Trip Reports

Date of trip: 3/5/-3/14/98
Participants: Myself (40yr), wife Lee (32), children Carley and Drew. (18mos and 4 1/2 ).
Travel method-US Air from Boston (RT)
Resort-Dixie Landing-first night at Comfort Inn LBV
WDW experience-myself and my wife are true veterans having visited I believe 26 times since our honeymoon in 88. The kids have been 4 and 3 times.
As you can see we've visited the World many times over the years, both with and without children and have accumulated a specific way of vacationing that at least with us works well with 2 small children and seems to be relatively stress free. I'm not sure this report will be in any particular style other than a summary and maybe some likes and dislikes thrown in.

We flew out of Boston on the 5th catching a 2pm flight with a stop in NC, the flight arriving at 7pm, the late arrival was the reason we chose to stay at the Comfort Inn the first nite. This hotel is adjacent to the Crossroads Marketplace and is cheap ($50) as well as relatively handy to everything. We also were familiar with the place having stayed a whole vacation there in our poorer days. I would also like to mention that we booked our air and car rental on-line using Expedia, (the second time we've done so) and have found it both times to be easy and efficient. On the subject of rental car or not-we ALWAYS get a car. I can never understand the reasoning of people subjecting their schedule to the comings and goings of buses (plus I personally hate all forms of public transportation).

TIP-If you opt for a rental I highly recommend choosing an agency that is in the airport, if you go with someone like Alamo (the cheapest) you WILL get bused several miles to a lot and have to wait in perhaps the longest line of the trip, it is a major pain to load all you luggage on a bus and off again to get to your car location, stay in the airport! One other rental car note-be prepared for taxes. Our car was "free" this time through membership miles (Chevy Blazer) and even though the rental was zero but all the taxes and surchargers were $72! Many people get upset about this but remember Florida views tourists as dollars.

Upon arriving and checking-in we basically crashed for the nite and looked forward to heading over to DL in the morning.

The next day we had a disgusting breakfast in the hotel and headed over to DL for check-in. This is the seventh time we have stayed at DL and find it the best of the moderate resorts-the ambiance is fabulous, the rooms are nice,the food court handy and the recreation top-notch. We had stayed at CB a year ago and liked it-BUT found it somewhat messy and the food court way too small. The resort choice is important to us because we tend to spend a lot of time there especially now with the kids (as usual their favorite part of the trip was the pool). We had considered staying at CS but there were no consecutive rooms available for our time frame. We've visited CS a few times as well as eaten in the Pepper Market and it looks like a nice place to stay, maybe in the fall, although there have been rumblings from my wife about the Polynesian or nothing!

Anyway, check-in was fast and we had our keys by 11am and grabbed a room in the Manor section (Patterre Place). After getting settled decieded to check out the marketplace and hang out for a while.

I'm not sure if I like the way the Marketplace has evolved over the years into what it is now. I kinda miss the low key ambiance of years past. Do we really need another shopping-eating district? I especially am somewhat disappointed by the West End area. It seems totally impersonal! I also miss the Fireworks Factory.

Anyway, everyone was getting hungary and it was getting late so we went to one of our favorite vacation eating places which is Jungle Jim's. If you have kids but still want a halfway sane meal this is a good bet. It's a TGI Friday's type of place but with a good "exotic' atmosphere and drink prices that can't be beat.

After eating we went back to DL by 7pm. We need to keep the kids in their routine even on vacation and have resigned ourselves to the fact that until they are older going out at nite will not happen. I can't imagine hauling two small children around either dead tired or asleep just to satisfy myself. I also think that since Lee and I had visited WDW so many times before having children, we have no urgency to rush around and be crazy. We also know we'll be back-and soon.

One of the things I've noticed with concern over the years is the escalation in hotel prices especially on-site, our room cost $154/nite on this trip vs $110 in 95. This is one of the reason we've decided to probably purchase either a vacation home or condo in the area in the near future. (If you're selling let me know.) In fact, we spent some time scouting out possibilities in the various neighborhoods and I think if a deal comes along I'll grab it. I love staying at the resorts but the future of the prices looks dismal. Speaking of the resorts, we had a pretty good breakfast at the Concourse in the Contemporary, only problem being the kids were so fascinated with the monorail going thru so their food was secondary.

We went to EPCOT on Sunday. This is our favorite park. We have always enjoyed the division between adult areas and ride areas. As in our last THREE visits Test Track was still closed, although there were cars running around the track at regular intervals. We rode everything except for American Adventure (too long for the kids). We went on Horizons maybe for the last time, it's an old favorite and will be missed! Had to ride Journey twice since the kids love it and in fact it rates up there with me despite being dated. BTW-why is it on every trip a new Figment must be purchased?

Didn't get a chance to eat other than fast food, but in the past have tried all the restaurants there and have to say that Askerhaus, even though it's menu can be funky, is probably our favorite. San Angel is good BUT the waiters are more interested in moving you out than ensuring that you have a pleasant meal, so be forewarned!

Finally left about seven which is all the kids can handle, walked right to our parking space and were back at DL in literally ten minutes.

The next few days we basically hung out. We spent time at the pool, visited other hotels to eat and shop as well as decide where to stay in the fall. As I said my wife is favoring the Poly, but I really like WL. We went up to the rooms at WL and checked them out and they look only slightly bigger than DL, but the lobby is a killer! I also know they have jr. suites at WL, are they worth it? We also took some time to cruise around the area checking out possible vacation homes, condos etc.

Mid-week or so the weather turned COLD. I think the high for the next three days was only about sixty, but there was bright sunshine so it didn't seem too bad, this also I think was one of the few trips where we experienced zero rain. It was also the first time we had went in March, usually taking our winter vacation in either late Jan or Feb. The best month of any, though is October -- summer weather but not super hot as in the summer. October crowds are still large, but I've come to the conclusion that they are now large year round.

Went to MK on Thursday, very crowded as usual. Seemed to send most of our time in Fantasyland, but did manage to see Timekeeper for the first time. The cake was completely off the castle but it looked like they were painting and the moat was also empty. We had parked at the Contemporary and took the monorail over since it was too cold to ride the boat. Skipped the parade because we had seen it in October and it was the same, lots of characters everywhere but the kids are generally afraid of them (they're too big).

We Managed to stay 'til about 7, and then the kids had had it so back to DL.

Friday was our last full day, so for the majority of the day we just hung out at DL, ate at PO, and generally enjoyed the ambiance.

We had an 11 o'clock flight on Saturday, so it was check out with no problem return the car to the airport, very fast except for FL taxes, and arrived back in Boston to cold rainy weather about 3:30.

While on the plane we remembered we didn't make it to Cap'n Jacks-always worth a stop for lunch-oh well, next trip in Sept-Oct.

Andrew Baker

abaker@mspca.org

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