The Fat Lady Sings - Mousefest 2003

[dolphinea]

The Fat Lady Sings, or See Ya' in '06

Who: Me and my son Miles, 5 years old
Where: Villas at Wilderness Lodge & Animal Kingdom Lodge
When: November 30 - December 8, 2003


Prologue

They say it ain't over until the fat lady sings, and I sang from Mobile to Mandeville, driving home at the end of this trip, so it must be true: this is my son's and my last trip to WDW for a few years. He and I have had enough to hold us, I think, after coming up to three times a year for four years. It's cold turkey for him in '04, then Disneyland for all the Parrs (including my Mr. Anti-Disney hubby) in '05, and then I'll look at taking Miles back to the World in 2006 when he's 7 or 8 years old. By then, he should be ready to ride some old little kid favorites, but willing to try some of the "big boy" rides. I had a great 8th birthday party, maybe his idea of a great 8th birthday will be WDW? I hope I have brainwashed him properly, so that he won't think of anywhere he'd rather be. He kept asking if we could move there, during this trip.

Notice I didn't say *I* was going cold turkey in '04. I'm planning on going tent camping with some childless grownup friends next year, not sure when yet. They don't like to plan in advance. Little do they know I've already got my adults-only wish list (sorry, still pretty G rated) all planned out:

Massage at the Grand Floridian Spa
Tea at the Grand Floridian
Dinner in the Wine Room at the California Grill
Lunch at Le Cellier
Mission:Space
Rock 'n Roll Coaster
Dinosaur
Backstage Safari tour at the Animal Kingdom

Nothing like 9 trips with a small child to make you dream about a trip without a small child... just once. ;-)

So that's enough about me, let's talk about me and my recent trip!

Saturday, November 29

Couldn't stand it, as usual I packed early and headed out the day before I originally intended to leave, just to get a "jump" on tomorrow's drive. Priceline doesn't cover anything between Pensacola and Tallahassee, which is where I thought I'd end up tonight, so I just left without a reservation for anywhere. We pulled out at 5 p.m. and I figured I'd stop when I got tired. Got as far as Crestview, Florida, around 9:45 p.m., and found a Comfort Inn I liked the looks of. It was $65 plus tax, but I'd looked on the internet before I left, for a couple of weeks, and this was as cheap as it was going to get on Thanksgiving weekend. Not much else to report, we turned out the light at 10:30 p.m. after a quick phone call home.

Sunday, November 30

I fell asleep easily last night, but woke up at 4:00 a.m. Too excited. After all these trips. LOL I'm such a big kid. Couldn't go back to sleep. I took a leisurely hot bath and dressed Miles while he was still asleep. He woke up enough walk downstairs to the van by himself. The hotel was pratically full, and there were several other holiday travelers up this early, loading up their cars. We were on the highway by 5:30 a.m.

By 6:30 a.m. the sun was up, and there were a lot of pretty fog banks to the sides of the road, through the wetlands on the west side of Tallahassee. We got some breakfast from a Marianna McDonald's and Miles was soon asleep for a 2 1/2 hour "nap". I added 20 minutes to the drive by getting onto the highway going the wrong direction out of Marianna, and had to double back East again. Doh!

There were plenty plenty Florida Highway Patrolmen out this weekend. There was someone pulled over for speeding every 30 miles or so along the road. I usually push my luck with cruise control at 78 but this morning I set it for 72.

Stopped for gas just outside Tallahassee, and Miles woke up soon thereafter. He was hungry, so I promised we'd stop in a bit, and gave him some snacks I had in the car. I guess they held him, because he said he changed his mind and wasn't hungry anymore.

Had to make a potty and boredome break at the "Florida Welcome Center", a tourist trap off I-75 that advertises "Cheap Hotels" (a lady with a phone and a lot of brochures behind a desk who will call around for you), a "15 Foot Gator" (stuffed), a "Great White Shark" (also stuffed), and "Free Orange Juice" (true, in little paper cups, but it's serve yourself, so you can drink your fill - there's a sign telling people if they fill any other container, they'll be asked to pay for the juice). They also have clean bathrooms, not too expensive gas, hundreds of souvenirs that say "Florida" on them, and some toys and snacks for the road that will cost you about 75% more than you'd pay for them almost anywhere else. We'll stop again.

The kid at the register was going on about what a madhouse the place had been the day before (Saturday after Thanksgiving), that the whole store was pretty much trashed and running out of everything. I guess the traffic headed north had been intense. And it seemed to me it still was, because starting at Ocala, traffic headed north on I-75 was really thick, and on the Florida Turnpike heading north, it was bumper to bumper. *Right* past my "secret shortcut" exit onto Hwy 27 through Clermont, traffic headed south on the Florida Turnpike was also coming to a standstill. I just breezed right off and left them all to sit there while I cruised south to take a left at 192 and left at Sherberth Road and ouila, welcome to Disney property!

It was cool to drive right up to the Wilderness Lodge security booth, and be welcomed by someone who knew I was coming and had my name on a little clip board, after a 550+ mile road trip.

Check in was all right. I do feel the WL lobby is a bit cold in feeling, and certainly too loud, from the noise from Whispering Canyon Cafe. The front desk has a series of beautiful American Indian cradle boards, behind it on the wall, and each station has a little bronze statue of an animal from the West, right at kid height.

Our room wasn't ready, so I went back outside and had bell services put our frozen pizza and chicken nuggets etc. I'd brought into their refrigerator for us, and Miles and I checked in to eat at Whispering Canyon.

We got a table right away, and a very friendly waitress soon had our grilled cheese and nachos in front of us. Miles enjoyed the pony race around the restaurant with a stick pony, but when they handed out certificates, he was standing behind some other kids and the girl passed him up, to which he burst in tears because he didn't "get a prize". I told him to go back and ASK nicely, as he has to start learning to speak up for himself. He trotted back with the certificate and was happy.

I thought my nachos were mediocre -- the "hearty chili" was bland and the portion was small. The "tilamook cheddar" was good but applied very sparingly. Miles' comments re. the grilled cheese were, "Mommy, did you know this cowboy and indian restaurant has great food!" I still think $20 with tax and tip is too much for a grilled cheese and 20 tortilla chips with half a cup of topping, and two cokes. It may not have helped that a large table of adults and small children next to me had one little girl whining and carrying on, and a lot of mess on and around the table, including each child had a stick horse they'd held onto after a prior "race", that were hanging off the backs of the children's chairs. Every five minutes one would get knocked off the chair by a child getting up and down, and bang down onto the wood floor, making a very loud and startling noise. Add the waitresses hollering and carrying on, and it was pretty hectic. I think all the wood and the open ceiling just makes for too much reverberation.

Miles put together a lincoln log house on the way out, at the kid's play table in the restaurant's foyer. He caught on pretty quick, I don't think he's ever seen those before.

Our room was ready now, so up we went and called bell services. I got a Studio Villa, courtesy of renting from a DVC owner, for exactly $100 a night, which is as cheap as it gets unless you have a very good friend who owns DVC and gives you a trip for free. I was very pleased with the decor, it was soothing and handsome, and the condition of the room was flawless. We faced the "woods" which if they would do a little thinning would turn into a view of Bay Lake. I don't quite understand why they haven't attempted that, unless it would create a problem for the Villas having two different "views" on each side. We used the microwave, toaster, fridge and coffee maker in the kitchenette to eat breakfast each day, and a dinner a couple of times.

Miles was begging to swim, and I figured we better go right now while there was still some afternoon sun. It wasn't warm today, at all. But in the sunshine, using the hot tub to warm ourselves up well before getting in the big pool, we managed not to freeze. Miles is all excited because he can dog paddle now without any flotation devices at all, and can get back up to the surface on his own if you dunk him. So standing right at the bottom of the slide, I let him prove to me he could go down it by himself. He did indeed get back up to the surface each time on his own, though I needed to be there. Next year we'll start on some basic strokes so he can get better control, and then I can see where soon I might be able to read next a pool again! Haven't done that in like 5 years!

We saw the geyser go off, woohoo. I think it's more impressive from out on Bay Lake, with a view of the whole Lodge. From a distance, the fakeness of the "rock" and the "wood" used to build this place isn't discernable, and it makes a great effect. Up close, it's kind of like being in a big Lincoln Log diorama.

For those of you considering a stay at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge, or just the Wilderness Lodge, I'd say give it a try once. Lots of people aren't as bothered by noise and crowds as I am, and the decor and the trees and the theming really is fun. I think if I'd eaten at Artist Point I would have liked it, from what I've heard. The main pool is a bit small and busy, with lots of people walking back and forth around it to the boat dock for the ferry to the Magic Kingdom and other Bay Lake resorts (Ft. Wilderness and the Contemporary), but it's fun. The quiet pool for the Villas is very close by, and charming, with bubbling "springs" coming up in the middle of the pool, and a decent sized hot tub.

It's not much of a walk to get anywhere here, compared other Disney resorts I've stayed at. The gift shop is a good one, and the selection of food for the villas section is a great bonus to people staying in the hotel, too, if they know in advance it's there -- you could bring along a small cooler, and fill it with ice from the hotel each day, and keep cold cuts, milk, cheese, etc. plus there's a good selection of breakfast food like cereal, pastries, and bagels.

The food court leaves a lot to be desired. It's small, crowded, loud, the farthest walk from just about every room in the hotel, and the menu choices are basic theme park fast food, and not made with the highest quality ingredients. It's a pretty limited selection. The one saving grace is the really friendly, gracious cast who work there.

This resort also has, in my opinion, the best beach next to the Polynesian, fairly small and private, with a nice climbing playground right there. I wish we'd made the time on this first day to rent a boat or a bike from the marina, instead of putting it off, because we never got back around to it.

Our original plan for this evening was to have my friend Denise come over and swim, but it was way too cold, and I couldn't raise her on her cell phone anyways. Left her a message saying we were going to Downtown Disney, and my cell number, and then Miles and I bundled up and headed out in search of a "Brother Bear Pack".

Before the trip, I told Miles to settle on ONE item he really wanted, and also had him do chores around the house (mostly helping pick up his own toys at the end of the day) to earn Disney Dollars. He miraculously had earned an even $20 for the trip. ;-) He wanted a set of Brother Bear pvc's, to go with his massive collection of just about every other pvc film-related set Disney's put out since 1999, which comprise the bulk of what we need him to pick up at home.

We waited for a Downtown Disney bus for about 20 minutes, none came, there was a big crowd waiting with us. The second Ticket & Transportation Center bus we'd seen showed up, and I said, let's ride around all the monorail resorts and shop at their gift shops, instead. Miles never minds a ride on the monorail, so that was ok with him.

There was of course some great Lilo & Stitch stuff at the Polynesian, but no Brother Bear. I had the cm at the register call the Contemporary and confirm they didn't stock the Brother Bear sets, either. She said, maybe try the Wilderness Lodge? Doh! Miles and I wandered around the Contemporary a little bit, tried to walk up and eat at Chef Mickeys, but there was an hour wait for a table though there were very few people actually waiting in the foyer. They had lots and lots of priority seating slips lined up, so that's where the wait must have been coming from.

We decided to go back to the room and eat microwave pizza and nuggets, and caught the resort ferry back to the Lodge. I got a chance to unpack and then Miles was ready to go down to the gift shop and get his Brother Bear pack. Sure enough, it's right there facing the front door when we walked in. I got a pin to commemorate my stay here a WL, and bought some bagels and cream cheese and sliced ham for breakfast the next morning.

We took our goodies back to our room and Miles played for about 45 minutes with his new toys. The color scheme from that movie is exactly the same as the decor at the Villas, so every time a pvc fell on the rug, it would blend in and be hard to find again.

Miles wanted to see the Water Pageant, but we still had about an hour to kill before it's scheduled appearance at our beach. I got us really bundled up warmly and we went for a round-trip cruise on the ferry to Fort Wilderness and the Magic Kingdom. It was exciting to see the MK entrance and the castle, "Tomorrow honey, we're going there first thing in the morning, tomorrow."

Back at our resort beach, Miles played on the climbing playground and got into a conversation with some other guests that went like this:
Miles: "Excuse me, are you from Hawaii or something?"
Guest: "No, we are from Mexico."
Miles: "You mean you're speaking Spanish?"
Guest: "Yes we speak Spanish."
Miles: "Hola! I know Hola because Dora the Explorer says that."
Guest: "That's very nice, you speak Spanish, too."
Miles: "When I grow up I'm going to be a doctor so I can have lots of money and come live here at Disney World all the time."
At that point I got up and went to collect Dr. Miles before he talk the guest's ear off any more.

The Water Pageant is a nice note to end the day, not too busy or too exciting, but charming instead.

We got in our jammies and left a wakeup call for 7:30 a.m., called hubby back home from the cell phone to give him our room number (just got the answering machine) and asked him to call us the next night in the room, and we were out within about five minutes of putting out the light, right around 10:15 p.m.

 

[dolphinea]

Monday, December 1

Gotta see the opening ceremony for the Magic Kingdom, be first in line at the Barbershop on Main St., and get to Pooh before the lines climb too high. This is our mission, and we chose to accept it.

First, I got to spend about 20 minutes out on the teeny tiny balcony with coffee and a bagel and cream cheese, Miles had a pop tart and milk. The balconies here are all in full view of eachother, there's no barriers so Miles got to hold several conversations with people above and around us, especially two little girls who were staying to our right.

The opening ceremony at the Train Station made me cry, this is the second time now that's happened this year. When all the characters show up on the train, waving, I feel like a Melanesian greeting the cargo. (Google: Cargo Cult)

The Mickey statues were all out front, by the way, and Miles enjoyed looking at them. Artistically, they are a horror. I saw the original Cows in Chicago a decade ago, that started this concept, and those were done by serious artists. This is a display-window type of art. What do I know, it was fun for a five year old.

I really want the posters in the Main Street tunnel in a size I can put them all in my kitchen, someday. I looked for postcards, mini prints, anything smaller than the full size posters, a couple years ago. I'm tempted to buy them all anyways, and rotate them a couple at a time on my kitchen wall, in and out of a temporary frame. Maybe next trip. Miles loves stopping to look at them and playing the rides over in his mind.

We were indeed first at the Barbershop doors, and about 30 seconds later there was a line of 10 people behind us. They were about 5 minutes late opening, leaving Miles a little bit of wiggling-out-of-this time, but I had warned him for two weeks that he owed me a haircut before he gets to ride Winnie the Pooh. He physically wiggled a bunch, inside, and ended up with some ragged stray hairs that the barbress missed. Miles insisted on a "Plain Hair Cut", nothing sticking up, no colors, no glitter. The kid doesn't want any funny business going on around his head. At least he stopped screaming through hair cuts like the Confederate soldier having his leg amputated in Gone With the Wind, "Don't cut, don't cut!"

OK, that earns you a ride on Pooh. I swear I've ridden this attraction so many times now, I can recreate the whole ride from memory, including the smell of the place and the feel of the "bouncing". Miles wanted to get right back on for a second ride. I nixed a third. Instead of doing any more Fantasyland, Miles wanted to "show me" where he wanted to go next. I kept asking him to tell me, but he just wouldn't, and led me by the hand to the rope across the entrance to Toontown. I explained to him it was closed for another 20 minutes, and we could go do something in Tomorrowland and then come back later when Toontown was open. Now I know this is my son -- his planning was getting foiled and it put him in a foul enough temper to have to take a three minute time out on a bench near the Teacups.

Still whining and pouting, I dragged him into the line to Autopia. I've never ridden this yet with him, in all our trips, the line is always too long. Today it was almost too long, about 15 to 20 minutes. Once we got to the top of the stairs down to the cars, he had cheered up, though he insisted I had to do all the driving. I put the pedal to the metal and we freely zoomed around the whole track. Then I rammed the lady in front of me at the end, which amused people waiting in the queue. Miles thought the whole thing was fun and was all cheered up now.

Toontown was just open, and we went through Minnie's and Mickey's houses, greeted all the Pooh characters and got their autographs, and with a lot of admonitions to be careful with the babies, I let Miles play in the not very crowded toddler playground. I let a train come and go, and then when I heard the next one coming pulled him out, and we rode up to the front of the Magic Kingdom and left for our scheduled lunch date with the mighty Paragon (an internet friend's online "name" - she's a cast member and wants to stay anonymous online as much as possible) at Epcot.

I wished we had time to wait for a front seat on the monorail to Epcot today, but I wanted Miles to have time to ride Spaceship Earth, his favorite attraction in the World next to Winnie the Pooh. I love Jeremy Irons' voice coming in with "Like a grand, miraculous spaceship," as you crawl up into the mists of prehistory.

This ride, I scooched down to Miles' height a few times, and was surprised to find he has been able to hear all the narration, perfectly, all these years! I thought if your head wasn't up by the headrest speakers you'd not hear any of the track running in the ride vehicle, but there was plenty sound coming from somewhere else, at kid height -- maybe from a spacer between our vehicle and the one behind us? I think there was a speaker grill on it. Maybe kids can only hear if they are sitting in a vehicle directly in front of a spacer?

We still had a little time to kill so we went shopping for something to buy with the rest of Miles' Disney Dollars. He had set his mind on a stuffed Nemo, and there were none in Mousegears. Now that he's more mature, I was able to finally get across the concept of saving his money for a Nemo somewhere else, instead of settling on something in here that wasn't what he really wanted.

Miles told me as we entered World Showcase that his feet were hurting so much, and that we wanted a stroller. I kind of wish I'd got a stroller here today, but we managed to make it the whole trip without using one at all. Our lunch desitination, the San Angel Inn inside the Mexico pavilion, was close by.

I called Paragon on my cell phone and we rode El Rio del Tiempo twice and watched the glassblower, while she wended her way through Epcot to us. Lunch was excellent, though I miss the chile relleno that used to be part of the platter on the lunch menu. The waiter scoured up some cookie-like things for Miles for dessert, and I went nuts and ordered the chocolate banana thing with ice cream, after having eaten a whole combo platter. Thank heavens my dessert was really small!

Miles was goofing off, laying across his seat, looking under the table while Paragon and I talked, waiting for the check. After we settled up, I said, come on Milo, and no response. The little guy was asleep! Man I love the San Angel Inn. I nearly broke myself carrying him to the nearest World Showcase boat dock, and here was where I wished I'd gotten a stroller today. We waited for about 15 minutes for the one boat running the whole lagoon, and then rode all the way around. After about a 45 minute nap, right as we pulled up to our starting dock, Miles roused.

I knew he still wanted to do Living with the Land and get a Nemo stuffed toy, so I let him haul me off to the Living Seas. Sure enough, there's quite a few Nemo toys of different sizes and prices, and the smallest stuffed Nemo was just about what Miles had left to spend, so there you go.

Finally, we got a chance to see the diver show here! It was interesting, they teach you a couple scuba signs, the funniest moment was when the emcee asked "Does anyone know the sign for 'stop now'?", and a guy in the audience made a slitting-your-throat gesture, which the emcee said means "I'm out of air"!

When the diver came out (and let me tell you, just as an aside, that he was a HUNK), Miles wanted to show him his Nemo toy, I guess he figured divers must be interested in all sea life.

We played around a bit with the interactive sea life mural set up temporarily next to the diver tube, and then we hiked upstairs to look at the nursery fish and go through the big tank. Miles is nuts for the Spotted Eagle Rays.

In the manatee exhibit, I caught a cast member at the end of a presentation, and called her aside to ask her if my brother in law was going psychotic, or if he possibly did see a manatee in the estuaries in south Louisiana, off the Gulf of Mexico. She laughed and said, yes, he is quite possibly sane, because they do wander pretty far along the coastlines.

Miles wanted to do the Land next, and not just Living with the Land, but the whole pavilion, which really surprised me. I had to fight with him to go see the Lion King show last time. This is a clever show, but we still joke by suddenly screaming the beginning "Ahh awayla!!! etc.", it startled us right out of chairs.

Living with the Land still has all its aquaculture tanks empty, it's been that way all year. And why, in the greenhouse, are they focusing so much on gourds? Is there any real research value to them, or do they just look cool for the attraction and require the least amount of cast attention? I'm skeptical that it's the latter reason. The boat hosts have nothing to say except "Here are gourds, and here are some more gourds, they get really big" about them.

Food rocks was pitiful as usual, after the first gag of hearing the puns on people's songs and names, it's over, and this is like time number four for me. Miles liked it.

We wandered through Innoventions West and out the gate, caught a bus back to the Lodge. After a little snacking in the room, I took Miles down to the kid's Cub House for 4:30 p.m. I had originally made a spa appointment at the GF Spa, but cancelled it a few weeks earlier, after coming to my senses re. our budget for the trip. I had decided to go ride Mission:Space tonight instead, my only chance being here solo with Miles.

I was really feeling tired, and the thought of walking all the way from the front of Epcot to Mission:Space, and then the chance I might get motion sick for my trouble, had me thinking twice. At the Cub House, the cast member checking us in said that her mom got horribly sick on Mission:Space, and that did it. M:S will have to wait until I'm here sans Miles, with my tent-camping childless friends next year. I decided to just "hop over" on the "convenient" boat to the Magic Kingdom, and ride the Mountains and see Wishes, instead.

Just missed a ferry, and it was 20 minutes before another one came. That ferry goes to Ft. Wilderness, and then the MK, getting me through the gates about 5:45 p.m. Rode Splash Mountain, where a single male rider and I got mistaken for a couple by the loader, which made me feel a little awkward. He was like "I don't mind riding with you" and we took the front seat. This attraction was a walk-on, though it had a posted 30 minute wait time, by the way. You can't really go by those signs. The crowd had disappeared because the evening's showing of Spectromagic was about to start.

Very wet from Splash, I decided to skip Big Thunder Mountain, and skirted the back of the parade crowds to get some hot chocolate from Fantasyland, and set up camp on the Tomorrowland bridge, for Wishes.

I had about a half hour wait, and ended up with an ok viewing spot. I like the new Tinkerbell costume a lot, a big improvement! The show was ok, I had read opinions that it was "as good as Illuminations" and I would't go that far, in fact, I found it a little repetitive.

After Wishes, my evening did a nose dive. I had planned on being back at the Cub House for 8 p.m., and had told Miles that's when I was coming to get him. I take promises to him like that really seriously. Wishes was over at 7:15 p.m., and it took me until 7:35 p.m. to GET OUT of the park, the crowds were so bad, all leaving at once.

On the way over, the ferry captain had announced the last boat would leave the MK dock at 7:45 p.m. There were about 250 to 350 people waiting at the dock, when I got there. I knew the ferry carried a max of 125 people, and that it took 20 minutes round trip under ideal conditions, longer in crowds or with ECV holdups, so I did a little quick calculating and figured it would be at least two, maybe three, boats before I could even get on. I saw a supervisor with a walkie talkie and he said they wouldn't stop running the ferries until everyone was cleared out, which I had already figured, but as to an alternate route to get back to the Lodge by 8 p.m., that he was stumped on. I threw out, what if I walked to the Contemporary dock and took the resort launch, yes, he replied, those are running until 11 p.m. tonight, that's probably your best bet.

Behind me was a family, who were looking at the HORRIBLE pileup on the ramp up to the monorail to the TTC, and wondering if they should get in this line for the WL ferry and take a bus from the WL to Epcot, where they were trying to make Illuminations for 9:30 p.m. tonight. I told 'em no way, Jose, and that they should walk with me to the walkway to the Contemporary, and catch a bus from there to Epcot. They had no idea there was a walkway, but they followed me to it, before I waved goodbye and took off running.

I jogged/walked to the Contemporary boat dock, where I had another 15 minute wait for a launch that, when we pulled away, had no more room left on it, either. While I was waiting, I saw only one ferry make it to the WL from the MK, so if I'd waited there, I would have had another 30 minutes to an hour before I would have been one of the lucky passenger. I was about thirty minutes late getting to the Cub House. All in all, it took me OVER AN HOUR to get from the Magic Kingdom to the Wilderness Lodge. And I only did that well, because I'm a frequent traveler. If I was a newbie, I would have just waited in line at the MK dock, and it would have been up to TWO HOURS. Sorry, but for a Deluxe Resort, that is totally unacceptable. In fact, it's outrageous. I've been reading for years that people staying at the WL have had bad transportation experiences, and now it was my turn. I won't stay here again if they don't add a direct bus to the Magic Kingdom. Two hours out of your day to go 1/2 a mile is absurd. They should plan for peak crowds, always, I'm sick of hearing excuses otherwise. I can't tell you how frustrated I was to be able to see the Lodge from the Contemporary boat dock, and just be stuck there, waiting, and waiting for the resort launch.

Miles was all right, he had colored a bunch of pictures, he's suddenly into coloring now, after years of refusing to touch a crayon. The cast members shook their heads and looked disgusted when I told them about the hundreds of guests stranded outside the Magic Kingdom waiting on the WL/Ft. Wilderness ferries. I think this kind of thing has been going on for years.

We got a fun talk in with Daddy back up in the room, and enjoyed some bedtime snacks and t.v. before lights out. I think we were asleep by 9:30!

 

[dolphinea]

Tuesday, December 2

Wow, I didn't wake up until 7:30 a.m. That's a 10 hour night's sleep for me! I was sooo pleased. And rested.

Nowhere we really had to be today, until tonight's Very Merry Christmas Party. One of Miles' must-do's for this trip was eating at the Rainforest Cafe so I thought I'd take him for an early lunch. I originally thought we'd go to the one at Downtown Disney, but I wanted to resist the shopping demons that like to light fires in my wallet, and my afternoon plan of taking Miles to play minigolf at Winter Summerland was nixed by Miles, who just isn't ready for the pressure of handling a putter I guess. So I decided to go to the Rainforest Cafe at the Animal Kingdom and then tour a bit in that park.

We took our sweet time getting out, and wandered into the Animal Kingdom a little after park opening. I dragged a lightly protesting Miles into Tough to Be a Bug. He's got to do *something* I want to do, and he's seen this four times already, he knows by now there's nothing that's going to actually eat him. He made it through just fine and said afterwards that it wasn't so bad and it was fun. The bees stinging me in my lower back really got me this time, maybe I was leaning back on the bench more than in the past. And the bugs leaving the theater is a great effect!

We spotted a kid station down a dead end path at the Tree of Life, kind of hidden away, one we'd never seen before. The cast member was impressed with Miles' knowledge of bugs and told him a couple things he didn't already know. Told me a couple things I didn't know! I love the kid stations at Animal Kingdom, they're part of what makes this my favorite park next to Epcot.

I knew we'd be coming back Thursday morning for breakfast at Breakfastosaurus and wanted to save Dinoland for then, so I prodded Miles across the bridge to Asia where we saw the big horned owl outside Flights of Wonder - I limit Miles to ONE "question" in groups, now. His question was, "How does the owl protect himself?" The cast member was a little startled, and pleased to answer. After the crowd went into the theater, I asked her if maybe this was the owl species we have in our back yard, and she confirmed it by making the call for me. We went in and watched the show, which was great as usual. This one really makes me laugh out loud, even seeing it for a second time. The trainers almost couldn't get one of the owls to do it's flyover. Turns out owls are not particularly wise, in fact, they're rather stupid and quite hard to train!

Miles was very hungry now, and it was just about the beginning of the lunch menu at Rainforest Cafe, a great time to go with no crowds and no lines. We entered through the back, inside-the-park entrance, for the first time -- there's a bunch of cool stuff to look at in the courtyard there. It took about 5 minutes to pull Miles into the restaurant.

We were seated right away and had our run of the place, and good attention from our waiter. Because I was renting DVC points for our stay at Wilderness Lodge, my room key got me a 10% discount here. All in all, I added up the money we "saved" here and on valet parking, something else I can't remember, and it came to a whopping $11 in total savings for a 4 night stay. Not a reason to rush out and buy DVC.

Miles enjoyed finding all the "Nemo" clown fish and "Dory" fish and "Peach" starfish in the beautiful saltwater tanks around the restaurant. And we got to see a diver in the main front tank cleaning the coral. It's great to be here with the place fairly empty, Miles can tool around without bothering anybody.

Our food was so mediocre, and overpriced, I remembered why I only come here because Miles begs me to and I limit him to once per trip. Ordered a kid's nugget meal, with the cheapest, microwaveable food service Tyson nuggets, extra for "Safari Fries" which turned out to be plain ol' frozen food service french fries, and extra for a drink, bringing the kid's meal total with tax and tip to $10. Please! The cheap nuggets were shaped vaguely like dinosaurs, and that and the trumpeting elephant next to our table sent Miles to the moon, so I guess I'll be drug back in here in the future. My Buffalo Chicken Salad was ok, but I'd order without Buffalo sauce next time, I didn't like the way it combined with the blue cheese dressing. The chicken tenders were a little soggy on it, too. mmm More food service fun.

Upon leaving around 11:30 a.m., there was a line from the entryway tank out past the checkin podium, so if you want to eat here, really, come early!

We weren't going to have a chance to do the Studios again this trip, so I hopped us over there on the bus. We timed it so we got there right when the Playhouse Disney show was going through its midday break, and after a good time on the Honey I Shrunk the Audience playset and a spin on the Great Movie Ride, the next Playhouse Disney show was loading but totally full, and the line for the next show was so long, they said that one was full, too, but we could wait for an hour and a half for the third one. No thanks! There's nothing else here we really want to do, so we went back to the Lodge to get ready for tonight's party.

I had brought a couple of Christmas outfits for us, and luckily the weather was just right for them. It was fairly mild tonight, though there was a major cold front coming for the weekend. Dressed in our festive-wear, we took the ferry and entered the Magic Kingdom a little after 4 p.m., with our Very Merry Christmas Party ticket.

There was a whole side of bag check and the turnstiles just for people coming in for the Christmas Party, which has an official start time of 7 p.m. but obviously they do let you in starting a 4 p.m., because there were dozens of people doing it along with us.

We walked up to the last Castle Forecourt show of the day, which we'd never seen before, and quickly found a fine spot on the ground where thankfully everyone was seated, not two minutes before the show. It was cute, Miles really enjoyed it. We ducked and dodged out of the dispersing crowd, to get to the back walkway from Liberty Square into Fantasyland. There was a huge line for Peter Pan, so we did Small World and then checked in for our 5:10 p.m. priority seating time at Cinderella's Royal Table.

We were seated quickly, right at a two-seater table in front of the castle's windows. We saw a bit of the last Merlin show of the day at the sword in the stone, which intrigues Miles. Someday we've got to get down there and actually watch it in person. It looks very entertaining.

I was surprised to see a lot of food on the carpet in here, under other people's tables, and the tables themselves had a good bit of wear and tear -- no table cloths. Miles liked his chicken strips and extremely expensive waffle fries which I had to pay $8 for, as the chicken strip kid's meal only came with corn and mashed potatoes, no substitutions allowed. The waiter suggested I just order the strips a la carte, they were really cheap that way, like under $2 if I remember correctly, which I thought was an odd price. They were the same chicken strips as at Columbia Harbor House and Cosmic Ray's, by the way.

I ordered the Major Domo Pie and didn't care for it. It was tepid, with little bits of meat swimming in copious gravy amidst a mountain of matchstick zucchini (not mentioned in the dish description by the way, at all, and yet comprising the mass of the dish), all ladled over a commercial puff pastry shell, with a squeeze bottle ribbon of some room temperature mayonnaise style ranch sauce on it for decoration. The meat was listed as "prime rib" but was more like past-it's-prime-rib. Sure it was tender, no gristle, and the kitchen bouquet and cheap bordeaux gravy made it flavorful, but there just wasn't much of it, and I would have gotten more for my money out of a good slab of cafeteria pot roast.

There was nothing about our meal that would make you say, "This is bad, take it back," but the slow accretion of things just not quite stellar led me to feel like not coming back here again. Belle waiting for us in the lobby downstairs was great, though.

Since the park was closing in 15 minutes, all the guests were leaving Fantasyland and we were able to hop right on Peter Pan with about a 5 minute wait, then walked over to Tomorrowland where I had to promise Miles we'd come back and ride Winnie the Pooh later tonight. We showed our Party wrist bands to Cast Members checking for them at the walkway to Tomorrowland, and got a party times guide from them. I was surprised to see they were showing a Tomorrowland 'Twas the Night Before Christmas at 6:15 p.m. Waiting for it to start, we walked right on to Buzz Lightyear, but when we got out, the show was "standing room only" so we decided to finish up Tomorrowland and come back for the 7 p.m. show.

We did the TTA and then Buzz again, then the Carousel of Progress and the Timekeeper. I had to talk Miles into the Timekeeper, he was worried about the dinosaur in it, but I helped him cover his eyes for the 30 seconds the dinosaur appears, and he ended up enjoying the film a lot.

The 'Twas the Night Before Christmas show was good, Goofy's antics were great and the set was clever. The show was very crowded again, and all the Tomorrowland attractions were pretty packed when we left the theater. Because of our early arrival, we were totally done with this Land and walked out to the Hub and then into Adventureland.

We got our cookies and Miles got mad they weren't chocolate chip, I had to put him in time out on a bench until he could get ahold of his attitude. Ready to have a merrier Christmas, we rode Aladdin's Carpets two times in a row until Miles figured out the camel wasn't spitting -- it was turned off due to the cold weather I suppose. He was only interested in playing with getting spit on, so with that effect off he lost interest in the ride.

It was nearing time for the first parade, which for some reason was coming out of the Frontierland gate for this showing, a reversal from what normally happens on 2-parade nights. Worked for us! We got a seat on the edge of the wooden walkway outside some shops next to Country Bears, and in just about 10 minutes enjoyed the parade. Miles sat through the whole thing, unwilling to get up and stand at the rope. I guess his feet really were tired after a couple of days in the parks with no stroller! He was excited to see the Brother Bear float, and Santa Claus at the end.

Saw the Country Bears Christmas Show after the parade, and then the new Wishes fireworks. We stayed in Frontierland to see it, out in front of the shooting gallery, which wasn't as great view as I thought it might be -- just the fireworks, no castle stuff, and a lot of the shots were obscured by trees. Miles was kind of bored by the show, and this being my second time seeing it, I was a little bored too. But for the finale they use my favorite firework of all time, these huge champagne-colored bursts that hang in the sky for a long time. I love those things!

I owed Miles a spin on Winnie the Pooh from earlier, and we rode it twice in a row. It was now past 10 p.m., and way past our bedtime so I headed us out. Miles had started to get too tired to enjoy himself starting upon our entry into Adventureland over two hours ago. He's not much of a night owl after walking a few miles every day, I guess! Unfortunately, because of the second parade coming in about half an hour, the snow on Main Street wasn't falling, and Miles and I were quite disappointed we didn't get to see it. If you're going to come early to the Party, make sure you get up to Main St. at the start of the party, or stay until after the last parade, or you might miss the snow, too.

Leaving at such an odd time, we had no trouble getting the ferry back to the Lodge. The people around us must have thought me a very cruel mother when I stopped Miles from nodding off as we approached the dock, saying "Buddy, I am not going to carry you back to the room, wake up, chief." LOL I really can't carry him very far anymore, he's 40 pounds!

Of course, by the time he *ran* back to our room, he was wide awake again, and we didn't get to sleep until I put out the lights and turned off the t.v. at 11:30 p.m.

 

[dolphinea]

Wednesday, December 3

No phone call from Mickey today, definitely wanted us to sleep in after our late evening last night. I beat Miles up by about an hour and a half, and used the time to put together a pin trading lanyard for him out of our book of pins, and do some note taking for this trip report, and eat some more bagels and drink some coffee.

After Miles woke up, we both took a much needed shower and got all fluffy and sweet and headed out for some fun. It was still pretty early, about 9 a.m. I think. We had a priority seating for 10:30 a.m. at Chef Mickey's, so we had some time to kill.

We decided to take the ferry over to the Ft. Wilderness petting zoo and have a look around. Miles enjoyed it until I started buying the 25-cent food pellets and feeding the goats out of my hand, and then I *gasp* *horror* TOUCHED HIM with my "goat food hand". Seems it's ok to pet the goats, but goat food is completely foul and befouling, and I had to wash my hands twice, once when Miles wasn't looking and again while he watched, and dry them completely, before he'd leave me alone about it.

We had a good time finding out what the names were of all the beautiful horses in the stable, and spoke briefly to a rather surly blacksmith shoeing ponies we'd seen in the Christmas parade last night.

Opted for the bus to the Transportation and Ticket Center, since the stop was right there, then we transferred to the resort monorail loop and checked in at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary.

Breakfast was good, and the characters here seem more fun than at any other character meal I've been to. They do a lot of interacting with the guests, plus the little dance/napkin waving thing that come along every twenty minutes or so helps liven it all up. We sat in a room I didn't even know was there until today, up at the very front of the restaurant, in a sort of bay-windowed loggia, overlooking the front lawn and the 7 Seas Lagoon and the Magic Kingdom.

Really, really full (shoulda skipped that second plate) we rolled out and talked about what we wanted to do today. We had reservations for tickets for Circque de Soleil at 6:00 p.m. tonight, so today was going to be a non-park day. With all of our options before us (minigolf, rent a boat, rent a bike, swim) Miles, of course, wanted to swim. He always wants to swim. I knew a big cold front was coming this weekend, so I figured today's high in the lower 70's was about as good as we were going to do all week, and it was pretty and sunny today, so now we had a plan.

We got back to our room around noon and did some general hanging out while I scraped up all our laundry. Miles helped me put it in the completely empty, and free, washers in the Villas' 1st floor guest laundry room. I love that the machines are free here, except of course for your soap powder etc. if you didn't bring any with you.

While our clothes were washing, we hit the main pool where Miles again astonished me with his new swimming prowess. He's a little overconfident and tires easily, so I stayed right by him. I went down the slide, thinking it was open, but it's totally enclosed, so you have to lie down which makes you go really fast, as a big ol' grownup. I managed three times down, and that was enough water up my nose for me.

I could have stayed in the hot tub all day, but that's too boring for Miles. Still, I got some really good hydrotherapy going with the strong jets, on my sacroiliac joints and my gluteal attachments -- for those of you who don't know much anatomy, my butt hurt. LOL

We got dry enough to make it to the laundry room to load up our stuff in the dryer, without freezing. I wanted to try the "quiet" pool by the villas this time. Miles enjoyed traversing the shelf that runs all the way around the pool's edge, but couldn't talk me into swimming again, so he didn't venture out into the middle. The hot tub here was closed, I assume for bacteria reasons, and without a way to warm up, the pool water was just too cool for me today. I stayed in the sun and then we went and gathered our warm clothes (always nice) and were back up in the room for around 2:30 p.m.

I nearly dropped down on the floor when I realized Miles had fallen asleep on the bed, in a spontaneous nap. This kid hasn't reliably napped since he turned 4. I had a chance to get us pretty much totally packed for our resort switch tomorrow to Animal Kingdom Lodge, before he woke up.

We just did dinner here in the room, to finish up the stuff we'd brought. I still ended up throwing some food away, but I didn't feel like keeping up with an ice chest for the next four days.

We were at Downtown Disney just before sunset, around 5 p.m. I was glad we got to the Will Call window to pick up our Circque tickets a little early, the line got really long just after us. Miles was really whiny and sleepy and not at all sure he wanted to come do this. My husband is a Shriner back home, and his brother is an officer for them, which means he ends up volunteering for the New Orleans Shrine Circus every year, which is held over the Thanksgiving holidays. Miles had just been with me to that "circus" and was a little bored by it (it goes on for like 2 hours and has things like quick change artists and hula hoop acts and some trained dogs, wahoo), so he wasn't excited that he was going to have to sit through another "circus" so soon. I assured him this wasn't the same, this was more like a play, with music and clowns and things he'd never seen before.

I had been tempted by the discount ticket offer being proferred, for seats along the wall, but ended up springing for the next price tier and we got far house right, on the aisle, in the front row. If I had my choice again, I'd go a little higher up, and more center. I couldn't see some things from the front row going on up near the ceiling. But the front row seats were great for keeping Miles' attention, and had tremendous emotional impact.

The show just blew me away. It was soooooo much fun, and it was amazing to see something of this artistic calibre in Orlando. I would not recommend it for any child under 5, and even at 5, it was iffy for Miles. I will bring him again in 2006, if we're lucky enough for there to still be a Circque show here at Disney World. There were a few toddlers in the audience, and I didn't watch to see if they made it all the way through, but I know Miles wouldn't have been able to sit all the way through at that age. Plus, the imagery is a bit overwhelming and scary sometimes, and always surreal. I don't see small kids doing surreal very well.

We were tired, and went straight "home" where I had a bunch of phone calls from friends who were arriving for Mousefest, a big gathering of people from various internet discussion boards and webmasters and guide book authors that was being held at WDW starting tomorrow. I had quite a social schedule for the next few days, and after about an hour on the phone, I got in our phone call to Daddy and got to bed a bit later than I'd planned.

 

[dolphinea]

Thursday, December 4

We had an early morning today, because I wanted to be at the Animal Kingdom for their opening ceremony, on top of needing to load the van with the rest of our gear.

I was able to avoid using bell services, by taking down some bags yesterday evening -- I was able to carry everything we had left, and the Villas are great in how compact they are, every room is pretty short walk to the bus stops and the parking lot.

Miles was obviously cranky, he did not get enough sleep last night. I steeled myself with a latte from the bakery & espresso cart outside the Animal Kingdom's front gate. Miles wanted a cookie... you know, we're on vacation, it's not like it will set a precedent that I'll have to beat back every morning, when we get home, and, you know, if you weigh the ingredients and nutritional values for a donut and a cinnamon roll and a cookie, I imagine they're about the same. And this was an M & M cookie, which is the holy grail of cookies, you understand.

There were some cranky grownups at the turnstiles, the way they let people in for Breakfastosaurus, by holding them at the gate and walking them back in groups, really aggravates the guests, who are always cutting it close or are a few minutes late when they show up, anyways, for their priority seating times. There's no signs, so the lack of communication and the confusion adds to the grouchy atmosphere this policy creates. I was on the end of that stick last year, the one time I made an early morning ps for this breakfast -- I decided to go back to our habit of taking the *last* available ps. Miles eats better at brunch than breakfast, anyways.

The opening ceremony was cute, with one of the big safari trucks pulling up at the foot of the entryway to Discovery Island, carrying I think Minnie and Goofy and maybe Donald, too. They do a little skit about looking for Mickey, hi everyone, etc. and then, out in front of the Tree of Life, way in the distance, Mickey rises up into the air on a big cherry picker and says howdy and invites us all to come on in. Miles thought that was exciting, and wanted to go race into the Tree of Life pathways to see Mickey. I had to explain to him that Mickey said he had to go out on safari and wasn't there anymore. Maybe they could create a character greeting area in the back of the Tree of Life and have Safari Mickey and other Safari characters there throughout the day? I'm sure Miles wasn't the only small child who wanted to go see Mickey right then and there.

I like to visit Dinorama first thing in the morning. All the other park guests go straight to Africa to get on the Safari, which is always no more than a 5 minute wait with Fastpass, so I feel no need to race there with them. Dinorama gets really overcrowded around lunch and stays that way until park closing, and the things he likes to do in this section, as a small child, absolutely require low crowds for us to have a good time: Triceratops Spin (line gets silly, quickly, and the ride isn't worth waiting for for more than one or two cycles, in my opinion), Carnival Games (if you play just you and your family, someone in the family will win, and you can let your small child win - if you play in a crowd, you can plunk down $20 - $40 or more and never win a prize), and Boneyeard Playground (a big ol' maze of a place that traverses scaffolding, "cliffs", and even crosses over the walkway into Dinoland, into a whole seperate "fossil" digging play pit -- no playground is fun when it's packed, and this one would be impossible to keep up with a child in in any kind of crowd).

We did all those favorites, and looked for the Dinoland kid station but it wasn't open yet. Miles was too scared to ride "Dinosaur" but I talked him into coming into the queue to look at the animal dioramas and see the preshow about the asteroid crashing into the earth, something he's been asking about recently. We have some dinosaur books at home and he has a moderate interest in them. We just ducked under the rails into parts of the switchbacks not being used, and stood out of the way. I showed Miles the strata on the wall in the big queue room, there's a good explanation there of how the mass extinction point is delineated by radioactive material that's a signature of asteroids. The overhead display of the earth and the asteroid coming at it is pretty good for a little kid to get the idea. In the outer room, the display of animals that are still around today that lived in the Cretaceous period is fun, too. I like the tree shrew -- look Miles, it's your great great great great great great great great great great great great.... great Grandmother. I think some Creationists walked by me at that point and gave me the stink-eye. Go fall off your flat Earth, lol.

It was time just about for our Breakfastosaurus priority seating. This is Miles' hands-down favorite character meal of all time. When people with little boys ask where to go for a character breakfast, this is where I send them. I have heard adults say they did not like the food here at all, but I enjoy it a lot. The theming in the restaurant is fantastic, in keeping with the creative, detailed, just amazing theming all over this park. You have to come just to see the storyline touches all over the walls and the artistry that went into this restaurant.

My friend Denise met us and we all scooted in just in time to keep Miles from starving to death. The place was starting to empty out, but there was still plenty of food and good attention from our waiter and the characters. The characters have great in-theme "paleontologist" costumes here, but the interaction is always more perfunctory than at Chef Mickeys, for some reason. While I'm thinking about it, the food at the Polynesian's 'Ohana isn't very good but the character interaction is excellent there, too. Just for kicks, here's my character meal ratings chart:

'Ohana (Breakfast) : Food - 5 / Characters - 9 / Setting - 10 / Service - 8
1900 Park Faire (Breakfast & Dinner) : Food - 8 / Characters - 7 / Setting - 4 / Service - 9
Chef Mickey's (Breakfast & Dinner) : Food - 10 / Characters - 9 / Setting - 8 / Service - 10
Crystal Palace (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner) : Food - 6 / Characters - 3 / Setting - 8 / Service - 9
Donald's Breakfastosaurus (Breakfast) : Food - 8 / Characters - 6 / Setting - 10 / Service - 8
Norway Akershus w/ Princesses (Breakfast) : Food - 5 / Characters - 10 / Setting - 8 / Service - 9
Garden Grill (Lunch & Dinner) : Food - 10 / Characters - 9 / Setting - 6 / Service - 10

I've never been to the Liberty Tree Tavern or Cape May dinners, guess I'll have to put those on the to-do list for 2006 if they're still around. I'm really very sorry we never made it to the old Artist Point Pooh & friends breakfast, before they shut it down. That sounded great. You can keep Cinderella's breakfast in the castle, I've heard the characters are rushed and the food is terrible. My dinner experience makes me think that's true, and there's probably even more food all over the carpet.

We had a good talk and a lot of breakfastosaurusing and then headed out to ride the Safari and see the Pangani Trail together. Fastpass was a snap, as usual you have exactly enough time to leisurely explore the Pangani Forest Trail before your Fastpass return window rolls up.

The hippos weren't doing much today but the stinky gorillas were visible for a change. I wish you could see down into the meer cats' tunnels at their exhibit, they are always inside. I guess they're not doing anything in there but cuddling and sleeping, anyways. I was amazed at all the ciclids, I've been trying to keep an aquarium alive at home and know what goes into something like this. A fellow aquariast and I started talking, we had lots of time because Miles could stay glued to the verticle "underwater" window here forever. He had raised ciclids, and pointed out to me that they are crammed in so thickly in this exhibit because it eliminates their territorial aggression instincts, and he also showed me right up by the glass where a male and female were courting and making a gravel "nest" to lay eggs.

They need to put benches in the aviary, we wanted to sit down and really take some time to look for birds on the laminated bird guide, but there was nowhere to sit.

Our safari was good, the wart hogs aren't usually visible but today they were trotting around. The baby elephant is so cute! Denise and I both were surprised he was still so little, after being born last May. Right after we exchanged that comment, the driver told us how long elephants are pregnant.. it's like almost two years. Good golly!

I miss the cast member who used to stand by Little Red's truck and say "Little Red is O.K.!" Miles likes the poacher storyline and so do I. Our driver did a great ham-up job on the "breaking" bridge, this time. I get a little motion sick on the safari, by the way, so if anyone out there is susceptible, you might want to think about using your scopolamine patches on your Animal Kingdom day. You could benefit from them on the Safari, and also on Primeval Whirl for sure, and probably Dinosaur, too.

I had wanted to see Festival of the Lion King again this trip, but after Circque last night, it just seemed so pale in comparison, and that's saying a lot because FotLK is one of the best shows, if not THE best, in all the Disney parks. If Miles had never seen it before, or it had been a couple years, I would have taken him, just for the great Lion King puppet "floats", but we were just here in April.

We bid goodbye to Denise and went to check in at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We got upgraded! To a Deluxe room! All the way at the VERY end of the Kudu Trail! Yes, it would be a bigger room, with a daybed, normally almost $400 a night or more, but it was as far from the pool and the lobby and the food court and the bus stop as you could get. I didn't know how I felt about this, until we got to the room... yes, it was a hike but guess what: all of you people closer to the lobby, are you wondering where the animals are? They're hanging out at the ends of the savannahs, where only the rooms at the very ends of the trails can see them! We had so many animals outside our room at all times, it was just amazing. Plus this Deluxe room was deluxe because it had an extra big half-circle balcony, instead of the usual small shelf on the other rooms. Right after we got there, practically every giraffe from both Arusha and Sunset were out in front of our room, communing over the fence seperating their two savannahs. The zebras and wildebeest were back by us all the time, too.

I have to say here that Disney has some cahones charging the prices they charge for their hotel rooms. Sometimes I think they get these prices because people who don't travel much don't know any better, and other times I think it's more like a spell that gets cast over you where money ceases to seem like real money and you keep going for a little more expense as you plan your vacation, and other times I think people are lured by the ostentation of throwing around phrases like "the room was $525 a night" when you get back to Hoboken. Seriously, it was a nice room, this Deluxe Savannah View at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, but $400+ a night?

Here's why I say "no way":
* cheap industrial toilet paper
* cheap mattress
* cheap linens and towels
* complementary robe was cheap quality, too
* cheap complementary toiletries
* no t.v. in the bathroom
* tiny bathtub
* no jets in the bathtub
* no seperate shower

Any hotel in the country charging over $400 a night is bound to surpass Disney in those above amenities, and many much less expensive hotels do wonderfully on those things. Now I'm going to reverse myself a bit and say I would, if I could, dump some money on a Concierge level room here, mainly because I adore the food at this resort, and there is rumored to be plenty of it, all day long, up in the Concierge lounge, plus I really would like to do the AK's Sunrise Safari which is only available to Concierge guests. Also, if you really enjoyed my trip report and have truly deep pockets, how about setting me up in one of the AKL's Suites? I promise to throw an African themed dinner party for you in our private dining room, in thanks.

I've gotten into the habit since I came back of putting on Radio Netscape Plus aka Spinner's internet radio African music channel. I think, with a little time, I can fill the house with some of the same smells, once I figure out exactly what spice that is that the whole resort smells like, and I'm sure there are some African tchotchkies at local garage sales and flea markets with my name on them...

I would love to go to Africa some day, but this way there's no plague or malaria.

Miles had a reservation this evening at his favorite Kid's Club of them all, Simba's Cubhouse. This is a fantastic kid's club! They actually have a picture window out onto the Arusha savannah, and the layout and feel of the center is just so homey and warm. I dropped him off right at 4:30 p.m. when they opened the doors, which seemed to annoy the woman checking me in, but I had to make a priority seating with some friends at Mama Melrose in the Studios, before that restaurant closed at 5:30 p.m.

Fortunately, bus service from the Animal Kingdom Lodge is the best of any resort on property. They are the only Deluxe that doesn't share, and the stops are always one of the closest walks from any of the park gates. You board, and it's a straight express to wherever you're going. (Yes, the AKL is far from the Magic Kingdom, but trust me, a bus from AKL is faster than taking the boat from Wilderness Lodge.) So I got to the Studios by 5 p.m. and met my friends Alison and Bob outside Mama Melrose and we were soon seated and ordering.

I love Mama Melrose. The wait staff here is generally excellent, I get the feeling they tend to have a lot of seniority. The appetizers are all scrumptious. My pepperoni flatbread however wasn't as good as I remembered it. I think when you have a penultimate experience in a restaurant, you should always move onto something else next time you go. It can never be the same the second time. And they took my portobello mushroom appetizer I adore off the menu! I nearly cried. Oh well, it's calamari and bruschetta and the filet for me next time. Doesn't that just sound awful? Really, you want to stay away from here so there's more for me. I love the decor here, too, did I mention?

After dinner, we all agreed it was time to spin ourselves upsidedown a couple times, so off we hoofed it to a walk-on Rock 'n Roll Coaster (the crowds were all in the stadium awaiting Fantasmic in 20 minutes). I screamed my head off as usual. Bob commented upon seeing our photo how surprised he was I had my mouth open. What a funny man, a funny man.

We bid eachother good night at the gate, and I sprang Miles from the Cub House, where he said he had an excellent time. I had promised Miles a chance to swim, and we braved the quickly-cooling weather to do the hot tub. The slide closed at 8 p.m., just a few minutes after we arrived, and I had insisted on getting in the hot tub first to warm up... so I made Miles miss the slide. I felt bad for him. The hot tub behind the slide, by the way, is truly HOT, making this my favorite hot tub on property! It's supposed to be hot, folks! A couple of guests seemed alarmed and complained, but the lady next to me and I both agreed it was perfect. You're supposed to have trouble easing in, and then not be able to stay in for more than 10 to 15 minutes. That's the therapy of it, for me.

Just like last year when I stayed here, the moon was hanging right in the branches of a tree over the hot tub. Now if I had just been able to get the guests to turn off the bubbles and stop talking, we could have all chilled out to the moon and the steaming water and the African ambient music. Oh well, I guess I'll have to find out what kind of tree that is, and buy myself a really hot hot tub for our patio, and put some speakers out there to run my internet radio African music channel.

We did get into the big pool after warming up thoroughly in the hot tub, once you got all the way in, and stayed in, it was comfortable. It's warmer over by the zero-entry slope, so we stayed there and Miles enjoyed the safety of testing his swimming where he could stand up.

Back in the hot tub one more time, and then I bundled us out and back to the room. We had an early morning tomorrow, meeting friends at the Magic Kingdom at park opening, so after a bath and some t.v. for both of us, and a couple of phone calls with hubby and friends, I put the light out about 10:00 p.m. I think we were asleep in two minutes.

 

[dolphinea]

Friday, December 5

Up up up Mickey says, big doin's ahead! Somehow this starts to lose its charm on day 5 of a Disney vacation.


We did as the mouse told us to, and were at the Magic Kingdom gates for park opening again. We had plenty of time to grab some treats from the Bakery on our way up Main Street, and ride the Carousel while I waited to see who'd show up for an Internet "meet" I'd thrown out to the Mousefest crowds, an invitation to come ride some Fantasyland things, along with Philharmagic, for people with kids who weren't up for the more grownup type meets going on over at Animal Kingdom, which except for the safari no small child could possibly do (unless you WANT me to bring a three year old to a quiet trivia gathering after I've soaked him/her to the bone on Kali River Rapids - no? I thought not, ha ha ha!). I tried this last year, too, and it poured buckets and no one came, today the weather was nice and no one came, so so much for that idea. Most of the Mousefesters are older with grown kids or older kids, or younger with no kids. My friends Alicia and Keith did try and make it with their daughter but she's notoriously hard to get up in the morning, I hear, so they never got to me this morning.

But my friend Joe did, which is actually pretty funny since he's the one person I know who *never* gets up to be anywhere on vacation for 9:15 a.m., but just to see me and Miles he braved the morning sun. I waved him down from our perch on our carousel horses as he sauntered through the Fantasyland crowd.

Actually, there wasn't much of a crowd today at all, it was an extremely light and pleasant day. Joe let us kidnap him for a ride on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and then we all did Peter Pan's Flight, and then the new Mickey's Philharmagic.

Philharmagic is excellent, but it's pretty short -- I guess I wanted more! We ended up near the back of the theater, and I'd rather be closer to the front from now on, because the seats aren't sloped enough in my opinion, from the front to the back. Miles couldn't see but the upper half of the screen, though he refused to come sit in my lap. I think he was a little scared (his grandfather, my Dad, seriously scared him by dragging him into Honey I Shrunk the Audience, against his protestations, at age 3, and he's been leery of 3-D movies ever since), and only seeing the top half of the screen made him feel safer. He was really proud of himself that he saw it and wasn't scared, after it was over. It's a great attraction, we were all laughing at different points.

I think we did It's a Small World (poor Joe) again, and then walked over to Tomorrowland for a spin on Buzz Lightyear. Miles and I teamed up against Joe and whipped him good. I'm starting to get the hang of this, but I also got lucky and the ride stopped when I was near something that was worth major points. I couldn't believe Joe didn't want to see the always-closed-but-now-briefly-running Carousel of Progress. You mean, there are people out there that don't love the Carousel of Progress? What is wrong with you people? Don't you want to see my grandmother's kitchen, circa 1948? How can you pass up the chance to hear Uncle Orville say, "No privacy around here at'all" twice in 30 minutes? Well, maybe it's me that's weird, because once per trip seems to be enough for Miles. Maybe I just need an African Lodge living room and patio, and a 1940's Carousel of Progress kitchen.

Miles hadn't really eaten anything yet today, and it was about 11 a.m. now, so I figured he must be hungry. We decided to get some early lunch at Cosmic Ray's. I got the roasted chicken and mashed potatos, very good, except I wish they had some home made chicken gravy. Miles got chicken strips and Joe got a burger, I think. To my surprise, Miles wouldn't eat but maybe one bite. We wrapped up his strips for him for later, and I could see Miles was just getting more and more listless, and looked really tired. I carried him, drooping, out of the restaurant where Joe got a guest to snap our "big meet" photo, starring Miles about to sack out on my shoulder.

Miles and I had signed up to do a Treasure Hunt event at the Animal Kingdom, run by the Passporter guide people, but I could see there was no way that was going to happen today. We said bye to Joe, who stayed to do grownup stuff like Space Mountain, and promised to catch up with us back at the Lodge for some swimming later this evening. I got Miles straight back to our room, where sure enough I found he had the makings of a serious fever. I always carry a bunch of medicine with me on these trips, I've never had one yet where one of us doesn't get sick at some point. I dosed the tyke with a double dose of kid's ibuprofen, and he fell asleep immediately.

He stayed asleep for a couple of hours, poor thing. When he woke up, he seemed fine, which was a relief. It's always scary seeing if you've got an intractable high fever or a normal, responsive one on your hands. He wanted to swim, but I talked him into just exploring the resort a little bit instead, fully clothed.

We caught a guy down in the lobby with a table of bones and an ostrich egg, and he and Miles had a great time telling eachother everything they knew about African animals and poachers. We headed out to the Arusha Rock viewing area and checked out a big Pelican and some zebra and eland. Then I broke down and went shopping, I bought myself one of the wonderful pieces of Penzo dinnerware from Zimbabwe that I've seen here at the Lodge gift shop an in the Harambe Village gift shop at the Animal Kingdom. While Miles wasn't looking, I had the cashier slip a Nemo pin for Miles' Christmas stocking into the bag, and I let Miles buy a little Safari Pooh figure that wasn't too expensive.

We wandered back to the room the long way, stopping at every display and every viewing window. Miles was starting to sniffle and sneeze and cough, so I gave him some multi-symptom cold medicine with acetaminophen in it, to play off the earlier ibuprofen. I put him in a warm bath with his toys, to get some steam going for his upper respiratory tract, and soon it was time to go down to Boma for our priority seating, and meet our friends Alicia and Kieth and their little girl Katie.

On the elevator down to Boma's floor, Miles asked me to pick him up, and he was asleep on my shoulder in about 90 seconds. I checked our whole party in at the podium, though Alicia et al weren't there yet. While I was waiting, with Miles sleeping in my arms, I saw some other internet acquaintances, and would have introduced myself more and visited more, but I didn't want to get up and give away my seat because my kid is getting really heavy these days! I was surprised at how crowded Boma's waiting area was, right at their dinner opening time. My pager went off, but Alicia still hadn't arrived and hadn't called my cell phone, so I told them to give me another 10 minutes. I finally thought maybe they weren't coming and had just asked for and got a table for two, when my cell phone rang, with Alicia calling me from the other side of the restaurant. We moved to a table for five, I woke up Miles, our new waiter tracked down an apple juice for Miles, and man oh man did I enjoy the food here.

Miles perked up right away when he saw Katie, and the two of them hit it off thick as thieves. They kept eachother so well occupied I was able to get some grown-up conversation time with Alicia and Keith, and finally got away to say "Hi" to the table of other internet folks nearby, including meeting my co-host for a Mission:Space meet tomorrow morning, Dean. Dean had purchased a bunch of pins to go in some goodie bags I was making for the meet, to go with the plastic astronauts and rockets I already had. I had bought about 50 airplane barf bags from eBay, and made commemorative stickers to put on them on my computer at home. I thought they'd make appropriate meet favors!

Miles insisted he wasn't going to eat today at all. I told the waiter, just in case he thought we were slipping Miles food under the table to avoid the $15 buffet charge, that he really was sick today. Of course, at this point Miles had no fever, no sniffles, looked great and was playing very happily with Katie in our booth, so you know the waiter believed me, ha ha ha. I ate enough for both of us, and I had to grab another zebra dome on the way out of the restaurant. The pastries here are to die for! I love vegetarian ethnic food, too, and there was so much of that here to choose from, I was in heaven. If you're a carnivore, there's a lot of meat for you as well.

We all trekked up to my room and Alicia and Keith and I had a great visit out on the porch while Miles and Katie played with Miles' toys on and around the bunk beds. Thankfully, Miles has never had the slightest inclination to throw himself off a top bunk to see if he can fly, maybe it's my constant watch out, be careful, look out, and warning explanations. I'm finding some wood to knock on, or maybe next year he'll leap off the roof.

Joe called from the lobby and we gave him the room number to come on up and join the party. Miles was begging to swim, Joe came to swim, I wanted to swim, Katie was begging to swim, so we all managed to wear Alicia and Keith down and overrode their better sense to get Katie to bed at a reasonable hour. On the condition that Miles only use the hot tub, and wrap up very warmly, with shoes and sweats over his suit going to and from the pool, we took turns changing in the bathroom and then trekked to the hot tub. It lets you know how far a walk this is from my room, that Alicia decided to haul all their stuff along with them to the pool, and change back into their clothes down there before leaving for the night.

The hot tub was nice and hot as usual, the kids kept eachother busy, the slide closed 3 minutes after we got there, again, and the kids even talked us into getting into the big pool, which I regretted saying yes to, as the night was starting to get really cold. It was supposed to go down to a low in the 40's later tonight, though it was probably 55 to 60 right now. Still too cold to be running around wet. Keith didn't swim at all, he and Alicia swear he's not bouyant, and just sinks. I laughed my head off at them, and Alicia said she never would have believed it, either, except she tested him and found him to truly be the incredible sinking man.

They reluctantly decided they'd better get back to their hotel with Katie, if they were to have any hope of getting her out of bed before noon the next day, and we bid them good night. Poor Joe, he was so patient when Miles said he wanted some dinner now -- we went into the Mara food court, and it being about 8:45 p.m. I figured we'd just dart in and dart out, but it took about 20 minutes to get a simple kid's meal, they were really crowded. I got some hot tea and we took Miles' food back up to the room. Joe changed in our bathroom and I practically threw him out, all of a sudden I was so tired I thought I was going to fall asleep on my feet. I guess 9:30 p.m. really had turned into my bedtime on this vacation, it was a trend I really enjoyed. I was getting so much rest!

Good thing we did go to bed early, because Miles was spiking a fever again by 1 a.m. and I got up a couple of times to give him medicine, and of course I woke up about every hour to feel his forehead, I don't think I slept very deeply at all.

Like I said earlier, someone gets sick every trip we take here. The worst was when I got food poisoning, but our last trip where he threw up, with no warning, on people's shoes on a Disney bus was pretty awful, too. I wonder sometimes if we rented a house off site, and cooked our own food, and swam in our own pool, if we wouldn't get sick as much. As Miles gets older, I hope to train him better on a don't-touch-your-face and antibacterial-hand-gel-every-60-minutes routine. It's nearly impossible with little kids. I try to go by that regimen, and I haven't had a cold or flu type thing from Disney, just digestive tract stuff from food, and of course sore legs and feet and blisters.

But if someone is going to be sick and bench you for a day or two in your room, believe me, a savannah view room at the Animal Kingdom Lodge is a big improvement over the dark industrial caves they call rooms at the All Stars. That's where we spent half a day on our last trip, after Miles' bus vomiting incident, and that was no fun at all. It was still a vacation to be stuck in the room here at AKL, something to think about when you're planning a trip.

 

[dolphinea]

Saturday, December 6

Another early, early morning today because I needed to be at Mission:Space at Epcot's park opening. It was COLD this morning, as promised by the weather forecast.

I met up with about 45 other people eager to see some of Future World, and had a great time letting Miles play in the indoor playground at Mission:Space, and then Dean and I handed out our barf bag souvenirs to the exiting riders. The sticker on them said "We Chose to Go", the cast members in the gift shop got a look at them and thought they were hilarious, and appropriate. Just a few weeks later, I saw where Disney has actually provided barf bags at the attraction, so I was thinking about contacting my lawyer and suing for theft of my intellectual property...

My M:S meet co-host "Disney Dean" and I ducked out of the bitter cold wind and into the Fountainview Cafe, which was packed, to happily stand in line for some treats. Miles got a juice, and ate a Cliff bar I had brought along, I got a fruit filled croissant dusted in powdered sugar and a mocha latte, YUM. Miles really enjoyed watching the fountain doing its thing outside, I think I will come back here again in the future, hopefully when it's a little less crowded and noisy.

It was time to rejoin the Epcot Futureworld Marathon meet crowd for the highlight of the morning, "Spaceship Earth Roulette", where our hostesses give you a "guess" as to in which scene the hostesses' time vehicle will make an unscheduled stop. Correct guesses win prizes! A rare event, our ride never did stop and the guy who guessed "no stop" won, plus they had a little prize for Miles and the other kids there just for playing, which thrilled him to no end.

I needed to leave the Magic of Disney now and go buy some reasonably priced, thankyou, pediatric multi-symptom cold medicine out in the real world, so we packed into the van (which I'd taken this morning instead of the resort bus, I hate walking to and from Epcot's bus stops) and went to West 192, where I found an Eckerd's.

I dosed Miles, and he was looking tired so I told him to sit back and relax, and take a nap, I was going for a drive. Sure enough, he was asleep in five minutes, and I got a chance to go down Hwy 27 south of 192, towards the area called "Four Corners". All of 27 is suddenly booming with inexpensive retirement tract housing and low-end subdivisions, new strip malls, etc. And there's just this one road. Can you say "traffic jam"? I think they are in for some big problems if the counties don't build some more major thruways or bypasses or something.

It was so cool, after my u-turn on 27 to head back north, I passed an old traditional orange grove, and there, like it was floating on the surface of a pond, sticking out of the tree tops in a valley in the distance, was the Contemporary, and I think the top of the Castle, can't remember what else I saw. I was tempted to stop the car, but there wasn't much of a shoulder.

I knew my vacation was winding down, because I would rather just eat a cheap meal at Taco Bell today than anything at Disney. My wallet and me were getting tired and a little homesick. My $5 combo meal was just perfect, and Miles woke up at around the next to the last bite and asked for lunch, too.

We were excited to see they are opening a new Cracker Barrell at this end of 192, but sad to see it wasn't open yet. Maybe next time! I am going to look into staying at the Orange Lake resort down this way next trip, there's everything we need here, and it's closest to our drive home up Hwy 27.

Got Miles some fast food drive through, and he munched while we made our way to the Dolphin Hotel for the MegaMouseMeet, the mother of all internet group gatherings. We were late, but we caught up with everyone I wanted to see, including a chance for Miles and Katie to hook up again. They colored for about half an hour together, while I visited and participated in various frivolity with internet friends.

As the room cleared out, Miles and Katie got bolder about running around, until they tried to duck into an unused bar station and play "kitchen" and then it was time to get them out of there. We followed Alicia and Kieth and Katie to their Holiday Inn Family Suites hotel a few minutes away offsite, where alas it was still way too cold to swim, but Katie and Miles had a ball on the bunk beds in Katies room, watching videos and playing with toys. We took them down for a very brief game of minigolf in the hotel's courtyard, and then I had to get Miles out of the cold.

I usually travel with an Annual Pass, but for lots of reasons I decided to let my AP expire this fall, and not get another one. I really, really missed the freedom it gives you though, because of days like today: I had burned a Hopper day off our passes to get into Epcot for just two attractions and a trip to Fountainview this morning, and felt like I had to get us back into a park again or we'd be "wasting" our Hopper.

Magic Kingdom was the only place open late, and though I knew it would be crowded, I figured we'd go see the Spectromagic parade later that evening. We were able to park the van close enough to the parking lot underpass to just walk to the TTC, which always saves some time. Took the monorail over, and yes, it was crowded at the MK tonight! We ended up just riding Snow White, and then seeing Minnie and Mickey's Houses again in Toontown, greeting some more characters in the Tent, then Miles was ready to go. The parade was going to start just way too late tonight for us to make it, the little guy was going to be much better off going to bed early instead.

We rode the train up to the front, and made our way back to the van and to the Animal Kingdom Lodge by 8:00 p.m. I was about $40 ahead on my budget today, thanks to our trip out to the "real world" for lunch, so I sprang for room service, which ended up being so expensive, with so much wasted food, I still cringe when I think of the two more pieces of hand-painted Penzo Zimbabwe dinner ware I could have purchased if I'd just been willing to walk us down to the Mara tonight, to get our food ourselves. But it was good... well, it was o.k. Miles had a big part of a really big grilled cheese sandwich and I had pizza.

Hot baths and some t.v. and a phone call home and we were out by 9:30 p.m. We would have been just trying to leave after Spectromagic, had we stayed in the MK, and as I looked at my little worn out guy, and contemplated my own fatigue, I thought "no way".

I used to go SO "commando" on my vacations, seeing dozens of things every day, getting 6 hours of sleep a night, and this trip there were days where we didn't "do" a whole lot. I'd like to bring Miles back here in the summer next time, so we can swim, swim, swim and really not "do" a whole lot! I'm thinking a week Orange Lake resort, or a private rental house, with maybe three nights at the Polynesian to cap off the trip. If I'm going to do a lot of swimming, I'd rather do it somewhere where it doesn't take 15 minutes to walk to the pool from our room. We stayed at the Perri House Bed and Breakfast for a couple of nights last year, with my parents, and it felt like absolute sinful luxury to not be sharing the place or the pool with 300 other guests. I love the theming at Disney, and the immersion of staying on property, but after a few days I'm ready to have some privacy and some quiet. I think splitting my trip between a private villa and staying a few special nights on-site will be a good compromise for me. If we drag my Anti-Disney husband along for the next trip in '06, he'll *really* appreciate being off site in a private villa or condo, where he can nap and swim and watch cable t.v. and read, his idea of a vacation, and not feel like he's paying a million dollars for the privilege in a Disney resort. We stayed off site in a condo once, at the other, East end of 192 towards Kissimmee, and the traffic congestion really bummed us out, but this West end of 192 is comparably deserted and quiet, so I think that won't be an issue.

 

[dolphinea]

Sunday, December 7

Our last day, and thanks to a very sweet and generous friend, I had two early Christmas present Park Hoppers to use today, and believe it or not, after a whole week here there were still quite a few things on our to-do list we hadn't done yet!

So up, up, little boy, breakfast at Boma with my friend Alison and a trip to the Magic Kingdom are afoot!

Breakfast was great, as usual, but this place is so expensive I can't do it but once per trip. They have lots of the same quality food at the Mara next door, just the atmosphere over there is not to my taste, too much cement and brushed steel. I just can't get my money's worth out of buffets anymore, anyways -- I think I'm ready for the Senior menu, I can't eat even half of what I used to tuck away. So why am I not getting any smaller? Gotta love that modern metabolism.

We all went to the Magic Kingdom to do a couple of attractions with our big internet newsgroup rec.arts.disney.parks crowd, and at the gate I met up with Alicia and Keith and Katie again. Our group of about 43 people got squeezed all onto one Jungle Cruise boat by the skippers, and though I didn't notice it, we almost got stuck from the weight going through the Myanmar "cave" tunnel. It was fun doing that ride with a group!

I spent the rest of the day touring with Alicia and Keith and Katie, Miles was in heaven. We think he and Katie are going to get married someday, but I warned her parents that Miles is already promised to my parents' best friend's sister's little girl in Colorado Springs, CO. Katie and Miles played and chattered and shared and tried to correct eachother's opinions and behavior. Miles is so stubborn, I love watching him run smack up against a four year old girl. Katie won every time, ha ha ha.

We did Pirates, and Pan, and Small World, and Philharmagic, and Pooh, and I don't remember what else, oh, we let the kids play in the Splash Mountain play area and all took turns riding Splash (Katie and Miles are both big enough, but too scared to ride).

I talked Alicia and Keith into eating at Columbia Harbor House, where they had never been, as long as the upstairs dining rooms were open... they were, and we settled into one of my favorite spots at Disney World, the dining room over the walkway between Fantasyland and Liberty Square, and had great salads and chowder and chicken and fish.

Sadly, it was time to say "goodbye". Miles was getting ultra cranky, and I could tell he really needed some down time, and some more cold medicine. We left our friends and went back to the Lodge for some r & r.

Miles fell asleep on the bus, and got about a 15 minute catnap. Back in our room, I did some packing for tomorrow, and we watched the animals a little. After about 90 minutes of down time, I outlined for Miles the things we had remaining on our haven't-done-yet-this-trip list, and Ellen's Energy Adventure at Epcot came out #1. I called to see if there was anything available at the Garden Grill for the Candlelight Processional Dinner package, and there was, if we wanted to eat after 8 p.m. No thanks.

I packed up some extra clothes for when the sun went down in an hour, and drove my own van to Epcot. The parking lot attendees were directing me almost all the way to the far end of one of the back sections, and I thought, no way, so I just got back out on the road and did a loop and reentered the parking lot, and the timing was just right to park at the closest end of the same row to the trams. I'm used to driving here in the evening and being able to continue up to the front sections to fill in spaces departing guests have created. Maybe it's after 5 p.m. they stop manning the parking lot lanes.

We had a good ride at the Energy pavilion, and Miles begged to do Spaceship Earth, but was also hungry. I talked him into a tour of World Showcase as the sun was setting and it was getting really pretty. We got some McDonald's nuggets for Miles and then took the boat over to Morocco, where I treated myself to a lamb shwarma platter, yum yum yum. Miles had a blast exploring all over the Morocco pavilion, it does twist and turn like the alleys of an arab city. To my surprise, he sat down at a Kidcot station and actually got into making a mask! He wanted to color, and hear about the symbol (the Hand of Fatima) the cast member was tying onto it, and wanted to know how to say a couple of phrases in the native tongue. I was pleased to hear the Kidcot stations are open all evening, I don't know if it was just for the holidays, but I thought they closed in the early evening. It was a good surprise.

We went to Japan next, this is a dangerous place for me... I can't seem to go through Mitsukoshi without dropping $100. We did the fantastic new tin toy exhibit, Miles added some more to his mask, and I thought I was getting out of Mitsukoshi with just a bag of (very good) Pokemon fruit gummys for Miles, when I made the mistake of exiting via the rest of the store. Oh my god. Look at these silk jammies. Didn't buy. Oh my god. They have got the coolest purses and sandals, ever. Didn't buy, though it killed me. Oh my god -- It's a whole area with nothing but Hayao Miyazaki "Totoro", "Spirited Away" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" merchandise!!! Cha-ching, they got me. Miles scored a Gigi cat figure from "Kiki's Delivery Service" and I bought myself a car suction cup hanging mini plush of the Catbus from "Totoro", for my van. I wanted the Big Totoro pillow and the mini Totoro plush and the Totoro apron and the Totoro embroidered cotton throw pillow and the...

It was getting late, and cold, and the only things we had left on our to-do list was the Troll ride in Norway and another trip through Spaceship Earth, which Miles had been begging for all day. He also wanted to see Illuminations, but it didn't start until 9:30 tonight, and it was really cold, and he was still sick... at this age, he still can't get the concept of something being 2 hours away, he would have been miserable.

We escaped the trolls, I was sadly too full to eat anything from the Kringla bakery, went through the stave church exhibit where the music was deafeningly loud to the point where Miles had to flee, and we once again learned all about communications thanks to AT & T.

Miles managed to stay awake until we got "home", but was sound asleep by 9:45 p.m. We originally were supposed to host a boat for a group Illuminations cruise, and I was really sorry to have missed it, but it was still very cold, Miles' fever had only completely disappeared 24 hours ago, he was couging alot today, the air was damp and windy, and our bedtime schedule had stayed early for the whole vacation, so once again, I looked at my sleeping guy and imagined we would have been on the Illuminations cruise right now, just starting to return to the dock and drive home, after about 90 minutes out in the cold, and thought "Yup, no way." Alicia and Keith and Katie and Denise and Joe had all offered to take care of our spots and hosting duties yesterday, so no harm done I hope. I would like to take another Illuminations cruise someday, but I am going to stick to warmer months.

 

[dolphinea]

Monday, December 8

I took my time this morning, and didn't vacate my room until I had to at 10 a.m. It was a nice morning, with some bottled iced coffee and my complimentary USA Today newspaper and another gazillion animals off my balcony. I had to put on a sweater over my pj's and wrap up my whole body in a blanket to sit out there, but it was still nice.

I broke down my budget one more notch and did Boma again for breakfast, and ate way too much. Miles did a final tour of Arusha Rock, where his lobby cast member education friend from the other day was hiding a radio-tagged plush of Timon in the bushes and giving the kids a range finder to track it down.

Now it really *was* time to go, and much to my ire, I had to stand in a 20 minute line to pay a small valet parking fee that had been charged to the room -- I didn't want to put any charging privileges on my room keys this trip, as part of my (very successful) campaign to stick to a budget by using only traveler's checks and cash. I wonder if there's a way to get Express checkout without turning your room key into funny money. They really, really need to speed up the front desks at the resorts, they have too many things to tell you and too many brochures, no way the guests are absorbing all that information. They should pick like the three most important things to say and then make it the guest's responsibility to figure out the rest for themselves via t.v.'s and brochures in their rooms.

Loaded up the van and off we went. Miles fell asleep not two minutes out of the park gates, and I didn't stop the van again until we got to Tallahassee almost out of gas. We didn't even get out of the van for dinner, just went through a Wendy's drive-through in Crestview, FL which was in the middle of some serious rush hour traffic at 5 p.m. This used to be woods just two years ago, I swear, and now it's like a major suburb of Pensacola. There's huge mega malls going up all around that exit.

Miles and I had a big singalong from Mobile all the way home, that's about 100 minutes of quality vocal exercise. They say it ain't over until the fat lady sings... We were home at 8:45 p.m., making the total drive time around 9 hours 20 minutes, and no, I wasn't speeding. We were thrilled to see Daddy and he was thrilled to see us, but my very dirty house bummed me out after spending a week in the ultra-spotless Disney resorts. (It's much better now that I've been off work for a week over the Christmas holidays!)


Conclusion

Miles is aware that he's not going back to Walt Disney World until he's 8 years old (maybe 7), though I've seen a couple of things recently that make me go awwwww, like the fact we missed greeting Brother Bear's Koda and Kenai at Camp Minnie Mickey in the Animal Kingdom, and I can't wait to take Miles to see the Stitch makeover of Alien Encounter in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom.

Even with driving instead of flying, and getting great deals on the rooms, and not eating too expensively, and not shopping much, the trip was still well on the heels of $2300 for the two of us for 9 nights. If my husband had come with us, it would have topped $3000. Not exactly chump change for us, so in the interest of not having our home fall down around our ears, we're going to have to cool it for at least the next calendar year. I might go tent camping with some grownup friends, without Miles, for a few days, using a free Hopper I almost qualify for now using Hilton Honors Points, and cooking most of our meals on a camp stove, but that'll be it for 2004. I'm not sure how much of my California Grill/parasailing/spa treatments/etc. wish list will come to pass, we'll see how much it's going to cost to paint the house and repair rotting weatherboard and if our garage doors really do give out this summer like I think they will -- you homeowners know how it goes.

I am thinking about selling our house and buying a cheaper condo, with no repair bills... My husband said Michael Eisner's been calling and leaving messages saying he misses me, and in the background there's Mickey and the gang softly chanting "one of us, one of us, one of us." My husband is a funny man, a funny, funny man.

 

[mecook]

Thanks for writing! I enjoyed your report. Wow! 9 days in WDW!
We were there for 7 nights in October. DH left saying he wouldn't be going back. Oh well! DD (9) and I can't wait to get back there on our own. Melanie

 

[ABCMom]

Great report - thanks for sharing!

 

[IloveDMB]

What a nice trip! Thanks for sharing your special trip with us.