Trip Reports

Dr. Don - December 4-13, 1998 - Dixie Landings

Time of Year: Holiday Season
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: DL
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Pre-School, Adult, Senior
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran, Rookie
Comments: Don's report is summary style and extremely valuable for two reasons. First, he has a great list of restaurants and the group's likes and dislikes of each. Second, Don covers wheelchair accessibility in detail! Normally I don't include trip reports of folks that won't give their complete name. I made an exception on this report due to the wheelchair accessibility information that I think may be so valuable to anyone that may need extra assistance during a trip.



Rather than take up a lot of space with information that serves nobody, we've narrowed our trip report down to the highlights and lowlights, and have organized the information by topic, not by chronological order of what we did when. For those, who want that, I'm sure you can find plenty of other examples around. Hopefully, this will instead provide people who are looking for evaluations with the information they want.

OVERVIEW:

The visitors:

Husband Don, 38
wife Christine, 36
her mother Anne (all of whom drove down; a 20-hour trip) 60+
Don's mother Marilyn, 60+
his sister Lisa, 34
and Lisa's daughter Jessica, 4½
Don's fifth trip (first in 1981, second in 1992), Christine's fourth (first in 92), Anne's first, Marilyn's and Lisa's third (first in 81, second in 92), and Jessica's second (96 and 98). We rented a wheelchair for Anne.

We visited Walt Disney World in early December 1998, driving from Chicago and arriving at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 4 for our stay at Dixie Landings. Our itinerary was as follows: Friday, Dec. 4: Hotel-hop, shop and settle in. Saturday, Dec. 5: Epcot, arriving late (1 p.m., after picking up the second half of our party at the airport). Sunday, Dec. 6: MGM. Monday, Dec. 7: Universal Studios for some, a day of rest for others, followed by Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party that evening. Tuesday, Dec. 8: Blizzard Beach. Wednesday, Dec. 9: Animal Kingdom. Thursday, Dec. 10: Magic Kingdom. Friday, Dec. 11: Epcot and Polynesian Luau. Saturday, Dec. 12: Miscellaneous. Sunday, Dec. 13: Miscellaneous. We left in the late afternoon of the 13th to arrive home on the 14th.

GENERAL NOTES/RESTAURANTS:

We have given up eating at sit-down restaurants at MGM. Several trys between 1992 and 1998 have shown that service and value have not improved.

At the PRIME TIME CAFE, even with Priority Seating, we still waited 30 minutes for a table on a slow December day. Service was rushed and actually rude; we won't be going back.
However, the ABC COMMISSARY turned out to be a fine choice and a decent value (the kid's meal a very good value), and we could eat outside.
Less than a 10 minute wait for the lunch buffet at AKERSHUS; always a good value, with food you usually don't have at home, and great service. This is fast becoming a "must-go-to" place for us.
Likewise, seating was immediate at lunch at the BIERGARTEN and the food buffet (while we, of German descent, were expecting less) was surprisingly good, although the selection could have been wider and we missed not having the sauerbraten, available on the evening menu.
The POLYNESIAN LUAU: food quality has gone waaaay down since we first went here in 1994, and the show certainly has not improved, or even changed much. With a reservation made long in advance, we still waited 20 minutes to enter, and had to go to the "box office" to pay right up front (before all of our party was even there), which seemed very anti-Disneyesque, or at least anti-"forget-your-troubles, have-a-good-time." The food is not authentic, and was downright mediocre, very mediocre. We saw only one restroom for the whole place, with a capacity of 2 or 3 people tops, and was NOT wheelchair accessible at all.
A surprise was PIZZAFARI at the Animal Kingdom. A good value and a great break from routine fast food. The sub-type sandwiches were huge and very good. The service was excellent, no waiting in line or for the food, and the eating area was huge, well decorated and subdivided. Price wasn't too bad, either.
FOUNTAINVIEW CAFE at Epcot: our "secret" coffeeshop. It may seem like your usual coffee place at home, but when we were there, it had easy, quick in-and-out service, great coffee, fast and friendly service, and a good choice of pastries, donuts and othjer fattening items (try the fruit tarts). Skip the food court or sit-down restaurant in the morning and come here. Especially great on early entry days on off-season; it was deserted when we arrived.
SOMMERFEST in Epcot/Germany: the beer here was 5 cents cheaper than "out front" at the kiosks, and they also had dark beer, which wasn't available "out front." The line, however, can sometime be imposing.
CINDERELLA'S TABLE at the Magic Kingdom. You have to get these reservations on the early morning of Day 60 (or as early as they'll let you make them), but once you're there, we had less than 10 minutes until we were seated. However, otherwise, a bit of a disappointment. Our first trip here in 1992, also for the first seating of the day, was prior to the early-entry opening, so we were the only ones on Main Street; now the first seating coincides with the time the park opens, so you're not alone anymore. Because it was so early last time, there were many more characters at the breakfast -- 10 total, perhaps because they were all dressed up and had nowhere to go yet. This time there were only 6 (5, plus the Fairy Godmother in the waiting area downstairs). The food never was great (hard to screw up, tho) and the cream cheese pastry was a surprise and rather good. The service was nothing outstanding for Disney (although their standard is already very high, in our opinion). However, we did leave a roll of film behind, and when we returned for it about 20 minutes later, our waiter had seen it, and we got it back in no time at all.
ARTIST'S POINT character breakfast wasn't nearly as good. With priority seating we waited for 20+ minutes in the unused adjacent bar with more people (and small children) than should be in that one space. This was particularly difficult with the wheelchair, just because of the size of the crowd. The food was average; the atmosphere was noisy, beyond what we expected (and we did expect noise). In future, we'll prefer the Crystal Palace in the MK if we want to see Pooh.
The bar area of the CALIFORNIA GRILL was where we went on our first evening to see the 6 p.m. fireworks over champagne and sushi. Although there was a crowd for the tables, we were able to waltz right in a get comfy chairs in the lounge area overlooking the park. By far the freshest (and therefore the yummiest) sushi we've ever had, including a spicy tuna roll. Next time, we'll be returning there for a full dinner; the surroundings were very nice and the service was above average. One note: although they pipe in the audio from the fireworks, the volume was so low as to be imperceptible.
Downstairs, in the CONCOURSE STEAKHOUSE, we had an excellent dinner, with really fine food and wonderful service. We weren't bothered by the "noise" of the monorail. The spinach was as good as the recommendation we had read, and the filets were excellent. the Surf & Turf, although a bit pricey, was also very very good.
At BOATWRIGHTS for breakfast at Dixie Landings, we made priority seating from our room 30 minutes before we arrived, and were seated immediately. The french toast was enjoyable. Good food, large portions, excellent service (a very personable waitress), a very relaxing setting, and quiet compared to the mayhem of the food court. A second breakfast there meant a 10-minute wait, for which we were given a pager. The banana french toast, a goota-have for some in our group, did not disappoint.
At the HOUSE OF BLUES, the food was excellent cajun, with enough "normal" stuff that you didn't feel lost in the Delta, but those who knew their roue were still delighted. Standard but competent service.
The winner, however, was PALIO at the Swan. The food was amazing (and we're stridently anti-nouvelle), the service impeccable. A lovely room and atmosphere, quiet, but with live strings. The coupon in the Rita Aero guide and the recommendatiosn were right on the money. This is our new favorite.
WHEELCHAIR ISSUES: ROLLIN, ROLLIN, ROLLIN...

Some things you gotta have: first, a "pusher," or 2 or 3. It would be nearly impossible to do this on your own, even if you're a marathon racer. Even with just one "pusher," they will get very tired very quickly.
If you're thinking about bringing older parents/grandparents to WDW, go ahead and do it! The perks and extra attention given to people in chairs AND their party make it worth all the pushing, they'll have a great time (we made a convert out of a rather cynical Anne), you'll get to introduce someone "new" to Disney and see the park as they see it.
Anne was mobile, but certainly not capable of 12 hours or so or extensive walking (about an hour of strolling is her limit) and she is rather shaky about climbing stairs and getting on escalators. Climbing into boats and using the moving walkways was do-able but not among her favorite things.
The difficultites overall--- Magic Kingdom: Main Street can be tough; pushing the chair in the street means you have to watch our for the trolley tracks, but that's preferable to the sidewalks when there's a big crowd. During "high" crowd times wheelchair access is difficult anywhere. Shops are fairly easily accessible, and a solution to trying to navigateon crowded sidewalks, but counters and display cases are high in relation to the chairs. High curbs neccesitate the use of the ramps, which often mean taking the long route to use them -- a fault in every park but Animal Kingdom.
The benefits overall--- Characters and most cast memebers make a BIG fuss over wheelchairs. Anne was singled out at the MVMCP (both during the parade and by walkaround characters), FESTIVAL OF THE LION KING, Mulan parade, and several other places. At CAMP MINNNIE-MICKEY, when she got to the front of the line for the photo, Pluto took over chair duties to put it into position, and he and Goofy made a big deal out of it all -- she loved it. Where there were lines for attractions she wanted to see (this was the offest of the off season), the wheelchair usually brought us directly to the front of the line. Front-row seats for wheelchairs at LEGEND OF THE LION KING, FESTIVAL OF THE LION KING, FANTASMIC, BEAUTY & THE BEAST ON STAGE, COUNTRY BEAR JAMBOREE -- this is especially nice if someone on the group is a video nut. At AMERICAN ADVENTURE and VOYAGE OF THE LITTLE MERMAID the seating was at the back.
Overall, accessibility depends on the age of the park. MK, being a retrofit in many areas, is the least accessible. It seems Disney knows this and therefore tries to make up for it by having characters go the second extra mile and taking special care during parades, etc.
Washrooms are more wheelchair accessible at the newer parks and resorts -- including some with a sink and TONS of room inside the stall -- but some have a second entrance doorway that can make it a bit of a trick getting in and out. Expect fewer washrooms and less accessibility in older resorts -- Contemporary and Poly, for example.
Specific Park and Attractions notes:
PETER PAN: we avoided a 30-minute line because four out of six of us went in the wheelchair access and got right on. They slowed the walkway, and had Anne "skitch a ride" (balance herself) on the side of a pirate ship before she got in. Very helpful staff.
CAROUSEL: It's a shame that one must be able to climb aboard a horse to ride this wonderful ride, since it's just the type most likely to appeal to those who can't walk very well. Some parks have benches or other non-mobile sitting areas for the less-ambulatory; why not here?
IT'S A SMALL WORLD: A nice try. There's ramp access all the way to the boats, but there's no separate access for the wheelchairs and therefore no line-wait bypass. Stepping down into the boat was a little troublesome due to unsure footing, which made Anne forgo JUNGLE CRUISE and PIRATE OF THE CARRIBBEAN.
ANIMAL KINGDOM: This park will wear out your "pusher" more than any other, despite the lack of curbs. It may all pass ADA codes, but the contours and beautifully executed theming makes the ground very bumpy, curvy, hilly and mostly concrete (as opposed to pavement). It's hard on the feet and legs. In contrast, the rides and attractions, since this is the newest park and built after ADA, are accessible across the board. However, it seemed there was no designated wheelchair area for the MARCH OF THE ARTIMALS parade.
KILIMANJARO SAFARI: While the wheelchair "parking area" was a bit removed, and you may have to wait for a correctly-equipped truck to come around in the cycle, the wheelchair occupant and party sit right behind the driver, making it feel like it was a private tour. Our driver, who looked like a cross between a teddy bear and Drew Carey, was terrific, and pointed out special things to photograph, and slowed down when possible so that you could get the shot. Ride this more than once; our first tour of the day had a driver that must have just woken up; she was on automatic most of the time, didn't slow down when possible, and goofed the "bridge bit." Ride this at least twice, at different times of day, since the animals (and, as we discovered, the drivers) can vary greatly.
C2X: too wild to even attempt with the chair. Those that did ride though it was good, but too dark, and it suffers in comparison to the Indy ride at Disneyland.
FESTIVAL OF THE LION KING: Best show we've ever seen at WDW. As mentioned elsewhere, front row seats with the chair.
PAGANI TRAIL (aka GORILLA FALLS): Nice, but bumpy, and eventhough the park wasn't full, this path certainly was. It was hard to see the windows. Perhaps they could put in a lower, ramped area in front, for a two-tier system, as we've seen at some zoos (Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, for one), which would also keep most people from knocking on glass. Didn't they used to have this setup at the Animation Studios at MGM?
CONSERVATION STATION: We found the WILDLIFE EXPRESS train to the Station to be fully accessible, but at the Station itself the sand in the "petting zoo" made it tough to maneuver. The goats loved the chair, it seemed. We expected animals a bit more exotic/unusual than we could find at virtually any petting zoo, but that was not to be. Inside viewing rooms could be tough with crowds; maybe that two-tier design would work here too. Otherwise, beautifully laid out.
PARADES: We avoided waiting a half-hour or more to get a "good spot" by searching out the wheelchair-designated areas; Anne got a prime view and the rest of the party was just fine behind her, with no pushing or shoving or people squeezing at the last minute, as we've encountered elsewhere. HOWEVER, this was not true at MGM, where wheelchair viewing areas were poorly monitored and taken over by pedestrians who wouldn't make room. cast members here "just don't get it," it seems (and that applies to restaurants, too). MGM had the same difficulty with sidewalks as MK, but it was easier to get around than Animal Kingdom (see below).
FANTASMIC: Great seats, but it takes a lot of energy and patience to get to this show. After waiting in the world's biggest line (one half of Sunset Blvd. for almost its whole length) to enter the arena, it is then a huge uphill ramp to the arena area. We were directed to the wheelchair ramp all the way at the far end (that's understandable, but quite a hike), then down the long steep ramp to the front row. After the show, all that in reverse -- and at the end of a day of touring the park. We exerted just as much energy for that show as we did during the entire day total. If you're going alone, you GOTTA have somebody get you up that first hill.
EPCOT: Most pavillion shops and attractions were fairly accessible, but you have to look out for overmerchandising in smaller stores; there were several smaller stores (UK springs to mind) that we didn't take the chair into because we felt too "clumsy" to maneuver it. Beware of the "hill" going over the bridge between France and the UK, and on the way from the resorts to the International Gateway. Wheelchair viewing area near Germany was great.
SPACESHIP EARTH: Good access entry around the back avoids whatever line might be in front, although you may have to wait for service. The moving walkway and entry into the car might be difficult.
LIVING WITH THE LAND: Fully accessible, with wheelchair seating right up front next to driver/narrator.
Dr. Don

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