Trip Reports

I normally don't share the permissions to use their report on the web site that the various trip report authors have sent me over the last few years. However, Carol's was a nice tribute to all of the folks that have participated in making this web site possible (as well as a very nice comment about Deb Wills, too) so I've included it here...

"How could I say no to the person who unbeknownst to him helped me plan our WDW itinerary? When we decided to take this trip, I started looking for info on the web, and your site was one of the first I found that I really liked and benefitted from. I still have it bookmarked! I've read MANY of the reports there, and feel I very much owe you (and Deb Wills) a great debt for the practically perfect time we had. It's amazing how many good ideas one can glean simply by reading what others have done, and then making it work for them. If my report could help anyone else, I'd be thrilled!"

Introduction

ALOHA! Having just returned from a fabulous 2 weeks in Florida, I'm going to make my best effort at a trip report. There are 4 of us. My husband, Merv (50), who believes the main purpose of any vacation is to take videos, myself, Carol (40), who loves to escape routine by taking trips, Brandon (13) our thrillseeker, and Ben (11) our animal lover.

Planning

I started the planning for this trip Oct. 1996, by redeeming mileage credit for 2 round trips HI to LA (Hawaiian Airlines), then purchased 2 interisland coupon books that came with a free roundtrip to LA, and set up the boys air ressies. Next I priced LA to Orlando, and found American with $300 RT, and was informed by the agent that if I had an entertainment coupon book, I could get $50 per person deducted. So after calling around, we found one, making our total airfare for the 4 of us $1000. So far so good. My husband wanted to see more of Florida than just WDW, so in booking rooms, I decided to try Fall Fantasy at Coronado Springs for 5 nights, then preceded that with 4 nights at the Econolodge Maingate Hawaiian, and left the other nights open. In February I bought 5 day world hoppers while visiting Honolulu's Disney Store. I faithfully read the radp, bought and borrowed guides, and set up an itinerary. Sixty days out I set up the priority seating, and we were pretty much ready to go!

Travel, Etc.

Upon arrival (5:45pm) picked up the rental car (National) and drove to Cocoa Beach. We went to the Brevard Community College Planetarium, saw Jupiter and her moons through a big telescope, and a laser show.

Found a place to sleep (Comfort Inn) and ate at McDonalds (kids)...

Next morning slept in a bit and spent the day at the Space Center. Brandon dreams of being a pilot someday, Ben likes astronomy, Merv's an engineer, so all of them found things to interest them. And I was just happy to be there.

Left there and drove south to Ft. Lauderdale. Found a Budget Inn and ate at Lenny's (a diner recommended by the hotel guy). Homestyle cooking.

Next morning drove to Miami and visited my rose wholesaler (I have a flower shop on Kauai), then headed across Alligator Alley. Stopped at Billie's Swamp Safari and rode the airboat, saw alligators, etc...& drove on. Went to Sanibel Island (6:30pm) and went to the beach to look for shells. We found plenty, but even more sand fleas found us. (Brandon's legs may never be the same!) Drove into Fort Myers and stayed at the Robert E. Lee, a lovely room 6 floors up overlooking the river and bay. (And less than $35, tx include.)

Next morning drove to Tampa crossing several bridges (the scenic route?) and did some shopping at a mall. Found a Days Inn across Busch Gardens, checked in and played Congo Mini Golf and ate at Taco Bell.

Next morning (8-20) we went to Busch Gardens. Brandon was in heaven. The crowds were much smaller than anticipated (mostly foreigners) and he and I conquered Kumba (5 times) and Montu (4 times) as well as all the other rides. Merv and Ben spent most of their time looking at the animals. Those rides were great! If you have teens, consider a day here. It won a tie with Brandon as the best part of the trip...the tie was with E-ticket night at MK. After a long day of thrills and fun, we drove to Orlando and checked in at Econolodge, and were upgraded to a poolside room near the laundry. It was great! Tomorrow we start our Disney World experience.

(8-21)

Today's plan called for Blizzard Beach and Downtown Disney, with maybe a trip to Belz to go to the Character Warehouse and to find shoes for the boys.

This day did not go as planned. We decided to shop first, and hit a few shoe outlets, then Belz. That was so fun. I LOVE the shirt I got...purple with embroidered 7 dwarfs across the front. I personalized it with my name, and with WDW 25th Anniversary. Got one for my daughter (in college) too. As well as lots of other fun things. But it all took time. So much that we canned the Blizzard Beach idea and just went to the Marketplace. World of Disney-what a store! My husband was impressed by the size and ended up talking for a long time with a CM on just how that store operates. Brandon found lots of golf, soccer, and basketball stuff, and Ben especially liked the "villain" room. Given that shopping is my middle name, I had no trouble occupying myself.

After leaving there we picked up some groceries and went back to the hotel. By the way, Brandon found great Nike soccer shoes for about $35, and Reeboks for general wear. Next day, Studios!

(8-22)

Knowing that this was one of the 2 evenings of our time in WDW which would offer Sorcery in the Sky, we decided to start our Disney adventure with the D/MGM Studios.

We parked and took the tram to the gate, and when I opened my backpack to get the park hopper passes-they weren't there. After a major search, we figured they must be back at the hotel. So we boarded the empty tram going TOWARD the parking lot, and luckily, the passes were in the envelope on the dashboard. Guess I was so excited to finally be using them I had taken them out enroute. So, it was back to the gate and into the park.

Having read guide books as well as radp, we decided to start with Star Tours. My youngest is a Star Wars fan and we all (except maybe Dad) enjoyed it plenty. Next was Muppet 3 (4) D. What a hoot! Only thing, we were all so busy watching the bubbles that none of us actually saw how Miss Piggy ended up in the drink. We headed off to the GMR. It seemed pretty much as I remembered it from 1990. I liked all the movie tributes at the end. Our gangster and guide didn't seem too animated, though. I think they could have done it up more. The lines were very short, so we were done in time to go to the first IJSS of the day. Rosie's pre-show had us all smiling. Try as I did, no extra part for me. This was one of the few things the boys remembered from our 1990 trip when they were 4 and 6. Still captivated, they've watched all three videos since we got home 5 days ago.

Now it was time to eat, so we got the taco salad/taco meals at that "boat" food counter, and sat to eat on a shady bench on the parade route. After a not too long wait, we had great seats (which we ended up standing on) for the parade. Following that, I raced them down Sunset Blvd. to get to the next B&B performance. I had to bribe Brandon by saying next we'd do the TZTOT. But as it turned out, this was definitely our favorite live show of the entire trip. Belle was wonderful. And the birds...what a show!!

So, next as promised, it was the drop. We all went in (15 min. wait) but only Brandon & I dropped. He begged, so we went again (a little shorter wait), and then, we finally convinced Dad and Ben to try, so we did it one last time. And they ended up liking it. A lot.

We had 5:00 priority seating at Mama Melrose, so we headed that way taking things in along the way. Dinner was fine. The boys had the kids pepperoni pizzas (nothing special), I had a large salad, and Merv the grilled veggies. We tried the Italian root beer and felt like we were drinking cough medicine. Anyway, Ben had drawn a very nice picture of the anniversary Mickey on the back of the paper they had given them, and the waitress put it up in the entry way. Approx. total with MKC discount & tip: $35.

After dinner I raced them over to HOND. They LOVED the preshow with Matt, and the show itself was nice, but no comparison to B&B for us anyway.

We rushed out of there to the tram tour and then had to decide if we wanted to go to the Sci Fi Diner for 8:00 dessert priority seating or see Little Mermaid. We ended up seeing the show. And again, we were very glad we did because this was our next favorite show of all. We did a little shopping, got some ice cream, and found a nice place to watch the fireworks from. It truly was a magical first day in the world!

(8-23)

We decided to start out the morning at Epcot and take in as much of Futureworld as possible, then head to the Magic Kingdom.

Spaceship Earth didn't have a wait, so we started there. My son who was 6 the last time we were here (now 13) could remember the exact place where the ride got "stuck" back in 1990. We had sat there for about 10 minutes looking at the American Indian display.

Next I rushed them over to HISTA, having read in many a guidebook to do this one early. We had pretty good seats since I read tips on how/when to enter the theater. But this turned out to be the first glich of our trip, for me anyway. The show was great, lots of fun, but I didn't get the mice. The rest all had...so the line wasn't too bad yet, so I told the boys "Let's do it again so I can get the mice, too." My husband opted to read his book while we went again. This time we sat a few rows further back and more centered. And believe it or not, still no mice. Kids had 'em. By now I am starting to think that I have lost all feeling in my limbs or I'm somehow sitting strange. Hmmm...so right after I approached the CM and asked if we could stay for the next one without waiting in line again. She said fine, though I don't think she neccesarily believed me... And FINALLY I got the mice but my son didn't. Is this common or are we just unlucky here? So our trip to HISTA has now taken half the morning.

We took in Figment, and the Living Seas, then had lunch at the Land and took the boat ride. Figment was one of the highlights of our 1990 trip and both boys remembered the song quite well. My younger boy, Ben, loves the sea life, especially the manatee. Brandon was fascinated with the tide/wave exhibit. The land ride was fun for us, being farmers ourselves. Although most of what we grow are flowers, macadamia nuts and fruit trees, Grandpa and the boys have grown vegetable gardens,too, but never with anything THAT big (1 of those eggplants could feed my family for a week!)

Our lunch at the food court took forever. The food itself was fine, it just took so long to get it. I ended up waiting in the salad line twice, each time for 15-20 minutes. The potato line was also long. I guess we had lunch too close to lunch time.

The boys were getting anxious to go to MK, so we headed to the monorail. Got our first ride in the front and our little certificates. It was close to 2:00, and we saw people getting places for the parade.

Ben had been in need of a haircut, but after reading someone's trip report about the barber shop, I convinced him to wait and get it cut there. So we went to the Barber Shop. This turned out to be a memorable "Kodak Moment". There was a man in the seat, a baby waiting, and Ben would be next. There were 3 other CM's hanging around, and I asked one if there was a barber shop quartet today. He said they were 3/4ths of it and the other would be there at two to sing. It was a couple minutes to 2, and sure enough, #4 showed up, and they sang us a song. They said they usually sing in the street, but since they had an avid audience, they'd do the routine in the shop. Others had wandered over from the connecting store as well. By this time the first man's cut was done, and the barber started the baby's cut. This was a bit challenging but he finally settled down when his dad held him in the chair, and mom entertained him with little toys. All this to the tune of Moonlight Bay. Another barber showed up, and took over the baby, so Ben hopped in the open chair. They gave us the perfect photo op with the barber holding a large plastic red scissors to Ben's head and the quartet looking on. Then I got to have a little fun. I requested Lida Rose, and then joined them (the bit from Music Man) with the female solo (I'd performed it many times in college...a long time ago...funny how these things just kind of come back to you.) After thunderous applause (well, so it wasn't thunderous...it seemed so to me) they gave me a little card making me an honorary member of the Dapper Dans. Said they'd have their next meeting next time I came to WDW as long as I brought the refreshments. By the way, my camera toting husband got the whole thing on video. Even the baby!

So, from here, I headed them to Frontierland, knowing parade time was coming, and having read of the good viewing places in that area. We found a great one along the wooden walkway. A bit of shade, and no one in front of us. And then another moment...the sticker guy came by and Ben & I (Brandon was too shy) got to participate with the B&B float. That video camera sure was busy today!

Just following the parade, the weather started to change. Looked like rain. Splash Mountain had a long wait, but BTMRR wasn't too bad, so we did that. Good fun. Now Splash was a little shorter, but not short enough...so we left the area and headed to the shooting gallery. Just as we got there a MAJOR downpour started. I sat on the bench right next, and the boys used lots of quarters (those were supposed to be for the pressed coin machines!) My husband (again) found a CM, this one was wearing a dress shirt and tie, had a headset on, and had taken refuge from the rain. He found out all about Disney's weather system...how they predict what's coming, how they handle storms, etc. It let up a bit, so we ran to the Hall of Presidents. It was nice but I must admit I had a hard time keeping my eyes open for awhile. Having let up some, we then went to Pirates and the Haunted Mansion. It was getting late, and we had 7:55 priority seating at Cinderella's, so we headed that way. And the rain was starting up again.

We checked in early (about 7:35) but weren't seated until about 8:15. Cinderella had been called away, so we were visited by Belle. The boys took pictures with her. She was very charming. The wait was long, but the weather outside looked gloomy, so we didn't mind.

We left there having had a great dinner (except for the water-the MK water was the worst any of us had ever had-anywhere!) It was just after 9:00. The parade was passing by out front, so we watched it go by. We took in Snow White, and then Small World (no waits) but by the time we got out, the fireworks had started. We watched the rest, took in shops along Main Street, and headed out. Took the resort monorail to the TCC (WAY shorter line) and went back to the hotel. Did a couple loads of laundry and packed up our things. Tomorrow we move to CS!!!

(8-24)

Got up, went to church in Lake Buena Vista, came back, checked out of the hotel and went to CS to check in. We were on the Fall Fantasy package. I had payed for a parking lot view and had heard the Casita's were the only places open. Well, it was again our lucky day! The CM checking us in said we were her first guests from Hawaii. She was so friendly. I told her the boys wanted to be near a pool and I wanted to be near a busstop. Then she said the Cabanas had opened 2 days ago, so she'd check there. She found 1 room available but it was smoking optional (we had asked for no smoking). But at 2 days old, how bad could it be? So we said "GREAT...we'll take it." And it was not a parking lot view...it overlooked the lake and across to the dig site and casitas. What a treat! We were in 9A, the quiet pool right behind us, the landbridge to the Dig Site just in front of us, and not very far from the Lobby and Bus Stop #1. And this turned out to be important, because those at Bus Stop #2 often found a full bus and had to stand or wait for another bus. The room itself was standard, but we were comfortable. We didn't really spend much time in it anyway. And whoever stayed there before us didn't smoke...or at least left no evidence of it.

I guess I got a bit ahead of myself. When we first checked in, the room wasn't ready yet, so we took the boys to Blizzard Beach. It was very crowded and we waited a long time to ride Teamboat Springs running from shade umbrella to shade umbrella along the way.

After some time there, Merv & I decided to go back and unload the suitcases since the room should be ready, and let the boys stay. We did that and got back around 5:00pm to an emptying park. Now we all had fun! Floated around the park in tubes, and then headed to the tube slides. I thought my legs would fall off climbing those stairs so many times, but did we have fun! No waits.

We needed to return the rental car to National, so about 7:00 we headed out and went directly to National expecting them to shuttle us back to CS. However, National had closed at 6:30. No shuttle. We needed to leave the car, so we got on the phone and were connected with CS. A sweet CM tried to find a way for us to get back and when all failed, she came herself to get us with a hotel van. What a nice thing to do!

We dropped off all the wet clothes and took a cab to the Swan for a late dinner at Gulliver's ($50 coupon). The food was terrific...one of our very best meals. But the magician had left already. We were told he'd be there as long as guests were, but he wasn't. But that's okay. The food more than made up for it and after the coupon, it came to only $36.00 tip included.

We walked over to Boardwalk. Brandon won 2 big stuffed animals at one of the game booths. We got our pressed quarters, bought some of those curly shoestrings, and went to the busstop to find the CS bus ready and waiting. We hopped on and were "home" in minutes. This trip was turning out to be even more than I expected!!

(8-25)

This morning we started our Fall Fantasy breakfast plan. We caught the bus to MK and decided to do Tomorrowland before breakfast. Started with Alien Encounters. Don't know if it was the spoilers or what, but we all found it to be rather ho-hum. Maybe we should have tried it again, but it didn't seem scary and it was kind of like "I wonder when it's gonna be over. This is boring." Honestly, that was our reaction. The boys thought it was stupid. Hmmmm...so much for AE.

Since we'd already hit SM on Saturday, we did the others. NO ONE else on Wedway. Kind of relaxing. The Timekeeper was cute. Don't ask me why, I really don't know, but my boys favorite of the morning was Carousel of Progress. I enjoyed it but figured they were probably bored beyond words. But no, in fact, they kept singing "there's a great big beautiful tomorrow..." every once in a while.

After that we headed for the monorail to the Contemporary for 11:30 priority seating at Chef Mickey's. It took a while to get seated, but once we did, we sure enjoyed the breakfast. Maybe because it was our first Character Breakfast, or the great selection of food, but it was to be our favorite CB of the trip. Visits from Mickey and Minnie, Chip and Dale, and Goofy were all part of the fun. Brandon must have eaten a pound of bacon and a dozen scrambled eggs. It was fun to watch him eat. And eat. And eat. We took our time and when we left, they were pretty much emptied out.

We took the elevator to the 11th floor, then climbed the stairs to the observation deck area. Great view! A lot of construction going on there.

We made our way back to MK and headed to Splash. Again the lines were discouraging. We got lost trying to find Pirates, but finally did, and it was fun. The boys say they like it better at Disneyland. I liked the gift shop after. So did Merv. That was one of the few places he actually bought souveniers. He's not big on that kind of thing. (I think he figures I spend-shop enough for both of us. Plus

I thought the rain on Saturday was kind of bad, but it was nothing compared to the rain on Monday. This wasn't rain, it was RAIN. It seemed it would never let up, but as we all know, it does. And it did. We finally decided to get in that Splash line. After about a 35 minute wait, they closed the ride due to more impending rain. All that wait for naught. So we went to the HM. At least it was indoors and running. The wait wasn't bad.

With parades and time in shops, time went by quickly. Our plan was to eat dinner at the Plaza, but we ended up just kind of snacking here and there. The boys weren't interested in the Country Fair, and not too interested in Fantasyland either, so we did BTMRR again.

Later we decided to try Splash again. The line was much shorter now but the weather was questionable. We got further along this time. In fact, we could see the logs being loaded when they announced the ride could close at any time. We held our breath and crossed our fingers. It kept moving. They announced again "Due to impending lightening, this ride could close at any time." Will we make it on this time!?!?!?!? Finally, YES! We boarded a waterlogged log in the pouring rain and headed out. We were soaking wet in a matter of minutes. This made the indoor part of the ride seem very cold. But WE GOT ON, and that's all that matters, right? We had a memorable ride for sure. The picture on the drop had us all laughing. By the time we pulled in, they were no longer boarding people. Although I secretly wondered who was luckier: us or the folks who were turned away - it was one of those uniquely special times and our boys will long remember that ride.

Since we were soaked, and they canceled the light parade due to weather, we strolled the shops. Ben got himself a poncho (alittle late) and we considered buying us each a new DRY t-shirt to put on, but didn't. We were all pretty hungry and cold and wet, so we decided to head back to CS. As we waited for and boarded the bus, the fireworks started. Once back in the room we ordered a pizza which somehow tasted really good, and called it a night.

(8-26)

Started today at Epcot.

Slept in a bit, so we got there just in time for our 10:15 priority seating at Garden Grille CB. The wait was almost as long as it was at Chef Mickey's. Once in, our server noticed our t-shirts. We were all wearing our troop shirts from our Boy Scout Troop 270. He said he and several others working there, were all Eagle Scouts. He asked what it's like to be a Scout in Hawaii. A merit badge for surfing? I don't think so! The food was fine. Nothing to write home about. They brought out this little bowl of fruit for us to share. After bringing out 3 more, they finally brought a BIG bowl of fruit out which we also managed to empty. We're not too big on the potatos...now had it been rice... We did like the hot chocolate, though. We pretty much made one revolution during our meal, and had visits from Mickey & Minnie, and Chip & Dale.

After breakfast, we decided to do the World Showcase. Mexico's boat line looked a bit long, so we went to Norway. We had about a 20 minute wait for Maelstrom. Merv liked the presentations here. He was interested in the migration of the viking people to other areas of the world.

We went to China to see the movie, and got sidetracked along the way. The boys were fascinated by the birds in the ponds. There were some very small "chicks" swimming around and a mother busy making a nest in the pond grass. Then they noticed the tiny little frogs (or were they toads) that were hopping around on the sidewalks. Next they tried their luck at tossing pennies into the pond and having them land on the lily pads. We did finally see the movie and decided to come back later to see the acrobats.

The boys found some cute little boats to buy in Germany. And they spent a long time at the train display.

We had to rush Italy to get to the American Pavillion in time for the Voices of Liberty. This was one of my favorites. Having toured in college with groups much like this one, it was like reliving my younger days. What fine talent they have! The American Adventure did bring me to tears. I've always been a patriotic kind of person, and this one surely hits the spot.

We briefly visited Japan, then headed back towards Mexico for 4:00 priority seating at San Angels Inn. The latest lunch seating available, we followed tips to have an early dinner with the cheaper lunch menu. The food was great, and the boys (who initially complained there wasn't anything they wanted on the menu) very much enjoyed the quesadilla kids meals. The tab was VERY reasonable, and we were all content. Merv and I both enjoyed our meals even though we couldn't see what it was we were eating.

Ben wanted to see the living statues, so the guidemap said 5:30 in France. We headed there and sat on a bench where the statue was to appear. Sure enough, she showed up readily. People were taking pictures with her, and the boys & I took a turn. Just as the camera was about to snap, she grabbed each boys head. The picture turned out great with fun expressions on all our faces!

Next it was a rush back to China for acrobats. We watched 2 different troupes, both equally amazing. Then decided to head toward England to find a viewing spot for Illuminations. We found a nice place just after the wheelchair area where there was a clearing without trees-an unobstructed view. I parked my body there and the boys ran off to feed the squirrels. Merv found a phone booth by England and made several business calls he needed to make. After a while, they held the place and I went to get us carmel apples from Canada. They were really good. The show finally started, and it was great. Merv and I enjoyed it more than the boys did, however. They wanted more fireworks and less lasers. I enjoyed the variety of presentations. And I liked the music. Following that we shopped for awhile and headed back. It was another full fun day of disney. Life is good.

(8-27)

Today was a "day off" from the major parks.

We started with a bus ride to TTC and a boat to the Wilderness Lodge for the Pocahontas CB. We were seated along the windows and had a nice view of the grounds and geyser. Visits from Meeko, Pocahontas, and John Smith highlighted the morning. I took a nice picture of Merv with Pocahontas, then he got a shot of me with Mr. Smith. The food was fine-nothing special.

Following the CB we walked around the lobby and visited the gift shop and found the anniversary quarter machine. My favorite was the character totem pole by the shop.

The boys wanted to ride water sprites, so we decided to do that next. We walked to the marina and made the arrangements. After having read posts about varying speeds of these things, I was worried one would get a slower boat than the other. My worries were needless...they were both slow. We did have 2 people in each one, but so did lots of others out on the water running circles around us. I asked about where the white and yellow sprites were from (WL's were blue/green) and it was Contemp. and I think Poly. They sure seemed to zip by us though we were at full speed. But enough of that. We really did enjoy the outing anyway. A whole different perspective of WDW.

Next we decided to go to Discovery Island. We spent a little over an hour looking at the animals-mostly birds. We then headed to River Country. It seemed very crowded. The boys were a bit unsure about swimming in green water. The beaches here in Hawaii are much clearer. Merv found a shady spot to read, and the boys and I ventured into the lake. After a little while, they asked if we could go back to the hotel to swim. So we packed up, found the anniversary quarter machine, and boated and bussed back to CSR. We stayed in the pool til closing, 7:00pm :-( This was one of our biggest disappointments...the pool closing so early. We had hoped to take late night swims every evening after returning from the parks. But the boys had a great time in the pool and on the slide. And so did I!

Merv joined us around 6:40 or so to take a bit of video. He hadn't been feeling too good, so took an afternoon nap.

We all showered and went to DVM. First thing we did was schedule dinner at Rainforest Cafe. Our seating time was 11:04pm (it was about 8:30) but that was fine with us. We had snacked earlier at the Pepper Market before swimming. We wanted to complete all the souvenier and gift shopping. We wandered the shops and bought a bunch of stuff. The Rainforest Cafe gift shop was fun. I liked the puppets. We were finally seated at 11:30 in the gorilla room.

I felt sorry for the people just ahead of us with the 11:03 seating time. They had 3 small children who were either sleeping or whining, and who could blame such little ones at 11:30pm. The food was good and plentiful. I ordered a salad, and it was so big that we all had some! In spite of the hour, we enjoyed this.

When we went for the bus, it seems they had stopped running to this area, but one driver pulled up and took all us lost souls to the other side (PI) where we found a bus back to CS. We didn't get back til about 2:00.

(8-28)

Today we planned to catch up on the things we had missed, and do again the things we liked best. We started with the Ohana CB. Minnie was dressed Tahitian, Goofy and Dale were Maori. And the CM's greeted us in Hawaiian. We walked to the TTC from there and observed much the same foliage and flowers we have here on our farm.

Since we hadn't finished seeing Futureworld, we headed to EPCOT. First we did Horizons. There was no wait, in fact, empty vehicles all around us. So we went again and chose another finish. We liked this one. We'll miss it.

Next was WoL. Body Wars was okay. Not one of my favorites. Cranium Command was cute. But we really liked the Making of Me. Merv and I have teased the boys that maybe their future kids are watching them...so they better be good. We rode the bicycles, did the Met Life thing, and checked out those hot/cold coils, among other exhibits.

Then went to UoE. We sat in the front of our vehicle for unobstructed views. This was fun. I couldn't remember what it was like the last time we were there (1990) but I did remember the dinosaurs. Next we went to Mexico since we hadn't taken the boat ride.

At this point, Merv left us to find the Budget Car rental place and get our car. The boys and I saw the Canada movie, the "Beatles" singing in England, and went to Japan to try to get flag stands. You know the little flags from all the different countries? Well, EVERY SINGLE COUNTRY was out of the flag stands except Japan. So, 2 different CM's told us that if we go to Japan, they will give us stands for the other flags we had bought. But the guy refused. He said he wouldn't give us any-except the one with the Japan flag. He was a Chinese guy. Wonder why they didn't have a Japanese guy there.

So, disappointed, we headed out, saying our farewells to EPCOT, and monorailed to MK to meet Merv and have dinner. We waited to sit up front again since it was our last monorail ride :-(, and another family came along and tried to go ahead of us. I asked the CM, and he went away, and came back, and let us board. I guess he didn't know we were waiting. Well, the other group looked at us kindof mean, then sent their boy (about 10) to ride with us instead of waiting (like we did.) Actually, I didn't mind the boy, just the mean looks.

When we got to MK, we traded our tickets for the E Ticket Express wristbands. We didn't want to wander too far, since we were meeting Merv, so we looked around the welcome center again.

When Merv arrived, I put in our names at Tony's Town Square. It was about ½ hour before our priority seating, but we hoped to eat earlier. And we did. This was one of our shortest waits. And the food was great. We all like Italian. But that water...yuck!

Just as we finished, the parade was starting, so we found a place along the rail and watched the parade. Since the boys and I were doing E-Ticket, we didn't want to wait in lines, so we went to the hat shop and Ben & I got Mickey ears with our names on them. We made our way to the castle and found a place to watch Tinkerbelle and the fireworks. Tinkerbelle made her opening, and then started the fireworks. And wouldn't you know it...we couldn't see them cause the castle was in the way. So we (and a thousand other people) all started shifting to the right. We did get to see most of them, I think.

Afterwards, we said our goodbyes to Dad, who took all the bags, backpacks, cameras, etc and went back to CSR to start packing. (If I had another chance, I'd have kept the camera. Missed some great shots!) We first zipped to Space Mountain. Did it twice, once on each side. The lines were pretty short. Next we headed to Ben's favorite, BTMRR.

During the course of this E-ticket event, I came to appreciate this ride more than I ever had. High up top, we'd round a bend, and there we could see the castle. It has to be one of those "close your eyes and you're there" things for me. We did this about 5 times. In between, we did Bear Country Jamboree and went on Splash. Brandon & I twice, while Ben was "bothered" by Brer Fox.

At 12:55, realizing we had time for only one more ride, Brandon closed his trip with a journey through Space Mountain. Ben and I did Splash. We were the 2nd to last riders of the night. From the drop to the exit, we just laughed and laughed and laughed. I wish there was a way to bottle that feeling...that moment.

So we met up with Brandon in front of the castle and slowly headed to the bus stop. We were bushed, but didn't want it to end. By the time we got "home", Dad had done a couple loads of laundry and had packed up a box. Took showers and finally bed.

(8-29)

For me personally, I had a disappointment this morning when I couldn't get the guys to wake up in time for our priority seating at 1900 Park Fair Character Breakfast. When they finally got up, it was all we could to to be checked out by 11. So we packed up and rushed to the Maya Grill to have our last FF Breakfast. It was good and all, but hands down Chef Mickey's was the best. Wish we could have done the GF CB, though.

A wonderful girl in the gift shop found us a map of the World and drew a route for us to take on our quest to find the rest of the anniversary quarters at the resorts we hadn't visited. We followed her directions and it went off without a hitch. In fact, she must have given us the best possible route, as we kept running into the guy who was making the rounds to empty the quarters from the machines. By the time we had gotten all the quarters pressed, we headed to the airport with a few more last ditch stops for gifts for the people in my husband's office.

We checked in while he returned the car. The boys wanted to stop at the Aviation store to get some things they'd seen there the day we arrived. Unfortunately, the plane Brandon wanted had sold out already. Ben bought some astronaut food. This turned out to be a run of "bad luck" for him. He asked me for his envelope with his money (cash) in it to buy the food. I handed it to him and went to the next shop. Well, during our layover in Dallas he realized he had left it on the counter at the store. It had about $300 inside (he's our saver who spends very carefully...that's why he still had that much money). So, I take to a payphone and finally get the store, and a girl said they had found it. (Sigh of relief!) She took our address and I told her to keep what was needed to make the money order, and for her trouble. We did finally get it this week, $273 is certainly better than nothing.

We continued to LA where the Hampton Inn shuttle picked us up and took us over. The room was nice.

(8-30)

In the morning the free breakfast was much more elaborate than what I had expected. The shuttle took us back to the airport for our flight when Ben realized he forgot his bag of shells, alligator head, etc in the lobby. More phone calls. They mailed it back right away, and packed it really cute with his little plastic lizard on top. She even put in a couple hotel handtowels since the items were all fragile things. And it came in perfect condition.

The flight to Honolulu was uneventful. Our flight back to Kauai was delayed. Then after we took off we turned around and came right back. An air conditioning problem. So we waited and took another flight home. It was Saturday, Aug. 30, and as we unpacked we heard the news of Princess Diana. That tragedy made me appreciate even more how special it was to spend these 2 weeks enjoying my boys. I only wish our girls could have been with us. With Jamiee in Japan, and Julie at college, it wasn't to be this time. But there's always our next trip to DisneyWorld, right? And if the next trip turned out only half as good as this one, it would be great---because this vacation was picture perfect...like a dream.

Carol E. Kimura

kalflwr@aloha.net

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