Trip Reports

Introduction:

I originally wrote this trip report for my family and for a group of dear friends who are just as crazy about WDW as I am. Some of my writing may sound as if I expect you to know me and I apologize in advance for that. After laboring over 15 pages of small font, I couldn't even think of going back to change my style. ;-)

On this trip, our motley crew consisted of:

Dotti, the narrator, feeling all of her 45 years except when she's in the "world".
Tony, my husband and best friend. Tony started out going to Walt Disney World for me. He's a changed man (and for the better, I might add) even though he occasionally has the absurd notion that we could possibly skip WDW for just one year.
Number One Son, Joe, one month shy of 17
Number Two Son, Elie, 13
Number Three Son, Pete, turning 12 on the trip
Nephew, Don, 14 years old
We are Disney Vacation Club members and stayed at the OKW Resort from August 16 through August 26.

Could I have been more excited about this trip? Way back in November I not only had our airline tickets in hand, but also had Tony's blessing to bring my fourteen year old nephew Don on this trip with us. I had already booked a 2-bedroom at the Old Key West (and hey, why waste all those beds?) and my mom had generously offered to pay for both his airline ticket and park pass. Now all we had to do was wait..and wait...and wait...the plan was to tell him about the trip on the morning of takeoff!

Don arrived at my house the day before we were set to leave, all packed and thinking that we were heading to Cape Cod for a few days. Since my sister and my mom were both here (and since they were paying for the majority of this adventure, not to mention that they were dying to see his reaction after all these months of secrecy!) we decided to "spring it" then and there.

I had wrapped a bunch of gifts to give him as hints. The first gift was a picture of the Old Key West (minus the Disney logo). "Oh..this is where we're staying? Cool." The second gift was a prepaid phone card to call his parents from "the Cape". The third was a Disney photo book ("Just someplace to put your pictures when you return."). The fourth was a Mickey Mouse cap, just in case it got too sunny on vacation. Hehe..still not a suspicion of what was coming. Gift number 5 was $100 of Disney Dollars. Well, we could find a Disney Store along the way, right? The next gift, the second to last, was a one day park pass to Walt Disney World. Reading the back of the pass, Don realized it expired in the year 2004 so, even though he thought is was pretty neat that he may be going to Walt Disney World in the next 5 years or so, the reality of what was taking place didn't yet sink in. We all held our breath as the final gift was opened...his airline ticket.

"What's this? A ticket?"

"Aha."

"To where..oh I see..Orlando? For Disney?"

"Yup - see when it's for?"

<long pause> "There are too many numbers....I can't read this thing!"

"It's for tomorrow..8am..you're going to Walt Disney World tomorrow!"

I knew that sleeping that night was going to be a problem for everyone!

Day One, Monday, 8/16/99:

We purchased bagels the night before and sliced, cream-cheesed, and wrapped them for the plane ride. Tony and I are both eating low-carb, so he kindly (with me yelling, "We're going to be late!!!") boiled eggs to carry with us while we continued dragging suitcases down the stairs. We were picked up at the house at 6:30am by my brother-in-law and made it to the airport later than I wanted to (it was those dang eggs) but with time to spare. I always have a fear of missing my flight, a fear that was almost realized on the return trip but more on that later. Tony, due to his frequent business trips, had been upped to what Delta calls "Medallion Status", so the check-in line for us had only 1 traveler in line as opposed to "other" line which had about 300, or so it seemed. Those eggs would have found a new home if we had to wait in that line.

I overheard Joe reassuring Don who admitted to being a slight bit apprehensive about flying, "Just remember - our grandmother, who is afraid of lint, went up in an airplane."

The flight was uneventful if a little turbulent. I read, listened to the new Andrea Bocelli CD, and ate boiled eggs. The kids played video games, listed to their own CD's and ate bagels, cream cheese, and those unappetizing little items that Delta calls "snacks". The Delta shuttle from Boston to New York, a 45 minute flight, offers bagels. Would this really be too much? We landed 20 minutes early, collected our luggage, retrieved our minivan (Dollar, $199/wk, $39.99 for each extra day, plus every kind of tax imaginable), checked the car for damages (a few scratches) and later wished that we could have also checked the engine. That's part of the "more on that later" story.

Check-in was almost painless. I always have trouble at check-in. The Cast Member was very sweet, very efficient, but the computer kept spitting out children's room cards/park passes when there were no children in my party. To make matters more confusing, due to the fact that I had purchased some of my DVC points with passes and some without, I had 5 days of passes, two without, and 3 with. Add to that the fact that only 4 of us were eligible for the DVC passes, and that only 3 of us would have charging privileges (and one of those 3 wouldn't have a DVC pass because he had an annual pass)...well you can see why checking in takes me so long. Now, with 12 room keys in hand (for 6 people), it was my responsibility to keep track of who gets what, when. Yikes! Our room wasn't ready and we were given a card for a free second half hour of boat rentals for the inconvenience. I thought that was very nice considering that we didn't expect the room until 4pm anyway.

Easing my frustration at the desk was the fact that I had a nice little package left for me by my good friends Andrea and Di who had sadly just gone home a few days before. Soaps and shampoos for the hospital kids (http://www.wdwig.com/soap.htm), sugar, ketchup, mustard, and lots of detergent! Thank you, ladies!

We had a quick lunch at Olivia's where I got an awesome Chicken Cesar Salad that really hit the spot. After lunch, I was pleased (thrilled, actually) to find that the Conch Flats General Store sold moleskin. I have been to Walt Disney World 12 times. I've been doing trip planning for people for the past 3 years. I even have a WDW planning seminar coming up in October. The first thing I tell people is to wear broken-in, comfortable shoes. What do I bring with me? A new pair of sneakers. Moleskin is the most wonderful invention of all time. Period.

Employing the strategy of hitting the parks the day after early opening, MGM was our park for the day. We stopped off at Guest Services to buy the one Annual Pass that we needed and headed in. It was then around 2pm and the tip board had only a 10 minute wait for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (TZToT) so this was our first stop. Peter and I sat it out as Peter wanted his first time on TZToT to be with his friend Sean who was arriving on the following Sunday. After sitting outside in the heat for 15 minutes, I finally realized that we could wait inside where it was cool. D'oh. I can't tell you the times that I've roasted while waiting for my guys to return from some exciting adventure. Two elevators were out of order, so the wait was more in the 30 minute range, but it was a great first ride for Don. He came out shaking but ready to do it again. We then headed over to Rock n' Roller Coaster (RnRC) to utilize the FastPass. Why oh why didn't Disney think of this ages ago? What a great idea! Peter and I passed again. I'll do something like Tower of Terror (dropping straight down) but roller coasters scare the bejeezus out of me.

While waiting for the allotted time to ride RnRC (we needed to return between 3:40 and 4:40pm), we rode Star Tours with only a 10 minute wait. We then split up, Peter and I for the first of many times seeing Hunchback of Notre Dame (my favorite of anything in all the Disney parks) and the rest of the crew going back to RnRC. We had a great Quasimodo - not only was his voice amazing but his acting ability surpassed the Quasi or two that I've seen before (and I really liked them also). Esmerelda was also new (for me) and although I loved her voice, I thought she played her character with much less gentleness than the previous one. To me, Esmerelda is tough but sweet. This one was just tough.

We met up with the rest of the guys in the preshow area for the 5:15pm Doug Live! show. They proclaimed RnRC to be the best and the easiest roller coaster of them all and tried to convince me that I could handle this one. They tried for 10 days to no avail. I hated to disappoint them (yes, your mom is a coaster wimp - get over it) but they were not going to get me on this.

I had heard great reviews of Doug Live. I thought it was "eh". The vocals were great, the scene changes were very creative, but I just wasn't in the mood for it I guess. (Sometimes it's just the company you're with.) I didn't dislike it, just didn't love it. I think Doug is the old Quasimodo. I really did love his voice.

We left Doug and gang just in time for our 6pm 50's Prime Time Café priority seating. Our "sister" was Debbie and she was loud, obnoxious, and lots of fun. She had the whole room doing the airplane so that Don would eat the rest of his green beans and then helped him clean is face with "mommy spit". Joe ended up being confronted by the chef because he jokingly complained that his ice cream was taking too long. It was discovered that poor Elie had hidden his green beans underneath the mashed potatoes and he paid the price. Before leaving, we all signed the birthday card of our "cousin" Robert (?) at the next table. Good fun even though we spent way too much on milkshakes.

After dinner, we headed out to our car as we had been awake for way too long, were tired from traveling, and still hadn't seen our room. Upon arrival at the OKW, we found that we were in Building 26, the building I had been requesting for the past 3 years but had never gotten. Yay! We were on the first floor with a lovely view of the fountain, only steps away from the Peninsular Road bus stop, and a short walk to the main pool. For a family traveling with 4 boys, this was the perfect location. I was very happy. Don was amazed at the size of the 2-br unit, saying it was bigger than his house. I unpacked, the boys changed and walked over to the pool, Tony shopped for some groceries, and we eventually headed to bed way too late, a habit that we didn't break for the entire trip.

Day Two, Tuesday, 8/17/99:

We decided to let the kids sleep late so that they wouldn't be exhausted for E-Ride night. We've learned after many trips that we can't burn the candle at both ends and that, in the heat of the summer, we really enjoy the late night activities more than the daytime ones. Tony unfortunately had some work issues to deal with, so was tied up in a conference call until 11am. We arrived at the Magic Kingdom at around noon where I finally got to see the Dapper Dans! My kids are used to me going a little crazy at the slightest thing (especially here in my favorite place in the whole world) but Don may have been a little confused at the jumping up and down that ensued. Hehe..he got used to it by the end of the trip.

We had a 12:20pm priority seating at the Plaza Restaurant, a place that I now love due to the influence of my dear friend DebG, where I had a very good Chef's Salad. I think the Plaza is a bit pricey but the atmosphere is lovely and the ice cream is to die for. This was one of the few times I was tempted to stray from the low carb way of eating that's become my lifestyle.

We beelined after lunch to the Jungle Cruise (15 min) and to Pirates of the Caribbean (5 min). It began to rain and I was hopeful that the park would soon begin to clear out but I guess it just wasn't raining hard enough because their were long lines for everything else. The line for Haunted Mansion was out past the awning and through the first gate and all of FantasyLand and TomorrowLand had long waits. (By long waits, I mean that Buzz Lightyear was 20 minutes and Alien Encounter was 30. If this was our only day in the MK, I would have stood there, but it wasn't worth it since we'd be back for E-ride.) Timekeeper had only 3 minutes until the next show, so we did that attraction next. We've seen this so many times (at least 10) that I spent most of the time looking at the back screens to see what I had previously missed. This is a cool attraction.

Haunted Mansion was pretty dead (hehe) right after the parade, so we walked right in with no wait. This was the first time I saw the Hidden Mickey in the ballroom so I had fun, even if Don thought it was a bit lame. I think he was expecting to be scared and enjoyed it more on subsequent rides when he began to appreciate it for the fun attraction that it is. We decided to save the rest of the park for the evening, got our wrist bands for E-ride next to City Hall (it had just turned 4pm) and we headed back to the OKW for some relaxation.

The balcony at the OKW is probably more important to me than any amount of park time. I live in Boston and my view from my big kitchen picture window is of my neighbor's house and the VFW Parkway, a very busy road. I can easily sit on that OKW balcony for hours (and did), even in the heat of an August afternoon. Don and Peter went down to the arcades, Joe and Elie went in search of the weight room to do some lifting, Tony took a nap, and I sat, drank coffee, and watched the ducks and one butt-ugly creature that looked somewhat like an enormous mutant turkey. I never did find out what it was, but it really spooked the kids!

Around 6:30pm hunger set in and we figured that we better eat before returning to the Magic Kingdom. The plan was to go to Pizzaria Uno at the Crossroads, but on the spur of the moment, we decided to give Planet Hollywood a try. We had eaten there a few times and, although we could have skipped it on this trip, we thought that Don would like to see how bizarre this place really is. On the way in, we saw lots of screaming teenage girls pointing and swooning. Yes. Swooning. The band "LFO" was eating dinner at Planet Hollywood before performing that night at Pleasure Island so celebrity sightings were happening all around us. Our estimated 30 minute wait for a table was growing into more like an hour (they said due to the crazy crowds following "LFO") and we were getting ready to just give up and look elsewhere for food when our table was called. Our third floor table at the railing gave us a great view of more screaming teenage girls and the stage below, where LFO said a few words and accepted souvenir jackets and a plaque of some sort. This probably would have been incredibly exciting had I been with 4 girls rather than 4 boys. It was ho-hum at best. The food was pretty good though and the Annual Pass 20% discount helped.

We got to the MK at around 9:10pm and walked down Main Street, catching some of the parade as we strolled. We stopped for a few minutes before the turn at the Plaza, leading into Tomorrowland, where Don climbed a pole for a better view and Joe, Pete, Elie and I linked arms and swayed back and forth the music. There were at least three rows of people viewing the parade in front of us, but nevertheless, a man approached us from behind and said, in a very nasty voice, "Well, this is all well and good, but you're blocking my mother's view." Huh? I turned around and there, up against the wall, was where this idjit had parked his poor mom. So if I move, the rest of the people in front of me won't be in her way? We did let go of each other (too bad too..it was a real magical moment for me) and he still made some comment about people being deaf. By this point, I was started to boil, but I walked over to him and very politely said, "That's really too bad about your mom. Did you know that there are wheelchair viewing areas all along the parade route?" "Yeah, but it's a little too late for that now, isn't it?" "Yes, sir but maybe in the future you can think about this ahead of time and both you and she can have a nice front row view of this beautiful parade. I bet she'd really like that." I can't even begin to tell you how much those words were "enhanced" under my breath. What a jerk.

We moved along to Tomorrowland and walked into Alien Encounter without a wait. Next was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (a first for all of us) two times in a row. The boys saw it from the outside and thought it was really going to be a lame ride. Elie didn't even want to try it. We all had a blast, even me who really, really stinks at hitting any of those targets! We split up after this, the older guys wanting to hit the mountains numerous times. Peter and I decided that we didn't have enough of saving the universe so went back on Buzz five more times, walking right on every time. Peter had a high score of 186,000 and was disappointed to find that his father had gone on later and beat him by about 50,000 points. I told him that this really wasn't fair as Tony had lots more years experience at being a kid. ;-) One of our trips through, we were talking to a group of six girls in front of us and found out they were also from Massachusetts. Near Boston even. In a town where one of my best friends lives. Did they know the family? Yup...one of the girls was my friend's daughter's best friend!

We finally had enough (well, almost) and walked the slow route over to the Haunted Mansion by way of the castle bridge. I don't think I've ever seen Magic Kingdom so quiet and serene. We stopped and hugged and watched the castle for a bit before continuing. That one moment was worth the cost of the entire trip.

I was reading a Steven King book ("Rose Madder") on the plane to Orlando and something, even though it was quite simple, came back to me. A woman was trying to explain why a particular painting had affected her and her friend answered, "Yes. That's really all art is about, I think, and not just pictures - it's the same with books and stories and sculpture and even castles in the sand. Some things call to us, that's all. It's as if the people who made them were speaking inside our heads." I think that sums up how I feel about Walt Disney World as a whole. And maybe why some people just don't seem to "get it".

We rode HM twice, the first group with us being very boring (maybe just tired) but the second group looking like they'd have a good time cleaning bathrooms..just a really fun group. They laughed at Pete and me as we recited along with the "ghost host" and thought my blood-curdling scream (Pete always forces me to scream in the shrinking room when you see the body hanging from the rafters) was a hoot. Joe told me later that they actually had an entire group who recited the lines and that they all screamed. Fun!

We left Liberty Square and did some more castle gazing, prying ourselves away to walk down Main Street and head for the bus. We stopped at the bakery for chocolate chip cookies and milk (for Pete) and sat on the bench outside while they were consumed. There were amazingly few people walking by. I wondered if the rain earlier in the day had possibly deterred guests from buying the E-Ride tickets, but whatever the reason, it was just wonderful. Really tired, but incredibly happy, we strolled out to the bus and arrived back at the OKW around 1am. The rest of the gang got back around 1:30 having ridden Space Mountain three times, Splash once, Big Thunder once, Haunted Mansion once, and Buzz two more times. Not bad for ten bucks!

Day Three, Wednesday, 8/18/99:

We slept really, really late, but this was the plan. I didn't want tired, grouchy kids with me all day and I'm sure they didn't want Cruella DeVille for a mom. We puttered around and made some breakfast, I sat on the balcony and the kids went swimming and looking to see if the ping pong table was free. I also downloaded 213 emails..yikes..I was only gone for 3 days!

We ended up at Epcot at 2pm and were able to walk into Honey I Shrunk the Audience (HISTA) without even waiting for the preshow. I'm not used to the CM's at this attraction doing anything but recite their rehearsed spiel so this one totally surprised me. Once inside the theater, he told everyone to reach down to their right and grab hold of the seatbelt to prepare for the 30 foot drop. At least 80% of the guests fell for it. It was great! It's always fun to watch HISTA with a group of newbies because the screams only add to the fun.

As much as I realize the need for vast improvement at Epcot, I have to say that it was really a mess on this trip. A crane is sitting on the side of Spaceship Earth, Journey into Imagination is closed, Horizons is closed, Innoventions is closed, and there is plywood everywhere you look. What was even worse was that all the beautiful fountains and pools of water around the Imagination pavilion were totally drained and all the rust and pipes were visible. All that said, it's still a wonderful park and I'm looking forward to seeing it in February when I return.

We decided to skip the Land (had Priority Seating for dinner there the following week) and the Living Seas (we have a great Aquarium in Boston) and head right over to Test Track. We knew that the singles line was to the left of the main queue so bypassed the many glaring guests ("singles line..we're going to the singles line.") who were planning to wait the entire 55 minutes, and walked right around to the left of the building into the singles door. Within 5 minutes we were seated and only two of us were placed in a car alone. What a neat ride! We all liked it enough to hop right back into the singles line (now a 75 minute estimated wait time for the other!) and ride again. This time, there was a problem on the track before we boarded, so while waiting I talked a bit with the CM loading the vehicles. He said that they were only running 65% of the time and that, once the ride was more efficient, they would be including it as a FastPass ride. Unfortunately (he said), they would then eliminate the singles line and it's the singles line that's been keeping the cars running at almost 100% capacity.

Our next stop was the Universe of Energy with only a 3 minute wait, followed by Spaceship Earth which was a walk-on. By that point, we were hungry and hot and began our walk over to Canada for our 6:20 dinner at Le Cellier where we were meeting Jenn, Patt's daughter. Tony found Jenn at the restaurant while I tried to sneak in a few minutes of Off Kilter's 6:20 show (which they, luckily for me, began at 6:10) and we were seated just a few minutes later.

Le Cellier is a beautiful restaurant and the service was superb. The boys were worried about the cost of the meals however, probably due to me complaining that we were in debt from too many milkshakes. Pete and Don ordered from the kids' menu, Don getting a really nice piece of prime rib for only $6.25. Elie got the venison and loved it, both the taste and the presentation. Our server told us that it's the most photographed item on the menu. Yes, I took a picture. ;-) Jenn was extremely patient with the jabbering of my children but probably went home thinking that I'd make a good commercial for voluntary sterilization. It was really nice to get to see her again.

After dinner we split up, Jenn, Joe, Pete and I staying for the 8:25 Off Kilter show, the rest going back to Future World for another ride on Test Track and possibly Body Wars. Peter thought that sitting with Jenn was like being with a celebrity. She knows (and has socialized with) the entire band and she's young and gorgeous to boot. Most of the band came over for hugs or at least to just say hello. They all autographed one of their postcards for Peter and Randy (lead guitarist) came to sit and chat with him. I had one very happy kid.

After the show (and the encore which Joe and Pete initiated!), we said goodbye to Jenn and waited by the Off Kilter stage for the rest of the boys to return. We were back at the OKW by 10pm and the boys swam in the pool until 11:30 when I had to call it a night. Late morning or not, I was pooped!

Day Four, Thursday, 8/19/99:

We had another lazy morning and decided to swim at midday rather than invite heatstroke in the parks. We packed up the car and drove over to Stormalong Bay at the Yacht and Beach Club, where we walked right into the pool area without seeing anyone at the entrance. I questioned the CM at the tube rental stand and he said that they were only periodically checking to see if guests actually belonged in this pool. It was really quiet and very pleasant, especially for Elie and Don who befriended a very pretty 14 year old from Rhode Island named Yvonne. I moseyed over to the health club and was most impressed with the whirlpool, set in its own enormous tiled and mirrored room and looking like something out of "Lives of the Rich and Famous". Joe and Tony used the weight room while I went back outside and floated around the pool on a big yellow donut.

Around 1pm, Joe looked ready to head out and do something different when he saw two attractive girls swimming near me in the pool. I winked and asked him if he was coming back in the water. Always up for a challenge (and he took my wink to be just that), I suddenly heard him yelling, "Girls! Hey, girls! Yeah..you two. Want to come in the hot tub with me?" Moments later, with Peter staring at them in wide-eyed astonishment, Joe and two 21 year old bikini clad females went walking off to the health club. ("Mom! How did he do that???")

By 4pm we had eaten at Hurricane Hannah's, showered, and regrouped to head over to MGM. Just as we were leaving, the winds picked up similar those in the twister scene of The Wizard of Oz and the pool was shut down. We were faced with the decision of taking the boat over (iffy with the weather), taking the car and running through what looked like would be a monsoon, or just going back to the room and waiting it out. We chose the monsoon. We had a Priority Seating for the Brown Derby/Fantasmic package and were really hoping that the weather would improve at least a bit.

Somehow avoiding the worst of the rain, we saw Muppet Vision 3D, Hunchback of Notre Dame (this time all together but from less than perfect seats in the second half of the theater, and ran over to the Brown Derby to make our 6pm PS. I had never been to The Brown Derby before and thought it would be good time to try it since we wanted the Fantasmic deal and had already eaten many times at Mama Melrose's (the only two restaurants offering the package). This almost turned into the worst experience of the trip.

We walked in just a little overwhelmed by such a lovely atmosphere. We've always traveled with our children and, although we eat in some upscale restaurants in Boston (especially Tony with all the business entertaining), Chef Mickey's is more our speed at Walt Disney World. We were shown to our seats and greeted by Kelly, our server. She began to speak ("Hello, my name is Kelly and I'll be your..") when Tony, not hearing her, interrupted to ask a question. She glared at him, answered him abruptly and proceeded with a nasty, "*As* I was saying, my name is Kelly and I'll be your server this evening." Ok..strike one.

As much as I was overwhelmed with the atmosphere, the boys were even more overwhelmed with the prices on the menu. Also, the selection, although appetizing, was minimal. Don ordered from the children's menu and got an additional side order of fries. Peter ordered from the children's menu. Elie and Tony both ordered an entrée each. Joe, seeing nothing that really appealed to him, ordered two appetizers and later another order of fries. I ordered the Cobb Salad, knowing it would be enough to fill me even though Kelly told me it was "pretty small". After we placed our orders, Kelly nasally informed us that in order to get the Fantasmic priority seating, we must all order from the entrée menu. Well, I was tired, I was annoyed, and I knew that this wasn't stated in either the MGM guidemap or on the phone when I made this PS. Rather than walk out and ruin dinner for everyone (the younger kids had no idea that I was even upset, never mind ready to flatten our server), I said, "Fine. Give the Fantasmic Priority Seating to everyone else. I just won't go. Thanks."

Interesting enough, after her next trip to our table when she noticed my notebook and the less than subtle way that I was looking at her name badge, she had a complete attitude adjustment. Suddenly, she was full of questions - how did we like the park, how long have we been here, where are we staying - and gave a ticket for the Fantasmic PS for all of us. She even brought a bag of Mickey straws for the hospital kids because she overhead me questioning another server about them. Maybe she was just having a bad night, maybe it actually was the notebook, but whatever the case I decided to GetOverIt and have a good time.

And have a good time, we did! The entrance for the Fantasmic priority seating was near the beginning of Hollywood Blvd., not too far from the entrance, at the alley to the left of Oscar's. We all waited outside for what seemed like an awful long time, and were finally allowed past the alley entrance where we waited once again. Finally, the hundreds of us, with our priority seating ticket in hand, power walked to an entrance at the right of the stage (facing the stage), and were directed as to where to sit. It was quite disorganized, the CM's having people hold up their tickets while running through. Since there is only one ticket per group, anyone could have latched on to another family and no one would have been the wiser. Unfortunately, before the CM's realized what was happening, people were hopping over the metal benches rather than proceeding down the walkway, and pandemonium ensued until they got everyone filing down in a somewhat orderly fashion. (Is this where I should be honest and admit who was more or less in the lead of the Charge of the Bench Brigade?)

We had great seats in about the fourth row (well, I guess the truth is now out) and I braced myself for what I thought was going to be the worst preshow in all of WDW. In February, the preshow consisted of one or two guys that no one, other than those in the middle section, could see. This is why I don't know if it was one guy or two. Along with this invisible act, was the loudest women on the planet, the screeching cleaning woman who once did the preshow for the Indy Stunt show. I hated it. I was pleasantly surprised to be entertained by Francis Flute (Fluke?)(Am I close?), who had us literally in tears from laughing so hard. His original renditions of the fairy tales were almost better than main attraction.

As for the main attraction, I liked Fantasmic much better this time than back in February. Part of that of course was the headache, part of it was that the night was turning out to be a pleasant one despite my expectations. I still think that the villain scenes go on much too long (I'm a sap for the happy scenes), but have become more of a Fantasmic fan than I would have thought.

We were back at the pool around 10:30pm where Joe found lots of teenagers, some of whom stayed his companions for much of the trip. I brought the younger three home around 11:30 and later wished I had brought Joe home and tucked him into bed earlier. The following day begins The Cold from Hell.

Day Five, Friday, 8/20/99:

What an ominous beginning to the day. Joe's throat hurts. Don's ear hurts and is draining clear liquid. While Pete fed the birds our leftover nachos from Epcot, I got in touch with my sister to update her on the ear condition. She said that this was common for him - it drains for a day and then he's fine - so no trip to the health clinic was necessary. But what about the six more days where said ear will be in the water?

We decided to stay dry and head over to Disney Quest for the afternoon. We arrived at around 1pm and bought our tickets with the DVC discount. If anyone is interested, DVC, MKC and your Annual Pass all give a 15% discount on admission. The DVC also gives an additional 10% on food purchases. The back of the Disney Quest ticket is stamped and this must be shown before the food order is placed. I think that the boys loved this place (with the exception of Joe who was by now feeling pretty lousy) and tried almost everything there including the design-you-own roller coaster. When I saw the contraption that you sit in to ride your coaster, which looked something like a giant red salad mixer, I knew that I wouldn't be cyber-dropping anything. The most fun for me was the virtual game where you are transported within a comic book and must use your laser to attack the enemies. I can't imagine how silly I looked, virtual helmet on my head, swinging my sword in large arcs (well, that's what the directions said to do!), but it was fun!

We left at 5:30, after waiting forever to pick up the "Sid's-Create-a-Toy" that Pete, Elie and Don made, and ran over to Pleasure Island so that Pete could make his music video at SuperStar Studios before we had to leave for our 6:30pm PS at Chef Mickey's.. If you haven't done this, it's worth the visit, if maybe not the money. Joe wore dreadlocks and sat at the drums, Elie wore a Dr. Suess hat and played the keyboard, Don donned a western hat and Pete a large black wig. They lip-synched to "Last Kiss" by Pearl Jam, were totally off, and found out midstream that there were actually no keyboards in the song, but we now have a video that will be blackmail material for sure in a few years. Maybe it was worth the money. ;-)

Dinner at Chef Mickey's was great, despite the fact the I had two invalids at the table. My next temptation to sway from my low-carb lifestyle was here as I really do enjoy their mashed potatoes, but I resisted. I don't like the "photo opportunity" as you arrive but we declined and no one gave us a hard time about it. I'm sure it's very cute for some but my guys are a little old to pose in front of a supersized set of dishes.

After dinner, Joe headed back to the OKW to meet up with his friends and Tony, Don and Elie left to get their money's worth at DisneyQuest staying there until 1am. Pete and I stopped over to the Magic Kingdom to see the parade and found a great viewing spot to the right of City Hall, near the restrooms. After the parade, we didn't want to join the crowds heading towards the TTC to get to the Marketplace, so hopped a bus to the Swan and another one to Downtown Disney, the whole trip taking about 45 minutes. I don't think it would have been much quicker going the conventional route and it was much more pleasant with only a few people on the bus. We stopped first at Studio M so that Pete could make his CD of the park music as one of his birthday presents. He was kind enough to put SpectroMagic on it for me but we had to go through the search feature to find it as it wasn't in the main Magic Kingdom menu. They've also taken off the Hunchback music, or at least it and all of the Backlot section of MGM was missing. After producing his CD, we didn't have much time to do anything but browse, so we browsed. The Disney at Home store is pretty neat and I found lots of things that I would buy if I was a bit more free with my money. We walked over to the bus, found that the OKW had just left, and sat expecting a long wait. As the buses were pulling in, a CM with a walkie-talkie was speaking to each driver and it looked like that she was determining where the next destination should be. One similarly outfitted CM near us said that, due to all the guest complaints about bus service, they were monitoring the frequency of the buses to see where the problems lay. It was encouraging to see that steps were being taken to address the problem. Our bus came sooner than expected (OKW buses were running approximately every 40 minutes!) and I thought on the ride home that I wished someone was putting me to bed tonight. I was too tired to think.

Day Six, Saturday, 8/21/99

This was the only day of the trip that we actually made a point to get up early. I had been to Animal Kingdom a few times before and knew I wouldn't survive in the summer heat once midday arrived, so wanted to get there as soon after opening as possible. Well, we tried. We didn't end up leaving the OKW until 8:20am, me thinking that not getting there right at 8am was going to ruin my day. It was early, I hadn't had enough caffeine, and I was being pessimistic. Incredibly, like me, the park was barely awake when we arrived. I decided to leave the meandering to afterwards, after we hit the attractions that would later have a crowd. We went directly to DinoLand for Countdown to Extinction (CtX) and were able to board immediately. Being the ride wimp that I am, this attraction is just my speed - I could ride it over and over and never tire of it. Everyone humored me and followed me around the building for another time through. Well, ok..some of them wanted to do this just as much as I did but they nixed the suggestion of a third time. We escaped without seeing the preshow (just walked right through the door) and had a vehicle all to ourselves. Pete and I really hammed it up when the picture was taken, me feigning great fear and Pete giving the thumbs up. I think we should have bought it but no one else was interested in spending the time waiting to pay for it.

From CtX, we thought we'd pass by Asia and grab FastPasses for Kali River Rapids. Surprisingly, there again we found no wait at all and walked right onto the raft. Don jokingly said that when a 15 minute wait was posted, they were just referring to the time it took to walk through those endless queues. I'm glad that the CM's give you a little time to get settled into your seat as my boys almost stripped down to nothing, leaving shoes, socks, backpacks and shirts under the protective taupe covering. I was surprised to find that one seatbelt was for two people and was strapped in next to a man of about 22 who probably would have liked our close proximity if I had been 20 years or so younger. It turned out that I had the best seat - or the worst seat, depending on one's point of view. I went down the drop backwards, thought that I really wasn't getting all that wet, and suddenly had a huge wave of water come over my head and into my seat, filling my side of the raft up to my waist! It was a hoot!

After we dried off a bit (bring a small hand towel - it's worth it) and the boys got dressed, we walked over to the Kiliminjaro Safari, with a quick stop for me to hit the gift shop and grab the CD of Animal Kingdom music. I was expecting the line for the safari to be halfway out of the park - where else could all of the people be if the lines for everything else were non-existent? Wrong. Walked right on again - could our luck and timing have been any better? We saw lots of animals, but none but the giraffes came right up to the safari vehicle. Is anyone wondering if Little Red is OK?

From there, we headed to the Tree of Life to see It's Tough to be a Bug. We walked leisurely through the long, long queue, looking at all the animals, taking pictures, and thoroughly annoying the small group of people behind us who didn't have the politeness to say "excuse me" and go ahead. They just huffed and sighed and looked peeved that we weren't power walking. We got to the "roots" of the tree and, again, walked right into the show, not even having time to hear the music in the waiting area. I love "Beauty and the Bees". ;-) I liked this show more than last year, probably due to the fact that "A Bug's Life" hadn't yet been released when I saw it last. Maybe too because I knew enough to lean forward at one crucial moment, saving myself some discomfit?

It was now 11am (and we had done all this already?) and we were getting a bit hungry. I wanted to eat at the Flame Tree Barbecue, mainly because I had eaten there in February and had really nice memories of sitting by the water enjoying time with my friends. For fast food, I think this is one of the best places in all of WDW. Lunch was great, most of us getting the combo barbeque plate which included corn and coleslaw. Even on a hot August morning, the tables by the water had a cool breeze and weren't in the least bit uncomfortable.

We left there at 11:45am and realized that the next showing of the Festival of the Lion King (FoLK) was due to begin in 15 minutes. Calculating a five minute walk to the theater, I was so sure that we wouldn't get a seat. Wrong again - the theater was only 2/3 full and we got great seats in the elephant section. I thought that there were many more seats here than what I remembered from last August and February - a whole bleacher section - but maybe just never noticed them. We left Animal Kingdom after FoLK. It was 1pm and we were all hot and tired, and Joe especially, feeling so lousy, couldn't stay another minute. I was disappointed that my guys didn't have the time to stroll around looking at the scenery and animals, especially in Asia. With my Annual Pass, I planned to come back at least once more (the boys' DVC passes didn't cover AK), but unfortunately my good intentions may have paved the road to somewhere, but it wasn't back to Animal Kingdom.

At 1:30pm I was back on my OKW balcony with my feet up. We had a lazy afternoon and didn't leave again until it was almost time for dinner at the Cape May Café with my friend Gloria from Miami and her husband Gary, an event I had been looking forward to all week! We arrived at the Beach Club at around 6:45pm and found Glo and Gary almost immediately in the lobby. Dinner was scrumptious, Gloria and I sharing a big pot of clams and mussels followed by a taste of just about everything else on the buffet. The restaurant still has the petite dessert buffet featuring an array of beautifully prepared sweets - a buffet that I could have made quite the dent in had I not been on this low-carb diet. Joe took off back to the OKW to meet friends and the rest of us strolled outside after dinner, found a seat by the pool, gave the kids their goggles and bathing suits, and sat down to some serious (and not-so-serious) chatting. Glo and I could have probably talked for a week straight and we went way past the pool closing time, the arcades-for-the-kids time, and the we-better-get-something-to-drink-to-sooth-our-throats time, finally saying goodbye sometime after midnight. One "it's a small world" occurrence - while sitting by the pool, a woman came up to me and said, "I didn't know that you were going to be here at this time!" It was my best friend's first cousin, on a big family trip (24 people) for which her father-in-law had picked up the tab - airfare, Yacht Club rooms and most dinners - wow!

Day Seven, Sunday, 8/22/99

I guess we should have set the alarm clock. Even Tony, usually up and moving at the crack of dawn, slept past 10am and Joe, still feeling lousy, didn't get up until noon. We had planned to hit Typhoon Lagoon early in the morning so just changed our plans to visit in the afternoon. Peter was very excited. His best friend Sean and his family were arriving today and were hoping to meet us there once they checked in to their resort. We arrived at Typhoon Lagoon around 1pm, bought our tickets, and immediately the skies opened up. At the ticket window, we stripped down to our bathing suits, wrapped our clothes in a poncho (I never go to a water park without at least a few ponchos - great for keeping the bags and clothes covered while unattended on the chairs), and hoped that the downpour would clear out the park a bit. We found chairs in our usual spot to the left of the wave pool and luckily the rain ceased for a bit. The boys battled the waves for a while and we all rode around Castaway Creek a few times before lunch at Leaning Palms. We found our friends shortly after lunch - for Pete, his vacation had now begun!

A note on traveling with other families: There are many people that I would not want to do a WDW trip with, or any other trip for that matter. However, there are some people that bring happiness and enthusiasm with them wherever they go, and this family is one of those. The parents (Joanne and Bob) and the kids (Sean, age 12, and Kayla, age 9) were so excited to be there that their attitude affected us all. Also, this family is extremely serene and just happy to see each other happy. There was no intention of rushing through the parks to "get their money's worth" - if the kids were excited watching a family of ducks then so be it, duck-watching is what they would do. I love them dearly. A big, big plus for us was just the change in the dynamics of our group. Pete now had his best friend by his side, Don and Elie had other people to chat with, and Tony and I had some fun adult company. Sometimes, too much family togetherness is..well..just too much.

We all did a few rounds on Castaway Creek, me using a tube for cover when the skies opened up yet again. I lazily stayed on Castaway Creek while everyone else took off for the water slides and Shark's Reef. A fellow tuber told me that she had heard that Blizzard Beach had been closed due to weather. As I returned to my chair, I heard one of the CM's speaking with a lifeguard about the incoming big storm with lots of "electrical activity", looking like it was due to hit in about an hour's time. I spoke with him and he told me that, should the storm hit, they would put all guests under the overhangs equipped with lightening rods and have us wait out the storm. Well, that sure didn't appeal to me. I had had just about enough of the water anyway, so Joe and I opted to head back by bus and meet up with everyone else later. I was hoping to get a priority seating for us all at Ohana sometime that evening.

Back at the ranch, I made a quick call to see what was available for dinner times. I spoke with a pleasant man named Ron who told me that he had just recently (in the past few years) become legally blind and how Disney had adapted all of his equipment for him so that he could keep his job. He also told me how he, his wife, and a group of CM's that work together in his department, with their own funds, try to help guests who are visiting Walt Disney World as a result of some life problem (illness, death in the family, etc) have a better stay. What a neat guy. He was able to sure an 8:20pm priority seating for Ohana (commenting that this is one his favorite restaurants and is often overlooked by guests), though we almost lost it since we talked for over 20 minutes before he took all my information.

We met our friends at the Polynesian and were seated almost immediately in a half empty restaurant. They were impressed with the huge skewers of food, especially the jumbo shrimp which were especially yummy. I only don't like the beef - whatever their "own special blend of herbs and spices" is, it's just not something I'm fond of. They've added more salad and veggies to the meal making it much less meat-intensive. I think that this is a great place for a large group. The "Big Kahuna" wasn't as vocal as I remembered him to be, and the person who does the hula hoop contests and the coconut race had gone home sick, but it was fun nonetheless. At 10pm, we had the added treat of the lights going dim, the music beginning, and a great view of the fireworks over Cinderella Castle. It was heaven.

Day Eight, Monday, 8/23/99

We had invited our friends over for breakfast, knowing that they hadn't yet had time to shop. We had boiled eggs, oatmeal, cereal, English muffins, and fresh strawberries. We very rarely use our kitchen for more than breakfast and snacks (lots of snacks), but it's so convenient to be able to feed everyone before taking off for the day. We decided to visit MGM together, our friends being very happy that we were leading the way, and me hoping that my method of park touring wouldn't slow them down. We arrived at 11am and went straight for Rock 'n Roller Coaster, thinking we'd pick up FastPasses for later. There was only a 15 minute wait, so they all (nope, not me) decided to wait it out. At the last moment, Kayla came over to the wall where I was waiting to keep me company. I chatted with a very friendly elderly couple from New Jersey, who were minding the grandkids while their children rode. When they were leaving, they took my email address with them and even took my picture!

After RnRC (and chatting with the CM who was in charge of setting up the stage for the Britney Spears concert that evening), we decided to bypass Tower of Terror (20 minutes) and head to the next show of Hunchback of Notre Dame. We were one of the first to enter and immediately went to the right side of the middle runway, grabbing inside seats in the second, third and fourth row. We were hoping for Matt the Juggler as the preshow (our friends had never seen this show) and when he walked onstage, our whole group was yelling, "Yay!! It's Matt!!!", much to his surprise. Somehow it's even more fun when you know all of his lines. The HoND show was awesome, as always, and looking at Joanne's expression only made it that much better for me.

We had heard from the CM mentioned above that Britney Spears and Joey McIntyre were due outside of the Chinese Theatre for the hands-in-cement ceremony, so we walked over in hopes that Kayla could just catch a glimpse of either of them. Kayla is a really cool little girl - as much as she wanted to do this, she said that it would be no big deal if we wanted to go elsewhere. We did get lucky - the crowd wasn't overwhelming and by sitting on Joe's shoulders, she had a pretty good view of what was happening. We got a picture - just for proof to her friends that there actually was a celebrity siting. I told Joe to yell out to Joey McIntyre that he attends the same high school that Joey attended, but we were too far back and he wasn't much interested anyway.

Since we were in the area, we rode The Great Movie Ride next (western side) and then stopped for lunch at the ABC Commissary where I had a delicious chicken Cesar salad. Next was Star Tours (15 minute wait but everyone was game) where Joanne screamed bloody murder every time we hit a bump! We walked out to the Mulan Parade but got a little roasted in the sun while watching it. Now I knew why there were so few people in that spot. Next was the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and afterwards, by common agreement, a trip back to the OKW for a quick swim before leaving for our 7pm PS at the Whispering Canyon Café. Joe had met a really nice group of kids at the OKW earlier in the week, ages 16-20, four of them from London, one from Vermont, and two from Massachusetts, and had made plans to meet them and head to the Marketplace. It was really odd and a little sad going out for dinner without him, but I trust his choice in friends and I was happy that he didn't have to spend eleven days following around (or leading) his parents.

I love walking into the Wilderness Lodge lobby. I know that it's all manmade, I know that it's not authentic, but it has such a grand and American (for lack of a better word to describe it) feel to it that it moves me on every visit. Joanne's jaw dropped (I love watching that ;-) when we entered and Tony took Bob and the kids on the grand tour, acting like maybe we had stayed there in some previous life. I went into the Whispering Canyon Café to check in and to see if I could possibly get Chuck Wagon (Christopher) for our server. They weren't sure how long it would be as his tables were still busy but there was a whole empty station next to his that he refused <gasp> to open up for us. We had a little yelling match at the podium, him calling me spoiled and telling me I was whining, me saying how dare he refuse us his service when he's waited on me so many times before. It was pretty funny.

When we were eventually seated, around 20 minutes later, we did get Chuck Wagon who immediately came and apologized for not opening up the section for us. He said that his tables were running him to the ground, really demanding a lot, and he knew that he couldn't give us the attention (that we obviously wanted - hehe) if he added us on. Sean, Pete's friend, later told me that this could have possibly been the best part of his entire trip. Chuck Wagon was even better (or worse) than I've ever seen him before..he didn't let up on us for an instant. Not only did the insults come fast and furious ("Ohhhhh...you wanted to eat? I thought you just came here to be humiliated!") but no one was spared. Joanne was yelled at by the entire restaurant for taking food from Kayla's plate ("Everyone all together, Hey lady! Eat your own food!"), and Bob was told to get his butt in his chair, stop playing Alfred Hitchcock, and eat. Poor, sweet Peter, good sport that he is, had to run around the entire restaurant on a wooden horse and sing "Happy Birthday" to himself. Since he wasn't quite loud enough (or so everyone voted), he had to continue the ride and the song in the lobby! Our chests were actually hurting from laughing so hard. It was most definitely a memorable evening!

We were back at the OKW at 10:30pm. Don played in the arcades and the rest of the boys grabbed some more pool time. I thought about packing a little but wanted to put off that depressing chore for one more day so did a little depressing laundry instead. Only two more full days and we'd be on our way home - where did the time go?

Day Nine, Tuesday, 8/24/99

Pete's Birthday!!

This is our fifth August visiting WDW on Pete's birthday, not because it's his birthday (although he'd like to think that), but because now that school and sports take up so much of our lives, it's the best time for all of us to take a break. Some traditions have been made, one being that Pete gets to pick where we eat (within reason) and what parks we visit for the day. Breakfast today was at Spoodles. We had made our priority seating for 9am quite a few weeks back and when I later tried to add Joanne and the kids, I was told that the only availability was at 7:30am (ha!) or at 10am. About a week before departure, Joanne made a phone call and was able to secure her own PS for four at 9am, so she planned to arrive early and see if we could possibly have our tables put together. We all walked in slightly before 9am and found that Spoodles was half empty! I assumed that they left some flexibility for walk-ins, but isn't this a bit much? Our two tables were side by side, so six adults and semi-adults (Joe and Don) sat at one and the four younger kids sat at the other. I liked this. ;-) The buffet looked wondeful, full of different and interesting breakfast items. Being on my low-carb diet, I was afraid to try the frittatas and just stuck to eggs over-easy (made to order) and sausage and bacon. One really big disappointment, even though I wasn't going to eat them myself, was that they did away with the made-to-order pancakes. These pancakes were the super-thin, fluffy, powedered sugar type of pancakes. The kind I try to make at home but end up with flour all over the kitchen. They were probably the best pancakes I've ever had in my life and they were replaced by Mickey waffles. <sigh>

The next activity on Pete's agenda was a swim at Stormalong Bay. It was a long swim, lasting until after 1pm when we finally decided it would be a good idea to shower and head to Epcot for a few hours before dinner at the Garden Grill in The Land. Joe met a few more girls who planned to meet him the following evening to hang out at the OKW pool. I guess this was a lucky place for him. Scratch that. Every place is a lucky place for him. ;-)

We walked to Epcot ("Hey, why did we shower? We're soaked again!"), bothered the CM at the entrance to find out which was longer, Humunga Cowabunga or Summit Plummit (to settle an argument, of course), and walked right away to the left past the UK and Canada and into Future World. We entered Honey I Shrunk the Audience after a short wait and Joe positioned himself next to Joanne to check out her reaction. When the theater darkened and the 999 replicas of "Photon" went running through the audience, Joanne was on her feet, screaming and jumping up and down, trying to kill them all. I think that Bob had more fun watching her than watching the show itself!

We walked straight from there to Test Track to find that it was closed - no surprise there. Cranium Command was next with only a 2.5 minute wait followed by Body Wars with a 20 minute wait. I honestly don't like this ride. It's not half as much fun as Star Tours and makes me nauseous to boot. We headed back to Test Track to find an extremely long line, so bypassed all of that for the singles line, and hoped that the one man felt extremely foolish for yelling at the boys going by. He was quite irate. We got in only to find that the wait inside stretched on and on and finally (and boy, would I hate his job), the CM announced that the wait had just been extended to an additional hour. Nope. No thanks.

Joe and I opted to go to The Land and check in for dinner while everyone else rode Spaceship Earth. We walked by the new...ah...structures set up in the front for the "Leave a Legacy" pictures and met a woman and her two children whose husband was here in Florida working on the Millenium project. He was also one of the people who originally worked on the sound for the American Adventure. This trip was only going to be about 3 weeks. Hey, Tony...looking to change your career by any chance?

We had a table on the outer rim of the Garden Grill, one that overlooked the ride as the restaurant rotated. It was very, very tight for 10 people but we squished our behinds together and made the most of it. The food was delicious (I cheated on a tiny piece of fried catfish - yummy!), the characters were very attentive, and the servers all came to sing "Happy Birthday" to Peter, bringing us not one but two cakes. We were done and on our way to see Off Kilter, another of Peter's birthday requests, in time for their 7:15 show. Randy, the lead guitarist, recognized Peter immediately (thanks to Jenn, I'm sure) and gave him lots of attention. Jamie and Mark gave us a wave when they came on stage and Mark made sure to tell me not to look under his kilt when he was doing his high kicks. Randy even had them all sign a postcard and wrote, "Happy Birthday from Off Kilter" for Peter - it was definitely a cool thing to do and really made his night.

We were again lucky with our timing and walked through France to find that the next time the Living Statues would appear would be in 2 minutes! Only one statue came out this time (I've only seen them in pairs) and people just stood around her and stared. Joe walked up in front, pretending to pose for a picture, knowing that something was bound to happen. Slowly, the statue's hand lowered to Joe's shoulder. And stayed there. And stayed there. He squirmed and shuffled his feet, but she wouldn't let go. I think many people have a picture of Joe in their photo albums this year. Finally, she took off his cap and wouldn't return it until Joe kissed her hand.

We realized after all of this that we had only a few minutes to make it over to the Yacht Club for our Illuminations cruise/party boat. We got to the marina at exactly 8:15pm and met our driver, Wayne. The boat looked wonderful, all decorated with balloons and a huge banner, and the cake was the most appetizing looking piece of pastry that I've ever seen. Pete had chosen a chocolate cake, with chocolate mousse filling and chocolate frosting. The chocolate covered strawberries that decorated the top of the cake were made to look like little tuxedos, with a white vest and tiny chocolate buttons.

Wayne gave us a long and fast tour of the MGM waterway before making our way to dock for Illuminations. He was very pleasant and patient with the kids' questions and talked to them and treated them like peers. I was impressed. One thing that may or may not be new, but definitely annoyed me, was that they have three boats docked on each side of the bridge pillar, so close together that we were actually tied to one another. The boat next to us was tied to us only after it slammed into our boat while trying to navigate into the tiny spot allowed for it to dock. We did the party boat two years ago and found it much more personal - this time it was more like a flotilla. After the fireworks, Wayne gave us another long tour of the BoardWalk area where we were surprised to Matt the Juggler and, in turn, surprised him by screaming his name from the water! Pete asked (jokingly) when it would be his turn to drive, and Wayne turned over the steering (though not the throttle) to him and let him zip us all over the lake. Wayne most definitely deserves a letter to Guest Relations for his kindness.

The end of a wonderful day drew to a close. The adults had planned a night at JellyRolls or Pleasure Island, but Bob and Joanne understandably needed to call it a day. We took Sean back to the OKW with us for a sleepover (Pete's last birthday request), watched a little television, and hit the hay.

Day Ten, Wednesday, 8/25/99

I woke up and tried not to think about it being the last real day of vacation. I had to admit that, although I was not ready to go home (I haven't yet had a trip that was "too long"), I was more tired than usual for the end of vacation and part of me wanted to get the packing and organizing over with. We had a priority seating for 10am at the Cape May Café with our friends so at least we didn't waste the morning in bed. This is my favorite breakfast buffet on all of WDW property - it has everything from the standard bacon, sausage and eggs to fluffy omelets, biscuits and gravy, oatmeal, cottage cheese, a huge variety of fresh fruit, and even grits. After doing justice to the good food (if I had been blindfolded and told this was my last meal, I couldn't have done better) we decided on a final trip to Magic Kingdom, the one other park that we wanted to do together.

We walked into the MK around noon and were astonished to see that Main Street was so empty. We usually travel at the end of August, but for the past 2 years have had to move up the trip to the third week due to high school sports. This was the first time in a while that we were there during the very last week and, to me, it makes the world of difference. It's worth putting up with the heat (it's hot in Boston too), the hurricane threats (as long as I'm not in the air), and the rush to get things done for school when we return. But I digress. The tip board had times of 5 minutes for Alien Encounter, and no wait for the Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. I think that Splash Mountain was 20 minutes and Big Thunder was 15. Incredible. We started with Alien Encounter and worked our way back to Liberty Square and Frontierland to catch the "no wait" rides, before splitting up. At around 2:45, Joe, Pete and I headed back to the OKW while everyone else did the mountain-run.

I had planned to pack up for our flight and possibly do a little shopping at the Marketplace before meeting up with everyone, but it was just too relaxing on the balcony. I had a cup of coffee and just dreamed for a while, and Peter watched television from the Jacuzzi in my bedroom. Finally, I forced myself inside to do the rest of the laundry and the dreaded Organizing of Everyone's Belongings. Around 6pm, knowing that I wouldn't be doing any shopping (not a whole lot I wanted to buy anyway), Pete and I decided to take a walk and ran into Joanne, Bob and Kayla in the parking lot. Tony, Don, Elie and Sean had detoured on the way home to rent the water sprites at the Marketplace. We donned bathing suits and headed to the main pool where a DJ had speakers blasting out everything from Frank Sinatra to Eric Clapton. Our stray water-spriters met us at the pool later and we swam, ate at Goods to Go (Cobb Salad - not authentic but yummy nonetheless) and watched the kids hula-hooping and dancing. The funniest sight I'd seen in a long time was Elie, Peter and Sean, all in black bathing suits, dancing the Macarena under the direction of Kayla. It was a little like the hippo scene in Fantasia.

I did succumb to the shopping devil and bought myself a very pretty framed print of the Old Key West (now hanging in my living room) and a crazy looking shift dress in a lovely blue, decorated with a multitude of Mickey heads. I'm planning to wear it to the school where I teach and think that the kids' reactions alone will be worth the price. After returning to our room for the final sharing of the chocolate cake, we said our goodbyes. I was just as sad to be leaving their enjoyable company as I was to be leaving Walt Disney World. Well, almost.

Day Eleven, Thursday, 8/26/99

We didn't get up until around 8am as our flight wasn't until 11:45am and mostly everything was packed the night before. We deflated the air mattress (the boys don't like to sleep together and it's easy enough to pack), made the final eighteen rounds of looking under the beds and in the closets, and moved our gear out to the car. The boys did their last minute gift shopping (future husbands in training) and we all piled into the car only about 10 minutes later than we planned.

We were on the road for no more than 5 minutes when we heard a very unusual and most unwelcome sound come from the motor. Something similar to what it would sound like if a creature from Countdown to Extinction took a bite out of your radiator and spit it out. Tony immediately felt the car lose its power steering. Oh boy. He managed to keep the car on the road and pulled into the nearest gas station to look under the hood. Now, Tony is probably one of the most intelligent men I've ever met in my life. However, Tony looking under the hood of a car is akin to a proctologist pulling your teeth. He peered. He squinted. He wiggled a few things around. He shut the hood, climbed back in the car, and decided for lack of a better idea to attempt to get back to the airport. Of course I just knew that my worst nightmare was coming true - our family stranded on the highway, thumbs in the air, suitcases by our side, while our Delta flight flies off into friendly skies (or is that United?) - and I couldn't even blame it on the eggs.

I think I could possibly have held my breath for the entire ride. As we got closer to the airport, Tony mentioned (casually) that he thought he was losing the brakes. I have never been more excited at seeing the airport signs, the "rental car drop off" signs in particular. As we were taking the airport exit ramp, the lights in the car started to flicker. The radio lights went off, then on, then off. The boys monitored our progress with, "We're losing power. No! It's back! We're losing it again. Back again!" I had a headache.

As we following the never-ending arrows pointing us to Dollar's drop-off area, the lights went out completely. The Dollar employee waved us into a spot, we pulled up alongside of him, and it happened. It died. Totally. Kaput. Of all the times on this vacation that I was impressed with our timing, this one won it all hands down.

Our flight home was uneventful and even enjoyable due to two male flight attendants who had quite the sense of humor. ("Your filet mignon is still cooking in the back, ma'am. It should be ready any minute.") It would have ended even more happily had Tony's brother remembered to pick us up at the airport. But that's not a Disney story - we were back to reality. ;-)

Dotti Saroufim

dsar@aol.com

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