Trip Reports

Anne's Anniversary Trip Report

Participants:
Me (Anne), 24, Silicon Valley web geek and crazy Disneyphile
Drew, 32, my charming husband of one year, freelance writer
Dates:
October 8-10 at a conference in Fort Lauderdale
October 10-16 at WDW
Method of Travel:
Northwest Airlines round trip from San Francisco to Orlando
Southwest Airlines round trip from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale
Mears shuttle
WDW experience:
I'm a veteran at this point, with 4 trips while growing up and 4 in the past year; this is Drew's second trip as an adult after one trip as a kid.
Where:
Clarion Hollywood Hotel in Fort Lauderdale
All Star Music, Calypso building 10, room 0620
Friday, October 8, 1999

We woke up bright and early at 4:30 AM! Well, not so bright - it was pitch-dark outside - but hey, we were on our way to WDW.

As soon as I got up, I realized that my stomach felt completely miserable. I have a really bad history of getting sick at Disney (food poisoning at Disneyland...week-long flu on our honeymoon...need I continue?), and I was certain that the evil curse had stricken me again. I swallowed a couple of pills and managed to drag myself into my clothes, but wasn't able to choke down my daily bagel. I even made mutterings about calling the airlines and changing my flights to tomorrow. Much to his credit, my normally mild-mannered husband put his foot down and said "Absolutely not! It's just nerves. Here, take this homeopathic calming remedy." He was right - it helped enormously. My stomach still felt unfabulous, but I was drowsy enough not to care.

We took Caltrain, our local commuter rail, to the airport. The shuttle from the train to the airport took a little longer than I'd bargained for, and Drew was terrified that we'd miss our flight. It was already boarding when we got to the gate, but there was a huge line of people queued up to board, and I assured him that the plane couldn't leave without *all* of us. In fact, it didn't, and everything was fine. We even had a bit of luck in that the seat belt in Drew's assigned seat was broken, so we got moved to a row where we had two empty seats next to us.

We both thought the service on Northwest was pretty outstanding, for a major airline. My pet peeve is airlines that don't feed you on long flights, or just give you a cold sandwich and an apple for dinner - but on the way to Detroit, we had a choice of any or all of about half a dozen breakfast items, including a hot sandwich. Drew got a little of everything, and I hearkened back to my toddler days by eating dry Cheerios.

The Detroit-to-Orlando flight was similarly uneventful, but we got microwaved pizza this time. Mine appeared to be made of foam rubber, but Drew ate it cheerfully. I stuck with more Cheerios and some granola bars we'd brought along.

In Orlando, it was strange not to go straight to Disney! We still had another flight to Fort Lauderdale, because Drew was speaking at a conference there. Fortunately, we got to the Southwest gate early and got boarding passes #6 and 7, so we were among the first to get on the plane and choose our seats. The flight was full of rowdy drunken folks, but it was blessedly short.

We took a cab to our hotel, the Clarion Hollywood Beach, and arrived at about 11:00. It was a pretty darn nice hotel for $75 a night! The sign on our room door said the maximum rate for that room was $395, so we figured we'd found a bargain. If you're ever interested in going to Fort Lauderdale, it's worth looking into. We fell straight into bed after our 13-hour day of travelling.



Saturday, October 9, 1999

The workshop Drew was conducting today wasn't until 3:00, so we slept blessedly late - in fact, we missed breakfast entirely and went straight to lunch. Whoever planned the meals for this conference apparently didn't know of the existence of vegetarians; there were hamburgers, hot dogs, and meat chili and not much else. My stomach was still a little woozy anyway, so I just had a couple of pieces of cornbread. Drew, of course, is a confirmed carnivore and had no problem.

The conference went just fine. Drew's workshop was a hit, and he did a book signing and sold all but one of the books. There was a big party going on that night, but we were asleep before it even began! After all, we had to get up early to go to WDW tomorrow.



Sunday, October 10, 1999

This was the big day - our anniversary, and we were off to WDW! We got up at 5:30 and had the front desk call us a cab to the airport. Instead of a cab, what appeared was the world's cheesiest limo: plastic roses in the windows, stuffed animals wearing t-shirts that said "You're Special," the whole nine yards. It was quite a kitschy way to leave Fort Lauderdale.

We checked in early again for our Southwest flight, and once again got boarding cards #6 and 7. The flight attendant who made the announcements had a great sense of humor, saying "Ladies and gentlemen, please *pretend* to give us your attention as we review the safety information for this Boeing 757...Make sure your seat belt is uncomfortably fastened..." Southwest has a good in-flight magazine, too, so the 50-minute flight went by quickly.

Since we never check luggage, we went straight to the Mears counter. I noticed a sign saying that the shuttles will be leaving from the upper level of the terminal after October 19th. Our van came quickly, and after about a million stops, we were at the All-Star Music around 10:00.

The line to check in was short. The CM who checked us in was from Nairobi and had a beautiful accent. We had paid for the hotel stay in advance, but I'd miscalculated and we were 46 cents short, so we paid that in cash!

I dropped off our bags with Bell Services while Drew got a refillable mug of coffee, and we caught the bus to Epcot!

Of course, we had to do Spaceship Earth first. It's one of our favorites. Then we made our way to World Showcase for our 12:20 priority seating at Chefs de France. They seated us right away, and the lunch was absolutely excellent. Drew started with French onion soup and moved on to a perfectly medium-rare steak with french fries. I wasn't all that hungry and was still trying to watch my tummy, so I just had an appetizer: warm filo-wrapped cheese over salad greens and red and yellow tomatoes. I couldn't identify the very tasty cheese, so I asked the server, and she said it was a mixture of Brie, Camembert and cream cheese. No wonder I couldn't identify it as any one type! It was yummy. While we ate, we watched Clopin and Esmeralda from _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_ as they chatted with guests outside.

To finish off, we ordered the upside-down apple tart, and it was marvelous. With a Coke, iced tea, a glass of wine and the tip, it came to $62.

Full and happy, we moved on to Millennium Village. It was very cool! We waited just a minute or two for the "Gifts from the World" pre-show, and were charmed by it. Then we breezed past Brazil, took a quick look at Scotland (having a giggle at the picture of Dolly the cloned sheep), and wandered into Saudi Arabia. I was curious to see how they'd represent this country, since in the U.S. we generally only hear about it when there's a war going on, which seems to be almost constantly. I thought they did a wonderful job. We all gathered around a huge open storybook, and four guests turned cranks to make a magic carpet fly over different parts of the book. As the carpet flew over, pieces of the book opened up to show scenes from the history of Saudi Arabia. The CM asked us all to say "Oooohhh....aaaahhh" whenever the book opened up, and we happily did so.

Others have said that the Sweden area is one of the most nifty, and we agreed. It was a little vague, but still fun to wander through. I took a picture of Drew with the snowman in the winter section.

Next we hit the gift-shop area, and I bought a pebble from the Jordan River in the Israel section. A Jewish friend of mine is having a baby in January, and I'm going to give it to her when the baby is born.

We explored the Israel area a little bit. I wanted to leave a message for the Wailing Wall, but another family was taking their time with it, so we moved on. Completely by accident, we went in through the exit queue of the motion simulator/movie and found ourselves in the back of the theater, where there are stationary seats. The show appeared to have just started, so we sat down and checked it out. We both thought it was very well and tastefully done, with very even representation of all the religions that share Jerusalem as a holy place. What a beautiful city it is.

Next, we moved on to the Land to see how the line for Living with the Land was, but it was 30 minutes. We decided to skip it and go back to World Showcase instead. Drew looked at the guidemap and noticed a performance coming up in 20 minutes or so: "Fossekallen, Lively Norwegian Folk Music." That would become a buzzword for the rest of the day!

Me: "Do you want to go on El Rio del Tiempo?"

Drew: "But what if we miss the Lively Norwegian Folk Music?"

We managed to take our little tour through the history of Mexico and get to Norway just in time for the Lively Norwegian Folk Music. The group was great! Nice, hearty blond people with accordions and washboards - what more could you want? We sat and watched their whole show and then checked the line for the Maelstrom. 20 minutes - too long for us, so we shopped instead, and Drew bought a little silver salt spoon. By the way, Drew agrees that there is truth to the rumor that the Norway CMs are the cutest in World Showcase...he had a crush on one named Trond.

We were starting to get worn out, so before we ventured too far into World Showcase, we decided to call and see if our room was ready. I called from Mexico, and indeed it was ready for us, so we bought some popcorn on the way back to the All Star Music and filled our mug in the food court when we got there.

Our room was #0620, in Calypso building 10. It was on the third floor, but right near the elevator, and it was nonsmoking and on the side away from the pool, just like I'd requested (I'd heard that the pool side was more noisy). The room was not at all too small for the two of us, with plenty of drawer space and fun decor. With the MKC discount, it was a bargain at $75 a night including tax! And really, the location couldn't be better - we were right next to the food court and the guitar pool.

"Look at the size of those maracas!" I said to Drew. (In fact, having a room in that section spawned a lot of incredibly dumb jokes throughout the week. Most of them were based on a goofy song called "King of Calypso" by a band called Ed's Redeeming Qualities. The lead singer laments that he'll never be the king of calypso because he's a white guy from Ohio.)

We took a nice nap from 5:30-6:30, and then headed back to Epcot. We couldn't decide on one place for both of us to eat dinner, so I grabbed a child's pasta meal at Pasta Piazza ($4), and ate it while we took the boat to Germany, where Drew got a frankfurter with sauerkraut. He was stuck in the line at Oktoberfest for what seemed like forever, so I stayed outside and watched the beginning of the Tapestry of Nations.

Tapestry was excellent! It emerged first from between Germany and China and headed toward China, so I only saw it from a distance at first, but by the time Drew came out with his frankfurter, it had swung back around and passed directly in front of us. We were both mesmerized. The music was beautiful, the drummers incredibly talented, and the puppets amazing. I shook hands with one of them. I loved the way they were all just *human* figures, with no gender, race, class or any other identifying factors. They were great symbols of how much we humans have in common.

After the parade, we staked out an IllumiNations spot in front of the China pavilion. Drew needed another snack, so he went over to Norway and got an open-faced salmon sandwich and one of those sweet pretzels. I ate a few almonds off his pretzel but let him keep the rest.

IllumiNations 2000: Reflections of Earth...I can hardly say anything about it, it was so incredible. The way the Sage of Time blew out the torches all around the lagoon to start the show...the way the fireworks were perfectly synchronized to the music...the giant fireballs...the rotating globe with its shimmering images of people and places all over the world...it was astounding. We were both very impressed.

We got caught in the throngs leaving the park, but realized that we didn't actually have to stay with the cattle herds, so we sat on the steps of the Mexico pyramid and waited for the crowd to thin, then made our way to the bus stop. There were approximately 57,000 people in line for the All Stars, but fortunately, the line moved fast - one bus after another just kept coming until we were all on our way. Drew and I are so used to the lousy San Francisco transit system that this was a major treat.

We got back to ASM about 10:30 and fell into bed!



Monday, October 11, 1999

"...rodentia calling us in the morning..." grumbled Drew at 7:30 AM when our wake-up call came.

I bounded out of bed, took a shower and got breakfast from the food court while Drew was getting ready: about $7 for a croissant for me, and an egg, cheese and sausage breakfast sandwich and a doughnut for Drew.

We ate in the room, refilled our mug and went out to wait for the bus to the Magic Kingdom. One MK bus arrived and filled up before we could get on it, but they sent two more right away, one of which was empty. We got on at 9:00, a little later than I would have wanted, but no big deal.

As soon as we got to the MK at 9:15, we went off to do the new Pooh ride. There was about a 15-minute wait, but Drew liked it so much that it was worth it! The other Fantasyland rides had similar wait times, so we did It's a Small World, which was wait-free as usual.

We made our way over to Liberty Square, but the Haunted Mansion queue extended outside the gates, so we skipped it. We tried to get a Fastpass for Splash Mountain, but much to my surprise, they weren't offering them there - only for Space Mountain. Instead of waiting in the 30-minute line, we took a nice relaxing ride around on the train, disembarked at Frontierland again, and got some french fries and bottles of water at Pecos Bill's ($5.65). I noticed a giant axe hanging above the doorway between the register area and the dining rooms - it was a present to Pecos Bill from Paul Bunyan!

Refreshed by our snack, we went off to Pirates, which had no wait. By noon, though, we were sleepy enough to call it a morning and go back to ASM! On our way out of the MK, we stopped and sent a couple of e-mail postcards to friends, and at the food court, we had a quick lunch of a turkey wrap and brownie for Drew and fruit salad for me ($7.89).

We took a nice long nap - 1:00-3:30. We had put the "do not disturb" sign on the door, so when we awoke, we found a bag of towels, soap, toilet paper and tissues with a picture of a sleeping Mickey on it, saying "We noticed the 'do not disturb' sign, so we've left towels, and if you need anything else, call housekeeping." We thought that was very sweet.

Back to the main building, where Drew got some coffee for himself while I bought tickets for the E-ride night on Friday. At 4:15, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom.

We checked the ride board, but there were lengthy waits for just about everything. Instead of fretting about it, we wandered through the rose garden between the hub and Tomorrowland for a while. Drew especially liked a variety of roses that was named after Barbara Bush. It was a pleasant, quiet little spot. Then we continued through to Tomorrowland and noticed that Buzz Lightyear only had a 10-minute wait. I scored 294,100 to Drew's 16,600! But I did have an unfair advantage, having had more practice on that ride. Then we took a spin on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Every time I pass the Timekeeper building now, I'm compelled to say "He'd love to take the time to take *you* through time."

Time for dinner, so we got a cheeseburger and veggie burger with fries and Cokes at Cosmic Ray's ($16.50). Drew thought Sonny Eclipse was pretty cool.

Fantasyland was starting to clear out by this time, so we did Snow White with little wait and then It's a Small World again. It's Drew's secret favorite. By now, too, the Haunted Mansion queue had subsided, so that was the last thing we did before beating the crowds back to ASM.

Tonight was laundry night for us, but unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea! I took a little swim in the guitar pool while Drew waited for a washing machine to open up. I love the squirting Caballeros in the middle. Then I started to go back to the room to change into dry clothes and help Drew with the laundry, but I realized that every stitch of clothing I had was in the washing machine, except my bathing suit! So rather than shock the other guests, I stayed in the room and Drew was kind enough to finish the washing and drying.

We were off to bed pretty early - 9:30.





Tuesday, October 12, 1999

We woke up at 7, not too tired since we'd had an early night, and I fetched for us the same breakfast as yesterday: croissant, doughnut, and egg, cheese and sausage sandwich ($7.14).

Today was our designated morning at MGM. Drew doesn't like this park as much as the others, so I try to get my fill of it when he's not around, and then just bring him along for half a day or so. We arrived at the park nice and early at 8:20. To kill time before rope drop, we poked around in Sid Cahuenga's shop (always a lot of fun) and then at the Hollywood 5 & 10. A cast member there insisted on giving Drew a demonstration of what must surely be the strangest Disney toy ever invented: a bouncing, decapitated Mickey head. It runs on batteries and bounces around on the floor of its own accord while speaking in a disembodied mouse voice. Drew and I and the CM were literally doubled over laughing!

Still wiping our eyes, we made our way down Sunset Boulevard for rope drop. We got there about 15 minutes early, but had something fairly interesting to watch while we waited, as they were spray-painting the outside of the candy store and villains shop. When the rope dropped, we followed the throngs to the Tower of Terror. "Isn't there going to be an instant one-hour wait because of all these people?" Drew wanted to know - but we were through the queue and preshow and on an elevator in about ten minutes. It's amazing how quickly those attractions can absorb crowds.

This was a big moment for Drew - his first time on the ToT. He'd always bowed out before - not because he was scared of the falls, but because he was sure it would make him sick to his stomach. Sure enough, he didn't feel so well afterwards, but he agreed that the special effects are some of the coolest at Disney, and now he understands why this is my favorite ride at WDW.

After Drew's ordeal, he found a shady bench at the Sunset Market while I picked up a Fastpass for the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. The much-maligned husband picked a more restful attraction to hit next: MuppetVision. This was also his first time, and he loved it!

We poked around in the Writers' Stop (formerly Ellen's Buy the Book) a little afterwards - there's no better way to placate the dear husband than to take him to a bookstore. We also took a quick look in the new Tatooine Traders, which was a lot of fun. Then we checked on the Drew Carey show, but the current show was already full and we would have had to wait for the next one, so we went back to the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and once again, Drew stayed on a bench.

I had about a 5-10 minute wait with my Fastpass, but I thought that was reasonable. I noticed a funny sign in the loading area: "Please secure all loose articles. Thank you. Thank you vera much." This was my second time on the ride, and I had the same reaction as before: AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! But not in a bad way. It's just *so* incredibly fast, and I can't even tell if I'm upside-down or right-side-up most of the time. In fact, I have absolutely no memory of the shop you pass through after the ride, because I've been so dizzy both times I've been through there!

I staggered back and met the patient husband on his bench. We got him a bottle of some kind of sports drink on Sunset, and although we have four college degrees between the two of us, we couldn't understand how to get the dang thing open. It took us until we got to the Doug theater to figure it out.

I had seen Doug Live back in May, and although Drew's never seen the cartoon, I knew he'd like the show. I'd been calling him "Quailman" ever since, so he figured he had to go see his namesake. Before the show started, they chose a Quailkid as usual, but the poor little guy clammed up as soon as he got on the stage! They weren't sure they could count on him to say his one line, so they chose another Quailkid to accompany him and called them the Quail Twins. The two of them managed to pull through, though, and the show was excellent as usual. Drew enjoyed it a great deal.

It was getting close to time for our priority seating at the Brown Derby, but since we were in the neighborhood, we went back to the Drew Carey show. This time we got in without having to wait through two cycles. Drew was skeptical about this show since he detests sitcoms, but he did find it very amusing, particularly when the bad guy introduces his "lovely assistant, Rubella."

We went straight to the Brown Derby afterwards - slightly tardy, but we were still seated immediately. What a pretty restaurant that is. We tried to identify the caricatures on the wall, but only got some of the most obvious ones, like Rin Tin Tin and Lucille Ball. We're both pretty clueless about old Hollywood stars, I guess. We also enjoyed listening to the pianist play medleys of '40's and Disney songs.

Our waiter was a bit of a trip. He had an accent that neither of us could quite place, and we understood about 75% of what he said (most of which was the names of the dishes we'd ordered). He was very nice and kept joking around with us, but most of the time, we would laugh and nod and then say "Did you catch any of that?" "No, did you?"

I ordered the toybox-tomato salad to start, and Drew had pan-seared scallops with spinach and citrus quinoa. Both dishes were outrageously good. There were little balls of fresh mozzarella in my salad and a very intense balsamic dressing, and I instantly pronounced it the best salad I'd ever had.

Next came a New York Strip steak for Drew with a potato chive croquette and cabbage slaw, and another appetizer of wild mushrooms with fresh pasta leaves and goat cheese for me. There was some kind of amazing herb sauce on the mushrooms that gave them a very interesting, alive flavor, and the goat cheese made it all a bit tangy. I have never had such a good mushroom dish in my life. Drew pronounced his steak perfect, too.

Just in case it all wasn't wonderful enough, we finished with an espresso and a slice of their cheesecake. I thought the cake was nice enough, but Drew thought it was even better than his best friend's recipe, which had previously held his all-time record for best cheesecake.

With a Coke, a glass of wine, the tip, and the MKC discount, it came to $58. We agreed that the Brown Derby now tops our list of in-park restaurants, edging out Mama Melrose's by a slight margin. Thoroughly full and happy, we were off to Animal Kingdom. There's a direct bus there from MGM, which is handy, and it was waiting for us.

Once at AK, we decided to make our way to Asia, since Drew hadn't seen it before. We picked up a Fastpass for Kali River Rapids and did the Maharajah Jungle Trek while we were waiting. We saw plenty of animals - bats, the Komodo dragon, three or four tigers lounging in the sun (who reminded us of our cats), and many Elds deer and blackbuck. We also saw a lot of birds, but unfortunately, one of them saw me all too clearly and used my head for target practice! :P

We got a Coke at the incredibly elaborate Drinkwallah stand, and then noticed that Flights of Wonder was starting in ten minutes or so. It was a fun show! After my experience in the aviary, I understood the plight of Guano Joe. Drew, who's an owl fan, especially enjoyed bonding with a spectacled owl after the show.

Our Fastpasses and the rather intense rainforest heat told us it was time for Kali. We had a short wait, but enjoyed wandering through the beautiful queue. The other two times I'd ridden this, I'd gotten pleasantly damp, but this time, we both got *soaked*! Absolutely sodden to the skin. I have to say, though, that it felt good on such a hot day. Drew liked the ride as much as I do - I think they could have done more with it, but it's still a lot of fun.

We wrung out our clothes as best we could and dripped our way to the bus at about 4:45. We felt bad leaving a puddle on the seats, but there wasn't much we could have done about it! Back in the room at the ASMusic, we peeled off our clothes and discovered that even our underwear was wet.

Drew wasn't feeling so well, so he took a nap and I threw the dripping clothes in the dryer. I got a kids' pasta meal at the food court, which was tasty ($4.27) and took some pictures around the resort, which I hadn't really explored yet. I liked the Broadway section with its New York taxi parked outside! And I was pleasantly surprised to find a little fountain in the Jazz section, surrounded by rosebushes. It was a nice little oasis in the busy resort.



I brought some root beer back to Drew, who was feeling a little better. Tuesday is the night we indulge our single greatest vice - "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" on the WB - so we hung out in the room, watched evil get vanquished, and went to sleep around 10.





Wednesday, October 13, 1999

We woke up at 7, and creatures of habit that we are, we had our usual breakfast again. We added some hash browns for me and a cappuccino for Drew, though, and the total was $10. The ASMusic food court really worked out well for us - it was never horrendously crowded when we were there; the prices were good; and the food was quite decent.

We had several afternoons at Epcot planned, but we also wanted to do one early morning so we could see Test Track and Journey Into Your Imagination without waiting too long. We arrived at Epcot by 8:45 and went straight to Test Track, but we had to stop a couple of times along the way because Drew had a terrible pain in his legs. This turned out to be a recurring thing every morning, for some reason.

I was worried that the line would be long after our slow progress, but my impatience was unfounded - we only waited five minutes or so. It was the day after Early Entry, so that may have helped. I had done Test Track twice before, in May, but this was Drew's first time. "It's really not a scary ride," I told him. "No more so than the Maelstrom." Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the fact that Drew *hates* to drive and is terrified on freeways! His assessment afterwards was "We went through everything that could possibly go wrong in a car...and this is supposed to be *fun*?!"

We looked at the photo afterwards, and sure enough, I was laughing and Drew looked like he was praying to Hermes to forestall his impending death. I felt terrible for having convinced him he'd like it, but I really didn't expect that he'd hate it so. My poor maligned spouse.

Of course, the last thing Drew wanted to do next was *another* first-time ride, but I assured him that Journey Into Your Imagination was a slow one. We made our way slowly to the glass pyramids, but still walked right onto the ride. We enjoyed it! Again, like Kali River Rapids, it's not one of the absolute best Disney rides ever, but the special effects are very well-done and it's a fun diversion. We couldn't figure out how the heck they did the birdcage effect.

We spent a little time in the former ImageWorks and liked that too, especially conducting music in midair and stepping on the sound tiles on the floor.

Next, another quiet attraction: the Living Seas. I swear that pavilion wins the award for the World's Longest Pre-show. There's the United Technologies thing in the round room (which, fortunately, we missed most of), then the "rained...and rained...and rained" movie, then the hydrolators and that oddly empty Omnimover ride. I guess they're trying to literally immerse you in the ocean experience and make you feel as if you're far away from Epcot, but I find it a bit of a snore. I say, bring in Ariel and Sebastian and liven the place up a bit!

We had a bit more fun in the actual pavilion, though. We hung out with the manatees for a little bit, then saw something we'd missed on our honeymoon - the dolphin training presentation. That was quite interesting. I was impressed by the underwater keyboard they use to communicate with one another, and Bob and Toby the dolphins were very charming. They kept insisting that the trainers follow them to the catwalk area to look for treats there, no matter how often the trainers told them there was nothing there. In fact, they got so impatient with the slow-moving divers that they offered them a ride to speed things up!

Drew had to see his favorite part of the pavilion next: the little movie about plate tectonics, starring Atlas. I played with the touch screens while he got his fill of Greek mythology, and then we resurfaced and had a Coke at Pasta Piazza.

I wanted to take a look at the new and improved Innoventions, so we randomly chose the west side. We sent a few e-mail postcards and poked around a bit, but we weren't terribly impressed. I was intrigued by the Xerox booth, where they were demonstrating a prototype of reusable paper, but I was quite terrified by the Monsanto exhibit ("Herbicides Are Our Friends"). There was a big line for the home-theater demonstration, so we skipped it, rationalizing that a boom box, hand-me-down VCR and 19" TV are enough for us! But we did queue up with a bunch of old folks for what turned out to be a movie about radiology. We were impressed by pictures of a 3-D ultrasound of an unborn baby (imagine seeing your baby's facial features before she's born), but other than that, nothing too exciting.

In hindsight, we were probably both just cranky. We headed toward the exit and agreed to wait a little bit in line for Spaceship Earth, but I had a small breakdown midway through. I was confused by the zigzagging and thought the line had two separate sides, the other of which was much shorter, so we stepped out of line but immediately realized I was wrong. Rather than start all over again at the end, we just left. We had planned to get our Leave a Legacy picture taken that day, but I really didn't want my crabby moment immortalized!

We dragged ourselves back to the ASMusic and fell right into bed for a nap. I woke up before Drew, so I quietly went over to the food court to get us some subs ($~9) as a peace offering. My easily-placated spouse was delighted and the subs were pretty tasty.

Much happier and fuller, we got the bus to Animal Kingdom. Since we'd done Asia yesterday, we went for Africa today. We took our time in the Oasis, bought some popcorn and ate it inside Tusker House, and then did the safari with no wait at all. It was a great trip, as ever!

The best experience of the day, though, was the Pangani trail. We hung out with the hippos and those remarkably ugly naked mole rats; saw a few birds (none of whom got too intimate with me, unlike yesterday); and I tried to convince Drew that we should have a pet dik-dik for our back yard...or maybe just a little meerkat. The cast member on duty announced just then that meerkats are quite vicious, though, so we decided to move on.

Lo and behold, we came at the right time to see gorillas. First, the silverback was lounging in his usual place by the glass window, but when he got up and loped out to the bridge area, we followed him and saw a great many of his relations. We counted four or five bachelor fellows on the left side of the bridge, snacking on leaves, roaming about, thumping their chests and showing off (just like any other group of young guys, except no beer). I noticed that one of their backs is starting to turn silver.

As if watching all those guys wasn't enough, the silverback emerged again, this time followed by an energetic little baby and toddler. The baby climbed high up in a rather skinny tree in search of an afternoon snack, and his dad sat wearily at the bottom of the tree and kept an eye on him for a little while, then wandered off.

We must have spent half an hour just watching those gorillas. It was *wonderful*.

We stopped back at the Tusker House to get a cappuccino for Drew. We'd also brought a container of yogurt he'd bought earlier that day, and I got up to pick up a spoon for him. There were none to be found, so I asked a CM. He escorted me over to the bakery counter and asked the CM there if she had a spoon. She searched around and couldn't find one, so he escorted me again to the food counter, where another CM did a search and managed to find one. What service! Where else would an overworked fast-food peon go so far out of his way to do such a simple thing for one person? That's what Disney is all about.

Refreshed and caffeinated, we went off to Dinoland to do Countdown to Extinction as our last attraction. We took a side trip through Cretaceous Trail along the way - it's so convincing, with all those Jurassic-looking plants. I would like to see a few more animals in there, but it's still very cool.

At CTX, the sign said a 30-minute wait, but I didn't believe it for a minute. I asked the CM and she said it was more like 10. In fact, we walked straight through to the pre-show and then straight into a time machine! In the load area, we noticed the red, yellow and white pipes with the chemical formulas for ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise - a fun nod to McDonald's. The ride was fun as ever - I never fail to jump out of my skin when those dinos lunge at us!

We made our way back to Safari Village to pick up a t-shirt Drew had considered yesterday. It's beautiful, with an old-fashioned engraving of a lion on it - his very first Disney shirt. I knew I'd make a convert out of him. He also got two New Agey CDs of forest and ocean sounds.

We had both been rejuvenated by our nap earlier, so we didn't feel like going back to the resort just yet. "Is there someplace at another resort that we can have dinner?" Drew suggested, and a light bulb went off in my head: Artist Point! I'd told him before our trip about the cedar-plank salmon, and we'd agreed that if we had a chance, we might try it. I borrowed a CM's cordless phone and called CRO to make a priority seating - it was strange to be calling from here instead of from the conference room at work. There was a seating at 7:10, so we took it, figuring it would give us plenty of time to get there (it was 6:00 now).

On the way out of the park, we ran into some very large insects - not the famous Florida palmetto bugs, but Artimals! They stamped each of our hands with a little ladybug.

The bus to Wilderness Lodge came right away, but we were trapped with a screaming child. Now, when I say screaming, I don't mean fussing, I don't mean whining - I mean *screaming* bloody murder. Imagine the loudest sound you've ever heard, double it, and put it in an enclosed Disney bus, and you'll get the idea. She wasn't a baby, either - probably about five - and her mother would only say "Sweetie, I know you're tired, and we'll be back at the hotel soon." Drew and I thought our eyeballs would pop out every time she let out one of those screeches.

Fortunately, the Wilderness Lodge was the first stop, and our soprano friend stayed on the bus. We realigned our eardrums and explored the very beautiful resort. Drew was amazed by the waterfalls, flowers and trees outside, but I said "Wait till you see the lobby!" We decided we could live with this, and that we'll have to do our best to stay here sometime.

We checked in a little early at Artist Point and were seated right away. I'd heard a lot about the restaurant and had a very clear picture of it in my mind...but I couldn't have been more wrong! I expected a dark, rustic, low-ceilinged, cozy room on a high floor, but it's a lofty, Art-Deco-meets-Arts-and-Crafts style with big windows on the ground floor. In any case, I wasn't disappointed - it's beautiful.

The waiter brought a basket of seven-grain and sourdough breads with onion butter, spicy peach jam and a whole head of roasted garlic. Once again, we said "We could live with this!" All the spreads were marvelous. Drew started with the three-sausage appetizer: one spicy, one sweet and one salmon, with a grilled apple slice alongside. He pronounced it excellent. His main course was the famous cedar-plank salmon with spelt pilaf, spinach and another grilled apple slice. He contemplated the wine list, but decided on a honey lager beer instead, which he fell in love with. I stuck with a Coke.

I wasn't overwhelmingly hungry, so I asked the waiter if I could have a half-portion of the vegetarian sampler plate. He was happy to oblige, and when the plate arrived, I was glad I'd asked for half! It was more than enough for me, and the regular portion would have fed me for a week. There was the same nutty-tasting spelt pilaf and barely sauteed spinach as Drew had, plus garlic mashed potatoes, snap peas, balsamic-sauteed onions, potato gratin, julienned carrots, and an eggplant and zucchini stew. Everything was unbelievably good. I've hated mashed potatoes all my life, but the nice chunky garlic ones made me a convert. And I don't know what they did to the peas - maybe just a little butter and salt - but they were like über-peas! The same with the spinach: it was more green than green. I was bowled over. (Thank you, gardenia, for recommending this wonderful dish!)

We did manage to force ourselves to order a cappuccino and the berry cobbler after all that, and now I understand why so many people rave about it. The pastry part was somewhere between a cookie dough, a biscuit and a shortcake. The ice cream and berries were perfect, and the crème fraîche sent it all over the top. The waiter told us that when the last hurricane was raging, their berry source in Central America was completely wiped out. They searched far and wide and finally had to buy them at regular retail prices in the U.S. - but they wouldn't take the cobbler off the menu even for that.

The bill was about $72 with tip, which we thought was pretty reasonable for such an unbelievably good dinner. I couldn't even touch the little biscotti that came with the bill, but Drew managed to choke one down. We decided that although Artist Point couldn't depose Victoria & Albert's in our hearts (that one is in a whole separate category), it still wins hands-down for the *second*-best restaurant at WDW. Now my short list is:

1. V&A's

2. Artist Point

3. Brown Derby

4. California Grill

5. Chefs de France

Drew thinks the same, but he substitutes Mama Melrose's for the California Grill.

We waddled out to the bus stop, unable to stop grinning at the wonderful dinner. Even now, just the mention of it sends us into raptures! We waited a few minutes in the very quiet darkness for the bus to Downtown Disney, amazed at how far removed the WL is from the rest of WDW.

The bus stopped at the Polynesian first, and a problem with the wheelchair lift made it a very *long* stop - about 10-15 minutes. Then we continued to the Grand Floridian (where, I noticed, they have TVs at the bus stops), and finally to Downtown Disney 45 minutes after we left the WL - oy.

We figured that as long as we had to transfer here, we might as well do our shopping at the World of Disney, so we picked up everything on my wish list: the _Cooking with Mickey_ cookbook, with recipes from WDW's best chefs; a 16-month wall calendar of WDW; the Millennium Celebration CD; and a Pooh Onesie for our newborn friend Blake. (We managed to restrain ourselves from buying every baby item in the place.)

The buses back to the All Stars came in rapid succession to absorb the crowds, and we were in bed at about 11:45.





Thursday, October 14, 1999

We had our much-anticipated Epcot tour this morning, so we were up at 6:45 - oy. I got our breakfast of a croissant, danish, orange juice and cappuccino ($9). We found it really saved time if I got up first, took my shower and got dressed, then brought breakfast to the room while Drew was taking his shower. Plus, we didn't have to sit with the crowds in the food court at such an early hour and could have a quiet breakfast in the room.

We wanted to be sure we were on time for our Epcot tour at 8:45, so we left early and were there by 8:10. Since we had so much time before it started, we figured we'd get our Leave a Legacy picture done - but the CMs there said that the cameras were all steamed up from the morning humidity. We paid for our tile anyway, though ($33 with American Express discount), and they gave us a card so we could come back and do the picture later.

The Epcot rope drop was happening just as we got there. I didn't know there was a release of doves in the morning! What a cool way to start the day.

We checked in at Guest Relations for our tour and met our guide, Molly. She gave us each a free bottle of water, which came in handy throughout the morning. We were still quite early, so we asked her if there was time for a quick ride on Spaceship Earth before the tour. She gave us her blessing. There was no line, so we hopped right on for our favorite Epcot ride. Drew spotted a drawing of Jeremy Irons on the wall in the Renaissance scene!

We rejoined Molly and discovered that there were only three other guests in the tour group: Blair from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Sue and Dave from Pacifica, California. Pacifica is only a few miles south of San Francisco, so it was funny that four out of five of us were from the Bay Area. Blair was on a solo trip and had taken Amtrak all the way from Michigan - pretty ambitious. It also turned out that Sue and Dave were corporate convention planners, a job that Molly had once held herself. She now works for the Disney Institute.

Molly led us to the northern edge of the World Showcase lagoon and gave us a little background about WS. She said that the American Adventure pavilion was originally supposed to be here, with Canada and Mexico on either side, but that the Imagineers thought a Colonial building right next to Future World would clash, and they didn't want a contemporary building for the US pavilion. So they moved it to the southern edge, where it acts as a 'weenie' to draw people in.

We started the tour in Canada. Since the WS still wasn't open to guests, there were gardeners working on Victoria Gardens, and we said good morning to them. Then Molly led us through a half-hidden little pathway next to the gardens, and we ducked backstage from there. The waterfall was turned off! Without its masking noise, it was easy to hear the delivery trucks and other noises behind the pavilion. It was interesting to get a little glimpse of what makes Epcot run. We could also clearly see the pyramids of the Imagination pavilion from there - I didn't realize it was so very close to Canada, since the landscape blocks the view entirely.

In the United Kingdom, we learned about how the buildings there allow you to walk a few feet and see 400 years of British history in the architecture. On top of one of the Victorian houses in the back of the pavilion, there are chimneys that are actually stained with soot - both to add authenticity and to remind guests of "Mary Poppins."

Drew and I had noticed the little chrysalis box on one of the garden paths and stopped to look at it, but we were shocked to hear Molly say that the caterpillars/butterflies inside are alive! If you reach in through the bottom of the box, you can gently touch them and see them move.

She also pointed out the new fish and chips stand and mentioned that it was the first WDW building to be constructed entirely off-site and then assembled in just a couple of days in its new location.

In France, we went backstage again to see the Eiffel Tower and the building it sits on top of - quite an odd sight. And in a little field behind the pavilion, I spotted some big plywood bins, each spray-painted with the name of a country - they held supplies for the upcoming Food and Wine Festival.

In Morocco, we opened a door that I'd never noticed before and found ourselves in a little museum of Moroccan artifacts. There was some fascinating stuff in there, and unbelievable geometric tile work on the walls. When we turned around to look at the door again, we noticed it was stained glass - it had looked dark and solid from the outside! The glass was red and green, the colors of the Moroccan flag. Molly said there are a lot of buildings in Morocco that look unremarkable from outside, but are beautiful inside - that reflects the Muslim philosophy that what's inside is what counts.

There was another nifty little museum in Japan, way in the back of the pavilion through a big gateway I'd never noticed before. Molly told us about when she lived outside of Tokyo and had one room in her apartment just for meditation...and a heated bathtub in which you sit upright on a seat with the water up to your shoulders. That sounded good to me.

At the American Adventure, Molly told us all about how forced perspective was used in reverse to make the massive pavilion building look as if it's only two stories tall. She pointed to a door at the left of the main entrance and asked us how tall we thought it was. We said seven or eight feet, like a standard door. Then she sent 6-foot-tall Dave to stand by the door, and as he walked towards it, he appeared to shrink smaller and smaller! The door was probably ten feet high, but we would never have known that.

We learned more in Italy and Germany about the design and architecture there, from the tiny bricks in the Campanile to the special Oktoberfest decorations and Bavarian-style buildings in Germany. Molly also pointed out that the miniature train in Germany is re-decorated for each season - this fall, a tiny farmer was tending a pumpkin patch. There's one woman who's solely responsible for taking care of the train setup.

In China, we went inside the Temple of Prayer for Good Harvest and learned about the dragon and phoenix symbols on the ceiling. The dragon is a male symbol and the phoenix a female, so to see them together suggests a marriage - but this particular temple tells the story of a royal marriage, since the royal dragon has five toes rather than the usual three or four. Molly brought us to the little alleyway to the left of the temple, where you exit from the Circlevision movie and the big shop. The movie holds up to a thousand guests, and the alley is specifically made to be narrow, so that guests have an inkling of the crowded conditions in China as they exit.

Next was Drew's favorite pavilion, Norway, where we ducked inside the Stave Church and checked out the little exhibit in there. Rather than leaving directly by the steps, we walked around the church by a covered walkway on the outside of the building - I'd never noticed that before. We also took a little visit inside Akershus to see how they'd made it look and feel like the famously cozy castle.

Finally, in Mexico, we entered the pyramid by the side entrance, through the little jungly path where parrots live. Inside the temple was a diorama about pottery that used a scrim and lights to make the potter inside appear and disappear. We ended the tour in the Plaza de los Amigos, with everyone thanking Molly profusely. She was a great guide, and it was a wonderful tour! I'd highly recommend it if World Showcase is one of your favorite places.

There had been no snack break all morning, so Drew and I were starved. We had a priority seating for Akershus for tomorrow, but we figured that since we were here and hungry, we might as well go for it. There was no line for the Maelstrom at the moment, though, so we rode it while we had the chance ("Back...back! Over the falls!") and then returned to the restaurant. We had only a couple of minutes' wait for a table. It turned out that Blair, another guest from our tour, had also decided to eat here, and we were seated right next to him! He raved about the lamb and cabbage.

We had come here last year on our honeymoon, and Drew absolutely loved it, but I wasn't feeling well that day and bowed out of the buffet. This time, though, nothing was stopping me. I found plenty of tasty vegetarian dishes - cold salads, cream of spinach soup, sweet and sour red cabbage, boiled potatoes, cheeses, and Ronnie's favorite, mashed rutabagas. Ronnie's right - they're delicious and a little sweet, not the least bit bitter. I think they have carrots and plenty of butter in them. Drew, of course, had 28 different kinds of herring - I don't think he even got as far as the vegetables. Everything was marvelous, and a bargain at about $35 after MKC discount and tip, including Coke for me and Viking Mead for Drew.

We did the Maelstrom again so we could take a photo of Papa Odin, and when we emerged, our friends Fossekallen were doing their Lively Norwegian Folk Music. We made our way to China, though, because Drew wanted to see the Circlevision movie.

We were a bit early, so we listened to some Chinese musicians, who played a bit of traditional music and then kids' songs like "Pop Goes the Weasel." They were wonderful. Then the CM came out to make her announcement about no smoking or flash photography, etc., but her speech was so fast that none of us understood a single word! We figured we knew the drill, though, so we watched the movie. China really is pretty amazing in its hugeness.

Outside in the crowded exitway, Shan-Yu, the villain from "Mulan," was doing a meet and greet. He was so scary-looking, though, that nobody would go near him! He gave me the creeps, and I'm an adult - as a kid I would have been traumatized.

The Pu Yang acrobats were scheduled to do a show in a few minutes out in the pathway in front of the pavilion, so we stuck around. Drew's legs were hurting, so he sat on a bench while I took a seat on the ground, and he couldn't see a thing. He was happy just to get the rest, though. Those kids were amazing! I was especially impressed by the girl who could flip plastic bowls onto her head three and four at a time, and the boy who jumped through a tiny ring two feet above his head.

We had to stop in Germany so Drew could get some of his favorite candy, Mozartkugeln, and some chocolate-covered marzipan. Bettina from Bonn was the cashier, and she and Drew had a little chat in German (he has a degree in it). Bettina refused to believe that Drew was American! She said he spoke German better than she did. I understand a few words of the language - enough that I could start laughing along with Drew while she insisted "Sie sind aus Deutschland!" and he said "Nein, aus New York, und jetzt in California." He had to show her his California driver's license with his thoroughly Scottish-American name before she'd believe him.

We skipped Italy and went over to the American Adventure because Drew had never seen the show before. We had quite a while till the next show, so Drew settled on a bench inside while I went to take a peek in the shop and also a gander at the characters gathered in the courtyard: Mickey, Pluto, Goofy and Ratcliffe (!).

When I got back inside, American Vybe was about to start singing. Now, I had heard the Voices of Liberty once before and thought they were great, so I was a little skeptical about a group that was going to perform contemporary music in such a thoroughly Colonial setting. But American Vibe absolutely blew us both away...and everybody else in the hall, for that matter. They sang "Lean on Me," "Just a Gigolo" (!), "Joy to the World" (the Three Dog Night one, not the Christmas carol) and "America the Beautiful." On this last one, the Voices of Liberty appeared on the balcony upstairs and sang along.

They were completely amazing. Every one of those singers had an incredible voice - powerful and joyous. By all means, see them if you can!

After that, the main show was a bit of a disappointment. We both managed to stay awake for the duration (which was more than I did last time!), but since neither of us is very patriotic, it wasn't one of our favorites. It is technically amazing, though. I liked the part with the raft down the Mississippi, which I'd snoozed through before.

As we got up to leave, a British kid in front of us said dejectedly to his parents, "That wasn't what I thought it would be. I thought it would be a boat ride or something." We had a good laugh when we were out of earshot.

I had raved to Drew about the kaki-gori, so we stopped in Japan and bought a tangerine one. It was nice and refreshing, and he agreed that they're great. We looked around a little bit in the Mitsukoshi store, scouting for Pokemon stuff for Drew and a pearl setting for me (Drew had bought me a pearl on our honeymoon). But the Pokemon stuff didn't appeal, and there was a huge crowd around the pearl counter, so we decided to skip it.

Morocco, on the other hand, was quite a shopping experience for the charming husband. He pored over baskets and little metal boxes in one small shop while I watched the band Mo' Rockin' outside - they're fantastic. Then he wandered around the main marketplaces inside the pavilion for quite some time, and I sat on a bench in the square to catch up on my trip report notes. As I was sitting there, a CM named Abdelali came over to chat. I told him that a co-worker of mine is going to Morocco for two weeks in November, and he gave me his e-mail address so she could send him any questions she had. Apparently, he used to work for a five-star hotel there and knows all about accommodations and tourist attractions.

On our tour earlier, Molly had spotted some beautiful scarves in one of the Morocco shops, and I decided to get one. It's white, with black fringe and jingly silver sequins all around the edge - very pretty. Drew wound up with three beautiful baskets, a brass-framed mirror and a little box to hold incense. Everything there was a major bargain, especially for Disney!

We stopped in the new Tangierine Cafe to get a Coke - it looks like a very tasty place. We were still stuffed from Akershus, though, so we could only admire the menu from afar.

By the time we got to France, I did manage to find room in my stomach for a chocolate crêpe, which was extremely yummy. A Living Statue came out to perform while we were eating, and he was great - I'd never had a close look at their performances before. We also saw a bit of "Cyranose de Bergerac," a comedy production starring unwitting guests recruited from the audience.

Drew of the Pea-Sized Bladder made a bathroom stop in the International Gateway, which actually involved going outside the Epcot gates, much to our surprise. While I was waiting, a pair of adorable twin baby boys and their mom happened by, and I got smiles from both babies. When Drew returned, it was almost time for the Tapestry of Nations, so we decided to stay put and watch - I wanted to get some pictures of the parade during the day. It was just as cool as before, completely mesmerizing.

We continued to the UK pavilion after the parade, and it was a bit crowded there because nearly everyone else had the same idea. It cleared out quickly, though. We bought a Black Watch plaid picture frame (that plaid was our wedding colors) and a porcelain tea strainer for our friend Jen, who's a tea lover. I sat and listened to the British Invasion while Drew paid for the strainer. Then we picked up some fish and chips at Harry Ramsden's ($12 with a cider for Drew) and carried them into the little park at the back of the pavilion to eat. I took a few packets of ketchup and a few of malt vinegar, but I loved the vinegar so much that we didn't touch the ketchup and I had to go get more. Drew ate the fish, of course, and pronounced it tasty. Just as we finished eating, Captain Hook and Friar Tuck came out to visit with guests.

We wanted to leave the park before the big IllumiNations crowds hit, so we started on our way. We gave some serious consideration to a Beaver Tail in Canada, but we were just too full. At the exit of Epcot, we stopped and had our Leave a Legacy picture done - it was easy and quick.

We were back at the All Star Music about 8:30 and went to bed shortly thereafter.



Friday, October 15, 1999

I had promised Drew we could have a morning to sleep late, so we got up at 9. I popped our clothes in the washing machine and picked up breakfast: croissant, danish, cranberry juice, hash browns and cappuccino ($10.50). The clothes took *forever* to dry - the cycle time was 30 minutes, but they took a full hour. We heard several other folks complaining about the slowness of the dryers, and one woman even used one that spun around just fine but blew cold air instead of hot.

It was starting to rain a little bit. Drew kept himself glued to the TV, getting the latest news on Hurricane Irene, which was making its way toward Florida. We were afraid that our flight tomorrow would be horribly delayed or canceled, but we figured there was nothing we could do about it now - so we decided to go to DisneyQuest.

We rode the Downtown Disney/Typhoon Lagoon bus in the company of the World's Loudest Family. I'm not sure who was worse - the kids who were fighting and wrestling, or the dad who was yelling and whining! Fortunately, they were going to Typhoon Lagoon, so we escaped them at the Downtown Disney West Side stop.

There was quite a line for DisneyQuest. It seemed everybody else had the same idea of what to do on a rainy day. When we arrived, there were four ticket windows open, but they soon cut it down to two - sounds counterintuitive, but Drew overheard someone explaining that it was because DQ was getting close to capacity and they wanted to slow down the influx of people.

There's been a small price increase at DQ - it's now $27 for adults and $21 for kids for unlimited play. There's still a 15% Annual Passholder discount and 20% American Express discount, though. We reached the ticket window after 15 or 20 minutes of waiting and used my American Express card for the bargain. The CM put a special stamp on our tickets and informed us that if we showed them inside, we'd also get 10% off food and merchandise.

We were alone in the Cybrolator that brought us to the third floor. Drew was startled but amused by the Genie's appearance! He was hungry right away, so we went straight to Food Quest, checked out the menu selections at the different counters, and got in the sandwiches line. It was endless. After we ordered, I went to find us a table, but I got nervous when Drew didn't appear for a very long time. We figured out that it had taken over 20 minutes from the time we got in line to the time we got the food, and Drew said he'd never seen more inefficient food workers in his life. Nobody seemed to know how to do what they were supposed to do at all, much less in an expedient way.

Nonetheless, the food was pretty good - chili fries, a Coke and a sausage sandwich ($~15). While we ate, we had the pleasure of watching people get fried by an Addams-Family-themed electric shock machine! Drew tried it later and endured 1,000 watts, but I bowed out.

Our first attraction was Ride the Comix. There was a long wait, but we got to watch the Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam from part of the queue. This was Drew's first virtual reality experience, and we both enjoyed it! That vibrating sword is hard on the arms, but it's fun to slash away at the supervillains. I came in third place out of six, and Drew was first. He said he hadn't been able to figure out how to kill the last guy he did battle with, but my last adversary had been Mistress Khan herself - I didn't realize we were all fighting different characters.

We looked around the Midway on the Moon for a little bit and watched Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlaster from above. We decided against it because Drew thought it would make him dizzy. Then we had an '80's flashback in the Game Graveyard - Drew tried the Red Baron game and I did my favorite, Donkey Kong. I used to kick butt at that game, but I seem to have lost the skill I had when I was ten.

Next, it was down to the Create Zone, where we played with the nifty Living Easels for a few minutes. Drew helped me design a coaster on CyberSpace Mountain, but he decided against riding with me, and went up to the Wonderland Cafe instead to try to check his e-mail. I had a fairly short wait to ride because all eight simulators were running - when I was there in May, only a few were open and the wait was endless.

When I was about to get into my simulator, a family of three asked me if I was by myself. I said yes, and they asked if the dad of the family could ride with me, since they didn't want one of them to ride twice. I said sure! I'd chosen the highest speed and three inversions, but my coaster only rated a 2 out of 5 - still, it was a lot of fun for both me and my new friend.

I found Drew upstairs at the Wonderland Cafe, where he was sitting at a computerless table. Several people were taking up the tables with computers but not *using* them - how clueless. He had also had another problem with a Cheesecake Factory employee: the person behind the counter didn't speak enough English to understand his order of "raspberry bar." She finally had to get another worker to help her out.

As a consolation, we decided to go next to the attraction Drew was most looking forward to: Hercules in the Underworld. The line there didn't look terribly long, but it was *so* *slow*! We waited about 45 minutes, wishing there'd been some indication of what the wait time actually was. Nonetheless, we had a great time as Herc and Meg, and managed to vanquish Hades. I fired the winning lightning bolt!

Then it was off to Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride, where the wait was considerably shorter. We put on our safety turbans, transformed ourselves into monkeys, and zoomed off. I tried to follow the others, but got lost and ended up finding a big repository of jewels, plus the magic scarab! We saved the Genie, too.

I was starved, so we headed back to FoodQuest. There was nobody in line this time, but it still took *20 minutes* for my portobello mushroom sandwich, a frozen lemonade and Drew's artichoke-spinach dip (~$16). One person was slowly going about making my sandwich, while three or four others stood around doing nothing. Then the pilot light on the grill went out and we got to watch them all try to light it with a paper napkin on fire. There was no apology or explanation for all this. After the 20 minutes were up and my sandwich appeared, we had to remind them about the spinach dip, at which point the process started all over again. We were annoyed and my blood sugar was down through the floor, but the food was quite good anyway. We realized that all four of our experiences with the Cheesecake Factory (three today, and one on my previous visit) had been unsatisfactory, but we wondered who we could write to about it.

Anyway, with blood sugar restored, we tried Invasion!: An ExtraTERRORestrial Encounter. We teamed up with two other folks and blasted as many aliens as we could, but still perished in the attempt!

Our last attraction of the day was the Virtual Jungle Cruise. It took all of our strength to paddle, and we narrowly survived squirting lava and marauding dinosaurs, but didn't find Professor Szalinski's gizmo.

All in all, it was a fun day at DisneyQuest.

In spite of all the hoopla about the hurricane, it was only drizzling a little bit as we walked to the bus stop to make our way to E-Ride Night at the Magic Kingdom. We took the Contemporary/TTC bus, got off at the TTC, and asked the CM on the monorail platform if we could ride in the front. He said sure, and we were on the very next monorail! We shared the ride with two sweet little girls wearing a Sorcerer Mickey cap and a red sailor hat like Minnie wears, with a yellow flower. I complimented them on the hats and they blushed and said "Thanks...everybody likes them!" The ride into the sunset was beautiful - it was Drew's first time in the front of a monorail, and my first time in front at WDW.

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom at 7:20 and picked up our wristbands by City Hall. My trip plans called for the Main Street Electrical Parade at 8:00, but we discovered it had been changed to 7:30! Good thing we left DQ when we did. All the good viewing spots on Main Street were taken, so we hopped on the train to Frontierland and found a decent spot by Pecos Bill's. The spot got even better when the family in front of us decided to leave a few minutes before the parade, so we were right behind the rope.

The parade was wonderful - so cheery. My best childhood memories of WDW include the MSEP, so it's been great seeing it again. Drew liked it too.

We had a drink at Pecos Bill's while Frontierland cleared out a bit. Then we strolled to Fantasyland just as the fireworks were beginning, and saw Tinker Bell make her famous flight - I had never seen her so clearly before. There was a short wait for Peter Pan, which was as good as ever. We tried for Pooh, but the line was still 30 minutes, so we did It's a Small World instead.

We moseyed back to Liberty Square as the park closed, and showed our wristbands for admittance to the Haunted Mansion. There were only about 15 people in stretch room - it was eerie with the mansion that empty, but a lot easier to hear the soundtrack.

I led Drew back to the hub to watch for the goodnight kiss around 9:30, but it didn't happen! Boy, did I feel silly, but Drew didn't mind having a rest on a bench. Then as long as we were halfway there, we decided to do the rides in Tomorrowland, and caught a glimpse of Donald and Pluto on the way. I thought it was nice that the characters came out for E-Ride Night, giving folks a chance to see them without so many crowds.

We walked on to Buzz Lightyear and rode three times in a row without getting off - much fun! We each took our own car, and the high score of the night was 291,200 (me, of course). Drew doesn't usually let me spin the car too much, so I made myself thoroughly dizzy going round and round in the star tunnel.

Next, it was Drew's idea to do the Astro Orbiter, since we'd never done it before and the lines are usually so horrendous. I was terrified! We each took our own rocket ship, so I didn't even have Drew to hang on to as I tested the limits of my fear of heights. Drew loved it, but I was a little wide-eyed after the experience and claimed that even Alien Encounter would have been a relief after that.

Instead, we went back to the Haunted Mansion one more time, then headed for Splash Mountain. In the dark, we got a little disoriented and ended up at Thunder Mountain instead, so we took a spin on that. It seems a lot faster in the dark.

There was no line at all for Splash, so we went around three times without getting off! We shared a log with two other people the first time, but were alone after that. Drew spotted the Hidden Mickey in Brer Frog's fishing floats. The odd thing was that even though there'd recently been a rehab, the hopping Brer Rabbit wasn't working. I also wondered if there was a new character: the guitar-playing bird you see immediately after the boat in the finale. I thought Mr. Bluebird had been there before, but he was singing with Brer Rabbit in the next scene.

It was late and we were sleepy, so we made our way out through the thoroughly empty Magic Kingdom. We loved the uncrowdedness of E-Ride and will definitely come back again. We were back at the All Star Music at about 12:15.





Saturday, October 16, 1999

We got up at 9 - it was nice to sleep in a little bit after our late night. We packed up our last few things and Drew went to get breakfast (hot sandwich, danish, hash browns, croissant, cappuccino and orange juice - $16). To my surprise, there wasn't an express checkout envelope at the door - I wonder if you have to specially request that at the All Stars. We headed out at about 10:10 to check out and go to Animal Kingdom for our last morning, but when we got to the elevators, it was POURING rain, absolutely coming down in buckets. We turned around and went back to the room to decide what to do.

I was in a bad mood because it was our last morning, so the debate lasted quite a while. This turned out to be a good thing, though, because in the meantime, the rain *stopped*! We were back to Plan A and off to check out around 10:30.

There was a surprisingly low total on the room charge. We'd spent most of our travelers' checks, and had paid for the room in advance, but were still pleasantly surprised by the total we'd charged. I left our bags with Bell Services while Drew went to buy a rain poncho, and we were off to Animal Kingdom.

Once there, we went straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and were surprised and delighted to find only a five-minute wait. We had a good driver and saw plenty of critters, since the hurricane had made for a cool morning.

We took another trip down the Pangani trail to visit my beloved gorillas, and we were rewarded with glimpses of the silverback, the infant and the 4-year-old, plus a bachelor hanging out in a tree in the drizzle. It was raining enough that Drew wore his poncho without the hood and I occasionally put up my umbrella, but it wasn't bad at all.

We took a break to have a drink at Tusker House. I had spotted a travel mug with gorillas on it a few days ago and hoped to buy one today, but they only had rhinoceros mugs at the Kusafiri Bakery. I left Drew inside while I ducked out to check at the Harambe popcorn stand, and lo and behold, they had the gorilla ones. I happily bought one filled with Coke for about $3, and I now use it every day at work.

We decided to take a little trip to Conservation Station, since that was an attraction we'd missed so far on this trip. The Wildlife Express was in the train station when we got there, and the CM was kind enough to try to hold it for us, but the engineer had to take off without us. "Next train in two weeks!" joked the CM, but fortunately, it was only a few minutes. In the meantime, I borrowed a quarter from Drew and made him a pressed penny with Timon and Pumbaa on it - our first pressed penny ever.

When we got to Conservation Station, we spent a few minutes hanging out with the goats and sheep there. We both had fun playing with these friendly little animals - I think we missed our three cats. I was petting one goat when I suddenly felt something pushing up against my gorilla mug. I ignored it, but a little girl tapped me on the shoulder and said "Um, excuse me..." and pointed - another goat was determinedly butting my mug with his horns! Another little boy, about two years old, was toddling around after the animals, yelling "Wait! Wait!" He was very cute.

We washed our hands at the elephant trunks and went inside to see what was going on in the animal hospital. The last time I was here, I was on the other side of the glass during the Backstage Safari tour - it was fun to point out to Drew where I'd been. We chatted with a CM about some baby Thomson's gazelles who were in the hospital for safekeeping - two of them had broken their fragile little legs and had had metal pins set into them. One of the two had been born prematurely that morning, which was why her bones weren't strong enough to support her. The CM said he thought all the gazelles would come through just fine.

We peered at some other unusual animals through the glass: bearded dragon lizards, an Australian bird that looked like an owl but was actually in the hawk family, a tangled-up rat snake, and some gecko eggs. The mother gecko had laid the eggs against a stone lion statue, and the eggs were so firmly attached that the CMs had to dig up the whole statue and bring it in to be incubated. We also saw two short videos, narrated by Rafiki, about the plight of brown bears and gray wolves. Then it was getting a bit late, so we caught the train back to Harambe and made our way out of the park.

It was 1:55 by the time we made it to the bus stop, and Drew was terrified that we'd miss our 2:35 Mears pickup, but we got back to the All Star Music at 2:05. I dropped off our bags and we had a quick lunch of chicken salad for Drew and kids' pasta for me ($10.50), then joined the queue for Mears.

The Mears experience was remarkably confusing. The driver didn't seem to know how to deal with passengers, tickets and luggage all at once, and the whole process was repeated at the All Star Movies. But we nonetheless made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight and discovered, to our amazement, that it was *not* delayed due to the hurricane. Many flights to South Florida and the Caribbean were canceled entirely, though.

I saw the Excellent Parent of the Day in the airport ladies' room. She had two small boys with her and brought the little one into the stall with her, but told the bigger one to stand in a corner of the bathroom and keep his eyes on the wall "so the women can have some privacy." He calmly did as he was told. I almost applauded them all.

We had a little mild turbulence as we flew over Florida, but nothing out of the ordinary, and we were soon far away from hurricane country. Thank goodness we'd left Fort Lauderdale when we did, though - it was hit pretty hard by the storm just a few days after we left. Meantime, in our home state, there was a 7.0 earthquake, but it was out in the Mojave Desert and no one was hurt! I guess Mother Nature felt like being gentle with us all that week.

We flew to Minneapolis and connected to San Francisco with no problems at all and were home at about 11:30, tired but happy.



Final Thoughts

This was a truly wonderful trip. I can't think of a better way we could have spent our first anniversary than reliving our honeymoon!

The crowds were manageable - it was considerably more crowded than I expected, probably because of a combination of Columbus Day and the millennium celebration, but we never found it prohibitively crowded. October weather was a little hot for Drew's taste, but quite nice overall - it only rained on the day the hurricane hit, and even that was not bad at all. Most days, it was sunny or partly cloudy and about 80-87 degrees. At night, it was 70-75.

We had very good luck with transportation. Not only were all our flights more or less on time in spite of the hurricane, but we never had to wait more than 10-15 minutes for a Disney bus. I also just love it that when there's a big crowd waiting to go from Point A to Point B, they *send more buses*...that's simply not the case here in San Francisco. The only long bus ride we had was 45 minutes from the Wilderness Lodge to Downtown Disney via the Grand Floridian and Polynesian...if we ever have to do that again, we'll take a cab.

The All Star was a very good bargain. We got the MKC rate of about $75 a night including tax, and I think that was just about right. I *wouldn't* pay the holiday season rates of well over $100 - I've paid less than that for the moderates, and the moderates are a great deal nicer. But for a quick trip by myself, the All Stars will be great; or if (like this time) staying there allows us to be at WDW longer than we could normally afford to stay, then it's well worth it.

Food: We had some pretty incredible meals. The best, hands down, was Artist Point, followed closely by the Brown Derby, Akershus, and Chefs de France. We had decided to save some money by only scheduling a few sit-down meals, and even though we added in Artist Point at the last minute, we did come in considerably under budget on food. We really didn't feel like we were missing anything by not having three huge table-service meals a day (or even *one* a day).

Most magical moments: Tapestry of Nations and IllumiNations 2000 on our anniversary night; Lively Norwegian Folk Music; strolling through the Magic Kingdom rose garden; dinner at Artist Point; getting soaked on Kali River Rapids; taking our time watching the wonderful gorillas; the Treasures of World Showcase tour; convincing Bettina from Bonn that Drew was *not* German; American Vybe; and our whole last night at the Magic Kingdom - riding in front of the monorail, watching the MSEP from the front row, and going round and round on Splash Mountain in our very own log. Zip-a-dee-doo-dah indeed!

My next trip is February 5-11, 2000 at the Polynesian, just my grandmother and me for her first trip in ten years and her first time staying on-site. I can't wait! Drew is still trying to catch up on his sleep and is probably glad he's not going back too soon, but he really did enjoy himself, and it's getting easier and easier to convince him to make another trip to WDW. The good food always helps.

Anne Campbell

waxwing@sirius.com

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