Mize Family Trip Report Friday April 26th, 2002 #8 of 9
Cast: Bonnie and David, both 44, and granddaughter Erika, 9
Tickets: Disney CRO and WDW Travel Co.
Stage: All-Star Music (ASM), for the third time
Entrance: America West Airlines, assisted by National Car Rental
ShowTime: 4/19 - 4/27. This is our sixth trip since 1986.
Out-takes: http://www.imagestation.com/member/index.html?name=dmize&c=201
===============================================
This is our last day at WDW, and we have a light schedule planned. Woke
up at 8:45am and did the food court breakfast again. We never had any
urge to try other breakfast's while here, not being real big breakfast
people. The fresh omelets and decent breakfast meats of the food court
made us all happy, not to mention the convenience and the pleasure of
eating by the pool. We headed for the Animal Kingdom by 10:00am. I
dropped Erika and Bonnie at Dinoland playground, while I headed back to
Dinosaur- finally!... after two visits and multiple attempts, I walked
right on. This ride was very creative, with a good story line and very
good props and atmosphere. True, a couple of the dinosaurs were pretty
lame looking (too simple), but the ride car was awesome in the way it
moved, and the final T-rex (?) jumping into the car was great! Good fun
for all, but not for Erika or Bonnie- neither one likes dark, noisy areas
with things jumping at you.
I headed back to Dinoland, played with a Erika a bit in the very neat
playground, then we all headed to Asia- a new area since our last visit.
Today was the first time on the whole trip that we really noticed the
humidity- it was very high, and we were literally dripping. Asia was very
good- not a ride, but a pleasant walk-thru. I think Animal Kingdom should
do more of these, since it let's you set your own pace. The area was
well-shaded, with water available, and the viewing stations were of good
design. A favorite part of AK for us. We finished Asia by 11:30am, and
were done with AK for this trip. We hit our hotel by 12:00n for our
break, and the pool never felt better. Of course, we stayed too long and
got a little cooked again, but we had a blast playing with all of the
other folks there. We grabbed a light lunch from the food court while
enjoying the pool. We left at 3:30pm, changed, and made it to Magic
Kingdom by 4:00pm (parking at the Poly again- at least one guard
recognized us by now).
My wife was on a mission to find a child's jean jacket for Erika,
something everyone said they had- last month. The shops on Main Street
pointed us to ToonTown. Neither Erika nor I really like TT, so we went to
the Mad Hatter's Teacups, pointed Bonnie in the direction she needed,
pointed out the bench I'd like to meet her at later, then Erika and took
off to Tomorrow Land. We headed for Buzz Lightyear and collected
FastPasses for 5:40pm- 45 mins off. We then hit the Wedway People Mover;
I don't remember it's new name, but it'll always be Wedway to me. We then
went to the race cars, with only a 10min wait, and Erika drove. She had a
blast, even when we got rear-ended three times by some adults driving
behind us. We even saw Bonnie, who had miraculously made her way back to
the appointed bench, and yelled and waved at her.
It was 5:40pm and time for Buzz, which we walked right on to... the guy
who thought of FastPass should have been made president of the company.
Erika and I both love this ride- I managed a lowly 112,500 points, and
really enjoyed it. On our last visit's E-Night, we rode this thing four
or five times. After defeating the enemy, we headed back to the Teacups
to collect Bonnie. We headed back through Fantasy Land, passed on Dumb
again (still 40mins), and Erika rode the carousel *again* (told you she
loved this). I sat the family at the junction between Fantasy and
Frontier Lands, and headed over to the haunted house- absolutely no line
at all, and I walked right into the starting chamber. The CM was
in-character, but not very enthusiastic. I still love this ride, but
think that some modern effects could be applied to make it even more
enjoyable. I know, it's a classic....
Made it to Liberty Tree Tavern by 6:10pm for our 6:35ps. By this time,
the humidity is stifling, and we just want to get into somewhere cool and
dry. Also, it looks like rain might be coming. The Tavern is one of our
favorite dining places at the MK, and the characters are a pleasant
extra. Erika visited multiple times with Frontier Minnie, Goofy, Pluto
Chip and Dale; Mickey isn't here anymore. We got dozens of shots of Erika
& Bonnie with characters in all combinations, and shot some good film,
too. Somewhere in there, we managed to have an excellent family-style
dinner, too, which we polished off completely- oof. It started raining
around 7:00pm, and by 7:30pm, it's pouring, with lots of thunder and
lightening. The park closed at 7:00pm, so the crowds are gone, but
there's still plenty of stragglers dashing for cover. Our creative host
broke out large, clear trash bags, made face holes in them and 'oila!
Instant raincoat. Donning our high-tech raingear, we took off.
Man, what a storm... lightening is striking everywhere from the sound of
it. We slowly worked our way store to store- just window-shopping this
time. We were hoping the storm would pass as we stalled, but it showed no
sign of doing so. Bonnie and Erika are both nervous, but Bonnie didn't
want to stay in the park any longer, so we continued outward. We finally
made it to the monorail platform, jumped on for our ride back to the
Poly- uh, oh, the train stopped halfway to Contemporary. The storm
continued, and we saw emergency vehicles of some type gathering around
the Contemporary. After several minutes, we were told that we were
waiting for clearance. After more than 10mins, we're told that we're
backing up to the MK platform- a first for me in six trips. After making
it back to MK, we're told that we'll wait here for clearance. Another
10mins passes, and we're finally told it's technical problems- go find a
bus or boat to your destination.
As many of you may have realized by now, this is about the time that a
poor depressed CM from the Magic Kingdom decided to take his life by
leaping from the top of the Contemporary onto the 4th floor roof of the
building below. While I don't know for sure that this was the cause of
problems, I'm pretty comfortable in the assumption. We knew nothing about
either of the two deaths at MK that day until after returning home to
Ohio. It sure made us feel petty after returning home and hearing about
this. Here we thought we had problems having to drag our whiny butts off
a comfortable train to find a bus in the rain, when just a couple of
hundred yards away someone has problems so serious that they felt dying
was a good solution. The happiest place on Earth? Not for everyone.
Anyhow, the storm and the rain had eased, even though lightening still
danced in the darkening skies. We didn't find a convenient bus in the
drizzle, so we jumped on a ferry that had just pulled in. While waiting
for it to depart, the rain pretty much quit. During the right to TTC, I
kept trying to get a shot of the Contemporary framed by lightening, a
feat I never managed. When we docked at TTC, we just walked the short
path over to the Polynesian, since the rain had stopped. We went ahead
and filled up the rental at Exxon by Boardwalk- $1.53 per gallon seemed
OK to us. We finally got back to our resort after 9:00pm- 1 1/2 hours
after leaving MK! The pool was *full* tonight.. never saw it so packed.
Erika swam while we watched and talked with people. Up to our room to
pack by 10:00pm- we leave at 8:30am in the morning. To bed by 11:30pm,
ready to go.
Cast: Bonnie and David, both 44, and granddaughter Erika, 9
Tickets: Disney CRO and WDW Travel Co.
Stage: All-Star Music (ASM), for the third time
Entrance: America West Airlines, assisted by National Car Rental
ShowTime: 4/19 - 4/27. This is our sixth trip since 1986.
Out-takes: http://www.imagestation.com/member/index.html?name=dmize&c=201
===============================================
This is our last day at WDW, and we have a light schedule planned. Woke
up at 8:45am and did the food court breakfast again. We never had any
urge to try other breakfast's while here, not being real big breakfast
people. The fresh omelets and decent breakfast meats of the food court
made us all happy, not to mention the convenience and the pleasure of
eating by the pool. We headed for the Animal Kingdom by 10:00am. I
dropped Erika and Bonnie at Dinoland playground, while I headed back to
Dinosaur- finally!... after two visits and multiple attempts, I walked
right on. This ride was very creative, with a good story line and very
good props and atmosphere. True, a couple of the dinosaurs were pretty
lame looking (too simple), but the ride car was awesome in the way it
moved, and the final T-rex (?) jumping into the car was great! Good fun
for all, but not for Erika or Bonnie- neither one likes dark, noisy areas
with things jumping at you.
I headed back to Dinoland, played with a Erika a bit in the very neat
playground, then we all headed to Asia- a new area since our last visit.
Today was the first time on the whole trip that we really noticed the
humidity- it was very high, and we were literally dripping. Asia was very
good- not a ride, but a pleasant walk-thru. I think Animal Kingdom should
do more of these, since it let's you set your own pace. The area was
well-shaded, with water available, and the viewing stations were of good
design. A favorite part of AK for us. We finished Asia by 11:30am, and
were done with AK for this trip. We hit our hotel by 12:00n for our
break, and the pool never felt better. Of course, we stayed too long and
got a little cooked again, but we had a blast playing with all of the
other folks there. We grabbed a light lunch from the food court while
enjoying the pool. We left at 3:30pm, changed, and made it to Magic
Kingdom by 4:00pm (parking at the Poly again- at least one guard
recognized us by now).
My wife was on a mission to find a child's jean jacket for Erika,
something everyone said they had- last month. The shops on Main Street
pointed us to ToonTown. Neither Erika nor I really like TT, so we went to
the Mad Hatter's Teacups, pointed Bonnie in the direction she needed,
pointed out the bench I'd like to meet her at later, then Erika and took
off to Tomorrow Land. We headed for Buzz Lightyear and collected
FastPasses for 5:40pm- 45 mins off. We then hit the Wedway People Mover;
I don't remember it's new name, but it'll always be Wedway to me. We then
went to the race cars, with only a 10min wait, and Erika drove. She had a
blast, even when we got rear-ended three times by some adults driving
behind us. We even saw Bonnie, who had miraculously made her way back to
the appointed bench, and yelled and waved at her.
It was 5:40pm and time for Buzz, which we walked right on to... the guy
who thought of FastPass should have been made president of the company.
Erika and I both love this ride- I managed a lowly 112,500 points, and
really enjoyed it. On our last visit's E-Night, we rode this thing four
or five times. After defeating the enemy, we headed back to the Teacups
to collect Bonnie. We headed back through Fantasy Land, passed on Dumb
again (still 40mins), and Erika rode the carousel *again* (told you she
loved this). I sat the family at the junction between Fantasy and
Frontier Lands, and headed over to the haunted house- absolutely no line
at all, and I walked right into the starting chamber. The CM was
in-character, but not very enthusiastic. I still love this ride, but
think that some modern effects could be applied to make it even more
enjoyable. I know, it's a classic....
Made it to Liberty Tree Tavern by 6:10pm for our 6:35ps. By this time,
the humidity is stifling, and we just want to get into somewhere cool and
dry. Also, it looks like rain might be coming. The Tavern is one of our
favorite dining places at the MK, and the characters are a pleasant
extra. Erika visited multiple times with Frontier Minnie, Goofy, Pluto
Chip and Dale; Mickey isn't here anymore. We got dozens of shots of Erika
& Bonnie with characters in all combinations, and shot some good film,
too. Somewhere in there, we managed to have an excellent family-style
dinner, too, which we polished off completely- oof. It started raining
around 7:00pm, and by 7:30pm, it's pouring, with lots of thunder and
lightening. The park closed at 7:00pm, so the crowds are gone, but
there's still plenty of stragglers dashing for cover. Our creative host
broke out large, clear trash bags, made face holes in them and 'oila!
Instant raincoat. Donning our high-tech raingear, we took off.
Man, what a storm... lightening is striking everywhere from the sound of
it. We slowly worked our way store to store- just window-shopping this
time. We were hoping the storm would pass as we stalled, but it showed no
sign of doing so. Bonnie and Erika are both nervous, but Bonnie didn't
want to stay in the park any longer, so we continued outward. We finally
made it to the monorail platform, jumped on for our ride back to the
Poly- uh, oh, the train stopped halfway to Contemporary. The storm
continued, and we saw emergency vehicles of some type gathering around
the Contemporary. After several minutes, we were told that we were
waiting for clearance. After more than 10mins, we're told that we're
backing up to the MK platform- a first for me in six trips. After making
it back to MK, we're told that we'll wait here for clearance. Another
10mins passes, and we're finally told it's technical problems- go find a
bus or boat to your destination.
As many of you may have realized by now, this is about the time that a
poor depressed CM from the Magic Kingdom decided to take his life by
leaping from the top of the Contemporary onto the 4th floor roof of the
building below. While I don't know for sure that this was the cause of
problems, I'm pretty comfortable in the assumption. We knew nothing about
either of the two deaths at MK that day until after returning home to
Ohio. It sure made us feel petty after returning home and hearing about
this. Here we thought we had problems having to drag our whiny butts off
a comfortable train to find a bus in the rain, when just a couple of
hundred yards away someone has problems so serious that they felt dying
was a good solution. The happiest place on Earth? Not for everyone.
Anyhow, the storm and the rain had eased, even though lightening still
danced in the darkening skies. We didn't find a convenient bus in the
drizzle, so we jumped on a ferry that had just pulled in. While waiting
for it to depart, the rain pretty much quit. During the right to TTC, I
kept trying to get a shot of the Contemporary framed by lightening, a
feat I never managed. When we docked at TTC, we just walked the short
path over to the Polynesian, since the rain had stopped. We went ahead
and filled up the rental at Exxon by Boardwalk- $1.53 per gallon seemed
OK to us. We finally got back to our resort after 9:00pm- 1 1/2 hours
after leaving MK! The pool was *full* tonight.. never saw it so packed.
Erika swam while we watched and talked with people. Up to our room to
pack by 10:00pm- we leave at 8:30am in the morning. To bed by 11:30pm,
ready to go.
