Trip Reports

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: DL
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Elementary, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: Anne and her 9-year-old son Tom spent a few days at WDW so they could use up the last few days on their World Hopper passes, see Animal Kingdom, and just enjoy Dixie Landings for the first time.

11/18 to 11/22/98
via Delta Express
Dixie Landings Alligator Bayou section
Standard Room (#1832 -- first floor in Lodge 18)
Mom (Me, age 48) and Son (Tom, 9-yrs-old)
Hubby/Dad had decided that one trip to WDW per year was enough for him (go figure!), so Tom and I made ressies for 4 nights at DxL to use up the 2 days left on our 5-day World Hoppers, to see Animal Kingdom for the first time, and to experience a new and different resort.

Day 1 – Wednesday, November 18:

Oh, we were SO excited to be leaving for WDW! Our Delta Express flight was EARLY getting in to MCO. We had no wait at the Dollar car rental counter. I had reserved a 4-door compact car for $24.95/day and brought the upgrade coupon from Rita Aero’s book. The rental agent said, unfortunately, all the cars in the next class were out – I’d have to take a mini van!!! I told her I guess I could handle that since I drive a mini van at home. Of course, this was a Plymouth Grand Voyager with lots of automatic stuff like push-button windows and automatic locks – sort of fancy by our standards – but a good omen for the WDW vacation to come.

Got to WDW at 2:30, but decided to try to check in anyhow. We were given a first-floor room in Lodge 18, which is very close to the food court (per our request). Also inquired about E-Ride tickets for Friday night. Our front desk clerk hadn’t done too many of these, but figured out the procedure. Had single-day tickets for Animal Kingdom added to our resort ID/room keys. A nice young man showed up at our room the same time we did with our requested refrigerator. On our trips with hubby/dad we’ve always stayed in a trailer/cabin at Ft. Wilderness, where I get to fix nearly all our meals. This trip was going to be a total vacation for me. The only meal-fixing I did was to pour the Cheerios into the bowl each morning!

We decided to make a quick trip to Goodings for milk, OJ, bananas and cheerios. Then proceeded to check out our surroundings. A quiet pool was within sight of our room. The food court was a 2 minute walk away. The main pool on Ole Man Island looked very inviting, so – back to the room for a quick change and into the water we went. The weather for our entire trip was sunny and in the 80’s! Sure beats November in Massachusetts.

Investigated the food court offerings for supper; then early to bed in preparation for Thursday’s visit to Animal Kingdom.

Day 2 – Thursday, November 19

Thursday we drove our lovely rental van to Animal Kingdom in time for opening at 8 a.m. This is such a beautifully landscaped park! I know the pathways are not laid out well enough to quickly get from point A to Point B, but lucky for us, there wasn’t a huge crowd there at 8 a.m. and we were able to enjoy a leisurely walk to the Tree of Life, looking at some of the animal exhibits along the way. Saw "It’s Tough to Be a Bug" first. We both thought it was an entertaining show; but Tom didn’t get stung by the wasps since he was leaning forward watching the stuff in front of him.

From there we hurried over to Kilimanjaro Safaris and rode twice in succession with not much of a wait. I’ve been on safaris in both Kenya and Tanzania (but not Tom) and have to admit that the landscaping is a pretty good representation of what you’d see in East African game parks. The driving at WDW is much tamer than what I’ve experienced in Africa, though. I’ve been stuck in mud holes, bounced over grassy fields, and pestered by tse-tse flies in Africa. WDW makes for a much more pleasant, if shorter game drive.

You also get the same roulette-wheel opportunity to see animals. On our two morning rides we saw lots of antelope-type animals, elephants, giraffes, white rhino, a couple of hippos, wart hogs. Once I saw a small herd of zebra WAY off in the distance. On our late afternoon game drive the giraffes had disappeared, but we got to see a cheetah and the male lion as well as black rhino. We both really wished we had the Animal Kingdom on our multi-day passes so that we could go back another day.

Anyhow, after our 2nd morning game drive we walked the Gorilla Falls Trail (which is now called something else – Pangani Discovery Trail???) and enjoyed watching the gorillas. Not many other people competing for viewing space (it was still only about 10 a.m.). From here we went into Camp Minnie-Mickey. So THIS is where all the people are!!

We waited with about a bazillion other folks for the next showing of "Festival of the Lion King". It was well worth the wait. I can’t decide if I liked the tumble monkeys or the fire-twirling feathered person best. We sat in the elephant section, and I still can’t trumpet like an elephant, but we sure had fun trying. Nearly got lost trying to find our way out of Camp Minnie-Mickey – lots of tots in here waiting to greet the characters – wall to wall sweaty humanity. A new experience of not knowing where I am in a Disney theme park.

Decided to hustle over to DinoLand and ride "Countdown to Extinction". Yup, we really liked that ride. We’re both prone to motion sickness; but I’m happy to report that this ride is mostly rapid forward movement with some jerky side to side stuff thrown in for good measure. Was glad that I’d put Tom (even though he’s a strong kid) on the inside of the vehicle. I felt that without the seatbelt and me bracing myself, I’d be thrown off into the darkness after the first 20 seconds. But it was a blast, so we did it again --- no line for it!!!

By 12:00 we were heading back to the Resort for lunch and the pool so that we could get back to AK by 4 p.m. and enjoy another game drive and see what Conservation Station was all about (not a heck of a lot after 5 p.m. apparently).

Finished the day with dinner at Boatwright’s Dining Hall – lots of fairly tasty food for not too bad a price – then had to actually spend a bit of time on the dreaded HOMEWORK before bed.

Day 3 - Friday, November 20

This was our day at the Magic Kingdom. We are both totally crazy about Splash Mtn., so planned to be among the first to ride it this day. Somehow, we ended up in the second log. Disney seems to have developed a new way of shepherding guests to the more popular attractions after the rope drop. When we were there in January, the rope dropped at 9 a.m. and guests RAN to their favorite attractions. This time, we were told to follow CM guides to "their" attraction. The CMs walked fast, but there was no running.

Tom and I rode Splash 5 times in succession. Even though there was not much of a line, it still took us nearly 2 hrs to do that. We chose our favorite photo and had it sent to our room at DxL. From here I decided we needed to see the renovated Swiss Family Tree House. Wouldn’t it be great to spend a 2-week vacation there? Then we saw the new Tiki Birds. Tom can’t remember the old version (we probably took him to it several trips back when he was just a tot); but we both enjoyed this updated version. I especially liked the way it poked fun at the old version. It’s much more entertaining!

Since we were getting hungry, we decided to eat something at Gepetto’s fast food place in Fantasyland. Got a table overlooking "It’s a Small World" so, of course, we had to do that next. Well, once isn’t so bad. You can now get a bag of baby carrots with your burger instead of fries. Quite tasty!

We paused for a moment of silence in front of the long pale green wall where Toad Hall once stood. At least they’ve hung baskets of memorial flowers on the wall.

Buzz Lightyear beckoned to us from TomorrowLand so off we went to battle the terrible Zorg empire. I had a really good time on this ride – maybe because I’m a former target shooter. However, my 9-yr-old is not a video game player and was not having much luck hitting anything. We rode 3 times in a row – only a few people ahead of us each time – and on the 3rd trip Tom finally managed to get 10,000 points (not much where this game’s concerned). I think most of the really young kids playing were getting the same results – and a lot of zeros. Maybe Disney ought to automatically give everyone 5,000 points somewhere along the line just to keep smiles on all those young faces. But I’m an ACE !!!!

OK – back to the hotel for an afternoon swim. No homework today –having way too much fun. Grabbed something to eat at the food court to avoid being hungry during E-Ride. At 5:00 we wandered on over to the bus platform at DxL for our return trip to the MK for E-Ride night. We found the place (outside City Hall to the left) to exchange our tickets for wrist bands and were told that Spectromagic would be starting at 6:15 from that end of Main St. Since there was room on a park bench facing the train station, we decided to sit down and wait. Amazingly, no one decided to stand in front of us. It’s the first time (out of about 6 times seeing this parade) I’ve gotten an unobstructed view of Spectromagic.

As soon as it was over, we made our way through the Emporium and the other shops towards the Crystal Palace. Found our way through a darkened Adventure Land (Spectromagic was still making its way toward its finish in Frontier Land) and walked onto Pirates (had a boat to ourselves) then got a spot on the bridge in front of Splash Mtn. To watch Tinkerbell’s flight and the fireworks.

Yup – we were poised for another round of Splash Mtn. Madness. This time we only rode 3 times. There’s a big difference to me in getting really wet at the beginning of a hot sunny day and getting soaked on a merely warm dark evening. Our third ride we finally got a front seat on the log, and they might as well have thrown me into the nearest fountain, I was that wet!

Thought a ride on Big Thunder might blow-dry me. That ride really is more fun in the night time. It probably had the longest line we saw that evening – had to wait nearly 15 minutes. Finally got over to the Haunted Mansion, which seemed particularly eerie after dark with so few people around. Fantasy Land was completely blocked off, so had to go the long way to get over to Tomorrow Land and see the Time Keeper. By this time it was 9:15 and we were both tired and hungry. Got some goodies at the Main Street Bake Shop and sat at a sidewalk table watching the lights change on the Castle.

Only down side to this whole day was waiting for the bus to take us back to DxL. We were directed to the Port Orleans bus stop and waited there for nearly 15 minutes before a bus showed up. Then it sat and waited until nearly 10 before leaving. But, it is the best way to get to the MK.

Day 4 - Saturday, November 21

Slept in a bit late today since we were headed over to EPCOT and had a short list of "must do’s" over there. Still managed to get there by 9 a.m. (via our beloved rental mini van) and rode Spaceship Earth twice in a row. Just love the smell of Rome burning. For some reason it always surprises me how many people are seeing these attractions for the very first time. Even though I’ve been on this attraction more times than I can remember, I still find new details and still get the same feeling of wonder as the first-timers. But I still miss Walter Cronkite, too!

We played around in Innoventions East for a while. Tom was fascinated by a demonstration of a GE convection oven, especially since it just baked 7 dozen chocolate chip cookies at once and we were given samples. There was an area where you could make a home page to be put somewhere on Disney.com – we just did the under-18 print it out version.

Rode Horizons once more (you never know when it’ll be your last trip –we thought last January was our last trip on Horizons), then went on over to Ellen’s Energy Adventure. This is a much-improved attraction with the addition of Ellen and Bill Nye. We were lucky enough to walk in just as the pre-show began. Didn’t see any activity at Test Track.

Spent some time at a small garden wedged in behind the Centorium – there were so many butterflies here! Are the gardens (both flower and vegetable) a permanent addition? Or were they part of the food and wine festival? WDW is always offering little extra surprises like this.

OK, World Showcase is now open, so we rode El Rio del Tiempo in Mexico (no wait) then the Maelstrom in Norway (no wait). Took a look around the viking ship and managed to by-pass the bakery. On an adult trip I would have continued around World Showcase, but my traveling companion was more interested in having some time on this hot afternoon to go swimming, SO we migrated over to The Land Pavillion and rode Living With the Land – I always enjoy the experimental greenhouse area. The young girl just ahead of us was frightened by the thunder storm at the very beginning (I had forgotten about that).

We went to The Living Seas and looked at fish for a while then finished our EPCOT day at Innoventions West. First order of business was to send E-mail postcards at the IBM exhibit. Once again, there was no line to do this, so we sent off a bunch of them (copies to us at home). Had to buy some tokens ($1 each!!!) so Tom could drive the Sega race cars –which he took great pleasure in crashing. Boy, I can hardly wait until he’s 16 and wants a license.

Went swimming at Ole Man Island again. Noticed the crowd in the pool has grown considerably since yesterday. I guess the Thanksgiving visitors have started to arrive. Thought the line for the water slide was too long, so just played in the pool for a while. Did some homework (about time!), then had an early supper at the food court. Had decided to take the boat from DxL down to Disney Marketplace for a couple of hours, maybe dessert and a little shopping.

The boat can only carry 24 people at a time and picks people up about every 12 minutes. We were lucky to get there early (about 6 p.m.) and had to wait for only 2 boats before we could finally board. The woman ahead of us was beginning to fume over Disney transportation. Apparently, they were traveling by Disney bus everywhere and had to stand up all the way from Animal Kingdom the day before. I certainly wouldn’t recommend making a reservation for dinner at Downtown Disney and depending on the boat to get you there (unless you leave about 1 ½ hrs ahead of time). If you’re not pressured, and just want a nice boat ride (like we did), it’s a quite pleasant 15 or 20 minute trip down the Sassagoula River. We had a good look at the Tree House Villas. Downtown Disney was the most crowded place we saw on our entire trip. Too long a line at Ghiradelli’s, so we bought some chocolates at the Gourmet Pantry. Had a good time looking in the shops, though.

Day 5 - Sunday, November 22 – Our Last Day

Drove over to the Polynesian Resort by 7:40 to go to early Mass in Luau Cove. The security gate attendant wanted to see our Resort Parking Permit but didn’t want to know why we were there. Last January I felt we were nearly being interrogated as to why we wanted to park at the Poly at that hour of the morning. Guess it depends on who’s on duty.

Quite a crowd at Mass – people sure are beginning to arrive for the holiday! We hadn’t been on the monorail at all this trip, so decided to ride it around the resort loop. Found ourselves in a car with 3 other groups of people. Each group was from Massachusetts (as we are). Weird.

Got back into our car and returned to DxL to pack and finish the homework. Since our plane wasn’t leaving until 3:30 we decided to head over to Ft. Wilderness. Took the bus down to the Settlement and visited the petting zoo and stable. When the Trailside Buffet opened at noon we had a real hearty lunch there. This is probably one of the best food buys on Disney property --- all you can eat, a reasonably good selection of basic food (that day’s lunch offered fried chicken, barbecued beef, home fries, several kinds of vegetables, cream of broccoli soup, rolls and 2 different desserts), and low prices (for Disney). We paid $8.25 for me and $3.75 (I think?) for Tom. Lucky for me he’s still 9, even though he can eat like a lumberjack.

Picked up a couple of small souvenirs at the Trading Post then finally headed off to the airport. Returning the car at Dollar was very simple – the attendants in the parking garage have hand-held computers which print out your credit card receipt – go right from there to the Airline Ticket Counter. But any of you who have not done this recently, be aware that there’s some construction going on at the rental car garage. The central walkway was closed, and we had to use one of the walkways at either end of the garage – quite a long walk, followed by crossing the street, followed by another walk to the elevators/escalators to get up to the ticket counters.

All in all, it was about the most enjoyable Disney vacation I’ve ever had. Since I was traveling with a kid, I got to be a kid myself most of the time. We’ll never forget the day we rode Splash Mountain 8 times!!!

Final Thoughts: We would certainly stay at Dixie Landings again. It was wonderfully convenient being in a location within 2 minutes of the food court and only a few minutes more to the main swimming pool. The room itself was clean, certainly very spacious for 2 people and quiet (even though it was within view of a quiet pool).

We tried to economize on food so only had two restaurant meals. With breakfast in the room each morning, we averaged $40 a day on food. That doesn’t include the cost of our refillable mugs—but we sure got our money’s worth out of those!

I’m already planning our next trip—this time hubby will definitely come along!

Anne Prybot

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