Trip Reports

Introduction:

Planning for our 1999 trip to Walt Disney World revolved around several issues:

We can get "free" park passes to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and the Disney / MGM Studios when we use some of our Disney Vacation Club (DVC) points through 1999...
We won't have access to the Animal Kingdom park unless we buy separate admission...
Barb and I have our tenth anniversary in mid-September, 1999...
We thoroughly enjoyed the International Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot in 1998 (even with 20-month-old Allan's lack of interest)...
We have some airfare help to consider with some credit we received through a bump and frequent flyer miles...
Initial Planning Ideas:

We had originally thought that we would visit WDW in September around our 10th wedding anniversary. In order to combine a trip with my parents and a special 10th anniversary break for Barb and I, I came up with a contorted plan that was more complicated than it was worth. First, we would check in at Old Key West Resort (OKWR), our home DVC resort, and use the "free" park passes during the trip. A couple of days before our actual anniversary date, Barb and I planned to leave Allan with the grandparents, drive over to one of the other WDW resort hotels (the Grand Floridian was one of the front-runners) and check-in on a cash basis for a few days alone. We would still officially be checked in at OKWR and we would still have our "free" passes from OKWR, but our bedroom would be Allan's alone for a few nights. After our sabbatical, we would simply return to OKWR to finish out our trip.

10th Anniversary Trip Planning Debacle

It sounded like a great idea except for one thing. I really, really wanted to do something spectacularly different for our 10th. Barb and I both love visiting WDW very, very much, but a completely different -- and very special -- experience was what I really had in mind for a time that we'll only have once in our lives.

I started to search the net for, gasp!!!, alternatives to a Walt Disney World vacation for the Fall. If this was to happen we would have to find an alternative that we could afford -- and convince Mom & Dad to move our Fall plans to the Spring (we'd been tentatively talking about the Fall since their last visit to OKWR with us in 1996).

Some of the destinations and ideas that Barb and I kicked around included:

A Disney Cruise? ...something we really want to do...but with Allan sometime in the future
Maybe a "Barefoot" Windjammer Cruise? ...attractive, but we don't think the group intimacy and partying would be our style
How about a visit to Aruba? ...not too thrilled with the desert environment on much of the island
A visit to England? ...sounds great! but a history touring trip didn't sound like a very romantic anniversary setting
A Bahamas or Virgin Islands resort stay? not a bad idea, but the "ugly American syndrome" kicked in and I began to fear possible language barriers and bad water
Hawaii? hmmmm...Hawaii? ...naw, there's nothing in Hawaii worth seeing (sorry, Lani)
Or was there? I started to look into the possibility of visiting our last-state-to-date, and read up about the tropical weather, history (local and World War II), unique culture, sandy beaches, tropical gardens, lovely natural scenery...This might be a winner! In fact, the island of Kauai sounded like the best combination for us - maybe tied together with a one night layover stop on Oahu.

I called the DVC to see what options we had in terms of resort trades through Intervals International (they have a handy web site at http://www.interval-intl.com, if you care to check it out) and found that three resorts, the Cliffs Club, the Hanalei Bay Club Resort, and Mariott's Kauai Beach Club Resort were approved for DVC trades. I ruled out the Cliffs Club since it doesn't have direct access to a beach (one of our pet desires for an Island resort). I personally hope that the Hanalei Bay Club comes up as a trade option because it has such an appealing atmosphere...very lush landscaping, smaller and more intimate scale, and so on. The Marriot, though, is certain to be a fantastic alternative, too, though.

WDW Plans as of June 1998:

The reservations were made yesterday. We're going to arrive at OKWR on May 2nd for a five night stay. Then we're going to check out and into an off-site motel (Mom & Dad are paying for the motels, other than the OKWR stays) for Friday and Saturday nights (the 7th and 8th). We return to OKWR for another five nights starting on Mother's Day, the 9th, and checking out on the morning of the 14th.

Issues still to be decided:

What side trips will we make? (a Springtime visit to Callaway Gardens in Georgia, a stop at the Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum, and another trip to see the Kennedy Space Center are all options we're considering.)
What will be the actual leave and return dates? (this depends on our side trips)
What motel will we actually stay at (the Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista is a leading candidate)?
Will Mom & Dad travel with us in the van or will we take separate vehicles?
This itinerary will permit us to use almost all of our points that include "free" passes (we also have an add-on contract without the sales promotion passes). Furthermore, we will be able to enjoy the 1999 version of Epcot's International Flower & Garden Festival. We'll all be happy about that!

Hawaii Plans as of June 1998:

As soon as the May WDW trip reservations were made I called member services back and set up a trade swap search for the two resorts on Kawai that sounded the best. I specified the actual week of our anniversary for the swap, and either a one-bedroom or studio accomodations (a studio will require fewer points, but is slightly less luxurious). If no timeshare owners at those resorts show a reciprocal interest in the next few months, we'll look at other alternatives (perhaps in the Carribean). Now, all we have to do is wait...

If and when we are able to make a trade, to Kauai or elsewhere, we'll use our airfare credits and frequent flyer mileage to help defray the cost of the trip.

A Minor Adjustment in July 1998

Barb and I have been to WDW eleven times with a total of exactly ninety-five (95) days spent in the Florida Disney parks through the end of 1998 (this includes our trip in September, 1998 that -- as of this writing -- we havn't yet been on yet.) In all those trips and all those days, we have never been to the Hoop-Dee-Doo dinner show. We enjoyed the Luau during one of our earlier trips, but not the famous wild west show at Pioneer Hall at Fort Wilderness Campground.

1999 will be the year. I asked Mom and Dad if they were game to try the show. They liked the idea, so I called good 'ol WDW-DINE and made reservations for the Tuesday night during the second week of our stay. That way, I figured, we could have a celebratory final fancy dinner meal on Thursday, our last night on-site a couple of nights later, and not feel too guilty about spending so much for two dinners in a row. I booked the first show, at 5:00pm, instead of either of the two later ones. It will be a bit early, but right now Allan's typical meal pattern tells me that is the best thing to do. We can have an earlier lunch that day to keep things on schedule a bit better. I'm a bit apprehensive about how Allan will deal with the show. He's only 21 months old now, but he'll be over 2 1/2 years old by then. I suspect he'll be fine.

Final Details (November 2nd)

In early November, we finally got together with Mom and Dad and worked out the final details about the trip. We knew we were planning to drive down to WDW in a few days, check in to OKWR on Sunday, May 2nd and enjoy WDW for five days. Then we were going to check out of OKWR on the Friday morning and check-in to Comfort Inn Lake Buena Vista to save the high number of points on the Friday and Saturday nights. We planned to drive over to Kennedy Space Center on Friday and visit Animal Kingdom on Saturday (I really liked the idea of being able to go back to a hotel room to crash and/or swim after a hot morning at AK). On Mother's Day, the 9th, we would check back in to OKWR for a final five days of time at WDW.

Also, I got a bug to visit Vicksburg, Mississippi to see the one major Civil War battlefield that I've not yet seen. I've been to Antietam, Gettysburg, Forts Henry and Donelson, Stone's River, Shiloh, Chicamauga, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, the Peninsula, Petersburg, the Wilderness, Harper's Ferry and the Shanondoah Valley, Kennesaw Mountain, Chattanooga (Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain), Fort Sumter, Camp Sumter (the prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, GA), and Appomattox....but I've never been over to Vicksburg.

I came up with a plan that would take us over to Mobile and Vicksburg on the way home and to Callaway Gardens and the Biltmore estate on the down. The drive down would take a solid three days, the drive home at least four. I really liked the idea...and I was willing to take the time. The only catch is that we'd cut a deal with Mom and Dad that they were responsible for the hotel costs (other than the OKWR stay) and gasoline for the entire trip. We would also be going dutch for the meals and any attractions costs.

After we emailed back and forth for a few days, we finally agreed to drop the Biltmore visit and the lengthy Vicksburg/Mobile run on the way home. Instead, we'd take a nice three day drive down and visit Callaway Gardens (Barb and I have never seen Callaway in the Spring) and perhaps see Stone's Mountain or some other Atlanta Campaign sites on the way home. I'd love to visit Vicksburg someday, but it's been there since 1863, so I suppose it will last a few more years.

Everything is set. For the first time in several years, I have planned a trip that is fairly solid, without a ton of contingency plans. The time at WDW will be wonderful. Our plans our time-tested. We know how to tour the parks with our little guy and with grandparents. We are fairly knowledgeable about the restaurants, attractions, and resorts. We are geared up for a wonderful, sedate (yeah, right) trip with Grandma and Grandpa and two and a half year old Allan.

Topsie-Turvy II (November 8th through 12th, 1998)

Then it happened.

Again.

Just like in 1996 when we had to change our annual Disney trip plans when a potential birthmom chose Barb and I to adopt her baby (Allan William II headed to WDW with us for the first time at the ripe old age of three and a half weeks!), we got a call on Sunday night that we'd been chosen for our second run at an adoption. Now there is a very great possibility that we'll have another addition to the crew! If all goes well (we are meeting the birthmother on Friday the 20th for the first time...a lot of things can go wrong, but we feel pretty good about the situation, just as we did with Allan's birthmom in 1996) the new baby will go home with us in late January or early February.

As a result of this unexpected turn of events, we've made some changes to our plans. Instead of checking out of OKWR for the middle weekend to save points for a trip to Hawaii, we will be spending our 10th anniversary trip money on our next adoption - and not at all begrudgingly. We will still have enough points for a quick trip to Vero Beach or Hilton Head if we so choose, or we can just use them on some other future vacation. The big advantage for this trip, though, is that we won't have to move out of the large OKWR two-bedroom vacation home, move into a pair of regular hotel rooms, and back...all with four adults, a two-and-a-half year old toddler, and a three and a half month old infant. It's definitely a good change, in our opinion.

As far as the travel portion of the trip, we're still planning to drive down to Florida from Michigan. We are definately planning to squeeze into the APV with the kids (it still feels weird to say that) and Mom and Dad. With four adults and two little ones, we're going to have to pack light. I'll have to check into Lani's FAQ before we head South. Callaway Gardens, in Georgia and the Kennedy Space Center are still in the plans, along with a leisurely drive down and back. We're also still planning to go to the Hoop Dee Do, but I'll have to take a poll on that one after we have the new baby.

For now, we'll have to go back to the idea of contingency planning. I'm just praying the baby is a single, and not twins or triplets.

Heartbreak, But Life Goes On

We met with the birthmom several times in November, December, and January. We got to know her a bit, she met Allan, too, and Barb and I met her parents and sister. All together we spent several hours with her, over three different trips down to the Detroit area. As far as the trip plans went, I cancelled the Hoop Dee Do reservations because didn't think it would work well with the baby.

On February 8th, we got a call that the baby's birthmom was going to the hospital and that labor would be induced. We were supposed to go to the hospital, but we were asked, instead, to hold off. We sat on pins and needles throughout the day, and finally drove down to Mom and Dad's house (closer to the hospital, since we're two hours away) to wait things out.

We finally got word on Wednesday morning that the baby had been born late on Tuesday night. Both the birthmom and baby were ok, but the delivery ended up being by c-section. Again, we were still asked to stay away from the hospital...not a good sign.

We waited throughout Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for word about the situation. Except for those times that we called the agency social worker, we heard nothing. Frankly, even when we did talk to her we didn't learn anything new because she didn't know anything new either.

Finally, around 8:00pm on Friday night, we were told that the birthmom had left the hospital with the baby. She never contacted the social worker to even tell us that her plans had changed...we found out only because the social worker called the hospital and found that the birthmom was gone. Barb and I were heartbroken. It was like having a stilborn birth. We went through the entire process of getting ready for the baby (including putting the nursery together and so on) only to go to delivery and be sent home without a baby.

Obviously, this trip will be different than we'd planned.

Travel Details (February 24th)

Over the course of the last few days, Mom and Dad have finalized the travel details for the trip. I've now filled in the itinerary details below...I'll just edit the text during the trip itself to reflect what actually happened.

Travel Details (April 5th)

What a week! I just found out early last week that I'm getting a lateral transfer at work. I'll be physically relocating to a new office area, and my job responsibilities will be completely different...that should be interesting.

Then, starting on Tuesday or so, I began to have problems with my PC. Things got steadily worse until by Wednesday afternoon I could only boot up in "safe mode." Not a good thing in Windows 95. I had to ignore my PC woes because on Thursday I had a wisdom tooth out. Friday (ironically, Good Friday -- and a holiday for the auto industry) I had to go into work to start the process of rebuilding my PC's hard drive and operating system. I spent Saturday and Sunday at home and church with Barb and Allan...but studying as much as possible for my upcoming mid-term exam (Master's program class). Monday (today, the 5th, and another auto industry holiday) I went back to work to finish up the PC thing (fortunately, after about six calls to Dell and much Pain and Panic) I got things running again. Tomorrow is my exam...I hope I'm ready.

All of that is just a prelude to today's update. Mom and Dad came up to our house to have steaks on the grill for an early lunch. Our weather has been phenominal over the last few days, and we've already had five meals on the grill. The steaks were excellent...then we sat down to discuss a small handful of details for the trip. Here's a list of what we concluded:

We won't plan to go to the Space Center this year. Instead, we'll keep that Saturday (the 8th of May) open and just see what we want to do as we get there. Perhaps we'll still go to KSC, but we may just spend the day at WDW relaxing at the resort or at DAK instead....we'll just float it.
Restaurants we would like to visit:
Already have Priority Seating Arrangements for:
Crystal Palace (Character Breakfast)
Dad's List
Marrakesh
Hollywood Brown Derby
Biergarten
Mama Melrose
Liberty Tree Tavern
Mom's List
Artist Point
Biergarten
Columbia Harbor House
Bonfamilles
Barb's List
Mama Melrose
not thrilled about Hollywood Brown Derby, but will find something she can eat if we go there
Brian's List
Artist Point
Le Chefs de France
Hollywood & Vine
Tony's Town Square Cafe (if convienient)
Plaza Restaurant
Portobello Yacht Club (on a date with Barb, perhaps)
Mentioned in General
Rose & Crown (ALWAYS ON THE LIST!)
Boatwright's Dining Hall
Cinderella's Royal Table (if we can get Priority Seating for the Character Breakfast)
Pepper Market
Vetoed by the Group:
Hoop Dee Doo -- some other year...
California Grill
(Post report on my mid-term...things seemed to go well...I won't get results for a couple weeks, but I feel pretty comfortable with how things went.)

Wednesday, April 29 (Departure Day, Finish Packing, Handle Little Details, Drive to Mom & Dad's House from Saginaw)

I went to work today for most of the normal work day. Actually, since I'd planned to leave shortly after noon, I was only going to have about six hours in, instead of my normal nine to eleven, but I don't feel bad about that with the casual OT I've piled up lately.

I called Oak Ridge today to see if we could get into a tour of the X10 separation plant. I'd tried to do so several months earlier, but wasn't able to get through because they had a phone number change (the AAA book and my old brochures agreed, but the number didn't work). Yesterday I went over to get the traveller's checks and a routing from our local AAA office, and looked up the number in the new AAA book. Sure enough, they've had an area code change. All that to say that we can't get into a separation plant tour. It's already booked solid. I'm sure we would have gotten in if I'd been more dilligent a few months ago...oh, well.

I had some details to wrap up at work, and several meetings. The last meeting I had scheduled, at 11am, was cancelled so I ended up leaving just after that time. I called Barb before I left work, and she gave me a list of things to buy at Target before I got home. I picked up the diapers, wipes, and other such things that I was supposed to buy...and added a life vest and sleeping mat (inflatable) that I thought would be good to have for Allan. He'll use the vest in the pool on the trip and at home, and the sleeping mat on the floor at Old Key West. Then I paid my bill and went on home for lunch and to help Barb pack the van and finalize everything. We were really ahead of schedule, and got everything pretty much set by 4pm or so.

We left the house, went to make a Mary Kay stop for one of Barb's customers, then remembered a couple of things we'd left at home so we made another run by the house before leaving town. We made our way down to Mom & Dad's house, and stopped at a TGI Friday's for dinner before going to their condo for the night.

Tomorrow we leave on the trip!

Thursday, April 29 (Travel Day, Mom & Dad's House to Corbin, Ky)

Plans: Leave Shelby Twp & drive to Corbin, KY. The drive will be about 462 miles and 7-1/2 hours of driving time (not including lunch or other stops). We're staying at the Quality Inn, Corbin, KY.

We left Mom & Dad's at about 9am. We drove through the Detroit area (we had to take the Southfield Freeway, because I-75 is completely closed for reconstruction) and got into Ohio without mishap. We stopped at a Pizza Hut for lunch (Mom & Dad paid), then continued on to Corbin, Kentucky where we stayed for the night.

Incidentally, Corbin is the home of the Original Kentucky Fried Chicken Restaurant, operated by Colonel Harlan Sanders himself. The Sanders' Cafe, which now sells the usual KFC fare, has several displays in the old building including the old kitchen, a mock-up of one of the motel rooms (Sanders ran the "Sanders' Court" also), and a typical place setting in the old restaurant. It was fun to have a meal there and check out the historical site, but in the future I won't make plans to stop here especially for this.

Friday, April 30 (Travel Day, Corbin, Ky to LaGrange, GA: Visit Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

Plans: Drive from Corbin, KY to LaGrange, GA. It will be about 339 Miles and a 6 1/2 hours drive. During the trip we will stop at Oak Ridge, TN to see if we can tour one of the WWII-era uranium separation plants. That night we are staying at the Best Western in LaGrange, GA.

We got out of the rooms and got the van loaded by shortly after 8am. We made our way to the motel's restaurant and had a nice (complementary) breakfast of eggs, sausage or bacon, and biscuits or toast. Very nice since it was covered in the cost of the room!

Unfortunately, Allan's breakfast didn't set well with him. As we pulled into Oak Ridge, Allan had a very unusual (for him) bout of indigestion. He threw up his sausage all over himself, some on grandma, and mostly on his basket of toys that were on the floor, below his feet in the van. We pulled into the parking lot of a small church there in town, and cleaned everything up as best we could. Allan's jacket was kind of messy, not to mention much of the rest of the stuff in his general vicinity.

We continued on and found the Graphite Reactor that I had wanted to show Dad. It was pretty cool out, and Allan didn't have his jacket, so I offered him mine. He was so cute wrapped up in my jacket (many, many sizes too large for him) but was proud as a peacock that he was wearing it.

Unfortunately, the reactor was closed, so we decided to go on to the Science and Energy Museum for a few minutes just to kill some time and give Allan a chance to get out of the carseat for awhile. On the way, we found a K-Mart and stopped to buy Allan a sweatshirt to wear, since he needed something a bit warmer to wear and his jacked was messy from earlier this morning. He had his choice of Simba or Mickey and took Simba. We also bought Barb a pair of sunglasses. No trip can ever go by without buying Barb a new pair of sunglasses. Somewhere in our house there's a collection of seven or eight pairs of very nice, used only for a couple weeks, sunglasses. Normally we don't buy them until I notice Barb squinting in one of the parks (a very expensive place to buy sunglasses, I might add). This time, for some unknown reason, the topic came up in conversation before we even crossed the Florida state line, so I talked her into buying a pair at the relatively inexpensive Tennessee K-mart.

We went over to the museum. I didn't think it would be a very good stop, but Allan had a ball! There's a bunch of hands-on activities for kids which were mostly over his head, but he had fun with them anyway. We went into a room that had several mockups of atomic bombs that were produced at Oak Ridge over the years. One was on a tow dolley and had some loose bolts on some clamps. Allan spent several minutes "fixing" them, before we were able to get him to move on to some other areas of the museum. Altogether, we probably spent a good hour or so (I'd figured the place for a fifteen minute stop to let the Little Guy stretch his legs).

After the museum, we returned to the interstate, stopped at a Wendy's for lunch, then drove on to Georgia.

Dad took over from me just South of Chattanooga. It was his job to drive through the nasty traffic around Atlanta. The brake linings of the van, the nerves of three adult passengers, and the floorboards in front of Mom (where the brake pedal would have been on a driver's-ed car) were all given a workout.

We made it safe and sound, though, and checked into the motel, took a brief break (in which Daddy cleaned every toy in the toybox to get rid of any remaining residue of Allan's illness this morning), then went over to a Ryan's Steakhouse for dinner. Thus ended travel day two.

Saturday, May 1 (Travel Day, LaGrange, GA to Valdosta, GA: Visit Callaway Gardens)

Plans: Drive from LaGrange, GA to Valdosta, GA. This will be a shorter driving day, only about 200 miles, and 4 hours on the road. The highlight of today will be a stop at Callaway Gardens. When we arrive in Valdosta, we'll stay overnight at the Comfort Inn there.

Everything went pretty much according to plan. We got up and moving, stopping for the free continental breakfast in the lobby of the motel as we checked out. We only had a half-hour or so drive to the gardens and made a brief stop in the visitor's center to buy our tickets and get a brief orientation of the place.

I was disappointed to find that the azaleas were already out of bloom...I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to anything containing chlorophyll, so I thought that we would be seeing them since we had come to Callaway in late Spring (our only previous trip was in early Fall). Even so, we saw many wonderful beds of flowering plants. The Sibley Horticulture Center was gorgeous. We really enjoyed this greenhouse / formal garden combination. Allan and I ran a couple of foot races on the lawn before we left there.

The Day Butterfly Center was great! There were literally thousands of butterflys darting about, Allan had a ball watching them (and we had fun watching him watch them). He had to be warned several times not to touch them, and even tried to step on one (we successfully stopped the murder), but behaved well with sufficient supervision.

Our last formal stop was Mr. Cason's vegetable Garden. The only other time we'd visited here, the garden was pretty much shut down for the season. This time, the place was booming with new plantings and even a lot of harvesting going on (mostly early Strawberries). Mom bought some berries and everyone in the van enjoyed a pre-lunch snack.

For lunch, I lobbied to eat at the Country Restaurant operated by Callaway Gardens themselves. We had a nice lunch there several years ago and had a nice one again this trip. I had a cup of brunswick stew and a chef's salad. Barb had fried chicken. All of the meals came with buttermilk biscuits and cornbread...very good stuff. Unfortunately, Allan choose this meal to push his own agenda a bit. His whining and poor behavior were not approved of by the powers that be, so a bit of encouragement from Daddy to behave a bit better had to be provided. The poor little guy is just getting so tired of the car seat and so tired overall (he just isn't sleeping well in the motel rooms) that we're really looking forward to getting him settled in at OKWR where he's familiar with the surroundings and able to fall asleep in the room by himself before Mommy and Daddy turn in for the evening.

After we finished lunch, we drove on to Valdosta. We checked into our Comfort Inn, moved in our stuff, and just relaxed for a bit. We got together with Grandma and Grandpa again at about 6pm and drove on down to exit 2 where the outlet shops are. There wasn't much to see or do. We drove down to the old Myogi's Bonsai shop, but it's now closed and abandoned. It was sad because this shop used to be one of our favorite stops on the drive down from Michigan.

We ended up going to a Shoney's for dinner. None of us were very, very hungry, so the Shoney's was perfect. We all were able to eat as much as we wanted without overdoing it. I really enjoyed a baked potato that I added toppings to. Besides that, I just nibbled.

After dinner, we went back to the motel and just crashed for the night.

Sunday, May 2 (Travel Day, Valdosta, GA to WDW!, Artist Point for Dinner)

Plans: Today we'll sleep in a bit and drive from Valdosta, GA to WDW. It will be about 226 miles, so it's less than a 4 hour drive.

This was an odd day. We didn't get moving until almost 9am. We made our way to the continental breakfast before even loading the van. The room was completely overrun! In a space designed for perhaps fifteen people, there must have been at least thirty. A group of kids, some church conference of some sort, was well represented (and well-behaved, I happily report), but there were many adults, too.

We finished our brief breakfast, then loaded the van and checked out. We drove steadily down to Ocala, where we stopped at the Disney center to buy our park hopper passes (we bought four-day park hoppers for our days at Animal Kingdom, since our DVC passes do not include access to the newest park) and take a brief break. We also gassed up the car there, then drove on another few exits before stopping for an early lunch at an Arby's.

We continued on and pulled into OKWR at about 1:15pm or so. I never expected that we'd check in without problems...and I was, unfortunately, correct. We didn't get into the building we'd requested (but we did get first floor and non-smoking -- both of which were higher priority items on my wish list), so we did ok. We'll walk a bit further to the bus stop and pool this trip than last, but we'll survive. The bigger problem was that our park passes were screwed up. I won't bore the reader with details about our DVC points and how the "free" passes work, but suffice to say I've had words with Member Services ever since I made these reservations and was assured, multiple times, that everything was settled. However, we've never - ever checked into OKWR with our park passes correctly settled, and this was no exception. After a bit of obstinence on my part, and some patience (and a call to Member Services) on the part of the CM that checked us in, I got what I wanted. Our passes are now good on Monday-Friday, skipping Saturday, then starting again on Sunday-Thursday. The key is that I'm not getting tickets on the day of arrival or the day of departure when we wouldn't use them anyway.

The check-in ordeal took so long that by the time everything was settled (about 2pm or so), our room was ready! That was a pleasant side effect of the check-in delay and a happy surprise. We left the Turtle Krawl area and drove right to our room (in building 46) and got settled. Allan took some time, but ended up having a nice two-hour nap while Mom and Dad relaxed and the Grandparents went to a Publix to buy some groceries.

After our break, we drove over to Wilderness Lodge for dinner. I had made priority seating arrangements at Artist Point for 6:30pm. We arrived a few minutes early and were seated immediately. Once again, Allan didn't like the idea of sitting in a booster seat (this is becoming a trip theme at meal times) but settled down when I made it clear that I wasn't budging.

We ordered our meal, then enjoyed a basket of breads - including a multi-grain dark bread and a thin multi-grain wafer of some sort. It was served with onion butter and a spicy peach spread. For our entree's, Barb ordered a New York strip steak (not on the menu, but we requested it...it's Barb's favorite meal at this restaurant). The rest of us ordered Buffalo Ribeye steaks ($29 each, but fantastic...and very tender). Mom and Dad ordered a salad, too, that they planned to share, but it wasn't brought to the table until after the entree's were delivered. In addition to that, the bill was screwed up when it came. It still had the salad on (which we'd sent back and just asked to have taken off the bill). Plus, the bill wasn't split, even though we'd asked for it to be done. This was a very unusual meal at Artist Point. The service was unusually and oddly inept, but the cast members were still very pleasant and polite. We enjoyed the meal, but wondered about the service discrepancies. We've never had such things happen at this usually well staffed restaurant.

After we finished dinner, we drove over to Downtown Disney. We finally found a parking place (if you've been there on a Sunday evening you know what I mean). We didn't stay long, we just strolled about for a bit. Barb did go into the World of Disney shop to look for some scrapbooking supplies that she was looking for.

After our brief foray, we returned to the resort and knocked off for the night.

Monday, May 3 (Magic Kingdom, Lunch at El Pirata Y el Perico Restaurante, Epcot, Dinner at Lotus Blossom Cafe)

Plans: Enjoy the WDW Parks and Resorts.

We got up a bit early this morning. Allan and his parents aren't quite acclimated to the OKWR beds yet (Allan's sleeping on the floor on a Coleman camping mat, but today was the first time he used it -- having had his own double or queen bed each night on the way down). We had a simple breakfast in the room, and made it out the door by five minutes or so after 8am, which is our typical morning target time. The walk from our building to the bus stop is definitely the longest we've ever had at OKWR. It's not terrible, but several hundred feet longer than we're used to.

We caught the first bus to the MK, which also happened to be the first bus that came by after we arrived at the bus stop. Allan was in his glory riding a bus. He'd been saying "Alle Ride Bus" for several weeks now. He's also saying "Alle ride train," Alle ride boat," and a new addition, "Alle ride rail train" (monorail).

By the way, we are trying a strategy that we've developed for Allan. We are trying to wear the Little One out! We are having him walk every chance we can. He walked from the room to the bus, around the park (Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland), and in the attraction queues. He loves to walk himself, as opposed to riding in the stroller, and we accomodated him as much as we could. In some places, it was just safer for us to put him in the stroller...such as the crowds in the Main Street hub and the Tomorrowland main thoroughfare (in between Alien Encounter and Time Keeper) for example. Otherwise, the kid walked. We figured that it slowed us down considerably, but would tire him out for later.

When we first got to the park, we strolled down Main Street and made a beeline to Fantasyland.

Allan decided that he didn't want to ride Dumbo, perhaps because he saw how high the dumbos flew. Instead we went over to Cinderella's Carousel. He really enjoyed riding a horse with Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa right there with him.

The we walked over to catch Peter Pan. It was about a twenty minute wait, but not bad. Allan walked by himself through the whole queue. On the ride itself, the Little One seemed to really enjoy seeing Nana and Peter and Wendy, but was quite afraid of Skull Rock when it first appeared as our galleon swooped down toward it, but with some reassurance from us, he settled down. After Pan, we went directly accross to It's a Small World. We all enjoyed this one. By the way, I really think It's a Small World was looking really good. I only noticed one maintenance problem (the first set of rotating magic carpets). I also noticed that in the load/unload area there is a really nice looking ceiling decoration that I don't remember seeing it before.

Snow White's Scary Adventures was next. Allan was frightened, slightly, in the forest areas. I'm kind of surprised at how much he is responding to scary things in the attractions. I didn't expect that he would at this age, but apparently the programming that kids get as they grow up is already starting to kick in.

We made our way around to Tomorrowland next. Allan expressed a desire to drive a Grand Prix car. We'll have to see if we can fit that in some time on this trip. While in the area, we rode the TTA and visited Buzz Lightyear for the first time. Buzz was a fun attraction. There's obviously some carry-over from the Dreamflight ride (the film room, for example) but the make over is well done. I agree with those that have raved about the Buzz Lightyear animatronic. It's really excellent! Incidentally, I won with 128,500 points to Barb's mere 85,000.

We popped Allan back into the stroller for our traipse across to Adventureland. We started our time there visiting the Enchanted Tiki Room. It was so cute to watch Allan during the music. He loved it, clapping his hands as the birds sang, especially the "Never Have a Friend" sung by Iago. Mom and Dad enjoyed this much more than the old version and frankly, so did I.

The Jungle Cruise was next. I was disappointed with our skipper. He was hard to hear (his diction was terrible), and he sped around the rivers like he was paid on commission. If so, he probably got a nice early arrival bonus for our trip.

We were all starting to get a bit hungry, so we decided to have lunch. Dad suggested we try El Pirata Y el Perico Restaurante. I wasn't too excited about Mexican fast food, but was pleasantly surprised at the quality. It wasn't as good as Casa Mexicana at Disneyland -- not by a long shot -- but it was at least the equal of any local Taco Bell. I had a taco salad, while Barb had an order of tacos (you get two), and I picked up a Hot Dog/Cookies/Pop meal for Allan which he mostly nibbled at.

After lunch, we walked back through Main Street. I made sure we took a particularly a slow stroll through the new confectionary, but was able to fend off any temptations to buy some expensive chocolate.

Dad made a comment during our walk that he needed a new battery for his camera, so we made one last stop at the camera shop next to Tony's for a new one. We walked out of the park, and Dad tried his camera, but it still didn't work. Barb suggested that they go back to the camera store while we waited on a bench by the boat landings. Steven, a CM in the shop, put the camera in a dark box, fixed the tracking of the film (which had been the major problem all along) and gave Dad some minor advice to keep the problem from reoccuring.

We caught the bus back to OKWR and noticed that the bus route is different now. The route now is Peninsula, South Point, Old Turtle Pond, Miller's Road, and finally Cove Road (Hospitality House). Miller's Road used to be the starting point. Also, since I'm waxing eloquent about the resort, we've noticed that the construction of the new buildings on Miller's Road is well underway. Frankly, I'd thought that the new buildings would be much closer to completion than they are. They're only framed-in now.

When we got back to the room, we found that our strategy worked like a charm. Even though he didn't want to lay down at first, he was asleep minutes after his head hit the pillow.

After our break, but before we left for Epcot , Allan and Grandpa fed some ducks off our back porch...this is becoming a regular thing. Allan wants all of us to know that he is throwing stuff to the birds. It's quite cute.

After stuffing the birds, we left for Epcot at about 5pm. Allan is still loving these buses! Before we went to the park, our bus made a stop at the Studios. Later I asked a driver about the schedule. Apparently, the OKWR/Studios/Epcot routes are combined between noon and 6pm.

When we arrived at Epcot, we strolled back toward China, again letting Allan propel himself as much as possible. We paused for a brief time while we waited for a musical group to set up outside of Norway, but they never played anything...so we left. We continued on to the China pavilion and stopped for dinner at the Lotus Blossom Cafe. We ordered Shanghai chicken for me, sweet & sour chicken for Barb. Allan shared from both of us. Mom also ordered the sweet & sour chicken, Dad had egg rolls and egg drop soup. Everything was very good, even if not formally presented (styrofoam doesn't do anything to make food taste better, does it?)

After our meal, we left the cafe and were happily surprised to see a group of Chinese acrobats performing. We watched them until they finished up. It was very good entertainment. Then we continued our walk around the prominade. When we got to Africa, Dad Checked out the water mister just to see how effective it was. He was favorably impressed. The Lion King topiaries are out again this year. We also arrived there just in time to catch an African percussion group. We enjoyed them for awhile, too.

In Italy we saw Rondo Masquerade, a classical/pop arrangement group performing. We didn't stay long, but I wish we had because I really enjoyed them. Also, I checked to see that my favorite cappuchino chocolate bars are still for sale. They are. We looked at the railroad in Germany, enjoyed the lotus wall in Japan (specially there for the flower and garden festival). Next to the lotus wall is a bunch of water noise makers. During an Epcot garden tour several years ago, I was told that the Japanese put such devices in their gardens to scare off evil spirits. Here, there were ten or more devices. which knocked, rang bells, banged, and did other things to make noise. To me it looked like a Rube Goldberg San contraption. In Morroco, we we stopped to check the menu for Marrakesh and listened to a musical group. Then we walked on to France and saw the guy (his name escapes me) who is a mime inside a bubble. Wow! The amount of live entertainment going on tonight has been incredible!

We wrapped up our evening in World Showcase by stopping for desert at La Patisserie. I had a Napoleon and got cookies for Barb and Allan. The Little Guy showed that he was pretty tired by his behavior as we snacked. Definitely time to call it a night, so we walked back to the front of the park and out toward the bus stops. Barb tried to get a Flower & Garden Festival guidebook at Guest Relations outside the park, but they didn't have any, so I ran back to the Guest Relations inside the park. They did, so I picked up some copies. One for Dad, one for Barb, and one for Barb's scrapbook (in case she wants to cut one up).

Such was the end of our first day in the parks. We rode back to the resort on a bus, got Allan in bed, and settled in ourselves for a good night's sleep.

Tuesday, May 4 (Studios, Mama Melrose's for Lunch, Pepper Market for Dinner, AK Resorts Tour)

Plans: Enjoy the WDW Parks and Resorts.

After Allan and Grandpa fed the ducks their breakfast, we caught the 8am bus to the Studios.

We got into the park almost as soon as we arrived, even though there were lengthy lines at the turnstiles. We walked back to catch the Tower of Terror first off, but we had to wait for rope drop on Sunset. We spent at least twenty minutes or so waiting before we were allowed to walk down to the queue. The place where they place the rope here is right next to the clock near the Villans in Vogue shop. I think they should move it way down the street to the entrance to the tower area. That would certainly minimize crowd control problems during the long walk down Sunset (yeah, right, like people aren't going to run?) Furthermore, if they did that, more stores could be open and the restrooms on Sunset could be available. Anyway, when the rope dropped, we walked with the masses down to the entrance and into the Tower itself. Allan stayed with Grandma and was stressed when we walked quickly to the tower....but Grandma brought him to join us when we got off the ride.

When we got to the queue area, it was almost a walk in to the library. We did havea brief wait in the lobby, but not more than three minutes or so. The video introduction hasn't changed, as far as I can tell, and we made it out of the library and walked straight (left) as we usually do to catch the next elevator. Barb, Dad and I were in row three, so no center seat for me this time.

The start of the ride, including the first stop (with the appearance of the ghosts and the starfield with the shattering window) and the final stop before the shaft (with the horizontal move through the Twilight Zone stuff) looked the same as they always have to me. I thought I'd read that more special effects had been added to the attraction, but I didn't know what I was looking for and didn't see anything different regardless.

Once we made it to the elevator shaft, though, things were definately different. I used to know exactly what was going to happen as the drops and rises started. Now, no way. While there used to be only a handful of drops, now they are many, varied, and unpredictable! I suppose if one rides the Tower enough, they'll figure out the pattern, but on an initial ride all I can say is that there are a lot of them, and that you can't predict what's happening next. One other thing, as the elevator ride ends, there is a small wrapup speech by Mr. Serling along with some final video footage. Now that the new drop sequence has been implemented, you miss most of the wrapup because it starts before you even get to the bottom of the shaft on the last drop. I assume the imagineers will realize that sometime and reset the timing on that one, but for now it's kind of funny.

After that adventure, we sauntered over to Voyage of the Little Mermaid and walked right in to the theatre (not even stopping in the pre-show room. It was very lucky timing. The show as fun, as always, but disjointed (much more so, in my opinion, than the Legend of the Lion King at the Magic Kingdom where you can catch the entire story more or less). During the show, Allan was a bit frightened of Ursula and the whole battle scene, but at the end of the presentation, he said to grandpa, "Bumpa, Fun?", to make sure that Grandpa had enjoyed it, so I supposed he enjoyed it too.

The Great Movie Ride was next. We had a brief wait in the theatre room, then were loaded into the "B" car. Allan's main opinion of the attraction was that he didn't like the noise. He never became really frightened, with the possible exception of the the horror genre scene during "the switch," but he did have me holding my hands over his ears through much of the ride.

After watching the montage of great films (I'm pleased that they keep adding newer ones to the mix, so the entire collection stays classic, but fresh), we walked back to the back end of the park. Mom and Dad joined me on Star Tours. As we were loaded, we had to move from one star speeder queue to another due to the incompetent counting of the CMs that were responsible for loading them. We sat in the third row on the far right side. The ride was pretty calm, not very jouncy at all, due in no small part to the fact that we were in the middle of the speeder and the greatest motion is to the front and rear (the rear row is by far the roughest).

As we exited, we walked to the left and made our way in to Mama Melrose's to make priority seating arrangements for lunch. When I first walked into the lobby, it was about 10:30am and not at all open for business yet. I had to wait a few minutes before someone came over to help me make the arrangements for 11:30am (the restaurant doesn't start seating until then).

To kill the extra time we had on our hands, we decided to take Allan over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Adventure set. We walked back toward New York Street only to run into big crowds that had gathered for the Regis and Kathy Lee show that was being filmed on the back lot. In fact, another result of the show being there was that many of the outdoor shows (Hunchback and Indiana Jones are the most prominent examples) were being run only in the afternoons, possibly so they don't affect the sound for the show being taped. I don't know the actual reason, that's just my own conjecture.

We had a difficult time finding the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground because of the crowds and the way many of the walkways were blocked off due to the show. Once we got there, though, Allan had a ball and was absolutely fearless (Grandma's word, but apt). He went down lots of slides, giggled his fool head off at some intermittently squirting water (coming down from a leak in the huge hose that lofted above us). He also went AWOL for awhile until we mounted a search and found him. He'd gone into a small cave, and came out a different hole than we'd been watching!

A few minutes after 11am, we collected Allan up again, much to his consternation, and walked back over to Mama Melrose's, where we had a very typical Mama Melrose's meal. The service there is either exceptional or average. Today it was average. The food, though, is always very, very good. I wish the menu was less "creative." The food is good, but the chef seems to be more interested in being interesting and less on just being good. One example is that my oft-lamented bottomless pasta dish (it had two or three different pastas and three or four different sauces that you could mix and match from course to course). Another is that a simple, plain pepperoni pizza is no longer available unless you ask specifically for it...but of course, the price is more in line with the fancier specialty pizzas that have survived the cut and remain on the menu.

To eat, I ordered the rigatoni with chicken which very good, Barb special-ordered a pepperoni / mushroom pizza (good), Allan was supposed to be able to make his own pizza, but the server apparently forgot (it wasn't advertised in the menu anymore, but she'd said she would bring him the stuff anyway)...good thing we didn't make a big deal with him about it beforehand. Dad ordered a pepperoni with red onion and green pepper pizza (very yummy, and the pepperoni was grilled and thick and tasty). Mom special-ordered some rigatoni with meat sauce and really enjoyed it that, too. For desert, I had the classic tiramisu as did Mom! Dad had a Snickers bar cheesecake, while Allan had a cookie and Barb passed.

After gorging, we walked back to catch the bus which we had to wait about 15 minutes for. Not bad at all, but there is a twist to OKWR bus service that is unique compared to the other Disney resorts. Between noon and 6pm, the two buses on the Epcot and Studios runs run a double route, so each goes to both parks then back to the resort, and so on. As a result, we had to go to Epcot on the way back to the resort this trip. Frankly, it's a pain that they have to do this, but I'm glad they have. The wait time is much less than it used to be, even if you have a slightly longer trip overall. As Mom put it, "it's better to sit longer in the air conditioned bus, than to have to stand out in the heat."

I have a couple Allan updates now, sorry for those of you that don't care, but this is my trip report, afterall. First, the Little Guy has been very well behaved overall. He has his moments, like any other 2 1/2 year old that is off of his normal schedule, but he has done very, very well (especially when I compare him to whatever kid is pitching a fit at any point during our park touring). Second, he has developed a cute little habit. Whenever we return from one of the parks on a bus, he exits the rear door of the bus (we always try to sit back there with the stroller and all), then he wants to quickly run up to the front of the bus and look inside the front door at the driver and thank him (or her). It's very cute, but mostly very polite. I'm very proud that he's so attentive to saying "please," "thank you," opening doors for ladies, and other common courtesies.

When we got Allan down for his nap, Barb and I took off and had a brief swim, leaving Grandma to keep an ear out for him. When we returned, we laid down to take a short nap ourselves to finish up the break time.

We awoke and got moving after a bit, and drove the van over to Coronado Springs at about 5:30pm. Barb and I have been over to this resort before, but we took a bit more time to just enjoy the ambience of the place this time. We entered the front lobby entrance and walked clear through to the prominade out back. Then we walked over to the dig site, where the themed pool is located, then continued our walk all around the inside perimeter. At one point we stopped to watch a heron fishing for his dinner. Later we watched some of the boaters out on the lagoon. When we returned to the main public area, we checked out the Maya Grill menu, something I like to do whenever I pass by a restaurant. It looks to me like they've added more beef and chicken to what used to be mostly a seafood menu...maybe it's just my imagination. Regardless, the prices are still fairly steep.

We walked on over to Pepper Market, which was more in line with tonight's dinner budget. Barb picked up a taco salad while I selected the penne pasta with marinara sauce and a piece of chocolate cake. We also got Allan a chicken strips meal. The food was fairly good, although the pasta was a bit overcooked. During the meal, Allan was less than perfectly behaved, but not bad (I'm still learning to deal patiently with a 2 1/2 year old with an independent streak). I was hoping to leverage that to keep my chocolate cake to myself, but he started behaving better toward the end of the main course so I had to share it with him (and Barb, too). While we were eating all of that stuff, Dad had a fruit salad and an order of nachos -- both were excellent, especially the nachos had LOTS of toppings. Dad's exact comment, in fact, was that "usually you run out of chips before you run out of stuff, but I ran out of chips before I ran out of stuff." Mom had a simple garden salad and chicken vegetable soup (which was excellent, but very peppery).

After dinner we drove over to see the All-Stars (Mom and Dad had never seen them). Barb and I enjoyed seeing All-Star Movies for the first time. We also drove into the Blizzard Beach parking lot to see the Winter Summerland Miniature Golf...couldn't see much, but what we saw looked fun. We never got back here to play a round, but I'm sure well make up that deficit on some future trip.

Wednesday, May 5 (Animal Kingdom, Lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque, Dinner at Bonfamilles, Studios and Fantasmic!)

Plans: Enjoy the WDW Parks and Resorts.

We got up early today and made it to the bus stop by 7:10am or so. The second bus was for Animal Kingdom, our morning destination. The trip to the park was quick. Upon arrival, we noticed that the OKWR bus stop had been moved. It's now the closest one to the park entrance, and is shared with the Disney Institute buses.

We walked into the park and through part of the Oasis. I was surprised that there was a traditional rope drop at 8am. They use music from Lion King at opening time, then let everyone through begin their day. We walked with the crowds back through Safari Village and into Harambe where we joined the huge queue into Killamanjaro Safari.

The wait time wasn't advertised. When we walked in, the entire queue was still moving. In fact, we hardly stopped until perhaps fourty feet or so from the loading area, even if our pace varied slightly from time to time. Unfortunately, there was a guy, probably in his mid-thirties, smoking in the queue. There had been several signs asking people to not smoke that we'd already passed. Barb made a comment about how the smoke was bothering her contact lenses, then there was an announcement that smoking was prohibited (I don't know if a CM saw someone sucking soot and made the general announcement in response, or if no-smoking announcements are just a normal part of the operations of the safari.) Regardless, when the guy kept on puffing, Barb made another negative remark. That was the stick that broke the camel's back. My Dad, a slightly built, if strong-willed man of 67 years, loudly told the infractor that the smoke was annoying people. Frankly, he could have been much more kind in doing so, but the smoker finally put out the tobacco (however, only because a CM asked him specifically to do so). His only retort was that he didn't know that he wasn't allowed to smoke in the line. So Dad made another crack back about the signs and announcements. Thankfully, the younger man ignored Dad's further comments and the two parties were loaded into different safari vehicles.

As soon as we got into the vehicle and pulled out to start our tour, the whole altercation was behind us. We all really enjoyed the ride. As is usual early in the morning, animals were everywhere including the lions, giraffe, hippos (and out of the water, too), elephants, white and black rhinoceros, and a host of gazelles, antelopes, and other hooved animals. I strongly recommend that you visit this attraction either very early in the morning or just before park closing if you want to see the most animals possible.

When we exited the safari, we immediately want on a walk down the Pangani Forest trail. This is a beautiful walk, and our tour included not necessarily in chronilogical order, quite a show by some gorillas (including a couple of little ones, the first hanging out with daddy, the second, quit literally hanging out with mommy), some meercats, and a view of some hippos from underwater.

When we got off the trail, we made our way toward Asia and went in to see Flights of Wonder. Flight's of Wonder used to be held in a theater that was right on the walkway in between Asia and Africa. Now it's held in a small tent-like building a bit closer to the bridge that crosses Discover River between Asia and Safari Village. I'm not sure if a new show is being put together for the previous theatre, or if it is just a maintenance thing. Either way, it was a fun show, with many of the birds flying right over our heads as they moved from the front of the venue to the back or vice versa. At this point, it's hard to remember all of the birds that were shown, but the toucan, spotted owl, and American bald eagle were among them.

Next we walked further into Asia and found the line for Kali River Rapids. The queue here looks really nice, but since there was virtually no line, we walked right through it (I'd like to return sometime and just look over the architecture and themeing here). As we got close to the load area, Barb and I left Mom and Dad with Allan for the front end of the baby swap.

Kali River Rapids is an odd attraction. The story is very thin, and the ride itself is very short. You're supposed to experience a wonderful trip through a tropical rainforest, then build up some good old-fashioned resentment toward those meanys that are cutting it down. The first part of the trip is pretty much as advertised. The scenery is really pretty nice...misty, with lovely vegetation all about. When you get to the part of the ride where a lot of trees have been cut down and stumps are burning and the sounds of buzzsaws are all around, confusion sets in. There isn't really a clear appreciation for what you're seeing. I suppose the queue, which we mostly missed, might have provided more clues about what we would be seeing, but it was mostly lost on me.

Along the way, of course, there are several geysers that blow water into the air (which mostly falls into the raft, of course). There's also several rapids which have some rushing water that cause some splashing onto the riders. By far the greatest amount of water, though, occurs just toward the end of the burning forest area. There's a pretty decent drop there, perhaps twenty or thirty feet. The people that are on the side of the raft that goes over the drop first will be getting pretty wet. You see, as the raft drops, the far end of the raft pretty much becomes buried in the water. That's not really the problem, though. The real issue is that as the raft ploughs into the water, the water, in turn, forms a pretty good sized wall of moisture that falls back down on the people that go down backwards. Those folks should hold their noses and get ready because they are about to get DRENCHED! Fortunately for Barb and I, we were on the side opposite of the victims and didn't hardly get wet.

When we got back to Mom and Dad, Barb suggested that I ride again with Mom and Dad. It sounded like a great idea, so I ran to catch up to them and we all got into the next raft. We enjoyed the lovely ride through the rainforest, mostly missed the water from the geysers and rapids, then entered the burning forest area. We listened to the buzzsaws, watched the view of the burning timber, then went down the big drop backwards. Get that? Backwards, I said.

Remember what it looks like when the big one comes at you at Typhoon Lagoon? Do you know how the Japanese feel during tsunami season? Can you imagine driving through a wall of water that is a good five feet over your head? Any idea what it's like to have several 50 gallon barrels of water dumped on your pretty little head?

Dad does.

You probably can imagine how Mom, Dad, and I looked when we got off the raft. A bit on the moist side, I must say. Dad obviously got the brunt of it, I was a bit to the side as the water hit. Mom said that as we went over the edge, she looked at my face and just knew they were in for it. She knew correctly. Mom and Dad were soaked, and I was only slightly less damp. What made it worse was that when we caught back up with them, Barb was so stinking proud of herself that she hadn't gotten wet. It made me want to pick her up and dump her in the water myself. Of course, being the good husband I am, I didn't. But I wanted to.

After we got off the river, we all walked through the Maharajah Jungle Trek. There are three main attractions on this pathway. First, you'll see tons of huge fruit bats. Second, you can view many, many tigers. Third, there's an aviary with many unique and beautiful birds that came from Asia.

Personally, I think Pangani Forest has more varied animals to see, but the Jungle Trek is great, too. Actually, Killamanjaro Safari, Pangani Forest trail, and Maharajah Jungle Trek are really the heart of Disney's Animal Kingdom. Of the three, only one is a "ride" attraction, the other two are "walk-throughs," but there are so many wonderful creatures (a word I've carefully selected, by the way) to see in such realistic surroundings, that they are just marvelous to enjoy.

For lunch, we stopped in at Flame Tree Barbeque. We ordered a basket of spicy fries (for Barb and Allan to share) and a salad in a bread bowl with a wonderful sweet & saur dressing (for me). I really wanted to try the barbecued chicken, but the only way to get some was on a combination plate with pork and beef ribs, and I really didn't want to have that much to eat.

After I got the food, I walked down toward the river to find a place for us to sit. There were several larger tables that would easily have accomodated the five of us, but each and every one of them was taken (some by parties of only two or three people). Finally I settled on a table for four that we would have to squeeze around. Of greater concern was the fact that I'd gone so far away from the service counter, that the rest of my group had a difficult time finding me. Since Barb and Allan were sharing anyway, having the smaller table didn't turn out to be a problem at all, and we all enjoyed a lighter meal.

After lunch, I proposed that we visit Dinoland USA before we leave the park. It's been my experience that Countdown to Extinction is busy first thing in the morning, then again late in the afternoon, but for some odd reason not so bad around lunch time. It was true to form again today.

Barb stayed with Allan as the rest of us took the "journey back in time" to catch a dinosaur. Actually, the ride was much better than I remembered it from last year. The effects of the meteor seemed less pronounced, I thought I remembered some lighting effects as well as the blast of air. The rest of the ride, though, seemed better with more to see. Maybe I was just being more lenient this time...who can say?

Just a passing comment here...The amount of walking that one must do in this park is prodigious. It really is a big park, with a lot of space between attractions. That's part of the charm of the park, too, though. The landscaping is so lush and the foliage so dense that you really do feel like you're somewhere wild.

After Countdown, we left the park for the morning and took our daily break back at the resort.

After our naps, we drove over to Port Orleans for dinner. Mom had expressed an interest in having a meal at Bonfamilles before the trip, and this seemed to be a good time to try it. I ordered a chicken florentine dish which was pretty good. Mom had jumbalaya which she says was good, too, but quite different from the dish that is served at the French Market at Disneyland. Unfortunately, I don't remember what Dad had, perhaps when he reads this he'll made a note to tell me so I can update the record. Barb and Allan just had a couple of simple grilled cheese sandwich meals.

After dinner, we jumped back into the van and drove to the Studios. As we came into the parking lot, we were being directed to go left by a CM. It always amazes me that the studios parking lot attendents want to park everyone to the most distant reaches of their domain. The pain with that is that one must ride the hated Disney trams if you park that far away. Well, this evening, as I drove up toward the CM, I motioned that I really wanted to park to the right (by the bus parking area). He motioned to me to go left. I raised my hands in feigned prayer, and the guy put one hand over his eyes and waved me to the right with the other. I was pleasantly surprised, and quickly drove off before the guy's supervisor or somebody changed his mind for him. Another example of the magic...

We stashed the van and entered the park. We walked directly down Hollywood Boulevard and made a right turn at Sunset. At the far end of Sunset we entered the pathway to the right that goes directly to the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater. It's a very long walk from Sunset (the entrance is in between the Tower of Terror and the Theatre of the Stars, where Beauty and the Beast plays, is located). About half way back to the amphitheater, we had to drop off our stroller. Here's where a bit of irritation set in. We arrived pretty early this evening. Showtime wasn't until 8:30 and it was still before 7pm at this point. However, the stroller had to be parked at the very far back corner of the stroller parking area (see "x" on diagram below). Folding the stroller (the one we have is a very small umbrella that folds up incredibly small), wasn't an approved option, either. I asked if we could park closer to the front, and was rudely refused. When I pointed out the fact that I was among the first people there, I shouldn't be penalized for being early but in fact, I should get a better place to park it than if I was later. The CM then suggested that I could park at the beginning of the second row instead (see "o" on diagram below). What a help that would be. Unbelievable.


x - Where I had to park

o - Where I was told I could park instead
x
o
Entry
way





Once we dropped off the stroller the walk to the amphitheatre was still quite aways away. We got there, and found seats about midway down the stands right in the center of the whole place. They were pretty good. Even better, there were some very nice folks sitting in front and behind us, so Allan's antics didn't cause any consternation. He behaved really well, actually, playing very, very nicely for a good ninety minutes or so. Barb had the foresight to bring some of his toys along, so he just ran from one end of our group to the other, playing with his toys and getting his wiggles out.

About a half hour before the show was to start, a couple of bellhops from the Hollywood Tower Hotel, came down the main aisle with a ladder and some chairs. These guys were a couple of really entertaining comedians. After watching them for a bit, I remembered seeing them at Boardwalk. As their show went on, we found out that they were not only comedians, but also jugglers and expert slapstick artists, too. They made the last few minutes of waiting very, very fun and much less tiresome.

Finally, 8:30 came, and Fantasmic! started. This is still a wonderful show. The music is stirring, there is fantastic fireworks and special effects, great scenes of classic Disney animation (and some stuff that I think was produced especially for this Florida version of the show) projected onto water screens located in the water below. At one point of the show, Snow White, Ariel, and Belle dance with their respective princes on a set of rafts that were also used by some animals (chimps and so on, in the Jungle Book scenes) during some other portions. At one point, a pretty wild fight breaks out between Governor Radcliff's boys and the Indians from Pocohontas. Then the Disney bad gals (Maleficent and her cronies) conjure up an evil dragon, a blast of fire, and lots of other terrible things. The whole extravaganza ends with Steamboat Willie and a crew of Disney Characters on a riverboat to the thrilling finale of music.

Of course, Fantasmic! originated in Disneyland. This show is very similar to the original, but there are several things that are different. Here's a list of my own opinions of which version is superior in which areas (of course, this is purely subjective):

Disneyland:
Fight scene (Peter Pan and Hook on Columbia is better than John Smith and Pocahontas)
Less "Evil" (The WDW has a lot more villains and dwells on the "dark side" to a much greater extent)
Mark Twain (but the boat at WDW isn't bad, not just as good)
Studios:
Animation (Far superior than the originals at Disneyland)
More up-to-date (Includes more of the newer film's characters)
Better Effects/Fireworks (The dragon and other effects are great)
The show is really fantastic. There was at least one glaring technical gliche during our show -- the dragon appeared (at least his eyes did), but he didn't grow into full size and breath fire (although the fire on the water did show up). Even with the bugs, Barb and I both decided that we wanted to come back and see it again.

After the show was over, we joined the masses in the walk from the amphitheatre down to Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards and out o the park. Crowd control was terrible, not because the CMs weren't trying, but because so many people were in such a small amount of space that things were just chaotic. As I'd anticipated, picking up stroller was a pain, too. The entire parking area was filled with people looking for strollers and other people holding children as other people in their parties looked for strollers. It was wild. One bright side to the story, was that since we'd driven over to the park, we didn't have to wait for a bus.

After our adventure, we simply came back to the room and got Allan settled in. Then, while Barb called her best friend, Liz, who's family is here tomorrow and Friday, I worked on this report before we called it a night.

Thursday, May 6 (Magic Kingdom, Lunch at Pinocchio's Village Haus, Epcot, Dinner at Rose & Crown)

Plans: Enjoy the WDW Parks and Resorts.

Without even realizing it at the time (I added this paragraph upon our return home), today was the one hundredth day that I've spent in the parks at Walt Disney World. That's not a record, I know. Many folks have spent many, many more days and hours at the parks than I have, but it's still an interesting milestone for me. With that pointed out, here we go...

After the morningly bird feeding (I got pictures this morning), we made the 8am bus to the Magic Kingdom. There was a family on the bus that was doing something that I think would be a great idea for future trips with Allan and any future kids we have. The father was teaching the two boys a Bible memory verse. The idea was that they wouldn't be allowed to ride any rides until they could say their verse before they got to the park. I think that's an excellent idea!

Upon our arrival at the park, we made a beeline to Pirates of the Carribean since we hadn't seen this attraction, one of my favorites, yet. As we got to the Pirates building, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee were out greeting folks. Allan didn't want to have anything to do with Hook, but was fairly cordial with Mr. Smee (who handled Allan quite well, being very careful to not upset him at all). It was a good warmup for later when we see Mickey!

As we entered the queue, I was amazed at how very, very dark it was inside. We made the long walk to the load area without any stops, and walked right on the next boat that was loading up. I was still thinking it was extremely dark, so much so that I pulled off my sunglasses to put my regular ones on, only to find out that I already had my regular ones on. Like I said, it's very, very dark in there now (great for dates and honeymooner's I suppose, not so romantic with a 2 1/2 year old sitting in between you and your beloved). I really enjoy this ride.

Next, we walked around to Frontierland and Barb and I rode Splash while Mom and Dad kept Allan, then we switched. Actually, Barb and I took off from there to meet a friend of Barb's that was at WDW at the same time as we. Liz stood up in our wedding, but now lives in Ohio, so we don't see her often. Barb was super excited to be able to spend a few hours with her best friend. Unfortunately, Dad had Allan's sunglasses with him when he left to ride Splash. Barb was convinced that Allan would be very unhappy without them, so she ran back into the queue through the exit, explained herself to the CM guarding the way, and found Mom and Dad just as they were getting in their boat!

The three of us then made our way out of Frontierland and toward the Castle where we were meeting Liz and her family. We made a slight detour at Liberty Square, where we saw Aurora out visiting her friends. I got a picture of Barb and Allan with her...yet another opportunity for Allan to get used to being with Characters before meeting with the Big Cheese.

We continued out to the hub, and found Liz and Columbus Millet and the kids standing by a tree planter just in front of the castle. As we stood by the tree, taking a few minutes as Barb and Liz caught up on family stuff, Columbus and I took the kids a few feet over to the huge horse that was standing there at the hub, waiting for a load of people to jump on the trolley. Allan was happy staying a good five feet or so away from the huge beast. He certainly didn't want to walk up and pet the animal. Caitlyn (2ish) and Cole (5ish), on the other hand, were much less fearful and enjoyed seeing the horse up close and personal. After the ladies got caught up, we had a whirlwind hour or so, riding Cinderella's Carousel and Dumbo, then watching the Legend of the Lion King.

We took a lunch break at Pinocchio Village Haus, where Barb and I both had the 1/4 pound hot dogs with fries and water to drink (and shared the fries with Allan), and I ordered a child's hot dog meal for Allan. The plan all along was to give Allan the pop and cookies from his meal, and eat the hot dog myself. It worked well, and even though I did offer him the option of eating the hot dog, he was quite content with the fries we gave him (and of course, the cookies that he got at the end of the meal).

The two boys were excited about the idea of riding the skyway, so after lunch we parked the strollers there in Fantasyland and got in the line which was advertised as a 30 minute wait. It ended up being more like 20 minute, which was a good thing since the Millet kids aren't as familiar with the idea of standing in line as Allan is, being a veteran of four trips to WDW already (this being his fifth). Cole got to ride in the bright red carriage that he was hoping to be in, Barb and Allan and I followed in the next one (I forget it's color scheme).

When we landed at Tomorrowland, I suggested that Barb and the others enjoy Buzz Lightyear, while I retrieved both strollers. I had a brisk walk to Fantasyland and back, and was waiting at the exit when the group emerged.

Barb and Liz made plans to talk on the phone later, and that perhaps the Millet's may come over to OKWR to jump in the pool with us the next afternoon, then we abandoned them to the park and made our way out for our break. On the way out, we took a short detour to get cotton candy for Allan (he was a very, very, very good boy today -- unfortunately, he didn't really like the candy because it made his fingers "uckie.")

Today's break was an abbreviated nap, since we were with Liz and her family a bit longer than we'd planned. When we got up, we drove the van over to the Beach Club Resort so we could use the International Gateway to enter Epcot. We walked right to the United Kingdom, but were a bit early for our priority seating time, so we strolled the gardens for awhile. We saw Mary Poppins and Peter Pan there. In fact, both spoke to Allan, but he was very bashful and wasn't much in the mood to be too friendly (he's like that a lot after his afternoon nap and before dinner.)

The meal itself was was great! Barb, Allan and I shared a fruit and cheese plate (no longer with the wonderful Stilton blue cheese) and king cut prime rib. We also had a couple of bowls of lamb & barley soup, that Allan wasn't allowed to partake in. Mom and Dad both had the prime rib, too. The food was excellent, although the service was a bit sketchy (good, but slow). This is fairly typical of the Rose & Crown, though, so we weren't stressed by it at all.

After dinner, we strolled over to Canada and enjoyed Oh Canada, the Circlevision movie. Allan loved watching the horses of the Canadian Mounted Police. At one point, he almost fell over in my arms, even though I was holding him securely, as the view of the movie changed (when the plane or helicopter that was carrying the cameras did a sweeping turn). It was really pretty funny, because he clearly stated with some aggitation, "Daddy, I fall down!"

After the film, we enjoyed a brief walk through Victoria gardens, but were a bit disappointed when we saw several college-aged girls climb OVER the fence to have their pictures taken with some topiaries of Bambi, Thumper, and Flower. They were even putting their arms around the plantings. It made me very angry, especially when I saw that Allan was taking their lead and getting ready to climb over. Barb picked him up and told him that "we don't do naughty things like that." The girls just ridiculed the comment, but it wasn't meant for them...it was meant for Allan so he would not copy them.

We talked about several ideas for the rest of the evening. I thought about stopping for dessert at the bakery in Norway, just to try something different (I still want to try the rice cream sometime). We never really decided, so we just continued around the prominade. I noticed that there was a Friendship at the dock, so I suggested that we take the boat over to Morocco. Allan really wanted to ride a boat, and this was a good opportunity. Allan stuck his head out of the window (with Grandpa securely holding the rest of his body inside the boat) during much of the voyage. He even had a lengthy conversation with another boy standing a few rows ahead of us that was sticking his head out of his window, too.

When we arrived in Morocco, we browed through the marketplace shops. Mom looked at rugs and strongly considered buying one for her new breakfast room floor, but decided against it when she saw the prices for the ones she liked (upwards of $350). We also noticed that the tower of the signature Mosque in the pavilian is being "maintenanced." One last observation is the pastry shop that is located in the very back of the pavilion, right across from Marrakesh. We'll have to consider stopping for pastries here sometime, maybe some honey-dripping baklava!

We made our way back to the prominated and walked over to France, next. As we continued up toward the bridge to the Gateway, Allan heard some music and suddenly decided that he wanted to dance. He talked both Mommy and Grandma into sharing a brief step or two. It was really very, very cute.

When Fred Astaire was satisfied, we walked to the low level below the prominade just before the bridge (on the lagoon side) where we'd planned to watch IllumiNations. We waited about ten or fifteen minutes, then just a few minutes before 9pm, when the show was schedule to start, the wind REALLY kicked up. Lightening started flashing all over the sky, so we packed the little one in the stroller, and left for the van. We walked over the bridge and through International Gateway, then back to the Beach Club to get the van. We never had the big rain I feared, but I figured discretion was the better part of valor. If the rain, or a worsened lightening storm had come up, we would have been glad to miss it. As it was, huge thunder, hail, and rain storms swept across the area this evening, but most of it hit just North of us.

We returned to the room, watched ER, and crashed for the night.

Friday, May 7 (Epcot, Lunch at the Sunshine Food Fair, Dinner at Concourse Steakhouse, Monorail Resorts Tour)

Plans: Enjoy the WDW Parks and Resorts.

After our daily morning bird feeding (this time with Grandma), Allan rounded us all up and got us into the van for a drive over to the Beach Club Resort. There's method to our madness, but all we wanted to do for the moment was get over to Epcot.

We made a brief stop at Hospitality House for Barb to mail a package that she wanted to send out. She'd understood that there was a mail meter at each front desk that would allow her to put on the exact postage. After waiting at the desk briefly, she found out that there was no such meter, at least at the OKWR front desk. They did have a mail scale, though, and weighed the envelope so she could buy the correct amount of postage and affix it. The whole process took longer than expected, but since the rest of us were tied up behind a huge shuttle bus in the circle drive, it didn't much matter.

We continued our drive over to the Beach Club, and parked fairly close to where we'd been the night before. We let Allan walk by himself to the entrance, through the lobby, and out to the walkway to Epcot's International Gateway. On the way, he saw a 1920's Chevrolet pick-up truck parked outside the Beach Club, and lobbied for a chance to "drive it." We let him do this kind of thing many times throughout the trip, because those simple little things were such a joy for him.

As Allan walks about the parks, the rules are fairly consistent...he must hold an adult's hand in crowds and in parking lots and at bus stops and must stay close to us when crowd conditions permit him to walk without such close supervision. When he is allowed to walk freely, he must always return immediately when he is called (which we do whenever he goes too far in front of us). Frankly, he does really, really well with these rules and follows them flawlessly about 98% of the time. For the other 2%, a quick return to the stroller is the apt "punishment." He would really rather walk, so this works well - without creating a scene in public.

It might sound like we're too strict, but I'd rather be strict than sorry if our son ever got hurt in a crowd or by a moving vehicle. Another thing, and this is just a personal opinion (albeit a strong one), Barb and I both detest the kid leashes that some people use. I'd rather teach Allan how to behave well in such circumstances and restrain him myself when necessary, than to teach him via a method that works well with canines.

As I said, we walked through the resort and to the gateway. We whipped our our passes and made it through the turnstiles, then enjoyed a leisurely walk through the UK and Canadian pavilions. We stopped along the way to take several photos (it's a nice time to do so when there are very few people about). In particular, Dad wanted some pics of the UK (his parents are from England, so it's a special place for us at Epcot).

Also, Barb wanted some of Victoria Gardens in Canada. While we were there, Barb noticed that the topiary of Bambi, Thumper, and Flower that those girls were goofing off with were made of dried flowers and were on loan from Disneyland Paris. It made me think even less highly of those young "ladies" than I had the night before when I realized what damage they might have caused. Common courtesy and polite behavior is such an inexpensive thing, yet is such a rarety these days. I certainly intend for my family, and my son, to be among the courteous and the polite. Sorry, I know that's not the first time you've heard that kind of thing in this report, I don't mean to be redundant.

We made our way out of the World Showcase and started toward the main walkway back to Future World. Unfortunately, of those of us without green thumbs, Barb made all of us take a detour through the Flower & Garden Festival shops along the rose walk. Seriously, even for those of us that don't garden, it's a neat thing to check out. There are several vendors that sell various garden supplies and gadgets. Mom and Dad even bought some things: A high-tech planter for their new condominium's patio (so Dad can grow big tomatoes), and a neat hanger for terracotta pots for their other hanging plants. Barb got one of the hangers, too.

Since we were already in the mood for dirt, I suggested we go over to the Land and ride the boat ride. Allan enjoyed the boat (if you havn't already gotten it, the kid's on a machine and transportation kick), and the rest of us enjoyed the environmental and scientific information. It's really a neat attraction, and I'm not into gardens at all.

Afterwards, we walked through the Sunshine Food Fair on the way back out of the pavilion and we decided to come back here for lunch. It's a good place with decent food, although the separate cash registers are a major pain and the crowds can become huge by noontime.

Since it was still only about 10am or so, we walked all the way across Future World to see Test Track. The sign at the beginning of the line said 80 minutes. I don't know how long the wait really was because we didn't have to wait. Since I'm a GM employe (at least for another three weeks - my part of the company is being spun off into a totally separate company from GM), we were able to go up to the VIP lounge, have a cold soft drink, relax, and get in line at our leisure. We spent, I suppose, twenty minutes or so up there, then got our VIP pass and too the elevator down to the loading area. Our VIP pass got us up to the front of the line (even with a baby swap) and we enjoyed the ride all the more since we didn't have to wait for it.

Test Track has a little taste of what vehicle testing is like at GM's massive Milford Proving Grounds. The real thing consists of over 500 miles of carefully maintained road surfaces that are used year after year to validate the vehicles that are designed and built by GM. Among the tests that are "experienced" in Test Track is the 16.8% grade (hill climb), an anti-lock brake demonstration (braking with and without the ABS), thermal and salt spray cycling, and a recreation of the ride and handling loop that is used extensively for testing by the guys from my own steering division. A brief speed run, like one would experience on the 4 1/2 mile circular track (complete with banked curves) completes the series of "tests." It's really a nicely done attraction, but I'm glad I didn't have to wait 80 minutes to ride it. Besides that, I don't know why this thing was two years late. It isn't so spectacular that such technical delays appear to be warranted. Oh well, in three weeks I won't work for this sponsoring company anyway...and I won't have to worry about feeling like I have to defend it. Although I still think that GM cars and trucks are the best ones built in the US today ;-) (hey, I graduated from General Motors Institute, so I can still feel loyalty, right?)

After our ride on the Track, we walked back over to the Land for lunch. Barb and I went our separate ways (leaving Allan with Grandma) and I got some chicken fettuccini and chocolate mousse cake. Barb got some beef barley soup and some chicken noodle soup (I guess she was in a soup mood) and a fruit cup for Allan. The little guy also shared some of our food and some chips from Grandma. The fettuccini was really good and the cake was excellent for the price (about $3), but Barb reported that her soups were only marginal. Not bad, but not fabulous, either.

After our repast, I took Allan by the hand and he and I left the park via a bus to return to the resort. He was really getting crabby, and I figured that getting him back to the resort a bit early would allow him to unwind and get a good break in this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Barb, Mom and Dad all went to see the "Growing Up with Vertical Gardens" workshop. Barb says it was ok, it had some good information, but the presenter was fairly mediocre. Not the best first experience for Mom and Dad at the Flower & Garden show, but since Barb knows that better ones are possible (from last year's experience), they'll probably attend some others.

While Allan, Barb, and I rested up a bit, Grandma and Grandpa made a Publix run to get some milk and some other things that we need. After the break, we drove over to the Contemporary Resort. We had priority seating arrangements for dinner at Concourse Steakhouse, a place we've never tried before.

Barb and I ordered and shared a T-bone steak. It was served with red potatos and onions. It was good, but not exceptional. Frankly, it wasn't as good as the buffalo and New York strip steaks we had at Artist Point earlier in the trip. For desert, I had the tirimisu which was unusual. It was made in a chocolate cup and wasn't very flavorful. It was a bit disappointing at the price of $6.50. Barb ordered a piece of chocolate cake. Our total, including tax and tip, was $44. While we were eating those items, Mom and Dad both ordered the Prime Rib. I asked about an outside cut, and when the server said it was available Dad jumped on it. The prime rib was good, but the spices on the outside cut were very strong, very peppery and spicy. Dad enjoyed it very much, but did point out that the flavors were different from the typical prime rib.

Service during dinner was ok, not overly amazing but reasonably attentive. Also, it might have just been my imagination, but it seemed like service dropped off (or at least got a bit colder) when the server found out we were spliting our meal and Allan wasn't ordering separately.

I guess I can sum up my opinion of this restaurant with an opinion. It just seems like it was trying too hard to be a concourse level California Grill instead of having it's own identity as a good meat and potatoes restaurant. At least that was my thoughts, but Barb agreed when I expressed this thought.

After dinner we walked out to the shops for a bit. Right in the middle of the concourse, Allan was amazed at the Mickey railroad and the monorail trains that were set up...he wanted to walk around the table to follow them as they went around the track, but Barb convinced him that they were coming back, so he started saying "back soon, back soon" which, when translated, means either "come back soon" or "I'll see you when you come back again", depending on the context. You'll have to figure it out for this one.

In one of the shops I found several CDs of Disney music. The Fantasmic! CD has 35 tracks! In addition to the regular tracks of the show, there's another complete set without the sound effects and verbal (music only). This is one I'll have to buy!

Next, we caught the monorail upstairs and rode over to the Polynesian Resort. I always enjoy just walking around this resort with it's lovely themeing and lush landscaping.

We walked outside just to stroll, and while Dad and I were glancing at a map of the resort, I noticed a walkway over to the wedding pavilion and Grand Floridian, so I suggested we make the journey on foot. It was a really nice walk, and the first time we've ever done it. We were able to see the wedding pavilion up close for the first time (Franke's Studio looked lovely -- and pricey -- even through the window). When we got to the Grand, we walked around the resort grounds. Eventually, we made our way inside and up to the monorail station for the last leg of our evening's tour.

From the Contemporary, we jumped back in the van and drove back to Old Key West for the night. As I type this, I'm watching the first game of the NHL series between the Red Wings and the Avalanche. I'm hoping for the best for the Wings....we're in OT now, tied at two, so we'll see. (Late Update: The Wings won 3-2 on a goal by Maltby in the first overtime.)

Good night!

Saturday, May 8 (Animal Kingdom, Lunch at Pizzafari, Magic Kingdom, Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern, Spectromagic)

Plans: This may be a day we visit Animal Kingdom (our DVC park passes do not include DAK), or we might just have an off R&R day, or we might traipse over to Kennedy Space Center, since we havn't been there since 1993.

We decided to go back to Animal Kingdom this morning, but had a late start compared to normal. Usually we try to get out to the bus on an Animal Kingdom day by 7:15am or so. Today it was more like 8am for attitude reasons which I'm sure Allan would prefer we not go into, we were running late.

When our bus arrived at the park, we walked back through Oasis and Safari Village then through Harambe until we got to the start of the queue for Killamanjaro Safaris. We were promised a fourty minute wait, but we decided to brave it anyway. As it turned out, the time was every bit of fourty mintutes, if not a bit longer, but the people in our vicinity were polite and non-smokers, so there were no altercations.

The Safari ride was as good as ever. Hippos and rhinos were visible. Several giraffe were walking about near the termite mounds at the beginning of the savanna. We saw probably the entire herd of elephants all together on the savanna. Both a male and female lion were resting on their outcropping. The typical crowds of gazelles and antilope were milling about, as well.

When we returned to Harambe, we jumped on the next train to Conservation Station. We were fortunate to catch one in the station, because an announcement was made that the next train wasn't scheduled for two weeks.

Conservation Station is an interesting stop, but it's not necessary to spend a lot of time there.

Just some trivia, for your edification, the scoop on poop, posted in the women's restroom at Conversation Station:

Elephants poop 300 pounds of poop per day (PPD)
Not to be outdone, the men's restroom has a wizz quiz:

Elephants also pee 20 gallons of pee per day (PPD)
Rhinoceroses can pee 15 feet
Just thought you'd like to know

Next, we walked through the exhibit area. Allan was fascinated with the recently-hatched ducklings. A medical exam was being conducted on some sort of bird, but there was such a crowd at the window, we didn't have a chance to see what was going on.

We took Allan out to the Affection Section where he had a chance to see some goats and sheep up close and personal. He was especially fascinated with the bodily functions that some of these animals perform. Sick kid.

After we finished up there, we caught the next train back to Harambe, then walked back to Camp Minnie-Mickey and walked in, with just a couple minutes to spare, the 11am show of the Festival of the Lion King. Barb and I really enjoyed this show last year, in May and September. It's very well done. The live singing is excellent, and the gymnastics and dancing are fabulous! All together, the show lasts a good 30 minutes or so.

We left the Lion King Theatre and made our way back to Safari Village. We stopped for lunch at Pizzafari, a place that peddles pizza, salads (I had a chicken Caesar that was very good), and other odds and ends. The meal was pretty good, especially so since Allan was in a particularly good and cute mood.

After lunch, we made one last stop for It's Tough to be a Bug. Mom and Dad had never been smelled, stung, crawled on, and other wise "bugged" by Flik and his compatriots, so this was a good time to do it. A fun show, but much too short (and I still think this one is shown out of focus).

After Tough to be a Bug, we walked out to the bus stop and found a bus waiting for us to go back to the resort. I must say, our luck with buses this trip has been phenominal! I hope it's because of a general improvement in bus service for Old Key West in general, but the last couple of trips have definately been better than previous trips (1997 was terrible!)

When we returned to OKWR, I made priority seating arrangements for Liberty Tree Tavern for 6:50pm (it was the closest to 6pm I could get). Liberty Tree now serves a family-style all you can eat character dinner with Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip, and Dale. Mom also tells me that it thunderstormed strongly during the break. I don't know because I crashed and had a wonderful nap during our interlude.

The plan for the evening was tenuous. I planned to drive the van over to the Contemporary to park near the walkway to the Magic Kingdom, but due to a bad experience last year, I wasn't sure I would be allowed to or not. Just to let you know what I'm refering to, I'll quote from last Fall's trip report:

"This morning we drove to the Contemporary. It was our plan to park up in the North West corner of the resort parking lot, walk into the Magic Kingdom to get a picture with Mickey and Allan, then head over to the Studios to finish up over there. It was a great plan...until we met John, a security guard at the resort's main gate and originally hailing from Leicester, UK. John saw my Old Key West parking permit and told me that that only allowed me access to Old Key West. Not only did he steadfastly refuse to allow me to pull into the lot, he did it so rudely I was shocked. Rather than let him make good on his promise to tow my van away if I parked, I made a U-turn and left.

"Instead we drove down to Wilderness Lodge where we were met by a very kind, courteous security guard. I wish I had his name. It's too bad that I remember the "Disney villains" and forget the "heros." We pulled into the Wilderness Lodge parking lot, strolled through the lobby and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of this wonderful resort. We walked right back through the pool area to the boat dock and waited maybe twenty minutes for a red flagged boat to take us to the park."

Then later the same day:

"Afterwards, we walked back to the tram and rode out to the car to drive back to OKWR for our break... I called the front desk at Old Key West to confirm that we should have been granted access to the Contemporary Resort. When they agreed, I called the Contemporary and lodged a complaint against John from Leicester, UK. I spoke to someone at the front desk at that resort and then was transferred to the security office when I explained the situation to the manager there. I don't know what, if anything, will happen...but I hope one magic leak can be stopped permanently. I'm sure there are plenty of back stage jobs for cast members that lack people skills. I would recommend that John be given such a role."

For the record, I also sent a letter to the Contemporary about the whole thing and never heard from them at all. I guess I'm still ticked about the whole sordid affair.

Anyway, tonight we drove up to the gate at the Contemporary and were waved in like we own the place, which - in a sense - we do. We'd had a good experience the night before, too, when we drove here for our monorail resorts tour, but I expected that trouble, if any, would come up tonight because Spectromagic is running tonight. Well, we drove up to the North West corner of the lot, like I'd planned, and parked about three spaces from the walkway to the Magic Kingdom.

We walked from the van to the park entrance, using our 4-day park hoppers that we used to enter Animal Kingdom this morning, and continued right back to Liberty Square and Liberty Tree Tavern. It was only 6pm, but I figured we could try to see if we could get an earlier table than our priority seating time. We were in luck. A table was ready almost immediately, even though the restaurant had no record of our priority seating at all!

We were seated in the Paul Revere room, just to the right of the lobby area. The meal consisted of rolls with butter and apple butter, salad greens with a really flavorful raspberry vinaigrette, mashed potatos, gravy, carots, macaroni and cheese, and ham, beef, and roasted turkey. Several beverages were available, too, including the Liberty Tree's classic birch beer (try it, it's great!)

Of course, as we were having this meal, the characters were around and about, too. Allan's first experience didn't go well. He was really scared of Pluto (Barb thinks because of his big red tongue...I think it was just because Pluto is so big compared to Allan). Whoever was the Pluto tonight was really good, though, because he didn't press the issue at all and just waved and went over to the next table where there were a whole slew of kids with autograph books. Allan watched them interact and I think he really warmed up to the idea of being with these characters because a few minutes later he really loved spending some time with Goofy. Next, Dale stopped by the table and taught me that Chip has one tooth and a black nose while Dale has two teeth and a red nose. Now I know, since I asked. (Ever play charades with a six foot tall chipmuck before?) Later in the meal, Minnie came by, too. Allan embarassed her by telling her that her dress was pretty. Then Pluto came by again. This time Allan wasn't at all scared, and had quite a conversation (one sided) with Mickey's dog.

On the way out, Allan saw Chip and as I was carrying the Little Guy around the rodent (Chipmunks are rodents, right?) Allan reached out with both arms and gave Chip a big hug! Barb scurried to get the camera, but I don't know if she got the shot off - it was totally unespected. Allan followed up on that spontaneous show of affection by smacking Chip on the nose! Someone has to teach this kid some manners!

After dinner, we walked back toward Main Street to scout for a good place to watch Spectromagic. Along the way, Barb checked out the Christmas shop that used to be the place where you could mix your own perfumes (that was a cool thing, but no longer available). The outside of the shop is stilled labeled as Johnny Tremain's shop, though.

We continued on but paused while Allan and Grandpa watched some birds in the castle moat, by the Liberty Square bridge. A few minutes later. we happened upon a really good place to watch the parade halfway between the end of the hub and Casey's where we held our ground against the parade viewing area poaching hordes for the next ninety minutes or so. Actually, as soon as everyone else was settled, I left the group for a restroom break and ended up walking all the way to town square to find a socially acceptable place to perform that important function. On the way back to our parade stack-out, I bought a Peter Pan play set for Allan to play with as we waited for the parade, with Peter, Hook, TinkerBell, and a bunch of smaller accessories. It turned out to be a successful purchase, because Allan happily played and shared his toys with a little boy named Hunter, about nine months younger but just as outgoing, until the parade started.

Spectromagic is a wonderful nighttime festival. The music is memorable and the lights and colors and characters bring the Disney magic alive, if even for just a few minutes. With Allan being only 2 1/2 years old, I often wonder what is going on in his little, but active, mind. I hope that when we're on vacation as a family, and especially at Walt Disney World, that he's thinking something much like the lyrics that the children sing here:

[Adult Voices]
On this magic night,
A million stars will play beside
A special spell of light,
Glimmering, shimmering, carouselling
'Round the world tonight,
A symphony in Spectromagic.
Pure enchantment lights our way!

[Childrens' Voices:]
Music surrounds us
Magic around us
Twirling around us
Carousel of light and laughter!

We shall remember
This moment together
Tonight will forever
Live in our dreams!

[All/Adult Voices:]
On this magic night,
A million stars will play beside
A special spell of light,
Glimmering, shimmering, carouselling
'Round the world tonight,
A symphony in Spectromagic.
Pure enchantment lights our way!

[Childrens' Voices:]
Music surrounds us
Magic around us
Twirling around us
Carousel of light and laughter!

We shall remember
This moment together
Tonight will forever
Live in our dreams!

[Jiminy Cricket:]
So long! Se ya later!

[All/Adult Voices:]
On this magic night,
A million stars will play beside
A special spell of light,
Glimmering, shimmering, carouselling
'Round the world tonight,
A symphony in Spectromagic.
Pure enchantment lights our way!

[Jiminy Cricket:]
So long! I'm Jiminy Cricket...in SpectroMagic!

It was nice to see this parade one last time (assuming that it's not resurrected at some other park in the future, right?). I'll miss Spectromagic when it leaves Florida, but I'm looking forward to whatever will permanently replace it.

After the parade was done, incredible crowds were released as we walked up Main Street. We just plopped Allan into the stroller and let a CM (who was trying for all she was worth to keep a walkway open for us) bashed through the crowd for awhile. When she had to return to her normal work area, we let Dad bash the rest of the way.

When we left the park, we walked to the van, drove back to OKWR (stopping briefly for Dad to pick up his package at the store), then returned to our room where we got Allan settled in for the night.

We all relaxed for a few minutes in the living room. I worked on the trip report, Barb and I both watched BYU beat Long Beach State in the Men's NCAA Volleyball finals, then we crashed.

Sunday, May 9 (Mother's Day, Epcot, Lunch at Marrakesh, Studios)

Plans: Enjoy the WDW Parks and Resorts. Today, we've decided to let Mom pick a lunch or dinner restaurant in honor of the day. Barb will do the same another day.

We slept in a bit today and caught the 9am bus to Epcot. The place was already getting busy by the time we arrived, I suppose since it is Mother's day today.

We started the day with a quick walk through of Innoventions West. I'm still completely saddened by this part of Epcot. Innoventions was billed as an evolving, continuously updated look at new technology. It's turned into a slightly updated version of the Communicore...not anywhere as great as it could have been. I'm sure that it's expensive for companies to maintain a display here, but I really wish that more could be done with this place. As it is, it's a combination of see what I can see on the world wide web and already-on-the-store-shelves technology that is hardly interesting. My local Best Buy and Circuit City is as up to date...

After we were underwhelmed at our previous stop, we walked over to the Living Seas for a brief stop. We went to enter in the exit hydrolators, and another guest made a snide remark about "Do Not Enter....Exit Only" as we entered the exit. I am often peeved with people that do things that are selfish or that may damage things for me and my party (which, I suppose, shows my own selfishness, too.) However, in this case, the only people that may be harmed by our walking in the exit are ourselves -- by reducing the experience of the hydrolator themeing. Since the alternative was to expose a bunch of innocent people to a 2 1/2 year old in the theater, I personally think we made the right decision.

Allan had a lot of fun looking at the manatees, the dolphins, and many colorful fish (rays, sea bass, and others). We didn't take a lot of time, maybe a half hour or so, but it was a good experience for the Little Guy.

Next Barb, Mom and Dad enjoyed the Flower & Garden Festival lecture on "Colorful Containers" while Allan and I strolled the displays. Here's some tidbits that Dad and Barb said were mentioned in the lecture:

You can use almost anything container that you want (terra cotta, plastic container, teapot, old shoes, floaters with a wick and anchor, tubs, etc.)
For drainage one can use pebbles, broken terra cotta pots, packing peanuts, crushed aluminum cans
You can reuse a broken terra cotta pot by placing it on it's side, broken side down, and planting in it
Terra cotta can be painted or otherwise decorated
Use a time release fertilizer in containers (a 17-17-17 mix was the example given)
After the presentation, we walked all the way around to the opposite end of World Showcase for lunch today. We'd decided that Marrakesh would be a good place, since we all wanted to eat there and it was close to the site of another lecture that Barb and Dad wanted to see. We've enjoyed Marrakesh many times on previous trips, and I ordered my usual, the Sultan's sampler. I also got jasmina salad, an interesting collection of Morrocan relishes and pickled vegetables (very good). Barb ordered a shish kabob, and Allan shared with the both of us.

Afte