Trip Reports

Time of Year: Holiday Season
Travel Method: Plane, Shuttle Service
Resort: ASSR
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent, Rookie
Comments: Carol's report has an interesting twist. She briefly describes, day-by-day, what the plans for the day had been. Then she goes on to describe what actually happened. It makes for very interesting reading...seeing how "the best laid plans of mice and men" (a little Steinbeck lingo for you there) can go in different directions.

The 3rd Annual r.a.d.p. Holiday Meet, December, 11 – 14, 1998

The Players – Carol Kelley (aka ScoutMom on radp and #radp-friends) – Age 34, Mom of two wonderful boys, and wife to one VERY wonderful hubby, third WDW Trip. Dixie Mitchell – Age 50 something???, wonderful grandmother to my two wonderful boys, (she is not my mother or my mother-in-law, but then that’s another story which is ancient history), my best friend, first WDW trip, but she’s been to Disneyland before.

INTRODUCTION

During late July, August, September, and early October, I had been putting in huge amounts overtime at work. Well, because I was working long hours at night, it gave me the chance to check out the IRC chat group #radp-friends. (We don’t have internet access at home) So over the course of a couple of months, I got to meet the nuttiest and friendliest bunch of people around. I would work a little, chat, a little, work, a little, chat a little. It really made the time at work go by faster. All of the build-up for the big meet was going on and I really wanted to go. So one evening, I talked to my hubby in my sweetest, pleading voice, to try and work out a weekend trip to WDW. He really wasn’t interested, plus what would we do with the boys?? He said I could go by myself if I wanted to. I wanted to, but felt really guilty and probably would’ve backed out, but....

A couple of days later, my boys’ grandmother (Dixie) was at the house visiting with us. Out of the blue my husband piped up and suggested that the two of us go to WDW together. She said yes!!!!! So, I quickly called my favorite WDW travel agent, Wal-Mart Travel and received a great price for the weekend trip. They got us three nights Resort Magic Plan at All-Star Sports with LOS Passes, Flex Feature, Dining Disney Style and Mears transfers for $510.00 each. We also found airfare out of Huntsville on Delta for $188.00 each. We both felt we could afford that so we booked the trip.

About a week later, Dixie was at the house again for my son’s birthday party and we sat down and watched the Vacation Planning Video. She really enjoyed the video and told me to plan everything for the trip, so here are our plans:

Thursday Night, December 10: Dixie will come to the house and spend the night with us. My son has his Christmas Band Concert that night so it will be a busy evening.
Friday, December 11: Hubby takes the boys to school, then comes back by the house and takes us to the airport Our plane leaves Huntsville at 9:15 in the morning Transfers in Atlanta Arrival in Orlando around 1:08 Mears to All-Star Sports Off to EPCOT Lunch at the Garden Grill in The Land – 3:00 PS Dinner in Italy – 8:00 PS Illuminations
Saturday, December 12: Up Early Off to Animal Kingdom in the morning Lunch at Rainforest Cafe – 12:00 PS Head over to the Big Meet – TTC at 1:00 PM Back to the room for a rest Dinner at Planet Hollywood around 5:30 PM Over to Magic Kingdom for Spectromagic (7:00 PM) and the Fireworks (8:00 PM) Head over to the Adventurer’s Club for the Meet there – 9:00 PM
Sunday, December 13: Sleep In till about 9:00. Walk to Coronado Springs on the Jogging Trail if we can find it to have breakfast Off to Disney Studios Lunch at 50’s Prime Time Cafe – 1:00 PS Go to the Tower of Terror Meet – 5:00 PM Go to the Fantasmic Meet – 6:00 PM Take the boat to the Beach Club and have dinner at Cape May Cafe – 8:00 PS Stroll the Boardwalk Go through EPCOT for bus to All-Stars. Either catch the 9:00 Candlelight Processional or catch a ride or two. Back to the room
Monday, December 14: Up early, check out Off to the Magic Kingdom Late Breakfast at Crystal Palace (Flex Feature) – 10:30 PS Dinner at the Castle to blow the last of our Dining Disney Style Money – 4:30 PS Back to All-Stars Mears to the Airport Plane departs Orlando at 8:40pm Transfers in Atlanta Home at 11:30 pm
Unless I mention a specific breakfast, we will grab a bagel or a muffin on the way to the bus each morning. I will also be bringing our refillable mugs from a previous trip.

On Friday, October 16th, I made all of our Priority Seating arrangements except for Rainforest Cafe which can’t be made until seven days out and Planet Hollywood which can’t be made at all, but I figured since we were eating so early, it wouldn’t be a problem getting seats at PH. I also ordered our t-shirts from Mackey Tees for the meet. On Wednesday, October 21st, I got e-mail confirmation from Mackey Tees that our shirts were being shipped. On Tuesday, October 27th, the t-shirts arrived. They look great. I am really pleased with Mackey Tees!!! :-)

On Tuesday, November 3rd, we made the final payment to the travel agent. On Monday, November 16, 1998 I received my package documents. WOO HOOO!! The trip was all set. The only thing left to do was wait and pack. Of course, Thanksgiving was in the next few days so the days would at least be busy!! :-)

On Saturday, December 5th, I woke up at an ungodly hour (6:00 am) and blindly called WDW-Dine and got our Rainforest Seating. Now that everything is taken care of all I have to do is muddle through four days of work and all my kids Christmas activities. I hope this week goes fast.

Thursday Night, December 10: Our Plans Were: Dixie will come to the house and spend the night with us. My son has his Christmas Band Concert that night so it will be a busy evening.

What Actually Happened:

Thursday night finally rolled around. I left work at 5:15 and went to my son’s school for a briefing on his upcoming Space Camp trip. Space Camp got some corporate sponsors and is sending all of the 5th graders for all of Huntsville City, Madison City, and Madison County Schools for FREE!! After that, my oldest son had his band concert, so we headed that direction and watched that. Rick and Grandma Dixie met us there. While we were waiting for the concert to start, we talked about the trip and were sitting there giggling like little girls. :-) The concert was really good. It’s amazing how well they sound together. After the concert, we went out to dinner and then to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of last minute things, then off to bed.

ON TO THE TRIP!!!!!!

Friday, December 11: Our Plans Were: Hubby takes the boys to school, then comes back by the house and takes us to the airport Our plane leaves Huntsville at 9:15 in the morning Transfers in Atlanta Arrival in Orlando around 1:08 Mears to All-Star Sports Off to EPCOT Lunch at the Garden Grill in The Land – 3:00 PS Dinner in Italy – 8:00 PS Illuminations

What Actually Happened:

We got up that morning and got ready to go. Rick took the boys to school and came back and delivered us to the airport. We grabbed a bagel and some milk at the airport. Our plane left a few minutes late, but we had a good flight. We were a little late arriving in Atlanta, and our connecting flight was early, but it was only two gates down, so we got there no problem. Got loaded on the plane to Orlando and had a good flight down. We were on a 757 for this flight and had headphones for the flight. That was kinda neat. Once we got to Orlando, we headed for the monorail and down to baggage claim. Now, in my two experiences with MCO our bags had always been rolling around on the carousel when we got there, but this time we had to wait about 10 minutes.

Got to the Mears desk and got a shuttle right away. However, the drive to the resort was the "Mr. Toad’s Wild Shuttle Ride to Everywhere in Particular". We had 5 stops before we finally got to All-Stars. Our driver was new and had somebody training him and he ran a red light. Our plane had landed at about 1:15 and we got to All-Stars at 2:45. From now on, I don’t care if it’s just me, I will not use Mears again. Florida Town Car or Tiffany Town Car will be my driver. The extra cost will be well worth it.

We got to the check-in desk at All-Star Sports and were seen right away. The room was not ready, but we got our IDs with passes and DDS and headed on our way. We did scan my American Express, but requested not to have Express Checkout, so we could split up the charges when we checked out. We were both given AMEX fanny packs which was an unexpected surprise. I thought the room had to be paid for with AMEX to get those. We went to the bus stops and saw a bus sitting at the "EPCOT or Blizzard Beach" sign and hopped on. Well silly me didn’t look at the sign on the bus. This was a Blizzard Beach only bus. Well, turning a bright shade of red, we got back off at All-Stars and waited for the EPCOT bus.

An EPCOT bus came shortly and away we went. We got to EPCOT and I promptly led us in the wrong direction away from the entrance. I decided right then I was going to quit pretending to know what I was doing and start reading some signs. :-)

We headed over to The Land for our 3:00 PS at Garden Grill. It was 3:30 by then, but no problem, the place was empty. :-) If you arrive early morning or mid-day, scheduling a meal shortly after you arrive helps you to unwind from all of the planes and running and checking in you do. It helps to calm me down and get out of Commando Mode (which is essential at airports) and ready to enjoy the vacation. We had a wonderful server and a great meal. They brought some really light biscuits and yummy cornbread with apple butter. There was some very tender beef, fish, and chicken. There was stir fried veggies and their wonderful smashed potatoes. For desert we had an apple crisp something with ice cream on it. Yummy and not too sweet. :-) During the meal, Dale came to visit us, and, par for the course, I called him Chip and was severely scolded. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I’m supposed to know these things. :-)

We then saw the Circle of Life Show and Living With the Land Boat Ride. Circle of Life was a walk-on and Living with the Land had a 5 minute wait. Both were really excellent. Dixie was very surprised at the complexity of all the shows. Her experience with theme parks had been Disneyland 28 years ago and Six Flags. Dixie wanted to see Spaceship Earth, so that’s where we went next. After Spaceship Earth, we went back and saw the Living Seas and then went over to the presentation about the Manatees. This was an absolute walk-on as well. After the Living Seas we went to Honey I Shrunk the Audience and walked straight into the pre-show. This was fantastic as usual and Dixie absolutely loved it. I was enjoying watching her reactions about everything almost as much as the shows. My mice didn’t work, but that was OK. Dixie’s mice did work. :-)

Well, it was getting dark by now and when we headed across to get to the other side of Future World, all of the lights were on and we were just amazed at how beautiful everything was. Dixie loved the fountain and the fiber optics in the sidewalk. The Christmas decorations were just amazing. However, I do have one small gripe. The switch to nothing but Christmas music is not a good thing in my opinion. My favorite thing at Disney World is strolling down the pathways and listening to the Disney Theme Music. Listening to "Zip A Dee Doo Dah", "It’s a Whole New World", etc. just puts in spring in your step and puts a smile on your face. To me, it’s an important part of the experience.

The other side of Future World was next. We went over to Horizons and walked straight on to that ride. It was really neat. It did stop once just as we chose the ending scene. I get chills every time we pass by the omni screens. It is just beautiful. We then went over to Wonders of Life and rode Body Wars and Cranium Command. Both were walk-ons. I’m not a big fan of Body Wars, but I rode it and shut my eyes. Cranium Command always makes me laugh and Dixie just absolutely loved it. Then it was on to Ellen’s Energy Adventure. This is a good ride, but Ellen’s humor has always seemed a bit nervous to me. It has nothing to do with her choices in life, it has just never seemed funny to me.

The time was now about 8:30 which was well past our 8:00 PS at Italy, but I wasn’t really worried. Of course, according to my original plan, we were going to get to EPCOT by 2:30 and gotten more accomplished that day, eat at Alfredo’s at 8:00, then watch Illuminations, but that was not to be. We walked through World Showcase to Alfredo’s and had our dinner late. Dinner was delicious. Dixie ordered the Le Originali Fettucine Alfredo and I ordered the Lasagnette Pasticciate alla Modenese. When we ordered sodas with our meal instead of wine, I think the waiter was unimpressed, but hey, it was our vacation.

We left the restaurant about 10:00 and found that the friendship boats were still running, so we took a boat ride across the lagoon and strolled through the Christmas Light Archway and stopped to watch the fountain dance. We then headed to the buses and sat on the bench behind the lines. I knew we wouldn’t make the first bus, so there is no sense standing when you can sit. About 10 minutes later, three buses showed up and we got up when the line dwindled down and got a nice ride back to the resort. I had my refillable mugs from a previous trip, so we filled those up as we came in.

We stopped in the lobby and got our room number which was Building 10, #0161 non-smoking, two double beds on the first floor facing the football field. The food court was close, there was a bench right outside the room so I could sit and smoke. Perfect location. The noise of the kids playing on the football field could be heard, but it was not an issue for us. We crashed easily each night without a problem. The room was clean. There were plenty of towels, the beds were comfortable, and the air conditioner and TV worked just fine. Our luggage had been delivered and our key card worked perfectly. To me the All-Stars is the perfect room at a good price. You can’t see the fancy stuff when your eyes are closed and the swimming pools are really very nice. Water is water. Getting wet is the important thing when you want to swim. Now I admit, having a whirlpool would be nice, but at the price of All-Stars, I can then afford such nice things as Spa Treatments. :-)

We took our showers and set the alarm for 6:00 am and the Mickey Wake Up call for 6:30 and drifted off into Neverland. :-)



Saturday, December 12: Our Plans Were: Up Early Off to Animal Kingdom in the morning Lunch at Rainforest Cafe – 12:00 PS Head over to the Big Meet – TTC at 1:00 PM Back to the room for a rest Dinner at Planet Hollywood around 5:30 PM Over to Magic Kingdom for Spectromagic (7:00 PM) and the Fireworks (8:00 PM) Head over to the Adventurer’s Club for the Meet there – 9:00 PM

What Actually Happened:

The alarm went off at 6:00 and I got up and went outside for a little bit. When I came back in Dixie was up and getting dressed. We got situated and went to the food court and ordered a bite for breakfast. We had bananas, juice, muffin, and milk. ($7.90 DDS) We then wandered through Sport Goofy’s and headed for the buses. We hopped on the AK bus very quickly. I noticed the bus route to AK totally bypassed the parking gates. That was a nice touch.

We entered the park by 7:50 and strolled through the Oasis. The waterfall at Rainforest Cafe was wonderful. I couldn’t wait to eat there. This was absolutely beautiful. We saw all kinds of birds and squirrels. We saw an Anteater that was just beautiful. Everything was green and plush. The designs in the concrete were amazing.

We finally crossed the bridge and saw The Tree of Life. This was just awesome. We started pointing out animals to each other and just couldn’t take our eyes off of it. We proceeded to It’s Tough to Be a Bug and took our time walking through the empty line. We looked at the carvings closely and just marveled at all the detail everywhere. We walked straight into the pre-show room and waited in there for about 5 minutes. I loved ITTBAB. It was funny and surprising. Dixie really enjoyed it as well. I love the surprises and the jokes.

We left there and proceeded to DinoLand and went to Countdown to Extinction. Once again there was no line at all. We wandered through the museum and looked at the displays there and went straight into the briefing room. We then boarded our time machine and were chased by the dinosaurs. The place that they take the picture is perfect. We both had expressions on our face that were great. The way they frame it is good too. :-) We bought two pictures and sent them to the room. We then went over to the Jungle Book Show. This was really good. The live action and enthusiasm the performers have is wonderful. The show is upbeat and makes your feet tap. We then needed a snack, so we picked up some fruit at a stand and continued to Africa. We looked at the show schedules at this time and decided to rearrange things a little bit. We figured we could get to Kilimanjaro Safaris, then go back to the front and eat at RC at 11:00 instead of 12:00 then catch the 12:00 Festival of the Lion King Show.

We got to KS. The line for that was about 20 minutes. We got to our safari vehicle and went on our way. It was about 10:00 at this time. The animals were out in force. We saw zebras, giraffes, elephants, hippos, both lions, a cheetah, we saw an ostrich, we saw gazelles. I mean all of the animals were just everywhere. I’m not sure what everybody was complaining about, but I was not disappointed at all. As we were walking toward the front to go to RC, a CM at the Gorilla trail said that they were out in full force, so we decided to walk through it. He was right. We saw 6 or 7 different gorillas. They were beautiful. On the suspension bridge on of them was less than 20 feet away. He was magnificent.

Well this slowed us up, so we decided to go straight to get in line for the 12:00 FOLK Show. We figured we could pop in at Rainforest after it was over and have time to get to the meet by 1:30. The line for the show was not bad at all. We got great seats and could see really well. The show started about 5 minutes late. The show was absolutely spectacular though. The dancers, acrobats, singers, and all the other performers really outdo themselves. We loved it. However, because we got in early, we were one of the last to get out of the show. (First in Last Out) With the delay in starting and the long line out, we had to head straight for the buses to go to the Ticket and Transportation Center for the meet. That 6 am call to WDW-Dine was all for nothing. :-/

We got on the bus that went directly to TTC. When we got off, we headed toward the boat dock to find the group. On the way, the group photographer saw our shirts and we showed him where we were supposed to be. He said that he was told the TTC, not the boat dock, so apparently in CM speak, the different areas have different names. We got to the pavillion and saw lots and lots of people. I found Laura Gilbreath (tigger), Bill (Matson), and Big Brian. Laura had to introduce me to someone. Who should turn around but dcdeb!!!! She had been whining for a whole month that she wasn’t going to get to go to the meet. That little liar!!! :-) We all got a group picture of the *lunch bunch* on IRC (minus Amy and Patt). We missed you! I filled out our little card that was given to us and then I went and found Jeff Spencer and his family, and talked with them for a few minutes.

After that, it was time to get the group picture. Now getting 200+ people organized for a picture is not an easy task. First we tried two rows, then it was three rows, then four rows, finally after being organized to five rows deep, he fit us in. Then he pulled a garbage can up and climbed on it and just as he was going to snap the picture a ferry pulled in and 100 people starting walking past. :-) He finally got the two shots he wanted then things started breaking up. Everybody turned in their cards and picked up their gifts and got vouchers to claim our pictures. By this time it was 2:00 and we had to eat. So I looked around the monorail and decided the Grand Floridian had to have something. We hopped on and went to the Grand Floridian Cafe.

The Grand Floridian was absolutely beautiful. Everything was light and airy and the tree was just indescribable. Even though we didn’t have PS, they said they could seat us in 10 minutes. We decided to split a club sandwich and each ordered a bowl of onion soup. The onion soup was fantastic and the sandwich was good, but I’m not a real big fan of toasted bread. We also had virgin Raspberry Coladas. Those were really good. We then looked around a little bit and read the description of the gingerbread carousel and then went back to the monorail and took it to the Magic Kingdom. We then walked over to the buses and took a bus back to All-Stars and immediately crashed. We slept for about an hour and a half and then got up about 5:15 and went for the buses to go back to EPCOT.

We had planned to watch Spectro and the Fireworks, but seeing World Showcase was more important. We got to EPCOT about 5:45 and started with Mexico. We rode the boat ride and wandered in the market a little bit. We then went to Norway and rode Maelstrom. We had about 10 minutes waiting in the mural room and looked for the hidden Mickey but never found it. We had a bit of a wait in the Norwegian Village and then watched the film. If I was by myself I would have skipped it, but Dixie needed to see it at least once. We then stopped in the bakery and had a rice cream and a soda. I had kind of planned to snack around the showcase and I figured this was a good first stop.

We then continued around World Showcase. We went through the German shops and looked at the dolls and the clocks and the beer steins. They had a doll in there that looked exactly like one I’ve got at home that grandmother brought me from Germany many years ago. It was $200.00. (I’m half-German. As a matter of fact, Field Marshal Rommel is a great, great, great, uncle or something). I’ll have to clean her up some and get a better case for her. :-)

We then went to the American Adventure. There was twenty minutes till the next show, so we went over to Japan and wandered through the shopping area there. We then went back to the American Adventure to watch it. I always get tears in my eyes during that show. We did not get to see the Voices of Liberty or the front lobby. They were hosting some type of party in there.

By then it was almost 9:00. My husband kept harping before we went that Dixie had to see O’ Canada so we headed that way and got in the last film. It was almost time for Illuminations. We found a place near the International Gateway and were able to see almost everything. I didn’t really enjoy Holiday Illuminations as well as Illuminations 25. Big fireworks are always pretty though. :-)

We then went through the International Gateway and went down the Boardwalk. We never did get to snack much through the Showcase, so we needed something to eat. I thought for sure there were more counter service restaurants there, but nothing except a hot dog stand. We ended up at the Big River Grill and Brewing Works and were able to get seated immediately. We each had the Big River Club Wrap that was really good. It was basically a club sandwich wrapped in a tortilla shell. I liked that a lot better than the club sandwich on toasted bread.

It was about 10:30 by now, but we still wanted to go to the Adventurers Club. We walked to the bus stop at the front of the Boardwalk and got on the Downtown Disney Bus. We stayed on through the Village Marketplace stop and got off at the Pleasure Island stop. I showed Dixie outside of Planet Hollywood where we had planned to eat. We got to the AC and the place was packed. All of the radpers were in the Mask Room. I said hi to Laura (tigger) and Bill (Matson) and ordered a Kungaloosh. We halfway listened to the induction ceremony from the Mask Room. They then announced the break for the midnight celebration. We decided then, that we were too tired and it was too crowded for us to enjoy any more, so we said our goodbyes and left.

As we were pulling up to West Side on the bus, the midnight fireworks went off and we got to see that. We continued on to the resort and went to the room. We headed for the showers, and watched a few minutes of TV. I called home to talk to Rick. Dixie and myself then discussed how we would plan the next day. I had originally planned to sleep in and go to MGM later about 10:00. Dixie said that she gets up early and would prefer to do that and take a nap later. So we set the alarm for 6 and set the Mickey call for 6:30 and went to sleep.

Sunday, December 13: Our Plans Were: Sleep In till about 9:00. Walk to Coronado Springs on the Jogging Trail if we can find it to have breakfast Off to Disney Studios Lunch at 50’s Prime Time Cafe – 1:00 PS Go to the Tower of Terror Meet – 5:00 PM Go to the Fantasmic Meet – 6:00 PM Take the boat to the Beach Club and have dinner at Cape May Cafe – 8:00 PS Stroll the Boardwalk Go through EPCOT for bus to All-Stars. Either catch the 9:00 Candlelight Processional or catch a ride or two. Back to the room

What Actually Happened:

The alarm went off right on time, and I got up and went outside for a bit, then finished getting ready. We went to the food court and had our usual banana, milk, juice, and muffin. We then headed for the Studios bus. The bus arrived very quickly and we were on our way.

When we arrived at the Studios at about 7:45 we headed straight for Tower of Terror. There was no line at all. We had to let people pass us, just so we could look at the stuff in the lobby. We were escorted to the library immediately. Dixie loved it. We then went through the boiler room left side and got to our waiting elevator. Tower of Terror is one of my favorite rides at WDW. The effects and the drop are just great! We had our stay at the hotel and screamed "We’re All Going To Die" and laughed the whole way down. Since we were planning on going to the meet that evening we did not get the picture.

We then went over to Star Tours. Once again there was no line. We walked through the pre-show areas and slowed down a little bit to see C3PO and R2D2 chat a little bit then got on and went on our crazy ride missing Endor completely. :-)

Next stop was Muppet Vision 3D. We entered the pre-show room with about 7 minutes left till the show or at least that’s what the digital sign was saying. This show is one of my favorites. It is just pure silliness :-)

We then rode the Great Movie Ride. There was no line for this as well and they were only putting people in the Cowboy side car. The second car had to follow us along empty. I really enjoy the Wizard of Oz segment. That is really beautiful scenery.

Next was Beauty and the Beast. This was an outstanding show even though it didn’t follow the flow of the movie. It’s live entertainment, singing and dancing which is very enjoyable for me. Beauty and the Beast had a pre-show by a group call "The VoiceOvers". They were excellent. It was an accapella group with three men and two women that performed a variety of numbers.

We stopped in the Starring Rolls Bakery and had a Muffin and some juice. This gave us a little pick me up and off we went again.

We then took the Backlot tour. We walked straight up the ramp and only had to see about 1 minute of the "ConAir" film. The water show was the same as always and kind of neat. There was no line at all through the prop room, so we didn’t get to see much of that. They weren’t even running the Bette Midler short at all. The tram tour was the same as always, although they have added the Armageddon props. Also I didn’t see, the "parking spots" for the Beast, Mickey, etc. I may have just missed them. Dixie liked Catastrophe Canyon.

Then it was time for our 1:00 lunch. We went home to the 50’s Prime Time Cafe to have some of Mom’s special cooking and see all of our brothers, sisters, and cousins. Our greeter immediately started in on us about how long it had been since we had been home and reminded us to keep our elbows off the table and to behave. Our brother Randy, was our server and asked us to color something for the fridge. While we were looking over the menu we discussed whether we needed to go back to the room for a nap, or would we stay and see Indy, Hunchback and the Animation Tour. We decided we felt pretty good so when Randy came back by we asked him what menu items could come up quick "cause we had to be back at school at 2:00" which was the time for the next Indy Show. He recommended the Pot Pies, so we both ordered that. We also ordered one Mushroom Fries to share. To drink and for desert, Dixie had a Vanilla Shake and I had a chocolate ice cream shake/float. While we were waiting for our food to arrive, I was constructing a paper airplane. When Randy passed by, I threw it across the room and it landed on the next table. Well, Randy stopped immediately and made me get up and apologize to my cousins. Then I thought I was going to have to stand in the corner, but he made me sing "The Little Tea Pot Song"!!!!!!! I was laughing so hard, I was crying, and it took me forever before I could get started, then I realized I only knew the first line! Randy coached me through the song, but while I was singing it, Dixie was sitting there going "Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah". He turned around and gave her a look and told her to "Watch it Missy or You’ll Stand in the Corner" and she just kinda crouched in her chair and hid behind her napkin. This got me laughing again. Our mushroom fries, shakes, and pot pies arrived and were all very delicious. We finished most everything, except the pie crust. Randy picked up our plates and showed them to the other tables and announced "This is what I want your plates to look like". We all laughed.

We left the restaurant and went straight over to Indy. The casting director had just started to talk and look for extras so we didn’t miss anything. The show was good as usual. The only thing any different from before was that instead of chopping up the German guy with the propellor, they just shot him.

We then went over to the Animation Studio. The new building is beautiful. The tour is in a slightly different order now, but all of the elements are there. We saw some of the work for Tarzan and Fantasia 2000. Since it was Sunday, none of the animators were working, but we did have a very interesting Q&A session with the on-duty animator. He said he had a B.A. in Graphics and Illustrating or something like that, but his sole job now was the tour. A four year degree just to answer tourists questions. ;-) I’m sure they probably rotate or something, but I don’t think I would enjoy doing that after working that hard to become an animator. He did tell us that only about 10% of the actual animation is done by computer. All of the characters are hand drawn. They are all scanned into the computer to be colored and all of the elements are fit together on computer instead of having all the cells assembled by hand and photographed individually. The film with Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite was funny as always, although I don’t think Robin was let loose as much as he could have been. The original "Alladin" in my opinion is Robin Williams at his finest :-). I would love to see the film of him do the voice. I bet he was all over the place!!!!!

We then went toward the Hunchback of Notre Dame Show. Now during our little snack, Dixie had said that if we had to miss something, Hunchback could be it. I was just cringing, because I knew that Hunchback was the best live show at the Studios. On the way to Hunchback, we got to watch the parade. We were right across from where they come out from backstage and noticed that the dragon was in line but was pulled at the last minute. The parade was really neat, but since I haven’t seen Mulan, yet, I didn’t know the story line.

Now somewhere during the day, (can’t for the life of me remember when) we saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We both really enjoyed this show. The puppetry and singing is excellent. However, they really need to do some maintenance on their misters. Every time I see it, I get some pretty big drips on me instead of mist.

We then headed into the 3:45 pm Hunchback Show and the theater was really empty. We got seats on the right side of the runway about six rows back. Jeff Spencer and his family were sitting right behind us! Hi Jeff!! We saw the juggler act before the show. He said his name, but I don’t remember if it was Randy or Matt. Which one was it Jeff? The show was outstanding. All of the characters sang and danced really well. They came right up the runway next to us. It was great. There was also some sign language interpreters there for the show. It was beautiful watching them as well. They were in costume, and even though I don’t know the first thing about sign language, I could really tell a lot from what they were doing. During the show, the rain started to come down, I mean really come down. When the show ended, they announced that we could stay in the theater as long as we wanted and we saw some of the technicians reset the pyrotechnic stuff.

The rain finally let up enough for us to leave the theater, so we donned our rain gear and sloshed over to the Tower of Terror for the 5:00 meet. Tigger flagged us down from an awning in front of a store and we waited around there for a few minutes. We then decided to head on over to the Tower and found a whole bunch of people milling around. I don’t know everybody that was there, but I do remember seeing Laura (Tigger) and Lee, Deb Wills, Jim and Eureka, Bill (matson), and lots others that I can’t remember their names. Jeff and his family showed up a few minutes later, so we finally organized a group picture in front of the Rock n’ Roller Coaster Sign. We flagged down a CM and gave her a break from her squeegy and she snapped about 8 pictures for us.

The wait for the Tower was about 30 minutes, but the line moved quickly. It was fun talking with people you knew during a long wait. There were about 34 in our group. Laura (Tigger) stood up on a wall trying to count us and one of the Bell Hops made her get down. :-) During the pre-show in the library everybody was talking with the script and yelling "We’re All Going To Die!" It was pretty funny. We went to the left side and had to use two elevators. After we dropped to our death :-) We went to the picture shop. I ordered both pictures, and Dixie bought one of our picture. Also another radper went in with us to buy the picture as well. The more pictures you buy, the cheaper they get. :-) I was actually waving at the camera in our picture. :-)

While we were waiting for the group to get organized before ToT, a CM walked up and carried away the Fantasmic sign, so we assumed the show had been canceled due to the rain. When we got off ToT at about 6:15, we noticed the sign was back up again, so we decided to try to get in. There was no problem. We got great seats in the middle of the section just right of center about 10 rows back. I scanned the center section for the radpers, but never found them. The show was pretty good. I enjoyed the fireworks and live action and the boats. The animation on the water screens was good, but there was too much of it. One good thing about it, it was pure DISNEY music. I thought there should have been more fireworks though.

We then began to exit Fantasmic and exit the park. We headed for the boat dock and took a ride over to the Beach Club for our dinner at Cape May Cafe (8:00 PS). There was a boat waiting for us. We didn’t get to ride outside though, cause it was already full.

Our dinner at Cape May was wonderful, we were seated in about 10 minutes. They were turning people away that didn’t have PS. I sampled a little bit of everything on the buffet and so did Dixie. We had sodas with our meal. I had a whole bucketful of clams and mussels. They were out of oysters. We also both got a little bit off the desert bar. We then went by the front desk and arranged with Mears for our pick-up on Monday. They gave us a 6:15 pm time.

We both needed to do a little shopping, so since we had to go to Downtown Disney to change buses anyway (we didn’t want to walk all the way back through EPCOT), we went to the World of Disney. We each found a few things we wanted. I did not find a Sorceror Mickey ’98 shirt. I try to buy one each year, but they had already pulled them. I did get a 99 shirt and a ’98 keychain. I got a small Mickey for my oldest son and a Crickee for my youngest son. I also got some postcards. We got the AMEX 15% discount on our purchases, then headed for the bus stop. Since Adventurers Club was a bust Saturday night, I decided to try it again. Dixie took all of our stuff and headed back to the room. I got off at Pleasure Island and went to the AC.

When I got to the AC, Bill (matson) and a few others were in the main salon. Bill introduced me to Pamelia Perkins. The place was not crowded at all and a lot more pleasant. There were a few other radpers besides Bill, but I didn’t recognize that many of them. I ordered a Kungaloosh. I tried to charge it to my room, but not put it on Dining Disney Style, cause we were saving the last of that for our dinner at the castle the next day. They couldn’t do it as long as DDS still had a balance, so I pulled out the regular plastic and had no problem.

Two of the cast came in an sat near us and began to play a game of pick up sticks and other cast were scattered around the room chatting with guests. It’s amazing to me how they can all stay in character even when shows are not playing. They then had the new member induction. We learned the club salute, the club song, and a very muffled version of the club creed. Kungaloosh!!!

Several more radpers showed up a little later and we went on in to the Mask Room. Everybody was joking around about "Going to the Bathroom" in very loud voices. Some of the non-radper guests kept poking their heads in to see what was going on. We started yelling for Hathaway to get in there to give us a show. Hathaway finally arrived and started bragging about his masks and one gentleman kept saying "Whoop" to everything Hathaway said. It turned into a big joke all night long. Hathaway was cracking up really hard by this time. His skit continued and the masks and the radpers chased him out terrified that the masks could talk. I loved it. :-)

The library radio show was next and the "Whooping" continued in there. Everything broke up after that and we all headed for our various buses and cars.

When I got back to All-Stars, I called Rick from the lobby and talked with him for a little bit, then wandered toward the room. Everything was shut down and very quiet. It was almost spooky. There were a few workers getting ready to wash down the pavement for the night. I got to the room about 2:00 and had a shower and set the alarm for 6:00 again as Dixie and I had agreed and went on to sleep.

Monday, December 14: Our Plans Were: Up early, check out Off to the Magic Kingdom Late Breakfast at Crystal Palace (Flex Feature) – 10:30 PS Dinner at the Castle to blow the last of our Dining Disney Style Money – 4:30 PS Back to All-Stars Mears to the Airport Plane departs Orlando at 8:40pm Transfers in Atlanta Home at 11:30 pm

What Actually Happened:

The alarm went off at 6:00. I hit the snooze button once and drifted back off for a few minutes. The alarm went off again and we both drug ourselves up. I went outside for a few minutes and then came back in and got ready. We packed up all our stuff and checked the room a couple of times, then headed for the front. We went to the front desk to check out. We settled our bills seperately, then headed for the food court. We both got some fruit, juice and milk then headed for the bus stops. We paid cash so that we could use the rest of our Dining Disney Style for dinner at the castle that evening. We also stopped by luggage services and arranged to have our bags picked up as well.

The bus came quickly and we headed for the Magic Kingdom. We didn’t quite make it for opening, but we were there soon after. We stopped by the camera center to get our pictures of the group meet. The ladies at the desk knew exactly which pictures we were talking about and knew that the second picture was better even before they punched them up. We bought two pictures and had them sent to package pickup.

We headed directly for Space Mountain and got on with no wait. We got one of the new cars. I like those. They allow you to stretch your legs out on either side of the bar. It was really comfortable. We then went over to Alien Encounter and went straight to the holding room, we got there just as the video monitors started and then went right in to see Skippy get fried. We then went to the transportation room and had an alien breathe and drip on us, then thankfully he got sent back to where he belonged. Dixie loved this show. She was glad the water dripping on us was not warm, then she really would have had problems. (Analogies of blood dripping, etc.)

We then went over and rode Buzz Lightyear. This is just great. We loved it! Even though it’s not high-tech, it’s just pure fun. You get to take out your agressions. :-) I finally would target something really good and Dixie would grab the joystick and spin the car around so I had to retarget. We left and ran around and got right back on. This time I grabbed the joystick several times and spun us around. Another thing that’s fun is spinning in circles when you’re in the red wavy zone. We both just had a ball with that ride. :-)

It was right about 9:00 so we headed across the park for the other Mountains. First we rode Splash Mountain. We got to a log right away and sat in the back because it was a little chilly and we really didn’t want to get that wet. I really enjoy this ride because of the length and complexity. We got our picture and had it sent to package pickup.

We then headed for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and rode it. The wait for this was about five minutes. As we were going through the line, I tossed some pennies out and one of them landed in the shovel!!!! Two points for Carol!!! :-) This ride is fun as well, we whooped and hollered all the way through. Whoop!!!!

We still had a little time before our brunch at Crystal Palace, so we rode Pirates of the Carribbean. This is really good, but the soundtrack didn’t seem really clear this time. Yo Ho, Yo Ho! :-)

We then headed over to the Crystal Palace and were seated within 5 minutes. The buffet was really yummy. I had a custom made omelet and juice and hash browns and biscuits and gravy. Dixie had an omelet, oatmeal, biscuits and gravy and some fruit. Everything was delicious except the onions could have been cooked a little longer for the omelet. We used our Flex Features to pay for the breakfast. Dixie didn’t understand that this was separate from the Dining Disney Style so was a little concerned about our balance until I explained it to her, so all was happy smiles again. :-)

We then went back to Adventureland and rode the Jungle Cruise which was good. We had a good driver who did really well with the bad jokes. :-) We then saw the Tiki Birds Under New Managment. We loved it.!!! There were no lines for either of these rides.

Then it was on to Fantasyland. Here’s where all the people were. Ugh!! We rode It’s a Small World with about a 15 minute wait. We rode Peter Pan with about a 20 minute wait. We rode Snow White with about a 20 minute wait. We enjoyed them all. We walked past Toad and I paid my respects. I had intended to pick up a flower of some sort and place it against the wall, but never had time.

We then stopped in Pecos Bills and had some fries and a soda for a quick pick me up. I really like the way they have remodeled the place, but I do miss the talking heads on the wall.

We then went over to the Haunted Mansion and had a visit with the 999 Happy Haunts. This ride is also always a lot of fun.

Then we headed over to the Hall of Presidents and......, well, we had a nap. Sorry Mr. President. :-)

We then went to Mickey’s Toon Town Fair and walked through Mickey’s House and looked around there. We walked past Minnie’s House, but it looked crowded so we bypassed that. Then we went to the Judge’s tent and wandered around the shop in there. I finally found the right size Eyeore for my son Kevin, so I bought that and also bought a WDW headband for my ears. I sent Eyeore to package pickup. The wind was a little chilly that day. We were going to wait in line to get a picture with Goofy, but the line was too long and we decided that it wasn’t worth it.

We then took the walkway over to Tomorrowland and saw Carousel of Progress. I really enjoy this. The song makes you smile and tap your feet. :-) We then rode the TTA. This was really great. As we were going past Space Mountain we saw that the line was really long. We were glad that we had ridden it that morning. Well, when we got to the inside of Space Mountain, we found out why the line was long. The ride was down and the lights were on. That was really cool!!!! We then took one more spin on Buzz Lightyear and zapped at all the z’s and took turns spinning the car messing each other up. This is just the most fun of all the rides.!!!!!! :-)

It was then time to go to our 4:30 seating at Cindarella’s Royal Table. Now I had been telling Dixie all weekend that we were going to finish off our trip by eating dinner in the castle. Well, she said that sounds nice. Well, as we were walking toward the castle she asked me where dinner was and I pointed at *The Castle*. She said "You mean the restaurant is in there?" Well, she let off a squeal and jumped up and down. It was great. She was acting just like a little kid. :-) She had just never realized what I meant when I said our last dinner was in the castle. We were seated for dinner very quickly. Dixie ordered the Queen Cut Prime Rib and I had the chicken dish with steamed vegetables. Everything was absolutely delicious. The service was outstanding. My dish had some wonderful tasting fried things on top and I asked what they were. They were fried sweet potato chips. They were "wonderful" and I don’t even like sweet potatos. When it came time to check out, our bill was around $50.00. I knew that we had about $40.00 left on Dining Disney Style, so I gave them the resort ID, plus my American Express to take care of the bill. When they came back, they were showing about $40.00 being charged to my American Express. I knew that wasn’t right and looked at the ticket. They had charged us for the wrong table. I pointed this out to the server and she picked everything back up and went to take care of it. When she came back, the only thing charged was my Dining Disney Style. They just zeroed it out and didn’t charge the balance to anything. We got an extra $15.00 on our account. That was Disney Magic at it’s best!!!!!

We then left the restaurant and went downstairs and looked around the shop in the castle. I got my older son the necklace he wanted and bought a couple of gifts for some coworkers at the Crystal Shop.

Sadly, it was then time to leave. We went toward the front and claimed our purchases from Package Pickup and retrieved the backpack from the locker and proceeded to the buses.

We arrived at All-Stars about 6:10. We went to luggage services and claimed our bags and waited on Mears. They arrived shortly. Fortunately, there were enough people at our resort to fill the van, so no more stops. We did however, swing through Coronado Springs to make sure no one was waiting there and headed for the airport.

We got our luggage checked and our boarding passes and went over to the terminal and sat in the lounge and waited on our plane. The plane loaded no problem and left a few minutes early. We both snoozed most of the way through the flight.

We landed in Atlanta 30 minutes early, but our scheduled gate still had a plane in it, so we waited a few minutes and were assigned a different gate. We had about an hour and a half-layover, so we proceeded to our next gate, settled in some comfortable chairs and waited.

Our flight to Huntsville also boarded quickly and we left a few minutes early. We landed in Huntsville about 20 minutes early and were almost to luggage claim by the time Rick arrived. While we waited on our luggage Rick pulled the car around and we headed home.

We got to the house and talked about the trip a little bit. I checked on the boys who were asleep and tucked Eyeore under Kevin’s arm and tucked Mickey under Matthew’s arm and went to bed.

CONCLUSIONS:

We had a GREAT trip. We both had fun and got to see most everything we wanted to. The radp meets were a blast!!!!

Staying on site is the way to go. Everything was so convenient and so pleasant.

For a short trip like ours, if you don’t have APs, Dining Disney Style was also the way to go. We didn’t have to worry about separate checks or calculate how much our tip needed to be. It was just enough money to give us good meals and snacks and we didn’t have to totally stuff ourselves. Now for a longer trip, with more people, the credit you receive may be too much. But if you are sharing costs with other people for a short trip, this is definately a carefree way to do so.

As I said before, I will NEVER, EVER use Mears again. I estimate we lost about 4 hours on our trip that we could have had if we had used Tiffany or Florida Town Cars. (I will NOT rent a car).

Also, I don’t think I will go while the Christmas decorations are up again unless I am going for just the radp meets and Christmas Shows and have another trip that year without the decorations. I was there to see DISNEY and I wanted DISNEY music as I was walking down the paths.

There has been a lot of debate on radp about Packages vs. Booking yourself. Because we only go for a big trip about every two-three years with a small trip every year, getting an AP does not benefit us. Retail cost for our package through WDW Travel Company was listed as $1090.00. If we had purchased everything al a carte with LOS passes it would have cost us $1083.28. If we had purchased everything al a carte with four-day park hoppers and separate admission to Pleasure Island, it would have cost us $1064.08. We received the package for $1020.00. So in all cases except for off-site options (Yuck) we saved money using our travel agent and going with the package.

Well, if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at ckelley@camber.com.

Have a Disney Day,

Carol Kelley TDC ScoutMom

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