Trip Reports

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, Shuttle Service
Resort: ASMuR
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent bordering on rookie (Bill's words, not mine)
Comments: Bill and his wife Amy visited WDW in the late Summer of 1998 and had a wonderful time. The story about their Accommodations is a frightening one (with a happy ending). The whole report is a fun one to read with plenty of details and a play-by-play format.

Summary:

Dates of trip: 9/31/98 to 10/6/98
Travel method: Southwest Airlines from Manchester, N.H. to Orlando/Mears Shuttle.
Resort: Well... It's a long story. You'll see.
The Players: Bill, (your narrator) 31 - Relatively inexperienced. Went to Disneyworld once in 1980.
Amy (his wife) 28 - Went to Disneyworld twice previously, but not for many years.
DAY ONE: Arrival/Magic Kingdom

Our flight left from the Manchester, N.H. airport at approximately 8:30 a.m. It was a fast three-hour trip down the coast, but when we disembarked the plane, we knew immediately we were in a different world.

The term, "hot," may very likely appear frequently in this trip report, and it will first rear its head here. Simply put, Florida in late August can be very, very hot. But this only served to remind us that we were indeed far away from the cool of the New Hampshire woods.

We grabbed our luggage and found the Mears Shuttle nearby. We were booked into the Holiday Inn Main Gate East in Kissimmee, and the shuttle would take us directly there.

We loaded into the van along with several other visitors headed to the same hotel. As we traveled down the highway, we began to see the many billboards for Universal Studios. We started getting excited about the week ahead. The sun was shining and we were on our way to Disneyworld.

Everything was looking good.

Until we arrived at the hotel, that is.

The Holiday Inn Main Gate East is located on a main strip in Kissimmee, along with dozens of run down fast food joints and sleazy looking strip malls. We had envisioned something quite different. This was not good.

We got out of the van and walked into utter chaos. A mob of people was surging toward the check-in desk. Amy took the luggage and sat down on a couch nearby as I queued up to see if we could get checked-in. While our trip so far had not been an arduous one, I needed order at this point. Even a line would have sufficed. Some civility. There was none.

After about 30 minutes, the mob ahead of me began to dissipate. I stepped up and presented our packet. The front desk manager got me our key, gave me directions to the room, and a shuttle schedule.

A brief digression: When we first booked the trip through our travel agent in June, we were told the hotel provided frequent shuttle service to the parks -- so we avoided renting a car -- and that we'd be staying in a suite with a kitchenette. I had originally requested a room at one of the All Star hotels, but she assured me they were sold out. I decided to settle.

"We'll stay on-site next time," I said, grumbling to myself.

The first thing we learned after checking in was that the shuttles run once an hour, first come first serve, and they stop running at 1 p.m. It was now 1:10 p.m.

We grabbed our stuff and headed out the back door toward our room. Across the parking lot, the place looked pretty sad. Our room was on the first floor, right next to the street. I unlocked the door and stepped inside. It was hot, stinky and there were flies everywhere. The kitchenette described so painstakingly by our travel agent was, in reality, a microwave on top of a mini-fridge. This was not good. I turned around to see Amy standing in the doorway, her eyes quietly filling with tears.

This was definitely not good.

I threw my suitcase on the bed, pulled out the "Disney With Kids 1998" book, flipped to the page with the Disney hotel phone numbers, and asked Amy to pick Sports or Music.

She didn't care, so I called All Star Music and explained our problem. She said our room would be ready, and that they'd be waiting for us when we arrived. This was the first hint of the Disney we had expected.

I told Amy to grab her stuff, we were leaving.

I'll skip the check-out process, but suffice to say that the first person I spoke to was belligerent and rude. (And believe me, I went out of my way to be polite.) I was told I wouldn't be getting any money back, and that I was out of luck. I grabbed anything that might be used as a receipt and headed outside to catch a ride to ASM. (I eventually was treated very well, and did get every penny back.)

Approximately 15 minutes after we arrived at the Holiday Inn, we were in a van headed to a new hotel. In the process, however, it felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from our shoulders. I can not explain the feeling of elation we experienced knowing that all of the problems we saw piling up just minutes ago were gone. We were truly on our way to Disney now.

When we arrived at All Star Music, the main doors swung open, swelling music reached our ears, ice cold air conditioning enveloped us, and the cast member that met us referred to me by name. If cartoon birds fluttered out to greet us we could not have been happier. We were on an instant high. Check-in was walk-up (our CM was from Cape Cod, not far from home) and seconds later we were headed to "Rock Inn" (OK, so it was about a quarter mile from the front desk, but by now we were ecstatic to be staying on-site -- so we absolutely did not care.)

The room was exactly what we needed. We tossed our suitcases on the table, grabbed our hopper passes and headed back to the main building to catch the next shuttle to the Magic Kingdom.

We messed around in the Disney store near the front of the building for about five minutes and then hopped on the bus. I hadn't been to Disneyworld since 1980 -- long before Epcot, MGM and Animal Kingdom, so it was almost like I was seeing it for the first time. Amy had been there twice previously, but not since she was 12.

The MK looked much as I had remembered it. All summer the one thing I couldn't wait to see was Cinderella's Castle from the far end of Main Street. We headed inside -- just in time for the beginning of the 3 p.m. parade. My dream view would have to wait. It was really crowded, but we decided to make our way up the right hand side of the street. At last we had arrived.

By the time we got near the castle, the parade was getting ready to start in earnest. We veered right and headed into Tomorrowland. Did I mention it was hot?

There were so many people, and it had been so long since either of us had been to the MK, we had a hard time getting our bearings. We stopped just in front of Extra Terror-estrial Alien Encounter, saw no line, and headed inside.

It stopped being hot, and that was good. We watched the introduction movie and filed inside. I was instantly reminded about how Disney does atmosphere and effects. The main room where the alien breaks out of its holding area was very impressive. The lighting was great and the sound was as well. It was a fun attraction, but mainly loud. Very loud.

After that we headed across to the Timekeeper (about a five minute wait,) and then back out toward the front of the castle. By now the parade was over. We took a few pictures and walked through the main gate.

We spent the rest of the day wandering aimlessly around the park with no real plan. We took a ride on the train, did the Lion King, It's a Small World, Haunted Mansion (the only line of the afternoon at about 15 minutes,) Pirates of the Caribbean, the Hall of Presidents and bunch of others. Virtually all of them were walk-ons.

The mountains -- Splash, Big Thunder and Space -- however, were a different story. We opted to skip them in lieu of waiting in 90-minute lines. Besides, our priority seating at the Crystal Palace was coming, and my head was screaming by now. (In the chaos of the trip, I had forgotten to get my caffeine fix.)

We sat outside the Crystal Palace and watched the crowd mill by. It was starting to get dark, and a bank of lights lit up the castle -- first purple, then red, then orange, and then purple again. It was really quite beautiful. Once inside we headed up to the buffet. It was somewhat forgettable. Most of the food was dry. Pooh came to our table -- we got a picture, our first with a character -- and relaxed for a while.

<I>Let me interject something here. Upon re-reading this trip report so far, it might appear that I've been whining about a few things. I just want to say that we were delirious. We were having a blast. I just find any problems - however small - kind of funny. Especially when we take into account the fun we had. OK, back to the trip report.</I>

The parade had started by now, and we had a pretty good view of the brilliantly lit floats going by. By the time the parade ended, we were both exhausted, and decided to head back to the hotel. We fought against a huge crowd that was heading in to the park for the fireworks, just as we were heading out. (The phrase "swimming upstream" has been used previously.) The line at the bus queue had already gotten quite long, but within a bus or two, we were on our way back.

We met a great family from the north of England on the way back to the hotel, and as it turns out one of their rooms was right next to ours. (Amy gave me a charlie horse when I mentioned that hey, it really IS a small world. I don't blame her.) By the time we got back we were practically stifled by the heat, which made the icy air conditioning that much more rewarding. Drifted off to sleep in the ON SITE room our travel agent told us we couldn't have... Hoo boy was this great!

Woke up many times during the night wondering if it was time to get up.

Finally, it was.





DAY TWO: Epcot

In case we needed a reminder that this was Florida, and not New Hampshire, our sunglasses fogged up immediately upon leaving the cool confines of our hotel room. It was muggy!

However, the oppressive heat and crushing humidity served as reminders that we were on vacation! We bypassed breakfast and headed straight to Epcot aboard the first shuttle of the morning. Driving by the Swan and Dolphin hotels, I was impressed. The size of the ornate fountains alone was, to me, incredible. It really did look beautiful that morning.

I had never been to Epcot before, and didn't know what to expect. As we turned the corner from the parking lot and the Spaceship Earth loomed above us, however, I got a glimpse. I thought: "So this is what post-1970s Disney looks like..."

First thing we did was find a way to make reservations for dinner that night. We wanted to eat at the French pavilion, and read in our trusty guidebook that it would make sense to phone ahead. We didn't. So instead we tried to wing it. As it turns out, it was no problem. We were directed to a bank of what looked like pay phones, but actually turned out to be some type of video-phones. We joked with the CM for a few minutes, which started the day off great. She was incredibly friendly and very funny.

I wanted to head immediately to Spaceship Earth, but Amy pointed out that everyone lines up there first thing upon entering the park, and we could ride it later in the day. I agreed to wait.

We stopped in at the Fountainview Café and grabbed a quick bite. I had a croissant and coffee. I was determined not to make the same mistake I made a day earlier. Caffeine would be an essential part of the rest of the trip. As it turns out, our timing was perfect. As we sat down to eat, the first fountain show of the day kicked off. Now, I'm not one who would normally fall for water shows or flowers or topiary, but I was completely taken in by the Fountain of Nations Ballet. The sweeping music and majestic water effects were a fantastic start to the day.

We wandered through the main plaza, and came out near Ellen's Energy Adventure. Amy said she wanted to ride it, and since it was 45 minutes long we wouldn't have to kill too much time before the World Showcase opened.

I protested, saying 45 minutes was far too long to spend on one ride.

"But it's air conditioned," she said.

"Uh, OK," I relented.

And I'm happy to say I did. I loved the attraction. Ellen Degeneres was a riot, and I loved how the entire seating area moved around. I had a blast on this attraction.

From there we made our way to the Wonders of Life. We milled around the stationary bikes and then got in line for Body Wars, which was about a 10-minute wait. We were seated front and center. The movie looked a bit old, and we both felt really motion sick when it was all done. We sat down for a few minutes afterward, and killed a little re-coup time by playing around on all the exhibits on the way out.

We went straight to Horizons, which I liked but Amy didn't. I thought the older-looking animatronics had a certain charm to them. Amy just thought they looked old. The ride stopped for about five minutes at one point, but it was dark and cool and therefore very relaxing.

By now the World Showcase was open. We started at Mexico and worked our way around. First, however, Amy had to stop in at the restroom -- as she did approximately every 12 minutes throughout the entire trip. Skeptical? She stopped to 'utilize the facilities' near the still-unopened Test Track. She next did so at the Norway pavilion. See? I'm serious.

I loved Mexico. They used forced perspective very effectively. And inside, it really seemed as if we were in the middle of a Mexican marketplace at night. We determined immediately that we'd be back for dinner by the end of the week.

Norway was pretty fun. The Stave Church was strangely quiet and reverent. The Viking ship smelled like tar, but we ran around on it for a little while. We rode Maelstrom.

We wandered through the World Showcase, taking our time in each of the lands. In Germany I was walking near the statue of St. George, and a man stopped and said to me, "Hey, are the Bruins going to do it this year?"

Being from New England I fell back on my lifelong training, and looked at him like he had two heads. Then I remembered I was wearing a Boston Bruins baseball hat and felt dumb for being so guarded. We talked for a while -- he and his wife took our picture, we took theirs, and they went on their way.

Germany smelled like sauerkraut and beer, which isn't a bad thing all in all. I was tempted to partake, but decided to hold off on the brew until we hit England. Oh, I had big plans for England.

We stopped off in China for a quick bite. We skipped the 360-degree film because we were still dealing with the after-affects of Body Wars. I kept looking for the Chinese sweatshops or the student-crushing tanks, but Amy whacked me and said cut it out.

When we got to France, it was a little earlier than we had expected, and asked to change our dinner reservations to 4:00. This would serve two purposes: it would get us in a little earlier, and it would allow us to order of the lunch menu -- same food but quite a bit cheaper. Plus we wouldn't have to kill so much time. They changed our reservations and we continued across the bridge to England. We stopped half way and took a good long look across the lake and back at the World Gateway.

First thing we did in England was hit the pub. They did have Guinness, and therefore I was pleased. Then I was pleased again. (Two Guinnesses will have that affect.)

We floated over to Canada, watched the 360 degree film (a bit of a yawner) and spent a little time in the gardens outside Le Cellier. The sun had come out and it was really nice. We sat on a park bench facing the water, and fed little pieces of paper to a couple of marauding birds. Or, I did anyway. I blame the Guinness.

We arrived back at France right at 4:00. They didn't want to seat us.

"We weel seat you, but we weel not serve you until zee propair time," the waiter said.

They didn't want us to get at that cheaper lunch menu. Being in Disney, I wasn't in the mood to argue. We ate our bread and water and watched waiters stand around and wait for 4:00 to come.

When we eventually ate, the food was incredible. Expensive, but really good. Our table was by the window, and we were able to watch the people walk by. One of the living statues took up post right outside, and we watched her (?) for a while. In the end, for me, it was probably one of the best meals we had the entire trip. The atmosphere was nice, it wasn't too crowded, and we were allowed to take our time and eat at a leisurely pace. Our waiter was funny, but I was suspicious of him. Amy wasn't. She bought his line.

It was probably 6:00 by now, and since we're both used to getting up at 4:30 a.m. every day, we were starting to tire. We still had Innoventions East to hit, and Illuminations to see, but Amy figured we could hit it another night. Plus, we were too worn out to continue the commando pace, so we rode Spaceship Earth and headed back to the hotel.

It grew pretty gray on our way back, and we returned to our room to all kinds of severe thunder storm and hurricane warnings. We filled out a few postcards and watched TV, falling asleep later that night.

And waking up to see if it was time to go to MGM. Eventually, it was.



DAY THREE: MGM/Animal Kingdom

We started the day at the food court. I had biscuits and gravy and some other equally healthy stuff, and Amy had eggs. We met a CM from Maine during breakfast. (Amy and I both have family in Maine.)

We caught an early bus to MGM and headed across the parking lot. It was a sunny, beautiful day, but even at this earlier hour it was hotter than it had been previously.

We walked up the main street to the ropes, where we talked with a couple of CMs about our plans. They talked us out of going on the Great Movie Ride first, and suggested we head straight to the Indiana Jones stunt show instead. They said it was better to get a good seat at the show, and since the GMR is open all day, we could do that later. (Bad idea.)

We took their advice, but later found it to be misguided. We waited for a good hour to 90-minutes before the show even started. We could have easily gone on the GMR and then headed over to Indiana Jones. I got the impression they liked to fill the theater up early for some reason. Either way it was a stupid idea.

The Indiana Jones show was entertaining, but a bit hokey. The premise was that they were 'filming' the action, therefore taking any implied realism out of the performance. It was sort of like "OK kids, this isn't real, don't be afraid." That part of it was dumb, but over all I liked it.

We walked by the Prime Time 50s Cafe afterward and tried to stop in for a cold drink. They weren't open yet, and the CM inside said, "Come back in 30 minutes kids."

I thought that was odd, but I got it later when we went inside and got to see the concept in action.

We then worked our way around toward Star Tours. Being big Star Wars fans, we were both looking forward to this ride. There was about a 15 minute wait, but finally we were in. This was just like Body Wars, but for some reason was less disorienting. It was a decent ride, but not great. You'd expect better from something connected to Lucasarts. The props outside were pretty great though.

It was growing hotter, so we stopped in the commissary to get a quick drink. After that, we got in line at the GMR. This was probably the longest line of the day -- about 30 minutes. It was fair. The CM did a decent job, and the concept was entertaining, but we were in the front row, so I got the impression we missed a lot of what was going on.

We walked down New York Street and started looking for the Muppet 4D attraction. As we were walking down New York Street, the heat peaked. It was now scorching and really humid. Amy was starting to flag a bit. At the end of the street however, I found the "Singing in the Rain" lamp post. It has an iron umbrella sticking off it, and if you hold the handle, rain starts falling out of it. It was a quick way to cool off, and I even drew a small crowd! I wasn't going to dance for anyone though. I just stood there looking menacing and getting wet. (I'm sort of a big guy, and when I'm not smiling I can look psychotic at times. It's not my fault though. I'm smiling on the inside!)

We eventually found Muppets 4D, and had a really good time there. It was the first 3D attraction we had seen, and it was quite good. We spent a few minutes outside looking for a hidden Mickey in the Miss Piggy statue a CM told us about, but gave up after a few minutes. We wandered through the park, and rode the behind-the-scenes tram. It was almost too hot to enjoy anything at this point. Amy was really not doing well, and there was really no place to get some shade -- just hot asphalt and cement.

I wanted to go look at the Tower of Terror, but the line was about 90 minutes long and there was no way Amy was going on it. (OK, I wasn't crazy about it either. I'm a big chicken.)

To give Amy a brief break, we went back to the 50s Prime Time Cafe and had lunch. Well, we had nachos. We anticipated burgers and shakes, but the menu was mainly made up of meatloaf and potatoes and the like. Heavy food. We were both kind of run down, and I think our server laid off us a bit because he sensed this. But it was quite funny watching the servers do their thing with other customers.

Once outside, the Mulan parade was gearing up. Amy, ready to drop, didn't want anything to do with it. She wanted to head over to the Animal Kingdom where there might be some shade. I agreed, and we headed out of the park.

Before you say anything, we're aware we missed the main attractions at MGM: Tower of Terror, the stage shows... And I may sound like a whiner at times about the heat, but it really took a toll on us while we were at MGM. It was the only day that it affected what we did. But boy, it was a tough morning.

In the end, I thought MGM was a well-designed park. It was nice looking, but so far it was our least favorite. I might go back again for a half day, but then again I might not.

The ride over to Animal Kingdom was short. As we approached the main gate, our spirits began to lift a bit. The theming was really complete - even at first glance.

I also noticed that once we got inside, we were walking against the tide. People were absolutely <i>pouring</i> out of the park. It was about 1:30, and it seemed as if the place was emptying. Turns out, it

practically was. We had almost every attraction to ourselves. It was still hot, but the trees overhead offered some shelter.

After taking our time walking through the pathways and picking out animals among the trees, we turned the corner and saw the Tree of Life for the first time. It was as awe-inspiring as a man-made fake tree can be. You really can stand there for hours just picking animals out of the trunk. We wandered around the base of the tree, looking for animals. Amy seemed particularly taken with a ring-tailed lemur. I wanted to get over to the safari, so we figured out where that was and headed that way.

We loitered a bit in Harambe, before locating the safari entrance. The CM there was from Maine, so we talked to her for a minute or two. This attraction was a walk-on. The CM that drove the transport was pretty mundane, but we saw a lot of animals. The "Little Red is Okay" story line was pretty heavy-handed, but other than that we both really liked it.

Nearly a year later, I'll still shout, "Come in, Simba One!" randomly. Amy smirks, but I think she secretly likes it...

After that we took the train to Conservation Station -- a petting zoo/classroom/marketing outpost. The train ride was great, but the walk to the building seemed to last about 7 miles. Once there, the animals in the

petting zoo were so hot, they were just laying around and not moving.

Inside, there were a number of interactive exhibits. We tried one of the listening stations, but it was pretty boring so we left.

On the walk back up to the trains, we saw another one of the small lizards that live in and around Orlando. They're quick, and if you look closely, they're everywhere. In fact, there was one on the outside wall of our

original hotel (which probably didn't help our impression of the place.)

We then wandered around the park, looking in shops and at exhibits. We knew we would be back another day, so we didn't try to cram everything in. We made our way over to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner soon after. There was no line there, either, so we were seated immediately. Amy seemed to really like the place. One of the waiters was from Massachusetts, and noticed my Bruins hat. (Must be quite a hat!)

The service was friendly, the atmosphere fun and the food good. I'd eat there again.

The bus trip back was also fun. The driver peppered the riders with Disney trivia until we arrived at ASM.

Again, we were completely worn out. Too tired to go out at night. We had a long day planned for tomorrow -- Universal Studios -- since there would be only one shuttle out and one back, so we decided to turn in.

And yet again, I awoke several times during the night to see if it was time to get up and go play.

Eventually, it was.



DAY FOUR: Universal Studios/Downtown Disney

We again opted to eat breakfast at the food court in our hotel. It was a little overcast, which was a nice change from the unrelenting sun. (I did mention I'm not much of a sun worshipper, right?)

We gathered near the front door of the hotel to catch the Mears Shuttle to Universal Studios Florida. Not much to talk about here. It was $10 per person, round-trip, and it took about 20 minutes to get there. Before leaving the driver told us we'd have to call to get picked up later in the day.

While walking from the drop off point to the main gate, we got talking to another British family (there seemed to be many around) who had been there for about two weeks. Construction of the new section of the park was in full swing, so there was a lot of confusion near the entrance of the park.

We bought our passes before we left, so when the gates opened, we just headed on in. Inside, we took a right and headed up the street until we came upon the ropes. The park wasn't yet open, and our plan was to head straight to Back to the Future.

In one of our Disney travel books, it rated Universal as the best theme park anywhere, and Back to the Future as the best ride anywhere. I had to get a look at it.

We hung around outside the Terminator 3D attraction, and when the ropes dropped, we started to head for the back of the park. It's all built around a lake, and since it was overcast it seemed a little cooler than it had

been previously. But just a little. It was still stiflingly humid. (I'm not complaining, just setting the scene, as it were.)



After a short walk, we lined right up at BTF and piled into our personal Delorean. There were Four other people with us, and they offered us the front seat, which we took. The mini set-up film was funny, before we knew it we were leaving the garage and hanging out in mid-air in front of a huge screen.

In short, the ride was amazing. It's easily the best ride I've ever been on. It was all I could do to hold on to keep from falling out (or so it seemed -- the car actually didn't move very much.) The illusion that you

were bombing around and flying all over the place was incredible. I've never felt so spent after a ride ever. (I don't normally ride roller coasters, so this really WAS the wildest and funnest ride I've ever been on.)

Amy said the constant bucking and jerking motion hurt her neck. When I suggested we get right back in line to ride it again, she declined. She is pretty small, and she did get tossed around, so I relented. Unfortunately, we never did get to ride it again.

From there we headed to the E.T. ride. The line here is one of the best parts of the ride. As you pass into the queue area, a worker asks your name and gives you a card. I knew what this was for, and was tempted to say my name was Bob Abooey, but chickened out at the last minute. They kept yelling at some Japanese guy to shut his video camera off, but he kept ignoring them and taping anyway. I thought it was funny, actually.



The line winds through a "forest" of giant redwoods. It was foggy and dark, and very cool. At the end, we piled onto our bikes and headed off into the sky. It was fairly goofy, but relaxing and entertaining at the same time. It's similar to the Peter Pan ride at the Magic Kingdom, only Disney does atmosphere MUCH better.

And that is the point off all this. While Universal is fun, and Back to the Future doubly so, it just isn't Disney. Disney really does lend a feeling of magic and youth to everything it does, and Universal - no matter how much money it spends or how many wild rides it builds -- just can't duplicate that.

After E.T. (I heard him say my name at the end of the ride but Amy missed it) we took in an animal stunt show. It was entertaining, and short enough to not become a waste of time.

We wandered over the Jaws ride, which had about a 20 minute wait. They try to get you pretty worked up before you leave on this ride, showing news reports about shark attacks, but it still had a phony feel to it. That may be because when you're in line, you can see the smoke rising up out of the water ahead, and hear some of what was going on near the end of the ride.

Our driver was pretty good. He took us through the little cove, and really got into his role. The share effects were good, and the explosion near the end felt as if it was going to singe my eyebrows off.

We shopped around the "Amity" area of the park for a while, picked up a few gifts, and walked back toward the bridge near Back to the Future. A few stunt boats had started bombing around the lake, so we picked out a spot near the front of the walkway and watched for a little while.

We started to get hungry, and decided to have lunch at the 50s burger joint. We had a couple of burgers (tasted like Burger King to me) fries and shakes for about $15. It was fun though.

Right across the street was a theater hosting a special effects presentation -- The Gory Gruesome & Gortesque Horror Make-Up Show -- so we went in there.

While we were in line, a latin conga band, led by a Ricky Ricardo look alike, started playing. That guy had his act down. I've heard since that Disney snapped him up and put him to work on one of their cruise ships.

The theater lobby had a lot of interactive exhibits to play with, and a character in "Harry" of "Harry and the Hendersons" fame was wandering around and scaring the pants off unsuspecting guests. That was funny. At one point, he took Amy's hat off her head and put it on. I got their picture. The special effects show was actually a scream. It was morbidly humorous, and the two guys running it had their act down perfectly.

From there we began to make our way toward Kongfrontation. On the way we ran into Jake and Elwood Blues in their rundown police car. They were very accurate look-alikes.

Kongfrontation, like every attraction here and at Disney, had the capacity to hold an amazingly long line. However, it was only about a 5 minute wait before we were loading into our tram. The buildup to the ride was pretty effective, but the ride itself was very gentle and more fun than thrilling. I certainly wouldn't wait in a long line to ride it, but it was certainly worth the five minutes we waited.

After a while we started to get a little tired of Universal. It was fun, but like I said, it just wasn't Disney. We opted to return to where we were treated like royalty instead of rubbing elbows with the "regular" masses... ;-) We called the bus and were back at the room within about 40 minutes.

We spent the better part of the afternoon and early evening at Downtown Disney and the West Side. We shopped a little, got some gifts for nieces and nephews and walked around. We stopped in at Giardelli's Chocolates and decided to split one of their "Famous Sundaes." For $6 it better be famous... Anyway, I took a bite -- it was good -- and looked out the window. When I looked back, Amy had corralled all the chocolate sauce into one corner of the bowl and ate it all in one bite. To be fair, she said she NEEDED chocolate at that moment. It was really funny, and let's just say I lived...

We wandered over to DisneyQuest, saw that the price structure was still stupid and way too expensive -- walked into a guitar shop where the staff evidently hates tourists, and then headed home to relax.

We had now been to each park at least once. We had the rest of the week to hit the best parts again.



DAY FIVE: Animal Kingdom/Epcot

Amy had so much fun at AK, she wanted to head back again. So we did. After a quick breakfast at the ASM food court, we headed out front to the buses, which came -- again -- very quickly.



The convenience of the Disney transportation system alone made it worth the whole rigmarole that accompanied changing our hotel earlier in the week. The weather looked threatening, but we weren't about to let a little rain dampen our plans. My brother and his wife went to Disneyworld for their

honeymoon in 1990, and told us to expect a little rain every day. Just as we made our way to the front gate at AK, it started.

"Ah, it'll stop in 20 minutes," I told Amy. We just went on in and headed for the Tree. By the time we turned the corner, it was pouring. We were a little reluctant to admit defeat and buy a rain poncho, so we ducked into a shop to dry off and pick up a few gifts for people back home. One of the CMs inside was from Boston, so we talked for a little while. (The hat again.) By the end of our conversation the rain had sort of turned sideways. It was coming down so hard it was difficult to see.

We relented and bought two rain ponchos. When we went outside, I turned to look at something, turned back to say something to Amy, and looked out over a sea of light-brown clad people who -- aside from differing heights and widths -- looked exactly the same in their AK rain ponchos.

I'd read the tip before, but bring your own poncho from home, it'll save you from blending in.

We walked down toward "It's Tough to be a Bug," stopping to take a few pictures from the foot of the Tree. Once inside, we took a picture for a large group of Asian tourists, and killed a few minutes looking at the posters.

We both really liked this 3D film, and the final effect took me completely by surprise. Here I was, a 3D film pro by now, having seen Muppets 4D and Terminator 2 3D -- looking under my seat for hidden props, in front of me, up at the ceiling... I missed them all. I jumped a mile each time something was triggered.

From there we wandered over to Kilimanjaro Safari. We saw more animals this time, and a giraffe walked right up to our truck.

The rain had started to let up a bit now, and we walked around, looked at animals and just had a leisurely morning. The shows were all canceled because of the rain, so we would have to wait until our next trip to see the Lion King.

After a little walking, looking and spending, we jumped on a bus and headed back to the hotel for a quick nap. Well, Amy napped. I counted the minutes until we could go back out again. All that was on TV was the reports of the Swissair crash, which had happened earlier in the week, so it was a little depressing. I ended up watching the Disney promotional channel over and over again. I'm not complaining, I liked it. But that's all there was...

By the time we caught the bus to Epcot it was still pretty early in the day. We were only at AK for a few hours, so we still had most of the day. The sun had come back out by now, so we headed for the attractions we hadn't gotten to yet: The Living Seas, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, The Land, some shopping...

And then there was Journey Into Imagination. I've read how many people are saddened by the closure of this attraction. I have to be honest here - I hated it. I hated the song, the contrived cuteness... I hated everything about it. It nearly single-handedly killed the Disney magic for me. I'm guessing they had planned to make Figment a sub-Mickey type of icon for Epcot. Thank God it didn't take. There was nothing about this ride I liked. I'm not second-guessing anyone's taste at all, it's just that this particular ride did not do it for me.

Following the sickeningly sweet Figment, I was ready for a good, stiff drink. We walked over to the UK pavilion and headed straight for the pub. I ordered a yard of Guinness. Let me just say briefly that I don't drink beer. I drink Guinness. Guinness is the greatest beverage known to man. This man, at least. The bartender spent a good 10 minutes pulling the yard, which just proved to me she knew how to pull a pint.

As I stood there and started to tip it back, I noticed I was the only one in the pub with a yard, and everyone was looking at me. I got a little self-conscious, so I went outside. There, we stumbled on a bagpiper. We watched him a little, and when he was done he asked me about the Boston Bruins (my hat again.)

People were again commenting on my yard glass, and I was having a difficult time drinking from it without spilling, so we ducked around the corner to a quiet little park. I worked on it there, and as it began to get to my head a little, I saw Pooh and Mary Poppins come walking out of the woods. It was a strange few moments. It just felt wrong to be slugging down beer in the presence of Pooh. We took a few pictures finished off the Guinness and stopped off at Canada to watch a group of musicians for a while.

When that was done, we walked over to Mexico and sat down for some lunch at the San Angel Inn. As I've said, the atmosphere here is amazing. It's probably my favorite pavilion. The food was good, the surroundings great, and we had a lot of fun. It was also kind of strange to see boatloads of people gliding silently by as we ate. And at the same time it was so dark we could barely see our food. (A combination of the subdued lighting and coming in out of the bright day.)

After lunch we wandered the World Showcase for a while, stopping in each one and talking to CMs. (I'm a reporter, so I was interested in talking to as many people as possible during our trip. I had a lot of fun doing it.) We caught the movie in France and shopped for gifts there. By now it was again growing gray, and it was getting a little late. Soon, I could sense those dreaded words coming from Amy: "Can we go back to the hotel so we can watch Dawson's Creek?"

I knew they were coming. I wanted to see Illuminations though, and she promised that we could come back another night if we went back to watch Dawson. I agreed.

In the end, that would be a mistake.

But, Amy got to watch Dawson's Creek, and when that was over I got to watch the Disney promotional channel over and over again. (I wasn't kidding when I said I liked it.)

It was a little depressing to go to sleep that night, knowing that tomorrow would be our last day. I mean, who knows when we would be heading back here, right? It could be years... (WAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! We've since booked a land/sea trip on the Disney Wonder. We're arriving on Oct. 10. I can't wait!)



DAY SIX: Magic Kingdom/Epcot

Today would be our final full day, and I'm guessing anyone who's been to Disneyworld how that goes -- try squeezing everything into a few final hours.

Fortunately, we avoided spending the last day traveling from one park to the next. We decided to do the Magic Kingdom in the morning and Epcot in the afternoon. Simple.

We had breakfast in the food court, made our reservations with the Mears Shuttle for our trip to the airport the next day, and caught an early bus to the MK. We missed the rope drop, but not by much. We walked slowly up the middle of Main Street and taking in the great view of the castle. It was overcast, but very humid.

We stopped at the "Partners" statue to take a few pictures, and stumbled on a young guy proposing to his girlfriend. While he was down on one knee and she was getting all teary, a barbershop quartet came over and serenaded the two. It was very nice.

We walked up into the castle, poked around the gift shop for a few minutes, took some pictures and spent a little time in Fantasyland. We rode Peter Pan, passed on Mr. Toad (I wasn't aware that it was nearly its last day of existence,) Snow White (we did all the kiddy rides) and then headed toward Tomorrowland. We ran into the Queen of Hearts, walked by the speedway, and ended up in Toontown. We went into Mickey's house, but turned back from meeting him. (I'm not a huge character guy.)

On the way out it had brightened up a bit, and we watched Goofy's Barnstormer for a few minutes, and then made our way toward the Skyway. It was closed, so we rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. It was a nice, relaxing, cool ride.

After that Amy wanted some popcorn, so we got one of those big buckets and headed to Frontierland to ride the Steamboat. Next it was on to Pirates of the Caribbean (again) and then back out toward the castle.

We were pretty hungry by this point, so we started looking for a place to eat. We tossed around a few of the counter service places, but everything was pretty crowded. We ended up near the front gate, so we ducked in to Tony's Town Square. They could seat us immediately, so within minutes we were sitting in the front room looking out on to Main Street.

The service was good -- however, the southern accent of our server did not mix well with the affected Italian accent. But she tried hard.

The food was fantastic, and the desert -- an apple crumble cheesecake -- was, we decided, the single greatest thing either of us had ever eaten. Ever. It was that good.

Now, just recently we booked a trip back to Disney. I'm not going to say we're traveling all the way from New Hampshire just for a piece of cheesecake, but...

After lunch we turned around one last time and said goodbye to the castle. I envied the people who were walking through the main gate on the first day of their trips, as we were walking out. It's not too difficult to tell the first-timers, and that's one of the things I liked best about the trip. It's all but impossible not to get caught up in everything.



We didn't hang around too long. Instead, we hopped a bus over to Epcot and made our way to the World Showcase. I had seen a hat in Canada that I thought I might buy, and I wanted to see if there were any left. There were, but I didn't get one. Instead, we talked to the CM there about the Boston Bruins (my hat again) and Bruins' coach Pat Burns. We toured the rest of the countries, and ended up at Italy for dinner.

We were at the opposite side of the park when our reservations were coming up, so we took one of the Friendships over to the other side. The driver, who we spoke to for about 10 minutes, was the only sort-of mean CM we met the whole time. Nice enough to us, I guess, but pretty brusque with guests. He also complained a lot about visitors, his job, his pay, his uniform, and the boats. But he did get us to Italy in time.

The food there was good, but the tables were crowded right in on top of one another. It was a little disconcerting to have people sitting at your elbow while trying to carry on a conversation. Especially when the couple next to us did nothing but complain about the food, wine and service the whole time. It was good over all, but I probably won't eat there again. Oh, and this big white spider slowly descended from the roof and landed right next to my chair. That doesn't make the place unclean, but I hate spiders.

After dinner it was time to head home to pack up and get ready for our flight out to Manchester the next day. We shopped for gifts, and as our final official act in a Disney park, took a picture of me in front of (well, in back of) Spaceship Earth. It was kind of a bummer to have it all behind us now, but it had been a full week.

The only thing left to do was take stock of exactly what we didn't get to this time, that we'd try to get to next time. Namely, Illuminations, fireworks at the MK, and a few rides. Other than that we hit pretty much everything we wanted to.

After this it was pack, call Mears Shuttle, and get ready to leave Saturday morning...

I tend to get a little down at the end of vacations, and this one was no different. However, I was looking forward to getting home to Luke (our dog) and our home.

As soon as we got home I started hitting a lot of Disney Web sites, renting Disney movies, and basically just yearning to go back. I went through some serious Disneyworld-withdrawal. I was an official Disney fanatic.

So imagine my surprise when I came home from work one day, and Amy - who had been arguing against going right back in favor of a trip to Ireland -- said: "Do you want to go on the Disney cruise?"

We're arriving at Dixie Landings Resort on Oct. 10 with a group of 10 people. On the 14th, our wedding anniversary, we board the Disney Wonder. It's going to be a great way to celebrate our fourth anniversary, and I've been counting the days since we confirmed...

This trip report is posted on my personal Web space -- with pictures -- at: http://people.ne.mediaone.net/burkeb/disney.htm

Bill Burke

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