Trip Reports

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: CBR
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Pre-School, Elementary, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: Andy's report is a short one, but has several great tips (and they're nicely highlighted within the report so they're easy to find). He also includes specific details about how his kids (ages 3 and 5) liked things.

November 6 - 14, 1998

Introduction

Here's a Short trip report on my Disney Vacation.

Myself, Wife, and 2 kids (5 and 3) made the long trip from Southern NJ to WDW. We left our home at 8:30 am on Friday Nov 6. We made about 4 stops (Bathroom, Lunch, etc...) No real traffic problems,but we did take the Harbor Tunnel thru Baltimore/DC instead of the Ft. Mckinery Tunnel (If you need detailed directions, let me know..it did shave off some time and avoid the beltway). We finally stopped for the night at around 8:30PM at Exit 119 in Manning S.C.

***Tip #1...The Holiday Inn in Manning S.C (Exit 119 off I-95) was Just Built so it is Very Very Clean. About $55.00 for a room with 2 Double Beds.

Up at 8:30 am on Saturday and arrived at Caribbean Beach at 3:30 PM. Rooms at CB are "Ok". I think it's about time for a face-lift. Don't get me wrong, the resort is beautiful, but the rooms are showing signs of wear..as to be expected. We checked in, unpacked, and took a rest.

5:30 PM and it was off to the Contemporary and Chef Mickey's. My Kids really love this place. After dinner with the characters, it was a quick monorail ride, then back to CBR via bus from Contemporary

***Tip #2. Give yourself at least 45 minutes to take the bus from CBR to Contemporary. You have to change at either Downtown Disney, Transportation & Ticket Center, or MK.

Sunday: MGM. All in all it was a good day. Mulan Parade was done well. This is all my daughter wanted to see. "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" play area was closed for re-furbishment but we did go on Great Movie Ride, and Back-Stage Ride. No one wanted to go on Tower of Terror with me (My 5yr old went on with me last year but she said "NO WAY" this year). Voyage of the Little Mermaid is always a good show as is Beauty and the Beast and Indiana Jones Stunt Show. Line for all shows and rides were small. Maybe 10 to 15 minute wait. lunch was at the Soundstage. Buffet is nice, and the kids love the characters. If you do Anything in MGM...SEE FANTASMIC.. GREAT SHOW.

***TIP #3. SEE FANTASMIC. Get to the Theater (Behind Tower of Terror) before 6PM. It was GREAT!!. My 3yr old still talks about it and my 5 yr old liked it also. It was AWESOME!!

Monday: EPCOT. My kids Love Epcot. Especially "The EPCOT BALL" as my son calls it. Everything was open (Except Test Track of course). EPCOT crowds were small also. We didn't really wait for anything. If you have kids, and the weather is hot/warm, bring swim suits or at least a change of clothes. There are a few places in Future World for the kids to play (Near Test Track and again between Future World and World Showcase) and it's a time for you to relax and enjoy them. We stayed for Illuminations. Not as impressive as I remember. Seems like they've toned it down a bit. We watched it from the bridge between France and UK. Not a bad spot.

***TIP #4. If you go to the entrance to the World Showcase at 10am, you can see a TON of Characters. They arrive on a Double-Decker Bus and usually include Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Chip/Dale, Pooh, Tigger, and sometimes Belle, Beast, Aladdin, .... This is great time for pictures and autographs.

Tuesday: Magic Kingdom. What can you say, Magic Kingdom IS Disney World. As it turns out Tuesday is an E-Ride Night. We purchased the E-Ride pass from the hotel on Monday night after Epcot. We rode Dumbo (DO it EARLY..The crowds only get larger). We stayed away from Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. The new Buzz Lightyear ride is GREAT!!. Lines move fast and there is alot to look at when you're in line. Again, no real lines for anything. Around 6pm, we got some food and took our spots for the parade. THere is a place that I believe is called "The Terrace". If you're coming back from Tomorrowland to Main Street (By Alien Encounter), its on the Left hand side. It has a perfect view of the castle and is right where Tinker Bell comes down to. We stayed there, watched the fireworks and waited for everyone to leave. The E-Ride night was the best part. I got to ride Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and the Astro-Orbiter with no wait. PLUS....They decided to Add BUZZ Lightyear to the E-Ride list. My Son LOVED it. We stayed on 2 times and re-rode it.

***Tip #5 Find out when the E-Ride Nights are and BUY THEM. It's worth every penny to walk down main street with No-one around.

Wednesday: Shopping at the Market Place and swimming at CB. Shopping was fun. Lego Store was a hit as was the World of Disney. Lunch was at the Rain Forest Cafe. No real wait for lunch. I did buy the Toy Monorail. Very cool. It will look nice around my Christmas tree.

**Tip #6 If you shop, and are staying on property, have your stuff sent back to the room....VERY CONVENIENT.

Thursday: Animal Kingdom. After waiting at least 1hr for a bus, we walked from our bus stop to another bus stop at CB to catch a bus to Animal Kingdom. It was impressive looking but the first thing I noticed was how narrow the walkways were. There were so many people and strollers (We were one of them) that there as no place to stop and look at a map or decide what your doing. You always felt like you were in the way . We got in line to the Safari at 9am and the wait was about 15-20 minutes. It was pretty cool. Didn't see a lot of animals, but it was definitely worth the wait. I have been told that there are virtually NO animals in the afternoon and later in the afternoon is also a good time when it cools down a bit. From there we went to Dino-Land. Not impressed. The kids were too small for the Countdown to Extinction but we did go to the dig site. It was ok...just another sandbox. We made it to the Lion King show. It was done very well although it was VERY HOT and very crowded. We got there at 10:20 for the 11:00 show and were one of the last people allowed in. When we got out from that we were told that the noon and 1pm shows were already booked. We took in the Pocohantas show (kinda lame, but the little guys liked it), and then decided it was too hot, and too crowded to stay any longer. When we left the park I observed that more people were leaving (It was around 1:30pm) than were entering. The bus to Epcot was jammed packed. I decided to hop a bus to the Boardwalk and walk to Epcot (There is an entrance right to the World Showcase from the Boardwalk/Beach CLub/Yacht Club area). Stayed at Epcot until 6 pm and then took one last ride on the monorail, then back to CB for more swimming and packing (Yuk).

**Tip #7 Animal Kingdom is definitely not a full day park. The crowds were large (Because it's the NEW park). Don't get me wrong, it's nice, just don't expect anything like Epcot or MK. Maybe if I had time to stroll all the paths and stop find all the animals I would have enjoyed it better.

Friday: Left CB at 9:30 am and drove to NC We stopped at another Holiday Inn and again, had good luck. Very clean, very new and there was a Dennys attached to the place. (Don't know the exact location...but If your interested, email me).

Saturday: Up at 7am on the Road by 9:30am and back to NJ by 6:30PM.

Anyway.....that's my trip report. The opinions here are my own...Please no flames. We are all entitled to our own likes and dislikes. Take them for what they are worth.

Andy Jeffery

__________________
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.