Our December 2004 trip report...finally!

[BethC1952]

Let me start this report by saying that I started writing it in the airport in Orlando on Dec. 19, planning to finish it later that week at home. It was at that point that my computer decided to take a few weeks of sick time with all of my information, pictures, etc. locked safely inside of it. All has been repaired (I fixed it myself, I'm so proud!), so I'll post this report just as it was written!

 

[BethC1952]

A few details before we begin:

We are two “50-something” adults who planned this trip as a Christmas gift for our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. We are frequent WDW visitors, so we had no planned itinerary and were in no rush to see all the parks and attractions. It was to be six nights at Pop Century for all of us, and then the younger group would fly home, leaving us “old folks” to enjoy a four-night Disney Cruise and then a “secret getaway” at Caribbean Beach Resort for three nights after the cruise. Both son and daughter-in-law received long-awaited promotions just before Thanksgiving, and had to cancel at the last minute (they are tentatively rescheduling for mid-April), leaving us to have a two-week long private getaway.

Our vacation began on Dec. 6, with an entirely uneventful flight from Newark through Atlanta to Orlando. We were greeted by our driver from Tiffany Town Car. As usual, they were prompt (even though we arrived almost ½ hour early), polite and delivered us safely to Pop Century. The check-in line was long—and filled with cheerleaders and their families. Our room was ready immediately, and we settled into a very quiet section. During our six-night stay, we didn’t hear a sound once we were inside our room. There weren’t any children near us, and our neighbors all seemed to be even older than we are!

PART 1- POP CENTURY

Our Pop Century experience certainly makes our “best” list. Our room was well-maintained, our housekeeper left us adorable washcloth creations each day, we had an opportunity to enjoy the pool and I even enjoyed doing my laundry because I was able to sit near the pool and soak up some sun.

We thought the food court was excellent, although the service is a bit slow at the shops that make things fresh-to-order like waffles and pancakes. However, this was a trip about relaxing and enjoying ourselves, so we didn’t mind the wait, and the food was good!

We did purchase the mugs because we both drink a lot of soda (I wish they served Pepsi rather than Coke products!) and a lot of tea. For us, they were a great bargain!

Our only real complaint with Pop Century is that bus service back from the parks at closing time was just not acceptable. There were waits of almost an hour some nights, while there were buses with only one or two people traveling to other resorts. Disney should re-think their transportation at park closing times. The rest of the time, the bus transportation was wonderful. There were times when we were the only people on the bus, especially when we left the hotel between 11 AM and noon.

 

[BethC1952]

PART II—EPCOT EXPERIENCES

I’ll start with the fact that Epcot is our favorite park. We like it so much that we visited it each of the six days that we were at WDW on this part of our trip! We love traveling and we love learning new things. We make it our goal to learn something new every day of our lives. A day without learning is a wasted day for us. We aren’t into thrill rides, and we both have back problems so we don’t ride anything even remotely bumpy. Epcot is wonderful for us!

BEST SHOWS/ATTRACTIONS/SHOPPING

Candlelight Processional—We were fortunate enough to have Marlee Matlin as our guest narrator. For those of you who are not familiar with her, she has appeared in movies and TV shows for at least 25 years. We first became aware of her when she appeared on Sesame Street as our son was growing up. She also appears on Blues Clues, so our granddaughter has seen her too. She is a wonderful performer, and she is deaf. She signed the entire show, and her voice interpreter was awesome. It was like having two shows in one! Watching the sign-language interpreter who signed the songs was like watching a performance of an intricate ballet. The music is wonderful, and we were thrilled that we chose to attend this performance.

Spaceship Earth—We were able to walk right on. During the first Christmas season that Epcot was open, we waited more than three hours in ninety-degree heat to ride this attraction. It was great then, and it’s great now.

Living with the Land—It’s fascinating to learn about alternative ways of providing food for the world, and to see all of the possibilities for creative ways of gardening in the future.

Off-Kilter—Don’t miss them! DH is a “bagpiper want-to-be” and loves this show. These guys have enough personality and talent to make their show a highlight of each trip.

The Rose Garden—Too many people who visit Epcot don’t take time to “Stop and Smell the Roses” and all the other flowers and gardens. There are more than 3200 rosebushes located in Epcot, Pop Century and the Caribbean Beach Resort. These are tended by the same group of people. Each bush is inventoried on an Excel spreadsheet which lists the type and location of plan also indicates its “care and feeding”, and its condition. So much of the atmosphere of Epcot is created by the arrangements of its gardens! Please take time to appreciate them!

Chinese Acrobats and movie—Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of the troupe, but they have a group of very young acrobats who perform some of the most amazing feats I have ever seen. We had not seen the current movie in China until this trip, and enjoyed it tremendously.

MoRockin’—This band entertains at Morocco, and does a great show, including a belly dancer. We caught their act several times, and finally bought their DVD.

BEST FOOD

Restaurant Marrakesh—We had our Candlelight Processional Dinner Package dinner here. It’s always a favorite stop. Because we had a very late seating, our waitress had a little time to chat with us about her home in Morroco and what she thinks of life in Florida. We enjoy Middle Eastern food (among many other kinds), and the portions are very satisfying. It’s a great value for the money if you enjoy Middle Eastern food and atmosphere.

Nine Dragons—We ate here on the spur of the moment on a Friday night. We walked in at 6:45 PM and asked how long it would be before they could seat two. There was no wait at all! We had heard many negative things about this restaurant, but decide to try it for ourselves, and are very glad we did! We ordered a sampler platter, which included wonton soup, spring rolls and shao mai as appetizers, honey-sesame chicken, stir-fried shrimp and vegetables as our entrees, and red bean ice-cream for dessert. I thought everything was very good, the portions were much larger than I expected, and I even was able to eat my meal with chopsticks. DH thought everything (except the ice-cream) was excellent too. We will definitely eat there again.

We also enjoyed a really wonderful lunch at the San Angel Inn in Mexico. Maybe we just like all kinds of food?

WORST EXPERIENCE

Our “worst of” are a few things, some of which Disney can control, and some they can’t.

At Epcot, as everywhere else, there were a large number of unsupervised children who were behaving in ways that their parents wouldn’t be very pleased with! Even little ones who can’t have been more than five years old were running around at some of the shows, with no adult supervision that we could identify. If you’re going to bring your children on a trip, you should certainly plan to supervise them yourself, or to make sure that someone is watching them! Noisy, rude, pushy children aren’t acceptable anywhere.

Another thing which really annoys me is cell phone conversations during a show. I can’t think of anything ruder than to carry on a shouted cell phone conversation during The American Adventure, especially since the guilty party had just complained to the person in front of her, demanding loudly that he shut off his digital camera because the light on his view screen was “ruining the experience” for her. Attraction hosts/hostesses always announce “No eating, drinking, flash photography or videotaping” before each performance. They should add “Please turn of your cell phones, beepers and PDA alarms!”

 

[BethC1952]

PART III—THE MAGIC KINGDOM

We’ve been to the Magic Kingdom more than 100 times. We have, in recent years, skipped this one entirely on a few trips. This time, however, we wanted to see the Christmas decorations. The park appeared to be almost empty, even though we arrived well after 11 AM!

BEST
We were able to stroll along Main Street enjoying the things that we don’t always get to see—the shop windows, the architecture, the plants. The weather was warm and sunny, and we were able to stroll through all of the lands with no waiting for anything. We finally took the time to try the Dole Whip, and we’ll definitely make that a regular stop!

When walking through the Agribah Market, please make sure you look DOWN!! We spent a few enjoyable moments watching kids trying to pick up the jewelry embedded in the pavement.

We didn’t spend much time here. We saw our old favorites (can’t pass up The Jungle Cruise, the Pirates of the Caribbean, the Carousel of Progress or the Tomorrowland Transit Authority).

WORST

Once again, we need to complain about unsupervised children. There is no reason for children to be running around any of the parks like uncivilized wild people, running people down and making them jump out of the way. It’s not Disney’s fault, and there isn’t anything that Disney can do to make the situation improve, but it’s still very annoying. We were also annoyed again by the incessant cell phone conversations in some attractions. Why do so many people feel the need to shout into their cell phones? If the signal is that bad inside the attraction, why not wait until you get outside?

 

[BethC1952]

PART IV—THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

We visited the Animal Kingdom only once on this trip. It was a day of heavy rain and wind and even thunder and lightning, which is actually a great day to spend at the Animal Kingdom. The animals are so much livelier in the rain! We were really lucky. Each time the rain came down, we were either inside of an attraction, a restaurant, or waiting under the cover for the queue for Kilimajaro Safaris. That ride is wonderful. Our wait wasn’t very long, and we were VERY glad to be under the cover during a heavy downpour.

We spent a lot of time in the park, just walking around taking pictures and soaking up the atmosphere. The cloudy, overcast damp weather added tremendously to the jungle atmosphere.

I can’t even think of a particular “BEST” for this park. It’s all “BEST”.

We grabbed a quick lunch at Tusker House, just as another downpour began, and by the time we were finished, the weather had cleared, and we headed out for the only real disappointment of our trip…Disney-MGM Studios.

 

[BethC1952]

PART V—DISNEY-MGM STUDIOS

This is our least favorite park. As I said before, we don’t do thrill rides, so there are very few options for us here. We enjoy walking around and enjoying the atmosphere, however, and we really love Muppetvision 3D.

Our plan had been to see the Osbourne Lights, to visit Muppetvision 3D and then to head back to the Magic Kingdom for Spectro gd Magic and Wishes. Out of that, all that we were able to accomplish was Muppetvision 3D.

WORST—This was our worst Disney experience ever, and was caused by something that should have been entirely under Disney’s control. For reasons that I don’t know, there were not enough lanes open for people to exit from The Studios as people were beginning to arrive in large numbers for the Osbourne Lights and Fantasmic!. That jammed people up on their way in. Those of us waiting to enter could see that there was a huge crowd on the inside waiting to get out. Very strange. It took quite a while, and rising tempers on both sides of the gates, before the evacuation routes on the side were opened so that the people penned up on the inside could get out. Once that crowd cleared, the people waiting were allowed to enter. By the time we got into the park, we couldn’t even find the end of the line for the Osbourne Lights. It wound through the park and twisted on itself so many times that we finally gave up. There’s always next year. We did see Muppetvision 3D, and really enjoyed it as always. By the time we were finished there, it was much too late to head to the Magic Kingdom for Spectro Magic, and we probably would have missed Wishes, too, so we headed back to Pop Century after suffering our first Disney disappointment in more than 25 years of visits.


Please follow the next part of my report over on the Cruise Line Trip Report Board. I will start a new thread here for the second part of our WDW experience, our "secret getaway" at Caribbean Beach Resort.