All Star Sports and Free Dining 8/19-8/27 (updated 10/8 with pics)

[zigzagzerr]

Zig zagging our way to Disney again in August – are you insane?

Pre-planning:

How could this happen?

For the (not very many) folks who read my June 2006 trip report (Can I convince you…an offsite adventure), let me say that while it is possible that I am indeed crazy, in my own defense, there were circumstances involved here. Circumstances that led me into the “kool aid” depths of actually taking two Disney vacations in the same summer. Something we have never done before and will probably never get the chance to do again.

Here’s what happened: there I was, merrily planning my June offsite adventure, very excited about the hotels we were trying out and the great meals we would eat. Our plane tickets were paid for, some of our hotels were prepaid….and then…it happened. A little postcard in the mail. A bad postcard. A postcard that talked about a certain 20 year high school reunion that was set to take place in August. Anyone remember high school? Does it give you a shiver to think of seeing all your high school classmates at age 40? It does to me. And I didn’t hate the idea, really, of seeing these people. But I had gone to the 10 year reunion. We had flown across the country to California to see these folks that I had gone to school with….and who I now had nothing in common with. Plus at the time, I was working in insurance, which is a big “wow” factor at a reunion, real impressive. But, anyway we received the postcard. And started looking at airfares to California for August (it was about May at this time) – discovered that airfares would run approx. $300/person round trip. So that’s $900 for the 3 of us – myself, DH and DD10. Plus $200 to attend the reunion itself.

And then we received another piece of mail, this time from the Disney Visa people, announcing the free dining. And we said, “shoot, it’s too bad we didn’t know about the free dining when we booked our trip in June, it might’ve been cool. Now we’ve already paid for the June trip, so can’t really do anything about it.” But then I started thinking about the price to fly out for the reunion and wondering…..how much would the free dining plan package cost in comparison. After all, we would still have park tickets left from our June trip, so would only need to buy 1 day tickets according to the package requirements. So for grins and giggles, we sent for a price quote from Small World Vacations – 6 nights at the All Star Sports with free dining and one day park tickets. Came back at $729.63.

$729.63 is pretty darn cheap. How much is airfare running? No great deals to be had there…$229.10/person round trip including all tax. $222.74 for an intermediate sized car from Budget (I know, and I’m sorry, but I refuse to give up my rental car on a trip to Orlando – believe me, complete strangers at Disney felt obligated to explain why I shouldn’t rent a car, so I’ve heard them all, trust me). The final 2 nights I was thinking to stay offsite (hee hee) somewhere snazzy, but at the last minute (mid July) I decided to try Priceline for the first time and got the Hilton at Downtown Disney for $75/night. I realize now I could have gotten in for $60, but it’s all good, it ended up being much nicer than I would’ve thought, given what is said about it on the Disney boards. Anywho, this all adds up to about $1800 for a week of vacation. Not bad.

Since I’m writing a trip report, there is obviously no need for drama as to what we decided to do. The worst part was (of course) the reaction of all those around us. What are you – nuts? Why would you want to go there again?

As I mentioned in my first trip report, I thought it would be fun to compare the two trips – an onsite versus offsite Disney vacation. Because I’ve always been a big offsite gal. Overall, I think we as tourists in the Orlando area benefit very much from the competition between the fancy offsite hotels and Disney. Everybody wants our business, so they offer great deals, even Disney sometimes, like with this dining thing. I know, I know, it isn’t really free, but I figure if I’m staying at the All-Stars, I would definitely not find a room-only discount to equal free dining plan for 3 adults (daughter is 10, remember). So why not?

The best part was that by the time we left for vacation in August, we had already paid for the Disney MYW package and the Priceline hotel, plus the airfare. The only thing waiting on our credit card bill when we got home would be the rental car, plus any additional meals (after we checked out from Disney) or souvenirs. Sweet….

We were very jazzed about the dining plan, as we generally do not eat many table service meals on site – they are too expensive, and we always eat very good and reasonably priced meals offsite. So there were many restaurants to choose from, and we picked ones we had never tried before. We obtained ADR’s for Boma, Liberty Tree Tavern, Kona, Coral Reef, Mama Melrose (with the Fantasmic Dinner Package), and Le Cellier. My daughter was looking forward to many Mickey bars, DH wanted the ice cream cookie sandwich from Sleepy Hollow in MK, and I needed my Dole Whip. This was gonna be fun!

As an aside, we are very healthy eaters at home. I teach aerobics after work a couple times a week, so I am constantly hammering home to my classes the importance of healthy food and exercise. The downside of being such an active person, is that I inevitably gain weight on vacation because I’m always going to have eaten more fattening things and done less exercise than normal. The upside is that I know the right way to take it off again. You can’t live your life fixated on the scale, gotta let loose once in awhile. Eat a Mickey bar….anyway, the point of all that rambling is that I was prepared to increase poundage while on vacation, and I was okay with that. (as I write this, I have been working this week on taking off those extra 5 pounds – will let you know how that goes).

About a week before we left on vacation, the attempted terrorist issue in England happened. We could not, therefore, go with my hubby’s idea of taking everything in our carry-on bags. Everything except a backpack was put in the checked suitcase – yes, only one. Little bit nervous about the new regulations – no water, no sunblock, no anything really in your carry-on bag. But excited, because this was going to be an adventure!


NEXT: Day 1, Saturday 8/19

 

[pumba]

I always lose weight or stay the same because I am sooo active in Disney.....walking sometimes ten miles a day is alot for me......thanks so much for your report......love good food though so am anxious to find out what you liked and didnt' like

 

[OhMari]

I didn't know you could use the Free Dining off site. I heard the Dining Plan has a lot of food and people come home with weight gain, but oh well.

 

[zigzagzerr]

Day 1, Saturday 8/19

Since our flight out of Baltimore was leaving at the ungodly hour of 6:55 a.m., we were up at 4:15. I figured when we chose this flight that it would give us more time to play. I was (somewhat) rethinking that decision as we stumbled out of bed, into our clothes, and to the coffee pot.

In hindsight, with all the new flight restrictions, it was probably a good thing to be leaving so early. We had an uneventful drive over to BWI, parked in the garage, and made it through security and to the gate without any problems. Since we had been unable to score the coveted “A” boarding passes on Southwest, but were instead bumped down to the “B” group, we decided to camp out at the front of the “B” line. We were settling in over there when I realized that a woman across the way was trying to catch my eye. I was a little puzzled and then it dawned on me slowly that I actually recognized this woman – she worked for the same healthcare company as me, only in a different office. We had been on the same large customer service committee a couple years before. Go figure….what are the odds you’ll bump into someone you know at 6 in the morning? And going on the same flight? She was there with her daughter, and they were doing the free dining plan, too. They were staying at the All Star Music, so we’d be neighbors. Anyway, we had a nice chat while waiting for the plane to board. I have to say, unfortunately, that I don’t know how well the dining plan was gonna work out for her – she had not made any ADR’s in advance (I know, it makes you wince, doesn’t it?). I don’t think she had done much planning. I’m sure folks who do their trips that way still have a great time, but I bet they end up missing a lot, too. After we boarded the plane, we didn’t see them again, as they were taking Magical Express, but I hope they had as much of a blast as we did!

After we were herded onto the plane (with random bag searches on the way in, oh goody!), we sat at the gate for about 25 minutes. An announcement was made that there was a problem with a smoke detector test in the cargo hold, and they needed to check it out. Fine by me! I’d personally prefer that we didn’t have a fire in the belly of the plane, how ‘bout you? Finally, all tested out okay, and we took off for our week of fun!! The pilot did a great job making up the time on the way down to Florida, and we ended up landing on time, at around 9:30. After waiting awhile for our luggage (take note that with the new restrictions, absolutely EVERYONE is checking luggage, so baggage claim is a bit slower), we met up with DH who had gone to wait in the rental car line. Got our car with no problems and made our way to our new onsite home for 6 nights.

While DH and I waited in the long line to check in at All Star Sports (why? Why were there a bazillion people checking in at 10:30 am?), my DD watched cartoons in the little tv area. With all these people everywhere, I was starting to be concerned about how crowded Disney was going to be this week. Could the free dining make everything super crowded? I guess we would just have to see. We got ourselves checked in, and received our “packet o’ fun” including our resort/dining cards. Our room was not ready yet, but they had noted our preference for buildings 1, 2 or 3 (according to the Unofficial Guide, these are the quietest buildings, as they are away from the pool and food court – by the way, for any of you that are wondering, the UG is absolutely correct about that). We were told that we would be in building 3, in the “Hoops” (basketball) section, and we were given a phone number to call later to get our room number.

At this point, we drove over to where our room was going to be, just to make sure we knew how to find it, but we didn’t do any exploring of the resort yet. First thing on everybody’s agenda was lunch, although it was still quite early. But since we had eaten granola bars and coffee at like 4:30 am, it seemed that food was in order. So we drove over to Downtown Disney. I had decided we would eat counter service at Wolfgang Puck Express near the Christmas store. We had to wander through the stores a bit (a sacrifice, of course), since Wolfgang Pucks didn’t start serving lunch until 11:30. My DD purchased a keychain at World of Disney—souvenir money doesn’t last long for her. And then we had lunch.

We used 2 counter service credits and split the food between the 3 of us:
Chicken Aioli sandwich
Ham/Provolone sandwich
2 cookies
2 rootbeers (with free refills)
total charged to the dining plan: $22.15

The ham sandwich was okay, but the chicken was really really good (and we obviously thought so because we ate here 2 more times over the course of the week, and got that sandwich every time) – absolutely delicious. We thought this was outstanding counter service. If they have the white chocolate macadamia nut cookies when you are there, do yourself a favor and have one. They are the best cookies ever! We ate outside at a table under an umbrella and watched the sky spitting at us.

After lunch, we were a little hesitant about what to do next, as the sky looked ominous. Eventually, we decided that we didn’t care if it rained on us or not, and drove over to the Fantasia mini golf to play a round. We used our Disney Visa Rewards points to pay for this (quite expensive) -- $34.00. There are 2 courses here – the one based on the Fantasia movie and a more elaborate course that actually looks like a real golf course, only on a smaller scale. We did the Fantasia one. We all agree this is the best putt putt course we’ve ever played. It’s so elaborate and very well maintained. Somehow, we lucked out and never had anybody in front of us, either. There are fountains that squirt you along the walkway, dancing hippos, and holes that play music when you sink the putt. My favorite was a hole that, if you hit your ball right, it rolled down a set of steps that were actually a xylophone and played notes as your ball was bouncing down. It was cool! The sky started spitting at about hole #12 but we kept on going. My DH was very happy because he not only won the game, but also got 3 holes in one during the afternoon. It was a lot of fun.

We weren’t quite ready to leave yet, since we couldn’t get into our room anyway. We noticed that the Swan and Dolphin were right next to the mini golf, so we went walking towards them. You know something? I always see the big swan and dolphin figures as we’re driving by, but I’ve never been inside or even up close to these hotels. They are really impressive looking when you’re standing right next to them. We walked around and took some pictures.

Then we continued walking until we found ourselves at the Boardwalk resort. As I looked across the (literally) deserted Boardwalk, I thought “the crowds can’t be that bad – I mean, there is absolutely no one out here.” Hmm….maybe they’re all staying at the All Stars, you think? The rain could be keeping everyone inside, I suppose. We looked at the menus in the restaurant windows along there…someday I’d like to eat at the Flying Fish, but it’s pretty pricey. We stopped at the Boardwalk Sweet Shop and used our first snack credit for a big chocolate covered rice krispy treat ($3.50) to eat in the room tonight, then slowly walked our way back to our car in the mini golf parking lot. Slowly because it was very humid out and DD was (already, poor child) tired of walking so much. On our way back, we stepped inside the Dolphin to take a quick look around. It’s very big!

We decided to make a quick grocery stop before trying again to get into our room. The Dolphin concierge had given us a map showing how to find a Publix, but we got a little turned around and ended up going to “our” Publix (yes, I know it’s sad that we have our own Publix) over near Sea World. We bought oatmeal squares and fruit for breakfast, water, wine, and chips. – total was $31.48.

It was now 3:15 and time to check into our room. We were on the 2nd floor of Hoops building #3. Our room faced Hoops building #2 with grass and walkways in between. Our buildings were covered with oversized basketball hoops and big basketballs soaring into them.

Between the buildings were basketball courts with hoops that were really really high! Our room, as predicted by all, was small but had everything we needed. Two double beds, a quite small tv set, and 4 dresser drawers that looked like lockers. The sink area was outside of the bathroom, which was nice for getting ready in the morning. There were pictures of people playing basketball, on the walls. After we unpacked and rested for a bit (up at 4 am tends to wear you out eventually), we took a walk around the resort. There are a bunch of different clusters of buildings – the ones near the pool have fish and surfboards on them, there’s also a tennis section, football section, and baseball section (which contains giant bleachers another smaller swimming pool). The stairwells are disguised as giant helmets or footballs or (in the case of our building) giant megaphones. The main pool is very large, as it obviously needs to be for a resort of this size – almost 2000 rooms. We were hot after walking around the grounds, so stopped into the food court and used 2 snack credits for a Mickey bar (for DH and me to share) and an Itzakadoozie popsicle for DD (around $5.00 to the dining plan). We also bought a refillable mug ($12.83 cash with tax) and used it all week for coffee in the morning (Nescafe is not the best, but also not the worst coffee we’ve ever had), and ice tea/sodas in the afternoons. Looking back, this is the only time we actually bought anything at the food court – we must have hit it today at a good time. I’m sure others have mentioned this before, but the food court at All Star Sports is not nearly large enough to handle the number of guests trying to use it. Every other time we came there, it was mass pandemonium, never enough registers open, and long lines. We basically came in to refill our mugs and left, that’s about it. So if you’re looking for a hotel at Disney and want to eat meals at your resort, I would recommend going somewhere else.

As I mentioned above, we saw both pools. They are not themed, but the main pool is large and there are plenty of lounge chairs and tables around. The water is refreshing.

After taking a peek in the gift shop (very crowded there also), we wandered back to our room to (finally!) shower and get dressed for our big dinner at Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Could we get there before the skies opened up?

COMING UP: 1st table service on the dining plan: dinner at Boma – are we drinking the kool aid?

 

[zigzagzerr]

When we left off, the family was showered, dressed in our Sunday best (okay, dressed in our long pants at least – that’s about as dressy as we go) and heading over to the Animal Kingdom for our 7:00 pm ADR at Boma. I was very excited about this place, and it was a great way to inaugurate our free dining. We left plenty of time to get over there, maybe more than we needed. I hadn’t realized how close the All Stars are to AKL. By the time we arrived and parked, it was absolutely pouring. We sat in the car about 10 minutes, in hopes that it would let up enough to avoid a drenching, but no luck. Unfortunately, we hadn’t thought to bring our ponchos to dinner (!), but we had brought sweatshirts in case the air conditioning was too cold. So sweatshirts on head (easier for those of us with hoods), we made a run for it!

What a beautiful lobby at the Animal Kingdom Lodge! We had never set foot in this resort before, and thought it was just great, even packed with wet shivering people. We wandered through the gift shop and to the outdoor viewing areas. Obviously there weren’t many animals wandering around in the downpour, but we could definitely see the charm of having such animals right outside your balcony. How very cool! We were able to see a couple of giraffes and watched them for awhile, until the rambunctious kids drove us away from the area (all the kids around us seemed tired and punchy).

We worked our way through the mob at the Boma podium, where some of the adults waiting seemed a little punchy, too. Some of them complaining about how long they had been waiting. After receiving our beeper, we walked around a bit, then went upstairs to the bar to try an umbrella drink. We had just about determined what we wanted and were scouting for somebody to take our drink order, when the buzzer went off (it was around 6:45). So, first try with ADR’s, we had barely any wait, even in the midst of free dining. Woo hoo!

Overall, we thought this was a great meal. It was definitely the best buffet we have ever had on Disney property, with some very interesting dishes and spices. DD ate about 3 plates of food, plus dessert – no worries there!!!

Some of the dishes we especially liked were:
Couscous seafood stew (if it’s there, try it! DD ate two full bowls and had to fight us off. Delicious)
Spicy ribs
Prime rib
Spiced chicken
Nut crusted salmon
Zebra domes

I also tried the pickled watermelon rind since I had read good things about it. It was tasty but needed to be eaten in small doses. Also had several couscous salads, one with raisins that was quite good. I tried to be restrained on desserts. DH went back for about 4 more zebra domes. Total cost to the dining plan was $97.07, and this would have been worth it, IMO, even if you had to pay out of pocket. We all enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

The rain had tapered off somewhat by the time we headed home to the All Stars. We chilled at the room, had an adult beverage, shared our rice krispy square from earlier, and watched “I Love Lucy” episodes on our DVD players (a tradition when we’re on vacation). It had been a marvelous day. We hadn’t even hit a park yet, but we could already feel the magic working. Everybody was happy as they drifted off to sleep.

Coming up next: Day 2, Magic Kingdom and LTT character dinner

 

[javamom]

Subbing! It's some great Kool-Aid isn't it? LOL

 

[Beana9802]

Subbing! Great writing.

 

[tkd lisa]

Good report! Our spring break stay were were in hoops building 3, so I recognize that photo! We were on the other side of the building though.

 

[Disneygrl36]

I trippies with pics. Looking forward to more.

 

[zigzagzerr]

Everybody woke up bright and early, eager for a day at the happiest place on earth! (okay, actually the 2 parents woke up bright and early, DD had to be dragged from the covers kicking and screaming). DH ran out to the food court for our hit of Nescafe. Which supplemented our breakfast of apples and oatmeal squares. We had spent a fairly quiet night, other than the whoosh of turbo potties. So for all of you looking for quiet, I will again mention that we were in building #3. Just saying….

Our plan for the day was to use the one day tickets we had had to purchase for the Magic Your Way package. This meant we could not park hop, as we would normally do. Since the Magic Kingdom would be open until 1:00 am for Evening Extra Magic Hours, we planned to show up in the morning, spend some time at the All Star pool in the afternoon, and go back to MK in the evening for dinner, and just leave when we get tired. I wasn’t sure how crowded the MK would be during Extra Magic Hours, but figured why not try it? If we didn’t like it, we didn’t have to stay.

We left the hotel at 7:50 and drove over to the TTC. We were so early that we got to park in the Minnie section, close enough to walk to the TTC without taking a tram. They let us onto the Monorail because we were resort guests (I hadn’t realized that if you were offsite, you had to wait longer to get to the Monorail or Ferry). Once we made it onto the Monorail, we sat at the station for quite a long time – maybe 10-15 minutes, while the folks around us grumbled quietly. We finally arrived at the Magic Kingdom gates. Yippee!!! We waited for the opening show. As we waited, I did notice that the MK seemed a bit disorganized. The right hand side was entirely roped off for folks with a.m. character breakfasts, but there were tons of people going under the rope or claiming to be going to the breakfasts, when you just knew they weren’t. I don’t know where these people were going after they got in, but didn’t have breakfast ressies. Just standing around? Who knows?

Anywho, we sat back on the wall with a perfect view of the train station, and enjoyed the opening ceremony. We tried not to power walk our way over to Tomorrowland. I really liked that the cast members from the stores stand outside in the morning at opening to wave at you as you walk by. It’s a nice touch. We took the path through the Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant and waited at the rope there, for a few minutes. We then joined the mob of folks headed for Space Mountain. This is always our first ride of the day. After soaring into space, we got fast passes for later, and walked over to shoot some aliens with Buzz Lightyear. Somehow, I never get any better at this. Need more practice, right? DH hit some big target by mistake and got zillions of points. Yea! We went to Fantasyland next to hit all the dark rides – Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, and Peter Pan. This is the absolute best time of day for those attractions – no lines at all. On to the ghosties at the Haunted Mansion, and then over to Frontierland and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We had hoped to ride Splash Mountain but alas, foiled….Splash wasn’t working, so we picked up Fast Passes and headed back to Tomorrowland to use our Space fast passes from earlier. We stayed in the area to ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and then watch the Carousel of Progress. We got to witness a malfunction of the Carousel. We got into the theater, sat down, listened to the first part – this is the part with just the curtain and name of the show where they talk about how the attraction came to be. Then the doors opened…..everybody kind of giggled and said “so that’s it?” The CM had to reset the ride, and we had to listen to the first part over again. I imagine that whichever scene you were at, at that time, you probably saw it twice. Pretty interesting. I just love this attraction – we always make a point to see it, usually more than once.

After such a busy morning, we were ready for an early lunch. It was 11:35, and Pecos Bills was already insanely busy. (the part that I think is really insane, is that they actually open for lunch at 10:30, but that’s another story). We were all in the mood for burgers, though, so we braved the wait. And we waited, and waited, and waited (and you get the picture). Seemed like everyone was on the dining plan, and everyone needed it explained to them, what they could order, etc.

We used 3 counter service credits to get:
2 bacon cheeseburger combos with fries
1 cheeseburger combo with fries
2 iced teas
1 lemonade
3 peanut butter mousse brownies

total charged to the dining plan: $36.10

The burgers here were very good, and the fixings bar is excellent. DD and I enjoyed dipping our fries into the (I’m sure very nutritious) hot cheese sauce. Let me just break in here to talk about the brownie dessert thing. For those of you who are not as anal as I am and did not read the label on this sucker, let me tell you --- it ain’t pretty. First of all, this little brownie thing, if you read the nutrition facts, is actually 2 servings and comprises a whopping 40 grams of fat. After looking at the all the meals we ate on the dining plan this week, I think this one wins the prize for being the most unhealthy. That brownie is tasty (I had a couple bites) but it sure isn’t worth that much fat!! For those stats, I want something homemade.

I did not mention the weather earlier, but the day was gorgeous, in the 80’s, less humid, and blue skies.

After lunch, we waddled over to use our Splash Mountain fast passes, and were happy to see that the ride was now functioning. This is my favorite MK attraction and I always ride it as much as possible. After a great splashdown, we picked up another set of FP’s, good for 4:25-5:25. Now it was time for another of our highly anticipated events – seeing the new updated Pirates of the Caribbean. We waited in a long (30 minute) line, which crisscrossed back and forth across the front of the entrance before entering the building. The CM’s were all talking “pirate” and having a good time. I felt very bad for the lady in front of us. After waiting in line for a full 30 minutes, 2 out of her 3 kids refused to ride, and she had to bail out, leaving hubby and kid#3 to ride. The updates were amazing. The audio animatronics looked so real – they really show up how dated the other robotics in the attraction are. Things have come a long way since the Pirates debuted.

It was about 1:30 pm at this point, and we decided to go back to the All Stars for some swimmin’ and chillin’ before coming back to MK for dinner tonight. This is when I had the (brilliant, imho) idea….we would leave our rental car in its extra primo front row parking spot at the TTC and take the Disney bus back to the All Star. Then when we came back to MK for dinner, we would take the bus again. At the end of the evening, our car would be there waiting for us and it would be an easy trip out. A bus came right away and we were off. Lots of sweaty and tired folks on the bus with us. Anyway, we were back at the resort by 2:30. So, it was a very good experience with the bus system.

We spent about an hour in the All Star pool, swimming and relaxing. I swam for awhile, then found a shaded umbrella table and sipped iced tea from the refillable mug while working on my trippie notes. The water in the pool was the perfect temperature, very refreshing. There were quite a few people swimming, but it was not overly crowded. The pool is very large and there was plenty of room.

We were back at the bus stop around 4:30 and again, had very little wait for a bus to MK. We headed into Adventureland since we did not make it there in the morning. Tried to get a Dole Whip, but the line was outrageous. All those folks with snack credits….. : ) We decided to try again some other time (unfortunately there were lots of people at the stand EVERY time we tried….and it always seems to be one of the slowest moving lines). Instead, we went back over to Splash to use the fast passes we had picked up earlier. After riding, we picked up (yet) another set, good for 8:30-9:30 (I really wanted the chance to ride this at night).

After Splash, we noticed that the Pirates of the Caribbean line looked smaller than earlier, so we hopped in line. At this point, I may offend, so I will apologize now. The family behind us in line seemed….um, quite unfamiliar with the concept of soap. Fortunately the line was moving pretty quickly. We thought we were home free….but then….the CM placed this family in the seats IN FRONT of us. We were in the back row. Well, let me tell you, when the boat would pick up speed, every so often, we would get a whoosh of BO wafting back to us. I’m talking serous overpowering BO (as Seinfeld would say, this is beyond BO). Finally, the 3 of us just burst out laughing….it was too funny to see the 3 of us wrinkling up our noses every time a breeze came by. Phew! Serious relief when the ride was over.

Next up was the Tiki Bird show – I love to watch the little ones dancing to the music! And I got a kick out of the CM who was sneakily watching the folks waiting for the pre-show, and then announcing over the loudspeaker, “The tiki gods get very angry if you sit on their railings, especially if you’re wearing a BLUE DRESS.” A little girl in a blue dress would jump up startled. It was cute. We headed over to the Jungle Cruise (which sadly seems to have shut down their fast pass kiosks, at least for the time being) and as we were winding our way through the line, we caught a whiff….an ugly yet powerful whiff….a very familiar whiff. Oh no!! Looked over and saw….yes, it was really them again! Fortunately, we were far enough away that they couldn’t possibly end up in our boat. Too funny! Our captain was just okay, seems like it’s hit or miss on whether you get a funny one.

We walked through the Swiss Robinson Treehouse, just for fun, and then picked up fast passes for Big Thunder (‘cuz it’s very very fun at night).

It was time to check in for our 7:20 ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern for our character dinner. We waited about 10 minutes before they called us in. I liked how they call out your name and town. Our waiter was Said, and he was very nice to us. Very polite and attentive. This meal is served family style and you can get seconds of anything you like. They served us turkey, ham, steak, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, green beans. Apple cobbler for dessert. We got seconds of the steak (really delicious, great seasonings) and mac & cheese. The apple cobbler was yummy!! My DH had purposely worn his special American flag shirt, to match the patriotic décor.

My DD was in heaven, surrounded by all these characters (maybe the 10 year olds aren’t really as jaded as they would have you believe).

Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Chip & Dale each came by twice while we were there. They gave out hugs/kisses and posed for pictures. We really had a lot of fun.

I must comment on how touched I was by the family sitting at the table next to ours. Dad was there with his clearly autistic son (maybe 13 years old) and daughter (about 8, eagerly sitting with her autograph book). The son mostly just wolfed down his food, while the daughter jumped up and hugged the characters. But, at some point, the son focused in on the characters and then there was no stopping him…he had to hug every one of them and the joy on his face was beautiful. Almost as beautiful as the look on his dad’s face seeing his children so happy.

Anyway, it was a great evening!

Coming next: Day 2, continued…Evening EMH – yea or nay?

 

[c8k6k]

I remember your June report! Enjoying this report too. Was undecided about Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express for counter service at DTD. Your report has convinced me we should try the chicken aioli sandwiches at WPE. Looking forward to next post. Thanks!

 

[bookworm61]

Great report. We are staying at AllStar Sports in November, so I appreciate the input. I hardly ever see anything on that resort, especially anything positive! Thanks for the info about the quiet buildings (1,2 or 3). Did you find they were too far a walk to the buses, food court or parking lot? I may request them on your recommendation.

 

[tkd lisa]

Great report. We are staying at AllStar Sports in November, so I appreciate the input. I hardly ever see anything on that resort, especially anything positive! Thanks for the info about the quiet buildings (1,2 or 3). Did you find they were too far a walk to the buses, food court or parking lot? I may request them on your recommendation.

I'll throw my two cents worth in on the distance. We were in Hoops 3 on our Spring break trip, and I thought it was a PERFECT location. It was about a 3-5 minute walk to the food court, and probably a 5-7 minute walk to the buses. As I said earlier, we were on the opposite side of the building from the OP, so her walk may have been 2 minutes longer.

This is one resort I would NOT pay the preferred rate for. That puts you in the Surf's Up section, right outside the main pool. And when the sports teams are in town, they all hang at the pool after their games, so it gets very loud from sunset until they close the pool. Just walking through there during that timeframe was very chaotic.

 

[DaisyLynn]

I've loved reading your TR so far...subscribing!!

 

[zigzagzerr]

From our room in building 3, we were about a 5 minute walk to bus stops, food court, pool, etc. The good thing about buildings 1-3 is that they back up to a wooded area, meaning that they get far less traffic than the buildings surrounding the pool and food court. Mainly just the folks actually staying in those buildings. With a few exceptions (people coming back late from the parks and not keeping their voices down), we had a pretty quiet stay. And aside from the turbo potties flushing, we didn't hear a sound from any of the adjoining rooms, so the soundproofing is pretty good -- I bring that up because I've heard complaints along those lines from people who stayed at the newer Pop Century resort. We didn't have any issues with that, so maybe the soundproofing is better in the older All Star buildings.

Trust me when I tell you that I went into this, absolutely sure that I was going to hate the hotel. Budget....garish....motel 6.....etc. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice it was, and am happy to eat my words!

Will try to continue updating the report tonight and tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

 

[zigzagzerr]

At last count, we had finished up our tasty dinner at Liberty Tree, hugged all the characters, and charged 3 table service to the dining plan (total came to $85.87, I can see from the receipt that they accidently charged DD as a child, that’s why it’s so low). It was around 8:30 at this point and we happily skipped over to use our fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. Both of which are awesome at night, by the way! It was fun to pass by all those folks in the standby lines, too!

We picked up our wristbands for EMH over at the Pirata and Perico restaurant, and then rode Pirates for the 3rd time that day. This time there was no wait at all. I’ve decided I really like the changes, especially at the very beginning and at the end. And you would swear that the Jack Sparrow figures are human…kinda spooky.

We walked out of the Pirates, turned left and caught the tail end of the Spectromagic parade. I like it, I really do, but I don’t think I would stake out a piece of pavement for hours to see it. I’m fine with looking over people’s heads in front of me. We were right where the parade ends and goes backstage.

After the last of it went by, we hung a left and walked back to Liberty Square. You definitely need to ride the Haunted Mansion at night. And those evening CM’s are great!

We took the path up to Fantasyland and ended up stopping outside the Columbia Harbor House (right near where the old Skyway ride was) to watch the Wishes fireworks. I know you have to be in front of the castle to get the full effect, but we still loved it (and we didn’t have to wait for it, which is always a plus in my book). I really like the MK fireworks but I have had horrible experiences with trying to leave the park afterwards. Crowds, I’m okay with. Mobs, not so much. So, something to consider if you’re trying to decide whether to go to the evening Extra Magic Hours at MK – by doing it, you can see the fireworks without the park closing immediately afterwards, and therefore, you can avoid getting trapped in the hordes of people leaving. That is a major point in favor of EMH, IMO.

Ducked into It’s A Small World after the fireworks were over, with a 5 minute wait. I was glad to get a chance to ride it today – seems like the lines were always too long, and I refuse to wait in a long line for this. Afterwards, we watched the 3-D Philharmagic show (because I figured a show was a better bet on a crowded night like this), and it was awesome. I love watching the kids trying to touch things in the air, and the music is great too.

After the show, we walked through Fantasyland and into Tomorrowland, but there were so many people here tonight, that I couldn’t even imagine trying to ride anything. The wait at Space Mountain was 50 minutes, the dark rides were about 45 minutes. I figured there must be a bazillion folks staying in Disney resorts with the free dining thing, otherwise why would they all be here tonight? So, we decided we had finally had enough MK for one day. It was now 11:00 pm and time to go home.

So, my final call on EMH? I wouldn’t try it for the rides, but get a wristband and enjoy the parade and fireworks, without getting trampled on your way out of the park. That’s a good tradeoff. We didn’t have to wait long for the Monorail back to the TTC, and our car was still brilliantly parked in its primo spot in the Minnie section. We were back at the All Stars and in our beds by 11:45.

This was the one night that our sleep was interrupted at the resort. Some crazy family got back to the All Stars really late, and the mom decided it would be great to scream at her family at the very very top of her lungs all the way to her room. I’m sure all of us in buildings 2 and 3 agreed that it was a great idea. After they passed by and woke everybody up, though, all was quiet.

By my pedometer, we walked 9.94 miles today. It had been a very busy and very fun 1st day in the parks. Tomorrow we are planning to take it easy, though. Looking for some R&R, some swimmin’, and some good food.

Coming Next: Day 3…..To Water Park or not? And dinner at Kona….

 

[zigzagzerr]

After our extra busy day yesterday, we were slowing things way down today. To start with, we slept in until 8 am (trust me when I tell you this is sleeping in for us). My plan for today, formulated as I was dropping off to sleep the night before, was that although we had originally picked today to visit a water park, that maybe we could bag that idea and just play at the All Star pool (this had worked out well on our previous trip). I thought maybe we could swim, play some putt putt, and catch a movie at Downtown Disney. Good plan, right? Pretty pretty pretty good (anybody watch “Curb Your Enthusiasm”?). But alas, it was not meant to be. DD insisted on the water park, complained about not going to the water park, and whined about the water park. Then DH said “why can’t we go?” (rat fink that he is)

So, we ate quickly, changed into our suits, negotiated with DD that we were only staying a couple of hours (we had pluses left over from old tickets), slathered our entire bodies with sunblock (spf 10 zillion) and arrived at Blizzard Beach at about 10 minutes to 9. We were able to get in right away, prior to the offsite folks, since every day was extra magic hour (although I think it’s actually a magic half hour here). We parked our stuff (brought our own towel so we wouldn’t have to rent them), and hopped on the ski lift to take us to the top of the mountain. It was very uncrowded and we were able to ride Teamboat Springs (the family raft ride) two times. We also took a couple of runs on the Toboggan Racers and the Stormrunner slides.

So what’s the deal with these folks wearing little tiny bathing suits to the water parks? You would think that, knowing you’d be hurling yourself down the slides all day, you might be worried about “showing your larboard side”. I know I would be! Just asking…..

DH and DD spent some time in the Wave Pool. I can do it for short periods of time, but after a while, I get a little green from bobbing up and down. We then took a spin around the Lazy River, which I enjoyed. DD of course loved going through the cold waterfalls and splashing us. We let her play in the kids’ area for awhile. I have to say that I had more fun than I thought I would at Blizzard Beach. It wasn’t too hot, and going for a shorter period of time meant that I stood less of a chance of turning into a lobster. We left the park at around 11 am., already hungry for lunch.

We went straight from the water park over to Downtown Disney, making a beeline for the Wolfgang Puck Express again. If it worked out once for us, back we go. We used 2 counter service credits and had:

Chicken aioli sandwich (again!!!)
Four-cheese pizza: this was absolutely delicious
2 root beers
2 macadamia white chocolate chip cookies

Total was $24.60

DH and I shared the sandwich and DD had the pizza (grudgingly allowing her parents to each have a small slice). She did allow us to eat the tomatoes, since she didn’t like the cheese on top.

So, anyway, I will say again that this is one of the better counter service options outside the Disney parks. I’ll mention that the service is not terribly fast here, so you might want to go before it gets crowded – it opens up for lunch at 11:30.

We took a quick trip to “our” Publix for more adult beverages and some bananas ($33), and then headed back to the room for a rest. (we were still pretty beat from our all day adventure in MK yesterday and the water parks can also wear you out quickly). This translated into about a 2 hour nap back in the room, after which we took a walk around the resort.

We walked past the pool and into the food court (I know, when will we ever learn) in hopes of obtaining an ice cream treat, but the All Star Food Court (I’ll say it again) is such a pain in the neck that we ended up just refilling our mug and escaping out of there. As I mentioned, except for one morning when I used a snack credit for a muffin, we didn’t go over there except to refill the mug. There were boatloads of people, the place ran out of stuff quickly, and the cashiers always seemed to be leaving for their break as we would walk up. So, we went back to room for adult bevvies, Disney cartoons and showers.

Our dinner ADR at Kona was for 5:30, so we left plenty of time to drive over to the Polynesian resort. We were able to park pretty close, and had time to wander around, check out the pool, peek in at O’Hana, etc. The podium at O’Hana was jammed…I was glad we didn’t have to deal with that. We picked up our beeper at Kona and had time to wander through the gift shop before it went off, about 10 minutes later.

The décor is basic coffee shop, and the tables and booths are in a big room where everyone wandering through the Polynesian can watch you eat. Our server Debbie was very nice and made sure to keep our drinks refilled. Towards the end of the meal the service got a bit slower, not sure if that was because she had more tables to deal with or what. It took a while to get the check at the end, and was a little bit annoying. But only a little bit. After all, we were eating for FREE!

DD had a raspberry smoothie for her drink, which she loved. It even had a little umbrella in it, very festive! DH and I both had ice tea, which Debbie was kind enough to provide an extra cup of ice for.

For appetizers:
DD
Kona Chowder – this was fabulous. DD didn’t give us more than a taste, it was so good. Definitely the appy winner. This was cream based, kinda like cream of crab soup.

DH
Sticky wings – liked these

Me
Crab cakes – we are of course spoiled by being from Baltimore. These were very good though. My DH, the native Baltimoran, said they were well made, with very little filler.

Main entrees:
DD
Shrimp and scallops – she liked the scallops, but did not care for the breaded shrimp.

DH
Mahi Mahi – came with fried onions all over it. While we were eating, the table next to us received several plates of this. For some reason, the young daughter didn’t like it and the chef was nice enough to send her out a filet mignon with French fries. I thought that was cool of him. DH liked the fish.

Me – Beef Teriyaki. This was a steak with teriyaki sauce, mashed potatoes and broccoli. It was excellent, very tender


(DH actually let me take pictures of the desserts -- "god, how embarassing!")


Desserts:
DD
Kiddie cone – yummo!

DH
Banana crème brulee – this was very pretty and it tasted good, just not exceptional.

Me
White chocolate cheesecake – this came with key lime, raspberry and lemon curd sauces, with a chocolate swirl. This one was the best, we agreed.

Overall 3 table service charged to the dining plan came to $140.55. Very pricey, but a nice meal. We did like this restaurant and would go back (I realize that some of the comments above don’t sound so positive). I especially liked the laid back atmosphere.

On our way out of the Poly, we stopped at the little market and used a snack credit for a box of Entenmans breakfast bars to eat in the morning. We took the Monorail from the Poly over to the Grand Floridian, just for fun, to check out the resort. The sky was spitting a bit, so we didn’t walk around outside too much, just took a look at the swimming pool which was okay, but not as elaborate as I would have expected from such an expensive place. If it wasn’t raining, I would’ve liked to walk over to the wedding pavilion and looked around. We snuck a peek inside the 1900 Park Faire restaurant and saw all the little girls in their princess outfits – uber cute! After walking through the lobby and the gift shops, we decided the resort is way too frou frou for us Bal’mer rednecks and headed back out to the Monorail.

We overheard an interesting conversation between the Monorail station CM and a lady who was waiting. The CM was discussing how short staffed Disney World is and how, if you want a job, just show up at casting and they’ll put you to work. He also mentioned that he couldn’t understand why anyone would ever stay offsite when they go to Disney World. That he “certainly wouldn’t”. Hmph. Seemed a bit snooty to me. But then again, I am usually an offsite commando adventurer, as you know. Just hangin’ at the All Stars this week.

We arrived back at the Poly, picked up our car and headed home. It was an early night for us. We did make one final attempt to use some snack credits at the All Star food court. (we apparently will never never never learn), but they were sold out of pretty much anything a person might actually wish to eat – hmmm, why have a FOOD court if there is no FOOD? Back me up here, people! Not a rice krispy treat to be had…alas.

It had been a very laid back, relaxing day for us. Tomorrow we would be back to the parks, so off to sleep we went.

COMING NEXT – Tackling Everest and Fantasmic in one day

 

[zigzagzerr]

Everybody was awake at 7 am today. Jim and I, after sorta waking DD and telling her we were going to get coffee and be right back (didn’t want her to wake up and freak out that nobody was there), walked outside to a beautiful Florida morning. We enjoyed the 5 minute stroll to the food court, filled up with the Nescafe, and picked up a blueberry muffin for DD using a snack credit. It was our least painful food court experience so far…maybe things were looking up for us today.

Can you see the foreshadowing here? You just know something terrible is going to happen, don’t you?

Not to worry – it doesn’t involve the All Star food court.

Anyways, we left the resort at around 8:00 and got a very good parking spot in the Animal Kingdom lot, close enough to walk to the front gates rather than taking the tram. Another good sign. DH and DD teased me, because the car that pulled into the spot in front of us was taking forever; the people in the car had the doors half open and couldn’t seem to get their stuff together. And we couldn’t pull into our spot until they did. So we waited. And I mouthed “GO!”. And….good heavens, they saw me! Evil glares from them, embarrassed smile from me. Oh well…never said I was perfect.

We were early enough at this park to be the 2nd group in line at the turnstiles. This was a much better position than our previous trip, when we were about 50 groups back. Couldn’t even SEE the turnstiles that time. Once we got inside, we waited at the rope until the park officially opened. We were right at the rope and able to see the whole opening show, with Mickey and the safari truck. My DD was all smiles. Then we followed the CM’s with the rope all the way (and it is quite a long walk) to the back of the park for Expedition Everest. We hopped onto the ride with a very short wait. DD closes her eyes during the Yeti part. My opinion is that closing your eyes while on a roller coaster sounds scarier than actually seeing the Yeti, what do you think? This is such a great attraction, really super cool!! After we rode, we picked up fast passes for later.

We took the path that leads to the back end of Dinoland, and we walked right onto Primeval Whirl (hurl). I’m actually a big fan of wild mouse rides – in fact just this past weekend, I made my family ride the wild mouse at Kings Dominion in Virginia 3 times. It was hard not to make unfavorable comparisons with the Disney parks – Disney just knows the secrets to making the magic, I guess. Disney has an innate understanding of what wows people. Plus it doesn’t help either that you have to walk through a metal detector to get into the Virginia park. I will also add that their food was, believe it or not, more expensive than Disney. $3 for a bottle of water. Now, that’s really scary!

Anyway, back to the show, here. After enjoying our spin on Primeval Whirl, we walked into a 5 minute line for Dinosaur. This is another ride that my DD closes her eyes on. The past couple times on this ride, I admit that I closed mine, too. So I was determined to keep ‘em open this time. I did. It was worth it. That is one mondo dino. Plus the preshow and ride have demented my (admittedly already somewhat) demented family even more by providing the line “that’s definitely not our dino”, which we continue to use all the time. Looking for our car in the parking lot – “not our dino”, etc. Good cast members here. I had an empty seat next to me and the cast member asked me to buckle the seat belt for the empty seat, because “ that seat is for the dino you’re bringing back”. It is? Okey dokey.

We made a beeline for Camp Minnie Mickey after this, to try to catch the first Festival of the Lion King Show of the day, at 9:40. I knew that the first show would be the easiest to get into. Okay, in hindsight, we could have gone to the second show instead. At 9:40, there is literally NO ONE in that section of the park. I don’t think the characters are out signing autographs and posing for pictures that early, so none of the kids are there. We truly did not see a soul as we strolled the walkways – and you know how rare that is! The theater was maybe ¼ full. The performers put on a killer show, they always do, but there is not as much excitement with such an empty building. So, if the first show is really really early, I would suggest going to the next one. On the other hand, we did get great seats!

After all the singing and dancing, we walked back across the park to use our fast passes for Expedition Everest. It was another fabulous rush. Then, we picked up fast passes for Kali River Rapids and walked over to the Africa section of the park for an early lunch at Tusker House. I love the counter service here. We had to wait a few minutes for them to start serving lunch (was only about 11 am at this point).

We used 2 counter service meals on the DDP for:
Salmon with rice and green beans
½ Rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans
ice tea and coke
chocolate cake
cheesecake
Total charged to the dining plan was around $29

This was plenty of food to share amongst the 3 of us. Everything was excellent. This is my favorite counter service meal inside a Disney theme park. The salmon is flavorful, the chicken is juicy, and the green beans are cooked but still crisp. Yum. So far, this was the perfect day.

We were now within our Kali fast pass window, so we were able to pick up another set of fast passes for the Kilimanjaro Safaris, before heading back across to Asia to get wet. We got refreshingly wet, not drowned, on Kali. So that was perfect. A great ride. My DD next insisted on It’s a Bug’s Life – she really likes the 3-D movies. We had a little bit of a wait to get into the theater – here we are partway through the line.

A good time was had by all….unless you were a little kid tricked into seeing this by your evil parental units. Then you were just ticked off.

It was now time for our Safari, so we took the path that passes right in front of the Flights of Wonder theater….and saw Devine for the first time. She is absolutely fascinating to watch – you have to wonder who in the Disney enterprise could have thought this up? It’s amazing. And girlfriend can work those stilts like crazy. She’s just great. I’m so glad we finally had the opportunity to see her.

Our hope was to ride the Safari, and then catch the next Bird Show before we headed out of the park. The plan didn’t work out though, as we had some safari animals blocking traffic that held up everybody for about 10 minutes. All the trucks were at a standstill, waiting, so it took a while to get everybody moving again. By the time our safari ended, we would have missed 10 minutes of the show. We didn’t want to be rude and push our way in after it had started. The next day the AK was scheduled to hold evening extra magic hours, so we thought we might try to catch the show then.

We needed something to cool us down, so used a snack credit for a strawberry banana smoothie. Definitely hit the spot. We sat at a table over by Tusker House, and were treated to the drumming show taking place out there. Drumming and dancing were amazing. They grabbed many audience volunteers – some of whom weren’t half bad! It was a lot of fun to watch.

We started heading out of the park at around 2 pm. It had been a wonderful day in the Animal Kingdom. It was at this point that DH noticed he didn’t have his hat – thought he might have left in the Lion King show. We went to guest services at the front of the park. They didn’t have the hat, but gave us the phone number for central lost and found, and told us to call tomorrow. No problem.

So we walked on over to our excellent close parking spot, and…..

Can you see it? A flat tire.

DH teased that the people in the next car over (the ones who caught me yelling at them) let the air out of our tire. Okay, ha ha…but not really too funny.

DH flagged down the security van guy, who put in a service call to the Hess station. Apparently, AAA handles these types of things, and they promised to be out in 20-25 minutes. The security van guy said he would periodically stop back over to make sure we were okay. Okay, we could handle that timeframe. I had been worried that it would take a long time to solve this problem, and I knew we had 4:20 ADR’s at Mama Melrose for the Fantasmic Dinner Package. Definitely didn’t want to miss that. DH said “don’t worry, we’ll make it”.

So we waited. And waited. And waited. In the scorching sun. And waited some more. No AAA, no security van, no nothing. Finally after 45 minutes, DH reached the end of his patience, popped the trunk, and started changing out the tire with the donut. Immediately, the security van drove up again. They brought us some bottles of water. They apologized for it taking so long, but felt sure that AAA would be arriving shortly. The guy driving the van said sorry he couldn’t provide any help with changing the tire, but he didn’t know how. Is it just me, or shouldn’t the guy working parking lot security KNOW how to change a tire? Is that unreasonable of me to think? I don’t know, but seems like it would be a useful skill.

Anyway, poor DH was stuck changing that tire in the blistering heat, getting baked and dirty. Several people coming back to their cars were nice enough to offer to help. We didn’t take them up on their offers, but trust me, it was truly appreciated. The people in the car next to ours (the suspects…just kiddin’) arrived back, picked up their car and left. After the donut was in place, we waited another 15 minutes for AAA. So all in all, we waited over an hour. They never showed up.

We finally gave up and left for MGM. We didn’t want to have missed our ADR’s because of this, because that would have made the experience even worse than it was. We decided not to worry about how to deal with this, right at the moment. We figured we would call the rental car company when we got back to the hotel later tonight. Didn’t know if we would end up needing to change out the car at the Orlando airport or what would happen. But we decided to enjoy ourselves for now, as it had been a somewhat stressful afternoon.

We got to MGM around 3:15. After DH found a restroom and got himself cleaned up, he suggested that we see the Great Movie Ride. We learned this is not a great idea in the middle of the afternoon…the line was very long. The film clips ran through their loop 3 times while we waited (it was probably a good 30-40 minute wait). I couldn’t believe there were people waiting in this long line behind us, who didn’t even know what this attraction was! It took so long to get through the line and then experience the attraction, that we had to hustle to Mama Melrose afterwards, with only 5 minutes to spare!

This was our first experience eating here. We used 3 table service credits and ate from the Fantasmic dinner menu.

We shared the family style dinner salad – it was pretty good.
Also shared the 4 cheese pizza (flatbread) – DH and I liked it a lot, DD thought it had too much cheese – weirdo child.

For entrees, I had the Penne with Vodka Sauce, which was delicious. DH had the Spicey Sausage, and DD had the Chicken Parmesan without any sauce. I had meant for DH and I to share our entrees, but I confess I didn’t give him too much of mine.

For dessert, I had the Tiramisu which was good. DH had some kind of Coffee ice cream thing, which had chunks of espresso beans in it, and was also quite good. DD had chocolate gelato and was happy.

Total charged to the dining plan was $122.69, and we all pronounced dinner a great success. Our waiter was very nice and helpful. So far, we had enjoyed all of our table service dining, no duds at all. Maybe we’re just easy to please.

Everybody was much happier with food in our stomachs and Fantasmic vouchers in our pockets. It helped to take away the icky feeling from the tire incident.

We were ready to see a bit of MGM before the Fantasmic show – it was only 5:45 at this point, and the show didn’t start until 8:30. We slipped in to see the Muppets 3-D show, which everybody loved. We then saw the Backlot Tour – the CM up front told us we picked a good time, as the Stunt Show would be letting out in about 15 minutes and the Backlot Tour would then be mobbed. We had an enjoyable time on the tour. We saw the Narnia walk-through display which was just okay, definitely not a repeater.

We picked up a cookie and rice krispy treat (with 2 snack credits) in case we got hungry during Fantasmic. This didn’t seem likely, considering how stuffed we all were from dinner, but hey….we could always eat ‘em later! We took the “back door” route to the theater using our vouchers and got good seats in the Fantasmic Dinner section. We waited for about 45 minutes for the show.

While we waited, I chatted a bit with the lady sitting next to me. She told me that her family had been coming to Disney every year for the last 13 years! (obviously, the kool aid contingent had gotten to her). Everything was going well, she was very nice and personable. Until I mentioned the troubles we had had today, and she turned to me with a look of utter incomprehension and said “well, why were you taking a car anyway? What, are you staying offsite or something?” Excuse me? Well, when I admitted that we were staying at the All Stars, she about bit my head off!! “Oh my God, I would never drive a car while I’m here. We park in the lot when we arrive, and never use it again until we’re going home. Blah blah blah….” You get the picture here. No sympathy from the “kool aid” camp. HMMP! Oh well…

Furthermore, she spent the entire show videotaping, so she didn’t actually get to see Fantasmic anyway. Why see it live when you can watch it at home on tv? All righty, then. We thought the show was terrific – we actually watched in person, too, not through a video monitor. And my husband secretly hoped that, by using our car, we would be kicking back in our room while she was still waiting for a bus. We’re a bit spiteful, that way. Sorry.

We were back at the hotel by 9:30. We called the emergency assistance number for Budget, and believe it or not, they sent somebody out immediately with a replacement car. The guy arrived within 45 minutes, traded out with our old car, and we were good to go. Now, THAT was impressive customer service. Props to Budget for that.

It had been a long day – some good, some bad, some ugly. But we had made it! Tomorrow was Epcot day – and we were looking forward to doing some Soarin’!!

Next up ---- Lunch at Coral Reef and a side trip to MGM

 

[DaisyLynn]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! I'm looking forward to hearing about your lunch at Coral Reef. It's one that I've wanted to visit in the past...and it seems that we may have similar taste in food. When you mentioned that you were easy to please I thought "yep....me too!"

 

[OhMari]

I just spent my morning hour reading your report. I want to eat at Momma Melrose Fantismic package, what was the desert you ate?