Trip Reports

Disney World Trip Report 1998

May 2 - 9, 1998

Cast of Characters

Della ............. Thirty something sister who works in accounting. Has a kitty named Lulabelle.

Me/Lindy ...... Twenty something Office Technician III (don’t laugh, the III is prestigious!) We both work in the same building and we’re both single and very content being so (how else could we take all these trips?) I have a Yellow Lab named Samson ... my son!

Planning/Introduction

I have been a fan of Disney since ... forever. Ever since I was just a tot my parents would take me and my sisters and brother on the annual pilgrimage to So. Cal. and Disneyland. Some of my fondest memories of youth and childhood are at Disneyland and nearby Knott’s Berry Farm. I grew up with Disney. I have always wanted to go to Disney World, and finally got my chance after a Caribbean Cruise in 1993 with my sister, Della. To say the least I was hooked. Five cruises and three visits to the World later. I’m awaiting the arrival of cruise six and Disney World visit number four.

After going to the WDW in October, I never lost the magic and began planning a spring trip, unbeknownst to Della. When I started bringing the subject up, she mentioned that it sounded like a fun idea. That was all I needed for encouragement, the next day we had reservations at All Star Music Resort for seven nights (our longest stay!) in May. As I said earlier this will be our fourth visit to WDW together, she had been twice pre-Epcot. Previously we’ve stayed at the Hilton and Grosvenor at the Village and Port Orleans last October, so we’re a little leery about ASMR but we’re optimistic and try to find fun in everything.

Last October we had a cruise booked but it sailed round-trip from San Juan, so we weren’t planning a Disney World trip but lo and behold when we got our airline tickets we were pleasantly surprised to find our flight from San Juan stopped in Orlando before moving on to Salt Lake City, which meant Disney World here we come!! This time, we had made our ressies at ASMR and were deciding on our flight arrangements when one day my sister and I were washing dishes Della said something like, it’s too bad to be all the way in Florida and not go on a cruise. The next day we were booked on a cruise departing our last day at the World. So we’re going to have to be happy at ASMR, we can’t afford anything else.

I had learned a ton from the Internet for last October’s trip, especially from Brian’s trip reports, so we found a lot of fun things to do and places to eat that we didn’t know about on our first two visits, and had a spectacular time! I vowed I’d write a trip report but after we got home and I started writing it, I couldn’t remember all the details. So this time I promised myself, I’d take notes. Since we got home, I found more resources on the net, Deb’s site and radp just to mention a couple. I have surfed and poured over everything I could find. I have meals planned out, park days arranged, resorts to see. We are ready!! Special kudos to those who post trip reports and to Deb and Brian and all the posters on radp. -- I have learned so much and appreciate your help and advice!!

We decided on Annual Passes rather than Length of Stay or Hopper Passes and we already have our next stay mapped out in January. Unfortunately there were no options for AP discounts for either the Moderate Resorts or the All Stars for this time of year. DRAT! Maybe we’ll get some good rates in January <fingers crossed!>. As for meals ... we are going to several of the recommended restaurants from radp. and trip reports. Last year we were on Fall Fantasy and had breakfast every morning so we were really too full to eat a whole afternoon meal, hence we shared, which turned out to be a great idea! We are going to be doing the sharing thing again this year, it’s less expensive, there’s more options and it’s worked for us in the past. Also, we’re vegetarians so with the help of Deb’s menus, I know exactly where we can go for veggie stuff.

As for the parks, we’re no commandos but we don’t have kids slowing us down so we’ll be doing what we want and returning to the resort for sun tanning at the Piano Pool when we’re tuckered out. We will probably do one Early Entry at the MK, because the last two times we’ve gone, the MK was so crowded we hardly got to do anything. Epcot’s our favorite, so we’ll be spending most of our time there. We loved "Off Kilter" from the World Showcase last October and we’re happy they’ll still be there. Davy Jones will be performing on the 8th (our last night) as part of the Flower and Garden Festival (we’re Monkees fans). Also I’m excited to go resort hopping, they are definitely part of the fun!

We decided on Florida Town Car service instead of Mears, we’ve used both and FTC is easier and nicer!

I have my radp button from Leslie (THANKS LESLIE!) my AP voucher from the Disney Store, my Mickey rain poncho, my MKC card and hopefully everything else I’ll need. I’m so excited ... a whole new park to explore, new restaurants to try, resorts to see, things to do, pictures to take and memories to make. Orlando, Disney World, "Off Kilter", Figment, Norway, 999 Happy Haunts, Pirates, Tower of Terror <fingers crossed for "THE SEAT">, Muppets, Rainforest Cafe, Spoodles, Mickey and all the Gang ... here we come!!!!!!!!!!!

(Now that we’re home, the biggest piece of advice I can give is ... don’t be disappointed when all your scheduling that you’ve done for the past four months doesn’t happen. Some of the funnest things happen at the spur of the moment any way! Remember what you hear over and over again in trip reports ... Be Flexible! And now that we’re home ... I WANT TO GO BACK!! And now on with the show!)

DAY 1 Saturday May 2

Well, the day has finally arrived!!! We got up bright and early this morning! It’s been a way busy week at work plus we’ve been tending our year old niece, Kea and our 2 ½ year old nephew, Robert. So instead of packing last night, I was watching Snow White with Robert. We did finally get going and made it to bed about 3 am and then got right back up at 7 am.

Della, my sister and travel buddy likes to be a the airport at least an hour before our flight leaves ... this time I think we were there 20 minutes before. Needless to say, she was stressed. Our friend and travel agent, Pam, was waiting for us at the airport with well wishes for a fabulous trip and a big bag of goodies. The flight was smooth, the lunch was surprisingly good and before we knew it we were half way across the country and ready for magic!

We got off the plane and made our way to the baggage claim where Gus from Florida Town Car was waiting for us with his sign. He followed us to the baggage claim, picked up our luggage and walked us to his Lincoln. We were on our way! Gus really liked to talk, and that was good .. but sometimes you just like to be quiet and look at the scenery.

We arrived at All Star Music Resort (ASMR) at 5:20. Paid Gus ($37.50 each plus $2 tip each) well worth the extra cash! Especially if you have more than two people ... it would even be cheaper than Mears. We checked in at the front desk. I had requested the Broadway Section but was unavailable due to a huge group of teens that had attended Grad Night on Friday. They offered us Jazz but I asked for Country Faire ... it was available even in a non smoking room, yeah! I know some of you out there are wondering why we’d turn down the second closest section to be in the furthest. At some points at 1 am, dead tired walking all the way back to CF I also wondered why. Although, I really like CF! It was very quaint and I liked the gardens and the peacefulness. I will definitely be coming back to ASM (to be truthful ... I like it better than Port Orleans).

So we made the trek to CF and when we got "home", we couldn’t get in! The key wouldn’t work! Immediately I was worried if this was going to foretell the rest of the stay at a Value Resort, but it worked out fine! Della, the exercise fiend, happily ran back. In the meantime I was sitting by our door when the bell hop came by with our luggage and reluctantly let me in. To make a long story short, two hours later a CM came by and reprogrammed the computer that is the card swipper. Wala, our key finally works! We were planning to go over to Epcot but since it was 7:30, we thought it would be useless so Downtown Disney here we come! On our way out I stopped by and got my refillable mug at the food court and filled it with Coke.

We made it to the Bus Stop (I was very impressed with the bus stop. Very organized!) and within seconds a bus pulled right up. Would this be a sign of buses yet to come!? Yup! I was so impressed with the bus system at the All Star Resorts! As soon as we got to DD we made a bee line direct to Rainforest Cafe. We had a two hour wait time, "Tummy do you hear that? Two hours till Amazon Flatbread!!!" While we waited we decided to check out The World of Disney Store ... T shirts for our 4 nieces and our nephew. Actually it would turn out to be a lot tougher than we thought!! By the way I hate this store! Too big. Too crowded. Too loud. I’m always getting lost!

We also had brought our AP vouchers and went in search of the place to activate them. We found Guest Services, man was it tiny! There were several people waiting and room for only a few ... deodorant check! Finally, our turn, yeah! Made it back for our check in time and waited for about 20 more minutes. Oh well, it is the Rainforest Cafe! While we waited we browsed through the little store which is always fun, Della picked out the shirt she liked. Finally we heard a semblance of our name and that our adventure was about to begin. Rainforest was one of our favorites last October and was one of the "looked forward to" restaurants. It didn’t disappoint! The service was slow but the Amazon Flatbread was exactly what we remembered. We were hungry but Rainforest gives huge portions! We ordered the Flatbread of course (the appetizer) and an order of waffle fries each. After we could eat no more we made our way back to All Star, again a bus pulled right up ... woo hoo!

DAY 2 Sunday May 3

Woke up at 8:00 and got ready. The first day in the parks is so fun and exciting! What am I saying? EVERY DAY at Disney World is fun and exciting!! The first day just more so ... Anticipation!! Epcot is our destination. But first breakfast at Spoodles ... YUM! I called and made Priority Seating but as it turns out we didn’t need them. We took the bus to MGM and then took the boat to Boardwalk, which is much faster than going all the way to Downtown Disney just to go all the way back to BW. Plus the boat ride is so fun!

We got to BW and made our way toward Spoodles, yet another one of those "looked forward to" things. WE’RE HERE!!!! They had fixed the restaurant’s entry way since our last time there, and as we walked in and were about to be seated, I yell out "Shane!!" (Our server from last October, we got attached to him!) He nearly jumped out of his skin and I doubt he even remembered the sisters from Utah but was very cute. I mentioned to him that I had posted on radp. about Spoodles and him and for everyone to ask for Shane to be their server, cause he’s the best! He said that lately there has been a lot of people requesting to be sat in his area! People really do read my posts!! Who’d a thought? It was great having Shane for our waiter ... see the magic’s already started ... it’s going to be a perfect week!

Spoodles is an all you can eat Mediterranean buffet and very tasty at that. Just a reminder about us being vegetarians, there’s still a ton of stuff for us to eat. Their potatoes are yummy and they have pastries, fruit, yogurt, cereals, french toast, pancakes (let me tell you ... these pancakes are the best!), English muffins and different breads you can toast, a vegetarian burrito besides all the meats, breakfast pizzas and several omelets. It was delicious and we love love love their orange juice, which is also all you can drink. The meal was wonderful, we had Shane as our waiter and we got a 10% discount with our AP, what else can we ask for ... maybe no crowds and our Jazz (Utah’s NBA Basketball team) to win their game today! Nah, we don’t ask for much!

We made our way through the International Gateway, which is the best way to enter Epcot! It was so calm and serene, walking right by the water. Not to mention the great views of Boardwalk and the Yacht and Beach Clubs and it’s fun to enter right into World Showcase which is our very favorite! Right off I grabbed the entertainment schedule and was devastated to find that "Off Kilter" wouldn’t be performing the whole week we’d be there. Later we’d find out they were remodeling their stage and would be starting up again the very day after we’d be leaving. And I had emailed Disney World and everything and they promised "Off Kilter" would be there! To say the least, we were bummed! Just another excuse to get us back again!

We meandered through World Showcase on our way to Norway (my fav) and to Maelstrom. The Flower and Garden Festival was in full bloom, get it ‘full bloom’? It was beautiful! Last time we were here it was the Food and Wine Festival and we’d much rather see floral splendor than extremely drunk tourists in Norwegian Viking Hats making complete fools of themselves. The topiaries were very cute and original. We got over to Norway and Maelstrom was a walk on, hurray! Disappear, Disappear!! Love those trolls! They need to make this one longer! We skipped the movie so we could make a show at the American Garden Stage. I love the movie and planned to come back and see it at least once, think again!!

The show was neat though. It gave a sampling of some of the cultures’ entertainment. Japanese drummers, Chinese acrobats, Polynesian dancers. After that was over we walked right into the American Adventure building and Voices of Liberty were just walking out. It’s my fourth time and this is the first time that I’d ever caught Voices of Liberty! I’m so glad I finally did get to see them. They are very talented and it’s a very touching patriotic show ... with an extremely cute guy! You’ll find that with me it always helps a show to have attractive men in it. After the show we went right into the American Adventure which is always very moving as well. I love the Two Brothers song and of course American Dream.

Next we made our way around the Showcase to visit Figment and the Dream Finder. I love Figment! I’m singing away, enjoying every scene! In the pictures at the end everyone was looking so bored and here I am posing with a cheesy grin. We walked right into the line for Honey I Shrunk The Audience, just missing the cut off so we ended up waiting about 10 minutes to see the preshow. I really like the "True Colors" song with all those thoughts thrown in! Loved HIStA as always! Those pesky little mice were more violent than I remember. My legs were just a stinging.

Time to make our way back to the gateway to catch our basketball game at ESPN. We didn’t eat at ESPN, still too full from breakfast but we were allowed to sit in the back on stools which was really fun. We both had our Jazz shirts on and we were cheering and rahing our fellas on to victory! We even made friends with a couple of guys from Boston who ended up rooting for our team as well! It was so neat to see the game on the big screens and if you have to go to the bathroom right in the middle of the game ... no need to wait for half time, there’s TVS in the restrooms!! In the stalls, by the sinks. Definitely a cool thing! Didn’t hurt that we’d won!

After the game and according to my schedule it was time for dinner, San Angel Inn. By the time we got over to Mexico the soonest we could get in to eat was half hour before the park closed and after all the energy we exerted during the game we were hungry so we passed on dinner there, the only time that Priority Seating would have been necessary. At that moment my schedule went out the window never to be heard from again ... oh well, it was fun making it out and even funner to improvise anyway.

We decided on Lotus Blossom Cafe in China. So on our way, had to check out the line to Maelstrom since it is on the way, nope the line was way past the Askershus. The little Chinese acrobats were about to start so we found a sunny spot to watch, about half an hour later, they started and wow! How can those kids do that? Those little girls must not have back bones! Tummies were growling so over to Lotus Blossom. We both got the stir fried veggies and halved a fried rice (picked out the meat of course). The stir fry would’ve been fine though. They gave very generous portions and we couldn’t eat it all anyway. It was delicious!

It was getting late so we thought we’d meander over to Future World, it will always be Future World to me, none of this Epcot East, Epcot West business! Did Horizons, there was absolutely nobody there but the CMs, it was actually kind of lonely. Wonders of Life was next, Della wanted to ride the virtual reality bike, we both did the Disneyland version and it was very fun seeing all of the folks running to get out of the way. I got off my bike and was ready to go on ... but not Della. She did all of the options and probably would’ve been there forever had there not been people waiting to ride them. Can you believe there was no line for Body Wars? It always makes me sick (not many rides do that to me), so we passed that by and waited for the next showing of Making of Me. Della and I really like this one, it’s very heartwarming and I absolutely love Martin Short. It always chokes us up when Martin’s Mom and Dad walk out of the smoky movie theater and he says, "thanks Mom, thanks Dad!"

Spaceship Earth was the next and last stop. I know some still would rather have Walter Cronkite but this girl is madly in love with Jeremy Iron’s voice. Yes I love Scar! After disembarking our vehicle we stopped to call our Mom and Dad on the Family Phone in the Communication Center. It was so fun to both talk and hear what’s going on. We were so excited, our vacation is just starting and the Jazz won!! Yippiee! Illuminations had already started when we got out and so from Spaceship Earth we high tailed it ... and I mean high tailed it! To Beaches and Cream for our Fudge Mud Slide. One word WOW! It was so huge, we of course just shared it but there were actually people ordering one desert per person and finishing it! We couldn’t even finish ours with two people working on it. I was so glad that I knew about this little spot! While we were there several off duty CMs were in getting deserts, it’s kind of like a secret little place. I enjoyed walking around the Yacht and Beach Clubs so much that if I ever were able to afford it, that would be the Deluxe of my choice!

Rant mode is coming in here, so if you don’t want to hear, tune out for a minute. Bus service at night sucks! I think a place such as the Boardwalk should have resort bus service after the parks are closed!! Here we are tired and tired and you know tired! We’d been walking around a lot! And no bus available except for ... you guessed it ... Downtown Disney. So we waited and waited and waited!! People were resorting to taking taxis they were so tired of waiting. But we just knew the next bus was the DD bus. Eventually it was. Now I was very fond of the bus service this time, from the All Star Resorts but bus service at every other resort we went to was BAD! Boardwalk, Poly, Port Orleans (we all know that’s a joke!) We got back to our little room like 2 ½ hours later. Oh well, hopefully that won’t happen again. Okay, folks rant mode off. Magic back on.

DAY 3 MONDAY MAY 4

Today is Animal Kingdom!! We were so excited to have a new experience at a new park but we couldn’t quite make a 7 am opening after last night so about 10 we made it to the park. We had planned to do breakfast at Rainforest but since it was almost over and Shane (waiter from Spoodles) suggested we do Countdown to Extinction about 10, we opted for that. Number one AK observation/complaint: how the heck are you supposed to find things?! The guide maps are absolutely no help whatsoever! We did make it to DinoLand, and it was darn cute. Countdown to Extinction was empty. Just a few people ahead of us and a few behind us as we wound our way past the enormous queue. Yesh, no one actually waits this long do they? If they did we’d have to put them on the extinction list. We got in the car, ready for an Indy knock off. It was similar to Indy, I mean you’re in a car for both rides and the ride style was the same but Countdown is much rougher. I suggest you wait for a while to go on this one if you’ve just eaten at Restaurantasaurus! Great theming though and the Iguanadome is a cutie! He’s a vegetarian like us so there’s an instant bond there. Caution here to parents with small children. The dinos were pretty darn scary for little ones and they did have some effects that might ... will scare them. We checked out the little store there and I immediately fell in love with the dinosaurs! I knew my little nephew would love them, too. But how to get one home? Especially since we are continuing on with the cruise after. It would be a great debate the whole week but eventually was discounted. I’m going to get one on our next visit.

After we left the store we walked through Crustacean Trails for a bit, and wandered into the Boneyard. Help!! How do we get out! We’re stuck!! Cute playground for kids, but didn’t interest us. We did make our way out of the Boneyard and DinoLand. We somehow, with the help of a CM got put into the "It’s Tough To Be A Bug" line. Now, we’re not so sure about this one. We don’t like bugs all that much and being a part of this was a little unnerving for us. The line took about 25 minutes to get through but that was the best part. We were having a blast finding all the critters in the tree ... which is amazing!!! The show is okay, it was new and we had to say we did it but once is plenty. Again strong caution to those with small children. Tip: if your kids aren’t sure about this one, keep them on your lap. Make sure to check out the posters in the theater’s waiting room.

We were getting a little rumbly in the tumbly so we decided on Pizzafari for a roasted vegetable calzone but they didn’t have any so we went to the Rainforest again. Della got her shirt in the store as we waited all of about 10 minutes to get in. Definitely a fun Rainforest! It’s bigger than the one at DD and it doesn’t seem so congested. We ordered the Amazon Flatbread again and the Plant Sandwich with Waffle Fries. As we waited for the food we got out our trusty AK map and decided what we wanted to do next. We had the boats, the safari, gorilla falls, conservation station and the three shows we wanted to see. We decided we’d do what we can and come back tomorrow to finish up if we needed to. By the way ... we would need to. The food was excellent! We were in the Atlas Room, every time that we’ve gone to Rainforest we always end up in the Gorilla Room so it was fun to do something different. We took lots of pictures of the in and outside of the Cafe and then made our way back to the park.

We hadn’t really gotten very far around the park yet but from what I had seen the name Plant Kingdom did sound like it fit the park better. We did see some birds. We came across the CMs, they of course were directing us to DinoLand again but we didn’t care to go back there again. We made it to the board that shows the wait times of the attractions and everything was 2 or more hours.

It was hot, crowded and I was losing patience over being lost all the time so we decided to see a show, how ‘bout Festival of the Lion King. Okay! Now we decided what we’d do next was the hard part. Finding it. We found Asia, Africa, DinoLand, Africa again until I finally asked a CM. They gave some general directions so I thought I’d be able to find it now. Nope. Africa again. Yesh!! Again I asked directions and got better ones this time. We actually found it! And we probably walked by it 8 times but the Camp Minnie Mickie sign is so small and someone was probably standing in front of it.

We found the theater but we’d just missed the show. The queue was so far back they weren’t even promising everyone that they’d get in but we waited anyway. We’d be waiting for something it might as well be this, after all it took us an hour to find it. After the hour wait to get into the theater, I kept thinking that this better be worth it. We were sat in the far section of the theater in the round that we would later find out to be the Lion Section.

The stage manager for the day came out and introduced the show ... finally, it was probably about 2 pm and this was only our 3rd attraction for the day. Do you feel the dramatic build up? Like something amazing is about to happen? Well it did!! As soon as the four main characters came out I knew I’d like this show. Why? You ask. Cute guys! Yup, he’s masculine and strong and he sure is good looking! When the dancers came out in their costumes, I was mesmerized! This show is fabulous and if all you do in Animal Kingdom is go to this show ... your day is worth it. I loved every minute! And yes my handsome strong man sang my fav song "Be Prepared". The monkeys are lovable and amazing the fire baton twirler is wow. Yes I was hooked. The whole cast is very talented! The costumes fantastic! After the show got over, I was still spell bound as I told Della ... we need to see this again!!!

I was still a little stressed from all the crowds and getting lost so I desperately needed a Coke. I found a stand that only sold soda in a souvenir cup. Great! First thing my mom will say is 2 more mugs? Next we were off to the Pocahontas show. When we got there they said they weren’t letting anyone else in and the next show would probably be canceled due to the lightening. Oh oh, lightening, that means ... yup you guessed it. It was going to rain. And we know the Florida weather enough to find cover. We specifically brought our yellow ponchos we bought two years ago but they were safe and sound ... in the room. So we found a lovely table with an umbrella at Pizzafari and were comfy and safe when it started to pour. We were at that little table for more than an hour. I started to jot down trip reports notes and Della was very prepared and brought post cards to write. After that hour it was still raining pretty hard and after last October when it rained on us almost every day we decided to call it a day, even though it was just 4 or so. We didn’t want to buy another poncho and we both had our new sandals on and we didn’t want them ruined so we headed out when the rain lolled a little.

We were stopped at the exit by a CM taking polls and he asked us several questions about the park. Had we seen any animals? Nope! Did we do this or that? Nope! We weren’t really the best to question since we were lost most of the day and it was too crowded to even move most of the time. We did give him an excellent review of The Festival of the Lion King! I had mentioned I was unhappy about being lost all the time and he told us that the theme of AK is adventure. They didn’t draw the maps to scale, there aren’t a lot of signs and they were built small just for the fact that they wanted us to get lost. Huh? Was my response. I didn’t like being lost and I certainly told him so.

We ran back to the Rainforest shop and I decided to get a sweat shirt that they had on clearance and we made it back to the bus stop and lo and behold there was the bus just a waiting for us. Of course by the time we got back to the Resort the rain had stopped. We headed over to the food court and picked up a package of popcorn and popped it in the handy dandy microwave and I got a refill of Coke. If I had’ve know there was a microwave, I would’ve brought popcorn from home. It would’ve been a lot cheaper. I did bring some licorice so we went back up to our room and had our snacks watching the TV and decided that tomorrow we’d get up and be there by 7 even if it killed us and hopefully we’d get to do most every thing we wanted before it got too crowded. So we hung out in the room, I took a lovely nap and Della wrote postcards, she is the postcard queen. I think she totaled over 40 this trip. We found 7th Heaven on TV and watched it. Then called it a night. Hey the day wasn’t a waste!! We got to see The Lion King show!!

DAY 4 TUESDAY MAY 5

Well we did it ... we made it to AK at about 7:10 and as usual CMs directing traffic tried to get us back to DinoLand, we managed to maneuver and made it to the Kilamenjaro Safari. We walked right through the whole queue, cool! The ride was great!! First of all we didn’t have to wait in line and second ... we saw a ton of animals. Della was just like a kid, "ooh Lindy, there’s a giraffe!! Look look look a zebra!" I had the camcorder aimed and ready for shooting the animals, the only way they should be shot! Granted the jeep was very jumpy and my arm was twisting around trying to get all the little guys. Zooming in, zooming out. What a blast! And unlike most of the opinions about Big and Little Red ... I am glad they changed the ending so it would be a happy one. Gosh, I’m just a softie and don’t want to hear the cruel, hard realities of life while in the magic world of Disney. Back to business ... we were glad we came early so we could see all the animals. We even got to see a lion that was roaring its little heart out. Our safari guide told us he was marking his territory. I knew about the moats separating the animals: predators and their prey, but it was awesome to see the lion and antelope so close to each other.

After we exited our safari jeep we somehow wondered right into Gorilla Falls. I’ve heard so many folks who’d gone through the Falls and never seen a single gorilla, so I wasn’t really expecting any. I was pleasantly proved wrong. We saw four out of five of the gorillas. In the observation center we even got a wonderful view of Momma and Baby. Her 4 year old son was also close by swinging from a tree. I truly believe gorillas are really showmen. They are so entertaining and it looks just like they’re posing for you. We followed the trail and saw two adult males. Then we did the Conservation Station, it was just okay. Goats to pet and a sad little film about rainforest destruction, it was very depressing. I want a happy! Give me the Lion King show! Next time Conservation Station will be a miss. Along with the boats. By the time we got back from the station, the park was pretty full. We did want to do the boats, hey they’re new. But they weren’t worth the 25 minutes we waited. We picked it up at the Asia station and got off at DinoLand in time to walk right into the Jungle Book show. The Jungle Book show was very cute and like the Lion King show, the costumes were extrodinary and original. I loved the elephants. I would have liked to see Kaa though, "Trust in me" is my favorite from that one. As well as the Beatles/Vultures song.

After the show got out ... all heck broke loose and we were apart of the worst Disney Park traffic jam since the last night of MSEP at Disneyland. I think some crowd control was definitely in need at that moment. I won’t complain a real lot cause I know it’s a new park and they have to work the bugs out of the system. Especially the stink bug from "It’s Tough To Be A Bug" movie. We ducked into the Flame Tree food area to wait for the traffic to die down and saw the yummiest looking fries. So of course, we stopped. They were more like big wedges of potato covered with spicy topping and deep fried. A must for all tater lovers.

After that tasty little snack we moved on ... to the Lion King. WOO-HOO! I love that show. Yup, it’s just as good the second time. As a matter of fact, we both decided that for the rest of our week we’d come back every day and watch it. Can anyone say addicted!! Little did we realize this would be the last performance with all the four main characters we liked the best. We were one of the first groups in line, therefore they sat us in the giraffe section. Which isn’t the best. We sat in like the third row, hint: it’s better to be up further in the bleachers. I know it looks like you won’t be able to see as well but you’ll be able to see better. The main stage comes out with the floats and it’s where most of the "center stage" show is seen. For example monkeys, dancing parrots, my darling Kiume singing "Be Prepared", Timon ... main stuff like that. I even tapped a bit of it but like I said, it wasn’t the best view. I like the Lion section or the Warthog section, we never sat in the Elephant section so I don’t know what it’s like from that view point. Now I am home I wish I had’ve recorded more that day though.

After the show we caught a bus over to MGM, I wanted to make sure and get back to the room by 8:00 because one of my favorite series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was on and its a new episode. But we had plenty of time to do a few things at MGM. When we got in and checked the board TOT was only a 10 minute wait. Oh boy! I started running ... and by the time we got there, the line was nonexistent. We walked right into the library and then from there almost walked right into the elevator. We had to do it twice, cause it’s never been that uncrowded before. After that we meandered over to the Great Movie Ride which also was a walk on. We made it through the huge queue, which we always have to wait in and walked right into a car. Amazing! Got the gangster again, I don’t think I’ll ever get to see the western guy.

After that we sort of just casually walked around, it was nice to see this park uncrowded, since we never had before! As we strolled by Hunchback’s theater we noticed a show would be starting in about half an hour, so as soon as we walked in and sat down, Matt the juggler came out. What timing! I really like him! Not only is he talented but darn cute! Then for the show. This was our first time for this show, since when we were here six months ago, it rained torrents the day we were at MGM and it didn’t go on. It was so creative how they managed to tell the story through the puppets. And all performers were extremely talented especially Quasi! I wonder what he looks like without the nose? I bet darn cute! Phoebes was just mediocre. Really liked it, although not as good as my Festival of the Lion King!!

We were going to catch a bus to DD and get a carmel apple at the West End candy store to take back and eat while watching Buffy but since MGM doesn’t have a bus that goes to DD we bagged that idea. What’s up with that?! It’s the only place you can’t catch a bus to DD, you have to go to a resort or the TTC, which is stupid in my opinion.

So we just went back to our ASM and I waited at the food court while Della went back for my mug, she likes all this walking! Me, I like to walk but was starting to get mighty tired feet and blisters were blossoming on my little toes. Tomorrow I’d be forced to wear shoes instead of sandals. So here I am hanging out at the food court and even though I wasn’t hungry I remembered all we’d eaten was those tots at AK. That thought was all I needed to make my tummy a little growly. We should’ve eaten at MGM but didn’t think about it then. When Della came back, happy as a clam to have walked back to CF and then back to the main building agreed it was time for "a little something". We decided to split a veggie lasagne and get a corn on the cob (1/3 a cob, that is). I think we must of hit it on a bad day. The lasagne looked much better on other days but today was a sorry excuse for veggie lasagne. But that along with the corn and some bread sticks filled us up. Not to mention my five refills of coke.

We decided to hang out at the Piano Pool for a while, I people watched (I just love to people watch at Disney World!) and Della, you guessed it, wrote more postcards. There were bugs a plenty out so after a while we went in and watched Buffy and then Dawson’s Creek, the show that follows Buffy. Since we couldn’t see taking a bus to DD and then one to Boardwalk to ESPN to watch our Jazz game just to take a bus to DD and then a bus back to ASM at like 1 in the morning, the game didn’t start till almost 11 EST. And since it wasn’t on our room TV we resorted to watching CNN as the sports scores on the bottom of the screen updated us every few minutes of the change of the score, yes we are die hard fans. That is where we fell asleep so we didn’t find out our victory until the morning.

DAY 5 WEDNESDAY MAY 6

This morning we planned on going back to Eppiecot. We only did one really early morning and that was Monday at AK. So we didn’t arrive at Epcot until 10 or so. Our first stop was Innoventions, I wanted to have a look-see and of course a cookie! First of all we stopped at the House of Innoventions. I somehow thought that this is where the cookies would be, so we waited a good 20 minutes to get in and then the dull tour through the house. My advice ... skip this!

Once outside we smelled the cookies and followed our noses to the demo oven. We made it just in time to get the sample ... yum! Could I have one of those right now? I was dying to ask the lady if I could have a piece of raw dough (my favorite) but was chicken. I wanted to pull an Oliver Twist ... please, may I have some more. Yummy! I love hot cookies and if they had them available to buy, I probably would’ve.

After we got our cookie we had a few minutes before 11, we were planning on hitting San Angel Inn first thing it opened. I know we hadn’t eaten breakfast but I would rather just have an early lunch than breakfast. So with our few minutes, I suggested doing Ellen. Which turned out to be quite a few minutes, I forgot how long that show/ride is. Although most of Bill Nye the Science Guy’s narratives go over my head, I’m much to lazy to actually think of science at Disney World, I like this ride!

So we wander over to Mexico by way of Odyssey. By the way this whole time I’ve been wearing my radp button and no one has said anything to me, no CM, no fellow radper, nobody. I was a little disappointed because I would’ve loved to meet some familiar names. We got to San Angel Inn, with priority seating set for 11:30, right on time. After waiting about 10 more minutes we were seated right by the water which was really neat. We ordered our vegetarian Plato Combinacion and of course a coke for me, since last year it was so good. Our chips finally arrived after quite a wait and were perfectly warm, yum! Although the salsa didn’t seem the same to me. Our meal arrived and much to our disappointment, the portions seemed to be cut by half. Last year we ordered just one combination plate and that was more than plenty for us, we even had some left on our plate. This year the plates were indeed empty but we still left satisfied after all those chips and three cokes for me (not as good as last year either. I’m on a quest to find the best coke in the world. At this point Port Orleans holds the record.) The food was still good so we’ll still go back. Try the hottest salsa, it’s yum!

Then we moved on to the Mexico ride, El Rio del Tiempo. Contrary to popular consensus on this ride, I really like it. It’s enjoyable, more so than Small World for me. Noticed the camera was gone and got the little song stuck in my head.

We moved on to take pictures of the topiaries with the video camera but we were going to hit Maelstrom along the way. As I was taking pictures of the poinsettia tree at Norway through the camera I noticed a sign in front of Maelstrom saying it would be down for refurbishment. Disappointment! Oh but look, it will be open on Friday. Definitely on Friday we’d be back. Norway is my favorite country and I love Maelstrom and the movie. I have this theory that there are no unattractive Norwegians, every time we’re in the Norway pavilion, we test this theory and so far I haven’t seen one unattractive Nord.

Worked our way around the world just to end up in the good ol’ US of A in time for Voices of Liberty ... well, we planned it that way. Still an excellent show but my cute guy wasn’t there. After the show we walked out right into the character show on the Plaza stage. Cute show, we saw it in October and I recorded a little and my nephew liked watching it so much, I thought I’d record a little more. We meandered back to Norway to look at the Trolls again. I am having a really tough time deciding which Troll that I want this time, there are so many cute ones. It is a tradition for me to buy a Troll every visit. I started it the second time we came so now I have three. Still didn’t decide, I’ll have to decide and get it on Friday. Friday is going to be a busy day!

I wanted to send my niece an E-mail, so we went in search of the E-mail place at Innoventions. Found it. Sent one to Rachel (niece), my boss and Della’s boss. Come to find out when we got home they didn’t go through. Wonder why? Time to go back to AK to see ... yup, you guessed it Festival of the Lion King. And you thought I was kidding when I said I was going to go back every day and watch it, didn’t you? We really used the bus transportation system this time and like I said earlier, we were only unhappy a few times.

We sat in the Warthog section this time and we were sitting in anticipation, with my camera on the ready when out comes the performers and my Kiume isn’t there. Drat! Nakawa was still there and the show was still wonderful. No matter how many times I see this show, I’m always so impressed. The costumes and music ... it’s truly a spectacular you should make at all costs.

After we got out we ran to the Pocahontas show and were let in but we had to stand. This was a different kind of show. There was only one human in it, Pocahontas. She does an amazing job interacting with animals and animated trees. We were getting a little hungry so we tried to get a calzone at Pizzafari again but no dice, again. Do they ever have veggi calzones? We walked out after that. Camp Minnie Mickey was our main haunt at AK.

Back to MGM where we went on TOT three times right in a row. Walk on every time. The last time I even requested the seat belt and it was granted by a very nice CM. Let me just tell you, I was giddy. I love the seat belt, every one should ask for it once during their visit.

MGM was closing at this point and Della and I decided to do DD to get the souvenir shirts for our nieces and nephew and that carmel apple from the West Side candy store. Again no bus to DD (what a crock!) So I had a bright idea, why not take the bus to PO and then catch the bus to DD from there. Note to reader: Don’t do this! First of all, we waited a really long time at PO for the bus to come and once we got on it was a MAD HOUSE! You stop at DL four times ( you’d think that I would’ve remembered about their bus system since I stayed at PO last October but NOOOOO!) By the time we got to DD we just decided to walk to West Side instead of staying on the bus, because we were getting so bus sick! Let me tell you this is a long walk to West Side from DD.

We got our apples and they were making chocolate covered strawberries. Our favorite! So we got a strawberry each and ate them by the new Cirque de Soleil building while we decided what to eat (we were mighty hungry at this point ... if only Pizzafari had calzones). Wolfgang Puck ... nah, too crowded and I haven’t heard good things about Puck’s on radp. House of Blues ... too smokey. Bongos ... didn’t look like there was any veggie things. Pizza did sound good but Puck’s was way too crowded. So we just decided to go with a favorite ... all the way back to Rainforest.

By the time we walked all the way back to DD, I was bushed. So Della went over and put her name in while I sat by the water at the stage in front of The World Of Disney Store. Let me tell you, I was not looking forward to going in there and deciding what to get the kids. Rachel wanted a Hard Rock Cafe shirt from St. Thomas so that was the only one we didn’t need to worry about right now. Rebecca wanted a Planet Hollywood shirt and we got that one earlier at MGM at the Planet Hollywood store. Here we are TIRED! By now it was about 9 o’clock and we had about a two hour wait for our adventure to begin at Rainforest Cafe. We were worried about what to get Katie our 8 yr old niece so we decided to mold our change together and call her to see what she wanted. She decided on a green Pooh shirt with Disney World written on it. I hung up and Della asked what size did she say. Oh oh, I guess we call back, but instead we called our Mom again. I think we’ve called her five times already since we’ve been gone. We just can’t get along without her. If only we could get her to come with us. Alas she won’t fly. So after that call we feel confident about what we’re going to get at the moment. We go out and can’t find a Pooh shirt that we both agree on that is green and has Disney World on it. But settled. We did look for a shirt for Kea, the baby. Ever notice that you can’t find a big variety when it comes to infant’s apparel. We finally settled on something for her and decided that we’d get Robert a shirt from DinoLand with of course dinosaurs on it. We made our purchase, using our MKC card and headed over to Rainforest.

We found a place to lean and in just less than a minute we were called to go to the Elephant Room. Wow, it’s good we didn’t moll over our decision any longer. We decided on the It’s Greek To Me Flatbread and waffle fries. It was a long night, slow service as usual but this time we had really good scenery, I mean beside the animals and Atlas ... good looking waiters. We like to squeeze lemon on our fries and since we were so tired I think Della was a little violent with her squeezing and her lemon flew across the room and almost hit a fellow diner on the head. Later a waiter almost slipped on it. This gave me a second wind and had me rolling with laughter until I got tired again. Once we finally got our food and got on our way we were stopped again to be surveyed. This time about DD, PI and West End. Since we didn’t eat at only the Rainforest Cafe and didn’t once go into PI, we weren’t the best to ask again. I did bring up AK and of course the spectacular Festival of the Lion King and praised it to no end.

Got on the bus and headed home, already worried about the purchases we made, thinking we are bad shoppers and next vacation we aren’t going to do souvenirs at all. Got home, stopped at the food court for a plastic knife to cut our apples, we were so full we could only eat one but it was yummy! We decided we’d save the other apple to eat sometime tomorrow, we’d just put it in the camera bag. We fell asleep trying to find the score from the LA/Seattle game ... we’ll play the winner. I’ve also gotten really interested in the Eastern Conference, I’ll be routing for Indy’s Pacers.

DAY 6 THURSDAY MAY 7

Today is our E Ticket Express Night AKA E Ride Night. Also our next Jazz game. I had read so many things about Coral Isle Cafe and the Poly was a resort I wanted to see, so I made a PS for Coral Isle. We took the bus to Magic Kingdom and the boat over to the Poly. I am a true hater of anything associated with bananas so instead of Tonga Toast I got the Polynesian Pancakes and Della got the Tahitian Toast and we both ordered orange juice and island potatoes. Other than the coconut syrup, no big hurrah here. By the way no refills on the oj, should’ve gone back to Spoodles, turned out to be the same moneywise. Oh well ... live and learn.

The Poly was pretty but it smelled bad and we’re just as happy at All Star Music ... so why pay all that more. We decided to do Festival of the Lion King first this morning so we went out to the bus stop and waited and yup waited some more. Finally it arrives and ends up stopping about 5 times at the Grand Floridian. Why is it that the bus system is so good at the All Star Resorts and when it comes to the more expensive resorts it sucks! Not that I’m complaining since I love the All Star Music. Long trip from Poly/GF to AK.

Finally arrived at AK and you guessed it, Camp Minnie Mickey bound. Got in line and were seated in the Warthog section again. It was so fun how many people we met while waiting in line for Lion King and chatting with people while we waited for the show. I got quite attached to a little girl in the line this time and she was so cute. Still no Kiume this time there was a substitution for Nakawa as well.

After the show we decided to go back to MGM and do some of the things we missed plus Sci Fi for lunch was a ‘have to’ this time. We were planning to do another time at the Tower but the wait board quoted a 30 minute wait and after we went on it 3 times in less than 30 minutes we will never be able to wait again. So we made our way to Sci Fi to see when we could get in. I was surprised to find out we would be able to get in with just a 10 minute wait. I had read a ton about Sci Fi from radp and of course from trip reports and I wanted to do this a lot, if just for the atmosphere. I didn’t tell Della anything about it, cause I wanted her to be surprised. So when we walked into the dining area it was not only fun to see myself but fun to see Della’s expression. Everyone should go here. It was a total blast! Not only was it cute, but the food was great and our sever was the best. Those of you who don’t know what this place is all about. It’s like a 50's drive in movie. With cars as tables and a movie screen showing trailers of old Sci Fi movies. We decided on the deep fried mozzarella cheese fritter with basil sauce and a "They Grow Amongst Us" sandwich. We mentioned that we wanted to share and would like french fries instead of potato chips. When he brought us our sandwich, he had halved it plus given us each a whole order of fries each. What a guy! They also had fabulous Coke. Move over Port Orleans, Sci Fi’s in the lead now for the best Coke in the World. I can’t believe I forgot his name, but server was excellent. Always making sure we were okay and keeping my coke full. The movie trailers were neat too. It was so fun to see clips of all those shows my brother and I used watched on Saturday mornings. I just love that Blob song!

After lunch, I was so full, I could barely walk. So I waddled and of course Della briskly walked over to see Kermie and the gang. I love those guys. We decided to head on out and as we checked out the wait board, TOT was down to 10 min. again. I’m afraid I was still too full, though. So unfortunately we said farewell to MGM until next time. We caught the Transportation and Ticketing bus and then took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. Can you believe it, this is our first time to even step into the Magic Kingdom. We exchanged our E tickets for wristbands at City Hall. I asked the CM what the count for tonight was and was rudely told she didn’t know. We still had a little over than 3 hours before the park officially closed and we started our E ticket night.

There were a few things we wanted to do that wasn’t included in E ticket, so we did them now. First we meandered over to the Carousel of Progress but decided to check out the show over in Tomorrow Land. Galaxy Star Search. What a cute show, it was a character show, so don’t expect grandeur. But just wait until Goofy’s contestant comes out, what a kick! Then we went over to CofP, sat in the front row as usual and sung our little hearts out. That Rover is so darn cute, every time we see dogs, even animatronic dogs, I miss my Sammy!

Then we got out our carmel apple we didn’t eat last night that we’d been carrying around in the camera bag all day. It was still yummy. Definitely grab one of those over at West End when you go. They are huge, yummy and only $3. Then we headed over to Liberty Square via the train from Toon Town. We just missed the Hall of Presidents show but did a little looking in LS. Della just loves LS and Hall of Presidents. Actually all things patriotic. Now, I’d actually rather see or hear rather someone other than Maya Anjelou do the narration.

We then ran right into Country Bears. I was so excited to see the original Jamboree with our favorite bears. This is the fourth time at WDW for me but I didn’t know until recently that the show is the original show and not the Vacation Hoedown show at Disneyland. I just love Big Al singing "Blood on the Saddle" and the triplets singing my theme song, "All The Guys That Turn Me On Turn Me Down". So I was having a blast, recorded quite a bit. Everyone in the theater was leaving but me ... I was still singing along, "I hope that you’ll be comin’ back again!"

We did leave and when we walked out it was 9 sharp so we started our E ticket with Splash Mountain. Walked right through the whole queue and right into a log, front row! By the way when we arrived the wait time for Splash was 60 min. Woo Hoo! We were happy as a clam singin’ along with all the brers. The fireworks were going off as we were going down ... how cool! When we got to the disembarkation area, I asked a CM if we could go around again since there wasn’t a line. They said sure thing after they saw our wristbands. I LOVE E TICKET NIGHT!!!

After the second go around, we were in a word, soaked! We were so glad that it was warm and muggy that night so we wouldn’t be cold. We made our way to Big Thunder next, on our way we met up with the country bears and a few of the brers milling about. Again walked right up to the train and even sat in the back. Yippee!

Next we did Haunted Mansion and walked right through the queue to the stretching room with about 6 other people. It did seem eerier when there wasn’t very many people. I like the Haunted Mansion better at Disney World rather than Land. Most attractions they have at both places I like better at World rather than Land with the exception of Pirates. Since they were done after Land you think that they’d improve rather than not improve. Any ways, after HM we made our way over to Pirates and also walked right on. We were the only ones in the building, so we had a boat all to ourselves. I for one don’t like the Politically Correct changes. My heck they were pirates, for heaven’s sake!

Oh well ... Next, Tomorrow Land and Space Mountain. Along the way I was attacked by a snake in Adventure Land. It wasn’t real but a CM yelled "watch out for that snake!" I replied with "yeah, right!" Until I stepped on something, the snake, it did take me by surprise. We made it over to TL with no further reptile incidents.

Walked on Space Mountain with just a minute or so wait at the loading area. I had the front seat, Della the middle. I hadn’t been on this one for quite a while probably the first time that I went in 93, so the seats were different. I also like the Space Mountain at DL better. Simply because of the soundtrack and the seating. To be truthful it did seem a tad more dizzy than I remember but I did want to do both sides so Della sat out the second time and I went around for another run. Walked right on again, this time I sat in the back car all by myself. The CM that sat me told me that attendance was under 1500. No wonder there were no lines.

Next we went over to Alien Encounter, I hated this one when we did it two years ago but thought we’d give it another try. Nope. Still hate it. Then we did Timekeeper, we’d never done this because we’re not really into Circle Vision but I really liked this one. Robin Williams was hilarious and I even spotted a few famous faces in it. Was that Jeremy Irons? And Sydney from The Pretender. We had a little time left so we ran over to Haunted Mansion again. This time there were a few more people but still pretty bare. I love HM!

We were out of time now so we walked over to Main Street and got a cookie from the bakery. YUM! We went over to the bus stop and waited just a few minutes for a bus to All Star Music. It was a great night and I recommend everyone to try this at least once while they are at WDW. I would actually have liked to do it again but we did everything we wanted to do at the MK in about 6 hours. For sure worth the extra $10. So we bid farewell for the second time that day. What a blast we had though!

When we got back to the room, yup you guessed it CNN went on and we watched that little bar waiting for our score. We pretty much waited for the whole game so we could see the final score. WE WON AGAIN! YEAH! We’re so proud of our guys!

Final Full Day, Day 7 Friday May 8

Today was a very full day. We had laundry to do, packing to do. Plus all the final things we needed and wanted to do. We woke up and got ready and Della went down to the Piano Pool laundry area and did our laundry while I started my packing as I watched Regis and Kathie Lee’s Mother’s Day special. I did get almost done with my packing and got down to the Laundromat just as Della finished our laundry. We just snacked on the breakfast bars we’d brought this morning. I brought three different kinds of breakfast bars plus we had the bag of treats our travel agent brought us at the airport.

We headed off for our final viewing of the Lion King ... boo hoo! We got there too late to be let in to the show so we went and found a lovely bench in the sun as I finally finished writing up post cards. Yup, I usually wait to the last minute. We could hear the show from where we were sitting and I could tell neither Kiume or Nakawa were my favs. Oh well, sad sigh! We were waiting so we’d hit the line perfectly so we’d be Lions ... in the Lion section that is. We were stopped by yet another surveyor. I have never been surveyed so much in my life! After that we got in line and ended up being Warthogs again, which is my second pick because we’ve both bonded with Pumbaa this trip. They let us in but we ended up waiting hoping they’d fill up and put us in the lion section after all. YES!! Patience is a virtue. Had a great spot ... in the lion section after all. There was just a guy with a large hat in front of me. Darn! The show’s beginning music rang out as Della and I both gasped with pleasant surprise. Della seeing Nakawa and me seeing Kiume. We both did a double take and I pulled out the camera fast as a flash! It was a wonderful farewell. All my favorite dancers were there too. They were giving me a farewell present! I know that the singers in the first show were different. So they must have back ups. We always wondered how they can do that again and again all day every hour.

We bid a fond farewell to the theater and Camp Minnie Mickey. And made our way over to DinoLand to get Robert’s shirt. We were sidetracked by a final attempt at a calzone from Pizzafari. No dice! We settled on cheese pizza, bread sticks and a piece of cake to share. It was very tasty and we were hungry. Then we go on our quest for Robert’s shirt, find right away the one we want but they didn’t have an XS, but we got it anyway and went to another shop the CM recommended, a store that had only kids sizes. We found the store but it didn’t have the shirt we wanted. Oh well, he’ll grow into it. We stopped in the shop outside the park to get me my 98 AK shirt and then from there we bid so long to Animal Kingdom, we’d gotten so attached to it. We’ll be back ... soon!

We decided to take the bus to the Yacht and Beach Clubs wander a bit and walk to Epcot via International Gateway again. Again the bus stopped at Grand Floridian several times. First on the agenda was Norway and my troll. We made it over and after a lot of ho humming I finally decided. One CM (very attractive!) came over and noticed our interest in the little Trollies and started to strum off lore and stories. I could’ve listened for hours. Thanks Per Arne! The Maelstrom line was way too long so we decided to wait till later.

We thought we’d get Lotus Blossom again for dinner, we wouldn’t have time any later so we stopped now. It was just as good as before and this time I got a Coke ... this is the best place in the World for a Coke! I also had a blast feeding the birds, I don’t think the little Chinese people liked that too much though.

From there we made our way to the little cart in Future World and got my Guest of Honor badge. From then on ... I was recognized. Lots of people thought I was a CM and asked questions. I did know the answers though. Then we went back to JII to see Figment once more. Then checked in at Canada, where we found out about "Off Kilter", then continued on to Davy Jones performance at the American Garden Stage. What a cute fella, sounded great, looked great. After that we hit "The British Invasion", I have only seen them once and it was for 45 seconds, we always seem to miss them. They were fabulous! Then back to Davy for his second show, Della went to save a seat while I went to Japan to get another Coke. They had darn good Coke too. Davy did the same show, we were hoping for different songs. Back to UK for "The British Invasion" again but stopped to get a desert from France first. Very yummy and a cute guy to boot. The living statue was out when we got done eating. So checked her out for a while. Then British Invasion. They were the best! I think in this one show they sang all my favorite Beatles songs!

As we were leaving UK I was feeling bad that we hadn’t tried the Beaver Tails from Canada yet so just an hour after that French desert we got a beaver tail to split. YUM! Which is where I was recognized as a radper for the first and only time by the CM there. I think he said something like ... "oh you’re one of those Disney Phycodics, huh?" I proudly answered yes!! We squished our way past all the folks waiting for Illuminations on our way to Maelstrom. It was only like a 5 minute wait. While we waited these kids kept asking me if I worked at Disney World. I answered no. "Then why are you wearing a name tag?" It was a long 5 minutes. Unfortunately they weren’t showing the movie anymore, dang! We headed out and just missed the Cattle Car, I was disappointed! We made it back home and Della requested an iron, to rub off the dresses for the cruise that got especially scrunched. She ran back and got me a refill of coke and some fries from the food court. I pulled out the videos of the Lion King show to watch for a while, I wish I would’ve taped more. I fell asleep long before Della went to bed as she had all her packing to do.

DAY EIGHT SATURDAY JUNE 9 -- TRAVEL TO FT. LAUDERDALE

I don’t want to leave!!!!! We got up and prepared to leave ... BOO HOO! Fortunately we have our cruise to go on still. We called down to the bell hops and asked for some help. No go. They need at least an hour notice and Gus was picking us up in half an hour. So we had to drag all our luggage (remember, we’re going on a cruise, we had a ton of luggage!) from Country Faire to the main entrance. Yesh!! We did get a dolly from bell services but it was not very helpful, and they were rude to Della when she went to borrow it. They needed her drivers license and it needed to be back promptly in half hour, or else. We did get it back in time and got our luggage to Gus, I got a final Coke and had a silent cry on the way to the airport.

We pulled up to the airport’s curb and although there was a long line waiting to check luggage, a porter came right up to the car and checked it for us. We hadn’t eaten yet so we stopped at the Burger King in the airport, bad idea! We got a croissant without egg or sausage, some potatoes, oj and cini minis for the same cost as a nice meal at Disney World. Plus as soon as we got to the counter, we knew we’d left the World. The employees must have been trained to be abrupt and rude. They made us feel like we were putting them out by choosing to eat there. Oh and by the way, if you take the Ranch Dressing to dip your potatoes in ... you will be charged! It sure makes you appreciate the friendly and courteous CMs!! The flight to Ft. Lauderdale was smooth and uneventful and the bus ride to the pier was uneventful as well. The ship was beautiful but we missed the World. It took us a couple of days to actually get over our blues, even on a cruise! But the cruise was wonderful, too! The food was delicious. The service, wonderful. The ports were fun. And the ship was amazing, my favorite so far. All in all a spectacular trip! Trouble is ... coming home and back to our hum drum lives. It was a beyond wonderful trip!! Boy, am I glad we got those APs!! Disney World ... we’ll be back ... soon!!

Lindy Higham

nrdwr.mhigham@email.state.ut.us

__________________
You just read a trip report that was originally published in our MousePlanet Trip Reports column.

Reader-submitted trip reports have always been an extremely popular feature here at MousePlanet. In order to improve the search functionality and shorten the time from when you submit a trip report and the report gets published, you can now post your trip reports directly to our Trip Report forums. The forums are moderated, but reports should become available for reading very quickly.