Trip Reports

Christopher Treece - December 2-11, 1998 - Dixie Landings

Time of Year: Holiday Season
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: DL
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Rookie
Comments: Christopher, and his wife June, spent almost two weeks in early December at WDW. They left the kids with the grandparents, so they enjoyed everything on their own....but are now planning a return trip in a few years with the children. Although a detailed report anyway, Christopher has included a wonderful list of summary comments at the end of the report (one of my favorite things in any trip report).



Dec. 2 - 11, 1998

Background

Just returned last Friday so I thought I'd post a trip report from our wonderful week at WDW. After sharing our background, I will post daily trip reports as I have time this week.

Trip Dates: December 2nd through 11th. (However, the first two days were work related -- training).

Cast: Christopher, author and trip planner, (age 30) and his wife June (age 29). This is June's first time to Florida and to any Disney park. This is Christopher's second time to WDW, but technically it's my "first" time. Let me explain: Last time I was there was August of 1995. I had to be there for training for an entire week (Thursday through Wednesday). We had training all day every day except Saturday and Sunday. We went until noon on Saturday and started up again at noon on Sunday. Weren't they generous? Now you know why I don't work for them anymore. Anyway, because we had all Saturday afternoon off, I decided to go visit one Disney park. I bought my ticket and boarded the hotel bus around 2 or so that afternoon (we were staying at the Hilton near Downtown Disney) with no idea which park I would go to. I saw some people I had met at training and joined them. They were going to MGM so that's were I ended up spending my one day at WDW in August of 1995. My visit included most of the major attractions, but knowing nothing about Disney we chose not to visit the "kiddie" stuff like Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and the Aladdin parade. That was the entire extent of my WDW trip back in 1995, so this trip is really my first visit to see WDW.

Resort: We stayed at Dixie Landings our entire stay even though my training was at the Renaissance Hotel by Sea World. Therefore, we had a rental car. Loved Dixie Landings and would stay there again. After seeing International Drive (cheesy tourist strip of Orlando), I would not stay off-site.

Other Factors: I just want to thank everyone on RADP for their candid discussions on WDW. It has helped my trip planning immensely.

We are not the "vacation" types. Actually, this was our first vacation together since we've been married (8 years ago). All of our "vacations" have been spent visiting family. Now we wonder why we waited so long. It will NOT be 8 years until our next vacation!

The other big factor was that we left our kids (ages 3 and 1) with grandma and grandpa. As this was our first time to WDW, we weren't sure what to expect. Because we had heard that it's not easy with pre-school children, we thought they would have more fun with Grandma and Grandpa since this was to be Mom and Dad's vacation this time. Our plan was to go this time by ourselves and see as much as we can and visit WDW again with the kids when they are older (say 6 and 8). After our visit, I don't know if we can wait that long to visit again.

Leaving the kids was especially difficult for my wife as she is a stay-at-home Mom. She was hesitant about going right up to the last minute. However, she enjoyed herself and we both agreed that we did the right thing by leaving the kids. We saw too many tired & unhappy kids and parents. If we visited more often, we would have taken the kids in a heartbeat, but this is our one (and first) WDW trip for at least three more years. It would have only been fun with the kids had we taken it very slowly and done about 1/3 of what we actually did.

Day 1:

I arrived on Wednesday, Dec. 2nd by myself as I had training at the Renaissance Resort by Sea World on Thursday & Friday.

Arrived at MCO around 5:45 p.m. My flight was on American and I had a connection at DFW. The only reason I mention this is my luggage did not make it to Orlando with me.

Dollar rental car went very smoothly and I was at Dixie Landing around 8:00 p.m. for check-in. No line and the CM helped me with directions on where to buy additional toiletries; pants, shoes and socks at non-Disney prices. I ended up at an Outlet Mall about 5 or so miles from Crossroads.

Room at DxL was in the Alligator Bayou, Bldg 35. Not close to the main building but I didn't mind. I loved that walk in the mornings. So peaceful along the river and crossing the bridge over to the cotton mill. Room was clean and SMOKE FREE. Not a trace of smoke, not even in the bedspread, sheets, towels, etc. Anything negative posted to RADP about DxL appeared to be untrue. I loved this place -- much better than staying on International Drive IMHO.

Midnight: Received a call that my luggage had finally arrived!!

Days 2 and 3:

Went to training at Renaissance Hotel both days. Nice place but I'd rather be at Disney.

After training on Day 3, I headed to the airport. On the way there, I stopped off at a florist and bought my wife a rose to greet her when she stepped off the plane. Her plane was on time and her luggage made the connection.

We went back to DxL, ate a quick bite at the Cotton Mill and headed over to Wilderness Lodge. We got there around 8:45 and looked around for awhile. We loved that resort and would love stay there sometime. We headed out to the beach and sat alone on the beach chairs sat awaiting the Electrical Water Pageant. Around 9:20 a couple of small groups came over. The EWP started at 9:30 or so as Jeff Spencer said it would. Very nice way to begin our Disney vacation together. Nearly alone on a beach watching the EWP.

Afterwards, we headed back and hit the sack. Tomorrow will be our first day at the parks and we will spend it at EPCOT.

Day 4, Saturday, December 5th (EPCOT):

PLAN: Epcot (Future World) all morning, late lunch at Norway and off to MK to see Spectromagic.

WEATHER: Sunny in the low 80's. Lows in the low to mid 60's. (By the way, this was the weather every day we were there)

As mentioned in my previous reports, this will be our first day in the parks. My wife had just joined me the night before. I had been in training the previous two days.

Eager to get started, we were both up before the alarm clock went off. After a quick bite at the DxL food court, we hopped on the bus at were at Epcot by 8:30 a.m.

Walking into Epcot was incredible with the Monorail above us (first time either of us had seen it) and Spaceship Earth looming so large. We rode Spaceship Earth first. It was a walk-on. After we were seated, June said she didn't even know that the "Epcot Ball" was a ride. We were both very impressed with the detail along the entire ride. Afterwards, we spent some time hanging around the exhibits.

Next, it was on to HISTA, but it was temporarily closed due to "technical problems". So off to Living With the Land. The greenhouse was amazing (especially the trees that grow while hanging on the rail with the roots not in soil). Next time, we want to take the Behind the Seeds Tour. Watched the Circle of Life film and then headed back to HISTA. This was a lot of fun. Both of us flinched and covered our faces with our arms when Rick Moranis hit the sign.

On to the Living Seas (best part was afterwards just looking around all the exhibits). Next, we went and rode Ellen's Energy Adventure. We both really enjoyed how this ride took us through the Dinosaur area and to another theater before taking us back where we began. This was probably our favorite attraction at Future World. Next, it was on to Horizons. This was okay for us. The orange scent was strong, but the video trip at the end seemed real fuzzy and old. It was only 12:00 by now and so we went ahead and rode Body Wars at Wonders of Life. At the time we like this ride, but after Star Tours, we decided it was not that great. We tried to watch the Making of Me, but just as it started, the video went blank and so they had to shut down for awhile.

By now, it was around 1:30 so we headed to Norway to put our name in at Akershus even though our PS wasn't until 2:00. Good thing, we weren't seated until around 2:20.

My original plan was to head back to Future World and see anything we had missed, but due to the fact we walked on to every ride or had less than a ten minute wait until the next show started, we had done most of the major attractions. Therefore, we decided to spend time at World Showcase.

We ended up visiting Norway, China, Germany, Italy and the United States. We really enjoyed looking around and visiting all the shops at these countries.

After seeing the American Adventure, we strolled back to the main entrance. Now, June does not enjoy shopping, but she loves the Disney Store so this was paradise for her. I kept having to remind her that we were shopping at Downtown Disney on Tuesday (with that 10% MKC discount) as well as Belz Outlet. She kept heading for the shops all day though.

We ended up leaving Epcot around 6:00 p.m. and boarded the Monorail. No problem to the TTC. Next, we took the Express monorail to MK, but it got "stuck" just outside of the Contemporary for about 15 minutes while they brought a new train onto the track.

Unfortunately, this was to be our one and only trip on the Monorails. We both loved it, and wanted to get back but weren't able to fit it in.

Magic Kingdom -- this was our first visit and the Castle was absolutely prettier in person than in all the pictures. We couldn't believe we were here. It seemed so crowded, but we enjoyed just looking at the shops - even broke down and bought some stuff this time. We ate a quick bite at Cosmic Rays and went back to Main Street around 7:50 to wait for the 9:00 parade, but found out it was at 8:00 and 10:00 that night instead of 7 and 9 as published in the brochure I rec'd at check-in. We saw the 8:00 Spectomagic and loved it.

We were so tired we decided to wait until later in the week to see the fireworks and so we fought our way back to the buses and back to DxL. Caught the first bus and were sacked out by 10:00. What an exhausting first day!!! But we didn't mind

Day 5, Sunday, December 6th (AK, EPCOT):

PLAN: Animal Kingdom in the morning and off to Epcot in the afternoon.

WEATHER: Sunny with highs in the low 80's. Lows were low to mid 60's. (This was the weather every day we were there)

"Slept-in" today until 7:30 and at AK by 9:00 a.m. Went first to the Safari (5 minute wait). We saw quite a few animals including the lions resting up on the rocks. Really enjoyed the openness of this attraction. It was hard to tell you were in an amusement park except for the poacher scenario at the end. Next, did Bug's Life. Loved the tree of life and should have spent more time in line just looking at all the carvings. Very fun attraction, except for the fact that the seats were so wet. (However, why do parents take preschool children to these exhibits without seeing it themselves first? We noticed several parents taking crying children out of here). Next, off to Jungle Book. This was our first show at WDW and we thought it was well done. Liked the monkeys during the pre-show. Next, off to CTX (15 minute wait). My wife laughed throughout the whole ride as she had so much fun on it -- our first "thrill" ride (we don't count Body Wars as a thrill ride). After spending time just looking around (read shopping), we made it over to see Festival of the Lion King and were very impressed, especially with the giraffes and monkeys.

My wife was not enjoying the heat/humidity too much at AK. Being from Colorado with little humidity, it was hotter here in December than it is at home most of the summer. Therefore, we decided to cut it short at AK and head back to Epcot. We just missed the Epcot bus, so we hopped on the Boardwalk bus instead.

At Boardwalk, we strolled around in the shade. Boardwalk was nearly empty except for the ESPN club (it was Sunday afternoon). My wife was wearing her John Elway jersey and thought it would be fun to eat at the ESPN club, but the line was out the door so we passed on this.

We jumped on the boat to Epcot and spent the afternoon enjoying the countries we didn't see the day before. It was a favorite thing of ours to stop by and sample a desert from nearly every country (we would share each one of course). We hit about 5 of the country's bakeries during our two days at Epcot.

Around 6:30 we headed back to Future World to stroll around. I went into Innoventions while June shopped. I was wearing the VR helmet, playing VR Pac-Man, when I overhead one of the Motorola CM's tell another one that the the Chiefs were beating Denver. I tried to talk to that person while wearing the VR helmet, but just got tangled up in the cords from excitement. (I'm from KC and even though KC has had a poor year, it would have made the season to burst Denver's bubble.) Afterwards, I checked the score again at Motorola's sports pager exhibit and the Chiefs were still ahead.

I went back and met June for dinner over at the Land. The food court was practically empty. This was a very relaxing meal even though it wasn't a true "sit-down" meal. Afterwards, we headed back to Innoventions to check that score again -- unfortunately for me the Broncos came back to win the game -- June was happy though.

We spent more time in Innoventions before going back outside. We sat and watched the large fountain between the two Innoventions buildings. After a while we strolled back through World Showcase to pick out a spot for Illuminations. Around 9:00 p.m. we settled for a spot near Japan and talked with a nice couple from Tampa whose granddaughter was in the choir for the Candlelight Processional. After Illuminations we went back to DxL and crashed.

Day 6, Monday, December 7th (Studios, MVMCP):

PLAN: MGM in the day and MVMCP in the evening.

WEATHER: Sunny with highs in the low 80's. Lows were low to mid 60's. (This was the weather every day we were there)

Sorry that it's taking me so long to get this report out. It sure is a busy time of year.

Slept in again until around 8:00 a.m.. We were at MGM by 9:45 a.m. First thing was Tower of Terror. My wife strongly disliked this ride due its drop sequence, however, I loved it. Unfortunately, doing it first thing in the morning gave her a bad taste about MGM. It took a while for her to realize that MGM is not all thrill rides.

Next we were off to the Great Movie Ride, MuppetVision and Star Wars with no wait. We ate at Pizza Planet and loved it as it is one of our son's favorite movies. We went over to do the Animation Tour and Little Mermaid after lunch.

We made it over to see the Hunchback show at 1:45 p.m. The pre-show juggler was great and the show was outstanding. This was our favorite show in all of WDW.

After the show, we waited for the Mulan parade. We really liked the detail of the floats, but thought it was too short and that they should have played more songs.

After the parade, we went back to our rooms to refresh and get ready for dinner. Dinner was at the Rainforest Cafe at DT Disney. No wait as we got there just before 5 p.m. Funny observation -- we were exhausted because we had been going strong for 3 days. The table next to us had 3 kids (approx. ages 9 to 14) and all three of them had their heads on the table sleeping.

After dinner, we went back to the room, changed clothes and went to MVMCP. This was a lot of fun doing the rides. Did Space Mountain twice, Mad Tea Party, Snow White and Peter Pan. The longest wait was Peter Pan which was about 5 minutes. Afterwards, got our pictues taken at It's A Small World with about a 10 minute wait. Rode It's a Small World. We were the only one's in the boat and there were two empty boats in front of us and behind us. Next, did Big Thunder Mountain which was the longest line of any attraction our entire stay - about 25 minutes. Great fun.

We saw the Fireworks and Tinkerbell's flight and caught the 10:00 parade. We were so exhausted we decided to cut our evening short and head back for sleep. This was the point where we decided to take it easy the rest of the trip! We're on vacation - right?!

Day 7, Tuesday, December 8th (Relax & Shop):

PLAN: Relax & shop (is this an oxymoron?) with dinner at Gulliver's.

WEATHER: Sunny with highs in the low 80's. Lows were low to mid 60's. (This was the weather every day we were there)

Slept in until around 9:30. After breakfast in the Cotton Mill at DxL, we headed off Disney property for the first time to find the Belz Outlet mall. Found lots of good "bargains" on WDW merchandise. Seemed to me that prices here were what you would normally pay outside of WDW anyway. Afterwards, went to DT Disney for a short while, but we had to make it to Gulliver's by 5:30 so we went back to change and drove over to Gulliver's. Nice, but expensive meal -- thank goodness for that $50 coupon. We had shrimp cocktail, a glass of wine each, filet and lobster and the total was approximately $90 before tip and coupon. We ended up paying $55 after the coupon including tip.

We spent all evening shopping at DT Disney.

Day 8, Wednesday, December 9th (MK):

PLAN: All day at Magic Kingdom.

WEATHER: Sunny with highs in the low 80's. Lows were low to mid 60's. (This was the weather every day we were there)

We were up and at MK by 9:30. This was our third time at MK since we had arrived, but our first time in the daytime. This park is much more magical during the day. We were like little kids enjoying ourselves. Rode Splash Mountain twice -- loved that ride!! Rode or saw Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tiki Birds, Hall of Presidents, Haunted Mansion, Legend of the Lion King, Buzz Lightyear and the Time Keeper. Saw the afternoon Magical Moments parade and decided to call it a day. Visited a lot of shops on the way out. After heading back to the room, we took the boat back to Downtown Disney. The boat ride from DxL to DT Disney was one of our favorite things about our entire trip. We did it about 3 times during our trip.

Shopped all night again so we could take advantage of the 10% MKC discount. My wife usually hates to shop except at the Disney store so she was in heaven. We were back to our rooms and in bed by 10:30.

Day 9, Thursday, December 10th (Shopping, Studios):

PLAN: Whatever we want in the morning and all afternoon at MGM.

WEATHER: Sunny with highs in the low 80's. Lows were low to mid 60's. (This was the weather every day we were there)

Slept in until around 8:30 and my wife decided she wanted to go back to the Belz outlet one last time. After getting around we were back at the mall and did a little shopping. With all of this shopping, you probably think we spent a fortune. Actually, I felt we did pretty good. We ended up spending around $550 on clothes, merchandise, etc. and some of this was for Christmas presents. As much as June loves Disney merchandise, it could have been a lot worse!

After leaving Belz, we went back to the room, got ready and boarded the bus back to MGM. (We always rode the buses to the parks and used the car only for offsite or resort-to-resort travelling).

At MGM, we saw Beauty and the Beast, did the Backlot tour and the Special Effects tour where I got "voluntered" for the blue screen test. I was Roger from 101 Dalmations riding the bicycle. We both got a good laugh at this. The sets were from Mortal Combat -- never heard of it, but they were filming that day. Got to see a little of that.

Afterwards, we ate and it was around 4:45 p.m. so we got in line for Fantasmic which was to start at 6:30. As no one was in line, I asked if I could go ride Tower of Terror again -- which I did twice with no wait. Incredible detail and special effects on this ride.

Around 5:20 they begain letting people into the stadium for Fantasmic. Very well organized at getting people in, but the wait on the benches with no backs was no fun. The pre-show entertainment was not that great (need the guy from Hunchback to come over here). They wave got started and it kept going and going and going. At 6:40 people started chanting "Start the Show, Start the Show". Finally, it began.

Contrary to what has been posted so far, we both loved this show including the projections onto the water screens. We thought it was the best evening show at WDW. Perhaps this was because the fireworks at MK seemed short even though Tinkerbell's flight was neat. Illuminations was very good, but we seemed so far away from it and it was hard to see it all (we saw it from the Japan pavillion). Fantasmic was up close and personal and we felt we didn't miss anything during the show. I especially liked the ending with Mickey directing the fireworks.

After Fantasmic, we left the theater. Even though this was slow, they kept the line moving. It wasn't as bad as leaving Epcot after Illuminations. We headed over to New York Street and saw the Osborne Spectacle of Lights. After getting a cotton candy and taking our time going through here, we finally had to say goodbye and headed for the bus back to DxL.

Back at DxL, we packed for our trip home the next morning.

Day 10, Friday, December 11th (Travel Home):

PLAN: Dec. 11, 1998: Up early to catch our flight home.

WEATHER: Warm and muggy in the morning with temperatures in the 60's. Cold and windy with snow on the ground in the afternoon (yes, back home in Denver).

Up early. One last breakfast at the Cotton Mill at DxL and off to MCO. Rental car return was very fast (Dollar) and we were in the air right at 8:00 a.m. heading back home.

Even though we had a lot of fun on our trip, we were glad to be back home with our boys. Our oldest, age 3 thought we were at the Disney Store all week. This wasn't that hard to believe considering my wife's love of the Disney Store. When we got home both boys wanted me to hold them which I knew hurt June's feelings a little as she is the best stay at home Mom any child could ask for. It didn't take long for our youngest (14 months) to be back with Mommy though.

Back home, our 3 year old who had been at Grandma's all week said that he was really glad to be home again. Vacations are fun, but home is home.

OVERALL THOUGHTS ON OUR TRIP:

DxL -- We were so glad we stayed on-site. The walkways, river, gazebos, fountains, bridges and especially that boat ride to DT Disney made DxL a great place. Only complaint was lack of a king-size bed. Yes, I did fax in a request but didn't get it Taking the Kids: We have two boys (ages 3 and 14 months) Even though we missed them terribly, we were glad they weren't with us on our first trip to WDW -- we WILL be back with them when they're a little older. It was a personal decision to leave them behind, but it is not one we regret.
Favorite Parks in order: EPCOT, MK, AK, MGM. Especially loved World Showcase at Epcot. MK was like being a kid again. AK was wonderfully themed, but it was so HOT!! MGM was fun and much better than the parks back home (it was just our least favorite of the Disney parks).
Rental Car: Glad we had it. However, we used it primarily to escape WDW to eat food at "normal" prices. Too bad we felt the need to escape solely for monetary reasons.
Off the Wall Thought: Thought it was odd that the AK had lotion type soap in the restrooms, while all the other parks had powder soap. I thought the powder was unique and I definetely knew I was at WDW when I saw that powder.
Other Thoughts: We were amazed at the size of WDW. Driving from DxL to Wilderness Lodge felt like we were in the backwoods area of Missouri again. We live in Colorado now and aren't used to all the trees. DxL felt so isolated and felt like we were in the deep South.
Theming: Now we know why they're called Theme parks! The parks seemed so well planned out. They were very attractive and well themed. Enjoying the details was one of the best parts of the trip. The parks looked nothing like a typical amusement park with roller coasters and drop ride towers dominating the skyline. We drove by Universal and saw all the roller coasters, etc. and thought of Six Flags back home. WDW is so much better IMO: Tower of Terror was a ominous looking hotel, instead of a big thin tower sticking up. Big Thunder Mountain did not "look" like a roller coaster, Splash Mountain did not "look" like a flume ride, AK looked like a jungle or like Africa, etc. The only "typical" amusement park ride dominating the sky-line that I remember was the Astroorbitor at MK, but it was in Tomorrowland so it did not look out of place.
Things Out of Place: Seeing the spotlights from Downtown Disney while at DxL in the evening. Seeing the Swan and Dolphin from the Mexico, Norway and China pavilions. Seeing the Swan and Dolphin from the Fantasmic auditorium. Magical Memories: Spaceship Earth as this was our first ride at parks, visiting World Showcase, seeing the castle for the first time, seeing Tinkerbell's flight, seeing Tinkerbell in the Spectromagic float, the Christmas parade, Peter Pan Ride (loved being over London) the Hunchback show, Festival of Lion King show, the Tree of Life, overhearing a 7 or 8 year old boy on the bus telling his Mom that he wanted her to get autographs from the characters but that he still wanted to hug them, taking the boat from DxL to DT Disney, sitting nearly alone on the beach at WL watching the EWP, hearing the parade announcer at all the parks, the colored road signs at WDW and ending our stay seeing Fantasmic followed by the Osborne lights.
Things we didn't enjoy: The heat/humidity at AK, the toilet in our room at DxL, being away from our boys for so long.
Time of Year: We felt that we made a good choice going in early December. The weather was warm but not unbearable. The Christmas Decor was not too overimposing. Yet, even with the decorations and music, it just didn't seem like "Christmas" season with 80+ degree weather and palm trees around the Christmas tree at MGM. However, we're not complaining. We loved it there. The lines were minimal. The longest line we had was at the MVMCP waiting for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (about 25 minutes). Most waits were 5 minutes or walk-ons. Even though the lines were short, it still seemed like there were a lot of people there. I can't imagine going when the lines are all 30 minutes or more.
One Last Item: Thanks again to RADP for all the advice in trip planning. WDW is fun, yet exhausting to a neophyte. You made it easier for us to enjoy our trip and we will be back someday!
Zip a dee doo dah!

Christopher Treece

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