ate dinner at Lombard's, a fairly nice sit-down place on the lake, and got in with no wait at about 6:00. Cat's prime rib was delicious, and my swordfish was very tasty as well. After dinner, the line at BTTF had gotten short enough for us to try it, and we really liked it. The effect, with the screen surrounding us, was much better than any other simulator-type ride I've ever been on, and once again, Cat's magic wristbands did the trick for her. Here's a tip for the taller members of your group: I'm almost exactly 6 feet tall, and when we rode this, I was on the end in the back. This meant that the side of the car blocked my view just a little, but that was no big deal. However, it also meant that I hit my head a couple of times on the side when things got really bumpy. Again, that was okay-this ride definately lived up to its hype. It was better than any of the simulators in WDW, including Star Tours, which is one of my favorite rides. But if you're tall, try to sit in the middle.

From there, we saw the Wild West Stunt Show, which was a lot of fun. It kept moving the whole time, and, IMO, was much better than the Indiana Jones stunt show at MGM. After the show, we headed back toward the front of the park, where we found no line at all outside T2. We quickly decided it was time to visit Ahhhnold and headed in. Unfortunately, there was quite a long line inside, but the wait still wasn't too bad. Once again, the line inside did a good job of introducing you to the attraction concept, and the preshow was great (although a little too long). The show itself starts out pretty good, and once the 3D effects begin, they are very good. Without giving too much away, let's just say that about halfway through, the 3D effects suddenly become just unbelievable-don't miss this one!!

We were getting close to park closing time, but we took the UG's advice and saved the Hitchcock 3D show for last, since its last show starts right at park closing. We headed for the Hanna-Barbera ride first, since it's right next door to Hitchcock. This was a lot of fun. This is a different type of simulator ride, where you sit in a theatre and the groups of seats move in sync with the movie. The effect was surprisingly good, as was the animation. It reminded me a lot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit-that same mix of computer and hand-drawn art-and had a lot of old friends in it: Fred and Barney, Yogi and Boo-Boo, the Jetsons, and Dick Dastardly and Muttley, among others. It was pretty good.

We made it in to the Hitchcock show at about 9:55 (the park closed at 10:00) and LOVED it-my wife is a big Hitch fan, and I love his films, so we were really looking forward to this one. The film was good, and the reenactment of the shower scene was fun. I think we enjoyed the post-show area just as much, with its demos of how some of Hitchcock's effects were created, clips from his TV show, and decorations and props that reminded us of some of our favorites. On the way out of the park, we stopped for dessert at a pastry shop and browsed a couple of shops before we left.

We had kind of mixed feelings about USF. On one hand, some of their attractions are as good as, or even better than, anything WDW has to offer (BTTF, Kong, and T2 are all terrific). On the other hand, the crowds were huge (and also very rude) all day, all of the lines were extremely long, and the park just doesn't seem to be as well-run as WDW. The whole place seemed very dirty, most of the employees seemed either very crabby or just plain bored, and we constantly had a hard time finding an employee when we needed directions or help. Granted, we were having a pretty bad day, and many of our problems were not USF's fault-it was the hottest and most humid day all week, the problem with Jaws got us in a very bad mood early, and our camera broke, so we lost almost all of the pictures we took-but this was the least enjoyable day all week for us. We were REALLY looking forward to getting back to WDW the next day.

One other comment on USF, which my wife pointed out to me: every attraction in the place either attacks you, or bumps you all around, or shoots at you, or just blows up periodically. Even the rides you think of as more "kid-oriented" do this: in ET, you're chased and shot at by police; in Hanna-Barbera, you chase Dick Dastardly through time, and crash off of or through all sorts of obstacles; and in Ghostbusters, ghosts get loose and stuff blows up while they are chased and finally captured. It seemed like we spent all day being attacked, by (among others) the shark in Jaws, the ape in Kong, the T-Rex in BTTF, the birds in Hitchcock, and EVERYBODY in T2. Even the Wild West Stunt Show had several explosions in it. About the only attraction I can think of that didn't do this was the animal actors' show. Man, no wonder we were so tired!!

Friday, July 19 (Day 6)

Friday was the first of the two days that we planned to use to cover things we missed, or re-ride our favorites, in the three parks, and we started off at EC. Our first stop was the Living Seas, which we both really liked on our honeymoon, and I think we liked it even more this time. We wandered around here for quite a while, watching the fish and the dolphins swim, seeing a diver use the airlock to enter the tanks, and just taking our time. We strolled from here through Innoventions briefly, and then on to our lunch reservations at San Angel Inn in Mexico. We mainly came here for the Queso Fundido appetizer, and it was as good as we remembered. The lunch itself was okay-just basic mexican food, nothing outstanding-but the appetizer was worth the trip.

From here, we wanted to finish walking through WS, so we wandered over to the American Adventure. We were lucky enough to catch one of the performances by the Voices of Liberty singers before the main presentation began. These people are WONDERFUL. We both do a lot of small-ensemble singing, and we both wish we were had either the talent or the time to be involved in a group that is so amazing. It's got to be a lot of fun. We bought a tape of them in the AA gift shop, and continued on around the loop.

We wandered through the shops and looked around in Japan, and then headed on to Morocco, where we took a couple of pictures of Aladdin and Jasmine, who were out visiting with passersby. I also got a great laugh here, at my own expense: I asked a guy at the drink cart in front of Morocco if I could use a "free 20 oz. Coke" bottle cap, which I had gotten a couple of days ago, to buy a Coke here, and without cracking a smile or missing a beat, he deadpanned, "Nope-this is Morocco. You can only use that in America." He actually had me thinking he was serious for a second, before I realized that he was kidding and he cracked up. My wife gave me a hard time, too, before we continued on our way.

The next country in line was France, and it is absolutely forbidden in my house to walk past here without stopping in the pastry shop. Fortunately, we had had enough time since lunch to make room for some French sweets, so we sat down for a few minutes and took a pastry break-MMMmmmm!!! We decided to skip France's film and continued our tour. We were a little disappointed when we got to Great Britain, because many of the buildings are being worked on, and they were all covered with tarps while the work was being done. Still, we had fun looking in the toy store and the other shops. We also found the path to the UG's "secret park", but the path was blocked by a chain, and right next to it was a cart selling drinks. Since we would have had to push through the line at the cart, then dip under a rope while a CM stood about a foot from us, we decided that it wasn't that important.

We finally came to Canada, where we went inside and saw the film, which included some truly breathtaking scenery. We also strolled through the shops and took a quick look at the menu at the restaurant here before wandering back out. Our plan for today was to see the other FW pavilions that we had missed on Monday, and we had dinner reservations at the Biergarten, where we planned to eat an early dinner before going to MGM to see the fireworks show that we skipped a few nights ago. Instead, we decided to cancel our reservations and leave the final FW buildings for tomorrow, so that we could go back to the hotel for a much-needed nap. That way, we could go to MGM tonight well-rested and ready.

This is where our plans hit a snag-when we got back to the car, the rearview mirror had fallen off and was laying on the floor! I first stopped at the Car Care Center, only to find that it is no longer a working garage. So, after buying an adhesive on US192, we went back to the hotel. The adhesive didn't work, so we made a few calls to find out what we needed, and stretched out.

Driving back to MGM without a mirror was weird (I never realized how much I use it!), but it was no problem, and we walked in at about 7:00. Since neither of us was very hungry, we decided and to wait and eat a late dinner, and chose to try the 50's Prime Time again. I ran over to reserve a priority seating. We went in to play with the hands-on stuff in Soundworks, the post-show area of the Monster Sound Show, and got to experience the 3D Sound demo booth again, one of my favorite "hidden attractions" in WDW.

We got some ice cream to snack on, found a good table at the edge of the seating area of Min and Bill's, and waited for the show to begin. It was great-our favorite WDW fireworks show by far. Our seats were in a perfect spot, and the people around us were all pretty good about sitting down so that they would not block our view.

After the fireworks, it was time for dinner. We enjoyed the atmosphere and service at 50's PT when we were here in '91, but were disappointed in the food. This time, we had the opposite problem: our dinners were delicious, but our waitress, who was obviously new, didn't do a very good job (the only time all week we had bad service).

She didn't play the role very well, and she also messed up our orders:

the special was ribs, but we both ordered the ribEYEs (as in steak). She ran off without asking how we wanted our steaks cooked, and we didn't understand why, or what had happened, until she brought out two slabs of ribs for us: she apparently thought we had said "ribs", not "ribeye". The mistake didn't really bother us, but she also just wasn't a very good waitress. Once the right order got to us, however, our steaks were wonderful. The mess-up didn't upset us at all-hey, everybody has to learn when they're new, and besides, we're on vacation, so why worry about it? -- but we were looking forward to a waitress who would really play up the "Mom" role. Oh, well...

We decided to end the evening at the new Boardwalk, and we really weren't very impressed. It was neat, but it seemed like just a handful of bars, a couple of VERY expensive shops, and an arcade, all on the water. We just looked in at the ESPN club, since it was very crowded, and it looked like fun, but it was just another big sports bar. We thought about going in to the piano bar, but it had a $5/person cover charge, and we didn't feel like being out $10 just to satisfy our curiosity. The hotel lobby was VERY nice, and we got the impression that it would be a very nice resort, but the boardwalk area was pretty noisy, even well after midnight, and I thought that I would be pretty upset about paying that much for a room where the noise and lights kept me awake every night.

We left, exhausted, to go back to the hotel. After a side trip to Wal-Mart to pick up some rearview mirror adhesive, and a few other supplies we needed, we finally got back to our room and absolutely collapsed.

Saturday, July 20 (Day 7)

We awoke this morning ready to go, but a little sad. Here we were at the end of the trip already-our last day! We were ready to get back home to see our little boy, but we had such a perfect trip, we hated to see it end. Still, we were looking forward to a great day doing some of our favorite things at WDW.

We started the day in EC, at the Wonders of Life, and I rode Body Wars right away (Cat decided to sit this one out). The line was very short, so it didn't take long, and while I was in there, Cat played with some of the hands-on stuff in the main area. After I got out, we played with a few more together before seeing The Making of Me. I'm not a big Martin Short fan, but I liked him in this, and we both thought it was very well done. We also got in to Cranium Command easily. This was one of the best surprises we had all week! We had heard a few good comments on it, but it was a LOT of fun. Very funny, and the casting of the "body parts" was just perfect-Hans and Franz, John Goodman, Bob Goldthwait, and everyone else were a scream!! I also wanted to get my golf swing "analyzed". but the line was too long, so we crossed back over toward the Land.

On the way through Innoventions, we stopped at Pasta Piazza for lunch. We found this to be VERY good fast food: we each got a slice of pizza, and they were hot, fresh, very thick, and very large, with lots of cheese and sauce, and lots of pepperoni. For dessert, we split a slice of their dessert pizza, which was also pretty good. Just as we were sitting down with our meals, the place was suddenly swamped by a couple of tour groups full of Brazilian teens, so we left as soon as we were done eating, in order to avoid the crowds and noise, as well as to give them somewhere else to sit.

Our first stop inside The Land was The Circle of Life, the environmental film with Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa. It was cute, but the crowd control here was awful. Instead of having any sort of line, everyone just stands around in the preshow area, then when the doors to the theatre open, you must go down a set of steps to get to the section of the theatre you want. WHile many other WDW attractions work in a similar way, the steps here were much narrower, and there was not enough room for the crowd to wander down the steps. The result was a lot of unnecessary pushing and shoving around us, and there was no room for us to back out of the way and let people go by. It was really frustrating. Next, we rode Living with the Land. I remembered this as being pretty dull before, but I really enjoyed it this time. Has it been changed? I thought it was a lot longer in '91, with more detail on the different methods of growing food, and that it was more of just a guided tour through the garden. This time, the ride was only a few minutes long, and only the second half was a guided tour.

We had already decided to skip Food Rocks, so we left The Land and started toward the gate. Before we left, we decided to ride Horizons one last time, since it sounds like it will no longer be there when we return. What a shame! We both think this is one of the best rides in EPCOT.

We went back to the hotel, where I re-mounted the car mirror (after getting a little help from the maintenance man, since I had no tools with me). This went quickly, and another midday nap was in order. We woke in time to make our early dinner reservation at the Liberty Tree Tavern in the MK. We had chosen Liberty Tree because we had heard that it was the best sit-down restaurant in the MK, and we wanted a quiet dinner at a nice restaurant for our last meal at WDW. We had just been seated when Chip walked up, and we realized that we were at a character dinner!! Within minutes, the tables around us were seated with large family groups and LOTS of kids. Since this was NOT what we had envisioned, we were really disappointed-at first. But the kids were all pretty good, and it was great watching them when the characters came to see them. Their faces would absolutely light up, and they would all become ecstatic, whenever Goofy or one of his friends stopped at their table, and we had a BALL watching it all. They visited us as well, of course, and we took lots of pictures with them. In all, there were six characters there: Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, Chip, Dale, and Meeko. Minnie gave me a big kiss, Pluto tried to serve our mashed potatoes (making a big mess in the process), and they all were a lot of fun. The food was pretty good, too, and even though we would never have eaten dinner there if we had known it was a character meal, we were really glad it worked out the way it did. Of course, we also REALLY missed our son now, after watching all those kids play with their Disney favorites. We reluctantly admitted that it really must be about time to leave after all.

Since the only thing we missed in the MK on Monday was Mickey's Starland, we went there first after dinner. We walked through Mickey and Minnie's houses, and we had planned to get our picture taken with Mickey in the tent behind his house, but the line was too long. A CM working there told us that the line would be much better after 11:00, so we decided to come back then. We boarded the train there and took a tour all the way around the park, then left to ride our favorites once again.

As we rode through the Haunted Mansion, Cat again remarked as we approached the ballroom scene that she wished the ride would stop here so that she could really watch everything that was going on. Just as we reached the middle of the ball room, she got her wish-the ride stopped!! We sat for at least a couple of minutes, watching the paintings come to life and duel, the dancing couples, the dinner party, and everything else-it was great!! I think we had probably noticed all of the "little touches" before, but getting to sit for a while and kind of study it was awesome. There are places in this ride I would NOT want to be stuck, but where we were was the perfect spot.

I wanted to see the MK fireworks again, but this time as they were meant to be seen: with Cinderella's castle in the foreground. So, we walked to the circle in front of the castle and stood waiting. Because of where we watched the show from last time, we had not realized that "Tinkerbell's Flight", which opens the fireworks, was actually a person! We found this pretty neat, and of course the show itself was terrific.

Next, while most of the guests made a beeline for the gate, we went toward Adventureland, where we joined a very short line and rode the Jungle Cruise in the dark. Catherine had never done this before, and we really had fun. We went from there to visit the Pirates again, and found the line COMPLETELY empty. We only had three other people in our boat! We talked about riding Splash Mt. again, but there was still a line, and we wanted to make sure we could see Mickey in his backyard before we left, so we decided not to. We boarded the train in Frontierland, and got off again at Mickey's house. The line was indeed much shorter this late, and we got in with only a five-minute wait. The CM who took us in was glad to take our picture with The Mouse, and we told Mickey how much we liked his house before we left.

Our last stop of the night was Carousel of Progress, and we took a few more pictures of the New Tomorrowland before we left. We stopped on Main Street to pick up a few souvenirs to take to our son, and my in-laws (to thank them for keeping him), and, with a final glance at the castle, left the MK. We had not yet visited the GF, where we stayed on our honeymoon, and decided that we would finish the trip with a quick visit for old times' sake. We decided to take the motor launch instead of the monorail, and had a pleasant ride across on a perfect evening. We didn't stay long, since it was now very late, but we stood in the lobby for a few minutes, remembering our wonderful stay here, and took the elevator up to get a better look. After a few minutes of reminiscing, we knew it was time to call it a trip. We caught one of the last monorails of the night, found our car looking very lonely in the TTC parking lot, and caught one last glimpse of the castle before leaving. What a truly magical trip!!

Sunday, July 21 and Monday, July 22 (Days 8 and 9)

After the last two late nights, we really had a hard time getting going this morning. After one last visit to the breakfast buffet, we finally managed to get ready, finish packing, and check out. We also had to make a couple of stops first, to restock our munchies at Publix and to fill the gas tank, before we were able to get on our way. We finally made it onto the interstate to start our trip at about 8:30. As usual, Catherine was driving and I was reading our book aloud, but by the time we reached the I-95 junction at Daytona, Cat was having a hard time staying awake. So, we switched places, and I took over.

Naturally, having gotten such a late start, and being so exhausted to start with, we were unable to make it all the way home in one day. We stopped just as we crossed into North Carolina, at a Fairfield Inn. We had never stayed in one of these before, and we were extremely pleased with this one. Very clean, comfortable, and a helpful, courteous staff. It was also right next to a Cracker Barrel, so, after a quick call home to make sure things were still okay, we walked next door for supper, and then came back and collapsed back in our room. We REALLY hated having another night without seeing the little guy, but it would not have been safe to go much farther.

The next day was much easier-we were more rested, and we only had about five hours left. Just as we finally crossed the state line into Virginia, we were greeted by a few minutes of rain-the only rain we had seen since Day 3!! We were out of it again in minutes, and we made it home in time to play for a few minutes before nap time. What a great way to get welcomed home!! When Cat opened the front door, she was greeted with a huge squeal of excitement and a toddler running full-force to give her a hug-followed directly by "Hi, Mommy! Trip all done?" Ahhh... it's good to be home.

Final thoughts and WDW tips:

We managed to stick to our plans pretty well, and everything went great (well, except for Universal...). We actually came out UNDER our budget!! Using the fanny pack really worked well-we didn't have to keep up with any hand-carried items, and we had everything we needed with us, including my wife's lipstick and compact. The only part of our plan that we dropped was carrying around packs of crackers. We only ate one pack the first three days, and two just got crushed in the pack. So, we stopped packing them, didn't miss them, and had more room to carry small items like band-aids and saline drops. The card case was a perfect "mini-wallet", keeping our passes protected and our other IDs together while we knew right where it was at all times.

The five-day pass was perfect for a week-long trip, and even if we had not done USF mid-week, there were still a bunch of things we would like to have done that we didn't get to. I don't think there is any way we would have gotten bored with two days out of the parks.

Even though we didn't use the touring plans, we still followed the advice of the UG and RADP on when to ride, and it worked beautifully. We arrived early (but not TOO early) and hit the most popular attractions first, or saved them until either the end of the day or during the parades and fireworks. When the parks were more crowded, we did the attractions which have shorter lines, or faster-moving ones, and at midday, when the crowds were the largest, we went back for a nap. This made it much easier to stay until closing, when we could ride almost anything without a wait. We also started each day with a basic plan of what our main objectives were: what attractions we most wanted to see, and where we were going to start. We usually did the first two or three things on our plan before we started to ad-lib. Then, during lunch, we would come up with another (loose) plan for the next several rides, based on what we had done so far, where we were at the time, and what our priorities were for the rest of the day.

We ate lunch kind of early every day, and made early dinner reservations, and never had to wait to be seated. Eating breakfast in our room as we got ready each morning made it easy for us to get there early and also saved us a lot of money. I would strongly recommend doing this, even if your hotel doesn't include breakfast as ours did. If you have to buy doughnuts to keep in the room, or rent a mini-fridge to keep milk for cereal and juice, do it. It will still save both money and time.

All in all, we had an absolutely wonderful vacation. It was even better than we had hoped, and we can't wait to go back sometime. The next trip should be even more magical, since our son will be old enough to go along by then. But in the meantime, we have lots of memories of a very special trip together. What more could we ask?

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