Trip Reports

• Time of Year: Winter
• Travel Method: Personal Car
• Resort: Dixie Landings
• Accommodations: Standard Room
• Ages Represented in Group: Adult
• WDW Experience Represented in Group: Unknown
• Comments: John stayed at Dixie Landings during this trip. The twist to this trip was the tight budget that John maintained on this trip. A great vacation can be had at WDW on a budget, believe it or not.

Hi all!

My girlfriend and I recently returned from a trip to Walt Disney World and thought I might share our experiences with all of you. I've structured this report in three sections, the first being overall comments and impressions, followed by a day-by-day report, and finally a list of things that we recommend based on our experiences. Hopefully anyone going to WDW will find this informative and interesting.

The trip began on 1/5 and ended on 1/14, with our stay at WDW lasting from 1/7-1/12. We decided to save some money and drive from Harrisburg, PA, rather than fly. The trip down was a one-day deal, since we knew we'd be riding the excitement and would have lots of energy. However, we took two days to get back home.

A note: we had a $400 food budget that needed to last 6 days. I'll show you how we managed to come in under that (barely) and still eat well. $33 per person per day was (at least for us) a good estimate, but if you plan on doing all three meals 'out', you might want to bump it to $50.

OVERALL COMMENTS AND IMPRESSIONS

1. As usual, the Disney magic made the trip. While the parks are entertaining and fun, the huge effort that the folks at WDW make to ensure a guest has a great time did not go unnoticed by either of us. Many thanks to the countless people at Disney for making our stay a smooth one.
2. Well, mid-Florida did not manage to escape the Blizzard of 1996 (on the east coast, anyway) unscathed. In general, the weather, while usually very sunny, was very cold for that part of the county. Highs averaged about 55 with lows dipping into the low 30's, and if you factor in the high winds early in the week, sometimes I felt I hadn't left PA. I just had to remember that PA was getting 3 feet of snow to forgive the cold.
3. Although the folks at WDW (as usual) make the place look amazing in terms of landscaping, the brown grass and lack of flowers and leaves on some trees paints a different picture than summer, which still rules in terms of pure beauty.
4. I've been to EPCOT far more than the Magic Kingdom, so I suppose that's why I rate MK before EPCOT in terms of the best park. MGM is fun but just doesn't have enough for the adventurous part of me. Plus there isn't as much to do.
5. I recommend staying on-site at LEAST once in your life. We stayed at the Dixie Landings, and the shear convenience is enough to justify the higher prices. And while other hotels will offer more amenities for the price, the nice features that you get staying on-site with a package (transportation, flex feature, close to guest relations, neat pools, etc.) make it even more worthwhile. Save the extra money and go for it, especially if you have alot of Disney Spirit.
6. If you plan on staying within WDW for the whole trip, get a length-of-stay pass to the parks. If not, get a park hopper pass for the number of days you WILL be in the parks. They provide basically the same thing, and if you decide to visit Universal Studios or something for a day, you won't be losing a day you paid for. We found out that a 5 day park hopper is just $3 more than a 5 day/4 night length-of-stay pass.
7. The new park enteric system of scanning tickets and cards IS slower than the old way. Lines at EPCOT extended all the way back past the ticket windows!
8. Considering January is supposed to be one of the least crowded times of the year, the lines were a bit disappointing. The average wait lasted 10-20 minutes, some longer and some no waits. I wonder if people decided to go to Florida when they saw the big storm coming...
9. The fact that the MK and MGM close early (6PM and 7PM, respectively) on weekdays during January is a bit of a let down. There was plenty of people in the parks, and I love the parks at night. EPCOT was open till 9PM.

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DAY-BY-DAY

Friday, Jan. 5 -- Up at 4:15AM, packed the car (OK, so I procrastinate). Temperature is a balmy 12 degrees, so we chuckle to ourselves. We hadn't been paying much attention to the weather locally so we didn't even know we were going to miss the 2nd largest snow storm in PA history by 2 days. We do get insider information from my Grandmother that it could be cold, so we (luckily) packed accordingly. After putzing around for a while, we manage to get on the road by 6AM. 14 hours later our extensive tour of I-95 is over and we're in Jacksonville, FL, at my grandmother's house. Stopped at South of the Boarder so my girlfriend could see it. Suggestion: do NOT stop.

Saturday, Jan 6 -- Spent the day in Jacksonville. Chilly, but not cold. Still are unaware of the impending doom about to bury the northeast and freeze our butts off in Orlando.

Sunday, Jan. 7 -- YEAH! We're going to Disney World! Up at 6AM, waste no time repacking the car. The morning is mild but cloudy, in the 50's. Little did we know that the high for the day had long since passed. It's just shy of 3 hours to Orlando from Jacksonville. We hop off I-4 at 9:50AM and follow the signs to Dixie Landings. Although check-in isn't till 3PM, our room is ready anyway. I give the cast member a credit card so we can use our passes to charge stuff to our room. The whole process goes smoothly, so we unpack our stuff in room 8806 of Magnolia Terrace (part of Magnolia Bend, where the buildings are modeled after large southern plantations). Having done our homework by reading this newsgroup and checking out the Disney web pages, we knew that Universe of Energy (UOE) and World of Motion (WOM) at EPCOT were both scheduled to shut down the next day (1/8), so we hop on a bus just outside our room and head to EPCOT. Well, it turns out WOM closed on Jan. 3, UOE was still open, and Horizons had re-opened as well. The WDW Marathon was in full swing, and caused a few delays, but it was fun watching the cast members cheer all the runners on.

They must have clapped for 5 hours. Here's what we did:

Horizons (no wait, and usually never does)
Universe of Energy
Journey into Imagination (JII)
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (HISTA)
'The Circle of Life' movie at the Land
Late lunch at the Sunshine Season Food Fair (in The Land, paid with money left over from the trip)
Body Wars
Cranium Command
Spaceship Earth

At this point we noticed we were going to fast, so we hopped on a monorail and did a run past the Magic Kingdom via the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC). I got a glimpse of the 'Mickyard', a new auto racing track just off the MK parking lot. With the race in a few weeks, they were furiously assembling the bleachers. I saw no-one on the track, nor would I all week (By they way, I'm an Indycar fan). We headed back to EPCOT and did Living with the Land (lines for this were unusually long), and then wandered into World Showcase where we had dinner reservations. We managed to catch 'O Canada!' (Circlevision 360 movie) and 'Impressions de France' (movie) before having dinner at the famous Teppanyaki Dining Rooms of Japan. The food was excellent but the cook, while mildly entertaining, wasn't one of the ones that fling your food around and doing amazing tricks. The meal cost $71.64, including drinks and tip (as will all amounts). I billed this and most food to the room, since it's a good way to keep track. Incidentally, the hotel gave me a $2000 limit on the room expenses. This might pose a problem for some families with teenagers, so watch who you give the card to. And if you lose it and some jerk finds it, it's not too hard for them to charge things since there's no picture. Be careful.

Monday, Jan. 8 -- After spending more than our daily budget on food Sunday, we decided to pack a few lunches and eat breakfast in the room as much as possible. So we wandered over to the main building of Dixie Landings and had a quick bite at the Colonel's Cotton Mill food court ($5.61). On the way we saw DL's main pool being renovated. The temperature never did get high enough for us to go swimming, but some people did. DL has 2 or 3 other heated pools besides then main pool, one of which was right next to our area. After breakfast we drove to the strip mall just beyond the Lake Buena Vista (LBV) hotels called The Crossroads (yes, the one you see from I-4 just before the LBV exit) and picked up a few things for packing lunches and a box of Pop Tarts for the mornings (apple-cinnamon..good), plus some sodas. We brought a cooler with us so I added fresh ice twice a day to keep things cold. Without a refrigerator in the room, the cooler worked pretty well (yes, it was the cheap old Styrofoam kind, and yes, it still in one piece). Spent around $15 on the groceries. We then drove back to DL and made some sandwiches, then hopped in the car for the Magic Kingdom (we had decided to experiment with the bus vs. the car thing. More on this later).

Besides Sunday, this was the coldest day, with highs around 50 and windy. The line for the monorail was long so we braved the cold and took the almost deserted ferry from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom.

Here's what we did:

Timekeeper
Dreamflight
Carousel of Progress
Space Mountain - Space mountain is still my favorite ride at WDW, and despite rumors of it being less dark, I didn't notice.
Tomorrowland Transit Authority
A short walk though Mickey's Starland and Mickey's house
WDW Railroad to Frontierland
Pirates of the Caribbean
Hall of Presidents
Haunted Mansion
Alien Encounter (no wait, during Mickey Mania parade)
Lunch @ 3:45
Legends of the Lion King

We decided to pack it in at this point and relax in the room before dinner. We drove to the Caribbean Beach resort and had a free dinner in the Old Port Royale food court using the flex feature that came with our package. Incidentally, we wanted to see as much of WDW as we could besides the parks, so we tried to plan trips to the other areas as much as possible.

Tuesday, Jan. 9 -- Slept in (which we did most of the days we were there) and drove to EPCOT, arriving at 10AM.

The Living Seas
Food Rocks (at the Land)
Maelstrom (Norway)
'Wonders of China' movie

We then had a 1PM lunch at one of my favorite restaurants at WDW, The San Angel Inn in the Mexico pavilion. The eternal dusk atmosphere inside and the location right next to the River of Time make for a romantic setting. Plus the authentic Mexican food is wonderful. Don't miss an opportunity to eat there if you can. ($30.72)

Germany - browsing
Italy - browsing
The American Adventure

At this point we had covered most of what we wanted to see at EPCOT, so we hopped on a boat across the lagoon to World Showcase Plaza, and then headed to the monorail station for a trip to the Magic Kingdom. Virtually none was on it so we grabbed at the opportunity to sit up front with the pilot for the trip from the TTC to the MK. I highly recommend doing this but unless you want to wait a while, do it during the afternoon. At the Magic Kingdom, we managed to get the railroad just as it was leaving Main St. Station and rode it to Frontierland. I honestly don't think it is possible to get from EPCOT to Splash Mountain faster than we did that day, with no lines anywhere and no waiting for any transportation. Riding Splash Mountain was a mistake that day, since it was still cold and we were up front. We got soaked and almost froze when we got off. We stopped by Country Bear Jamboree to warm up a bit and then hit Space Mountain for the second time. (Big Thunder Mountain was closed for renovations). We then took the ferry and Monorail back to EPCOT for a 7PM dinner at the Restaurant Akershus (Norway). If you like buffets with lots of fish (including peel and eat shrimp, smoked salmon, raw herring), salads, and smoked meats, this is the place for you. The food was good and the deserts were excellent ($66.09). After dinner we rode Maelstrom again and then watched the 9PM IllumiNations, which, while getting old, still manages to impress (and the music is wonderful).

Wednesday, Jan. 10 -- We drove to MGM for our only early entrance of the trip: 8AM. It turned out to be worth it:

Tower of Terror (twice)
The Great Movie Ride
Star Tours
MuppetVision 3D

All before the 9AM park opening. I can't say enough about Tower of Terror. The ride and the presentation are superb, as only Disney can do it. Lots of neat Twilight Zone stuff, which interested my girlfriend. If only the drop was longer... And MuppetVision is hilarious. I'm not a big Muppet fan like my girlfriend is, but I laughed during this one.

Inside the Magic Special Effects Tour
The Making of Toy Story
Backstage Tour
Animation Tour
Lunch (packed)

At 1PM, the Toy Story parade came though, and we managed to get nice seats for it. It's fun, but short. I love the music and they way Disney coordinated the music and the parade. Incidentally, see Toy Story if you haven't already. Disney at it's best... Beauty and the Beast quality, perhaps even better.

Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular
Monster Sound Show

Don't ask me why, because I don't know, but I loved the Monster Sound Show. It's alot of fun. We then went to SuperStar Television, where I foolishly volunteered to star in a Cheers episode. It was fun, but they don't let you buy a tape of yourself at the end. I never saw how I did. We then wandered around the shops for a while and headed back to the room at about 4 to rest. At 6:00 we drove to MGM to check out the Observe family Christmas lights on Residential St. I've never seen so many Christmas lights in one place. It was truly amazing. We had some time before dinner, so we watched Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which was fun and had alot of nice effects to enhance the show. We then drove over to the Beach Club Resort and the Cape May Cafe. Had I not read a previous trip report praising this restaurant, we would have missed one of the best dinner spots at WDW. I *highly* recommend this place for any big eater or seafood lover, because it's all you can eat and the amount of choices is mind boggling. I concentrated mostly on the steamed clams, on of my favorite foods. I was like a kid in a candy store, stopping at no less than 5 buckets of clams ($57.98). After dinner we wandered around the lake front and took in the HUGE pool (which is so big it qualifies as a water park under Florida law). We then drove home for got some well needed sleep.

Thursday, Jan. 11 -- Happy Anniversary, my dear! We had planned on celebrating our 2nd year together with a nice dinner. But first, we decided to take advantage of the free use of non-motorized vehicles (bikes, paddle boats, etc.) by riding around DL's lagoon and then paddling over to the Port Orleans. You can paddle almost all the way to Disney Village, but we wanted to get to the MK so we didn't go quite that far. When we got back we hopped on a bus and made our way to the MK and Adventureland:

Swiss Family Treehouse
Tiki Birds
Jungle Cruise (long, as usual)
Lunch at Pecos Bill's Cafe ($14.52)
Peter Pan's Flight

It was about 2:30 by now, so we snagged great spots just over the castle moat toward Liberty Square for the 3PM Mickey Mania parade. While we waited I got some ice cream and cookie sandwiches ($5.62) at the Sleepy Hollow cafe. The parade was fun, and the most interesting part was when we heard the guys on stilts improv during one of the many 'Why? Because we like to!' lines. Their version went like: 'Why? Because we HAVE to!' I got it all on tape, too Anyway, after the parade, we continued our tour of Fantasyland:

Snow White's Adventures
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (With it's Jim Carrey-like operator)
Mad Tea Party
Grand Prix Raceway
Space Mountain (for the 4th and last time)
Skyway back to Fantasyland
Pirates of the Caribbean

We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We dressed up, with me in a tie and her in a dress (not that we had to) and drove over to the Polynesian Resort for a fun night at 'OHANA. We had a great table at the window overlooking Seven Seas Lagoon. We ate our share of Polynesian pit cooked meats and shrimp, and watched the cast members grab patrons and make them do the hula (hoops and all) ($73.44). After dinner we walked for a short time outside by the pool and then headed back to the room.

Friday, Jan 12 -- Our last day at Disney! Waaaa! We decided to take full advantage of our passes by visiting all three parks and picking a few rinds to go on. First we packed our bags and checked out at 10:45. I paid the tab on the room, which totaled $325.62 minus the hat I got at MGM. We drove over to MGM and waited about 20 minutes for Tower of Terror. The fun thing about this trip to MGM was walking down Hollywood Blvd. with all the cast members dressed up in Hollywood heyday clothing and role playing. I was looking at one guy in a nice suit leaning against a wall reading a paper, and I was about to point him out when he folded down the paper and peered right at me, real cloak and dagger-like. I giggled and pointed him out to my girlfriend, and we both looked over. Even though we had moved passed him, he again peered right at us over the corner of the paper. I was kinda neat.

After TOT we took the boat that runs between MGM and the EPCOT resorts (Swan, Dolphin, Beach, and Yacht), got off at the Beach club pier, and

walked to EPCOT via the International Gateway. On our way to Future World, we stopped for a nice lunch at another favorite of mine, the Rose and Crown (England). I can hardly pass up a pint of Guinness, eh, mate? (~$30, lost the ticket). We then hopped on Horizons, did some wandering around the shops and the Art of Disney gallery on the second floor of Innoventions (Horizons side, near Centorium). If you love Disney art, don't miss it (which isn't hard to do). They have some really neat (and expensive) Disney treasures up there. We then walked right on Spaceship Earth (which I have to admit was better with Walter Cronkite) before hopping the monorail to the MK. There we walked to the Haunted Mansion and waited FOREVER in the line. Something must have been broken because 10 minutes would go by between door openings.

Mickey Mania had come and gone, thus ruining a no wait at Alien Encounter, so we bid adieu to the MK, hopped a monorail and bus back to MGM, and sadly drove to the Disney Village Marketplace to wrap up our stay. At about 5PM we said good-bye to Disney and began the long and traffic-ridden ride on I-4 back to Jacksonville.

Oops, I missed these: 1/8, on our way out of the MK, we stopped by the Main St. Cinema to catch Mickey's Big Break, which is followed by Steamboat Willie. It's fun and should not be missed if you're a Disney fan.

1/9: Rode El Rio de Tiempo at Mexico after lunch at the San Angel.

1/11: On our way to Adventureland, we hopped on the horse-drawn carriage that takes you down Main St.

Total on food: We started out with $400 budgeted for food. we had $326 on the tab, plus $30 at the Rose and Crown, plus $20 on groceries =

$376. $24 left over to go toward a motel room on the trip home!

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TIPS YOU MIGHT FIND HELPFUL

1. Don't do the old one park per day thing. Use your imagination and follow whims. If you're at EPCOT and get this urge to ride Space Mountain, do it! The monorail makes it so convenient. Plus it gives you a feeling that you enjoyed Disney to the fullest. And if you have five or more days, don't rush the parks.
2. To enjoy even more of what Disney has to offer, dine in and explore the other resorts, as well. We visited Caribbean Beach, The Beach Club, and the Polynesian, and had some great meals. We also drove around WDW and looked at every resort, just to get an idea of what they looked like.
3. We skipped Pleasure Island (too tired), Discovery Island (too cold), and the pools and water parks (also too cold). We would not have if the weather had been different.
4. Don't miss the Cape May Cafe. It's one of the best kept secrets of WDW, but probably won't be for long based on the good things we heard while down there and on the net.
5. If you do decide to park hop, GET YOUR HAND STAMPED! For some reason the cast members at the gates grumble at you if you've already had your card swiped at any park. You only need to get your card swiped at the first park. The hand stamp is valid at all three parks, not just the one you got it at, and it tells them not to swipe your card again. I swear we were outlaws the day we went from EPCOT to the MK and back. We didn't get our hand stamped and they said something every time.
6. Use the transportation to park hop: Between MK and EPCOT, use the monorail. EPCOT and MGM, the EPCOT resorts boat (via International Gateway. The boat picks you up at the Beach club on the long dock with the lighthouse and drops you off at MGM directly across from the ticket windows. You can also catch a boat from International Gateway to the pier if you don't feel like walking, but it's only a 10 minute walk). MK and MGM, monorail to the TTC, then bus.
7. Speaking of transportation, if you have a car, it is often faster than the bus to get to a park. The exception is the MK, where the bus takes you right to the park entrance. If you drive you have to take the ferry or monorail from the TTC. So the preferred way is: drive to EPCOT and MGM, bus to MK. And if you're a AAA member and book your trip through them, they give you this handy dandy diamond parking pass that lets you park in the closest row to the park. It was never full during our stay, but you do have to show it to the parking attendant and follow the small signs. Usually it's right next to the handicapped parking lot.
8. Best rides for their Disney-esque feeling: MK: Haunted Mansion ('nuff said), Splash Mountain (great Song of the South theme), Timekeeper (Robin Williams is the Timekeeper), It's a Small World (Argh!), Hall of Presidents (incredible animatronics), Legend of the Lion King (Puppets and a real life Rafiki), Pirates of the Caribbean (A classic) . EPCOT: The American Adventure (great storytelling and animatronics), Journey into Imagination (Getting corny but still fun), El Rio de Tiempo, All the movies. MGM: Voyage of the Little Mermaid (alot like the Lion King but with neat effects), the Animation Tour (need I say more).
9. Best rides for fun and excitement (IMHO): MK: Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Timekeeper, Alien Encounter (you just gotta see it to understand). EPCOT: Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (3D interactive fun), Maelstrom (best country ride), Horizons (OK, so everyone hates it. I think it's kinda fun). MGM: Monster Sound Show (Sue me , Tower of Terror (4+ times or more), MuppetVision 3D (a whole lot of fun).
10. Stop and think, once in a while, about the tremendous effort that Disney makes to ensure that you get completely lost in the vacation. The cleanliness, the landscaping, the detail of the attractions, the friendliness of the cast members (except when you forget to get your hand stamped , the great food, the conveyance of the transportation, the themed resorts... It truly is incredible.

I hope I haven't rambled. Anyway, happy Disney vacation to all!

belwig@tower.microserve.com

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