Trip Reports

Missy Jennings - December 6-13, 1998 - Wilderness Lodge, Dixie Landings, Caribbean Beach Resort

Time of Year: Holiday Season
Travel Method: Plane, Shuttle Service
Resort: WL, CBR, DL
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent
Comments: This was a belated honeymoon for Missy and Tim. They stayed at three different resorts during the trip. The report (especially the planning section and summary thoughts) is a thorough play-by-play report -- Definitely one to read curled up by the fire as you plan your next trip to WDW!


12/6/98 - 12/13/98

Planning

WARNING: This is NOT a brief, concise trip report. It is long and detailed and may bore some people to tears. But after reading RADP for almost two years, I feel it is my duty to write this report ;-) (Plus, I had the absolute best time in the world and wanted to share it with people who would understand.

My name is Missy and I am 29 years old. The last time that I visited WDW is when I was 15. The last night that we were there, we were watching fireworks over the Castle and I looked around and saw a couple behind me. The guy leaned over to the girl and whispered, "I love you." That was when I knew that WDW was the most romantic place in the world and when I got married I wanted to honeymoon in WDW. I was lucky enough to find a man who would make that dream come true, my husband Tim. Tim is 32 and hadn't been to WDW since he was 12. At first I think agreeing to a Disney honeymoon was more to show how much he loved me, but as the time to go grew close, I think he was just as excited as I was.

Tim & I met in December 1996 and knew right away that we wanted to me married. Because I had waited so long to marry, I wanted the wedding of my dreams, so we planned a July 1998 wedding. But we both knew that there was no way that we wanted to go to WDW during the summer. We may have been young the last time we went but memories of the heat and crowds live on forever.

We actually began planning our honeymoon in March 1997. I bought all of the guidebooks, and we set about picking a resort. Neither of our families could afford to stay on property when they took us as kids, so this was a whole new experience for us. I also logged onto the Internet at work and by some miracle got connected to WDWIG. (Deb Wills is a goddess!!!-We're only sorry we weren't able to attend the RADP meet to meet her!) Then I found my way on RADP and all of the other wonderful Disney planning sites. I can't begin to name all of the people who helped us without even knowing it like the Czar & Czarina, Ed Sterrett, and Brian Bennett, just to name a few.

We started off by getting a MKC Gold card. Neither of our work places offered the card so we bought it. NOTE: That card has more than paid for itself!!!

We decided that a 5-day/4-night trip would be great. We picked the week of Labor Day as everything we had read said it was one of least busy times of the year. Even though I had all these wonderful resources, I was unsure of myself, so I consulted a travel agent. No offense to any of the travel agents out there, but she really didn't do anything I couldn't have done. I'm doing next year's trip by myself. Anyway, we were extremely idealistic about money so we said, "Hey, money is not an object here!" and we booked a private cottage at the Boardwalk, the cost of which I won't even quote on here as it is so outrageous! Then we started looking at the Grand Plan, the Deluxe Plan…so many choices. In the end, after spreadsheeting our possible "Plan" budgets and what we could do piecemeal, we decided not to do the plan, which ended up working really well.

Well, as the "wedding season" as we called it wore on, we realized (like everyone does I guess) that weddings are really expensive! So, in September 1997, we decided to cut back a little on the honeymoon. We had friends who had had a turret room at the GF that overlooked the Castle. That sounded pretty romantic and was cheaper than the Boardwalk, so we called the travel agent and had her make the change. You have to understand by this point, I was a certified (certifiable in my fiancé's mind, I think) Disney nut. I read RADP every day and printed off literally hundreds of pages of trip reports. We printed off every menu on WDWIG and tried to decide which restaurants to try. In May 1998, I found out that I had been recommended as a campaign manager for the State Senator in our area. Since there are only 5 people recommended for this, I didn't want to turn it down if there was any possible way, so it was another call to the travel agent. That was the worst part-once a travel agent makes reservations for you, Disney will not allow you to change them yourself-the travel agent has to do it. We shifted the trip to December to accommodate the campaign job (which would be great for my career) and decided to fly instead of drive.

To get a good deal on airfare ($234/person roundtrip w/ free long-term parking), we extended the trip by three days to December 6-13, 1998. By this time Tim was getting really excited so he was all for more days. As luck would have it (although I didn't see it that way through my tears at the time), the GF turret room was booked, so we shifted to a honeymoon suite at the WL. We knew we couldn't afford the WL for all the nights. Plus, we had been toying with the idea of taking Tim's daughters (9 & 4 y.o.) next year. So we decided to try three different resorts. I booked DxL for one night (6th) myself, 4 nights through the travel agent at the WL honeymoon suite (7th-10th), and 2 nights at CBR (11th & 12th) myself. I got a MKC discount on the DxL and CBR ressies, which ended up being $106 with tax per night. The WL didn't have a discount and was ~$240/night w/o tax. We lost a lot of time changing resorts-in some ways not such a great idea…more on that later. We wanted to be immersed in the Disney magic, so we decided to use Tiffany Town Car (fantastic - more on that in Day 1). About two weeks before our trip I printed off the WDWIG packing list and went off to WalMart. We bought pretty much everything on the list and used pretty much everything on the list. Both of us got new running shoes to break in (which Tim wasn't too successful at until the end of the trip!). When December 6th rolled around we were ready!!!!

Day 1 - Sunday, December 6, 1998

HIGHLIGHTS: The Singing Family, DxL & Alligator Bayou, Wolfgang Pucks, Disney West Side

The night before we left, both of us were way too excited to speak. In fact, at midnight I was online e-mailing to Rob about his Disney envelopes. Then I typed out our itinerary complete with Disney clip art. We finally forced ourselves into bed at 2:30am and set the alarm for 6:30am so we could leave here by 8am for the hour and fifteen minute trip from our hometown of Springfield, Illinois to the airport in Bloomington.

Morning came early, but we were ready. We had loaded the car the night before, so we ended up arriving at the airport early (a little after 9) for our 11:30 flight. We sat in the waiting room and pulled out our books. Normally I wouldn't bother you with non-Disney details like this, but what happened next was truly Disney magic at work in the cornfields of Illinois.

There we are sitting in the waiting area, looking out onto the airfield when all of the sudden we hear loud singing. "M-I-C-you're gonna see him real soon….K-E-Y---Why? Because you love him…M-O-U-S-E. We turn around and it's my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and 6-month old niece…all singing at the tops of their voices (even the baby, in baby language of course) in the middle of the airport. I couldn't believe it…they drove over a hundred miles to the airport to see us off!!! I think the whole airport thought we were all a bunch of nuts between them singing and me almost in tears. What a great family I have!!!!

After a brief breakfast there in the airport with my family, we were off to in Air Tran to Atlanta. The flight to Atlanta was smooth, and we had a long enough layover to go to an airport bar, grab some beers and lunch, and watch a little football (GO RAIDERS!!!!) Our flight arrived at MCO right on time (5:30 pm) and we managed to find the terminal. The person I had spoken with at Tiffany Town Car had said our driver would meet us in the terminal. We looked around and couldn't find him, so we headed downstairs to get our luggage. There he was at the bottom of the escalator with a sign that said "Jennings." Perfect timing. His name was Don (lots of you on here have had him) and he basically talked non-stop from the time we met him until he dropped us off at DxL. Tim liked him because he talked like Sebastian (think Little Mermaid) and talked football. The car was parked right outside the door and was only six months old. It was beautiful-black, shiny, and spotless with tan leather interior.

Don drove about 40 miles/hour on the way there so we had a lot of time for conversation. From what Don told us, TTC was founded by four guys, of which he was one. In the last year of so they have experienced major growing pains. Apparently, the Internet (especially RADP) has given them more business than they can handle, and they've had to hire several additional drivers recently. Don did say to thank the folks here on the newsgroup because it's our word of mouth that has really helped them.

When we arrived to check in at DxL, we handed Don the $5 coupon, and paid him $65 plus a $15 tip. He unloaded our luggage and Tim stayed with it while I went to check in. I didn't think the signs in the lobby were very clear and had to ask someone exactly where I checked in. I ended up waiting about 10 minutes in line. I requested Oak Manor, but the CM said we had been pre-assigned as we had requested (???) and we had been assigned a Alligator Bayou. Oh well!

I wanted to buy our 7-day hopper passes there so we could get into the parks early the next day, but the CM said it would be better if we bought them at the WL because they encode the passes on your resort key, and we would be staying at the WL for 5 days. Otherwise we would have to carry out WL room key and our DxL room key (because it would have the passes on it). The CM said that a golf cart would transport us and our luggage to our room. BTW, we chose a hopper pass as it would have been cheaper than buying a five-day and a two-day LOS pass for each of us. Also, it we decided not to go to the parks one of those days (which we ended up doing) we would be able to roll over that day to the next time we came.

I went back out front to wait for the cart. We waited about 5 minutes, and finally Tim went to the Bell Services door. Apparently you have to check in with them to get to your room. That problem taken care of, off we went to AB 2438-how confusing DxL is in the dark!!!

When I opened the door to the room (Mickey's head first!), I knew who had requested the preassigned room-my husband!!! There on the table sat a vase with a dozen roses arranged in the shape of a heart and a cookie and cocoa holiday tray that contained cookies, cocoa, glass holiday mugs, glass serving tray and candy canes. What an amazing guy!!!!

The rooms in Alligator Bayou are very rustic. The bed headboard and footboards look like they are wooden logs with the ends whittled to point. (Tim says we could never stay with the girls there because they would end up skewering each other on the bed frames! J ) There were two pedestal sinks with mirrors above each that were framed with the same rough-hewn log effect. Between the mirrors and the sinks was a single wooden, unfinished shelf that ran the length of the sinks. On the shelf was Mickey face soap, bath soap, and lotion. The bathtub had a dispenser that contained a body soap/shampoo. I didn't use it, but Tim said it worked pretty well.

We tipped the bell guy $5 ($1 per bag-we didn't pack lightly), took a few pictures of the room, called home to let them know we were here, grabbed the transportation guide we had gotten at check-in, and headed off to Downtown Disney. We managed to find our way to DxL (hard thing to do in the dark!!) and decided to catch the boat to DD. The sign posted said boats ran every 20 minutes, and we were too far behind in line to catch the first boat, so we counted on a 20-minute wait. We were thrilled when another boat got there in 8 minutes. We hopped on and off we went.

The ride itself was a little chilly-it would end up being the coldest night of our visit. As the boat pulled in, I think we were both in shock. We never imagined DD would be this big! Maybe a small part of me was a little disappointed at how commercialized it seemed. Or maybe I was just travel-tired. We found our way through the Marketplace, around Pleasure Island (we wouldn't get passes until the next day) and into Disney West Side. We walked into Wolfgang Pucks and were told we could be seated immediately if we were willing to sit inside. No problem!!

We split the BBQ duck quesadillas, and I had the portabello mushroom and goat cheese pizza while Tim had the Cajun Mahi-Mahi (very spicy). The meal with 2 beers and a Coke totaled $55. As you will see, I was really good about keeping track of expenses in the beginning…not so good in the end! We followed up dinner with a stroll through the West Side with stops at the Sosa Cigar Company ($20 cigar for Tim) and at the Magnetron for Barbie and Curious George magnets for my 25 y.o. sister ($25/5 magnets). The Magnetron was a very cool place if you like magnets-they had almost everything imaginable. The only thing that I found strange was that while they had lots of musical groups, they didn't have the Spice Girls (a favorite of my husband's 2 daughters).

By this time, we were both worn out, so we headed for the PI bus stop and only had to wait about 3 minutes for the bus to DxL. When we got back, Tim smoked his cigar while I sat outside and wrote notes for our trip report.

Day 2 - Monday, December 7, 1998

HIGHLIGHTS: WL Honeymoon Suite, EPCOT, Les Chefs de France, the Great Swimsuit Hunt, and Rainforest Cafe

Our plan today was to check into the WL and go to EPCOT. We had set the alarm for 6:15am---YEAH RIGHT! Of course, we slept until 8am. We showered, dressed, and called bell services to transfer our luggage to the WL honeymoon suite. On the phone I asked them if they would transfer the roses and cookie tray as well, and they said yes they would. They said we didn't need to wait for the bellman, and if we would like to leave a tip we could put it under the luggage. Hmmm…not too sure I liked the tip suggestion…not like we weren't going to leave one anyway. So, we moved all of the luggage right next to the heating/AC vent by the door and moved the roses and the cookie tray on top of the vent with the $7 tip under the vase of roses. I didn't want the cards on the flowers to tray to get lost (such the romantic I am!) so I snagged them and put them in my Pooh notebook. Looking back, that was one of the smartest things I did the whole trip.

We walked up to the check-in area to take pictures and get Tim a pair of sunglasses ($14) at the Cotton Co-op. Suggestion: Don't buy sunglasses anywhere in WDW-we ended up going through three pairs because different parts in them kept breaking!) We walked over to the bus stop where Big Bus Fiasco #1 started. I assumed from reading the newsgroup that you can always get from Pleasure Island to any resort. So we hopped a Downtown Disney Bus. Well, apparently, that isn't the case with the GF, Polynesian, and WL before 4:00pm. Before 4pm you have to catch a bus for those places at the TTC. So we rode all the way to DD only to have to catch a bus to the TTC and from there to the WL. All in all, we wasted about an hour and a half in transit.

The WL is absolutely awesome. The theming just draws you in. Honestly, it's beyond words. Tim and I think it's the best themed resort on the property. I waited in the check-in line while Tim went off in search of breakfast. Check-in took about 45 minutes-what a line! Our room wasn't ready, so I bought our passes, and we decided to catch a bus for EPCOT. I won't go into any great detail about the WL lobby except to say that it was beautifully decorated for Christmas, and we saw Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore (or Eon as Tim calls him) every morning. One of the restaurants there, the Whispering Canyon, has a character breakfast daily, and the characters hang out in the lobby for a while after it's over. The lobby also had the prettiest gingerbread house/village display. Well, we caught a bus right away for EPCOT and had just enough time to get through the gates, catch the Friendship boat to Morocco/France, and make it for our 12 noon priority seating at Les Chefs de France. When I had called to get all of our PSs, I told the CM it was our honeymoon and he must have noted it because every restaurant we went to mentioned it. We were seated promptly at noon and the hostess put us in a private corner. The only drawback to the place was that all of the eating areas are glassed in so people would stare as they walked by---very unnerving! We shared an appetizer of cream brie in a puff pastry, and I had a grilled seasoned chicken breast on a bed of garlic whipped potatoes with basil sauce and wild mushrooms. Tim ordered the penne pasta with shrimp, oysters, and mussels in a white sauce with a dab of tomato paste. We ended up switching halfway through the meal. Tim said he liked both the same, but I think he switched just because he knew I liked his better than mine. I, of course, took advantage of his newlywed-ish behavior. I'm sure that the next time we go, the newness of marriage will have worn off and I'll be stuck eating whatever I order-even if I don't like it!! ;-) The total came to $49 with the tip and two soft drinks.

While we were waiting for our lunch, right outside the window the French Santa Claus gave his Christmas presentation, so I went outside and took a picture of him. After we paid the bill, we wandered into France. I wanted to sample a chocolate croissant, but realized I was just too full. When we wandered out of the wine store, we ran into the Beast (Belle was nowhere to be found to my husband's dismay). Tim took my picture with him. One of our goals was to take as many character pictures as we could for Tim's 2 daughters, Amanda (9) and Abby (4).

Since it was now about 1:30, we decided to head back toward Future World, counting on the fact that most everyone else would be heading for the World Showcase. As we walked through Great Britain, we met Piglet and had our picture taken with the English Santa. We also stopped to check out the Christmas booth as we need a new tree skirt (they run about $60-$75). Sidenote: I ended up buying one after we returned home at the local Sears for $10.

We headed toward HISTA, where we waited for about 5 minutes. Both of us hated the pre-show-what a big advertisement. The show itself was about ½ full and was pretty good except for the fact that I hate snakes-had my eyes covered for that part. I lifted my feet to miss the mice the first time-didn't know they came back-EEEK! Tim's favorite part was the dog spray!

Onto the Land Pavilion. We waited about 5 minutes for the Circle of Life. It was a cute little show, but kinda loud-theater only had about 30 people in it. Then onto Food Rocks. Three words here---Food Rocks ROCKS!!!! I absolutely loved it!! We only waited about 5 minutes, and the queue area was great. The theater itself was only 1/3 full and everyone was singing along just like us. Even my totally macho husband got a big kick out of it. The last thing we did there was Living With The Land. I think this will always be one of my favorite attractions. We waited about 10 minutes and it was worth it. It's so amazing-someday I want to take the Behind The Seeds tour. We finished off the Land with a Coke in a souvenir Spaceship Earth mug.

Our next stop was the Living Seas with a 5-minute wait. I guess this was a big source of debate while we were gone, but I have to agree with those who aren't impressed with it. It was okay, but that's about it. Tim liked it better than I did, but both of us like the St. Louis and Indianapolis Zoos better.

We walked out of the Living Seas and into Innoventions-I can't remember which has what in it, so I'll just lump them both together. We are big fans of the Playstation, so we loved the Sega area. There was basically no one in there, so you could jump from game to game with no problem. We ended up staying there for about 45 minutes. Then we went into the empty AT&T & IBM postcard booths and sent e-mail postcards to about 10 friends and family. They got them 2 days later and loved them, plus the booths allowed us to send copies of the postcards to our e-mail address. We were then able to walk onto the virtual reality machines, where we were PacMan. Tim liked it and did really well, but I kept getting tangled up in the cord-I'm not the most graceful person in the world J After that we messed around with the different computer programs they had (Disney and others like Rand-McNally TripMaker) and then played Guess the Puzzle where you touch blank pieces of a puzzle on a computer screen. Your score is based on how soon you can guess what Disney character is in the puzzle.

Then it was an 8-minute wait for Ellen's Universe of Energy. I fought it for a long time but…I just like Ellen. I think I enjoyed the pre-show more than the ride itself-for Tim it was just the opposite. One thing I will say is that it is extremely loud-if we take the kids, I will buy earplugs to carry with us. Lots of the rides/shows seemed loud to me. While we were gone I think there was a pretty hefty debate about the educational value of Ellen. After seeing it, I think it provides a pretty basic overview of fossil fuels, but I didn't learn anything I didn't already know. I think they could have taken it further.

Our final stop in EPCOT was Spaceship Earth (walk-on)-the first time for both of us. Tim liked it, and I (the history major) loved it! Plus, I love anything with the audioanimatronics! It was the only ride in EPCOT we would end up riding twice. The only bad part was a short (5-10 minute) ride breakdown, with the bad part being that we were stuck right in front of the foreign newscasts that ran over and over again.

By this point in time, it was 8pm, so we caught a bus (5 minute wait) back to the WL, where we saw our honeymoon suite (Room 7095) for the first time. The WL has 4 of these suites, which are located on the 7th floor and are the only rooms that face the lobby. It's not really a suite in the true sense of the word. When you open the door you step into a short hallway. On the right hand side is an alcove that holds a tall four-drawer dresser with a tray with an ice bucket and glass highball glasses on top. Right past the dresser is a large closet with an iron and ironing board. On the left side of the hallway is the entrance to the bath. The first part of the bath is a wide space/room with double sinks with black-speckled marble and silver fixtures. There was a single mirror that ran the length of the vanity and had a row of lightbulbs that ran the length of it across the top. Off of the sink area was a separate area with a toilet and two-person jacuzzi tub/shower. It was surrounded with tan/white marbled ceramic tile that ran throughout the room. The tub area was tiered so you could sit around the tub. The toilet was located there and there was a small square window located near the ceiling so you could look out the window at the sky while you showered. While I absolutely loved the jacuzzi (used it every night we were there), it was a pain to take a shower every morning. You literally had to climb into the tub. My legs (I'm 5'7") were not long enough to step into the deep tub. The rest of the room was pretty standard---a king bed, cabinet with tv, lamps, table and chairs, and ceiling fan. Our room had a deck with patio furniture that overlooked a wooded area. A note about the balcony-it only came up to my upper chest, so a child could easily climb up on one of the chairs and onto the roof, which is sharply graded smooth tin/steel. Of course, how many people are going to have children in a honeymoon suite?

Interesting side note here…while we were waiting for the bus at EPCOT, we struck up a conversation with the only other people in line, a couple from Houston. When the bus arrived at the WL, we wished each other a good vacation and headed for separate hotel entrances. As we were putting the key in our room door, we heard, "Hey!" and turned around, and they had the other honeymoon suite on the same side as us….small world!!

Now it was my turn to surprise my husband. A week before we left, I had called the WL bakery and asked them to deliver a cake and champagne to our room. I requested a cake in the shape of a football (my husband lives for football season), and decorated like a football, but decorated with wedding-type icing. They delivered that and a bottle of champagne to the room for $21. It turned out great!!! He was so surprised! We called down and had Bell Services bring up our suitcases, which was great except for the fact that my beautiful roses and cookie tray were MISSING!!! The bellman, Chris, said that he would look into it and call us. We waited an our and no phone call….finally he called and said that DxL did not pick it up when they picked up the luggage and the flowers/tray were no where to be found. Interesting since I had placed the tip under the flowers and they had gotten that!!!! He said his manager was looking into it and they would let me know.

By the point I had realized that the one thing I forgot to pack was my bathing suit. Bummer!! So I called around to find a place that sold plus-size swimsuits. Would you believe that only one place in all of WDW, Summer Sands in Downtown Disney, sells suits bigger than size 16?!?! So, it was off to DD…we just missed the bus, so it was a 20-minute wait for the next one. We were starving (long time since Chefs de France), so Tim put our name in at the Rainforest Café while I went to buy the suit (and a Mickey & Minnie beach towel of course). I had forgotten my MKC card, so the CM gave me a 10% "honeymoon" discount. She was saying that until recently, no one sold plus-size suits. There were so many people who asked for them that their store began tracking all of the requests and submitted it to management. Based on that, they allowed them to carry the bigger sizes.

We shopped a little more and headed back to the Rainforest. They had told us it would be an hour, but they called us within 40 minutes and seated us in the Gorilla Room right in front of the fountain-it was really loud!!! We started off with a sampler appetizer of herbed chicken wings, eggrolls with chicken, corn, and black beans, coconut fried chicken tenders, and brushetta with tomatoes. I ordered the Shrimp Mogamba (fettuccini with white sauce and seafood) and Tim had the Mojo Ribs. Somehow our order got messed up and I got the wrong entrée, so our great waiter took $3 off our bill. He was so nice that we gave him the $3 back in addition to his tip. The total was $69 with tip.

After a 25-minute wait for bus back to WL (which would only get worse as the week went on) we were back in the room by 11:30. I ran a bath in the jacuzzi while Tim went to refill our mugs. When he came back he jumped into the tub with me. Our romantic evening ended rather quickly with a call to housekeeping for additional towels. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that neither of us paid attention in our high school physical science class on the day they discussed the theory of water displacement. What an end to our first full day!

Day 3 - Tuesday, December 8, 1998

HIGHLIGHTS: AK, NFL Experience, MK, and Chef Mickey's

Again we set the alarm for 6:15 and again we didn't get up until 8am. Hey, aren't you allowed to be a little lazy on your honeymoon?! After we showered and dressed, we filled our mugs and headed for the Animal Kingdom (waited 10 minutes for a bus). The bus was packed! The AK bus stop seems to be a lot further from the entrance than the other parks-it was quite a hike!!! We grabbed a map and headed into the park. Interesting how there's nothing ahead of you and then…bam!… there's the Tree of Life. Of course we had to stop and take pictures. There was a CM directing people to Dinoland, so, of course, we rebelled and went the opposite way. I was in a character sort of mood, so we headed toward Camp Mickey and Minnie. Another one of our character flaws is that we don't like to use maps…so we saw a line forming, assumed it was to see Mickey, and jumped in it. Well, this was at 9:30. After we stood still for 5 minutes I asked the lady in front of us, "So, what are we in line for?" Not one of my more brilliant questions. I'm sure she thought we were real idiots. Actually, that idiotic move turned out to be a great one because were in line for the Lion King Show that started in 20 minutes. We were moved past the guard gate at a quarter til 10 and into the theater at 5 til 10. We ended up sitting in the Lion Section (ROAR!) in the second row at the end of the bleachers nearest the exit. The 40 minutes that followed were some of the most incredible we had the entire week. The Lion King Show is absolutely amazing!!! It is indescribable….Disney magic at its finest…the music and the dancing truly touched the deepest part of me. We (or I, I guess) shot a whole roll of film. (Man, when my husband reads this, he's really going to find out what kind of a fruitcake he married!!! J)

When the show is over, since we're the first ones out, we head over to our original destination, the characters. We skip Pooh (Tim hates Pooh…I know, I know…how can anyone not like Pooh) and head to Mickey & Minnie. We waited about 15 minutes (they took a 5-minute break). The CM who was taking the professional pictures was nice enough to take pictures with our camera too. After the pictures (~11:30), we decided our lack of breakfast was starting to have an effect, so we headed for the Pizzafari. I had a chicken caesar salad and beer, and Tim had a cheese pizza and a coke, all of which totaled $19.77. It was suprisingly good for counter service.

By the time we were finished the place was getting really crowded and the temperature was in the mid 80s, so I decided that it was time for Tim's final surprise-the perfect activity for the ex-college football player, the NFL Experience at Disney Wide World of Sports. I had read about it on the Internet (thanks BZall!) The transportation guide said to take a bus to MGM and then transfer to the DWWS bus, so we hoofed it to the bus stop and hopped the MGM bus (3 minute wait). The next stop was DWWS before the bus went to MGM-woo hoo! Everything we had read said that the NFLx cost $8 per person, so I was going to get Tim a ticket and just watch him do it. Then we get there, and our 7 day hoppers get both of us in for free. When you get there, you have to pass through a ticket gate just like at the other parks. The place was completely deserted-one of the workers at the gift shop told us that after that day the place would be swarming because it was the Pop Warner Football Super Bowl and the Cheerleading Contest. They were expecting over 50,000 the next day-most of the kids were staying at the All Stars.

The NFLx is located at the back of DWWS. It's set up with a huge tent in the middle where you go in through a gate (they ask for your zip code and favorite NFL team and have you sign an injury waiver). Since it was free, I figured, what the heck-I might as well do it too. Inside the tent are water coolers, some lockers, benches, and video games. Outside the tent at either end are a series of football challenges (7 total). The first is the Run to Daylight where you go down and stand at the 40 yard line. In the end zone is a football-firing machine (for lack of a better word) that fires a ball at you, which is supposed to be a kickoff. When your fingers touch the ball, you take off running and you are timed as to how long it takes you to get to the end zone. My husband beat me by three seconds.

The second test is called the Long Snap and you have to snap a ball to the one-dimesional plastic quarterback (who has a hole where his hands should be). You win if you snap the ball through the hole--neither one of us could do it. The third test was the QB Challenge where you had to throw the ball through a hole about 30 yards down. I had trouble throwing the ball that far, let alone getting it through a hole the size of a mini-donut. It did help that it took my husband about 8 million tries before he could do it! The fourth test was the most fun and was running a pass pattern. You dodged through a series of full size fake defenders and when you reached the end zone you turned and a machine fired a football at you. I caught it…Tim didn't. Woo hoo!!! Don't think he will hear the end of that anytime soon!!!

On the other side of the tent were the other tests. The first was Punt, Pass, and Kick, which is pretty self explanatory. The second was the Field Goal, in which you had to kick a 28 yard field goal. The tough part was that they had a display of full-size defender cutouts jumping up in the air after the ball, so you had to get it over them first. The last test, the NFL Training Camp, was definitely the tougest. You are timed while you carry a football and run an obstacle course which includes running through cones, tackling dummies, and leaping pylons. I'll tell you this…I wase soooooo incredibly tired when we were done it wasn't even funny. Walking to the bus stop was a chore. The best part of the whole thing, however, is that the whole time we were there we were the only ones there, so we could do things as many times as we wanted. The guys that worked it said that if you want to go, you should come on Monday or Tuesday because it's always dead then.

By this time it was 1:30 and we were exhausted (we're not in the best physical shape!), so we hauled it back to the bus stop, which was at least 3 miles away and waited in the sun for a bus. We waited about 25 minutes for a bus to MGM, where we switched to a bus for the WL.

We rested in our room for a couple of hours until we thought we could face the heat again. The next day we heard that it was so hot it broke records in Florida. We decided to head over the Magic Kingdom, so we caught the boat from the WL dock after taking a bunch of pictures of the back of the resort. MK proved to be a good choice as tons of people were leaving as we arrived. We took tons of pictures of Main Street and headed to the Chapeau Shop to get our Mickey bride and groom wedding ears ($10 ea). We also picked up some Minnie ears for my 6 mo. old niece ($5). I had no idea they did this, but they embroidered her name on the back of it for free. We paid with our resort card and had them shipped to our hotel. We headed past the castle to Adventureland where we walked on the Pirates of the Caribbean-just as great as I remembered although I do miss the pirates chasing the women. When we exited through the gift shop I saw a flag (for the wooden decorative flagpoles) I had never seen before, one with Mickey in a pirate outfit that said, "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me." Of course I bought it ($22.00) and had it shipped back to the WL!!

We walked on and stood to watch Splash Mt….I wasn't sure about this at all….Then we watched the pioneer dancers for a few minutes until we were able to walk into the Country Bears Christmas. It was good, but I really missed Blood on the Saddle!! They allow you to take pictures with a flash during the 2-minute finale. Unfortunately they don't tell you when the finale starts so I don't get any good pictures.

After that it was onto Fantasyland where we walked onto IASW and Snow White. We could have made it onto Peter Pan, but we had PS at Chef Mickey's. We hiked back down Main Street and caught the monorail to the Contemporary. Well, I have to get onto my soapbox here for a minute…WDW is so good about keeping people in their place in line EXCEPT for transportation. You can be the first one waiting for a bus or monorail, but people who arrive later will always push their way to the front and you, who has been there the longest, end up standing. What kind of garbage is that?? I have to say…that is the one thing that really soured my WDW experience.

Okay, off the soapbox and onto Chef Mickey's. We had PS for 7:00 and only waited 5 minutes after we checked in a 6:40. What an awesome, fun experience!!! The food was great (mashed potatoes were absolutely yummy...if you have the recipe please e-mail it) and the napkin waving was a real trip!!! We saw Goofy, Pluto, Minnie, Mickey, Chip, and Dale, all of whom were more than willing to have their picture taken with us. We will definitely be doing it again next year (with or without Tim's daughters!) After dinner we did a little shopping in the shops there, where I got a sweatshirt and matching bib for my niece.

We took the boat from the Contemporary to the WL and arrived in our room to find a new vase of roses and a cookie tray that was nicer than the first. I guess my idea of a full refund got their rear ends in gear. We were dead tired by this point and after a relaxing bubble bath jacuzzi, we fell fast asleep.

Day 4 - Wednesday, December 9, 1998

HIGHLIGHTS: MK, Liberty Tree Tavern (Hear ye, Hear ye, Let freedom ring!), EPCOT, Planet Hollywood

Well, 8am seems to be our regular wakeup time no matter what time we set our alarm for. After showering and dressing, we refilled our mugs and set off by boat for the MK. Right outside City Hall, we ran into Scrooge McDuck and Tim took my picture with him (you gotta love the CMs who make people get in line to see the characters!) On we went down Main St. to Donald's Christmas Tree lot where four of the seven dwarfs were. Tim made me have my picture taken with Grumpy because he said Grumpy is dwarf I resemble most. The saddest part about that is that it's probably true J We skipped the lines for Doc and Dopey and were ready to leave when I looked over in the corner, and there was Bashful, hiding. None of the kids had seen him because he was really playing up the part by hiding. I walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder and he got all embarrassed hiding his face. But, of course, he was more than happy to pose for a picture. When we were done, I leaned down and gave him a kiss, which almost sent him into hysterics and the kids who had finally noticed him into great laughter. What fun!!!

By the time we were done with the pictures and looking in the shops, we realized we had been there for over an hour and hadn't even ventured off Main St. So, we decided to hit Tomorrowland first. We walked onto Alien Encounter (not as scary as I thought, but still freaky), Buzz Lightyear (Tim beat me-BOO!!! But there's always next year…maybe a little target practice is in order!), Space Mountain (much less scary than I remembered-poor Tim got shoved in the first seat in the car-remember neither one of us are small people!), the Time Machine with Robin Williams (neat!), and the old Wedway People Mover (very relaxing). We did all these in about an hour as all were a total walk-on.

After that we headed over to the Liberty Tree Tavern where we had an 11:30 PS. We checked about 11:10 and waited in the lobby. About 11:25 people started pouring in. About the same time one of the hostesses came up and asked if we would be willing at 11:30 to go up on the balcony overlooking the lobby and ring the opening bell and say, "Hear ye, hear ye, let freedom ring!" Of course we agreed, and when we did, she announced to everyone that we were the family of the day and celebrating our honeymoon. Then she gave up an official certificate of congratulations for us to take home. How totally COOL!!! The meal itself was very good-We split an appetizer of crab cakes, I had a salad with their signature dressing, and we both had the pot roast, which was served with wonderful mashed potatoes and baby carrots. All in all the meal was excellent! Unfortunately, I forgot until after we had paid the bill of $47.00 (incl. tip) that I could have used my MKC card here. Bummer!!!

The big meal made us both sleepy, so we decided to head back to the room for our what was becoming our daily nap. On the way out there was a great Christmas show on the stage in front of the castle so we stopped to watch it and got some good pictures. We caught the boat back to the WL and I called CRO and booked our room for next December-8 nights starting the 5th at $106 per night at the CBR with our MKC discount. When we called we were given a choice of DxL or CBR. Even though we liked DxL and had not yet stayed at CBR, my gut instinct led me to pick CBR. Like everyone always said, you should always trust your gut instinct-it turned out to be a great decision!!! More on that starting on Friday….

We rested for a couple of hours and headed out to EPCOT at ~3:00 to finish Future World. We basically had to see Body Wars, Making of Me, Horizons, and Cranium Command. The line to get into EPCOT was unbelievable-there were definitely more people going in than leaving-which should have been a hint at what was coming up. The first thing we did was Body Wars, which was a walk-on. It was neat but a little rough. After we exited into the pavilion, I started to feel a little nauseous, so I went to the restroom for a cold, wet towel. I guess the ride affected me a lot more than I thought. I came out and sat on a bench while Tim looked around. I thought it might help if I got my mind off of feeling bad, so when the Making of Me opened up, we went in. I thought it was a pretty cute show, but I think there needs to be some kind of warning for parents at the door about the content…maybe there was and I was just feeling to ill to notice J After the show was over, I couldn't remember what Cranium Command was and didn't want to feel sicker, so we left the Pavilion. When we got outside we found that the sun had started to go down and it was cooling off. Tim thought we should head back to the room, but I insisted on staying-he was very, very unhappy with me, saying that if he was the one who was sick I would insist we leave. I got a bottle of water and I felt much better. Well, I guess I'm more stubborn because we stayed. Believe me, it took a lot a rear end kissing to make him stop being mad at me.

Since we (well, I guess I) decided to stay, we walked onto Horizons. I thought it was okay, but Tim seemed to like it a lot. The only thing I couldn't stomach was the "Imax" part of it so I just closed my eyes. The only bad thing about it was the 10-minute breakdown we had-I just cuddled up to Tim and took a little nap.

After Horizons, I was feeling much better, so we headed over to Ice Station Cool. In fact, I was feeling so much better that I managed to get up enough energy to hurl a large snowball at my unsuspecting husband, who was still pouting over my not leaving the park when I felt ill. I sampled all of the different colas, including Beverly (YUCK!!) Tim sampled a couple, but again, his pouting got in the way of his true enjoyment of the whole experience ;-)

As we came out, the fountain was putting on its show so we started to sit on a ledge, but a CM asked to move as there was a show about to begin and the performers would be exiting right where we were sitting. As we moved these 3 alien-like creatures came out-totally weird!!! They were dressed in these iridescent silver suits that covered them from head to toe. They used a tall silver box and performed all kind of acrobatic balancing stunts. At the end of the 5-minute performance they took off their masks of their outfits and it was two men and a woman and from their names I would guess they were a family.

By this time I was really starting to get a 2nd wind, so we headed for the World Showcase. This is was one of the days of the Disney Collectibles Convention, and the day that the up and coming artists had booths set up as you entered the WS. I browsed the booths and found a carved primitive angle ornament that I knew my mom would like, so the artist signed it and I bought it ($10). NOTE: When I gave it to my mom, she was surprised that the artist was called "up and coming" because she knew his work well and already had one piece.

It was on to Mexico where the boat ride was a walk-on and we were just in time to hear the mariachi band play. The restaurant inside looks really neat…next time. When we left, the three kings were out there so we were able to get a picture. We heard some honking, turned around, and there was a double-decker bus coming toward us with tons of characters on board. Like the Lone Ranger of photography (haha!), I whipped out my camera in time to get a few shots.

Onto Norway where we were able to walk onto the Maelstrom-neat ride-we both liked it. We were a little hungry so we stopped at the pastry shop there where Tim got a snowball (which he said tasted just like a Hostess snowball) and I got a cloud horn (creamhorn). It totaled about $6, which Tim said wasn't really worth it in the end as Hostess snowballs are only .99 apiece J Honestly, I wasn't overly impressed myself. Maybe I should have tried the almond ring pretzel….

It was getting dark and kind of crowded, so we just cruised through the rest of the World Showcase. The line for the Candlelight Processional was really long as we passed. That is one of the things I regret not doing as Cindy Williams was hosting two nights that week. I always liked her when I was growing up…did you know that she and Penny Marshall made an 8-track "Laverne & Shirley sing the songs you know thing?" Well, they did and I owned it…but I digress…

When we got to Morocco, the Genie from Aladdin was there. I managed to make some lady mad when I asked the CM to make some of the people get in line. She was shoving her kids in front of other people to get their picture. She heard me, and when the CM asked her to get in line, she said something nasty to me and pulled her kids away saying they didn't need the picture anyway. Okay, so I'm pulling up my soapbox again and getting up on it….Why is it that people seem to think that adults shouldn't want to have their pictures taken with the characters? Yes, we did stand in line for pictures…somewhat for ourselves but mostly for my husband's daughters. I mean, I paid just as much as anyone else in that park...in fact, I paid more than the kids did. Shouldn't I have the same rights? Okay, down off the soapbox. I'm sure I've said more than enough to fuel a flame war.

We headed toward what would become our second home on this trip: France. Of course, we were in search of my husband's dream woman: Belle. Instead we got the living statues, which I really liked. Tim liked them, but would have liked Belle a lot better. As we headed toward the entrance we stopped and watched Off Kilter for a while-what a great band. I still regret not purchasing their CD-ah well, next year. We made it to the entrance to FW just in time to see the lighting of the Christmas Tree and get caught in the rush of people heading to the exit. We hung back and watched the fountain symphony-it's even better at night-how amazing. And those wonderful sidewalk star lights (AKA fiber optics). You can't help but smile as you see the children chasing them. Eventually we made it to the bus stop where there was a bus waiting to take us back to the WL.

When we got back to our room at 7pm, I decided to take a bath for our 9pm PS at Artist Point, while Tim went down to refill our mugs and grab us a quick snack. He came back with a turkey sandwich. After one bite I knew that Artist Point would probably be a huge waste of money for us. I guess I'm not a huge smoked meat fan, and that turkey sandwich was really smoky. Tim wasn't all that hungry, so we cancelled our PS.

We still wanted to do something, so about 8:30 we decided to head to Downtown Disney and do some souvenir shopping. The wait for the bus was about 15 minutes and halfway to DD I remembered that I had forgotten my MKC card in the room…no buying for us tonight. When we arrived DD was packed, so we did a lot of window-shopping. Finally, around 11, we decided we had had enough, but were hungry so we headed to Planet Hollywood, where we were seated immediately.

This meal was one of the few things Tim & I really had a different opinion of. Neither of us particularly loved the environment, but I thought it was definitely one of the best meals we had on the trip. He didn't care for it much at all. He ordered the BBQ chicken pizza with cheese and caramelized onions. I ordered the chicken, spinach, and artichoke pizza with a basil white sauce. For desert, we split the bread pudding with ice cream and bourbon sauce. Oh man…was that a great meal!!!! Total cost was $51 with tip. We left right as the place closed at midnight and we could see the "New Years Eve" fireworks at Pleasure Island as we left.

As we left, we encountered a problem that would only get worse as our trip continued: bus service from Downtown Disney to the resorts. From this evening on, we would wait a minimum of 25 minutes for a bus. The rest of the week it would be closer to 45 minutes. We simply could not understand why the buses would run so far apart, as DD was the only place you could go after 9pm. Why wouldn't they run more buses?? When you finally did get a bus, the bus would be so packed that most times the driver would not even stop at the West Side station because the bus was so packed.

We finally got home around 1am and set the alarm for…you guessed it…6:15am. Do you think we actually woke up then?

Day 5 - Thursday, December 10, 1998

HIGHLIGHTS: MGM Studios, Mulan & Shang, AK, and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Okay, so as you've probably figured out from reading our prior days, we didn't quite make our 6:15 alarm. In fact, we weren't up and moving until about 9:30. Based on our previous experience at the AK on Tuesday, it would be a waste of time to try to finish it this morning. So I checked the EE schedule and MGM wasn't on it so we headed over there. Our bus pulled up as we got to the WL bus stop, so things we looking up. MGM was a new experience for both of us, so neither of us had any expectations going in.

We started by browsing in the shops in the entry. My stepdaughters had requested Mulan stuff, and the people at Downtown Disney suggested we look at MGM because DD didn't really carry much. We asked a lady in one of the shops, and she suggested a store near the Little Mermaid show, so we headed that way. We stopped at the Great Movie Ride since it looked like a walk-on (it was). We thought it was pretty neat, but I was on the left side, and it seemed most of the scenes were on the right. When we exited, we both headed for the restrooms. I emerged first and while I was looking for Tim, I glanced toward the Chinese Theater and who was there? MULAN!!!! I ran to get in line and waved Tim over when he came out of the restroom. He saved our spot in line while I ran to the nearest popcorn wagon and snagged an MGM map. I had a pen in my camera bag, so when my turn came I asked Mulan and Capt. Shang to autograph it and explained that it was for my stepdaughters. The thought the girls were just somewhere else in the park and offered to stay there until we could go get them. When I explained it was our honeymoon and they were home in Illinois, both Mulan and Shang said to tell the girls a special hello from them. Tim took my picture with them, and we felt like we had fulfilled our mission for the girls. To this day Tim still says that Mulan was the most beautiful character he saw on our trip.

When we got done with Mulan there was an announcement that Belle's Enchanted Christmas would be starting in 10 minutes, so Tim & I snagged a spot next to the tape line where Belle's carriage would be entering…would Tim's dream soon become a reality? As we were waiting, something caught his eye and he took off toward one of the popcorn wagons and came back with two tall Mulan plastic cooler glasses with the big long straws. He figured we could drink the coke in them and give the glasses to the girls when we got home. Great idea…they absolutely adored them!!!

As Belle's carriage pulled past us as the show began, Tim did get a great shot of her, but the rope line changed and we got shoved out of the way by some kind of militant stroller mother. It just wasn't worth the fight (although that attitude would change very soon)…Yes, Tim had seen Belle, but the Christmas grab just wasn't the same for him, so in his mind, seeing her didn't really count. We headed off toward the Little Mermaid Show. What a neat show. We loved the bubbles and the rippling water effects. The laser effects were interesting…Disney seems to be using that in a lot of their attractions now.

After the show we skipped the Making Armageddon because neither of us had seen it (and the line was really long) and we also skipped the soundstage where they were shooting Mortal Kombat. Since we've been home, we've seen Armageddon (oh, the tears!) and now wish we had waited in the line! Instead we headed for the Backlot Tour, which was a walk-on. Both of us enjoyed the water display, and I loved seeing the houses from the Golden Girls and George of the Jungle. I am a huge Indiana Jones fan, and it was really neat to see the vehicles they used in the movies I watch over and over again.

After the Backlot Tour it was onto the Honey I Shrunk The Kids Playground, where we stopped to take pictures for the girls. They sure would have loved that place. It was way crowded though...I think every kid in the park was there. Even I had this great urge to run around and slide down all the slides---how I do love that movie!!

After that it was a stroll down the street to walk on to the Muppets-what a great show! It was cute and very entertaining-even the preshow was good! And I love that fountain out front with the rotating Miss Piggy. I wanted to visit the Pizza Planet when we got done, but it was a little crowded and I remembered what everyone had said about it being just okay food-plus Tim wasn't hungry. We went into the Muppets store and found a wonderful bargain on some t-shirts ($9.99).

Our next stop was the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, which was just about to start. We slid into seats about ½ way up along the left-hand side. For a few minutes we had to sit with an empty seat (bleachers) in between us because the girl sitting behind that seat in the next row up wouldn't move her feet. Well, I'll be danged if I'm going to be separated from my husband on my honeymoon because some chick wants to put her feet on the seat!! So after some encouragement from me (Honey, scoot over NOW!!!!), my husband scooted over. Boy, did that chick move when she saw his rear end heading for her feet!!! The show itself was interesting, but I am an Indiana Jones freak, so it just wasn't the same without Harrison Ford, but you wouldn't know that to look at the ¾ roll of pictures I took during the show. The gift shop was pretty cool-Tim spent 20 minutes trying to persuade me to get all three film t-shirts, but I just couldn't part with the money. (As you will see later, parting with money will soon be absolutely no problem for me!)

It was about 3pm by this time, and we were getting a little worn down. The Mulan Parade was getting ready to start (there were still plenty of great viewing spots), so we skirted the parade watchers and headed for the exit (Neither one of us are great Mulan fans). It was neat because there was this CM dressed up like a showgirl leaning out a second story window of one of the storefronts. She was yelling at some poor guy waiting for the parade, and made him come out into the middle of the empty street so she could sing to him. It was a trip!!

We decided that the crowds at the AK would probably be clearing out about now, so we hopped a bus for the AK. This was probably one of the biggest mistakes of our trip, as we had tickets to MVMCP that night. We really should have gone back to the WL and rested up for the evening---ah well, live and learn I guess. It sprinkled a little on the bus ride over but stopped as we got there. Once again, I will say that it is a haul from the bus stop at the AK to the park entrance!! We headed straight for the Safari, which was a walk on, except for being shoved by an old French man who thought he could get to where you could board the vehicles and block the line until his family could catch up. WRONG! The safari was ok-we saw quite a few animals, but I didn't feel that it was overly "Disney." After the ride we stopped at a pay phone and called Tim's daughters who thought it was really cool that we were actually calling from the Animal Kingdom.

From the Safari, we headed for ITTBAB, which was a walk on. I 'm like other people on here who have said that they kinda wish there was a line so they would have been able to look at the carvings more. But hey, no line is no line…. This was a GREAT show!! From reading RADP, I knew most of the things that happen in various WDW shows, but I have never paid much attention to the AK discussions because I wanted to go and form my own opinion without being influenced ahead of time. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the show but the bees and the very end were awesome. Tim and I have never laughed so hard!!!!

By the time we were done with ITTBAB (~5:30), the sun was going down so we decided to save Dinoland for our next trip (next year!) There was no wait for a bus, so we were back to the WL in record time. We didn't have any dinner plans, and there really wasn't enough time to go to another resort, wait in line, and make it to the MK for MVMCP. When we got back, neither one of us knew what we wanted to eat, so we headed down to the Whispering Canyon, where we were seated immediately. Now, I had read a lot about this place and was expecting a lot of craziness. There was nothing of the sort except for one loud waitress a couple of tables over. Tim, who knew nothing of what the place was supposed to be like, leaned over and said, "She's (the loud waitress) really rude…why do they keep her?" They did have the children's pony ride around the restaurant, and we all waved our napkins-it was cute. The food was okay-nothing to write home about, but good. We ordered the family dinner, which came with salad, corn on the cob, bread, BBQ ribs, BBQ chicken, BBQ beef brisket, BBQ turkey leg, and new potatoes. Warning: Everything is heavily smoked here-we spent the rest of the night (excuse the grossness here) burping smoke. Tim had coffee, and I had a mixed drink and a gigantic iced tea served in a huge mason jar. We finished the meal with hot cherry cobbler with ice cream, which was really good. The bill with tax and tip came to $64.

After dinner we returned to our room, where I took a jacuzzi (I could really get used to this!) and Tim did his usual mug refill trip. We headed to the boat dock at 7:30. Apparently, there were more people than usual headed for MVMCP, because the dock filled up and three Contemporary boats came by with no sign of the MK boat. Finally the MK boat arrived and everyone piled on. There was no way it could hold everyone (again, one of the first ones there and shoved to the back!). The Contemporary boat came by again, and he was nice enough to offer to take the rest of us to the MK-COOL!

When we finally got there, we managed to catch most of the parade and followed it down Main St. Now, if that parade isn't Disney magic, I don't know what is!!! Tim loved the snow-it seemed like he couldn't stop smiling. All around us people were trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues-oh, the poor fools. The looks on their faces were priceless when they realized it was soap flakes. We scooted past the Crystal Palace to catch the new Tiki Birds-woo hoo, they kept the old song! We really liked the new show, but next time I want to sit where I can catch the feather. When we came out Baloo was there!! He's Tim's 2nd favorite, right after Belle. It was funny though-we got in line to get Tim's picture. When it was our turn the guy behind us said, "It's your turn, where are your kids?" I laughed and pointed to my husband. The poor guy just looked confused!

Our next stop was a walk on onto the Jungle Cruise, where we had a pretty good captain, but a lousy, non-participating crew. While we were riding, the fireworks went off and we could see some of them. Then it was back to P of C to get our free picture taken. By this point in time I was kind of grouchy-my feet hurt and there seemed to be more people in the MK than had ever been when we had been there earlier in the week. My mood did not improve when, as we were standing in line for the picture and I asked Tim how my hair looked and he reached over, fluffed it a little, made a big old scrunchy face, and said (for the first time ever) "Not too good!" Great. The good thing is that when we got our picture a week later, the natural shadow hid the bad part of my hair, and I actually looked okay. Ha ha Tim!

Our main goal for the evening was to ride the Mountains. We got lucky because we were able to walk onto Splash Mt. OH MY GOD!!!! I'm not a big "drop" ride rider and I had no idea that there was more than one drop! We were in the 2nd row and got drenched. When we looked at the picture, there I am, scrunched up against Tim with my mouth wide open screaming my head off. Needless to say, we didn't purchase the picture.

We tried to get on BTMRR, but the line was 30 minutes---ACK!! So we headed up to Fantasyland where we got our hot chocolate and cookies at Pinocchio Haus. By this time, it was 11:30 and I was beat. My feet were killing me, and our 2-park full day was catching up to me. Tim knew how I felt and insisted that we leave---how I love that man! To this day I feel bad because Tim was so excited about MVMCP and I was such a dud. There were just so very many people-it reminded me of the days in July we used to spend there.

We made it home and were in bed by 1 am.

Day 6 - Friday, December 11, 1998

HIGHLIGHTS: Spoodles, CBR, World Showcase, Cape May Buffet, and Belle (FINALLY!)

Why is it that everything fits in your suitcase when you come to WDW, but won't fit back in when you pack to leave? That's the question we were asking ourselves this morning as we packed to move from our honeymoon suite in the WL to a room at CBR. Better yet, how in the world would we get everything home on Sunday when we hadn't even done the majority of our souvenir shopping yet?!?!?

Looking back, we should have gotten up earlier than 7:30 since we knew we had PS at Spoodles at 9am. Finally, we were dressed and packed and called Bell Services to pick up our five suitcases, two extra large shopping bags, and one balloon. We decided not to try to move the roses again as they were beginning to fizzle and we had such a problem with them when we moved from DxL to the WL. By the time we got rid of our bags, caught a bus (15-minute wait) to MGM, and caught a boat to the Boardwalk (we had to sit on the boat for 10 minutes while they "regulated" the boat schedules), we were 45 minutes late for our PS.

Luckily that turned out to be no problem, as we were seated right away. Breakfast was a wonderful buffet with breakfast pizzas, eggs and cheeses, plain eggs, bacon and sausage (not smoked-WOO HOO!), bagels, toast, and a million different pastries. You could also order pancakes, french toast, waffles, etc. at no extra charge. Tim had milk and coffee, and I had milk and orange juice. With tax and tip, it came to about $40, but it was definitely worth it. After breakfast we walked around the Boardwalk, looked into the ESPN Club (Tim was unhappy it wasn't open), and played some games in the arcade.

We caught the bus back to MGM and from there hopped a bus to CBR to check in. The bus to CBR was empty except for us, so we had a really nice conversation with the bus driver. He and his wife had both been working for Disney for a couple of months. They were originally from California, and when I asked him what had brought him to FL, he replied, "A sign from GOD." The only thing I can say is that I hope I'm next on God's list!! J The CBR is a world in itself with its 7 villages/bus stops and internal bus system. Tim loved the place as soon as we walked into the check-in area at the Customs House because there was a tv with the Jungle Book playing and Baloo was just getting ready to sing. Needless to say, I had to check in alone while my 32-year old husband sat with the other kids and watched the movie.

Check in was quick and smooth and the neatest thing happened. When they handed me the room key and maps, they gave me a 5x7 glossy bi-fold card with the CBR logo on the front. Inside there was a 5x7-color photo of Mickey and Minnie in wedding garb and they had written "To Mr. And Mrs. Jennings, Congratulations on your marriage. Love, Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse" So very cool!!!!

As it happened, our room was ready, so we walked over to Aruba, where we had a corner room facing the courtyard. As soon as Tim opened the door, he announced, "This is our resort!" He fell in love with it the minute he walked in. He picked up the refillable mugs (same mugs in the room for $6.95 and at the food court for $7.95) and headed off for Olde Port Royale while I took pictures of the room and called home to let them know where we were.

When Tim came back to the room, he said I had to come with him and see the rest of the place. For those of you who don't know….CBR is made up of 7 villages that are positioned around a lake. The Customs House (check-in) is on one side, and Olde Port Royale (food court & shopping) is on the other side. Each of the villages has a private pool and a white sand beach with palm trees and two-people hammocks. You can't swim in the lake, but some of the beaches also have children's playground equipment on them. You can reach Olde Port Royale by walking clear around the lake (long!) or by walking across a bridge over the lake and through an island (Parrot Cay) in the middle of the lake. Parrot Cay is filled with parrots in cages (imagine Tim's surprise when he walked through there at night and heard, "Hello there!" come out of the darkness!) and a children's playground area. You can stop on the bridge and feed the fish. At the end of the bridge is Olde Port Royale. There is the main resort pool, which is themed like a fort, complete with a waterfall you can stand under and a water slide. Near the pool area are lots of umbrella tables and the Banana Cabana, which serves drinks. There is also a white sand beach on the lake where kids can play and where lots of birds and turtles hang out. Right there is also a marina-type area where you can rent mini-boats (~$15/half hour). Also, in the pool area there is a place where you can get your hair wrapped and can rent surrey bikes to ride around the lake. Inside the Olde Port Royale building is a shopping area that offers and variety of swimsuits and CBR and WDW souvenirs. The food court area is a series of five or six counter service places that offer different foods ranging from pizza to deli foods. All of CBR was decorated for Christmas in bright Caribbean colors, with all of the doorways trimmed in evergreen intertwined with bright colored plastic balls.

Tim was right…This is our resort forever. This is where we are comfortable and where we belong. The colors, the beaches, the sun, the hammocks…it's all perfect. I am so very happy that I went with my instinct earlier that week when I made our reservation for next December there before having seen it. The only complaint I had about the CBR was that the lady came in to check the mini-bar every day in the afternoon. She would knock once and then come right in-what if we had been "in the middle of something?"

As much as we would have liked to have hung around the resort and savored the feeling, we still hadn't found Belle yet. If you have been reading the earlier sections of this report, you know that Belle is my husband's dream girl…and we had yet to meet her. So, at 1:30, it was off to EPCOT.

Our first stop was Spaceship Earth, which had no wait…gosh, I like this ride! Tim was chomping at the bit to find Belle, so we headed to France. We saw a line forming in the courtyard, but soon found out it was for Quasimodo-BUMMER! Well, we wanted to hang around, so what better thing to do while we waited, but eat. In the pastry shop we got a cheese plate, chocolate croissant, and another pastry that we couldn't even pronounce the English name for, which ended up costing up about $20. We ate slow, but alas, still no Belle. We decided to walk around but stay close to France, so we looked in the shops in Morocco. Just as we were leaving Morocco, Jafar came out, so we had our picture taken with him-what a character! Back to France-our honeymoon is now officially the Quest for Belle.

But, alas, it was not to be that afternoon, so we headed back to CBR. On the way, we caught the last half of the character Christmas show on the stage in front of the lake near the entrance of Future World. There weren't many people, and I was able to get some great pictures of Mickey, Minnie, Chip & Dale, and all the rest of the gang. It was really neat because after the show each of the character went to their own roped off area where kids could get in line to meet them. Then it was back to CBR for a short nap before dinner.

Our PS reservation was for 7pm at Cape May Buffet at the Beach Club. We headed out early to Downtown Disney where we caught a bus to the Swan/Dolphin/Yacht & Beach Clubs after a 25-minute wait. To this day, Tim still swears they should take TNT and blow the swans and fish right off the top of those hotels because they are the ugliest things he has ever seen. My question is this: Why is it named the Dolphin when those fish on the top don't resemble dolphins in any way, shape, or form?

Anyway, the Beach Club lobby was packed with people dressed in everything from shorts & t-shirts to suits. Another thing we noticed was that most of the people we saw were older people-not too many families with young children. We were not comfortable there at all! We checked in at 6:40 and found that it would be a 20-25 minutes for everyone who had PS reservations, so we went into the bar and got a drink. As we were sitting there, two men walked up to the bar and one said to the other, "So, is Belle still out there?"

Could it be?!?! Was my husband's wish about to come true??!?!? Was our goal our reach?!?!? Tim and I looked at each other, I threw down the money on the bar, and we streaked out to the lobby, our eyes frantically searching for her. AND THERE SHE WAS IN ALL HER LOVELINESS!!!! Better yet, there was no one near her! As we walked toward her (probably "ran" is a better word) I dug into my bag for the camera. Tim seemed to be awestruck, so I took the lead. I walked up to her and said, "Hi, this is my husband Tim and he's in love with you." She just laughed! She was just as pretty in person as she was in the movie. She let us take a bunch of pictures, and after we said goodbye, you couldn't wipe the smile off Tim's face. He just floated across the lobby when our name was called for dinner.

The Cape May Buffet was definitely an experience. It is noisy and crowded, so if you're looking for a quite, romantic dinner, this is not the place. But the food is good. I wanted to go because I love steamed clams, oysters, and mussels, and there are bucketfuls of them! The rest of the food is great too, and the dessert bar is to die for, especially the Oreo clouds. When we walked into the lobby after dinner, Belle was still there, walking around, looking for someone to talk to-I could not believe there were no kids around!!

After dinner we walked along the lake (wanted to see the infamous Stormalong Bay) and caught a boat to the Boardwalk. The line for the ESPN Club was out the door, so we snuck in through the giftshop to look at the place. Very cool-next time we definitely have to go there! We picked up some souvenirs for our male relatives, and then went to the bus stop to head for Downtown Disney.

This would prove to be our worst bus night of the whole trip. We waited 45 minutes for a bus to DD. When we got there, the place was packed! The Christmas crowds were definitely building. We had hoped to get a lot of our shopping done, but the crowds and my mood didn't make for the best combination. We picked up the WDW Barbie family, the Animal Kingdom Barbie, and the Disney Fun Barbie for my Barbie collector sister. I wanted to have them shipped home, but the CM said that they wouldn't make it there until after Christmas not matter what method I used. That really ticked me off. For those of you Barbie collectors, you know how important it is that the box be in good shape, and I was not looking forward to the responsibility of transporting them all the way back to Illinois.

The highlight of our evening was a stop at the Photo Studio, which is located between the sports shop and the glass shop. There we had our picture taken, overlaid onto a 1998 dated Disney scene, and made into a mouse pad for our computer ($19.95). Then we had another 5x7 print made ($12.95) and bought an oak frame with small mouse ears cut out all around the edges for it. We plan on doing this every trip because it's dated!

Oh man, too too too too many people! It was time to get out of there! When we get to the bus stop, there were about 5 or 6 other people there, so we had a seat on the bench. Over the next 45 minutes, we saw 3 Coronado Springs buses, 4 Boardwalk buses, and at least 2 for every other resort except CBR. When the bus finally got there, somehow Tim & I got shoved to the back of the line-not the best thing when you're in a bad mood and have huge shopping bags. I was making this point to Tim when some lady (and I use that term loosely) looks at me and says, "What's your problem? We're all getting on!" It took all my effort not to respond, which would have been very unDisney-like. We barely made the bus and ended up standing with our bags.

When we finally made it back to CBR I went straight to bed and Tim went to the beach to get away from his grouchy wife! Before he left, Tim said that the next day would be a rest-only day so I could relax-I love that man!

Day 7 - Saturday, December 12, 1998

HIGHLIGHTS: Unwind & relax

After my experience the night before with the WDW bus system and mean people at Downtown Disney, Tim decided that I needed a day to relax and unwind. We slept until 9:45, which was exactly what we both needed. After we showered, we headed over to OPR for coffee and croissants and caught a bus for Downtown Disney to finish our shopping. We figured it would be less crowded while the parks were open-boy were we wrong!!! It was just as crowded as last night, but my attitude was a lot better. I did exactly what wives with non-shopping husbands would do. I sat Tim down on a window seat bench in the Disney store and shopped. Every so often I would return with my arms loaded down and give it all to him to hold. The final bill ended up at ~$300-my MKC card has definitely paid for itself. Thank God next won't be nearly as bad because we won't have to buy the souvenirs for all the people we did this year. We ended up buying three new suitcase/bags because we knew we couldn't haul everything home in what we had. Plus each of us had checked only one bag on the way down and the airline allowed three per person. Still, we knew even with the new bags it wouldn't be enough. We would have to Fed. Ex. some of our clothes home. It wouldn't matter how long it would take them to get there because who needs summer clothes during an Illinois winter!

We were back at the CBR by 1:30-MAN, WE LOVE THIS PLACE!!!! We walked over to OPR for refills and then took up residence in the hammocks on the beach for a couple of hours. Ah, what a life! After a nap in the sun, we headed back to OPR for pizza and drinks and CBR souvenirs. We head back to the room because we want to shower before our 7:10 PS at the Rose & Crown. We talked about it and Tim wasn't feeling too well. Just tired, I think. About 6:10, he suddenly felt better and announced he wanted to ride rides, but there's was nothing open. Plus, I didn't want to use a whole day on our hopper passes for an hour or so. We decided not to, so we headed back to Downtown Disney to catch a movie. When we got there, Waterboy (Adam Sandler) was about to start so we headed in-what a neat theater. It has stadium seating and the armrests come up so we newlyweds were able to snuggle (how cute!) It wasn't too cute, however, as we were leaving the theater we noticed that my left side and his right side were covered with chocolate where we had dropped a couple of chocolate-covered almonds between us and they melted J I think the neatest part was that everyone there really participated in the movie by cheering and yelling.

I was hungry when the movie was over (not much of a popcorn eater like Tim), so we stopped at Planet Hollywood where I got a takeout order (order at the bar) or chicken, spinach, and artichoke pizza and bourbon bread pudding for $20 including tip. Mmmm mmmmm good! There wasn't much of a wait for a bus, but it was crowded and Tim and I ended up standing again (we were the only ones this time!). When we got to the first CBR stop and people got off, before we could sit down, this family who was sitting together all of the sudden moved into the empty seats so none of them was sharing a two-seat row with anyone. Tim and I were amazed at the rudeness! So, we just plopped our big rear ends right down in the empty seats-bet those people wished they had kept sitting with their family instead of being seat hogs and ending up sitting with complete strangers!

We got off at Aruba (our stop), dumped the food off in the room (forgot there was ice cream on the dessert) and headed over to OPR for refills. That is one hoppin' place at 10:30 at night! The pool was full! Back at the room, Tim crashed, and I ate dinner and wrote in my trip journal until 1am. Tomorrow we will spend our last day the MK.

Day 8 - Sunday, December 13, 1998

HIGHLIGHTS: MK and being homeless in the pouring rain

I had set the alarm for 7am so we could be at the MK at 9am. If you've been reading this report all along, you can guess by now that there was no way this would happen. For the first time, I woke up first, showered & dressed, and went to OPR to get Tim breakfast before he even woke up. While he dressed I finished packing. The only way we could do it was to Fed. Ex. a 35 lb. box of clothes home. We got a box from the store at OPR and the bell services guy put it in storage with the rest of our stuff so when we checked out we could do the paperwork before the Tiffany Town Car picked us up.

I wasn't sure what our plans were for the whole day, so I packed a backpack with our swimsuits and beach towels to take with us to the MK. I had read on the newsgroup that Sunday morning was one of the best times to visit the MK-this particular Sunday must have been an aberration from the norm. It was packed, but at least it was overcast and pretty cool. We threw our stuff in a locker and caught the train to Mickey's ToonTown Fair. What a cute place!!! The girls would love it-I really hope their mom will let them come with us next year.

Our next stop was the Carousel of Progress, which has been a favorite of mine since childhood. I know a lot of you like the new song, but I am still a big fan of the old song…I wish they would bring it back. Our next stop was Star Traders to look for a flag for our flagpole. The CM there said my best bet was the Disney Catalog, but off the record, he bought his at WalMart J Something interesting they did do at Star Traders was made a Disney return address stamper for you while you waited ($12.95)-maybe next year.

The CM had suggested that we look at Liberty Square for flags so we headed that way. No luck with the flags but I did buy a great off-white wooden picture frame that had navy wooden stars and dark red wooden stripes-perfect for our living room. We just missed the Hall of Presidents, but I just can't justify waiting in line to hear our hypocritical president speak. I miss the HofP from the '80's. We did get to see the Fife and Drum Corps while we were standing there debating the merits of Clinton.

The only character we still needed to see to get a picture for Tim's girls was Ariel, so we headed to Ariel's Grotto. On the way we got pictures with Alice and the Queen of Hearts at the Teacups. The line for Ariel wasn't too bad, as we only waited for 20 minutes or so. The water playground is so neat-the one change I have noticed is that WDW has become a lot more kid-waiting-area oriented. Ariel was so nice when we finally met her and she signed on the same paper that Mulan & Shang signed for the girls. Right outside the exit there was a stand that sold cokes in Ariel mugs, so we picked up a couple for the girls and Tim got a grape snow cone-thank God for Shout wipes!!

The only other time Tim had been to WDW (when he was 12), his parents didn't let him ride BTMRR, so that was our next stop. We had resigned ourselves to waiting in line for quite a while, but it was only five minutes. As we were winding through the building it started to sprinkle rain. When we got to the loading area, the people who got out ahead of us were not wet, but the seats were a little wet…no big deal. So, we get loaded up and start the ride. As we come out of the tunnel and see the light we hear this noise that we can't quite place.

Suddenly, I recognize the noise….it's a Florida downpour!!!! There we are zooming through BTM in the pouring rain that coming down so hard you can't even see when you open your eyes. What a feeling!!! I start screaming and throwing my arms up in the air. Tim is laughing so hard he can't talk! It was the best ride we went on the whole trip!!!!! We get off the ride and it's pouring so hard that there is no one on the walkways-everyone is up underneath overhangs and in buildings. Wouldn't you know that this is the only day I didn't pack the ponchos. We looked at each other and decided that we had done everything we wanted to do and couldn't get any wetter, so we might as well head toward the exit.

We grabbed our backpack and caught a bus for CBR. The only problem? We were soaked and everything we owned was in storage. We could have gotten it out, but we had packed all of our summer clothes in the box to be shipped home and it was taped up. The only dry clothes we could have gotten to were our winter Illinois clothes. By the time we got to CBR, the rain had stopped and it was getting chilly. Tim changed into his swim trunks and t-shirt while I went into the shop at OPR and bought a Pooh t-shirt & boxer shorts (on sale for $10/ea) to put on over my bathing suit. Tim needed some time to relax (I was driving him crazy), so he took our wet clothes to one of the village laundries to dry them and said he would be back in about an hour. I stayed at OPR, content to people-watch. Just as he was supposed to get back, it started to pour down rain again. Just our luck!! Tim waited until the rain slowed and then came back with our dry clothes. We changed and then grabbed double cheeseburgers and fries at the Food Court ($10).

After we ate, we took the internal bus to Barbados to meet the Tiffany Town Car and Fed Ex our box. Let me tell you, that was quite an experience. We waited in line for 20 minutes (well, one of us waited in line as Jungle Book was on again!). When I finally got to the front, the clerk had no idea how to Fed. Ex. the box. He finally figured out what needed to be done (the whole process took another 25 minutes). I felt bad for the people behind me in line. In the end, I paid $37 to ship the box, and he wasn't going to give me any carbon copies of the paperwork, etc. When I asked him for them he said that he still had to type up all the paperwork and was just trying to "get me out of there." I don't think he meant it in a bad way, but it was weird. Finally he gave me a receipt that showed I had paid WDW the money, and I had him sign his name, the date and time, and write what it was for. Just as I finished with the clerk and Tim had gotten the rest of our luggage, the Tiffany Town Car pulled up. Our driver, a very nice British man, got us safely to the airport, and we tipped him $10.

Our flight to Atlanta was on time, but our connecting flight to Bloomington, IL was delayed by 2 hours so we ended up getting home at 2:30am instead of midnight.

The next and final section of my trip report is Final Thoughts.

Final Thoughts

During our trip and since we've been home, I've jotted down general observations/tips as they've popped into my head, so here they are in no particular order:

RESORTS IN GENERAL - We stayed at 3 different resorts (DxL for 1 night, WL honeymoon suite for 4 nights, and CBR for 2 nights) over 7 nights. We did this because neither one of us had ever stayed in a WDW resort and we would like to bring Tim's 2 daughters (ages 9 and 4) next year. We wanted to see firsthand what was there. Resort switching is time-consuming and we will probably not do it again.
DxL - We only spent one night here in Alligator Bayou. The overall theming is neat, but not our style as it is pretty rustic. We arrived at night, which made it difficult to find out way around, and it seemed far from the main building, where all of the action was.

WL - We stayed in a honeymoon suite on the 7th floor, which was awesome. The whole lodge itself is awesome, but not our style. We're from Illinois and have those kinds of park lodges, but we feel like you should walk out into snow. It was hard to walk out into 83 degree weather. The food here is all smoked, so beware.

CBR - By far our favorite resort. For us Illinoisians, this is a Florida vacation with all the bright colors, beaches, hammocks, and palm trees. There were lots of families here and we felt very at home…able to come and go as we pleased. The bright colors were so romantic and appealing. The whole place just relaxes you and makes you happy.

BUS TRANSPORTATION - We debated before our trip as to whether we wanted to rent a car. Looking back I'm glad we didn't. While there were a few instances where the whole bus thing made me really angry, it was pretty good for the most part. We didn't have to wait for buses from our resort, but buses running from Downtown Disney to the resorts we not great. Then again, trying to find a parking place at DD didn't look like a whole lot of fun either.
CROWDS - It seemed as though the crowds got larger as the week progressed, although the Tiffany Town Car driver said their pickups had decreased over the course of the week. We stuck to a schedule of doing things in the morning, taking a break in the afternoon, and heading back in the late afternoon. We never saw a ride with more than a 10 minute wait except at MVMCP. We will always go in the fall from now on.
RESTAURANTS - We ate at a variety of table service and counter service restaurants this week. I don't think that we ate at a bad restaurant. Frankly, it's a matter of taste. Tim's favorite was Les Chefs de France, while mine was Planet Hollywood (for the food, not the atmosphere). Next year, we won't be scheduling as many sit down meals as we did this year because, if we hadn't already had the PS reservations, we probably wouldn't have eaten. In fact, we ended up canceling 2 of our reservations anyway. Most of the table service restaurants we ate at ran us about $40 with tax and tip. This usually included soft drinks (no alcoholic beverages), an appetizer or dessert and 2 entrees. There are plenty of restaurants, however, where we could have just ordered an appetizer and split an entrée because with two entrees we ended up leaving food on our plates (and we are healthy eaters!) We were kind of scared of counter service places but the ones we did eat at like the Pizzafari in the AK and the CBR food court weren't bad at all, and they were definitely cheaper.
MOUSECELLANEOUS

Bring an extra suitcase for souvenirs, as you'll always buy more than you think you will.
Know going into this that you can't do everything unless you plan on being there at least 2-3 weeks. Prioritize what's important to you and save the other stuff for another trip.
Use the packing list on WDWIG as a guide-we took almost everything on the list and used it. SHOUT wipes are a must.
Consider packing more lightly and doing a little laundry while you're there
Take lots of film-we shot 12 rolls of 24 exp. and probably would have shot more if we had taken my stepdaughters
Take a can of air freshener for your room-we took a mini concentrated spray we got at Bath & Body Works
If you are staying more than one night at a resort, use the refillable mugs. They are awesome!!
Get your room preference in early.
Call as early as possible for character meals. Even in the off season Cindy's Breakfast gets booked up fast. Make sure to do Chef Mickey's-the food, characters, and atmosphere are GREAT!
Don't be afraid to take a guidebook with you or stuff you print off of WDWIG. When I got there I was so excited I forgot a lot of what I had read.
We followed the "do stuff in the morning and late afternoon plan", which worked out pretty well. Next time we're going to try alternating hard "go-at-it" days with "take-it-easy" days. Also, we may try EE next time, but Jeff Spencer's idea about going the day after EE worked out pretty good. Hopefully this on day/off day pattern will give us enough rest to do Pleasure Island next year.
We didn't see as much of the holiday stuff as we probably should have. The reason for this is simple: I hate standing in line. With the year I have had with my job, the wedding, a new house, etc., standing in line would have put me over the edge. In accommodating that, we ended up not seeing fireworks, Fantasmic, the Candlelight Processional, or the Osborne Lights. These are definitely on our list for next year.
There will be lines, so be prepared. They won't be long, but they will be there, and the same types of rude people that are there in the summer will be there in December.
There will also be tour groups, though not as many as come in the summer.
When it comes to buying souvenirs, make sure and ask yourself what you will do with it when you get home. I tried to get things I could use all year round like Disney-shaped pasta, pens, and glasses. I will say this, I never got tired of the World of Disney Store at Downtown Disney.
Don't resort hop (stay in different resorts during a single stay) unless you plan on staying in each for more than two nights…in our experience, it was time-consuming checking in and checking out.
This trip we flew in late Sunday and flew out late the next Sunday, which was a pain as we hated being "homeless" for our last day. Next year, we have sucked it up and booked an additional night on the front end of our stay so we can fly in early on Saturday and fly out mid-day the following Sunday.
Buy hopper passes instead of LOS. If we had purchased an LOS, I would have felt guilty (like we weren't getting our money's worth) if we hadn't gone to the parks every day. With the hopper pass, if you don't feel like going, that day will just roll over. We saved one day from this trip to use next year. Remember that you can only purchase 5-day and 6-day hoppers in your local Disney stores. Seven-day hoppers have to be purchased when you get there.
It's easier to buy the passes when you get there because they will encode them on your room key, which will give you one less thing to carry.
MOST IMPORTANTLY-Relax…this is your vacation. Don't feel like you have to go, go, go. Just let yourself be immersed in the Disney magic.
Until next year………

Missy Jennings

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