Trip Reports

May 8-17, 1998

Background:

This type of vacation is very different from our typical trip. We love the outdoors and being active, and for the last several years our vacation time has been spent backpacking and snow skiing. However, I have wanted to visit WDW for a long time, but whenever I would mention to Steve that it sounded like fun, I would get the old "eye roll". Well, last fall I was dreaming ahead to this year’s vacations and realized that we would have a whole extra week to use because we didn’t have any family weddings or obligations to attend. I determined that, somehow, I would convince Steve that we should go to WDW. In the end it was easy - I just used the old "Please, I really want to do this" and he didn’t have the heart to say no. So, with that, it was full steam ahead with the planning.

By November, it was set in stone – we got a package deal at the Yacht Club for 9 nights/10 days with LOS passes, airfare included. Not cheap, but I justified it by saying that it had been awhile since we took an extravagant vacation. I got our reservations for the Polynesian Luau and the Hoop-Dee-Doo Review. I read trip reports, I studied books, I read RADP – generally I just devoured anything Disney I could get my hands on. I subjected Steve to what I called the "Pre-Disney Animation Blitz", much to his initial dismay. I informed him that we needed to be knowledgeable about all of the recent Disney movies (since we don’t have kids, we hadn’t seen them) so we would recognize the characters and be able to follow the shows. We saw all of the recent ones, except for Pocahantas (I was told to skip it) and Little Mermaid (ran out of time) and even Steve enjoyed them, especially Toy Story, which we ended up seeing about 5 times! By the time the big day finally arrived, my expectations were so high about everything I had really set myself up for huge disappointment if it didn’t turn out to be just perfect. Steve, on the other hand, was fairly ambivalent about the whole thing. He had resigned himself to going and knew that he would have fun once he was there, but if it had fallen through at the last minute, he wouldn’t have been crushed. So, here we go - I hope I don’t bore you with too much detail, but I really enjoyed reading all of the other in depth trip reports and figured others might too.

Day 1 - Friday, May 8:

Needless to say, I didn’t sleep worth a hoot. Our flight from DFW left at 7:00 a.m. and between my excitement and worrying that we would oversleep, I was awake half the night. Our friend Laura showed up to take us to the airport (a true friend to get up that early! She and her husband Rick were also keeping our dog, Milton, while we were gone) and finally, after months of anticipation, we were off to Disney! Our flight arrived on time at 10:30, our bags were coming off by the time we got to the claim area, we only waited about 10 minutes for our Mears shuttle (although we had a bit of a hard time finding the pick-up area) and we were to the Yacht Club by noon. We had requested a king, non-smoking room and it was ready when we got there – yay! Our room was very conveniently located on the second floor, right up the main stairs from the lobby, past the elevators and around the corner. We had a nice view of the wedding gazebo, and in fact, there was a wedding going on when we got there! We lost count over the week how many we saw – man, they must do a lot! The room was very nice, nothing spectacular, but large and comfortable and spotlessly clean.

By 12:30, we were on the boat for MGM. Once inside the park, we got a map and Steve said "Where to?" As we walked down Sunset Blvd, I was just so thrilled to finally be there it was all I could do not to cry. We headed down to check out the line at the Tower of Terror, stopping to look at the old cars on the way. We got to the TOT and basically walked right into the library. We didn’t even have an opportunity to look around at the detail in the lobby! Then, walked right through the boiler room and onto an elevator with maybe a 2 minute wait. Now, I had read a lot about this ride and knew what to expect, but there’s nothing to prepare you for doing it the very first time. The build-up and attention to detail is incredible and the drops are awesome! Of course, for me it was difficult to see some of the special effects through my tears – by this time, I was so happy, I was crying. Now, lest you get the wrong impression and think I’m some weird bawling female, I’m really not. It’s just that I had looked so forward for so long, I couldn’t help myself. Anyway, Steve was really impressed with the ride, which pleased me, but hey, it was the TOT – arguably the best ride in all of WDW, so I couldn’t get my hopes up yet. We checked the next showtime for Beauty and the Beast, but it wasn’t for awhile so we walked on over to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, which was nearing start time. We enjoyed it, but it wasn’t something we would see over and over again. Then we went to Star Tours, another walk-on. As we were winding through the empty queues, there was a lifesized stuffed Chewie straddling the line we were in. "What a fun touch!" I thought, as I had to brush aside his hair to walk underneath. As we went on up the next aisle, he jumped down – thank goodness he didn’t do that before or I would’ve had a heart attack! It was one of those Disney learning experiences – never take anything at face value. Star Tours was fun – so far, so good, we’d done three things and he’d enjoyed them all. But there was still a lot left to see. The Hunchback show was about to start, so we went in and sat down and caught just the last couple of minutes of Matt the Juggler. We resolved to come back and catch his whole act – how can he do that stuff? Then Hunchback started and it was outstanding. We really liked this show, I can’t say enough about it. All of the rave reviews are true. Afterwards, we headed over to the Commissary to get a snack – we split a cheeseburger and fries. It was decent, not great but not horrible. Then we just wandered around for awhile, checking out New York Street, and just kind of looking around. We went to the Muppet Vision 3D show, and this was when I knew for sure that Steve was going to have a great time – he laughed and giggled through the whole thing! YES! He was finally realizing that Disney World is not just another theme park! We walked around some more, then, before leaving decided to check out the line at the TOT. It was only about a 5 minute wait, so this time we got to look at the lobby some. This time I didn’t cry during the ride, but it was just as much fun!

We headed back to the room to get settled in and decide what to do about dinner. I had not made any priority seatings in advance because, although I had a general plan for the first few days, I wanted to leave room for flexibility. (I have been accused of being an "overplanner" by my friend Laura, who never plans anything!) I called to check on some places and being the last minute on Friday night, they were pretty busy. So, we ended up at the Yacht Club Galley, which was certainly convenient, and was very good. Afterwards, I suggested that we walk over to Epcot to look around, and since it was about 8:15 people were staking out their spots for Illuminations. We walked on into Future World and the line for Honey, I Shrunk the Audience was reasonable, so we waited. Again, I had read about this attraction, so I sort of knew what to expect. When we sat down, Steve crossed his legs and I told him to put his feet on the floor. He looked at me, but, figuring I had a reason, did it. This show was hilarious – the effects were so amazing! We left, and were just going to head back to the room and come back another time for Illuminations but managed to find a decent spot near the UK behind a cart that was closing up, so we stayed. Wow! I read that the new show isn’t as good as the old one – if that’s the case, the old one must’ve really been something. It was hard to see everything that was happening, but we both thought it was great. Then we strolled back through the International Gateway to the room to get ready for Early Entry at the Magic Kingdom on Saturday. Our first day finished at WDW, and it was everything I had hoped for.

Day 2 – Saturday, May 9

We got up bright and early and caught the bus to the Magic Kingdom. I had read somewhere about the shortcut from Main Street over to Tomorrowland and we found it. There were a few people in front of us, but most people either didn’t know about it or didn’t care and went the long way. First we headed to Alien Encounter. Neither of us liked it – we thought it was lame and not scary at all. At no time did I ever fear that I was about to be eaten by an alien. Then, we went to Space Mountain and walked right on. Now this was fun! As far as roller coasters go, it wasn’t in the same league as the Texas Giant, but then, it’s not supposed to be. But it was neat in the dark and it really jerks you around. Next we walked over to Fantasyland and did Peter Pan’s Flight. Cute. I insisted we had to do Small World, even though we had both ridden it at Disneyland as kids. My mistake – it seemed like that ride went on forever. Steve said they should turn it into an arcade and issue people guns when they go in. By this time, general opening time was drawing near so we lined up at the rope to join the Splash Dash. All the accounts I had read of this were true – we walked as fast as we could without running and people were pushing by us like their lives depended on it. We ended up at Splash Mtn with about a 10 minute wait. There was a CM trying hard to direct people over to Big Thunder Mtn, but I knew better and sure enough, after we rode the line was much longer. We were right in the front and I just knew we would get drenched, but we hardly got wet at all. Then we went to BTM and waited another 10 minutes for it. Another tame coaster, but the details & scenery are really good. It’s hard to see everything as it whizzes by. Well, we had only been there about 2 hours and we had already seen all of the major attractions with little or no wait! So, we just wandered around and took in the Country Bear Jamboree, which we both remembered from DL, the new Tiki Room, which we hated, Jungle Cruise, Hall of Presidents, Haunted Mansion,and other smaller attractions. We had lunch on Tom Sawyer’s Island at Aunt Polly’s, which I wouldn’t do again. It wasn’t that it was bad or anything, but you certainly didn’t have much to choose from: cold fried chicken or ham/swiss sandwich. Now, I never met fried chicken I wouldn’t eat so that was fine with me, although I will say that it definitely won’t win any prizes for World’s Greatest Chicken. Steve was going to get the sandwich just to be different, but the bread looked suspicious to him and sure enough, when he asked, it had rye in it – no thanks! So we both had the chicken. I will say that the portions were certainly generous, though. Around 1:00 it really did start to get crowded, so we left the Magic Kingdom and boarded the monorail for Epcot.

I had read somewhere that everyone’s first glimpse of Epcot should be riding in on the monorail and I must say that, despite our sneak preview from the night before, it was pretty neat to see it for the first time from that vantage. In we went to see more of Future World. We hit all the highlights, enjoying Living with the Land and Cranium Command the most. I have to agree with others that there is just something about Body Wars that gets to you. I am not prone to motion sickness, but if that ride had gone on for much longer I would have been in trouble! Somewhere along in here we saw the fountains perform for the first time. This turned out to be one of our favorite things – we watched them every chance we had after that! After all of this, we were starting to drag – so, after a short walk through the International Gateway we were back in our room. Already we were appreciating the convenient location of the Yacht Club! I had made PS for Morocco the night before, and we had time for a nap before we needed to be there, so we caught up on some sleep and woke up feeling much more refreshed. The next day was my birthday and I had read so many glowing reviews of Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge that I wanted to try it for my birthday dinner. After I took care of that PS, we strolled back over to Morocco. We didn’t get one of the better tables here as far as being able to see. That, I think, is one drawback to being only a party of two. They can wedge you in anywhere and sometimes you miss out on the ambiance. However, if we craned around a column, we could see the belly dancer when she came out. She invited a little girl out with her to dance – it was really cute. Our meal was very good - Steve got a lamb dish and I got something chicken and we both thought it was quite different, but delicious. Of course, we were stuffed and didn’t have room for dessert.

At this point, we decided to rush back to the Magic Kindom to see if we could catch the 9:00 SpectroMagic parade, so we made a mad dash to catch the monorail and just missed one. By the time we got there, the parade was just fixing to start and the place was an absolute madhouse. There was no way we were going to be able to see anything and I knew once it started we would be trapped, so we hopped on the train to get around to the other side of the park and got off at Mickey’s Toontown Fair. As we walked towards the Castle from behind, we could see the parade coming over the bridge so we stopped and stood on some steps by the castle along the wall to watch. We couldn’t hear the music very well and I still couldn’t see very well, not being very tall, so we resolved to stake out a good spot for the 11:00 parade and watch it. We saw that there were people watching from a little area on the bridge itself, so when the parade was done we went there and planted ourselves and just watched the mass of humanity press by on their way out. We could see some of the fireworks from there, although there were trees in the way. Eventually, more people came and sat down with us to wait for the next parade. Steve decided to go get us something to drink, and while he was gone a CM came and told us we couldn’t watch the parade from there. Oh great – now what do I do? People were starting to line up all along the parade route, and if I stayed and waited for Steve we wouldn’t have a good spot. If I left, we might never see each other again! I got up and went across the bridge into Liberty Square and there he was, standing in line for carmel corn – what luck! I noticed some tape on the ground, so I planted myself directly behind it and when a CM came by I asked if I was ok where I was to watch the parade. He said yes and showed me exactly where they would string the rope and what area needed to kept clear for traffic flow. Shortly, Steve joined me and while we munched our carmel corn we told people that they wouldn’t be able to stand there for the parade. Most people believed us and moved on, but some stood there anyway. I hope they felt stupid when the CM made them move! Then we noticed that there WERE people on the bridge in our previous spot so we asked the CM what was up with that? He replied that that area was reserved for special groups. Hmmmm, how nice to be that special! Anyway, the excitement continued to build as we could hear the announcement from the beginning of the parade route that "in just FIVE minutes…..". Soon we could hear the parade start, then we heard our announcement, then we could see the parade coming around the hub, and finally here it came. Our spot was excellent – we had a terrific view of the parade as it came over the bridge and passed in front of us. The only bad thing was the guy beside us that blocked everyone else’s view by leaning way out to tape it, even though he was only filming about half the time. Some people just have no consideration for others! But the parade itself was spectacular! I loved the music and the floats – in my opinion SpectroMagic is a must-see. We had decided that after the parade was over we would try to ride Big Thunder Mtn again (I had read that you should ride it both during the day to see the scenery and again at night because it’s more fun), so as soon as the last float went by we fell in behind and just walked slowly, following along until we got to where we could cut over and get to Big Thunder. It was practically a walk on and they were right, it is more fun at night! And when we got off, the line was long again. After that, it was time to leave – easier said than done in that crush of people. The mob scene on Main Street was unbelievable, but again, all my advance studying paid off. I knew that we could duck inside the shops and walk all the way through to the end – no telling how much time that saved us! Steve was so impressed with my knowledge!

This had been an incredibly long day – up for Early Entry and out until the park closed, and we were exhausted. Sunday was definitely going to be a sleep-in day!

Day 3 – Sunday, May 10

We slept in until about 8:30 to recover and woke up ready to hit Blizzard Beach. But first on the agenda was the Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast. Mmmm, everything looked so good – it was hard to decide. We each selected something, got a turnover for later and sat at a table on the Boardwalk to indulge ourselves. I tried not to think of the calories. We caught the bus back at the Yacht Club and got to Blizzard Beach with plenty of time to spare. Now, I’m not really much of a water park person, but by golly – if it was included on our ticket then I was going to try it. I had even bought a new one piece that crossed in the back so I wouldn’t have to worry about losing it. I let Steve choose the park and he picked Blizzard Beach because of the slides. On the bus he said something about the Summit Plummit and I said I’d wait while he went. He gave me a look like I was some kind of a stick in the mud, but didn’t say anything. We got a small locker for our valuables, and then selected two chairs in the shade to put our towels and stuff and off we went. First thing was Teamboat Springs. I was relieved that they put us in with another guy and his young son because I knew with more weight it would be more fun. We laughed when the other guy joked about being the "ballast boy" (he was on the tubby side) and sure enough, he was! Then, back up all those stairs to the Slusher Gusher, which was pretty fun except I wear contacts and kept wishing I could open my eyes. Then back up all those stairs again to the Summit Plummit. The park was starting to fill up with people and I decided that a) WDW probably wouldn’t include any kind of attraction that you were likely to kill yourself on and b) if I was going to ride it, I’d better do it before the line got too long. So, I did it. And lived to tell about it. And, it wasn’t that bad, although once was enough. The good news was that my new swimsuit performed admirably and didn’t end up anywhere it shouldn’t! We went on and did all the rest of the slides and by then lines were really starting to pile up. We each grabbed a tube and went once around the slow river, with Steve pushing my tube under the cold water every chance he could, and called it a day at Blizzard Beach.

Back to the room we went, where we cleaned up and headed down to Beaches and Cream to get some lunch. We got seats at the counter and scarfed down our burgers. Then we headed to Epcot to finish up in Future World before going to the Wilderness Lodge for my birthday dinner. It was also Mother’s Day and apparently all the moms had been given carnations – a nice thought. We still hadn’t seen Ellen’s Energy Adventure yet, so we did that first thing and thought it was pretty entertaining. Then we wandered around Innoventions for awhile and revisited some other attractions we liked. As we were walking along, Steve spotted Chip and Dale come out and we stopped to watch. There weren’t many people around and as I was waiting to approach them, I heard Steve say "Well, hi!" I thought "Who the heck could he be talking to?" and when I turned around, there were Steve and Pluto, embracing like long lost pals! There was my husband, Mr. Roll-his-eyes-when-I-mention-Disney World, excitedly telling me "Look, it’s Pluto!" This is what they mean by Disney magic! We got pictures and by then a crowd was starting to gather, so we went on, but I was so excited by meeting our first character in such a spontaneous way, and on my birthday – it was so special.

We went out front and boarded the bus for the Wilderness Lodge. I wanted to get there early and look around some. This had actually been my number one choice as where to stay because we had seen both Ahwahnee at Yosemite and Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone and it just really appealed to me. Steve’s viewpoint, however, was "we’ve already been to the real thing – let’s try something different". I must admit, having stayed at the Yacht Club, it would be difficult to stay anywhere else now. The convenience and location are hard to beat, although the price certainly isn’t! Anyway, I was eager to see the Wilderness Lodge and see what I was missing. It is very beautifully themed - the exterior looks like the Ahwahnee and the inside like Old Faithful Inn, but in the end I was glad we picked the Yacht Club. We wandered around, noticed the pawprints in the sidewalk, watched the geyser erupt, and sat in the lobby looking for Hidden Mickeys. I never could find any, though.

Our dinner at Artist Point was our favorite of the whole trip. I ordered the Maple Glazed Salmon on Cedar Plank that everyone had raved about, and it was terrific. I think Steve got Prime Rib or something, his was excellent as well. We didn’t tell them it was my birthday, so I didn’t get any kind of special treatment.

We caught the bus back to Epcot and staked out a spot to see Illuminations again. We decided we wanted to be able to get back to the room quickly afterwards, so we picked a spot near the bridge by the International Gateway. Once again, it was really something to see and I noticed things I had missed the first time. It was just a quick walk back to the room, and we hit the sack so we could be up and to the Animal Kingdom bright and early. At midnight, the phone rang. Uh oh, who could be calling at this hour? It was Laura – Milton had yelped when she was messing with his ears and she wondered if she should take him to the vet. He’s an English Springer Spaniel that loves the water and is very prone to ear infections, so Steve told her to go ahead. Great timing, Miltie!

Day 4 – Monday, May 11

Up at some ridiculous hour and off to the Animal Kingdom! We were there by 6:20 and they let us in around 6:40, but they directed everybody down some backstage maintenance trail over to DinoLand. We were among the first in line for Countdown to Extinction, but it wasn’t running yet so this ended up to be one of the longest waits we had the whole trip. Finally it opened and we were in the second car. This is a fun ride – it was one of our favorites! And boy, it really does throw you around! After we came out, we looked around at some dinosaur skeletons. It really is amazing to think how big these animals were. We wandered around and finally got our first glimpse of the Tree of Life (remember, we didn’t get to enter the park through the Oasis). Wow! What a work of art! We walked around it, finding different animals in it and taking pictures from every angle. We eventually worked our way around near Africa, and walked into Harambe. It is incredible how realistic Disney can make things. Of course, I’ve never been to an African village, but this is just what I would picture, except maybe cleaner. By the time we found the Safari, the line was fairly long (relatively speaking – the longest line we ever waited in was probably only 20 minutes) but seemed to move fairly quickly. What a neat ride this is – I think we saw all of the major animals except for the cheetahs. We then headed over to see the Flights of Fancy bird show. I have since read opposing opinions on this show, but I thought it was great. OK, so maybe the story was a little dumb, but the birds themselves were awesome. They would swoop down over the audience literally inches above your heads and were just beautiful. I was especially impressed by the parrot that could sing 12 different songs from start to finish. He sang "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Camptown Races" for our show and it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen or heard. They did say that it is extremely rare for a parrot to be that smart and that he was by far the most talented one they had ever seen. We found the Jungle Book show – I just didn’t care for this one, in fact, I dozed off during it. Was it boring or was I just tired? We then headed for the Tree of Life to see It’s Tough to be a Bug. The park was starting to get pretty crowded by now and we had to wait awhile, but we looked for more animals on the Tree to pass the time. We were among the last into the theater when we finally got there, and our seats were near the end of a row and not that good. Despite that, we loved this show! It was one of our favorite attractions and we decided that we’d come back and see it again when it wasn’t so crowded.

By now, there were tons of people and lines for everything, so we headed over to the Rain Forest Café to have lunch before we left. We put our names on the list and only had to wait about 10-15 minutes before they called us. We didn’t get to be seated back in the bowels of the restaurant where all the action was, but instead were up near the entrance right underneath the elephants. I guess when you’re a party of two there’s a trade-off sometimes between not having to wait as long and getting a less-than-desirable table. We each ordered a sandwich and while we waited took turns going to check out the rest of the restaurant. Yeah, we definitely missed out on the ambiance of this place! However, our food was excellent and we left quite satisfied.

Back to the Yacht Club, where we called to check on poor Miltie (yes, he had an infection in both ears and Laura had to give him a pill, put in an ear wash, and massage in ointment – both ears, twice a day! We got her a nice gift for her trouble.) and after splitting a decadent sundae at Beaches & Cream, headed over to Epcot to start our tour of the World Showcase. We walked around and took in the sights. In France we watched Bubble Nicholas the Mime. Very interesting, but not at all what I was expecting. This guy was inside of a giant clear beachball thingy and did his mime act. It was very warm and humid (most people would say hot, but we’re from Texas – so warm to us) and he was sweating like a pig in there. We wondered if he was going to have a heatstroke, not to mention how did he breathe in there? We saw the Voices of Liberty and the American Adventure. Where do they find all of these talented people? In China we watched the Pu Yang acrobats. Apparently the Chinese have perfected a technique for breeding boneless children. It is amazing how those little kids can contort their bodies.

I have to say that Steve & I neither one are real big on shopping, so most of our time was spent watching performances rather than browsing around the stores. There’s just so much to see, there’s no way you can do it all! By this time, we needed to head to the Poly for the 9:00 Luau I’d made reservations for back in November. We took the monorail to the TTC, then to the Poly and got there in time to see the Electrical Water Pageant go by. We wandered around a bit – I loved the lush landscaping , especially the gardenias. I was anxious to see what kind of seats we would have. How about ---- front and center! We had the best seats in the house! Steve told me I did good. Our waiter was very attentive and the food was fine. Neither of us are drinkers, but we did try whatever their tropical mixed drink was. It was good, but a little went a long way and we both ended up with soft drinks. After dinner, the show started and was very entertaining. The performers were all excellent and it was interesting to see the different fashions of the various islands, as well as the different styles of dance. How do those girls keep their upper bodies so still when their hips are 3 feet out there? Leaving from the luau was the most trouble we had with transportation the whole trip. We had to take the monorail to the TTC, then a bus to Downtown Disney, then another bus back to the Yacht Club. It seemed like we waited forever at Downtown Disney. We will always laugh about the bus driver we had back to the hotel – he must’ve had a very bad day and needed to vent. At one point, as we were leaving Downtown Disney, he opened his window and shook his fist at a car, and then yelled at a pedestrian. We were sitting in the front seat on the right side that faces towards the aisle, so he started talking to us. He ranted and raved about different things all the way back to the hotel, and we just sat there, making sympathetic noises and trying not to laugh. Finally, we got off to the bus and laughed all the way back to the room, where we fell into bed after another very long, tiring day.

Day 5 – Tuesday, May 12

We decided to go back to MGM and finish seeing things we missed on Friday, but as we walked out to catch the boat we saw it just leaving the dock. So, we ran over to the Swan/Dolphin to catch it there – good thing we’re both in shape! The first thing on our agenda was the Tower of Terror again, which was a walk on. When we came out there was still no line, so guess what? This time I got the seat belt seat – lucky me! In lieu of a nice solid bar to hold on to, I gripped Steve’s arm so tight it took awhile for the finger imprints to disappear. I love this ride! It was nearly time for the Beauty and the Beast Show, so we found seats and watched it. Remember the "Pre-Disney Animation Blitz" I mentioned? Well, this is where it came in handy. If we had not seen the movie, we would have had no idea what was happening and we still had a hard time. The costuming and performances were excellent, but I think they could have done a better job with the story – they left out half the plot! Superstar Television was a hoot. I’m no thespian, but I’d like to think I could have done a better job than some of the people they picked. We didn’t enjoy the Soundstage as much. We did a few other things, then it was time for our PS at the 50’s Prime Time Café.

Now, I hadn’t told Steve too much about this place because I really wanted to try it and I didn’t know if he would enjoy it. But by now he was totally into WDW and I knew he’d go along with anything that happened. After a brief wait, Mom led us to our table (once again the "party of two" crummy table. I suppose we could have complained, but we could see fairly well.), chastising us for staying away for so long and introducing us to our cousins at the next table. Soon, our sister Shannon came with our menus. We decided to split a sandwich and a shake and each got a coke. Sis returned shortly with our shake, which was probably the best shake I’ve ever had, and we amused ourselves by watching the other brothers and sisters and looking at the décor. My mother has a mixer just like theirs! Sis came back with our food and an extra plate – I’m glad we split it, it was huge! The sandwich was already cut in half and came with a ton of fries and some steamed veggies. Steve doled out our portions, and while doing so dropped a fry on the floor, which he picked up and stuck under the edge of my plate. For some reason he didn’t give me very many vegetables. Contrary to some reports I’ve read, we found our food to be very good. When Sis came back to check on us, she noticed that I didn’t have any vegetables (I had already eaten the miserly portion Steve had given me) and made some comment. I told her he wouldn’t share them with me and then she noticed that he had eaten everything except the cauliflower. She made him eat just one bite of cauliflower (at least she didn’t do the airplane thing!) and then congratulated him because he even threw in a "Mmm" for good measure. Of course she saw the wayward french fry when she cleared our dishes, and accused me of trying to hide my food, but she positively beamed when I told her that it had been on the floor. She praised me for helping and gave us both Clean Plate Club stickers. All in all, we had a fun time and would go back again.

After lunch we saw a few more things, among them the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show. This was one that we missed in the "Pre-Disney Animation Blitz" and so it was kind of hard to follow. However, we still enjoyed it and thought the effects were good. We redid the TOT and Muppet Vision again, and then headed back to the room for a nap.

That evening we headed to Pleasure Island. We hadn’t gone earlier in the trip because, us not being the original party animals, I just didn’t think we would find much that appealed to us. I was interested in checking out the Adventurer’s Club and the Comedy Warehouse, however, so off we went. As we arrived, the line was forming for the 2nd comedy show, so we get in it. Oh, my! I don’t know when I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life! These people are so talented – how do they come up with this stuff off the top of their head so fast? For those of you that haven’t been, it’s all improvisational so every show will be completely different. We absolutely LOVED this! Then we mosey to the Adventurer’s Club. Well, darn. This was the thing that I thought I’d really enjoy and I’m sorry, we just never got it. We tried, though. We did everything we were supposed to (Kungaloosh!) and went into the Mask Room and stayed until we were invited into the Library, but just couldn’t get into it. Finally, we gave up and left. We went into a couple of other places and quickly left – not our scene, plus a couple of them allowed smoking and we couldn’t stand it. That was a nice thing about both the Comedy Warehouse and the Adventurer’s Club – no smoking. We left, but planned on returning to see another show at the Comedy Warehouse.

Day 6 – Wednesday, May 13

Up bright and early to be at the Animal Kingdom again! This morning we had our one personal experience with a "rude person". When we arrived, of course it wasn’t open yet and everybody was piling up at the turnstiles. Of course, there’s not really a line, so when it finally opened, people kind of start clumping up to go through the turnstiles. We clumped along with everybody else, but after we went through and were in the park, the guy behind us said to Steve "Next time, wait in line like everyone else!". Steve just looked at him. I don’t know where he thought we came from, but we had been there just as long as he had. I told Steve that if that guy got riled about something like that so early in the morning, his blood pressure would be sky high by the afternoon! Anyway, we were headed toward the Safari, but there were CM’s telling everybody that there weren’t many animals out yet, so we switched directions and went to see It’s Tough to be a Bug again. This time we had good seats, and the show was even better! We experienced some of the effects that we missed the first time around (I had wondered what everyone was screaming about). Afterwards, we did Countdown and the Safari again, and then were headed over to see about lining up for the Festival of the Lion King. It was right at 9:00 by then, and the characters were just coming out into Camp Minnie Mickey and there was no one else around! We had a ball and got to spend time with Chip, Dale, Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore, and of course, Mickey and Minnie! Minnie seemed very pleased when I complemented her on her safari outfit. By now, other people were showing up, so we got in line for the show. It was outstanding and well worth seeing. Everything about it was just excellent! By now the park is packed, so back to the room we went. After another nap, we were off to Downtown Disney to shop and have an early dinner at Planet Hollywood. This place was really neat inside, and for once we weren’t the victims of the "party of two" syndrome. The food was really good, as well. We shopped for gifts at the World of Disney store and then, back to Pleasure Island to catch the first comedy show! This one was not quite as funny as the night before, but was still very good. They just didn’t get very good suggestions from the audience, and that’s what they play to. After the show ended, we went right back out and lined up for the 3rd show. I told you we liked this place! This one was the funniest one yet – it was just hysterical! I will never forget the guy acting out "death by bowling with square dance music". You just had to be there. Afterwards, I asked Steve if he wanted to try the Adventurer’s Club again to see if it was any better, but we decided to head back to the room because tomorrow was Early Entry at the Magic Kingdom!

Day 7 – Thursday, May 14

Here we are again at the Magic Kingdom. First off, Space Mountain with no wait, then on to Fantasyland! Good lord, look at the lines for Dumbo and the Teacups! I would have liked to ride Dumbo for old time’s sake (he was my favorite ride when I was at Disneyland, back when I was about 5) but not with that wait! However, Mr. Toad and Snow White were reasonable, so we did them. Legend of the Lion King didn’t impress us that much. However, we both liked Timekeeper. Steve didn’t care for the Carousel of Progress, but I thought it was very nostalgic and hummed the song the rest of the day. We rode the Liberty Belle, then ate lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern. We had a great table (yay!) and the food was delicious.

We caught the boat over to the Wilderness Lodge, where we caught another boat over to Discovery Island. We enjoyed this. I can see why people with a limited amount of time choose to skip it, but we thought it was very worthwhile. We watched a bird show and a reptile show (who knew that baby alligators were so cute?). I will admit that I would have felt more at ease walking around if I had carried an umbrella – the ground was literally white with bird poop.

Tonight was the night for the much anticipated Hoop-Dee-Doo Review, so we went back to the room to rest and get ready. We utilized our close proximity to Epcot quite a bit for transportation purposes throughout the week., and so we hopped the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, then caught the boat over to Fort Wilderness from there. Our show was the 9:00 one and we were plenty early. We lined up to have our picture taken, and when the photographer saw where our table was (#13) he asked if we were on our honeymoon. Actually, we were asked that quite a bit throughout the week, even though we’ve been married nearly 11 years! Anyway, when we said no, he said "Wow! How’d you get THAT table – those are the best seats in the house!" Sure enough, right in front of the stage, smack dab in the middle – my advance planning had paid off again. The food was somewhat disappointing. The fried chicken was good (but then, as I told you – I do love fried chicken!), but the ribs were only lukewarm and rather bland. But you certainly do get plenty of it, certainly more than we could eat and we’re big eaters. The show itself was entertaining and the performers were all very good. Near the end of the show, the performers were all running around through the audience and one of them that we nicknamed Darci (she looked like a friend of ours) came by and rubbed Steve’s head. He wears his hair very short, kind of in a modified buzz/flat top, and you would be shocked at how many women ask to feel it! It is extremely soft, and so I can’t blame them though. Anyway, he thought that was kind of neat. As far as the show goes, we enjoyed it, but wouldn’t do it again. We liked the luau better.

Getting back to the hotel was easy – after the show was over there were a ton of resort busses waiting, so we hopped on and before we knew it were back "home".

Day 8 – Friday, May 15

This morning we had made PS for the character breakfast at Cape May, using our flex feature. It’s a huge buffet, but I didn’t think the food was anything special. However, we got to see Goofy, Chip and Dale, all of them decked out in their swimwear. I just loved meeting the characters, and Steve did too. I must admit that he got into it more than I ever expected that he would. When Chip came around he rubbed Steve’s head (I guess it’s irresistible to women AND chipmunks)! Then he rubbed himself on the chest and giggled. Steve said "My hair’s nearly as soft as your fur, isn’t it?" and Chip got real excited and giggled some more. It was so cute! Goofy was very interested in our digital camera – we showed him the picture on the back, but he seemed to have a hard time seeing it. Man, I just don’t see how anyone could ever think that they’re "too grown up" for the characters! We got pictures with everyone and generally had a great time, which made up for the mediocre food.

After breakfast we headed back to Epcot. We watched the fountains perform again – I could watch them all day. There were two water fountains that we stopped to drink from – a short one for me and a taller one for Steve. My water wasn’t coming out very much at all, so I had my face right down close when SPURT! All over my face, with wild laughter coming from down inside the fountain! Steve’s talked, too, but he didn’t get squirted. So we sat nearby for awhile and watched other unsuspecting victims.

After awhile, we headed to the Magic Kingdom to stake out a spot good and early for the 3:00 Remember the Magic parade. We picked a spot on Main Street that we could tell would soon be moving into the shade of the buildings and plopped ourselves down on the curb. Some poor people got spots on the other side of the street under trees and ended up broiling. I guess they didn’t think about the fact that the shade would move! After we sat there for awhile, the Dapper Dans stopped right in front of us and performed. Again, where does Disney find so many talented people? Eventually the parade came by. It was good, but not nearly as impressive as SpectroMagic. Afterwards, we walked around some, and caught the Galaxy Search show. This was the only time we ever saw Donald, other than in the parades. Does he have something on Mickey, or what? Pluto, Chip and Dale are everywhere – I don’t think Donald is pulling his weight!

I was interested in seeing some of the other resorts, so we left and caught the monorail to check out the Contemporary and Grand Floridian (we saw the Poly the night of the luau). Neither of us cared for the Contemporary, but we did go up and see the view from the observation deck. It was very hazy out due to the brush fires, but it was an interesting vantage point. The Grand Floridian was beautiful, but a little to frou-frou for our tastes. We decided that we preferred the atmosphere of the Yacht Club, not to mention the location!

We had PS at the Flying Fish that night on the Boardwalk, and we liked it almost as much as Artist Point. It was delicious, and the Lava cake lived up to it’s reputation. Then we headed back to Downtown Disney to finish up our shopping and of course while there tried to catch another show at the Comedy Warehouse. However, we didn’t quite make it in and didn’t want to wait until the next one, so called it a night.

Day 9 – Saturday, May 16

I can’t believe it – our last full day! We decided to just kind of take it easy. We walked over to Epcot, and wandered around, watched the Jammitors (fun) then had some snacks for lunch in the World Showcase. The best was a smoked salmon & egg sandwich we split in Norway, but whatever we got in Japan was tasty too. We were going to get a bratwurst in Germany, but they weren’t open yet (!) so we decided that we’d head back and hang out by the pool for awhile. Later, we split a sundae at Beaches & Cream.

We were so impressed by SpectroMagic that we wanted to see it one last time, so off we went to the Magic Kingdom. We staked out a spot across the way from where we’d watched from the first time, along the rail where we could see it as it came across the bridge. Steve saved our spot while I went off in search of something for dinner. I spotted someone with a turkey leg – mmm! (Something about me and gnawing on poultry bones!) I asked where he got it, and waited in a ridiculously long line, but figured it was either wait in that line or wait for the parade to start. The only drinks they had were the plastic bottles, which we didn’t prefer because they got warm fast. So I delivered the turkey leg to Steve, then went and got a coke in a cup.

We thought the turkey leg was pretty tasty, although exceedingly messy. When the parade finally came by, it was all I could do not to cry because I knew it was our last night and I wasn’t ready to leave! We had a good view of the parade, although it was partially obstructed by the bridge railings.

After the parade we left to go back to Pleasure Island to catch the late show at, you guessed it – the Comedy Warehouse! Still funny, but we decided that the 2nd or 3rd shows were the best times to go. At the early show, the crowd just doesn’t seem to get into it as much, and at the late show the audience is so drunk that they sort of ruin it. I guess there’s a fine line between not drunk enough and too drunk to make the show entertaining.

Day 10 – Sunday, May 17

We decided to spend our last day back at MGM, redoing our favorite attractions there before catching our shuttle to the airport. Of course we did the TOT a couple of times, plus watched Hunchback again. This was our favorite of all the shows at WDW – everyone in the cast is just so outstanding, especially Clopin. We left the park for the last time and went to grab a bite to eat at Spoodles. It was nearly empty for some reason, but we thought our food was delicious. We reluctantly walked back to the Yacht Club and got our bags, boarded the shuttle, and that was it. Our wonderful vacation was over with.

Summary:

Despite the fact that I had managed to build my expectations up to a totally unrealistic level, Walt Disney World surpassed what I had dared hope. It passed the ultimate test: when asked by a friend if he would go back, Steve replied yes without any hesitation. This is high praise indeed from a guy who wasn’t all that excited about going in the first place, but once he found out what it was like he quickly "got into it". The Yacht Club is wonderful – the rooms are nice, but what you’re really paying for is convenience and for the parks we enjoyed the most (Epcot and MGM), it couldn’t be beat.

Overall, we had good experiences with the food – we never had anything that we thought was just plain bad, although most of it is just plain expensive. However, anytime we asked to split something we never had a problem. Disney transportation worked great for us. We rarely had waits of more than just a few minutes. I was satisfied with the crowds – it was definitely busy, but we followed the advice I had gleaned from my advance preparation and never had to contend with long lines. I will say that it must be torturous to go during the peak season, though. The weather was great the whole time we were there. We had a nice, long trip that I think was a good balance between commando raid and leisurely visit. We took time out during the day to rest (usually) and saw lots of stuff, but there was lots of other stuff we would have liked to see but just ran out of time!

Our favorites: Tower of Terror, It’s Tough To Be A Bug, SpectroMagic, Muppet Vision, meeting characters, Comedy Warehouse, Hunchback Show, Countown to Extinction, Star Tours

Best food: Artist Point, Flying Fish, Planet Hollywood

What we would do differently: wish we had not waited until halfway through the trip to discover the Comedy Warehouse (although we made the most of it after we found it!) Also, I wish I had shopped around more before buying our package deal. I think I could have done better if I had put some effort into pricing things separately, plus an Annual Pass probably would have been around the same price as our LOS pass (and then we would have a good excuse to go back!)

Overall impressions: MGM – our favorite park. We really enjoyed nearly all of the attractions here, especially the TOT! Magic Kingdom – probably our least favorite park, although we certainly enjoyed it and spent a lot of time here. There was just less to capture our attention here. Animal Kingdom – Everything here is excellent, it’s just that there’s not a lot there yet to spread out the crowds so it tends to get REALLY crowded! Epcot – we enjoyed Future World more than the World Showcase. In retrospect, I wish we had spent more time browsing through the countries, but that’ll give us something to do next time! Blizzard Beach – it was fun, but I wouldn’t feel compelled to go back. Pleasure Island – in general, not our scene, except for you-know-where.

I hope that you enjoyed reading my trip report as much as I enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) reading everyone else’s!

Carol Bloomfield

smbloom@flash.net (home, but I don't check it very often)

carol_bloomfield@sabre.com (work)

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