Trip Reports

While I generally only lurk in this n.g., I wanted to send this trip report as a thank you for all of the information and other great reports I have read. Thanks!

The Dates: Arrived late 3/14/99 and left early 3/20/99

The Players:

Jennifer-24, the trip planner. Neither Scott nor I had ever been to WDW. I, however, had gone to DL every summer since I was 2 until I was 16. We were on our honeymoon (married 3/13/99).

Scott-25, a planner by occupation, but never likes to plan things for trips or outings.

The Trip Basics: I had been planning this trip for a long time! We flew Southwest from Phoenix to Orlando for $212 a piece round-trip. We used Tiffany Town car to get to the Port Orleans hotel. I reserved a room with a king size bed (more on that later). I bought 5-day all-in-one park hoppers with a MK discount at check in so that they would be on the room card. We set it up so that we could charge to the room. The room was $187.59 a night including tax. The tickets were $224.57 a piece with tax and MK discount.

Day 1 (Getting There)

First, Scott and I dropped off the rental car from the wedding at the airport at Alamo. An OT note, we really dislike Alamo. We had reserved a luxury vehicle months in advance and were told we would either have a Town Car or a Cadillac. When Scott arrived on Saturday, they gave us a Buick Park Avenue. This is a nice car, but not a Town Car or a Cadillac. Neither of us consider it to be in the same class, but Alamo charged us the same. Plus, when Scott's long story of the hassles of pick-up will make us never use them again. This is our experience only.

We checked our luggage at the ticket counter and went to the gate. While the tickets were the best deal I found, I don't like Southwest's seating policies. We made sure to get there early so that we could sit together on the flight. We left Phoenix at 12:30 PM. The trip was uneventful, with a stop in New Orleans. I've never been, but flying over, it looked beautiful. We arrived in Orlando at 7:50 PM Eastern Time. We found our way down to baggage claim and Brian from Tiffany Town car was waiting. I wanted to tell him that I'd heard good things about him, but I didn't want to seem like a weirdo or something. The trip was wonderful! When he dropped us off at the hotel, I was very glad that he confirmed the time for our trip home. On Friday before we left, Debbie called because she and Brian had a bet about what time he was supposed to pick us up. It should have been 7:00 AM (which Brian had) but she had 11:00 AM written down. I'm glad they confirmed! I have an idea on this topic, I think it had something to do with the other Jennifer Miller who I'll tell you about later. We paid Brian $70 cash with a $10 tip. I know that we probably overtipped (because we gave him $10 on the way back too) but one of our bags was extremely heavy.

We checked in at the front desk with a very nice, but tired and confused CM from Laramie, WY. I don't blame her, it was about 8:45 on a Sunday night. She got us our room cards, tickets, and e-night tickets for the next evening. I made the mistake of not confirming with her that we had a room with a king bed. You see, when I made the reservations initially, I had paid more to make sure that I had a king. The week before, I called CRO to make sure that I had a king. Once we checked in and traipsed across the resort to the far end of building 7 with our luggage (we don't like to check luggage), we discovered a room with 2 double beds. I was not a happy camper. Hungry, tired and upset, I called the front desk. A nice woman on the phone checked her computer and told me that I was correct and told us to come back to the front desk. We hiked back to the front, a little calmer, and talked to another CM at check-in. He was not as helpful. He looked at me and demanded my yellow confirmation sheet. Of course he called it something else, and I had no idea what he was talking about! Once he got the sheet, he went into the back room and disappeared for 20 minutes. He came back and, without apology or explanation, issued us new room keys. I really wonder what happened with the reservations. Does anyone know?

We went to our new room, 4301, which was very nice. The room was nice and comfortable, if a bit small. The bathroom is tiny! The soap/shampoo dispenser in the shower didn't work, but we didn't care. We dropped our stuff off and headed to the food court. We both got the pasta dinners. I got the tortellini with marinara sauce and Scott got the spaghetti with marinara. The "salads" and breadsticks left a lot to be desired, but overall it wasn't bad. Dinner and 2 refillable mugs cost $38.65. Can we say sticker shock? Those mugs are sure small inside! I think Disney uses the same "forced perspective" they use on buildings on those deceptively large mugs. They really were a good deal, though. After dinner, we went back to the room and watched a little in-room Disney stuff before we went to sleep. We were going to the MK tomorrow!

Day 2 (To MK and Beyond!)

We got a wake-up call at 5:30 and Mickey got us "up and at 'em" on time. We got ready and were out at the bus stop around 7:00AM. It was a cold day and the sweater I brought really wasn't enough. It had rained the day before for the first time in a long time according to Brian and was still a little cloudy. We got in line at the gate around 7:20 and went directly to Tomorrow Land as soon as they let us in at 7:30. People sure do have a lot of trouble using their cards at the gates, don't they? When we got to TL, Space Mountain was having technical difficulties so we road Alien Encounter (walk-on). This was one scary attraction. I felt really badly for the poor children whose parents had taken them here. They were screaming so much, I wanted to go and take them out to safety myself. We left AE and looked back at Space, but it was still closed. We rode Buzz Lightyear and both scored pitifully low (walk-on again). It was cute, but nothing spectacular. We went on the TTA and had a great view of SM with the lights on! While we were inside, they turned off the lights, and started the ride. As soon as we got off the TTA, we headed for SM. After about 15 mins., we were on. I have to say here that SM at WDW is not as good as DL. The music really makes the attraction. Also, the track was really rough! I like the feeling of gliding through the dark and this definitely was not gliding. I agree with all the current posts that it is a little difficult to get out of this ride if you are larger. I wasn't struggling, but I was hoping that no one was watching me either!

After that, we went to Timekeeper. We were first in line for the first show at 9:00. This is a really great attraction. It was so much more interesting and engaging than the CircleVision shows I am used to. DL 's is very boring to me. It was about 9:15 by then and we started to get hungry since we hadn't eaten breakfast. We ventured into Cosmic Ray's and looked at the menu. They were just getting ready to open, so we decided to wait. One comment, I don't think they use enough bleach in the cleaning water, because it smelled horribly of sour rags in here. Once they started cooking, it got better. We both got veggie burgers, one with carrots and one with fries. We wanted to split the fries and save the carrots for a snack. With 2 large cokes the bill was around $16 (this wasn't on the room charge and I don't have the receipts with me). The burgers were good, but not like a lot of veggie burgers. These were the soybean variety like they used to serve in my school cafeteria. This is not a bad thing, just different. They were very good with mustard, vinegar, and lettuce. The fries were very good, but we ditched the cheese sauce after the first taste.

We walked from Cosmic Ray's up the path that runs to the inside of Fantasy Land and around the other side. It was here, on the Liberty Square side of the castle that we stopped to take a picture. Bad idea. Scott took off his glasses when taking the picture of me and left them on the ledge near the plants. We went over to the HM and when he realized and went back, they were gone. We figured a nice CM must have picked them up, but we checked at City Hall all day with no luck. We even went to TTC later in the week with no luck. It was a real bummer. We figure that a well-meaning family must have picked them up to turn in and put them in their backpack and forgot about them. They're probably in South Dakota right now.

After the HM and our detour back to the castle, we rode BTMR. There was at least a 20 min wait here. We avoided Splash because it was so cold and I am not fond of drops. The one in Pirates isn't my favorite either. At this point, I think we did some shopping, but my memory fails. At some point we went to the Tikki room. It was a fun show, but I wish they still sung more of the Tikki song. I like the song. I know that sometime late morning we got some peanut butter/chocolate fudge in the candy shop. I think we left the park around 1:30 to head back to the hotel. We rested and split a personal cheese pizza and some beignets (I think) at the food court the charge was $10.26. We got ready for dinner, fireworks, window PS at California Grill at 8:30. We packed our trusty backpack with some comfortable shoes so that we could enjoy e-ride after dinner.

We went back to the park about 4:30 or 5:00 and got out wristbands. We got a locker for the backpack and decided we had time to ride a few rides. We went on Pirates which is not as good as DL. While I say this, there are a lot of things at the MK at WDW that are much better than at DL. We thought about the Jungle Cruise, but decided that we were just too plain cold to ride it. Neither of us had jackets, only sweaters and we were pretty cold. We thought the people we saw swimming at the resort pool earlier in the day were crazy. It was getting kind of late and we really didn't want to ride on anything else, so we took our time an made our way to the monorail. We arrived at the Contemporary way too early, but we spent some time touring the place. It was nice, but it wasn't my style. It seemed to be asking to be remodeled. Not completely, it just needed a little paint and a few new fixtures to give it a little more style. We decided to go on up at 8:00 and just sit in the lounge until it was time. We also hoped they might be able to get us in a little early. We got our beeper and took a seat along the wall near the lounge because it was full. I was surprised that the waitress never came and asked us if we wanted drinks, but was very attentive to the people sitting in the center of the room. We were technically in the lounge, so I don't know what the problem was. We contemplated going out to the lookout, but decided we were too cold.

As I said in an earlier post, this was not our favorite meal. Once we were seated, our server took forever to come over. The service was generally extremely slow. I really felt like the waiter was pushing the most expensive items with too hard a sell. We ordered one of the flat bread appetizers, I had the filet mignon and Scott had the lamb shank. Then we waited. Our bread came to the table during the fireworks (we were seated before 8:30) and our appetizer soon followed. It would have been nice if they could have spaced these out better. They could have given us the bread in the half-hour we were waiting. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to take my time with this meal, but it would have been nice to have food to take out time with. The pretentious waiter came back and was disappointed when we didn't want to order the soufflé. Our dinners arrived at least 15 mins. After we were done with the appetizer. My dinner was good, but nothing to write home about. The filet was a little tough. When we were done, we knew we didn't want dessert, and that angered the waiter. We never saw him again. We had to go and ask for the check. Needless to say, we did not tip well. Overall, I'm sure this was an unusual case, but it would keep me from coming back. The fireworks were great, but I was too distracted about the service to really enjoy them. We had told them it was our honeymoon, but we received no special service.

After dinner, we went back to the MK for e-ride. We decided not to change our shoes, but we got the backpack out early because the people at the registers there said they might not be open until 1:00 (closing time). We were freezing at this point. We walked over to BTMRR. The line was about 15 mins. long and they were having a contest. Whichever car screamed the loudest in line, leaving the station, and coming back, got to ride again. Of course, we screamed our hearts out and got to ride again! Yipee! This is one of my favorite rides. Now, I have no proof, but I could swear this ride runs faster at night. Is it just my imagination? It is always 10 times better at night.

After this, we bypassed the freezing Splash Mountain. We walked through Adventure Land, through the hub, and over to Tomorrow Land. It was so nice to be in the park without the crowds! Even if the lines weren't the best, it was still worth it. We waited about 20 minutes and rode Space Mountain again. It was approaching 12:00 by then because dinner was so late and we were getting really cold. We went back to the room and rested up.

Day 3 (AK Adventures)

The plan was to wake up at 5:30 again and hit AK about 6:30 or 7:00. This did not happen. After all of the stress from the wedding and all of the walking the day before, we were tired. The commando in me was upset. We slept in to all of 7:00, I think, and then got ready. We decided to eat breakfast in the food court. Scott had missed having breakfast foods the day before, so we both got pancakes and some orange juice. The total was $9.10. After breakfast, we took a rather full bus to AK. When we got there, I was still tired and still in commando mode. I had no idea where anything was. In MK, I was familiar with the layout. Here I was lost. It really is a beautiful park and the tree of life is more spectacular than I imagined. We wandered around the paths under the tree a while as Scott tried to get me to "stop and smell the roses." I just knew there were going to be crowd problems because we got up late, so I was grumpy. We got to the Safari line and decided not to give it a try. The wait was around two hours and not worth it. We took the train to Conservation Station and really enjoyed the behind the scenes look. I especially liked the cameras in the Station that you can use to look around the animal's cages. That day they were giving all of the ducks and other water fowl that swim around the tree of life their shots. They brought them in one-by-one and jabbed them. Then they squirted medicine down their throats. Although it looked painful, it was interesting to see. Other than these aspects and the nice train ride, I wasn't too thrilled with the Station.

Next, we walked over to the soon-to-open, but already open, Asia. The official opening was on the 18th. We sat in a nice, but ignored seating area along the river by the bridge and soaked up the sun for a few minutes. It was still a little cold that day and I was tired. I found out the reason later in the trip. We went over to Kali River Rapids and waited about 20 minutes. The sign said 10. I really wish they could post the correct times, they never seemed to be right to me (Except Test Track). The ride was nice, but a little boring and really wet. We were not impressed. We bypasses the Jungle Trek and instead watched some monkeys out on their island habitats. We then realized that we were getting hungry. After bypassing a couple of those turkey leg stands (sorry, I don't get the attraction of the turkey legs) we settled on Flame Tree Barbecue. It was a very good lunch by my standards. I had the barbecue chicken sandwich and Scott had the chicken breadbowl salad. Both were very good. The key lime pie we split was not as good. The total bill with drinks was $21.95. I highly recommend Flame Tree.

After lunch, we went over to Countdown to Extinction. We got the "No Wait" tickets since the line was at 45 minutes they were for an hour later. I figured I'd rather rest sitting on a bench for an hour than wait in line for 45 mins. As we left the ticket distribution area a man asked us to help with a survey. We had to fill out a diary with everything we had done and for how long while we were waiting for our time at CTX. Our list consisted of going to the bathroom and sitting on a bench outside of the gift shop. I actually laid down on the bench and probably looked a bit strange doing it. Even with the "No Wait" tickets, we still waited about 10 mins. for this attraction. I have to say that this ride is better than Indy at DL. While I wasn't thrilled with the premise, I had more fun. Maybe my Indy experience was just bad, who knows? We bought our picture since we knew we would have very few pictures of the two of us together on our honeymoon. I forgot to say that we did get our photo with Goofy at the MK on e-ride night. A nice CM took the picture for us.

After CTX, we left the park to take a nap. I felt like we hadn't seen much of this park and really wanted to come back (which we did later). We went back and took a nap to prepare for Spoodles and Pleasure Island.

We were running late for our 7:30 Spoodles reservations and had no idea where we were going. We took the bus to Epcot thinking we could get a bus from there to the Boardwalk. Wrong! We asked at Guest Relations and they told us the fastest way to get there was through Epcot by foot. This was not what I wanted to hear. My feet were killing me! We hurriedly walked through Canada (hearing a little of an Off Kilter performance) and the UK and then through the International Gateway to Boardwalk. On the way, we did stop to get our picture taken with Tigger. Tigger has a special place in my heart from a DL trip when I was little. I think I was 5 and I remember it fondly today. Tigger pulled me out of the crowd during a parade and I got to walk with him for the rest of the route. Then he gave me his orange balloons. I felt very special. Funny how something like that can stick with you for years. Anyway, we got the picture and headed to Spoodles.

For those of you curious, this was the overall BEST MEAL we had! At the suggestion of the Unofficial Guide, we went for a selection of appetizer items over the main dishes and were very happy. Our waiter was just an all around nice guy and a good server to boot! I wish I had his name with me. I ordered a glass of red Sangria, which I had never had before, and liked it very much. Scott and I split the roasted beef, caramelized onion, and chevre cheese flatbread first. It came out before the waiter brought the bread, but the kitchen had been really fast. In fact, the waiter joked that they try to beat him in getting the appetizers out faster than he can get the bread. Because we hadn't waited very long for either, it didn't bother us that they had come together. The beef on the flat bread was cooked medium and was better than the California Grill's beef. The flavors were wonderful together. Next we split the Mediterranean Tapas sampler. I have spent some time Greece, so I know something about this type of food. It was very authentic and very good. It had fresh mozzarella and feta cheeses, a falafel, humus, calamata olives, couscous, marinated spinach and carrots, and several sauces which I can't spell off the top of my head you ate all of it with toasted pita slices. After this we were starting to get full and he hadn't even brought the "main" dish. We had decided to split the spinach fettuccini with basil pesto, mushrooms, and grilled tofu. This was on their vegetarian list. As you may have guesses, we are not veggies, but do not eat red meat too often. This trip was generally the exception. I ate more meat on this trip than I usually eat in a month. The grilled tofu was wonderful. It was sweet because their grill wood includes walnut. We were too full for dessert. Again, this was our all-around best meal of the trip for atmosphere, service, and food quality. The total bill was $66.71. I forgot to mention the California Grill bill was $85.51.

We took the time after dinner to walk around the Boardwalk area. Except for getting hit by a flying ball walking by the stand that sells those balls on a string, we had a lot of fun here. It is such a beautiful area. I love the Port Orleans, but I would really like to stay here some time. I bought a pint glass with frosted Mickey heads on it for around $6.00. We collect glasses, pint glasses in particular and this was the only one we found the whole trip. We walked through the lobby at one of the hotels, I don't know which, and found the bus stop. The very full bus took us to Pleasure Island. We were both feeling tired and I had forgotten my id, so we were just going to take a look around in anticipation of a future trip one night. We went past some of the clubs and headed to the Adventurers Club. From everyone's posts, I knew this was more my style. We sat around and got a coke (can you tell we're not big drinkers?). We watched the Balderdash Cup competition and then decided to head out. We walked around a little while and headed back. On the whole trip, we never got to see any of the West Side. The trip home was slow but uneventful.

Day 4 (The Epcot Test)

If I thought I was tired and my feet hurt before, this day was the biggest test. We got up early, but not as early as planned, and were in Epcot right about the time they started letting people in the gates (I think-it was aroung 8:30). Everyone headed for Test Track. We followed the herd. Test Track was not opening until 9:00, so we all waited in a line that extended out past the fountain. When they let us in at nine, we all move in to the queue area. We were luck enough to end up outside the car wash area. Everything looked like it was set up for the grand opening. We think it must have been that day because they were closing everything in the area at 3:00. Later in the week we encountered hordes of media people at WDW for the Spring Media Event. The sign said there was a 1 hour wait. This was the only time that the signs were wrong in our favor. We quickly moved through the queue area. I really enjoyed all of the exhibits-they kept me from getting too bored. At about 9:25 (25 mins. from opening) we were in the briefing room. While the whole ride is not perfect, it really is one of the best rides at WDW. The seats are a little tight though. My knees were rammed up against the seat in front of me so tightly I was worried I would get hurt during the brake tests and didn't enjoy the attraction as much as I could have. We spent some time in the "sales" area after the ride. I got to see my beloved Saturn with the suicide door. We also loved the Opals. The sport utility-like one was a favorite. I wish they sold these in America!

Next, we passed through the gift shop and out to the fountain. We stopped at the bakery and split a bagel and a coke. We hadn't eaten yet, but we wanted to save our appetites for some of the countries in World Showcase. The bagel was very good, by the way and the bill was about $4.50. After the snack, headed for Spaceship Earth. We waited about 10-15 mins. for this one. It was one of Scott's favorites. I really enjoyed it too. Especially the view of earth when you get to the "top."

We went left from there over towards Ellen's Energy, but decided against it. We didn't want to see a 45 min show about energy right then. We went and saw Body Wars. It was good, but not as good as Star Tours in my opinion. We skipped everything else here, we'll come back some day! In fact, it seemed like we skipped a lot in Epcot, so I guess we have a lot to look forward to.

Next we went to Ice Station Cool. I want you to know that, because of this newsgroup, my husband almost decided to divorce me because I didn't' warn him about the Beverly. He thought I was pretty cruel. We liked all of the other drinks, especially the ginger ale and the UK drink. All of the watermelon fountains were not working, but I'm sure it's really good. From there it was on to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. This was a great film, but the wait was more that I needed right then. We waited about 25 mins. in the outside areas before we got to the pre-show. And the pre-show was way too boring-Muppets' is much better. The movie was great, though.

On to the World Showcase! We wandered through Canada and the UK. Being St. Patrick's Day, they were selling green beer on the street. We walked on through France and Morocco, spending a lot of time in the shops there. We thought about trying to eat at Marrakech without Priority Seating, but decided that it would be too much like the meal the night before. We ended up eating at the Yakatori House in Japan. I hate to say that this was not one of the better meals. I just don't think I was in the mood for it. I had the Chicken Curry with Udon noodles and I think Scott had something else with Udon noodles. I threw a good portion of mine away in anticipation of an egg roll in China. The bill came to $16.75. Again, I was getting really tired, so we kind of rushed along for a while. When we came to Africa, I needed a bathroom desperately. With my luck, we couldn't find any. We had to pass through China and I found one in Norway. China needs bathrooms! Anyway, we went back to China and I got my eggroll. Two, actually. They really need to sell them by the each. Scott didn't want one, so I ended up throwing it away. As we left the restaurant I heard another lady commenting because she only wanted one. I think they cost a little over $3.00 for two. It was very good.

We basically hurried passed all of the rest because I was too tired to go on by this point. It was about 2:00 and we headed back to the room. I slept for a long time. During the sleep we were awakened twice by phone calls for the other Jennifer Miller. I forgot to tell you about her-the other Jennifer Miller. When we checked in (the first time) the CM had asked me if I was the Jennifer Miller from Tempe or New Jersey. She said that there was another Jennifer Miller scheduled to arrive the same night. All week we had gotten calls for her. She must have been having travel problems. Her airline called and so did Jennifer from the Disney Institute. Too many Jennifers! We got more calls, but I have forgotten them. Actually, when the airline called, we had been sleeping and Scott answered the phone. He was still half-asleep and didn't hear what airline she was from. He talked with her for a while thinking she was actually calling for us and then handed me the phone, then I got to explain that I was not the Jennifer Miller she was looking for. I think that they must have originally given us her room when we checked in and I think it was her that had Tiffany Town Car scheduled for 11:00 Saturday. I hope her car got there!

After a long nap, I woke up with a sore throat. I was sick. No wonder I had been so tired the last few days! My feet's hurting was another issue. We had slept a long time, so I wasn't sleepy, I just didn't feel good. I didn't have Priority Seatings for dinner, so we lounged around the room watching the Disney Channel and looking through the Unofficial Guide for something that looked good. We never watch the Disney Channel at home, but found ourselves gravitating to it while in the World. We decided that we really wanted Mexican food. Being from Phoenix, we eat it a lot. It was a sort of comfort food thing. We took a bus to one of the parks and then to the Swan. I couldn't remember which one Juan and Only's was in so we walked through the Swan and over to the Dolphin. There was no wait (it was about 8:00). The food was very good. Better than I had expected, in fact. The bill was around $45 if I remember correctly. We really wanted to buy one of their pint glasses, but they don't sell them anymore. Scott suggested just leaving $10 on the table and slipping it into my purse, but I decided against it. Darn!

From here, we wanted to get back to the Port Orleans because I was going downhill fast. We decided that the best way would be to take the bus to Downtown Disney and either transfer or take the boat. I decided I was well enough to try the boat and I was glad. On our way to the stop, Scott and I had our silhouettes done at a cart. There's a bit of history behind this. When I was little I had had one done at DL. When Scott and I went on our first vacation together 2 years ago, we went to DL. I had one done there too. So we thought it would be nice to have one together on our first trip as married people. It is really one of the better value souvenirs. After that was done, we caught the boat back to PO. It was a really nice ride, but I could see why you probably wouldn't want a water view Treehouse at the Institute. BTW, those looked really nice too.

I crashed at the hotel, knowing that I wasn't going to be able to get up very early the next morning. At least MGM is a smaller park!

Day 5 (MGM Misses)

I really tried to get up early the next morning, but it didn't work. By the time I got around and Scott generously went to go get me some Tylenol Cold and some lozenges, it was after 10:00 AM. We still wanted breakfast, so we went to try Bonfamille's Café in the hotel lobby. We were walked past the buffet and decided that we wanted it. We made a good choice, while expensive, it was very good. We both had made-to-order omelets and some of the best french toast I have ever had. We didn't eat enough to really get the most out of the buffet. One plate each was all, but it was enough. The bill came to $30.00 with tip.

I really didn't think I was up to MGM, so we went to the TTC to look in lost and found for Scott's glasses. A CM there the night before had gotten our hopes up that they were there. We decided that we were going to take either the MK or the Epcot bus, whichever came first. Epcot was waiting for us, so we hopped on. We then took the monorail to the TTC. The ride helped me get my bearings a little. We found lost and found, but they weren't found. We filed a report, but I know they are lost for good. From there, I didn't know the best route to PO, so I used the "go to a park" theory and we took the boat to the MK. We tried to ride as many transportation methods as possible, but this wasn't my favorite. It was so full, we really couldn't see anything. From the MK, we took a bus back to PO. I rested some more, it was around 12:00 by now, and put off MGM for later. We had Priority Seatings at the Sci-fi Dine in for 2:00, but we skipped them. Scott was starting to feel sick by now too. I woke up around 1:30 or 2:00 and we headed off to MGM.

We got there just as they were setting up for the Mulan parade, so the streets were fairly crowded. We road the Great Movie Ride (gangster side) and liked it. We then went to Muppets 3D. We liked this a lot too. I agree with whomever recently said that you miss a lot in this attraction if you never turn around. I do notice a trend, however, of Disney liking to drop water on guests in attractions. This got a bit old to me quickly. After Alien Encounter, the Great Movie Ride, Honey, Muppets and then Bug's Life, it was a bit much. After Muppets, we looked around some more and decided against a 30 min. wait at Star Tours. We'd ridden it at DL. We wanted a snack at this point and decided to go to the Commissary. We split a Club Quesadilla (spelling?) and it was more than just a snack. We didn't complain though, it was very good. The bill came to $12.46 with 2 large drinks. At this point we decided to head to AK to visit the Safari and It's Tough to be a Bug. I didn't want to try Tower of Terror this time. So we took the bus to AK.

When we got off the bus at 4:45, we were salmon fighting upstream. At least this was a good sign. We walked the long way back to the Safari and the wait was only 20 mins. This was a wonderful attraction! I'm so glad we took the time to come back. We even got to see the elephant's crossing the bridge. My husband was fascinated by the GPS system the trucks use to time the poacher recordings. All I have to say is wow! Once we were off, it was getting close to 5:30, so we booked on over to It's Tough to be a Bug. There was no wait for this outside of 5 mins for the show before us to be over. This was a nice movie, but not the best of WDW's 3D's. Once we got out, we went to look for the safari Eyore I had my eye on. I also got an Asia opening day button for $1 and some Mickey gummi's. We headed back to the hotel with me feeling a bit better and having had a great 2nd experience at AK.

We rested for a while at the hotel with a plan to go to Pleasure Island later on. After a short rest we took the boat to Downtown Disney. We did a little shopping first. I had been looking for personalized items for my cousin Aliyah who is 4. With such a unique name, she can't get a lot of it. One of the last things she said after my wedding was that she wanted me to say "hi" to Mickey for her and tell him her name. We bought her a wood cutout of her name with a picture of Mickey. We're going to tell her that Mickey liked her name so much he wanted her to have it. She was our flower girl in the wedding and I hope she really likes the gift. It cost around $20. I also bought an ESPN glass and a little football for Scott. Overall, we didn't buy a lot of souvenirs. We did press a lot of pennies though. We got room delivery for all of the stuff.

I remembered my ID this time and we went to Pleasure Island. We had looked at a few places to eat, but none looked good. I had remembered that the Unofficial Guide had said that the Jazz club served dinner so we took a chance. They weren't serving dinner, but the appetizers looked good. We sat outside and had a very friendly waiter. Scott and I both had Midori margaritas in "souvenir" plastic glasses. We ordered the Thai beef skewered on rosemary with noodles and the Cobb salad wrap. Both were delicious. The beef on the skewers was cooked just right, and was very tender. The dish was a little spicy, but was cooled by the Cobb wrap. Both hit the spot and were not too much food. The bill came to $32.50. Not bad at all for such a suprisingly good dinner.

We headed over to the Adventurer's Club next and caught a few shows. I had a Kungaloosh, it was very tasty. Next, I made Scott buy a canteen. He had to suffer through drinking the jungle juice that came with it, poor guy. I shared though. After we saw the show in the mask room, we headed back into the library for another show. In there I had another drink, can't remember what, but it was yellow in color. It was the best of the lot! In all we had a good time here. Next we went to Mannequin's. It was DV8 night, which Scott loved. We danced for a while and had a good time. I had a hard time making it on and off of the rotating dance floor after the drinks I had! By that time we were worn out. I was still sick, so we headed home. We were just leaving PI when the New Year's fireworks went off. We just made it for the last boat trip to PO for the night. We were the only ones on it and boy, did the driver fly. We sped through the canals in record time! After that, we crashed in bed.

Part 6 (The Grand Exit)

This was our last day in the World and Scott and I were both sick.I hadn't planned much for today except our dinner at Victoria and Albert's at 5:45. I figured that we would probably go back and do some things that we had missed or wanted to ride again.Instead, we skipped the parks and did some shopping. We got up pretty late, around 9:00, and got ourselves around. We had really liked the breakfast buffet at Bonfamille's the day before, so we went back.When we arrived there was a 25 min. wait.We were surprised since there hadn't been any wait at all the day before. We soon learned that the media people were all eating in the restaurant. They all had free passes.It was sort of a pain because they were generally rude to both he wait staff and us.One large table had people keep coming in and sitting down, pulling chairs from other tables. Every time the waitress had to come and take new drink orders.It would have been nicer if the new people could have just gotten their own table. Oh well, it just meant that we didn't get any beignets because our waitress was too busy.Breakfast was very good again and cost about $30.00 including tip.

After breakfast, we decided to head to Downtown Disney. We waited at the dock for the boat for a really long time, but sitting in the sun felt really nice.It was warm, but not overly hot.After getting off the boat, we headed to World of Disney. We bought a frame and had it engraved with "Our Honeymoon 1999."I looked for a nice business card holder, but I didn't like the one I found. While the frame was being engraved, we went in search of the name badge cart.I had read on the newsgroup that there was one somewhere in Downtown, but the CM's didn't seem to have a clue where it was.We asked a total of 4 people before we finally found it.I got one for myself, but in retrospect I think I would have liked a magnet better.While we were there we eyed the monorail toy again.We had both wanted one but neither of us could commit to the expense of it. I finally broke down and bought it. We had it shipped home and it arrived less than 2 weeks later. After puttering around for a while we headed back to the dock to catch the boat.I had really wanted to rent a little boat to cruise around in, but the line here was really long so we headed back to the Port Orleans.

There was one little boat with a canopy left when we got there so we took it. Scott started out driving and had a really hard time backing it out of the dock.It was about 1:30 and getting to be a beautiful day.Being sick it was nice to be out on the water with the warm sun and cool breezes. Even if I wasn't sick it would have been wonderful. The only problem was that we couldn't really sit together in the boat or the front end would come out of the water too high for us to see. I had wanted to explore the waterway that went to OKW, but we were told that was off limits.We only stayed out for 1/2 an hour, but it was enough.It cost us $20 for the time.

We wandered around the Port Orleans grounds for a while and watched the people having fun in the pool. We rested in the room and then got ready to go to dinner. We got ready early because we wanted to take the long way getting there. We had considered taking a taxi, but decided we wanted to take the monorail one last time.By this point we were both pretty sick and we considered canceling, but I knew I'd regret it if we did.We took the bus to the MK and then took the resort monorail to the Grand Floridian. When we got to the monorail stop at the Contemporary a man next to us asked us why we were all dressed up.We told him we were going out to dinner.When we got out at the Grand Floridian stop the man told Scott he'd better hold on to his wallet.

The Grand Floridian was beautiful. The outside looks so much like the Hotel Del Coronado in California, I expected the inside to be similar as well. I was pleasantly surprised that it was much nicer! It is so much more bright and airy. We walked around a little, but we didn't have enough time to see a lot. We had a hard time finding V & A's, so that cut down on our time too. Once we got there, we sat out in the lounge until they began seating.

It was a very nice dining experience overall. We both skipped the wine pairings because of our colds and just had water.After choosing our menus, we watched a family of 4 being seated next to us. The father and son had borrowed jackets from the restaurant and he mother was wearing a dress with a fanny pack as an accessory. This is not to say that I felt they were somehow "low-class," just that there were many different types of people here. I got the feeling from the children's comfort in their surroundings and the fact that the 16 year old daughter has a Mercedes that the family had quite a bit of money.There was a group of 3 women on the other side of the dining room who had me perplexed all night. They kept getting up and roaming around in between courses. They would all get up and go to the bathroom, then outside, then back. Maybe they were smoking, but they went out so often I didn't think that was the case.Who knows, but it was distracting.I'm sure my constant need to blow my nose was distracting too. I felt really bad about it and I tried to go to the restroom as much as I could, but there was nothing I could do.

Scott and I both enjoyed dinner very much, although Scott had a hard time with the small piece of duck they brought out during the appetizers.He really didn't want to eat it, but did. He wishes now that he hadn't. The best part of dinner was the dessert. My soufflé'‚ was delicious, but I wished I had gotten Scott's Raspberry Charlotte.The experience was nice and I wouldn't have missed it, but I'm not dying to go back. It was worth it for the experience once, but not again.

After dinner we walked down the grand staircase into the lobby.We took a cab back home to pack.It was already 9:15 and we needed to be ready for our 7:00 pick-up from Tiffany Town Car. It was sad, but I was also ready to go home. I was glad that we had not used the last day on our park hopper passes so that we would have an excuse to come back. It wasn't until after we got home and I had to go back to work on Monday that the post-Disney depression hit me.With Disneyland it usually only lasts a few days. This time it lasted more than a week. I'm getting better now (I don't have the desire to jump the next plane), but I still want to go back soon!

Thanks for listening!

Jennifer Miller

Jennifer.Miller@asu.edu

__________________
You just read a trip report that was originally published in our MousePlanet Trip Reports column.

Reader-submitted trip reports have always been an extremely popular feature here at MousePlanet. In order to improve the search functionality and shorten the time from when you submit a trip report and the report gets published, you can now post your trip reports directly to our Trip Report forums. The forums are moderated, but reports should become available for reading very quickly.