Trip Reports

Hi! We're back. Got in at 4pm this afternoon. I'm just starting to be able to walk again, since I have blisters instead of toes!

Anyway, I'll try to make this short, and certainly sweet. I'll skip through the junk that is only of interest to my nearest and dearest and concentrate on the WDW experience.

I'm going to include my expenses, since I notice that no one else really has. I figure that it may be of use to first timers, and although finances are usually private-you don't know me and I don't know you so, [why not?] (FYI-This is our 12th trip to WDW)

Day 1-Weds., Aug 18

The travelers include myself, husband Joe and Daughter Katie, aged 11. (My daughter, aged 19, went to WDW with her friends in June, and my son, aged 21, just broke up with his girlfriend, and he's pooh-faced right now. Boo-Hoo). Anyway...

We left the house at 3am('cause we're certifiably insane), and drove from home (NJ) to Florence S. C. by 3pm. We stayed at the Traveler's Inn in Florence, (The motel with the Denny's attached). The room as $39.96 and clean and neat. (As I mentioned in previous posts, this trip we did on the cheap). We didn't even stop at South of the Border-thank GOD!

Day 2-Thurs, Aug 19

We set out at 7am and got to my friend's house in Tampa at 6:30.-The trip cost us $44 in gas and $7.25 in tolls.

Days 3 and 4, Fri and Sat. Aug 20 and 21

We spent 2 days in the Tampa area visiting friends. It's hard to believe the houses you can get down there for such reasonable prices! (At least compared to Jersey). The model in their development is gorgeous-4 bedrooms, pool with lanai, all beautiful rooms-starting at $175,000.

If you're ever in the Tampa area, spend an Evening at Ybor City. It's the Cuban section of town, and, after dark, they block off the main street to traffic, and the whole street is hung with lights. There are dozens of clubs, from Salsa to Country line dancing-it was fun. (Yet, I must warn you, after about 11 pm the Palmetto Bugs and Drug Dealers come out)

Day 5-Sunday, Aug 22

Finally Disney! We left Tampa at 7am and got to Epcot at opening(9AM). Now, Like I've said, this wasn't our first trip. If it had been, I would have asked for my money back. There is a large crane adjacent to Spaceship Earth (Mickey's wand and the 2000 are not yet attached), behind SE there are construction blockades (I don't know what they are doing in that area), Innoventions and ATT global neighborhood are closed, Imagination ride is closed, (Being re-furbed), Horizons is still closed, and all the water, (besides the main fountain), had been drained for cleaning. In other words, Epcot looked like [bad stuff to look like, ed.]-! I wanted to cry!

Anyway, when the shock wore off, we ran to test track-and walked right on! The day was improving! TT is a lot of fun, not at wild as the PR would have you believe, but exciting enough. We spent the rest of the AM doing Cranium command ("What's that scuzzy?"), Ellen's Energy Adv., Honey, I shrunk, Spaceship Earth (Still like Cronkite better), Living with the Land, and food Rocks. by 12:30pm it was 137 degrees (I may be exaggerating here), we ran into Ice Station Cool, had a snowball fight, did NOT try the "Beverly" and went to check in the All Star Music.

Since we Got the Room for $67 with tax, I shouldn't complain-but I will. The theming is okay, especially at night when the large figures on the buildings are illuminated. BUT, the Piano pool was being refurbished, so more construction barriers (Felt like I was back in Epcot!), and the room (In country and Western, Bldg. 6) was kinda small, which I expected, and kinda yucky, which I did not. The table was sticky, the one chair was stained, the walls were marked and scratched with something black, and the bedspreads were faded. (Next time, [forget] the expense, it's back to Dixie Landings!)

We ate the Food Court, which was typical. Then on to Magic Kingdom!

We thought we would spend the pm doing the classics, so we hit Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Small World. When we tried to do Carousel of Progress, it was closed! There was a sign on it that said-open 11am to 5pm daily! We asked a CM about this and he said they were slowly fazing it out! AAAH!!! Can nothing survive this holocaust!?

We ate dinner at the Crystal Palace, which was a Winnie the Pooh character Buffet. Surprisingly good, for buffet. The peel and eat shrimp were excellent, and the selections for entrees and desserts were quite varied.

After dinner, we hit Alien Encounter and Timekeeper-does anyone else think The tk is lame? Especially for Robin Williams? Oh, PS, the buffet was $19.95 for adults, and $9.95 for kids. Lunch at the food court cost us $16.43 for the three of us. Oh, and since when does the castle change colors at night? I looked up one minute and it was Purple and looked up later and it was blue. I thought I was having a stroke.

Day 6-Monday, Aug 23

This morning we got up at 7am-like I've noted before, we're nuts. We ate at the All Start Music Food court. Katie loved the Mickey waffles, I wasn't too thrilled with their bacon-too smokey flavored. But, it was reasonable at $12 for 3!

We got to Animal Kingdom by 7:45 and it was already hot enough to smelt iron. I really love the look and feel of AK-although there were a number of people there already, it is very peaceful. Although the CM's dressed as weird variations of animals at the safari village are mildly disturbing.

At opening (I really like that they blast "Circle of Life over the speakers at opening-how perfect!), we ran to the Kali River Rapids-there was no one on line-so we stayed on for three go-rounds! You DO get WET! Thank God! This kept us cool all morning-of course I had to run out later for some Desitin to put on my fat thigh rash-but that's probably more info than you wanted to hear. Anyhow, the rapids are great fun, not too wild, not too tame.

We walked through the India Jungle trek-that was extremely well done-the old ruins and the tropical landscaping were quite beautiful, and the tigers happened to be right up close. My daughter especially liked the Bat house-hundreds of fruit bats up close and personal, with a very informative CM from Bengali giving bat info.

Next, we landed at "It's tough to be a bug". I remember being not very impressed with this last year, but this go-round it was really neat! I liked the stink bug-it reminded me of the 50's when they tried to make these crappy 3Dmovies in "Smellovision".

We walked over to Dinoland to wait in line for "Tarzan Rocks". I was told that this show was very good, but I expected very little-I love Disney, but I tend to hate these sometimes corn-filled shows. Was I surprised by how excellent this one was! It was like a rock concert with roller blading-I know that sounds bizarre, but trust me. The guy who was the lead singer was extremely cool-very un-Disney. And the guy that played Tarzan had some set of pecs-whoa baby!...but, I digress.

We had lunch at Restarauntasaurus. What is the deal with the themeing on that place? There were old lawn chairs and open beer can strewn on the roof-it reminded me of Jersey! (And I have to say, purist that I am, I don't like the infiltration of McDonald's into WDW-Tell Ronald to get his own damn theme park!

We went back to the hotel, for some swimming, napping, and foot bandaging.

At 3pm we went to MGM. (And why was our bus always the last to show up? It became sort of a game, really. We'd decide what bus we wanted to take, and then take bets from other guests that ours would be last-we cleaned up).

By this time it had cooled off, some-I brought a piece of bread to feed the ducks, and it took at least three minutes for it to turn to toast.

We rode the Great Movie Ride-getting old. (Now, Disney, don't get nuts and tear it down, just change it to spice it up!)(a little!).

We had to wait in line for Star Tours about 15 mins, which is unusual for us, and then we walked right into Muppets 3D (They seem to have gotten rid of the 4D references). We had to wait almost an hour to get into the Animation tour-but I love that tour-after all, that's what all the hub bub is about, after all. They really aren't developing anything at the Orlando studio right now-"Dinosaur" is all California.

After the daily raging thunder storm, we had dinner at "Prime Time Cafe". The food was better than I expected, (I didn't expect much), and we had a low key waitress. The people next to us had this waiter that looked like an ex-bouncer-he had the one kid nearly in tears because he wouldn't finish his meal! He sat next to this poor 8 year old boy and told him how there were starving Armenians that would kill for his little crust of Garlic Bread.

I finished every drop on my plate.

We got back to the hotel by 9pm, and played in the arcade a bit-Katie hit the jackpot on a game and won 250 points! Whippy-Skippy!

F.Y.I-The lunch at Restaurantasaurus ran $18.68 and dinner at Prime Time, Inc. tax and tip was $53.

I was exhausted already, and already dreading the fact that I'd ever have to leave this place. I wonder if we could design a twelve step program for Disneyholics? But then, who would ever want to be cured?

Budget Totals

F.Y.I. I thought posting my actual trip cost may help someone else with their DW budget, so here's the totals:

(This is for 12 days, 3 people) 3, 5day passes for WDW(with MKC discount-$601 cape Kennedy $53 Breakfasts $43 lunches $211 Dinners $458 Gas(2400 miles) $105 Hotel(for 8 nights-spent 3 at a friend) $512 Snacks $31 Souvenirs $78 Tolls $27 misc.. $123

GRAND TOTAL: $2423 (FOR DETAILS, READ MY tr'S)

Kathy Cook

jkcook2@juno.com

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