Mize Family Trip Report Saturday April 20th, 2002 2 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
==========================================
I woke up at 7:30am after a great night's sleep. I woke Erika & we
snuck out to the pool for an early swim, leaving Bonnie asleep. I took
a GMRS radio with me & left the other at bedside, in case she woke up
and wondered where we were. I love these early morning dips, a
wonderful way to get going in the morning. Erika and I felt great
after 9+ hours of sleep and a 30 minute swim. Called wife on radio to
wake her up & get her going, then headed back up to room. Problem- my
room key didn't work. Bonnie let us in (dripping from the shower, of
course), and I dressed & headed for the front desk while they
finished.
At this point I was afraid that our complicated reservation scheme had
befuddled the computers. Due to a special rate occurring during our
stay, and in an attempt to prevent over-lapping UMP's, we had 4
separate reservations for nine days. The price for this was having to
check in four separate times, while keeping the same room- little to
pay in exchange for many hundreds of dollars saved. At the desk, I was
told the problem was a magnetic anomaly- the nice CM had probably
waited all week to use that line. Seems that silly me had carried two
or more passes together in my shirt pocket, and one of them got
blasted. For some reason that I don't understand, the CM said only the
key function was screwed up; the UMP was fine. She was told the
encoding method is different for the two functions. In any event, I
went ahead and checked in for the second ressie, holding onto our old
keys, which were now just admission media. BTW, I managed to do this
same stupid thing again later on. They finally gave me the protective
sleeves for the cards after the second time- no more problems.
Gathered up the gang & breakfasted in the food court. I had a very
good western omelet- not greasy, good ingredients- along with bacon
cooked perfectly. Wife had eggs & sausage, Erika had cereal. We
generally had breakfast here during our stay, being well satisfied
with variety and quality. Then, we were off to Epcot and Future World
by 9:30am
Very low crowds on arrival. We walked right on to Spaceship Earth,
with Erika a little nervous; she doesn't like dark places and loud
noises, and couldn't remember this ride. She relaxed and enjoyed it
after she understood it's theme, but she wasn't impressed enough to
ride again. My wife, who has always had trouble dealing with
auto-loading rides, walked on like a pro here- looks like her balance
is improving.
I see that I forgot to mention that Bonnie is in the process of
quitting smoking, after 28 years. She's in her second week as of April
20th, and is doing very well. It's going to be interesting seeing how
she handles smokers, especially the ones who ignore the smoking areas,
while at WDW. I'll add that she herself was always scrupulous about
following all smoking rules, and has always got pretty pissed at those
who don't.
After Spaceship Earth, we wondered through the Festival of Flowers
pavilion, purchasing some small items and sending them to our resort.
Then we trooped over to the Universe of Energy, a show my wife used to
hate, but started enjoying when it was re-worked with Ellen DeGeneres
and Bill Nye. Erika also enjoyed this a lot, since she's especially
crazy about dinosaurs. For lunch, we just grabbed burgers at the
Umbrella- very decent burgers, too. Then we looked through Mickey's
Gear a bit, before heading back to the resort for our afternoon pool
time by 4:00pm.
We swam and relaxed for a few hours, then changed and headed to Animal
Kingdom Lodge for 8:00pm PS at Boma. This was our first time here, the
lodge having opened since our last visit three years ago. Because it's
new, and after hearing so many good things about Boma on this
newsgroup, it became a "must" for our trip, and was one of only 4 PS's
that we made before leaving home. We took a brief tour of the lodge;
it was quite nice, and I could definitely stay there, but the
Wilderness Lodge or Polynesian would still rate higher with me. Being
able to look out over animal-inhabited savannah is a real plus, and we
saw several (non-carnivorous) animals close by the lodge. We checked
in at Boma by 7:30pm, took our pagers, and headed of to shop a bit
(Boma was pretty busy then). We were seated before 8:00pm, with a
*very* nice waitress. She explained items on the buffet that we may
not have recognized, and then we dug in. The nut-and-seed encrusted
salmon was incredible- an entirely different taste. The 3-bean gumbo
was also exceptional. Bonnie loved the lightly seasoned prime rib;
however, both she and I didn't like the garlic mashed potatoes (Erika
did). Erika sampled many different things, turning her nose up at the
child's buffet. Final opinion- we all loved this buffet. The food is
unique, without being too strange, and there's something for everyone.
We were encouraged to take our time & experiment, with no rush to
clear our table at all.
We got back to ASM by 10:00pm, swam & had drinks by poolside for about
an hour, then to bed by 11:30pm. Temps were still in the 80's by then.
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
==========================================
I woke up at 7:30am after a great night's sleep. I woke Erika & we
snuck out to the pool for an early swim, leaving Bonnie asleep. I took
a GMRS radio with me & left the other at bedside, in case she woke up
and wondered where we were. I love these early morning dips, a
wonderful way to get going in the morning. Erika and I felt great
after 9+ hours of sleep and a 30 minute swim. Called wife on radio to
wake her up & get her going, then headed back up to room. Problem- my
room key didn't work. Bonnie let us in (dripping from the shower, of
course), and I dressed & headed for the front desk while they
finished.
At this point I was afraid that our complicated reservation scheme had
befuddled the computers. Due to a special rate occurring during our
stay, and in an attempt to prevent over-lapping UMP's, we had 4
separate reservations for nine days. The price for this was having to
check in four separate times, while keeping the same room- little to
pay in exchange for many hundreds of dollars saved. At the desk, I was
told the problem was a magnetic anomaly- the nice CM had probably
waited all week to use that line. Seems that silly me had carried two
or more passes together in my shirt pocket, and one of them got
blasted. For some reason that I don't understand, the CM said only the
key function was screwed up; the UMP was fine. She was told the
encoding method is different for the two functions. In any event, I
went ahead and checked in for the second ressie, holding onto our old
keys, which were now just admission media. BTW, I managed to do this
same stupid thing again later on. They finally gave me the protective
sleeves for the cards after the second time- no more problems.
Gathered up the gang & breakfasted in the food court. I had a very
good western omelet- not greasy, good ingredients- along with bacon
cooked perfectly. Wife had eggs & sausage, Erika had cereal. We
generally had breakfast here during our stay, being well satisfied
with variety and quality. Then, we were off to Epcot and Future World
by 9:30am
Very low crowds on arrival. We walked right on to Spaceship Earth,
with Erika a little nervous; she doesn't like dark places and loud
noises, and couldn't remember this ride. She relaxed and enjoyed it
after she understood it's theme, but she wasn't impressed enough to
ride again. My wife, who has always had trouble dealing with
auto-loading rides, walked on like a pro here- looks like her balance
is improving.
I see that I forgot to mention that Bonnie is in the process of
quitting smoking, after 28 years. She's in her second week as of April
20th, and is doing very well. It's going to be interesting seeing how
she handles smokers, especially the ones who ignore the smoking areas,
while at WDW. I'll add that she herself was always scrupulous about
following all smoking rules, and has always got pretty pissed at those
who don't.
After Spaceship Earth, we wondered through the Festival of Flowers
pavilion, purchasing some small items and sending them to our resort.
Then we trooped over to the Universe of Energy, a show my wife used to
hate, but started enjoying when it was re-worked with Ellen DeGeneres
and Bill Nye. Erika also enjoyed this a lot, since she's especially
crazy about dinosaurs. For lunch, we just grabbed burgers at the
Umbrella- very decent burgers, too. Then we looked through Mickey's
Gear a bit, before heading back to the resort for our afternoon pool
time by 4:00pm.
We swam and relaxed for a few hours, then changed and headed to Animal
Kingdom Lodge for 8:00pm PS at Boma. This was our first time here, the
lodge having opened since our last visit three years ago. Because it's
new, and after hearing so many good things about Boma on this
newsgroup, it became a "must" for our trip, and was one of only 4 PS's
that we made before leaving home. We took a brief tour of the lodge;
it was quite nice, and I could definitely stay there, but the
Wilderness Lodge or Polynesian would still rate higher with me. Being
able to look out over animal-inhabited savannah is a real plus, and we
saw several (non-carnivorous) animals close by the lodge. We checked
in at Boma by 7:30pm, took our pagers, and headed of to shop a bit
(Boma was pretty busy then). We were seated before 8:00pm, with a
*very* nice waitress. She explained items on the buffet that we may
not have recognized, and then we dug in. The nut-and-seed encrusted
salmon was incredible- an entirely different taste. The 3-bean gumbo
was also exceptional. Bonnie loved the lightly seasoned prime rib;
however, both she and I didn't like the garlic mashed potatoes (Erika
did). Erika sampled many different things, turning her nose up at the
child's buffet. Final opinion- we all loved this buffet. The food is
unique, without being too strange, and there's something for everyone.
We were encouraged to take our time & experiment, with no rush to
clear our table at all.
We got back to ASM by 10:00pm, swam & had drinks by poolside for about
an hour, then to bed by 11:30pm. Temps were still in the 80's by then.
