Trip Reports

Della Salway - December 1998 - All Star Music

Time of Year: Holiday Season
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: ASMuR
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Elementary, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Frequent
Comments: Della and Paul brought son John (5) for a fourth trip to WDW all the way from the UK! This is a brief summary style report, but filled with opinions and ideas that I'm sure everyone can benefit from reading.


After lurking for a few months, I guess I should now contribute something - so here are the highlights of our recent trip across the pond to our favourite holiday spot. "We" are Paul, John, aged 5, and me, Della. This is our 4th trip to WDW, and our first in the holiday period. We stayed at ASM, great value, and were again not disappointed with the room in Calypso. We spend little time here, and only need a quick eatery, pool and comfortable bed.

We bought annual passes this year, to come and go as we pleased, and used them for 14 straight days, only leaving Disney to shop! Us UK folks just love your prices on so many things - we pay exactly the same as you for many things - but with a £ sign instead of a $. We arrive with 2 suitcases and two other very large bags inside, and return full up. I guess other Brits can sympathise.

We were looking forward to trying the new attractions since our last visit.

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin - a family favourite, and source of huge competition between Mum and Dad, while John has yet to grasp the concept of aiming. I currently hold the record at 355000 (okay, I admit we stopped, and I was the only one to take full advantage). We could do this again and again.
Tiki Room - much improved, although we loved the old room too. We especially liked the way it made fun of itself. It's a shame they could not get Rowan Atkinson to voice Zazu - the voice is NOT the same.
Fantasmic - Fantastic!! But we couldn't help get the feeling that the CMs were almost forcing people to get there 1 1/2 hours early. When we were there (5th - 19th) you could easily get a seat up to 15 minutes before performances, albeit at the sides. We really liiked this, and the CD is being played regularly at home.
Animal Kingdom - we really liked everything here - it is SO well done. The only we we would improve is some cast members performance of "Little Red's okay". The safari was really good every time. Tough to be a bug is ace, even though our young'un won't put on his bug eyes (he hates 3D - training to be a wimp when he grows up) until the final dance scene. CTE was fun too, with no lines worth talking about. March of the Artimals was brave for Disney - no characters, but we enjoyed it, and the photos have helped us notice more about the costumes too. We also managed the sneak peak of the Maharaji's Jungle Trail - fantastic views of the tigers in particular- and the Kali River Rapids looks fun. It looks like a fairly standard white water ride, with added detail, and they were testing with torso shaped plastic containers of water to simulate people. We will love this park, especially as it grows. It is good that Disney have finally opened something early enough for our UK body clocks on the first few days.
Test Track - we hovered, and hovered, and hovered. We missed it by one day - AAAAAARRRGGGHHHHHH!
Meals Enjoyed

Breakfastasaurus. The food was fine, but we were really pleased that there were people expecting to take photos of the whole family for us, which we had not had before. The buffet meant we could really fill up too, so was good value. Servers had a great attitude too.
Artist Point Excellent meal, and I didn't make desert again! They must stop serving that bread and special butter, it must cost them so many desert bills. They were really good about providing a plain steak and fries for my culinary Philistine of a husband, which made it much easier for me too. I can recommend the Portabello mushrooms in balsamic and blue cheese, and the tuna in pecan, pear and raspberry sauce.
Le Cellier Went here for our Candlelight Processional package, and had an excellent meal again, catering to my steak freak. My recommends are the Salmon, and chocolate bread pudding.
Miscellaneous

Events VMCP - would not bother again in a hurry. The shows were nice, but nothing that would really make me pay extra again. I was very disappointed that the parade was not better illuminated, as it would have been really good - the smell from the gingerbread was fun.
Candlelight Processional - I loved it, but too long for John, who slept. We thought the lady signing was amazing, we had not seen someone sign as a performance before (it's treated more for info in what we've seen in the UK), she really put everything in. We also spent a lot of time watching the percussionist, who actually left the ground using one set of cymbals. Another CD which is getting a lot of play this Christmas. We missed LG Jnr fluffing his lines in the earlier performance, but he really seems to enjoy himself. Why doesn't he join in the singing?
Architecture Tour - I took this course because I wanted to go inside the casting and team Disney buildings, and was not disappointed. The Team Disney building inside is just so different, especially the sundial, which is amazingly accurate. Apart from these visits, we visited, the Swan, Dolphin, and Wilderness Lodge. While these visits were interesting, most of the info was available from the book on architecture, and I'd hoped for new stories. we also played with building blocks for a while, which I hated, and which wasted time, but I think was designed to be an "ice breaker" session.
Yuletide fantasy - Here we visited MK, Epcot, and MGM and, yes you guessed it, Wilderness Lodge. Lots of interesting info, but again, I'd hoped to see how they design things, assemble stuff and more detail. There were also a lot of mushy stories, rather like "Chicken soup for the soul" which did not appeal to me, and reduce all the other ladies to tears!!! I love Wilderness Lodge, but am beginning to wish it was not the end of every tour! I did learn about Kwanzaa, which I had never heard of, as it is not celebrated in the UK as far as I am aware. There seems to be a lot we could all consider in this celebration.
Parasailing - As a birthday treat, I parasailed from the Contemporary, which I'd never done before. It was a fantastic experience, the cast members made you so full of confidence, I just wanted it to go on and on. Expensive for 15 minutes, but a great place to do it.
We managed to complete our collection of pressed coins by visiting many resorts (yes, we really are that sad) and with help from a great castmember, Laura at DTV, who helped us with some soundstage coins that are now unavailable.
We also succumbed to the Vacation Club - we could not see how we could not join, we will pay back our membership in about 3 trips. We are especially looking forward to trying the pools at several resorts, especially Stormalong Bay. Boardwalk, lookout January 2000.
Finally, but not least, a big thank you to Alicia, for organising the Illuminations Cruise which was great fun, with great company.
Now all I have to do is set up my countdown to the next trip - 372 days - sigh!!!!

Thanks if you've read the lot, and Happy New Year.

Della Salway, UK

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