Trip Reports

February 21, 1998 – March 7, 1998

Cast of Characters:

Donna age 37 (hereafter referred to as "I" or "me") 6th trip to WDW
Dan age 41 4th trip to WDW
Marcus age 13 5th trip to WDW
We are all from Nantucket Island, MA.

Tyler age 13 (good friend of Marcus’) 2nd trip to WDW
He will join us on this trip, and will be meeting us in Florida from New Mexico.

Background:

Last year while coming home from vacation in New Orleans, we were "bumped" several times by the airlines. Delta was kind enough to give us six free round trip tickets to anywhere in the continental U.S. in exchange for our inconvenience. (Trust me on this one, we earned those free tickets) As soon as the agent handed us the vouchers for the free tickets, Dan and I looked into each others eyes, and with a big grin on our face, yelled in unison "Disney World!!!"

We started the actual planning of the trip last August. We had been to WDW as a family 3 times before and always felt that a week was too short, so this time we decided to go for 2 weeks. Since we had extra plane tickets we asked Marcus if he would like to bring a friend along. We figured that he would be a lot happier, therefore we would be a lot happier, if he had someone else he could hang with besides us everyday. Tyler, being the good friend that he is, agreed to keep Marcus company in WDW. Dan and I went out and bought all the guidebooks (The official guide, the unofficial guide, Disney like a pro, and Disney for adults (though I truly question whether there were any "adults" on this trip) as well as starting the "web search" for information. We printed out every trip report that we could find (and probably murdered a couple of trees in the process) and read through all the posts on the RADP board.

For lodging we decided that the best value for our money, was to rent a house off site. Through Florida Vacation Homes we rented a 3 bedroom, 2-bath home with its own pool for $650.00 per week. For us the advantages of having a house (your own kitchen, and Washer/Dryer, enough bedrooms, etc.) at a very reasonable price outweighed the advantages of being on site. Also the thought of our own pool was a nice bonus.

Once we picked out which house we wanted it was time to make the plane reservations. Lesson learned – Delta may give out these free tickets easy enough, but God help you if you actually try to use these free tickets. Delta will not make it easy for you. The first set of reservations that we received had us arriving 1 day earlier than we wanted, and returning 3 days after we wanted to return. The only seat coming out of New Mexico for Tyler, was three days after we would of arrived (or two days after we wanted to arrive) and had him returning to New Mexico 1 day after we left. (Like we were suppose to leave a thirteen -year-old boy alone in the Orlando airport for 26 hours or something) After talking to Phoebe, the realtor at Florida vacation homes and explaining our problem with the bump tickets (I wanted to see if she could change our house reservation dates to come close to resembling our airline dates) Phoebe took our flight info down and told me she would check with someone she knew who worked for Delta. Well Phoebe (hereafter referred to as "Our Hero # 1) was able to change all the dates to be the dates we originally wanted. Unfortunately, the only way Delta would let us go from Boston to Orlando was by way of Cincinnati, and Louisville, with layovers in each place. This meant that we would be leaving Boston at 6:00 AM (which also meant that we would have to spend the night in Boston) but wouldn’t arrive in Orlando until 4:15 in the afternoon. (This is normally about a three hour flight) We decided to go ahead and take those bookings (after all – we would all be arriving and leaving on the same day). Since we would have to be in Boston the day before in order to be at the airport by 5:00 AM, we decided that we would go check in with the airlines and see if we could get on standby for a direct flight to Orlando. Since we were stuck paying for an extra night’s hotel room anyway, we figured if we could get standby we would prefer to be paying for the hotel in Florida instead of Massachusetts (cheaper rates/warmer weather)

Once the Lodging and airline was taken care of, we spent the next few months reading through everybody’s trip reports and making notations of the different things that sounded good to us. (When I was in school if I had put as much time into research and studying academics, as I have put into researching and studying WDW, you would currently be referring to me as Dr. Donna) We had made our Hoop-Dee -doo reservation last August, but still needed to make our PS reservations. After reading through everyone’s recommendations of the places they liked and disliked we then printed out a copy of all the menus off Deb.’s website. (Thanks Deb !!!!) Dan and I then went through each menu and each of us gave it a rating of between 1 and 5. (Five being "I really, really, want to eat there" and One being, "I’d rather stay home and eat a bowl of cornflakes") After going through all the menus we added up the numbers. This is what we based our PS wish list on. We had no problems with the times and places we had chosen when we called CRO for our PS.

The only thing left to get was our park passes. While we were up visiting Dan’s family over Christmas, Dan was talking to his cousin Susan (hereafter referred to as Our Hero # 2). Sue works for the Disney Company and Dan was asking her if she had the connections to get him into some of the behind the scene things. Sue couldn’t do that for us (I think because she works for the Disney Company, not the actual theme park) but one of the benefits she does have is she could get us passes for the whole time we were in Florida. When she told us that (and after we regained our power of speech) we immediately started to suck up to our favorite cousin Susan. Sure enough, Sue came through with passes for the four of us. As far as passes to the other parks (remember – we are going to be there for 2 weeks) Dan, Marcus, and I have leftover passes to go to Busch Gardens,(When we were in Orlando two years ago, we were rained out and Busch Gardens gave us rain date passes for the next time we came to Orlando) so we are all set for Busch and the big roller coaster marathon. Also – as an almost, last month while scrolling through the Destinations WDW BB on AOL I ran into a post from a man who had four tickets to Universal Studios that he wouldn’t be able to use (they were due to expire on June 1st, and he wasn’t going to be in the area before then) and wanted to know if anyone wanted them. He didn’t want money for them, but he wanted to make sure they were used. I e-mailed him back (with the promise that we would definitely use the tickets) and he promptly mailed me four used Universal tickets. Oh well, I’m sure he meant well, but being the only passes we would have to pay for would be Universal we made out quite well.

By the beginning of February we felt in good shape with our airline reservations confirmed, our house rental paid for, our passes in hand, and our priority seating confirmation numbers on a handy list. The only thing left was the packing. I tried to figure out what the weather would be like for the end of February/ beginning of March so I would have an idea of what to pack and the only thing I could come up with was a temp. range anywhere from 40 degree’s (at night) up to about 80 degrees with a possibility of rain/sun/ or clouds. I figured since we would have a washer/dryer available to us I would concentrate on packing a variety of clothes to handle any weather possibility instead of a huge number of one type of clothes. By the 15th of February I had located the fanny packs, packed the shorts and swimsuits, purchased the film, ordered my prescriptions from the Doctor (valium so I could get on the airplane, and motion sickness patches so I could get on all the rides), reassured everyone at work that they would survive without me, and arranged for the dog sitter. I was as organized as I was ever going to be

(I was more organized for this trip, than I was for the birth of my son, but that’s another story) We were ready to Go!!!

Day 0 - Friday, February 20th 1998

Weather – Partly cloudy, High of 40 degrees

I woke up at 4:00 AM and was too excited to get back to sleep, so I got up to shower and get dressed. I woke Marcus at 4:45 and Dan at 5:00 so they could get ready also. We had pre-arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 5:45 and it dropped us at the boat at 6:00 AM. As a surprise, our good friend Denise, met us at the boat with a thermos of coffee and a bag packed with other goodies for the boat ride to the mainland. (Keep in mind I have known Denise for about 25 years and have never gotten up at 6:00 AM to bring her anything) What a friend!

We arrived in Hyannis, MA at 8:45 AM and picked up a rental car for a one way trip to Boston’s Logan Airport (this actually only cost us about $20.00 more than if we had all taken the bus up to Boston, and hundreds cheaper than if we had brought our car over on the ferry and parked it for two weeks in Boston). After we picked up the car we made a quick stop at my Mom and Dad’s house in Yarmouthport before heading up to Boston.

We arrived at Logan airport at 11:30. We checked in with Delta, to see about a direct flight to Orlando – what they did was take our luggage and send it on to Orlando (our carry-on bag held a change of clothes and toiletries) and give us a list of gates to try for stand-by. The first try was for a flight that was to leave at 1:40PM. We did not make it on to that flight so our next shot was on the 3:30 P.M. We moved down 1 gate and grabbed a bite to eat from Burger King while we waited. Just before the plane was to leave they called our name. All three of us made it onto the 3:30 plane. YEAH ! We would be in Florida tonight !!!.

We touched down in Florida just before 7:00 PM (70 degrees, and sunny). The week before we left someone had started a thread on the RADP bulletin board along the line of "When did you know you had arrived" with everyone responding with when it felt like they were actually there. Well, right after we got off the plane I stopped by the ladies room at the airport, and the chlorinated smell coming from the water brought a big smile to my face. I was in Florida!

After we finally tracked down our luggage (it had made it to Florida about three hours before we did) and tracked down our car from National (this took a while as there were long lines, and then they gave us a much smaller car than had been paid for etc…) we finally headed out of the airport just after 8:00 PM.

By this time we were all starving, so we stopped by a Red Lobster for dinner. We had a fifteen minute wait before we were able to get a table. This wait enabled me to order my first Pina Colada of the vacation. It was fantastic! (made fresh, not a powdered mix). For dinner I ordered a pasta dish with sautéed lobster, shrimp, and scallops with a Caesar salad. This was very good and I was especially happy as you had a choice between a full order or a half order. Marcus had a strip steak with mashed potatoes and Caesar salad, and Dan had shrimp scampi and butterflies fried shrimp with a King Crab leg add on. Marcus was very happy with his dinner, and Dan thought his Crab legs were incredible.

After dinner we were all beat. It was about 10:00 PM and our early start at 5:00 this morning was starting to catch up with us. We went looking for an inexpensive motel for the night. We ended up at a Motel 6 ($47.00 with tax for the night) It is a fairly new motel so it was very clean. The room was very small, and came with one tiny bath towel. After calling the front desk someone came by with several more tiny towels for us. We all fell asleep quickly.

Day 1 – Saturday, February 21, 1998

Weather – Sunny, High of 78 degrees

I woke up around 6:30 AM full of energy. This means everyone else was woken up about 6:35 AM. We checked out of the motel about 8:00 AM and went to the Western Sizzlin for one of those all you can eat for $3.99 breakfast.

After breakfast we went for a ride to the Beltz Mall, for some shopping. This is the first time we had ever been – Wow, we could do some serious damage here. – We stopped by the Character Store. I bought a snow globe with Cinderella’s castle in it (the original version, not the pink version) which plays "When you wish upon a star" when you wind it up for $13.00. Dan and Marcus each got a character baseball cap for $5.00 each, and I got 4 character coffee mugs for $4.00 each. After picking up a few more things at some of the other stores in the mall we headed out to Old Town.

At Old Town they have this contraption that stands about 200 feet high. They put a person in it and raise him up to the top and then drop him. (he’s attached to a rope) The person then swings down in a huge arch, back and forth. We watched them drop a few people on this and then we dropped Marcus at the arcade while Dan and I wandered through the stores. A woman was beading hair for $1.50 per inch. I asked for an estimate (my hair is quite long) but it would of cost $36.00. I thought about it but this was a little bit more than what I wanted to spend.

Around 2:30 we tracked down Marcus and headed out to find the house we were renting (check in is 3:00 PM) We found it pretty easily. The house is absolutely fantastic. It’s in a subdivision with several other houses that look exactly like it. (For the first week we always double-checked the number on it to make sure we were going into the right house) It has three bedrooms (master bedroom with king bed, 2nd bedroom with queen bed, 3rd bedroom with twin beds – also there was a pull out couch in the Living room) We had our own swimming pool that you could reach by going through the sliding glass doors off the master bedroom or sliding glass doors off the Living room There was a welcome basket on the kitchen table for us with a bottle of coke, a bottle of wine, a package of coffee, and a microwave packet of popcorn. I thought this was a nice touch.

After dragging in all our luggage we quickly changed into swimsuits to check out the swimming pool. We all agree that it’s perfect. We swam and sunbathed for about an hour and then decided to change and head out to the grocery store. There was an Albertson’s about 3 minutes from the house. We picked up breakfast foods, as well as snacks, and some light dinner items. After bringing all the groceries home and putting them away, Dan had to go back to the store because we had purchased a phone card at the store, but it wasn’t in the bag when we got to the house. They were good about replacing it. After Dan returned from the store again we had a light dinner. After dinner Dan and Marcus headed out to the airport to meet Tyler who was expected in at 7:00 PM. Tyler arrived on time and everyone was back at the house by 7:45 PM. Tyler and Marcus swam in the pool until it was time for bed.

Day 2 – Sunday, February 22, 1998

Weather – Overcast, High of 82 degrees

We were all up at 6:00 AM and out of the house by 7:30. After getting a little lost (this would become a constant theme, as Tyler was so fondly willing to point out to Dan) we arrived at the Magic Kingdom about 8:00. (Once we learned the way this was usually a fifteen to twenty minute drive from driveway to parking lot.)

We had 8:10 PS reservations at Cinderella’s castle. The castle has been mostly painted, but parts of the back are still pink. We had read that a lot of people had been disappointed eating here, but made PS reservations anyway. We had always wanted to eat inside the castle, so figured we would go for the experience not the food. We were seated by 8:20. The theme of this restaurant is something like King Arthur’s Court with Knights and stuff like that. When we sat at our table we had a plate of fruit and a basket of muffins and croissants waiting. Our waiter came by with fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. My lord Dan, being a fussy eater, was given several options, since he didn’t like the pre-plated breakfast. He chose to have waffles while the rest of us had the traditional breakfast. This consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, home fried potatoes with a cheese sauce, and a cheese fried Danish. The fried Danish was incredible though I shudder to think of what the fat gram content is. The rest of the food was O.K. but not spectacular. Our waiter was great about keeping the coffee and O.J. glasses filled. While eating Peter Pan came by. As soon as he saw Tyler and Marcus he was concerned that they might be lost boys and asked them how old they were. When they replied that they were thirteen, Peter Pan shook his head sadly and said "yes, it’s all down hill now – all work and paying bills – they should have stayed 12 while they had the chance." Shortly after Peter Pan came by Snow White and then Cinderella stopped by for photos and a little conversation. Cinderella asked the boys to stop by that afternoon to watch her in the parade. Prince Charming was also there by we left before he had a chance to stop by our table.

The weather report was calling for heavy rains by late afternoon and we wanted to get as much park time in as possible before it started raining. As soon as the rope dropped we headed for the rides. We did the following rides with the following waits:

Extra Terrestrial -10 minutes (Dan though it was great, Kids though it was pretty cool, I thought it was stupid)
Space Mountain - 15 minutes (Still a big favorite)
Splash Mountain - 30 minutes (our longest wait)
Big Thunder R.R. - 15 minutes
Country Bears - 20 minutes (This was our 1st time seeing this – we thought it was cute)
Haunted Mansion - 10 minutes (This should have been a longer wait but we noticed that very few had filled in the left side so we moved right up, others followedwhen they saw what we had done)
Pirates - 10 minutes ( I can live with the PC changes I guess, but don’t understand why they would consider pirates chasing women more offensive than the women for sale on the auction block)
Jungle Cruise - 15 minutes ( I got my first CM comment on how I had "Pooh on my shorts" – he said they used to have a cookbook called "cooking with pooh" but no one would buy it)
Railroad - walk on
Space Mountain - 30 minutes (repeat)
Carousel of progress – walk on (This is one of my favorites from my first trip in 1974)
TTA - walk on
Speedway 10 minutes
Mr. Toad 10 minutes (We talked the kids into going on this on and explained about the "save Mr. Toad campaign" – They couldn’t understand why anyone would want to save it. Dan and I saw the naked lady)
By this time it was about 4:00PM so we headed over to the castle to watch the Disneymania Song and Dance show. It still hadn't started to rain (just a few light sprinkles here and there) but we were getting tired so decided to head home.

The kids wanted to stay in with pizza and a swim in the pool while Dan and I wanted to check out Pleasure Island for the Mardi Gras celebration. After a quick swim we ordered pizza for the kids and then headed to Downtown Disney. We wandered around the stores for a bit and then went to Fulton’s Crab House for dinner. We ordered their specialty Bloody Marys. They were nice and spicy with fresh ground horseradish in it. The skewer that rested in the drink was garnished with a lime, cherry tomato, and one peel and eat shrimp. This drink was so good I had to have a second one with dinner. For an appetizer Dan and I shared a dozen of the oyster sampler. This came with four different types of oysters and we had a great time doing a taste and compare test. For dinner Dan had a combo plate of king crab and snow crabs, while I had pan roasted gulf shrimp with a coating of breadcrumbs, garlic, and light cheese. We were both totally full after we had consumed all this incredible food but our waitress managed to talk us into splitting a cherry pie. We are so glad she talked us into this as it was wonderful. It was homemade with tart cherries served warm with a scoop of Vanilla Ice cream on top. At this meal the food was fantastic, the waitress was wonderful and friendly, and the atmosphere was authentic. The only "bad part" was we had the worst table in the place (I know, someone has to sit there) We were stuck in a corner right next to the service area. This is a very busy area! The food and service more than made up for the lousy table.

After dinner, there was still no rain so we headed over to Pleasure Island to watch the Mardi Gras parade. It was interesting watching a "Disney version" of Mardi Gras after spending last year’s vacation in New Orleans. We were able to catch some beads and coins thrown from the floats as the parade went by. I was very excited to have some Mardi Gras beads without having to "show anything" to get them J After the parade we considered ourselves very lucky that the rain had held and headed home for the evening for bed.

NOTE: Woke around midnight to the most intense thunderstorm I have ever been in. It was thundering and lightning one right after the other without any break in between. I was very frightened, which is unusual for me. (We live on an island which gets hit with hurricanes and Nor’easters often enough that we tend to be a bit "jaded" about storms) This storm woke us all up. Finally I was able to fall back asleep about an hour later when the storm started to calm down some.

Day 3 - Monday, February 23, 1998

Weather – Sunny, in the low 80’s

We woke up about 6:30 AM and had breakfast at the house. We heard over the radio ( we have no T.V. news as the cable was out because of the storm) about all the devastation caused by the storm and tornadoes. The area hit the worse is only a few miles north of the house we are staying in. They say that over 30 people have died with several still missing. The only problem we have is the cable being knocked out. We are truly lucky and I take a moment to say a prayer for those whose lives were changed because of this storm. We left the house around 7:30 to head towards MGM for the day. (Again Dan got a little lost on the way – Tyler is now getting a big kick out of teasing Dan for his wrong turns – Dan on the other hand is learning not to be so vocal when he misses a turn off) While driving to the park we see several palm trees that have been blown to the ground from the storm. Maintenance workers were out in the streets trying to clean up all the storm debris. Once the park opened we went on the following rides in the following order:

Tower of Terror - 5 minute wait (Last trip to Disney Dan & Marcus went on this ride but I chickened out – This time I actually went on it – Wow ! – To those who are nervous – give it a try – the scary part of the ride is over before you get a chance to be real scared about it.)
Great Movie Ride - Walk on (We 1st got the gangster side and asked the CM about the cowboy side [We had only Seen the gangster side before] Candy let Us hop over to the other side afterwards without waiting in line again so we were able to see both sides. Thanks Candy – our first extra special CM this trip!)
Muppet 3-D - Walk on (While we all enjoy this, Dan considers this to be one of the "Best of Disney")
Star Tours - 10 minutes (Thank goodness for the nausea patches those who suffer from motion sickness definitely check with your Dr. before going to WDW for a prescription – each patch lasts for three days, and it beats the wrist bands by a mile)
After Star Tours we took a break for lunch at the Sci-Fi Café. (we were seated 15 minutes after our P.S. time.) All of us absolutely adored the theming of this restaurant. It has the feel of a drive in theatre with rows and rows of cars. The customers are seated in the different cars and you get to watch horror clips on a big screen in the front. It is also dark inside the restaurant so it feels like it’s night time out. Tyler and Marcus had a milkshake with Oreo cookies blended into it. For Lunch Tyler had a Bacon Cheeseburger, Marcus had a Hot dog, Dan ordered the fish special with onion rings and I had a veggie sandwich. The portions were huge and we thought the food quite good. We also didn’t have a big wait to receive our food as others had complained about previously, so we were very happy. Dan and I split a Key lime pie for dessert. We left so full that we immediately headed for a sit down show afterwards to give ourselves a chance to digest all we had eaten. We continued our day at MGM as follows:

Hunchback of Notre Dame - no wait (We got to see Matt the juggler – the kids thought Matt was better than the stage show.)
Backstage 101 Dalmatian. - 15 minutes
Hercules Parade - (It was O.K. but I liked the toy story parade from a few years ago much better)
After the parade we started to head towards the exit. On the way out we stop to watch a comedy troupe of three guys dressed as construction workers do a routine in the street. They were very funny. (We were all laughing out loud)

After this we headed back to the house. The kids immediately headed for the pool. Dan and I went out to pick up a few videos since the cable was still out. When we returned Dan called home to check our messages. There were several from family wanting to know if we were O.K. We hadn’t realized that all the news stations were showing pictures of the tornado destruction back home. So while we were out enjoying MGM for the day everyone was in a panic back home.(Sorry guys) We immediately called everyone to let them know we were alive and well. The kids took a break from the pool to watch some videos while I read until bedtime.

Day 4 – Tuesday, February 24, 1998

Weather – Sunny, Breezy, high of 70 degrees

We had thought about going to Typhoon Lagoon for the day but the weather report said it wouldn’t get higher than 70 degrees so we decided to head out to Universal Studios instead. We arrived about 15 minutes before the park opened and checked with Guest Services to see if they had any tickets left for the Studio audiences. To late – they were all gone – the woman in guest services said that we had to get there early as it was first come, first serve. (We knew this from phoning the production hot line number before coming to Florida, but hoped that all the other people didn’t know this and that there would still be some tickets left). Since they are still doing the 2 day for the price of one tickets we have vowed to get our butts in gear next time so we can get studio tickets. On the way in they had people set up at tables giving out free Universal/Visa T-shirts to anyone who applied for a Universal visa card. It works where you earn points that can be used towards getting free park passes. I can only wonder how much you have to charge in order to get free park passes for a family of four. We went on the following rides in the following order:

Terminator 2 - 20 minutes (While waiting Frankenstein came and hung with all of us in line – Loved him – This was our first time seeing this show – Outstanding effects ! This is the best 3-D show ever)
ET - 20 minutes
Back to the Future- walk on
Jaws - 20 minute wait (for future reference – this ride is worth only about a 10 minute wait tops – The shark looked about as real as the shark in the original Jaws movie)
After Jaws we went to put our name in at the Hard Rock Café (Our name went in at 11:45 and we were seated by 12:15) This restaurant in a huge building filled with rock star memorabilia and lots of gold records. We ordered Onion rings and chicken wings for the table. Marcus also ordered a Butterfinger milk shake. For lunch Tyler ordered a bacon cheeseburger, Marcus had BBQ chicken and Rib combo platter, Dan had the Jerk Salmon and I had a pulled pork sandwich. While we got our appetizers right away, we had a bit of a wait before the entrees came out. We didn’t mind as we were so busy looking at all the artifact on the walls. There is some truly fascination stuff hanging there. When the waitress brought the lunch over the manager stopped by to apologize for the wait and offered us a free dessert to make up for it. This was a nice gesture especially as we didn’t have to complain to get it, they just offered. Since we had a free dessert coming we chose to share a brownie sundae. I am so glad we decided to share it as it was huge! After Lunch we continued with the following rides:

Stage 54 - walk on (this is just a walk through with a bunch of stuff from the Jurassic Park movie )
Kongfrontation - 20 minutes
Earthquake - 20 minutes (this was extra fun because Dan was picked as one of the extras. As soon as Dan went up poor Marcus became embarrassed [he hates any attention being called to us – it’s a teenage thing] he was afraid of Dan messing up and thought it would bring attention to him by proxy. When the scene came up [ they threw a dummy from the top of the stage down, insinuating that they had dropped Dan in error] I looked at Marcus and exclaimed "Look Marc, they dropped dad !" Marcus’ response was "I hope they did drop him, then maybe he won’t volunteer for these things anymore!"
Preview Center – Walk through ( Dan and I walked through this while the kids Played in the arcade – There are lots of exciting things coming – Already we can’t wait for our next trip.)
Animal Actors – Walk on (I found this show to be quite entertaining and the kids loved it)
Twister Store (Even though the ride isn’t going to open for a few more weeks they did have the store open selling Twister souvenirs, We glanced through it. They had the Dorothy II on display.)
On our way out of the park we stopped to watch a dance troupe by Mel’s diner. They were very good and the kids were impressed.

We went home to shower and change as we had reservations at Gulliver’s restaurant in the Swan hotel at 7:00PM. We showed up and were immediately seated. (The restaurant was only about three quarters full) While they don’t have a magician anymore (they claim he has disappeared) they do have a balloon man who went to everyone’s table making balloons for the kids. These were not your usual balloons (see the dog, see the swan type balloons) but he was making Mickey, Minnie, Goofey, Pocahontas, etc. He even made a Jasmine for one girl. When he stopped by our table he made a Harley Davison Motorcycle for Marcus (after all it is bike week in Daytona) and a 747 airplane for Tyler. (When Tyler requested an airplane the balloon man asked, "what kind?" – now that’s detail) When we mentioned to him that we had chosen this restaurant because we heard it had a magician he pulled out some cards and did card tricks for the kids. This was truly a special evening, and while we chose this place because of the coupon from Rita’s book, we would definitely go there again. For dinner Marcus had a steak, Dan and Tyler had the Baked stuff shrimp, and I had the Prime rib, It was really good but I could only eat about half of it. (I had to save room for dessert) After dinner they bring a dessert cart by. Those of you who think you have self control – you won’t once you see the cart – the big problem was making a decision. The kids finally decide on the German Chocolate cake and Dan and I split a banana crème pie. Yum!

After dinner we strolled over to the boardwalk and walked all the way around just taking in the sights and sounds. This was a magical moment for me. We stopped for a bit to watch a juggler on the boardwalk. The one thing that I have found amazing is that the kids seem kind of jaded to all the special effect on the rides (maybe from watching too many movies) and they seemed pretty ho-hum over all the explosions, lasers etc. Yet they were truly impressed with the talents of the people (the jugglers, dance troupes, balloon makers, artists, etc…) They just stood with there mouths open taking it all in. They could of watched for hours ! I stopped by the bakery for some rice crispy treats for tomorrow (trust me, there was no room left to eat them tonight) After the walk around the lagoon we stopped in for a peak at the lobbies of the boardwalk hotel and the beach and yacht club. We also checked out the pools – wow! We then headed home for the night.

Day 5 – Wednesday, February 25. 1998

Weather – Sunny, High of 85 degrees.

Water Park Day !!!!! (My favorite) After a quick breakfast at the house we packed up a lunch and went to Typhoon Lagoon. We arrived about 10:30 AM.

After claiming a spot on the beach to park our stuff we headed into castaway creek and floated to the other side of the park where the inner tube rides were. We rode all the inner tube rides (twice as there was never more than a few minutes wait for each one). We then headed over to the body tube rides and rode each of these (we all liked the middle one best because it was enclosed for part of the ride). After we exhausted ourselves on these rides (who needs a Stairmaster when you have the steps of Typhoon Lagoon) we floated back to where we had dumped all our stuff for lunch.

Once lunch was completed Dan and Tyler headed for the shark pool. I refused to go as I had heard from others in trip reports that the water is quite cold in the shark pool. When they returned (yes, they confirmed the water is cold, but they felt that it was worth it) everyone (excluding me, who was by this time playing dead in the sun) went into the wave pool for about an hour. When they returned Dan, Tyler and myself headed back to the water slides (Marcus was now playing dead in the sun) and slid on all the slides again. The only slide we did not do was the family ride. While we would have loved to do this one it had a wait of about 20 minutes all day long and since all the other slides were a walk on, no one wanted to waste 20 minutes waiting for anything.

After doing all the slides again I headed back towards the beach to lay down for a while. On the way I picked up a pina colada in one of those huge Typhoon Lagoon containers (it’s about the size of a half yard of beer, but it is filled with pina colada, and lots of fresh fruit). I settled into my beach chair, with this huge drink, and a great book and just enjoyed the sun. About halfway through my drink (by this time Dan was helping me get through it) I broke into a big grin. A lovely woman from England sitting across from me looked over and asked me what I was smiling about. I told her I was just sitting there wondering what everyone was doing back at work at this time. She immediately started grinning also and replied "Who cares?!"

We left about 3:30 and headed home to shower and rest a bit for tonight was hoop–de–doo night. We left early (about 5:30) for our reservation. After parking at Fort Wilderness we took the bus to the Pioneer hall. Once there we wandered over to the petting zoo and then down to the marina. When we headed back towards Pioneer Hall to check in Dan realized he forgot to bring extra film for the camera (That’s O.K. Dan, at least you got us there without one wrong turn!!!) We were joking back and forth about how we would have to buy film from Disney, and where should we apply for our second mortgage etc…A CM heard us making the jokes and when we brought the film up to pay for it she handed her employee card to the cashier so that we could get an employee discount on our film (Thanks Jeannie !!) She said it was her day off, so since she couldn’t create any magic at work that day she would create it for us during her off time. What a sweetheart.

After we had our picture taken we headed in to our seats. We were a little more than half way to the front of the main floor (reservations made 5 months in advance) and we were very happy with our table. The food was mediocre, but the show was fantastic. At the table next to us was a little boy about three years old, who was laughing so hard he had tears streaming down his face. I don’t know if I laughed harder watching him or watching the show. When they came by at the end of the show with the pictures they had taken before the show started we decided to purchase the picture (It cost $20.00 but we actually all looked good in the photo so thought it was worth it) After the show was over we went down to the Marina to watch the Electrical light water pageant. It was a nice finish to a really great day. After this we headed home to bed. After we got home and were dropping off Dan realized that he forgot our picture (yes, the one that cost $20.00) down at the marina. So for all of you who will not get to see this picture – Boy we looked good !

Day 6 - Thursday, February 26, 1998

Weather – Sunny, High of 80 degrees

After breakfast at the house we headed to Epcot arriving about 9:30 AM On the way in we got to see the Future Corps Band playing in front of Space ship earth. In future world we did the following attractions in the following order:

Spaceship Earth - 5 minute wait
Universe of Energy -3 minutes till the pre-show (Our first time seeing this since the refurbishment, we like this much better)
Body Wars - 15 minute wait (love those nausea patches!)
Cranium Command – 10 minute wait (very funny)
After Cranium Command we went to Nine Dragons, in China, for lunch. Dan had the Moo Su Pork, and says it’s the best he has ever had. I had the pork noodles, and they were great, Marcus had the lemon chicken and says it was O.K. (I had a taste and thought it was pretty good) and Tyler had the Spare ribs and said they were O.K. After lunch we back tracked to Norway and rode the Maelstrom after a 10 minute wait. While in Norway Dan picked up one of the Passports around the world ( I didn’t buy one, instead I had the cast members in each country sign my autograph book) Dan, in addition to getting the cast members to stamp his passport book, put a little variation on the theme, by trying a beer in the different countries and rating them in his passport book. While he wasn’t able to drink a beer in every single country, he did put forth a fine effort and came up with the following results:

China Tsingtao medium body, very nice 8
Morocco Flag Export Very strong, but good 8
United Kingdom Guinness (pint) perfectly drawn, best in USA 10
Norway Ringnes Strong but nice 7
So, after Norway we went to the following countries in the following order:

China - We bought a wooden back massager (one of those roller type things)
Germany - Stopped to listen to the Alpine Trio (A polka playing band)
Italy - Listened to the Rondo Veneziano (a string sextet group)
America- First we saw the Disney international songbook show (cute) where all the characters performed and then we heard the tail end of the Voices of America (absolutely astonishing) followed by the anamatronic show ( I thought it was good but noticed Tyler dozing off during it)
Japan- We got to watch the candy artist for a few minutes, Marcus was pretty impressed.
Morocco- We all had some baklava (Yum!)
France - We just breezed through
United Kingdom- We watched the British Invasion (Great) and I was able to get Eeyore’s and Tiger’s autograph. While here I bought a Pooh coloring book. (I know, sounds strange, but for a hobby I make hand hooked rugs, and lots of times I get designs from coloring books because they have simple patterns without lots of detail that shows up well on rugs)
Canada- We all wanted to try a beaver tail after reading about them on line. We found them quite enjoyable, they are very similar to "fried dough"
After Canada we headed over to Honey I shrunk the audience. We walked into the pre-show. I know lots of people just think of this as one big commercial for Kodak but I really enjoy looking at all the photographs that they flash on the screen (though the music is kind of hokey). We all enjoyed this. On our way out we stopped at the arcade and let the kids play for about an hour before heading home for the evening.

Day 7 – Friday, February 27, 1998

Weather – Light sprinkle in the AM, followed by sunny skies with a high of 82 degrees.

We all got up early to head to Busch Gardens, after a slight delay due to someone (Dan) misreading the directions we arrived shortly after 10:00 AM. We did the following rides in the following order:

Stanley Log Flume - 15 minute wait
The Python Roller Coaster - walk on
Kumba Roller Coaster - 15 minute wait
The Dolphin Show - walk on with plenty of seats available (great show)
After the Dolphin show we took a break for lunch at the Das Festhaus Cafeteria. The lunch was O.K. with a choice between turkey or corn beef sandwiches, pasta, or sausages. The desserts were pretty impressive though. While eating we got to watch a German Polka Dance group perform. After eating we stopped by the White Tiger cage as it was feeding time. This was pretty interesting. After this we felt that we had digested lunch enough to hit the roller coasters again.

Phoenix Roller Coaster- walk on
Train ride - walk on ( this is a train ride around where you can observe the giraffes, lions, birds etc…
After the train ride the kids stopped to play with the toy boats for a bit. Following this we went on the Congo Rapid River ride (walk on) After this ride we decided to go again right away for two reasons. 1) It was a walk on, and we love to take advantage of a no wait situation, and 2) We were so wet we thought we should enjoy it again since we couldn’t get any wetter. After our second turn through the Congo Rapids we went over to the squirt gun area and spent a little time getting other people soaked while trying to dry ourselves off.

After squirting people for a while we headed over to the animal nursery. I thought this was a very cool place looking at all the baby animals. Also, they had shades drawn in one of the cages around a baby giraffe that had been born the day before. We tried to peak around the closed curtain but were unable to catch a glimpse of the new giraffe. We then headed over to the petting zoo for awhile.

We finally felt we were ready to try the granddaddy of all roller coasters – The Montu – as we headed in that direction we took a side trip into the Great Ape reserve. I don’t know if this was because we all the sudden all got the desire to see the Great Apes of North America, or were procrastinating the big plunge of the Montu but it was a nice side trip anyway.

We then continued on our way to the Montu. For those of you who have not been on this roller coaster all I can tell you is that it is the biggest, scariest, inverted roller coaster that I have ever been on (actually, I think this is the only inverted roller coaster that I have ever been on but that is neither here nor there) This was scary!!! It goes for a full three minutes (and this is a very long time when your being whipped around, screaming at the top of your lungs) at one point I thought it was the end of the ride, and took a big breath of relief when it all the sudden took off again. We went on it three times in a row!!!!! One word of warning for those who go to Busch Gardens for roller coaster rides. Bring lots of quarters with you – You are not allowed to bring anything loose on the roller coasters with you, so they provide lockers outside of each roller coaster for you to put your stuff in, but they cost fifty cents each. While we had put a bunch of stuff in a locker at the beginning of the day ( sweatshirts, back packs etc.) we had to rent an additional locker at each roller coaster ride for things like cameras, wallets, etc…

After our last roller coaster ride of the day on the Montu (the park was now closing) we had to walk all the way back to the other side of the park to get stuff out of a locker we had rented that morning. Everywhere we walked the employees kept trying to get us to turn around and head towards the exit, but we kept telling them we had to get our stuff out of a locker. By the time we finally got to the locker (it was in the outer limits of the park) the employee in that area directed us to the skyway to bring us to the exit. This was really great as we had wanted to ride it during the day but the line was always too long. So finally we got to ride the skyway out of the park. After we finally got out of there, and changed clothes at the car (we were still pretty wet from the Congo river ride) it was about 9:00 PM. We found a restaurant a few minutes outside the park names Jesse’s Steakhouse. It had generous portions, of great food for a really reasonable price. After eating and the long ride home we were beat, Nobody had any problems sleeping that night.

Day 8 – Saturday, February 28, 1998

Weather – Overcast/Rain/Thunder showers, High 82 degrees

This is our take it easy day. To start of with we went to the Coral Isle Café for the Tonga Toast. I had read about this toast before I went in 1989 but didn’t get a chance to try it, but have wanted to ever since. Before this trip I wanted to make PS reservations but wasn’t sure where they served it. Well let me tell you, One question on the RADP board and within 5 minutes I had the answer. (Thanks guys!!) We arrived at 8:30 for breakfast. Dan and I ordered the Tonga Toast while the kids had Mickey Waffles. Let me tell you this was marvelous. First they take a thick piece of sourdough bread and slice a pocket in the side. They then stuff banana inside it, dip it in French toast mix (eggs, milk etc…) for a few minutes and deep fat fry it. (The restaurant also serve a healthier version, where they grill it instead of frying it, but we went for the original, unhealthy version.) After it is fried they roll it in cinnamon sugar. Wow ! We consumed a weeks worth of fat grams in one sitting and enjoyed every second of it.

After breakfast we looked around the Polynesian resort for a little bit. Pretty nice place, but I think I like the Boardwalk Hotel better. The rain had still held off by this time though it was overcast and you could see lightning in the distance, so we decided to monorail over to the Magic Kingdom for a few rides on Space Mountain. There was little wait for the ride so we were able to compare the left and right side. We all felt that the right side was a more exciting ride than the left.

We took the monorail over to the contemporary hotel to see what that resort was like. We were able to ride up front and all received our co-pilot certificate. The Contemporary seemed pretty nice, but it really isn’t us. When we arrived we sent the kids to the arcade and told them we would meet them in a half hour. After we looked around a bit we went to meet the kids outside the game room, but they weren’t there. I sent Dan in to get them. A half hour after that I had to go in to gather up everybody.

By now it started to rain really heavy so we headed back to the Polynesian to pick up our car and head out. On our way back home we stopped by the video store to pick up videos for the kids and also grab some Chinese food from the take out place next door. After picking up all this stuff we stopped by Albertson’s grocery store to pick up a few things. We grabbed some cereal and milk and when we got to the check out counter we picked up another phone card (ours was running out).

After paying we then headed home. I went to unpack the groceries and sure enough, our phone card is again missing. We headed back to the store. Now I figure one time, they made a mistake, but twice I feel like someone at Albertson’s is ripping me off. We track down the manager and explain that this is the second time in a week that the cashier has lost our phone card and that we are tired of being ripped off. The manager feels that it was just a mistake. I think the manager is stupid. He says that sometimes they forget to put the phone card in because they are so busy. We show him the receipt which had a total of five items on it. If this is too busy to remember to give us what we paid for then his cashier has serious problems. He thinks we are making a big deal out of nothing. We think we are going to shop at the Publix across the street from now on. It was like talking to a brick wall.

After eating the take out Dan and I decided to take a nap while the kids watched videos and swam in the pool. We woke around 6:00PM raring to go. Since the rain had stopped Dan and I decided to go back to the Magic Kingdom to see the SpectroMagic parade. We had never seen this before. The kids chose to stay at the house. We left around 7:30. When we got to the Magic Kingdom we headed over to the skyway ride. It had a wait of about 20 minutes. When we finally got on the skyway, just after it took off the fireworks started. I was so excited when I saw Tinkerbell flying from the castle that I started calling out "Look ! it’s tinkle bell, it’s tinkle bell !!" I feel horrible that I had mangled poor Tinkerbell’s name in my excitement. We couldn’t of timed this better if we had requested it. What a great view!!!

We arrived on the other side in Fantasyland about half way through the fireworks. We got off and continued to watch the fireworks until they ended. I happened to notice that It’s a Small World didn’t have any line so I talked Dan into one quick trip ( I know, but how can you go to Disney World without a trip on IASW) We got into a boat with, I think 4 other people in it for the ride. At the end of the ride I noticed that there was still no line and jokingly said to Dan that I was sure they would let us go around one more time without having to stand in line again. He gave me one of those over my dead body looks as he dragged me off the boat, and over to the Haunted Mansion.

Here, as with It’s a Small World there was no line and we walked right into the entry hall. We found this attraction so different at night than during the day for several reasons. First, every once in a while lightning will strike the outside of the HM lighting the whole thing up (pretty scary); Second, I think the inside is much darker at night; Third, I think the scary sounds are much louder at night; and Fourth, I never noticed the smell of pot while riding during the day with little kids ahead of me, like I did riding it at night with the big kids ahead of me.

Spectro Magic was going to start about 15 minutes after we completed the Haunted Mansion so we went to find a spot. It was very quiet in the MK this night and no where along the parade route was the crowd more than 2 or 3 people deep. We were able to sit and watch with no problem. This was our first time seeing SpectroMagic and we both enjoyed it tremendously. We then headed for the exit and drove over to Disney Westside. Right after we pulled into a parking spot the skies opened up in a big thunderstorm. We were parked right in front of Planet Hollywood so we ran to the awning (getting totally soaked on the way). We were seated right away. The people who were seated next to us had only been sitting there about 10 minutes and couldn’t understand why we were soaking wet. Dan ordered the Thai shrimp and I had the beef fratija. Both were huge, and very good, though the service was slow to non existent. Dan purchased the Planet Hollywood glass and asked for a box for it so we could travel home with it. The glass is now sitting in the next room in about a thousand pieces. They need stronger boxes. This was our first time at a Planet Hollywood. We really enjoyed looking at all the movie artifacts and loved the food, but could of lived without the big screen Bruce/Arnie/Demi commercial. After eating it was still pouring rain out so we headed home.

Day 9 - Sunday, March 1, 1998

Weather – overcast to sunny High of 75 degrees

Dan and I are starting to notice that there is something in this Florida water that is causing our clothes to shrink. Everyone slept in until about 10:30 AM. Dan and the kids swam in the pool for awhile. Around 1:00 we decided to take a ride over to the Beltz Mall. We all did some shopping for a bit. Both Dan and Tyler bought a watch. We finished shopping about 3:00 and were ready for some lunch. The kids wanted Kentucky Fried Chicken so we dropped them off and then went to a Chinese restaurant right behind the KFC. We both decided that this was the best Chinese food of our entire vacation. (Has everyone figured out that we are fond of Chinese food?) We had pot stickers, shrimp lo mein, and spring rolls. Just as we were finishing up the kids showed up from KFC to help us finish up the Chinese food. After lunch we headed back to the house to relax for a bit.

We had planned to go to Disney’s West Side tonight and decided at the last minute to stop by the Magic Kingdom for some nighttime rides before the park closed. We parked at the Polynesian resort and hopped on the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. Right after we sat on the monorail a woman with a group of about 12 teenage girls got into our car ( I think it was pom pom week or something) I think that was the boys favorite ride of the evening.

Once we got to the Magic Kingdom SpectroMagic had just started trapping us by the train station at the entrance. We had to wait for it to finish and then we raced to the Haunted Mansion. The boys agreed that it seemed much scarier at night than during the day. After the Haunted Mansion we still had time for one ride before the park closed and we picked Splash Mountain. This ride had no line at all. As a matter of fact we even had our own boat. Of course, this meant that Dan and I had to sit in the very front. (I thought we should let the kids sit there, but being that they had already had the front seat previously, Dan thought we should sit there). The front is not my favorite seat. Just as we went over the top I ducked down real low so the water would splash those sitting in the seat directly behind us (sorry guys).

After Splash Mountain the park had closed so we headed off to Disney Marketplace. Once we go there we put our name in for the Rainforest Café. We walked around the stores for a bit. The kids were pretty impressed with the Lego store. They wanted to know how they could get a job building Lego statues. Actually I wouldn’t mind a job building Lego statues either. You probably need some sort of engineering degree or something though. We only had to wait about 45 minutes for our table. The Rain Forest Café is a restaurant built into a huge volcano. Periodically the volcano will go off. We were seated in the gorilla room, which was pretty cool, though it does get noisy in there. I had the rasta pasta, Tyler had the burger, Marcus had the quesadilla and Dan had the mojo bones. The food was fantastic. After dinner we all headed home exhausted.

Day 10 – Monday, March 2, 1998

Weather – Sunny/Cool, and Breezy. High of 70 degrees.

The kids slept in after last night’s, late night. I had heard on the radio that they had found the last victim of the tornado. We had wanted to go see the tornado neighborhoods before, but didn’t want to get in the way of the search. Since they were done Dan and I decided to go for a ride to view the damage. We started to see the damaged areas about 4 miles from where we were staying. At first all you would see is houses with the roof shingles blown off, or similar small damage, and then right next to it you would see a house totally demolished. We drove past a shopping center (One of the strip malls) that was totally devastated. I’ve seen destruction from tornadoes before on T.V. but it had always seemed a bit unreal when watching it from the safety of my own living room. Actually seeing it in person is a whole different thing. It was so tragic. It wasn’t just the trailer parks either (which always seem to be hard hit) but entire neighborhoods were gone.

After driving through the tornado neighborhoods we went and picked up the kids and headed to MGM for the afternoon. We parked at the Boardwalk and took the ferry over to MGM arriving around 1:00 PM. We checked on the wait for tower of terror but it was over and hour (they still only had one side working) so instead we went on the back stage tour. Both Tyler and Marcus were picked to do the scene with the boat and torpedoes. They did a great job. Our guide was just o.k., but catastrophe canyon was great as usual.

After the tour we headed over to the Prime Time café for our Priority Seating. We had not warned the boys at all about what kind of restaurant this was, and only told them that we had picked it out special for Tyler’s birthday. We were seated and introduced to our "cousin" Lisa. Lisa first gave the boys a hard time about having their hats on inside and then asked them to help out and set the table, as she was to busy too do it. The look Marcus gave me was classic. When she came back with our beverages she asked us who was the birthday boy and we all pointed to Tyler. She wished him a happy 14th birthday and then asked him if he had a girlfriend yet. Tyler replied no and so Lisa told him not to worry that she would find him one.

After taking our lunch order, Lisa introduced us to our cousins at the next table and told both of us to draw a picture of where we were from on the back of our place mats and try to guess where each other was from. We were able to guess that they were from Cleveland (He drew a football that was crossed out since they lost their football team, and she drew a picture of the Rock & Roll hall of Fame). They were able to figure out that we were from Massachusetts (though I think our accents gave that away) but weren’t able to pin point it to Nantucket.

For Lunch Marcus ordered a steak sandwich, Dan had a ham sandwich, Tyler had a Bacon cheeseburger, and I had the beef stroganoff. We also shared some onion rings and fried mushrooms before lunch. The food wasn’t as bad as we were expecting, but it wasn’t great either. (Actually, it was a lot like my mom’s cooking which I suppose is the effect they are trying for, though I wouldn’t try to market my mom’s cooking.)

About halfway through the meal Lisa stopped by with a paper hat that she made out of a place mat that said "the birthday boy" on it. She told Tyler that he had to wear it for at least a few minutes. She then left and came back to the table calling out "I’ve got your birthday present" with a pretty 14 year old girl in tow. Poor Tyler, was so nervous, he wouldn’t even turn around at first. Finally he did turn around, and even managed to stand for a few moments so that both the girl’s mother, and myself could get a few pictures. The girl then wished Tyler a happy birthday before returning to her table. After this both Dan and the man from Cleveland at the next table were trying to convince Cousin Lisa that it was their birthday too and could she bring a beautiful blonde over for their present. She wasn’t falling for it though.

At the end of the meal Lisa had everyone in the section make airplay noises for Marcus while he had a bite of his green beans, and then sing Happy birthday to Tyler. After lunch we went to the sound studio and played around for awhile until the time for the Indian Jones stage show. After the stage show we took the boat back to the boardwalk. At the boardwalk we rented surrey bikes for a half hour. I Really enjoyed this (especially as the boys did most the work).

We returned the bike and headed over to Pleasure Island. We went into the Adventures club (Kungaloosh!) and sat through the 1st show of the evening. At the beginning of the show, they asked if anyone in the audience was celebrating a birthday. Of course Dan pointed to Tyler. The man doing the show started making jokes about bringing Tyler "bar hopping" for his 14th birthday. When he went to do the show he picked Tyler to help him up on stage. He asked Tyler where he was from and Tyler responded "Nantucket". The comedian started making jokes about Tyler being "the man from Nantucket". Poor Tyler was absolutely mortified by this time (Dan and I on the other hand, had reached the point of absolute hysteria.) The show was O.K., the kids loved it, and I found it a bit boring (of course this could be that I was totally exhausted by this time). After the comedy show we headed home, stopping by McDonald's on the way. On the ride home Tyler informed us that this had been the most humiliating day of his life. Dan and I informed him that we were so happy to of been a part of it.

Day 11 – Tuesday March 3, 1998

Weather – Sunny, Cool, light breeze, Low 70’s

Dan and I were both up at 8:00 AM as this is the day we had planed to go skydiving. We are both planning on doing a tandem jump. (This way we can actually have the experience of skydiving, yet leaving someone else responsible for our safety – also it only requires about a half hour of training as opposed to spending our vacation in classes) The kids were going to come along to watch but were too tired and decided to stay at the house and sleep in while we went. This is Dan’s first time ever skydiving and while I had jumped static line several times before, it’s been almost twenty years. While heading to skydive city. Dan got lost, so we ended up being almost an hour late. We gave them a call, and they said it was no problem.

(Warning! The following text was taken from notes written with very shaky handwriting, therefore I am not able to vouch for their accuracy). We lived through the skydiving experience (though I’m not sure if our credit card would). It was an extraordinary experience and I would consider it the highlight of the entire trip. My tandem jump master was Frank and Dan’s was Billy. I also opted (read that as paid) to have a video person jump (this way I would have evidence for all the folks back home) jump with us also. While getting dressed and putting all the equipment on, Frank explained to me what would happen during the jump. He also showed me how to "posture" on the way out the door and down. When I asked about landing he told me not to worry as he would explain on the way down. We went up in the plane with several other people who were jumping without someone attached to their back.

While heading up Frank and Billy kept making jokes. I think this was meant to relax us, but I’m not sure. The single jumpers jumped first and then the plane circled around to let us out. At this time we were 13,500 feet above planet Earth. Dan and Billy went first (sucker!) They worked their way to the door (not as easy as you think with a person strapped to you back) and then went out. Frank and I then headed to the door (your on your knees, sort of walking your way down towards the door) Once in the door Frank called out 1, 2, 3, Go and out we went. I’m not sure if I actually went out on my own, or his rocking motion sort of dropped us out the door. As instructed beforehand I put my arms up and arched my back and looked around for the video jumper. The feeling of free fall was incredible. It felt like my face was going to be sucked off. Also it was very cold up there ( I think this was because we were falling so fast) After 60 seconds (at least Frank said afterwards it was 60 seconds, but it sure seemed longer while falling to the earth) Frank opened the parachute for us and we started the float down.

By this time I was really enjoying it (also by this time I knew I was going to live so I was able to relax a bit) Frank pointed out where Dan was (he was to my left and above me, I don’t know how he got above me as he jumped first) so I yelled out "Hi" and waved towards him. At this point I looked at my altimeter which showed that I was about 4,000 feet above ground. After the parachute was opened Frank started to readjust some straps and to me it felt like he was disconnecting us (keep in mind, there is one parachute open and it was on Frank’s back, not mine) this made me a little nervous, so I asked him what he was doing. He explained that he was making it a little more comfortable for me. I felt better after he explained that.

When we were about 2,000 feet above the ground Frank explained how to land. (It was pretty basic) we practiced a few times, and he let me know when we were going to land. After landing I got to watch Dan land a few minutes later (I still don’t get why it took him longer than me.) After we dumped the parachutes and other equipment, Frank and Billy gave us a bunch of stuff in a folder. We got certificates with our name on them, Bumper stickers, note pads, and a coupon for 10% of in the gift shop conveniently located by the parking lot. While waiting for the video (they dub it up and set it to music and stuff) and the roll of film we got to watch the other people jumping. At the time they were trying to break some world record for number of people jumping at one time, so there were lots and lots of people parachuting to practice. We also got to see the Army’s Golden Knight Team doing their practice jumps. (From what I understand they did break the worlds record that weekend.) From arrival in the parking lot to sitting down and watching the other jumpers it took about two hours, though we chose to stay for another hour watching the other jumpers. On our way out we stopped by the gift shop (after all we had a coupon) and bought a bunch of T-shirts.

We stopped by Hooters on the way back to Orlando where we shared a dozen oysters. Dan also had a ham sandwich and a well deserved beer and I had some steamers. The food was great, the prices were reasonable but the waitress was totally clueless. Good thing we weren’t in a hurry or it would have been frustrating. The waitress spent the entire time apologizing for being such a bad waitress. We didn’t disagree with her. The whole ride home we kept looking at each other and saying "Wow, I can’t believe I did it" and "Wow, that was so great" etc… It was that unbelievable. I recommend this for all who enjoy the thrill rides. We stopped for oranges on the way back, and had several taste tests before selecting the one’s we wanted to bring home. We arrived at the house around 4:00. We watched the skydiving video about 8 times in a row. The funny thing watching it was, before we jumped the video jumper told me to relax and have a good time with it. He said I could wave or gives a thumbs up on the way down and he would catch it on tape as well as take photo’s with a camera. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but at the time I was so nervous that while I remembered that he said to give him a thumbs up I never stopped. So my arms were out and my thumbs were up for the whole free fall part.

After resting a bit we headed out for our PS at Artist's Point. We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge about a half hour early so we had a chance to look around. Dan found the hidden Mickey in the fireplace fairly quickly. We all went out to look at the swimming pool. Very nice. The lobby of the hotel is overwhelming. I got dizzy looking up towards the top. Out of all the hotels I think this is my favorite and if I ever get to stay "on site" this is where I would love to stay. We were seated right away at the restaurant. This restaurant also has a specialty Bloody Mary. It’s a very spicy (lots of hot sauce, light on the horseradish) Bloody Mary garnished with sweet pickles. It was interesting. For appetizers we all shared an order of crab cakes and an order of portobello mushrooms sautéed in a balsamic vinegar sauce. Dan and Tyler liked the crab cakes best and Marcus and I liked the mushroom best. With the drinks the waiter brought dinner rolls with some applebutter, smoked salmon pate, and regular butter. This was so good they had to bring out seconds. For Dinner Dan had the salmon and the rest of us had the smoked Prime rib. The salmon was absolutely fantastic and while we all enjoyed the smoked prime rib we think we would of preferred it the regular way not smoked. After dinner we headed home for the evening.

Day 12 – Wednesday March 4, 1998

Weather – Sunny, Clear, High about 75 degrees

We got the kids up at 6:00 AM. We are going to Universal Studios and I insist that everyone get there early so that we can get passes to be in the studio audience. We arrive at Universal at 7:30 AM and are first in line to park (no one is here yet) Finally at 7:45 the parking clerk arrives, but something is wrong with the computer. After fussing around with it she finally lets us park for free. (These are the only tickets it will let out) Fine by us.

We park and race over to guest relations. We are first in line here therefore we feel confident about studio passes. Note the following conversation:

Dan: We would like four passes for studio audience

Guest Relations: Sorry, there aren’t any left

Donna: What do you mean there aren’t any left, we’re the first in line.

Guest Relations: Well, they’ve all been given out therefore there aren’t any left

Donna: Given to who?? No one is here to give them to

Guest Relations: Well, we only get the stand by tickets, and there aren’t any today so there aren’t any left. These tickets are for Nickelodeon studios not Universal Studio They are separate from us – We have no control over their tickets

Dan: (Getting upset) What do you mean they are separate – You have to pay to get into Universal to get to Nickelodeon. They’re not separate.

Donna: (Getting very upset) We called Nicks production hot line number 6 months ago and they said they were filming "Figure it Out" and the tickets were first come first serve at Universal Guest Relations. We are first here, we want tickets !!!

Guest Relations: There aren’t any tickets left

Donna: When I was here last week guest relations said they were all out and we had to get here earlier if we wanted studio audience tickets. Therefore we woke two teenage boys up at 6:00 AM – Do you know what it’s like to wake two teenagers at 6:00 AM? It wasn’t pretty. Now I want my studio tickets.

Guest Relations: There aren’t any tickets left.

Dan: Can we speak to a manager?

Guest Relations: No, they are all in a meeting at this time. Would you like to wait over to the side until they are out, and I will have someone come talk to you?

Donna: No, we will wait here, first in line, till someone can come talk to us.

(Guest Relations is not happy at this point)

Donna: How exactly is one suppose to get tickets for a studio audience if you don’t have them at guest relations like the production hot line says?

Guest Relations: You have to call and reserve them through Nick at the following number (I then write it down) 407-224-NICK. This is where you reserve the tickets. Any tickets left over on the day of production (Stand By tickets) are sent to guest services and are given out on a first come, first serve basis

Donna: So next time I come to Florida all I have to do is call this number and I can reserve studio audience tickets.

Guest Relation: (with a smile) Exactly. (FYI – When I got home I called this number to see how one makes a reservation for studio audience tickets like guest relations explained to me and the tape says tickets are on a first come first serve basis at guest relations. There is no one to answer this phone at :"reservations". IMHO the woman in guest relations is a bitch)

Guest Relations: The manager will be out in a few moments, would you like to wait inside? (she points to a door)

Dan goes to wait inside while I stand outside and complain to another park employee who had the misfortune to be standing near the entrance and asked me if anything was wrong. (Bet he’s sorry he asked)

I notice Dan is inside talking to a manager so I head in. The manager ( I believe his name is Keith) is very nice and is now trying to work on damage control with us. Dan is explaining out the whole saga of how we called 6 months in advance and this was suppose to be the highlight of the kids vacation etc, etc, etc… Keith explains that he called over to the production studio to see what he could do and that they aren’t even taping any shows today. But why, I ask, did guest relations last week tell us to come back, and why does the production hot line answering machine say they are taping? Keith doesn’t know but can’t do anything about studio tickets however, to make up for our troubles if we would like he could arrange for one of the kids to get slimed in the studio tour. I go out to ask the kids if either of them would like to get slimed since we couldn’t get into a show. Neither one was interested (didn’t want a bad hair day, I think) so I went back in to tell Keith thanks but no thanks they weren’t interested. He says fine – he’s given some other stuff to Dan to help make up for it and if they kids change their mind about being slimed to stop back and ask for him and he will arrange it. As we leave the building with Keith he says that they sometimes open the park (early entry) for special guests and he would like for us to head on in now (It was about 8:15) and enjoy some of the rides that were open early. Great, we head to the turnstile and we get denied entrance because our tickets had expired the day before – So we go to head to the ticket counter to purchase tickets (again!!!) Keith says not to worry about it and let us all in anyway. Not only did he let us in early to ride the rides but he also gave us a pass that allowed us to line hop (NO WAIT!!!!!) for the day. Yeah ! Universal sure knows how to make up for a bad day.

Needless to say we went on every single ride as there was no time wait ( You know those people you hate for taking special privileges when your stuck waiting in line in the hot sun, with whining kids. We got to be them !!) Some rides we went on twice. We stopped for breakfast at the commissary around 9:00 and had a good meal. We stopped for lunch around 2:00 at Lombards Landing. Tyler and I had Fried Clams, Marcus had a Caesar salad, and Dan had a shrimp salad. The food was just O.K. and the service was slow to non existent. We walked pass the Twister ride (delayed opening out of respect to the community) and noticed that the gift shop was now closed ( it had been open the day after the tornado hit) and the red cross was in it’s place with info pamphlets and a donation jar. This was nice. One thing I would like to note is when we went on the tour for Nickelodeon while we were walking through we glanced in at makeup and all the people for the TV show "Figure it Out" were in there having their make up and hair done. I felt real bad for them going through all that effort since Keith assured us that there wasn’t anything being taped today. By 4:30 we were beat and ready to head home. On the way out we handed off the line hopper pass to another family of four who was sitting near by.

Day 13 – Thursday, March 5, 1998

Weather – Sunny, Warm, High 70’s

We stopped by Walgreen’s to pick up our skydive photo’s . (Every night we would drop off a roll of film and send it off for 1 day processing, and pick up the pictures from the day before) and they were unable to find them. Finally after searching through the computers they found out the film had been sent to New Jersey in error, so that they could be processed into slides. The manager told us not to worry, as soon as they came back he would mail them to us back home. He then tried to charge us for them. (Right, like I’m suppose to pay for film developing when we might never see the film again, I don’t think so.) Dan pointed to his sign that stated that if the pictures weren’t back the next day they were free. The manager tried to explain that it wasn’t his fault (like it was ours or something) it was the processors fault so therefore they weren’t free. Dan then said that it didn’t say that on the sign, only that they would be free if not developed overnight. Finally the manager agreed not to charge us. I wonder if we will ever see our pictures again (Note: about 2 weeks after we got home they arrived in the mail – 24 slides of the skydiving adventure – Now I’ve got to figure out how to have them turned into photographs without paying an arm and a leg.)

We then headed to Blizzard Beach. After settling in by the kiddy pool with all our stuff we headed out to the water slides. We did the family ride first, followed by all the other slides. There was no wait on any of the slides. Around 1:00 we headed back to our chairs to relax for a bit. We grabbed a hotdog and fries and Dan and I picked up two Pina Colada’s. We were hoping they were like the great ones we had at Typhoon Lagoon, but these were awful. They had a "processed" taste and you couldn’t taste any booze. When Dan went up for a second drink he asked the bartender about them. The bartender figured out that because they came out of the machine instead of the blender that we received the "virgin" pina coladas in error, so the bartender made us fresh ones that were much better. Warning: don’t drink the virgin pina colada’s. They taste very chemical. I went to lay in the sun and people watch. There was a woman with her family right across the way from us who was positively anorexic. Since she was wearing her bathing suit you could see all her bones sticking out everywhere. It was so sad. After laying in the sun for a bit Dan and the kids headed out to the slides again. I chose to play dead in the sun for the remainder of the afternoon. We headed out around 3:00, and went home to change. We then went to Epcot for the evening. We did the following attractions:

Canada for a beaver tail (they are good!!!)
Food Rocks – no wait – there were only about 10 other people in the audience
Living with the Land – no wait – We all enjoyed this ride, but Tyler absolutely loved it.. He and Dan were thinking of coming back for the Behind the Seeds Tour tomorrow if they could find the time since they enjoyed the ride so much.
The Living Seas – Dan and the kids enjoyed this – I found it a bit boring. (then again, I do some work for a fish market so maybe it reminded me too much about reality)
Spaceship earth – Walk on
After this we went to check in for our PS reservations at the Rose and Crown. We had requested outside seating so that we could watch IllumiNations and wanted to check in early with our request. We then went to watch the British Invasion with our "Coaster". Towards the end of the show our coaster lit up (perfect timing) and we headed for our table. The kids and I ordered the Prime Rib for dinner and Dan ordered the fish. About 20 minutes later the waitress came back to inform us that they had run out of prime rib but had rib eye instead. She asked if this would be OK. Unfortunately we said it would be fine. IllumiNations was wonderful as always though I liked it much better before when they would light up each country individually and play music that was themed for that country. It was still enjoyable though. After we finished our dinner we headed home.

Day 14 – Friday, March 6, 1998

Weather – Sunny, Cool, High in the low 60’s

We are coming near the end of our vacation and aren’t ready for it to end yet. (As with the one week vacation, we still find that even two weeks isn’t enough time to get to everything on our list, and still have time for some relaxing.)

We went out for a quick breakfast at the Western Sizlin all you can eat, then headed to the Magic Kingdom for a few more rides on the three mountains. We spent a lot of the time just wandering around soaking in the magic. When we arrived two weeks ago the castle was half pink and half grey/blue. Now all the pink is gone, though the detail work goes on. As we headed down Main Street for the last time I couldn’t help but sigh. I’m going to miss it so much.

We headed for home as the kids wanted some pool time and I needed to start on some of the packing. After relaxing for the afternoon we headed out to Whispering Canyon for our 7:00 PS. After a short wait we were seated at our table. Our waitress was Jauna Dance and she was wonderful. We all ordered the skillet dinner. Shortly after we arrived we got to watch the little kids in the restaurant do a horse race. When our food arrived we tried talking Marcus into ordering Ketchup (after all he orders it everywhere else we go) finally Dan couldn’t stand it any longer and when Juana came over to the table Dan ordered the ketchup for Marcus. Juana gasped and asked Marcus why he wanted ketchup. Marcus replied that he didn’t want it Dan did. Finally Juana brought it over to the table wrapped in a napkin so no one would see it. We had a great time with Juana and the food was fantastic.

Day 15 – Saturday, March 7, 1998

Weather – Sunny and cool, High in the low 70’s

We were up at 6:00AM to finish packing. Dan went for one last swim in the pool and we packed up the car and was heading to the airport by 9:30 AM. Dan dropped me and the luggage and then went to turn the car in while I tried to deal with Delta. We were suppose to be leaving at 11:00 and Tyler was suppose to leave around 2:00. When we checked in we were told we couldn’t leave until after Tyler as he was an unaccompanied minor. We knew this but they wouldn’t let us make return reservations based on that so they now had to change them at the Delta desk for 3:00PM. Great, now we get to hang at the airport for several hours instead of swimming in the pool at the house.

We then went and sat for a leisurely breakfast at the Airport Hilton. After breakfast we went to wait and watch all the people arriving for the beginning of their vacation. What a difference on the expressions of those arriving and those leaving. When we went to bring Tyler to his gait he ended up being bumped which then bumped us on our plane. Finally we headed out about 4:00PM for a direct flight to Boston. Tyler, we heard later, ended up stuck in Dallas, Fort Worth on his way back to New Mexico. They made the poor kid sleep in the airport. We arrived in Boston around 7:30 and rented a car to drive to the Cape. We made it to the Cape by 10:00 and spent the night in a motel. The next day we headed home to Nantucket a few pounds heavier and a few dollars lighter. As much as we loved the vacation it sure felt good to be home.

Daniel & Donna Lyne

DonnaLyne@aol.com

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