Trip Reports

The Tag-a-Long With Dad Trip Report

Dates: May 26 -30
The Cast:
Tim (44) engineer on business trip to tradeshow at
Orange County Convention Center
Maryann (45) sahm and the force behind all WDW trips
Kate (9) and Mike (8) Commando kids
Transportation: Midway Air from Philadelphia, rental car (National)
Resort: Dixie Landings, Alligator Bayou building 14, room 1456
This was a semi-last minute trip, made possible by the SCTE convention in Orlando. Finally, a conference my dh could attend near the mouse house! Since dh's airfare was paid, along with some of the hotel and car charges, and we have annual passes calling to us from the strongbox, it seemed a shame not to take advantage of a reduced price trip. Tim flew down on Sunday and worked the show through Thursday. The unemployed part of the family joined him late Wednesday night.

I got a look at the hotels recommended to the conventioneers by SCTE - not a single Disney hotel! Closest they had was two on Hotel Drive. A quick call to CRO landed us DxL for the AP rate of $99/nt. (The rest of the gang from dh's work stayed at the Marriott World Center, $169/nt. And no refillable mugs, I might add.)

CHECK-IN: went smoothly. I had faxed a request three days ahead and asked for second floor, Alligator Bayou, non-smoking, close to food court. Terry, the room assigner, called me back within minutes of receiving my fax and assured me that she had assigned us such a room in building 14. Dh called me after he checked in to say we had possibly the perfectly located room! Iron and ironing board were brought up at his request, as was a refrigerator on Wednesday, as requested. He was never asked to produce his AP.

FOOD COURT: Very nice, relatively inexpensive with a decent selection. We ate several lunches there. BTW, if you are interested in a bottle of wine or beer, check out the General Store before you buy same at the Food Court. Those same items are half the price in the General Store, which is not that far a walk from the fc. Kids really liked the slushies. And the pizza was decent.

We bought the refillable mugs, of course. This time I was smart and brought along a Sharpie marker to put our names on each one, as they are all the same design.

I packed cereal and bagels to eat in the room for breakfast, and bought milk at the General Store. That worked well, and saved time and money.

HOUSEKEEPING: We had the most amazing housekeeper Wed-Fri. Each day she did some new washcloth origami to hold our toothbrushes and soaps. And to the kids' great delight, she arranged their stuffed animals. Our favorite pose was Pooh and Gorilla in the window, sitting at a table (toilet paper roll draped with washcloth) having a bowl of cereal. Alas, the weekend staff were not as creative. Still, it was terrific fun to come home to while it lasted.

I had the kids decorate an envelope for the housekeeping tip for each night we would be there. This helped them keep busy before the big trip, and made an obvious "this belongs to you" eyecatcher for the housekeeper. Then I put the money inside before I packed to go, so I wouldn't have to search for ones as we were scrambling out to the parks.

SNACKS IN THE PARKS: Another pre-trip "let the kids help" chore was to pack little snack bags full of nonmelting yummies. Each kid packed one for each day of the trip and marked the bag with name and day. Again, the idea was to make getting out in the morning easier and faster. I had the kids pack their fanny packs the night before and lay them out on the bench seat along with their water bottle strap and hat. Commando, you say? Ah, but I have only three and one half days to do the world!

A water bottle per person was also a must, and the water bottle straps were very handy.

WHY DXL IS BETTER THAN PO: This evaluation is courtesy of my 8 year old son. We were discussing why when PO and DxL share a bus, the bus first stops at PO. My son said it was to make up for the fact that Port Orleans did not have slushies or bendy straws in the food court and because their waterslide, although pretty enough, was not as long and curvy. LOL. (I should add that the PO food court also did not carry Equal, but only that dreadful Sweet and Low.)

THE CROWDS: Not bad at all. In fact, the crowd level was not significantly different than our mid-October '98 trip. Friday at Animal Kingdom seemed very crowded on the walkways, but we didn't wait very long for anything except Kali rapids, which was about a 30 minute wait. Took the advice of this group and did the first Lion King show with minimal wait. Walked on CTX. Could have walked into ITTBAB if I wasn't surrounded by anti-bug kids. Epcot on Saturday and Sunday was uncrowded. It was mobbed right after the parade at MK on Saturday night, but once we swam upstream past the escaping masses, we got on BTMRR with a 12 minute wait. After the second parade, things really died down. Ah, Dumbo at midnight - a first for us!

THE EATS: We did lots of quick meals, all just fine, and a couple of sitdowns. Our favorite was Le Cellier. We were heading to the UK when the clouds darkened and thunder rolled. The previous evening there had been a tornado warning, and it looked like at least another downpour was imminent. Look, there's Le Cellier - we've always wanted to try it. When we got to the podium, the CM had just ducked inside. A guest waiting there said he hoped we had a reservation, as the place was booked solid. Bummer. Luckily, we waited to talk to the returning CM, who had us seated right away! Yummy food and wine, great waitress (hi Nicole!) and nice atmosphere. Unfortunately (?), the storm never did develop so we didn't HAVE to duck in there. There goes that justification. As we departed, the CM at the podium was saying their next opening was over an hour away (this was at about 7:30 pm).

We also tried Boatwright's which was just okay. Food was fine, service was very slow although courteous. We used our AP to get the 10% discount which included alcohol. The Chef came around to each table to say hello, an odd touch in a mid-priced restaurant. My daughter told him his chicken fingers were delicious! LOL.

Tony's Town Square was very nice indeed. I ate there with the kids on Thursday, 5/27. I timed it to be eating during the parade, and asked for a table on the porch. No problem. It was hot out there, but the view of the parade was decent. While we were eating, the sky opened up twice pouring buckets of rain on those lined up for the parade. It was nice to be safely and comfortably undercover. The food was wonderful, the service flawless. And I love the dishes with Lady and the Tramp on them. Oh, and our hostess gave each child crayons and a special newspaper to color, and then liberally dusted their table area with Mickey confetti. We had to save everyone of those little buggers. (Another use for empty film containers.)

MAGICAL MOMENTS: We had exited Pizzafari and were watching for little lizards in the bushes (a source of constant interest) when we noticed Chip and Dale exit to begin a character greeting. Yippee, we are first in line. My daughter got out her book and then brought out her package of 8 fine tip markers to choose a color, when Dale, that devil, took the whole package from her, spilled all the markers on the ground, got on his knees and began to create art work in her book. After about three minutes, the handler yelled "Okay, Dale, we have quite a line here, so hurry up." Dale was unmoved and continued to color away. Then he showed his art to Chip and they had a little pantomime argument about the quality of Dale's work. Too funny. I did feel bad for those in line, having been on the receiving end of "the characters have to go now" often enough, but it is hard to move a chipmunk who has other plans.

Kids were picked to lead the elephant roar in the Lion King show. We are two for two getting the kids in this show. Here's how - try to seat your kids on the end of the row about three or four rows from the bottom. As each section is shaped like a slice of pie, the end of these row stick out and so the kids have an unobstructed view of the show. They are also in a great spot to be picked to join in - they are highly visible and can easily leave their seats. The only trick is to know which way you will be asked to slide to make room for more people. In the elephant section, which is the section directly ahead as you enter the theatre, the CM's ask you to slide to their right, so sit far left as you face center stage.

We met PUSH in Mickey's Star Traders in Tomorrowland. Oh, this was wonderful. My kids were enthralled, puzzled, amazed. He rolled right up to my daughter in the shop and startled all of us. He asked my daughter to give him a hug and then chanted "Katie's my girlfriend." He asked her to send him love letters, care of PUSH at the Magic Kingdom. The man running him is a hoot - very unobtrusive. If I hadn't known to look for him, I would have missed him. I have many pictures of Push's interaction with the kids - video would have been much better, as the photos look like my kids are staring at (and hugging!) a regular trashcan.

We saw the goodnight kiss at 12:30 am (one half hour after official park closing). We almost missed it - we were all the way down Main Street, right by the flagpole when the music changed, and the goodbye speech began, and the castle was so beautifully lit. Wonderful stuff.

MSEP: This was pretty good, but I think I like Spectro better. Still, it was nice to have the characters in the parade verbally interact with the audience and the ugly stepsisters were very funny. The tribute to America at the end would make Sam the Eagle proud (a tribute to all countries, but mostly America). We got into place about a half hour before the 11 parade, right up from the bakery, and were the third row back. Everyone in front of us stayed seated so the view was just fine.

THE WEATHER: It was hot, no doubt about it. We felt it most in Animal Kingdom. Darn, is that ever a hot park with very few water fountains. Saw a young man (newlywed?) half-carry his near-fainting sweetie out of the Kali Rapids line. We kept at the kids to sip their water often, so we didn't have any dehydration problems. And we also took an afternoon break everyday for a swim and a rest. Our next trip is in August, so this was a taste of the heat to come.

We used our ponchos just once, right after they lifted the tornado warning, just to keep the drizzle off on our walk to the bus. By the time we reached MK it had stopped. I used the very light, 2 for $1.00 large-sandwich-bags-with-hoods ponchos and they were just fine.

FLIGHTS OF WONDER: This was held in some odd tent-like enclosure, and the audience were seated on the floor in front or in the back on plastic patio chairs. Very weird. We were told that they were working on the regular theatre and that it would be back in service in a few days. We really liked the show, although it was hot and crowded in that tent, and these old bones don't get up from a sitting on the floor position as well as they used to.

HEARD ON THE BUS: A lovely man from Houston, Texas and his teenage daughter gave up their seats to my kids on the way to AK. He told me that he had had to use the Centra Care facility the previous day due to another daughter's severe reaction to poison ivy. He called down to the resort desk (at All Star Movies), a van was there quickly to take them to the center. Saw a doctor, got a prescription, rode back to the resort - entire trip took 2 hours and he felt he got wonderful service all around. Good to know.

TEST TRACK: The tote board said 40 minute wait, after a quick stop at the bathrooms, we entered the line where the wait time was listed as 60 minutes. Couldn't talk the kids into the singles line as they had not ridden yet and didn't know the scare factor. Alas, the ride broke down several times. That queue music gets old fast, doesn't it? As we approached the area where you are sent to briefing rooms, the CM at that podium warned that the skies were darkening and that Test Track goes down in fierce weather. Luckily, that didn't happen and we were seated one hour and 20 minutes after we entered the line. Our family of four was joined by two people from the singles line. I asked the young man next to me how long he waited - he guessed about 15 minutes! Yikes! The singles line for me from now on. BTW, we all liked the ride very much. I bought one of the little scale models of the test car in the gift shop. I hope to use it as a Christmas ornament by hanging a ornament hook on the rear spoiler.

DIXIE LANDINGS. We really loved this resort. Our three previous stays have been twice offsite and once at All Star Sports. We liked ASSp a good deal and thought it was a great value. But DxL is truly a step up. I would say the room is noticeably bigger, the two sinks make life easier and the trundle bed was a nice feature. The fan over the beds was particularly nice. If we kept the air on high all day, we could turn it off and just use the fan at bedtime for a quiet coolness. The kids loved the waterslide at the pool. And we liked being able to rent pedal boats (warning - pedaling these boats is tough work!) and the lovely walk along the river to Port Orleans. We tried to do lots of resort things, as we feared we would not likely return (more on that later). Lots of room to sit at the pool, towels at the pool, lovely landscaping, all the Mickey soap we could want, lizards galore and a family of ducks who called our table at the pool home for an hour or so.

There was live entertainment at the bar that sounded like fun. Funny to see a cocktail lounge inhabited by families with little ones. And the General Store had a demonstration of Philippine dancing (jumping in and out of clacking bamboo poles - not a very good description, sorry) that the kids were invited to try, to their great delight.

One minor snafu, which would effect very few DxL visitors: my dh had accidentally melted a butter packet in a dress shirt pocket (no hands, butter in pocket to be held momentarily, butter forgotten until it is too late - it's an engineer thing). As he had only brought just enough dressy shirts, he changed shirts and took the buttered one down to bell services where they said they would send it out to the cleaners and have it back next day. Next day, no shirt. Seems it never got sent out. CM apologized and assured dh it would be sent out that day, no charge. Shirt did come back the next day (but the butter stain was still there, except now it was dried and pressed in) and the cleaning charge did appear on our bill. Happy ending - a call down to the desk got the charge removed, and a quick spray and soak at home got the butter out.

FAMILY SERVICE RADIOS. We got these for the trip at Walmart. They are Bell Systems models with 14 channels, up to 2 mile range, digital display, for $50 each. We used them a couple of times, had no trouble making contact and they were not too bulky to carry. Saw quite a few of them in the parks, but never had any crosstalk or interference.

COMPANION BATHROOMS: These are a delight for us moms of sons too young to go into the men's room unaccompanied, but too old to go into the ladies room without acute embarrassment. Found plenty at WDW, also at Philly International. Raleigh Durham airport needs these restrooms!

MICKEY SHAMPOO: Cute as the bottle is, this stuff is not very nice on the hair. Even my son's hair which is very short felt like straw after a few days. And my daughter's long hair--forget it. You might want to bring your own from home.

All in all it was a great trip, although very short. Who can do WDW in three and a half days? I console myself with the thought that I'll have another, longer visit in August and I was able to get the $84 rate at DxL for most of my stay thanks to you radpers. Yes!

I'd be glad to answer any questions you might have!

Maryann Brophy

mbrophy5@home.com

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