Mize Family Trip Report Thursday April 25th, 2002 #7 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
===============================================
Woke up on our own at 7:30am, ready to rumble after a good night's sleep.
A quick food court breakfast, then off to the Magic Kingdom (parking at
the Polynesian). We entered MK at 9:45am, and headed straight for Fantasy
Land again. We grabbed FastPasses for Peter Pan's Flight for 10:20am.
Took a look at Dumbo- yuck, 40mins. Went to Snow White's Scary Adventures
and walked right on. Not a great ride, but it does have some nice imagery
that we all enjoyed. Hit a few local shops, sent some purchases to our
resort, then walked on to Peter Pan at 10:30am- I love FastPass. This is
always Erika's favorite ride, and she usually rides it multiple times
during a visit. Only once this time, though, and she was happy.
Then we headed over to the Mad Hatter's Teacups, stopping along the way
for Erika to ride the uncrowded carousel again. After the Teacups, it was
11:30am, so we headed back to our car at the Poly and drove over to
Downtown Disney, which I still think of as Disney Village. Here we did
most of our gift shopping for the folks back home, taking advantage of
American Express's 15% discount in several of the stores. After a lot of
shopping, some of which we shipped to our home, we walked into Cap'n
Jack's for lunch at 1:00pm, no PS. Found out they don't accept PS's,
which surprised me. We had a window seat, with a nice view of Fulton's
Crab House (the restaurant sits out in the water, so most views are
nice). The restaurant wasn't busy at all, which made me wonder. In the
end, the food was good, but with a very poor selection of seafood- only a
couple of items. I was disappointed, as I was in a real seafood mood. I
resolved to try and make time for Cape May over at Yacht & Beach before
leaving- wonderful seafood there.
We took our usual midday swim break at 2:00pm, then headed over to the
Beach Club to park (waived in with no stop) and enter Epcot World
Showcase by 4:15pm. We then meandered counter-clockwise through the
countries, lightly shopping and sight-seeing... no shows this time. I
discovered that I had left my one remaining Hi8MM video tape back in the
room, so I parked the wife and Erika by Future World & hustled toward the
camera shop near Communicore. As I passed Mouse Gear, a nice CM asked if
she could help me, so I told her what I needed- she said it's right
inside! She was right, and saved me a lot of hiking & time. Didn't save
me any money, though; $14.00 for a $5.00 tape!
Returned to family, and Bonnie's leg was hurting- some kind of mild
strain. We limped on by Canada and checked in at the Rose & Crown pub at
7:40pm for our 8:00pm PS. Got some beer & let the wife rest up a bit
while we waited. The R & C has the most unique "pagers" yet- they hand
out Compaq Pocket PC's with an interactive advertisement and
informational piece. Nothing like using $700 pagers. When we checked in,
I had routinely requested terrace seating, the best seats in World
Showcase for Illuminations. I was just as routinely told that we would
have to be seated in first available at the time. Right at 8:00pm, our
Pocket PC erupted in a fireworks show, with a voice telling us "Your
table is ready, please check in"- cool. We did so- and were led right
down to perfect terrace seating! Definitely our lucky day.... almost our
UNlucky day, thanks to me.
As we got seated, I noticed I didn't have my camcorder.. neither did
Bonnie or Erika. Oh, boy, I had hung it over the back of our bench while
waiting out front, and forgotten it. Panicked, I made the mad dash
through a very crowded (and drunken) restaurant. As soon as I popped out
of the side door, I could see the strap of the camcorder on the bench out
front. Pausing to catch my breath, I walked up to the family sitting on
the bench. I smiled & told them that I had come back for my camcorder,
pointing to it. The lady wasn't too amused by my stupidity, telling me
"Well, it was on its way to lost and found". I thanked her very much for
her concern, reached past her and retrieved it. Then I slinked off
shamefully, $700 worth of education in my hands. I got off easy- remember
my OSU baseball cap?
We started off with a very good fruit and cheese plate for an appetizer-
inexpensive, and large enough for three to share. For dinner, I had the
Fisherman's Platter, which was mediocre at best. Bonnie had the Bangers &
Mash, a very mild sausage with mashed potatoes- very good and huge. Erika
tried the Cottage Pie, which is ground beef, mashed potatoes and cheese,
all baked together. Said she liked it, but I think some earlier snacking
had messed up her dinner. Just as we were finishing a very leisurely
dinner, Illuminations fired up. These truly were the best seats we'd ever
had for this show, and the show itself was wonderful. There were a few
new elements from our last visit which made it more interesting. After
the show, the park was closed & throngs of people headed out. We kicked
back with after dinner drinks and watched the crowds. Then we headed for
International Gateway and the Yacht club, with no crowds in sight.
As we approached the Beach Club, we found a small group in the courtyard
watching something. We got closer, and it was a guy (I won't say
"gentleman") demonstrating one of the Segway people movers! I'm sure
you've all heard of the two-wheeled gyroscopic transporter of recent
development. This guy was riding all around the courtyard, mostly with
his hands behind his back. The group was apparently together, with
everyone knowing everyone. I quickly pulled out my camcorder and started
filming. The guy cracked to an associate that maybe he shouldn't let me
film- I filmed away. You want privacy, don't assemble on a public
throughway. I then asked three different questions, to his face, and he
ignored all three of them. A trio of cute young things stopped beside me
to watch, one of them asking a question- darn if he didn't hear that one,
all the way across the courtyard, and respond. I tried a fourth question,
in my best loud voice (which is darn loud)- no luck. I had put away the
camera by this time, and gathered up the gang and left. Sure hope that
guy isn't in marketing. We returned to our resort and to bed by 11:00pm.
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
===============================================
Woke up on our own at 7:30am, ready to rumble after a good night's sleep.
A quick food court breakfast, then off to the Magic Kingdom (parking at
the Polynesian). We entered MK at 9:45am, and headed straight for Fantasy
Land again. We grabbed FastPasses for Peter Pan's Flight for 10:20am.
Took a look at Dumbo- yuck, 40mins. Went to Snow White's Scary Adventures
and walked right on. Not a great ride, but it does have some nice imagery
that we all enjoyed. Hit a few local shops, sent some purchases to our
resort, then walked on to Peter Pan at 10:30am- I love FastPass. This is
always Erika's favorite ride, and she usually rides it multiple times
during a visit. Only once this time, though, and she was happy.
Then we headed over to the Mad Hatter's Teacups, stopping along the way
for Erika to ride the uncrowded carousel again. After the Teacups, it was
11:30am, so we headed back to our car at the Poly and drove over to
Downtown Disney, which I still think of as Disney Village. Here we did
most of our gift shopping for the folks back home, taking advantage of
American Express's 15% discount in several of the stores. After a lot of
shopping, some of which we shipped to our home, we walked into Cap'n
Jack's for lunch at 1:00pm, no PS. Found out they don't accept PS's,
which surprised me. We had a window seat, with a nice view of Fulton's
Crab House (the restaurant sits out in the water, so most views are
nice). The restaurant wasn't busy at all, which made me wonder. In the
end, the food was good, but with a very poor selection of seafood- only a
couple of items. I was disappointed, as I was in a real seafood mood. I
resolved to try and make time for Cape May over at Yacht & Beach before
leaving- wonderful seafood there.
We took our usual midday swim break at 2:00pm, then headed over to the
Beach Club to park (waived in with no stop) and enter Epcot World
Showcase by 4:15pm. We then meandered counter-clockwise through the
countries, lightly shopping and sight-seeing... no shows this time. I
discovered that I had left my one remaining Hi8MM video tape back in the
room, so I parked the wife and Erika by Future World & hustled toward the
camera shop near Communicore. As I passed Mouse Gear, a nice CM asked if
she could help me, so I told her what I needed- she said it's right
inside! She was right, and saved me a lot of hiking & time. Didn't save
me any money, though; $14.00 for a $5.00 tape!
Returned to family, and Bonnie's leg was hurting- some kind of mild
strain. We limped on by Canada and checked in at the Rose & Crown pub at
7:40pm for our 8:00pm PS. Got some beer & let the wife rest up a bit
while we waited. The R & C has the most unique "pagers" yet- they hand
out Compaq Pocket PC's with an interactive advertisement and
informational piece. Nothing like using $700 pagers. When we checked in,
I had routinely requested terrace seating, the best seats in World
Showcase for Illuminations. I was just as routinely told that we would
have to be seated in first available at the time. Right at 8:00pm, our
Pocket PC erupted in a fireworks show, with a voice telling us "Your
table is ready, please check in"- cool. We did so- and were led right
down to perfect terrace seating! Definitely our lucky day.... almost our
UNlucky day, thanks to me.
As we got seated, I noticed I didn't have my camcorder.. neither did
Bonnie or Erika. Oh, boy, I had hung it over the back of our bench while
waiting out front, and forgotten it. Panicked, I made the mad dash
through a very crowded (and drunken) restaurant. As soon as I popped out
of the side door, I could see the strap of the camcorder on the bench out
front. Pausing to catch my breath, I walked up to the family sitting on
the bench. I smiled & told them that I had come back for my camcorder,
pointing to it. The lady wasn't too amused by my stupidity, telling me
"Well, it was on its way to lost and found". I thanked her very much for
her concern, reached past her and retrieved it. Then I slinked off
shamefully, $700 worth of education in my hands. I got off easy- remember
my OSU baseball cap?
We started off with a very good fruit and cheese plate for an appetizer-
inexpensive, and large enough for three to share. For dinner, I had the
Fisherman's Platter, which was mediocre at best. Bonnie had the Bangers &
Mash, a very mild sausage with mashed potatoes- very good and huge. Erika
tried the Cottage Pie, which is ground beef, mashed potatoes and cheese,
all baked together. Said she liked it, but I think some earlier snacking
had messed up her dinner. Just as we were finishing a very leisurely
dinner, Illuminations fired up. These truly were the best seats we'd ever
had for this show, and the show itself was wonderful. There were a few
new elements from our last visit which made it more interesting. After
the show, the park was closed & throngs of people headed out. We kicked
back with after dinner drinks and watched the crowds. Then we headed for
International Gateway and the Yacht club, with no crowds in sight.
As we approached the Beach Club, we found a small group in the courtyard
watching something. We got closer, and it was a guy (I won't say
"gentleman") demonstrating one of the Segway people movers! I'm sure
you've all heard of the two-wheeled gyroscopic transporter of recent
development. This guy was riding all around the courtyard, mostly with
his hands behind his back. The group was apparently together, with
everyone knowing everyone. I quickly pulled out my camcorder and started
filming. The guy cracked to an associate that maybe he shouldn't let me
film- I filmed away. You want privacy, don't assemble on a public
throughway. I then asked three different questions, to his face, and he
ignored all three of them. A trio of cute young things stopped beside me
to watch, one of them asking a question- darn if he didn't hear that one,
all the way across the courtyard, and respond. I tried a fourth question,
in my best loud voice (which is darn loud)- no luck. I had put away the
camera by this time, and gathered up the gang and left. Sure hope that
guy isn't in marketing. We returned to our resort and to bed by 11:00pm.
