Trip Reports

Time of Year: Summer
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: CBR
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Elementary, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent
Comments: The Vore family spent eight days at WDW. Six of the eight were underwater (you'll know what I mean when you read the report). Steven's report is in the play-by-play style. I personally prefer the play-by-play style because the reader can more easily enjoy the experiences of the family

The Cast

The parents: Steven & Hilary

The children: James (age 8) & Robert (age 6)

The Setting

It's been two years since our last Disney trip, which was the boys' first. Hilary and I had been to The World for our honeymoon 11 years before, and each of us had been there as kids as well. With Hercules in one window, Mickey in another, and rest of the van filled with luggage and family… we're off!

Scene One: Saturday, July 5th - Travel & Arrival

We left Alpharetta Georgia at 08:30 after filling the tank and making sure the boys had new batteries in their cassette players and Sega Game Gear units. Lunched at Cracker Barrel in Valdosta GA, just north of the Florida border. Just after getting back on the road, the rain started. The Weather Channel had shown storms coming across the panhandle and they had finally reached route 75 by the time we reached Jasper Florida. Visibility was way down and everyone had dropped to about 30 mph to stay safe. After a few hours, the storm abated (remember this phrase) and not too much longer we pulled into Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR) and checked into our Martinique room.

After unpacking and having a light dinner at the Old Port Royale (OPR) food court, we headed over to the Disney Village Marketplace. I got a straw hat in expectation of a week of sunshine and the boys got their autograph books. We then waited (and waited, and waited, and waited!) for a bus back to the CBR and got some sleep.

Scene Two: Sunday, July 6th - A Long First day

Mickey called early, a fun surprise for Robert. We scrambled to get dressed and drove over to the Contemporary Resort for breakfast at Chef Mickey's. The boys got all the autographs (Mickey & Minnie, Goofy, Chip & Dale) and photos as well as their nourishment and James got a special birthday muffin (ok, so it was 12 days early but who's counting?).

We then rode the monorail to the Magic Kingdom (MK) - the monorail's always been a favorite of the boys' especially when we get to sit up front with the driver. We arrived in Main Street to greet a whole pastel of characters, including Br'er Fox and Tigger; more autographs and pictures. I also took this opportunity to pick up our Guest of Honor nametags (cool red pins similar to the ones the Cast Members (CMs) wear, not the cardboard ones that everyone gets for free).

We then jumped on the Walt Disney World Railroad (WDWRR) and headed around to Frontierland. Seeing practically no line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMR), we convinced the boys they'd have fun. This was Robert's first thrill ride and though he was hesitant while in line, he loved it. We wandered down into Adventureland and found Pirates Of The Caribbean (PotC) to also have almost no line-where is everyone? After Pirates, the Enchanted Tiki Birds was a natural. No flash photography or lighted video during most of the show, but we were encouraged to take all the photos we wanted during the final song since it will be closing soon for refurbishment.

As we left our singing friends, a thunderstorm sprung up, so we took a Dole Whip break under some shelter (a round glass-roofed structure; I don't think it even had a name). Shortly, the storm abated (that's twice) and we wandered up into Liberty Square. The Hall of Presidents was fairly empty, so we stopped in to pay our respects to Messrs. Washington, Lincoln, etc. By this time, our stomachs were feeling the distance we had traveled and compelling us to make our way to the Liberty Tree Tavern. "One if by Land" (beef stew in a bread loaf) said I, "Two if by sea" (assorted seafood) said Hilary. 'Hot dogs' said the boys, of course.

Properly refreshed, we headed up the hill to Robert's favorite, the Haunted Mansion. This was really the first line with much of a wait, about 45 minutes in a lightly sprinkling rain. It was also our first sighting of a tour group.

Editorial Sidebar: On the whole, we found that Disney's talks with the tour groups have helped. Where during our last trip ('95) we were besieged by groups of 100-120 people, this year there seemed to be more groups but of a considerably smaller number. It's a lot less aggravating to have 20-30 folks in a group ahead of you in line than 120. Also, on the whole they were a lot more friendly than we had remembered; almost no line-cutting or other rude behavior. Apparently the tour groups were told "you're giving your countries a bad image" and they passed that along to their folks.

We completed our visit with the ghosts and found that the rain was just about ending as we made our way into Fantasyland. A 20-minute line (our only line with a smoker in it) got us floating along in Peter Pan's Flight and a line of less than five minutes found us sharing in Snow White's Adventures. We took a glance over at the Legend of the Lion King, but its line was long enough to remind us that we had seen that show last trip and it wasn't really a priority.

One of our priorities, though, was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and we found it right around the corner (ok, we didn't really expect to find it anywhere else). Another short line - about ten minutes - and we split up to test the "always take the left line" theory. Robert and Hilary took the left line and got in a car about 20 seconds before James and I did - not really a substantial difference in my mind. Onward to one of the boys' favorite memories of their previous trip - the Mad Tea Party (teacups). During the ten-minute line, I somehow messed up when changing film and thus have no pictures of the rest of the day. Grrr, I was terribly upset with myself, but I'll just have to get over it.

I'm with the crowd that feels that the Tomorrowland Speedway is somehow 'out of place,' but the boys wanted to drive so we did, after a 20-minute line.

Wandering through Tomorrowland, the boys were disappointed with the long line for Space Mountain (though they weren't really sure they were ready for it this year anyway). They also decided they didn't like the looks of the Astro Orbiter's height, so we boarded another old favorite, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA) - a walk-on as usual. Parents, this is a relaxing ride (with virtually no line) that younger children find strangely attractive.

By now (5:00), it was fairly warm and muggy, so Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress was a natural; air-conditioned, relaxing and fun. This has always been one of my favorites, providing a feel of Walt's presence. The last scene can continue to be updated to keep it "just ahead of today," but I hope this attraction never closes.

James wanted to ride the Skyway, so we jumped (figuratively, it was really a 40 minute line!) on and headed back over to Fantasyland. We originally had plans of immediately riding it back to Tomorrowland, but the line changed those plans fairly quickly. Instead, we headed towards Frontierland with the intention of just catching the WDWRR. Instead, the line for Splash Mountain (SM) looked to be somewhat reasonable.

During the ensuing 55 minutes (the longest line of our entire stay), we convinced the boys that they really would have fun and that it would be safe. There are "newspapers" on the wall in the WDWRR station with articles about people falling 50 feet (the final drop of SM's flume) and of course the boys got a bit nervous. Having never seen Song of the South, the boys really didn't understand much of the theming for the ride but had a ball. All together now as we crest the final hill… "Throw me in that briar patch!"

Now that we were sufficiently wet we got on the railroad for a relaxing ride over to Mickey's Toontown Fair. We were going to bypass the fair this trip, since to us it's mostly a place to stand in line for character autographs and we already had plenty of those. The kids saw the Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacres Farm though, and we couldn't resist. A 15-minute wait for a 60-second roller coaster; the boys are starting to get in the swing of "thrill rides." We then took the path "around the back way" along the railroad track to Tomorrowland and visited Nine-Eye and the Timekeeper. Robin Williams always has me in stitches; I don't think there's anything he's done that I don't enjoy.

The day was definitely winding down and a repeat of a portion of our last trip seemed to be the right thing for the moment, dinner at the Plaza Pavilion. I think we got the exact same table as in '95, right under Tinkerbell's flight path, and the same great view of the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks. What an ending!

After dropping Hilary and the boys back at the CBR, I headed over to Gooding's (my only excursion off Disney property) to pick up cereal, milk, and orange juice for inexpensive breakfasts during the rest of the week.

Scene Three: Monday, July 7th - On With the Show

James has aspirations to be a Disney animator, so we made sure to visit Disney/MGM Studios on a weekday this trip. We arrived (by bus) in time to get some autographs outside the main gate. Once inside, we found a bench on the shady side of Hollywood Boulevard to await the Hercules Zero to Hero parade. Shortly before parade time, a CM came by asking for help with the parade and the boys jumped at the chance. This meant we had to give up our good seat, but it was worthwhile. The boys each held a letter in the cheerleader section ("Give me a H! Give me an E!") to help welcome Hercules to town.

Heading up the street and across the largest Mickey in WDW (hint - turn your guidemap upside down) we found a fairly short line for the Great Movie Ride (GMR). Afterwards, we headed for lunch with a quick stop at One Saturday Morning (a sound-effects show) first.

The pre-show is basically an ad for ABC's new Saturday morning show, "One Saturday Morning" - a couple-of-hour long mix of 'Doug' and other shows, mixed with new short bits and studio bits. The name comes from the idea that each day of the week is a building (Monday's a haunted-mansion sort of horror if I remember correctly, Tuesday's plain & boring, Wednesday's sort of hump-shaped, Thursday's just like Tuesday, Friday stretches on for blocks, Saturday's a fun house). A set of ~10 guests are selected (how? I don't know) and led in during the pre-show. They end up on stage with various sound effect equipment. A pencil-test short of Horace & Jasper trying to catch one of the Dalmatian puppies is run, with pre-recorded effects, voices, and music. Cruella comes in at the end and, of course, the puppy gets away. Then each of the on-stage guests is introduced and the effect devices is demonstrated. Now it's time for the fun - the selected guests create all the sounds and voiceovers for the short, with the audience participating in the final 5 seconds. Finally, we get to see the new creation, in color this time, with "our" sounds. Applause, then exit to the right. And please, no flash photography.

By this time, we were really hungry and just in time because Mom was calling us in for lunch at the 50's Prime-Time Café. Scott was our waiter and was a bit nicer than his brothers & sisters-I didn't even get in trouble for not eating all my veggies. I hid some on Robert's plate but Scott ignored them and even showed the boys how to hide them better than I had!

We then made our way over to the Magic of Disney Animation and let James get his fill of watching them work. He was trying to figure out which desk will be his when the guide called us to catch up with the rest of the group. There was an animator ready to have a chat with the guests (something that didn't happen last trip; I don't know if this is normal or not). Unfortunately, I had to help Robert find a restroom, so I don't know what all was discussed but James appeared to enjoy it. Then we caught the Voyage of the Little Mermaid (VOTLM) show and headed back 'home' to the resort for a break at the big pool.

For those who haven't visited the Caribbean Beach Resort, it's a set of villages around a lake, each village consisting of a few two-story buildings with a pool, laundry, beach, etc. There's a beautiful walkway around the lake linking all the villages with Old Port Royale. OPR has a larger pool with a waterfall, a slide, and lifeguards. This is also the home of Centretown which consists of a restaurant, a food court, a couple of shops, an arcade, and a Disney Vacation Club kiosk (which seem to be everywhere).

After a swim, dinner and a nap, we boarded the bus back to the studios for the evening. Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 4D was hilarious and didn't' have any line at all, then we boarded the last tram in the Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour. Hilary's a big movie buff and she really enjoyed this. We let Robert sit on the left side, which should have gotten the wettest in Catastrophe Canyon, but he stayed disappointingly dry.

The boys had been clamoring all day to go to Disney's Toy Story Pizza Planet Arcade, so we figured we'd let them play a while before the fireworks. Unfortunately, parts of the park were beginning to be closed and we couldn't walk directly to the arcade. We did finally get to the arcade after walking all the way up towards VOTLM and around GMR. The boys were a little disappointed that it wasn't exactly like the movie, but had fun nonetheless.

We then started back to the entrance, stopping for coffee and hot chocolate at the Crossroads. The rain started while we were waiting for our drinks, then the Sorcery in the Sky fireworks show began. Once again we had fun in the rain, then boarded the bus back to the CBR as (once again) the storm abated.

Scene Four: Tuesday, July 8th - How Wet Can You Get?

Every day one of the parks opens early so that Disney resort guests get to enter before the rest of the crowd, and Tuesday is Early Entry day at EPCOT. We had Mickey wake us early so we could catch a 7am bus and be there for the 7:30 opening.

We were able to walk right into Spaceship Earth and the Living Seas, and then Hilary stood in a 25 minute line for Honey I Shrunk The Audience (HISTA) while the boys and I visited Innoventions West and played some Sega games. HISTA was as fun as I remembered it and James was just as startled by the effects as he was two years ago. We then took a Journey Into Imagination with the odd little purple dragon, Figment.

We had been promising Robert that we'd get some real swimming in, so we went back to the CBR for lunch and a nap, then onward to River Country at about 1:30.

River Country is a water park themed as an "old-fashioned swimmin' hole" from the Tom Sawyer era. We enjoyed the water slides, inner-tube rapids ride and lots of splashing. At about 5:30, though, an announcement was made that River Country was being closed temporarily and requesting everyone to get out of the water and off the beaches. A quick glance skyward told the rest of the story, as thunderclouds gathered. We toweled off and headed back toward the boat to the Magic Kingdom and were able to get across Bay Lake just in time. The rain began to sprinkle as we made the decision to stay at the Magic Kingdom rather than get on a bus back to the CBR.

We put most of our things in a locker under the Main Street train station and started up Main Street. By the time we reached Cinderella's Castle it was pouring and we were running. Over the next 30 minutes or so we sprinted our way from shop to shop around to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and were pleasantly surprised to find it running- many of the attractions had been shut down at least temporarily during the lightning storm. We rode the Wild Ride a couple of times as (one more time) the storm abated and then wandered around to find dinner, once again at our old favorite, the Plaza Pavilion. By this time we were tired and soaked but didn't really want to head home quite yet, so we took a stroll over to Adventureland and let ourselves be told bad jokes on the Jungle Cruise before we headed home for the night.

Scene Five: Wednesday, July 9th - Shopping Day

For a mid-week break, we slept a little later and took a bus over to the Disney Village Marketplace to spend a little money. Having a Magic Kingdom Club card provides us a 10% discount there but not at the other shops within Walt Disney World, and I had been using this to teach the boys a little about planning their purchases and spending wisely, rather than just buying things as they saw them. They each got a personalized shirt, created by a robot which spray-paints the picture and their names - really cool and something they couldn't have gotten anywhere else in the parks.

Lunch was at the Rainforest Café, for which there was no line at 11:30 despite the reports I'd seen on the Net about horrible waiting times. Hilary also got caricatures drawn of both the boys and James had plenty of time to talk with the artist. Apparently he's submitted his portfolio to the Disney animation studio but not been accepted yet, so James got to hear the "practice, practice, practice" line from more than just his parents.

After our shopping was complete, we went back to the CBR for a short nap, then got ready for a behind-the-scenes tour. We had arranged for a tour with a CM friend of mine, Tim. He picked us up and showed us just what makes WDW go - the power plants, agricultural growing areas, etc. We discussed water and power, waste treatment and recycling (nothing at all from WDW goes to a landfill). WDW does a great job of re-using as much as possible. One example: Each park has a "power plant" that includes air compressors, water chillers for air conditioning and a boiler for hot water. The "power plant" at the Magic Kingdom also has an electrical generation facility that consists of a General Electric TM5000 Jet engine (like the ones in a Boeing 747) that is run on Natural Gas. This engine puts out 35 MegaWatts of power. The exhuast is used to make steam that powers an electrical steam turbine that generates another 7 MegaWatts. The exhausted steam from this turbine is used to make chilled water (for air conditioning) from 2 Absorbers. The exhausted steam from the Absorbers goes through heat exchangers that make hot water for the Magic Kingdom hotels, kitchens, and restrooms.

Tim returned us to our room so we could get the boys ready for a sitter - a service of Fairy Godmothers. For those of you with young children who'd like to get out for an evening, this is a great service. "Grandma Gertrude" showed up promptly and took good care of the boys, entertaining them and getting them to bed on time, while Hilary and I spent some time at Pleasure Island.

PI is WDW's entertainment area for adults, with comedy clubs, live entertainment, dancing, etc. We especially enjoyed the Adventurer's Club, an audience-participation comedy show designed to look like an old 1937 explorers' club, complete with eccentric, wealthy adventurers, wait staff, a French maid, and a butler.

Every night at Pleasure Island is New Year's night, complete with music and fireworks, after which we visited the Comedy Warehouse, a set of stand-up comedians who are quick on their feet and do all their sketches based on input from the audience.

Scene Six: Thursday, July 10th - To the Future and Around the World

Thursday we slept late and then headed back to EPCOT. We first spent some time in Innoventions East and then walked right into Horizons. This is a fun look at what the future could be, a show which I'm lead to understand will be closing when the GM Test Track (which no, still isn't ready) opens.

We then slipped over to a very short line into Ellen's Energy Adventure - a look at the history of the Earth's energy hosted by Ellen DeGeneres with some help from Bill Nuy the Science Guy. Ellen falls asleep watching Jeopardy and has a dream in which she's on the show and needs to learn all about energy to win. Bill steps in and takes her back in time explore the big bang, dinosaurs and a number of other interesting topics. She also learns about today's alternatives to non-renewable sources of energy, such as ways to harness power from water, solar, and wind.

Starting to feel the pangs of hunger, we headed across Future World to The Land's food court for some sandwiches. Before leaving, we visited Food Rocks and The Circle of Life - for which there was no line at all, a big change from our last trip when we spent over 45 minutes waiting to see this.

From here we moved across to The World Showcase. I figured this would be the least interesting part of the whole week for the boys, given the lack of what they consider "rides." There were fun stations at some of the countries, though, which helped them stay with us. They had a chance, for example, to don a smock and paint a picture in France's courtyard.

The U.S. pavilion's America Gardens Theatre had a fun show with many of the Disney characters welcoming guests from around the world. They were showing how many of the characters the kids know & love are actually not American - Belle & the Beast sang in French, Snow White and the Dwarves sang in German, etc. The American Adventure gave the boys (and us) a stirring walk through U.S. history.

We then wandered over to Mexico and rode a boat down El Rio del Tiempo - the River of Time. I was surprised (though I'm not sure why) how many of the South American tour group folks were there.

At this point, it was time for us to get back to CBR for a quick nap and change of clothes before heading over to the Fort Wilderness Campground for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Review. This (fairly expensive) dinner show is a whooping good time and plenty of "good vittles" to eat.

Once back to the CBR, we were all stuffed but not yet quite ready to sleep, so we took a walk around the lake before settling in, catching a glimpse of EPCOT's fireworks over the trees. Hey look - we actually stayed dry all day!

Scene Seven: Friday, July 11th - Movin' Around and Tryin' to Stay Dry

Taking a break from the cereal-bowl breakfast, we walked over to Old Port Royale for breakfast, then met up with Mike Scopa on the way back. Mike and I compared notes on what we had seen thus far while Hilary got the boys ready for the rest of the day. We took the bus over to Disney/MGM Studios again with a couple of attractions in mind. I wanted to ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (TZToT) but knew the boys were not ready for that, and they wanted to visit the Backstage Pass to "101 Dalmatians" and the "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" Movie Set Adventure.

We split up and I headed for the Hollywood Towers Hotel where I found a 90-minute line due to some problems with one of the sides of the attraction. It was a long, hot wait, but well worth it - though it's a short ride it's quite a thrill. I took a picture of some of the equipment in the basement; I think there's a Mickey there that I've not seen mentioned before, but perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me. The photos will tell (actually, after getting home & looking at the WDW Explorer CD, I see it there too).

The boys found some characters and got autographs, saw the Dalmatians set and played with the giant ants. As planned, we met up at the entrance to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, only to find that we were all just a bit too late; the attraction was already full.

Somewhat disappointed but planning on coming back later, we stopped at Dinosaur Gertie's Ice Cream of Extinction just as the rain began. We moved over to a table under a large umbrella by Echo Lake, only to find ourselves stuck there through a rainstorm the likes of which Noah may have experienced. We stood on the table, huddled under the umbrella, expecting to see Dinosaur Gertie or Min and Bill's Dockside Diner (the boat) break away from their moorings at any time.

After 40 minutes of this, we made our break for some cover and worked our way closer to the Indy Jones show, but found that the next showing was cancelled. We then hopped shop-to-shop back around to Hollywood Boulevard, looking for some towels. Kent, in one of the shops, helped us out and we started to dry off as (all together now) the storm abated. Somewhat drier, we boarded our bus back to the CBR for a warm shower.

After getting warm, dry, and refreshed, we decided to drive over to Disney's Boardwalk Resort for a late lunch/early dinner. Unfortunately, the rain hadn't quite stopped so there wasn't a lot happening on the boardwalk, but we did end up at the ESPN Club for some outstanding burgers.

We really did want to see the fireworks show at all the parks, so we boarded the bus once again for EPCOT. We headed straight for World Showcase and I found a good viewing spot while Hilary and the boys rode Norway's Maelstrom. The fireworks, laser and music of Illuminations 25 were spectacular to say the least. I've heard that this show has been changed at least once since its introduction; I don't know what it was like earlier this year but it was great for us.

On our way out, we took a "shortcut" across the Odyssey Center's bridges and ended up at the Discovery Center (at the south end of Innoventions East, remember that World Showcase is south of Future World). Hilary browsed through the shops while the boys visited with a bunch of characters including Eeoyre, Chip & Dale, Pluto and Mickey and we let the crowd dissipate.

Scene Eight: Saturday, July 12th - The Big Goodbye

After finishing off the cereal and packing the van, we drove over to the Contemporary Resort for a monorail ride to our final park experience of the trip.

Since we hadn't made it over to see gardenia (sorry), we made sure to stop by the 2nd floor to see the wall of tape-pictures-that was cool!

We took a long slow walk down Main Street, browsing the shops and letting the boys spend some time in the Main Street Cinema. After getting some pictures of Walt and Mickey, we passed through the castle and decided that it was time for Dumbo the Flying Elephant. Due to its popularity and relatively inefficient loading, it always has a long line and we've always passed it by, but this time was different. The line was still about 45 minutes long, but we waited and finally took a flight.

A walk down the hill and another ride on the Mad Tea Party teacups left us ready for some Raspberry-Lemonade Slush from the Minute Maid Enchanted Grove. This refreshment lasted most of our walk over to Frontierland, where we boarded the rafts across the Rivers of America to Tom Sawyer Island. The boys had fun as usual at Fort Clemens, shooting at Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain.

Speaking of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, that was our next destination. I figured the line would be shorter than usual since the parade was about to begin, but it wasn't really that much shorter. As we were exiting BTMR, we could hear the parade working its way through Frontierland, but we boarded the Walt Disney World Railroad for our trip back to Main Street.

Once back at the foot of Main Street, we found ourselves a good spot on the curb and enjoyed the Remember The Magic parade. That's right - the railroad beat the parade, and by more than a couple of minutes. This is a fun parade, with floats for many of the movies and a lot of characters. It stops every now & then to let guests (selected before the parade begins) come out and participate.

We then visited the Guest of Honor Welcome Center, getting our view of Disney's plans for the future. Some of the "future" shown is already reality, like the Wide World of Sports, and some isn't, like the Animal Kingdom.

Finally, we stopped in the park by the flagpole and waved "bye" to the castle, the kingdom, and our friend Mickey. A quick monorail trip to the Contemporary, then in the van and homeward, our vacation ending on only the second no-rain day.

Well, almost. We did stop at Denny's in Orlando for dinner, picked up some fresh batteries and filled up the tank, then we were headed home. Since we were later than planned getting on the road, we stopped halfway to sleep and didn't get home until Sunday morning, but this paragraph's not what you were really reading this Trip report for anyway, was it?

Epilogue

8 days, 6 with rain
Extremely short lines compared to our expectations
Tour groups not the problem we had experienced last trip
Somewhere around 395 pictures taken; we'll see what's actually any good when they come back from Seattle Filmworks
Steven Vore

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