Chickenlady
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 5, 2000
- Messages
- 392
Trip report Feb 3 -10, 2001
Cast
Chickenlady - 40 year old trip planner, 6th time at WDW
JR - my 3 year old son, 3nd time at WDW
Grammy - my mother, 62, roller coaster fanatic, more than 6 trips to WDW
DAY 8 - Feb. 10, 2001
Everyone woke in a gloomy mood. We got most of our stuff arranged for Bell Services (we'd arranged a noon checkout) and we grabbed a small breakfast at the food court. We arrived at MK just as they were letting people in ~7:30 am. It was so uncrowded, I was in heaven. We hightailed it to Fantasyland and let JR ride all his favorites, one (or 2 or 3) last times. We managed to hit almost all of the rides in Fantasyland and of course Buzz and TTA. We also almost ran to Adventureland, at rope drop to get one more ride on Jungle Cruise. That accomplished we went to our PS breakfast at Crystal Palace. This was the most disappointing character meal of this trip. The buffet seemed just average and the omelet guy must have been on some kind of drugs....I have never seen anyone move so slowly....almost like he was in a daze. We saw Tigger (from afar) when we sat down and after we had finished our breakfast we still had no pictures or autographs.....and we ate fairly slowly! Our server assured us that the characters would be there, so we waited another half hour before we got them all right after one another. Seems they were having trouble spacing themselves out that day. We reluctantly let MK after our late breakfast and headed back to ASMo one last time.
We got our last min. things together and waited for our noon bell service pick-up. They arrived on time and we sadly said "Goodbye" to our Buzz room. Our Tiffany pick-up wasn't until 4 pm, so we played! We played in Andy's room, on the playground and even cruised the rest of the resort getting last min. pictures of Dalmatians and such. It had gotten pretty warm so I took JR in the pool. He loves to swim and we had a great time, while Grammy sat in the shade and read her book. When it was time to get dressed, I was thrilled! When we were at WL last year, we also spent the last afternoon in the pool and I remembered the horrible restroom that you had to use to change in. ASMo has a wonderful shower/changing room! It was clean and dry and even had shampoo and soap!
We grabbed a small snack at the Food court and waited out front for our Tiffany driver. He arrived just in time and whisked us off to the airport. This driver was very talkative and kept us awake for the ride. JR and I had the first flight to leave so Grammy came and waited with us for about 1 hr. It was sad to say goodbye because we weren't real sure when we'd see Grammy again. Turns out she and I are going to Vegas in June and she'll spend time at our house before that trip, so she can see JR. Our wait for the flight was kind of entertaining. On our flight was a very large group of people heading back to Korea. They seemed to all know each other and spent the entire waiting time singing and dancing! They had a guitar and some other props and JR was dancing right along with them! JR and I were exhausted by the time we got on the plane. He fell asleep very soon after take-off....not wanting to eat his southwest chicken salad (I really should have remembered to request a child's meal). Our plane change in Dallas went smoothly, JR was mostly asleep for the run between terminals (thank goodness for that stroller). If you saw this wild, very tired looking woman running through the Dallas Delta terminal pushing a stroller and carrying a backpack and a carseat....that was prob. me! Daddy met our plane and JR did wake up to hug Daddy. I think the cold air really woke him up. At our airport, Delta deplanes using those stupid outside stairs and we froze! It was high 80's in Orlando when we left and mid 30's when we arrived home. Good thing I'd changed us out of shorts at the airport in Orlando. Grammy reported that her (direct, non-stop!!!) flight was uneventful.
Final notes:
I'm so glad that I didn't attempt the trip by myself with JR. He still really needs the stroller and backpack full of goodies, there was always the need for another pair of hands. Especially getting on and off the buses. Grammy was the perfect travel companion....she's been to WDW many times so she didn't feel the need to do and see everything. We proceeded at a leisurely pace for most of the week. JR really missed having his cousins along for companionship, maybe next time.
JR surprisingly got into the pressed penny machines...he could find them anywhere! Daddy put together a collage with pictures, postcards, a poster and JR's pressed pennies and its going up in JR's room.
One funny thing that we noticed over the course of the week, was that if we happened to tell JR that we couldn't do something either because we didn't have time, or he wasn't big enough, or when he wanted to stop the WDW bus at the huge McDonald's near ASMo, he would say "Ok, wait until Daddy comes". Made it kind of easy..."No, we can't stop and play in Andy's room its cold, we're tired etc". "That's ok, I'll wait until Daddy comes". Daddy's next trip is going to be busy!
We loved AK in cool weather!!!!! The past 2 trips have been in Sept. and AK was terribly hot and uncomfortable. Everyone's tempers were shot in short order. This trip was comfortable. It was still warmer than the rest of the parks, but not quite as bad as Sept. The uneven, rough sidewalks also seem to bother my bum knee a lot, as well as vibrate the stroller so much that my hands were getting numb.
True to form JR has talked non-stop about his trip and in a cute, manipulative way has started waking up in the mornings saying "I slept good. I had good dreams. I went to Disney World again last night. I'll go back soon, won't I?".
As I end this trip report it has finally hit me.....the Feb. 2001 WDW trip is over. Guess its time to start planning the next trip.....DH is going to kill me.
Cast
Chickenlady - 40 year old trip planner, 6th time at WDW
JR - my 3 year old son, 3nd time at WDW
Grammy - my mother, 62, roller coaster fanatic, more than 6 trips to WDW
DAY 8 - Feb. 10, 2001
Everyone woke in a gloomy mood. We got most of our stuff arranged for Bell Services (we'd arranged a noon checkout) and we grabbed a small breakfast at the food court. We arrived at MK just as they were letting people in ~7:30 am. It was so uncrowded, I was in heaven. We hightailed it to Fantasyland and let JR ride all his favorites, one (or 2 or 3) last times. We managed to hit almost all of the rides in Fantasyland and of course Buzz and TTA. We also almost ran to Adventureland, at rope drop to get one more ride on Jungle Cruise. That accomplished we went to our PS breakfast at Crystal Palace. This was the most disappointing character meal of this trip. The buffet seemed just average and the omelet guy must have been on some kind of drugs....I have never seen anyone move so slowly....almost like he was in a daze. We saw Tigger (from afar) when we sat down and after we had finished our breakfast we still had no pictures or autographs.....and we ate fairly slowly! Our server assured us that the characters would be there, so we waited another half hour before we got them all right after one another. Seems they were having trouble spacing themselves out that day. We reluctantly let MK after our late breakfast and headed back to ASMo one last time.
We got our last min. things together and waited for our noon bell service pick-up. They arrived on time and we sadly said "Goodbye" to our Buzz room. Our Tiffany pick-up wasn't until 4 pm, so we played! We played in Andy's room, on the playground and even cruised the rest of the resort getting last min. pictures of Dalmatians and such. It had gotten pretty warm so I took JR in the pool. He loves to swim and we had a great time, while Grammy sat in the shade and read her book. When it was time to get dressed, I was thrilled! When we were at WL last year, we also spent the last afternoon in the pool and I remembered the horrible restroom that you had to use to change in. ASMo has a wonderful shower/changing room! It was clean and dry and even had shampoo and soap!
We grabbed a small snack at the Food court and waited out front for our Tiffany driver. He arrived just in time and whisked us off to the airport. This driver was very talkative and kept us awake for the ride. JR and I had the first flight to leave so Grammy came and waited with us for about 1 hr. It was sad to say goodbye because we weren't real sure when we'd see Grammy again. Turns out she and I are going to Vegas in June and she'll spend time at our house before that trip, so she can see JR. Our wait for the flight was kind of entertaining. On our flight was a very large group of people heading back to Korea. They seemed to all know each other and spent the entire waiting time singing and dancing! They had a guitar and some other props and JR was dancing right along with them! JR and I were exhausted by the time we got on the plane. He fell asleep very soon after take-off....not wanting to eat his southwest chicken salad (I really should have remembered to request a child's meal). Our plane change in Dallas went smoothly, JR was mostly asleep for the run between terminals (thank goodness for that stroller). If you saw this wild, very tired looking woman running through the Dallas Delta terminal pushing a stroller and carrying a backpack and a carseat....that was prob. me! Daddy met our plane and JR did wake up to hug Daddy. I think the cold air really woke him up. At our airport, Delta deplanes using those stupid outside stairs and we froze! It was high 80's in Orlando when we left and mid 30's when we arrived home. Good thing I'd changed us out of shorts at the airport in Orlando. Grammy reported that her (direct, non-stop!!!) flight was uneventful.
Final notes:
I'm so glad that I didn't attempt the trip by myself with JR. He still really needs the stroller and backpack full of goodies, there was always the need for another pair of hands. Especially getting on and off the buses. Grammy was the perfect travel companion....she's been to WDW many times so she didn't feel the need to do and see everything. We proceeded at a leisurely pace for most of the week. JR really missed having his cousins along for companionship, maybe next time.
JR surprisingly got into the pressed penny machines...he could find them anywhere! Daddy put together a collage with pictures, postcards, a poster and JR's pressed pennies and its going up in JR's room.
One funny thing that we noticed over the course of the week, was that if we happened to tell JR that we couldn't do something either because we didn't have time, or he wasn't big enough, or when he wanted to stop the WDW bus at the huge McDonald's near ASMo, he would say "Ok, wait until Daddy comes". Made it kind of easy..."No, we can't stop and play in Andy's room its cold, we're tired etc". "That's ok, I'll wait until Daddy comes". Daddy's next trip is going to be busy!
We loved AK in cool weather!!!!! The past 2 trips have been in Sept. and AK was terribly hot and uncomfortable. Everyone's tempers were shot in short order. This trip was comfortable. It was still warmer than the rest of the parks, but not quite as bad as Sept. The uneven, rough sidewalks also seem to bother my bum knee a lot, as well as vibrate the stroller so much that my hands were getting numb.
True to form JR has talked non-stop about his trip and in a cute, manipulative way has started waking up in the mornings saying "I slept good. I had good dreams. I went to Disney World again last night. I'll go back soon, won't I?".
As I end this trip report it has finally hit me.....the Feb. 2001 WDW trip is over. Guess its time to start planning the next trip.....DH is going to kill me.
