Subtchr & Gang at Their Laughing Place -- UPDATED Day 6 finally added 8/3!

[subtchr]

Subtchr & gang TR Intro

Reality sure can be depressing. Not always, of course. I have a great life, wonderful family, friends, home. But there is something about returning home from a trip to the mecca in the middle of the sunshine state that makes everyday activities seem even more mundane than usual. The only solution I can think of is to write a trip report. Well, I guess it’s more of a palliative gesture than a cure, but we takes what we can gets. Trip reports rock, whether they’re our own or someone else’s. Not only do they let us relive our wonderful Disney memories, even transport us back to the World, but they also reassure us that there are other people who visit WDW who are just as crazy, obsessive, observant, perceptive, intelligent, and witty as ourselves. Oh, and modest, too. How do we know that? Because they come home and write trip reports to post on the Dis, that’s how. Don’t get me wrong, we need the clueless masses to give us something to write about, but it’s so nice to know that there are kindred spirits among the hordes. Hang on, here we go.

How do you do? Mighty pleasant greetin’

First, the fam. Me, Sue, 48, mom, substitute teacher, marching band chaperone, soccer ref, former AF navigator, softball & tennis player, Disney fanatic and obsessive planner. Let’s put it this way: we only go to WDW as a family every 3 years, yet whenever I wear my Columbia nylon shorts, my kids always call the little cargo pocket on the leg “Mom’s fastpass pocket.” ‘Nuf said.

DH, Bruce, 52, retired AF navigator, current program manager, wonderful dad, husband, provider, & friend who works very hard and does not take enough vacation time for his psychological health. So it is MY job to plan the trips, WDW or otherwise, then tell him when, where, and how. Hey, it works for us. He enjoys WDW very much and truly appreciates the planning I do, with minimal eye-rolling at the excessive time spent online and other symptoms of anality on my part. (Yes, I made up that word, but it SO fits, trust me…)

DS20, Pete, just finished his second year at Ohio State, studying engineering. For those of you who have survived the transition between a child being at home full time to just being a “visitor,” you know how grateful I was that he wanted to come on this trip with us. I mean, the kid’s no dummy – vacationing on his parents’ dime is a no-brainer for the most part. And he does love WDW, has been a monorail/Contemporary/Epcot fan since his first trip at the age of 11. But being on the cusp of truly being on his own can be a precarious position in some ways. I think in the end he’s still glad he came. I know I am.

DS17, Tim, shaggy-haired recent high school graduate heading off to college in the fall, Young Lifer, soccer player, accordionist, alternative music fan, family mediator and all around nice guy. He has a busy summer planned, with Young Life camping and work crew, so we were glad he could join us as well.

DD14, Claire, cross country and track runner, color guard flag twirler, on her way to high school in the fall but still a little kid at heart. On the one side of some cosmic teeter-totter is the mature, kind, smart, witty, fun to be around, poised Claire, and then on the other side is the immature, whiny, moody, overly sensitive, occasionally smart-mouthed Claire. Exactly how the teeter-totter is balanced on any given day – heck, any given minute – only God can explain, and He has not afforded us any insight, as much as we have asked. After two boys, it’s an adventure. ZZub, if you’re reading this, just you wait.

No extra friends, no extraneous grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins tagging along at any point – our WDW trips are just for us. Not that I would not consider having others along if they wanted to come, but it would certainly change the dynamic, a dynamic we like just fine the way it is, thank you very much.

Here’s lookin’ for a little more adventure

We went to WDW for the first time in May ’97, stayed at Dixie Landings and endured the pink Cakestle. Wonderful trip, although in hindsight we were a bit clueless. Second trip in March ’00, stayed at Shades of Green, totally enjoyed the Millennium celebration. Tapestry of Nations = Sage of Time. Puppets. Drums. = Best Parade Ever. Third trip, March ’03, Contemporary (at SoG rates thanks to the construction at SoG -- woot), amazing. No plans were in place to scratch that 3 year itch again in 2006 until we were deciding what family trip to take this summer. Bruce and Pete had been toying with the idea of the two of them taking a college-sponsored tour to China, but when we added up the costs, Bruce (not I, can you believe it? Not even subliminal messages whispered in his ear when he was sleeping, I swear!) realized we could take the whole family to WDW for that kind of money. Heat? Crowds? Who cares? Within moments of the words leaving his mouth, I was online before he could take it back. Seriously, it was like one of those cartoon scenes where a character is there, and then, poof, there’s only some wavy lines and maybe a little smoke. Anyway, I even decided to look into a few extra days at the OTHER set of parks in Orlando. I had chaperoned a couple of high school band trips with the boys that included a day or two at Universal, and I knew we would all enjoy a few days there. Sorry for the sacrilege, but as thrill ride fans, we had to give it a shot. So within a few weeks (I needed a little time for research, give me a break), we had Airtran tickets (nonstop morning going down and nonstop evening coming home –yay!), six nights at Shades of Green, and two nights at the Hard Rock Hotel (thank you, military discount), Sunray Transportation all around. Life is very good indeed.

No big dramas leading up to the actual trip – we survived Tim’s hs graduation and a short trip to NC to attend my niece’s graduation. The day before we were to leave did get a little interesting. We knew we had to replace Tim’s military ID at some point before his 18th birthday at the end of July. (They get their first military IDs at age 10 and have to renew them every 4 years.) We had planned to wait until we got back, but then Bruce happened to check Claire’s ID, and oops, we had forgotten to renew hers around her 14th birthday back in November. We’re such attentive parents. So we decided to be safe we’d head up to the base to get that taken care of before the trip. No big deal, just a couple hours out of the day.

So I was back on schedule, mowing the lawn around 5:00 while the laundry finished, when Pete got home from Columbus and asked what I thought of the red streak on his bicep radiating up from an insect bite in the crook of his elbow. Yeah, we might want to get that checked out. Maternal confession time – if we hadn’t been heading out on the trip the next day, I would have waited a day or two to see if it would just go away on its own. Yes, I’m one of those moms. My only excuse is being the third of seven kids myself. The temp had to be over 103, the limb obviously bent funny, or consciousness fading from blood loss before we got any attention. (Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration – love ya, Mom & Dad.) Hey, in my defense, Tim only went to two and a half days of soccer camp in eighth grade with two broken bones in his foot before I took him to the doctor. And Claire made her own decision to run at that cross country meet last fall on what turned out to be a fractured fibula. Heck, she still beat 9 other girls on her team. But since we were leaving the next day, I thought I should break from my usual routine and get Pete’s arm looked at. So after a trip back up to the base for an ER visit, a diagnosis of cellulitis (yeah, I’m glad we didn’t wait…), prescription for Bactrin, some comical backtracking to find an open base gate and then a CVS (because the base pharmacy was closed), I still had time to finish packing and get to bed by midnight – yay!

 

[subtchr]

Day 1: Friday, June 23

Pretty good, sure as you’re born

Finally. Up and at ‘em at 5 am, out of the driveway by 5:30, we’re good. Check in for Airtran was not too crowded. I scanned the line to pick out the families heading to WDW. Don’t shake your head at me like that, you know you do it, too. It’s an easy task on the return trip, with all those red and yellow plastic bags of souvenirs that won’t fit into the luggage, not to mention the sunburns, silly hats, and t-shirts. But it takes a little more discernment on the way there. Of course one dead giveaway was that some of the luggage had those yellow ME tags. We’re staying at Shades of Green, so no DME for us. We have Sunray transportation booked, so we will have that driver holding the sign with our name on it, a nice ride directly to our resort…but I have to admit, I was feeling a little, I don’t know, left out when I saw those tags. Call it MEnvy. I’m not even sure we’d use it if we could (we’re very spoiled by towncar service), but there was something about those yellow tags…meh, I got over it. Shades of Green is just too good a deal to pass up just to get silly little tags, especially since our kids are old enough to drag their own bags. (Now, if we had been going during a time period when free dining was being offered, that would have been a horse of an entirely different color…maybe magenta.)

We grabbed a bite to eat at the airport. Bruce got some mini’s from Cinnabon, Pete and I got chai, fruit juice, yogurt, and a bagel from Boston Stoker, and Tim & Claire got pizza from Sbarro’s. Yep, you read that right…pizza for breakfast. At 6:45 am. Not breakfast pizza, mind you, but regular Sbarro’s cheese pizza. No surprise to me that they wanted it, I just found it hard to believe the restaurant was actually serving it. I guess my kids aren’t the only travelers with somewhat nontraditional ideas about when to eat what in Dayton, Ohio.

On to the gate. No funny stories from the flight, just two hours of dozing, reading, enjoying the anticipation, and reviewing my itineraries in my head. I’d been doing that for weeks, I’ll admit. ”Okay, let’s see, MGM day is Sunday…FP for RnRC, ride ToT…when were we going to do Indy again?” I find I even daydream using Dis abbreviations. Countless hours of perusing the Disboards will do that to a person. After 30 years of being associated with the military, I thought I was accustomed to using acronyms, but the Joint Chiefs have nothing on Diser’s. I mean, who else but a Disboard veteran (Disvet?) would say, “We’re at POFQ and have the DDP with ADRs for CRT and LTT at the MK, CM and CG at the CR, B&C at the BC, V&A at the GF, R&C at UK, FDP at H&V, and RFC at AK?” I know you all. You not only understood all of that, you were about to post that the locations were totally unnecessary and that you can’t make ADR’s for B&C. Methinks I’ve made my point.

The five of us were all in one row, Pete, Bruce, & I on one side of the aisle, and Tim & Claire on the other. Tim is a quintessential middle child, easy-going, always the peace-maker. (Admittedly, “easy-going” also translates as “indecisive” – the poor kid can’t decide what to have for dinner, much less what he wants to major in at college, but hey, no one’s perfect.) He also travels everywhere with an Olympus Verve digital camera in his pocket, and I must say he takes some awesome, original pictures. Here is one that demonstrates his unique eye:

On time landing at MCO, even a few minutes early. Well, touchdown was early, but then there’s that loooooonnnngggg taxi to the gate during which you figure you could have driven to Orlando from home faster. Or maybe it’s just the anticipation. But we finally make it, disembark, and after a quick restroom stop, hit the pseudomonorail to the main terminal. Call it a monorail if you must, but we know the truth, don’t we. We feel a moment of empathy for those poor souls getting off the train to depart MCO, aforementioned sunburns, silly hats, Mickey tees, and souvenir bags in place, but our own little version of Disneyschadenfreude (props to ZZUB) passes quickly enough. There but for the grace of God…oh, wait, that will be us in 8 days…la la la la…refusing to think of that…thinking happy thoughts…

At the bottom of the escalator I scan the crowd of drivers for the one holding my name. I spot him right away and walk toward him, trying that little wave that says, “You don’t know me, but I’m the one you want.” He just keeps looking past me. I try a slightly bigger wave. No change, still looking blankly behind me. I’m right on top of the guy waving both arms frantically in the air before he gives a little start and says, “Oh, I didn’t see you!” Okay, it wasn’t all that dramatic, but close. His name was Roger, and while he was not effusive or especially sociable, he was very professional and pleasant enough. He told us what baggage carousel was ours and chatted with Bruce while we waited for the luggage. To be honest, it was Bruce trying to make conversation, and it was a little like pulling teeth, but again, no real complaints. We walked out to the parking spot, right beside a DME bus being loaded. It may have been my imagination, but Roger looked as if he wanted to go slash its tires…nah, couldn’t be. Anyway, he jogged across to the parking area and pulled up in a black Excursion, very clean and comfy. He opened up a little more on the drive, mostly because we got him talking about DME and the affect it has had on his business. Whoo, boy, not a happy camper. “You mean Disney’s Tragically Depressed?” Don’t hold back, Rog, tell us what you really think. His theory is that everyone will hate the long lines and delays and baggage issues and confusion, and then they’ll all come back to using businesses like Sunray any day now. I’ve learned enough from the message boards that in spite of a few issues for some people, most are quite happy with DME, especially for the “price,” so I took what he said with a sympathetic grain of salt and just smiled noncommittally. Roger did not share many tips and insights about the parks or anything, for which I was grateful. When drivers or anyone else starts up with advice, I’m always torn between just nodding and smiling, or saying, “Um, we already knew that,” or even worse, correcting them when they’re wrong. I usually go with the nodding/smiling option, and there are even times my patience is rewarded and I learn something new. Not often, but hey, it could happen.

I was sitting in the back of the SUV with Claire, and when we drove under the welcoming arch we both kind of shivered and smiled…oh, what a feeling. We had not been to Shades of Green since the renovation, and when we pulled up, I was astounded by the change. I mean, I’d seen pictures, but they don’t do it justice. I now understand why it took them two years. We pulled up into the porte cochere and Roger dropped us off. I paid him the total fare for our three leg journey as well as a tip for the day, and we made arrangements for the other two legs. I’m glad we confirmed, because he had the wrong day written down for both. That could have been ugly. It was only 11:15, so we knew our room would most likely not be ready. We wheeled our bags into the lobby and I went to the registration desk. It was a little disorienting having been there before but discovering now it looked like an entirely different place; but it’s a huge improvement, so we weren’t complaining. It wasn’t an ugly place before or anything, just quite plain, and now it’s lovely and welcoming. Here’s a picture of the front of the resort and the lobby:

There were a couple people in front of me in line, so it took a few minutes, but I was soon at the desk. The clerk who checked me in was pleasant enough, and he confirmed that our room was not yet ready. He told me my request was honored (original section, lobby floor, easy access to pools and lobby), but when I asked him where exactly the room was, he said he could not tell me. Not because he didn’t know, but because it was policy. I surmised that the previous guests had not yet checked out, and he didn’t want us knocking on the door and bugging them or something. Not that we would do that. But he wouldn’t even give me a hint about where it was, just, “Your requests have been honored.” So my dilemma is that if it is not really where I want it, by the time we get back it will be too late to be moved anywhere else. But, in spite of my obviously compulsive nature when it comes to some things, I’m actually a pretty easy-going person. Really. So I figured no matter where the room was, it would be fine. And it was.

We checked our bags in at the bell desk and wandered around trying to get our bearings. It really is a great resort, but I can’t say it’s designed very efficiently. The main entrance and lobby are on the second floor, as is the BX, attraction ticket sales office, the gift shop for SoG logo stuff (it's called "Made in the Shade" -- marketing worked overtime coming up with that one), coffee bar, and ice cream shop, all down a hall from the registration desk. Sounds logical so far, right? But hmm, I hear there are restaurants, but where are they? Oh, take the steps down from the lobby to find the Garden Gallery buffet and Mangino’s. What else is on that level? Well, the bus stop is, but you can’t get there from the restaurants. You have to come back up to the lobby level, go outside, and go back down one level again to get to the Express Café and the bus stop. Yes, there are elevators to these various lower level amenities, but they’re kind of hidden, and I was glad we’re past the stroller schlepping that would require their use. I never did find the Eagle’s Nest lounge. SoG is one of those places you finally get the hang of on your last day there.

Before we headed to a park, there was the little matter of obtaining tickets. There is a ticket sales office right in the resort for those who are eligible to stay there (active and retired military, and a couple other government service categories). The discount from gate prices is small, only a few dollars a ticket, but all sales are tax free, which adds up to a pretty decent overall discount. Better than a kick in the pants, as my dad would say. The office also sells tickets to other Orlando area attractions, but I had found a better deal on our Universal tickets online using a buy 4/get 1 free Mastercard deal. It pays to do the research…whoa, that was the ultimate “preaching to the choir” statement right there. My sincere apologies, Diser’s! Anyway, I bought 6-day MYW tickets with hoppers for all 5 of us. When the credit card stopped smoking, I slid it into my Baggalini and we were off looking for lunch.

Once we walked down the hall to where the original section of the resort began, vague memories of our previous visit enabled us to find our way to Evergreen’s, the restaurant/sports bar back by the pool. We were all hungry and had decided to eat here before we headed to AK for the afternoon. There were not many people in the restaurant, and the hostess granted our request of a table where we could see the World Cup game on the big screen. Our waitress, however, was not quite so friendly, and the service was on the slow side. But the food was delicious, so we scored on the most vital element. Bruce got a club sandwich, I had a great chicken quesadilla, and the kids split a whole cheese pizza (second of the day for Tim & Claire, if you recall) and some fries. Even with all of us getting soft drinks, the bill was only $32. Wow, do you think ALL the restaurants we go to this week will be that cheap? Ha Ha Ha Haaaa…

Now, even though I explained as well as I could the layout of the resort in an earlier paragraph, that was knowledge gained over the course of six days. So at this point we were still totally disoriented. I knew the bus stop was on the same level as Evergreens, so I logically (or so I thought) assumed we could just walk toward the front of the resort, staying on that level, to find it. You know what happens when you assume…after one dead end after another, joining up with another family on the same quest for a while, and finally throwing in the towel and asking directions of a staff member, we eventually made it to the bus stop at about 12:55. That’s important. You see, as might be expected of a military resort, SoG buses aren’t of the typical WDW “Oh, one will show up every 20 minutes or so” variety. SoG buses are on a schedule. That’s the good news, soldier. You always know when the bus will be there. The bad news is that the buses to AK and MGM only run once an hour, on the half hour. If you miss it, there is also a bus that runs to the TTC every 15 minutes, and guests can always just walk to the Poly or the TTC, or if they’re lucky, catch a ride on the Shady Shuttle (more props to that creative marketing department!), a golf cart the bell desk guys run back and forth to the end of the property for those who don’t want to hoof it all the way. Here’s a pic:

But it’s 12:55, remember? So if we wanted to catch the AK bus, we’d wait for 35 minutes. Being the adventurous souls we are, we waited only a few minutes (with the family with whom we had shared the arduous journey to the bus stop earlier) until one of the white buses with the SoG logo on the side pulled up with a TTC sign in the window. Confession time again – we actually enjoy, not just endure, using WDW transportation. (Most of the time. Then there’s Day 4.) On our first trip, when the kids were 11, 8, & 5, I think the monorail was our favorite attraction. We’re on vacation, we don’t want to worry about directions or parking or getting in a hot car. And some of our most interesting conversations with fellow guests have been on Disney buses and boats and monorails. There is even another aspect involved when we used Shades of Green transportation. Many people mention the military camaraderie among SoG guests, and there is definitely that. The “where have you been stationed?” conversations and all. But I detected another element this trip. The “can you believe those people across the street at the Poly are paying three or four times as much as we are?” element. Unspoken, but just under the surface. No, we’re not smug. We just figure it’s appropriate payback for the sacrifices military members and their families make. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

We pull into the TTC, disembark, and walk the few spaces down for the AK bus. It looks just right – not the dreaded totally empty spot which would mean a bus just pulled out, but not so crowded as to make the bus too full, either. Claire was happy to see there were babies at the bus stop. It’s not an understatement to say she is obsessed with babies and toddlers. She is a terrific babysitter, and her ultimate goal is to become a nanny. So WDW was heaven for her, as you can imagine. If some family with small children had asked her to abandon us and spend the week squiring their kids around Toon Town and Playhouse Disney, she would have dropped us faster than, well, remember my cartoon character analogy way back in my planning paragraph? Yeah, even faster than that. Anyone think they’ll be needing a nanny in about 5 years?

Once we were in line for the bus, we realized there was an inordinate amount of WDW security types milling about, radios in hand. It wasn’t until we were on the bus, which came after only a few minutes, and pulling out, that we realized all the security had nothing to do with our arrival (phew), but was circling and deciding what to do about a package or backpack or something left unattended. Nice to know they take such stuff seriously, even though I’m sure it ended up being something innocuous. Yay, finally we are going to a park!! I’m sure all the readers of this trip report (if there are any left) are saying the same thing!!

Boy are we in luck!

We enjoy AK very much. Epcot will always be our favorite, but AK is right up there. It’s so different from most theme parks and has some very cool attractions. It’s not perfect, certainly. The irregular paths and vegetation that add so much to the theming also contribute to poor traffic flow, and it does always seem hotter there than anywhere else. But we think its strengths outweigh the inconveniences, so we were excited to spend some time there. Our expectations were not high this afternoon; we had a morning scheduled here later in the week, so there was no pressure to see anything in particular. It was already close to 2:00, so we knew EE FP’s would most likely be gone for the day and lines would be pretty long. We just wanted to see a few shows and maybe wander around some before our 6 pm ADR at Boma. We confirmed at the information board that EE fastpasses were gone for the day, so we decided to go to the 2:00 Flights of Wonder show. We had tried to see it on a previous visit, but it had been rained out, so I thought it would be a great first thing to do. Claire had other ideas.

Now, I’m sure some trip report writers are tempted to write TR’s where everyone always gets along, pixie dust is always in the air, and there are only happy smiles and laughter all week long, befitting the happiest place on earth. To me, that is like getting that family Christmas letter from the Perfect family. Tough for us normal mortals to relate to. And we hate those people. Since I never want anyone to hate me, I’ll be honest. For those of you with toddlers, a teenage meltdown has a lot of parallels with a toddler meltdown, there is just usually a lot less noise, thankfully. At least the ones in public, since that might be embarrassing, which is the absolute worst thing that can happen to a teen. More sighing, eye-rolling, shoulder-slumping, feet-dragging, sarcasm, and evil glares than a toddler meltdown, but with extremely rare exceptions, no blood-curdling screaming. So when Claire decided the FoW show would be WAY too educational, boring, hot, and an overall waste of time, we had a…moment. It didn’t last too long, and she did end up coming to the show with us and enjoying it, even though she’d never admit that. I may have to copy and paste that section for later use.

When we sat down for the FoW show, right in front of us was a family with a couple of teenagers. One of the teens had a ball cap on with the name of a church in Dayton. Now, we live in a small town that’s essentially a Dayton suburb, so of course we had to strike up a conversation with them. Turns out they live in a neighboring suburb, and after a round of “do you knows” we discovered a couple of mutual friends. Has to happen, every trip. It just wouldn’t feel like a Disney trip without an encounter like that, you know? Anyway, we loved the show. The hawk skimming the top of the crowd, the hilarious parrot, the beautiful bald eagle – it was just a great way to start our visit. Here’s a pic of the eagle:

Bruce’s favorite attraction at AK is Kilimanjaro Safari. Well, that was before we rode Everest this visit, but since we weren’t doing that until later in the week, at this point it was still his favorite. So we decided to head that way to see how long the wait was. This was to lead to one of my favorite moments of the trip, because I’m a dork. Let me set it up for you:

Kilimanjaro Safari
It’s 2:35
Standby wait time: 50 minutes
FP Return time: 3:05
And there were still people entering the standby line.

Go ahead, read it again. I’ll wait.

Insert joke here, I’m speechless.

Okay, not really, I’m never speechless. But who knew the clueless masses had organized a meet and greet at AK that afternoon? I kind of looked around for the “Punked” cameras or anything else that would tell me what I was missing here, but I got nothin’. So I just did what any other self-respecting Diser would do, I got my FP’s and headed off to watch the dancers at the Dawa bar with the rest of my family, shaking my head and chuckling. Awesome.

We loved watching the dancers – this guy was incredible:

After they were finished we only had about 20 minutes until our FP return time (tee hee), so we headed into the wilds of the Pangani trail. I’ve always thought being one of the CM’s along this or the Maharajah would be the best job. You’re not operating a ride that can break, you get to interact with people who have not been waiting an hour to do anything, and it would be very cool to learn about the animals. I wouldn’t think they’d have many negative encounters with guests, although I suppose there might be an occasional moron who wants to have a smoke or who doesn’t understand why the gorillas aren’t out and playing or something, like they’re animatronics who should always be on display. But we’ve had some great conversations with the CM’s along the trails. I really enjoy the “trek.”

Time to start our African safari! The FP line was close to a walk-on (tee hee again. I’d love to insert a funny comment about the people in the standby line here, but it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. There'd be no sport to it.) So we happily boarded our truck and were off on our two week adventure. Our safari guide was a slightly bored-sounding young lady named Amber. Do you remember the first few years the AK was open, when many of the tour guides were actually from Africa…and had personalities? On the first band trip I came on, with Pete, it was about 30 degrees on New Years Eve. We were wearing seven layers of sweatshirts and socks on our hands, but hey, we were in WDW. Pete and I rode the safari with 3 or 4 of his friends, all girls, and our guide was “Quentin, from the beautiful African country of Zimbabwe.” I can still hear his charming accent. The girls thought he was so cute, we came back to ride again and waited until his truck came around. To be honest, rather than being flattered I think he was more alarmed that these girls were stalking him, but it was still fun. And we still talk about it six years later. But when Amber started telling us a few things about the animals, she did it in such a way that it seemed she was thinking about something else. As if she was telling us about Thompson’s gazelles but was really pondering which party she should go to that night. Maybe it was my imagination, but she did repeat herself occasionally, and a couple of times she would start a spiel and then realize she was talking about the wrong animals. And she downright ignored poor Nelson up in Simba 1. Or are we Simba 1 and he’s Simba 2? I can never remember. Of course, some of my attitude is probably colored by the fact that when we approached the rickety bridge, she asked if we should give it a try, and silly me, in the second row, said, “Go for it!” So she looked in the mirror and asked my name. It was only later that I came up with the brilliantly witty idea of giving a name like Frieda or Gertrude (sincere apologies to any Friedas or Gertrudes out there), but no, I just said “um, Sue.” Now, there is one thing you should know about our family. You know all those other people that go to shows and practically have a seizure to get picked as the volunteer? Not us. We’re the ones who are slumped in our seats, doing our best to avoid any eye contact. The center of attention is not even in the neighborhood of our comfort zones. So when Amber announced to everyone in the truck that we were going to go for it on the bridge because Sue said so, I wanted to crawl under the seat. But that would have brought even more attention from Amber, so I just sat and endured it like a good safari member. When Amber finally got around to dealing with those pesky poachers (which didn’t make much sense since she hadn’t answered Nelson before, but whatever), she asked me to give her the go-ahead for that, too. Oh, the burden. We still enjoyed the ride because of the animals, and now the kids have another embarrassing mom story, so it’s all good.

It was almost 4:00 by this time, so we headed to Dinoland to check out Dinosaur. The standby time was listed as 20 minutes, but when I asked the CM at the beginning of the line, he said it was closer to 30. The FP return time was 35 minutes later, so we just got those. Not quite the no-brainer that the Safari was, but still. Besides, we have to have a very compelling reason to wait in a standby line longer than 20 minutes. That’s what FP is for. So we rode Primeval Hurl, I mean Whirl. I just love that silly little ride. Yes, the whole carny area there is tacky, but what’s so bad about tacky? Too much of it would be a bad thing, but out of a great big park, to have one little corner filled with kitsch can be charming and oddly refreshing if you think of it that way. Let it go, people! We shopped around a bit before our Dinosaur FP return time, and then Pete offered to go get our free Everest ride photo certificate (Yes, we captured the Yeti, snap) at guest services since he was not planning to ride Dinosaur with us. He loves coasters, hills, spinning, heights, just about any ride motion, but he simply can’t stand things jumping out at him in the dark. Never has, never will. Smart guy, knows what bothers him and doesn’t do it. Good philosophy, I say. He did make an exception for EE later in the week, but he said that was well worth it.

Dinosaur was fun, but something we don’t feel a need to do more than once each visit. Claire likes the motion but spends almost the entire ride with her eyes closed. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. The attraction does have some really cool elements, so I’m glad we did it.

It was a little after 5:00, so we headed out of the park to catch a bus to AKL. It had turned out to be quite a fun afternoon, a great first taste of the park. Our plan for dinner was for Bruce, Pete, and I to go to Boma, while Tim & Claire ate at Mara and wandered around the resort. Pete and I had stayed at the AKL and eaten there on a short trip we took a few years ago with my mom, and we absolutely loved it. If I had to choose only one dining experience at WDW, it would have to be Boma. (But choosing only one would be torture.) Pete is a lacto/ovo vegetarian, and it’s considered one of the best choices on property for vegetarians, so that was a bonus. I know Tim and Claire could have found things on the buffet they liked, but I honestly thought they’d get the same things at Mara that they would choose from the buffet (for a third of the price) and enjoy looking around AKL. Claire’s two choices for meals are chicken fingers or cheese pizza, and although Tim’s culinary palette has more color than that, he does have pretty basic tastes. Besides, Mara was a good chance for them to complete the cheese pizza trifecta for the day! It turns out they didn’t. Claire got – drum roll, please – chicken fingers, and I think Tim got a bbq sandwich. The three of us, meanwhile, enjoyed sampling everything we could. The butternut squash soup is so good I asked to be sent the recipe (which still hasn’t showed up in my inbox, darn it), and the salads were outstanding. I can’t recommend this restaurant enough! In spite of my sincere intentions, it turns out Tim was a bit resentful about not joining us. I think he felt as if he’d been delegated to the kids’ table at Thanksgiving. So now I have another reason to come back someday, so he can come to Boma, too!

We took a bus from the AKL to the MK and just hopped on the resort monorail to get to the Poly for the short walk to SoG. We had considered a little MK time, but it was an evening EMH, so we knew it would be packed. We had that travel-day drag going on, (remember the 5 am wakeup?) so we just wanted to get our room and our bags and have a swim before crashing for the night. It was fun to get off at the Poly and look around a bit before we headed for the walking path to SoG. We remembered it from the last trip, but it was nice to see they have even added some signage for those who might need some help finding the way:

We got our room keys from the front desk and discovered the room was in a great spot. A little farther back from the lobby than I had originally wanted, but with all the foot traffic, it was probably better that way, and it was very close to both pools. We unpacked and set up “camp.” Pete in the second bed (seniority has its privileges), Tim on the sofa bed, and Claire on the aerobed we brought. SoG rooms are huge by WDW standards, so there was plenty of space for it all, but we did have to move the table and chairs to a different spot by the adjoining door to the next room. There’s a mini-fridge in the room, and it’s so cute, it has its own little wooden cabinet. I wish I’d taken a picture. We had brought small cereal boxes and breakfast bars and the like, so I made a trip to the BX at the resort to get milk and other drinks and some yogurt. The BX is amazing. It’s not all that huge, but it has everything. Seriously. The only downside is that it is only open until 9 pm. (Well, 2100 hours, but I thought I’d translate. You’re welcome.) Who in the world is back from the parks by 9 pm? But the upside is that it opens at 7 am. Bruce, to whom “sleeping in” is 6:30, was always happy to get us something on his morning constitutional. Anyway, we took an evening swim and then all crashed relatively early. The Epcot day to beat all Epcot days was on the schedule tomorrow!!

Wow, I’m on page 12 in Word, without the pictures inserted yet, and it’s not even the end of the first day. Man, you people are masochists. Not to mention that this trip report is taking me longer to write than the trip itself. Is that the sign of a good TR or a bad one? No, don’t answer that.

 

[subtchr]

Day 2: Saturday, June 24

What goes up is sure to come down

Having gone to sleep before 11 the night before, hours earlier than our kids usually turn in for the night in the summer, it was not too difficult to roust everyone out of bed in time for a bite of breakfast in the room and then a walk to the TTC a little before 8:00. We had places to go and Segways to ride! We got on the nearly empty Epcot monorail and enjoyed the journey. I had asked the kids if they wanted to try for the front of the monorail, and they declined. I chose to interpret that as “We did it many times when we were younger, let’s share the magic and allow those who have never experienced it have the opportunity, Mother dear,” and not “Geez, Mom, that’s so lame, what do you think we are, 6??” I like my rose-colored glasses. Everyone should have a pair.

Bruce, Tim, & I were scheduled to do the 9:00 Segway tour. The tour has a 16 year old age minimum, so Claire was not able to participate. Pete graciously offered to wander FW with her while we did the tour. He’s awesome like that. The only sign at the entrance turnstiles for early admittance was for the princess breakfast, so we headed over there, and sure enough, they had a list of tour participants as well. The three of us entered through the turnstile, but then I gave our passes back to Pete. He had a vital task for the morning, to obtain FP’s for all of us. I’ll keep you on the edge of your seat to find out how well he accomplished his mission.

We found guest services, signed our lives away in perpetuity, and milled around with the other tour participants. There was a family from NJ with a teen boy and girl, another from PA with a daughter, and at the last minute, a younger dad who walked up with his wife and two young kids, then sent them on their merry way so he could take the tour. We weren’t a very chatty group at first, but by the end we had relaxed and had fun. It was a bonding experience.

Ralph and Mary Ann were our tour guides. They rolled up on their fancy Segways, spinning and generally showing off and making us anxious to try those puppies out ourselves. We followed them over to Innoventions and the training area. The 8:30 tour group was just finishing their session there, so we snaked our way through them to get to the video room. Ralph had to give us the basics, safety information, and procedures before we went out into the training area, donned our lovely helmets, and stepped onto the Segways for the first time. I can’t say they’re terribly difficult to learn, but they definitely take some practice. First we were just in rows, practicing going a few feet forward, then back. Then 360 turns, which are very cool. It’s all very intuitive, once you learn the basics. We did slalom work around cones, and learned how to go up and down ramps. I felt like I was doing great, although it was the teens in our group who were the quickest studies. Tim looked as if he was ready to spin circles around us all. Then finally it was time to head outside. If I could insert foreboding music here, I would. You’ll see. Mary Ann led the way, and we followed like ducklings, single file, through Innoventions. We felt like celebrities, with people pointing and saying, “Wow, how do we get to do that?” If I wasn’t so nervous I’d have done a little royal wave. We headed out the door and up to the path toward WS…and infamy, for me. Okay, if you have never ridden a Segway, first of all, I highly recommend it, and second, I have some advice for you. Remember, I said it was very intuitive. The Segway goes where your body tells it to go. In the small training area, Ralph and Mary Ann told us you can slow or stop one of two ways. One is to use your feet. Shift your weight on your toes or the balls of your feet to go forward, and on your heels to slow and stop. The second method is to lean your body backward. Ignore the second method. Trust me on that. When you go outside and start picking up a bit more speed than you were able to in the small area inside, it feels as if the handle comes toward your body, which makes you feel as if you are leaning back. Well, you aren’t. So even though you feel like you should be slowing down, you’re not. And if a silly curb happens to be in your path, you really do want to stop. Yep, you figured it out, Sherlock. I had an encounter with a curb that ended badly. Only a minor elbow scrape and a bruised shin, but my pride was mortally wounded. The worst part was that after dear, sweet Ralph righted my chariot and got me going in the right direction again, he had to treat me like the remedial student I was. “Oh, good turn, Sue.” “You’ve got it now, Sue.” “Slow down on this stretch, Sue.” I can’t complain; I brought it on myself. But with Ralph’s encouragement, I lived through it and in the end thoroughly enjoyed myself. Once we headed into WS we got to navigate through the ramps around China, as well as weave around the columns and buildings in Germany, Morocco, and Italy before we had free time and space in the big area in front of Italy. Mary Ann shared some interesting tidbits about some of the pavilions (did you know the king of Morocco was the first foreign power to recognize the US as an independent nation?), and she and Ralph took pics of us with our cameras. I hid the scrape on my elbow. Here are some snaps from the tour:

After our free time, we wound around the other side of WS, passing AA, going through the garden in Japan, the passageway in France, and the maze in the back of the UK. We wanted to keep the Segways all day, but alas, our time was up before we wanted it to be, and after giving “the” curb a malevolent glance as I passed it, we regretfully pulled into Innoventions, parked our Segways, and returned our helmets. We got cool little pins to commemorate the tour and headed over to the Land to meet Pete and Claire for lunch. We all loved the tour, even I, and plan to do it again someday. Best excuse for helmet hair ever.

The time of reckoning for Pete’s mission was nigh. He and Claire were not at the Land when we got there, so I called them on the cell. How we did WDW trips prior to having cell phones, I just do not know. Anyway, he said they were walking in, so we waited by the food court. He had a sly grin on his face when he saw me, so I hoped that meant his quest was a successful one. The kid has a 4.0 in honors engineering at one of the best universities in the country, yet I can’t recall ever being prouder of him than when he produced those three full sets of fastpasses for Soarin’, TT, and MS. Oh, what a warped bunch of people we Diser’s are.

We thoroughly enjoyed lunch at Sunshine Seasons Food Fair. I won’t bore you with a litany of what everyone got, but there are so many unique choices, it’s far from your typical theme park food. And since we ate before 11:30, it wasn’t crowded at all. Pete and Claire had obtained FP’s for Soarin’ and then wandered the Living Seas before riding MS, getting FP’s there, and then doing Ellen. By the time they finished that, they were able to get the TT FP’s and head to meet us. We tried not to bore them too much with our tour details, although of course they relished in the story of my humiliation. Not because they take pleasure in another’s misfortune, they really don’t, but just because it was Mom.

After lunch we took our first Soarin’ trip. We had ridden the original at DCA on our trip there in ’02, so we knew it was a great ride. I just love it. The gentle sway as you glide along, feeling like a kid as you raise your feet when you dip down over the whitewater rafters or the surfers, the smell of the oranges, it’s all so cool. Not to mention Patrick Warburton, or Puddy, or Kronk, take your pick. The theming of the queue could be better here, but that’s not a big deal.

After Soarin’ we had to make a stop at Club Cool (it will always be Ice Station Cool to me) on our way to MS. Love the Kinley and Mezzo, very refreshing. We all braved the Orange team mission on Space. Bruce and Claire had never done it before, and everyone enjoyed it. Gary Sinise is just so serious, you feel as if you can’t disappoint him. Part of me wanted to take a ride with the wimps over on the Green side, just to see how different it is, but we had better things to do. On to Test Track!

When we came on Tim’s band trip at Christmas 2004, one of the chaperones was a GM employee, so Tim was spoiled by the VIP treatment they received. When we were on the ride he felt the need to point out the little window through which he watched the ride...while sipping his free Coke. But we just rode it like the rest of the peons, albeit we were peons with fastpasses. It’s a rush. We had a single rider with us, a kid about 8 or 9, who did not stop talking the whole ride. Something tells me he was a bit nervous. But in the end he loved it and planned to do it again. Atta boy.

Upon departing Test Track I had an uncomfortable feeling wash over me. No, not motion sickness, just that intuition that I was missing something. That’s it – at that moment we held no fastpasses. The pocket was empty. It was a situation that needed to be rectified immediately. So before we headed into WS, we took a detour back over to Soarin’. Everyone else took another quick stop in Club Cool while I remedied the FP situation. Phew, that was a close one.

At this point the sky was really turning dark. The infamous June afternoon thunderstorm we’d heard so much about was abrewin’. I had brought dollar store ponchos with me this trip, with the intention of tossing them after using them each day. I have to admit, they’re worth their weight in gold…if gold is $.50 an ounce, which is about all they weigh. It’s like wrapping yourself with plastic wrap, and not the good quality Saran Wrap, but the cheap generic store brand. But you know what? They served their purpose for me, which was to keep my bag dry, since I was the only family member to carry the essentials around. Which meant I was the only family member who had to go through the stupid security checks. And which meant I was the one everyone turned to when they wanted mints or a drink from the water bottle or gum or Kleenex or a cheap poncho or a hair brush or a park map or a granola bar or any of the other crap I put in there. But I’m not bitter, oh, no. I was smart enough to bring a Baggalini, which are nice because they are big enough to hold what you need, but not so big that you’re tempted to bring WAY too much stuff. Because everyone knows you fill whatever space you have. By the way, I put my Dis and TGM tags on my bag, and none of you came up to me and said hi. I’m hurt.

With the storm brewing, we decided to head toward WS and some indoor diversions. Our plan for the afternoon was to wander the pavilions, catch dinner by snacking around the world, come back later for Soarin’ and maybe a few other FW attractions, and check in by 8:15 for our Breathless Illuminations cruise at the Y&B marina. Yes, I had counted back 90 days, set my alarm early on March 26, and with pulse racing, hit redial from 6:55 am onward to snatch the prized reservation. It felt as if I’d hit the lottery. Considering the price of the cruise, maybe I should have. I told Claire, my confidant, about it, but it was to be a surprise for Bruce & the boys. I just told them we had to be heading out the IG by 8:00 that evening. The boys were very suspicious that it would turn out to be something totally lame, but in the end, Mom triumphed. Score one for moms everywhere. More about that later.

First stop -- dark clouds growing ever darker -- Canada. It was Saturday, so no Off Kilter, the best show at Epcot. We planned to come back on Wednesday to see them, so no worries. What better diversion during a summer thunderstorm than to sit through (well, stand through) a beautiful if slightly dated Canadian travelogue movie with a stirring score? Once again, Claire had other ideas. I’d copy and paste, but how about the short version: educational…boring…whine…sulk…drag feet…over it. No reason for you all to suffer needlessly.

It was still sprinkling when we continued wandering the WS. We love to visit the UK because we were stationed there years ago, and the boys were born there. Not at Epcot, but the real UK. We split a few desserts at the Patisserie in France. The shop in Japan is awesome, and we always get kaki gori. We listened to the Voices of Liberty and relaxed in AA. (True to form, Claire – educational…whine…you know the drill. I don’t mean to make it appear that she whines all the time. She actually has a very sunny personality and is a lot of fun. She’s just…14.). Let’s see, to eat Claire had – brace yourselves, people – chicken fingers from the nearly empty CS place in AA while we listened to Hotel California play in the theater there as part of the Sounds of Summer concerts. Terrific Eagles’ (duh) cover band. Bruce and Tim got dinners from CS in Japan, and Pete and I enjoyed some choices from the Cantina in Mexico. We wanted to listen to MoRockin’, but they canceled the show because their equipment was wet, so we just walked back to FW to use our Soarin’ FP. There was a 100 minute standby wait – yikes! So needless to say we didn’t mind enduring the industrial look of the FP line once again. We still had some time, so we suffered through JIYI, which needs a much bigger dose of Figment and Dreamfinder to become anything more than a timekiller.

Plenty o' fun is what we make

Time to spring the surprise. We strolled out the IG, stopped at the restrooms, and headed toward Y&B, the boys looking more wary with each step. Pete told me later he was afraid it was just water sprites or something else silly. When we got to the dock and I showed them which boat we’d be cruising on that night, they looked decidedly relieved, even excited. It gets better. I checked in at the window, paid more than my airfare to Orlando, and we went to meet Kenny, our captain. Here are a few pics of the Breathless:

Kenny is not your typical young, perky CM. And that is most definitely not a complaint. He’s awesome. In “real life” he’s a captain of a commercial ship, plying the Atlantic with industrial cargo. He does the Breathless gig when he is home from his three-month long trips. So he brings a refreshing perspective, shall we say, to the goings-on at the World. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a cynic or anything, but he has a laconic sense of humor with which we identified immediately. And he loves his boat. The Breathless is a replica of a 1930’s Chris Craft, made of mahogany and powered by a 350 Merc engine. Ken told us the Disney family owns an original, and the one we were in is #10 out of 24 replicas that were built. The boat is sent to Michigan once a year for total rehab and maintenance. I’m sure a “350 Merc” means something to motorheads out there, but all I can tell you is that this boat can move. Kenny is like a race car driver – it’s as if the boat is an extension of his body. There is one seat up beside the driver, then a bench right behind that, where Pete, Bruce, & I sat. I was in the middle, which turned out to be a very smart but totally unintentional move on my part. There is another seat way in the back of the boat a good four or five feet behind where we were sitting. Tim and Claire were there, another good tactical move. After pulling away from the dock and chatting a few minutes while we tooled gently around by the Boardwalk, Ken asked us, “Think those two in the back can handle some excitement?” We assured him they’d enjoy it immensely, and we were off. It was awesome. Here’s a pic of Tim & Claire before we started:

And here’s one in the middle of getting totally drenched and whipped around:

Yeah, that’s good times.

We tooled around for a half hour or so, spinning donuts and waving to all the envious people on the Boardwalk, passing the Swolphin, and annoying the other boats. You see, Kenny considers a “no wake” sign as a suggestion rather than a requirement. He did mention that for some reason the Friendship boat captains aren’t too fond of him.

Soon it was time to find our spot under the bridge between the UK and France for our favorite nighttime spectacular. Here's a pic of us under the bridge:

Kenny tied up to the bridge, passed out pops (translation for non-Ohioans: Cokes or sodas) and snacks, he told Tim and Claire to sit up on the back of their seat, and we were treated to an awesome show. Illuminations has always been special for us. We usually see it at least twice each trip and sometimes more. I can say unequivocally that this was the best performance of it we’ve ever been to. Not because it was absolutely the best view, but because it was just so special. Sigh…

After the show, we asked Kenny to drop us off at MGM instead of the Y&B so we could catch the SoG bus from there. He said sure, and asked if we wanted to have some more fun first. Who could turn that down? The darkness didn’t deter our stalwart captain one bit. Any drying off that Tim & Claire (not to mention Pete’s left side and Bruce’s right side – see what I mean about how clever I was to sit in the middle?) had done during the show was now totally negated. Up and down the river to MGM, all around the Boardwalk another time or two, and a couple more chances to buzz the Friendship boats later we finally pulled up to the MGM dock around 9:45. We tipped Kenny handsomely, he shook everyone’s hands, and we assured him that any return trip would include a cruise with a personal request for him at the helm. If he’s not in the middle of the Atlantic.

Luckily we timed the SoG bus just right, because we (not including me, tee hee) were so wet we just wanted to get back to the resort, get into something dry, and crash. Of course, we were all so excited from the experience that it took a long time just to wind down, but that just meant I’d done my job as wonder planner to the extreme. My family is great – they always appreciate the prep work I do – but this time I really scored with all of them. Instant Mastercard commercial, no question. The most expensive Epcot day we’ve ever had by a longshot, but you can’t put a price on that feeling. We had begun to realize that there was a good chance this would be our last trip as a nuclear family. Don't get me wrong, we'll be back, it will just most likely be with an assortment of significant others and eventually small children in tow. That sounds terrific, I'm really looking forward to it. But right now, right here, I'm with the four people I love most in the world, and we had just spent a couple hours together we'll never forget. And that's why we come here.

 

[KerriSue]

I am loving your trip report The pictures of your kids in the back of the boat are sooooo funny . They were really enjoying their time, way to go mom.

My husband is Active Duty AF stationed in England so whenever we can get extra discounts, ie SoG, they are welcomed--no complaints.

The last time we went to WDW was four years ago, the SoG was booked solid so that was a no go. This was at the time Disney was giving that super discount to military--one free 7day ticket and up to 7 half off. We were able to save a ton of money and stay at a value for next to nothing. My children who were then 8 and 5 still talk about it. We might get the chance to back next year so SoG could be in the cards for us.

Keep the report coming, and dont forget the pictures

Kerri

 

[cortegro]

Fanatastic trip report so far!!! Great writing as well.

You can really get a sense of a great family vacation starting. I hope the rest of the trip goes as well...

-cortegro

 

[cortegro]

I also had a question about the mastercard buy 4 get 1 free from (gasp) the other park....

I purchased the tix online about a month or so ago for our July 31st trip later this month. The 'voucher' receipt I printed doesn't state anything about what the offer is! I assume when I get to a kiosk at US/IOA I will pop in my CC and all will be well....just looking for reassurance.

TIA, cortegro

 

[subtchr]

I also had a question about the mastercard buy 4 get 1 free from (gasp) the other park....

I purchased the tix online about a month or so ago for our July 31st trip later this month. The 'voucher' receipt I printed doesn't state anything about what the offer is! I assume when I get to a kiosk at US/IOA I will pop in my CC and all will be well....just looking for reassurance.

TIA, cortegro

I'm sure it's fine, but I can't offer personal experience; I actually had them send me the actual tickets. We had a great time!

 

[UtahMama]

Uh-oh... a teacher is posting a trip report...resisting the urge to red-pencil our replies! Just Kidding! You and your family are just fantabulous! Your DH rates a free trip to WDW for defending our country and all the away time you must have endured! !!!! Hey, our DS17 has hair just like your DS!
Sounds like you had a blast so far! Can't wait to read MORE, MORE, MORE!

Thank you for entertaining me for the last hour or so. I'd rather not fold my laundry or vacuum just yet, anyway!

Wait! I forgot to compliment the photos! The on of the monorail track is good enough to be framed! Free art for DISers!

LOVE the Seinfeld sneakaroos too!
See Ya! Utahmama

 

[ZZUB]

I'm about half way through your second installment but I'm enjoying it so far. I don't think I've read a SoG Trip Report before so I'm interested in what life is like at that resort. Sorry your son is a Buckeye. There's treatment for that, you know.

I'm looking forward to reading more.

 

[schoen]

I am loving your trip so far! I don't even mind that your son goes to Ohio State (I am an Ann Arbor native!) I totally knew exactly what you were talking about when you referenced pop (is it really just a midwest thing?)

It sounds like you had a wonderful trip. I am enjoying the detail you are putting into the report. I hope you will continue the report!

 

[teentoddlermom]

I love your report and pictures! Thanks! Really looking forward to the rest of the report. By the way, my DD7 and I know all the words and sing the Splash song together all the time, so it's so great to see your theme titles!

 

[Avivasmom]

Great report. Do not keep us waiting to long. I can see everything you are talking about...very vivid.

 

[subtchr]

Day 3: Sunday, June 25

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

I guess it’s pretty obvious by now that it would be an understatement to say that I do a bit of prep work for our WDW vacations. As with many uberplanners, for me it not only enhances our experiences when we are in Orlando, but it’s also a heck of a lot of fun. I even go through that “I don’t want the trip to be here because then soon it will be over and I can’t plan it anymore” phase. But I am not a big believer in exact touring plans. For me and my family, knowing the best park options for each day is key, and having some dining and tour reservations as well as a general idea of what attractions we want to see and the best strategy to do so is next on the priority list. Other than that, we just try to relax, be flexible, and have fun. Today was to be a good example of applying that whole “be flexible” mantra. We changed things around considerably from our original plan, and we had a blast!

Sorry, kids, another 7:30 wakeup. I love my teens. As much as they would relish sleeping until noon, they’re smart enough to realize they honestly do not want to doze away their time at Disney. They can (and will) do that at home. Besides, it was only the third day, so they hadn’t had time to build up any serious resentment about it. Check out later in the week. Hey, they’re human.

You might recall that the first bus from SoG to MGM (and the one to AK) departs the resort at 8:30. For those who are desperate to be chafing at the front of the rope drop crowd, that’s just not going to hack it. All it takes is a few pokey stroller folders or a dawdling bus driver to push the park arrival time into “back of the pack” territory. I bet you think I couldn’t handle that and led the family commando style, barking cadences to keep them moving, to the TTC at 8:00 instead. Nope, I decided this trip I’d pull back on the throttle a bit and not let things like that get to me. Aren’t you proud? I know I was, and my husband was astounded.

Of course, there are pretty big crowds trying to get on those 8:30 buses. SoG is a relatively small resort, about 590 rooms, but the numbers can still add up. Here’s a picture of the bus stop:

You might not be able to tell from the pic, but there are not specific spots for each park bus. Even with the whole “military camaraderie” vibe, there is the typical jockeying for position as the buses pull up with their destination signs in the window. Who is going to which park? It’s a strategic game, trying to pre-position oneself for optimum bus loading opportunities. In the long run, it makes no difference, because they just pack the buses until they are full and depart when they’re good and ready, but where’s the sport in that? On this particular morning, I think the crowd was pretty equally split among the MGM, AK, and TTC buses, so no big drama about trampled toddlers or overrun grannies, I’m happy to report. (Or sad for you, if you’re the kind of person who watches NASCAR for the crashes or hockey for the fights.)

We even ended up arriving at MGM pretty close to 8:45, and I proceeded to the useless bag check. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s a deterrent even if it’s so incredibly cursory. Anyway, we then proceeded to our usual turnstile line. I don’t mean we try to get in any particular line on one side or another, just that we always get in whichever line has a new CM, a malfunctioning card reader, a testy biometric scanner, totally clueless guests, or, most often, all of the above. Not on purpose, certainly, it’s just what we do. I’m not sure what the answer is to enable WDW to enforce the non-transferability of park passes, but I’m convinced it’s not biometrics. What a pain. And despite being very careful to keep our passes away from my cell phone, camera, and the electromagnet I carry around just in case (you never know when you’ll be asked to repair a particle accelerator), we had frequent problems with getting the magnetic strips to read. It’s just so frustrating to have an inviting theme park so tantalizingly close, yet just out of reach as we stand there while the CM either tries to tell us how to operate the finger scanner (gee, buddy, isn’t your readout telling you we’re on the third day of a six-day pass? So do ya think that maybe we’ve been able to squeeze our fingers together a couple other times without personal instruction? Have you ever thought it’s your stupid machine and not my ineptitude?) or tries wiping our passes on his or her pants to get the darn strip to read. All the wiping in the world was not going to get Claire’s pass to read on this day, so the CM told us we had to go to guest services to have it replaced. We considered just heading into the park and dealing with it later, but the CM was watching us like a hawk to make sure we were good little Disney guests. Besides, as vital as fastpass is to maximizing our park enjoyment, we didn’t want to deal with a non-reading card all day. So we popped into GS and in just a few minutes had a new card. Although the CM in guest services was a lovely, friendly young woman, it’s just a little spooky when she can take the old card, push a few buttons on her computer, and say something like, “Here you go, Claire. Have fun in the parks until Wednesday, hope you enjoy your stay at Shades of Green, have a great birthday in November back in Ohio, be nice to your brothers, and hey, awesome job bringing up that science grade last quarter!” Homeland Security should send agents to Orlando to take notes.

By this time, naturally, rope drop had happened 15 minutes earlier, so we just headed down Sunset to two of the best attractions at WDW, ToT and RnRC. We love them both, so we decided I would power walk ahead to get FP’s for RnRC, then meet everyone else at the ToT standby line. I love being the fastpass runner. Solo crowd maneuvering is an art. jockeying between strollers, avoiding small children, finessing up and down curbs, anticipating the optimum path – it should be a competitive event. In the interest of fairness, there would have to be strict guidelines. No running, and any contact with a non-competing crowd member would be an automatic yellow card and a 5 second penalty. I’d be right up there at the front of the pack. Anyone else want to sign up?

FP’s in hand (or I should say in pocket), I met the gang at ToT. It was still a walk-on into the preshow, and just a short wait in the basement. Awesome. I love the effects before the drop almost as much as the drop itself. We took our time looking around the shop at the exit. Tim and I are huge “Lost” fans, and they have some cool t-shirts here, including one he was really tempted by that just had “4 8 15 16 23 42” on the front. By the time we lingered in the store and took a restroom break, it was time to use our FP for RnRC. We love this ride as well. The rush of the start, Aerosmith blasting away, the inversions – it makes this fuddy duddy old mom feel 20 again. I can even sing along without embarrassing my kids, because no one can hear me! Not that I necessarily avoid trying to embarrass my children, but…of course we got another set of FP’s on our way out. Wouldn’t want the pocket to be empty, oh no.

Star Tours was next, then Muppets, a classic for any age. By now we were closing in on our ADR time for Sci Fi Diner. We had never eaten here before, and I thought it sounded like fun. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but I’m afraid to say I doubt we’ll be back. I know many people love this place, but it’s not our cup of tea. First of all, although I know it goes with the theming, it’s really dark. The movie clips are just so-so; in our opinion it would be a huge improvement if they just showed MST3K repeats all day. Now THAT would raise the entertainment quotient immensely. But our biggest complaint was the way the “cars” are set up. Tim & Pete sat in the front, Bruce in the middle seat, and Claire and I in the back. I don’t know about anyone else, but when we’re on vacation, we actually enjoy sharing meals and talking with each other. This setup is not at all conducive to conversation, unless you enjoy talking to the back of someone’s head. I’m sorry, but I can watch tv and not talk to my family at a meal at home. At Disney I’d like to chat. I realize there are other more typical tables scattered around the restaurant, but I did not notice those as we came in (it was dark, remember?), or I would have asked for one. The food was pretty good, standard comfort fare, but a bit overpriced, we thought. Claire’s milkshake was exceptionally good, though. Oh, she had chicken fingers. I thought that was newsworthy. Anyway, here are some pics from lunch.

After lunch we ran into the usual MGM touring dilemma, how to fit shows into your day. It’s downright impossible to do if you desire a midday park break. If they could even just add one earlier show and possibly one later show for each attraction, it would help considerably. We could have stood around to wait and see if we could get into the 12:15 Indy show, but it looked doubtful, so we just decided to get FP’s for the 1:30 instead. (And the RnRC FP’s in my pocket were getting lonely.) So since we had time, we decided to do the Backlot tour. Because MGM’s central theme is movies, it almost seems obligatory to go on this, but I swear each time we go it gets progressively lamer. I’m sorry, but the volunteers on the boat thing is just not very good. The walk through the prop area is kind of interesting, but they really need to update some of the stuff along the tram ride. Has MGM not made any movies that require vehicle props in the last 10 years? C’mon, no one under the age of 17 has seen “Flight of the Navigator.” Although my boys did love that movie when it came out. I guess they did add some stuff from “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”:

If you have never seen that movie, go rent it. No, now. I’ll be here when you get back. It’s a classic.

So we fulfilled our MGM guest duty, and the following picture shows the intensity and excitement we all felt:

Time for Indy. You’ll be surprised to hear they picked this one guy in a bright Hawaiian shirt as a volunteer, and he was SO funny. We’ve always liked this show, even though it hasn’t changed since our first visit 9 years ago. There is some comfort in familiarity. By the time the show was over, the skies were darkening once again, but since we had never seen it, we decided to head over to LMA for the 2:45 show. Man, that stadium is huge. They herded the cattle, I mean guided the crowd, up into the stands starting around 2:25, and we went way up to the top in the hope of staying dry if the rain started. They actually started the show while it started sprinkling, and did the “ballet,” which was very cool. I can’t imagine having that kind of control of a car when it looks so out of control. Unfortunately, as they were setting up with the truck and the fruit stand and all, it started raining hard. Really hard. So when they announced they had to cancel the rest of the show (duh), the only people who left right away were those who were not under the sheltering roof. Everyone else just kind of sat there for a while. You know, there’s really a pretty cool view from up high in the LMA stands. You can see all the big buildings at MGM, as well as the Swan and even Spaceship Earth. So we admired the view for a while, but when it was obvious this was not going to be one of those quickie 15-minute showers, we headed out. It’s only water.

Pete in particular was exceedingly tired of sitting in shows, so he had no desire to join me at Millionaire. Oh, they all knew that’s where I’d want to go. I like the tv show, have always been a trivia buff, and most importantly, I’d had a past taste of glory. I’d been in the hot seat. It was during our very first visit to the attraction, at DCA in 2002, and somehow, after two other guests had tried and failed, there was my seat number up on the top of the big screen. I even made it to the 500,000 point question. Anyone want to know who the first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court was? I’ll never forget it as long as I live. John Jay. Should have gone with my first thought. Oh, but I’ve let it go. Yeah, right. On my MGM trips since then, I’ve probably gone to, oh, 6 or 7 shows. (That’s because I’ve been with other people who actually want to see other attractions in the park when we are there, can you imagine? Had I been solo that number would be up in the dozens.) I usually made it onto the leader board, one time as high as #2. And now this trip would be my last chance, since the attraction is closing. My heart is heavy about that, but they didn’t ask for my input.

Back to the current trip, Bruce and Pete decided to head off to see other things, but Tim & Claire took pity on me and joined me at the 3:45 show. I’d love to report that we’ll be cruising courtesy of Disney, but alas, I sucked. Big time. Not even leader board material. Hilarious host and entertaining guest competitors, but I had to meet up with Pete and Bruce later with my head hanging in shame. Eh, there’s always Tuesday. Nah, I won’t make you wait, I didn’t make it in the hot seat then, either, but I did redeem myself as leader board-worthy. Phew. Here are some pics from my soon-to-be-departed favorite MGM show:

Our original plan at this point in the day was to take a break back at the resort for a swim, maybe catch dinner there, and come back to ride some rides during the 9:00 Fantasmic and then watch the 10:30 show. Mother Nature had other ideas. Remember the storm that came through at 3:00? Well, the rain had slowed, but it had not stopped. So we decided to go ahead back to the room and decide what to do after we got there.

Gathered together this wonderful day!

It was still raining when we got to the room, putting a damper (pun intended) on our swimming plans. We debated trying the buffet restaurant at SoG for dinner, but we’d heard mixed reviews, so we thought we’d head toward the Boardwalk area, with the plan to get something to eat and then go back to MGM for the end of the evening. It was still raining, so we caught a TTC bus and hopped on the monorail to the MK to get a resort bus there. Well, as our monorail approached the MK, it was obvious many people had lost patience with the weather. The crowds were flooding out of the place. It was 6:00 on what was to be an evening EMH. Our strategy for this trip was to avoid evening EMH’s because of the crowds, but here’s where being flexible paid off. We all had the same idea – let’s just stop in the MK for dinner somewhere, then see how the crowds are. Tonight was also further evidence of the value of park hopping. Some people plan out their park days and decide they will not hop, so they save some money on their tickets. But that really ties your hands in situations like we found ourselves in this night. We always get hoppers no matter what, because it’s family tradition to revisit favorites on our last day. It seems there is always at least one and usually several other occasions when we’re glad we have the option as well. That’s my WDW tidbit of advice for the day. Sorry, only one per person per day.

There was a sign at City Hall saying that all table service restaurants were fully booked for the evening. Welcome to the age of the DDP. But we had known that would be the case, so we just headed toward the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station. (I would have called it the TTNS, but even I wouldn’t have known that one without a crib sheet.) It turned out to be one of our favorite CS meals. Pete was excited because they had a veggie noodle dish with tofu, Tim, Bruce, & I all had chicken or beef noodle bowls, and maybe I should have a contest for you all to guess what Claire had. Answers must be sent by midnight tonight. Never mind, I just got back from Orlando, so I’m too broke to come up with a prize. It was chicken strips. There is a huge covered seating area here, so it was nice to be dry and enjoy a terrific meal.

When we finished eating, it was about 7:00, it was still drizzling, and although the park was far from empty, it was also nothing like a typical summer evening EMH night. So off we went for our first taste of the MK this trip. We got FP’s for Space and then rode TTA, Buzz with a surprisingly short wait, CoP (that show rocks, and no one can convince me otherwise), and TTA again because we’re cool like that. We took the empty red walkway to the Toontown train station and rode the train around to Frontierland. Then it was time for BTMRR and Splash with short waits. I love Splash (as you can tell by my trip report titles); it’s fun and long and entertaining and my kids and my husband and I can be as silly as we want and nobody cares. How can you go wrong with that?

The rain had just about stopped by 9:00, so we caught a taste of the first Spectro before we went to Adventureland to get our wristbands. Since PoTC was not open yet, this area was pretty deserted. We headed to JC for a night time jungle adventure. We walked right on the boat, and our captain was Ivan. Now, my theory is that Ivan was a pretty inexperienced captain. That’s giving him the benefit of the doubt. He was Asian; I only mention that because his accent made him very difficult to understand. Now don’t be posting that I’m culturally insensitive or a despicable bigot. It would not have made any difference what accent he had or even if he was a kid from Peoria who mumbled. I just think in order to fully appreciate this attraction, it’s kind of important to actually hear the jokes. Am I out of line here? If I am, I sincerely apologize. And I know I was not alone on board, because no one on the boat laughed. Not once during the whole ride. So I can’t say a night time jungle adventure is always an amazing experience, but I imagine it certainly could be.

After our cruise and a stop in the Tiki room for a private show (okay, there was one other family), it was time for Wishes. Wow, what a terrific show. The rain had stopped, Tink flew, the music swelled, pyrotechnics exploded on cue – my day was complete. There are many things Disney does better than anyone else. Right at the top of that list is fireworks shows, night time spectaculars, whatever you want to call them. In my opinion, the key is the music. If you took Space Mountain out of the mountain, it would be a lame little wild mouse coaster. By the same token, Wishes or Illuminations without music would be entertaining, but not the total sensory, almost visceral experiences that they are. The music fills us and we stand there with our families in awe and wonder. Nope, nowhere else.

We filled the next couple of hours with IaSW, HM, Space, Philharmagic, and anything else that struck our fancies. Being flexible on this day, being open to changing our plans, resulted in some of our best memories of the trip. We headed back to SoG a little before 1:00, talking and laughing on the walk back from the Poly. Life is good, indeed.

 

[nutz2notz]

Hi Sue,

I am so loving your report and the pictures really add to the story. Looking forward to your next posting.

 

[LilyWDW]

Sounds like so much fun already! Can not wait for the rest of the trip!

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoying reading ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[Thekidsmom]

Such a great trip report! Can't wait for more! We just came back from SOG and thanks for sharing your pics, there were some I forgot to get.

 

[subtchr]

Day 4: Monday, June 26

Why don’t you sit back and calm yourself?

Remember how we woke the kids up early yesterday? Well, not “morning-EMH-early” -- we’re not that vindictive -- but “teenagers-in-June-early.” And then we stayed out late? Today was a day, or at least a morning, for relaxation. Poor Bruce, who is incapable of sleeping past 7 am, was nice enough to sneak out of the room with his ever-present novel to find some breakfast and a quiet spot to read. He goes through three or four books each trip. (Well, maybe a few less this vacation since we kept him pretty busy most of the time.) Here’s a pic of him in one of his reading spots, the SoG lobby:

Slug-a-bed that I am, I got up around 7:30 to ever so quietly gather the dirty clothes everyone had dumped on the floor of the closet, rummage through my stuff to find the roll of quarters and little ziploc bags of laundry detergent (Anality? Remember?), and sneak out to find the lovely SoG laundry room. I actually don’t mind doing this on vacation. I bring a book (Sudoku puzzles today), relax, and appreciate that we didn’t have to lug 9 days worth of clothing with us. I was alone in the laundry room – go figure – even though there are something like a bazillion machines in there. That meant that I didn’t have to be a vulture to nab a dryer, so while our unmentionables were rinsing and spinning, I decided to visit my private pool. Private at that time of the morning, anyway. Ten steps down the hall from our room, out the door, and this is the lovely view that greeted me that morning:

It was so quiet and peaceful, I could have been floating at some exclusive spa for the rich and famous, instead of being within walking distance of the busiest theme park on the planet. Simply lovely. As I mentioned in the planning segment, we had never been to WDW in the summer before this trip. The thought of dealing with the heat had given me pause, but I’m so glad we came anyway. I loved that it was plenty warm to swim early in the morning and late in the evening. I loved that the parks had such long hours. I loved that just about every attraction was open. I even loved the hot afternoons that made the a/c feel so good, and the summer storms that drove the crowds away. We’ll be back.

By 9:45 or so, the laundry had been finished for an hour, Bruce had joined me in the pool for a bit, and it was time to roust the younguns for some more good times at the magicalest kingdom there ever was. We had a date with some eye-talian food at Tony’s for lunch. We made mostly lunch ADR’s this trip. I figured we’d have busy, hot mornings at the parks most days, and we’d appreciate a long, leisurely lunch break before maybe a swim in the afternoon and then evenings back at the parks while everyone else was dining. And the cheaper lunch menus were a bonus. It worked out to be a fine plan, even though the long afternoon rains this week sometimes changed the PM itinerary.

I think it was 11ish by the time we got everyone up and showered and psyched for the lovely walk to the Poly. I kept meaning to time the walk, because inquiring minds want to know, but I forgot. I just know we did it probably 10 times in six days, and it never felt very long. We only hitched a ride on the Shady Shuttle once, when it happened to be sitting in the porte corchere when we came out. Other than that we were happy to allow those parties with guests older and/or younger than we are to utilize it. Here are a couple pictures along the walkway:

Claire always talked loudly while we were walking by the pond; she said it was to keep the alligators away. We never saw any this trip, although we did on our last visit to SoG. She was 8 then, so the memory stuck.

When we arrived at the MK, Tim volunteered to be the FP runner to Space Mountain while the rest of us browsed the Emporium before lunch. As you can imagine, it was tough for me to surrender the task, but that’s why we work so hard to instill values and life skills in our children, right? To pass the torch, to relinquish the vital family responsibilities and duties once our offspring have proven themselves worthy? For those of you with younger children, teach them in the ways of Disney, and you will reap the rewards. At least Tim allowed me to put the FP’s in “the pocket” when he rejoined us.

Lunch at Tony’s was very good. Pete ordered this: Grilled Vegetable Panini - beefsteak tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and balsamic glaze on multigrain bread. But what he got had mushrooms and red peppers on it. I told him he could send it back, but he just picked off the stuff he didn’t like. I loved the Tony’s pizza, Bruce had the spaghetti and sausage, Tim had the pizza Bianca (not bad, but the different cheeses were stacked pretty thick, so that was a bit much), and Claire, because of the dearth of chicken strips on the menu, had to settle for cheese pizza. Oh, the compromises one must make. We enjoyed the setting for our meal, out in the conservatory-type room.

Since we had enjoyed ourselves so much and ridden everything we liked last night on our impromptu EMH visit, our goal today was to revisit a few favorites and then have some DTD time. After lunch we still had some time to kill before our Space FP’s, so we stopped at the end of Main Street to watch Cinderellabration. I admit, I never would have planned it into our day, but it was cute. I have a pretty low tolerance for lip-synced shows, though, so I wasn’t wowed or anything. I don’t know which Claire watched more, the show or all the little girls watching the show in their costumes. Is that a relatively new phenomenon, all the girls dressing in princess costumes for CRT and other princess-ful dining experiences? I never really noticed such a preponderance of it before this trip. I consider myself lucky that I didn’t know about it when Claire was 5. We’ve never been big on character meals. Let’s see, a 1900 Park Fare breakfast one time, and a couple of Garden Grill lunches (remember when they gave the straw hats with every meal? That was so cool…). Don’t pity us; it’s just that we go to meals to enjoy each other and the food. Also, once my kids were past the age of being freaked out by the characters, they were too cool for them. There was no middle ground there for us. I’d be sad about that, but I’m oddly…not.

Bruce is of the “because it is there” mindset when it comes to attractions. He wanted to ride Stitch, which I can’t stand. I’m not scared, just grossed out. Pete & Claire feel the same way. Being the sweetheart that he is, Tim agreed to go with his dad. So we got 5 FP’s for it before riding Space. Why 5 when only 2 would be riding? Because we’re strong proponents of paying it forward. I usually think of it as karma. So in the interest of avoiding those karmic teeth marks where the sun don’t shine, we got the extra FP’s. So after one more great ride on Space, the two of them were burped on by Stitch. Pete, Claire and I meandered over toward Frontierland, three “free” FP’s in hand, looking for likely candidates for our mini-philanthropy. That’s half the fun, finding just the right people to bestow. We gave them to a family with a handful of preteens, who were appropriately appreciative.

We had two goals in Frontierland – to get FP’s for BTMRR when the window opened, and to have a Mickey bar while we waited. Mmmm...worth every calorie and fat gram. I’m a “left ear first” kind of gal. Well, I suppose it matters whether you think Mickey is looking at you or away from you to determine left or right. I consider him looking away, so as not to see that he is about to be eaten. Since it was hot, we had to find the proper balance between savoring the experience and having it drip down our arms, or worse, fall off the stick (horrors!). We managed just fine, thank you very much for caring.

We people-watched a while until Bruce & Tim rejoined us and it was time for our BTMRR FP. Late morning/early afternoon is an optimum time for fastpass. The lines are long, but the FP return times are not too far out, at least for the “second tier” attractions. (See Kilimanjaro safaris on Day 1…tee hee) We enjoyed the ride, as always, and then decided to head out for some retail therapy at Downtown Disney, because like clockwork, the skies were darkening. One thing we noticed about the summer rains in Orlando. Here in Ohio, if it’s going to rain, 99% of the time, you can look to the west, see the dark clouds, and watch them move inexorably west to east. In Orlando, there was no telling. You could look in one direction and see dark clouds, then they’d appear to be going away, but then some would appear from another direction. It was all so unpredictable. Well, you could predict that sometime in the afternoon you’d get wet, which is I guess all you really need to know.

Take your frown turn it upside down

Normally we would have just walked to the CR for the DTD bus, but since it started pouring right as we left the park, we took the wussy way out and took the monorail. We loved staying at the CR in ’03 when SoG was being renovated. The food court isn’t the greatest, but I think the gift shops there are some of the best on property. We perused those for a while, finding Bruce a tie. He loves to find subtle Disney ties (this one was slate blue, with a repeating pattern of Mickey heads). He can be in his suit at some important corporate meeting and know that he’s wearing Mickey Mouse. It’s often an appropriate commentary.

After an hour or so of wandering the CR, it was still raining. Welcome to our world. But we went down to the bus stop anyway, hoping to continue our stellar track record of efficient transportation. Alas, it was not to be. First of all, the shelters at the CR bus stop lack efficacy in anything stronger than a sprinkle, so everything was wet. Minor inconvenience if you’re only there for 15 minutes, but much more of a bother if you’re stuck for 55. Yep, almost an hour. We engaged in the ever-optimistic guess-the-bus game during the wait. You know, when you see a bus coming, and strain to see the destination. Can it be? Nope, yet another AK. I think we saw 3 of those in a row. After 40 minutes I pulled out the cell phone and called WDW-info, who recommended calling the CR desk. The desk transferred me to the bus dispatch office, who assured me one would be along in less than 5 minutes. The guy also gave the excuse that those buses also serve the water parks, and when storms come in, the ensuing chaos messes everything up. Gee, I’m so glad that afternoon thunderstorms are such a rare occurrence here in Orlando in the summer! We wouldn’t want this to happen often! I have serious doubts that my phone call made one iota of difference, but it gave me something to do. Within 10 minutes, a DTD bus did pull up. Of course, since it had been so long since the last one, there were many of us waiting, so it was packed even before we went to the Poly for the next stop. Don’t get me started on deluxe resorts sharing buses.

We spent some money at the World of Disney, enjoyed the toy stores, and headed over to the Westside, since the kids wanted to go to Virgin. I fell in love with the Earl of Sandwich – what great food at such reasonable prices! I hope that chain eventually expands. Did you know that the real Earl of Sandwich is one of the owners?

After our travails getting there, we decided to take the ever-reliable SoG bus directly “home.” Bus stop by McDonald’s, on time on the hour, not too full, and back to the resort for a swim and an early turn-in. We have a new mountain to scale tomorrow!!

 

[Disneyfriend]

Great trip report, Sue! You're a wonderful writer, and it's a pleasure getting to know your family. I am eagerly awaiting the next installments. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Disneyfriend

(you may remember me from the TGM board, where you were kind enough to give me some great SoG advice)

 

[grumpy.uncle]

What a great trip report. Most of us have probably never seen pictures of SoG so thanks so much for sharing. I understand SoG is for military families, but can anyone walk thru for a casual look? How far is the walk from the Poly? Finally, are any of the restaurants there good, and can anyone go there to eat, even non-military guests? Thanks for sharing your trip with all of us. Ed