Trip Reports

• Time of Year: Fall
• Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
• Resort: Old Key West Resort
• Accommodations: Standard Room
• Ages Represented in Group: Adult
• WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent
• Comments: I love reading the old reports! This one documents Julie and Matt's impromptu visit to WDW in early November. This was a shorter trip, but Julie packed a lot in (including several experiences in navigating the huge WDW complex...much to her consternation).

November 1- 4, 1996

My parents have a membership in the Disney Vacation Club. They had extra points that they could not bank at the end of the year and would end up losing so they offered us a free vacation aside from food and transportation. Matt and I were happy to take them up on the offer! My last trip to Walt Disney World was eleven years earlier. My boss did not want me to take any time off because she is a pain in the butt. However, I had passed my probationary period two months earlier, had earned the vacation time, would lose the vacation time at the end of the year anyway and hadn't taken a single day off since I started the job. I went over her head to get permission to use my leave. My boss was so unreasonable that I ended up leaving the position within three months of this trip.

Friday, November 1, 1996

We got up at the crack of dawn to make an 8 a.m. flight on Delta from National Airport to Orlando. It was completely uneventful. After much thought, we decided to rent a car from Alamo despite its off-airport location. I was expecting the worst experience but it wasn't bad at all. We hadn't checked any luggage so we didn't have to wait in line for anything after disembarking from the plane. The shuttle bus was waiting as soon as we exited the building and we were the second in line for a car. They even gave us a free upgrade.

After getting lost (a theme for this trip), we arrived at Old Key West where we checked into a studio. This was a very nice place to stay with just enough room for the two of us. It came equipped with a tiny kitchenette that we did not use except for a place to store the cereal we brought with us for breakfasts. We particularly liked the balcony, which overlooks some wooded areas. After changing into cooler clothes, we decided to go to Epcot. We got lost.

Eventually, we found where we were going and headed for lunch at the San Angel Cafe outside of the Mexico Pavilion. Both of us had the burritos. I did not like the black beans but Matt did. There was a very neat bird there and I took his picture. Matt ended up in it too but it is a picture of the bird. That's why Matt looks so weird! We enjoyed being outside where it was sunny and warm. It was such a strange feeling after being bundled up in coats!

We were ride commandos on this trip, which turned out to be an okay thing since the crowds were negligible. We walked right onto EVERYTHING. After lunch we visited Spaceship Earth, Universe of Energy, Horizons, Wonders of Life (Cranium Command and Body Wars), Journey Into Imagination, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and the Living Seas. We both thought Ellen was annoying in the Energy Pavilion. The space shuttle takeoff more than makes up for her annoying presence. I managed to get a little motion sick from Body Wars, which was a new experience for me. Normally, I do just fine on all kinds of rides. We noticed that Matt does not fit very well in the Omnimover cars at Journey Into Imagination. He's somewhat tall at 6'5. Of the various Omnimovers, Horizons has the best fit. Speaking of Horizons, the IMAX film on that ride is the most awesome thing I've ever seen. Other neat things we saw were the manatee and the fish at the Living Seas.

We were getting a little hungry so we walked over to the Liberty Inn. I had a hot dog with grapes while Matt ate a hamburger and fries. I love hot dogs! We sat the rough The American Adventure and I'm not sure I like the updated version very much. We also saw the O Canada film. I was very sorry to see that it appears to be a bit dated. I have always loved this film and the music. The only wait of the day was for the Maelstrom in Norway. The trolls were quite cool and I enjoyed the film that no one wants to stay for. It has always been a secret dream of mine to take one of those freighter cruises through Norway to see the fjords. Over in Mexico, we rode El Rio Del Tiempo. It's very much like It's A Small World but it's not annoying like It's A Small World. I like it. We also stopped to see the jugglers in China and the contortionists in Morocco. We were unimpressed with Illuminations and will not spend time on it again in the future. Driving home, I managed to get lost. They have signs everywhere telling you how to get places but they don't seem to make much sense. (Note: Disney signage has improved over the past three years)

Saturday, November 2, 1996

This morning we went to the Magic Kingdom for early entry after stuffing ourselves with cereal. The only things open in the morning were Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. We took advantage of the opportunity to ride Space Mountain and Alien Encounter. Matt says that Space Mountain hurt his knees. I felt that Alien Encounter was the biggest waste of time! They messed up the boarding for it and we ended up with a very long wait. Then, they loaded two rooms at one time and only one can go at a time. We were the first room but they started the other accidentally. The whole point of this attraction is the atmosphere and by having us wait in the room for so long listening to the same announcements over and over again, there wasn't any suspense. On top of that, it wasn't in the least bit scary.

Since the rest of the park still hadn't opened, we walked over to Fantasyland and rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (my favorite) and Peter Pan's Flight. After that, we headed to Frontierland to try first Big Thunder Mountain Railroad followed by Splash Mountain. The station at Big Thunder smelled so bad! One piece of advice about Big Thunder: going on a roller coaster after getting soaked doesn't really dry you off. All it does it get the seat wet for the next person behind you and stink up the station! Wet people smell bad! Almost as bad as wet dogs! Anyway, we headed back to Main Street and stopped in at the Disney Welcome Center to pick up free 25th Anniversary lithographs. The mayor even greeted us!

For lunch, we got out of the parks and went to the Coral Isle Cafe at the Polynesian Village for Caesar salads. It was so nice to just get away and relax. We then returned to the Magic Kingdom to take each other's pictures on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (People Mover) and ride Dreamflight twice just for the speed room. We also sang along with the family in Carousel of Progress. Matt wanted to see Country Bear Jamboree. I fell asleep. I always fall asleep in the bears. I also find it quite disconcerting to wake up in the middle of the bears when the girl bears are on the swings and I'm looking straight up a bear's butt. Since I fell asleep in the bears, we had to go to the Enchanted Tiki Birds for Matt's nap. I sang along. We did a few more rides and then returned to the room for naps since we didn't get enough sleep between the bears and the birds. As usual, we got lost heading back.

In the evening, we went to Pleasure Island where we sat through two Comedy Club shows. One was funny. One wasn't so funny. After that, we went to dinner at Planet Hollywood, which was very loud with a long wait. I had a bad migraine headache and the hamburger was only so-so. We returned to Pleasure Island after dinner and went over to the Adventurer's Club where we were inducted and got to sing the song and recite the creed. The motto became our motto for the trip: "We're not lost! We're adventuring! Kungaloosh! After the induction, we were ushered into the library for the beer tasting competition. Matt doesn't like beer and if he wasn't going to drink beer, I wasn't going to either. We also watched Frankie and the whatevers on the West End Stage, looked into the Jazz Club and stayed for the overhyped New Year's Eve celebration.

Driving back, we got lost and ended up at Epcot. It is my opinion that all roads lead to Epcot. We ended up there every time we got lost on this trip. The most embarrassing time was when we pulled up to the Epcot gate and were given directions to turn at the second left and we counted wrong. We ended up at Epcot again five minutes later with the same person giving us directions. The next most embarrassing time was pulling into Old Key West this evening and making our way to our complex. There was a small circle with three roads coming off it: the one we entered on and two others branching off. I ended up driving around the circle three times because it was very confusing and I could not figure out which road to take. It was bad enough to miss it the first time but to miss it twice more was just not right. At least we did not end up back at Epcot again for the third time in one night with the same attendant! And, no, I hadn't had too much to drink - I had one drink at the Comedy Club early in the evening and that was it.

Sunday, November 3, 1996

Today was MGM Studios day. We started off with the Tower of Terror, which I really liked. Poor Matt was so scared! He told me he hates rides like this and I didn't believe him. I felt terrible because he completely tensed up and went as stiff as a board. In later visits, he's relaxed a lot on this ride. Because I felt terrible about making Matt go on a ride that obviously terrified him, we did whatever he wanted to do for the rest of the day. We even went to the Commissary Cafe since Matt wanted another hamburger for lunch. As usual, I had a hot dog. I was getting very tired of hot dogs. His idea of fun included the Great Movie Ride, the Backstage Tour, the Art of Animation and Muppet Vision 4-D. The Animation tour was interesting. We saw previews for "Hercules." I could never go on the Great Movie Ride again and be happy. I adore Gene Kelly. The animatronic figure of Gene Kelly doesn't even resemble him except for the costuming. The same was true of the other figures. Great Movie Ride - Gene Kelly's figure doesn't look like him at all. None of the figures do. Terrible.

We took another nap in the afternoon before going to the Dolphin for dinner at Harry's Safari Bar and Grill. We had a $50 coupon from Rita Aero's book and I happily dined on steak and lobster. It was ever so much better than hot dogs! Matt also had steak. A stuffed gorilla sat at our table to keep us company and we enjoyed our dinner very much. Considering that our bill was still another $45 after using the coupon, and we did not order any drinks, I doubt that we would ever dine here again because of the prices. I'd rather either spend more money for Victoria & Albert's or eat in an Epcot restaurant.

After dinner, we strolled the Boardwalk and then went back to Epcot through the International Gateway so Matt could play Sega in Innoventions. I went into the shops in Canada because it was getting cold. Luckily, I found a really neat sweatshirt there with a picture of a bear on it. The bear is wearing fake antlers, standing next to a sign that says "Do Not Feed the Bears." The bear is holding his own sign that states "I am not a bear." This has become my favorite sweatshirt. Unfortunately, we were caught in the Illuminations mob so we walked toward the exit during the show. Then we kept walking the LONG way around the Swan and Dolphin to get back to our car. This was a very, very long walk.

We finally made it back to the car and we could see the Fantasia Gardens miniature golf course from the parking lot. It was still early so we decided mini golf would be perfect. Of course, even though we could SEE where we were going since it was directly across the street, we got lost and it took us twenty minutes to get to the golf course. And, yes, we ended up at Epcot! We finally found our way to the golf course

which must have been by complete and total accident since we kept getting lost and decided to play the regular course. As usual, Matt cheated by building a huge lead on the first few holes and I couldn't catch up. I have trouble with mini golf. I seem to hit the ball so hard that it flies across the course onto other holes. After finishing our game, Matt decided to play the fairway course. I watched him. It was a much more difficult course and I did not think it was as much fun. My not playing had nothing to do with it.

Monday, November 4, 1996

We slept in this morning, checked out, and drove to Downtown Disney for a little shopping. By a little shopping, I mean that we went into the glass store run by Arribas Brothers where I bought some multicolored blown glass angelfish earrings. I used to always buy a pair of blown glass earrings when

I went to Disney World but there isn't much selection anymore. They used to have cool parrots and swans and all kinds of neat animals.

We had plenty of time left so we decided to rent boats at the Marina. We were going to choose water sprites but Matt doesn't fit in them. We ended up with a pontoon boat instead that we both could share. It doesn't go as fast but it was nice being together and we saw some interesting sights on the Sassagoula River. There was a heron with a snake in its mouth! We took the boat all the way up to Old Key West and then turned around to come back. It was interesting seeing Dixie Landings and Port Orleans from the water.

I wanted oysters on the half shell for lunch but Cap'n Jack's Oyster Bar only sells them steamed and fried. Instead, we each had some amazingly good New England clam chowder. Unfortunately, at this point we had to get back to the car so we could get to the airport in time for another uneventful flight. We seriously considered staying for an extra day but the change fees on the airline and the cost of a hotel room ruled that out. All in all, it was a great trip, if too short for the amount of things that we did.

Julie Hauer

JulieD3964@aol.com

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