Trip Reports

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: ASMR
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent
Comments: Ben's report is summary style, but lengthy. He covers a great deal of information about the resort, transportation, and so on. If you're looking for personal opinions on WDW, this is a great place to start!



Introduction:

This is not so much a trip report as it is an overall opinion and assessment of our trip to WDW. The reason being is that there are SO many trip reports out here that are too long and never include what we all really want to know. I personally don't care about someone's cab ride from their home and what they ate for breakfast. What I will attempt to do here is provide you with specific, detailed bits of information that you can use. Information concerning lines, crowds, tipping, food, weather, etc. I hope you enjoy it and I hope it helps.

Please email me and let me know what you think.

Summary:

Participants: two adults, male 37 and female 27. Married one year, no children.
Time of trip: Nov. 13 - Nov. 21
Hotel: ASSM - Calypso Building
Arrival

We arrived via US Air from New York's LaGuardia airport and took Tiffany Town Car from the airport to the hotel. The cost was $46 including the tip. This was a very smart thing to do. No waiting in endless cab lines or for that matter, lines for the Mear Shuttle. Mears charges $17 per person one way. So for an extra few dollars we decided to use a private car service and not wait in any lines. If you can afford to do this, do it by all means.

Hotel

The ASM is actually not such a bad place at all. As you all know everything is oversized and it appeals to kids but when you are down at WDW we're all kids so if you are on a budget this is definitely the place for you. We paid $72 per night with our MKC discount. Prior to arrival (about one month or so) I called and emailed a request for a king size bed and to be in the Calypso building. Calypso and Jazz are both closer to the buses, food court and the check-in areas. Let me stop here and make a small comment.

Everything that I have read on this ng (rec.arts.disney.parks) and in guide books makes it sound as if the other buildings are miles away from all areas (pools, food court, buses. This is simply not true. Granted they other buildings are further away than Calypso but the walk is NOT that far. I walked it with my wife a few times and I would say from out building to the furthest building is approximately 200 yards give or take a few. This is not at all a long walk by any means. There is a pool right there as well so you don't have to worry about that. The food court and buses are closer to Calypso but as I said, it is Not that far. If you are in healthy and can walk there is no reason not to stay in the other buildings.

If I have one problem with the resort it is its' location. The hotel is far from the other areas of the park except AK and BB. I will get into this a little bit later when I discuss the transportation system.Next time we will stay at a hotel that is closer to the action.

The Room

Our room was in the back, therefore we did not hear the noise coming from the pool area. But I have no particular problem hearing children laugh and play while on vacation so it didn't matter to myself or my wife. The room did indeed have an antiseptic smell to it upon entering. But this quickly disappears after about 30-45 seconds. The room is small, no doubt about it.

We did get a king size bed. The king bed rooms are meant for those with handicaps, hence, you also get a handicap accessible bathroom that is very large. There is a shower but it is more of a shower curtain and a bench inside the curtain for one to sit and bathe. The isn't a shower stall for one to enter. It literally is just a curtain which separates the shower area from the bowl. It is different and may take some getting used to but it isn't that bad once you use it a few times. The vanity is located outside of the bathroom area and is off of the bedroom area. The room is equipped with a t.v and a remote control unit. Stations include about 7 Disney promo channels as well as a basic cable package. The temperature control is probably the best I have ever seen in any hotel that I have ever been it. It is very easy to operate and understand. And more important it worked!

Transportation

The Disney transportation system is not that bad. I am speaking now of the buses. The monorail is wonderful. It is clean, efficient and on time. I will concentrate mainly on the buses herein and will specifically mention other types of transportation when need be.

If you are taking a bus to the other parks (AK, MK, Epcot, MGM), then for the most part you will not have a problem. Some days we waited no more than 5 minutes. Other days we waited up to 20-25 minutes for transportation. Sometimes the bus picked us up without stopping at *** first. Other times it did not. Getting back from the parks is a crap shoot. Depending on he time of day you go you may be waiting forever, other times it is right there when you arrive. It is all luck and timing. The buses move very slowly. While all the other traffic is passing us by we are moving at a snail's pace. This was evident in almost all of the buses we were on with he exception a 2 or 3. The buses are also VERY, VERY cold. They crank up the a/c to about 50 degrees and put it on high. So if you are traveling on them at night bring alight jacket or you will surely freeze.

Now let's talk about getting to other places other than the parks. You better get a car because if you don't, you will be waiting forever to transfer and your ride back to your hotel will take forever. We had dinner at the Swan hotel. It took us one hour to get there and 1 hour and 25 minutes to return! This is absolutely disgraceful. We left the restaurant at 8:35pm and did not walk into our room until 10:10pm. You are completely exhausted by the time you get back. For example: to go to the Swan from ASM you must first board the bus at ASM then go to Downtown Disney. From there take a bus to the Boardwalk and walk to the Swan. There are other methods, via boat, which are romantic but take just as long. Getting back is worse because they have less buses running. So what normally should take only a few minutes winds up taking 30 minutes. A lot of time is wasted waiting for these buses, especially if you are going someplace other than a theme park.

Theme Parks

We never experienced a line for any ride at any time during or entire 9 day stay. The longest we waited for anything was the Skyride from FantasyLand to TomorrowLand (5 minutes).

MK

Space mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder and Hall of Presidents were our favorites. Surprisingly the Enchanted Tiki Birds new show was really cute. Not too long at all. Check it out if you can. Some rides really need to be revamped or done away with all together. Jungle Cruise and Small World are two that come to mind. Small World needs a paint job and the Jungle Cruise is very dated. Re-do the entire thing with new ideas, characters, etc.

Epcot

We were there for Food and Wine Week and it was great. We took a one hour wine seminar with Gall Vineyards that was wonderful. We also ate thru the countries and picked up some great recipes as well. The World Showcase was OK. America is definitely the best one followed by Marocco and China. England's shops were pretty cool.

Ellen's Energy Adventure was very cool and lots of fun. Spaceship Earth is by far the best ride at Epcot. The detail is amazing and the story line is incredible, great for kids! Body wars was a waste of time, I really hate those simulator rides. They are kinda passed their prime in my opinion. Making of Me and Food Rocks were cute, the former is a great place to take the little ones who have lots of questions. The Circle of Life and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience Shows were great. This stuff you can't see anywhere else but at WDW. Test Track was not open. It will be ready by Jan. 15, 1999. Illuminations was nice, we were near England and had a pretty good spot. Too many trees though to have a clear view of all the events.

AK

My favorite park of all of them all, and Countdown to Extinction is the best ride there. Went on it two times in a row - no lines! The Kilimanjaro safari was cool. We saw a lot of animals, no lions though. Conservation Station is not bad, great for kids. The 3D movies, It's Tough to be a Bug was great! Wonderful special effects, similar to the Honey show. The way that this park is laid out with the trees, plants animals, etc. is just great. It has lots of music and cool shops to explore in. The boats were not operational as of yet. They should be ready by Jan 1, 1999.

MGM

Tower of Terror is the best ride here. Followed by the live stunt shows. The Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, Muppet 3D are all great attractions. Fantasmic is the single best live Disney show that I have ever seen. Hands down, no question at all. It lasts about 45 minutes or so and the line starts at 5:30pm. we got there at 5:45pm and had great seats. The show start promptly at 7 so get there early. Hit Tower first then exit Tower and turn a hard left right into Fanstamic.

Food

Surprisingly we never had a bad meal at any of the food courts, restaurants or fast food places. We spent an average for about $55-65 per deal on meals. We are a light breakfast at the Food Court at ASM (cereal, banana, juice). Lunch was hit or miss. If we were in the mood we stopped and sat down for lunch. If not, we grabbed a few sodas, a quick snack or fruit. Dinner was always a sit-down restaurant and was evenly good in all the places we ate.

Below are the restaurants we ate at and the total costs. The total costs listed include tip. At times we had a cocktail but most of the time we just had soda, iced tea, etc.

Artist Point $80 (best place we ate the entire trip)
Big River Grille $31
Coral Reef $56 (lunch)
Crystal Palace (character breakfast with Pooh. This was a great way to start the day. we were laughing for hours afterward and had smiles on our faces all day) $25
Juan and Only's $11 (the bill was $53 but we had Rita's $50 coupon)
Palio $46 (the bill was $84, again we had a coupon)
Wolfgang Puck Express $13 (go here instead of the Cafe and save a ton of money. It is the EXACT same food except you order cafeteria style and eat either outside or under a canopy)
There were various small places that we picked up a bite here and there. We went to Bob Evan's a few times for breakfast (yummy) and Cracker Barrel for dinner (absolutely fantastic!).

Rental Car

We rented a mid size car from Alamo which we got upgraded for free for 4 days. We used two $10 coupons that I got from US Air and the total cost including taxes, gas, etc. was $82. The car was great, clean inside and ran like a top. We picked it up at the Econo Lodge at the Main gate (3 miles from WDW) and dropped it off at the airport. We had read some horror stories on the ng about Alamo and were slightly leery about them. But the car was great and you could not beat that price. All other car companies wanted double that for the same exact car. My advice is to shop around and shop around until u get a rock bottom deal. And DO NOT rent and pick up at the airport.

There is a 10% per day airport fee if u pick up at the airport. Get a lift to the hotel and pick up your car off airport property and save some money, some real money.

Summary

I could not go back to WDW for at least a few years, probably when we have a child. It is a very exhausting place to vist. We were at the parks by 8-8:30am everyday and took a break around 3pm and went back to the hotel for either a nap or some pool time. We got back to the hotel after hitting the parks and dinner or Downtown about 11pm and we were dead tired.

Well, I think that is about all I have to say. I am sure I forgot a lot but if I remember I will post it again for you. As I had mentioned. If you have any specific questions please email me and ask away. I will try to get back to you ASAP.

Ben Milano

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