Dates: January 1st to January 5th, 2001
Location: Wilderness Lodge
Cast: Trisha (Me-42-Mom & avid planner)
Clyde (Dad - 47)
Christina (Daughter - 5 1/2)
Day 4, January 4, 2001 â EE at Magic Kingdom, and an Unexpected Surprise
Today was the big day, EE at Magic Kingdom. We got up, did our snack breakfast, and got down to the boat loading area at 7:15. It was still very cold, and a bit windy down by the lake! We huddled in our coats and gloves and waited. It turns out that the first boat didnâÂÂt arrive until 7:30! But it finally arrived and we were on our way. We arrived at the gates around 7:45. We headed straight down a very lightly populated Main Street toward the Castle and FantasyLand. As we passed the castle, I sent Clyde over to see if there were any openings at the Castle breakfast. I didnâÂÂt really expect anything, but thought it was worth asking.
Christina and I were just about to head for the Dumbo line when Clyde motioned us over. We were going to get in right away!! Christina and I were SO excited to be dining with the princesses, we almost ran all the way up the stairs. We got seated and go our fruit and breadbasket just before we saw the first princess. We saw Snow White, Belle, Jasmine, Princess Aurora, and Cinderella. They were all great with Christina, calling her by name (GOH badge) and talking so nicely to her. Belle asked if she worked there and was taking a break for breakfast! Jasmine told her she was wearing barrettes in Aladdins favorite color (purple, donâÂÂt you know!). The funniest thing though, was hearing Snow White talking to the table next to us. That table was a couple with no children. They must have asked if there was any way to get a picture of both of them with Snow, because I heard her say in her best Snow White voice âÂÂWhy yes, and who is your servant?â It was one of those priceless moments! Soon, their CM server was taking the picture for them. I had trouble working with ClydeâÂÂs camera (happened all the time!) and was told by more than one Princess âÂÂOh Mommy, our shutter is not open!âÂÂ. All in all, this was a true highlight of the trip for us â it more than made up for my disappointment from yesterday! Oh, yeah, the food was pretty good too! The muffins and croissants were great, and I liked the breakfast potatoes and eggs best here! The cream cheese stuffed french toast was good, but a bit too sweet for me! As we were leaving we had a nice visit with the Fairy Godmother, too.
After leaving the castle we grabbed Pooh fast passes, then did the following in rapid succession: Dumbo (pink dumbo, of course), Carousel (Christina and I love this), ItâÂÂs a Small World, Carousel again (Christina wants to do this again by herself), Pooh Ride (stopping in the shop to buy Eeyore ears for me), Character greeting (Timon and Rafiki), and Tea Cups. Christina didnâÂÂt want to do the Snow White Ride, and wasnâÂÂt too keen on Peter Pan, either. Ariel wasnâÂÂt in her grotto (too cold, I think), and we just forgot about the Lion King Show! Then we moved on to Toontown.
We rode the Barnstormer last trip, and Christina seemed to not hate it. Since then weâÂÂd conquered the roller coaster at the local amusement park, so I thought sheâÂÂd really like the Barnstormer this time. It was a walk-on, which was fortunate. She loved it! She and I went on twice in a row, then she went on twice with her Daddy. By then the line was picking up, so we moved on to see Mickey and MinnieâÂÂs houses. I had checked out the characters in the viewing area and there werenâÂÂt any there we hadnâÂÂt already seen, so we skipped it.
Next we moved into the FronteirLand area. We got fastpasses for Clyde and Christina to go on Splash Mountain. While we were waiting we went into Adventureland. We waited in the standby line for 15 minutes to see Pirates of the Caribbean. It was our first time to see this ride. I liked it, Clyde thought it was okay, and Christian thought it was okay too. She was sort of scared, but got okay by the time we rode. After that, we went through the Swiss Family Tree House, then waited about 10 minutes to go on Jungle Cruise.
That completed everything in Adventureland that we wanted to do, so we headed back into Fronteirland. We were hungry by now, so we stopped at Pecos Bill to get some of the hamburgers IâÂÂd heard about. Believe it or not, this was our first counter service meal in the World ever! We got 2 cheeseburger specials (hold the cheese for Clyde) and the Hot Dog kids meal. I hit the toppings bar for all of us (it really is great!) and we dived into our food. It was quite good! Well worth the price of about 18.00 for the 3 of us.
After this, Christina and Clyde went on Splash Mountain. I thought IâÂÂd get Fast Pass for BTMRR while I waited, but discovered they donâÂÂt have FastPass on this ride. Once they got off Splash we moved up to the Liberty Tree Tavern and staked our front row spots for the parade. During our wait time, Christina got an ice cream and we sent Clyde over to get FastPasses for Buzz. We really enjoyed the parade. Christina got to dance with the âÂÂfishâ in the Little Mermaid scene, and got to play the drums in the Lion King Scene. It was great! Several CMâÂÂs commented on my Eeyore ears during the parade, and Christina ended up taking them from me! Also, this parade started in FronteirLand, so we were able to move around better while others were still watching the parade.
Since I really wanted us to do BTMMR, we hopped in the standby line. The posted wait was 40 minutes, but I think we only waited about 25 minutes. During the wait I discovered that Eeyore ears work great as earmuffs! Christina was a little worried until she could see the ride in progress, then she decided it looked like fun. Also, a little girl in line in front of us was just her age and told her she was going back for her second ride, and that helped. Once we got on and got going, she loved it! It turned out to be her favorite ride of all! She wanted to go on again, but we didnâÂÂt have enough time before our Buzz fastpasses to wait the amount of time we needed to.
Since we couldnâÂÂt do BTMRR again because of the wait, Christina asked if we could do Barnstormer again. So we took the train from FronteirLand to ToonTown. There was a goodly wait (15 minutes) for Barnstormer, but this time we all rode together (2 in one car, one behind). After this we took the path along the train track to Tomorrowland to do Buzz. Christina wasnâÂÂt hot on Buzz, but we got her to move along the path by racing! Although she really didnâÂÂt want to do this ride, she perked up once we were on it. I generally stink at this, and I tried to get Christina into it by saying we were competing against her Daddy. She was in charge of the spinner, and it was great fun. At the end, she saw that I was miserably behind, so she spun us around and yelled âÂÂGet him Momma!âÂÂ. We left in a great mood.
Unfortunately, we now needed to head back across the kingdom to make our 5:25 PS at Liberty Tree Tavern, but Christina wanted to ride the TTA. We got her to come back by promising to come do that after the parade.
We checked in at Liberty Tree and then went to wait in the longest bathroom line IâÂÂve ever seen. I hope Liberty Tree renovates their bathrooms soon â having 2 stalls for that restaurant is ridiculous. Christina kept saying how badly she needed to go, and a nice teen-age girl in line let us go ahead of her! Not fair, I know, but things were getting desperate. Once we got back downstairs they called us within a few minutes. We were seated toward the back in the George and Martha Washington room. Our server wasnâÂÂt the greatest, but the food was pretty good. I love the bread and salad here and also really like the flank steak. The last time we ate here we were famished and the food was the best IâÂÂve ever had. This time it didnâÂÂt seem quite as great, but still good. I thought the sauce on the ham wasnâÂÂt very good, and the stuffing was too sweet. I donâÂÂt eat carrots, but Clyde and Christina liked them. I still managed to put away a good meal! During the meal we saw Minnie three times. Minnie is currently ChristinaâÂÂs favorite character, and she loved seeing her. She wrote her a letter while we were there, and the CM manager made sure we got it to her personally! We also spent some quality time with Chip, Dale, and Goofy. We did have to wait longer than we wanted to see Pluto, but it still worked out great.
We then headed out front of Liberty Tree to stake out parade spots. We got front row spots again (it was about 6:40) next to a pretty large family. Shortly before the parade got there at 7:15 (coming from Main Street) a nice English group joined us. There was a little girl probably about 7-8 and a little boy 4. The kids stood up near the rail, I stood behind Christina next to the Mom. We had a good time watching the parade. It was their first time to see any parade, and my first time to see MSEP. I loved this parade, but I think I liked SpectroMagic better! One neat thing did happen. Christina was wearing my Eeyore ears, and Alice in Wonderland noticed them from atop her mushroom. âÂÂEeyore!âÂÂ, she said âÂÂwhat are you doing down there? YouâÂÂre supposed to be in the parade!â Christina took off the ears, and then Alice said âÂÂOh, your not Eeyore!â Christina, my little ham, loved the attention. Other than that, though, I think she was disappointed not to get noticed by the parade participants. She got totally spoiled by TON at Epcot!
After the parade we needed to make good on our promise to ride TTA. We headed quickly across the park, marking a good spot for fireworks on the way. We hopped on TTA (no wait as usual) and had a good time. It really gives quite a nice look at the park at night! I didnâÂÂt realize how pretty it would be. After our ride on TTA we headed back and got a pretty good spot on the Tomorrowland bridge. We were right under TinkerbelleâÂÂs wire. We had a great look at TinkerbelleâÂÂs flight, and it would have been a great spot for the fireworks, too. However, I wanted to get to the boat before the mad rush, so we watched fireworks as we moved out of the park.
We hopped the first boat back, and were tucked snug in our beds by 9:30, our first early night of the week! This night we didnâÂÂt get any special âÂÂscenesâ from Mousekeeping. We left a 6:15 wakeup call for our last day, to be spent at Animal Kingdom.
TodayâÂÂs Damage
Castle Breakfast $ 51.91
Eeyore Ears $ 10.60
Lunch â Pecos Bills $ 18.22
Splash Mountain Picture $ 17.97
Ice Cream $ 2.00
Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner $ 61.00
Maid Tip $ 3.00
Total for the Day $ 164.70
Running Total $2691.40
Location: Wilderness Lodge
Cast: Trisha (Me-42-Mom & avid planner)
Clyde (Dad - 47)
Christina (Daughter - 5 1/2)
Day 4, January 4, 2001 â EE at Magic Kingdom, and an Unexpected Surprise
Today was the big day, EE at Magic Kingdom. We got up, did our snack breakfast, and got down to the boat loading area at 7:15. It was still very cold, and a bit windy down by the lake! We huddled in our coats and gloves and waited. It turns out that the first boat didnâÂÂt arrive until 7:30! But it finally arrived and we were on our way. We arrived at the gates around 7:45. We headed straight down a very lightly populated Main Street toward the Castle and FantasyLand. As we passed the castle, I sent Clyde over to see if there were any openings at the Castle breakfast. I didnâÂÂt really expect anything, but thought it was worth asking.
Christina and I were just about to head for the Dumbo line when Clyde motioned us over. We were going to get in right away!! Christina and I were SO excited to be dining with the princesses, we almost ran all the way up the stairs. We got seated and go our fruit and breadbasket just before we saw the first princess. We saw Snow White, Belle, Jasmine, Princess Aurora, and Cinderella. They were all great with Christina, calling her by name (GOH badge) and talking so nicely to her. Belle asked if she worked there and was taking a break for breakfast! Jasmine told her she was wearing barrettes in Aladdins favorite color (purple, donâÂÂt you know!). The funniest thing though, was hearing Snow White talking to the table next to us. That table was a couple with no children. They must have asked if there was any way to get a picture of both of them with Snow, because I heard her say in her best Snow White voice âÂÂWhy yes, and who is your servant?â It was one of those priceless moments! Soon, their CM server was taking the picture for them. I had trouble working with ClydeâÂÂs camera (happened all the time!) and was told by more than one Princess âÂÂOh Mommy, our shutter is not open!âÂÂ. All in all, this was a true highlight of the trip for us â it more than made up for my disappointment from yesterday! Oh, yeah, the food was pretty good too! The muffins and croissants were great, and I liked the breakfast potatoes and eggs best here! The cream cheese stuffed french toast was good, but a bit too sweet for me! As we were leaving we had a nice visit with the Fairy Godmother, too.
After leaving the castle we grabbed Pooh fast passes, then did the following in rapid succession: Dumbo (pink dumbo, of course), Carousel (Christina and I love this), ItâÂÂs a Small World, Carousel again (Christina wants to do this again by herself), Pooh Ride (stopping in the shop to buy Eeyore ears for me), Character greeting (Timon and Rafiki), and Tea Cups. Christina didnâÂÂt want to do the Snow White Ride, and wasnâÂÂt too keen on Peter Pan, either. Ariel wasnâÂÂt in her grotto (too cold, I think), and we just forgot about the Lion King Show! Then we moved on to Toontown.
We rode the Barnstormer last trip, and Christina seemed to not hate it. Since then weâÂÂd conquered the roller coaster at the local amusement park, so I thought sheâÂÂd really like the Barnstormer this time. It was a walk-on, which was fortunate. She loved it! She and I went on twice in a row, then she went on twice with her Daddy. By then the line was picking up, so we moved on to see Mickey and MinnieâÂÂs houses. I had checked out the characters in the viewing area and there werenâÂÂt any there we hadnâÂÂt already seen, so we skipped it.
Next we moved into the FronteirLand area. We got fastpasses for Clyde and Christina to go on Splash Mountain. While we were waiting we went into Adventureland. We waited in the standby line for 15 minutes to see Pirates of the Caribbean. It was our first time to see this ride. I liked it, Clyde thought it was okay, and Christian thought it was okay too. She was sort of scared, but got okay by the time we rode. After that, we went through the Swiss Family Tree House, then waited about 10 minutes to go on Jungle Cruise.
That completed everything in Adventureland that we wanted to do, so we headed back into Fronteirland. We were hungry by now, so we stopped at Pecos Bill to get some of the hamburgers IâÂÂd heard about. Believe it or not, this was our first counter service meal in the World ever! We got 2 cheeseburger specials (hold the cheese for Clyde) and the Hot Dog kids meal. I hit the toppings bar for all of us (it really is great!) and we dived into our food. It was quite good! Well worth the price of about 18.00 for the 3 of us.
After this, Christina and Clyde went on Splash Mountain. I thought IâÂÂd get Fast Pass for BTMRR while I waited, but discovered they donâÂÂt have FastPass on this ride. Once they got off Splash we moved up to the Liberty Tree Tavern and staked our front row spots for the parade. During our wait time, Christina got an ice cream and we sent Clyde over to get FastPasses for Buzz. We really enjoyed the parade. Christina got to dance with the âÂÂfishâ in the Little Mermaid scene, and got to play the drums in the Lion King Scene. It was great! Several CMâÂÂs commented on my Eeyore ears during the parade, and Christina ended up taking them from me! Also, this parade started in FronteirLand, so we were able to move around better while others were still watching the parade.
Since I really wanted us to do BTMMR, we hopped in the standby line. The posted wait was 40 minutes, but I think we only waited about 25 minutes. During the wait I discovered that Eeyore ears work great as earmuffs! Christina was a little worried until she could see the ride in progress, then she decided it looked like fun. Also, a little girl in line in front of us was just her age and told her she was going back for her second ride, and that helped. Once we got on and got going, she loved it! It turned out to be her favorite ride of all! She wanted to go on again, but we didnâÂÂt have enough time before our Buzz fastpasses to wait the amount of time we needed to.
Since we couldnâÂÂt do BTMRR again because of the wait, Christina asked if we could do Barnstormer again. So we took the train from FronteirLand to ToonTown. There was a goodly wait (15 minutes) for Barnstormer, but this time we all rode together (2 in one car, one behind). After this we took the path along the train track to Tomorrowland to do Buzz. Christina wasnâÂÂt hot on Buzz, but we got her to move along the path by racing! Although she really didnâÂÂt want to do this ride, she perked up once we were on it. I generally stink at this, and I tried to get Christina into it by saying we were competing against her Daddy. She was in charge of the spinner, and it was great fun. At the end, she saw that I was miserably behind, so she spun us around and yelled âÂÂGet him Momma!âÂÂ. We left in a great mood.
Unfortunately, we now needed to head back across the kingdom to make our 5:25 PS at Liberty Tree Tavern, but Christina wanted to ride the TTA. We got her to come back by promising to come do that after the parade.
We checked in at Liberty Tree and then went to wait in the longest bathroom line IâÂÂve ever seen. I hope Liberty Tree renovates their bathrooms soon â having 2 stalls for that restaurant is ridiculous. Christina kept saying how badly she needed to go, and a nice teen-age girl in line let us go ahead of her! Not fair, I know, but things were getting desperate. Once we got back downstairs they called us within a few minutes. We were seated toward the back in the George and Martha Washington room. Our server wasnâÂÂt the greatest, but the food was pretty good. I love the bread and salad here and also really like the flank steak. The last time we ate here we were famished and the food was the best IâÂÂve ever had. This time it didnâÂÂt seem quite as great, but still good. I thought the sauce on the ham wasnâÂÂt very good, and the stuffing was too sweet. I donâÂÂt eat carrots, but Clyde and Christina liked them. I still managed to put away a good meal! During the meal we saw Minnie three times. Minnie is currently ChristinaâÂÂs favorite character, and she loved seeing her. She wrote her a letter while we were there, and the CM manager made sure we got it to her personally! We also spent some quality time with Chip, Dale, and Goofy. We did have to wait longer than we wanted to see Pluto, but it still worked out great.
We then headed out front of Liberty Tree to stake out parade spots. We got front row spots again (it was about 6:40) next to a pretty large family. Shortly before the parade got there at 7:15 (coming from Main Street) a nice English group joined us. There was a little girl probably about 7-8 and a little boy 4. The kids stood up near the rail, I stood behind Christina next to the Mom. We had a good time watching the parade. It was their first time to see any parade, and my first time to see MSEP. I loved this parade, but I think I liked SpectroMagic better! One neat thing did happen. Christina was wearing my Eeyore ears, and Alice in Wonderland noticed them from atop her mushroom. âÂÂEeyore!âÂÂ, she said âÂÂwhat are you doing down there? YouâÂÂre supposed to be in the parade!â Christina took off the ears, and then Alice said âÂÂOh, your not Eeyore!â Christina, my little ham, loved the attention. Other than that, though, I think she was disappointed not to get noticed by the parade participants. She got totally spoiled by TON at Epcot!
After the parade we needed to make good on our promise to ride TTA. We headed quickly across the park, marking a good spot for fireworks on the way. We hopped on TTA (no wait as usual) and had a good time. It really gives quite a nice look at the park at night! I didnâÂÂt realize how pretty it would be. After our ride on TTA we headed back and got a pretty good spot on the Tomorrowland bridge. We were right under TinkerbelleâÂÂs wire. We had a great look at TinkerbelleâÂÂs flight, and it would have been a great spot for the fireworks, too. However, I wanted to get to the boat before the mad rush, so we watched fireworks as we moved out of the park.
We hopped the first boat back, and were tucked snug in our beds by 9:30, our first early night of the week! This night we didnâÂÂt get any special âÂÂscenesâ from Mousekeeping. We left a 6:15 wakeup call for our last day, to be spent at Animal Kingdom.
TodayâÂÂs Damage
Castle Breakfast $ 51.91
Eeyore Ears $ 10.60
Lunch â Pecos Bills $ 18.22
Splash Mountain Picture $ 17.97
Ice Cream $ 2.00
Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner $ 61.00
Maid Tip $ 3.00
Total for the Day $ 164.70
Running Total $2691.40
