Trip Reports

Four Parks in One Day Trip Report

The Cast:

Me - 23 year old former College Program Cast Member (Fall 1998) who has not been to WDW since the last day of my college program, January 2, 1999
Paul - my 24 year old fiancé who lives in Ft. Lauderdale and has a FL Resident Seasonal Pass. He won't admit he likes WDW, he always tries to act like he is only tolerating it for my sake, but I catch him smiling quite often!
Neil and Lisa, newlywed couple from Ft. Lauderdale. Neil has been to WDW several times, the last being 5 or so years ago. This was Lisa's first trip.
The Story: I left the Louisville, KY airport at 8 PM and my direct flight on Southwest landed at 10 PM at MCO. All the other cast were at the gate to meet me. I had checked luggage, because I'm moving to Ft. Lauderdale in September and every trip I try to bring suitcases full of stuff I don't need in Kentucky anymore. We got the luggage and made our way to the hotel in Kissimmee.

Paul had reserved a suite at the Howard Johnson's at the end of 535 on 192. They quoted a rate of $69 a night for a room with 2 double beds, 2 full baths, kitchenette, and living room with pull out couch bed. They also said there was an AAA discount and I have a card. We arrived at the HoJo about 11 PM and it took a looooong time to checkin, about 20 minutes for some reason. Turns out the rate of $69 is the AAA rate... grumble... grumble... at least there is a continental breakfast!

We take the key and head up to the room to get a few hours of sleep before our big day. I made a few phone calls, to let my CP roommate (our ticket into the park) let us know we were in town and arranged to give her a wake up call.

6:30 am Saturday morning, the wake up call comes. It's not Mickey... Then the alarm clock goes off... then Neil's watch alarm goes off. We get up. The pull out couch bed gets a big thumbs down from Neil and Lisa. 7:20 AM, everyone is ready to go except Lisa. 7:45 AM, former roommate is waiting at the Animal Kingdom for us but we are still standing in the room, waiting for Lisa. (note to self - get her up earlier tomorrow) We grab some donuts from the lobby and head for the AK. 8:15 AM, we meet former roommate at the AK. She used her maingate pass for the first time to get us in to the park, Paul used his AP. She can't stay and play because she had to work, we arrange to meet her in the morning for our reservation at Chef Mickey's.

Animal Kingdom: We did its Tough to be a Bug first. Paul wanted me to let him know when the STING was coming, so he could lean forward. Last time he whined for 2 hours that it hurt when he got stung, so I gave him an elbow when the hornets came after us. After that, we waited 45 minutes for the Safari. The queue started with two loops of rope before the permanent queue started. Lisa and I ducked out and bought a bottle of water and a PowerAde. We refilled these bottles several times through out the day. I normally don't advocate leaving the line, but we were gone about 3 minutes and were able to go under the rope instead of pushing past people (excuse me, pardon me, excuse me...) We had heard there was a new baby rhino, but we didn't see him. We were put on the truck that accommodates wheelchairs, so we passed up the usual unloading place and unloaded at the same place we loaded. I really wanted to try the Kali River Rapids, but I did not want to get soaked, so we decided to save it for another trip. We headed over to CTX and walked on to it. This is one of my favorite rides at WDW, but it seems darker every time I ride it. After CTX, we moved on to the next park.

EPCOT: We parked in the back right parking lot and got on the tram. The left front parking lot is completely closed for the millenium celebration and it looked like they were building a stadium there. We ate at the pasta place next to the Fountainview Café, about $14 a couple. Then we got in the line for Test Track. The sign said 70-minute wait and we got in line at high noon. We decided to wait in the whole queue and ride together instead of taking the singles line. We got into our car in 65 minutes, at 1:05. I was very pleased! Paul and I were at WDW in May 1997, naively thinking that TT would open when Disney said it would, so he has been waiting anxiously to go on it since then. It was my third trip, I went twice during CM previews and waited 90 minutes and 2 1/2 hours for those rides.

After TT, we walked on to Spaceship Earth and then stopped by the Motorola exhibit in Innoventions since both Paul and Neil work for Motorola. Then it was time to head to the Studios.

Disney/MGM Studios: We drove in through the back parking gate and I really wanted to make a right turn and park in that front parking lot. There were TONS of empty spaces in it, but the CM wouldn't let me. So, we turned left and parked waaaay in the back and rode the parking tram in. We headed straight for the Tower of Terror and waited about 15 minutes. I was very impressed with the new ride sequence, and I even rode in the seatbelt seat. No one in our group had been on the ride except me, and I tried to get Paul in the seatbelt seat, but he wouldn't, so I took it. The only problem was that the girl next to me was pushed all the way up against the handrail, so I didn't have a choice about holding at least one of my hands up as we dropped. As the doors opened and we dropped, we noticed it was raining.

I brought my trusty AK Mickey poncho, purchased at Property Control last fall. The guys were wearing hats, and Lisa decided it would be worth her $5 to get a pancho, especially because she was wearing a lightweight white shirt. Wearing our panchos, we headed for Star Tours. Got on it in 10 minutes and then decided Muppets was a "must-do". We got there just as the preshow was starting. I just love it! Still raining when we left, and we were on our way out of the park, then Neil decided he wanted to catch Indiana Jones Stunt Show. Indy had just come out and started dodging the spikes, and the theater was packed because of the rain. They only did the first two segments and skipped the plane part, because it was lightening by then. After that, we left The Studios and headed to the MK.

Magic Kingdom: We parked at the Contemporary, because that is where my former roommate (our ticket into the parks) works. We didn't actually go and talked to her, but called and she said she was going to work overtime instead of going to the MK with us. It was still raining, so we took the monorail around to the Grand Floridian and headed to Gasparilla's Grill and Games, the place where I spent at least 40 hours of every week (and usually a lot more!) last fall. Three of the people who worked with me frequently were there and surprised to see me. One of my favorite managers was on duty too. Neil and Lisa got burgers and fries, Paul and I got a slice of pizza. THIS IS THE BEST PIZZA ON PROPERTY! I used to get it all the time when I worked there, and my favorite job was making it. Paul got pepperoni and I got mushroom, cooked to perfection. I spent some time catching up with my friends, and then we went to catch the launch to the MK. It finally stopped raining. We missed the boat that pulled away just as we were walking up to the boat dock, so we had to wait about 20 minutes for the next one. I was kicking myself for not taking the monorail, because I didn't want to waste a minute of our MK time.

It was about 6:30 PM when we got made it to the MK. Our first stop was to get a dole whip. Neil and Lisa thought they were great, Neil was talking about getting another one all night long. Then we headed to the restrooms just past Pirates. I was stuck guarding the dole whips while everyone else went in. The greeter CM at Pirates was one of my best friends from the College Program. He was originally to be the person who got us into the parks, but had been MIA for the last week and I'd never gotten in touch with him. We had a brief reunion and then enjoyed the ride.

Our next ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad; the wait was about 20 minutes. We decided to skip Splash Mountain, having gotten wet enough from the rain. On to the haunted mansion, where I failed miserably in explaining the story of Master Gracey. We had about a 15-minute wait here. Our longest wait at the MK was Peter Pan, 25 minutes. Why is the line always so long for this one? Parade time was coming up, but we decided we had time for the 10-minute wait for Snow White. We walked along the side of the castle, but couldn't get close enough to see any of the parade, so we decided to catch the second one. We walked back through Tomorrowland and headed for Buzz Lightyear. I guess a lot of people had the same idea we did, because the wait was about 20 minutes. I beat Paul for the first time! His first time on it last fall, he maxed out his score when we got stopped - and I was the one who rode it 8 times during cast previews! After that, we walked on to Alien Encounter. We walked out to the bridge from the hub to Tomorrowland to watch Tinkerbell fly and the fireworks. I did see her land, and I took some pictures, but I don't know if they will come out. I didn't take my digital camera, which actually has a better zoom than my film camera, because it is so heavy and I wasn't planning on taking a lot of pictures. I thought we had time to get on Space Mountain and then catch the 11 PM parade, but everyone was starting to be pretty tired by that time, so we walked up and got a spot right in front of the Main St. Train Station so we'd be near the beginning of the parade. The last time I watched SpectroMagic, I was on the balcony of the train station, and I found that I enjoyed it more from street level than the higher vantage point. It was around 11:30 PM when we walked back to the Contemporary.

Someone had the great idea of going to TGI Friday's for a drink before we went back to our hotel. Big mistake! Saturday, May 8, was the last day for the Spring 99 College Programmers, and most of them must have been at Friday's. We were there until almost 1:30 getting an appetizer.

We all collapsed into bed, no one took the pull out couch bed this time, we shared the bedroom instead. I don't know if anyone snored or not, 14 hours of commando-style park touring really wears you out!

The wake up call came at 6:45 this time. We all moved a little faster, because we had to check out of the room before we went to the Contemporary for our 8:45 AM priority seating at Chef Mickey's. The 4 of us got there early and waited for my former roommate to come. She brought another friend from the CP with her. We had a great time with all the characters. While I was filling my plate, Goofy decided I needed bananas (can he diagnose a potassium deficiency?). He piled about 13 bananas on my plate, then started putting them in my overalls pockets, on my shoulders, on my head... I passed a few off to other people in line, but I didn't know what to do with the rest. When Goofy wasn't watching I tried to put them back, but he caught me and got upset. Finally I got to go eat.

There ended up being 6 of us at the table and it took quite a while to get our check. Usually Chef Mickey's has a CM discount, but they wouldn't give it to us because it was a holiday. I had planned for us to spend the day at Downtown Disney until I had to be back at the airport, but former roommate offered to use another day on her maingate pass to get us back in to the MK. I felt bad about using a whole day on it when we could only stay about 5 hours, but she insisted.

So, twist my arm, we went back to the MK. The crowd was very light, and it looked like Disney had given out carnation corsages to all the moms. We went in about 10:15 and walked thought the Swiss Family Treehouse. Then on to the Tiki Room. We then ended up in the Christmas Shoppe because Lisa wanted an ornament. While she was shopping, I wandered out the back door onto the patio behind it. Peter Pan and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) were out there with a group of people. I didn't know what the group was for, so I motion for the others to join me and we sort of hung back to the side. Peter Pan took the group off some where, but Aurora stayed and took a picture with us.

Then we went to the Lion King Show, and the girl who gave the pre-show spiel nearly deafened us. It's a microphone, you don't have to scream in it! After that we went all the way down to Columbia Harbor House to get a coke for some reason, instead of just running into Pinocchio's Village House. Then we backtracked over to Toontown and walked through Mickey's house. We didn't wait to see him, since we had just talked to him at breakfast. We walked the back path to Tomorrowland and saw that Space Mountain had an 85-minute wait. Instead we went on the Carousel of Progress, one of my favorites. I have to admit, I prefer the other show to this one. "Now is the time, now is the best time". It's probably just because that's the one I saw first. Does anyone else want to redo the scenes, to spread them out through the 20th century more evenly?

I begged for one more time on Buzz Lightyear, and Paul beat me this time, but not by much. We went to see the Timekeeper, the best of the 360 movies in my opinion, because it has a storyline. We picked IASW to be our last ride, and sang the song over and over and over and over. As usual, I had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, from the park. I tried to make Paul promise that we will keep seasonal passes after we get married, but he wouldn't commit to an answer.

I made it back to the airport over an hour early for my 5:30 PM flight, which was fine because I didn't check any baggage. Now I'm back in Kentucky and already missing WDW again. We had a wonderful day and now I can say that we did all 4 parks in one day and got to see quite a bit. I felt that the crowds were exceptionally light for a weekend and except for the rain, I couldn't have asked for more!

Jennifer Miller (Upton in 26 days!)

pjupton@mindspring.com

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