JerseyJanice
A Disboards original...
- Joined
- Aug 20, 1999
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Long before the trip, my in-laws had asked if they could take our son for an entire day. They set the trip up in the first place to spend time with their grandkids, so of course, we were happy to oblige. We were also glad to have some time alone as a couple; at that point in our lives, it was very rare that we did.
Craig and I spent the day together at Epcot, and I want to warn you upfront that we didn't like it. We learned some valuable lessons on this trip--the first being that three days in a row at the theme parks was too much for us. We have since returned to WDW and spent time in Epcot, and we now have a completely different opinion of it from what is stated below.
Louis slept the entire night from when we got off the bus at the Boardwalk at 6:45 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. I gave him a bath when he woke up, moving quickly as Grandma and Grandpa were coming for him early. Poor Louis, he could stay in the bathtub for hours! He really loves water, just like his Mom. My in-laws knocked on our door as I was dressing him, and he was thrilled to see them. My kid's no dummy; he knows that spending the day with Grandma and Grandpa means he'll get anything he wants.
Mom-in-law and I stood on the walkway outside our room while I tried to fill her in on Louis's likes and dislikes. Louis started yanking her arm to get her to leave. Boy, was he anxious to get away from Mommy and Daddy. Brat! Anyway, we were glad to see he wanted to be with them so much.
We relaxed for awhile in the room. Our plans were to explore Epcot for the day, come back to our room for a late day break, go to Ohana's for dinner and then back to Epcot to catch Illuminations.
I have wanted to see Epcot since before it opened. My father first got sick in 1982 and had to spend a little over a month in the hospital. He loved to read and went through many magazines during this time. He read all about Epcot and told us about it. He said it would be like the World's Fair in Queens, New York in 1964/65. We went there twice, and although I was only around three years old, I can remember parts of it.
Well, I was finally there! It's funny, but you can hear about some place or read about it, and think you're going to love it, but the reality of being there can be so different. I want to say that I am not sorry we spent the day here since I'd wanted to see it for so many years. But I have to say I am no hurry to go back. First of all, other than Honey I Shrunk the Audience, every attraction we saw in Future World was completely lame. Why didn't anyone warn me how bad Starship Earth is? However, in fairness to it, the soundtrack wasn't working correctly; it was very difficult to hear. Plus, they stopped and started the ride a bunch of times.
What a disappointment both the Land and the Living Seas attractions were. I thought they'd be interesting and informative, but we both thought they were a waste of time. I did like seeing the fountains outside, especially the one where the water jumps from pad to pad. The fiber optic sidewalk was neat and we thought Ice Station Cool was fun to check out, but pretty much everything else was underwhelming.
We moved onto the World Showcase thinking that would be better. It was time for lunch, but moving from Mexico all the way to Germany, we couldn't even find anything we felt like eating that would be quick and inexpensive. I somehow thought that you could nosh your way through here, but I think you'd need a hundred dollars for that. We wound up going back to Pasta Piazza in Future World, and we each got a pepperoni Mickey pizza. We saw other people getting these, and from the size of the box, we thought we were in for a nice sized pizza. Not! What a rip-off at almost $6 each!
After lunch, we went back to the World Showcase and walked in the opposite direction from earlier. So we started near Canada. I had read so much on the Net about Beavertails that I had to try one. I opted for just cinnamon and sugar so I could taste the pastry undisguised. What is the big deal? This thing looked and tasted like a funnel cake without the funnel. What am I not getting? And at $3.25 for a plain one, it's a pretty expensive donut.
We meandered along the promenade. The place is beautiful, but there isn't a lot to do. Maybe if we had come here before the Animal and Magic Kingdoms, we would have appreciated it more. I should mention that we did not catch any of the "street" entertainment that I've heard about so maybe we missed an important part of the fun here.
We saw the American Adventure and I did enjoy this attraction a lot, but my husband thought he was back in high school. We continued on and did the Maelstrom in Norway, which was kind of O.K. We didn't want to see the movie at the end of the ride and waited for what seemed like forever for them to open the door so we could get out.
We did the River Boat ride in Mexico and I thought this was cute, but my husband thought it was dumb. We wanted to rest with a Margarita and some chips and salsa, but the restaurant did not seem conducive to that. At this point, Craig was giving me a hard time about wasting our day on some history lessons, and he just wanted to leave. (Boy, his full Catholic school education must have been very hard on him. If we do anything that even remotely reminds him of school, he gets very grouchy.)
I talked him into trying Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. The Kodak pre-show movie was making him crazy, but I have to say we both loved the actual attraction. WARNING-SPOILER HERE! I had heard about it for years, but I had gotten the impression that the mouse part consisted of bumps under your feet. I nearly died when I got whipped with a tail! What a great thrill this attraction is!
By now, we were exhausted. This was our third day in the parks in a row, and we were both feeling worn out. We went to get the bus and I saw the Coronado Springs bus just pulling away. I started screaming and running for the bus. The driver yelled a very nasty, "What?!?!" when I tried to stop him. He opened the door and said he couldn't let anyone on in the parking lot. I just muttered, "Oh great. Now I have to wait 20 minutes for the next bus."
Believe me, I understand why this is a safety rule, although you should know that in New Jersey, public buses stop pretty much anywhere you flag them down. I was somewhat taken aback by the super nasty "What?!" I mean, wasn't obvious what I wanted? Anyway, we sat down on the bench to wait for the next bus and I started to cry. Craig was copping a major attitude because he hated Epcot, and I was just worn out--physically, mentally and emotionally.
Well, a bus showed up in only about 10 minutes and this perked me up. We talked to the driver about what happened with the earlier bus, and he explained that the drivers cannot stop again once they leave the bus stop. We got back to our room and had a much needed break with some beers for our frazzled nerves.
Same as the night before, I tried to hurry Craig up for our 7:00 PS at Ohana's, but he wouldn't budge out of the room until 6:30. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and the monorail from there. We got to Ohana's at exactly 7:00 but they would not seat us until the fireworks were done. The hostess directed us to a window in the lounge where we could see them. We both love fireworks so this put us in a good mood.
They show you to your table with a warm loaf of bread. It was kind of sweet and gummy textured, not my kind of thing, but to each, his own. The waitress was nice and thorough in explaining how dinner there works. She spoke very quickly and still had a lot to say. I can't imagine a slow-talker trying to tell you everything. We each selected a special drink. Mine came in a hollowed out pineapple and Craig's with a back scratcher. I took care to save the little paper umbrellas that decorated these drinks since I knew Louis would like them. (He calls an "umbrella" a "rain-brella"--so cute!)
The meal started with a lazy susan containing salad, little spring rolls and dumplings. There are also three dipping sauces that you keep for the rest of the meal, which were peach-pineapple, mango mustard and peanut butter. They sound strange, but all were very tasty and I especially loved the peanut butter sauce. All the food was absolutely delicious, especially the dumplings. They asked if we wanted seconds, but we knew we had to pace ourselves if we were going to enjoy the rest of the meal.
Next, you get a large wooden bowl in the lazy susan spinner. It contained steamed vegetables (broccoli, red peppers, baby corn, waterchestnuts), hickory-smoked salmon, and lo mein-like noodles. Everything tasted very good. The salmon is not the cold thin-sliced stuff; it's a thick filet that is hot and smoky tasting. Soon after serving this, they come out with skewers of sausage and turkey, and then shrimp and steak. I found that the different meats tasted better with different dipping sauces. For example, I really liked the flavor of the turkey with the mango mustard, the steak with the peanut butter, and the sausage with the peach-pineapple. I can't eat shrimp as I am allergic, but I think Craig ate about a dozen and he was in heaven.
They kept asking if we wanted more, but we could barely breathe after the first round. When we wanted no more, the waitress came by to tell us about the ala carte desserts. I told her not to bother as we were too full for anything else so then they brought out the dessert that comes with the meal, a quarter of a fresh pineapple with a caramel dipping sauce. Strange as this may sound, it was wonderful. I don't know where we found the room, but we ate almost all the pineapple.
What happened next was my fault. We were sorting out the bill and the waitress asked if I needed change. I should have given her a twenty, but I got confused and told her that we didn't need any right now. After a few minutes, we put out $80 for a $60 bill with the intention of tipping her $10. She took the bill and money and just disappeared. We waited what seemed like forever for her to return. If only I had let her break a $20 in the first place, we could have just left.
With maybe 15 minutes to spare, we took off for the monorail to go to Epcot for Illuminations. While waiting for the monorail, the CM there explained that we would need to go four stops, almost round trip, to the TTC to transfer to the Epcot monorail. Someone asked if it would be faster to walk to the TTC and the CM said yes, but we just did not have the energy after that big meal.
The monorail train to Epcot kept stopping to wait for the train ahead so we basically wound up being able to catch only the end of Illuminations from the train windows. We got off at the Epcot station and went straight to the bus stop. While I would have liked to have made it to the World Showcase for Illuminations, at least we were in a good place to get the bus back to the Coronado.
Louis was sleeping in my mother's-in-law bed so we picked him up and put him in our room. Grandma said they had a wonderful day and that he was a perfect angel for them. She always says that when they take him. Is he really or does she just say that?
They did the Animal Kingdom that morning and the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon. They rented a stroller in each park rather than using our umbrella stroller. This worked out well for them since he fell asleep for two hours at the Magic Kingdom. They put his seat in the recline position, and they walked around enjoying themselves while he took his nap.
I was afraid I might wake Louis up if I started packing so I just thought I'd do it after breakfast. We're all getting together for Ohana's character breakfast tomorrow, our last day in WDW
[This message was edited by JerseyJanice on 04-04-01 at 10:27 AM.]
Craig and I spent the day together at Epcot, and I want to warn you upfront that we didn't like it. We learned some valuable lessons on this trip--the first being that three days in a row at the theme parks was too much for us. We have since returned to WDW and spent time in Epcot, and we now have a completely different opinion of it from what is stated below.
Louis slept the entire night from when we got off the bus at the Boardwalk at 6:45 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. on Thursday morning. I gave him a bath when he woke up, moving quickly as Grandma and Grandpa were coming for him early. Poor Louis, he could stay in the bathtub for hours! He really loves water, just like his Mom. My in-laws knocked on our door as I was dressing him, and he was thrilled to see them. My kid's no dummy; he knows that spending the day with Grandma and Grandpa means he'll get anything he wants.
Mom-in-law and I stood on the walkway outside our room while I tried to fill her in on Louis's likes and dislikes. Louis started yanking her arm to get her to leave. Boy, was he anxious to get away from Mommy and Daddy. Brat! Anyway, we were glad to see he wanted to be with them so much.
We relaxed for awhile in the room. Our plans were to explore Epcot for the day, come back to our room for a late day break, go to Ohana's for dinner and then back to Epcot to catch Illuminations.
I have wanted to see Epcot since before it opened. My father first got sick in 1982 and had to spend a little over a month in the hospital. He loved to read and went through many magazines during this time. He read all about Epcot and told us about it. He said it would be like the World's Fair in Queens, New York in 1964/65. We went there twice, and although I was only around three years old, I can remember parts of it.
Well, I was finally there! It's funny, but you can hear about some place or read about it, and think you're going to love it, but the reality of being there can be so different. I want to say that I am not sorry we spent the day here since I'd wanted to see it for so many years. But I have to say I am no hurry to go back. First of all, other than Honey I Shrunk the Audience, every attraction we saw in Future World was completely lame. Why didn't anyone warn me how bad Starship Earth is? However, in fairness to it, the soundtrack wasn't working correctly; it was very difficult to hear. Plus, they stopped and started the ride a bunch of times.
What a disappointment both the Land and the Living Seas attractions were. I thought they'd be interesting and informative, but we both thought they were a waste of time. I did like seeing the fountains outside, especially the one where the water jumps from pad to pad. The fiber optic sidewalk was neat and we thought Ice Station Cool was fun to check out, but pretty much everything else was underwhelming.
We moved onto the World Showcase thinking that would be better. It was time for lunch, but moving from Mexico all the way to Germany, we couldn't even find anything we felt like eating that would be quick and inexpensive. I somehow thought that you could nosh your way through here, but I think you'd need a hundred dollars for that. We wound up going back to Pasta Piazza in Future World, and we each got a pepperoni Mickey pizza. We saw other people getting these, and from the size of the box, we thought we were in for a nice sized pizza. Not! What a rip-off at almost $6 each!
After lunch, we went back to the World Showcase and walked in the opposite direction from earlier. So we started near Canada. I had read so much on the Net about Beavertails that I had to try one. I opted for just cinnamon and sugar so I could taste the pastry undisguised. What is the big deal? This thing looked and tasted like a funnel cake without the funnel. What am I not getting? And at $3.25 for a plain one, it's a pretty expensive donut.
We meandered along the promenade. The place is beautiful, but there isn't a lot to do. Maybe if we had come here before the Animal and Magic Kingdoms, we would have appreciated it more. I should mention that we did not catch any of the "street" entertainment that I've heard about so maybe we missed an important part of the fun here.
We saw the American Adventure and I did enjoy this attraction a lot, but my husband thought he was back in high school. We continued on and did the Maelstrom in Norway, which was kind of O.K. We didn't want to see the movie at the end of the ride and waited for what seemed like forever for them to open the door so we could get out.
We did the River Boat ride in Mexico and I thought this was cute, but my husband thought it was dumb. We wanted to rest with a Margarita and some chips and salsa, but the restaurant did not seem conducive to that. At this point, Craig was giving me a hard time about wasting our day on some history lessons, and he just wanted to leave. (Boy, his full Catholic school education must have been very hard on him. If we do anything that even remotely reminds him of school, he gets very grouchy.)
I talked him into trying Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. The Kodak pre-show movie was making him crazy, but I have to say we both loved the actual attraction. WARNING-SPOILER HERE! I had heard about it for years, but I had gotten the impression that the mouse part consisted of bumps under your feet. I nearly died when I got whipped with a tail! What a great thrill this attraction is!
By now, we were exhausted. This was our third day in the parks in a row, and we were both feeling worn out. We went to get the bus and I saw the Coronado Springs bus just pulling away. I started screaming and running for the bus. The driver yelled a very nasty, "What?!?!" when I tried to stop him. He opened the door and said he couldn't let anyone on in the parking lot. I just muttered, "Oh great. Now I have to wait 20 minutes for the next bus."
Believe me, I understand why this is a safety rule, although you should know that in New Jersey, public buses stop pretty much anywhere you flag them down. I was somewhat taken aback by the super nasty "What?!" I mean, wasn't obvious what I wanted? Anyway, we sat down on the bench to wait for the next bus and I started to cry. Craig was copping a major attitude because he hated Epcot, and I was just worn out--physically, mentally and emotionally.
Well, a bus showed up in only about 10 minutes and this perked me up. We talked to the driver about what happened with the earlier bus, and he explained that the drivers cannot stop again once they leave the bus stop. We got back to our room and had a much needed break with some beers for our frazzled nerves.
Same as the night before, I tried to hurry Craig up for our 7:00 PS at Ohana's, but he wouldn't budge out of the room until 6:30. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and the monorail from there. We got to Ohana's at exactly 7:00 but they would not seat us until the fireworks were done. The hostess directed us to a window in the lounge where we could see them. We both love fireworks so this put us in a good mood.
They show you to your table with a warm loaf of bread. It was kind of sweet and gummy textured, not my kind of thing, but to each, his own. The waitress was nice and thorough in explaining how dinner there works. She spoke very quickly and still had a lot to say. I can't imagine a slow-talker trying to tell you everything. We each selected a special drink. Mine came in a hollowed out pineapple and Craig's with a back scratcher. I took care to save the little paper umbrellas that decorated these drinks since I knew Louis would like them. (He calls an "umbrella" a "rain-brella"--so cute!)
The meal started with a lazy susan containing salad, little spring rolls and dumplings. There are also three dipping sauces that you keep for the rest of the meal, which were peach-pineapple, mango mustard and peanut butter. They sound strange, but all were very tasty and I especially loved the peanut butter sauce. All the food was absolutely delicious, especially the dumplings. They asked if we wanted seconds, but we knew we had to pace ourselves if we were going to enjoy the rest of the meal.
Next, you get a large wooden bowl in the lazy susan spinner. It contained steamed vegetables (broccoli, red peppers, baby corn, waterchestnuts), hickory-smoked salmon, and lo mein-like noodles. Everything tasted very good. The salmon is not the cold thin-sliced stuff; it's a thick filet that is hot and smoky tasting. Soon after serving this, they come out with skewers of sausage and turkey, and then shrimp and steak. I found that the different meats tasted better with different dipping sauces. For example, I really liked the flavor of the turkey with the mango mustard, the steak with the peanut butter, and the sausage with the peach-pineapple. I can't eat shrimp as I am allergic, but I think Craig ate about a dozen and he was in heaven.
They kept asking if we wanted more, but we could barely breathe after the first round. When we wanted no more, the waitress came by to tell us about the ala carte desserts. I told her not to bother as we were too full for anything else so then they brought out the dessert that comes with the meal, a quarter of a fresh pineapple with a caramel dipping sauce. Strange as this may sound, it was wonderful. I don't know where we found the room, but we ate almost all the pineapple.
What happened next was my fault. We were sorting out the bill and the waitress asked if I needed change. I should have given her a twenty, but I got confused and told her that we didn't need any right now. After a few minutes, we put out $80 for a $60 bill with the intention of tipping her $10. She took the bill and money and just disappeared. We waited what seemed like forever for her to return. If only I had let her break a $20 in the first place, we could have just left.
With maybe 15 minutes to spare, we took off for the monorail to go to Epcot for Illuminations. While waiting for the monorail, the CM there explained that we would need to go four stops, almost round trip, to the TTC to transfer to the Epcot monorail. Someone asked if it would be faster to walk to the TTC and the CM said yes, but we just did not have the energy after that big meal.
The monorail train to Epcot kept stopping to wait for the train ahead so we basically wound up being able to catch only the end of Illuminations from the train windows. We got off at the Epcot station and went straight to the bus stop. While I would have liked to have made it to the World Showcase for Illuminations, at least we were in a good place to get the bus back to the Coronado.
Louis was sleeping in my mother's-in-law bed so we picked him up and put him in our room. Grandma said they had a wonderful day and that he was a perfect angel for them. She always says that when they take him. Is he really or does she just say that?
They did the Animal Kingdom that morning and the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon. They rented a stroller in each park rather than using our umbrella stroller. This worked out well for them since he fell asleep for two hours at the Magic Kingdom. They put his seat in the recline position, and they walked around enjoying themselves while he took his nap.
I was afraid I might wake Louis up if I started packing so I just thought I'd do it after breakfast. We're all getting together for Ohana's character breakfast tomorrow, our last day in WDW
[This message was edited by JerseyJanice on 04-04-01 at 10:27 AM.]
