Trip Reports

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: OKWR
Accommodations: Two-Bedroom Vacation Home
Ages Represented in Group: Toddler, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran, Virtual Rookie
Comments: This report describes the background for our annual Fall trip to WDW. This time, Barbara's parents (Allan's Grandma and Grandpa) joined us at Old Key West. We also made a brief stop in Jacksonville on the way down to visit Barb's sister and brother-in-law and a few short, just fun stops along the route for good measure.


Introduction:

If you've ever read any of my previous trip reports, you know I tend to be extremely detailed and verbose in my play-by-play descriptions of the trip. This year, though, I'll end the report with a summary of our meals, memorable moments, lessons-learned, and other conclusions from the trip. A link to that part of this report is provided for your convenience: LINK TO TRIP SUMMARY.

This section of the trip report, which includes the planning details, was written before we left for Walt Disney World. As a result, it is written in the future tense, even though the trip is over and done with. If you prefer to skip over these plans and go right to the first day of the trip, please follow this link: LINK TO DAY ONE.

I've been to WDW several times over the years including our honeymoon in 1989 and several blockbuster trips since then. In 1994, on our fifth anniversary trip, we joined the Disney Vacation Club...and have enjoyed the deluxe "home-away-from-home" accomodations at Old Key West Resort ever since. I've also had the wonderful good fortune of having had several West coast business trips that I've been able to stretch to include brief forays to Disneyland, Walt's original park. Altogether, I've spent twenty-one days at Disneyland (in the park) and another seventy-three at Walt Disney World. Even ninety-four days in the parks isn't enough for me. I even get withdrawal when I don't visit the local Disney Store for more than a week or so at a time (the price tags always remind me of the parks.)

Since 1997 was the year to "Remember the Magic," I did so in the report, too by including frequent flashbacks from our previous trips laced throughout the text of the narrative. I'll not do that this year (although I really enjoyed reminiscing about those wonderful trips). Instead, I'll focus on the new things at WDW this year, our experiences with our quickly growing little boy, and enjoying the wonderful ambience of the Walt Disney World resort!

Having said that, a brief description of our first trip to Walt Disney World is in order to lay some important groundwork...

Flashback - 1988:

In 1988, my future Father-in-Law (although he didn't yet know he was going to have that honor) invited me to join his family on a trip to Florida. The vacation was intended to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip since Barbara (my wonderful wife of nine years) was a senior in high school, and few opportunities were expected to have another family vacation with everyone together.

When I was a kid we traveled alot. Our gold 1970 Chevrolet Impala (literally held together with duct tape and a coat hanger before we were done with it) and the blue 1976 Impala Wagon (with the old Clamshell-style rear door and a gas gauge needle that dropped like a rock when you stepped on the accelerator) that replaced it could navigate themselves from Detroit to the District of Columbia. We drove to California three times and flew a couple of more (just for good measure) as I was growing up to visit relatives. We managed to visit Disneyland several times on those trips as well as Mesa Verde, San Francisco, Universal Studios (the original one) and other man-made and natural attractions between Anaheim and Michigan.

Even with all of that traveling growing up, the front bumper of our car never nosed over the Florida state line in those days. Walt Disney World beckoned to me but my Dad figured that since "everyone else always goes to Florida... we'll go somewhere else." It wasn't until 1993, when I pressured Mom and Dad into joining us for a week at Dixie Landings, that I finally got them to visit WDW. (Just a side note, they've been back three times since....once with us, and twice on their own.)

Well, back to 1988, since I was "Disney-Literate" (since I'd been to Disneyland) it was unanimously decided that I be named the trip tour guide. I really didn't know much about WDW, but I did have that California experience to draw upon...and I'd bought and skimmed a Birnbaum Guidebook before we left home, so we had at least an idea of what to expect.

The Chevrolet Caprice (the Staples' traditional family car) was stuffed to the gills with me and Barb, Barb's parents, twin sisters Lynelle and Danelle (in 8th grade at the time, married and scattered across the country now), and Sandy (then in 4th grade - now known exclusively as Sandra and a senior in college).

We left Michigan on April 16, 1988. I remember it well because it was the day after tax day. Barb's mom is an accountant and tax preparer, so she couldn't leave town until after the IRS-imposed filing deadline. April 16th was Sandy's birthday, so we celebrated the occasion by getting up at a vile hour of the morning and driving for what seemed like forever. I'm sure she remembers that special day with fondness.

We stopped that first night in Chattanooga. Our hotel room was a small suite with a small kitchenette, living room, and bedroom. The bedroom was made into a girl's dormitory. I sacked out in the kitchen on a hide-a-bed. Barb's parents camped out in the living room. Imagine a single guy, four girls, and two parents getting ready with one small bathroom (with the sink, toilet, and shower all in the same room) in the morning.

On day two we continued South and stopped at the Florida Welcome Center as we entered the Sunshine State. I don't remember having any free orange juice, but I remember having our picnic lunch at the stop, and the incredible warmth of the Florida sun as compared to the frozen tundra we'd left behind at home.

During our time in Florida we slept in a borrowed camper parked at the home of a family friend located about an hour away from WDW. Barb's Dad and I slept at one end of the camper, the four sisters and Mom stayed at the other end. There was a little tiny shower that we all took turns using in the middle of the trailor. "Cramped" doesn't begin to describe the quarters, but "free of charge" was another key adjective phrase.

Each day, Barb's Dad dutifully drove us to WDW where we played "Disney Commando", staying in the parks from morning to night. Since we were staying offsite, we ended up parking in the gigantic Magic Kingdom (MK) parking lot and riding the tram into the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC). From there we took the traditional monorail ride through the Contemporary Resort and down to the park. At the end of the long day, having been warned against using flash photography at least once in each attraction we'd enjoyed that day, we jumped on the monorail back to the TTC passing by the Polynesian Beach Resort (the Grand Floridian was only then being constructed) on the way back and ride the ubiquitous Disney tram back to the car. We looked forward to the banter of the tram drivers each night. One of my favorites was when the driver sternly wanted us that there was to be absolutely no flash photography on the tram.

I remember being incredibly impressed with the enormous size of Walt Disney World compared to Disneyland. I didn't know much about the history of the parks back then. Disneyland, for me, was always filled with wonder and amazement, but I never realized what Mr. Disney could do with the "blessing of size." It truly is amazing...especially for those of us that grew up enjoying the "little family park" on the left coast.

Anyway, we battled the crowds that April for three days -- that's all the time we could spend. Looking back, it's amazing what we missed. Norway (and Maelstrom), Splash Mountain, Toontown Fair (previously known as Mickey's Birthdayland and Mickey's Starland), the Disney / MGM Studios, the two big water parks (Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach), and most of the resorts hadn't yet been built. I didn't know that Rio de Tiempo even existed, so we never rode that ride. We skipped most of Fantasyland and never made it over to Tom Sawyer Island. Very little time was spent browsing the shops of the two parks. We never visited River Country or Fort Wilderness or the Disney Village Marketplace. We never stopped at any of the resorts (except for the brief Monorail Ride through the Contemporary and by the Polynesian). We had no idea how wonderful the themed meals at the table service restaurants could be. Instead of fine meals at a nice pace, we battled it out with the rest of the uninitiated at Pecos Bill's and the like.

I have a lot of wonderful memories from that first trip, though... the wonder on everyone's face when we first walked into town square; the incredibly long line at Journey into Imagination (my how times have changed); Barb's sister, Lynn, saying "Thank you I/O" for the last two days of the trip...and for weeks afterward (that was a key line from the old "Backstage Magic" attraction at Epcot); accidently "dumping" Barb from a wheelchair (she was recovering from a broken foot suffered during Volleyball season) as I pushed her too fast across the Future World pavement; and the pride of being able to jump the line at The World of Motion as a young GM engineer back in the days when lines still formed at the World of Motion attraction.

The greatest memory by far, though, took place during our last night in the Magic Kingdom. Barb's parents and sisters were finishing up the last of their souvenir shopping in the Emporium. While they finished making their selections, Barb and I sat on a bench across town square right in front of "The Walt Disney Story." We watched the crowds, enjoyed the nighttime lights of town square, laughed about the wonderful trip that was almost over...and for the first time we seriously talked about getting married. I never verbally asked Barb to marry me (that's another whole long story, but suffice to say I was so nervous on the day we got engaged that I could barely put the ring on her finger) but I never doubted she would...because that magical night on Main Street, Barb and I decided to have our honeymoon at Walt Disney World, and we did, a year and five months later.

Overall, it was a great trip even though it was rushed. I don't know how Barb's Dad was able to drive back to the camper each night...I slept most of that drive each day...maybe he did too.

Introduction to this Trip:

Well, after ten years Barb and I have invited the family to come back to WDW with us. In the years since 1988 (including that first trip), we've spent exactly eighty-four (84) days in the Florida Disney Parks on exactly ten (10) separate trips to Walt Disney World. After all this time we've learned a lot about how to enjoy Walt Disney World. This time there won't be any "Disney Commando" mentality (I'm too old for that now). Also, we won't be staying offsite (and certainly not in a camper). Instead, we'll have the same kind of wonderful, pleasant, relaxing trip that we've enjoyed for the last several years.

The Cast of Characters:

I, Brian Bennett, am an engineer who works for Delphi Automotive Systems, General Motors Corporation's vehicle components group. Actually, I'm the Administrator Engineering Validation (which translates to chief gofer assigned to the Manager, Engineering Validation), if you're a stickler for titles.
Barbara, my wife of nine years (our Anniversary is the day before we leave for Florida), is a wonderful mother, a Mary Kay Cosmetics independent beauty consultant, and a coach for Community Baptist Christian School's jr. varsity and varsity girls volleyball and Bible quizzing teams.
Of course, our almost two-year-old son Allan William II will be with us too! He's already a WDW veteran and had three trips under his belt before we left for this trip.
Daniel Staples is the pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Bay City. He's the patriarch of Barb's family.
Lynette Staples is still a tax consultant (unfortunately, the IRS is still going strong, much to my consternation) and accountant, and operates several other small businesses. She also spends full time as Grandmother to little Allan, and relishes the role.
Lynelle Buchanan, Barb's sister, fellow Mary Kay consultant (in Pennsylvania), retailer at Sears, and all-around fun girl.
James Buchanan, Lyn's husband, computer guru, retailer.
We spent parts of two weekends with Barb's sister and brother-in-law Danelle and Mark Dickerson, who live in Jacksonville. Mark is a youth Pastor at Victory Baptist Church, and Danelle teaches 2nd grade in the school there.

The Trip Plan:

We are driving down from Michigan with Mom and Dad Staples on the morning of September 17th. We'll probably get about to Bluefield or Wytheville, Virginia on the first day. (There's a really small slice of the Commonwealth that we pass through as we make our way South and East toward Columbia, SC from West Virgina.) On Friday, the 18th, we'll continue our drive down to Danelle and Mark's place in Jacksonville and we'll spend the balance of the weekend with them.

There are a few places we can stop on the way down to Jacksonville if we choose to take the time. The Biltmore Estate would be a nice stop, and it's not too far out of the way. It would be a bit pricey, though, so it might not make the cut. Another possibility would be the Fenton glass factory in West Virginia. The Staples collect Fenton baskets, so it might be a fun place to see. Columbia, South Carolina or Savannah, Georgia would be cities with lots to see, too.

Sometime on Saturday or Sunday, Lyn and James will be flying into Jacksonville to join us. They have arranged to borrow a car from Mark and Danelle, so they won't have to rent a vehicle.

On Sunday afternoon, the 20th, we'll hit the road again and drive from Jacksonville to Old Key West and check in for the heart of the trip. We won't be checking out until Thursday, October 1st to head back to Michigan. That will gives us a nice eleven-night, ten-day stay.

I've already made reservations for a two-bedroom "vacation home." Barb, Allan, and I will hang in the master bedroom. The Staples will use the second bedroom with its' two queen-sized beds.

After our stay at Walt Disney World, Lyn and James will drive back to Jacksonville to fly home and we will drive back to Michigan. We don't have any major plans for the trip back as of now. We know we'll be leaving WDW on Thursday, October 1st. I'd wanted to take a three day pace back home, but it looks like we have to get back on Friday. Our plan is to spend the night on Thursday near Sweetwater, Tennessee...then make the rest of the drive home the next day. If there is time, perhaps we can make a brief stop at Calaway Gardens. Barb and her Dad would certainly enjoy that!

Financial Details:

Barb and I are covering the cost of the DVC accomodations while we're down at WDW. We've agreed to go dutch on all meals. All other trip expenses (hotel rooms down and back, gasoline, tolls, etc.) were to be paid by the Staples. The Buchanan's, of course, covered their own airfare and the one extra annual pass that we had to pick up so everyone was covered with admission media.

Barb and I are working to eliminate all of our debt so we can build our dream house in the next few years. With that in mind, we wanted to avoid spending too much money on this trip (especially with two big trips in the works for next year). In order to get an idea of what our likely costs would be, I kept track of everything we spent money on during our trip down to WDW in May. We used that information to develop a budget and to save up the money we needed for this trip. The budget for this trip was prorated (this trip was several days longer) and accounted for the fact that we didn't need to pay airfare or rent a car on this trip. With those adjustments, we planned for a daily budget of $93 including meals, snacks, souvenirs, and other miscellaneous expenditures.

Like I did back in May, I kept track of everything we spent. The costs were categorized and tracked so we could see how we were doing against the rolling budget. If you would like to look over the table of charges, please follow this link: LINK TO TABLE.

Park Passes:

As members of the Disney Vacation Club (DVC), we are provided with length-of-stay (LOS) park passes to the three major parks for up to half of the capacity of our accomodations. Since we'll be staying in a two-bedroom unit that can handle eight people, we will receive four LOS passes. Barb and I purchased annual passes (AP) on our previous year's trip so the Staples and Buchanans will use the LOS passes. Since Allan will still be less than three years old (under two, in fact), we won't have to have a pass for him this trip. That leaves us with two LOS passes to share amongst the other folks if they join us.

I called member services to see how (and if) the "free" DVC LOS passes handled the new Animal Kingdom park. The bad news is that they do not. If we want to go to that park, we'll have to shell out the dough for the privilege (except for Barb and I who still have our APs). As of July, it sounds like Staples are planning to spend at day at AK. James really wants to go to Universal Studios, so he and Lyn will probably take off and go there one day. Barb and I are planning on passing on USF this year and will probably not go back to Universal until the new Islands of Adventure park opens in a couple years.

Meal Plans

On the travel days, we'll probably do a lot of fast food and family-style meals. The short breaks from the car seat are nice for Allan, plus the hassle of dealing with picnic stuff just isn't worth it for a short two or three day drive.

During our trip last Fall, we really cut back on the grandiose meals at expensive restaurants. Instead, we had just a handful of such meals scattered throughout the trip. That approach really worked well. We didn't get as tired as easily (since we weren't permanently stuffed to the gills) and we really enjoyed the meals more, with them spread throughout the trip. We're planning to follow that same approach this trip. For our other meals, we'll have a mix of lighter, less-expensive sit-down meals and in-room snack-like meals.

There are a few restaurants that I'd really like to visit again. Nine Dragons was a pleasant surprise. Teppanyaki Dining Rooms was a favorite that I really missed last year. We haven't visited Alfredo's in quite awhile, but it's on the possible list. Chefs de France has recently had a remodeling, so we might enjoy a repeat visit there. Mama Melrose's, the Hollywood Brown Derby, the Rose & Crown, Tony's Town Square Cafe, the Liberty Tree Inn, the Plaza, Boatwright's Dining Hall, Bonfamilles, 1900 Park Faire, and others are perennial favorites. We'll visit several of them depending on our timing and budget.

Park Touring Plans:

In the initial discussions we've had, it sounds like everyone is going to defer to me for our park touring. That's fine with me, because I like to play things pretty much by ear each day and visit whatever park suits my whim du jour.

We'll definitely take an afternoon break each day so Allan can have a nap and we all can relax and get out of the parks for awhile. A good way of doing that is to go to a park for the morning and lunch (or perhaps return to the resort for a sandwich lunch), then take a swim, a nap, rent a boat -- anything to change pace.

After the daily break, we'll head to a one of the parks or perhaps do some resort hopping. That's a typical way for us to enjoy the night time. Each of the resorts have a unique atmosphere to enjoy and restaurants and shops to visit.

Rest & Recuperation Day:

Because of technical DVC program details that I'll spare you from having to read about, we won't have DVC LOS passes available on the Saturday in the middle of the trip. We've found, on previous trips, that having that day as an unplanned R&R day isn't such a bad deal.

For one thing, we can spend some time at the Village Marketplace or the local Orlando Outlet Malls. Alternatively, we can go over and play a round of Fantasia Miniature Golf (almost a certainty sometime on this trip, since miniature golf is one of the many Staples family bloodsports -- Dominoes, Parcheesi (sp?), and Rook round out the top four).

Another option would be to use the day to visit a non-Disney park or the Animal Kingdom park or a water park. Since our DVC LOS passes will not cover those attractions, we'll have to buy separate passes for them (although Barb and I will have access to Animal Kingdom with our APs).

One last option, and probably one of the best, is to use the day to just sleep in, relax around the resort, swim, and vegetate. With a few days to go in the trip, such a break might be very welcome.

Day 1, Thursday, September 17, 1998 -- Drive, Donuts, Drive, Lunch, Drive, Fenton Art Glass Factory Tour, Drive, Dinner, Drive...

Barb and I got up this morning (early for her, just about normal for me) at about 4:30am. We took turns in the shower, then finished the last few packing details. Barb got Allan up as I pulled the van out of the garage and hauled our stuff out to the driveway. By 5:40am, a few minutes ahead of schedule (and a very pleasant surprise for me...since I know my in-laws fairly well) Barb's parents pulled up and we unloaded their Bonneville. Then we began the task of shoving all of those suitcases, boxes, bags, and miscellaneous loose items into the back of the Lumina. We really pack sloppily when we drive down. It's a much different situation than when we fly and we're much more limited in our packing space. Before 6:00am, my target departure time, we were off!

We drove fairly steadily throughout the morning. We did make a brief stop for donuts in Flint (about 40 minutes out of Saginaw) but otherwise drove on until lunch. We stopped at a Wendy's just south of Cleveland and had an assortment of pitas, cheeseburgers, fries, and other health food. (See table at end of trip report for cost/spending details.)

After our meal, we stopped to fill up the gas tank, then Barb took over the driving chores for awhile. As I dozed, Barb took us from our lunch break and down into West Virginia. She saw a billboard sign for a Fenton Glass Outlet store, and asked Grandma and Grandpa if they wanted to stop in and see it. Since they are collectors of Fenton (ok, Grandpa buys it for Grandma so he's really the collector), they agreed.

Barb left the I-77 freeway in Williamstown, and followed the signs to the Fenton outlet. As it turned out, the "store" was actually the Fenton Art Glass Factory, and the store was a huge outlet at the front of the plant for both first and second quality glass items.

Just a few minutes after we arrived, it was announced that there would be a tour of the factory for anyone that was interested. We walked to the back of the store and were assigned to Stormy, our tourguide for the next forty minutes. We walked through the glass works itself and saw the workers producing vases, bowls, and other items using a variety of blowing and molding techniques. The glass itself is heated to about 2500°F then is pulled out of the furnace using a rod (either hollow, if the glass is to be blown, or with a ceramic ball at the end if the glass is to be placed in a mold for pressing). The glass is red hot at this point, and is very soft. As the glass is moved from one operation to the next, an army of workers constantly spin the rods to ensure that the still-partially-molten glass does not flop over to one side. The job that these artisans do is incredible! Watching the hot glass being molded, blown, and shaped is fascinating. I've seen glass blowers at Jamestown, VA and at Greenfield Village in Deerborn, MI, but those are definitely low-tech operations compared to this place!

After we visited several work areas in the glass manufacturing facility itself, we walked downstairs to the painting department when a crew of many skilled artists paint the glass to add the extra color and special features that the Fenton glass is so well known for. The artists are paid on a quota system, so we were asked to not bother them as they worked. However, we were fascinated by the incredible detailing that they do. After the painting is done, the glass pieces are refired, and the paint actually becomes part of the glass work so it does not flake or scratch off.

A few other details from the tour:

The Fenton family first started making glass in Ohio in 1905. The Williamstown facility was built and opened in 1907.
The glass comes out of the furnace at about 2500°F. All of the working on the piece must be completed before it drops to about 1000°F or it becomes too hard to work. The pieces are then placed in a cooling oven where they are cooled from that temperature down to room temperature over several hours.
The glass is made up of silica sand, soda ash, and a third item I can't recall at the moment. These ingrediants are mixed in a specific proportion that make up about 95% of the final volume. The last amount is one of several chemicals that color the glass. Depleted Uranium, Cobalt, and other materials produce the most vivid and lovely colors.
The molded parts are made using hand operated presses which are loaded with glass by a worker that must "guess" the correct amount of material to place in the mold. If the amount is wrong by more than a small percentage, the part must be scrapped out.
The production yield in the plant is about 75%.
We strolled the shop again for awhile after the tour. The van ended up having two lamps and a beautiful glass rose added to its' already considerable load...and we were off again. This was an improptu stop, but a fascinating one nonetheless. If you're ever driving down I-77 in South Western West Virginia, make a stop!

We continued on down the freeway for a few more hours before we stopped at a Shoney's for dinner. I had a stir fry dinner, Barb had spaghetti. Allan shared from our plates. Dinner set us back just over $14 plus a $2 tip for our waitress.

About forty more minutes of drive time took us to Wytheville, Virginia, our planned stop for the night. We had reservations at the Interstate Motor Lodge for just over $30 per night. When we arrived, we ended up getting our rooms for $27.95. The rooms were not spectacular, but they were perfect for a night's stayover. We got a couple of double beds, an older TV (that worked just fine) with more channels than we get at home (we ditched our cable a few months ago so I can spend more time with my little guy and less with the Discovery Channel, etc.) The room was small and plain...but very clean. For the price, I don't think that we could have done better. I would definitely stop in again if we are in the vicinity.

After we got checked in, we allowed Allan to run about for awhile to get uncramped from the car seat. When we put him down for the night, Barb ran next door to play some games with her parents, and I crashed. Actually, I spent some time flipping channels (catching up on the latest in the Clinton/Starr/Lewinsky issue...the talking heads were fairly amusing).

Day 2, Friday, September 18, 1998 -- Drive, Quick Breakfast, Drive, Lunch, Drive...Arrive in Jacksonville

Today we got started a bit later than yesterday. We didn't even plan to move out until 8:00am. As it turned out, 7:55 was our actual departure time. Not bad at all!

We hit the interstate and I drove for close to an hour before I realized that gas might be getting scarce in our tank. We have a weirdly erratic gas gauge that tends to show that there is a lot more gas in the tank than there really is. When the gauge reads about 1/4 tank, you're really running on fumes. Well, when I looked down at the instrument panel, I saw that the gauge was hovering around 1/8 tank. Time to gas up! (And pray that we had enough fuel to get to the next exit!) I was able to pull into a station without any negative results. We gassed up, then drove across the street to a McDonald's and had a brief breakfast break.

We drove on over a portion of I-26, then I-95. We tried to find a Pizza Hut that was supposed to be off exit 77, but settled for a KFC instead and greased the insides of our tummys. Our share of the lunch cost was $12.42.

From there we drove on to Jacksonville. Actually, Barb took the wheel and as I snoozed, she had to deal with a slowdown due to an accident...and some severe rain due to a tropical storm in the vicinity. The tropical storm eventually turned into Hurricane Georges, which would have some impact on the rest of our trip.

We eventually made our way to the North end of Jacksonville. Finding Danelle and Mark's house wasn't difficult, but was made a bit less simple because I was less than helpful with the directions. They were clear enough, but my explanations were less than helpful ("turn left at that street we just passed," that kind of thing). Anyway, we made it in...Greeted the Dickerson's, and enjoyed the company. After a brief dinner of tacos, we unloaded the van and just settled in.

Day 3, Saturday, September 19, 1998 -- Drive, Lunch, Drive, Fenton Art Glass Factory Tour, Drive, Dinner, Drive...

This morning was slow one. Allan woke up around 7am or so, but we just ignored him until 9am (no small feat since his pack-n-play was about two inches from Barb's head). We got up and joined the rest of the world for a late breakfast of waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, and beverages.

After our meal, we got ready and went over to Danelle and Mark's church and school. Danelle is the volleyball coach at Victory Christian Academy, and Mark is the youth pastor there. Danelle's team had to play a Georgia school that is about 5 1/2 hours away. They had a double header...in a gym with no air conditioning. Two matches of power volleyball. The girls playing the game did fine. I melted.

This evening we drove into Jacksonville and had dinner at an area called "The Jacksonville Landing" for a view of the St. Johns River and the Jacksonville skyline. We had dinner at a retro-50's place called Johnny Rockets and enjoyed burgers, fries, onion rings (excellent onion rings!) and malts, shakes, and flavored coke (I had a chocolate one). Dinner cost about $14, and I left a $2.00 tip...although the service was less than exemplary. After dinner we strolled the Landing area, then made our way back to Danelle and Mark's.

Uncle Mark gave Allan a haircut. This quite a production...with Barb holding Allan's head and feeding him cookies to keep him occupied as Mark struggled to cut the hair off of a moving target. Allan was terrified of the clippers, so holding his head for the final touches required my involvement too. The final results were excellent...and very cost effective.

At about 9pm, everyone except Allan and I (he had just been put down to bed) drove over to the airport to pick up Lynelle and James. We had a brief time with everyone (the ladies had a "girls only" parcheesi game) before we collectively crashed for the night.

One last thing...I was a bit paranoid about our room request for our time at OKWR, because I'd forgotten to call the resort, as is my custom, five days before our arrival to check on things - and put in a good word with the front desk on room assignments. I called OKWR tonight and checked. Michelle, at the desk, did tell me that they had all of our requests. I thought, when I was talking to her, that she meant that we had been granted all of the requests, but Barb pointed out (after I'd gotten off the phone) that Michelle might have meant that they had received all of our requests. Now I'm still paranoid. We'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what we end up with...

For the record, my requests are:

Non-Smoking
First Floor
Door from Laundry into Master Bath
Close to a Bus Stop and Pool
and I listed several buildings that I preferred if all else fails.

Day 4, Sunday, September 20, 1998 -- Church, Dinner at Mark & Danelle's, Load up the Van, Last Leg to WDW!

This morning we got up in dribbles (Mark had to be at church at 8am for his regular Sunday duties, the rest of us didn't follow until church time at about 10:30 (for the 11am service). We are choreographing our cars for the week today. Danelle drove Mark early, then brought the car back. Then she hitched a ride with a friend that lives in the area...all of that to leave the car available for us.

Church was really nice. Mark and Danelle's school is fairly large (at least by Michigan Christian school standards) with over 300 students. The church itself, though, is fairly small (less than 400 attendees). The reason is that the local public schools are quite poor so a lot of students come from the local area.

After church we made our way back to Mark and Danelle's house and changed, packed, and loaded up the vehicles while Danelle finished making up dinner. After our meal, we had prayer as a family...Then we took off for the road rally to Lake Buena Vista.

We drove down I-95 (passing a lot of the forest fire damaged areas South of Jacksonville and North of Daytona) then cut West on I-4 to 535 and into the Northern entrance of WDW. The traffic wasn't bad, but I felt like I was playing Mario Kart 64! I just wish I'd had some red shells for some of these dopes on wheels. One guy tried to squeeze his car in between my van and another car just a few feet in front of me. He would have needed vasoline to make it. What a nutcase! I laid on my horn, and he decided to wait until a gap opened up afterall. A few minutes later, he shot passed me, pulled right in front, and slowwwwwed way down. Talk about road rage. I was ticked. I wished I had some way of retailitating, but I had my wife, son, and in-laws in the van.

There were several other incidents on the road, but we made it to Old Key West unscathed and in fairly good health. The only problem was that I was still ticked off at the jerk on I-4...and the CM that served us at check-in was in trouble.

When I had made our reservations, then again a few weeks ago when I called to check up on everything, I had things set. We would check in on Sunday, but our passes wouldn't be activated until Monday. We would have passes Monday through Friday, but not on Saturday (using points without passes on Friday and Saturday nights). For the last part of our stay, we would be staying on Sunday through Thursday (checking out and leaving WDW that morning) so we would use our tickets for those days on Sunday through Wednesday. I wasn't trying to do anything wrong here. I was just trying to use our fair quantity of tickets on the days we could use them. Not only that, but I was trying to do something that I've done three times in the past! It's really quite simple.

Except that the OKWR computer says it can't be done that way.

Instead, I was told, we would have to have a two-day gap without tickets in the middle of the trip since we had two nights of non-ticket points in the middle of the trip. Eventually my unfortunate CM caught on to what I was saying, and disappeared into the back room to make it happen. We ended up with a lengthy wait, probably about a half hour, but eventually the ticket situation was worked out. We also got EVERY request we'd made about our room. The first floor (because we have a baby and also due to Lyn's recent surgery), close to a pool and bus stop (ditto), and in a building that we liked alot.

We eventually made our way to the room and got unloaded (amid the "ahs", and "cools", and other words of happiness at the appearance of our rooms). After a brief rest, we headed back to the vehicles and drove down to Coronado Springs for dinner at the Pepper Market. This turned out to be a great choice, because of the vast number of options. Furthermore, everyone was able to eat as much as he or she wished...without concern about very high prices. I had a great cream puff (actually, two small ones) for desert that were just excellent! We strolled about the resort for a few minutes before and after the meal...then drove back to OKWR.

After we put Allan down to bed, the ladies made up a list of snacks, etc. to buy and Barb, Grandma, and I drove over to Goodings to do the shopping. We spent over $70 on incidentals, but split three ways, the cost isn't too bad. Goodings is expensive, but it's so stinking convenient for us since it's just outside the hotel plaza entrance on 535.

Upon our return, a group of folks played some games. I laid down to read. And eventually we all crashed for the night.

Day 5, Monday, September 21, 1998 -- Magic Kingdom, Lunch at Columbia Harbor House, Dinner at Alfredo's, Epcot

The first day of vacation...at least according to my accounting. We got moving, did the bathroom choreography (I'll have to stop using that word...too bad it's so appropriate), and made our way to the bus stop shortly after 8am. The very first bus that came around the curve of the road toward our stop was for the Magic Kingdom. The MK was the early entry park for today, but we decided to go anyway out of tradition.

When we arrived at the park, I had to dig out our APs and we headed for the gate. Everyone else in the party, of course, was using the DVC passes. As soon as we arrived, James made his way over to the wheelchair rental to rent a chair for Lynelle. This twist will be an interesting aspect of our trip. I've never had to deal with a wheelchair-bound group member on a lengthy trip to WDW...so I have a lot to learn. Hopefully we'll learn some things that we can pass along to provide some help. The first tidbit to point out is that the wheelchairs cost $6 a day. If you keep your receipt, you can get a chair at another park that day at no additional charge. When you are done with chairs for the entire day, you can turn in your receipt and get a $1 deposit returned from your original outlay of cash. Later in the morning, I teased that Lyn and James should have rented an electric wheelchair so Lyn could zip around the park without tiring out her husband. The major drawback to this idea, I was told, was that those chairs cost $40 to rent! Your deposit return is only $10! Ouch!

Normally our first MK stop is Pirates of the Carribean. This year we headed toward Space Mountain instead. It has been over ten years since my Father-in-law had last been to WDW, and Space Mountain was one of the most vivid memories of our last "trip of a lifetime" together.

Aunt Lynelle kept Allan company (Space Mountain's wild ride isn't good for still-healing sutures) while the rest of us got in the queue. Grandpa remembered a lot of the details from this one, including the fact that on his last visit people sat two together in the rockets. As for me, this was my first ride on the right side in quite some time. I really loved the dips toward the end of the ride on that side.

As we exited Space Mountain, Allan saw us across the way and started beaming. This is one happy little guy. Lyn said he had been fine, but that he kept a sharp lookout for us at the exit.

Next, We made our way toward Alien Encounter. This is when Allan started his latest thing...taking roll-call to make sure we're all around. He yelled for Bumpa (Grandpa), Mama (Grandma), Mommy (Mommy), and Daddy (Daddy). When he heard that we were there, he just went on to the the next person on the list. He didn't seem to be concerned about Lyn and James, but he'd just spent some time with her, so he knew she was about.

Barb and I waited with Allan for the rest of the crew to enjoy the XSive demonstration. It had been a very long time (three shows had been dismissed) when Barb thought to ask if there was a second exit. Turns out there are indeed two theatres, thus...two exits. I should have realized this because "Mission to Mars" had two, but we've never, ever been in the left-side theatre in all the times I've ever seen this show. Barb walked over to the other exit and found the family there...to their credit, they were just getting out of the show, so they weren't stupidly waiting at the wrong place. I just thought I should clarify that.

Next, we made our way out of Tomorrowland, across the plaza, and over to Adventureland to Pirates of the Carribean. Allan, like he did in May, seemed to enjoy the bucs. He just looked from one scene to the next...he was particularly interested in the donkey and the doggies in the last couple of scenes.

Splash Mountain was next on the list. As Lyn and James made their way through the queue, the rest of us went to keep Allan company at the Laughing Place under the train station. Actually, he didn't need our help....he had a ball with the other kids - running through the building to the slide...sliding down...running around again and repeating. At one point, though, he completely disappeared inside the play area. I finally went to the end to look for him and he was standing inside, back against the wall, just smiling away...watching the other kids run by. When he saw me, he just giggled and ran toward the slide again.

After Lyn and James got back (I hadn't thought about it, but they were able to skip a large portion of the queue because of the wheelchair), we left Allan with them (he was unhappy at first, but settled down quickly).

Splash Mountain is a lovely attraction with quite an exclaimation point. The colors and happy music just make this a fun one.

After we were dropped into the briar patch, we made our way to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. I ordered a clam chowder in a bread bowl while Barb had a chicken basket. Allan had some of the chicken and fries, too. Including my coleslaw and fries and our beverages, this was a very filling meal. Next time I'll have the chowder and skip the extras...they really were superfluous.

We left lunch with the intention of visiting the Haunted Mansion on the way out, but the line was all the way out to the Yankee Peddler shop, so we passed for now.

We made our way out to Main Street, then stolled through the shop on the West side of Main Street. Barb picked up a real, live volleyball t-shirt! Volleyball merchandise is almost as rare as Bugs Bunny at Walt Disney World...so if you're into this sport, when something volleyballish shows up you pick it up! Oddly enough, as we were strolling on into the Emporium, we found a mug that matches with my Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Mickey Through the Years mugs that I already own. I bought them, oh probably five years ago or more...and have never seen another like them. This is another WDW mug, but it is clearly different than the one I have now.

We finally left the park and immediately caught a bus back to the resort (it was waiting for us!) Not bad on the buses this trip so far...

When we got back to the room, Barb and Allan and I walked over to the pool for a brief dip. When the multitudes came to join us (about ten minutes after we arrived a whole bunch of people came to the pool), we left and got the little one settled in for a nap. No complaining on his part...and he was out in just a few minutes.

Some of the crowd gathered to play games at about four, but Allan and I napped on until about five. After getting ready, we left at 5:25pm for Epcot. Problem was, the bus didn't show up until five minutes to six. Worse, all the while it was raining very steady and hard (but not torrentially like we've seen on some trips in the past -- just miserably). Worst of all, the crowd in the front half of the bus was singing Barney songs all the way to the park. If that wasn't bad enough, the ringleader used the bus drivers microphone and did a bunch of Barney kareoke. Not the best way to ride to a park...

Mercifully, the bus finally arrived at the park and we walked around World Showcase Lagoon to Alfredo's. This was merely a mediocre meal. The waiter was slow and unspectacular (not bad, just not very good). For dinner, several people shared an entree...Grandma and Bumpa (Allan's name for Grandpa) shared lasagna, Barb and Lyn shared an order too. James had lasagna, but had his own. I had the special...a serving of lasagna, fettuchini Alfredo, and linguini with a basil sauce. The food was very good, but as I said, the service was only average. I was disappointed that the meals were not split in the kitchen and that we had to wait for the extra plates (twice...once for salads and again for entrees). Allan was also acting strangely. He was a bit crabby, but not bad. Frankly, he was acting like he was feeling bad...and he was shivering from being rain-soaked and then air-conditioned. Barb and I both felt bad for him, but there wasn't much we could do. Barb held him to try to warm him up, but there wasn't much else to be done.

After dinner we strolled over to the shop on the right side of the Italy pavilion that sells my cappuccino chocolate bars. I picked up two...maybe I'll get a few more before we leave for home

Then we continued our stroll back around to Future World, but stopped in Norway for a quick ride on Maelstrom. There was no cast member to guide us through the handicapped entrance so, being the take-charge kind of a guy I am, I pushed the door open and we strolled in. The CM that was handling the loading was a bit stressed when we showed up (she made us wait awhile before she loaded us up), but eventually got us in the back of one of the Viking boats. Allan was fine during the ride. He was a bit taken back by the three-headed troll...and was a bit startled when we stopped our backward progress then were quickly swept down into a storm on the North Sea. He survived, though, but clutched onto Daddy a few times.

Lyn's wheelchair was conveniently waiting at the boat dock. Almost as soon as we arrived we were ushered into the theatre. Allan was still shivering, so as the crowed got settled, Barb changed him into the dry clothes we had in his bag. It seemed to help alot. Unfortunately, the loud sounds at the beginning of the film discombobulated him (even though he was warned).

Barb took him out of the theatre to avoid overload. While we watched the lovely scenery of Norway (I love the fjords especially) Allan was invited to stop at the kids stop and he made a Norwegian friendship bracelet. I asked Barb, later, what made it Norwegian...I figured she would say something about the host being from Norway or something, but instead she reported that the beads were in the national colors. Allan was spellbound by the process of making a bracelet...and the cast member was very pleasantly surprised when Allan said "please" and "thank you" at the right times during the process.

After the film and Allan's bracelet were done, we bought a rain poncho for the little guy. We were hoping that it would help him keep a bit dryer in the miserable, cool drizzle.

As we were exiting the park, we made one last stop...Spaceship Earth. We found the wheelchair entrance by coincidence, and were loaded onto the ride from the exit ramp. Lyn is moving quite gingerly, but she does have some locomation. I still love this attraction. The fumes of the burning Rome, the sleeping "seminary" student in the library (James is in Seminary, so it was an apt description), the colorful effects during the final decent...very nicely done. There is a strong message of humanism here. This is something we'll have to carefully explain to Allan in a few years. During the end of the ride, Allan just tucked himself against Barb and settled in. He really is acting like he's not feeling well.

We retrieved the wheelchair and stroller, and made our way out of the park. It took several minutes to get the wheelchair refund, but we only waited a few minutes at the bus stop for our bus to arrive. So far we're two for three on buses this trip.

We got back to the resort by 9:15 or so, got Allan settled down (with some children's Robitussin). Then I spent some time on this here report while the rest of the crew played games.

Bed was welcome when we finally laid down tonight. Tomorrow? Probably the Studios...and several rookies first visit to the Hollywood Tower Hotel.

Day 6, Tuesday, September 22, 1998 -- Studios, Lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe, Boardwalk and Yacht & Beach Club Vist, Dinner at Beaches & Cream

Today we made the studios our destination. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the OKWR bus stop has been moved from the far distant end to fairly close to the park entrance (only the premium resorts are closer now which is as it should be). There was a slight delay at the turnstile. The bio-reader didn't like my fingers, perhaps my AP must be replaced. As I was trying to get the reader to accept the fact that my fingers were really mine, the cast member kept telling me how to solve the problem:

CM: "squeeze right there"
Me: "I am"
CM: "squeeze your first and second fingers together"
Me: "Ma'am, I am"
CM: (as she walks around to look at my fingers) "No, I mean squeeze them together HERE" (indicating the spot between my first and second knuckles)
Me: (getting slightly perturbed "that's what I'm doing"
CM: "I'm just trying to help YOU" (Barb says I should include a nasty voice inflection, but I don't know how to do that in a typed document. Actually, I don't think she was mean, just a dope.)
ME: (getting out my driver's license) "Is there anyway to take care of this thing?"
CM: "Well there's that way"
ME: (finally back in possession of my AP, and finally walking through the released turnstile) "Is there a way to get this card fixed?"
CM: "Just at Guest Relations"
Whew! I'll wait until the next time the card fails...then I'll take the time if I must.

After we all got through the gate, James got in line to rent a wheelchair for Lyn (they really need more CM help at the stroller and wheelchair places when the gates first open). Then we headed down Hollywood Boulevard...making a right turn at Sunset. We were headed for the Hollywood Tower Hotel.

Surprisingly, there was a rope barricade keeping the crowd back. A CM climbed a lightpool and made a brief announcement that, in summary, admonished everyone to not run, not walk faster than the CMs, and not irritate him personally. The stated penalty for any such offenses was to be banished to the end of the line.

The rope dropped and we strolled to the tower. At the turn into the queue, Grandma (who chose to watch Allan for us) and Lyn (not yet quite ready for prime time) continued on...and Barb and I led Grandpa and James to the hotel. The queue moved quickly, even with the large crowd that had gathered. We were in the lobby and ushered to the library within ten or fifteen minutes. Barb and I walked right back into the far corner of the library to be close to the door. The pre-show went quickly, then we walked into the boiler room. We made our way towards the elevators...saw a lineup at the right bank of elevators, but made our way on to the left side. There was absolutely no line, and we were pre-loaded into the very next vehicle.

We were seated in row two. James is a linebacker-sized guy and when the safety bar came down, Barb was horrified to see that a sizeable gap existed between it and her. This showed a definite possibility of airtime...not something Barb was really excited to experience.

The doors closed...and we rode up to the first floor where the victims disappeared, the starfield materialized, the glass shattered...and we were up to the next stop. The next floor is where Barb started to loose it. She kept repeating, "I hate this, I hate this" over and over again. I assume she meant the special effects? hmmmm

Then we continued into the shaft. The bottom dropped out from under us...then up, and down, and up and down...yo yo time. The pause at the top of the shaft (when you can see the park laying out in front of you) seemed to be a bit longer than it sometimes is. It just heighted the excitement of the rest of the ride. This thing is incredible!

After we left the elevator, we strolled through the hotel gift shop, then made our way back down Sunset...excitedly telling the others about how we bravely handled the wicked tower (I don't think they bought it, but we tried).

Next up was the Great Movie Ride. Lyn's wheelchair gained us access to the very next car. It would have been more exciting, but the everyone in the queue probably made the next car...not many guests have made it down to Graumann's yet. We were in the second car, car B, and experienced the gangster's crossfire. Allan handled the gunfire well, but I started to warn him even before the vehicle stopped and the "bad guy" showed up. He was startled, but not fearful. This is always a fun ride. Grandpa seemed to like the Wizard of Oz scene especially.

After watching the film classics montage, we headed over to catch the Animation Tour. We had to wait about fifteen minutes for the next tour to begin. Soon, though, we were ushered into the theatre to catch the Cronkite / Williams film, "Back to Neverland." This short has been updated to show that more computer work and less real inking and painting is used in the production of animated films today than in previous years. This is still an interesting tour, but it's not very detailed or showy. There is a brief time with a "real" animator (I don't know what this guy's resume looks like, but he can certainly draw a real, still character nicely).

After the tour, we headed over to have lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. When we arrived, we had only a brief wait for our table. Dennis was our server, and although he was fun, he wasn't overbearing with the "elbows on the table" and stuff. I ordered an appetizer sampler for my meal which included chicken strips, fried mushrooms, and fries (substituted for the normal onion rings, which I really don't like at this place). The malts and shakes were great as always (and pricey, too, at $3.95 each) and we all had a nice time. Grandma was the only one to break down for desert. She ordered a huge banana split which she handled quite nicely by herself.

When we exited the restaurant, we found that our old friend the rain had returned. A nice CM from the restaurant pulled the strollers and wheelchairs in under the overhang so they were mostly dry, but Allan's stroller seat was a little wet. The intensity of the rain was incredible. We're really starting to get the weather from Hurricane Georges.

Then something happened that I thought would never occur. Barb and I did not have ponchos, but Grandma and James (who were decked out in yellow plastic) volunteered to run through the deluge and buy us some. Allan already had one, so I hesitated...but the water was so hard and steady that I agreed. Of course, we walked about 200 yards and the rain started to subside...but the deed was done. I'd been turned to the dark (yellow) side. Finally, after all these years at WDW I've became one of them -- a yellow plastic poncho-garbed maniac.

We returned back to OKWR for our afternoon break...I simply took a nap. Some of the others took a dip in the pool, played games, etc.

We didn't leave the resort again until 6pm. This evening we drove over to the Boardwalk. We took advantage of the free valet parking for WDW resort guests. Then we "borrowed" a wheelchair. To do so James had to leave deposit at the front desk, but had to wait in the regular line to do it. There were probably ten or fifteen other parties in line in front of us to actually check into the resort. Making us wait for a wheelchair was extremely inconvenient.

We took elevators down to the ground floor, strolled out to see the pool, then strolled the boardwalk down to Atlantic Dance and back all the way to the ESPN club. Along the way we checked out the menus at the main restaurants along the route: Big River Grill, Flying Fish, Spoodles, & ESPN...but nothing really grabbed us for dinner.

We walked on over to Yacht & Beach Club to check out the options there. The Yacht Club Galley was a possibility, but the menu was on the pricey side. We decided to continue on over to Beaches & Cream where we finally decided that our desire to eat and our desire to pay matched up. I ordered a hot dog which was very good, but I skipped ice cream this time (Lyn and James had a banana split, though). Dinner was low key, but perfect for our collective mood.

After we ate, we walked back through the Beach Club, checked out Cape May Cafe (still not a likely dinner place for us since we're all tried and true landlubbers) then back over to Boardwalk. We enjoyed a funny juggler. He wasn't the best mechanically (like I could do better, right?), but he was a great entertainer. The Lobby was our next destination. Barb bought some medical tape for her toe which she reinjured while James returned the wheelchair. We had the valets return our vehicles, then we drove counterclockwise from the Boardwalk, behind the other Epcot resorts, to scope out Fantasia Miniature Golf...we're planning to play the fairways sometime this week.

Finally, we returned to OKWR for games, spreadsheet/trip budget work, report writing, etc. Another wonderful day complete at Walt Disney World.

Day 7, Wednesday, September 23, 1998 -- Magic Kingdom, Lunch at the Plaza, Epcot, Dinner at Rose & Crown

Before leaving the room this morning, I made priority seating arrangements for dinner at the Rose & Crown. Then the entire group headed out to the Magic Kingdom for the morning.

When we arrived at the gate, my pass didn't work again. After checking my drivers license for ID, the CM at the gate "reshot" the finger scan for the card. We'll have to wait until next time I enter a park to see if it helped. This was interesting, too, because the CM that had given me trouble at the Studios yesterday said that the only solution was to get a new card. Now we find out that the finger image can be redone. Sounds like some main gate CMs need some training...

Today was unusual because we walked straight back to Fantasyland for rope drop. This is the first time we've ever done this. Every other time has either been an early entry morning, or we've just gotten back too late to witness rope drop from the back of the castle.

While we were there, Barb asked me to check on priority seating for her parents at Cinderella's Royal Table for tomorrow night. I walked over, feining a need to use the bathroom, and found out that they could only take priority seating requests for the current day right at the restaurant. I had to call Disney dining to make arrangements for tomorrow.

After the local CM took the rope down, one of the guys in front jumped the gun and caused several folks to leave the area prematurely. I must admit that I was one of the followers on that one (I just couldn't stand still when so many people were walking into the courtyard.) The CM sternly restored order, though, and we all returned to our rightful place in line.

After the park opening announcement (that we couldn't hear in the castle at all) most of the crowd, including Grandpa, Allan and I, ran toward Dumbo for Allan's first ride on the flying elephant. I ran ahead of the pack and was reined in by the CM that was supposed to be leading us. I never would have done so if I realized that she was forcing a slower pace. I've never, ever seen that before in any of my runs for any of the Mountains. Clearly there is a higher standard of behavior in Fantasyland.

As we got to the top of the queue at Dumbo, we were given small plastic passes to "prove" we were supposed to be on this flight. Allan and I found a Dumbo to ride in with another one just behind for Grandpa. A few minutes later, we found out that the passes were indeed needed as we saw a little boy without a pass removed from a Dumbo in favor of a mom and daughter that had a pass. The little boy apparently had jumped the gun and gotten into the loading area by squeezing past the CM (either that or the CM assumed he was with another party). Regardless, he was made to wait for the second flight of the day.

Once we got moving, Allan wasn't too keen on the up and down features of our craft, and he was startled when we first started spinning...and going up. I held us down to keep him from being too concerned on his rookie flight, and we ended our journey with some small amount of gained experience and several pictures that Mommy took during our soaring.

Next, our entire group went over to ride through Snow White's Adventures. This is still one of the poorest, least detailed, and most abruptly-ended dark rides in the park in my opinion. For the first of Walt Disney's classic annimated features one would think that more effort would be put into the telling of the story. I still think that the Disneyland version has our East coast ride beat hands down.

After that, we walked past the carousel to Legend of the Lion King. We were among the last of the folks to enter the pre-show just before it started (the handicapped aisle is right in front, so we ended up with premium seats here.) The show was very nicely done, of course, but Allan was a bit concerned with the lead up to "Be Prepared," as the hissing steam and the gyrating hyenias startled him (the animals just because they showed up so suddenly...the steam because he associated it with stuff that's too hot to be near.

Peter Pan and It's a Small World were next. During Peter Pan, Allan rode with Grandma and Grandpa...but he sat with Daddy during It's a Small World.

We made our way back to the Haunted Mansion (almost a walk on) next. Then immediately strolled down to the landing to load up on the Gullywhumper keel boat. This was the first time I'd ridden the keel boats in ages! It was fun to catch unexpectedly.

After the ride about the Rivers of America, we walked back through Fantasyland to Tomorrowland to catch Carousel of Progress. We probably should have stopped and had lunch at this point, because Allan was starting to show signs of meltdown, but we jumped on the Carousel anyway. As I sat down, I noticed that my seat was very damp. I'm not sure, in fact, that it wasn't - um - moistened by a child in an earlier show. I abandoned my seat and found an empty one in the row behind. I love this attraction. It has such a rich history and is just dripping (ironically) with Walt's own touches. (By the way, after the show I looked for a CM to point out the problem, but wasn't able to find one.)

After that, we made our way back to Main Street for lunch at the Plaza. We had to wait ten or fifteen minutes before they could seat a group of seven, but that wasn't bad. Unfortunately, Allan was definitely displaying "China Syndrome" tendencies by this time. He was just going bonkers from being overtired and over hungry. It's very unusual for him, because we tend to take such a deliberate pace on our trips, but he had had a miserable, sleepless night (nightmares, for some odd reason) and never got a nice rest. Lunch was still good. I had a chef's salad and Barb had some chicken and rice soup along with sharing some of Allan's grilled cheese sandwich. This is a nice place for a decent sit-down meal at reasonable prices. Good food and usually decent service (and today's was better than usual).

After lunch, we strolled back down Main Street for the buses. Grandma and Grandpa spent some time in the crystal shop and enjoyed some instrumental music on the way back to the bus stop. Barb and I, in the meantime, decided to just take Buster out of the park. We didn't want to miss a bus if we could avoid it. As it turned out, we waited another fifteen minutes or so, and Lyn, James, Grandma and Grandpa all made it on the same bus as we did.

Once back at OKWR, we put Allan down for a nap (he was asleep within minutes) and several of us hit the pool. Afterwards, Lyn and James left to spend some extra time at Epcot...while the rest of us lounged or napped in the room.

During the break, I called Disney dining to try to set up a priority seating for Barb's parents. Cinderella's Royal Table, we found out, was booked solid for parties of two for tomorrow night, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. Unbelievable! We ended up making priority seating at Yachtsman's Steakhouse because Grandpa wanted to take Grandma out for a nice steak dinner, then for a bike ride over the boardwalk on a bicycle built for two. Barb still wanted to see if we could make arrangements somehow for Cinderella's so I suggested she call the OKWR front desk and explain the situation. The CM that Barb spoke with look up the restaurant for her, and made arrangements. It just so happened that there was plenty of room for parties of three...hmmmmmm.

That done, we napped until about 4:30 when Allan decided it was time to be up. We didn't really get moving until 5:30, but left then for the bus stop. The next Epcot bus wisked us to the park...and we started to make our way to Rose & Crown. It was sprinkling just a little, so four out of five of us donned their yellow ponchos. It just didn't seem to me to be worth the bother, it was really just misting.

We walked through Future World and past Canada to Great Britain and found Lyn and James already there with our pager. The rain started coming down a bit harder, so Lyn and James put on some ponchos, too. We waited for thirty minutes or so (we'd been told it would be a twenty minute wait) and I went up to the podium, dripping wet (yep, I should have put a poncho on too) and asked about the status. I was told we'd be the second table called. It was a good five minutes more before our pager went off...then the staff didn't know where our table was. It took another several minutes for them to sort that out.

In the meantime, I had Allan with me, James and Grandpa were trying to find out about our table, Grandma was looking for Grandpa, and Barb was stuck trying to push Lyn in the wheelchair and manage the stroller as she made her way through a crowd that did NOT want to let them pass (because moving over meant surely getting wet from the now-deluge that was coming down). When I finally got back to our tables (the very last ones on the main deck outside the building) I helped Allan with his poncho. Gave our host directions that we needed six chairs AND a highchair twice (he didn't get it at all the first time) and only then realized that Barb and Lyn weren't there yet. I looked up and saw a sputtering Barb struggling with the wheelchair, stroller, and Lyn...and only then realized what we'd done to her. Fortunately for me, she didn't take it out on me (although I was surely one of the guilty parties).

In spite of it all, dinner was a smashing success. Allan was a bit crabby, and the rain dampened our spirits for the first few minutes, but the food was excellent, the service was better, and we had a wonderful meal! Everyone order prime rib of one cut or another. I thoroughly enjoyed my Yorkshire pudding (I always do), and the beef was magnificent! Really, it is hard to express how much we enjoyed the meal after being so wet and having had the wheelchair/stroller thing happen just minutes earlier.

The transformation of my mood was complete by the time Janet, our server, brought us our checks. With the "bad news", she also brought us some after dinner mints -- one for each of us. However, James, the scoundrel, didn't share his two with Lyn. Instead the rogue ate both of them himself! Can you even believe it? When Janet returned, I explained that one of our party hadn't been completely honest and had eaten an extra mint. I asked if we could "make it right" by replacing the missing confection, and she brightly responded with a handful of the chocolates. This girl got nice tips all the way around.

After dinner, the rain had subsided, so we walked out of the restaurant and had a little party shaking the water off the ponchos. I left the ponchos with Barb and loaded Allan up in the stroller, and me and the little guy headed for home. It was definitely a good night for Allan to get to bed as early as possible. He was a bit concerned that we were leaving everyone else behind, but he was a good little guy for me as we walked back to the bus stop, waited for a bus (ten minutes maybe, fifteen tops), rode back to OKWR...and got ready for bed. He dropped off pretty quickly after we had our prayers and he laid down.

I spent some time, then, working on updating the report and my expeditures spreadsheet for the trip. Meanwhile, the rest of the crowd spent some time in World Showcase and planned to watch IllumiNations. They're not yet back from the park, so I'll add any additional details I must after their return.

Later...

Barb reports that after dinner, the group visited shops in several of the nations around the World Showcase. They checked out the menu for Le Chefs de France, really looked over the shops in Morocco, and spent some time in Japan's department store. Just a few minutes before IllumiNations started, they were able to get first class seats in a wheelchair area -- complete with benches for everyone (except Lyn, of course, who was in the wheelchair).

When they returned, we shared our respective stories of the last couple of hours...and they all fell into yet another game of Phase 10. Sometimes I think Barb's side of the family keeps Parker Brothers and the other games companies in business all by themselves.

While they played, I read my book...and finally dozed off for the night.

Day 8, Thursday, September 24, 1998 -- Studios, Lunch at the Commisary, Dinner at Marrakesh, Epcot

This morning we started the day at the Studios. We were back on Sunset Boulevard in time for rope drop. We got the same CM making the same speach as he made the other day...then we were off to the Hollywood Tower Hotel. This time Lyn joined us. Grandma, without a stitch of argument, kept Allan company.

We made it to the lobby without any problems. Lyn's wheelchair didn't become an issue until we got to the area where they load up the library. She and James were directed around the electric eye turnstile through a gate a few feet away. No problem.

We enjoyed Rod Serling's pre-ride introduction...then we made our way through to the boiler room. As we got to the intersection, a CM was posted to direct people right and left. Drats...that left-hand walk was the best-kept secret of this attraction. Even so, we had virtually no wait for an elevator. This is where Lyn had to loose the wheelchair. They loaded three of us into row three...and two of us (Barb and I) into row five...the row with the seatbelt seat...the seat without a restraint bar...and I asked for it!

The ride up was a blast as always. The effects were heightened, I think, by being right in the middle of the elevator. Everyone had a great time...and we can prove it because we all bought pictures of this one. (By the way, this was also a matter of complaint. The folks in "Picture if you will..." were very, very slow. They lost a lot of business because of it, too.)

After we got our pics, we walked back down Sunset, and I made everyone take a brief detour through the new villan's store. It's pretty cool, but like most of the souvenir type things....not really what I'm interested in.

Then we strolled back down to the hub and through the studios gate. We sauntered down Commissary Boulevard to catch the Backlot tour. Not much was different from previous trips, but there is a great topiary of the Earful Tower near the star's parking lot. The windows in the costume department were so covered with water and condensation that one could hardly see what was going on in there. The residential street and boneyard were fairly much the same...and Catastrophe Canyon hasn't changed since 1989 when we first saw it. Allan wasn't too comfortable in the canyon, but he did ok with some minor encouragement from Barb and I.

After we got off the tram, we walked through the American Film Institute display. There is a lot of movie memorabilia there...including the robes that Charleston Heston wore in The Ten Commandments, several items from the Star Wars trilogy, and Julie Andrew's dress from the jolly holiday sequence in Mary Poppins.

We continued by walking to the Muppet Labs and watched Bunsen Honeydew create Waldo, Bean ruin Miss. Piggy's musical number, the rush through Sam Eagle's "Salute to All Nations, but Mostly America", and the Swedish Chef blow up the theatre. This will remain a wonderful attraction for as long as WDW is able to keep it there.

Finally, to wrap up our morning, James and I braved Star Tours. No one else wanted to ride, but they all were willing to let us shake our innerds in an attack run on the Death Star. What a fantastic attraction!

For lunch, we chose to simply visit the commissary. Barb had a burger (good, she reports) and I had a 13-piece chicken nugget meal (better than McDonalds...but that's not hard). I also made sure to grab a piece of chocolate cream pie...very good stuff.

After lunch we made our way back up Hollywood and checked out some more of the shops along the street side. As we exited the camera shop up at the Crossroads end of the boulevard, some storm clouds rolled in...and we just plastered ourselves against the camera shop wall under an awning and the rain started in earnest. It poured, and poured...like it can only do in Florida when there's a hurricane in the neighborhood. In the fifteen minutes or so that we stood there (getting our ponchos on and hoping for the water to subside a bit) there must have been a good half inch of rain. The street gutters were flooded to a good four or five inches. Eventually, having doned our wonderful yellow ponchos, we made our way across the entrance plaza, exited the park, and walked to the bus queue. Allan though this was the best ride of the day...as he giggled all the way to the minimal shelter of the bus stop with water dripping down his little face.

The rain subsided while we waited for the bus...just a few minutes...then we made our way back to the resort. A brief continuation of last night's Phase Ten game commenced...and I brought the trip report up to date. Then nappy time.

We're all going our separate ways tonight. Barb and I are going to Epcot for dinner at Marrakesh, Grandma and Grandpa are headed over to the Yacht Club for dinner and some time on the boardwalk, and Lyn and James are going to Boatwright's for dinner.

Barb, Allan, and I didn't get moving until after 5:30. It was after six before we entered Epcot (my AP messed up again...I'd like to get it fixed, but with just a few more days I wonder if it's worth the effort -- especially since this is the last trip on this passport).

We casually walked back through Future World. When we arrived at the World Showcase Lagoon, we found the Friendship ready and waiting for boarding. Rather than walk around, we jumped on the boat for a quick cruise. Allan loves riding on boats.

Upon our arrival at Morocco, we strolled back to Marrakesh to see if we could be seated for dinner. No problem...we were seated immediately, although the restaurant was fairly well full (at least 85%, I'd say). For dinner Barb and I both had our usuals. I had the Sultan's Sampler (with the vegetable couscous that I enjoy so much) and Barb had shish kabob. The meal was excellent and Allan, for the most part, was pretty good too. He had a few moments (he was bored, and they didn't have any crayons) but was fairly decent.

After dinner, we strolled around the prominade. We made a brief stop in France to check out the pastries, but we weren't hungry so we passed. We also watched the living statue outside of the pavilion for a few minutes. Very well done.

We continued on back to Future World and out of the park. We visited with a family that had twin 3-year-old daughters (Megan and Alyssa) and waited for our bus (a good fifteen minutes this time).

When we arrived at the resort, we got Allan settled...and heard from Lyn and James that Danelle and Mark are considering coming down Friday night afterall. The volleyball tournament that Danelle was supposed to coach in was cancelled. We were planning on going to Animal Kingdom...and James and Lynelle were planning on going to Universal Saturday so we might have to change our plan.

Day 9, Friday, September 25, 1998 -- Magic Kingdom, Cosmic Ray's for Lunch, Wilderness Lodge, Whispering Canyon Cafe for Dinner, Stroll Around the Marketplace

We started out for the Magic Kingdom this morning. Lyn and James have a short list of things they'd like to do at this park before they have to leave for home. Lyn is walking on her own today, she's trying to break out of the wheelchair routine (we'll see how she does without the help).

We arrived at the park and walked through Main Street to the Liberty Square entrance off the plaza. We made a bee-line to Big Thunder Mountain when the rope dropped. The CMs did the walk ahead thing to keep the crowd from breaking into a run. Most of the crowd, as we suspected, veered off to the left at Splash Mountain but we continued on to the second mountain along the trail.

Barb and I went first, leaving the rest of the crowd with Allan, and literally walked onto the first train of the day (and got the very last seats, too). When we exited, we stayed with Allan while Grandma, Grandpa, Lyn and James walked up the exit and jumped on the first train that came by. They, unfortunately, were in the front of the train and noticed how bad this ride really is when you're in the front. The train is halfway down any hill before it starts speeding up. If you're in front, you definitely get less of a thrill than in back.

After that one ride, we all walked back to catch Splash Mountain. Barb and I and Lyn and James walked the queue first and ended up being in a boat alone, too...just the four of us. We were loaded in front, and the water we caught was similar to what you'd get on a full boat. In fact, when we were turning past Chickipin Hill, we were drenched by a boat heading down into the briar patch. We really had a riot on this ride.

Afterwards, we relieved the Grandparents as they rode (they got stuck at the waterfall and ended up being much longer than we had expected). In the meantime, we took Allan over to see Brer Fox. He was very apprehensive about this thing (Allan, not the fox) but went totally bonkers when Brer Fox took his hand and put it IN HIS MOUTH! Allan just lost it...he was totally spooked. I chewed the fox out (friendly like, actually) and he blamed ME! I still don't know why it could have been my fault. Must have been a guilty conscience on fox's part. Lyn decided that the person inside the costume must have been a guy...no girl would do that to a child, in her opinion.

When Grandma and Grandpa showed up, we walked clear across the park to catch Space Mountain. Lyn hadn't ridden this one the other day when we rode bacause of her surgery, so she wanted to try it now. We rode on the right side, and it was almost completely a walk-on. The line was so short, several of us decided to go again...this time on the left side. The line actually was shorter to the right, but we wanted to compare. I think the right side is slightly better, with a final hump that isn't on the left.

Before lunch, we walked over and enjoyed Timekeeper. This is a fun attraction, and more so with rookies with us that were just absorbing the whole thing. Allan thought the T-rex was a bit intense early on, but settled down without a problem.

We went to Cosmic Ray's for lunch -- had to catch Sunny Eclipse for at least one show. There are three counters here...one with chicken, one with burgers and dogs, one with salads and stacked sandwhiches. If you come here, check out all of the options. The menus are NOT the same at each one. Anyway, we decided on hot dogs for me and Allan (his with grapes, mine with fries), and a cheeseburger for Barb...we all enjoyed Allan's grapes...and he had some of our fries in exchange. The dogs were great, the burgers (inconsistent - one was dry, the other not bad). Grandpa had a rotisserie chicken dinner which he called excellent, while the rest of the group enjoyed country vegetable soup (very good) and a cheese steak sandwiches (mediocre). The worst thing was that the order taker at the burger and dog counter was so slow, we were virtually guaranteed of having aged beef.

After lunch, as I was waiting in line to dump our trash into the trash bin, the guy in front of me shoved his tray into the garbage can, shook off the garbage, then let go of the tray and left it in the can. I just stood there, wondering if the guy was a jerk (for throwing away a tray) or an idiot (for doing something stupid) or merely absent minded. Turned out that he was merely absent minded...he walked back over with an embarassed grin a few moments later and pulled it out. I smiled, then tossed our garbage away. No biggie...I'm sure it's happened to all of us at one time or another.

After that episode, we walked through Star Traders (as usual, the Tomorrowland shops are useless to me personally), then out to Main Street...where we shopped along the East side of Main Street. We spent a lot of time in the Crystal shop (Grandpa is hooked on the stuff). Also, I was shocked to find that the Market House has only one party line phone left...and that it's disconnected. On top of that, I had a second shock - that the Cinema now has only one screen and it was showing a non-Mickey film! The Cinema is also home to a lot of junk merchandise. It was very sad to see the end of two old traditions (just like the old perfume making at the Antique Shop in Liberty Square was removed a couple of years ago).

We walked out to the street and found the Dapper Dans getting ready to sing. We listened to several (at least three or four) songs before heading back toward the bus again. There were two reasons. First, the sky was turning very dark...and winds are building up...thanks to Georges. In fact, they have Main Street's outside chandeliers and signs tied down as a precaution...and no hanging baskets are to be seen anywhere. The second reason was that Lyn was really starting to feel the results of walking all morning. It was time to head for the resort. Thankfully, we made it to the bus stop and found one there waiting for us so we were off to return to the resort for some down time....and hopefully to knock out my little headache that's been nagging since (surprise, surprise) my two rides on Space Mountain.

Tonight's dinner priority seating time is 5:40 at Whispering Canyon Cafe, and we've agreed to leave OKWR (by van, car) at 4:45 to check out the resort and enjoy the ambience for a bit before dinner...if the weather holds, we'll drive over to the Marketplace for an hour or so after dinner.

Tonight we did something a little different. Barb and Lyn piled into the back of the van for our drive (instead of taking two cars). We arrived at Wilderness Lodge and enjoyed a stroll around the resort lobby, the overlook out back, checked out the menu at Artists Point and just soaked it all in.

We walked over to the restaurant about twenty minutes early, and were seated about three minutes after that. I was told, when I made the priority seating arrangements, that we would be seated at two tables, but they got us at one good sized round one. Very nice. Grandma and Grandpa ordered and shared a strip steak. The rest of us ordered the all-you-can-eat skillet dinners. Allan was given his own skillet with a couple of chicken strips and fries free of charge (because he's under four). The food was very, very good. We have really enjoyed our last couple of experiences here (It's much better for dinner than lunch). We did get to see the kids run a horse race around the dining room, but we weren't too much into it because Allan is still a bit young to run.

After dinner, Grandpa and I went in to use the rest room. Grandpa made the comment that he was glad there are not stupid blow dryer things here to dry your hands...and a disembodied voice from one of the stalls said, "I'll second that." Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty amusing.

We piled back into the van and drove off to the Marketplace for a brief foray. We spent some time in the Team Mickey shop, the World of Disney, EuroSpain (I love those swords), and ended our brief shopping trip at the Gormet Pantry. We had to pick up some chocolate snacks...including: Rice Krispy Squares (w/chocolate), Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge, assorted chocoltates (for me), and a piece of Chocolate Decadence. Very good stuff...and we'll all certainly have zits tomorrow morning.

We returned to OKWR resort and I stopped by the store to get our Tower pictures from the Studios yesterday (we had them delivered so we wouldn't have to carry them around the park). I also checked for, and found, an OKWR logo pin (we'd been looking for one ever since the resort's name had been changed from "Vacation Club Resort."

Games, trip report writing, an early bed time (for Allan), and waiting for Mark and Danelle's arrival took up the balance of the evening.

After Mark and Danelle arrived (at about 10pm), though, a bunch of us decided to go take a dip in the hottub and pool. We made sure we kept quiet (pool hours are actually over at 10pm, so we didn't want to bother anyone -- especially since we were technically illegal). We had a nice time talking, listening to Mark sing "Baby Shark", and just enjoying the water. We did find that the hot tub doesn't bubble after hours. Apparently it is turned off, although it was still plenty hot.

After our brief dip, we turned in...but I was engrossed in a political thriller so I ended up staying up up until 1:30am finishing it up. It's not often that I'm able to do that since I have to be up at 4:30am at home in order to get to work on time.

Day 10, Saturday, September 26, 1998 -- Fantasia Fairways Miniature Golf, Rainforest Cafe for Lunch, Monorail Resorts Tour in the Evening, Dinner at Captain Cook's

One of the reasons that I stayed up so late last night was that I knew we would be sleeping in today. In fact, Barb and I didn't end up really getting out of bed until 8:30 or so. We planned to leave the room at about 9:45am, and ended up leaving just about then...

We drove two cars over to Fantasia Gardens, by the Swan and Dolphin, to play the Fairways course. This is a miniature golf course unlike any I've ever seen before. It looks more like a real course, although the distance to the pin is measured in feet, not yards -- and you only use putters to play. The holes, though, are laid out without the typical two-by-four or cast concrete boundaries, but instead really look like regular golf course holes.

We played the full eighteen. My personal highlight was my hole in one on hole fourteen (It was a nice air shot that struck the pin several inches above the hole and just dropped in...it was gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Grandma and James both had holes in one, too, but they were more of the typical miniature golf, bounce off the rock, roll back and forth, lucky shot variety. At least in my humble opinion.

Grandpa made the leader board with a 64. I came in second in our group with a 72. I'm usually toward the back of the pack, so second place, even so far back, was something for me to remember.

After we finished up the eighteenth, we drove over to the Marketplace to see if we could get in for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. We had terrible trouble finding a parking place (I'm very happy to see more parking is being built across the road, hopefully a pedestrian bridge or tunnel will be built, too). We ended up dropping Barb off to get in line for a table, while we continued looking. After a good fifteen minutes or so, we found a spot at the row farthest away from the shops...but it was all ours!

We walked in to the Marketplace, it was packed with people...I didn't think we had a chance to really get a table. When we got there, we found Barb still several bodies away from the counter, so we waited. When she mentioned that we had nine, they walked us right in! As it turned out, there were two tables fairly close together just at the moment, and rather than make us wait, they gave them to us. The two-person and four-person groups ahead of us were given wait times of fifteen and thirty minutes respectively. Very lucky for us, but if I was in one of the smaller groups I would have been pretty upset.

We were ultimately seated at two sets of tables up in the very front of the restaurant where the rain comes running down the exterior windows. We literally got rained on, but it was nice to be able to sit together. Allan was a bit fussy, too, but much less so than he would have been in the gorilla room (from our previous experiences).

I ordered a Siam chicken stir fry, which was excellent! Barb had her pizza, I don't remember the name of it -- and shared it with Lyn and Allan. A couple of people had burgers and said they were very good, and Grandma had a cobb salad which she said was excellent, although she could only eat half of it.

After lunch, we took a brief stroll in the Marketplace. I looked for the book I'm searching for about designing the parks (I've only seen it at the Studios, so far), but without success. There were several purchases at the Team Mickey store by others in the group, but no one dropped a large amount of money this afternoon.

After our shopping was done, we drove back to OKWR for games, nap, etc. Mark and Danelle left at about 5pm, and Lyn and James went down to the pool for a brief dip.

We had priority seating arranged for 1900 Park Faire, at the Grand Floridian for 6:30pm, but after our late lunch, none of us were really that hungry. Still, we decided to take a brief monorail resorts tour.

We drove to the Contemporary where I dropped everyone off at the main entrance (it was pouring rain) and rejoined them on the shopping concourse on the second floor after stopping in the men's room to dry off a bit. There we strolled the shops (still no sign of my book) and just checked things out.

The first part of our monorail trip took us to the Polynesian. There we strolled the lobby, gaped at the waterfalls (I love this place), and ended up having a snack like meal at Captain Cooks. Since none of us, even at this point, were starved, we just had burgers, pizza, and other junk food to tie us over.

Then we jumped on the monorail for a quick drive over to the Grand. We strolled through the lobby and shops here, too. The orchestra was playing (light music, just fun stuff), and we really enjoyed the ambience of the crown jewel of WDW's resorts. I also looked over the menu at Citrico's, and really didn't find any entrees that interested me very much. I was kinda surprised about that.

We ended the evening with the last leg of our monorail journey back to the Contemporary. The rain had really calmed down, so we all walked out to the van together. As we were getting ready to get in the van, we noticed that Fantasy in the Sky was starting up, so we took a few minutes to watch. Something must have been wrong, though, because there never was a finale...and it appeared that one of the star shells exploded very close to the ground.

I thought, when we returned, that Lyn and James and Barb and I could go over to the West Side to check out DisneyQuest, but I was vetoed in favor of a last night of game playing before the Buchanan's leave for home. Maybe another time...

Day 11, Sunday, September 27, 1998 -- Church, Lunch Offsite, DisneyQuest, Epcot, Dinner at Lotus Blossom Cafe

Sundays for us are often a shortened day. We started by getting up late and driving to Bible Baptist Church in Kissimmee for the Sunday Morning Service which begins there at 10:30am. If you're looking for a good, fundamental church near WDW, Bible Baptist is a good place to check out. It's located on 192 way to the East side of Kissimmee (just about when the tourist traps, restaurants, and chain hotels peter out, it's there on the South side of the road.) The service was very nice, and the pastor seems to be a real student of the scripture. Allan did well in the nursery, too...but was happy to see us when we picked him up.

We stopped for a simple lunch at a Sizzler in Kissimmee. The Sizzler chain always has a good steak, but has a nice buffet, too. After lunch, we drove back to WDW, but took a brief detour through Celebration so Grandpa and Grandma could see it.

When we arrived at the resort Grandpa offered to have Grandma watch Allan so Barb and I could spend some time out. We took them up on the offer, and made a beeline to Downtown Disney to check out DisneyQuest. We took the bus over (that may have been a mistake, because it took quite some time). We were able to get a buy-one, get-one-free deal because of our annual passes, so we bought a couple of 90 unit admissions. We entered the building and were taken up to the third floor on a fancy elevator that gives you an animated introduction to the place as you travel. The third floor introduces you to the four areas of the building. The first is the virtual reality area, the second is a retro arcade section, third is a group of attractions based on creativity, and fourth is a group of current arcade hits with a couple of additional virtual reality choices there. It will be difficult to really capture the order we tried things out, so I'll just describe them as I recall them now:

We started our exploration by checking out the Aladdin attraction in which you are "riding" a magic carpet through Agraba (spelling?) and the cave of wonders. It was interesting, but I really think that most of the action was driven by a script. There wasn't enough time to really make a difference in the final result.
The Buzz Lightyear attraction is like a souped up bumper car with a couple of twists. First, the car is a two-seater. Second, the non-driver has a small ball cannon that can be fired at the other cars...if you get hit, your car goes temporarily out of control and spins about. This is the only attraction that Barb and I did twice...it's that fun!
Hercules was a four person attraction (I was alone at the time and rode with some folks I don't know). You spend your time as Phil, Pegasus, Meg, or Hercules first trying to pick up lightening bolts (that are scattered throughout hades according to the storyline) as future ammunition against Hades himself. After that, you have a brief fight with the bad guy. It's not a great attraction, but at least has some point to it...you have to really do something (and it's the only attraction I saw that actually gave you a score at the end.
Animation Academy is an attraction that Barb was salivating over when she saw it. She did this one while I ran downstairs to do Hercules. In this one, you are coached (by a Disney annimator) to draw one of several possible Disney characters on a computer-aided drawing screen. Barb got to do Pluto, and did a nice job, I must say. At the end of the time (this was a lengthy thirty minute attraction...the others were just a couple minutes each) each participant received a diploma and a copy of their drawing. If you have any interest in animation this is a must-do.
At one point or another, we played several "classic" arcade games including Zaxxon, Tron, Tron Disks, BattleZone, Donkey Kong, and skeeball.
When we used up our units (a good three hours after we arrived), we walked downstairs, and bought a DisneyQuest pin as a souvenir as we left the building. We also walked next door and strolled through the Virgin Megastore (music, books, computer software) for a few minutes, but there isn't anything there that we can't find at home.

Next, we took a bus to the Transportation and Ticket Center in order to catch a monorail to Epcot. When we got to the TTC, I asked if we could ride up in front and were granted permission. Our driver, John, was pretty entertaining. He kept acting like he was making humerous announcements to the whole train as he started the various spiels, but I'm sure that no monorail driver would dare do that for fear of being busted back to elephant cage cleaner at Animal Kingdom. John is convinced that Disney will be creating a new mass transit system for the parks, but not a monorail-based one. I suppose his opinion is as likely as any other.

When we entered the park, we saw the Coca Cola Ice Station Cool in Future World. This is an interesting thing to check out. It is themed as an exploration station that is the base for a team that is searching the world for great beverage flavors. There are samples available of popular soft drinks from many nations. It's worth a brief stop if you have time.

Next, we walked into World Showcase and strolled as we decided what to do for dinner. We considered going to Nine Dragons and Teppanyaki, but Barb had a hankering for sweet and sour chicken and neither of those places serves that dish. Besides that, we really weren't very hungery, so we didn't want to drop a mint for our meal. We ended up just slipping into Lotus Blossom Cafe for the combination meal. We couldn't eat all that we had...they really pile on the food at these places in Epcot. It was very filling.

After dinner we shopped the Shops in China, then continued around the lagoon. By coincidence, we found Grandma, Grandpa, and Allan strolling some shops in Germany. Allan was super cute. Barb hugged him goodbye as we were ready to leave him again...and he insisted on hugging daddy, too. I waved...but he just held out his hands saying, "Please?" You can probably guess that I reached down and gave the little guy a nice hug. Then, we waved good bye and we abandoned them again.

We shopped for a few minutes in Japan, then walked over to France and I picked up a couple of pastries (a Napoleon and an eclair) to go at La Patissiere.

After that, we just walked back to the bus stop. We had to wait for a good twenty-five minutes or so for a bus. While we waited, we talked up the DVC with some non-members...then finally, finally returned back to OKWR. We closed up the evening by jumping in the pool and hot tub for awhile (hot tub must be on a timer) before returning to our room for bed.

Day 12, Monday, September 28, 1998 -- Animal Kingdom, Lunch at Restaurantosaurus (for the last time ever in life), Back to AK, then Snack at Beaches and Cream, Brief Walk Through Epcot

This was our only day on this trip to visit Animal Kingdom. Grandma and Grandpa do not have access to this park on their DVC passes (although Barb and I do with our APs), so they had to buy a one-day pass. Rather than buy two or more one-day passes, we agreed to cram as much of this park into one day as we could.

We started, of course, by walking through the Oasis. This is just a lovely area. The themeing really sets the stage for the rest of the park...the landscaping is gorgeous, and the avians and small animals are fun to discover as you stoll through.

When we finally arrived at the tree of life, we walked around the base of the tree to find the entrance to It's Tough to be a Bug (editor's note: the entrance is far to the left, not the right...) This is a fun 3-D film with some special effects added for good measure. Barb and I both thought that the 3-D was quite out of focus (I later told a CM, and they said they'd check into it). The attraction is a bit intense for young kids. Allan wasn't too happy about missing out, but we were definitely glad he wasn't in the theatre. The added effects are well done and quite surprising. Very fun!

We did It's Tough to be a Bug as a baby swap because Allan was very intimidated by some of the noise last May. We never saw the entire show on that trip, because we both left the theatre with him. I'm glad we chose to swap this time, too. One thing to point out, though, is that the waiting area for the baby swap is through the exit...but all the way back to where the exit to the theatre is, on a small area up some stairs (or a ramp). There are several benches there which makes it convienient, but if you exit the theatre and stay on the lower level, you might miss the rest of your party that is waiting for you (which, obviously, is something we did).

Next, we strolled over to Camp Minnie-Mickey to see the Festival of the Lion King show. This is a show that I've heard raves about, but which we never had a chance to see on the last trip. We got over in plenty of time for the 10am show and were herded into a massive queue area. Just a few minutes before show time, we were permitted to enter the theatre, but even then the CMs kept a close eye on crowd control.

The theatre is "in the round" with four seating areas. At show time, a mixed quartet of singers came out and introduced themselves as the emcee and singing troupe of the show. They were all excellent, fantastic singers. I can't even describe how good...especially the bass (his voice - singing and speaking - was so smooth and melodious, it sounded even better than James Earl Jone's). They sang incredibly well. The show is really indescribable. Four floats (one with Simba, one with Pumba, one with an elephant, and one with a giraffe) were wheeled out into the corners of the room. The animals were animatronic and moved and sang with the music. The group performed several songs from the Lion King complete with dancers, acrobats, gymnasts, and vocals. The music was fantastic and the other performers were even better (if that's possible). The only negative to point out, and it's not really a negative -- just a warning -- the show is very, very LOUD. Allan spent most of the time with Grandma's hands over his ears because the music was cranked although he clearly enjoyed the show very much including directing the music at one point. Towards the middle of the show, Allan pulled Grandma's hands away, and promptly put them back to muffle the sound. I think that most very young children will probably be uncomfortable with the high level of decibels.

After the show, we made our way back to Harambe to walk through the Pangani Forest (formerly Gorilla Fals) Exploration Trail. I was amused that they changed the name of this trail already. While I'm thinking about it, the Discovery River Cruise is shut down right now, too. Presumably, it is going to open in April again. When I asked why it was shut down, the CM said that it was due to guest complaints that the ride wasn't entertaining. I have no idea what they are planning to do with it between now and next Spring. We'll have to wait and see.

The Pangani Forest Exploration Trail is the closest thing to a "zoo-like" experience that I've seen in the park. There were several places to stop and look at meercats, various antelope (including a variety that is only ten pounds...and very tiny...Allan kept calling them "doggies"), and other animals. Another thing was an underwater view of the hippo pool with several of the huge beasts lounging in the water to keep cool. Of course, one of the premium attractions is the Gorillas. We only saw one, but it was pretty coolish.

We left Harambe and walked back to Dinoland to have lunch at Restaurantosaurus. This was not something we were excited about doing because we were expecting terrible and slow service. However, a co-worker gave me twenty dollars (yep, $20!) to go back and buy a happy meal so she could get the meal packaging and toy -- the happy meals served here are very, very collectible if you're into that kind of thing. As expected, the service was very, very slow and incredibly inefficient and mistake-riden. The food was ok (I had a couple of hotdogs) but not exciting. I have vowed to never, ever go back to that restaurant (unless Deb makes me another offer I can't refuse).

We left the park at this point for a short break, but were back in the park by 4pm or so. The difference in the crowds was incredible. When we left the park, there were people everywhere. Harambe had been packed shoulder to shoulder with people and Dinoland was so crowded that Waldo our 3D Friend could have bounced from head to head and never touched ground. Upon our return just three hours later, there was a vast decrease in the numbers. We were very pleasantly surprised to be able to walk about without jousting with the other stroller jockeys.

We made a beeline to Dinoland to see if we could catch Countdown to Extinction. The baby swap worked nicely, and I thing it was much lighter in there than I remember it being in May. On our first trip to DAK, I think I remember lights being turned on just as you got to any dinosaur...then being extinguished as you left it. This time, I think more general lighting was round-about.

After Countdown, we walked back to Harambe and took the Wildlife Express back to Conservation Station. I was very surprised to see how far from the train station that Conservation Station was. It seemed like we walked a long ways (especially since we were collectively lugging Allan...we left the stroller behind in Harambe).

Conservation Station was ok. I think I was expecting more, but then again, we didn't have much to really explore it in depth. The nurseries and veteranary facilities were cool to see, and Allan enjoyed petting some of the doggies (goats) in the Affection Section petting area. We were rushed, though, because we wanted to make sure we caught the express back in time so we could take the safari before the park closed.

Accordingly, we left Conservation Station and rode back on the train to Harambe. We were able to see that they've made a lot of progress on building the Asia area (I think I remember reading in a Deb Will's posting that some of the shops in Asia had been open for awhile a few weeks ago. There was certainly no sign of that today).

After a quick change of Allan's fragrance, we boarded up for a ride on the Kilimanjaro Safari. The queue was all but nonexistant. We were treated to yet another wonderful safari. None of our rides has ever been disappointing. This time we saw plenty of antelope, tommys, gazelles, giraffe (including a baby), one elephant, rhinos, lots of birds, and two lions (a male and a female). This is a great attraction to catch just as the park closes. We've noticed that that's the best time to see the most animals.

After the safari, we walked back out of the park and went to the bus stop area to catch a bus to the Yacht Club Resort. We were treated to a young lady changing her shirt there in the bus queue (she was quite talented to be able to put on the super small t-shirt she had just bought over the tank top she was already wearing, then removing the tank top without too much immodesty...but it was odd nonetheless and probably not the best thing to have done in public, I don't think).

We got to the Yacht Club without incident. The Swan and Dophin totally and completely underwhelm me. I just don't like those two Michael Graves-designed buildings. The next stop was ours, so off we went.

I had made previous arrangements to meet Gaylene Gray and her sister Colleen at Beaches and Cream. We walked through the Yacht Club lobby and down to the ice cream parlor. As we approached, I saw a couple of ladies finishing up some ice cream. As we walked by, Barb and I were discussing where we should be to meet Gaylene. I thought the outside would be better, Barb wondered if they would be expecting us inside. The ears of those two ladies seemed to perk up as we passed. We walked to the carry out door, and we decided upon what we would order, then I saw the two ladies walking toward us. I was pretty sure that it was Gaylene and Colleen and as they walked up, and she started to say, "are you...?" I responded with, "yep, are you...?"

I left Barb and Allan with Gaylene and Colleen so I could order our snack. It turned out that Gaylene and Colleen were only in town for a few days and were actually there mostly for a scrapbooking convention that was in the area over the weekend. I got our ice cream (a mud slide for Barb and and Milky Way cake for me) and returned to join in the conversation. Allan enjoyed the ice cream and oreo cookies...and I decided that the mud slide was a much better choice for me in the future. I'd had one with Barb and Allan last Spring, and enjoyed it a lot more than my Milky Way cake.

As we snacked, we talked with Gaylene and Colleen about Disney and our and their past trips. Allan was in pretty good spirits, but what kid isn't with that much ice cream so close at hand? We also talked about the ladies scrapbooking hobby (Barb's and Grandma's too), and Gaylene gave me directions to a large scrapbooking store on Colonial Drive. If we're able to, we might just stop by on the way home. All in all, it was a nice visit. I'd emailed back and forth with Gaylene, and one or two of her trip reports are on my web site, so it was fun to talk for a bit.

After the ice cream was gone, we left Gaylene and Colleen and walked into the International Gateway into Epcot. We only had one goal tonight - to catch Impressions du France. This is one of my favorite Epcot travelogue films. I love the classical music by Debussy, Saint Saens, etc...and I love the wonderful scenery.

After the last views of the french countryside, we left the pavilion and walked through the park to beat the IllumiNations crowd. The show started as we were walking through the United Kingdom, so the prominade was already dark. We made a little detour through the rose walk to avoid the huge coagulation of people between the shops at the foot of the lagoon, and made it back to the bus stop wit