Trip Reports

September 26-29, 1999

Last week I took a very short three-night trip to WDW. This is not what I would ever recommend anyone do but 3 nights is better than none. It was a very hectic trip. If I had been alone, as I had originally planned, the pace would have been much slower with more pool time but when a friend decided to join me, I was thrilled & the slow pace was no longer on the books. Since Sondra had never seen The Studios or AK we had to include those in the plans. And of course you cannot go to WDW, even for a short trip without going to MK. We were lucky that there was an E-ticket night while we were there.

I do believe the planning of a short trip is much more difficult than a longer one. Many of the parades & fireworks were not being shown. It took me a long time to get everything just so, trying to save us time & money. Give me a two week trip to plan (& enjoy) any day over a 3 night trip J.

TRAVELERS:

Two 50 something woman, minus any men or children; both vegetarians; Me, Carole, an experienced WDW traveler and Sondra having been to WDW several times in the 80s & once in '93, but never stayed on property. In the past she usually traveled with her now grown children and they camped.

I have an Annual Pass and I gave Sondra a Hopper that was left over from years back so she had three days with that & all she had to buy was a one day ticket for our last day.

TRANSPORTATION: Delta Express Airlines and Tiffany Town Car. I only use Tiffany now after having had big problems with another town car service in Orlando several years ago. Tiffany is a great service & will pick you up on time & take you safely to your resort. You can also stop at a grocery store (Publix), which is what we did, at no extra charge.

RESORT: Beach Club with the AP discount. The water view room (free upgrade) was $546 (including tax) for the 3 nights.

RESTAURANTS: In about three or four weeks (by the end of Oct.) I'll have my web site updated with the restaurants we ate at. So for meal details please check back there. I'm not going into too much detail here.

PRIORITY SEATING: I don't usually make PS from home but this time I decided to make a few since our time was short and there were a few restaurants I really wanted Sondra to see.

GUIDEBOOK USED: PASSPORTER: I have read every guidebook on WDW and really find the PassPorter by Jennifer Watson & Dave Marx to be very convenient & informative. I love the idea of the pockets to keep all my little papers in one place. The pockets in this guidebook really came in handy during this past trip.

WEATHER: 80s & 90s…sunny…beautiful

PURPOSE OF TRIP: To have fun & gather menus for my web site.

MY DINING WEB SITE: http://browser.to/DisneyWorldVeggieDining

MY BEACH CLUB/YACHT CLUB/STORMALONG BAY WEB SITE: http://members.aol.com/Epcotfav1

What I planned for us:

First day:

Cirque du Soleil
Fantasmic dinner package at Brown Derby
Second Day:

Disney MGM Studios
Ice Cream Social @ Garden Grill
IllumiNations 2000, Reflections of Earth
Day Three:

Animal Kingdom
E-Ticket night @ MK
Day Four:

Epcot
Since we had an early AM flight and the airport is 1 1/2 hours from my home (leaving from the airport near my home would have been much more costly & not a direct flight to Orlando) we decided to drive to Albany the night before & stay in a Quality Inn which cost us $54 for the night. We actually spent less than seven hours there. One reason I picked this hotel was because breakfast was included in the price but unbeknownst to us, breakfast isn't served until 7AM on Sunday & we had to leave by 6:30, so we left without eating. We grabbed something at the airport since we knew the Delta Express that we were taking certainly would not be feeding us.

DAY ONE: Sunday, Sept 26th

Our flight took off at 7:45 AM Sunday, September 26. This was the first time I have flown Delta in several years & could not believe how tight they have made these planes. I could not even cross my legs. My knees were practically in my face! They handed each of us a little package of pretzels; a granola bar & one bite size Tootsie Roll…just what I want for breakfast! Who the heck comes up with these selections? Can't they at least give us a muffin or a bagel?

We arrived, on time, in Orlando at 10:30. No matter how many times I have flown, it continues to amaze me how quickly I can get from one place to another. (the fax machine never ceases to amaze me either J ) Moe from Tiffany Town Car was waiting for us on the second floor baggage area. Moe is almost always my driver when I use TTC. He is wonderful, kind & a very safe driver. I like him lots & hope he never changes jobs! He is a dear, sweet person. He took us to Publix so we could pick up a few grocery items for our breakfasts. Since we were going to be on such a tight schedule we decided to have breakfast on our balcony each day. I really like doing this & will probably continue to do this in the future. It certainly saved us money. We spent $27.16, which included an $11 bottle of wine. We also bought Granola bars, bagels, blueberry muffins, OJ, cream for coffee, bananas, grapes & a container of mixed fruit & a large bag of nachos. Coffee came from home. For $15 we had four breakfasts for the two of us. Can't beat that price! Moe then took us to the Beach Club where we checked in & had valet hold our bags since we didn't have time to go up to the room until later, even though the room was ready. Moe waited while we did this & then he took us over to Planet Hollywood where we had 1 PM Priority Seating. What a great guy Moe was to do this. He took lots of time for us and made the trip over to Pleasure Island much easier.

We ate at Planet Hollywood, which I always enjoy. The décor is very interesting & certainly keeps you busy while you're waiting for the food. My one complaint about this restaurant is the volume of the soundtrack to the videos that play on a continuous loop on the many large TV screens. It must have been on extra loud, as it never seemed this loud to me before. We had a great deal of trouble hearing each other over lunch. Neither of us was very hungry (must have been that filling Tootsie Roll on the plane) so we shared an order of onion rings & we each had a salad. I had the honey-mustard dressing that was so very delicious. One of the best dressings I can remember having. The onion rings came with a nice ranch dressing. We each had a glass of Chardonnay to toast our trip! The first of many glasses of wine to follow J . What are vacations for, anyway? The cost of that meal was about $23. (Some of our meals were gratis & I don't want to mentiuon which were & which were not, but I'm giving you the price of the meals even if we didn't pay for them). From here we walked over to Cirque du Soleil & it began to pour as we started our walk. We ducked under and into the various buildings until we arrived at Cirque. It was Sondra's idea to see Cirque. I really hadn't thought about seeing it at this time since our trip was so short. I didn't want to waste time watching this show. After the first five minutes of the show I was so glad we had tickets. I called about two weeks before the trip for the tickets. The theater was only about 2/3 full so we could have bought perfectly good seats at the door. But I'm glad we had them ahead of time. The theater is huge and round and has seats approximately 3/4 of the way around the stage area. There are two different sections going up the theater with an aisle in between where a small portion of the performance will take place. We were sitting in the third row of the second section; excellent seats but I don't believe there is a bad seat in the house. The seats in the row in front of you are so far down that I was able to see right over the head in front of me without any problem. I will not give away any of the show, it would be very difficult to describe this anyway. I will just say SEE IT!!! It was worth every penny we paid for our tickets. I applauded so much that my hands hurt for hours after. Thank you Sondra, for thinking of this!

From here we went back to the BC to go to our room. I have been very lucky getting the same room for many trips now & I could not wait for Sondra to see this beautiful hotel & our room. Her mouth dropped when she saw everything, especially Stormalong Bay. She's a real water person, as I am, and that pool made the hotel for her as it does for many of us. After taking a quick look around the place & showering and changing our clothes that we'd had on all day, we took the water taxi over to MGM for our 6 PM PS at the Brown Derby. Unbeknown to us we walked right into a sea of people watching the Soap Opera Day parade. Neither of us watch soaps and were not interested in this, all we wanted to do was try to get through all these people to the BD. We made it, but were a few minutes late. We had PS for the Fantasmic dinner package. Even though they tell you that you must each have an entrée I asked if I could have two appetizers instead since there was not too much for vegetarians on the menu. This was no problem. Sondra had a very nice vegetarian pasta dish and I had the Woodland Mushrooms with Pasta Leaves and the Caesar Salad. We each had a glass of the Cakebread Chardonnay wine. Our server, Quinton from Key West, was very nice & extremely helpful but for some reason he did not realize we had the Fantasmic package and when I mentioned this it was about 7:25 & he informed us that we had to be over to Fastasmic by 7:30. At this point neither of us had finished our meal or our wine. We had to gobble down the rest of our food & we were not able to finish. It was upsetting to have to end the meal this way. We did take a piece of grapefruit cake to go. The total for this meal was $51.10 without the tip. By the way, the Cakebread wine was very nice & went well with what we ate. Quinton did tell us about the backstage entrance to Fantasmic so we did manage to make it into the show without any problems after running over there. Not the way I wanted to do this.

I have seen Fantasmic before but Sondra had not. She said she liked it but was not thrilled by it & she thought it was much too loud. Disney does tend to make some attractions so very loud. She also stated she didn't understand what it was supposed to represent. After I tried to explain it to her it made more sense. She did like the special effects. I really believe she was just too tired at this point to appreciate it and will have to see it again. I noticed that they didn't have the water spraying into the first few rows of the audience. Anyone know why this was taken out? I love Fantasmic and look forward to seeing it again. The music is beautiful and coincidentally, as I'm writing this I'm listening to the new CD I bought at WDW. And what is playing but the Finale to Fastasmic! Just gorgeous music.

After Fantasmic we took the water taxi to the BW and we walked around & then went back to the BC. We sat on the balcony with a glass of wine & after showering we turned in around midnight, totally exhausted after being awake for about 19 hours.

DAY TWO; Monday, Sept. 27th

MGM day. Up at 7:30 so we could shower, eat and catch the water taxi to arrive at MGM when it opened at 9. We decided to go to Rock n Roller Coaster first in case we would need a FASTPASS. This is located on Sunset Boulevard near the Tower of Terror.

There was no line at all and we walked right on. We watched a short pre-show involving Aerosmith in their recording studio. They invite all of us to join them at the concert they are performing at that evening. Their manager mentions that there is not enough room for all of us in Aerosmith's limo so they have to order a limo for us. "Better get a stretch limo" with all the people out there. As we leave the pre-show we walk out to the track where the limos are and the first thing you see is a limo taking off at such speed that it is totally blurred! This is where a number of people were deciding if they really wanted to brave this or back down. Sondra almost didn't go but she did. I'm not sure she's glad she did it . There was a little girl behind us who began to cry. At this point she was so frightened and her mother kept telling her, "but you've been on all the other rides". She was really trying to convince this crying, scared child to ride something she didn't want to. I felt so sorry for this little girl. Did she ride it? We don't know since we got into our car while they were still standing on the side. I was so nervous about this ride that I can't even tell you what this limo looked like or how many of us fit in it. I was on the end & Sondra was next to me but I don't know if there were others in our row or how many rows of seats there were! There are no seat belts on this as they have those bars instead that come down over your shoulders, like the ones on Alien. OK, we are now harnessed in & the limo moves a few yards down the track. As we are sitting there the music from Aerosmith is blasting in our ears. We then sit there for a few seconds & I think there is a countdown, or did I imagine that? Or was that a different attraction? I let out a scream before we even moved. As Sondra quickly found out, I'm not a quiet rider of anything at WDW! I laugh and scream so much I usually end up with a sore throat. So, we are sitting there waiting for this thing to take off and take off it does: 0 to 60 mph in less than 3 seconds. We were now on our way to the concert but evidently we were late as we were listening to the concert as we were riding in that limo. Now, let me tell you, Moe, from Tiffany Town Car was not driving this limo! He would never be this reckless! The Aerosmith limo driver was so reckless that we were turning upside down, speeding, taking those curves and turns with great speed, turning us upside down twice more and continually speeding towards that concert. This was at night so everything is in the dark and all we see are signs and landmarks that are lit. The music gets faster and faster as we go along. This is a short ride, less than two minutes.

Before going to WDW I wrote on the boards about going on this attraction because I was SO unsure. Everyone who wrote back told me to try it & I'm so glad I did. Thanks to all of you who answered my note. I will definitely go on this again on the next trip. This is one of those attractions that you really need to go on many times to get in everything, especially since my eyes were closed for some of it! I didn't see anything for the first 30 seconds or so. As for the inversions, with the exception of the first one, I don't know when the others were. They are so fast that it is fun, not frightening. I recommend this, but not for children who are crying & frightened.

From here we went on the other attractions at MGM, the Backlot Tour was interesting. I've taken this tour many times but never saw anything going on. Today, they were filming a show called Donna's Day and were putting up the Christmas lights. It was interesting to watch all this. When we took the BackStage Tour I was somehow chosen to ride the bike in the Dalmatian scene. It was fun. I have ended up in so many of these things over the years and always enjoy having a chance to do a little acting!

For lunch we had PS at 11:30 for 50s Prime Time. We were a little late but walked right in. By the time we left the place was crowded and the "living room" full with people waiting to be seated. I always enjoy eating here and their food has certainly improved recently. Aunt Elaine, a real nice 'little ole lady' who has been with Disney for ages, served us! She really was giving some of us a hard time & we did the same to her. She was nice enough to have Chef Andrew come out & talk with us about our lunch to see what he could do for we vegetarians. We ended up with pasta that was just chock full of fresh veggies. It was absolutely delicious. We didn't have dessert since we were off to the Garden Grill for the ice cream social at 3PM. Cost: $21.88 without tip.

After lunch we rode Star Tours and The Great Movie Ride and just walked into some of the shops. We then took a water taxi to BW & then transferred over to one for Epcot. Off to the Garden Grill for the Ice Cream Social. I have been to this already & liked it & since I had another free ticket I wanted Sondra to try it. We had the usual very large ice cream sundae with fruit, cookie & chocolate. The characters came around also. We saw Chip, Dale & Mickey & had our pictures taken with them. From here we went back to the BC to swim in the Bay for 1 1/2 hours. Unfortunately we only used the Bay twice during this trip. We found two tubes that no one was using and just rode for about 30 min. It was so relaxing to have the water do the work! After having a wonderful, cooling off time in the Bay we went back to the room to shower and change for the evening.

We had 7PM PS at the San Angel Inn. As we walked over from the BC the Tapestry of Nation's parade was going by. This was a soft opening of this parade for the big October 1st celebration. It is so beautiful. The costumes are designed by the people who designed the costumes for the Lion King on Broadway. There are 120 puppets that tower about 20 feet over the audience and there are these huge round timepieces that are percussion pieces. I was told that the audience is going to be encouraged to join in when it opens Oct 1st and thereafter but when we saw it, we were told to keep back & not asked to join in with drumming activity. This parade goes on each evening at 6:30 and about 8:15PM. It is in three parts. & each of these goes from certain countries to certain countries. One leaves from Morocco & goes to UK, the next leaves Canada & goes to Mexico and the third leaves Norway and goes to Japan. Now, this is what I was told by a CM but it does not seem to make sense to me since one route is much longer than the other two. Anyone know for sure? There are 19 new torches all around the lagoon that are lit as the parade begins. It took us a day to find out what those torches were all about. It is remarkable when all this begins. It just brings tears to my eyes.

Our table at San Angel Inn was not ready so they gave us a beeper & we went on the El Rio De Tiempo ride, which just re-opened today after being refurbished. I saw absolutely no difference other than everything was brighter and had been painted. There was one little scene that I don't remember seeing in the past but since nothing else was changed I doubt this was new but just something I never noticed before. Our beeper went off while on the ride. We had a seat by the water, which I had asked for. This restaurant is one of my favorites. The meal begins with a large basket of nachos and a hot salsa and we each ordered the Plato Combinacion, which is one of their vegetarian dishes. I've had this many times and always have liked it but this time it seemed hotter than usual. Sondra loves hot food and she really enjoyed this. We each had a nice glass of white wine and the bill came to $38 including tip and tax. From here we walked over to IllumiNations. I had one of the special viewing area coupons from the Magic Delivery package, which is where the free ice cream social coupon came from. You are supposed to trade this ticket in for a special pass at Epcot Guest Relations before 5 PM. But I forgot to do this so I took a chance & went directly to this area and they were nice enough to let us in since there were only about a dozen people there. We were taken down to the really special area where we were able to sit and watch! It was wonderful. We lucked out! We sat next to a mother and daughter who were real WDW fans. The daughter, Erin, is getting married in April & will probably be honeymooning at WDW. She has been here about 15 times. We had a very nice chat with them for the 15 minutes or so that we waited. Very nice people.

We had a soft opening of The new IllumiNations 2000, Reflections of Earth . We sat there for about 15 minutes in awe of what we were watching. It is just incredible. There is no comparison to the previous IllumiNations with the exception that the countries still do light up but not in the same way. Other than that this is totally different. There is fire on the water that, along with lasers, shoot up into the air and the Earth moves along the water, there are images reflecting on the earth & the music is beautiful. At the end the Earth opens up and looks like a flower, there is a huge torch inside and the finale of fireworks happens, Exciting, beautiful, amazing! Everyone has to see this to truly appreciate the beauty and wonder of it all. We all left asking, "How did they do all that?" I wish we could have seen it again while we were there but time just did not allow for it

After this spectacular we walked back to the BC with our mouths open. We showered, sat on the balcony enjoying a nice glass of wine, relaxed a little and then went off to bed, since tomorrow was another early day….this time to Animal Kingdom.

At about 3:30 AM we were both startled awake by fireworks. I jumped out of bed wondering what was going on. I went onto the balcony but nothing else happened. We figured someone was fooling around & we went back to bed. We both had a difficult time getting back to sleep but finally did sometime after 4:30. At about 5:15 the noise happened again. Once more I jumped, went to the window but it was over that quickly. This time I fell asleep faster but in another 1/2 hour the same thing happened. I was furious. At this point neither of us could get back to sleep. We lost almost an entire night's sleep. All I could think of was Disney's testing of fireworks. But why the heck would they do this at these hours? We decided there was no way Disney would do this to their guests & wondered what else it could be. We both missed a good night's sleep. In the AM I called the Front Desk to find out if they knew what was going on. Oh yes, Disney was testing for IllumiNations. "Weren't you told when you checked in?" No, no one mentioned a thing.

DAY THREE- Tuesday Sept. 28th

We awoke at 6:15 (I should say we got out of bed since we were already awake) to eat breakfast, shower, dress & get the 7:40 AM bus to the AK. This was one morning I really wished I drank coffee to wake me up. We had about a 5 minute wait for the bus. We arrived at AK & had a 5-minute wait there until the gates opened. We decided to do the Safari first with hopes of repeating it later in the afternoon. There was a long line already, all the way out into Harambe near the fruit stand. We walked over to the FASTPASS (FP) machines and took one of those. For those of you who are not familiar with this very new WDW idea I'll try to describe it. There are a few rides (more in the future) that have the FP now. If you get to one of these & the line is too long, all you have to do is go to the machine, which is always next to the attraction line. You put your park admittance ticket in this machine, and out will pop a ticket that will have a time on it. Say you are there at 12 noon. Your ticket will come out saying something like 1:10 - 2:10. When you come back anywhere within that hour, you will walk right on the attraction…no line at all. This is what we did for several of the attractions at AK and we walked onto everything right past hundreds of people waiting in line. People look at you & wonder how you did that! You feel like a VIP! I cannot understand why more people do not do this. The CMs are constantly telling people about this but very few people are taking advantage of it! When you use the FP be sure to take your FP ticket & also your entrance pass. Don't forget either one of them.

We took our FP for the Safari and went to walk through Gorilla Falls. I know it is now Pangani Forest Exploration Trail but I first saw AK a few weeks after it opened & this will always be Gorilla Falls to me. Sondra has never been to AK but she was very interested, as I am, in the animals & how they are cared for & their living condition in general. She left very impressed. Since we were the only two humans on the trail when we arrived a guide volunteered to take us on a private tour. Alina, from South Africa, was so interesting & so knowledgeable about everything. She had every answer to every question anyone asked her. Impressive….we could not stump her. She took us from the beginning of the trail into the hippo room. At this point she had to leave us. We walked through the trail into the naked mole rat building than into the beautiful bird area where we saw many more birds than I've seen there on any of my past visits. From there we went into the hippo area where we not only saw the mom & dad but the baby was there also. It was so much fun to watch these three floating around and playing together. Just like a human family would be doing in their home swimming pool! Gosh that baby is cute. Hippos are most feared in the wild because of their enormous teeth that could kill in seconds. They are vegetarians but their teeth don't look that way. From here we walked over to the area with the Dik-Diks and Meerkats. There were four Meerkats lined up along one of the big boulders, standing on their hind legs, just basking in the sun. They were so cute. We then saw the Gorillas. Both babies were out and so were all the adults. This is the first time I saw everyone at the same time. I have been watching these little ones grow up. It is fascinating. When we were finished with our leisurely walk through the Falls it was time for our FP to the Safari. We walked right past all the people in the regular line to get right on our safari vehicle. We saw just about every animal out there, including the cheetahs. This driver went so fast that there was not enough time to get any good pictures. I have been on this many times and never had a driver who didn't at least give us a little time to snap some photos. I suggested to Sondra that we try to ride again later in the day when the lines were not long. I thought perhaps she was driving fast because the lines were so long waiting to go on the Safari. None the less it was nice as always to see the animals. Just picked up my photos & was amazed how clearly they turned out. It must be the 800 speed film.

From here we walked towards Asia & found a little path to take behind the scenes. We walked in there & it was so peaceful, with the trees, flowers, and a little brook. We then went over to Camp Minnie-Mickey for the 11 AM Lion King Show, We were early and no one was in line yet so we walked around and bought some lemonade before going back at 10:50 to walk right into the theater. We sat in the third row in the Wart Hog section. I have seen this show & wanted Sondra to experience it. She was really impressed. For anyone who has not seen this, it is a theater in the round and every seat is a good seat. The singing, dancing, acrobats, costumes and floats are all incredible. I always sing along during this….the music is so beautiful. It's lots of fun to watch the little children that are pulled from the audience to participate. One of the CMs who works here is from my area so I stopped and said a quick hello to Debbie. Her brother owns one of the pharmacies in the little village I live in, New Paltz, NY. We just happened to notice her name pin last May when we were there. It's strange to run into someone from your town when your town is so small. From here we went over to Dinoland. DON'T MISS The Lion King Show!!!

The line for Countdown to Extinction was quite long; outside of the building, so we decided to use the FP here. After picking this up we walked over to Asia and tried to get a FP for Kali River Rapids. It worked & off we went to walk through the Maharajah Jungle Trek where we would see gibbons and Komodo dragons among the other animals. The bat area here is most fascinating. Many fruit bats and others, whose names escape me, are just hanging around all over the place. They are in a very large area out in the open and we stand in an area that is partially enclosed. There is screening on some of the windows while others are open with just vertical slats of wood. People were asking why the bats don't go through these windows into the area we are standing in. My only answer is that their wing span is too large to fit through these slats. But, could they not walk through? I'm sure not or Disney would not have built this area the way they did. We continued walking going over to the tiger area. None of the tigers were around their swimming area as they were last time I came through here. That area was empty. We then walked around to the other area and there were 3 of them, sleeping very soundly.

One was on his back with his paws in the air, just like my kitties sleep at home. On the other side were two other tigers, also sound asleep. I was disappointed that we didn't see then awake this time but all cats, large and small, do sleep away most of their day. From here we continued our walk around this most beautiful area into the aviary. The beauty of this area is indescribable. You really feel like you are walking through ancient ruins and villages and jungles. The landscaping, the paintings on the ruins, the sounds and all the sights make you feel like you really are in Asia. Very difficult to describe this relaxing area.

The timing was perfect as we completed this walk it was 2:10. Our FP for the River Rapids was 2:10 - 3:10 so we walked directly over there. When we arrived it was only about 2:06 & they will not let us in before 2:10. In four minutes we walked in and rode one of my favorites. This was a very hot day, in the 90s and I was looking forward to possibly getting wet & cooling off. I was on this ride once before and managed to stay completely dry. Sondra was not anxious to get wet but as we watched people walk off this attraction it became obvious to her that her changes of getting wet were pretty good! We and ten others jumped into our raft, quickly put out belongings in the water-proof center and sat back to enjoy a very relaxing ride (those are my words, not everyone's).

I really love this ride and get annoyed when I see a guide book like the Complete Idiot's Guide to WDW describe it as "if you dare open your eyes for a few moments….". I've never had my eyes closed on this attraction, why would I? There is NOTHING frightening about this. Even the drop is so small that I've never heard anyone complain about it. I have to wonder if the people who wrote this book ever rode the River Rapids since they also state that only 6 people ride this at a time while there are actually seats for 12. I find this ride fun & relaxing. When you get to the area where the loggers have destroyed the rain forest you will see a logger's truck on the side. Right after this you will go around a bend and this is where the small drop is. As you first go down this drop, if you go down backwards, YOU WILL GET WET. If you go down forwards, you won't get too wet. Well, when I saw that Sondra & I were going down backwards I knew what we were in for! Down we went & up came the water, soaking both of us to the bone, right through our underwear! I thought it felt cooling but Sondra was upset and immediately wanted to go to a restroom to try to dry off, which is what we did. Back to the ride: after you go down the drop you will just continue around for a short time & you might get squirted on a bit more. There are places on the bridge where people can squirt us as we pass under them. What a fun attraction this is. Don't miss it. We then went over to Pizzafari for a nice veggie sandwich lunch. What a cute restaurants this is. We were so thrilled to see that the Restaurantosaurus had listed on its outside menu a vegetarian platter. We went in and asked about it and we were told it is a lettuce & tomato salad. What a disappointment. By the end of Oct (hopefully sooner,) I'll have my web site updated with all the restaurants we went to during this trip.

From here we walked back to CDTE in Dinoland to use the FP we got about 1 1/2 hours before. (As we walked into Dinoland there were KDs (10 foot X 10 foot canopies) down the entrance to Dinoland. Under these canopies were DJs from various radio stations in the UK, broadcasting the WDW Millennium celebration. Again, we walked right on without waiting at all. Countdown to Extinction is a bit of a rough ride. You do get bounced around somewhat in your seat but it is worth it. This is one fun attraction. I have been on this so many times I really don't know what the count is by now. There is a short pre-show and then you go down some steps to get into your time vehicle to take you back to the age of the dinosaur. These cars are like the ones used in Disneyland for Indiana Jones. It seats four in a row and I think there are three rows. You are trying to save the friendly iguanodon and bring it back with you. This ride is dark and rough but not overly so. It's fun and when we finished Sondra wanted to go again. Your picture is taken on here at some point but I still cannot figure out exactly where they snap us. Can someone let me know?

After this we went over to get a close look at the Tree of Life. What a breathtaking, magnificent Disney creation. As many times as I've seen this I still am fascinated by what I see. I always seem to find an animal or two or three I didn't see the last time. Many of them are difficult to pick out.

We walked through the Tree of Life Garden where you have a good view of the Tree and saw the otters and other creatures along with exotic plants & flowers. What a beautiful area this is. We walked right into It's Tough To Be A Bug, the 3-D movie inside the Tree of Life. Please, even if there is no line, as has been the case every time except one, for me, make sure you take this walk slowly. Let all the people in a rush pass you by. This is one of the most beautiful walks in WDW. There are many animal cravings along the way, along with live birds and the most lovely foliage & flowers. I would like to spend a few hours in there someday really taking in every little detail.

I've seen It's Tough To Be A Bug a few times & it always makes me laugh. Every time I have been in there children are screaming & asking to leave. Parents are certainly warned enough before entering that this can be very scary for little ones. Why they don't take heed is beyond me. And why, when a child begins to scream & wants to leave do some parents just sit there? I feel so badly for these little ones. It's so unfair to make a child stay under those circumstances. But it happens every time I go in there. You wear 3-D glasses and the movie talks about various bugs. I don't want to give away the little surprises, but unless you are very young or have a phobia about bugs, you will get a kick out of this attraction.

After this we headed back to Africa and were able to just walk onto the Safari ride for the second time today. I was hoping since there were no lines, that the driver might stop for a few seconds once in awhile so we could take photos. He did take a little more time than the A M driver but it was still difficult to take good shots. We'll see when I get back my film. I just love this trek through Africa. You really do feel like you are looking at the African savanna. Again we saw lots of animals. I believe we saw the same ones that we saw in the AM.

After this it was almost 5PM so we headed to the exit, as AK was closing at 5 today. We caught our bus back to the BC, changed into our bathing suits & went off to the Bay for a short swim. After this we went back to the room, showered & changed for the evening, and went down to Beaches & Cream for a quick dinner since we had E-tickets for tonight. We each ordered a veggie burger with the fruit & a lemonade and shared an order of onion rings. The cost was $13.78 without tip.

From here we went to the bus stop to catch a bus over to MK for our E-ticket night. We arrived at the MK at 7:30PM. Rode Splash, Big Thunder Mt, Haunted Mansion, Astro Orbiter, Timekeeper and Buzz Lightyear. Now, I was really a bit annoyed with Sondra by the end of this evening J . I have been on Buzz many times & have yet to get more than 50,000 points. Embarrassing!!! This night we rode four times & the most I managed to gather was 22,000 points. I have no idea what I'm doing. It seems to me that there are red lights all over the place & I can't aim for anything. Sondra does this once and comes off with about 150,000 points. The people all around me have 300,000 or more! What IS my problem here? I'm sure the next time we do this Sondra will have 500,000points & I'll have 5,000! But I sure did have fun spinning myself around in my car. We were able to ride four times without getting out. OHHHH E-Ticket....what a joy!

We stayed until the very end of E-Ticket night and at about 10:15 we walked down Main Street, with barely a soul around. This E-ticket night was really empty. Less people than I've seen on any E-ticket night. It is just so beautiful & peaceful to walk down Main St. at the end of this evening. It brought tears to my eyes looking back at the gorgeous castle. I hope Disney never changes their E-ticket nights.

When we arrived back at the BC we went to the quiet pool to soak our feet in the hot tub. There were a few people in there & we all had a nice end of the day WDW conversation. I love talking to other WDW fanatics. After about 1/2 hour we had to go back to our room. Since we were leaving the next day we still had to pack before we went to sleep. We showered & changed & then began the tortuous task of packing to leave WDW. Gosh,,, do I HATE this. Especially with Oct 1st around the corner. I just hated to miss this celebration. It made me so sad.

LAST DAY: Wednesday, Sept. 29th

We were up at 7:15 so we could get into Epcot before Test Track opened. Again we had breakfast on our balcony, showered & dressed. We decided to just check-out early since we would be in Epcot all day. Our bags were put into storage. We went right over to Test Track and walked right on. I have been on this several times & just love it. This was a first for Sondra & she also liked it. The queue here is very interesting. I notice that WDW is making all the queues for their new rides more & more interesting since they realize people spend lots of time in them. This queue shows the different testing methods that every new car goes through before it gets on the showroom floor.

Once you are in your car, which can hold 3 people in the front seat & 3 in the back, you are off to the testing ground in your own vehicle. You first climb up a big hill and think you know what is at the top of this hill! After this you go through rough road testing, hot & cold testing, stopping with & without anti-lock brakes, corrosive testing, curves and hills. All this is inside and then you are taken outside for the best part of the ride as you go around the outside of the TT building at high speeds. I have never been on this in the rain but I guess it can be interesting. This is another ride where your picture is taken & of course is for sale.

At this point I wanted to go on Spaceship Earth, my favorite ride in all of WDW and Sondra wanted to go over to the American Garden Theater to see Lord of the Dance so we split up.. I managed to catch the last 5-min. of Lord of the Dance after going through SSE. I was impressed, as was Sondra. I was disappointed that the new Journey Into Imagination was not open yet. After meeting up again we walked around the World Showcase. I stopped to talk to a few of the chefs & managers about my web site along the way. The manager at Marrakesh Restaurant (this is what it is now called) sat down & discussed their new format with me. Marrakesh will now only serve dinner. They will have family style or you can order off the menu. (See my web site for an update on this, that I put in Oct 1st). The new eatery, Tangierine Café, will be at the front of the Moroccan pavilion. This will be open for lunch & dinner & will be quick service. I was the first person to have this new info, as the manager had not even faxed this over to Marketing when we spoke.

We then went on Maelstrom, the 'ride' in Norway. I always enjoy this little attraction. We managed to get off the boat just as the doors opened to the movie & we walked through. I always feel badly when I do this but since our time was very limited & I have seen this umpteenth times, we had to go through.

Epcot is just swarming with media getting prepared for Oct.1st. Those canopies that were in AK are now in Epcot & they have multiplied. There are radio stations from all over this country & Europe, broadcasting live from Epcot this week. There are areas all over WS & FW that have bands set up. It is all so exciting & it just makes me so sad that i won't be here!

In FW, near SSE there is an area that has an open-air canopy over it, the big 2000 on SSE is seen from every angle. But, unless you are close you do not see Mickey's hand. I think this should have been put up higher. When you enter Epcot from the front there is a huge area with metallic tiles where you can have your photo taken & it will be etched in these tiles forever. This is magnificent...what a change from May when this entire area was blocked off. Now we know why!

We had PS for 1:30 at San Angel Inn. We decided to eat here for our last meal of this trip since we both love this restaurant so much and we were in Epcot today. We each had the same things we had 2 days ago: the vegetarian Plato Combinacion and two glasses of wine apiece. This time the meal was even hotter than the one from 2 days ago & I could only eat a small portion of the meal. Sondra loved it & ate every morsel. I had a wonderful dessert. It was called a Chimichanga (sp?) with fried banana & vanilla ice cream. It was delicious. This bill came to $36.84 including tax & tip.

After lunch we went over to Future World and rode Body Wars & took in The Sea. We then rode our last attraction for this trip: Test Track.

Epcot closed at 4PM today because of the Millennium celebration. We went back to the BC & I said a quick "hi" to some of my favorite CMs at the BC, Jim & Robert. We then got some clothes out of storage, went over to the Health Club, took a shower & changed clothes for our trip home.

We then went out front & Moe, from Tiffany Town Car, was waiting for us. He took care of our luggage & off we went to the airport. We took a 6:25PM flight back to Albany. I was in my living room by 11:30PM.

COMMENTS:

Why can't they have a water taxi that only runs between MGM & Epcot in Crescent Lake?
If you are prone to headaches, I would be careful about the Rock n Roller Coaster. It really bangs your head around.
I wish they would slow the Safari ride down just a little so it would be easier to take pictures
Speaking of pictures on the Safari: bring 800 speed film & you will have much better photos
Use FASTPASS! It's wonderful. Just one tip. If your F:P says 2:10, for instance, don't go until about 2:15. If you go at exactly 2:10 there might be a bit of a line.
Why can't Disney arrange so we veterans can by-pass some of the pre-shows that get so tiring after awhile?
Why oh why, does WDW serve meat in the Animal Kingdom? We go & look at these magnificent animals & then sit down to a slaughtered animal for lunch? This makes no sense to me!
Be careful if you make phone calls from your room. I made a few calls just to check my personal answering machine at home. The calls were between 30 & 60 seconds. When I checked my bill the charges were between $7 & $8 per call! Even the on-property calls I made to WDW restaurants to speak with chefs were charged to my room.
After visiting AK many times since it opened I cannot say that I have seen a difference between going early in the AM or later in the day. No matter when I have gone, I have seen lots of animals. In the future I will not have Mickey wake me up at 6:30AM. I will wake up leisurely & go over to AK.
Why can't we get into Fantasmic without a pass? Sondra had to use a one day Hopper just to see Fantasmic. This does not seem fair.
From Sondra: She could not believe how friendly, courteous & helpful all the CMs were. We only came across one CM who was loading people onto the Backlot Tour tram that was totally uncaring about us. He was downright rude. How rare this is to see at WDW. Sondra was so impressed with all the other CMs.
Thanks for reading this lengthy report!

Carole Annette Fila

EPCOTfavpk@aol.com

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