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- Feb 6, 2000
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Day 5 - June 1
Gay Day at MK. We woke up early and dressed, having toast and coffee in the room. We drove over to the MK parking lot, parked in the handi-accessible parking, and made "the trek" under the road to the TTC. It was close to opening time, and a CM let us enter through the "breakfast ressie" gate since Mom had a cane. This gave us just enough time to gain entrance to the MK and rent her wheelchair before the mad rush. Our first stop was the WDW Railroad train, after loading her onto the train, we held at the station until a few minutes after official opening. It was great "people watching" seeing everyone coming through the gates. A sea of red shirts, or couples dressed in matching outfits. I saw a couple dressed in black leather short-shorts, I knew they'd be miserable in the heat. What were they thinking? After making the complete loop on the train, I decided I needed a haircut (actually I'd been wanting one for sometime, but never seemed to have time), no one was waiting at the barber shop, and I got a wonderful clip. The barber said that Gay Day is one of the slowest Saturdays for haircuts, as everyone arrives trying to look their best (OK, that makes sense
) Our next stop was Jungle Cruise, we had a very entertaining guide. After that, it was on to POC. The boats were held up for some reason near the exit, so we got an extra long ride. Finally exiting, we took the elevator to park level, and dashed over to Splash Mtn to get FastPasses, they gave us just enough time to catch CBJ, then back to Splash. We didn't get soaked, just a little splashed, as our log was caught in the splash zone of another log on the big drop. By then it was time for our lunch PS at Liberty Tree Tavern. We both ordered a Pilgrim's Feast (turkey) and coffee. It was wonderful. Shortly after we were served, we noticed folks leaving without having eaten. The kitchen had "gone down", evidently a problem with the gas lines had turned off all the supply to the cooking areas...many large commercial kitchens have a system that if the power fails (even momentarily), the gas supply is automatically shut down as well, needing to be manually reset - a safety feature that can be a pain if it is a minor electrical fluctuation. After lunch we had enough time to see the Hall of Presidents before the parade. We exited HoP and made our way to the nearby wheelchair viewing area, where we met Lisa (Talking Hands), we'd planned the meet on the boards. She is an amazing person with a wonderful outlook on life. As soon as the parade was over I got FastPasses for the Haunted Mansion, which had enough time for It's a Small World. Since Mom can leave her wheelchair, the CM at HM took us through a back entrance into the stretching room and loaded us the traditional way, rather that loading us at the ride exit. It was nice, since we hadn't been given access to the room effect for a long time. We saw that Peter Pan had a long wait time, and was a FastPass attraction (we skipped it this trip), I was surprised to see that many atrractions considered "kiddie rides" at DL are still VERY popular at WDW. We went down to Tomorrowland and waited a short time for Alien Encounter, I used to think this attraction was dumb, but it's kind of growing on me. I was disappointed that CoP and Timekeeper were not open to accomodate the busy crowd. I was surprised, given the crowd, that we were able to see so many rides and attractions with fairly short wait times, FastPass seems to work very well. By now, we wanted something sweet, so we got into Plaza Restaurant where we each had a bowl of soup (chicken noodle) and a hot fudge sundae (yummy). Now is was time to start staking out a place for SpectroMagic viewing, so I wheeled Mom into the W/C area at the end of Main Street in front of the castle, after about 20 minutes Lisa also wheeled in, so we got to chat a little. A cool breeze blew through, but then the approaching storm backed off, and left us dry but cool - perfect weather. Spectro was beautiful as always, following the parade we tried to find a place that we could see the fireworks. We didn't find a great place, but we could see most of them. I wish WDW would do what DL did several years ago, they replaced their large trees on Main Street with smaller, slower growing varieties to provide better viewing of the fireworks. All in all it was a great day, everyone was friendly and cordial, there were a large number of kids there, but we weren't subjected to any "meltdowns", and no one tried to walk over the wheelchair. The worst part was the queue for the parking lot monorail (you know how it is).
Day 6 - June 2nd
Gay Day at EPCOT. We decided to start having breakfast at Olivia's rather than making another trip to the grocery store. Our first stop was Universe of Energy, then we crossed over to the new JII. This ride is soooo cute - not as good as the original, but MUCH better than the last incarnation, even though it uses many of the same effect, it is like a whole new ride. We rode the boats through the greenhouse, again, and saw the House of Innoventions. We had lunch at the food court in the Land pavilion, then did Shrunk the Audience. We then began working our way around the countries, starting with Mexico and working clockwise. By late afternoon, it was still hot, so we went back to Futureworld and browsed through shops and Ice Station Cool, and had dessert at the Fountain View Cafe.. As the sun was setting, I wheeled Mom into the w/c viewing area for Illuminations near the boat dock that connects Futureworld to Italy at the entrance to World Showcase. We took our time leaving the park, as we had a car and didn't have to wait for a bus.
Day 7 - June3rd
After having breakfast at Olivia's, we decided to go to AK. We were able to get into the first Lion King show, and by the time it was over it was SO HOT, we thought it best to go back to the room and make this our laundry day instead of Tuesday. After washing and folding our laundry, and resting in the room, it was time for a late lunch. WE headed over to DtD to RFC, which had always been one of our stops on previous trips. With the Safari Club we were seated right away. With Mom's food allergy to Savory (a natural flavor enhancer - a member of the mint family - and in vogue right now) we were sure to ask, since RFC was purchased by the Landry's chain some time ago. RFC has been switch suppliers to Sysco, along with many other Texas chains, and many Sysco product have savory in them. After ascertaining that RFCs mashed potatoes contained the offending seasoning, as does the soup, we settled on chicken salads - low and behold, the manager said that their dressings now have Savory, so we left RFC and headed to the Polynesian to Kona Cafe - by the time we arrived there it was 3pm and Kona was closed, so we wound up back at Olivia's where we had fried buttermilk chicken. The rest of the day we spent reading books we had started on the plane.
Day 8, June 8th
After our now routine Olivia's breakfast, we headed off to the MK. It was every bit as busy that Tuesday as it had been on Gay Day Saturday. We did HM, the riverboat, Big Thunder, and Hall of Presidents. However, the crowd at HoP was so rude; it seems they HAD to cheer (and I'm not talking about just a few people) for EVERY Republican President since Eisenhower and boo every Democrat - and of course you can imagine Bill Clinton! Hello, some people might actually WANT to enjoy the show. Of course, these are the same folks that don't seem to understand the concept of MOVE TO THE END OF YOUR ROW, everyone was bunched up tight from the center of the theater to the entry doors. After HoP we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride TTA. En route to TTA, I saw a family headed our way on a collision course, so I stopped to let them pass. Naturally, the father ran into Mom's w/c and sneered "I don't know why they even allow those (colorful explicative) wheelchairs in the parks."
And this idiot was pushing a stroller? After TTA, we decided we'd had enough rudeness for the day, so we left MK and took a leisurely lunch of turkey wrap sandwiches (with plain mayo rather than the spicey mayo), fries and iced coffee at the Kona Cafe. We then hopped the monorail over to EPCOT and spent the remainder of the day there, the people were friendlier and the crowds weren't too heavy to enjoy the park. We rode JII twice more, did HISTA, UoE, Test Track, the Norway boat ride and again had a wonderful dessert at Fountain View Cafe and perfect seats for Illuminations. A wonderful ending to a great trip.
Day 9 - June 5th
We got up about 6:30, showered, dressed, and headed to a final breakfast at Olivia's. After breakfast, ew said our goodbyes to Wanda (a waitress at Olivia's since OKW opened) and returned to the room to retrieve our luggage. I wanted to get to the airport fairly early, not knowing how long security and check-in would take. I stopped at 7-11 and filled the rental car with gas, then headed down the Greeneway to MCO. Rather than drop Mom off curbside before returning the car, we went directly to the National return area (I didn't know how long Mom would have to wait for curbside check-in). We unloaded the car, the National agent handed me my credit card printout - all was in order, charging exactly what my quote said. We took the elevator down to the tunnel. since Mom just can't handle luggage on an escalator, and proceeded to the check-in area. There was a long, long, long line to check-in at the Delta ticket desk, so we dashed outside to curbside. We had our luggage checked and boarding passes within 4 minutes, I don't know why people were lined up inside
Anyway, there had been an equipement change onour flight to ATL, and our seats we about 15 rows apart, the skycap apologized and said we'd need to see the gate agent. The security area was a breeze, and we were at the gate in a matter of minutes. SInce it was still early for our 12:40 flight, I tried to get our seats re-assigned at the Delta Service Counter on the gateway concourse. She said that she couldn't do it there, and that we'd have to wait until the boarding gate opened for check-in. We were able to get seats together in the last row. There were two seats off to the side in the 777, that apparently are for medical transport/emergency use. That is where the put - lots of leg room, comfy seats. In ATL we had to go over one concourse from E to D, and after a restroom stop, just got to the gate as our row was boarding. The flight home on the 737 was a little rough due to heat driven afternoon thunderstorms (the norm in TX). We arrived in SAT at the beginning of rush hour, so we picked up our car and headed downtown, opposite the main traffic flow, to our favorite restaurant for dinner, then drove the 40 miles home after the traffic had thinned out.
Gay Day at MK. We woke up early and dressed, having toast and coffee in the room. We drove over to the MK parking lot, parked in the handi-accessible parking, and made "the trek" under the road to the TTC. It was close to opening time, and a CM let us enter through the "breakfast ressie" gate since Mom had a cane. This gave us just enough time to gain entrance to the MK and rent her wheelchair before the mad rush. Our first stop was the WDW Railroad train, after loading her onto the train, we held at the station until a few minutes after official opening. It was great "people watching" seeing everyone coming through the gates. A sea of red shirts, or couples dressed in matching outfits. I saw a couple dressed in black leather short-shorts, I knew they'd be miserable in the heat. What were they thinking? After making the complete loop on the train, I decided I needed a haircut (actually I'd been wanting one for sometime, but never seemed to have time), no one was waiting at the barber shop, and I got a wonderful clip. The barber said that Gay Day is one of the slowest Saturdays for haircuts, as everyone arrives trying to look their best (OK, that makes sense
) Our next stop was Jungle Cruise, we had a very entertaining guide. After that, it was on to POC. The boats were held up for some reason near the exit, so we got an extra long ride. Finally exiting, we took the elevator to park level, and dashed over to Splash Mtn to get FastPasses, they gave us just enough time to catch CBJ, then back to Splash. We didn't get soaked, just a little splashed, as our log was caught in the splash zone of another log on the big drop. By then it was time for our lunch PS at Liberty Tree Tavern. We both ordered a Pilgrim's Feast (turkey) and coffee. It was wonderful. Shortly after we were served, we noticed folks leaving without having eaten. The kitchen had "gone down", evidently a problem with the gas lines had turned off all the supply to the cooking areas...many large commercial kitchens have a system that if the power fails (even momentarily), the gas supply is automatically shut down as well, needing to be manually reset - a safety feature that can be a pain if it is a minor electrical fluctuation. After lunch we had enough time to see the Hall of Presidents before the parade. We exited HoP and made our way to the nearby wheelchair viewing area, where we met Lisa (Talking Hands), we'd planned the meet on the boards. She is an amazing person with a wonderful outlook on life. As soon as the parade was over I got FastPasses for the Haunted Mansion, which had enough time for It's a Small World. Since Mom can leave her wheelchair, the CM at HM took us through a back entrance into the stretching room and loaded us the traditional way, rather that loading us at the ride exit. It was nice, since we hadn't been given access to the room effect for a long time. We saw that Peter Pan had a long wait time, and was a FastPass attraction (we skipped it this trip), I was surprised to see that many atrractions considered "kiddie rides" at DL are still VERY popular at WDW. We went down to Tomorrowland and waited a short time for Alien Encounter, I used to think this attraction was dumb, but it's kind of growing on me. I was disappointed that CoP and Timekeeper were not open to accomodate the busy crowd. I was surprised, given the crowd, that we were able to see so many rides and attractions with fairly short wait times, FastPass seems to work very well. By now, we wanted something sweet, so we got into Plaza Restaurant where we each had a bowl of soup (chicken noodle) and a hot fudge sundae (yummy). Now is was time to start staking out a place for SpectroMagic viewing, so I wheeled Mom into the W/C area at the end of Main Street in front of the castle, after about 20 minutes Lisa also wheeled in, so we got to chat a little. A cool breeze blew through, but then the approaching storm backed off, and left us dry but cool - perfect weather. Spectro was beautiful as always, following the parade we tried to find a place that we could see the fireworks. We didn't find a great place, but we could see most of them. I wish WDW would do what DL did several years ago, they replaced their large trees on Main Street with smaller, slower growing varieties to provide better viewing of the fireworks. All in all it was a great day, everyone was friendly and cordial, there were a large number of kids there, but we weren't subjected to any "meltdowns", and no one tried to walk over the wheelchair. The worst part was the queue for the parking lot monorail (you know how it is).Day 6 - June 2nd
Gay Day at EPCOT. We decided to start having breakfast at Olivia's rather than making another trip to the grocery store. Our first stop was Universe of Energy, then we crossed over to the new JII. This ride is soooo cute - not as good as the original, but MUCH better than the last incarnation, even though it uses many of the same effect, it is like a whole new ride. We rode the boats through the greenhouse, again, and saw the House of Innoventions. We had lunch at the food court in the Land pavilion, then did Shrunk the Audience. We then began working our way around the countries, starting with Mexico and working clockwise. By late afternoon, it was still hot, so we went back to Futureworld and browsed through shops and Ice Station Cool, and had dessert at the Fountain View Cafe.. As the sun was setting, I wheeled Mom into the w/c viewing area for Illuminations near the boat dock that connects Futureworld to Italy at the entrance to World Showcase. We took our time leaving the park, as we had a car and didn't have to wait for a bus.
Day 7 - June3rd
After having breakfast at Olivia's, we decided to go to AK. We were able to get into the first Lion King show, and by the time it was over it was SO HOT, we thought it best to go back to the room and make this our laundry day instead of Tuesday. After washing and folding our laundry, and resting in the room, it was time for a late lunch. WE headed over to DtD to RFC, which had always been one of our stops on previous trips. With the Safari Club we were seated right away. With Mom's food allergy to Savory (a natural flavor enhancer - a member of the mint family - and in vogue right now) we were sure to ask, since RFC was purchased by the Landry's chain some time ago. RFC has been switch suppliers to Sysco, along with many other Texas chains, and many Sysco product have savory in them. After ascertaining that RFCs mashed potatoes contained the offending seasoning, as does the soup, we settled on chicken salads - low and behold, the manager said that their dressings now have Savory, so we left RFC and headed to the Polynesian to Kona Cafe - by the time we arrived there it was 3pm and Kona was closed, so we wound up back at Olivia's where we had fried buttermilk chicken. The rest of the day we spent reading books we had started on the plane.
Day 8, June 8th
After our now routine Olivia's breakfast, we headed off to the MK. It was every bit as busy that Tuesday as it had been on Gay Day Saturday. We did HM, the riverboat, Big Thunder, and Hall of Presidents. However, the crowd at HoP was so rude; it seems they HAD to cheer (and I'm not talking about just a few people) for EVERY Republican President since Eisenhower and boo every Democrat - and of course you can imagine Bill Clinton! Hello, some people might actually WANT to enjoy the show. Of course, these are the same folks that don't seem to understand the concept of MOVE TO THE END OF YOUR ROW, everyone was bunched up tight from the center of the theater to the entry doors. After HoP we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride TTA. En route to TTA, I saw a family headed our way on a collision course, so I stopped to let them pass. Naturally, the father ran into Mom's w/c and sneered "I don't know why they even allow those (colorful explicative) wheelchairs in the parks."
And this idiot was pushing a stroller? After TTA, we decided we'd had enough rudeness for the day, so we left MK and took a leisurely lunch of turkey wrap sandwiches (with plain mayo rather than the spicey mayo), fries and iced coffee at the Kona Cafe. We then hopped the monorail over to EPCOT and spent the remainder of the day there, the people were friendlier and the crowds weren't too heavy to enjoy the park. We rode JII twice more, did HISTA, UoE, Test Track, the Norway boat ride and again had a wonderful dessert at Fountain View Cafe and perfect seats for Illuminations. A wonderful ending to a great trip.Day 9 - June 5th
We got up about 6:30, showered, dressed, and headed to a final breakfast at Olivia's. After breakfast, ew said our goodbyes to Wanda (a waitress at Olivia's since OKW opened) and returned to the room to retrieve our luggage. I wanted to get to the airport fairly early, not knowing how long security and check-in would take. I stopped at 7-11 and filled the rental car with gas, then headed down the Greeneway to MCO. Rather than drop Mom off curbside before returning the car, we went directly to the National return area (I didn't know how long Mom would have to wait for curbside check-in). We unloaded the car, the National agent handed me my credit card printout - all was in order, charging exactly what my quote said. We took the elevator down to the tunnel. since Mom just can't handle luggage on an escalator, and proceeded to the check-in area. There was a long, long, long line to check-in at the Delta ticket desk, so we dashed outside to curbside. We had our luggage checked and boarding passes within 4 minutes, I don't know why people were lined up inside
Anyway, there had been an equipement change onour flight to ATL, and our seats we about 15 rows apart, the skycap apologized and said we'd need to see the gate agent. The security area was a breeze, and we were at the gate in a matter of minutes. SInce it was still early for our 12:40 flight, I tried to get our seats re-assigned at the Delta Service Counter on the gateway concourse. She said that she couldn't do it there, and that we'd have to wait until the boarding gate opened for check-in. We were able to get seats together in the last row. There were two seats off to the side in the 777, that apparently are for medical transport/emergency use. That is where the put - lots of leg room, comfy seats. In ATL we had to go over one concourse from E to D, and after a restroom stop, just got to the gate as our row was boarding. The flight home on the 737 was a little rough due to heat driven afternoon thunderstorms (the norm in TX). We arrived in SAT at the beginning of rush hour, so we picked up our car and headed downtown, opposite the main traffic flow, to our favorite restaurant for dinner, then drove the 40 miles home after the traffic had thinned out.
