Trip Reports

Dates: April 20-29, 1999

Stayed: Parc-Corniche resort, one-bedroom suite

Cast of Characters:

Me: Grace, 36
DH: Steve, 39, both been to Disney once before in 1992
Vincent, 3 (almost 4)-- first-timer
Tuesday, April 20: Travel, River Country

I'd been a little worried about the guys not being too excited about the trip, but I was proved wrong when Vincent woke up about 3 a.m. the morning we were to leave. Actually he was only about 45 minutes early, since we had an early flight out of an airport an hour away. We got there only to find our flight had been delayed due to a maintenance problem. Our airline was TWA and this was typical of the whole trip (as well as previous trips we had taken with them). We were a little nervous because our connecting flight was only 50 minutes from our arrival time in St. Louis, but we got underway about 25 minutes late, and walked (not ran) to the departure gate for the next flight and literally walked onto the plane. We arrived in Orlando about 10 minutes early, about 10:45 a.m.

We used Avis rental car agency; they had quoted us $148.55 for 9 days for a compact car. They offered us an upgrade at $3/day, but we didn't take it. We ended up with a white Geo Metro which had only 7000 some miles on it but already big scratches on the front, back and sides. We made sure they knew about those before we left with the car! All in all, their service was quick and friendly, no pressure about insurance or anything. I'd highly recommend them!

We found our hotel with no problem, but as it was only a little after noon, our room wasn't yet ready. By now, Vince had fallen asleep in the car. We found this to be our most common pattern, and typically, we left whatever park we were in early in the afternoon and just drove around until he fell asleep. If we tried to drive back to the hotel, he would fall asleep on the way and wake up if we tried to get him into a bed, so we scrapped that idea. This worked pretty well for us. We drove to the Orlando Visitor Center on International Drive & picked up some coupon books. We did use these. In fact, our next stop was Sizzler, where we had lunch with 10% off using one of the coupons.

Since Steve had wanted to spend more time at water parks, and since we didn't want to use an extra day on our passes, we decided to spend the afternoon at River Country (paying admission). This was a brillant idea on our part! It allowed us to have an extra day at Disney (for only $42 with our MKC discount) and relax after our long trip. We all loved River Country. Vincent's favorite areas were the kiddie squirter pool and the kid slides. Steve liked the tube ride the best, and I just loved being at Disney finally and getting to relax with my family. After it closed, we walked around the petting zoo then caught the bus back to the parking lot. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store and I bought some ham, bread, mayo, popsicles, pop, and grapes. This was our meal whenever we ate in the room (along with some Pringles we had brought along), and I never got tired of it. We went back to the motel and got our room-- it was great, with two balconies (since we were on the end). I made sandwiches and Vince and I ate outside on the balcony.

Wednesday, April 21: Universal Studios

I had decided to do Universal first for two reasons. First, I didn't think there would be much there for Vince. Second, I wanted to have as much flexibility as possible with IOA tickets. Vince got us up at just the right time every morning. We always had time to eat breakfast at our hotel (free continental breakfasts were included) and get to the park sometime between 8 and 9. We arrived at Universal at 8:30 and took the looooooong walk from the parking garage (one we were to make way too many times!) They started letting us in about 8:45 and the first thing we did was buy IOA tickets. Total for 2 adults and 1 kid: 74.50 (this was the preview price). We had to tell them which day we would

be coming. The first thing we did in the park was ride the Hanna Barbera ride. On our last trip to Florida, this was the only ride that made me sick, so I chose the stationary seats. Vince made the height requirement (he's 41", so he could ride all the 40" requirement rides, but none of the bigger ones), so he rode with dad. He really liked it. I don't like this ride much and would skip it if by myself. Steve said the simulator was a bit rough on him, due to his size (6'2").

Next we were going to do ET, but when we were almost there, we were met by Universal staff who were telling everyone that it was not open. We kept trying back during the day because this was one of the few rides at Universal that we thought Vincent would like, and it finally came up about 5 p.m. We headed to Jaws, which was next on our list, but when we were almost there, we realized that it didn't open until 10 (it was about 9:15). Upon looking at our park map, we realized that about the only other attraction that was open was Terminator. So we hiked all the way back down the lagoon. This ride has no height requirement, but we were all leary of taking Vince (including Vince). We determined to do the baby swap, but there was a lot of difficulty finding any staff to help us out with that. I saw it first, then Steve was waiting for me at the exit with Vincent. It was a good call not taking him. Pretty scary and intense, although Steve & I both liked it, and it was Steve's favorite attraction at Universal. Doing the baby swap was really time consuming, and both of us seeing this show took a good 40 minutes. By this time, Jaws was open, so we hiked all the way back down the lagoon. Vincent has been in a shark phase, and he kept talking about riding Jaws, so we let him ride. Even with warnings that everything was pretend and telling him that it was ok to scream with surprise, he was pretty scared and was crying through about the last half of the ride. Steve and I were both pretty disappointed by it-- to me the shark looked really fake, and I didn't think it was too scary. Well, needless to say, we weren't going to traumatize our child any more, so we skipped King Kong and Earthquake. We caught a Blues Brothers show and decided to head out for lunch and a rest. I considered it a pretty unsuccessful morning-- way too much walking and not enough rides.

We went to Pizzeria Uno for lunch. This has always been one of my favorite restaurants, and when they closed the one in Champaign, I mourned. This meal was disappointing, however. We had a coupon for a free appetizer and the waiter suggested the most expensive one (the sampler), so we went for it. We both chose a lunch special, Steve the thin crust (pepperoni) and I the thick (vegetarian). Mine was ok (too much tomato), but Steve's was really awful. The thin crust was like a tortilla sprinkled with cornmeal. He could bearly eat it. He got by on Vince's leftover chicken tenders and the appetizer platter. We tried going back to the room, but Vince fell asleep in the car, so we headed back to Universal. I was determined to be more efficient than I had in the morning. I took Vincent to see the Barney show while Steve was buttonholed by some guy doing a consumer survey who promised him $5. Vince loved the Barney show, and I liked some of the effects too.

Next we all headed over to catch the Beetlejuice show. When we bought our Universal tickets, we did so over the phone and were promised extras such as a free second day and priority seating. Well, we tried to use the priority seating at this show and were told that you had to arrive 30 minutes prior to the showtime. Well of course, if you arrive that early you will get the best seats anyway because no one else will be there!

Duh! So that was a waste. The show was ok. Next we split up and Steve took Vincent to Fievel's playground while I did Twister. I loved Twister and would rate it my favorite thing at Universal this time. I went back and saw that ET was finally up, so we all went on it. Vince liked it but was a little scared at some of the loud noises and bright lights. (I found for the whole trip that he didn't like the loud noises and bright lights and didn't like getting splashed on, but could do ok on fast rides that didn't have the above. We did take earplugs, but didn't always know in advance when to put them in.) It was about time for an Animal Actors show, so we all saw that and really enjoyed it. Then I took Vince and we returned to Fievel's playground and also did Barney's backyard, an indoor play area for younger children. Steve did twister and he also had time to catch the Hercules and Xena show, which he liked. After this we called it a day and went back to the room, in time for the guys to have a swim before bed.

Summary: Not enough stuff for the little guy, although what they did have was really well done. His favorite of the day was Fievel's playground. (Note about the trip: one thing I found out about Vince is that he really needed play time. Even at the most fun parks he couldn't do just ride after ride, and we always had to find someplace to play. This was a nice break for DH & me too! IMO, the best playgrounds were Camp Jurassic (IOA), Happy Harbor (Sea World), and Fievel. Disney sure could improve its playgrounds (although we missed the Boneyard at AK)) For Steve & me, this was our third Universal visit in 7 years and we decided that was plenty. I don't feel like I need to go again, but maybe when Vince is a teenager we'll break down and return.

Thursday April 22: EPCOT & MGM

We got to EPCOT about 8:15 and decided to ride the monorail to the TTC & back (sort of an EPCOT tradition for us). We got the front car on the way back & Vince got his little co-pilot card. When we got back they were letting people in to the front of the park,

so we rode Spaceship Earth with no wait. We walked over to TT and the wait was 70 minutes. I had vowed not to wait more than 30 minutes for a ride this trip; I broke that vow a couple of times, but alas, not for TT. While we were over there, Vince met his first Disney character, Jiminy Cricket. We went to the Wonders of Life pavilion and saw The making of me (Vince was bored) and Cranium command (Vince didn't like Mr. Adrenalin).

Then we played with some of the exhibits. While we were there, Vince got to meet Sports Goofy. We skipped Body Wars on purpose, having got over the thrill of simulator rides about 7 years ago.

It was hot so as we trudged across the park we stopped at Ice Station Cool. That was pretty fun and we all got plenty to drink. I even tried the dreaded Beverly-- didn't hate it too much. We went in and sent postcards from Innoventions. Next we headed to Living Seas. Vince loved it because he is so into ocean life, etc. He bought a leopard shark as a souvenir. By then it was time for our PS at Garden Grill (12). We were seated with no wait, but on the upper level, so Vince couldn't really see the scenes as we rotated. The characters (Chip, Dale, Mickey) all spent quite a bit of time with us. Dale played with Vincent's leopard shark and pretended to scare Chip with it-- pretty cute. The lunch comes with fish, steak, and chicken. The steak was the best. The fish was pretty good. Vincent actually had more of that than he did of his kids' meal (macaroni, chicken fingers). The sweet cornbread was great! Overall this was a very nice meal except that we had to wait about 20 minutes to get our check.

After lunch we headed to the parking lot and started driving. Vince was asleep in about 5 minutes, and we drove around for a while and finished up in MGM's parking lot, where we parked and left the air conditioner on and all took a little rest. We got in to MGM just in time for a Beauty and the Beast show, then we hustled down to the parade. Of course, arriving just as it started meant we didn't get a very good spot. I put Vince on my shoulders so Steve could take pictures. It was a good parade but I would have enjoyed it more from a sitting position! We followed the parade down the street and went on the great movie ride. I warned Vince ahead of time that there would be shooting but it was all pretend. Of course, last time I was on this ride I was kidless and didn't pay any attention to the shooting, and told him it wouldn't be very much. Well of course, it seemed like 5 minutes worth of machine guns firing over our heads and he was freaked for the rest of the ride. So he kept crying through the alien part (of course), even though he wasn't even looking, and then there was the wicked witch in the Oz section which set him off again! I wouldn't have guessed that this ride would be so tough on him, but there you have it.

So to calm the little one down, the next thing we did was Little Mermaid. Steve & I hadn't seen this before, and we all really liked it. It was one of my favorite shows of the whole trip. Then we went over and did the Indy show, which Vincent didn't mind-- I think maybe he was finally getting used to explosions, etc. We stopped to get ice cream treats and headed over to the Hunchback show. Walked in, sat down, the show started, eating popsicles, Vincent starts to get his all over (hands, shorts, me...) and I had left the napkins in the stroller. We left. (I get the feeling he wouldn't have liked that show much anyway-- I don't think he remembers much of the movie). On to Muppet vision. I wasn't sure how he would do with the 3D, but he wanted to try it. It was so cute. He kept reaching out to grab the stuff that came out of the screen. Or he'd jump back into his seat when something came springing towards us. We all really enjoyed that show. By now, Vince is wanting to play, so we went to Honey I shrunk the kids playground. Steve stayed with him while I took a bathroom break. In the bathroom I found a lost tummy pack, so I walked all the way to the park entrance to Lost & found to turn it in. While I was down that way, I checked the wait on Tower of Terror and it was 30 minutes. I didn't go for it, walked all the way back to the playground. Steve & I switched off-- he was going to try Tower of Terror and meet me at the entrance to Fantasmic. Vince really liked this playground too, although he lost me at one point and was pretty shaken up-- from then on he would cry a little each time I got out of sight, even for a moment.

About 7:20 we headed for Fantasmic. We found Steve and headed in about 7:30. (Steve had waited for ToT for 30 minutes and not gotten in and knew he would have to get out of line, so neither of us got to try it). By the time we got the stroller parked and got in there, there were only a few seats left, way down in the front left corner. We did get seats though. The wait was tough. Pre-show entertainment was both the bellhops (ok) and the screaming cleaning lady (almost caused me to leave RIGHT THEN AND THERE). Boy she was annoying! When the show finally started, though, it was great. It only took about 15 minutes to get out of the stadium and another 15 to get to our car. We all agreed the wait was worth it for the show (would we do it again? Don't know)

Steve's favorite of the day: Fantasmic, Muppet vision

My favorite: same as Steve's (Muppet vision especially watching Vince!)

Vincent's favorite: playground, Fantasmic, characters (from EPCOT)

Friday, April 23: Islands of Adventure (still in preview, we knew some attractions may not be working).

From the moment we entered IOA I thought it was special. Maybe it's just because it's so new and they obviously put so much thought into it. The port of entry is so neat, the music is neat, all of the "islands" are neat. I just loved the atmosphere of this park. Some of the lands I loved more than others just because of personal taste: I've never been a big Seuss fan, and I'm definitely not into comics, and not much into cartoons. Nonetheless, the areas devoted to them were done appropriately. The Port of Entry, Lost continent and Jurassic Park areas I just fell in love with, though. They are Beautiful! Ahead of time we had figured that this was pretty much an adult park and didn't think Vince would have much to do. Although this was basically true, the playgrounds were so good that he could happily have stayed at this park longer than we did.

After we came through Port of Entry and turned into the Comic area (forgot what it was called), there was Spiderman on the bridge. Cool! Vince got his autograph. (He was the only character we saw in this park, though). This is how we did IOA. I took Vince to the play-boat "Me ship, the Olive" in the Toon area while Steve did Dr. Doom & Spiderman. The play boat was really not much. Boring. Steve said Dr. Doom wasn't even worth a 5 minutes wait, so I didn't try it (Hulk was not working at this time). He loved Spiderman.

Then we switched and he took Vince to Jurassic park and rode the Pteranodon flyers (you have to do this early, because lines were forming even when we were there, up to 1 hour for a little skyway type ride) and played at the Camp Jurassic playground. This one was great-- one of the best playgrounds we saw! I went back & waited for Spiderman only to have it shut down when I was in the loading area, so I left and rode the Jurassic park river ride-- it was awesome, better than the one in CA, in my opinion. I found them in the playground, and Steve & I did babyswap on Jurassic Park. Then Vince & I went to the Dr. Seuss area while dad rode the Fire & Ice rollercoasters (Dueling dragons-- 2 intertwined roller coasters, he tried them both). We watched a show, which was pretty good, only it needed a shadier area, and rode the merry-go-round, then Dad joined us and as a family we did one-fish-two fish and the cat in the hat ride. One fish.. is like Dumbo with water (got wetter on that than we did on JP), and Cat in the hat takes you through a house and you see scenes from the story-- the sofa you sit on spins, btw. We had the only breakdown (while we were riding, that is) of the day and spent about 10 minutes sitting on our sofa in the middle of the house.

After a lunch break we returned and Hulk was going, so I rode it while Steve had Vince in the Dr. Seuss playground area (you get wet in all of the playgrounds). It was pretty intense for a rollercoaster. It made my eyes tear up, and I wondered if my contacts were going to blow out! I rode fire & ice, and tried Spiderman again, but the wait appeared to be over 1 hr., and I had to meet the guys, so I had to duck out of line. Beside the 3 play areas, the only things Vince could ride were in the Dr. Seuss area (2 water rides are not done yet). He would have met the height requirement for Spiderman, but his dad said it was too scary for him. At this point it was about 5 p.m. and it was one of the hottest days of our trip (over 90), I was really bummed out about waiting in the Spiderman line for over 1/2 hour twice and still not getting to ride it, so Steve was kind and let us leave, even though he passed up the chance to ride hulk. What a guy!

Steve's favorite: Spiderman (best ride of the whole trip for him)

My favorite: just walking through Port of Entry & Lost continent (I am not so thrilled by roller-coasters as I used to be)

Vincent's favorite: Camp Jurassic playground.

This day was not so fun for me because in order to do the park and our son justice my husband & I were split up almost the whole day, except for about 1 hour in Seuss land.

I enjoy things so much more when the whole family's together-- especially waiting in line. I learned that waiting in line for long periods of time with no one to talk to is a real drag! There will be lines when the park opens! The attendance was severely limited during the preview time (as they were trying to get us to buy tickets they promised "no lines"), but we still encountered lines comparable to the other parks (except AK, more on that later).

That is, early in the a.m. you could go on just about anything with no wait; later in the day a long wait would develop on some rides. In this park there were long waits for Spiderman and Pteranodon flyers.

For dinner we had a coupon for "buy one entree, get one at 1/2 price" for an Indian restaurant (forget the name, but it was "behind Dunkin Donuts" on International drive).

Steve & I both love Indian food, so we thought we'd try it. Well, the first bad sign was that someone who worked there stood outside while we were looking at the menu and watched us, and when we decided to go in, he flipped on the "open" sign. Uh-oh. Then we decided we wanted the "sampler" dinner (one of the more expensive items). When we went to order, he told us our coupon wasn't valid for that dinner. Well, we said, that was what we wanted, nothing else, so couldn't he just take a comparable amount off our bill?

No, it didn't work that way, so we left, dropping $3 on the table for the 2 Cokes Steve & Vince had sipped on while we wrangled. That left a bad taste in my mouth. We ended up at an IHOP and had a tasty but non-Indian meal. Bummer.

Saturday, April 24: Sea World

We bought our Sea World tickets at our hotel because they offered a discount. We didn't get tickets, though, only a voucher, and we found when we arrived at Sea World that we had to stand in a LONG line to exchange the voucher for actual tickets. This was pretty inefficient. First thing we did when we got in was buy tickets to the shark tour for Vincent and me (got $1 off each with the brochure they give you at the parking booth). Vince has been so into sharks I couldn't pass up this opportunity to let him actually touch one. Then when they started letting people into the rest of the park, we went right to Journey to Atlantis and rode, doing the baby swap, with no wait. This was my absolute favorite ride of the whole trip. It was beautiful inside (and outside) and there were two thrilling drops. Our car got stuck for about 10 minutes at the top of the conveyor belt for the second drop-- but I still loved the ride! In the gift shop we exited through, Vincent bought a stuffed jellyfish and a bag of "treasure" (glass gems and sea shells). We went from there to the dolphin show. It was pretty interesting. The neatest part was the pseudorcas (false killer whales). I had never seen these before; I guess they are quite rare in captivity. We walked over to Terrors of the Deep and spent a while outside. Vince was thrilled to see his first live sharks and some rays. We went through the exhibits inside which Vince also liked, having a special fondness for "Sea nasties." Personally, I wish there were more information. You walk by all of these fish, but don't know which are which, or anything about them. I'm sure there are fascinating things to be learned there, but we didn't learn them. We left Terrors of the Deep in time to get over to the Shamu show. It was ok, but seemed like there was more on video and less live killer whale than the last time we saw it in 1992. I could do without the video.

This was one of the hottest days of the trip & I was getting grumpy, so we left for lunch. Vince fell asleep in the car. Steve & I agreed Mexican sounded good, so we headed up to International Drive, where I had seen a Mexican restaurant earlier. We ended up at Don Pablo's, right next to the Visitor Information Center. They had hot dogs on their kids menu, so we went ahead inside, thus waking Vincent up. This was the best offsite meal of the whole trip. Great chips and salsa, and everything we had was really good, and very reasonable prices. It's worth a trip if you like Mexican. Back at Sea World, the first thing we did was hit Tropical Reef. There were some exhibits of things Vincent had read about, so he was very interested, especially in the shark eggs and baby sharks, and the moon jellyfish. We went to the water ski show next, which turned out to be an exhibition of gymnastics, water ski tricks, and jetski stunts. Steve & I both liked it, but Vince couldn't have cared less. After this show it was time for Vince & me to go on the shark tour. While we were on it, Steve tried the line to JtA, but it was 45 minutes long, so he took in the manatees, dolphins, and rays. Meanwhile, Vincent and I were beginning the shark tour. The first thing our guide did was ask a question, and the girl who answered it got a piece of candy as a reward. After that, Vince was not interested in sharks, only candy. Well, the tour was about 10 minutes of talking outside by the shark pool, then we went inside Terrors of the Deep to a private conference room where there was another 20 minutes or so of talking. This was geared to older kids and adults and over Vincent's head, although I tried to translate for him. He got bored in short order, despite his love of sharks. Then she took us around the back of the building to a room where there was a tank with a little shark in it (white spotted bamboo shark). That was the one we all got to touch, which was a neat experience and even Vincent enjoyed it. I sort of enjoyed watching the girl freak out who decided she couldn't bring herself to touch a shark. That was it for the tour. I learned some interesting shark facts, but it sure wasn't worth what we paid, even with the discount. I wouldn't advise taking kids younger than 6th grade or so on this tour.

After we met up with Steve we headed over to the sea lion show. It was really cute because it wasn't just seals doing tricks, it was an actual play in which the sea lions and otters were actors. We all really enjoyed it. By now it was time for Vince to play, so we headed over to Happy Harbor, a giant playground. One of the best we encountered. Vince loved it. The park closed at 7, so at 6 Steve said he'd watch Vince while I shopped. I sneaked up to JtA to see if I could get a second ride, but the wait was posted at 45 minutes. I asked if that was right and was told it was-- I don't really believe it, that close to closing, but I didn't risk getting in line. So I did actually get to shop for about 20 minutes, my only real shopping of the whole trip (something you give up when you're with a preschooler). I bought Vince a set of about 15 plastic sea animals for $5. He loves it and has huge battles with them to discover who is the strongest. As we were leaving, we picked up a second day free ticket just in case, because we really could have spent another whole day there.

Steve & Grace's favorite: Journey to Atlantis & the Pirate (sea lion) show.

Vincent's favorite: Pirate show & playground

Sunday, April 25: Magic Kingdom

Since we were eating at Whispering Canyon that day, I thought I'd try to save on parking and park at the Wilderness Lodge. This was probably a mistake. It was neat seeing it (never had been up close), and we got the boat over just fine. We had told Vincent he would get to do whatever he wanted when he and I went back by ourselves in a couple of days, so this was a family day where we tried to do stuff all of us would like. I did use the Unofficial guide touring plan today, and it worked pretty well. We started off by going straight to Splash Mountain. At 41", Vince was tall enough to ride, so on he went. He was worried about getting wet, and I think I spent more time trying to reassure him & keep him happy than enjoying the ride. He said it was okay, but didn't want to ride on it again. We went next to Big Thunder Mountain, which we all enjoyed. Vince liked this one a lot better since he didn't worry about getting wet. I liked it a lot too; I didn't remember all the fun stuff to see. Steve said it was sort of painful because his knees kept banging the car. We went from there to the Pirates of the Caribbean which we all liked, and then to Jungle Cruise, another ride which I don't remember enjoying as much last time as I did this time. I would have liked to do it again, but Vince didn't want to ride anything twice. Haunted mansion was next, and Vincent didn't have any problem with the idea of spooks. We left and went to Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan and ran into our first wait of the day: 20 minutes. Not bad. Next we went around the corner to the Lion king show. That was all I had planned for the morning, but it was not quite time for our lunch PS yet, so we stopped in Tomorrowland to ride TTA before lunch.

We hitched the boat back to Wilderness Lodge and were seated in Whispering Canyon with no wait. Steve & I both had the BBQ lunch and Vincent had a hot dog. The brisket was really good, but the pork ribs were really fatty. I left this meal feeling like I had eaten way too much meat and not enough other stuff. During the meal they had the kids do the hobby horse race around the restaurant. Vince got his horse, but he'd never had one before and didn't know what to do with it, so he just held it in his hand and ran full speed around the restaurant. We're lucky he didn't brain someone. Service was so-so here. This was my least favorite of the Disney meals that we had this trip. I thought maybe Vince could just rest on one of the sofas in the lobby for his nap, and he did lay down for about 15-20 minutes, but he couldn't get to sleep, so we left. We got back to the park about 2:50 and got a seat for the parade. I thought it would be starting down by Main St., but that's where it finished, so we ended up waiting a lot longer than I would have liked (until almost 3:30). When it finally came, it was worth the wait. They called the kids to come and dance, and Vince got to dance with Pluto, his all-time favorite character.

After the parade we did the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse (a waste of space, if you ask me), and then the Tiki Birds. Vince really liked it (the only attraction so far that he wanted to do again), but Steve said they had ruined a good show. Personally, I hate Iago, so even though I found the old one pretty boring, it would have been preferable to that screeching parrot. By this time, Vince was doing his gotta play routine, so I thought maybe he could play on Tom Sawyer Island. It just wasn't his cup of tea, though. There was a little playground at the top of a hill, but compared to all of the other playgrounds in the other parks, it was nothing. The other stuff on the island bored us all. I had been hoping to get something to drink at Aunt Polly's, but it was 4:10 and they stopped serving at 4. We hadn't seen much of Tomorrowland yet, so we trekked over there and stopped at Auntie Gravity's. Vince had a pop and I had a strawberry smoothie. Then we rode Carousel of Progress and then Buzz Lightyear. Boy, was that a hit with the guys! We immediately rode it again. Steve scored over 180,000 his first time, the record for any of us for the whole trip. I didn't get the hang of aiming until the second day. Vince wasn't big enough to shoot, but he loved the ride anyway. Steve & Vince decided to try the teacups (I know better than to spin), then we all did Small World. That pretty much finished up my itinerary for the day, so it was back to Buzz Lightyear. By this time I was bushed, so I sat down on the bridge to Main St. Gee, turned out to be a prime fireworks viewing spot-- who knew? Steve & Vince didn't want to just sit and wait, so they went and rode TTA once more.

Favorites: Steve & Vincent: Buzz Lightyear

Grace: Big Thunder Mtn. and Jungle Cruise

The fireworks were great-- Vince just managed to stay awake until they were over, then he fell asleep in his stroller. We went back to get the boat and the nightmare started. I was feeling terrible; I had a bad headache, and was feeling queasy from the meaty, greasy lunch, and was tired. There was only one boat serving Wilderness Lodge and (seemingly) hundreds of people wanted to go there. Finally the boat to Ft. Wilderness took some of us over to WL. I was carrying a sleeping child and trying not to hurl. Getting back to our car seemed to take forever, and I felt too sick even to talk. What was worse, the next day was Animal Kingdom which opened at 7, and I had been planning to get up early. At this point, I didn't even know whether I would get up at all!

Monday, April 26: AK, Typhoon Lagoon

Amazingly, I woke up feeling great the next morning-- at 5:30! We had to skip breakfast because the Disney web site & brochure for April had both said AK opened at 7 every day in April, and our hotel didn't start serving until 7. We did well and arrived at AK by 7:15, but noticed that no one was being let in to the park. I asked a nearby CM and was told that my info was out of date and they were opening at 8. Irk. Vince played run-around with another little boy until 7:45 or so when they let us in. I was using the Unofficial guide touring plan & I would say: big mistake. No matter what, do the safari first thing. We did the Tree of Life/Tough to be a bug first. The tree was awesome! The show was way to scary/intense, I thought. The movie was a kids' movie-- how about making the attraction one that kids could enjoy??? The whole place was filled with screaming kids. Mine (I am pleased to say) was a little man and didn't scream, although I could tell he was pretty intimidated. By this time he was getting to be a ride veteran. For this and HISTA both I had him on my lap, which I think was a good idea. We were about 2/3 of the way over to the left and the 3D didn't work at all. I just took the glasses off. You'd think if Disney could get it right at the other attractions (e.g. Muppets) they could get it right here.

Countdown to Extinction was next. There was no line. We did the baby swap; Steve went first. When he got out he warned me to use earplugs. This was the only ride I used earplugs on, although we used them for Vincent several times. I really enjoyed the ride. I haven't been to Disneyland to compare Indy, so I thought it was pretty fine. After this we headed toward the safari, and the line was back over the bridge and the wait was 45 minutes. Well, despite my vow not to wait over 30 minutes for a ride this trip, we had to experience this one. (Note: this is where the Unofficial guide touring plan broke down. If we had done this ride first, I'm pretty sure the waits at Bug and CtX would have still been negligible. Also, this is where the crowds started getting huge at AK, about 2 hours earlier than we experienced crowd problems at any other park). Since we had skipped breakfast, I went to Tuskers and bought pastries and coffee/milk for Vincent and me. In the time this took, Steve & Vince (in line) had passed me and gotten almost into the first structure. I didn't realize the line would move so fast, so walked backwards (all the way to the end) before I realized I needed to go the other way. I almost missed them! Everything worked out ok, though, and Vince & I got our breakfasts finished before the ride. We all loved this ride, and however long we waited (I think it was under 45 minutes), it was worth the wait. Our guide sort of played down the poacher story-- almost like he was just jumping through some hoops. The ones who would enjoy this kind of plot line (kids) aren't generally well-informed enough to know what poachers are...

From here on out AK was pretty much a bust. The crowds were simply horrible. I can't imagine what they would be like at a BUSY time of year. We walked the Gorilla Falls trail, and everywhere there would be something interesting to see, people would be 4-6 deep. Worse than any zoo I've ever been at. We took the train to conservation station. It was quite a hike from the train to the exhibits. Again, there were too many people to do much, and these were not exhibits that interested Vince. We did go through the petting zoo, and he got a kick out of that, especially the goats. After we took the train back, we went to Asia. Crowds in Asia were even worse. The lines for both the river ride and the Kali rapids ride were over 45 minutes long-- I hadn't heard enough good things about either ride to wait that long, so we skipped them. We went on the Maharajah trek, and again, there were too many people to enjoy the animals. We headed next to the Pocahontas show. The most enjoyable thing about this show for me was watching the parents getting kicked out of the first 4 rows which are only for kids. Some of them were so clueless ("well I have a kid who can't sit without me, therefore..."). We followed someone's advice (I think on Deb's site) and took bubbles. They came in handy here, as well as at Sea World and other places we waited for shows to start. I didn't think much of the show, though. We were able to walk right from there into the Lion King show. Now there was a show! It was great!

AK favorites: All of us: Kilimanjaro Safari. Grace: Also Festival of the Lion King

By this time we had had enough of the crowds and seen all that we were dying to see (it was about 2 p.m.) We got the car and went out 192. Vince was asleep within minutes. We stopped at a Burger king and got drive-through, and drove over to Typhoon Lagoon. We parked under a tree in the parking lot and started eating. Pretty soon we heard a little voice "What are you guys eating?" Nothing wakes Vince up faster than food! When we had finished, we went in to Typhoon Lagoon. What a difference from the crowds at AK! I was so glad they had lockers out in the open, not in the men's or women's changing areas like at River Country. We set our stuff down at Ketchakiddie Creek, and Steve went off to explore while I stayed with Vince. He loved all of the stuff at Ketchakiddie Creek, especially the kids' tube ride. I persuaded Vince after a while to get on Castaway Creek with me, but we went under the waterfall and that really scared him. After a while he was just sobbing, even though there was only the one waterfall. So we got out and went back to the kids' area. When Steve came back we decided to all go together on the family raft ride. Steve & I both liked this, but not Vince, because you got splashed by some waterfalls.

Next it was Steve's turn to watch Vince & I went off to try stuff. The first thing I tried was Shark Reef. It was really neat (sort of cold) and it did give me a funny feeling to know those were real sharks-- they were bigger than I expected! This was a great idea for a feature at a water park. I tried all three of the storm slides (body slides) and both of the tube slides. One of them seemed gentle enough for Vince. Neither Steve nor I tried Humunga Kowabunga. I went back to the kiddie area and we switched off again. I got Vince to go across the way and there were some slides in an area off the main pool that were a little bigger than the ones at Ketchakiddie, but still for kids. He really liked these, but after about 10 slides, I convinced him to try Keelhaul Falls. We each had to go in our own separate tube, and I decided to go first so I would be waiting for him when he got there. When it came time for me to go, he really started to fuss & yell, but by the time he got to the bottom, he was game for another go round. Second time was the same, but by the third time, he didn't yell when I got started because he knew I'd be right there ahead of him. We went down a couple more times, then he wanted to go back to the kids' area. I let him go off on his own and sat in a chair to read. Steve was back within a couple of minutes, but almost immediately I heard my kid's cry. I looked up to see a lifeguard with him. Turns out he had been on the kids' tube and it had flipped over and he'd scraped his knee and foot pretty badly on the side. In this way, we got to experience Disney first-aid. The nurse was really nice, but I was surprised she made me do everything. She didn't even touch him. We decided to change and leave at this point because Vince was too banged up to go back in the water.

We had priority seating for 7:40 at Ohanas. It took us a while to get from the parking lot to the restaurant (it was getting dark and hard to get oriented), but we were seated right at our PS time. This was my favorite meal of the entire trip. The appetizers were great, especially the spring rolls. Steve & Vince loved the sweet, fresh-baked bread. The skewers of meat were teriffic. I especially loved the turkey-- it just seemed to melt in my mouth. Vince got to do the hula hoop contest (actually, we all gave it a try), and then at 8:30 they piped in the fireworks music and we got to watch the MK fireworks. Vince was just about asleep again on my lap. After we had desert, we went down to the beach and watched the electric water parade. What a perfect evening!

Tuesday, April 27: EPCOT

Even though we had spent a morning at EPCOT last week we had barely scratched the surface, so we planned another whole day there. It was early entry day, so even though we got there at official opening time, the wait for Test Track was 75 minutes. Needless to say, we didn't get in line. Maybe we'll catch it our next trip. We went back on Spaceship Earth for Vincent. He really seemed to like that ride. My favorite section was the renaissance with all that beautiful music surrounding you. This time we stopped and looked at the AT&T exhibits, but almost everything was already being used by someone else. Next we headed over to HISTA. There was too much talk at the beginning and Vince was bored right off the bat. The lady in back of me really freaked out at the mousie part and kicked the back of my seat really hard-- it felt like she missed my neck by about 4"! We went over to The Land to do the stuff there that we had missed on Thurs. Food rocks! was first. Vince & I really liked it (I like it because it has Pita Gabriel, my hero). When we came out, the wait for the Living with the land was 40 minutes, but Steve got in line anyway (I wouldn't have, due to my 30 minutes limit). We actually waited only 25 minutes, so it wasn't so bad. I don't get their seating policy-- they put the three of us plus another group of two, (one of whom was quite large) in one row all squished together, and right in front of us was a group of two all alone. Go figure. We did the Circle of life next. None of us had seen this before. I wouldn't bother with it again. Vince asked me "Is this a commercial?"-- Pretty much my feelings too.

It was just past 11, so we decided to head for World Showcase. The first thing I did was buy Vince a passport, because I knew we'd have a hard time keeping him interested otherwise. One thing that no one told us was that the passport stations aren't manned until after 1 p.m., so we missed getting his passport stamped at the first few places we visited. We went to Mexico first and rode Rio de Tiempo and tried on hats (another thing we were going to do was take pictures of us in hats in every country, which sort of worked, but we couldn't find any Chinese hats...). Then on to Norway, where Vince spotted the ship/playground. We were happy to let him blow off some steam, so I snuck into the bakery and bought a couple of pastries. That brought him back in a hurry "What're you guys eating?" But he didn't really like anything I bought (we moms are clever, no?), so he went back and played for a while, then we hopped on Maelstrom. We skipped the movie and he was able to get his passport stamped here, and make a little craft. China was next, although we didn't try the movie or do any adult things like shop. We just looked for hats and got passport stamps. I was so proud of Vince; the girl at the passport asked his name, then where he was from (Illinois!, he said) then how old he was, then she asked if he went to school and he said ("I'm home school!").

He was getting hungry by now, so we skipped all the way over to the American pavillion to get him a kids' meal there. I picked up a Mocha Granita at the coffee stand-- boy was that good! That'll be an every-time treat! There was a show going on at the stage there, so we sat at the far edge of the outdoor tables and could hear and see most of the show while he ate. We were going to go back and pick up the countries that we skipped, starting with Germany, but it was hot and we were all sort of out-of-sorts. We did go back to Germany, but the passport guy there was not very friendly or helpful to the kids, so we left and took the boat back across the lagoon. We got our car and drove (the long way) over to the Boardwalk and parked there. Vince fell asleep in the car, of course, but he didn't wake up when we got him out and put him into the stroller, so we decided that instead of going back to the park we would just look around the boardwalk and the resorts there. We looked around the Boardwalk, then headed toward the Beach club where we had PS for 5:40. Vince woke up as we walked over, and saw the little playground near the pool there, so we let him play for the time remaining until our PS time. We had orignally intended to go back to the park for a while, but I was really glad that we didn't and just slowed down and relaxed a little.

We were delighted with the Cape May clambake also. They had a kids' buffet area which had mini hot dogs, so Vince was all set. I loved the clams (had too many) and all the kinds of bread, and we all loved the dessert bar, though we were too full to try all the desserts that looked good. Steve says next time we go he's just going to eat at the dessert bar. The relaxing afternoon and delicious meal left us feeling a lot better than we had while we were at EPCOT, and as we got outside, we realized it had cooled down alot also. So we hopped on a boat and returned to EPCOT. Right as we came in we ran into a bunch of characters. Vince waited and got to meet Peter Pan. The other characters were Pooh characters who I knew we would meet the next day, so we skipped them. We went to England, where the girl at the passport center was very nice. She helped Vince make a bumblebee. We did the Tigger maze, which Vince liked very much. On to Canada, where Vince made a beaver, and Steve had a conversation with the passport girl about whether or not she was in favor of Quebec separatism. Pretty interesting. I had wanted to see Cast in Bronze, so we walked over just in time for the start of their show. Very neat! We had changed Vincent's shorts before we ate, because he was pretty grubby, and of course it hadn't been shorts weather in Illinois before we came, so these new shorts he had on were too big, but I didn't know it. One of my priceless memories of this trip is him dancing out in front of the whole audience of Cast in Bronze and his pants falling down. He'd just pick them up and dance some more. We returned to Canada so I could catch Off Kilter, but their music was not the kind that our family really likes, so we moved on. It was only about half an hour until Illuminations, so we decided to see how many of the remaining countries on the Passport we could get stamped. We managed to get France, Japan, and Morocco. Unfortunately, by waiting until the last minute, we didn't get a great view of Illuminations. It was okay, but I had to look over some people's heads. Even if you hate waiting around like we do, I'd recommend finding a place 15-20 minutes before it starts. I loved Illuminations because of the music, since I'm a big classical music buff. It was a moment of heaven to hear Beethoven's 9th with fireworks accompanying! We walked back to the car.

Highlights: Vince-- playing in the afternoon

Me & Steve: Cape May clambake

Wednesday, April 28: Split Up Day

This day we decided to split up. Disney Quest was something Steve was really interested in trying out, and I took Vince back to MK and told him it was "his day." Of course, I had some input, or we would have just ridden Buzz Lightyear all day long! Steve drove us up to the guest drop-off and kept the car. The plan was to meet at Typhoon Lagoon at 7 p.m. Vince wanted to take the ferry, so we did. The first ride we took was the Tomorrowland Speedway, which we did twice in a row. Then we headed over to Mickey's Toontown, since we hadn't been in that area at all on our other day at MK. We rode the Barnstormer and then I let Vince play in Donald's boat and get all wet (I took off his shirt, figured his shorts would dry). We went into the place where you meet the characters, and I saw that Pluto was in one of the rooms. Since he was Vince's favorite, I figured we could stand in line for him. Unfortunately, that was also the room Minnie was in (Goofy was the third), so it was the longest line. It was probably 30 minutes before we actually got into the room, but he really enjoyed meeting all the characters, so it was worth it. As we came out Vince spent some of his souvenir money to buy a Pluto beanie. We went through Minnie's house. I thought it would be more of an interactive type attraction, but the only interactive stuff was in the kitchen, plus it was just wall-to-wall people. Not pleasant.

At long last, we were off to Buzz Lightyear, which I only let him ride three times (I'm such a mean mom). I told him I would get sick if I had to ride it any more (which I probably would have, since the room where you're traveling through space makes me real queasy). After this, we headed back to Main Street, and I saw on the board that the wait for Dumbo was only 15 minutes He said he'd like to ride it, so we headed on back. I guess in the time it took us to walk there, the line more than doubled, because it was at least a 40 minute wait. At least he didn't whine-- he was my little man!

We had PS for Crystal Palace at 1 p.m., so we headed over there. It was about 12:40 when we checked in, and the guy told us they were seating about 20 minutes past PS time, so that meant at least a 40 minute wait for us. He also announced that they weren't seating anyone without a PS. Fortunately, Vince didn't know how long we would have to wait, and he and I had a nice time playing a little game we had invented over on the Boardwalk. Finally we got to go in. It was unbelievably loud in there, sort of like a Chuck E Cheese's, but the food was a lot better. Vince could see the characters roaming around, though, and they got him so excited he just about refused to eat. I think he had about 1 chicken finger. I would have loved to have a quiet table and a little time to try some of the food, but I felt pretty rushed, probably because they told us that we would miss the characters if we were away when they came by. I really liked what food I had; the chicken Caesar pasta was especially good. Vince got to see all four characters: Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, and Piglet. Piglet was especially cute and affectionate with the kids. Our plan had been to stay until after lunch, then head over for one more afternoon at Typhoon Lagoon, so we started out of the park. When we were almost to the ferry, Vince said he had to go to the bathroom, so we headed back. Something made me think of Pluto, and we realized we didn't have him and had left him at the Crystal Palace. As we were walking back to fetch him, it started to rain. I had brought ponchos, so I put them on us & we got Pluto. Unfortunately, I now didn't know what to do, since I didn't want to head over to TL in the rain. We decided to go to Tiki birds one more time. When we got there, Vince took off his poncho and he was drenched. I don't know if it was splashing up at him from the stroller or what. We watched Tiki birds and when we came out it was not raining and the sun was shining, and Vince really wanted to go to Typhoon Lagoon, so off we went. On the way back to TTC on the ferry, it started to rain again, and by the time we had walked over to the bus stop, we were both soaking wet. Now I didn't know whether to keep going to TL or to get off at Downtown Disney and try to find Steve in Disney Quest. Well, it was a long bus ride, and by the time we got over there, the sun was out and the sky was blue, so I got off at Typhoon Lagoon. We got changed and went over to Ketchakiddee Creek, where Vince played for an hour or so while I read. Unfortunately, the skies continued to cloud over, and by about 5 there were only threatening clouds to be seen. I told Vince we were going to have to leave, even though I wasn't sure what we were going to do. We got dressed as quickly as we could, and as we were turning in our locker key, they announced that the park was closing due to bad weather. Steve wasn't supposed to pick us up there for 1 1/2 hours. Do I wait there at the bus stop? Do I catch a bus to MK or Disney Quest? Or do I walk to DQ? I decided on option C.

Grace Veach

grace51601@springnet1.com

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