Fudbutter's too long TR: 2/27-29

[Fudbutter]

One of the little voices in my head tells me that I owe this board a trip report after all the nice help you gave us before we left. Since I listen to some of the voices, here it is. I apologize in advance for any inappropriate form or content, but since you don’t know where I live, you can’t come over and shoot out my porch light because you disagree with what I’m writing or the presentation thereof, so I figure, what the hey.

I’m going to include a lot of irrelevant info because maybe someone who reads this fits our older-couple-no-kids-no-rush profile and can use a few tips on the way to and from the parks. In any event, economic times are slow, baseball season hasn’t started yet and I have little better to do, so here ‘tis …

The Cast of Two:
Husband (54 going on 14) and Wife (48 going on … 48 … uh b-b-b-b-b-ut she looks 35, really … don’t you dear?), no kids by choice (no debates please). We live north of NYC in the woods and hills of northern Westchester along with 25 guitars, 9 synthesizers, a sports car and ... uh … her stuff. We love to explore, it’s one of the many things that bind us together. Our specialty and particular passion over the years has been US National Parks. We’ve criss-crossed this great land of ours sufficiently that we’ve covered all 50 states several times over and every Park (except for 4 of Alaska’s 8) plus most Monuments and other NPS sites. We’ve also been to much of the rest of the world (meaning the blue-green round thing circling the sun, not the one in Central Florida) with Bas-Italia ranking as a personal favorite. We get along famously (to the extent of nauseating others) and hate to be apart ever. This is because she is a true angel. I’m just a schlub. I’ve been to Disneyland several times (usually on a business trip), her once (on our x-country honeymoon trip in ’81) and we’ve been to Disneyworld once in 1983. Things have changed a smidge in Orlando since then.

The Fudbutter Rules of Travel:

We try to travel in accordance with the FRT developed over the years. These are:

1. Treat wherever you are as though you may never have a chance to be there again.
2. Act as a grateful guest wherever you go
3. Never return to anyplace within 5 years
4. Never take the interstate
5. Never travel at night
6. Never buy vanilla wafer cookies in bulk
7. Learn the language, best you can
8. Always bring music
9. Pack light
10. Buy nothing
11. Keep a notebook
12. Eat local food where the locals do
13. If you need hiking boots or a Jeep to go there, consider it a priority
14. Always have a general idea of where to go on the next trip
15. Get home safe

There is one new rule, and that is to NOT GAIN WEIGHT on a trip. We’ve done fairly well so far on other trips, but this one might prove to be tough because we’re going through BBQ country. If I was ever a prisoner of war, I would resist all torture and never give up information, that is until they present a nice plate of pulled pork and ribs. There’s a lot of pulled pork and ribs between home and Florida. Occasionally, the rules get broken. This trip, they got broken a lot. I won’t bore you with the origin of the rules, but there is reason behind each one. If you are curious about any of them, feel free to debate. In the notebook, we rate every day and give it a cutesy title. It keeps me amused. It also helps to remember.

Purpose of the Trip:
I’ve never been to baseball spring training. This is my last year as a NY Mets fan (if you are my age and one of us, you know why, if you fit that criteria and don’t understand, you will next season), so I ordered tickets for 3 early March spring training games in and around Port St. Lucie. We’ve been to the 3 Florida Nat’l Parks enough for a while, so we needed more to do in Florida. It took a couple of trip outlines to come up with Disney. I bet you, dear reader, would have come up with that idea a tad sooner. Since time was short, I logged on to see if there was a forum to help with that part of the trip. I found you. It was like walking down a long hallway with closed doors, the only sound being my footsteps, opening the door marked DIS and getting WHAPPED IN THE FACE BY HUGE NOISES, LAUGHTER AND MUSIC. Ah ha! I might have found the right place.

Finding DIS:
At first, I was a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities. After I figured out that I didn’t want to stay on site and didn’t need to plan meals in the parks, you all helped flesh out enough of a plan to leave home with. (DIS, don’t leave home without it). This may be the best board I’ve ever seen. You people are helpful, non-judgmental and treat a newcomer the same as a seasoned vet. Very very cool in my opinion. Your enthusiasm is infectious. If there is anything like this board (or DW for that matter), I have never run across it.

Pre Disney: The Trip Down
The original plan was to take 5 days and drive down by the coastal route from NY, but the day we were to leave, Fri 2/22, proved to be poor travel weather with snow (bad) and/or ice (worse) for the whole first day’s route. We cancelled the first two nights hotels in Chincoteaque, VA (Fri) and Kill Devil Hills, NC (Sat) and replaced it with one in Stoney Creek, VA on Sat. The drive to Chincoteaque would have taken 5 ½ hours plus stops. This would have left time to see the ponies (or at least their leavings) at the Wildlife Reserve and find a place by the water to have fresh clams and oysters. The next day, the drive to Kill Devil Hills would have taken 3 ½ hours and left time to visit the Wright Bros. Memorial and sneak over to Pigman’s BBQ for a worthwhile food cheat. The plan for day 3 was to take the ferries along Cape Hatteras, which we’ve not done all the way before, on the way to Myrtle Beach. The help from this board enlightened us on the how and where. All this got replaced with a day 1 run all the way to Stony Creek, VA to catch up to the schedule, requiring that FRT # 4 be broken.

On Sat. 2/23, the roads were still icy, so we didn’t get off until after lunch. This made for a bee line run down the NJ Tpke and I-95 with only 1 rest stop (not bad for an over 50, no?), so there is little to report. We arrived at about 9 which left only the local Denny’s for a quick dinner. At least they had an egg beaters omelet with veggies (hold the cheese). Boring, but at least somewhat guilt free. At least we escaped the snow/ice.

Sun. 2/24 allowed us to cut off the interstate and head to the coast. We had brought two cases of Fiber One bars for breakfast plus a box or two of Wu Lang tea. Not exciting, but highly convenient. We found our first BBQ just over the SC border. It was pretty mediocre, so we chucked half of it. We were really bad and ordered fried pickles (which we love), but after these poor examples, we only had one each and moved on. We arrived at Myrtle Beach around 4:30p.

We’ve never been there before so we were curious to look around. Much to our surprise, our hotel was right on the beach, so we went out for a walk along the shoreline until the sun set. It was still only in the 50’s, which makes for nice strolling weather. There were many people on the beach doing the same thing. It is obviously off season now, I imagine that in season that it is near impossible to move around. Not quite Pescara in August, but not Scarborough in September either. With all the big hotels, the beach must be wall to wall people. Still, this seemed to be a good stopover for Disney type folks with kiddies. There were a lot of vacation type things to do such as arcades and Ripley’s etc. If your family is not from the coast itself, it might be a good way to show the wee ones what the ocean looks like. A local told us that they are building a big amusement park nearby. We wandered about, but couldn’t find any healthy meal choices, so we picked up some veggie soup at the local Chinese takeout and had it on our deck on the beach. All in all, the beach walk made it a worthwhile stop for us.

Mon. 2/25 proved to a bit warmer. We headed down coast with Brunswick, GA as our target overnight. We left a little late (10:30a) and headed towards Fort Sumter NM. We stopped at a Piggly Wiggly to get fruit and a make your own salad for lunch in the monument. It’s still a little cold and windy, but we love picnics in our parks, so we shivered through our salads. Fort Sumter is on an island in the water and we really didn’t want to hang around for the boat, but Fort Moultrie sits on land, so we wandered around there leisurely, took our photos and had a nice chat with a ranger. My Dad is an American history expert, but that passion is lost on me, so Ft. Moultrie was enough for the day for us and we moved on at about 2:30p.

4½ hours later including one Mc D’s stop we arrive in Brunswick. Of course, for us a Mc D’s stop means a small black coffee each at an outside table, but we do have the requisite “remember when” moment when we lovingly gaze at the Big Macs and Filet O Fish on the menu (sigh). Now, the reason for the salad and fruit routine is that this was meant to be a major cheat night. There’s a BBQ place in NYC called Virgil’s. The BBQ isn’t bad, but it certainly isn’t Memphis (or Texas or KCMO, etc). Their placemats show a map of the US with “famous” BBQ places. One was in Brunswick (hence our stop there) but I couldn’t remember the name. Calls to Virgil’s to ask what the name on their placemat were met first with a hang-up, then a put-on-hold for a long time, so we arrived without that info. After we checked in, we started asking around. The desk clerk was from Mumbai so he didn’t even know what BBQ was. Every local we asked where the “famous” BBQ looked at us like we just stepped down the ramp of a flying saucer. Finally, someone told us that they always go to Mack’s nearby. It was OK, but certainly not a world beater. The people there, however, were a lot of fun and a good time was had by all. After Mack’s, we thought we deserved a glass of red or two in the hotel bar. We got there at 8:50p. It was closed. Hot time in the old town tonight. The next morning, we see a billboard for the World Famous Georgia Pig BBQ. Grrrrrr.

Tue. 2/26 OK, OK, we’re on our way to Kissimmee today. The temps are up to 70 (gosh that feels great) and after the F1 bar and tea, we’re headed to Castillo de San Pedros as suggested by you kind folk. On the way, however, we run across the entrance to the Fountain of Youth. I had not thought of that, but it makes sense. St. Augustine is where ole’ Ponce came to explore this, and yes, there it was, in all its tourist trap glory, the Fountain of Youth! It’s a $7.50 entrance fee, but you do get a free drink of some foul tasting water purportedly from the actual fountain itself. This ended up being a lot of fun for us. In fact, I do feel much younger than before we drank the water, maybe 51 or 52. We also broke FTR #10 and picked up a $3 bottle of the stuff for Mom and Dad. I guessed that it was like chicken soup (couldn’t hoit!) and look forward to a funny routine when we see them for Easter.

Afterwards, we headed down the coast towards Castillo de San Pedros and looked up at a major nasty storm coming in off the coast. We duck into a local restaurant for lunch and watch the wind come up and rain come down in drops the size of VW bugs. The food was mediocre and the prices high, but we were dry and did understand that this was a tourist town. It was still drizzling an hour later, so we skipped the Castillo and headed on in to Kissimmee. On the way, we stopped at Fort Mantanzas for a quick walk around a nice boardwalk loop as the rain stopped for a moment, but we needed to get to Kissimmee. Once again it was required that FRT # 4 be broken.

By the time we got to I-4, the rain was HUGE. We found out later that there were tornado warnings across Florida. Some of you poor folk were in the parks that day. I hope that fate evened it out for you somehow.
After checking in, we went looking for dinner. We drove around for quite some time and could find nothing more than an Outback. We ordered small steaks, steamed veggies and hold the bread. The waitress looked at us and asked “Atkins?”. The wife looked back and said, “No, Fat-axx”. Guess you had to be there.

A word on why Kissimmee rather than on site: $336 for 5 nights. We consider hotels for sleeping only. I imagine that the themed hotels would be much better with kids though and well worth the extra expense. Someday (which can’t be until 2013 – see FRT #3), I do want to stay at the Grand Floridian so I can get snookered on a bottle of expensive wine at V&A, but not this time. As it was, we were literally 15” from hotel to parked car at all the parks we went to.

Day One: Wed. 2/27 – EPCOT
There’s nothing like the beginning of a first day. The start of a long journey, opening day of your favorite sport, picking up a new car, some large life experiences remembered forever, some small forgotten soon, but all with that aura of uncertainty and anticipation to whatever degree appropriate. We start the day with tea and a Fiber One bar (Darn, I miss those biscuits and gravy and donuts and waffles and such). Attention is paid to the local paper, or observing other folk at the tables or sometimes in conversations with strangers who by necessity share our table. Sometimes, it’s looking at guidebooks or maps to decide what to do that day or which trails to take in a park. This particular morning consisted of an odd sort of confusion for us. We knew we were going to EPCOT because, well, you told us to. Our only plan was to show up, get a fast pass for Test Track, whatever that is and, I guess, walk around and … uh ... do stuff. Kinda nice and easy, a nice relaxing time basking in the warm Florida sun after another cold NY winter. Turned out that none of that was correct, which is great, because as far as we’re concerned, it’s the surprises that make travel an adventure.

We left the hotel on Irlo Bronson Pkwy at 8:30 am I never did find out who Irlo Bronson was/is. To us, it sounds like a folk singing tough guy (Alice’s Gym? … sorry, private joke). We parked 15” later only a few feet from the walkway that leads to the ticket center. It was a good thing that we left our winter coats, gloves and such in the trunk because it was c-c-c-c-old and a bit windy. Maybe 40 degrees tops. It would later warm up enough to take off the gloves and open the coats, but at that time, I saw several folks with only light covering and I felt bad for them. It was one of those mornings that, if I had football tickets for a game in that weather, the wife would glare at me all day for making her sit out in it. I really hope that the weather didn’t ruin anyone’s day. The first thing that struck me is how quiet it was. Everyone spoke in low tones as though they were strolling through the main gallery of a museum. Perhaps it was the early hour or perhaps everyone else was sizing each other up to see who could get to Test Track to get a fast pass first (OK, we can beat that couple from Minnesota with the stroller, but those honeymooners in that rental car look to be in pretty good shape).

First stop is, of course, the ticket line. We were third in line behind two other couples. Should only take a minute, right? Wrong. Apparently, folks don’t speed through the process of giving up the equivalent of a month’s mortgage payment. I knew it was not going to be cheap, but gave it little thought beforehand because the truth of the matter is that you have arrived at the park and your choices are 1) pay the price or 2) leave and go home. Obviously, you pay. As I signed the AMX receipt, I’m thinking 2 nice dinners for 2, Saturday plan tickets to Shea Stadium, 5 years of Golden Eagle passes to National Parks, ½ of a Fender Stratocaster, etc. The truth is that, if you map out your entire entertainment dollar by cost per hour, this is actually a pretty good bargain.

Then suddenly, we’re at the gate and the thought of the price never comes up again (until now, hmm, 2 tires for the car, 4 outings for sushi and a movie … wait a minute, three full days at Disney, all included except for food, well, that’s better than a couple of tires and certainly more memorable than sushi). I loved the fingerprint entry thing, very hi-tech and all that.

You told us to make a bee line for a fast pass to Test Track, so we did (easily passing the couple with the stroller from Minnesota (..ha! First your best pitcher and now your fast pass!). We get there and …. there’s no wait? We walked briskly though the line and walked right into the “car”. I expected that it was going to be a real car (or mock up thereof) like the ’64 World’s Fair and was a bit surprised with the decidedly non-car equipment, but as you know, it didn’t matter one bit. I love cars, specifically sports cars (preferably roadsters) and have since I was a little boy. I was going to like this no matter what it was, however, I had no idea that I would go on the very best ride that I’ve ever been on, bar none, anywhere, anytime. Acceleration, cornering, whoo hoo !!! When I’m King, I’m having this thing built in my back yard. I would love to drive like this myself, but if I did, my little roadster would be at the bottom of Croton Reservoir right now. Of course, the ride lets you out into a GM exhibit, which I liked as well. I thought of it as dragging the wife into a car showroom without the requisite groan ahead of time. All in all, I could have gone home just then and would have considered this a successful visit. As we passed out the front, we noticed that there still wasn’t a line. Hear that sound? That’s me saying “ouch” from still kicking myself that we didn’t immediately get back on the ride. RATING: A+

Your only other instruction for EPCOT was to head to Soarin’. Ever obedient, we scurry over to The Land. Again, no waiting as we walk right into the ride as it was about to start. Again, a great experience. We thought it clever how the rows of seats separated and it was funny to see rows of feet hanging about. In Disneyland in CA and our MK visit 25 yrs ago, I always liked Peter Pan’s ride the best, although it was only a B ticket (anyone remember A, B etc tix?). This was kinda like a grown up version of that, in a way. They did a great job with the film and coordinating the flight. The locations were nice, but frankly, we think there are more magnificent scenes to fly over than the California locations that were shown. This is, of course, personal choice and we would all rather see our favorite places or our hometowns. We would have rather flown over NYC and Arches/Canyonlands in Utah or perhaps Paris, London or Toyko, but still, it was a great flying sensation that I have not seen duplicated elsewhere. RATING: A

The problem with doing those two things first is that these were the two best things we did in the 2 parks that we visited. Of course, there were still the hidden surprises here and there, but nothing compared to the two.

By now, it was starting to warm up a bit, but the park was in no way crowded. There seemed to be a marked absence of children, which I assumed to be partly due to the pre-spring break time frame and (as you reported, EPCOT is more of an adult park than the others. In any event, the lack of crowds allowed us to mostly waltz on and off rides and attractions at will and we finished most of the lower part of the park by lunchtime. Here were our ratings for those:

Circle of Life (B+): Somewhat cute and a good lesson for kids. Not much of it stuck in our minds 2 weeks later, but we liked it for it’s production and a few cutsey jokes.

Living in the Land (C-): I think we did this 25 years ago. Agriculture is not one of our interests. My Father-in-Law would have loved this for the supersized produce. Me? My expertise comes after these things are cut up, prepared and presented on a plate.

Mission Space (B): A nicely done SIM, but a bit short. I assume that you really didn’t need to push the buttons, but like Desmond in Lost, we all do our duty when called upon, besides, I’ve always liked Gary Sinese.

Universe of Energy (B-): We actually had to wait 6” for this one. The film was a bit tedious but the ride clever. I’m just not a big Ellen fan.

Spaceship Earth (C-): This one also required a wait, but apparently only because the ride is soooooo slowwwwwwwwwwwwww. It certainly was dated. Funny, I remember this one as being the ace ride back in ’83.

Imagination (C+): This one gets a point for having a member of The Rutles play a part, but seemed to be more for kiddies. We felt that they could have spent a few more bucks on SFX for this one

Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (C+): I always like 3D, but as a glasses wearer, it’s a bit awkward. The show was cutsie for us and a bit hokey. Rick Moranis has got to stop shrinking things. Besides, all I see when I see him is Dark Helmet (Ludicrous Speed …NOW !)

Nemo (the ride?) (C): Maybe it was too much kiddie stuff by then or too many things in one morning, but it seemed silly. It was nice to sit for a few minutes though.

Finally, it’s lunchtime. I like lunchtime. It’s my second best thing … after Dinnertime, so it’s off to World Showcase (I had to look that up, to us, it was simply, Int’l Circle).

Our first stop was Yakatori house in Japan. This was a huge disappointment to us. One of our favorite travel memories was walking into a Yakatori house in Tokyo. There, you sat at counters and chefs cooked assorted things on bamboo sticks right in front of you, then served them right on your plate. It was all delicious and some of it was even identifiable. I think we both individually ordered the Emperor’s Feast for Two and did not know the Japanese word for enough. We were the only gaijin in the place and were treated like royalty by everyone (one patron sent us a beer; another sent a plate of … something ... that was wonderful, all with smiles and bows ... just because we were there in their country). Now, you really can’t duplicate an experience like this in an amusement park, but when we get to this place and see that this was as much a Yakatori house as our local Exxon station, we were a little disappointed. Still, a hot Miso soup helped on this cool day and off we went to find something else.

The problem is that it is very hard to find a healthy meal while out. We ended up at the Moroccan pavilion. Interesting place. We ate the inside of a gyro (least of all evils) and even cheated by tasting the delicious pita. Price was ridiculous, but still better than it would have been in an airport or a ballpark. The pavilion was interesting with all that mosaic work and beautiful fountains. We both decided that we should go to Morocco one day and put that on the B list (the lists go down to D). Behind some of the stores is a fountain that was supposedly a reproduction of a real one in Morocco. A group of about six people or so were surrounding it and inspecting it in detail. Finally, one of them told me that they were looking for the hidden mickey there. I would have had no idea what that was if I did not check out this board first. In any event, they left unsatisfied and we got caught up looking for it for a while. We left unsatisfied too, but vowed to find at least one HM over the course of the remaining 2½ days.

We spent the balance of the afternoon in the Int’l Circle. It’s actually a pleasant walk around a little manmade lake. It was starting to warm up and the crowds never materialized. Stopping here and there proved to be entertaining and produced a number of enjoyable moments. This is an excellent people watching venue. This also gives the wife an opportunity to speak other languages. We discovered that talent a number of years ago when she started learning languages of whatever country we were travelling to for vacations. She amazes me constantly with this ability. For instance, she ordered the miso soup entirely in Japanese. Personally, I can speak only English and Bronx (yous got a problem wid dat?)

There is no African pavilion, but a man from Kenya runs a kiosk selling carved wood things. She walked up to him and started a conversation in Swahili. First surprised, and then delighted, they had a long conversation. The smile on his face could have lit Cleveland on a cold winter night. I, of course, had no idea what they were talking about. I always had a concern that she was telling him that I was a strange man following her around and could you please call the police. Luckily, I had the car keys, so she was stuck with me. After we moved on, I looked back and he had gone back to work, but now had a huge smile on his face. That actually matched Test Track for enjoyment level for me.

There was not much truly authentic or remarkable as far as the pavilions go with a few exceptions. The movie in the China facility brought tears to our eyes as it was as though we were looking at a trip album for us. It’s been a while (’04) since we were last there, but I was amazed at how dated the film was. This is more a reflection of how fast things are moving there rather than the age of the Disney film. The view across the Yangtze from the Bund in Shanghai (the next Center of the World) has changed so drastically, it was amazing. Those of you who have sat and watched the Aurora building at night will know what I mean. I imagine that 3 years later it’s even more unrecognizable. The mini Temple of Heaven was cute, but lacked the charm of the real thing as in something really really old rather than a souvenir style reproduction. Of course, the government of China would have been a bit angry if we took the original and moved it to Florida and we don’t want to get the sleeping dragon angry now, do we? We were also enjoying the acrobats as we waited for the movie. It looked like the same act we saw in Beijing.

We also liked the Canada movie. Cleverly written and beautifully shot, it was entertaining throughout. Mr. Short did a nice job too.

The tori (the red gate thing) looked wrong in front of Japan. This is a serious religious symbol in Japan and the real ones are part of some very serious temples. It seemed sad and uncomfortable here.

Italy was the biggest disappointment for us. Now, before I begin complaining (and you flaming me), please understand that the wife was born in Venezia, blessed by the Pope in Piazza San Marco and the place of the best overseas travel we have ever done. To me, Italy is food, wine, scavi (ruins like The Forum) and, more importantly, people living life with extreme gusto. Nothing in this pavilion gave us any feeling of Bella Italia. The Doge’s Palace and Campanile recreations were forced and trite. It’s just not the same without that magnificent plaza and surrounds. The wine they served was swill (you’d get arrested in Italy for serving wine that bad assuming you can find a polizia not on espresso break) and worst of all, there was no one who was really Italian working there. The wife could only find one person who could actually speak the language like a native, and he was busy chatting up a couple of young ladies (which is VERY Italian). In Disney’s defense, no one ever likes recreations of what they know well (i.e. most lawyers I know abhor Grisham novels). Not that this ruined our day or anything, but I saved a lot of time for this pavilion, which was my miscalculation.

Still, triumphs, surprises and disappointments aside, it was a nice relaxing walk around the lake. We had an ADR (hey I can do DISpeak too!) at Tokyo Dining. It seemed the healthiest choice for us and, well after reading this board for a couple of weeks, I had to have my very own ADR. We had enough time to run back for another shot at Test Track, but (gasp) there was a line. (There’s that “Ouch” sound again).

We didn’t expect much out of Tokyo Dining. We have a weakness for Sushi Rolls and should stay away from them (rice = baaaaad), but we have a secret place locally that serves “gourmet” rolls that we have never seen matched anywhere, including Japan, NYC and SoCal. But we had an ADR and it was worth going there just to say that. Made me feel like a real DISner. We show up 10” early and wait 15”. While sitting on the bench on the other side of the restaurant (the Benihana side?), the wife points to the floor near her feet and there, looking right back at us, is this tiny Mickey. So we did find our hidden mickey after all. Never did see another though.

It was a fairly late reservation (8:00pm) so the restaurant was starting to empty out when we were seated. The wife ordered two hot sakes (large of course) in Japanese (or maybe it was Large Hot Sake for me and poison for the man across the table). We had fun talking Hashin Tigers with the waiter from Osaka (Japanese baseball, think Wrigley Field on crack) and ordered 4 rolls (for the record, Matsuhama, Rainbow, Dynamite and Volcano). When they were presented by our Tigers fan, your faithful trip reporter and sushi roll snob was truly humbled, they were fabulous! Cut exactly bite size (most rolls are not cut properly), interesting combinations, presented beautifully and virtually perfect.They were too much to finish (the take home made a great hotel snack the next night). Just as we ordered tea, IllumiNations started (we were sitting next to the window at the front). What a nice way to end a nice day. It should be noted here that the meal was exactly what we order at our secret local place. It was less than $2 more in price. That tells me a lot about the restaurant pricing. I would eat in Tokyo Dining regularly if it were local.

Another favorite part followed. By the time we left, (~9:15p), the fireworks were over and the park was virtually emptied out (and surprisingly dark). It took about 30 minutes to stroll out virtually alone accompanied by very relaxing ambient music. Cool. We get back in the car and are in the hotel within minutes.

We rated the day an A+. I expected it to be the best Disney day and that proved to be true. A surprise here, a thrill there and a tear or two shed. Not bad for the price of admission, eh?

Day Two: Thur. 2/28 – HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
F1 bar over tea and box scores. If you are one of us, you know how beautiful those first few box scores look, it means SPRING! We parked at Hollywood Studios by 8:50a or so. Then came the biggest regret of the trip that I’m still kicking myself over. We’re walking in, and next to me is a lady in a wheelchair being pushed by what we assumed was DH. On the chair, in plain sight, was a large lime green ribbon. I walked right next to her all the way to the gate and never said anything. I was a bit befuddled from the early hour and I figured I’d see lime green stuff again, so I just let it go, but I never did see lime green again. I’m so sorry whoever you are, you went to the trouble to put that there and it really was my responsibility to respond. If you are reading this, please accept a heartfelt apology. I get the jerk award for the day (I get that a lot). At least know that someone noticed, that’s something. I guess it’s just another example of never passing up opportunity because you never know if it will be the last one.

We enter the park with the fingerprint reader (I still get a kick over that). Since the tix are in our pockets, nary a thought is given over the price thereof. Since we went to EPCOT during our last visit in ’83, this park will be a brand new experience for us. I like brand new experiences, no matter how large or small. We had been to Universal - CA on a National Park trip in ’05 so I expected this to be kind of a clone. It really wasn’t, which is good and bad. We’ll get to that.

Tower of Terror: Now is where you all come in. A few weeks ago, I mentioned that the wife would not like anything that has “terror” in the name. You (yes that’s YOU, don’t try to hide behind that screen snickering, I sense you out there) said two things that convinced me to try to take her on this ride: 1) If you like Twilight Zone, you’ll love the ride and 2) My 3 year old goes on this, or something to that effect. Yeah right.

I was going for a Fast Pass because, well, I just had to have a Fast Pass for something. After all, we already had an ADR and saw a HM so we needed to get a Fast Pass to be real DISers. Again, we get there and there’s no wait at all, so we walk right in. The ride had been going already and we were hearing screaming coming from the building as we walked up. The wife thinks that this is a show like Haunted House in MK (or was that Universal?), you sit in a theater or a moving car and that the screaming was piped in for ambience. Walk up and you end up in the room where Rod Serling gives the speech. OK, so far, so good. You are led to the cars and are seated. So, what, we just ride this thing around this house and you see (clunk) Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her immediate reaction is to dig all five nails of her right hand into the left leg on the person on her right. Unfortunately, I was on her left. A deft switch of hands and five nails of her left hand were quickly imbedded in my right leg. She yells at me “You are soooo dead”. All of this while still airborne from that first drop. I’m laughing too hard to say anything. A few more drops and I could feel the heat of her glare on the side of my face during each one. We walked out with her muttering under her breath and end up in front of the Aerosmith roller coaster thingee. She simply looks at it, then at me, and said quietly, “not if you want to live past today”. I chose life and we moved on, a bit shaky, but on never the less. RATING? B+ for the actual ride, A+ for the story we’ll tell when we get home.

We started wandering and came across what was supposed to be NY and SF. I loved how the SF part looked 3D from afar and flat up close. Someday, I’m going to redo the front of the house like that. We didn’t recognize any of the real parts of NY. She was just happy it didn’t move.

We wandered into the Honey I Shrunk the Kids thing which was for kids only. It looked like a great place to bring the little darlings if you needed a rest during the day. We ended up at the Backlot Tour. I can’t speak for Universal –FL, but the tour in Universal – CA was really cool. You see actual movie and TV sets that you know, like the Cleaver’s House from Leave it to Beaver (gone now), the Psycho set, the square from Back to the Future and Its a Wonderful Life (same one). Last time, we saw the airplane crash scene from War of the Worlds. What we saw here was the props from the Lights Motors Action show, Walt’s old plane and the obligatory SFX attraction, which, in this case was an earth quake. It was still cool out, so the gas fire from the attraction part was nice and warming. Pretty lame there Disney. RATING C-.

Next we wandered over to the Indiana Jones show. We had a 20” wait, so we had a nice time hanging out. The show was surprisingly good. I could have sworn I saw it somewhere else before though. They did a nice mixture of action, explaining the action, cutsie skits with the “plant” from the audience. Well worth the wait. Let’s give this one a B+.

By now, it was noon. One of the advantages of this park is that it’s small, so you can get back and forth to anywhere in the park. We remembered the Toluca Turkey Leg Co and headed over for what promised to be a relatively healthy meal. We also appreciated the Anaheim Produce Company, but never had a chance to patronize it. She had the Toluca Salad and me the Turkey Leg. The leg was very greasy and a mess to eat, but it did make me feel like Henry VIII, so I finished most of it. Most savage. It was still cool out, but we ate outside anyway. She had to pick the cheese out of the salad, but at least the picnic table wasn’t dropping in free fall 10 stories.

My aforementioned love of cars dictated that we go see Lights! Motors! Action! I think that there were only two shows that day, so we went to see the first one. They built this huge stadium in front of what was supposed to be a French street scene, without the people glaring at you because you’re American. The show, imported from Disney Paris was very well done, but I do not want to ruin any part of it if you haven’t seen it so I’ll hold comments on this. I can say this, these dudes can drive man. This was no sissy show. The stunts could have been really dangerous. I got the impression that they practice occasionally. A- rating from the Fudbutter crew. I forgot what I took points off for, but highly recommend this one.

Speaking of Disney – Paris, I’ll take a moment here for an odd Disney related experience we had 6 ½ years ago. We’re at a train station in London waiting for the Chunnel train to Paris. We had gotten there early and were immersed in whatever novel we were reading at the time while munching on some breakfast pastries (sigh). All of a sudden, the person walking by me flopped by in HUGE black shoes. I looked up and it was Goofy, followed by Mickey, Minnie and I think Snow White. I was speechless. Then a band showed up and started playing When You Wish Upon A Star. We looked at each other in amazement until we noticed PARIS – DISNEYLAND over the doorway to the track. It never occurred to us. They could have warned us though, I thought I was having a 60’s flashback. The wife turned to me laughing and said, “What a strange world we live in”. That would prove to be prophetic, because it was the morning of 9/11/01.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled trip report.

We walked right into Muppet 3D and hardly had time to put on the glasses before the show started. We found it to be clever and funny and entertaining throughout. The 3D FX were well done and we were surprised to have enjoyed this so much. We thought it was going to be kiddies-only. I imagine that it would be even more entertaining if Muppets were from your era. But we settled because there is no Johnny Jellybeaner 3D or Sandy Becker 3D. RATING B+.

The park was getting a bit more populated as the day went on, certainly much more so than EPCOT the day before so there were waits everywhere. We got a Fast Pass (finally) for Voyage of the Li’l Mermaid and moved on. We killed some time watching Hollywood Public Works, a small troupe doing low comedy in the street (my goodness THAT would be a fun job) and popping into the Disney Animation demo (rated C zzzz). The parade came through, but if you don’t have a place staked out ahead of time, it’s nothing more than an annoyance. Once over, we used the fast pass. The lady at the front was actually from our little home town, which was fun. The show was lost in us, though, as I’ve never seen this movie, but I appreciated the theater part. So, for us, it was a C.

Next stop was the Beauty and the Beast mini-play. The production was truly professional and we had to wait only 5” for the show. Also not our era, though. We gave it a B. Considering the price of tix on Broadway these days, it’s a bargain to see this little snippet for free.

It was starting to get late, so we went over to Star Tours for a quick ride. We got right on, but found the ride to be needlessly queezy and a bit old and dated. In defense of the ride though, we’re Star Trek fans, not Star Wars so maybe we were pre disposed towards the C rating we gave it.

We saved the Great Movie Ride for last. The wife loves old movies and dials in those channels first when turning on the TV. We thought it was a yawner. The girl “bad guy” who hijacked the tour was a horrible actress with an overdone bad guy gun moll accent who rushed through her bit by rote. The sets were cheesy and not quite up to Disney standards. The wife was happy that at no time was a 10 story free fall drop involved. Rate this a C.

One thing left to do as it was getting dark and the park would close soon, Fantasma. I thought that this was a very impressive production and way more than anticipated. The projections of animation of water spray was brilliant. Give the boys and girls a B+ for this one.

The problem with going to this show is the huge crowd that all leaves together at the end. In these cases, we use our ballpark strategy: Let ‘em all push out and stroll out later after the hubbub has died down.

We rated this day a B+. I frankly felt that this was not worth the same price of admission as EPCOT. We didn’t have much in tear inducing surprises, but it was still a pleasant day. Ypu have to compare this to Universal and it certainly did not measure up to Universal – CA. How does it compare to Universal – FL?

We ended the day with dinner outside the park back on ole’ Irlo Bronson Pkwy. There was a place that advertised as an Argentinean Steak house. Looking to relive a part of our Argentina-Uruguay trip, we were planning for a big cheat with Provoleta, Befe di Lomo and a bottle of Malbec. In keeping with the Orlando theme, it was as much an Argentinean steak house as my mother-in-law’s kitchen. They didn’t even know what provoleta is. There oughtta be a law. At least the restaurant wasn’t dropping in free fall 10 stories.

Day Three: Fri. Feb 29 – ANIMAL KINGDOM
We could have left at this point, but we did have three day tix, so it was a choice between this are going back to Test Track 20 times. Your advice was to go here for the third day, and as you may have noted, we are nothing but obedient subjects. Besides, this was the night that we had dinner reservations in Orlando and this park closes the earliest. Now I thought that the Animal Kingdom was the bleachers at Yankee Stadium, but it turned out to be another theme park, but one that produced our most amusing moment of the trip.

F1 bars and tea were accomplished later that morning. Perhaps it was advent of a greater number of box scores, or perhaps our enthusiasm was starting to wane. We arrived and parked at 9:45p and finally caught up to what was missing, crowds. They were everywhere, people with little kids, people with big kids, people with little kids and big kids, strollers, baskets, couples without kids and even a couple with no kids, but a stroller. It was a mad teaming mass and no one was smiling. Hey, I thought that this is supposed to be the happiest place on earth? … or is that only the Magic Kingdom.

We didn’t have much of a plan, so we started wandering. We had a great time watching a handler feed two saddle billed storks their morning fish. Little birds called crackles(?) were sneaking over and, at the last second, timing the handler’s throw to intercept the fish. These little guys were good, especially after the handler told us that, if the storks caught the bird instead, they would eat them. Life is tough in the animal kingdom.

It made sense to take the safari as the world seemed to be streaming in that direction. By the time we arrived, there was a 50” wait. Now THAT’S Disney! Of course, being two day veterans and DIS trained, we get a fast pass.

The natural progression from there is to Pangani Forest Trail, which we did … along with what seemed to be thousands of other folk. There were people with little kids, people with big kids, people with little kids and big kids, strollers, baskets, couples without kids and, yes, even that couple with no kids, but a stroller. That created the problem of actually getting to a place where you can see the animals as most viewpoints were 2-4 people deep. If you look at it as a zoo, it was really a poorly set up and sparsely stocked one. Still, it’s always cool to see Gorillas, I always imagine what they would do on the Jets defensive line. I always felt that the kids should get priority to see these animals as many of them are seeing these guys for the first time, so we always step aside to let the little darlings in. Apparently, this is not common practice, as people were trampling all over each other to jockey for positions we vacated. Still, it was a nice walk, and a good time killer until the Fast Pass kicked in. Rating C for crowd.

Outside the safari place is a fruit stand with fresh bananas and oranges. Gotta appreciate that. We downed a quick banana and fast passed our way into the Kilimanjaro safari. We waited 10” and took the 17” ride. Here, we encountered our biggest disappointment with Disney design. Now I understand that there is a need to move a lot of people quickly or the wait would be hours for the ride, but this was ridiculous. First, if you are not on the far side of a row in the truck, all you see is heads. Second, they drive like it’s an expressway and with the bouncing around on the dirt road, it was impossible to take pictures. Our driver rushed through her spiel so fast that most of it was not understandable. It was like watching your DVR on fast forward. Of course, you can’t expect a real safari here, but there must be some sort of compromise. My suggestion is to simply STOP the truck at certain points and let everyone take their pictures. We weren’t disappointed by this ride, but I did feel bad for the poor folk next to us who were desperately trying to get any picture of the animals. To be fair, what you don’t get is an empty wallet (African tent trips cost as much as a decade of Disney trips), bruised (you get bounced around real good over there) and most importantly, tse tse fly bites (we are still scratching from 2 years ago), not to mention malaria. Maybe, this wasn’t so bad after all. I will say this, the animals looked much more healthier than those in the African wild as they have humans caring for them. That much was comforting. We’ll give it a B-.

We next went to Dinosaur. The ride was a bit hokey and needlessly jerky, but we must have liked some of it because we gave it a B-. I’m still waiting for a real Jurassic Park.

From there, we went to see the Tree of Life. We were very impressed by the carvings. We were told that it took the artists a year to finish and I believe it. Great job guys! We walked right into the Bug’s Life show, which was another excellent 3D presentation. I loved the movie, so perhaps that’s why I liked the show, as long as you know when to cover up when the water comes. Give this one an A-.

Time for lunch. I didn’t want another greasy turkey leg, so we cheated a bit and got the ribs and beans (of course, we passed on the cornbread … sigh). We were very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the ribs and had a nice time sitting outside and talking to our neighbors. Then the ducks came for their handout. The family next to us started feeding the ducks their turkey leg. I had no idea that a duck would eat meat. Kinda creepy to watch though. It is never good to feed wild animals. They come to rely on the handouts and forget how to obtain their own food, plus the salt and other additives in our food will kill them. These guys were probably too far gone at this point though. Still, a duck eating a turkey leg, who woulda thunk it? Naturally, the little guys got none of our ribs. Beaks off fellas, that’s MINE.

We hopped on the Wildlife Express and went to the Rafiki’s Planet Watch. This is an interesting place for both kids and adults alike. I wanted to go in the petting zoo, but the wife gave me her “you big baby” glare and I demurred to her wise counsel, as always. I gave this a B+, however, outside the center, we encountered one of my very favorite moments of this trip.

Rolling around, talking to kids was a little yellow trash can. The look on the face of the kids as they were approached was absolutely priceless. The wife pointed out the controller, a young man with his hand in a duffle bag (the controls) wearing a small mike. He was fabulous and played to the adults as much as the kids. Our favorite moment was when the trash can approached a little girl, maybe all of 3 yrs old. She had a cell phone attached to her belt. The trash can rolled up to her and played off that to the point of us laughing uncontrollably. This was a delightful idea, both for the kids and adults, it was well executed, and it made my day.

On the way back, we saw where the pens were for the safari animals. They actually gather these guys and put them in pens at night. I was amazed, that cannot be an easy job. It was also kind of sad. We had visions of sneaking in at night and letting them out while singing Born Free … except that they’d say to each other, hey, now’s our chance to go on Test Track and they’d all be found in the morning lined up for tickets at EPCOT.

As we walked past Flights of Wonder we noticed that the show was just about to start so we walked in and sat down. We’ve all seen bird shows before and this one was typical, which is to say, very entertaining. Birds are smart animals and certainly more trainable than my brother-in-law. Gotta love it (B+)

Next was the Maharaja Jungle Trek. It was worth the walk over to see the tigers. The wife is insisting on going to Ranthambore to see them before they disappear from the wild. Magnificent creatures, aren’t they? The walk around this zoo type exhibit was nice, and uncrowded. Give it a B.

The 4:00pm parade was just too crowded to be able to see anything. I assume that this is best for kiddies, but it must be tough staking a claim to a view seat and waiting until it starts. We wandered about and stopped for a cup of coffee to kill the time until the pathways reopened. Realizing that we only had time for one more thing in Disney before closing time, we got on line for the Nemo musical. I’m still unsure about this one. Was this a play or a puppet show? In any event, it was a bit odd, but you have to appreciate the production. We gave it a B+. At the end, the gulls appeared in those “bubbles” on the side and instead of saying ”Mine Mine Mine” (may favorite skit from that movie), they were saying “Bye Bye Bye”. Apropos for the last act of the three day Disney portion of our trip.

The early closing allowed us to get back to the hotel and change for dinner. Although not a Disney activity, I add this part to the day by way of review and dinner alternative for like minded folk.

We choose one nice meal in each location that we visit. The Fudbutter Rules of Travel #12 states “Eat local food where the locals do”. Our MO is to chose by Michelin star ratings, if available or, more often, by Zagat rating by food only. This is not fool proof, but has served us well over the years. In Orlando, the two highest rated restaurants are Le Coq au Vin in Orlando proper and Victoria and Albert. Both garner a 27 Zagat food rating, which is fairly high. According to our research, Le Coq is where the locals go, so we made our reservation there. Ok, maybe the fact that it would be less than half the cost of V&A had something to do with it. I donned a jacket and tie, but was the only one there with such attire. I understand that V&A requires it, which is something I prefer when I drag them around the entire trip for no other reason. The meal was good but not lifetime memorable, more of a 24 or 25 food rating in our opinion. The wine list was small but reasonably priced. All in, it was a $150 dinner, which is still less than some of our local restaurants.

Wanting to extend Disney a bit, I headed to Downtown Disney just to check it out, but the wife had “inappropriate shoes” for walking (cue Rex H singing “Why Can’t a Woman be More Like a Man” from My Fair Lady) and we opted to return to the hotel.

Post Disney: Still in Florida

Is there life after Disney? Well, fer sure.
We spent Sat. 3/1 going to the Wife’s sister’s house in the Tampa area and had a wonderful time. Her kids are now mostly grown, so we met fiancées and girlfriends and cousins and all sorts of folk in a house full of life and laughter (and noise). On Sun., it was time to check out and say au revoir to Kissimmee. Our next stop was Port St. Lucie, which was only a couple of hours away, so we made a last minute decision to go to the Kennedy Space Center on the way. This proved to be a good move. In a way, it was an extension of Disney, only a little more than an hour away, with rides, shows and even another 3D movie. I recommend it highly as long as the kiddies aren’t too young to appreciate this. The 3D thing, Magnificent Desolation, wonderfully narrated by Tom Hanks (the Spencer Tracy of this generation) was so moving; we had to wipe away the tears.

The next three days were dedicated to spring training games in Port St. Lucie and nearby Jupiter. I had a huge grin on my face all three days. I had never experienced this and recommend such a visit to anyone who is a ball fan who has never been. If nothing else, I got to become familiar with who will be playing at the AA and AAA levels in the organization this year. We had the two best dinners of the trip. One was Little Moir’s Food Shack (Zagat 27) in Jupiter. The other Cap’t Charlie’s Reef Grill in Juno Beach. These were both casual seafood places, that, if local, we would certainly be regulars. Warning though: be prepared to wait up to 2 hours if you come at the wrong time, but bring a book, it is worth the wait.

Post Disney: The Ride Home

Still with me? You are indeed in need of something productive to do ;->.

One of the advantages of driving yourself is that you can ease your way out of a trip, rather than be snapped back to reality by a plane flight. We had no plan at all other than not going by the coast, as we did that on the way down. The weather was about to get bad again with more rain/tornados predicted for FLA, so we had to high tail it as north as possible. We broke FRT #4 and took the Florida’s Turnpike, then I-95 all the way to Macon. We stopped along the way to visit a Sonny’s BBQ and were reminded how awful their BBQ is. How these guys stay in business with all these locations is beyond me. I would have thought Southerners knew better about BBQ. About now, the wife started to feel ill, so we simply checked into a hotel and skipped dinner.

The next day brought us to Russell Cave National Monument in the Alabama-Tenn-Georgia corner. It was nice to visit an NPS facility that we haven’t been too, took a nice hike and had a interesting visit to the cave. If you are going by, don’t expect to go in the cave, just up to the mouth. There is a nice hiking trail. The terrain surprised us by looking a little different from some of our trails here in southern NY.

We hadn’t been to Great Smoky Mountain National Park since our honeymoon X-country trip in ’81 so I made reservations in Gatlinburg, TN, at the western entrance to the park. Last time, we stayed in Pigeon Forge and had breakfast in Gatlinburg. There didn’t seem to be much there, so we weren’t expecting much. As we approached town via rte. 441, we noticed that the sky was lit up in a manner similar to approaching a big city, i.e. the lights of New York when you come down Bear Mt. We looked at each other and could not figure out why this was. It couldn’t have been Knoxville because that was behind us. We soon found …

Disneyworld for the country music set:

Oh my goodness, I think that there were more activities and restaurants than in any one Disney Park, it went on forever! That was just Pigeon Forge. We were totally amazed. We stopped for an inexpensive dinner at a Texas Roadhouse, apparently a chain, and had more fun than any dinner in quite some time. If you understand the Woodstock generation, and folks who count the Mahavishnu Orchestra and King Crimson as the two greatest bands in history, you might understand how out of our element we were. When we heard a down home, banjo playin’, off beat, boot stompin’ version of Janis’ “Piece of My Heart”, we just about lost it … and it worked! Yeehaw! Take back the Meritage and bring on the corn squeezings! I loved every minute of it and walked away with the biggest smile on my face since Test Track. She’ll have fun, fun, fun ‘till daddy takes her pickup away … I think that, if this is your thing, you can easily spend a week here.

We left Pigeon Forge behind and continued on to Gatlinburg. We checked into a hotel right across the street from Ober Gatlinburg and were greeted like long lost friends. The room itself had a gas fireplace. Sometimes, my dear reader, you get lucky. We learned that there would be bad weather the next day and that the park road would probably be closed (higher elevation), so they graciously allowed us to stay an extra night in the hopes that we could get in the next day. The wife was feeling a bit under the weather so I thought that we could use the day of rest anyway. Besides, the Jaspers won their opening game in the MAAC tourney round and that was worth celebrating (hey, I know that's irrevevent here, but we just had a rebuilding year, I had to brag a bit).

The next day was in the 30’s with light snow (were we ever sitting at Spring Training in T-shirts?) and the road through Great Smoky was indeed closed. We got up late and went to the visitor’s center to plan the next day in the park. When we returned to town, it was time for lunch. I didn’t want to take the car anywhere because traffic was horrible (I can imagine how bad it is in the summer) so we had lunch in a place called Calhoun’s next to the hotel. We had the worst meal and the worst treatment of anytime on the trip. We counted our blessings that we were not tarred and feathered and left (and still left a nice tip, these people may not be nice, but they do need to make a living). Now we look and act unthreatening and treat everyone nicely, always, it’s our nature. We’ve never had problems outside of the southeast (sorry, that's not everyone there, just some ... just keeping it real here). No big deal, just a stay away warning. Gotta take the good with the bad and all that.

We went back to the room to hide for a few hours and to give the wife a rest. When the snow abated, we went out and took the Ober Gatlinburg tram up the mountain. On top, there were restaurants, an odd skating rink and a ski slope, plus many places to buy … uh … trinkets (the wife made me take out the original word, but it was more descriptive). Everyone seemed to be having fun, which I love to see. When the wife pointed out all the accents, I pointed out that they don’t have accents, we do!

Gatlinburg has a lot of things to do just walking around the streets, my favorite scene was the Ripley’s Aquarium. Underneath the aquarium sign was another come on for a restaurant that said “Seafood Buffet”. OK, that struck me as funny.

Our goal was to do one thing. In 1981, we stopped in the Ripley’s Believe it or Not (BTW: the general rule is - don’t believe it) and took a picture that ended up in our picture album for the trip. I wanted to take the same picture. We get there and find out that the original museum had burned down in a big block fire a few years ago. We spent a little over 1 hour there but only because it cost $34 for both of us. Major rip off. Certainly put the price of the Disney tickets in perspective.

The next day, we checked out and went to the park. We took a short hike to a waterfall from the visitor center to stretch our legs, but on the way back, the wife started feeling ill again. So, we just drove 441 through the park, skipped all the hikes and took pix at the obligatory pix sites. We decided to make a drive for home so we would only be out one more night. I sadly put the pro hockey schedules back in my bag. In Wytheville, VA we found a Chinese restaurant so we could have soup and kept going to Waynesboro, VA at the southern end of Shenandoah Nat’l Park.

The next day, we popped into the park, but skipped all the hikes again and did teh photo thing. We drove the skyline drive to rte. 211 and then beelined home. We had to break FRT# 4 and 5 to get home, but sometime after 9:00p, arrived home we did.

I love travelling.

In Conclusion:

I tried to be even handed in this review, so please do not take anything I said as complaining or as an insult. We had a wonderful time, but I have to admit, over 26 plus years, we have never NOT had a wonderful time no matter where we go together (I know, I know, cleanup on aisle 5 …). We try to find the humor in the bad and the joy of life in the good.

Here are some more random conclusions from this trip. These are obvious just opinions from a Disney outsider:

• There should be different ticket prices for the different parks, kinda like the old A-B-C-D ticket system. Animal Kingdom should not be the same price as EPCOT
• This place is magic for kids, but not necessarily really small kids
• This place would be great for adults if they didn’t allow kids (imagine the exhibits!)
• The workers rushed through every speech and spiel and did everything by rote. Hey guys, this is show biz (there’s no business like show business). There must be some quality control test here.
• Every ride led into a trinket store at the end. Some of you seemed to be unable to get through without buying something. That’s not fair.

There are special places in this world that are unduplicated. Some are natural, some ancient and some manmade. I feel that these are the places one needs to go to feed the traveler’s soul. Disneyworld wouldn’t be the first place I’d choose, but if making a list of these places, I would certainly add Orlando. Would we go back? Sure, but we wouldn’t break Fudbutter’s Rule of Travel #3 to do it. Next time, we might be a little more decadent and stay at the Grand Floridian with an ADR at V&A. As a destination, it is certainly a safe and easy thing to do. It’s not really that expensive if you pay attention. If it’s any indication, the wife took 1,842 pictures on her digital camera, approx 25% of the amount on our most recent trips.

Oh, and if you were curious, I lost 5 lbs, she lost 6.

 

[OhMari]

I loved your very detailed report. We still have one more child to graduate h.s., before we are actually "empty nesters", we have started traveling by ourselves. The only rule that we are trying to change is #4. It's a hard rule to break, because when you have kids, that faster you can get to a destination the better. Sometimes we find things to pull off the interstate for and it ends up being a really bad tourist area. My kids still won't forgive me, for going to see a battle ship in Sioux, South Dakota. Let's just say, there is no way a battle ship can get to Sioux, South Dakota. It took us a long time to actually figure out, there were bits and pieces scattered of the ship from one end of the park to the other.

I'm glad you did a great job with Epcot-you were there at a really good time. Usually Soarin has at least a 90 minute wait by 9:30 a.m. We were disappointed with Italy too at Epcot. I think after seeing the real thing, nothing will ever compare or live up to the real thing.

Sounds like the Disney bug has bit, I bet you break your rule and will return.

 

[disneyaddicted]

I really enjoyed this report. I lived in Chincoteague for 2 years and loved it so much that I still take vacations there every year.

I understand your feeling of disapointment with Italy at Epcot. I spent the majority of my toddler to teen years in Germany (My Dad was army air defense) When I visited the Germany pavillion it brought back a lot of memories, they did their best to recreate it. But my biggest disapointment was the food. I was ready for a bratwurst and sourkraut like the good ole days and it didn't come close. But I made the best of it. I did buy the glow wine and was all excited till I saw that it was manufactured in Texas. None the less it gave my daughter a glimpse of how I spent my youth. My happiest times were spent in Germany.

Thanks for the fun filled and fully detailed trip report, I felt like i was on the adventure with you all.

 

[Fudbutter]

So sorry to bump this, but my sister and her family were on the road and haven't read this and I was afraid they'd never find it on page 4.

Also, thank you to the two folks who replied !

 

[OhMari]

I am going to move this to the completed board. Thanks again for sharing your TR with us.