Trip Reports

Summary:

Who: Stephanie (yours truly) and Eric (the tag-along hubby) both late 20’s, no kids
What: My 2nd WDW vacation (1st in ‘89), Eric’s first
Where: OffSite (this time, next time we’ll be on-site) at the Holiday Inn and Suites Maingate East
When: April 14-18, 1999
Why: Too get away from it all, of course. In addition, we wanted to go once before we started a family and then will go again when the planned family is older.
Day #1 (The Trip to the Orlando)—April 14th

The trip originated with a free flight to Orlando. That is the primary reason for us planning this trip in the first place. Last year I had won airline tickets for two to anywhere Midwest Express flies – we picked Orlando. We arrived at the Cherry Capital Airport for a puddle jumper to Milwaukee. The little 19 seater was a bit bumpy, but survivable. The larger plane to Orlando had Eric sitting in the window seat, which made him as happy as a clam. He looked out the window the entire trip down. As a side note, I would recommend Midwest Express to anyone. The staff is very friendly and helpful; the seats are all first class (literally); the food is quite palatable; and they run on time.

Arrived at the airport on time (7:05 PM) and enjoyed the monorail trip to the baggage claim. That is not something we are used to at home. Also enjoyed our first palm tree sighting—yes, we realize, we are finally here. Pick up our four bags from baggage claim. Have a bit of a fright because all of the bags came together except one (the bathroom supplies bag). Everyone else has picked up his or her luggage, and I had just about figured it was lost, when out is came from behind the wall. Breathed a sigh of relief and off to the Dollar Car Rental Counter. Apparently, everybody and their brother were renting from Dollar. We waited in line for 25 minutes (no biggy, I was just happy to be there). People around us were complaining, but I just kept smiling like an idiot. People must have thought I was on drugs. Eric and I were finally called to the counter and I gave them our confirmation number. No problems there, although he did try to talk us into a convertible for the discounted price of $25 extra per day. I don’t think so . . . He never asks who will be driving or tries to charge us for two drivers. He sends us to another line to wait for our car. In another five or so minutes, they call our name. I go back to the desk, and this time a lady (who was a manager of sorts) helps me. She says she has a surprise for us and hope we enjoy it. Oh, we can’t wait to see what we are upgraded too. (Turns out four planes landed at the same time swamping the rental counters).

Walk to the rental garage to pick up our car. The anticipation was killing us. We are walking down the aisle and there it is, a Kia Sportage. We were quite happy with it. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a little Sport Utility Vehicle. I haven’t seen many here in Michigan, but they were all over Florida. We oriented ourselves with the car and off we go. It was nice to be higher than most vehicles for the mere fact of being able to see the highway signs before they creep up on you. We managed to find the US 192 exit with no problem, but then had to try to find the hotel. I just had the address, and of course, you couldn’t see the numbers from the road. Moreover, with it being dusk, there was no hope of that anyway.

Luckily traffic was moving slowly due to the construction on 192 and we each looked at one side of the road. We anticipated it being on the north side of the road, but of course, it was on the south. Had to make a tricky lane change to get into the driveway. I was quite happy with what I saw from the outside; it looked just like the pictures from the Internet. Checked-in without much hassle. The manager on duty upgraded us to a King size bed without the extra charge upon my request. I got directions to the Wal-Mart and went to find our room.

The hotel had all external entrances and ours was on the second floor. What was funny is that you could tell the hotel chain spent a lot of money upgrading what people saw from the street. However, when you got around back to where the rooms were, you could tell it was probably a hotel from the late seventy’s. It wasn’t dirty or anything, just dated by architecture. We parked beneath our room, lugged all of our stuff up the stairs, and found our room. I was very happy. The rooms had been redecorated and were very clean.

There was a pull-out couch which held our suitcases during our stay, the king-size bed, a low dresser with the TV on it; a large closet with a safe; the kitchenette (refrig & microwave); the sink; and of course the toilet and shower. We just tossed our stuff on the bed and headed to Wal-Mart for groceries and tickets. The kitchenette was one of the reasons we booked this room. We figured, seeing that we aren’t big breakfast eaters anyway, we’d just pick up rolls and juice for breakfast.

Found Wal-Mart quite easily (how hard is it to miss the huge sign and had a heck of a time finding a parking space. Apparently, everybody and their brother go to Wal-Mart at 9 PM on a Wednesday night. We went inside and found that the ticket center closed at 8 PM. Oh well, we’d just have to get tickets at the hotel in the morning. I was rather disappointed by this because I had read on RADP that you could get a good deal here. We got our groceries (cinnamon rolls, yogurt, applesauce, and milk), a squeeze-a-breeze (only $6.95), and nailpolish (I forgot to do my toes at home).

Back to the hotel. We were going to stop at a Mickey D’s or something similar, but none of them sounded good. So we figured we’d try out the food court in the hotel. Another nice feature of this hotel. There is a mini-grocery store, a burger joint, a pizza place, and a breakfast place in this food court. So at 10 PM we had a Little Caesar’s pizza down there. Hit the spot! ! Also walked into their lounge, which was quite deserted. You could tell this hotel caters to kids. Even got to see the Holiday Hound which will tuck kids into bed. Very sweet.

Went back to the room. Set out our clothes for our first day (EPCOT) and went to bed. Woke up again realizing we had forgot to set the travel alarm. Set it for 6:30 and went back to sleep. Ahhhhh, our first day and going well.

Day #2 (The EPCOT Adventure)—Thursday April 15th

Background: You need to understand that I am a plan-a-holic. I had originally planned this trip in early 1998, but then it was changed around, and instead ended up being now. So I had previously purchased the 1998 Unofficial Guide, the 1998 Official Guide, and The Cheapskate’s Guide to Disney. Then when this trip ended up being in 1999, I also purchased the 1999 official guide to get info on Animal Kingdom. Therefore, in February, I began readying these books with a highlighter in hand. I read them all too.

I would highly recommend the Unofficial Guide; I would moderately recommend the Official Guide, but skip the Cheapskate’s Guide. There wasn’t much in there except for common sense. Anyway, the night before we left, I cut out the maps and touring guides from the Unofficial Guide and laminated them for our backpack. I wasn’t planning on being a park commando, but the suggestions were definitely nice to have. Enough background, on with Day Two.

Of course, although we remembered to set the alarm the night before, I was up a half-hour before it went off (6 AM). Call it nerves, call it timing, who knows. Either way, we got up, ate our breakfast in bed of milk, cinnamon rolls, and yogurt. Then we showered and went to get the tickets at the hotel desk. I read the night before that they didn’t open until 7:30 which would throw off my schedule a bit. (I read that it was a good idea to be there 1 hour and 15 minutes before the posted opening time.) Well, we got to the desk and the gentleman who was working said he’d sell us the tickets as soon as he finished his inventory count. It took him until 7:15. We used the MKC card to get our Four-Day Hopper and were off.

Our hotel was in a great place for getting to the park. You didn’t have to get back on 192. Instead you crossed over it, drove to the Osceola (sp) Parkway, and took that into Disney Property. The signs were well posted and should have had no problem getting to EPCOT (should being the operative word) Instead, we got so excited when we saw “the big ball” (as Eric calls it) that we missed the sign that said LEFT. So we get to the intersection and guess RIGHT. Oh well, we are early so I’m not panicking. We drive around the property some, drive by a couple of resorts, and eventually find more signs for EPCOT. This time we pay attention and make it to the parking lot. We park in the second row from the monorail station ! ! We take cheesy pictures of ourselves holding our tickets with “the big ball” in the background and proceed to the gates.

There are probably four other families milling around. We got out the Unofficial Guide and read up on some of the things we hope to do that day. We strike up a conversation with a really friendly (we find out all the CM’s are really friendly) who tells us a bit about some of the Millennium Celebration stuff that will be going on, and then some about the flower festival which would start tomorrow (the 16th). We watch the gardeners work on the topiaries by the entrance (the peace sign, butterflies, etc). More people start coming, so we get in a line to the left because Test Track is our first destination.

The park is supposed to open at 9 am, but at 8:15 these janitors start walking toward the gates. They turn out to be the JAMMINators. They do a great 10 minute show very similar to STOMP. Quite to my surprise they let us in at 8:30 with the official couple opening the park. We start on a brisk walk to Test Track, which soon turns into a slow jog, and then a quick run. CM’s are pointing us on the way, and never tell us to slow down. This didn’t surprise me until our experience at the other parks. We are second in line at Test Track. We are behind a mother and her 9 year old son (I’m guessing on the age). The CM lets us in, which really surprised me, and then roped it off behind us. He escorts the four of us into the queuing room. The whole time the little boy is asking if it is scary. In a demented way I wish I would have had time to read the exhibits in the queing room. Oh well, I really enjoy not having to wait in a line. We go watch the preshow and then into the ride loading area.

The little boy wants us to sit in front, so Eric and I get in the first row. The ride was fun. Very typical Disney, very easy to handle. In my opinion, nobody should be scared of this or any other ride in EPCOT except for Body Wars. We dawdled for a second in the after area, but the simulator thing was taking too long, so we headed over to Spaceship Earth.

Walked right on at Spaceship Earth. Eric was under the impression that all of EPCOT was in “the big ball”, so he was quite surprised by the rest of the park We both enjoyed the ride and information. Eric stated that he thought the jump from the dark ages to the Renaissance was a little abrupt, but enjoyed it overall. Next to Honey I Shrunk the Audience.

Walked right in and caught all of the Kodak promo. I really enjoyed this. Eric thought I was a bit sappy for enjoying it so much, but hey, that is me. The movie was good. The 3-D effects were crisp and the extra effects scared the dickens out of me. I wasn’t expecting that. I learned early and was prepared emotionally for the other 3-D movies in the world.

After that we wandered around the dancing fountain things. I was trying to get hit by one, but it didn’t happen. I didn’t want to make it look totally obvious, so I didn’t purposely stand in the direct path of one of the water squirts. From here we wandered over to The Land. We skipped Food Rocks and some of the others and just went on the boat ride. Unfortunately our CM seemed bored out of her mind and talked rather quietly. That combined with the noisy group of senior citizen we were seated with and the last seat on the boat, made for an uninformative ride. When I was at EPCOT the last time this was my favorite attraction. I still enjoyed it, but didn’t learn as much as I had wanted.

Made a quick bathroom break in the Pavilion and headed over to Wonders of Life. On the walk over we wandered by Ice Station Cool. Tried all of the drinks. I had Eric taste Beverly first; what a face he made ! ! I tried a swig of it and true to everybody’s word it was horrible. All of the others I enjoyed; can’t really say I had a favorite. We wandered around the gift shop for a second or two. Eric dug some snacks out of the back pack to get rid of that horrible taste in his mouth. (We packed dry roasted p-nuts, sweet tarts, and sun flower seeds in old film containers for a quick pick me up snack)

Made our way over to Wonders of Life and Body Wars. This was our first line of the day. All of a five minute wait J I really enjoyed it. I don’t have problems with simulators like this. Eric on the other hand was glad it ended when it did. He had started getting really warm and began to feel nauseated. We sat for a bit to let him catch his breath, and then to Cranium Command. The next show was 14 minutes away, so instead we went to The Making of Me. What an adorable movie. I loved how they stressed marriage before sex ! ! Cranium Command was between shows again, so we played around with the different stations outside. I really enjoyed the Audio Antics section. I was able to pick out the sound that didn’t belong every time but once. We both did pretty good at guessing what things were by the feel.

Finally to Cranium Command. We both enjoyed all of the cameos. It was a cute show, but we had a hard time trying to watch everything when the 12 year old went into sensory overload.

We walked outside again, and it was starting to get warm. I tried putting on my sunglasses visor, but it was too windy and my sunglasses would have blown off of my face. We walked over to the Universe of Energy, but the line was huge. I remember reading not to be discouraged by the long lines because the theatre holds a ton of people. So we sat in the shade, had another snack, and waited for the line to move. When it did, we hopped in line and made it into the theatre no problem. It was hard to watch the pre-show; I got sick of tilting my head backwards to see the whole screen. We both enjoyed the show and wished that the dinosaur part was longer.

By this time it was noon, and we headed over to the World Showcase. Eric kept saying that he still didn’t feel well and needed to get something in his tummy. You would think my hubby was a seven year old. We took our time wandering over; we enjoyed the flowers and the bird-life.

In Mexico, they had some street performers which we stopped again to watch. Eric again reminded me that he was hungry. We went inside and rode the little water ride. In my opinion, this ride needs some updating. I felt as though I had just been to a travelogue for Mexico. Upon exit, we browsed some of the shops and then exited via the orchid garden. What beautiful flowers ! !

In Norway, Eric finally got his lunch! We stopped at the Kringla Bakeri there. I had the Smoked Turkey Breast for $4.50 and Eric has the Smoked Ham and Jarlsberg Cheese for $4.50. We split a Fresh Berry Tart for $2.50. White eating in the little patio, the birds were quite aggressive; they are definitely not shy creatures. Eric commented on how you can tell I’m of Scandinavian decent by looking at the employees in this area. Our round faces and big eyes are dead giveaways. We spent some time instead the Stave Church as well. Seeing that Eric was well nourished at this point, we could ride the Maelstrom. I love the section in the North Sea. We skipped the movie and wandered through the shops. I almost bought a little troll, but Eric refused to have one in the house J

Let’s see . . . China was next. I wasn’t up to doing any of the movies and Eric didn’t mind missing them, so we skipped them (again). We wandered around the gardens and then through the stores. We got to see an evil character from Mulan here as well. Crrreeeeppppy, guy; and huge too. I enjoyed looking at the clothes for sale in the stores, but still didn’t buy anything. I was hoping to find a street vendor that sold the Red Bean Ice Cream, but couldn’t find one. When I was hear the last time we got some for my sister and I to split. I thought it would be fun for Eric to try some too.

In Germany, we just walked through the shops. We just missed the clock, oh well, we have one here in Michigan at Frankenmuth. Nothing too interesting here.

In Italy there were some very attractive salespeople; both male and female. We struck up a conversation with a young girl from Italy. My sister is going to be stationed in Sigonella in September, so I thought it might be fun to find out what it was like. The girl had never been there as she was from the northern part of Italy. We thoroughly enjoyed our talk with her. Again, more shops and I even bought a piece of egg nog candy in the candy store. A whopping $.16 purchase.

Made it to the USA ! ! Arrived perfectly to catch the singers in the lobby and then up for the American Adventure. I really enjoyed this. I thought Eric would too. He said he did, but he kept yawning during it and getting restless. To find out afterwards he really had to go to the bathroom ! ! As we were exiting, the fife and drum band played a few tunes in the courtyard.

In Japan we shared a Kaki Gori. We had it half strawberry and half melon. We enjoyed the gardens and the artifacts at the back of the display. Again, wandered through more shops. I really wanted to try some sushi, but Eric wouldn’t be caught dead doing that. My mom teaches English as a Second Language, and several of her students are of Asian decent. So I’ve tried several homemade varieties at home, so it wasn’t that big of a loss.

Next to Morocco and the evil Jafar. Checked out the RESTAURANT MARRAKESH but that didn’t interest all that much. It smelled good, but didn’t sound good for dinner. Again, wandered through more shops. Tried on a fez and had a good laugh. I wanted to take a picture, but thought it might be rude.

As we were wandering to France, we noticed a bit of a commotion ahead. People were standing in the walkway pointing skyward. We joined them and noticed a huge swarm of bees. Freaky, because I don’t like bees one bit after stepping in a bee hive as a child. We could see how the fountains were roped off, but the bees were no longer there. They were headed to Morocco. I wonder what they ever did to fix this. Anyway, walked back to the bakery. Tried to talk with a Bianca there, but she was very difficult to understand and visa versa. She must have been new to the country. Eric just loved the accent J We looked at the menu of Chef’s de France, and Eric thought that sounded good for dinner. We didn’t want to make PS, so we thought we would just come back later. Again, we skipped the movie.

We crossed the International Gateway and arrived in the UK. We walked around the gardens there and enjoyed the peace and tranquility. Again more shopping. We still haven’t bought anything except for food products. We look closely at some of the tartans and crests in the Scottish store due to Eric’s ancestry, but pass. (what good doobies are we) We check out the menu of the Rose and Crown, but just doesn’t sound as good as France.

Onto Canada, and stop to hear Off Kilter ! ! ! Wonderful. Very similar to the group Brother, which we have heard back here in Michigan. Fun music and good looking men. We wander into one of the stores and Gordon Lightfoots, Edmund Fitzgerald is playing. Hey, that’s Michigan, not Canada. By this time we are getting sick of walking. It is only 3 or so, so back to finish the remainder of Futureworld.

The Living Seas is our next stop. It was cool inside which was a welcome relief. Now as aquariums go, I much prefer Shedd’s in Chicago. However, it was neat to see the Manatees. We also had fun playing in the diving suit trying to complete the tasks.

Innoventions was our last stop, seeing that it could be a large time waster if not careful. Eric tried some of the Playstation games, but didn’t get them to work all that readily. We had fun at the IBM booth sending digital postcards to our friends and family. I had written all of our e-mail address down on an index card prepared for this exhibit. Luckily there was no line, so we did about 9 of these. At the AT&T section I was able to check my e-mail from home. They actually had a live Internet connection, so I hopped onto MailMan, which allows you to check your e-mail as long as you know your POP server name. Replied to a couple of messages simply to freak people out back home. Next we went to send another digital postcard from the AT&T section. In the other Innoventions building, I enjoyed the GE oven and its cookies. Also enjoyed talking to a nice girl about the electric cars. I don’t think they’ll be coming to Michigan anytime soon.

Now it was near dinner time (6PM), so we thought we’d go back to Chef’s de France. I was amazed they got us right in with no PS. I thought for sure we’d have to wait. Got seated right on a window and enjoyed watching characters and people throughout dinner. Laurent was our server. We really enjoyed his friendly banter. He taught us a few words, and teased us on our accents. Since neither of us were big wine drinkers we figured we’d save our money and just had water. And boy did we drink a lot of water. Eric had the Galette de fruits de mer, sauce a la moutarde de Dijon - Cake of crab, shrimp and lobster with a Dijon mustard sauce for $8.50 as an appetizer and I had the Salade d'Endives au Roquefort - Belgium endive and mixed greens topped with Roquefort cheese and a light walnut vinaigrette for $6.25. We both enjoyed the bread and cute Mickey butter. For the main course Eric had Pates aux fruits de mer - Penne pasta topped with shrimps, scallops, and clams in a light creamy sauce for $20.95 and I had the Suprême de volaille sauté aux champignons sur pomme purée au basilic - Sautéed chicken breast with wild mushrooms on a basil potato purée for $18.95. My biggest fear with eating at France was that I was afraid of small portions. Suprisingly dinner was quite hearty, but we still had to make some room for dessert. Eric had the Carmel Apple Torte thingy and I had Peaches w/ vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. (Can you tell I didn’t bring home the dessert menu?)

After dinner there happened to be a Living Statue outside. Had a ball watching him. He freaked a couple of kids out real well, and even an older man. I don’t know how the statue doesn’t laugh. Then to stake out our spot for Illuminations. Sat on a bench just down the stairs of Canada. We got to hear Off Kilter again as well. Talked with a nice couple from New Jersey too. Oh, on our way out of France after dinner I happened to see a man with a West Michigan Whitecaps shirt on. I just had to go up and say we are from West Michigan too. The couple was so happy that we stopped to say something for that is exactly why he wore that shirt.

Illuminations was nice. I can’t say good or bad because this was the first time I saw it. I really enjoyed having the countries lit up like that. The lasers were OK, but nothing special in my opinion. I’m glad we noticed which way the wind was blowing, because those sitting in Mexico must have gotten a faceful of smoke.

We took our time exiting. No sense rushing. Got to our car with no problems and left with no problems at all. Had a hard time getting back to the Osceola Parkway, but managed to get to International Drive which took us to US 192. Had no problems any of the other nights for some reason. And that was our first “real” day at the World.

Day #3 (The Magic Kingdom Trek)—Friday April 16th

Up at 6:30 today, using the alarm clock. Ate our breakfast in bed of milk, cinnamon rolls, and applesauce. Took our showers and then off to the park. We left the hotel again around 7:15. This time we noticed the sign that we missed before and took the “correct” was to the TTC. We were standing at the monorail station at 7:45 AM. Now this is where I got a bit confused from what I had read. I thought that we would be able to take the monorail to the park and then be able to mill around Main Street waiting for the rope drop. However, when I got to the station, I was informed that we must wait there until 8:30 AM. Well, that was a bummer. So we stood at the rope and talked to the CM. We found out that you had to be a family of four (no more or less) to be chosen to “open the park” that day. We chitchatted with her and read our guidebooks.

Now several other people were being let into the park. They all had PS at breakfast restaurants. I wonder what would have happened if we would have said we had reservations and didn’t. The CM never asked for PS numbers or anything. Could we have just sat quietly on Main Street enjoying the peaceful morning?

Finally, they led us to the monorails. Of course, we ended up in the first car, which was nice for the ride over, but when we got to the station at MK we were the last ones off. No big deal, but we were hoping for a picture of the castle with not so many people in it J isn’t everybody . . .

Anyway, we were going to follow the Unofficial guide’s plan of sending you through the Plaza Ice Cream Patio to get a jump on the throng of people going to Space Mountain. However, we noticed it looked slightly under construction, so we decided to just follow the throng. They lined us up at the bridge to Tomorrowland. And we waited again. Felt like the hurry up and wait philosophy. A CM makes some sort of announcement of “if you want such and such a ride, stay to the right, or such and such, to the middle . . . these CM’s really need a bull-horn because only the first row or two of people could hear him. At 8:45, they drop the rope and we walk across the bridge and wait again until literally EXACTLY at nine.

And the CM’s walk you slowly into the park. Here it worked, at MGM it didn’t. You’ll hear about that later on Day 4. We figured why not get Alien Encounter out of the way. We were the first group let into the staging area. We ended up waiting in this room FOREVER. And it was chilly in there. It turns out it was Science Day at the park and in this room with us were a bunch of guides in blue shirts and about 12 students per guide. We then were let into the second staging area where the cute yellow fuzzy guy was “beamed” across the room. So far, so good. (I had no idea what to expect on this attraction. I tried not to read any of the spoilers) We got into the final area, which was a round room. Two women who were behind us chickened out, as it looked like the room might spin or something. IT DOESN’T. And that is all I’m going to say about that. We left with an elevated heart rate and greatly enjoyed this attraction.

Next, we went to Space Mountain. The line fully snaked through the queues at the loading platform, but it wasn’t bad. We rode the rocket on the right as you walked up the ramp. I took off my glasses for this ride and Eric stowed his hat safely beneath him. I must have rode the left one the last time I was here because there was one drop that wasn’t there.

After those two we decided to take it easy with Buzz Lightyear. We had fun talking to one of the Science Guides who was behind us in line. Neat program ! ! He said that they get a lot of schools from Michigan that participate in the Science Program. We rode the ride. I had a heck of a time figuring out if I was hitting the target or not. I really could have used a site on my laser gun. Eric did much better than I, but at least I made first mate, or what ever it was J

From there, a long trek across the park to Splash Mountain with a brief pit stop for the bathroom. We had a heck of a time find Splash Mountain. I wish they would put up signs that say, “This A Way” or “That a Way.” We knew we’d find it eventually, just felt like we were wandering forever passing up a lot of attractions. We found it and only had to wait about 15 minutes to get on. Sat in the second row from the back. We both really enjoyed this ride. Disney does such a great job making rides an experience instead of just a ride. We got damp, but not wet like the first row.

Next to BTMRR. Again, about a 15-20 minute wait. Munched on those snacks in the film containers again as well as some water from the water bottle we remembered to bring today. We froze the water the first night, but forgot to bring it to EPCOT. Today we remembered and put it in a sock so that it wouldn’t soak our bag. Loved this ride and had hoped to ride it again at dark, but never got the chance. I wore my glasses for this ride and just made sure to hang on to them with one hand J

Haunted Mansion was next on our touring plan (We were loosely following the Unofficial Guide). I still love the initial room. The CM’s are so morose here. I get a kick out of that. We both had a lot of fun looking at all of the effects. The unexpected visitor brought back some good memories of my sister and I at Disneyland. She utterly freaked back then. I shared the story with Eric and we both had a good chuckle.

We were hungry by this time and hoped to catch the noon Diamond Horseshoe Review. I stopped in the Yankee Trader (I think that is what it was called) and browsed the kitchen stuff first. I bought two little Mickey and Minnie cake pans. I thought they would be a fun addition to my baking supplies. Those were the first souvenirs I bought since the beginning of the trip ! ! We timed it perfectly for the Review. I got us seats upstairs and Eric got us lunch. I had the Chicken Caesar for $5.90 and Eric had the Smoked Turkey Sandwich for $5.90. We shared his chips. We really enjoyed the singing cowboy and magician. The girl the magician chose was almost as funny as he was. She knew she was funny and carried it just a bit too far. She was cute up until the point when he offered her a Mickey balloon animal and she threw it on the ground. She got a groan from the audience at that point. However, by then she was done and back to her seat. We watched the dancing girls for a second or two, but then decided we were rested and refreshed. So off we went again.

We went to the bathroom again, and cut through it to Pirates of the Caribbean. I remembered to take the left line here and boy did it pay off. We literally walked right on, while those who went right had a 5-10 minute wait. I didn’t particularly enjoy this ride. I don’t know why, I just found it more fascinating when I was younger. Eric’s said, “That’s it?” This summarized the ride for us.

Eric wanted to see Tom Sawyer’s Island, which I would have been content skipping. So we took a very packed boat over to the island and monkeyed around there for a while. The seven-year-old came out in Eric again as we were exploring the caves and fort. The little girl in me came out as I tried to launch Eric off the barrel bridge. We fed some ducks (I’ve never seen ducks in “the woods” before) and then headed back to the main land. They sure pack a lot of people on those rafts ! !

Next, Eric really wanted to do the Hall of Presidents. I enjoyed the little bit in the lobby about the Official Seal of the United States. Luckily I had a dollar bill and was able to follow along. The show was nice and well done. I still enjoy the American Adventure better at EPCOT.

By this time, I was growing weary as I had seen everything I had wanted to do. I know, I know, selfish. I asked Eric if he wanted to see the afternoon parade, and he did not care. So we wandered over to Fantasyland to see what was over there. On the way, Eric got an ice cream sandwich and I got a Frozen Mickey on a stick. Of course, a hunk of chocolate fell on my chest which neither of us noticed until the hot Florida sun had melt it. This did not make me happy and I was a bit of a stick in the mud for the rest of our MK experience.

We rode It’s a Small World, and we both had fun guessing which countries were represented. That ride could really use an update too. I love the concept and the singing kids, but I feel as though I was back in the 70’s. We wandered back over to see some of the parade, but all was saw was a marching band, so off we went again.

We walked past Dumbo and the other rides. We almost went on the Tea Cups, but I wasn’t up to the possibility of getting sick. We walked through the Toon Time Fair and decided we’d try to ride the railroad. We waited for the train to come, and of course, there was no room for us. So, we got out of line.

We wandered down this really quiet trail headed for Tomorrowland. I swear this was one of my favorite spots of the day. As you exit the train, turn immediately left. The trail follows the train tracks. It is paved, shady, and quite vacant. There are some benches under a tree, and we just plopped down on them to re-group. Others would stroll by, and wave or say “hi” Just a nice peaceful alcove. Just what I needed.

After a 15-minute rest, we headed to back to Tomorrowland. We rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and enjoyed being lazy on that. I wanted to go around again, but the Carousel of Progress was loading, so we hopped off and ran to that. I really enjoyed the updated modern kitchen. I wouldn’t mind one just like that. I left singing that darn song J

Neither of us knew what The Timekeeper was, so we wandered into that next. We both found that quite enjoyable, but I wish they would give you chairs. Maybe swivel office chairs . . . just an idea. With it being the end of the day, we were getting just plain lazy. We had fun looking behind us. I swear, most of the audience never turned around once.

We were going to leave after that for MGM, but I figured as long as were are still walking, we might as well get The Treehouse and Jungle Cruise out of the way. (It was our intention to come back on Saturday night before Spectromagic and finish up with those attractions we had skipped) We walked through the Tree House; if we weren’t worn out before, now we are.

Jungle Cruise is next. Not that long of a wait. Our driver is great and we sit right up front next to her. She reminds meof Oksana Biaul from ice skating fame. The pun are horribles, as usual, but fun nonetheless. Now it is time to go ! ! As we leave the park, we wander through some of the shops on Main Street. We purchase a miniature of the castle that looks like a David Winters Cottage. A nice momento. We catch the end of the flag lowering ceremony as we leave.

We debate whether or not we want to drive to MGM or take the busses. We talk to a CM at the TTC and she suggests a bus. She says we might fight traffic at this time. So we walk to the bus stop. The traffic over was non-existant; we would have managed driving just fine. Oh well, live and learn. We arrive at MGM around 6 PM.

Seeing that MGM was not yet built when I was here last, I have no idea what to expect. We enter the park and there is this little street skit going on. We sit on a bench with a nice British man (at least that was the accent). As Eric is looking over the map, one of the street performers comes over to him and startles the pants off of Eric. She goes on and on about not letting him get away, with him looking at a map, he was looking for a way out, etc, etc. It was quite funny and I never had seen Eric blush quite so much. We watched the rest of the skit (it was a play on Cyrano) and decided to go eat dinner.

We wandered toward Tower of Terror (that would be our first stop the next morning) and found Rosie’s All-American Café. I got a Veggie Burger, Eric got a Cheese Burger and we split a fry. We picked a table near the “road” and watched people.

Took another bathroom break, and decided just to wait for the opening of the Fantasmic Theatre. From our seats we could hear the songs from Beauty and the Beast. People started wandering into the Fantasmic Theatre around 6:50 PM. So we joined in, only to be stopped by a rope inside. Around seven they let us in, and we headed into the theatre. It was HUGE ! !

We sat in the middle section, about seven rows from the top. We chose a row that had a lot of people in it already, because they were forcing people to slide all of the way over. Sure, they do this in all seated events, but here they actually enforce it. Some people got upset and yelled at the CM’s. The CM’s were polite and told them “tough” and to slide anyway (Now, I’m sure you know they didn’t use those words, but that was the gist of the matter).

We picked some great seats and were in them by 7:15 PM with a long wait ahead of us. One of the travelling bell-hops entertained us for nearly a half hour. We talked with the people around us. And we brought along cards and played some cards. We also read the guide books for MGM tomorrow. The pre-show (with the bell-hops) started around 8 PM and was pretty funny. The show started at 8:30 PM.

This was by far my favorite show. The special effects were great ! I just wish some of my pictures had turned out better. A word to the wise, be sure to sit up-wind. The water screens that are in use will soak you otherwise. When the show ended, we had no problems following the throngs of people out of the park. We found our bus with no problems, and even got a seat on it.

We were back to the hotel again by 10:30 PM. Last night when we returned from EPCOT we filled out post cards and whatnot, but tonight we went down to the pool. Sure we were tired, but we were paying for it, so we were going to use it. We met a couple of nice kids at the pool and had fun talking with them. We got back up to the room around 11 PM and were asleep shortly thereafter.

Day #4 (The MGM Raindrop Romp)—Saturday April 17th

Up at 6:30 today, definitely needing the alarm clock, maybe more like 6:40 before we actually got OUT of bed. Ate our breakfast in bed of milk, cinnamon rolls, and back to the yogurt. Took our showers and then off to the park. Things were looking gloomy, so we made sure that we packed our ponchos. We left the hotel around 7:30. We headed into the parking lot, just a little bit after 7:45 AM.

This was the only park in which we had parking problems. The CM at the gate took our money and sent us forward, the next CM sent us to the right, while all of the other cars were going to the left. Usually we would see another CM, and they would show us to a particular spot. Not this time, we had to fend for ourselves. I almost think he sent us to the CM lot. Sure we were pretty close to the gates, but we were right in the middle of the bus parking lot. It took us a minute or two, but we figured it out and parked the car. We just hoped that we could find it again on our way out.

We didn’t have to wait long at all at the gate. I believe they let us in around 8:15 or so, but I forgot to note the time. We wandered over to Sunset Blvd to make sure there was a rope present, which there was. I really liked how the stores were open for browsing. I picked up a couple of post cards, and looked at buying a sweatshirt. Eric and I were both in T-shirts and shorts. It was a bit nippy, but we figured it would warm up so we passed on the sweatshirts. Well, it never did warm up. We planted ourselves by the rope on Sunset Blvd on the way to Tower of Terror. We talked with the CM, who was freezing. She was saying they took away their coats because they figured they wouldn’t need them anymore. Mind you, it was in the 50’s, which to us Michiganders is not balmy by any means, but it is still warmer than home. We were chilly in our shorts because of the heavy cloud cover and stiff wind, but she looked like she was FREEZING. We also picked up a hot chocolate and cherry turnover at the Starring Rolls Bakery. The turnover was wonderful.

We chatted with another family at the rope. They were visiting grandparents in Sarasota and since it wasn’t a good beach day, thought they’d make their annual trek to MGM. I think it was their 13th time. They gave us a lot of helpful hints.

Well 9 AM approached and the CM’s took down the rope just like the other parks and “tried” walking us to Tower of Terror. Unfortunately people behind us starting getting pushy, some annoying teenagers “broke through” and started running. Not a good situation. This started a mini-stampede to Tower of Terror. We continued to walk, ended up only having to wait 10 minutes for the ride. In MK the bridge was much narrower and contained the crowd much better. Here, with the sidewalks and wide streets, it was very hard for the CM’s to control the rowdy crowd. I think in this park, if they insist on trying to walk people to the ride, that they leave the rope up and have the CM’s (more than just three of them) walk the rope down the street. That is just my idea.

We made it to the Tower in one piece and were able to get into a car with the family we stood in line with. What a neat ride. Again, the time and money that went into making the hotel lobby look so real was impressive. The ride itself was fun and made my tummy do flip-flops. Eric really loved it. We got off of the ride and it was pouring down rain.

We dug out our ponchos, and proceeded to try to make the 9:30 am show of Indiana Jones. Well, they wouldn’t let us in (we were only a few minutes late) and that kind of miffed us. She said that since it was raining, most of the show wouldn't be shown anyways. So we dug out our map, which was getting rather wet to decide where to go next. We didn’t really have any touring plans for this park, and since it was so empty because of the bad weather, we just went with the flow.

We saw the Muppet Movie, which we both really enjoyed. It was a bonus that it was inside J It was still raining when we got out, so we stopped for a cute picture by the Miss Piggy Fountain in the rain with our ponchos. Next, onto Star Tours. A poor CM was standing out in the rain getting soaked. She was trying to stand underneath the big white landwalker thingy (sorry couldn’t remember its name) but was still getting soaked.

Inside we saw Chewy . . . Eric was worried about this ride because of its similarity to Body Wars. He spritz’d his face with water and took off his poncho to get as cold as possible. He felt the warmth bothered him the most last time. He did fine on this ride, but he thinks it was because you could visualize flying as opposed to the inside of a body. I think Body Wars is a lot rougher than Star Tours.

By now it is pouring outside and the gift shop at the end of Star Tours is being threatened by rising waters. We just laughed and stomped out into the big puddles. We walked down New York Street in the rain and peeked into the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground. We stood under the canopy of the Studio Catering Company (at least that is what I think it was) to dry off for a second. Then we ran over to the Backlot Tour. It was funny, the CM’s kept warning people not to go on it unless they wanted to get drenched. We figured, what the heck, but a lot of people actually walked away. We didn’t get wet at all. We enjoyed the pre-show water stunt bit. I felt sorry for the poor CM out in the tank. HE was getting drenched.

The Backlot Tour was OK; I really enjoyed the costume shop and the Golden Girls house. I thought Catastrophe Canyon was a bit cheesy, but that is me. I went to Universal in Hollywood when I was growing up, so I was comparing everything to that. I much preferred the Backlot Tour there. From there, we went to the Backstage Pass. We saw where Petsburg USA would be filmed starting Monday and also the Mortal Kombat series. This is one big negative about touring MGM on a Saturday; nobody is working—or at least very few. I enjoyed the costumes of 101 Dalmatians, and we both enjoyed being out of the rain.

From there to the Making of Armageddon, which we both enjoyed because we had seen the movie. It sure did feel like one big trailer for the movie though. Again, no one was working in the editing rooms or recording rooms except for one. There were two guys running some sports footage, and a girl in the background watching ESPN.

Next, we did the Magic of Disney Animation. The Robin Williams/Walter Cronkite bit was pretty funny. Our rendition of Tarzan was hilarious. The animator took suggestions from the audience as to what Tarzan should look like. Ours ended up with muscles of Michael Jordan, hair of Fabio, and arms like King Kong. Very odd. Several people requested to keep the drawing, but he said they had to remain property of Disney. I didn’t like how this next part of the tour went. I think it might have been better to have CM’s stationed throughout the drawing studios of which you can ask questions, and signs describing what you are seeing. The CM we had as a tour guide really rushed us through the studios. We both really enjoyed looking at the workstations of the animators. The things they kept in their cubes for inspiration were hilarious. We both liked the last desk on the tour, he/she looked like a doodler from the state of their drawing board.

We wanted to get lunch by now, but the restaurants seem so far and few between. So we went to the Little Mermaid first. Oh, how I enjoyed the opening Under the Sea sequence. I would love a behind the scenes shot of that one ! ! Ariel had a very nice voice . . . and Ursula was pretty intimidating.

It was still drizzling, so we thought we’d walk back up front for lunch. We looked at Hollywood and Vine and the 50’s Prime Time Café, but the prices seemed way too high for us. $10.25 for a ham sandwich was a bit excessive. Then we tried the ABC Commissary, but that was packed and not worth the wait in our opinion. Seeing it was raining anyway, and we had done most of the park, we figured we’d just do the Great Movie Ride and then go off-site to eat.

We played around the theatre putting our hands and feet into those marks of the stars. I must have really big feet for a woman ! ! And Eric must have small feet for a man ! ! On the Great Movie Ride we did the gangster segment and saw our only Hidden Mickey of the trip. If you turn around over your left shoulder during the gunfight, it was in the upstairs window of one of the buildings. Unfortunately, we sat in a car with people who insisted on talking through the whole thing. I really wanted to have them “put a sock in it” So after this, we left the park to head off-site for lunch.

We stopped back at the hotel, and dried off for a second. Then we went to Pizzeria Uno’s for lunch. We both had a personal pizza and the heat of it really hit the spot. We were debating what we wanted to do next, it was only 3:30 PM. It was our plan to go back to MK for SpectroMagic that night. Eric decided he needed a nap, and I wasn’t about to complain. We said we wouldn’t set the alarm and just wake up when our bodies told us too. Well, at 7:30 PM our bodies woke us up J Apparently we were tired . . .

Well, our hometown favorite Red Wings were on television, so I suggested we go to the ESPN club for drinks and to watch the game. Eric was all for that, so we scrapped the SpectroMagic idea. (Good thing we did all of the attractions in MK that we had wanted to the day before) We drove over to Boardwalk and parked the car. We had no idea where we were going, but we saw two guys in Red Wing jerseys, so we followed them. That worked well, and we ended up at the ESPN club. We waited in line, which didn’t seem right. So I hopped out of line, only to find out that for was the restaurant side. We could walk right in for the bar side. Of course, all of the tables were full and there were a couple of other groups scavenging for tables. A twosome was vacating a table and asked the couple standing next to us if they wanted it. I in turn asked the couple if we could share it with them. I also said they had every right to say no if they wanted time by themselves. Well, they invited us over. Cool ! ! It turns out they both worked for Disney. They had met in the college program, and she had come back to work full-time and he was working part-time while working full-time as an architect during the day. She was working in the Disney Vacation Club as a Service Specialist or something like that . . . he worked in MGM (I think). Both had some interesting behind the scenes rumors, as well as some good stories about working for Disney. I’m really glad we were able to sit with them. At one point, she left for a while to visit one of her friends who was working. She comes back and informs us that she just bought a car for $75. A Mitsubishi Eclipse from a guy who wanted to date her cousin, or something like that. What a hoot ! !

Well, 10:30 was approaching and I really wanted to check out Jellyrolls, so we thanked them for sharing the table, settled up with the waiter, and departed. At first we didn’t know if we wanted to pay a $6 cover, but I really wanted to see what it was like. And boy, am I glad we did. We stayed until 2 am, singing and dancing. When we arrived there were no seats available, but that didn’t matter. We had an awesome time. I especially enjoyed the piano player from BaxAxe, MI and even got a chance to speak with him afterwards. The bathroom in Jellyrolls, is not something I’m used to. There was an attendant who squirted you the soap, and on the counter was every perfume ever imagined as well as nailpolish, nylons, etc. Very strange for this small town girl.

Got back to the hotel and crashed once again. We did a small amount of packing, for this was the last night to be spent in this room We decided not to set the alarm, and just wake up when our bodies said, “Get up.”

Day #5 (The Animal Kingdom Attack)—Sunday April 18th

Well, without the alarm, due to our long night out before, we got up at 7:30 am. We ate our last breakfast in bed of milk, cinnamon rolls, and the last of the applesauce. We had showered the night before and started packing then, so we just finished the last bit of packing. We did the once over of the room and were checking out by 8:15 am.

Check out took much longer than check-in. The people in front of us were complaining about the $.75 charger per day for the use of the safe that they said they didn’t even use. They went back and forth with the staff and the staff basically gave up arguing and took it off their bill. I think they gave in because of the rest of us in line were starting to fume. Anyway, we checked out without a problem (Eric had lost his room key on the first day, so we just turned in mine and they didn’t say anything of it.)

We arrived at Animal Kingdom around 9 am. Out of all of the days we should have arrived early, this was the one! There were tons of people EVERYWHERE. Because we figured this park wouldn’t take us that long, we took our time exploring the Oasis as everyone else ran through to places unknown. We did the left side first, and figured we would do the right side on the way out.

We walked by the Tree of Life on the way to Africa and were amazed by the carvings. They are truly beautiful. We intended to go on the Safari, but the line was stretching out to the middle of the bridge to Harambe. Moreover, being so spoiled at the other parks, I was not going to wait for more than 20 minutes. Eric agreed at this point and instead we walked over to the Pangani Exploration Trail. We were able to see quite a few of the animals, and especially enjoyed the gorillas. We spent quite a bit of time in the aviary looking for birds. We found quite a few from the spotting card.

Again, back to the Safari, but the line was still quite long. So we went out to the Conservation Station. On the train ride out, we were able to see the baby rhino. The walk from the train to the main building was long, but I really enjoyed it. Most people just ran forward and skipped the lush surrounding.

Once to the main attraction, I found it to be really geared towards the children. Eric really enjoyed the facts in the men’s bathroom. We had fun talking with a man at the security desk and were able to see the baby giraffe on the video screen. He told us a bit about them. We also watched the vets work on a lizard for a while (he was getting his annual check-up). Some of the food they feed those animals sure looks disgusting! ! We went out into the Affection Section, but I’ve seen goats, pigs, and sheep back home J I’m sure city kids enjoy petting such animals. I was hoping to see something a bit more exotic.

We didn’t spend long at all out at the Conservation Station. Once we arrived back, we checked the Safari again, but the line was even longer. So we wandered over to the Kali River Rapids. It said it was a 20-minute wait, but it was more like 30. I didn’t mind because there was so much to look at in the queue. I got wet, but not nearly as wet as Eric did. He made the mistake of leaning forward in his seat on a number of occasions. His back got drenched. I sat back in my seat quite tightly and my legs got the wettest.

After this, I wanted my frozen banana. The line outside of the Maharaja Jungle Trek was long, so I thought I would have plenty of time to eat it in line. Wrong !! They let us in quite quickly. The CM asked me to finish my banana before I went it. Do you know how hard it is to eat a VERY frozen banana quickly? So we just sat on the bench just inside the door and finished it while basking in a shady sunbeam. We enjoyed the bats . . . the tigers were moving around . . . the aviary was OK, but it was much more difficult to find the birds without the identification cards.

We wandered back to the Safari, but the lines were still horrendous. We decided to wander through the Tree of Life Gardens and then see It’s Tough To Be a Bug. We enjoyed looking at all of the different animals and we wound through the queue for the movie. We encountered a less than friendly set of CM’s at the entrance to the movie. They minded me of two grumpier old men. We tried making conversation with them (as we were stopped and had to wait for the next showing), but they grunted answers and didn’t seem all that friendly. True to the films name, there was a real cockroach in the “lobby” and a little boy was torturing the ugly creature. We got a chuckle out of that. The movie itself seemed out of focus (we were sitting in the middle right of the theatre). I was expecting some of the “tricks” but one actually hurt me a bit. There were several screaming kids in our show, so take heed of the warnings.

We were both getting hot (it was by far the warmest of the four days at the parks) and hungry, so we headed to lunch. We ate at the Flame Tree BBQ, and both got the combination plates. I wish I would have gotten the salad or sandwich instead. The ribs were VERY fatty, and the chicken was rather dry. The French fries were very good, and I filled up on those. We waited in quite a long line for the food; the cashier said it was actually busier than Spring Break (at least that was her opinion). We found a seat down by the river, turned on our SqueezeBreeze, and enjoyed lunch.

After cooling off for a bit, we headed over to Dinoland USA. We got in line for Countdown to Extinction. It was about a 30 minute wait, but we were getting to the point where we realized everything was going to have a long line from here on out. I really enjoyed the ride. I wish it were a little lighter so I could see the dinosaurs; Eric wished it didn’t jerk you around quite so much. There was one nasty bump/jerk/turn at the end that pretty much realigned our spines saving us a trip to the chiropractor.

We looked at the fossils upon exiting the ride, but I don’t remember what this was called. You could tell they were trying to air condition it, but it wasn’t working all that well. I had wanted to find the Cretaceous Trail, but we never did find it. So we left Dinoland USA. Can you tell by the brevity of this report that Disney was beginning to wear me down? Next time we visit, we are definitely doing 7-10 days.

Anyhow, I was ready to leave at this point, but Eric wanted to try the Safari one more time. Well, it is a good thing we did because the line was finally off of the bridge and down to the normal queue. It took us about 30 minutes to get through, but we were entertained by two boys and their parents from California. Very nice people. The “ride” itself was nice enough. We saw all of the animals I wanted except for the lions. We were close enough to the giraffes to touch them if we had wanted. The poacher slant to this was rather funny, especially since we seemed to catch the guy with the gun off guard. He had the giggles when we drove by.

On our way out, I saw a Mendhi artist. My mom had given us each $50 of fun money to do something we normally would not. So, I got a bit of Mendhi art put on my hand. It was very pretty, and supposed to last for up to five weeks. I had to sit in the sun to let it dry for 15 minutes, then the artist put sugar and lemon on it and wrapped my hand in gauze. I looked like I was wounded. I’m just very glad I did this at the end of the day.

We wandered back through the other side of the Oasis on our way out of the park. We ended up leaving around 5 PM. This was the end to our Disney adventure. At this point, I was sad to say good-bye to Walt Disney World, but also glad to continue on with the rest of our vacation. Four days at Disney World wears you out, even for us young adults with enormous amounts of energy. I’m definitely looking forward to our next trip in six or seven years. Gotta wait for the non-existing kidlets to be born and grow-up some before our next visit.

Day #6-9 (The Rest of the Story)—Sunday April 18th - Wednesday April 21st

This is the conclusion to the Disney part of our vacation. We left Animal Kingdom on Sunday around 5 PM and drove to St. Petersburg to visit my grandparents. Had no problems on I-4 and arrive safely a little before 8 PM.

This next segment of our trip is what we call the vacation from our vacation. We loved Disney but it wore us out; these next couple of days are to be spent winding down from Disney. Needless to say, I won’t be going into that much detail on the next couple of days.

Monday we toured the Clearwater Beach area and St. Petersburg with my grandparents. We really enjoyed Clearwater Beach and wish we could have spent more time there just bumming on the beach. In St. Petersburg we went to The Pier and had lunch. We were able to see some dolphins out cavorting in the water.

Tuesday we took leave of the grandparents and drove down to Sarasota. We then took the cost and visited Ana Maria Island, Long Boat Key, Lido Key, Siesta Key and Venice Beach. We stopped in Ana Maria Island to walk the beach, St. Armand’s Circle to do some shopping, we stopped at Siesta Key for lunch and more shopping, and lastly we stopped at Venice Beach to find some sharks teeth.

Wednesday we said good-bye to the grandparents and drove back up to Clearwater to get some last minute souvenirs to spend a few minutes saying good-bye to this gorgeous weather. We weren’t looking forward to our trip back to the chilly nether regions of Michigan. And we drove back to Orlando.

Our flight didn’t leave until 7 PM, so we had some time to kill. We went to a Sizzler for lunch, and then to the Flying Tigers Warbird Restoration Museum. Eric is a WWII airplane nut, so he really enjoyed this tour. Our guide was wonderful and the tour group was only six people, so we got a lot of personal attention.

After the tour, they gave us “back road” directions to the airport. We returned our rental Kia without a problem and checked our luggage. I managed to finish my book in the terminal and started in on the newspaper. The flight was overbooked, so I was really hoping to get some free tickets for willing to be bumped, but they didn’t need to volunteer after all. Bummer.

The flight home was uneventful, except for seeing snow in the clouds over Michigan. We got off of the plane to rain and 40 degrees. Bummer. Rolled into the driveway a little after midnight. I retrieve the mail from the truck (a neighbor was collecting it for us) and skim through it. I notice a postcard for jury duty. I was supposed to report that morning (the morning of the 21st). Uh oh. The post card had arrived the day that we left, but it turns out they didn’t need me after all (a quick call to the court confirmed that in the morning)

In summary, my favorite park is still EPCOT. My favorite attraction was Alien Encounter. My favorite fast food meal at the park was the Diamond Horseshoe Review. I would recommend Fantasmic to anyone and it is well worth the wait. And I would say to those who like going out, but aren’t big partiers that Jellyrolls might be worth checking out. Thank you all for reading my report. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.

Stephanie Johnston

up-north@coslink.net

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