Trip Reports

In the beginning...

The players:

Scott (27), second time to WDW, the first being in '78
Chrisie (31), second time to WDW, the first being in '87
Katie (6), first time to WDW!!!
Hey all! We've been back for nearly a week now and things are finally settling down around here so I thought I'd get started on my trip report.

It all started sometime in the beginning of June when my best friend who lives in Tampa called and told me she was getting married. "When? August 8th! That's 10 (ten) weeks!! You mean to tell me you didn't know before now?!!" was something like how the conversation went. Well to make a long story short, I never really cared for the guy she's marrying so she waited to tell me for whatever reason. She said it was important to her that I be there so I said I'd go and hung up to start the plans.

At first I was going down by myself for the weekend, getting it over with and hopping the next plane outa' there. But after much thought (about 10 minutes) I decided if I was going to Florida I was going to Disney World, besides I figured I'd need a cure for the case of heebeegeebies I probably was going to get at the (gulp) wedding anyway. So I called her up and said I wanted to go, she said we could go for a day or two. Not good enough. So after much more thought (about 3 minutes) I decided I was bringing the whole family and we were staying onsite for 3 or 4 days.

So the planning began in earnest. Soon we had reservations at Ft. Wilderness for 4 nights...no, 5 nights....no...6 nights....no......7 nights! I had been to WDW 11 years ago and knew that I wouldn't be happy with less than a week. My husband and I discussed the trip (briefly) and the only rules I had were that we had to pay for the trip in it's entirety in cash and have the bills current when we return, like we never left....ok, noooooo problem I said. Being self employed my income is not fixed and I can work harder to make more money when things like this come up so I figured what the heck? The shakedown started, every time Scott walked in the door I was emptying his pockets for change and any stray money I could find. I had NO IDEA how much money I needed until I was WAY into the planning stages. Luckily I found this group (thank you!) and learned all kinds of tips and tricks to make our stay more pleasurable without having to take out a second mortgage. Within a few weeks I had my 6 day all-in-ones as well as my AAA diamond parking pass and the campsite was paid for, the shopping for lots of stuff to haul down to Florida for our midsummer camping trip was well under way and Katie was watching many Disney videos while talking constantly about the TOT and Space Mountain. I had also bought the WDW Explorer CD and had the vacation planning video and the Around The World With Mickey and Friends videos sent to the house. The car was tuned up and I was half packed. The plans were made and all we had to do was pay for the trip, which is a whole story in itself. Stay tuned for day one of our first family trip to the happiest place on Earth!

Day One

Ok, so we came up with the funds, drove down to Florida in the middle of the night on Weds. August 5th, and being as excited as we were we all knew we wouldn't last until Sunday so we decided to check out WDW on our way in. We decided ahead of time that we wanted to drive in the main gate on World Drive the first time so we headed that way. Imagine a big (6'4") scary looking guy with lots of tattoos and me (the nice one...heh, heh, heh) driving up to the gate with windows down, arms flying, heads bobbing in and out the windows while screaming "Goofy! Minnie! Mickey! Donald! We're here!!!!!!!" Poor Katie just got lower and lower in the back seat as we relived some of that childhood excitement. It was a blast. After that we headed for Downtown Disney and decided to check out Disney Quest. In our opinion we thought this is a great place for parents to send their kids (with lots of $$$) and worthwhile to check out at least once for adults but we won't be spending our hard earned money there. The whole family loved the raft ride, the Aladdin game made me sick (motion sickness), in the part where it's themed after Alice In Wonderland where you can go on the internet we couldn't find a computer terminal that worked right. We enjoyed the room where all the creative things were, like the animation class and the various paint programs you can play with. Forgive me but I can't remember the proper names of all the games. We didn't do the game where you create your own rollercoaster ride because the line was too long. We enjoyed playing some of the traditional games like pinball machines. We didn't do it all but we'd done enough so we decided it was time to hit the road. All in all we spent about 3 hours at Disney Quest and about $70.00. I have one little tidbit of information for those of you who want to go in and see what it's all about without spending a lot of money up front. When we got in line out front I asked the CM at the front of the line about the $7.00 admission since it wasn't listed and he told me there was no $7.00 admission. This didn't sound right to me so I asked again when we got up to the window. I was told that they don't advertise the $7.00 admission but will give it to those people who know about it, adding the little "but we don't know how long that will last" at the end. Be forewarned that $7.00 won't get you far in there.

On the road again! We did the obligatory visit to my sister-in-law in Cape Coral Thursday night, the mad dash to Tampa for the bachelorette party on Friday night and the wedding on Saturday. I thought Sunday was never going to get here!

We finally got to Ft. Wilderness around 1:30 in the afternoon on Sunday and checked in. We had a repeat of the front gate episode, couldn't restrain ourselves. It took us about two hours to get settled in to the campsite, we fixed it up real nice in a redneck sort of way. Now before some of you get your panties all in a wad about my redneck comment, let me say that Scott and I both come from a long line of redneck (nice, easygoing, simple living, life loving country folk) roots and it was not meant to be derogatory. We brought our gazebo tent with the mosquito netting to put over the picnic table which was one of the best things we did as far as comfort at our campsite. We strung up a few lines inside the gazebo to hang up our wet clothes which was a good move because we'd have been using the dryers a lot more. The campsite was on loop 200 which was pretty close to Pioneer Hall, the Trading Post, marina, the restaurant and River Country.

After setting up the campsite we decided we wanted to explore Kissimmee a little so off we went and wound up at Perkins for supper. The food wasn't exceptional but it was edible. After Perkins we went to Super Wal-Mart to get the week's shopping out of the way...BIG MISTAKE! The place was a madhouse! It was hard to get down the isles there were so many people. Everything was in a state of disarray (you'd have thought a hurricane was coming) and we felt like we were in another country. We were the only ones that spoke English that we saw except for the cashier. I was looking for the pancake mix that is already mixed in a bottle (easier for camping) and finally had to give up after asking the fourth Wal-Mart employee that "speekeynoenglis", it was frustrating. They were even making announcements over the PA system in foreign languages. I finally found it after pure dumb luck and we got the heck out of dodge.

When we got back to the campsite it had rained so we checked the tent for leaks and...ACK!! We had two corners dripping verrrrrrrry slowly at the corners on the seams. We looked in vain for the seam sealer I KNOW I packed and decided to hang a tarp up over the tent instead. This worked really well because it gave us a little shade and we never saw another drop of water in the tent during the whole trip. As we were putting the groceries away we kept hearing music, what was that music? We found out later it was the electric water parade. Scott and Katie went to get ice and while they were gone the MK fireworks started. I could see them a little bit through the trees but I wanted to walk a little and get a better view but decided to stay put since they hadn't made it back. Oh but to just catch a little teensy weensy glimpse of those fireworks! Nope, had to stay. Well shortly after the fireworks ended the rest of my family came walking up with BIG grins on their faces, I knew what they'd been up to. Guess I should have left after all, I probably would have found them. Oh well...It was getting late so we took showers and went to sleep with visions of Disney World dancing in our heads on this night before the greatest part of our adventure began...

PS. Oh, and we also sow a rabbit and an armadillo came alarmingly close to the tent!

Day Two

Woke up at 5:45am, didn't want to miss the EE at the MK you know. Took a few moments to wake up and drink in the surroundings alone before I woke up the two morning grumps. Drank a frappacino (gotta have that caffeine fix, especially this early in the morning) and figured I had to take the plunge and get them up sometime. But what to my wondering eyes should appear? Two bouncy waking persons jumping out of bed! Just like that. Man, we should pretend we're at Disney every day. That was too easy! Ok...ok...I'll move on now, you guys have no idea what an accomplishment it was to get those two out of bed so easy. We ate cereal and muffins, brushed our teeth and combed our hair (had to look good for those pictures with the mouse) and we're off!

Took the boat from Ft. Wilderness to the MK, they knew we were coming because the boat was sitting there waiting. How thoughtful of the Disney people to think of us this way. The kids (you know, the big guy and the little girl) decided they wanted to do Alien Encounter first. Now let me just start off by saying that I did everything I could to scare the kid (girl-kid) out of this one. I considered telling her she couldn't go at all but her dad felt that if she knew exactly what was going to happen why should we deprive her? I gave in and she got scared. I think she was more scared because we told her to be scared though, more on that later. Anyway although she was scared she was a trooper and handled it well. So it was off to Space Mountain! Did I mention that kid of mine is a real daredevil? To be honest Alien Encounter was one of the few times I've EVER seen her get scared. They both loved this one! Me too! We'll have to do that one again. Next it was Timekeeper, we all enjoyed this one also. We walked into all of these with the longest wait at being at Space Mountain, about 20 minutes. It was getting close to time for our 9:50 priority seating at Cinderella's Castle so we decided to head that way. Katie had no idea, it was the one secret I was able to keep about this trip. She loves the princesses and I thought it would be a wonderful way to start the week. We got to the castle and started looking around when Loa' and behold there was the Fairy Godmother! What a lovely woman, she was so nice and Katie was awestruck, I think we all were. Heck, I'd have climbed up on her lap for a picture if I could have gotten away with it. She was the first of many characters who played with Katie's hair. Katie has long beautiful hair and those characters couldn't keep their hands out of it to Katie's delight. As soon as we got the autograph (I had the autograph book sent when I ordered the video) and picture, our name was called to be seated. We weren't real pleased with the table, I think it must have been the worst in the place, a tiny table right next to the wall next to the elevator in a corner with no view and it just didn't feel right. That was mostly my fault for being disappointed with the table because my overactive imagination envisioned a huge table bathed in light with a glorious view and characters dancing all around. We got over it and being the resilient people we are, had a great time getting pictures and autographs while eating a nice meal. It did take the characters a long time to find us way back there and they didn't stay long but it was loads of fun anyway. The food was hot, fresh and abundant and our server was a nice guy. I'm terrible with names, I never remember them. Anyway if you ever go to the character breakfast you might want to ask for a table near the windows to avoid getting that little table we got. After we finished breakfast we noticed it was time for the Disneymania! show on the forecourt stage in about 15 minutes so we staked our claim out in the full sun for what seemed like an eternity. They finally came out, did one song and announced that due to unforeseen complications they wouldn't be doing the show today but Mickey and his friends were coming down to meet the crowd. Scott and I looked at each other, looked at Katie, and simultaneously screamed... "MICKEY!" once again embarrassing the kid but having a great time anyway. She got to be a good sport about our crazy childlike outbursts and even had a little fun with it by the end of our stay. We were up front so we jumped up and were the first to greet Chip? Dale? I can't remember now, but it was one of them. As soon as we got the autograph the crowd was crushing in against us and the rope but we didn't care because here comes Mickey! It took awhile to get his attention but we finally did and a nice CM was kind enough to take a quick picture for us. The rest of the time we tried to get the attention of the others but it was futile, too many people <picture my bottom lip poking out>. They only stayed a few minutes and left, so did we. We found our way back to Tomorrowland and did the Carousel of Progress and the TTA. I know there are those who say these attractions are old and outdated but I love them. They are classic and appeal to the sentimental side of me. After that Katie wanted to do the Skyway to Fantasyland but Scott being afraid of heights passed so it was just the two of us. We rode while Scott crossed the park in record time, bless his heart, to meet us. What a man! We meandered over to Frontierland and rode the train to the main station where Katie found her first penny press. We had a lot of fun finding these machines and purposely didn't look at any lists to see where they are beforehand, it was better that way IMHO. Katie got 58 pennies and 8 quarters including one that had the year on it that she's particularly proud of. Took the boat back to Ft Wilderness and went to prepare for a break at River Country. That was not to be, Katie started to act a little spoiled (melting down from all that stimulation) so we had to take that activity away from her. Daddy was not pleased about that one, he was looking forward to it. Katie straightened up and asked for one more chance and I told her that the next chance would be to act right so that we could do the next planned activity but if she took a little quiet time to reflect and behaved while daddy and I got some things done maybe we could do some swimming at the pool instead. She started using those manners I knew she had in there somewhere, even apologized later for her bad behavior when she had nothing to gain from it. I love that kid! We decided she could go to the pool but by that time I was pooped so they went and I rested. They got back just in time to grab a shower and we took the boat to the Contemporary to meet Valerie, a very nice lady I met on this newsgroup, and her family for dinner at Chef Mickey's and then the MK fireworks cruise. Samantha (Valerie's daughter) and Katie hit it off right away, and so did the adults. Dinner was great, food was good, company was good, entertainment was good, dessert was great! Scott was thrilled to finally get his picture taken with Goofy. After dinner we had some time to kill so we went out and found a table by the water while the guys went in and found us some drinks. It was a beautiful night with a smooth breeze and clear air. Valerie and I had a nice visit while waiting for the guys and the girls played and played. BTW...Katie says... "HI SAMANTHA!!!" The CM (skipper of the boat?) showed up and we were off. The lake was super! I wish I could remember his name but I can't so I'll call him Skipper, well Skipper was a really great guy. Scott wanted to see an alligator so Skipper took us to the part of the lake where we could find them. We looked and looked while Katie laid (laid?) down in the floor of the boat because she didn't want to see one. This was the girl who played with a frog the night before? I've seen her hold a snake, hunt for spiders..etc. Residual Alien Encounter effects? I don't know....After not finding a gator we headed over towards Ft Wilderness (while Katie and Samantha looked and looked for gators along the way, go figure) to see the electric water parade. It was real nice to be out on the water and feel like the parade was just for us. We got pretty close but not close enough to spoil it by seeing wires and such. Next we moved on to the MK to see the fireworks. What a spectacular sight it was! I've never seen fireworks from the water and we were the only ones out there. It was truly a magical moment. After that Skipper gave us a little tour of the resorts that were on the lake, Samantha gave Katie a Pocahontas pressed penny and Katie gave Samantha her light stick, we bought those little glowy green sticks you snap to make work for each night and they really came in handy for us. Then Skipper dropped Valerie and her family at the Polynesian and us at Ft Wilderness. We had a wonderful day, thank you Valerie for giving us the opportunity to share the boat. It was a real pleasure. We skipped merrily off to bed content and ready for more visions of Disney in our heads. Tune in tomorrow for day three of the greatest family vacation ever!

Day Three

Before I get started Scott wanted me to mention a few things I forgot on the first few days. He says for those of you who decide to tent camp, remember to bring the big long heavy duty tent stakes to secure your tent. The little cheesy ones that most tents come with won't work in the crushed shells. The stakes are one of the items we had to buy at Wal-Mart, but luckily we could find them without asking for help. Whoo! He also has a message for all you men out there. He says be sure to look down while riding the TTA, you never know WHAT you might see (ladies, take notice), men....tisk, tisk, tisk....

Alright now we're ready to move on! I woke up at 6am and the grumps were pretty easy to get up, what a difference it makes to be in a great location while waking up otherwise unwakable people. They were moving slow though. I really had to crack the whip to get them going, I do it (crack the whip) so well you know. We got to Epcot a little after 8. Used our AAA Diamond parking pass and parked in the first row right at the sidewalk, what a cool pass to have! We moseyed on over to Innoventions East and looked around, it reminds me of Discovery Place, a hands-on science museum we have here in Charlotte. Took a quick restroom break and got in line at the door to head towards the Universe of Energy at 9. Walked right into that one, it was cool, really dug the dinosaurs, of course I hadn't done CTX yet. Then it was on to the Wonders of Life Pavilion and straight to Body Wars. Now let me just say that I knew what Body Wars was going to be like and had (I thought) prepared myself but this ride was INTENSE! I tend to get motion sickness so I took some ginger every day and it worked terrifically except on this one ride. I managed to hold down breakfast by looking at Scott's shoe on the floor. Lucky for me I got over it pretty fast. Scott never gets motion sick and this one affected him. Katie wanted to do it again...NOT!! After that we walked around and took in some of the sights, we had fun playing with all the little experiments where you guess what it is you're touching. Next it was the AnaComical players. What a fun bunch of people, we enjoyed this show. After that we went to Cranium Command which was adorable. We all enjoyed this one bunches, I love it when Disney gives me a lot to look at, keeps my imagination working. Next was The Making of Me (after a little parent to parent discussion about whether or not we wanted Katie to see this) which was pretty well done if you ask me. Katie still makes comments on how we (Scott and I) kissed and got her, she still gushes whenever we kiss now...hey! I think this could work for us during those teen years, well...at least in the beginning. It was after 11 by now and we were hungry so we decided to eat at the cafe in this pavilion since the food choices are healthy and we wanted to eat light so we wouldn't poop out too soon. So we chose salads and potato's, topped off with a rootbeer float...it WAS frozen yogurt on that float! Oh well, we were on vacation, couldn't resist. We finished lunch and moved on to Horizons, it was just like I remembered it and we all liked this one, I especially like the scene where the dude is getting a haircut and the robot is doing (or trying to do) the dishes. Yeah...I wish I had a robot to do my dishes. After that we checked out the Test Track pavilion, looked for a CM so we could ask for a tour but they must have all been hiding, played in the mist across the way (golden rule, never pass the mist on a hot day) and made our way over to Journey Into Imagination. We found the line for Honey I Shrunk The Audience (that was for those of you who are like me and forget what HISTA means) and waited about 10 minutes before they started letting in for the show, we got almost to the door and.....you guessed it! They stopped us and we had to wait for the next show, what a drag. We were just beyond the covered part of the walkway outside in line so I'm guessing that if you're under the cover while in line you'll get into the show next time around. Had some foreign people try to push past us, I don't get it, these people can't see that they take in huge groups all at once so pushing past one or two isn't going to make a difference? We saw the warning signs and being the responsible parents that we are, told Katie that this one might be scary. She said she could handle it so off we went! Right on cue Katie decided to act scared, I knew something was up because those things don't scare her. Scott got a little irritated because he knew this shouldn't be scary for her also, so after that one we took a little cooling down break at the fountains right outside the exit to the show. I love those fountains! I'm a fountain person anyway but the fountains at Epcot are primo. I figured out from the HISTA experience that if we told Katie something was scary than she would act scared, what a ham that child is. Too bad that doesn't always work, could you imagine..."Katie, now this one might make you act polite and use your manners...YEAH RIGHT!" We should put her in acting school, she could teach a few classes. So we decided that as an experiment we wouldn't warn her before the next scary ride. We did the Journey Into Imagination ride and LOVED it. Katie wanted a Figment and would you believe there were Figment beanies in the shop at the exit to the ride? It was kismet...we skipped the playground because we wanted to hit Animal Kingdom and it was getting late. On to The Land Pavilion and the line for the boat ride was WAY TOO LONG! So we headed in the other direction to Food Rocks. Waaaaaay cool! Scott and I embarrassed the kid some more while singing and playing in this one, BTW we practically had the theater to ourselves so we weren't disturbing those around us while we had our fun. We moved on to the Lion King show after that. I got the message in this show but felt like the proverbial little kid getting her hand slapped for being bad while watching this one. I felt it was a little too serious and should have done like Scott and taken a nap but SOMEBODY had to keep an eye on the kid. We went out and checked the line for the boat ride but it was still too long and we were hungry so we decided to grab a snack in the food court. After eating, the line for the boat ride was still too long so we left and went to The Living Seas Pavilion and enjoyed looking in all the aquariums, Scott and Katie wanted to see a shark so we looked and looked...and looked...wait! There it is! A shark! Finally! I was ready to go by then. So we took the (relatively) short walk to our car, thanks AAA! and headed over to the Animal Kingdom. Time was running short so we figured we'd do as much as we could and save the rest for later.

We found a parking place right up front and were on our way. I love the entrance plaza at AK, the trees and benches are a nice touch as opposed to the usual concrete and ticket booths. We spent some time in the Oasis, looking for animals, found mostly birds that time. Whoa! What a sight! Coming out of the Oasis and seeing the Tree of Life is breathtaking! I knew it would be a sight but pictures don't do it justice. What detail it has and the size of it will knock you over. We only spent a few minutes in the Safari Village, noting the details everywhere, so much to look at, before heading to Africa and the Safari. We waited about 20 minutes in line for this ride. I think it was about this time we noticed how much hotter it is in the AK than anywhere else. Man was it HOT! It was the only place we fought for the mister fan. The Safari was wonderful, although I could have done without the little chase scene and all that but I can see why they have it. We saw all of the animals except elephants. We had to stop for some zebras to cross the road, and it was such a delight to catch the lions sunning themselves up on the rocks and the hippos popping their heads out of the water. It was refreshing to see so many animals with no (visible) fence between us and them. After that we headed for It's Tough To Be A Bug with no line! Only we couldn't help but stop and look at all the neat stuff we found along the way while heading into the Tree Of Life so we took awhile getting in. The humming bug songs in the lobby are cool, nice touch along with the movie posters, take the time to look at this stuff, it's really great. Katie asked me if this one was scary and I wasn't going to lie and told her it might be so she opted out and we did the baby-swap this time. The bug show is marvelous! I enjoyed it tremendously and so did Scott. Watch out for those wasps, I almost peed my pants! That was a keeper, I think it's one of the best WDW shows. When we finally finished all that it was getting close to closing time and my legs were starting to bother me so we headed towards the front. Although we didn't do much on this AK visit I enjoyed it very much and we decided to come back later in the week. On the way back we stopped at McDonald's for supper and went out to Kissimmee to pick up some things we needed. Got back around 11ish and I decided I was WAY too tired for a shower and crashed in about 3 seconds flat, I don't even remember getting ready for bed. It was a wonderful day in The World, definitely one to remember...but the adventure was just beginning!

Day Four

I woke up at 6am and my legs were KILLING me so I knocked the alarm clock off the stand and slept in until 9am. Boy that felt good! I bounced out of bed and ran to the showers looking forward to another fun-filled day! We were going to do the EE at MGM but decided to skip that park and hit MK instead. Took the boat from Ft Wilderness and noticed how crowded the park seemed before we even got off the boat. We decided what the heck, we were there so we'd give it a shot (our family has no patience for long lines and big crowds if they can be avoided) so onward to the train we went. Wow! What a cute conductor! He's got this young Mel Gibson look about him, mama-mia! Ouch! I got a little nudge from the old man for that one. How does he know these things? What is it? instinct? We rode the train over to Frontierland, got about as far as the bottom of the steps of the station and decided it was way too crowded for us so we turned around and got back on the train and left the MK. Is there a record for shortest time spent in the MK? If there is I know we gave it a run for the money. On the way back to Ft Wilderness on the boat we decided to go to Typhoon Lagoon. We grabbed a quick bite at the campsite, changed and were off and running in no time. We found a great parking spot right up front at TL, let me just say that our parking experiences at WDW were the best. I don't know if it was dumb luck or they have it worked out perfectly but this was a pleasant surprise since I had imagined huge expanses of pavement so wide you couldn't see from one end to the other and not a soul in sight, sort of like a big car wasteland. Anyway we got in and Scott bought one of those nifty water-proof things with a string attached, kinda' looks like soap-on-a-rope but isn't, to put tickets and money and stuff into. That little box came in handy for the rest of the trip, it was money well spent. We walked around a little, got acclimated to the park and found a nice shady spot for our towels and clothes. I would have been happy to drift around in Castaway Creek until they came and plucked me out but nooooo, the family wanted me to hang with them. So we checked out the wave pool first, Katie and I were having fun (it was the little waves) but Scott wanted to do some slides. So we set off in search of some big sliding action. First we checked out the Storm Slides, the kids (Scott and Katie) felt they were a little lame, they wanted more. Personally I thought the Storm Slides were just about my speed, no pun intended. We went in search of Humunga Kowabunga! Picture a big 6'4" scary looking tattooed daddy and a very cute little girl dragging a most reluctant mommy down the sidewalk towards this slide and that's what we looked like. I didn't know for sure I was going to do this thing until I was there and "Here weee gooooooooooooooooooo"! Whoa, that was a rough ride! I think I'm still pulling pieces of my bathing suit out of my butt. What was truly funny (and oddly rewarding considering how I got dragged into this) was how Scott's feet flew up in the air when he hit the bottom. Thinking back on it I guess he could've gotten hurt but man was it funny at the time. Well suffice it to say that he was cured of the urge to ride that particular slide anymore. After that we slipped into Castaway Creek for a leisurely float around the park a few times. Scott and Katie got bored with this pretty fast and wanted to do something else so we found the family slide. This slide is one where the whole family gets into a raft and rides down together. We had a lot of fun on this slide but it was a long wait (about 30 minutes) for a short ride. We didn't do that one again. When we came off that slide we heard a loud whoosh! noise and lots of screams. We found a viewing spot and watched those big six foot waves toss the people around like corked bottles in high tide. Well the thrill seekers of the family (not me) HAD to join in the fun. We went in the wave pool and had a great time. Scott and I were switching off, one would swim out and ride the wave in and the other would stay back and catch the wave with Katie on their back. I was really getting into this when.....uh ohhhhhh...I heard the whoosh, started to swim, and just as the wave hit....leg cramp! Of course this was my turn to be out in that more than six feet of water. All I can say is I'm glad they give you time between the waves because I needed it. I was out there with the use of only one leg, looking up at the guards and thinking I can do this. Meanwhile Scott and Katie are back there waving at me and I was trying to look cool about the whole thing. Lucky for me I made it in without having to call for help, it's a good thing I'm a pretty strong swimmer. We decided to take a little break so we found Castaway Creek again and floated some more. After a while of this we all had our fill of water for the day so we decided to go and check out the MK again hoping the crowds had thinned out a little. On the way out Katie realized she had left her goggles down by the creek so Scott ran down there while we waited at the car to see if he could find them. Would you believe they were still there? Amazing...

Anyway we drove back to the campground, changed clothes again and hopped the boat to MK. This time it was still crowded but not nearly as bad. Whatever happened to the day before/after EE plan? It definitely didn't work on this day. We got on the train again and headed for Frontierland. Did The Country Bear Jamboree and decided we were hungry so we ducked into the Pecos Bill Cafe for some burgers and fries. After that we headed to Splash Mountain and as soon as we were getting in line I noticed Katie didn't have her fanny pack on! OH NO!!! She realized she'd taken it off in the bathroom of the cafe so we ran back (literally) to check the restroom. When we got there the stall she was in was occupied and I remembered that there was a restroom attendant in there when we were so Scott ran off to find someone to ask while Katie and I waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...this girl stayed in there forever! We didn't want to be rude so we stayed away and kept waiting but after nearly ten minutes I was getting impatient to say the least when...finally! We heard a flush! So we waited another 6 or 7 minutes, what was she doing? I'm convinced we'd still be waiting now if it wouldn't have been for the fact that the girl's friends came looking for her. The fanny pack wasn't in there and Katie BURST into tears. The lady Scott talked to said the same attendant also worked the Splash Mountain restroom (now that was a little ironic since we just came from there, don't you think?) so off we ran once again to search out the lady who cleans the restrooms! When we got to SM there was no attendant in the ladies room but Scott found someone in the men's room who found the lady we were looking for. She found it! I don't think that was good enough...SHE FOUND IT!!! We were so thrilled and relieved, Katie was happy and Scott was more calm, yay!!! The two CM's who found Katie's fanny pack were Michelle and Morna. They were wonderful, Michelle had already turned it in but she called Town Hall to give them our name and tell them we would be picking it up later so we didn't have to run all the way across the park as we had already spent a lot of time on this. We were so happy that we had to have Katie's picture taken with the ladies who saved our vacation. They were happy to oblige and when Michelle found out we were getting in line for Splash Mountain when all this started she told us to follow her. She took us in the through the exit of SM and to the head of the line. I could have kissed her but controlled myself because we were in the presence of children, after all. Does anyone out there know who I can write regarding these two lovely ladies who came to our rescue? I love Splash Mountain!! I could have ridden this one around and around until my whole body shriveled up like a raisin from wetness! I particularly liked popping out where you get a great view of the castle at night and the little birdies are singing in their little birdie houses. This whole ride from start to finish was an absolute joy and I love that they didn't put the big drop at the very end so that there was more to enjoy. If there wasn't a big line I'd have told the rest of the family to come back and get me when they were done with the rest of the park. Next we went to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, that was loads of fun too. Scott and Katie liked BTMRR more than Splash though. I'm always the outnumbered one when it comes to ride preferences. I think we rode this one twice since the line was short. After that we made our way down the side path towards Liberty Square and did The Haunted Mansion. Remember the plan to not tell Katie about potentially scary rides? Well we did the no-tell experiment here and it worked like a charm! She loved it so much we did the ride again, this time without even getting off. The really priceless moment came when she stood up to get off and gave the doombuggy a good check, looking for that hitch-hiker, seriously. It was getting late by this time so we found a place where we could see Tinkerbell's flight. The look on Katie's face when Tink left the castle was worth the whole trip. To say that she was awestruck was an understatement. I'll remember that magic moment forever and ever. The fireworks were wonderful, Liberty Square is a great place to watch the fireworks from. While the park emptied we relaxed on a bench by the mural in the castle. More like I relaxed while Scott and Katie took pictures of that beautiful mosaic and each other. On our way out of the park we stopped at Town Hall and picked up the fanny pack. Rode the boat back to Ft Wilderness, gathered up the laundry and headed for the showers. By the time we finished laundry and showers it was close to midnight and we crashed out and slept like babies with wonderful Disney dreams to keep us company until morning.

Day Five

We slept in this morning until about 9am. That felt good! It didn't take us long to get moving after we were up so off we went to find adventure! We had to run out to Kissimmee to pick up some things. Something we learned this trip was to have everything we need ahead of time to cut down on those trips to the store. Anyway after that we headed for MGM.

We got to MGM around eleven and used the AAA pass to park at the end of the row, next to the tram stop. After entering the park we looked around a little, found some more pennies and headed for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular show. Naturally we HAD to sit down in the front so goofy Scott could try and get in the show. The casting director came out and said she needed people who could holler real loud, of course Scott got picked for this one, he has a REAL BIG mouth. The casting director made the extras do a few things before they took them backstage and of course she picked on Scott a little. He's so fun to pick on ( he's a good sport) that I knew this was going to be interesting.

The show went on and just as I was beginning to think they'd lost the extras, out they came. The director who was there this time said he was going to use some of the extras to demonstrate techniques. And who do you think he picked first? You got it! He picked Scott. So he tells Scott that he's going to shoot him and he (Scott) should walk towards him and look mad, after he got shot he was supposed to die a horrible death.

So Scott starts to walk towards him....only he's got a huge grin on his face! So the director tells him to be MAD! Scott starts to walk toward the man......BIG grin. Man, that director really had fun with him this time. On the third try he finally looked a little less happy and died. Not bad. All in all we enjoyed this show, it was especially fun since Scott was able to participate.

By this time we were hungry so we checked out the wait at the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater. Wait was too long but we wanted to eat there anyway so we made PS arrangements for lunch the next day. We grabbed lunch at the ABC Commissary instead, which was very crowded. I should have known better than to try and get lunch at lunchtime in WDW but we were hungry so we took the plunge. I managed to jockey for a table over by the windows and we had a nice meal. It was fun to get an up-close look at the Emmy's they have in there.

Energized and refreshed, we emerged from the Commissary ready to go! We found a good spot to view the Mulan Parade and hung out for awhile. The parade was interesting, although shorter than I expected. Scott got a good head-on shot of the dragon. I think our favorite parts of this parade were the guys with the swords and the dragon.

The next stop was Muppet-Vision 3-D. There was no line but we had to wait a few minutes in the pre-show area. We had lots of fun in there! The Muppets were good, I love those old guys in the balcony, they were some of my favorites when I used to watch the Muppet Show way back when. I miss that show....oh well. This one was a hit with the whole family.

Next we walked down New York Street taking in the sights. Would have loved to play with the "Singin' In The Rain" umbrella but it was tied up with some people who didn't look like they were leaving anytime soon so we moved on. We saw the Goosebumps show was going on but decided not to stop, opting to check out the little house of mirrors next to it. Everyone thought that was lame. I kept thinking we were being led to somewhere when all the sudden we popped out, nowhere in particular.

Then it was on to the Backlot Tour. We enjoyed this one, it was informative and entertaining. Scott really loved seeing the old planes and cars. You should have seen us all fighting for the left side of the car, you know, the side where you (may) get wet. I think we became part of the entertainment at that point. It was HOT!

I needed a break so we headed for the Honey I Shrunk The Kids playground and the kids (Scott and Katie) played while I found a table to rest. After I rested I had to go in and drag them out (or did they drag me in?) they'd have stayed all night in there! We took a restroom break and I called my newly married best friend to see if she was going to meet us for dinner and Illuminations, for her birthday. She said the new hubby had made plans unbeknownst to her so we made plans to meet for lunch at Sci-Fi the next day. Great! We were having so much fun we didn't want to leave and go to Epcot anyway.

On to the Backstage Pass tour and 101 Dalmatians! I've heard mixed reviews on this one but I'd have to say we all liked it. Some of the particular things we enjoyed were seeing the animatronic dogs (and dog parts) without their skin. We also liked seeing the back sides of the sets, the costumes and the wonderful model of the mansion. Scott liked the car (insert a few grunts here).

When we came out of the Backstage Pass tour we walked down Mickey Avenue a bit....wait! Piglet was just standing there with no one around! Right next to him was Pooh...the Winnie kind, for those of you with your minds in the gutter! We ran right over there to get autographs and pictures, what luck! The CM that was with them told us that a big group of characters including Mulan would be at the Great Movie Ride around 10:20am the next day so we made a mental note of that. After that we found someone to take our picture at the little standup thingy with the heads cut out where you're supposed to insert yours, ought to turn out cute.

Next we found Voyage Of The Little Mermaid. What an entertaining show. Katie was awestruck. She really loves Ariel and this show was superb. The "under the sea" theme of the theater was great as well as the special effects. Katie bought some Snow White Perfume in the shop at the exit of this show with some of her hard-earned Disney Dollars. The perfume bottle is so cute. It has an apple for the cap and I didn't realize it until we got home but the design on the bottle is etched in the glass as opposed to a sticker. What detail!

It was almost time for the Hunchback of Notre Dame show so we started heading in that direction. What an engaging show! We loved it! The costumes were rich and colorful and so was the set. The effects were nice and this show was great all around. Scott liked how it moved right along, not a dull moment.

After that we found our way to Star Tours. The queue for this ride is great. There was no line but we found ourselves slowing down just to look. It was cool to see C3PO and R2-D2. This motion simulator ride was nothing compared to Body Wars on the Chrisie Motion-Sickness Scale. I was able to watch (almost) the entire time. It did seem a little rougher as far as bounciness though. Katie and Scott really like this one. Have ya'll figured out the pattern here? Generally if I like it, the adults will like it. If Scott and Katie dig it, it'll be a hit with the kids. Those two are so fun to play with! Katie enjoyed playing with the water shooting out of the big thing in front of Star Tours.

On to The Great Movie Ride! This ride also had no line, we encountered very few lines this day. We found ourselves slowing down in the queue to look at the displays. We saw Judy Garland's ruby slippers, am I imagining things or isn't there a pair of ruby slippers at the Smithsonian in Washington DC? Did they move them? We all liked this one also. I thought Katie looked a little nervous during all the shooting (we got the gangster) but she didn't say a word. The Alien didn't scare her either so the no-tell-scary rule was working just fine. The grand finale was nice.

We decided to head towards the Tower of Tower to check the line. One side had been down all day so the wait was staying around 60 minutes. The wait was still an hour so we decided to skip it much to Katie's dismay. She really wanted to ride this one. Scott was saying no way to ToT, and Katie got him to promise that if we didn't ride tonight then he would ride with us tomorrow. She's a slick one...that girl o' mine.

We looked around a little, saw the big gates that go back to Fantasmic! and the building for the Rockin' Roller Coaster. Then we headed towards the main drag to find a good viewing spot for the Sorcery in The Sky fireworks. We decided to stand right in the middle of the road at Sunset and Hollywood Blvds. Caught one of those little improv street shows, what fun. Did you know that the traffic signal works at that intersection? Pretty cool.

Sorcery in The Sky was awesome! Spectacular! Stupendous! Marvelous! Katie got up on Scott's shoulders so she could see since the crowd had gotten pretty thick all of a sudden. We all thought this show was a must-see experience.

Scott went and got us some popcorn and a soda (pop for those of you in other parts of the country) and we grabbed a bench to crowd-watch while the park cleared out. After that we made our way to the car and by this time the park was pretty empty. As we were leaving we saw a violet glow in the sky.....what was that? Fantasmic! We pulled the car over to see if we could catch a glimpse of something, anything. But alas, it was not to be. All we saw was the different colors glowing in the stadium.

By that time Katie had fallen fast asleep in the back seat, so we grabbed some carry-out from McD's and headed for Ft Wilderness. Katie never woke up so we ate and I hit the sack while Scott took his shower. Stay tuned for day 6 of our very exciting adventure!

Day Six

I awoke at 6am feeling surprisingly refreshed and hopped out of bed to get a shower. Shucks, had to wake the kid and take her too. Oh well...we let Scott sleep in while we got ready this morning. Got him up sevenish and headed for the opening of MGM. Found another great parking space and made our way inside.

We had decided to head for Tower of Terror just in case it was backed up like the day before. We strolled down Sunset Blvd to where the rope was and joined the crowd. Just as it looked like a few people were getting down into the three-point-stance...the two CM's at either end of the rope walked the rope down to ToT, effectively holding everyone back. Hey! What happened to that drop-the-rope-and-run-thing I'd heard so much about? Oh well, it was fine by me because I wasn't runnin' anyway. There's only a few things in this world I'd run for and ToT ain't it.

We waited maybe five minutes at ToT. I love that lobby! Disney gives us so much to look at. I could go back over and over and still not get enough. Katie was rarin' ta' go and Scott was lookin' like a deer caught in the headlights. Did I mention he's afraid of heights?....mwahahahahaha! For those of you who haven't read day 5 yet, Katie got Scott to promise he'd ride ToT even though he'd sworn to NEVER get in that elevator!

We got on the elevator in the second row and I prepared for the worst with Scott. Picture two adults screaming their guts out while little miss cool in the middle is practically yawning! Yep, that would be us. When the elevator came down and it was time to get out, we couldn't. Our bookbag had gotten caught in the bar down by Scott's feet and jammed. There was a technician there in about a minute, impressive. They must REALLY monitor those elevators closely. We got out of that mess and would you believe Scott wanted to ride again? He had a blast!

We decided to catch ToT later if the line wasn't too long and headed off in search of more fun! We grabbed an iced lemonade and looked around for a bit while we waited for those characters to appear at 10:20. Sure enough they came out right on time. We hit the mother load!! There was Mulan, her guy (what was his name?), Mushu, Phil, Meg, Aladdin and a few more but I can't remember them all right now. We managed to get pictures and autographs from them all. I never thought I'd have so much fun with the characters. I guess they can tell who the good sports are because we had lots of fun with them.

We were standing right in front of The Great Movie Ride so we figured...what the heck? The wait was a few minutes longer than the day before, about 20 minutes but this time we got the cowboy...oops...girl <sheepish grin> so we were pleased to have seen both of the "shows".

We were supposed to meet my friend and her daughter at eleven for lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, but the ride made us a few minutes late. I don't think she expected us to be on time anyway, after all I was with the two s-l-o-w-e-s-t people on Earth. I know that God MUST have a sense of humor because I tend to be on the anal-retentive side about things like being on time and my kid and her dad couldn't be further from that. Talk about the pendulum swinging the other way....

We were shown to our car and had decided earlier that we were going to have dessert for lunch (heeding the advice of many of you on this newsgroup) since we were afraid of how the food might be, besides, we were celebrating a birthday! Katie was very excited about the thought of ice cream and cake and hot fudge and sprinkles and chocolate and whipped cream and cherries and....well...you get the point.

You should have seen that child's eyes while I was reading the menu, they were big as quarters! What a delight! She finally decided on this parfait-like selection with ice cream and caramel and hot fudge and all the trimmings. While everyone else did dessert I felt more like a sandwich so I got the club. The sandwich was ok but those chips they call "gourmet" were horrible. I didn't regret not ordering real food after that. The waiter was very nice, if not a little overzealous. I think he had a crush on my friend. He gave the kids frisbees which were a hit. One interesting thing that happened from our dessert for lunch adventure was that Katie decided it's not as cool as she thought it would be. She wanted real food real soon afterwards.

After that we all went to the 1 Saturday Morning sound effects show. I thought Katie was going to climb over the seats to get picked to participate in the show but she didn't get picked, bummer. The show was interesting, it was neat to see how they make all those sound effects.

Next was Superstar Television. Of course my oldest child (Scott) HAD to be in this one. Naturally he made enough of a fuss that he got picked to be in the Cheers bar scene. What a cutie pie that man is! He was a little disappointed that the beer was plastic though. This one was lots of fun with all the nostalgic shows that were represented.

Katie and I wanted to do the Little Mermaid again so we headed in that direction to check the line. No line! We walked right in and grabbed great seats. We loved it as much the second time as the first. At this point we said our goodbyes with my friend and her daughter and headed for the Beauty and The Beast show.

The Beauty and The Beast show was nice, the set was beautiful and Katie really got into it. I was enjoying the break. Scott was taking a million pictures as usual. We intended to leave after this show but figured that since we were so close to ToT that we'd check to see if there was a line.

No line! We walked right into the lobby of the hotel. This time we got the first row. The scary factor is definitely higher in the front row if you ask me. The kids wanted to do it (YIKES!) again! I gave in and we got the last row on that ride. You should have seen the picture of the guy who was sitting next to Scott in the seatbelt seat, he looked petrified! I hope Disney saved that picture, it was a classic. They wanted to do it again but I was beginning to worry about how healthy (or unhealthy) all those drops in a row were and held out for us to stop. Scott swears he's going to do the seatbelt seat when we go back. I say I'll buhleev it when ahh seee it.

We said goodbye to MGM for the last time on this trip and found Wilma (my car). On the way back to Fort Wilderness Wilma started missing <gasp!> and I just about had a heart attack. A four cylinder car running on three cylinders sounds really sick and I got ascared. We nursed it back to the campground and Scott popped the hood to see what he could find. It turns out a spark plug wire had fallen onto the valve cover and burned clear through. That's it? That's it? Let's go have some more fun!!!

We had tickets for the e-ride night so we took a little break while I called Guest Services and extended our stay one more night, since I figured we'd have to fix the car eventually and I didn't want to lose precious park time to do it. Sick....I know, I'm a goner. We hopped the next boat to the MK, setting off for a night of lights and parades and rides and rides and rides!

We took the train to Frontierland because we wanted to check out Tom Sawyer's Island before it closed for the night. We only had a short time to play so it was more like a quick tour of the island and back to the other side.

We were hungry so we grabbed a bite at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. Scott and Katie walked around hitting all the trash cans. Have I mentioned that those two looked and looked for a talking trash can? They never found one but both of them feel like next trip will be the one. I can only imagine the scene if they find it...

After supper we checked out the wait at the Tomorrowland Speedway. It was about 30 minutes but this is one Katie wanted to do REALLY bad so they went off to get in line while I found a nice spot to watch from. Katie was so excited about driving but I gotta tell ya' this was downright comical! She'd steer left, then right, then left, then right....not turning back until the wheels hit the metal bar in the middle of the lane. She had so much fun! Scott told me I'm doing that one next time....yeah right!

Next we found Mickey's Toontown Fair. We wandered through the houses, Katie played with the stuff in Minnie's kitchen. She was having a blast in there, popping popcorn and baking....anybody ever look in Minnie's refrigerator? That mouse doesn't have enough cheese if ya' know what I mean ;-) We found Donald's boat, watched the kiddie's play in the water for awhile and rode the Barnstormer. Cute.

After that we did It's A Small World. The Walkman was suspiciously missing from the bookbag, I owe him one for that. By the end of that one we were all singing.

It was almost parade time so we headed for Liberty Square to find a good viewing spot. Nope, not there. We moved down to Frontierland and found a spot on the little wall that runs (sort of) in front of the Diamond Horseshoe Saloon Revue. While we waited for the parade we struck up a conversation with the people next to us and found out they're from right near our hometown, I guess it is a small world after all...did I just say that?

Spectromagic was spectacular! I loved every part of it, especially the fishes before Ariel's float. One came over right in front of us, stopped...and winked! How cute! We all had a lot of fun watching this parade. The big guy at the end from The Black Cauldron was opening up on this night, I know that some people had reported it wasn't opening so they must have fixed it. SPOOKY.

After the parade we went back over to Fantasyland and did Snow White and Peter Pan. Both old favorites. And of course we had to do Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Scott was an instant fan of this one and shares the sadness of those of you who will be missing Toad. We got out just in time for the fireworks so we grabbed a seat on the bench next to the Dumbo ride on the Carrousel side and fell into the best seat in the park! We watched the whole show sitting down without a soul in sight and it was another magical moment of ours, feeling like we had the whole place to ourselves and the show was only for us.

Now it was time for the real fun to start. E-RIDE NIGHT!!! We hit The Haunted Mansion first, with a very short wait at the doors. After that we moseyed on over to Frontierland...wait....I thought this was E-ride night...you know..no wait, less people...uh uh, no way, not here. All of a sudden there were a LOT more people than we expected. We were anticipating no lines, no people...etc..etc..But that wasn't the case on this side of the park. We found out later that it was a sell-out according to one CM we talked to. The wait for Splash Mountain was about 25 minutes but I loved that one so much that we waited. When we got out of Splash, it looked like the line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was even longer so we waited in line 25 more minutes at Splash again.

When we came out of Splash we found Tigger at the bathrooms. Katie wanted a picture and a hug, Tigger motioned for me to hug also, so I thought...what the heck? and hugged....hey! wait a minute...Tigger pushed my hand down on his butt!!! Too funny! Even Scott caught that and thought it was hilarious. Tigger was feelin' a little frisky that night.

We made our way over to Pirates of The Caribbean and it was like a ghost town over there, now that was more like it. We walked right on to that one. I noticed some of the changes but it didn't bother me at all and we all liked it. We would have rode one more time but the CM told us we would have to walk all the way around again and we felt like that was too much work so we skipped it. Scott bought a pirate flag to hang on the tent at the shop at the end of the ride and Katie got her pennies. Marketing geniuses...those Disney folks.

After that we moved on to Tomorrowland and the kids did Space Mountain while I did Alien Encounter. I would like to thank the two teenaged boys who acted out the whole scene in the middle part of the show with the animatronic guy. They knew this part word for word and were a scream. I saw it from a whole new perspective. I got so much more out of Alien Encounter since I didn't have Katie to worry about this time. I got the full effects, hot breath and all.

We all met up at Astro Orbiter and I grabbed a seat at The Lunching Pad while they rode. Astro Orbiter would have made me sick for sure, I can't do those round and round things. While I waited Minnie came up and played with me for a few minutes so I got to have fun too. They were the last group to ride and then the park closed.

On the way out we stopped at Casey's Corner for some brownies and found a seat across the way by the ice cream parlor overlooking the water. We sat there for awhile soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying our treats. Finally we heaved ourselves up out of the seats and headed for the monorail, saying our last goodbyes for this vacation to the Magical Kingdom.

When we got to the top of the monorail there was an official looking guy (work clothes, briefcase) who was talking to the CM at the top of the platform. He was telling about some of the upcoming changes in the MK. He told us that the Haunted Mansion will be going down for rehab, he couldn't say when but he did say that it will be put back like it was in 1971. He told us that Space Mountain will be going down (as you all know) and that there will be changes. I asked about the sound but he wouldn't say for sure that was it. He also said Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was going down (as you all know) and there were going to be some exciting changes there. I know it's not much but it's the best I could do in such a short time.

We found our bus at the TTC and headed for those soft air mattresses and sweet dreams dancing in our heads. Stay tuned for more of our last adventures in Animal Kingdom and Epcot.

Day Seven

We slept in today until 10:30...whew! What a night we had! After taking showers and getting ourselves together we decided that we'd take it easy today and get the car fixed. So we set about trying to find a way to get a plug wire on WDW property. Not an easy task, we found out.

I called Guest services and asked if there was any roadside assistance or any way to get a plug wire delivered to Ft Wilderness. The man I spoke to was clueless. I called a local cab company and found that the mileage rate was $1.50 per mile so I figured it could easily run $30-$40 by the time we did a round trip to a parts store, plus waiting time and tip. AAA said they don't deliver parts but could have a wrecker there within the hour.

I hung up the phone and thought about this.....Guest services? nada...Cab? lots of money....AAA? free ride out to get the part we needed. I thought about this for....oh....about a minute and called AAA back and told them to send the wrecker. We got the car towed out to a service station, replaced the wire and were back in about an hour. That was less painful than I thought it was going to be. Although I think we got a few strange looks from our neighbors when we showed up driving the car so soon after having it towed away.

By the time we did all that it was nearly four o'clock so we decided to use our $50.00 coupon and go to Gulliver's for dinner. We took our time, exploring a little and got to the Swan around five. When we got to the restaurant we were handed a VERY limited menu (I think there were three or four choices on it) and told that there had been a lightning strike upstate and an explosion which caused most of the state to have no gas, therefore no cooking. Lucky for us one of the selections was prime rib (it has to cook a long time and was nearly done when the gas went out) and we love prime rib so we decided to stay.

Gulliver's opened late because of the gas problem but we didn't mind, we were on vacation and not in a hurry to go anywhere. Dinner was good, service was great. The entertainment on this night was a balloon artist who was quite talented. He told Katie he could make any animal she wanted so she picked Goofy and he outdid himself, making a wonderful Goofy that Katie carried around for two days. As we finished our meal people were wandering in complaining that they couldn't find anything but cold cuts everywhere else so I think Gulliver's and prime rib was a great choice for us on this night.

We made our way back to Ft Wilderness and Katie wanted to do the campfire so they wandered off in that direction while I took a much needed break. I'm the antisocial one in this family and to be around lots of people all the time drains me. I did some reading and went to bed early, what a treat! Not too long after I laid my head down to rest, Katie and Scott followed right behind me. It was a nice peaceful day that was simple and very enjoyable even though we had to fix the car. Tune in tomorrow where I will tell of our adventures in Animal Kingdom including our one (too many) experience with a family of Brazillians.

Day Eight

I hopped out of bed rarin' to go at 5:30am. Scott and Katie were a little slower as usual but still hangin' in there. I wanted to get to Animal Kingdom early and hopefully not encounter big crowds. We got there around 7:15 or so and it wasn't too bad.

We took our time checking out the Oasis, hung out with some birds...one in particular that was very happy to see the animal keeper coming down the path with breakfast. It's amazing how the animals recognise the uniforms of the people who take care of them and get so excited. We spent lots of time hanging out with the tree of life, taking many pictures and staring. That tree is stupendous!

I wanted to do It's Tough To Be A Bug again and so did Scott so we walked right into the lobby, no line. Katie decided that she really wanted to do this one all sudden-like. I think she finally figured out that she wasn't really scared, just living up to other people's expectations. Anyway she LOVED it. Wanted to see it again, even. After the show she decided that she wanted to see Honey I Shrunk The Audience one more time because she spent so much energy acting scared that she missed all the cool stuff. Not far from the exit we came upon some really BIG turtles (tortoises?) that were moving around a lot. The big one was trying to climb up onto the little one. The little one sure was tolerant, he just sat there.

After the bug-show we headed for the Discovery River Cruise. Lucky for us we didn't wait but about five minutes for this one. Scott said he would've been mad if we had waited a long time in line. I thought it was relaxing, the sights weren't particularly exciting but it was cool to see the visible parts of Asia and the little pieces of work in progress over there. They don't let you see too much work in progress though. The spider and gecko they showed were pretty cool, Katie liked seeing them up close.

Noticing it was time for the Jungle Book show we headed in that direction. I don't think any of us were particularly impressed with this one. It struck me as being a little strange. Scott also felt it was the worst show we'd seen on the trip, it wasn't horrible, just the least interesting of them all. Did that make any sense?

Anyway we headed for DinoLand USA while trying to stay awake and found ourselves on Cretaceous trail. Pay close attention to the noises in this ancient forest, they're delightful. I think this is where Scott found the footprints in the dirt and turned five again. He was so amazed! The detail in this park is so incredible that words can't describe the sense of awe and wonder we felt while exploring.

We found ourselves at the Countdown To Extinction building and once again I didn't tell Katie about the scaryness factor. We found ourselves slowing down to look at the exhibits in the building even though there was no line. All I can say about this attraction is WHOA!! Disney outdid themselves this time! A little word of advice to those of you with back trouble, pass on this ride. It's pretty shaky. I did fine by going with the flow and not tensing up or trying to sit perfectly straight. I also think this would be right up there with Alien Encounter on the scary level for little kids. Katie did fine, she wasn't scared at all, but nothing scares her, if she has no warning ahead of time. Those of you who've been following our trip report know what I mean. I think we missed something at the end because just before we popped out the doors (back in "our" time) we sat in the dark for a few minutes, what was up with that? I found myself wishing this attraction moved a little slower, I like to look around and take in all the details.

After CTX we hung out in the playground for awhile, digging up bones and playing like the big (and one little) kids we are. The Boneyard was pretty fun but it sure was HOT in there. Whoo! I thought I was going to faint! They need CM's with hoses in that place.

Noticing the time we headed for the Lion King show. They'd already started letting people in so we just walked right in and found a seat. Just in time because the theater was looking a little full and more and more people kept coming in, it got pretty crowded in there. I guess while we were having fun in the rest of the park all of these people must have been standing in line for the big show. It was definitely the most people we saw all day.

The Festival of The Lion King show is wonderful! It was the best show we saw all week. This day was turning out to be a best and worst day for sure. I love theater in the round. The costumes and colors and music and floats and performers and everything were exceptional. We all enjoyed it very much. Scott took WAY too many pictures. I can always tell what he likes the most by how many pictures he takes. Katie was REALLY disappointed that she didn't get picked for the part where the kids participate. She'd been trying to get picked all week with not much luck. She jumped up and down most times but was in all the wrong places I guess. Now she has a goal for the next trip :-)

Next we went to Harambe and looked around. We met a very nice lady who claimed to own the place, Katie had a nice conversation with her and we took pictures. We took the train to Conservation Station. The train and depot were great. Once again the details were exceptional, with all the luggage lying around among other things.

We explored Conservation Station for awhile, just sort of aimlessly wandering, stopping wherever we saw something interesting. The bathrooms were great in there. Even if you don't have to go it's worth checking them out. We moseyed on out to the petting zoo and had a close encounter with some ***** goats <gasp!>. Do you have any idea what it's like trying to pretend like nothing's going on in front of the six-year-old while trying to simultaneously drag the juvenile old man away from the scene while he's digging for the camera? We must have looked something like the three stooges.

After that we grabbed an ice cream and found a bench in the shade, have I mentioned how HOT this park is? It didn't seem like there were many cool breezes to be found even though we were constantly on the prowl for them. We headed to the train and made our way towards Gorilla Falls next.

Gorilla Falls had been renamed, I think it's called something like Pangani or something? Anyway that was a little confusing for us because we were looking for the Gorillas and didn't know about the name change. On the way down we found a cage on the side of the road that was opened in the back. It was a great photo-op for my great big ol' hairy Gorilla. Then my little monkey got involved and by the time we left we had a little audience hanging around. Silly...silly...silly...

We saw lots of animals on this trail but the real highlight for us was the Gorillas. We kept looking and looking and just as we were getting discouraged we found the bachelors! They were great! We saw a few of them pounding their chests and chasing each other. They were quite playful. One of the bachelors came down into the water right directly below the bridge we were standing on and splashed around a little. I got some amazing shots that I hope turn out. We spent a lot of time down there. It was loads of fun!

We eventually dragged ourselves up and out of the Gorilla trail and moved on to check out the Pocahontas show. This show was real cute and I'm sure we would have enjoyed it more if we could have gotten out of the direct sun. We were miserable! When we got to the little theater (which is beautiful) every speck of shade was occupied with wide open spaces where the full sun was. I REALLY thought I was going to pass out in there but thankfully we manged to catch a teensy weensy but not insignifigant (considering the circumstances) breeze! Yes, a breeze!!! It was the only one we caught in the Animal Kingdom, except for our man-made ones of course.

After that energy draining experience we were starved and ready for a break with air-conditioning. We decided that the Rainforest Cafe was as good as any place for our late lunch. We grabbed a few stools at the bar to wait for our table. This is where we had our one bad experience at WDW. Now all you Disneyphiles out there, can you guess which ethnic group was involved? You guessed it! Brazilians!! I know they were Brazilian because I asked (couldn't help myself) the lady.

Anyway Scott had to run out for a minute so Katie was saving his seat. This woman came up to the bar to order drinks, she was with a large group sitting right behind us. Out of the blue she snapped at my six year old child that she wasn't going to take the seat in a VERY nasty tone. Katie just had her knee on the corner of the seat, she wasn't doing anything out of line. The look on Katie's face was horrifying, I thought she was going to burst into tears, poor girl had no idea where the hostility was coming from. I explained to the lady that Katie was saving the seat for her daddy and it wasn't necessary to speak to my child in that manner. She started waving her finger in the air and got up in Katie's face telling her she shouldn't put her leg on the chair. THAT WAS IT!!! I told her to back off and not speak to my child again, and that it wasn't her place to discipline my child. She turned back to her table all the while saying some really nasty stuff. I told her that people don't talk to other people's children like that in America (one of the women in her party was cackling very loudly in the background...huh?) and she said she wasn't American. I said that in America she should respect American customs or go home. She was speachless and they'd called our name so we were off. I know I'm ranting so I'll stop now but that experience was a particularly hideous one. Normally I don't have time for idiots but this was quite unlike any experience I'd ever had before so I was blindsided and that killer-mommy-instinct took over.

Anyway this was the day after the gas explosion so they only had four items on the menu. We were hungry and they could've fed us dog food for all we cared. Although $32.00 was a high price to pay for cold cuts and chips on plastic plates and silverware for two adults and one child. Oh well, it hit the spot. We enjoyed the animatronics and the storms, it was lots of fun. We were in the (how appropriate) Gorilla room and every time the Gorilla's started up Katie HAD to go watch them. She found them to be fascinating.

After that we said goodbye to Animal Kingdom until next time and fired up Wilma (the car) to head back to the campground. We spent....oh....about three minutes at the tent and made our way to the marina, took the boat to the MK, transferred to the monorail and headed for Epcot. Katie really really wanted to ride up front on the monorail so that's why we opted to travel this way on that night. No luck this time, the front was already taken on both monorails.

On the way to Epcot we stopped right above the Neverland Club for about ten minutes. Apparently there were some manuevers being made by a trainee (first the conductor said emergency, then he said trainee, you decide) so we waited. Katie noticed the Neverland Club and wanted to know what it was. Would you believe she begged to go there after I told her about it? Only my kid would beg to spend time at the babysitters, go figure.

We did Spaceship Earth first thing (walked on) and made our way over to the World Showcase. We started in Mexico and did the whirlwind-walking-tour-of-the- worlds. Rode Maelstrom, checked out the trolls, moved on to China, ran through Germany...you get the picture. This is where Scott decided to take the roll of "what was he thinking???" film. The pictures here looked like he was on acid while shooting. Nothing made sense, there were even a few that I couldn't tell which way was up. We found ourselves watching Off-Kilter, great show. Scott struck up a conversation with the bagpipe player. Scott is a big fan of Celtic music, has lots of tapes and this was particularly enjoyable for him.

By then we were feeling like a snack but were having a little trouble finding food since the gas was still off so we settled for nachos. After that we made our way over to the bridge by the International Gateway to stake out a spot to watch Illuminations. It was about 20 minutes to the show so I figured we'd have to look hard for a good spot. Would you believe we walked right up to the fence on the bridge above the spot where the cruise boats dock? I couldn't believe our luck. Within about five minutes people were trying to push in front of us though. Really it was only one family that was being a little aggressive, most everybody else was behaving.

I was glad it wasn't long until the show started so there wasn't enough time to get irritated. I'd had enough of that for one day. Anyway Illuminations was superb! It was our first time seeing the show and I think we all watched with our mouths wide open. We'd made a good choice by seeing Illuminations on the last night, it was a great last big memory of the parks. After the fireworks we made our way towards the monorail, stopping along the way to enjoy the fountains and sidewalks with the fiber-optics in them.

We asked once again to ride up front and Bingo! We got it! The girl who was working (what are they called anyway? pilots?) had the personality of a wet noodle. Katie was so excited and most times we tried to ask a question or strike up a conversation she pretended like she didn't hear us. We enjoyed our ride up front in spite of miss cold fish and were thrilled to have been able to do it. Aren't the kids supposed to get some sort of certificate when they ride up there? Katie didn't and I was thankful I didn't tell her about that ahead of time. It was such a thrill to see the look of wonder on Katie's face while she looked out over the landscape.

About the time we got to the MK, the fireworks were going off and the sky opened up. It was a deluge!!! There was thunder and lightning and the rain was coming down in sheets! We were instantly soaked. We ran over to the boat that was getting ready to leave for Ft Wilderness and packed in with the rest of the sardines...err...people. It was a little strange to be crossing the lake while a pretty strong storm was going on. As we were docking the rain slowed to a drizzle (more of that Disney Magic Timing) so it wasn't so bad to go back outside. We headed for the Trail's End Buffeteria and ordered a pizza. Yay! Real food! Well....sorta...it was better than cold cuts.

We ate the pizza and moved out to the porch to drink coffee and relax in the rocking chairs. What a nice time we had. The air felt cool and really good. We reflected on the day and it was so peaceful out there. After awhile we made our way back to the tent, it was dry as a bone. We got out of the wet clothes and snuggled up for our warm and cozy last night's sleep during this WDW vacation. Tune in for the next and (finally) last installment of the greatest vacation ever!

Day 9 and Final Thoughts

We woke up around 9ish and started to break camp. Where the heck did all this stuff come from? I KNOW I didn't pull all that out of my car when we got there. Well we figured around 10:30 that we weren't going to be packed in time for check out so I called Guest Services to see if we could extend our check out. YES!! I love those people! We managed to get it all put away in time to take a shower (worked up a sweat) and shop one more time at the Trading Post before we left.

I wanted to check out Wilderness Lodge so we headed in that direction. I'm trying to talk mom and dad into coming with us next time and this would be the place that will convince dad that he could have a wonderful vacation at WDW. WOW! What a great lobby! I knew what to expect but the pictures don't do the WL justice. We explored and found more pennies to press and asked many questions. The place is wonderful, we especially love the grounds and the hoof prints in the sidewalk. Katie HAD to sit in front of the fireplace in a rocker even though there wasn't a fire. I got lots of ammo to send mom so she can convince dad to gp there.

After all that we were all pretty hungry so we hit the McD's over by Blizzard Beach, wound up sitting near the soda fountain and kept saying "what's that noise?" It took me awhile but I finally figured it out. Katie and I spread all her pennies out over the table and pondered them for awhile. We took our time just hanging out and relaxing. It was definitely the longest meal we ever had at McDonald's.

It was getting later in the afternoon and I didn't want to drive during the heat of the day so we headed for Downtown Disney to see what kind of trouble we could find. We wound up taking in a movie at the AMC Theaters. We picked The Parent Trap. Cute movie. It started out a little slow but made up for lost time. We all enjoyed this one, we gave it three "thumbs up". When we came out of the theater it was dusk so we decided that no matter how much we wanted to stay, it was time to leave. <bottom lip poking out>

We drove out the same way we came in (main gate) with sad faces and tired muscles, blisters on our feet and singing the Mousketeer song. You know, the one that goes M-I-C..see ya' real soon! K-E-Y...why? Because we like you! M-O-U-S-E!!! I know... we're just a family of cornballs, what can I say?

I know there are a lot of things I forgot to write about that I remembered later like our wonderful lunch at the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney while on our way to Tampa, the great elevator in Disney Quest, fountain watching at Epcot or when we found Ice Station Cool and I couldn't resist trying the Italian "Beverly" drink even though I knew better, (take my word on this one, NOT worth it) I walked around for about an hour sticking my tongue out trying to lose that nasty taste. The best word I can find to describe the Italian drink is earwax, tastes like earwax. Not that I go around sticking my tongue in people's ears but....

There were so many wonderful details at every turn, like the little animals all over the buildings in Safari Village at Animal Kingdom or the great cars parked on the streets at MGM and the great architectural details that were everywhere we looked. I could go on and on and on. We were constantly amazed at all the little "small" things we found again and again. Things that Disney could have left out but didn't much to our delight.

I would like to thank all of you who e-mailed me with your generous compliments and encouragement while I took a month to complete our story. Thank you all for your patience. We had the time of our lives on this family vacation and have already booked a site for 15 glorious nights next year!!! We'll be going the last week of October and the first week of November. We are SOOOOO excited! Now we have to start the planning and the anticipating for the next 400 days 13 hours 43 minutes and 55 seconds....what to do...what to do.....

Chrisie Dahl

animaone@aol.com

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