Trip Reports

Trip Summary:

Trip Dates: Jan. 21-30, 1999
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: Fort Wilderness Campground
Accommodations: Pop-up camper
The Ages Represented in Group: Adult, Elementary
Disneyland or WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veterans
Cast of Characters:
Beth - (me, mom) 30 something homemaker, homeschooling mom, and piano teacher, been to WDW more times than I can remember (somewhere upwards of 30)
Gary - (dad) 30 something Music and Drama pastor (13th trip to WDW)
Molly - 11 year old full time kid, Daisy Duck fanatic (12th trip to WDW)
Introduction:

This is the story of the much anticipated, carefully planned for, and fondly remembered 1999 edition of our annual January trek to the World. Since we're a homeschooling family not bound by a school year schedule, and since Gary's in the ministry, making the Christmas season our busiest time of the year, we find January to be an ideal time for our vacation, both in terms of light crowds at WDW and our own need for some rest and relaxation after the many hours we put in during the month of December. We've settled into a pattern of buying Florida Resident Seasonal Passes late in January one year, and then making the next year's trip early in the month so the passes are still good. This way we get at least two trips out of them, making them an excellent value. Sometimes Molly and I will squeeze in an extra trip during the year, but Gary usually likes to save the rest of his vacation time for other ventures. We drive our 1989 gunmetal gray Chevy Suburban and pull our 1991 Rockwood pop-up camper behind us, and we camp at Fort Wilderness.

Days 0 and 1 (Thursday and Friday, 1/21 - 1/22)

Travel, Magic Kingdom

We left our home in the northwest corner of the Florida panhandle at about 8:30 am, stopping for McDonald's breakfast on the way out of town. Most people we know can make it to WDW in about 8 hours from where we live, but we are absolutely the slowest travelers I know, and it usually takes us more like 10 hours. I guess this must be because we're pulling the trailer, we do the speed limit, we stop whenever anybody has to go, and we tend to eat at Cracker Barrel whenever we get the chance. Consequently, we usually arrive at Fort Wilderness after dark when we drive from home. We don't like this for a couple of reasons - we hate setting up the camper after dark, and it seems like the later in the day you get there, the farther your campsite is going to be from the comfort station. In light of this, we decided to stop at O'Leno State Park (just outside Lake City) this first night, saving some money on the campsite, and drive down the rest of the way Friday morning. As it turned out, we felt like this was a good decision and we'll probably do it again. O'Leno is a very pretty park, the campsite was only $14, and we got up close and personal with a family of deer that came right up and spent time with us the next morning at our campsite. I guess they must get fed by the campers a lot. We got on the road in good time the next morning, and we pulled into Fort Wilderness right around 11 am. Check in went smoothly. We had requested a campsite on the 900 loop, close to the comfort station but *not* close to the bus stop, and this was exactly what we got. Last year when we stayed on the 1300 loop and requested a site close to the comfort station, we ended up at the site adjacent to the playground and bus stop. It was fun having the basketball court and that great playground right outside our door, but the noise from the buses kept us awake at night, and we had trouble with teens shooting hoops after quiet hours. This year, when I made my requests to CRO, the CM laughed at me for being so specific, but it must have paid off, or else we were just lucky. We got a MKC rate of $31/night. This was our first time to try the 900 loop (we have previously stayed on 1500 and 1300) and we liked the location a lot - directly across from the Meadow Trading Post, and a 5 minute bike ride from the Settlement Depot and the Marina. (We bring our own bikes from home - Fort Wilderness is a great place for bike riding.) One minor complaint about 900 loop - in the women's bathroom, one of the four stalls in the shower area is given to a handicapped toilet, and another one to a hanicapped shower, leaving only 2 regular shower stalls. There is a handicapped toilet on the other side with the rest of the toilets, so I don't really understand why there should be another taking the place of a shower. However, Molly and I each had to wait for an available shower only once during our 9 night stay, so I can't complain too much.

Setting up the camper went quickly and we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom via bus to the Settlement Depot and boat from the Marina. There is nothing like that first arrival at the MK. We've started other trips at other parks when it worked better with our schedule, early entry days, or whatever, but I was glad there was no reason not to go to the MK first this trip. I love different things about all the parks at WDW, but somehow the spirit of the place is just summed up for me with that first walk down Main Street. It's full of promise of the days to come, sights and sounds and feelings and remebrances of past trips. I've been coming here since I was 13 years old, and bringing my daughter since she was 18 months old, and the place is like a three dimensional photo album of great memories and milestones in our lives. The sight of the castle (back to her stately beauty after the "cake incident") reminds me of strolling with my husband in the "before Molly" days. The flower stalls remind me of shopping as a teenager with my mother while my brothers played games in the arcade. The Emporium reminds me of handing a stuffed Mickey to Molly in her stroller, her eyes big as saucers and pudgy little hands reaching as far as they could to get hold of him. The hub reminds me of the year we took pictures of the little statues with one of us beside each one, imitating Minnie or Goofy or Donald.The mayor strolling down the street greeting people reminds me of our trip just last year, when Molly thought to get his autograph for the first time. I could go on, but I'd better go on....

It was lunchtime and we were starved, so first stop was Casey's for hot dogs and fries. Believe it or not, in all these years, we had never had a Casey's hot dog. I couldn't believe how good they were! In a way, they set the tone for the trip - it was to be the Trip of the Hot Dog, as you'll see. And those fries - there's just something about fries in a paper cup. We ate outside at the little white wrought iron tables listening to the piano player take requests while toddlers danced. After lunch, we headed back down Main Street so Gary could inquire at City Hall about when and where we could find Daisy Duck while Molly and I browsed at the Fire House shop. Finding Daisy was a big priority for us. As I mentioned at the top of the page, my daughter is a nut for Daisy. She's got a sizeable collection of Daisy stuff, which is *not* easy to find, just as Daisy herself is not easy to track down at WDW. We've been at this for years, and this year, Molly got the idea of taking a polaroid photo of her collection so Daisy could see it and sign the picture. She also brought the shirt off her largest stuffed Daisy to be signed. Anyhoo, Molly and I hadn't been in the shop more than 5 minutes before Gary came hurrying in to tell us that Daisy was at the Character Faire in Fantasyland right then and would only be there for 20 more minutes! The game was afoot, and our afoots were aheadin' for Fantasyland as fast as they could take us. We got there in the nick of time, with several people in line for Daisy and the handler saying "Daisy's only going to be here for 5 more minutes." Would we make it? The waiting was agony. Molly had her polaroid, her toy shirt, and her Sharpie at the ready. Finally it was our turn. Molly approached Daisy, explained that she was her biggest fan, and showed her the photo. Daisy was enthralled! She stared at the photo, at Molly, at the photo again, hugged Molly, and left her spot, taking the picture with her. She went to each character in the greeting area (I think it was Suzy, Perla, Gepetto, and Pinnochio) to show it off and "brag" about it. Her handler couldn't figure it out ("Daisy! What are you doing?") and everybody in the place was straining to try to see what the picture was of. It was a hoot! Finally Daisy came back to her spot and we got the photos and signatures we wanted from her. As we were leaving, several adults stopped Molly to ask if they could see what that picture was of. A CM told us later that Daisy doesn't have that many loyal fans, so it means a lot to her to meet somebody like Molly. I think it made her day - I know it made ours. Here's a quote we heard while we were waiting in line - a woman with her family stuck her head in the area and said, "It's just some mice and Daffy Duck." Oy! What are you gonna do with some people?

After visiting Daisy, we headed over to Tomorrowland for our first ever ride on Buzz Lightyear. The line was posted at 20 minutes, so we decided to try again later.

*Gary says - "Are we spoiled, or what?"*

We headed over to Adventureland and rode Pirates of the Caribbean (a perennial favorite), Splash Mountain with almost no wait, and the Haunted Mansion. Back to Tomorrowland to find the wait down to 10 minutes at Buzz. The line moved very quickly, and I don't think it was even the posted 10 minutes before we were on. Our first impressions: the queue area is a lot of fun, and the Buzz figure with the animated face was amazing. The ride itself turned out to be a new family favorite, after we figured a couple of things out. First, Molly and I each had some trouble with our "shooters" that first ride. It's hard to know for sure, but it seemed like they were stuck, and not shooting any lasers. (There are so many red beams going that it's hard to know for sure which one is or isn't coming from your gun.) About half way through the ride I slid over and tried the other gun (I was in a car by myself while Gary and Molly were riding together) and started making points right away. Molly never did make any points that first ride, while Gary did pretty well. (I don't remember any of our exact scores, but none of us ever made over 250,000 points.) We decided to get on and ride a second time, this time with everybody in their own car. Again, Molly and I couldn't make the right hand gun shoot, but when we switched, no problem. This time everybody had a respectable score, so we all felt better about it. However, our wrists were beginning to hurt from squeezing the trigger, so we opted against a third trip and rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority instead.

Just a word about the TTA - we have always loved this ride (it took us a long time to stop calling it the WEDWay) and consider it one of the great sleeper attractions of WDW. Not only is there never a line for it and it's a great place to rest and refresh your batteries on a hot afternoon, but I really enjoy the feeling of zipping around above Tomorrowland on that quiet track with the wind whipping past my ears and my feet resting on the seat across from me. I also love that corny dialogue ("Calling Mr. Morrow, Mr. Tom Morrow... Please keep all forward facing tentacles inside the vehicle at all times...Now approaching Rocket Tower Plaza..."). One downer on this trip was the fact that it "rubbed in" the knowledge that we couldn't ride Space Mountain since it was down for rehab. Gary and I could appreciate the rare glimpse of SM with the lights on, but Molly was so depressed about it that she could hardly stand to look. This kid *loves* Space Mountain, and it was a major heartbreak for her to learn that she'd have to do without it this trip. Oh, well, something to look forward to for next time...

*Molly says..."What nerve! I never thought I'd actually be mad at Disney!"*

After our ride on the TTA, we decided it was time to get some dinner and stake out a spot for the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks. Last January we discovered our new favorite spot - at the tables next to the rails at the Plaza Pavilion, where you can see Tinkerbell fly so close overhead that you can wave to her and she'll wave back, and also have an unobstructed view of the fireworks to the right of the castle. Since the Plaza Pavilion was not operating this trip (it was closed last January too - is this always the case?) we decided to get our food somewhere else and take it there to eat it. Gary and I wanted something from Cosmic Ray's, but Molly was craving another hot dog (hey, we're on vacation here, ok?), so he went to get us a Stacked Sandwich to split and two bowls of Creamy Chicken Vegetable Soup (I love that stuff!) while Molly staked out the table and I went back to Casey's to get her a dog and fries. With as many hot dogs as that kid ate on this trip, it's a wonder she wasn't barking on the drive home. We finished our dinner just in time to hear the beginning narration and enjoyed the spectacular view of Tink and the fireworks. Afterwards, as is our custom, we lingered while the crowds thinned out and enjoyed the night-time ambiance of the Magic Kingdom. Eventually we made our way to the boat dock and back to Fort Wilderness for a good night's sleep.

Day 2 (Saturday 1/23)

Disney MGM Studios, Downtown Disney

*Molly's "Daisy Crazy" Trivia Question #1:

What is the only structural difference between Daisy and Donald?

(The answer wil be posted in Day 3 of this report.)*

We had decided on the "Day After Early Entry" strategy for this trip (with the exception of one EE day at the MK), so this was the day for MGM. We got up in time to take showers, cook breakfast in the camper, and drive to MGM, arriving a few minutes before the rope drop. Actually, Molly and I let Gary wait with the teeming masses for the rope to drop, since he wanted to do the Tower of Terror and we didn't. We've all ridden it in the past, but Molly and I don't like it very much. For me, it's the feeling the drop gives my stomach, although I like the theming and storyline. For Molly, it's the combination of the drop and the theming. Gary has no trouble with anything about the ToT, but doesn't care much for the coasters, since they hurt his back. Molly and I, on the other hand, could ride Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain over and over again, and often do. To each his own. Molly and I shopped a little bit and got some coffee and milk at Starring Rolls Bakery while Gary was dropping. We also saw and got an autograph and picture with Jafar on Sunset Blvd, then strolled down to wait for Gary to come out at the exit of ToT. He survived his elevator experience nicely (actually, he had ridden twice since we weren't there yet when he finished the first time), and we headed back to the toy shop at the corner of Hollywood and Sunset to buy a Pluto autograph hound Molly had decided on.

From there we headed to the Great Movie Ride (5 minute wait). I was excited to get the Cowboy side. It seems like we get the gangster side 3 out of 4 times, and I like the western better, because I love to see and feel the fire when the bank blows up. I don't know why that is - maybe it's because I tend to be cold all the time and I just like the warmth of the fire.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #1- (This will not be an exhaustive list, just those that stand out in my feeble mind) On the GMR there are several great HM's. In the gangster scene, the billboard on the left, you see Mickey's feet, the rest of him is plastered over with subsequent signs that have peeled. Also, as you are leaving the gangsters, up behind to the left, Mickey's silhouette in a warehouse window. In the Egyptian tomb (IndyJones) among the hieroglyphics on the left behind the statue in the corner, Mickey and Donald are enjoying either a game of checkers or a lively meal.*

After the GMR we walked down Comissary Street and Molly and I rode Star Tours with no wait while Gary browsed at whatever they replaced Ellen's Buy the Book with. (Gary also doesn't care for motion simulators.) We got on the back row - definitely a better ride back there! From there we strolled down the New York street, pausing for a few minutes to listen to the Hollywood Hit Men. Farther down the street, we caught a glimpse of Woody, and went in through the place that used to house Goosebumps to get his autograph, along with Buzz and a Green Army Man. These were the first autographs on Molly's new autograph hound. Molly went into the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground while Gary and I had some coffee and waited for her at a table by the exit. After she came out we wandered around to the Singing in the Rain umbrella for a photo, then on to Muppetvision. This is another of our all-time family faves - if you've never looked behind you in this attraction, you've missed a lot! ("Der machinen iss goen der flumy flumy . . .")

Our tummies were beginning to speak to us by this time, so we headed to Pizza Planet for lunch. I really like the pizzas here. Also, I got a kick out of playing the Toy Story computer games upstairs - have these always been there? Maybe we just didn't eat upstairs before so we didn't notice them.

After lunch it was on to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, and thanks to John Zamgwar, I knew enough to pull the rope that says, "Don't pull this rope"! I can't believe I never noticed that before. We snagged seats down front and just to the left of center, which gave us a great view, and was close enough to feel the flames when the truck exploded. Once again, I really enjoy those fiery explosions - this must be some sort of character flaw. Also, we got the whole show including the Nazi plane explosion (more flames!). It seems like roughly half the times we've seen this show they've had to end it after the first half due to technical difficulties. I wonder what it is about that airplane scene that's so hard to pull off?

When we left the Indy theater it was about 30 minutes before time for the Mulan parade, so we got seats roughly across the street from One Saturday Morning. (By the way, we never saw OSM on this trip, which was really fine with me - I thought it was a major disappointment compared to the old Monster Sound Show.) There were a group of Brazilian teenage boys to our left who just would not stay behind the yellow lines, despite being spoken to repeatedly by the CM's working the parade. Since the parade was coming from that direction, this really impeded our view, but at least we were right on the line ourselves, so there was no one in front of us. This was one of only 2 occasions when we had any problem with Brazilians on this trip. In the past, we have had many unpleasant encounters with them, facing huge groups of teenagers cutting in lines, talking and laughing loudly during presentations, and on one memorable occasion, crowding around 6 year old Molly and running their hands through her blonde hair, which completely freaked her out. However, things seem to be improving, and this trip the tour groups were mostly very well behaved.

This was our first time to see the Mulan parade, and we were pretty disappointed in it. What there was of it was well done and enjoyable, but it just seemed very, very short, with not enough happening and too much empty street between floats/performers. The great wall/dragon thingy was nowhere to be seen. Of all the parades I've seen at the Studios (Aladdin, Toy Story, Hercules, and Mulan), the one I liked best was the Toy Story parade. It was so much fun - I really miss it, but at least you can see the characters from it.

Rain was just beginning to fall as the end of the parade went by us, so we decided to call it a day. As we were walking by the shop next to the 50's Prime Time Cafe, a CM saw Molly trying to keep her autograph hound dry, called her into the shop, and gave her a big plastic bag to cover it with. You've gotta love it. That helpfulness is a big part of what keeps us coming back year after year.

We thought we'd avoid the parade crowds by going through the shops on Hollywood Blvd., but we forgot that the parade turns right at the end of the street, so we were blocked from exiting until it was over, despite our best efforts. However, this turned out to be not a problem at all, and we walked right out and onto a waiting tram to the parking lot, where we found our trusty Suburban and drove back to Fort Wilderness for a brief rest at the camper.

Feeling refreshed, we decided to catch a bus over to Wilderness Lodge. WL is one of our favorite places in all of WDW. Usually we ride our bikes over via the exercise trail from FW, but today it was getting a little late and we thought it might rain some more, so we took the Chip bus to the Settlement Depot and then caught a Boone or Crockett (can't remember which) to the WL. This place is mind-bogglingly beautiful, and we love to just hang out there, even though we can't afford to stay there (maybe someday!) On this occasion we wandered the lobby a little bit, walked out by the pool and tried to catch the geyser (to no avail), and got something to eat at Roaring Fork. (Gary and I had burgers, Molly had a pizza). On a whim, we decided to take a bus over to Downtown Disney just for fun. We had never taken a bus here before. As a matter of fact, we rarely use the Disney buses at all, except for the internal ones at FW, and even there we usually ride our bikes. We just think it's easier in almost every case to drive (the one exception to that is the Magic Kingdom - we always take the boat from FW), but the bus stop at WL said they had a direct route to Downtown Disney, and I had read at FW that there was a direct bus between there and DD after 4 pm, so we thought we'd give it a try. As it turned out, the bus did make 2 stops at the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian, but it still only took about 30 minutes to get there - not bad.

At DD, we wandered through the World of Disney for a while, then gaped at the Lego sculptures. We briefly contemplated a McDonald's shake, but there was a huge line so we gave up on it, and went to Ghirardelli's instead (the candy side), and got a few of the individual chocolates. Gary is a diabetic, and was hoping for some sugar-free chocolate (he really, really loves chocolate) but all they had were large, expensive boxes, so he settled for coffee instead. Bummer. After our sweets, we tiptoed gingerly past the crystal at Eurospain, admired the fine art in The Art of Disney, and ended up at Studio M, where Molly discovered that you can have a mug made with a picture of Daisy on it - how could we pass that up? We waited for about 15 minutes while it was made, then headed back to the bus stops to catch a ride home to Fort Wilderness. There was a bus waiting for us, and it went directly to the Settlement Depot, where we caught an internal Dale bus back to the 900 loop. The Dale bus driver told us that there were tornado warnings posted for the night and told us to be careful. After we got settled into our beds, the storm hit, and it was a doozy. I was very nervous, and kept remembering the tornados that hit Kissimmee in February of 98. I knew that a tornado is supposed to sound like a train passing by, but the rain on the camper was so loud anyway that I wasn't sure I could even hear it, so I slept badly, waking at every new sound. I wondered if the Fort Wilderness people would come and tell us if a tornado was coming, and what we would do about it if it did. Gary, on the other hand, was so tired that he basically slept through the whole thing, except for the numerous times I attempted to wake him up to ask, "What was that? Did you hear that?" Notice I said attempted to wake him up - I never got much out of him. Molly was wakeful, as well. Poor thing, she got wet on her end of the camper when the canvas over her bed leaked at the seams in the heavy rain. It got the edges of her mattress and some of her things scattered around it wet, and she pretty much spent the night trying to huddle in the middle to stay dry. What a night.

Day 3 (Sunday, 1/24)

Animal Kingdom, FW Campfire Program

*Molly's "Daisy Crazy" Trivia Question #2:

Daisy has 2 main outifts. Each outfit has 2 colors. What are the 2 colors of each outfit? Examples of possible answers - red/blue, and green/blue. (The answer will be posted in Day 4 of this report.)*

Answer to Question #1 from Day 2 (What is the only structural difference between Daisy and Donald?) :

Daisy's bill is smaller.

When we woke up the morning after the storm, the temperature was a little chilly and there was a bit of a drizzle. After the night we'd had we just wanted to get out of the trailer, so we opted to go for breakfast at the big McDonald's near Animal Kingdom and the All Stars. About that McDonald's - I know a lot of people don't like having it on WDW property, and I can see their point, but I don't have a problem with it. Actually, there are so few cheap food options at WDW that I'm kind of glad it's there. Besides, it's not much like a regular McDonald's, or at least not like the ones around here - it's big and unusual and fun, and that morning an easy, familiar breakfast sounded good to us.

After our trip to the arches, we made it to the gates of AK with about 5 minutes to spare before opening. While we were waiting in line, it began to rain, so we took the time to pull rain ponchos out of the backpack and put them on over our bulky jackets, looking ridiculous. That, apparently, was all it took to make the sun come out. From that moment on, we never had anything but gorgeous weather the rest of the trip. Every day the highs were in the 80's and the lows were in the 60's and we literally never saw another drop of rain. This was hands down the best weather week we have ever had at WDW, except for that one awful night.

This was the big moment for us - our first glimpse of the Animal Kingdom. We were immediately bowled over by the beauty of the place. We didn't take much time to linger in the oasis, but we loved what we saw as we hurried by, determined to take advantage of the early part of the day to avoid the crowds we were sure would descend later in the afternoon, according to everything we'd read. How odd to be at a Disney park and not know the first thing about how to get around it! I knew we wanted to head to Countdown to Extinction first, so we just followed the signs to Dinoland U.S.A. We didn't even take time to pick up a guidemap at this point, but we really didn't have any trouble figuring out how to get there. There was hardly anybody ahead of us and CM's were standing above on the bridge welcoming us into Dinoland. We noted the location of the Restaurantosaurus and the Dig Site as we breezed past. It's hard not to get into the campy, tongue-in-cheek feeling of this area when they're playing "Walk the Dinosaur" first thing in the morning!

CTX was a walk-on. As a matter of fact, we had both the briefing room and our cruiser completely to ourselves, and we had no trouble going "back in time" for a second trip without getting off, also with the cruiser to ourselves, since there was still no one waiting when we finished our first ride. We really liked CTX. I can see the point of the people who say the story line is a little on the lame side, and ok, there are some places in the ride itself where there's nothing much but darkness, but I still thought it was a ton of fun. It was fast and dark and those carnotauruses really caught me off guard. I liked the wind hitting me in the face and the feeling of not knowing what was going to happen next. Sadly, I've never been to Disneyland so I can't compare this ride to Indy, but that fact probably contributed to my enjoyment of CTX.

After the 2nd ride, Gary's back was beginning to bother him, and he ended up never going on this ride again this trip, although Molly and I enjoyed it several more times.

*Gary says - "Yeah, call me a wimp, but remember ToT!"*

Back to morning commando mode, and off to locate It's Tough to Be a Bug (the next item to tick off on my game plan.) Keeping in mind that we still didn't have a guide map, this turned out to be a little bit of a challenge. I think we walked around most of the Tree of Life before we even found the entrance to the queue. Talk about confusing! Even after we got into the queue, we had trouble finding our way to the theater. This may have been partly because we were so engrossed with all the animal carvings as we tried to force ourselves to keep going instead of stopping to gawk. (Keep in mind, we're still commando-ing here.) I think what happened was that we circled around some trash cans that were meant to be barriers, leading us into a circular area that we couldn't find our way out of till we finally saw somebody who knew what they were doing and followed them. Eventually we did make it into the pre-show area and wandered around happily enjoying the movie posters until we were let into the theater. (My personal fave - "The Dung and I".)

We enjoyed the movie, but I have to say that it's nowhere near as good as Honey I Shrunk the Audience. It didn't have much of a plot line, it was really short, and some of the 3-D effects didn't seem to line up right. Plus, some of the special effects were a little much for Molly - if you want to know what, keep reading. Otherwise, skip past the spoilers.

***** SPOILER ALERT ON *****

It was the stinger in the back that got to her. If you want to avoid feeling this, try either of these things - reach around behind you, find the little hole in the back of your seat, and cover it with a hat, fanny pack, or whatever; or just lean way forward in your seat.

***** SPOILER ALERT OFF *****

After our time with Flik and the gang, we headed over to Camp MinnieMickey (finally procuring a guide map on the way!) to see the10:00 show of the Festival of the Lion King. We only had to wait about 5 or 10 minutes in the outside line area, but it was long enough to see what a nightmare this would be in the summer when you'd have to deal with direct sun AND having to stand there for a long time. It made me really thankful to be there when I was. Shortly we were ushered into the theatre, and about halfway up in the Lion section.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #2 - In the line at FLK there is a birdhouse with a Mickey profile-shaped hole (Molly found this one). And I must make up for a great oversight in day 2. On the ToT is my absolute favorite HM. In the left side preshow parlor, there is a piece of sheet music with the title (I believe) "Where's the Mickey Mouse - What Kind of Party is This, Anyway?". And, of course there is the service elevator door in the TV show, and another Molly find: the girl in the video portions in holding a stuffed Mickey.*

What a show! I knew it was supposed to be good, but I don't think I was expecting to like it as much as I did. I'm a big Hunchback fan, but to me, this one's got it beat by a small margin. Gary still likes Hunchback better. The animal costumes were amazing, and the leads were all very good. My favorite was definately the older, Chief guy (I can't remember the character's name.) This guy had the most amazing bass voice I have ever heard. (Later in the week we saw another actor in this role who didn't carry it off with nearly the same style and power.) There were only 3 of the main characters that day - the young princess wasn't there, but since it was our first time to see the show, we didn't even realize anything was missing. The young prince sang "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" as a solo rather than a duet, and I still wouldn't know it wasn't supposed to be that way if I hadn't seen the show again later in the week. I loved the tumble monkeys, and the flying ballet was breathtaking.

After the show we got a couple of autographs from Goofy and Pluto and headed towards Harambe for the Safari, the last item on my morning commando list. By this time it must have been getting close to 11 am, but we still strolled right through the queue with no waiting. (Everywhere we went that morning we were tempted to stop and just look at stuff, since everything was new to us, but I kept insisting there would be time for that later.) The safari was great - we got a good look at a male lion with several females, Gary looked an ostrich right in the eye from a distance of about 4 feet, we saw Thompson's gazelles, rhinos, elephants, giraffe, hippos, crocodiles, some exotic birds, and others I can't remember.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #3 - On the left side of the road as you enter "elephant country" - three artificial elephant tracks.*

By the time we finished with the safari it was lunchtime, and we didn't have a clue where we wanted to eat. This was a tricky situation, and one that we've often encountered at WDW. At any time when for whatever reason we haven't planned in advance where we're going to eat, (didn't know where we'd be at mealtime, wanted to be spontaneous, yada, yada, yada) we find ourselves too hungry and tired to figure it out on the spot and people consequently get grumpy. This happened now. Tusker House in Harambe keeps samples of their food on display out front, so we took a peek, but in our weakened condition we couldn't decide if it was a good idea or not, so we took off wandering, hoping a miracle would happen and we'd end up with the perfect lunch staring us in the face. We wandered past Mr. Kamil's Burger Grill, but one of us didn't want a burger. We wandered past Pizzafari, but two of us didn't want pizza. We wandered past Flame Tree Barbecue, but one and a half of us didn't want barbecue. We were beginning to get weak at the knees and we were starting to say the kinds of things you regret later when we found ourselves back in front of the Restaurantosaurus. We had had great intentions of avoiding the place in favor of something more adventurous while we were in AK, but you've already seen how far that plan got us. In we went. I have to tell you, I really don't regret it. Gary and I had burgers which we both enjoyed very much, and Molly had (you guessed it) a hot dog, which made her a happy camper once again. The topping bar was good, the seats were comfortable, and after we had eaten and were beginning to feel more like ourselves, we wandered around the different rooms checking out the decor, which was fun.

Since we were in Dinoland anyway, Molly and I decided to check the line situation at CTX - there wasn't one. Gary didn't want to risk it again with his back, so he decided to look at the Dinosaur Jubilee while we rode. We had a little bit more company on the ride this time, but we still had the front row to ourselves. (We got the front row by asking for it and waiting for the next ride vehicle - any time we have a preference where to sit on a ride, we do this, and we've never been turned down on any ride at WDW. We usually ask for the front row on Pirates, the Maelstrom, and Small World; the back on Barnstormer and Big Thunder; and seats one and two on Space Mountain.) After the ride we caught up with Gary in the Jubilee and headed over to the Boneyard. The playground part looks fabulous, but Molly's knee was beginning to bother her and she didn't feel much like climbing on stuff. She had injured the knee about 2 weeks earlier when she fell on it at basketball practice. The doctor said she needed to sit out of her ball games for a couple of weeks, keep a brace on it, and "baby" the knee, and it would get better. This had left us not quite sure how to approach the trip, but the knee had improved so we hadn't been too concerned about it up to this point. Maybe we should have been - more on that subject later. Anyhoo, Molly and Gary decided to get down in the sand and dig at the Dig Site, so I found a bench and collapsed onto it.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #4 - Next to the Dig Site is a fenced-in supply area. I've let too much time go by without writing these down. It seems that it involves two helmets and a large fan. I do remember that it is really obvious.*

This was the point in the day where we were beginning to get really tired, and where we made a mistake that we kept making the rest of the week, despite the fact that we're Disney veterans and really do know better. What we should have done was left AK right then for a rest and come back later. We've been utitlizing the afternoon break technique for years. I don't know why we were so stupid this day - maybe because we were at AK for the first time and we had that feeling that we wanted to see it all. Remember, we had rushed around all morning, saying we'd have time to relax and smell the roses later. Ok, so now it was later and we had roses to smell, hup, two three, four...

We went back to Harambe and took to the train to Conservation Station. I wasn't all that impressed with CS, but Molly liked it. The interactive area seemed a little boring to me - maybe we just weren't there on a good day, because we didn't see much going on in the way of animal care. The Affection Section seemed pretty much like every petting zoo I'd ever been to. All in all, worth seeing once but no more than that.

After we made it back on the train from CS, we were determined to find a good place to relax and gaze upon the wonders of the Tree of Life. In the process of searching for this nirvana, we actually found the Secret Path. As others have said, don't expect any more from this than a pleasant little diversion and a feeling of accomplishment from just finding it. By this time, Molly's knee was really beginning to bother her, so we found an area with some benches and a few small animals (kangaroos and others) nearby and sat down for a rest.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #5 - I knew the Tree had to have one, so I made it my mission. It didn't take long. It's near the base of the trunk, on the south side (toward the entrance), and unlike anything else depicted on the tree. Can anyone tell me what it looks like? The answer to come later.*

It was now becoming obvious to all of us that we'd just about done what we had it in us to do on this day at the Animal Kingdom and we were just giving Molly's knee a rest before we walked the rest of the way out of the park and to the car. It was about 3:00. While we were sitting there, a young woman approached us with a clipboard, asking us if we'd care to participate in a survey, which we agreed to. It wasn't too hard to figure out that what she was surveying about was Cirque du Soleil (if we knew about it, if we were planning on going, why or why not, yada, yada. Naturally we had heard of it, and we would really really love to go but it wouldn't fit in the budget this year.) The survey only took about 5 or 10 minutes, and when we had finished with her we felt ready to go on.

*Gary says - "I was a bit disappointed when she just walked away without even offering us some free tickets or anything. Oh, well."*

We spent about 15 minutes in the Oasis on our way out, finding animals and enjoying the hidden nooks and crannies of this area, then it was on to the car and back to Fort Wilderness to collapse for a short while, then make some sandwiches in the camper for dinner.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #6 - An oil stain in the middle of the road on the 800 loop where we were staying. More than likely accidental, but there it is nonetheless.*

When we had eaten, we decided to run up to Guest Services at Pioneer Hall to check about purchasing tickets for E-Ride Night the next day, so we caught a bus up there, but it was about 6:30 by this time and we found out that the Guest Services window had closed at 5:00. Oh, well, we could get them in the morning, no worries. We hopped back on the bus and went to the campfire program. We didn't get there in time for the sing-along with Chip and Dale, but the movie (Peter Pan) was just starting. We got a few goodies from the chuck wagon and settled in to enjoy the movie under a brilliant star studded sky. I have a thing for the sight of the tall pine trees against the night sky at Fort Wilderness. All the pressures and tiredness of the afternoon just went away, and we ended the day on a much happier note.

Day 4 (Monday, 1/25)

Epcot, E-Ride Night at MK

*Molly's "Daisy Crazy" Trivia Question #3:

What one part of Daisy's wardrobe is too big for her?

(The answer will be given in Day 5 of this report.)*

Answer to Question # 2 from Day 3 (Daisy has 2 main outifts. Each outfit has 2 colors. What are the 2 colors of each outfit?) :

green/yellow, and pink/purple

Breakfast in the camper today, then we rode our bikes up to get those E-ride tix at Guest Services. We parked and locked the bikes there, then took a bus over to the TTC so we could ride the monorail to Epcot. Gary really prefers to drive to Epcot, but I talked him into it this time so we could have a monorail ride and get that great view of Future World from above as you loop around on the way in. Taking the Crockett bus involved one stop at Wilderness Lodge before the TTC, then we were fortunate enough to snag the front of the monorail over to Epcot! This was really great, and the only front ride we had this trip.

After the punishment Molly's knee had taken at the AK the day before, Gary and I decided that we should really get her a wheelchair for Epcot. It felt a little funny since there was nothing visibly wrong with her - I guess we were afraid people would think we were using the chair just to avoid lines, but the fact was that she really had injured herself, and she really did need to avoid walking too much, so we swallowed our pride and got the chair. It made the day go so much better that we ended up getting one every day for the rest of the trip, and it was definitely the right thing to do.

First stop at Epcot - the tip board to check the status of Test Track. As expected, it said Delay, and the word from the cms working the tip board was that it would probably open sometime in the afternoon - no surprises there. Getting onto TT was a big priority for us, since we'd been waiting for it for 2 years (along with everybody else!) We had talked it over, and we knew that all 3 of us were willing to wait in a line of up to one hour in length, and possibly longer, so we made plans to check again after lunch, and headed for Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, a family favorite.

This was our very first experience with wheeling the chair up to an attraction, and it turned out to not be a very big deal at all, as we found to be the case at most attractions for the rest of the week. Molly could have gotten out of her chair and sat in a regular seat to experience the effects, but she doesn't really like the thing you feel from the seat that much anyway(if you've been to this attraction you know what I'm talking about, and if you haven't I won't spoil it for you), so she just stayed in her chair where she got all the rest of the effects anyway and was perfectly happy with that.

From HISTA we went over to the Land pavilion (casting a wistful glance towards the closed Journey into Imagination) and rode Living with the Land. This is another family favorite - we all enjoy the combination of the animatronic scenes and the real greenhouse and hatchery. We skipped the Circle of Life film (major snore in our opinion) and decided to save Food Rocks for later. As it turned out, we never did get back to it - we'll catch it next time. The attraction hat the rest of you know as Spaceship Earth had a 20 minute line so we saved it for later. (Molly called it Spaceship Beth when she was two, and that's become our official family name for it - it seems entirely fitting and right to me!) We thought maybe we could get some better info about Test Track from the cms standing guard outside it, and when we asked, they said it might be running around 2:00. We took a few minutes to wander through Innoventions and play with a few computer games before strolling over to the World Showcase to wait for the 11:00 rope drop. We like to do this for two reasons - the practical one is the assurance of getting on Maelstrom with no wait, and the aesthetic one is the sight of the Smiling Norwegians standing in a row, ringing bells and handing out samples of coffee cake. Who could resist that? We left our friend the wheelchair outside and went to visit the Vikings, the trolls, and the stormy offshore oil platform. Interesting combo.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #Seven (our keyboard quit doing the digit for some stupid reason) - In the queue area, in the mural on the wall beyond the boats, there is a particular viking on a crowded boat wearing, you guessed it, Mickey ears. I had read that in the film, a girl in the parade is holding a Mickey balloon, but I'm wondering if it's not a heart-shaped balloon instead.*

Gary really likes the film afterwards, but Molly and I didn't feel like sitting through it, so we got the wheelchair from outside and browsed in the shops a little while we waited for him. When he came out it seemed like the perfect time for "elevenses", so we got some coffee and pastry from the bakeshop and sat down to enjoy them. Molly took a look at the Viking ship but decided there wasn't much she felt up to doing on it with her knee. She did say it looked like fun for next time.

After Norway we fell under the spell of the World Showcase on a beautiful sunny morning and wandered around it just soaking up the atmosphere. We stopped at the African outpost and got some grapes, then wandered over to Germany to admire the train village. We noticed that several lizards were climbing on the buildings doing their best Godzilla impersonations. When we got to the American pavilion, it was almost time for the Voices of Liberty. Since Molly was in her chair, we were taken upstairs on the elevator and given a place to sit next to the rail, looking down on the VoL. The cast member very kindly brought a bench and put it next to Molly's chair for Gary and I to sit on, and after the performance we were escorted to the back row of the theatre for the American Adventure, where we were able to park the chair and sit in seats right next to it. However, right before the show began, one of us decided that they had to go to the bathroom so badly that they couldn't wait through the show. Well, when you've gotta go. . . We all left and decided it was too embarassing to come back so soon after receiving all that special attention and then walking out, so we gave up on the AA for then.

It had gotten to be about 12:30 by this time, so we opted for some lunch. Gary wanted a wurst from Germany, but Molly and I decided we preferred the American version (more hot dogs - what a surprise!) He went to Germany for his wurst and brought it back to the American pavilion, where I had gotten our dogs and Molly had scoped us out a good table outside in the sunshine - it really was too beautiful a day to sit inside if you had the choice.

After lunch we backtracked around the WS the same direction we had come so that we could check out the situation at Test Track again. It was about 1:30 when we got there, and nobody would say anything about what was happening, so we decided to take our chances by just sitting down on a wall out front of the attraction to see what would happen. This turned out to be a great decision, since after we had relaxed in the sunshine for 30 minutes, promptly at 2:00 the doors opened! We hopped in the rapidly forming line, and walked straight through the queue without stopping. I couldn't believe our luck! At TT you take your wheelchair through most of the queue to the briefing room, at which time you're taken to a side platform from which you're loaded into a vehicle, skipping only the part of the line that happens after the briefing room. After the ride, the chair is waiting for you on the other side where you get out. As for our impressions of Test Track, we really liked it a lot. I don't know if it lives up to everybody's expectations after the long wait for its opening, but we kept an open mind, judged it on its own merits, and really enjoyed it - especially the fast part. It's not at all scary, but thrilling and a lot of fun.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #8 - In the queue at TT there are several car bodies and frames on some hydraulic contraptions of some sort (sorry if that's too technical). If you look at these from the end (they are long and cylindrical) you will see a HM. Also in a pen cup near the end of the queue, there is a Mickey pen and nearby a Mickey Koosh toy.*

Flush with our excitement over the ride and the knowledge that we had accomplished another of our main goals for the trip, we floated over for our first experience with Ice Station Cool. (Come to think of it, I guess we really did have a lot of "firsts" this trip, which helped to make up for the old favorites that weren't there - Space Mountain, Horizons, Journey into Imagination, and Mr. Toad.) Ice Station Cool was quite an interesting little blip on the radar screen. I wouldn't call it an attraction - more like a fun little extra, the kind of stuff that makes Disney Disney. I did not try the Beverly (I was curious, but I had read enough about it so that I just couldn't bring myself to do it.) Gary and Molly, however, were braver than I and both of them took a sip of it, even though I had told them what they were getting into.

*Molly says..."Before I tried Beverly, I thought to myself, 'Oh, it can't be all that bad", but believe me, it was!*

*Gary says..."I found it to be an effective and satisfying appertif with a special bouquet and unique aftertaste. Yeah, right!"*

His favorite was the pineapple one, as was Molly's, and I liked the watermelon.

We had planned to break in the late afternoon for a rest back at the camper before E-Ride night at the MK, but Molly was feeling quite chipper due to being wheeled around all day and somehow we let her talk us into skipping the rest time and going straight over to the MK. In retrospect, this was probably a mistake, and one that we somehow kept on making during this trip, even though we really knew better. I guess we just forgot that the truth is grown-ups benefit from a rest, too, even if the kid is full of energy at 3 or 4:00.

On our way out of Epcot, we stopped by Field Trips, which is supposed to be an educator's shop. In years past I've found some great materials for homeschooling here, but it seems like every year there's less educational stuff and more of the homogenous toys and movie tie-in merchandise you can find at virtually every other shop in Disney World. There's been a lot written on RADP about this trend away from unique merchandise at WDW, and I have to agree that it's sad to see. Field Trips is possibly the worst example of this I've seen. This year I found it to be 95 percent Bug's Life junk, with one very small section devoted to computer games. I don't know how they can even promote this shop as having anything to do with education anymore. Oh, well, off the soapbox, and on with the trip report . . .

As we walked past Spaceship Beth we found that the line had dwindled to practically nothing, so we got in and thoroughly enjoyed our trip through the history of communication. You've gotta love the smell of Rome burning, although it doesn't quite make up for not being able to smell the orange groves in Horizons.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #9 - On Spaceship Beth I know there are others, but I hadn't noticed the design work before on a particular chest on the right-hand side in the Middleast.*

We turned in the wheelchair and made our way to the monorail platform. Wheelchairs rentals work the same way as stroller rentals do - you can turn it back in and get back your $1 deposit, or you can retain your receipt to get another chair free if you're going to a different park that day. We asked for the front of the monorail again, but no such luck this time. Still, we enjoyed the trip back to the TTC, where we took the resort monorail over to the MK (the express wasn't running at that time of the day.) We picked up a wheelchair and then headed to the table in front of City Hall to exchange our tickets for wristbands.

We had some time to kill before the seven o'clock fireworks, so we did Buzz Lightyear a couple of times in a row, then Gary and Molly went to Alien Encounter. I don't care for this attraction because of the claustrophobic feeling of the restraint pushing down on my shoulders. Last year I let Gary talk me into giving it another try since he said he had a technique for avoiding the shoulder bar - you're supposed to sit up really high when it comes down in the beginning, causing it to "set" at that height, and then sit down where you usually do and it won't come down with you. This actually did work at first, but sometime during the show the thing goes up and re-adjusts, so I still ended up feeling pinned down. I just hate that, so now AE is on my list of attractions to avoid. Consequently, while they did that, I went for another relaxing ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. We had agreed to meet up afterwards in front of the Lunching Pad, and when they weren't there I was tempted to squeeze in one more ride on Buzz, but I decided against it and sat down to wait. While I was waiting a jazz band came marching around the corner and set up shop right in front of me, giving me a concert to listen to while I waited - a nice little bonus.

My memory is a little dim from this point (maybe because I should have been at the camper then having a nap!) and the next thing I can remember is getting dinner to eat from the Plaza Pavilion again while we watched the fireworks. Once again Gary got soup and sandwiches for he and I from Cosmic Ray's, and once again Molly had (all together now) a hot dog and fries from Casey's. Rrrrrufff! Rrrrruffff! At the Plaza Pavilion we were surrounded by families of Orthodox Jews from New York, which was a trend for the week, and something I had never noticed before on any other trip. I wonder if this week was a school holiday for them? Anyway, we had a nice conversation and I was able to tell them about Tinkerbell's flight while we were waiting, and they all got a good view of it.

After the fireworks it was time for E-Ride Night to begin. Once again, I think how tired we were at the time must be affecting my memory now, because I can't put my thoughts into any kind of order about it. I know we rode Splash Mountain a couple of times, Big Thunder a couple of times, Buzz more than once, and Haunted Mansion one time. (We came in through the back with the wheelchair, which was kind of a bummer because you miss the stretch room that way.) We got autographs from Mickey and Minnie in Frontierland. I know we had a good time, but we ended up leaving a little bit before we had to just because we were so tired, and it wasn't quite as much fun as we had at our first E-Ride experience last year. In the future, I'll definately try for a nap before attempting this. When we had turned in the wheelchair, Molly was limping pretty badly on the way to the bus stop (the boats don't run to Fort Wilderness this late.) We got almost all the way to the bus stop before we found out we'd have to get a monorail to the TTC, then a Crockett or Boone back to FW. Aarrgh! By the time we finally made it to the Settlement Depot, we were ready to drop, and we still had to ride our bikes back to the campsite, since we'd left them there all day. It wasn't that bad, though - at least we didn't have to wait for another bus! We collapsed into our beds and slept like dead people.

Day 5 (Tuesday, 1/26)

Disney Quest, Downtown Disney, Fantasmic!

*Molly's "Daisy Crazy" Trivia Question #4:

Which is more common for Daisy to wear - a blue hairbow, or a pink one?

(The answer will be given in Day 6 of this report)*

Answer to Question #3(What one part of Daisy's wardrobe is too big for her?):

Her shoes

After our late night at the Magic Kingdom we decided to sleep in, which we did till about 8:30. We drove over to the Wilderness Lodge for breakfast at Roaring Fork. (You may have figured out by now that we try not to eat very many expensive meals at Disney World. We budget $50 per day for food, and most days we come in under that total, enabling us to spend what's left over in the budget on a few well-chosen meals that come later in the vacation, when we can see that we have some extra money available.) We were tired of breakfast in the camper, but our meal at Roaring Fork that morning was a big disappointment. None of us liked what we had, and we would have been happier with cereal after all. Oh, well, at least we didn't spend a lot of money on it.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #10 - In the WL, the totem poles have a couple of HM's, more suggested, than complete. Also the map outside Artist Point has a particular Indian pot with Mickey on it (one of my favorite since we have a collection of Indian pottery)*

This was the day we had chosen for Gary and Molly to do Disney Quest. I could have done it, too, but as expensive as it is, I just didn't think I'd enjoy it enough to get my money's worth out of it. The two of them are much bigger video game fans than I am. I know there's a lot more to DQ than just regular video games, and if it didn't cost as much I'd go, but I just can't see spending $25.00 on it. Anyhoo, we got to DQ at about 10:00, not realizing it wouldn't open until 10:30. To fill in the time we browsed at the Virgin megastore for awhile, then went back down to buy the tickets as soon as the windows opened. We agreed to meet back at the camper at 3:00, and I took the Suburban. (Gary and Molly were going to get a bus back to Fort Wilderness.)

Gary and Molly's Impressions de Disney Quest:

DQ is divided into four main zones -- Score Zone, Create Zone, Replay Zone and Explore Zone. The elevator ride to enter DQ is a hoot, with a 3-D effect screen built into the wall, with an introduction featuring Genie from Alladin. We'll take it one zone at a time and cover the things we did. One bit of serendipity is that when we arrived, we were among about 4 guests, including ourselves.

Create Zone -

Magic Mirror - A computer takes your picture and then gives you the tools to add to, stretch, bend, and generally mess your face up. *Molly says - "I can make myself look exactly like Robin Williams. See if you can, too. All I did was stretch my nose down a little, add a beard, and just about any sort of hair."*

Sid's Create a Toy - A computer that shows Sid's and Hannah's rooms (from Toy Story) with lots of toys to choose from. You select a body, arms, legs and a head to make a really weird toy and, if you like, you can buy the toy you created for $10 at a counter across the room; packaged, with a picture of the toy included.

Cyberspace Mountain - "How cool!" we thought. We could create and ride our own roller coaster. We went into it thinking that you would ride via the computer screen that you created it on, but no! After we each designed a couple of horrifying coasters, we were told to get in line with a card that would identify our programmed coaster and we could get into a small simulator and "virtually" ride what we had made. Yeah right. Being the wimps that we are, we bailed.

Explore Zone -

Alladin's Magic Carpet Ride - You are installed on one of a series of "vehicles" that are your magic carpets, and then fitted with headgear. You immediately find yourself in Agraba and you can look all around and at each other (you all look like monkeys such as Abu). Molly was a pink monkey and Dad was a green one. *Molly says - "First the Genie talks to you, and tells you what to do. And then you go into the Cave of Wonders. It would probably be more exciting if they would make the cave close while you were in there and you just sat there for awhile (joke)."* Our mission was to find the second half of the magic beetle thingie. We failed, but had fun flying around!

Virtual Jungle Cruise - This one was pretty amazing. You are given actual canoe-type paddles and seated in a rubber raft. You are at a boat dock (on a large screen in front of you). The boat is then lifted up on the "water", which is a large inflated bladder under the boat. You control the boat with your paddles and it responds very naturally. We think we were trying to accomplish something on this cruise, but we don't remember what. Anyway, you soon find yourself on a wild river, being splashed with water (not soaking) and feeling the heat of hot molten lava as you pass by it. And look out, there are dinosaurs! We loved it!

Treasure of the Incas - A mix of VR and the real world. You are stationed in front of a TV screen with a set of controls and have the front view from a vehicle trying to find treasure in underground passages. What you are actually controlling is a RC model jeep that is located in the floor of the room under a catwalk. Dad watched the jeep while Molly explored via the RC station. *Molly says - "It was really cool, because my dad was over looking at my car and all the itty-bitty stuff in the tunnels and I was looking at what seemed like regular-sized stuff. I did run into about two other people while doing it!"*

Score Zone -

This is the place where you find mostly arcade-type VR games. *Molly says - "I played this hockey game based on The Mighty Ducks with a whole bunch of other people. You stand on a hockey puck-like thing with railings that you can move in all directions by leaning." * Both of us found the jet ski game to be the most challenging. (Dad was shocked to see his daughter's on-screen alter ego in a skimpy bikini!) Other things we did included snowboarding and downhill skiing. Molly found the VR bass fishing hilarious. We spent the least amount of time in this area, but it was fun.

Replay Zone -

Dad's college days came rushing back as he spent numerous turns on the Centipede arcade game. Other "oldies" included Donkey Kong, the original Mario Brothers, Asteroids, Space Invaders, PacMan, etc., etc.

Midway to the Moon Redemption Games - About like Chuckie Cheese's without the heartburn. Games such as SkeeBall, Basketball shoot, Whack-a-Mole, Whack-an-Alien, Whack-a-Clinton ;-), and others by which you earn redeemable coupons. We began by earning some forty coupons and thought, "wow!" Then we saw a little girl with at least 500. We got to work and earned 400 so that Molly could get a stuffed alien from the prize counter. Funny, though -- Molly and Dad shared a favorite: Dumbo's Rescue; a stupid little game designed for preschoolers. Go figure.

Buzz Lightyear's Astroblaster - An arcade game that puts you literally "in the action." Two people ride in each enclosed bumper car armed with a blaster. One person drives, picking up ammunition (balls) by driving over them and getting into firing position, while the other rides shotgun, loading and firing the blaster. You earn points to win by blasting your opponents, and lose by getting blasted time and time again from all sides until you think you can't stand it anymore and you start yelling at each other and blaming each other and you just want to get out of there and... Well, you get the picture.

The Cheesecake Factory - Good food. Molly had, well, a hot dog. Dad thoroughly enjoyed his chicken chili with tortilla chips.

In looking back it's amazing that we seemingly accomplished so little in the five hours we spent there. But all-in-all, we had a great time, although we try not to think about what we paid for the privilege.

And now, on with the trip report . . .

While Gary and Molly were Disney Questing, I had decided to do some shopping, so I drove over to the Marketplace. I went into the World of Disney and saw some stuff I wanted, but realized Gary had taken the Magic Kingdom Club card with him into DQ. It really irked me to think of missing out on the discount, so I went to Guest Services at the Marketplace to find out if there was any way of getting a message inside. The guy there didn't know, just guessed that maybe I could if I went to the Guest Services window at DQ. Sigh. I got back in the Suburban and drove back over. In retrospect I should have just walked, but I forgot how complicated it is to drive through those parking lots. Anyway, I made it over there and asked at the GS window. I was told that I could buy a ticket at the full price, and if I could find my party and get back out in 30 minutes I'd get a full refund. The chase was on! As it turned out, it took less than 10 minutes to find them, get the card, and get back out, since the place was very uncrowded. It did give me a chance to see DQ, though, which was enough to make me feel like I'd made the right decision not to go - the noise and the artificial light were very unappealing to me.

After receiving my full refund with no problems, I went back over to Downtown Disney to shop for gifts for a couple of people back home. I got myself some chicken salad and crackers at the Gourmet Pantry and ate them at a table outside in the sunshine, then I followed this up with a chocolate ice cream soda at Ghirardelli's. It was fabulous - I really love those chocolate sodas. After a little more wandering, I got in the truck and headed back to the camper. By the time I got there it was about 1:00, so I decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom just to browse the shops on Main Street for a little while before it was time to meet back at 3:00. I took the bus to the Depot and got a boat at the Marina - one of the smaller, open kind that in years past I had only seen going to the Contemporary from here. When I got to Main Street I amused myself for about an hour by listening to the Dapper Dans, shopping, and people watching. I enjoyed being on my own for a little while, but it's really a lot more fun with my family.

I got back to the camper a few minutes before 3, followed closely by Gary and Molly. Molly was in the mood for a swim, and Gary was in the mood for a nap, *Hey! I did a load of laundry, too!* so I went with Molly down to the pool - the main one by the Meadow trading post was closed for rehab, so we had to go to the other pool down by the Wilderness Homes. She swam for about an hour while I sat and watched/read my book/tried to stay awake. I noticed that the Dad at the poolside table next to mine wasn't even trying - he had his head all the way back and was happily snoring away.

After Molly got dried off and dressed we got in the truck to head to MGM for our first experience with Fantasmic. (Another first!) This was sometime between 4 and 5:00 and we hit terrible traffic on Buena Vista Drive. At first I thought this was just rush hour in Disney World, but eventually we crept far enough down the road to see that there was road construction going on *and* a wreck, causing a massive back-up. The late afternoon sun was in our eyes the whole time, and the air conditioning in the Suburban wasn't working, so this was not a real pleasant time, but eventually we made it into the parking lot at MGM and caught the tram to the front gate. We were hungry so we went right to the Commissary for dinner. We practically had the place to ourselves. I like the fast food here pretty well, but I miss the old show tunes they used to play. Now they just run commercials for ABC programs on video screens continuously, which I find extremely annoying.

Our whole purpose in coming to the Studios tonight was to see Fantasmic, so after we ate we started working our way that direction, only stopping in the candy shop on Sunset Blvd for some snacks and again at Catalina Eddie's for coffee on the way into the ampitheater. We got in the gate about an hour before show time, and ended up seated one section to the left of center about two thirds of the way up. We enjoyed our coffee and shortbread while we waited and watched the preshow, which I thought was just about enough entertainment to get you through the wait while not disrupting the seating process. We were sitting next to a Brazilian family of a mom and two daughters - the younger one, who was probably 13 or so, did her best to converse with me, although she knew no English at all, and I knew no Portugese. She did know the word "beautiful", which she used to describe my radp pin! She was friendly and delightful, and I wished I could communicated with her better.

Fantasmic was good, but not great, in my opinion, which may have been colored by the amount of effort it took to see it. Between getting there early and making your way out at the end amid the teeming masses, it's pretty much a two hour time investment, and it wasn't outstanding enough to make me feel that it was definitely worth that. Time at WDW is a very precious commodity, and that's a big chunk of it to spend on any one attraction. There was action and spectacle, but the storyline was weak, and didn't pull you in to the degree I would wish for. I guess it was worth seeing once, but I'm not sure if I'll want to do it again next time.

After the show we waited where we were for a while to let some of the crowds get out, but even so it was still a huge crush of people funneling out of the place. After we made it to Sunset Blvd., we found a bench and sat down again to let even more people go by. (We had not bothered to get a wheelchair since it was so late in the day when we arrived, and Molly's knee was once again hurting her a lot, making the trek even more difficult than it would have been.) Eventually the crowds began to look manageable (it was astounding how long it took for this to happen!) and we made our way out to the tram, the truck, and the campsite. Whew!

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #11 - One more at MGM that is worth mentioning. It's not easily seen from the ground, so get a guide map and turn it upside down. You will see Mickey smiling at you just *above* the Chinese Theatre.*

Day 6 (Wednesday, Jan. Twenty-seventh)

Epcot

*Molly's "Daisy Crazy" Trivia Question #5:

In what Donald Duck cartoon did Daisy debut, and in what year?

(The answer will be given in Day Seven of this report.)*

Answer to Question # 4(Which is more common for Daisy to wear - a blue hairbow, or a pink one?):

Pink

We slept a little later than usual, had breakfast in the camper, and drove to Epcot, arriving about 30 minutes after opening. We rented a wheelchair and hit our first attraction of the morning, the Universe of Energy, followed by a trip to the Wonders of Life pavilion. Usually Molly rides Body Wars alone, since Gary and I both get really queasy on it and have refused to ever do it again, but she decided that today maybe even she wasn't up to it. (She had the beginnings of a little cold going on.) We all played around on the exhibits for a while, then did Cranium Command (another family favorite.) We decided on an early lunch and got it at Pasta Piazza, after which we made our leisurely way over to the World Showcase, where we browsed in the Mexican pavilion for a while and rode El Rio del Tiempo, followed by another trip on the Maelstrom in Norway. While we were there, Gary made us a priority seating at Restaurant Akershus for an early dinner at 4:30. We've been interested in eating at this place for years, but this was the first time we ever got up enough nerve to actually do it. By making the priority seating when we did, we got the lunch price for the buffet, making it very cheap with a MKC discount. (More on this experience later.)

Our goal for today was to make it all the way around the World Showcase, since we'd stopped at America the first day. As we passed the China pavilion, Molly decided to go ahead and spend some of her money on a bird marionette she'd had her eye on, which she named "Francois". Unusual for a Chinese bird, perhaps, but it is blue and fluffy and somehow it does look like a Francois. Cest la vie. On to the American pavilion, where we decided to park the chair outside this time. We got a spot right up on the circle to sit on the floor and listen to the Voices of Liberty, and this time we made it through the show, which is a favorite of mine. (Part of my TDC title comes from the fact that one of my relations on my mother's side, George Corliss, is mentioned in the presentation, referring to the steam engine he refined that powered the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia - the Ratcliff part of the title refers to the fact that I think I am also related, on my father's side, to Governor Ratcliff of Pocahantas fame.)

On with the show . . . we continued our trek around to France, which is my favorite country for pure aesthetic value, enjoyed its shops for a while, and caught a glimpse of Bubble Nicholas, who interacted with Molly in her wheelchair a little bit. From there we went on to the U.K. (my other favorite country for pure aesthetic value). We decided to come in through "the back way", or in other words, to walk through the garden path behind the tea shop which ends up in the square at the back of the pavilion. Now, to appreciate what happened next, you need to know that Molly has had a bee in her bonnet for some time now about how Pooh seems to be taking over Disney World. This is complicated - she doesn't hate or even dislike Pooh and the gang - as a matter of fact she's had a deep and abiding love for them from her babyhood on, embodied mostly in the A.A. Milne books and Shepard illustrations, but in all other forms, as well. However, she (and I, for that matter) just feel like Pooh is on the verge of usurping Mickey at the parks, and she just doesn't think that's right. Also, she's quite upset about Mr. Toad being given the axe to make room for the Pooh ride. Consequently, her relationship with the silly old bear has suffered in recent years, to the point that when she sees any of the 100 Acre Woods gang at WDW, she prefers to simply pass them by. Ok, that said, picture this: We come round the bend at the back of the U.K., pushing this child in a wheelchair (a fact which we noticed always seemed to get her more than the usual amount of attention from any characters that saw her), only to come face to face with Pooh and Tigger, hanging out in the square with no children (or anyone else) around and absolutely nothing to do but make a fuss over her! The look of sheer terror on Molly's face was hilarious. I'll say this for those characters - if they saw us (and I feel sure they did) they must have understood from the look on her face that she didn't want to hang out with them, because they managed to make it look like they never even noticed us as we detoured through the maze and into the shops on the other side of the street. They must know not to approach people who aren't interested in them.

Having escaped from the Pooh encounter, we went through one of our former favorite shops, The Toy Soldier, finding just what we expected - 90 percent Pooh merchandise. This is why it's a *former* favorite. I used to love to see all the Paddington Bear, the Peter Rabbit, the Wind in the Willows, and other uniquely British toys, but now what little non-Pooh merchandise there is is crammed onto one small shelf area to make room for the ever-increasing Pooh stuff. Sigh.

Leaving the British Isles, we made our way on around to Canada. I had hoped to see Off Kilter this trip since we never have before, but alas, they were on vacation this week. (Imagine that - a vacation *from* Disney World.) We didn't stop here, but went on through the Rose Walk to the Imagination pavilion for another time through Honey I Shrunk the Audience, after which we cut through the Communicore and caught the last two minutes of the Kristos, another act we were sorry to have missed, although we have seen them several times before. We were determined that the same thing was *not* going to happen with the Pu Yang Acrobats, whose act we were planning to catch for the first time ever just before our priority seating at Restaurant Akershus. We did make it over there in time, and enjoyed the performance very much.

And now for something completely different . . . it was time for our adventure in Norwegian dining. This dinner got very mixed reviews from us. None of us absolutely hated it, although one of us thought once was probably enough for a lifetime. One of us could possibly be persuaded to go another time, and one of us really liked it and wants to eat there again. (This person is mainly fond of the meatballs.) Our server was in training, and although he was pleasant enough, he wasn't very efficient. We had a hard time getting stuff that we needed (silverware, water refills, etc.) during the meal, and he had never heard of the MKC card, causing some delay in paying our bill. Also, no one had ever asked us Molly's age, so she was charged as an adult, and it took a good bit of time to get that changed. (The children's price at this buffet goes through age 11.) Total cost with tax was just a little under $30.00

After dinner it was back to Future World to check the Tip Board - we were hoping for another shot at Test Track. The Tip Board just said "Delay" again, so we spent a little time in Ice Station Cool, then wandered over to TT to see what was up. No official word was forthcoming, but people were gathering outside, so we stuck around to see what would happen. A line began to form at 6:30, so we got in it, and the doors opened at seven. We walked slowly almost all of the way through the queue area, noticing several Hidden Mickeys (described in GFHM #8) as we went, taking about 10 minutes to do so. We got through the briefing room, and then were ushered onto the wheelchair platform, waited about 20 minutes while some unknown problem was resolved, and we were on! Once again, we really enjoyed the ride, this time from the nighttime perspective which was kind of neat. Afterwards, we went to the Centorium for a little evening browse, including a trip upstairs in the glass elevator to The Art of Disney where we gawked at such wonders as an $8,000 wooden Mickey carving. We bought a couple of refrigerator magnets and on an impulse I bought a postcard of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, thinking that maybe at the Magic Kingdom tomorrow I'd have a chance to get Snow and the boys to sign it. After turning the wheelchair in we drove home to Fort Wilderness where I did some laundry and we all got to bed early, exhausted from the long day with (once again) no afternoon break.

Day Seven (Thursday, 1/28)

Early Entry at the Magic Kingdom, Chef Mickey's

*Molly's "Daisy Crazy" Trivia Question #6:

What was Daisy's original name?

(The answer will be given in Day 8 of this report.)*

Answer to Question # 5(In what Donald Duck cartoon did Daisy debut, and in what year?):

"Don Donald", 1939

Our plan for today was to get over to the MK early enough to take care of Fantasyland before our 10:15 priority seating for a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's. We ate some dry cereal in the bus and the boat on the way to tide us over, pulling up to the MK dock right at the stroke of 8:00. As we disembarked, Gary told me to look quick, and who should we see but the Seven Dwarves, all coming out the gates and heading straight for us! (Well, actually the Six Dwarves - Doc was off polishing his glasses or something.) I could not believe that this was happening after my impulse buy of the Snow White and Dwarves postcard the night before, just in case I should run across them. Well, I got all 6 of their autographs on my postcard and pix with each of them. I wonder if anybody thought it was strange that I did this while my kid stood by watching. Anyway, I had a ball, but between that activity and renting the wheelchair we missed almost half of our early entry hour, but when a moment like that happens, you've gotta go with it, right?

We did go to Fantasyland at this point and got right onto Peter Pan - I just love this ride. The night sky over London, the mermaids' lagoon, "You can fly, you can fly, you can fly" . . . pure magic. Nobody felt like waiting in line for Dumbo, so we went to Tomorrowland for another Space Ranger Spin, following which we decided to do the Speedway since the line looked pretty short and it wasn't quite 9:00 yet. Even with a short line it's a wait for this ride, and I remembered why I never wanted to do it before - it takes forever and it's just as lame as it can be. We all got our own cars, but mine died about 50 feet from the end, and I had to yell to the car behind me to ask them to push me in. They did this for a little while, but then *their* car died too, leaving us both (and everybody behind us) stranded. It was amazing how long it took the cm's to notice this - surely they've seen it enough to recognize it. Finally they saw us and came and got our cars to start so we could finish the race and get off the stupid track (which was how I was definitely feeling about it by this time!)

9:00 regular opening had come and gone, so we headed over to Adventureland for a Jungle Cruise. The line was short and we were on a boat in 5 minutes. After a quick trip through all the jungles of Africa and Asia, we disembarked and that was when the trouble began.

In Day 3 of this report I described what happened when we all got too tired and hungry, and lo and behold, here was the same thing happening again. (Remember that we had been up for quite a while by now and had had very little to eat, since we were planning on a late character breakfast.) It started when Molly wanted to try the radio controlled boats by the exit of the Jungle Cruise. We'd never done it before since it looked like a total waste of a dollar, but this time, probably due to our reason being impaired by rapidly dwindling blood sugars, we caved and said ok. Naturally, Molly didn't want anybody to help her with it at all, and naturally we were telling her "Do this, do that, hurry up and do this, you're not doing that," . . . you get the picture. Her boat never went much of anywhere, harsh words were spoken by all, everybody's feelings got hurt, and 5 minutes of total silence had to be imposed. Oy.

While we were trying to gather together the tattered shreds of our remaining dignity, I figured out that we had just enough time to see the new Tiki Birds, another first for us. It was a definite improvement over the old one, which I hadn't been in for 15 years and my family had never been in. (Insert humble bowing to Iago, the noble avian, here.)

Having survived the wrath of Uhoha (barely) we managed to stagger to the resort monorail and make our way to the Contemporary and Chef Mickey's by 10:05 for our 10:15 seating. We waited for fifteen silent minutes in the lobby (nobody had the strength to make any conversation) before we were ushered to our table. Oh, bliss! The carafe of hot coffee and the pitcher of cold juice were there waiting, and we fell on the buffet like Timon and Pumba at the bottom side of a rotten log. We are very, very fond of Chef Mickey's. We've had lots of great meals there (mostly breakfast, dinner one time). On our last trip, we tried 1900 Park Faire at the Grand Floridian for a change of pace, but we didn't like it nearly as much, so this time it was back to our old favorite. The character interaction is always tons of fun, and the food is fabulous - lots of choices and all of them good. We've never had a bad meal here.

When we had eaten all we could, jumped up and down to make more room and then eaten some more, we went back to the Magic Kingdom via the resort monorail. Feeling like new people, we stopped by City Hall to inquire about finding Snow White and Doc to add their autographs to my postcard, and while we were there we decided we might as well ask about Daisy again, too. The word on Daisy and Doc was encouraging - we were told when and where to find each of them - but Snow White was another story. She would be in the parade, and once in while she might hang out afterwards to sign autographs, but apparently she usually doesn't feel like it. Well, we'd give it a try, anyway. Heading back to the scene of our recent disaster (Adventureland) we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, after which we made our way to Splash Mountain and got flung into the briar patch. We checked on Big Thunder Mountain, but it was down for some reason, so we went to Haunted Mansion, where we decided to park the wheelchair outside so we could go through the stretch room. After a potty break and a rest on the benches on the way into Fantasyland, we finally broke down and rode Small World, followed by the Snow White ride. Molly had been wanting a Goofy burger (made of gummi candy) all week, so I decided to buy her one at the little Snow White shop. I was in line behind a grandma and grandpa who were there with their two preschool granddaughters, and who were apparently in training for the Spoiling Olympics. I have never seen so much merchandise being bought for little kids on the spur of the moment - they kept finding more stuff they had to have and adding two of everything to the pile. By the time they were done I think they had bought close to $300 worth of Snow White merchandise - it was amazing. Finally I made it to the cash register, bought my 99 cent candy, and gave it to Molly. By now it was time for Daisy to be at the Character Faire, so we went over and Molly had another love fest with her favorite glamour duck. As we were walking away pushing Molly in the wheelchair, I saw something huge right by my head and the next thing I knew a seagull had swooped down and snatched Molly's Goofy Burger right out of her hand. It scared me to death, and it hurt Molly a little bit, pecking her fingers as it grabbed the candy. What a pain! I'd heard about these dive-bombing thieves before, but this was our first up-close experience with one, and it was too close for comfort. *Gary says, in his most fatherly voice, "No matter how tempting it is, don't feed the sea gulls, it may be fun at first, but they can be really dangerous and obviously learn that they can take whatever they want whenever they want."*

On to Mickey's Toontown Fair, where Molly and I rode the Barnstormer while Gary waited. We toured Mickey and Minnie's houses, but passed up waiting for anybody's autograph since we'd already seen everybody who was there. We wanted to find a quiet place out of the sun to sit down and rest for a few minutes, so we went down the "secret path" to Tomorrowland and stopped on a bench halfway. It was lovely - we had the place to ourselves, and after a few minutes we felt refreshed and ready to go on. Time for another old favorite - the Carousel of Progress ("It's a great big beautiful tomorrow . . .") *Molly says - "I can't believe that I actually used to like this attraction! It seems so cheesy now."* Then we made our way to Main Street to check for Snow White at the end of the parade, but no such luck. We ended up hanging out on Main Street for quite a while, listening to the Dapper Dans in the Confectionary, browsing the shops and just people watching. I finally got Doc's autograph by the flower stalls, and got a glimpse inside the barber shop. I've never been in there, but it was just 5:00 when I peaked in and they were closed. However, that meant it was time for the Flag Retreat Ceremony, another little something we've been meaning to see and finally did. It was a lovely little ceremony, and after it was over we made our way back to Frontierland, where we finally got on Big Thunder Mountain. We had been planning to get dinner at Columbia Harbor House, but it was about 6:00 and it had stopped serving at 5:00. Grrrr! While we were trying to decide what to eat instead, Molly let us know that she had been waiting to see the Country Bears. Gary and I were kind of hoping to get by without seeing this attraction this year, but there was just enough time before the fireworks, so we went into the lobby to wait. While we were waiting, I decided I should go get hot dogs (surprise, surprise) from Casey's and meet Gary and Molly at the Plaza Pavilion for the fireworks, so I bailed out. When I had the dogs and was leaving Casey's, Gary surprised me by showing up to help me carry the stuff - he and Molly had decided to bail at the last minute, too, and already had a table waiting for us. We ate our dogs (rrrufff!) and had about 20 minutes to spare before Tinkerbell's flight, so I asked Gary to go get us some popcorn. I had been wanting one of those Magic Kingdom popcorn buckets for a souvenier, and this seemed like the perfect time to get one. 20 minutes later when Tink flew by overhead, the fireworks began, and Gary still wasn't back, it didn't seem like such a good idea any more, but he was there in 5 minutes and saw most of the rockets bursting in air with us. Once again, after the fireworks we lingered for quite awhile, watching the colors change on the castle and then shopping on Main Street one last time. In the Sports shop we saw a Daisy volleyball shirt in Molly's size, but didn't buy it. Strolling to the boat dock, I began to worry that we may have missed the last boat since it was all dark and still and there was no one there, but lo and behold, one more boat came just for us. We boarded and sat there for a few minutes until a cm came and asked our captain something, and then two young couples with little kids came and got on. I guess they must have missed the last boat to the Wilderness Lodge, because we made a stop for them to get off there, then the three of us had the boat to ourselves (except for the skipper, of course) on the last leg to Fort Wilderness. It was a beautiful starlit night and the ride was a delight. Back at FW, we caught the bus and on a whim got off at the campfire program to see what movie was showing. It was Pocohantas, which we had no interest in seeing, so we stopped by the Meadow Trading Post to call Grandma and Grandpa, then went back to the camper and settled in for our next to last night.

Day 8 (Friday, 1/29)

Last Park Day - Animal Kingdom, Alfredo's, IllumiNations

*Molly's "Daisy Crazy" Trivia Question # Seven:

Besides her name, what else about Daisy was changed in the 1950's?

(The answer will be given in Day 9 of this report.)*

Answer to Question # 6(What was Daisy's original name?):

Donna Duck

We drove to the Animal Kingdom first thing this morning, getting there just in time for park opening. As we were walking in we heard someone yelling that the gray Suburban had left its lights on. Yikes! That was us. Gary went back to take care of it, thanking the guy who let us know as he went. As Molly and I were waiting for him to catch up, we noticed a sign that said wheelchairs could be rented at the Outpost (the gift shop outside the gates). Since we hadn't rented a chair the first day we came here and didn't know any better, I thought maybe that was the only place to get them. I found out later that they're for rent where the strollers are, just inside the gate, and it would have been a better idea to do it there. More on that subject later.

When Gary caught up we went in the Outpost and rented the chair with no problem. We didn't get the usual tagboard receipt, though, just a paper one, but the guy said it would be all we'd need to get a chair at another park later. Once inside the gate, we retraced our steps from the first day here, heading straight for Countdown to Extinction, which Molly and I rode while Gary waited. Did I mention we really like this ride? Since we hadn't made breakfast in the camper this morning, we stopped at the Dino Diner afterwards for some bagels, fruit, and coffee, and carried them to the outside tables by the river at Flame Tree Barbeque to eat. Very pretty spot. Molly especially enjoyed the decorative pool there. Once again, we picked up our schedule from the first day and went to see It's Tough to Be a Bug, which Molly only agreed to do again because she was in a wheelchair this time and knew she would miss the most bothersome of the special effects. This show was quite full and there were children in hysterics who had to be taken out. I really can't recommend this attraction for littler kids, or even for grown-ups who are scared of bugs. If it doesn't scare you, it's really fun.

Onward, ever onward, to Camp MinnieMickey for the Festival of the Lion King. You may recall that we were really crazy about this show the first time we saw it. This time we were seated in the wheelchair row right up front in the Lion Section, which gave us a whole different perspective. We got to make a lot of eye contact with the performers, which was fun, and the young Prince came by and spoke with Molly once for a second, asking her what happened to her leg. When she told him she hurt it playing basketball, he told her he plays basketball, too. That's funny - I didn't know they played much b-ball out there on the savanna. *Molly says - "Then this monkey guy, he was one of the acrobats, actually, comes up to me. I was talking to my mom, he tapped me on the shoulder, I looked around and he got right in my face and said 'Woo!' then ran off. It was kind of wierd."* The cast was different this time, and I was disappointed that the Chief was different - this one was good, too, but the other guy had that fantastic resonant bass voice that was one of the highlights of the whole trip for me.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #12 - Did you think I'd forgotten? The HM in the Tree of Life is a large patch of moss or grass at the base of the trunk on the south side (toward entrance).*

From Camp MM we went to Harambe for the Safari. It was starting to feel very crowded there now, although I don't know how long the line was for the Safari, since we went in through the wheelchair entrance, which is at the exit. This was really hard to find, by the way. I don't know if they always do it this way, but we waited there until they had enough people in wheelchair parties to fill a whole bus. Our driver this time was Bonnie, who was only in her second week at the Safari and did a great job. I don't think we saw quite as many animals this time, although we did have a couple of giraffes come right up and bat their eyelashes at us. No lions this time.

Time for lunch - today we decided to eat at the Tusker House, where we got an MKC discount. I had the fried chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans; Gary had the daily special which was Peanut Chicken - boneless chicken over a rice and vegetable mix; and Molly had the kid's Mac and Cheese. My meal came with three pieces of chicken, so I gave her the leg. *Gary says, "It was the thing that most closely resembled a hot dog."* Everything was really good, and we all agree that we'd like to eat here again someday.

Having refueled we were ready for an expedition to the dig site, followed by one more trip back in time on CTX for Molly and I while Gary walked through the Cretaceous Trail. We found him in there and then strolled back towards Harambe looking for ice cream. We passed several chances, but Gary was hoping to find something sugar-free. Asia still wasn't open (we found out later that it opened the day after we left!) but as we went by, Molly stopped to chat with one of the cm's posted outside the area - she was intrigued by the girl's name (Poo). We took another trip through the Hidden Path, and gazed at the Tree of Life from across the river for awhile. There we were back in Harambe again, and the ice cream place there had nothing sugar-free to offer, so Gary just got a pear from the fruit stand while Molly had a root beer float and I had some frozen yogurt, which we took inside Tusker House to eat in the air conditioning.

We had missed the Pangani Falls Exploration Trail the first day, so now seemed like a good time for that. This is a nice presentation, and the cm's seemed very knowledgeable and helpful. We spoke for a while with a guy named Gareee (I'm not making this up) who had lots of information to offer about the naked mole rats. My favorite part was the meerkats - they're just so cute. I couldn't really see the hippos through the murky water in the underwater viewing tank, but Molly says she saw one. We did see some gorillas, although they were pretty much just all laying around taking it easy. *Molly says : "There was this one gorilla, it was huge! And it was just lying on his back, with his arms and legs straight up in the air, for about 30 minutes!"* - at least there was no flying gorilla poop!

We left the AK shortly before 3:00 to have a rest back at the camper, and so Gary could spend a few minutes seeing if there was anything he could do about the air conditioning in the Suburban, which wasn't working at all, before our long drive home the next day. It hadn't been working on the way down, either, but the weather had been cool and cloudy and we hadn't needed it then. After turning in the wheelchair, we decided to catch a tram instead of walking back to the truck. As it turned out, I think we walked farther from where the tram let us off than we would have from the gate, since we were all the way at the other end of a loooooooong row. At least the battery wasn't dead when we got there, thanks to the guy who told us about our lights that morning.

Back at the camper, Gary spent some quality time alone with the Suburban while Molly and I sprawled out on our beds and read/relaxed/dozed. By the time we were ready to get up he had decided there was nothing he could do about the air conditioning. Bummer. We had a 6:30 priority seating at Alfredo's, so we drove over, parked at the Beach Club, and walked to the International Gateway. When we showed the cm at the wheelchair rental there our little paper receipt from the Outpost, she said it wasn't right and we should have had the regular kind, but after some hemming and hawing she let us have the chair, and we were on our way into Epcot for our dinner and IllumiNations.

We didn't really stop anywhere much on the way, but Gary's blood sugar took a dive as we walked so we did stop on a bench for a minute while he had some Lifesavers. When he felt up to it we went on to Italy, and were seated immediately when we got there. We really like Alfredo's - we've always enjoyed our food there, the restaurant is very pretty, and the strolling opera singers, while way over the top, are fun and festive. We don't get much strolling opera where we live, so it's a treat. Gary and I like to share meals at Italian places, so one of us orders something red and the other orders white so we can split them. This time he ordered Fettucine Alfredo and I had some sort of Tortellini, while Molly ordered the kid's spaghetti and meatballs. My dish turned out to be four large tortelinni, so I gave Gary two of them while he gave me half his pasta. Keeping in mind that this was our one "splurge" dinner of the vacation, I was trying to take my time and savor it. However, about 5 minutes into the meal, I looked over and saw that Gary had already inhaled everything on his plate! I was aghast, and when I made a comment about how fast he had eaten it, he said, "I think you got more than me." I really didn't want to hear this, since I would have been happy to eat every scrap of what I had, but I thought maybe he was right, so I gave him some more fettucini and half of another tortellini. I was using the big pasta twirling spoon to serve this to him when he took it from my hand, put the whole thing in his mouth, and swallowed it whole! I tried my best to keep on slowly savoring my meal, but I felt bad and kept giving him more. After dinner, when we had left the restaurant, I said, "You know, I really don't think I had any more than you to start with," to which Gary replied, "Oh, I was just kidding about that - did you think I was serious?" I could have strangled him right there. *Gary says - "My perspective is, when my blood sugar drops, all I can think about is eating. It's like an instinctive response -- if it's edible it's gone. I truly was joking, and just assumed Beth had more food than she wanted when she gave me more."* I knew all that, but I still could have strangled him.

We strolled for awhile after dinner enjoying the beauty of the World Showcase at night, and stopping in the toy shop in Germany and the shop at the American Pavilion, where I picked up a good book about the Presidents. We got some coffee and began the search for a place to watch IllumiNations. We had a hard time agreeing on a good spot, and eventually we decided to try something new and go up on the second floor deck at the Japanese pavilion. This took some doing, because there's not an elevator. We could have just left the wheelchair parked downstairs somewhere, but Molly's knee was pretty tired and we had a while to stand around, so Gary carried the thing upstairs, then we staked out our spot at the corner. We were there about 20 minutes before nine, and right at 9:00 when IllumiNations was starting, a Brazilian family came and crowded in next to us, squishing us and almost blocking Molly's view completely.

The Squishing Brazilians notwithstanding, we didn't like this spot for IllumiNations. For one thing, we couldn't hear the music very well, and for another, we just felt sort of set apart, like we weren't in on the whole thing. One advantage though - we could actually see the fireworks from the MK, which gave us something to watch during the boring, disjointed parts where the lights on the countries are flickering in that repetitive, spastic way they've had since IllumiNations 25 was thrust on us. Bring back old IllumiNations! Ok, down from the soapbox and on with the trip report . . .

After it was over we let the Squishing Brazilians go on their merry way, then Gary manhandled the wheelchair down the stairs again, Molly limped down hanging onto my elbow, and we were on our way. (By the way, never try taking a wheelchair up there if you can help it, which you probably can. It turned out to be *way* more trouble than we thought.) We left through the International Gateway and made our way slowly over to the Beach Club (this was a long walk for Molly's knee by this time of night.) I went on ahead of Gimpy and her dad to look in the Beach Club gift shop for a Snow White figurine, since I was now on an official Snow White kick after my experience with the dwarves yesterday. I didn't find one, and when they caught up with me, we all went to Beaches and Cream for a late night treat. We got a table right away (first time ever!) and Molly and I split a Frozen Sunshine while Gary had a Diet Coke float made with sugar-free vanilla ice cream. Delicious! We struck up a conversation with a server named Mickey (no kidding) about Disney beanies - this guy had over 300 of them! He really brought us up to speed on the subject.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #13 - He's about average height and weight with light brown hair... :-) There really are some in the wallpaper border.*

When we finished, Gary went to get the Suburban while Molly and I waited on a bench out front. Back to the camper for one last night :-(

Day 9 (Saturday, 1/30)

Packing, Trail's End Buffet, Downtown Disney Marketplace, Travel Home

Answer to the final Molly's "Daisy Crazy" Trivia question (Besides her name, what else about Daisy was changed in the 1950's?):

Her voice - at first it was like Donald's, then they made it like a regular person's voice, but sweet.

It was the morning - *that* morning, the one I hate - the morning of packing up and leaving. Bummer. Our last morning tradition is to get the camper popped down and the car loaded up, then indulge in breakfast at the Trail's End Buffet to cheer ourselves up. Packing up got done in about an hour, which is record time for us, leaving us plenty of time to have our breakfast and get gone before 11:00 check-out time. The food at the Trail's End is always good, and compared to the character buffets, it's a real bargain at about $8 for adults and $5 for kids. We had a good meal, and were on our way out the gate by about 10:00. As we drove out, I tried not to think mean thoughts about the people in campers who were just pulling in to begin their vacations as ours was coming to an end.

We decided since we got out fairly early, and since we actually still had some traveller's checks left over, that we could go to Downtown Disney one more time for some last minute souveniers. I found a grey pullover with an embroidered Mickey on it that I really liked, Gary got some Mickey boxers, and we went to Team Mickey to buy that Daisy volleyball shirt for Molly that we had seen earlier in the week at the Magic Kingdom. As further consolation, we had chocolate sodas at Ghirardelli's, made one last potty stop in the World of Disney, and hit the road. The drive home was fairly uneventful, and it turned out not to be so hot that the lack of air conditioning was a problem. We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Tallahassee, and pulled in our driveway by about 10:00 p.m.

*Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys #14 - If you go through the kitchen and down the hall, the guest bathroom is on the left. It's done in *all* Mickey. The HM is in the tiles around the tub. ;-)*

It had been another great trip, and I've enjoyed reliving it as I wrote this report. For those who have hung in this long, thanks for reading it and I hope you enjoyed it, too. I'd also like to say thank you to my family, Gary and Molly, who helped so much with this trip report. Not only did they put in the "Daisy Crazy Trivia" and "Gary's Favorite Hidden Mickeys" sections, but they also answered many, many questions for me as I tried to reconstruct events from my feeble memory. It has truly been a family effort. And now, on with our lives...

Beth Hodges

beth_hodges@my-dejanews.com

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