Trip Reports

February 1 – 5, 1999

Cast of Characters:

Me (Janice): Thirty-something, Secretary
Husband (Craig): Thirty-something, Construction Worker
Son (Louis): 2 year old toddler
Mom-in-Law: Mid-Fifties, Bookkeeper
Dad-in-Law: Late Fifties, Electrical Engineer
Sister-in-Law (Linda): Thirty-something, Owns and Manages a Gift Shop
Brother-in-Law (Rocco, Linda’s husband): Thirty-something, Pharmacist
Their Children: Lorenzo, age 8, and Nicolette, age 5
Background:

I visited Disney World with my family first as a child in 1972 and then as a teenager in 1976. While I loved it then, it was not somewhere I had much desire to visit when I became an adult. I always thought I would want to go again when I had children of my own.

I’m sure that Mom and Dad-in-law plus their kids, Craig and Linda, went to Walt Disney World sometime in the mid-70’s, plus another time in the 80’s after Epcot, but before MGM Studios. Sister-in-law, Linda, and her husband, Rocco, went and stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort in 1990 while she was pregnant with Lorenzo. They went back in 1994 or 1995 with both their children and stayed at Dixie Landings.

This past spring, I caught a TV commercial showing the 800 number for the free Disney World vacation planning video. I thought my son might get a kick out of it, so I called for a copy. He did enjoy pulling the tape out of the cassette and destroying it, but this happened after we had a chance to watch it a few times. I now had a strong desire to go there with my baby, but didn’t think it was financially feasible anytime in the near future so I put it out of my mind.

I should also mention that I have an older brother who has three teen-aged children. They’ve gone every other year or so from when their oldest was about a year old. In the past couple of years, they have been buying annual passes and driving down twice a year, staying off-site using an Entertainment International card to get discounted hotel rates. My brother is an engineer and very savvy when it comes to getting value for what he spends. He has been urging my husband and I to go before our son turns three because he won’t need a park pass and can eat free in a lot of places. In his own experience, he found this to be a real Disney deal.

Early in August while I was slaving away on my son’s big second birthday party, my mother-in-law called to say that she and my father-in-law wanted to pay for a trip to Disney World as a Christmas gift to the family. She told me that they would pay for the airfare, hotel and transfers, but we would have to pay for our food and park passes. Would it be O.K.? Did we want this? Well, what do you think? I was absolutely thrilled!

Shortly after the decision was made that all nine of us were going the first week of February 1999, I discovered Deb Wills’ site on the web at work and this opened a whole new world for me. I’m something of an info-maniac, and Deb’s site and the links provided there fed my now voracious appetite for Disney info. I started reading all of the trip reports on Brian Bennett’s site and savored each one. I knew that if my actual trip to Disney was disappointing, I at least had this much fun preparing for it. For this, I am grateful to everyone who wrote and posted their wonderful reports, and I now hope to return the favor.

Monday, February 1

The Day in Which We Travel to Disney World

Our alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. The limo was coming at 6:30 a.m. to drive myself, my husband and baby to the airport. My in-laws live in a different area so they got their own car service to the airport. Craig (my husband) and I both showered and dressed. We were debating on whether to take our son in his pajamas asleep to the airport or to wake and dress him at home. We opted for the latter, and fortunately, he didn’t get up too grumpy. I guess he could sense our excitement. The limo had trouble finding our house number, so we got into the car kind of late. To our surprise, there was a lot of traffic getting to the terminal, so we cut it pretty close.

The flight was just fine. We landed in Orlando at around 11:30 a.m. My in-laws had booked the trip as a package deal with Continental that included round trip transfers via Mears shuttle. They had a choice of staying at any of the Disney moderate resorts and chose the Coronado Springs because it’s the newest. Everything went smoothly enough with Mears, and we were at the resort by 1:00 p.m.

Since our rooms were not yet ready, we all went to lunch at the Pepper Market food court. Neither my husband nor myself cared much for this place. I had the chicken caesar salad overpriced at $8.95. Usually when I order this at home, a chicken breast is grilled and placed on top of the salad so you have the contrast of hot and cold. However, the chicken was already cut up and was ice cold, and I’m not sure it was all white meat. Hopefully, it wasn’t because there were a lot of dark colored pieces which, if they were white meat, would mean they were seriously undercooked.

My husband had a cheeseburger and fries for about the same price. The burger was unremarkable, and the fries looked and tasted like they had been cooked hours before and briefly reheated in the deep fryer when Craig placed his order. After the 10% surcharge they tack onto your bill, this lunch cost us $20 and was nothing to get excited about. To justify the surcharge, a woman comes around every now and then to ask if you’d like refills of your drinks. If I liked the food here, I could definitely do without this service and the surcharge. But since we didn’t care for anything anyway, we just didn’t come back.

Actually, it was probably just as well we didn’t like the food court, since our room turned out to be quite a hike from it. We wound up in the Cabanas section 8A, very close to Bus Stop #3 and near to the Dig Site. This turned out to be a very convenient location for us since we took my son swimming each afternoon. I think he enjoyed this as much as the parks.

Anyway, each family had their own room. Ours was next to my mother’s and father’s-in-law, and Craig’s sister’s family was three rooms down from ours. The rooms are lovely. From the pictures I had seen on the Internet, I was expecting the decor to be quite gaudy. Although it is colorful, the room is still restful and homey and not at all loud. Also, they seem to have soundproofed this hotel well. I didn’t hear any noise outside our room during the entire week. The room was kept very clean, and I had no qualms about giving my son a bath in the tub here.

Our plans for the day were to get into our rooms if they were ready or have our luggage stored, then head out to explore Epcot. We were then going to treat my parents in-law to dinner at the Coral Reef to thank them for this wonderful gift. Well, after lunch, I could tell my son was getting terribly tired which means he’d be a bear, so my husband and I decided to stroll him around the resort to get him to take a nap. Everyone else headed out to Epcot and we told them we’d meet them there for our 6:00 PS.

It took awhile for that little sleep fighter to go down. We were able to get our room at around 3:00, but my son didn’t fall asleep until 4:00. When we tried to wake him at 5:15, he cried so pitifully that we decided to skip the family dinner. We called the podium at the Coral Reef using the internal phone system at Disney and asked them to have my mother-in-law call us when they got there. My in-laws understood how knocked out the little guy was. After all, he was up at 6:00 a.m., had taken no earlier nap, and thought the plane ride was the biggest thrill of his life.

Anyway, he woke up around 7:30 p.m. so we decided to head over to the Boardwalk rather than wasting a park pass for an hour’s visit to Epcot. Thank you, Internet posters, as I would not have known about doing this were it not for reading other people’s reports.

What a wonderful place the Boardwalk is, especially considering there is no admission to go there. We walked around, checked out the dining options, watched the Buskers perform, then decided to get a pepperoni pizza from the Spoodles window. We ate outside and were able to see the fireworks from Illuminations. The pizza was delicious, too. After eating, we strolled some more and went into the Boardwalk bakery for a snack to bring back to the room. We got two brownies, one cheesecake, the other plain. Both were to die for.

We caught a bus back to the Coronado I guess at around 11:00 p.m. Actually, the bus system at Coronado Springs was excellent the whole trip, and I think it’s fantastic that there is a bus that runs between the Coronado, the Boardwalk, and Downtown Disney. Neither the Boardwalk nor Downtown Disney charge entrance admission, and both places are a pleasure to visit.

Tuesday, February 2

The Day in Which We Visit the Animal Kingdom and Have Dinner at Chef Mickey’s

Our son, Louis, woke up at 6:00 a.m. raring to go. For breakfast, we munched on some mini-muffins I brought from home and some of the leftover brownies. We had planned all along to go to the Animal Kingdom this day. We caught the bus quite early and made it there for rope drop. How exciting! They played the music from the beginning of the Lion King, and I was covered with goosebumps. It started raining so we hung out a little while under these neat cave structures just past the Oasis. Some CMs were there with little cages holding tarantulas and scorpions, and they moved around to show the animals to the guests and talked about them. Interesting.

We waited awhile, but the rain still didn’t stop so we moved into a gift shop. I read on the Net that the Animal Kingdom has some unique souvenirs, and I was not disappointed. I bought a beautiful T-shirt for myself with the Tree of Life done in an iridescent paint. I also really wanted to get my son a safari Piglet. He really likes Piglet (he calls him "Piggie" and it’s so cute) and he didn’t have a stuffed Piglet, so I thought this would be the thing to get. But when we were in the store, he latched onto a safari Pluto and kept saying he wanted this "doggie" so we bought that instead.

The rain cleared up and we headed to Kilimanjaro Safari’s, which had no waiting line. I can’t tell you how much we enjoyed out safari. We saw lots of animals and were amazed at how well themed all the landscaping is. We got a big kick out of the bridge almost caving in beneath us, and we thought the poacher story was cute.

After this, we headed over to the Jungle Book show, which we also enjoyed. Louis (my son) really liked this and talked about it a lot in the days ahead. Next, we did the Pangani Exploration Trail. Now, I have a phobia about birds attacking me. I enjoy looking at them when they’re standing around, doing their own thing (like in the Oasis displays), but I want to faint when one flies at me. Well, part of this Pangani Trail involves walking through an aviary. One huge brown bird spread its wings and flew right over me. I screamed and held onto my husband for protection, hiding my face until we got through there. I wish you could bypass this part of the attraction, but I don’t think you can. Anyway, the fright was worth it because we really enjoyed seeing the rest of the exhibits. We, especially Louis, really enjoyed the gorilla exhibit. There was one washing himself in the river above the waterfall and then he munched on some leaves. Also, we really enjoyed seeing the hippo tank and talking to the charming African girl who was there to educate guests on hippo behavior.

We went on to the Lion King show, which we thoroughly enjoyed. I absolutely love the Lion King movie so I really appreciated this. Louis was dancing along at the end, and we walked out of there feeling totally great. (Hint: See the Jungle Book show and then the Lion King; you’ll be disappointed in Jungle Book if you see Lion King first.)

We didn’t do anymore attractions here as I was certain both the "It’s Tough to Be a Bug" and "Countdown to Extinction" attractions were far more than Louis can handle. We just strolled around and soaked up the atmosphere. What a gorgeous place! I can’t over the details, like the leaf and animal track impressions in the concrete walkways. We loved all the little exhibits in the Oasis area. We saw several misty places just like I would imagine you’d find in a rainforest. How do they do this? Do they cultivate the mist somehow or use dry ice? Hard to imagine they’d use chemicals for this effect.

This park reminded us of a theme park that was in West Milford, New Jersey during the 70’s called Jungle Habitat, although I do believe the Animal Kingdom is probably better than it was. Craig and I both remember that park, and we were delighted to be somewhere similar.

We left here and brought our souvenir purchases back to our room. From there, we caught a bus to Downtown Disney. We ate lunch at the McDonald’s there and then did a totally crazy thing. We walked from there to the Crossroads shopping center so that Craig could buy beer. He was totally freaking that it cost over $30 to buy a case at Panchito’s in the Coronado Springs so he wanted a couple of cases to last us for the week.

Well, the walk was brutal in the heat and humidity that we are not used to this time of year. After all, it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit when we left New Jersey the day before. And although the walk used up precious park time, I am not entirely sorry we took this walk. For one thing, my son fell asleep in his stroller and was able to take a good nap that afternoon—something he would never have done at the hotel room. Also, I saw the Days Inn Suite that my brother usually stays at, and I have to say that it looks like an excellent location; I liked that it was walking distance to the shopping center. It wasn’t worth walking there for the money we saved on the beer though. It cost $20 a case at Goodings, and so in buying two cases, we saved only $20.

After this, we needed some R&R so we took the bus back to the Coronado. Louis woke up on the way, so we decided to go swimming. The Dig Site is wonderful. We could have spent an entire day or two just hanging out there. They’ll loan you foam life vests for your kids so we got one for Louis. The main pool water was kind of cold in his opinion so we went to the kiddie pool, which was almost as warm as the hot tub water. How he loved this! My only complaint was that I had to get in the pool and stay near him since I couldn’t see him over the big fish. The kids love these colorful fish that spit water at them, but it’s difficult to keep your eyes on your child at all times with the fish in the way.

We took turns watching Louis and trying out the hot tub and the jaguar slide. I loved that slide—what a great thrill plowing down it. Older children must go crazy over it. We then had to drag Louis kicking and screaming away from the pool so we could shower and get ready for our dinner at Chef Mickey’s.

I was hoping to get to the Magic Kingdom and catch an attraction or two before dinner, but there is no hurrying my husband up when he is determined to relax. We did get there in time to see the fireworks at 7:00 though. We took the bus to Magic Kingdom and hurried down Main Street to the bridge to Tomorrowland so we could see Tinkerbell. On the way, Louis was acting a little crabby so we bought him a flashlight with Mickey’s head on it and fiber optic strands coming out the top. Boy, did he love that thing! His mood completely turned around after that. We caught Tinkerbell (wow, she has guts!) and most of the fireworks. We headed out a bit before they ended so we wouldn’t be stuck in a huge herd of people and kept looking over our shoulders at the remaining fireworks. Then we took the monorail to the Contemporary Resort. This place is so much more beautiful than I remembered. I wouldn’t mind staying there at all.

Our PS was at 7:30 so we were seated within minutes. Later that evening, I noticed that Pluto was hanging out in the waiting area so he must have been on a break when we arrived. As we walked past the buffet to our table, there was Goofy manning his cupcake decorating station. Louis got very shy, clinging to my legs and hiding his face against me. Goofy was trying to be friendly, but Louis was obviously afraid. I picked him up and carried him to our table. I kept reassuring him that it was O.K. to be scared if that’s how he wanted to feel, that Craig and I would keep the characters away if they bothered him, and that even though they can be scary looking, the characters are very nice and would do nothing to hurt him or any other child.

We got him settled into his seat, and then Minnie entered the room. Well, for a kid who was so scared just a minute before, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. Then he said, "I’m not scared anymore. Go get Minnie Mouse." I went up to Minnie, explained the situation, and she came right over. Well, he was in love! From that moment on, he found the characters totally delightful. I can’t tell you how much we enjoyed seeing our baby so happy.

Mickey came out and started the Celebrate song and napkin twirling. Louis joined right in. Then Mickey got a conga line going of all the little kids and guess who was right behind him? Chip and Dale each visited our table; Louis loved them and their teeth. Craig took Louis to visit with Pluto and scratch his ears. I went with him to make a cupcake with Goofy, and those two compared the size of their feet.

On top of all this fabulous entertainment, we really enjoyed the food. The selection was not as vast as I had expected, but everything was fresh and of high quality. I had the most delicious cream of broccoli soup. The carving station had both prime rib and flank steak, wonderful with horseradish cream sauce. Those parmesan mashed potatoes are unbelievable! I think they were the best mashed potatoes I ever ate. And the desserts! I felt like I was in heaven. I had this wonderful cream cake with fresh berries and then a little chocolate cup filled with chocolate mousse. They also have a child’s buffet that is so cute. We got Louis some stuff from it, including a couple of chicken tenders that were so tasty we wound up eating them. He was very happy to eat the mashed potatoes and prime rib though. My boy is already a real meat and potatoes man.

What an exhilarating experience! I think it’d be a terrific idea to eat dinner here on a night that you didn’t go to the parks. It’s so Disney and very entertaining, but since it’s at the Resort, you don’t need to spend a park admission to come here.

We took the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom (E-ride night there) and then bus back to Coronado Springs. Can’t tell you how much we enjoyed our day.

Wednesday, February 3

The Day in Which We Visit the Magic Kingdom and Meet Pooh and His Friends

One thing I want to point out is that we completely ignored which days were early entry and when E-ride would be. Since it was off-season and everything did not seem at all crowded, we just did not think about these things.

I stole some delicious oatmeal cookies from the buffet at Chef Mickey’s. I suppose I deserve to be flamed for this, but Louis insisted I take them to our table and I know they would have been thrown out. These served as our breakfast in the room and then we caught the bus to the Magic Kingdom.

How excited and emotional I felt walking in there. I really wanted to cry. I was remembering being there with my mom and dad so many years ago, and it was so different, yet so the same. (I lost both my parents over a short period of time eight years ago and still miss them terribly.) I just love everything about this place--the look of Main Street and the music playing. Craig was trying to talk to me about something, but I was so choked up I needed to sit down for a minute and compose myself.

We decided to head to Toontown since Louis had enjoyed seeing the characters so much the previous night. Well, this wasn’t a great decision since I guess it was too early for the characters to be out so we didn’t see any.

At home, Louis has to touch and play with everything so I thought Minnie’s house would be fun. This didn’t work out too well as there was two or three other families who kind of parked themselves in there so Louis couldn’t get too close to anything. One kid, probably about five or six, was stationed in front of the microwave and pressed the button every time it stopped so that no other kid could do it. The kid’s grandmother was standing there, smiling and laughing, saying how cute it was that this kid liked the popcorn thing so much. Well, I was annoyed and wanted to tell her that he should let someone else have a turn, but I don’t like to argue with people when I’m on vacation so we left.

We took the train and Louis loved this. What is it about little boys and choo-choo trains? We decided to go round trip so we’d be close to Fantasyland when we got off. Then we did some rides: Cinderella’s carrousel, Peter Pan, It’s a Small World (it’s not so bad, people) and maybe one or two others. We then wanted to take the sky ride to Tomorrowland, but you can’t bring your stroller on it so we walked there.

Both boys (Craig and Louis) wanted to do the Speedway and here we encountered our only wait of the day. It said it was a 30 minute wait, but I’m certain it was less than that. Well, Craig insisted all three of us share a car so he put Louis on his lap. This totally aggravated little Mister Independence, and he was pretty upset as we were leaving the ride. He wanted to drive the car by himself and didn’t understand why he just couldn’t stay in the car and do it.

Fortunately, there are two or three empty cars just outside the exit, and he climbed in one of these and pretended to drive it. This really cheered him up, and I can’t help but wonder if these cars where there for exactly the same reason we needed them.

We went on the Buzz Lightyear ride, and the three of us really liked it. Then, we went to see the Timekeeper which Craig and I very much enjoyed. It was really over Louis’s head, and although he behaved well in there, I could tell he was reaching his limit and needed a break. We had 1:40 PS at the Crystal Palace and it was only about 12:30, so we figured we’d go see what the wait was like.

There was a line to check in on the porch, but they promised us a five to ten minute wait so we went for it. We were soon seated, and boy, were we glad we decided to come here. What a calming and cooling break from the park! Louis looked happy enough to burst when he spotted Pooh and friends in the room. This place is so bright and airy, you can’t help but be happy to be here.

A completely delightful meal followed. Louis bounced with Tigger, hugged Pooh, kissed Piglet, and snuggled with Eeyore. We got everyone’s autographs and just enjoyed ourselves to pieces. The food was also very good. The salad bar was particularly nice. They had a tomato salad of gloriously ripe red, orange and yellow tomatoes layered with fresh mozzarella and deliciously dressed in vinaigrette. They also had a platter of grilled vegetables, which included eggplant, red and yellow peppers, purple onions and zucchini. Yum! Of the main dish selections, they had an absolutely delicious seafood and creamy garlic pasta dish I loved. The carving station had some very juicy, flavorful flank steak, and I chatted with the chef there. Such a nice man—he even remembered me when I went back for seconds. The children’s buffet is called "Pooh Corner" and it’s just adorable. I have to brag though that I’m lucky in that I don’t need special food like that for my kid. He loves to eat a variety of things, and you’d never know it if you saw him. He’s very thin--but tall like his dad--a regular beanpole.

This sounds silly, but I have to tell you that I used the restroom here and couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. It was decorated in cream and blue with the prettiest pedestal sink I’ve ever seen and a gorgeous filed floor. Man, Disney World has the most beautiful bathrooms!

Craig and I left here feeling quite refreshed, but our little guy looked in need of a nap. We figured we would do one more ride before heading back to the Coronado so we picked the Pirates of the Caribbean (no line). What fun for everyone! Louis has been talking about pirates ever since.

We left the Magic Kingdom, and as we rode the bus back, Louis kept asking me about the pool. I knew that’s what he was saying, but I also knew the pool would give him a second wind and then he’d get very cranky later on. So I said, "yes, you met Pooh. Wasn’t Pooh great?" Well, I was not able to distract him so we wound up changing into our bathing suits when we got into the room. We then spent a couple of hours enjoying the pool complex, which also has a really fun playground. Craig and I each had a frozen cocktail while we were there. Mine was a strawberry margarita, and Craig’s was the pina colada. It costs $10 for both, which is pretty typical, but the drinks were tall and delicious.

Shortly after we returned to our room to get ready for 7:00 p.m. PS at the Cape May Buffet, a thunderstorm came through. My mother-in-law knocked at our door and came in for a visit. My poor father-in-law had gotten the flu the week before our trip and was still not entirely well. They had spent most of the day at Epcot, but then he came down with cold sweats. To rest up, they went over to the Wilderness Lodge and hung out in the lobby. They sat there for about an hour, but he didn’t feel much better, so they went back to their room. He fell fast asleep and my mother-in-law cancelled their PS at the Concourse Steak House. Poor Dad! He almost never gets sick so it’s just the worst luck that he would for this trip.

We asked Mom to come with us for dinner, but she wanted to wait for her husband to wake up and then go eat with him. At this point, my sister-in-law and her family dropped in for a visit. One of the bus drivers told them that the Beach Club has the best buffet in WDW so they made PS for the following night. We asked them to join us that night, but they were all set to go to 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian.

After we had a chance to catch up, everyone left and we got ready to go to the Beach Club. It was still raining a little when we left for the bus stop. Louis had not napped at all up to this point, and he had had a very stimulating day. We got off the bus at the Boardwalk, put him in his stroller and, bam, he was out for the count. Fortunately, the rain stopped, and we walked clockwise from the Boardwalk entrance to the Beach Club. Well, this was a mistake on our part. Walking counterclockwise would have been faster, but the best way to go would have been to take the boat near the Boardwalk entrance to the little lighthouse. You live and learn.

Louis was still sound asleep when we got to the Beach Club so we asked for a booth. This way, we figured he could sleep on the bench. While we waited, Craig sat on a sofa and held Louis, and I walked around the Beach Club lobby. I must tell you that when I was a teenager visiting WDW, we took the monorail to the Polynesian Village one night and got out to walk around. There were torches lit around the beach and unbelievably pretty waterfalls and foliage. I thought this was the most beautiful place I had ever seen, and I swore that if I ever had a lot of money, I would stay there one day. Well, I changed my mind after seeing the Beach Club. It is far more beautiful, but in a more understated way. It’s interesting how you see things differently as you mature.

The booth idea was a good one; Louis did not wake up during the entire meal. Our waitress was very funny and upbeat. We each ordered a Bloody Mary and took turns sitting next to Louis. They cover the table with paper because all the steamed seafood gets messy. There are steamed clams (littleneck, not steamers), mussels and oysters. They have either plain drawn butter or garlic butter (yum!) for dunking. The land lovers’ buffet had barbecued ribs that were so good they tasted like baby back ribs. There was also a dish of grilled beef tenderloin tips that was absolutely delicious.

The dessert bar was fabulous. I just didn’t know what to get because everything was so pretty. I wound up choosing a multi-colored almond pyramid, a little lemon square with a tiny marzipan lemon slice on top, and a little chocolate square that was like a blondie on the bottom and fudge on top. While everything was fantastic, the chocolate thing tasted the best. Soft drinks are included in the price of the buffet, and I had a couple of cups of coffee while savoring these treats. That coffee was excellent! Actually, the coffee was good at all the restaurants, but I really enjoyed it most here for some reason.

I loved how this place was decorated. There was this adorable driftwood and seashell thing for a sugar and Sweet ‘n Low dispenser. On the room dividers were elaborate sandcastles in plexiglass. The ceiling is wooden beams painted soft pink. What a wonderful place! I have to say, too, that this meal was our best food value in WDW. We paid $70 for this dinner, including a $10 tip that our delightful waitress certainly earned. This buffet contained many expensive items and was rather unique. There is no where we know of in New York/New Jersey that offers all the steamed shellfish you can eat. If you love shellfish, go for dinner here. You’ll feel like you’re in seafood heaven.

Louis was still sleeping so Craig carried him back to the bus stop. We were able to see Illuminations while we walked. All-in-all, this was another fantastic day.

Thursday, February 4

The Day in Which Louis Belongs to Grandma and Grandpa and We Go to Epcot

Louis slept the entire night from when we got off the bus at the Boardwalk at 6:45 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. I gave him a bath when he woke up, moving quickly as Grandma and Grandpa were coming for him early. Poor Louis, he could stay in the bathtub for hours! He really loves water, just like his Mom. My in-laws knocked on our door as I was dressing him, and he was thrilled to see them. My kid’s no dummy; he knows that spending the day with Grandma and Grandpa means he’ll get anything he wants.

I filled in my mother-in-law on Louis’s habits and likes and dislikes while we were standing on the walkway outside the rooms. Louis started yanking her arm to get her to leave. Boy, was he anxious to get away from Mommy and Daddy. Brat! Anyway, we were glad to see he wanted to be with them so much.

We relaxed for awhile in the room. Our plans were to explore Epcot for the day, come back to our room for a late day break, go to Ohana’s for dinner and then back to Epcot to catch Illuminations.

I have wanted to see Epcot since before it opened. My father first got sick in 1982 and had to spend a little over a month in the hospital. He loved to read and devoured many magazines during this time. He read all about Epcot and told us about it. He said it would be like the World’s Fair in Queens, New York in 1964/65. We went there twice, and although I was only around three years old, I can remember parts of it.

Well, I was finally there! It’s funny, but you can hear about some place or read about it, and think you’re going to love it, but the reality of being there can be so different. I want to say that I am not sorry we spent the day here since I’d wanted to see it for so many years. But I have to say I am no hurry to go back. First of all, other than Honey I Shrunk the Audience, every attraction we saw in Future World was completely lame. Why didn’t anyone warn me how bad Starship Earth is? This was the dumbest thing I ever rode on. Those cavemen looked so fake, it was a joke.

What a disappointment both the Land and the Living Seas attractions were. I thought they’d be interesting and informative, but we both thought they were a waste of time. I did like seeing the fountains outside, especially the one where the water jumps from pad to pad. The fiber optic sidewalk was neat and we thought Ice Station Cool was fun to check out, but pretty much everything else was underwhelming.

We moved onto the World Showcase thinking that would be better. It was time for lunch, but moving from Mexico all the way to Germany, we couldn’t even find anything we felt like eating that would be quick and inexpensive. I somehow thought that you could nosh your way through here, but I think you’d need a hundred dollars for that. We would up going back to Pasta Piazza in Future World, and we each got a pepperoni Mickey pizza. We saw other people getting these, and from the size of the box, we thought we were in for a nice sized pizza. Not! What a rip-off at almost $6 each!

After lunch, we went back to the World Showcase and walked in the opposite direction from earlier. So we started near Canada. I had read so much on the Net about Beavertails that I had to try one. I opted for just cinnamon and sugar so I could taste the pastry undisguised. What is the big deal? This thing looked and tasted like a funnel cake without the funnel. What am I not getting? And at $3.25 for a plain one, it’s a pretty expensive donut.

We meandered along the promenade. The place is beautiful, but there isn’t a lot to do. Maybe if we had come here before the Animal and Magic Kingdoms, we would have appreciated it more. I should mention that we did not catch any of the "street" entertainment that I’ve heard about so maybe we missed an important part of the fun here.

We saw the American Adventure and I did enjoy this attraction a lot, but my husband thought he was back in high school. We continued on and did the Maelstrom in Norway, which was kind of O.K. We didn’t want to see the movie at the end of the ride and waited for what seemed like forever for them to open the door so we could get out.

We did the River Boat ride in Mexico and I thought this was cute, but my husband thought it was dumb. We wanted to rest with a Margarita and some chips and salsa, but the restaurant did not seem conducive to that. At this point, Craig was giving me a hard time about wasting our day on some history lessons, and he just wanted to leave. (Boy, his full Catholic school education must have been very hard on him. If we do anything that even remotely reminds him of school, he gets very grouchy.)

I talked him into trying Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. The Kodak pre-show movie was making him crazy, but I have to say we both loved the actual attraction. WARNING—SPOILER HERE! I had heard about it for years, but I had gotten the impression that the mouse part consisted of bumps under your feet. I nearly died when I got whipped with a tail! What a great thrill this attraction is!

By now, we were exhausted. This was our third day in the parks in a row, and we were both feeling worn out. We went to get the bus and I saw the Coronado Springs bus just pulling away. I started screaming and running for the bus. The driver yelled a very nasty, "What?!?!" when I tried to stop him. He opened the door and said he couldn’t let anyone on in the parking lot. I just muttered, "Oh great. Now I have to wait 20 minutes for the next bus."

Believe me, I understand why this is a safety rule, although you should know that in New Jersey, public buses stop pretty much anywhere you flag them down. I was somewhat taken aback by the super nasty "What?!" I mean, wasn’t obvious what I wanted? Anyway, we sat down on the bench to wait for the next bus and I started to cry. Craig was copping a major attitude because he hated Epcot, and I was just worn out--physically, mentally and emotionally.

Well, a bus showed up in only about 10 minutes and this perked me up. We talked to the driver about what happened with the earlier bus, and he explained that the drivers cannot stop again once they leave the bus stop. We got back to our room and had a much needed break with some beers for our frazzled nerves.

Same as the night before, I tried to hurry Craig up for our 7:00 PS at Ohana’s, but he wouldn’t budge out of the room until 6:30. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and the monorail from there. We got to Ohana’s at exactly 7:00 but they would not seat us until the fireworks were done. The hostess directed us to a window in the lounge where we could see them. We both love fireworks so this put us in a good mood.

They show you to your table with a warm loaf of bread. It was kind of sweet and gummy textured, not my kind of thing, but to each, his own. The waitress was nice and thorough in explaining how dinner there works. She spoke very quickly and still had a lot to say. I can’t imagine a slow-talker trying to tell you everything. We each selected a special drink. Mine came in a hollowed out pineapple and Craig’s with a back scratcher. I took care to take the little paper umbrellas that decorated these drinks since I knew Louis would like them. (He calls an "umbrella" a "rain-brella"—so cute!)

The meal started with a lazy susan containing salad, little spring rolls and dumplings. There are also three dipping sauces that you keep for the rest of the meal, which were peach-pineapple, mango mustard and peanut butter. They sound strange, but all were very tasty and I especially loved the peanut butter sauce. All the food was absolutely delicious, especially the dumplings. They asked if we wanted seconds, but we knew we had to pace ourselves if we were going to enjoy the rest of the meal.

Next, you get a large wooden bowl in the lazy susan spinner. It contained steamed vegetables (broccoli, red peppers, baby corn, waterchestnuts), hickory-smoked salmon, and lo mein-like noodles. Everything tasted very good. The salmon is not the cold thin-sliced stuff; it’s a thick filet that is hot and smoky tasting. Soon after serving this, they come out with skewers of sausage and turkey, and then shrimp and steak. I found that the different meats tasted better with different dipping sauces. For example, I really liked the flavor of the turkey with the mango mustard, the steak with the peanut butter, and the sausage with the peach-pineapple. I can’t eat shrimp as I am allergic, but I think Craig ate about a dozen and he was in heaven.

They kept asking if we wanted more, but we could barely breathe after the first round. When we wanted no more, the waitress came by to tell us about the ala carte desserts. I told her not to bother as we were too full for anything else so then they brought out the dessert that comes with the meal, a quarter of a fresh pineapple with a caramel dipping sauce. Strange as this may sound, it was wonderful. I don’t know where we found the room, but we ate almost all the pineapple.

What happened next was my fault. We were sorting out the bill and the waitress asked if I needed change. I should have given her a twenty, but I got confused and told her that we didn’t need any right now. After a few minutes, we put out $80 for a $60 bill with the intention of tipping her $10. She took the bill and money and just disappeared. We waited what seemed like forever for her to return. If only I had let her break a $20 in the first place, we could have just left.

With maybe 15 minutes to spare, we took off for the monorail to go to Epcot for Illuminations. While waiting for the monorail, the CM there explained that we would need to go four stops, almost round trip, to the TTC to transfer to the Epcot monorail. Someone asked if it would be faster to walk to the TTC and the CM said yes, but we just did not have the energy after that big meal.

The monorail train to Epcot kept stopping to wait for the train ahead so we basically wound up being able to catch only the end of Illuminations from the train windows. We got off at the Epcot station and went straight to the bus stop. While I would have liked to have made it to the World Showcase for Illuminations, at least we were in a good place to get the bus back to the Coronado.

Louis was sleeping in my mother’s-in-law bed so we picked him up and put him in our room. Grandma said they had a wonderful day and that he was a perfect angel for them. She always says that when they take him. Is he really or does she just say that?

They did the Animal Kingdom that morning and the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon. They rented a stroller in each park rather than using our umbrella stroller. This worked out well for them since he fell asleep for two hours at the Magic Kingdom. They put his seat in the recline position, and they walked around enjoying themselves while he took his nap.

I was afraid I might wake Louis up if I started packing so I just thought I’d do it after breakfast. We’re all getting together for Ohana’s character breakfast tomorrow, our last day in WDW.

Friday, February 5

The Day in Which We Have a Character Breakfast at Ohana’s, Buy Our Souvenirs and Go Home

Our PS at Ohana’s was for 8:00 a.m. so I had Mickey Mouse call us at 6:30. We got ready and I did some packing. Louis’s cousins, Lorenzo and Nicolette, stopped by to visit. Lorenzo had gotten this silly Goofy hat that looked like it was made of foam rubber. It was tall and green with long, black, fake fur ears. Of course, Louis thought it was great. Grandma stopped by around 7:10 to tell us that she and Grandpa were heading over to the Polynesian Resort to look around before breakfast.

We wound up leaving around 7:30 on the same bus with Linda, Rocco and the kids. We were all talking about the things we had done and seen during the week. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and somehow met up with Mom and Dad. We took pictures of everyone in front of the Mickey face, which is made of flowers, at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. We also looked at the Walk Around the World bricks to find ones from New Jersey.

We all headed onto the monorail to get to the Polynesian. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, not humid with a nice breeze. This evening, we’d be flying back to the cold, gray New Jersey winter. Sigh!

We had a group picture taken by the Ohana photographer while we waited for our table. Rocco started making some pennies for the kids, and he got Louis a Pocahontas one. We were seated quickly enough and Louis was excited when he saw Minnie, and Chip and Dale. Coffee was wonderful, as it was the whole trip. They gave us coconut and banana breads that I didn’t find appealing.

Then, they brought out a huge skillet containing breakfast and put it in the lazy susan thing that is on all the tables at Ohana’s. It contained Mickey waffles, red-skinned potatoes, thick-sliced ham, sausage, and totally awful scrambled eggs. I was not very happy to find no bacon. I don’t eat much bacon at home, but when on vacation, I love to have at least one big breakfast with a lot of bacon. I don’t care for ham steak either so I didn’t like this meal much at all.

I could tell Craig was very unhappy too. He asked the waitress if he could have eggs cooked to order and the answer was yes, so this cheered him up. He and Linda each got two over-easy eggs. I normally love them, but I need toast to dunk into the egg yolks, and they had only the fruit breads.

Minnie looked very pretty in her Hawaiian garb. I never noticed before that she wears full make-up including lipstick, eye shadow and mascara. Louis is completely in love with her. As we were winding down food-wise, Goofy entered the room, and both Louis and Lorenzo really wanted to see him. He started making his rounds when Minnie came and got him to go with her to this other table. Well, these people thought they owned him and proceeded to hog all his time. Craig took Louis over there so he wouldn’t miss getting to see him. Good thing, because soon after that, Goofy left the room, presumably for a break.

Craig and I treated his parents for this breakfast since we missed the opportunity at the Coral Reef on our first night. We looked all around the lobby and went downstairs to see the parrots before we got on the monorail. I was so impressed with this place as a teenager, but as I mentioned earlier, as an adult, I find the Beach Club more appealing.

We went back to the Coronado to pack and have them store our luggage. Mears was coming for us at 4:25. We thought it would be a good idea to call and ask for late check-out, and that way, Louis could get in a final swim.

I don’t want you all to think I’m complaining about this resort, but there was one thing really wrong with service here. Each day, I called Housekeeping to ask for our room to be cleaned early. This was so that we could either get ready to swim or give Louis a nap in the afternoon. Well, each day a polite woman answered the phone and promised me that the room would be cleaned before 12:00 noon, but each day when we got there between 2:00 and 3:00, they were just starting to clean. I believe this area of the hotel was on a cleaning schedule, and they weren’t changing that schedule no matter what. This would also explain why the room wasn’t ready until 3:00 the day we checked in. So I thought, hey, why shouldn’t they let us stay in the room later?

As it turned out, my in-laws had already checked us out. All the rooms were under my mother’s-in-law name and when they checked out, so were we. So much for late check-out, but as my husband pointed out, what would stop us from using the phone or running up other bills? So we packed everything and wound up calling Bell Service at 11:15.

We headed over to Downtown Disney to go souvenir shopping. I had a lot to buy and wanted to use my Magic Kingdom card discount. First, we looked in the Winnie the Pooh store. They had cute stuff, but I wanted to see what the World of Disney store had to offer. Louis now decided that he did want a Piglet so he picked out two, a small beanie one and a small stuffed one. Well, he wanted both of them and started raising Cain when I took the beanie one away. I bought the stuffed one, but he wasn’t in a good mood at this point.

We strolled him away, hoping to get his mind off that Piglet beanie. Eventually, he got over it so then we hit the World of Disney. I needed to buy a few shirts (T’s or sweats). While shopping, Louis spotted this really stupid hat designed to look like Mickey’s glove for $22. No way was I buying this thing. He thought it was a glove and put it on his hand. When we took it away to leave the store, he went completely nuts.

We strolled around the Marketplace with Louis screaming his lungs out for a few minutes and happened on the Lego store. Well, this place cheered him up. He went into the little house to play with the Duplo’s and wound up helping an employee clean up. He thinks cleaning up is a game!

We ate lunch at the McDonald’s. I got the pizza because I read on the Net that people think it’s good. I liked the Mickey pizza in Epcot even though it was small. But this McDonald’s pizza was no better than a frozen one from the supermarket, and I was disappointed. We really liked the drink machine sound effects though.

We wandered around some more. I went into the Gourmet Pantry to get something for Louis’s day care workers to share. I wound up buying a box of character cookies because anything else would melt or was just unbelievably expensive.

Next, we took the bus back to the Coronado to wait for Mear’s. By this time, Louis was getting overtired so we hoped a stroll around the lake would get him to doze. He took another temper tantrum at this point; I can’t remember why, but does it matter when you’re 2½ and overtired?

Finally, he passed out about half way around the lake. Actually, this walk was enjoyable because we got to see the rest of the resort. It’s so beautiful there! I know I told you we didn’t like the food court, but don’t let this deter you from staying here. Just be sure to get a room close enough to a bus stop, bring some snacks from home, and you’ll love this place.

Going home was uneventful and depressing. Our week at the World had just flown by.

Final Thoughts and Observations:

My in-laws had booked this trip for us and it made a lot of sense to stay on Disney property because of the transportation system. What rental car fits 9 people? Also, as you can see, we all did our own thing and that would not be possible without the Disney bus system.

However, we are planning to go back in the near future as we still have two days left on our 5-day hopper passes, and for just Craig, myself and Louis, we want to stay off-site with a rental car. This decision is mainly financial. I found Disney prices tough to take 24 hours a day. With an Entertainment International card, I am certain I can find us a nice room for about $50 a night. I also want a refrigerator and microwave. My son is a little moo-cow, and he likes his milk warm. We will definitely not go during high season, so that should also help us to afford it. What we’re planning is that we’ll use the two days left on the Disney passes and do Universal and Sea World each for a day or two. And this time, we’ll schedule some down time to just swim and relax.

What advice do I want to pass down? First of all, four nights is definitely not enough time if you haven’t been there in years. Actually, I didn’t know until we got there that we would have been able to extend the trip for a few nights if we asked when my mother-in-law first booked it. Honestly, with the expense of airfare and getting to/from the airport, it makes better economic sense to do a longer trip.

As I mentioned previously, next trip we plan to stay off Disney property. This is because I believe I can get a better value off-site, not because we didn’t enjoy our stay at the Coronado. Quite the opposite, the Coronado Springs Resort was absolutely a dream to stay at, except for the food court. However, as I mentioned earlier, it is not necessary to eat there if you find it as bad as we did. Bring snacks from home or the parks, then hop on a bus for your meals. My in-laws did not think the food court was that bad; they ate breakfast there everyday. Maybe it’s a matter of taste or that we ordered the wrong items.

I’ve read on the Net that one of the car services (Florida Town Car or Tiffany, not sure which) will stop at a grocery store on your way to the resort. I think this is the way I would go if I were staying at a Disney resort again. We’d buy beer, 2 liter soda bottles, snacks, and breakfast stuff.

We did not buy the refillable mugs at the Coronado, as I did not think we would have gotten our money’s worth for the short time we were there. I believe this was a good decision since we spent only a few dollars on soda from the machine ($1 per can).

Bring your own shampoo if your hair is susceptible to build-up. The shampoo that the Coronado Springs supplies is that shampoo/conditioner combo, and my hair was disgustingly greasy by the end of the week.

I could be way wrong here, but I believe the Coronado is the only Disney resort with regular direct bus service to the Boardwalk and we found that a boon (it’s great for meals). The pool and play area (the Dig Site) at the Coronado is fabulous. We could take a trip to just hang there and be perfectly happy. Also, the landscaping everywhere you look is to-die-for beautiful. I would not recommend paying for a view because I don’t think you could get a bad one anywhere at this resort; even the parking lots were beautiful. I never saw so many butterflies in my life. It was a joy to be there.

I read a number of posts on the Net in which people advised that it can be a better value to eat at sit-down restaurants than to do the fast food counters. I’d definitely agree. For example, the day we were at Epcot, we toyed with the idea of eating at the Biergarten for lunch, which would have cost $10.95 per person for the buffet. We wound up spending close to that anyway and didn’t enjoy our food that much. Mickey pizzas plus soda were $13-$14 for both of us, then I got a Beavertail for $3.25, and Craig got an ice cream cone for $3.00. Adding all this up, we would have spent only a few dollars more at Biergarten and probably gotten too stuffed to eat for the rest of the day.

I did a lot of reading on the Net to pick out where we wound up eating, and I formed a theory that turned out to be correct. My theory was that we could eat best at the deluxe resorts’ restaurants since if people were paying $200-$400 a night to sleep there, they would have to have decent restaurants. Well, as you can see, we ate at Chef Mickey’s in the Contemporary Resort, Cape May Buffet in the Beach Club, and Ohana’s in the Polynesian. All three meals were excellent, and the Cape May Buffet at the most expensive resort was absolutely outstanding.

Also, if you’re into buffets (which we obviously are), I think the dinners are a much better value than breakfast or lunch. Roughly, the breakfasts cost $15 per head, the lunches $17, and the dinners $20. I think Disney has this pricing way out of whack. No way are you going to eat $15 worth of food at breakfast; I mean what do eggs cost? All the buffets we ate at included soft drinks, so for dinner, we feel we got good value for what we spent.

Another issue I’d like to comment on is whether to bring your own stroller or rent one each day at the parks. We bought an umbrella stroller for this trip, and if I had it to do over, I would have bought a regular, lightweight toddler stroller instead. Renting strollers at the parks would not have worked for us since we did need one at the airport and in places other than the parks (the Boardwalk and Downtown Disney, for example). However, whenever Louis fell asleep in the umbrella stroller, we had to "pop a wheelie" and stroll him around like that. It was brutal on our backs. I think an umbrella stroller is a good idea for a child four to five years old, but a kid his age needs a stroller where he can nap at any time.

My brother advised us to buy 6-day park hopper passes and save a few days for a later trip. We wound up buying 5-day passes and used only three days on them. I wish we had taken his advice because now we’d have three days for a future trip instead of two. I mention this because you might want to consider the same thing. Even if you’re staying in a Disney resort, it’s a good idea to save a day or two on your passes. The facilities at the Coronado and I’m sure all the Disney resorts are wonderful. You can plan a day just to enjoy your resort or go to the Boardwalk or Downtown Disney. The days remaining on your park hopper passes are good forever, and you do not pay anything more to use them in spite of the annual price increases.

One thing that has been bothering me a lot is how many people write on the Internet Bulletin Boards to tell people to leave their small children at home. Nothing could be more wrong. One poster who bothered me in particular wrote, "Why oh why would anyone bring a child under the age of seven?" To this, I must answer, "Why oh why would anyone want to go to Disney World without a child?"

For us, watching Louis’s reactions to the characters and attractions was absolutely the best part of the trip. Walt Disney created this place so that families could enjoy themselves together. This same woman wrote that WDW is clean, perfect, and has beautiful landscaping so that’s why they like to go there. Lady, have you taken a vacation in one of the Caribbean resorts or Mexico? There are tons of places that are as clean, perfect and well-landscaped (and may even be a better value) but are geared to adults. Craig and I went to Cancun a few months before I got pregnant with Louis, and I don’t think we saw one child tourist during the eight days we were there. If you don’t want to be around children on vacation, WDW is the last place you should go.

One young adult wrote a trip report I read in which she went on about how few children she saw that seemed to be enjoying themselves. If you’re that girl, please read this if you plan to have children of your own one day. Don’t make a judgement about a kid you see in passing. Young children have volatile moods and can be happy as larks one minute and screaming banshees the next. They’re dealing with a lot of issues at this age, such as asserting their independence and learning how to communicate their desires, so they’re mercurial by nature.

For example, if anyone had seen Louis getting off the Tomorrowland Speedway, they could easily have jumped to the conclusion that he was overtired and overstimulated, and we were terrible parents for dragging him around the parks (I’ve read these words numerous times on the Net). Yet, five minutes before while he was still on the ride and five minutes after when we put him in the car outside the exit, he was one very happy little camper.

I wrote earlier how emotional I felt being in the Magic Kingdom for the first time in daylight. Well, it occurs to me that going to WDW with your children is a wonderful part of the circle of life. I went there as a child and remember how proud my folks were to give us such a wonderful vacation. Now I’ve been there with my child, and I hope and pray one day, I’ll go there with my grandchildren. And Louis and those children to come will remember being there with me after I’m gone from this earth. Where else can you go on vacation and have it become a part of your legacy to your children?

Another thing I want to point out is that Disney does not give families much of a break on anything. However, a child under three does not need park passes and eats free at the character meals. It is such a value to bring them young for this reason. Louis was positively glowing anytime we were near a character. You as a parent will be happy beyond words to see your kid enjoy himself this much. Don’t worry that he/she won’t remember anything later in life. The mental stimulation children get here will serve their intelligence and imaginations for a lifetime.

Well, I got that off my chest. Having said all that, I want to add that three days in a row at these parks was physically and mentally grueling for all of us. Whether or not you’re with young children, I think it’s a good idea not to try and see as much as you can. You might have noticed we never even made it to the Studios.

The only disadvantage to going in the off-season was the shorter hours at the parks. However, early February was a great time to go, and I know that the park hours are longer over the weekend. We really lucked out with the weather; for us New Jerseyans, it was like a taste of summer in the middle of winter.

When we go next time, I want to schedule a couple of days just for swimming and relaxing at our hotel, and do dinner at Chef Mickey’s on one of those days. We think Chef Mickey’s the most Disney you can get without spending a park pass. Watching Louis’s face when Mickey walked into the room was totally the best moment of our vacation.

Janice Hubbard

E-Mail Address Withheld at Writer’s Request

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