Trip Reports

Summary

Anne (me), 35, third trip since 1989;
Michael, 7, second grader, second trip since 1995
Grant, 5, preschooler, second trip since 1995
January 17th-24th
All Star Music Resort (ASMR)
Length of Stay Pass (LOS), flew, no rental car
Planning began in July and included reading 5 guidebooks, visiting various web sites regularly, and reading RADP daily.
Saturday, January 17th

We arrived in Orlando at 10:15 am and caught a Mears Shuttle to ASM. Our wait was less than 15 minutes for the shuttle. The driver was very friendly and gave my two boys Disney magazines to keep them occupied in the van. Check in was fairly quick (<20 mins). All of my preferences were met. We received a top floor, nonsmoking room in one of the Calypso buildings (closest to the food court and bus stops). The room was not ready yet so we left our bags with bell services and were on our way to the MK by 12:30! The MK was very crowded. It was the worst I had ever seen it, but then I had always gone in early January. There was a truck race that day, and it was Martin Luther King weekend. I had planned to do things that would not be affected greatly by the crowds. After gawking at the cakesle we headed straight for Tom Sawyer’s Island. We had a nice lunch at Aunt Polly’s. It would have been a little nicer if we hadn’t had to protect our food from the dive-bombing seagulls. After spending some time playing on the island (including shooting the guns at the fort) we headed out of the park to get our room. The parade was getting ready to start so it was quite a challenge to get out. There were people everywhere! I’m very glad we waited to watch the parade until later in the week. (See Thursday for Grant’s showbiz debut.) When we made it back to ASM our room was ready. Unfortunately, our bags weren’t there and it took over an hour to get them. We were in danger of missing our PS at Chef Mickey’s. They just made it in time and we headed to dinner. After a bus ride to MK, followed by a quick monorail ride, we were enjoying the company of Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale, Pluto and Goofy. There was quite a variety of foods. This was a great way to get into the magic. After our dinner we hopped another monorail to the MK for Spectromagic. We were pretty tired, but that was the only day of our trip that they would present the show. I had never been and I was pleasantly surprised. It was quite a spectacle. It was hard to find a spot, but another family (wife, husband, toddler-aged daughter, and grandparents) made sure my kids got a good view of the show. They even moved back and told my kids to take their spots. So much magic for one day! We were exhausted so we were off to the room. We decided to catch the fireworks a later day.

Sunday, January 18th

I had planned on going to services at the Polynesian at 8, but I underestimated the amount of time it would take us to get organized after our wakeup call from Mickey. This taught me the valuable lesson of preparing for the next day before I hit the sack. From this evening on I set out our clothes and repacked our packs for the next day. Epcot was planned for the day. We arrived shortly after opening (9:00). We had time for Spaceship Earth (no wait!) and Universe of Energy before our 11:10 breakfast PS at the Land Grill ($33.34). The food was very good (I loved the potatoes) but the characters were the same as last night’s so that wasn’t very good planning on my part.

We didn’t finish breakfast until about 12 so the Land was very crowded. Grant was determined to ride the boat ride. I told him it was a long line. He was insistent so I decided to show him what a long wait meant. We waited ½ hour and still had at least 20 minutes left when he and Michael decided they had waited long enough. I know people thought we were crazy to get out of line after waiting so long but that ½ hour was worth it because after that they both understood when I told them a line was too long. I told them we would eventually get to everything if they just took my advice (which came mostly from RADP and the Unofficial Guide). That was actually the longest line we waited in the entire trip.

We were ready for a nap so we headed back to the hotel. After nap we spent some time in the guitar pool. Then it was back to Epcot. We walked to the International Gateway and on to Boardwalk. After a mediocre dinner at the Big River Brewery ($24.51) we walked along the Boardwalk and soaked up some of the atmosphere. Michael wanted to try to win a prize at one of the booths where you throw a ball and he did win. The stuffed dog was named James Bond Dog.

James went everywhere with us the rest of the trip. Grant spent about $6 trying to win a dog also. I was having a hard time dragging him away from the next booth, which was even harder. I was trying to tell him that he was just going to lose more money but he wasn’t listening to reason. (Not many 5 year olds do.) A great CM came over and handed him three balls to try for free. Of course he missed all three, but he was happy that he got the chance, and I was happy that we didn’t waste any more money. Another potential meltdown averted by a kind CM.

We walked back to Epcot and, after buying a beaver tail in Canada, headed back to ASM.

Monday, January 19th

After a quick breakfast at the food court we hit MK EE. We concentrated on Fantasyland and started with Dumbo. We even managed to get to both sides of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. This turned out to be one of the boys’ favorites-as you will see on other days. I think it was the only ride we rode more than two times. We rode it at least six times.

As it neared 9:00 we headed to the Toontown Fair. We stood at the rope for about 5 minutes and went in. The boys had great fun in Minnie’s kitchen. I bet that gets pretty wild when the park is crowded. We waited in line at the judge’s tent for at least 15 minutes. The cartoon clips kept us occupied. I hadn’t been paying attention, though. I thought we were going to see a lot of characters, not just Mickey. Since the boys had already seen Mickey twice, it was not worth the wait. We checked out Donald’s boat and the Barnstormer (Grant loved it, Michael did not) and then found the other "tent" where the various lines were. They had a line for Mickey’s friends, the Hundred Acre Woods gang and princesses. We cued up for Mickey’s friends and the Hundred Acre Woods gang. The lines moved pretty fast.

I had decided to leave MK for lunch and the afternoon, since the early entry parks are supposed to be more crowded and this was MLK Day too. We headed to our 12:00 PS at San Angel Inn via the monorail. I had never ridden the monorail to Epcot and had forgotten in takes a spin over Future World. What a great way to get an overview (literally) of FW.

We made it to Mexico in plenty of time and I enjoyed it very much. The kids also liked having the scenery (river, volcano, etc.) to watch. After lunch we hit both boat rides (I thought the one in Mexico was pretty lame) and headed back to the hotel for a nap.

After the nap we headed to Hoop-Dee-Doo. We took a bus to MK, and a boat to Fort Wilderness. It was a very short walk from the boat dock to Pioneer Hall. I had greatly overestimated the amount of time it would take us to get there so the kids had an hour to play on the playground. While they were playing I met a family who had taken the auto/train down from Washington DC, I think. That sounds like a great way to get there!

I thought Hoop-Dee-Doo was fun and the boys loved it. I’m sure they didn’t get about half of the corny jokes but it didn’t stop them from laughing their heads off. The problem came when we tried to get home. It took us 3 buses and 1½ hours to get there. Grant fell asleep on the second bus so I had to carry him the rest of the time. Even though I had prepared myself for a nightmare, I hadn’t prepared enough. Why can’t they run a few buses directly to the resort areas after the show? They know ahead of time how many people will be there from each resort, don’t they? They could run one bus to the MK resorts, one to the Epcot resorts, etc. After spending that much ($80.56), I know I won’t go back again unless I go to the earliest show or have another way to get back to the resort.

Tuesday, January 20th

This was our planned resting day. We got up late and had another breakfast at the food court ($15.27). I had planned on going to a water park in the morning, and then shopping in Downtown Disney in the evening. Because it was a little chilly in the morning, I decided to switch the order and go shopping first. If you have ever tried shopping with an 8 year old and a 5 year old, both boys, you know that doesn’t go smoothly. We spent only 5 minutes in the Christmas shop picking out an ornament for each of us and then we headed to the Lego place. That was amazing. We never even made it inside. The boys got to run around, build things and make new friends for about a half hour.

After the Lego store we headed to the Rain Forest Café. It seems, from RADP and other trip reports, about half of the people have decent service and the other half don’t. Well, we were in the other half. We actually got our entrees before our appetizer. When they brought the entrees I had to remind them that I had ordered an appetizer. It was brought about 5 minutes later. No credit was given, only an apology. We also couldn’t seem to get refills for our drinks. Our waiter/waitress (we had one of each) was MIA for most of the meal. I thought the food was good and the atmosphere was fun, so I would probably try it again-but only once more. ($37.97)

After lunch we returned to the room for a quick rest. Then it was on to Typhoon Lagoon. We had a blast there. It was funny when we walked in seeing the native Floridians in their long sleeves and even jackets and us crazy people in swimming suits. The water was warm, but once you got out-watch out!! We spent some time in the "creek" that winds around the park and some time in the wave pool. It really was fun.

This was also the only night of E-ticket so after changing we headed to MK. I can’t say enough about E-ticket. It was worth the price of admission just to be the only person around in some parts of the park. (I even videotaped some of the empty streets so people back home would believe me.) After we got our wristbands in front of City Hall we grabbed a quick hot dog at Casey’s (13.94).

After dinner we found a spot to watch Tinkerbell, directly under her path. I can’t really describe the feeling I got when she passed overhead. It was like…well….magic. The fireworks really didn’t look very good from where we were, but I wouldn’t have traded the sight of tinkerbell for a better view of the fireworks. (When I was watching my videotape today, I heard Grant yelling over and over, "Get ready for Tinkerbell everybody!" The excitement in his voice brings the feeling back to me.) After the fireworks the park cleared out pretty quickly.

We had made a pact before we left home that nobody would feel pressured to go on any rides and we could only go if everyone wanted to go. Well, after Barnstormer Grant was anxious to try Big Thunder Mountain, but after Barnstormer Michael knew he didn’t want to try Big Thunder Mountain. He had his heart set on Splash Mountain. Grant hates to get his clothes wet and refused to try it. Neither of them would go in the Haunted Mansion. I know it sounds like I wasted my money on E-Ticket, but I sure don’t feel like it. We rode Pirates, saw Country Bear Jamboree, had a cookie in the bakery, saw Timekeeper and rode Astro Orbitor about 6 times. We all really enjoyed ourselves. We returned to the room at about 10:00 and slept hard.

Wednesday, January 21st

This was MGM EE. We actually skipped breakfast and headed directly to the park. We hit the biggies first (The Great Movie Ride, Muppets, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and The Little Mermaid). Grant was frightened in some parts of the movie ride but he just covered his eyes and survived it just fine. We all loved the muppets and I enjoyed the mermaid more than I expected. The boys loved the stunt show but I remembered all of it from my trip three years ago.

After a few more things, including autographs from Woody and Buzz, we headed to the Sci-Fi Drive-In for lunch. ($34.67) I thought this was a great place to relax for a while and I enjoyed the food. When we finished lunch it had started to rain. We opened our ponchos for the first time of the trip. (That is another advantage to going in January-it has one of the lowest rainfall totals.) Even though the Hercules parade was 45 minutes away, people were already staking out spaces for the parade and the CMs were chalking the streets. Since this was one of the most important activities in Grant's eyes, we staked our claim as well. We ended up just outside the sound studio, right against the parade route. The rain stopped just as the parade started and we all enjoyed the parade, especially Grant.

Since the park closed at 7 we elected to skip the afternoon nap. After the parade we headed for the Hunchback show. This was great. I would love to see it again. After Hunchback we went to burn up some energy in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. I was shocked at how crowded the playground was hen the rest of the park seemed to be not so bad. I could really only stay in there for about 15 minutes without feeling a little batty. I bet it is insane when the park is full.

Next we headed to Beauty and the Beast. Maybe it is because this was the last show we saw, but this was the worst of the stage shows at MGM, if you ask me. If you like to see a lot of dancing, you would probably like it, but I was ready to leave after a couple of minutes. We were pretty tired after the show so we decided to scrap our plan to have pizza for dinner at Pizza Planet. We watched TOT for a short while (the boys wouldn’t do TOT or Star Tours-are they really related to me?) and then we went to the Backstage Tour. After that we headed back to our room, ordered pizza delivered ($21.84) and watched James and the Giant Peach on tv until bedtime. By the way, I didn’t notice until I was writing this trip report that the pizza delivery bill already had a 17% service charge added. I gave him another 17% or so!

Thursday, January 22nd

After another breakfast at the food court (12.68) it was back to the MK. It was another EE day. We hit Tomorrowland first, then finished up Fantasyland. Because we had already done most of the EE attractions during our previous EE visits and E-ticket night, we were able to redo the favorites. We did many of the Fantasyland rides for a second time and rode Mr. Toad at least two more times. We then met Ariel, took the skyway to Tomorrowland and rode the Carousel of Progress. I think Michael really liked that one. Kids love to see and hear about the "old days". He even started singing the theme song to me about two weeks after we got home.

It was time for our lunch PS at the castle, so we hurried over to it. This was another mistake I made. The food was good but I had assumed we would be meeting the princesses and possibly Peter Pan (a favorite of mine) but nobody was there during lunch. We did see Cinderella in the waiting area downstairs after lunch, but I was still disappointed. I guess it pays to check who will be there when you make the PS.

After lunch ($26.72) we saw the sword in the stone ceremony, but none of us were chosen to participate. We then did a few other attractions before the parade. It was much less crowded than the Saturday parade so I would advise watching the parades on weekdays if you can. We were on one of the porches in Frontierland. I had both boys sitting on a trashcan so they could get a good view. I really liked this parade much better than the Hercules parade. When the float with the various characters from older Disney movies stopped in front of us, Grant said he wanted to go out there (they had invited children to join them). I set him on the ground and as I was saying "You can go but I don’t know how you will get through the crowd" he took off and was gone. Once out there he teamed up with Peter Pan and marched around the float with Peter’s hand in one hand and a flag in the other. I started to get a little nervous when the people in front of me said, "I hope you find him later" but after the marching around Peter brought him right back to the spot where we were. Grant was beside himself. I am sure he will remember that for years to come.

After some more attractions and a popcorn break (watch out for those birds!) we took the monorail to the Polynesian for the Neverland Club. Since I was taking this trip alone I decided I should build in just a couple of hours by myself. That way, if I started to go insane I could just remind myself that I would get a few hours alone later. I used those hours to go back to the MK and ride the rides the boys wouldn’t do with me. I did the Haunted Mansion (great!), Big Thunder Mountain (ok), and Splash Mountain. I always forget how much there is to Splash Mountain. All of these were walk-ons except Thunder Mountain. This was probably a 15-minute wait. The fireworks were going off as I left Splash Mountain. This was actually a good area to watch them but I kept walking toward the front. I wanted to do my souvenir shopping for friends while the boys weren’t with me.

When I went to collect the boys they said they had a great time. Michael was playing a ring toss game. Grant was pretty comatose in front of the tv, but he had to be exhausted from our busy day. They had both made me some flowers, too. On our return trip I decided to try to be tricky. I wanted to avoid a repeat of our horrible journey after Hoop-Dee-Doo so I decided to take the monorail to the MK and hop a bus back to ASM. MK was closed, but people were still on Main Street so I didn't see any problem with my plan. Well, once we got to MK they wouldn't let us off the monorail. I suppose we could have ignored their explicate instructions to stay on, but I was afraid to try that.

So we ended up taking the monorail back to the TTC, catching a bus to Downtown Disney again and then on home to ASM. Once again, Grant fell asleep only this time I was also loaded down with the days supplies (cameras, etc.), flowers from the boys, my purchases, a souvenir bucket from the popcorn…..well, you get the picture, and it's not a pretty one. I've got one word for you if you try this yourself-taxi.

Friday, January 23rd

We woke up to a light rain. This was the day to finish Epcot so we donned our ponchos and headed out. The rain alternated between light and heavy but we spent a lot of time inside the Imagination and Land pavilions, so it wasn't too bad. The boys loved everything about the Imagination pavilion-especially Imageworks. Grant took his glasses off during HISTA for the snake and lion, but he enjoyed the rest of it. We ran from there to the Land. We did all of those shows/attractions and ate in the food fair. ($17.55+$4.22 for cookies)

Then we ran (still raining) over to the other side and did Horizons and Cranium Command. I really enjoyed Cranium Command. I look forward to going again to see what I missed the first time through. I had planned on seeing more of the World Showcase, but I didn't think the boys would like it as much and most of the entertainment was probably cancelled because of the rain so we just headed out for a nap. After the nap we went to the Wilderness Lodge (switching busses at Epcot) and ate at Artist Point. ($57.62) This was another indulgence for myself because I love to try unusual food. I was a little nervous after I got there because the boys had been acting up and the place isn't what you would call casual, but they were very good during dinner. They both even tried some of my elk and rabbit sausage and Michael had some of my buffalo. It gave them something else to tell their friends, anyway. I was a little disappointed in the Wilderness Lodge. It was beautiful, but after reading so many people rave about it I expected it to take my breath away.

After dinner we boarded a bus back to Epcot. I had hoped we could make it to Illuminations, but that was not to be. We did a little bit more shopping and headed back to the room.

Saturday, January 24th

Our last day!! Mears was scheduled to pick us up at 11:10. We had express checkout and there were no problems with that so we dumped our luggage off and headed to the MK for our farewell. I told each boy to choose one thing they wanted to do before we left. Grant chose Mr. Toad. Michael’s choice changed so many times I can’t remember what the final one was.

We rode a few things in Fantasyland again. We rode Peter Pan at least twice and Toad at least three more times. After we were done with Toad I told the boys that someone thought it would be a good idea to close Toad and make it a Pooh ride instead. They were heartbroken!

When we returned to ASM we had about 15 minutes before I had been told to collect my luggage so I tried to finish my shopping. I hadn’t bought myself anything yet so I grabbed a 25th anniversary sweatshirt. I grabbed a couple of other things for friends. When I went to get my luggage, 5 minutes before I was told to show up, there were seven or more people waiting around for various things. I would have missed my shuttle if some nice guy hadn’t let me take his place in line. Just as I got the suitcases the shuttle pulled up. I had sent Michael and Grant to the restroom by themselves because I couldn’t afford to lose my place in line but they hadn’t come back yet. I had to ask the driver to wait while I located my kids. They were watching the movie in the lobby so I grabbed them and we ran out. Grant fell asleep on the plane and before we knew it we were home to temperatures in the 30’s. Oh well, time to start dreaming of the next trip.

Some random notes:

Santa brought the kids waist packs for Christmas and they were great. They were able to carry around their own treasures, such as pinecones and drink stirrers. They also carried their disposable cameras and autograph books.

I had been giving them their allowance in Disney dollars for weeks before they went. With those, plus the ones they got for Christmas from other family members, they each had $45 to spend. This was great because I didn’t have to argue with them about what they wanted to buy. I kept reminding them how much they would have left if they bought whatever caught their eyes at the time, and they were able to decide if it was worth it. Grant spent his money in about 3 days, but I think Michael’s lasted 4 or 5. After it was gone I just told them they couldn’t buy any more souvenirs and reminded them what they had already bought. It worked out fine.

Santa also brought them each a disposable camera. Michael took some good pictures. Grant’s were all terrible but I laughed out loud when I picked them up from the developer. There are pictures of trashcans, the back of the legs of numerous strangers, me and his brother walking away from him, etc. Those pictures really showed what much of the trip looked like to him.

Even a whole week is not enough time to see everything. (And that is without Animal Kingdom!) We didn’t get to see most of World Showcase, any of Pleasure Island or the West Side, Discovery Island, Illuminations, the water pageant, or most of the Marketplace. That is just some of the things that come to mind. Be sure to prioritize. Of course, we did spend many hours in Fantasyland, but I figure this will probably be the last trip they will want to do that so it was worth it.

If you hate lines and can manage to get up in the morning, go early! As we were leaving the park for our nap most days, the people were just streaming in. Spaceship Earth was a walk-on first thing but the line was horrible when we left. Also, do E-ticket if you get a chance. The MK is even more magical when there are almost no people in it.

Think about getting a stroller for your children if they are <6 years old, especially for Epcot. It saves a lot of energy for the little one and it saves a lot of time. They just can’t walk as fast as you will probably want them to.

Anne Bradburn

Abraddoh@aol.com

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