Trip Reports

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: ASSR
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Elementary, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Rookie
Comments: Sheri and her daughters visited WDW for a week-long trip in mid-November. Since they all were rookies to the vacation kingdom, Sheri's report has a lot of interesting perspectives. This is a shorter report, but filled with opinions and ideas on what to do to save money and make the trip more enjoyable.

11-11-98 to 11-18-98

OK, here is some highlights from my trip. Weather was mid 80’s all week, no rain. No lines on the rides. Worst was maybe 10 min. Thought: The character autographs were a bad idea. It takes just that much longer for them to try and write, while also trying to get a picture, slows down that process too much! The character greetings could be so much quicker IMO.

A worker I spoke to said that the crowds were actually higher than normal for this time of year, noted that people who had postponed summer trips due to the fires. She also mentioned that lively group of tours from So. America that have been talked about here LOL. There were none on our trip, the biggest foreign contingent I think was from Britain.

Day 1 Travel day.

Left Pasco on time, arrive Salt Lake City on time. Left SLC on time (Delta) I wish the airlines would offer a set of headphones and commentary from the pilot on where we are over. I hate not knowing what we are flying over if it looks interesting.

Arrived Orlando at 4:00, 20 min early. Checked out my car and got baggage and were headed out by 4:45 FAST. The walk from Delta to Dollar was kind of far. All checked in at the ASSR by 5:30. The food court offered more than I thought it would, not a bad selection.

Our room was in Bldg 9 first floor, a couple steps and we were at the pool. Bought the refillable mugs, but honestly think we wasted our money. We were a little far from the food court and I was too tired to walk over after a long day at the parks to re fill it. At check in I was told to be at the bus stop by 6:30 am for the early entry days! I had rented a car, so we used it except for the day to Downtown Disney. Left at 7:45 and were in the first rows of parking without fail.

Went to Walmart and picked up a cooler and some food stuffs to save some money on meals.

Day 2 Magic Kingdom.

We took advantage of the early entry’s every day, with great success. First ride… Alien Encounter… My 12 yo actually cried real tears on this one. Scary but fun. They rode it again later, with the knowledge of what was really going on and enjoyed it more. We were somehow lucky enuf to get in the first seats on all the rides today! I have been to Disney land many times as I lived about 10 miles away growing up…. Never had been to Hall of Presidents before this trip. Neat. Fantasyland was a friggin nightmare about 3PM as the little kids were tired and cranky. WHY people take a couple little kids (I mean 4 and under) is beyond me. LEAVE them at home and enjoy yourself.. The dud ride of the day was the Jungle Cruise. We had a no good guide who hardly spoke. That ride is really only made with the guides narrative! Even had a nostalgia trip on the Carousel of Progress!!!! Kids enjoyed it. I miss the 360 degree America movie though.

Day 3. Epcot.

Saw Honey I shrunk the audience Laughed so hard I was crying!. They were having a food and wine festival here. Little food booths with food samples from around the world. You could buy a sample for 1-3 dollars. Long day here. No real suprises or funny things. Journey into imagination was closed and the Test Track hasn’t opened yet. Actually enjoyed the ride at the Land pavilion where they took us to the greenhouse.

Day 4. Blizzard Beach.

First ride was the tall slide (you have to take a ski lift to the top!) It’s the tallest and steepest slide in country. 12 yo went first. You hear this piercing scream get softer as she gets to the bottom LOL. People at the top weren’t sure if they should heed the screaming or not. I closed my eyes going down.

They have a big family raft ride, I think you can sit 6 in it. Well, some men in front of use were in a good mood that morning one of the guys was about 350 lbs the other about 250 and a couple kids. Then there was a worker there trying to keep the line occupied as it took some time for the rafts to make it back up the conveyor belt. Well these guys’ raft finally made it…the biggest jumped belly first into it… next thing I see is that Disney worker IN the raft yelling as she was headed down with them. They had pulled her in LOL.

Blizzard beach was a little busy as the Typhoon Lagoon and River Country water parks were closed for re-hab.

Day 5. MGM Studios.

We went to Tower of Terror first. Well, we went on it 5 times throughout the day actually, and I screamed each time. Fun ride. I was disappointed by the backstage and backlot tours, and Making of Armeggedon * Universal offers better for those three. The weekend we were there was Soap Opera Star weekend, so the crowds were a little heavy, but again no waits in lines. Fantasmic was great, but a nightmare getting out. That night they had 2 shows, so we had 10,000 people trying to leave and another 10, waiting to get in all in that narrow pathway. Disney must change this if they have more than one show on a regular basis IMO. We ate at the 50’s Prime time café. FUN!!!

Day 6 Downtown Disney.

Another slow day to catch our breath. Went to the new Disney Quest, BUT didn’t go in. It was 20.00/person and we didn’t plan on spending a lot of time there so I wasn’t going to spend the money especially since we weren’t sure what was in there. Kinda ticked me off.

Ate lunch at the Rainforest Café, 9 yo had a small, DRY hamburger, 12 yo a small salad and myself some pita bread with warmed artichoke/salmon dip, drinks (not liquor) and one piece of cake……34.00!!!!!!!!!!

Went back to hotel for pool time (kids swam every day)

Day 7. Animal Kingdom.

Nice park A new section is opening in Dec (Asia) and they will have a white water raft ride through the rainforest that opens in the spring. Went on the safari, our driver was actually from Kenya (nice to have workers, especially in Epcot world showcases) when they are from the countries. Enjoyed Countdown to extinction, and Jungle Book show, we didn’t care much for the Lion King show. Were waiting in the character area for Winnie the Pooh, and around 12:30 the character liaison came down the line only about 6 people and said that Pooh and Eyore were leaving for a break and wouldn't be back til 1:20. Well, this caused some consternation as we felt she should have told the entire line of people this. There were probably 25 families in line at the time. We got to the front of the line and wammo….the Pooh and Eyeore were leaving (we had Tigger and Eyeore from MK, so only needed a pic with Pooh. I sent my kids up real quick and got the pic, but the people in line were not happy, especially with the long break ahead.

Had a character breakfast at the Restarauntasorus, enjoyed that.

Saw another 3-d movie "It’s a bugs life’ lots of good effects as Honey I shrunk the audience) Short day here, done by 3. Went to eat at Perkins in Kissemee, and just as we finished the electricity on a huge block (our side of street) went out. Made for a little exictement for the girls.

Animal Kingdom seemed to be fairly busy, maybe it was the narrow paths?

Day 8. Kennedy Space Center.

Checked out, and headed to Kennedy Space Center. We ripped ourselves off here. Lots to see, but we were on a tight schedule so didn’t see it all. Did make it to the tower that you can see all the launch pads. Endeavor, the next shuttle to be launched was out on the pad (we were a couple miles away tho)

Left there and made our way south to Cocoa Beach. Water was nice and warm. Girls swam about 1.5 hours before we had to get back to Orlando to catch our flight.

Left Orlando on time and made the trek home. Made it home around 11:30 PM, around 21 hours after I had got up Wednesday.

I took my book to finish reading and a second book, but only read about 10 pages! So tired every night I collapsed in bed!

Sheri Crowe

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