It's 6 months late. But better late than never.
Cast Corey (4th trip), Cathy (7th trip), Madison (1st trip)
Location Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
Date November 30 December 6, 2001
Day One Friday November 30, 2001
The alarm went off at 4:30. We almost had a problem start to the vacation as Corey stumbled into the luggage lying all around the bedroom floor nearly breaking his toe and doing a lot more damage as he stumbled across more suitcases. Cathy and Corey cleaned up and got a little organized before waking Madison at 5:20. After gathering everything up and triple checking that we had everything, we left for the airport at 6:10. We arrived at the airport at 6:15 (we live 2 miles from the airport). Bloomingtons airport is a smaller regional airport so check-in and security were not an issue. Our 7:09 flight for St. Louis left right on time. Our 10:15 St. Louis to Orlando leg boarded on time and all was looking good. Unfortunately, the jetway (the little hall you walk through from the terminal to the actual airplane) broke and couldnt pull away from the plane. So we had a 45 minute wait on the plane before we could take off.
We arrived at Orlando at 1:45 local time a little behind schedule, but still feeling good. Our luggage was one of the first out and we took off for Nationals Emerald Aisle. We had heard of people being able to pick whatever cars they want at EA so we were hoping to snag a minivan even though we only had a reservation for a full-size. A rather aggressive lady working EA pointed me back to the full-size row. There were only 2 or 3 cars available in the full-size lane, and there were more people coming so we grabbed a car, packed up, and headed off for the resort.
We think we might have taken a little bit of a scenic tour on our way to the resort. It took us about 35 minutes to get to the Grand Floridian from the airport. We valet parked (knowing it was a $6/day charge). We tried the self- park lot on our first trip to GF a couple years back and havent done it since. The self park lot is a LONG walk well worth $6/day to us. When we dropped the bags off Cathy requested Lou to bring our bags up. Lou had hopped for us on a previous trip and was a really nice CM, so Cathy wanted him again.
The line for check-in was about 5 deep. The Guest Services desk had been eliminated. So any and all issues had to go through the same desk now. We always thought the Guest Service desk was a nice service because you could take a smaller or less time-consuming issue there versus the time it takes to check in. Our room rate was reserved at the Annual Passholder rate (we didnt need to have the AP when we made the reservation), but the CM did not ask to see our AP. So we went ahead and passed on buying APs and got unlimited magic passes or whatever they call the length of stay passes now.
Bellman Lou met us in the Lobby and took us out to his cart and drove us on a little tour of the GF, pointing out the buildings, the pool, Gasparillas, Narcooses things we knew about, but it is still a nice way to start. During the drive Lou mentioned that the GF was at 95% occupancy the fullest he had seen in a long time (we thought so much for the first week of December being slow). We pulled up to Boca Chica, and went up to our room - #8314. We were in a tower room. These rooms in the GF have an extra little sitting room with a sofa and second TV. Our first impression was that the extra sitting room looked nice have a little extra room than a regular room. But Cathy thought the room was a little dirty and worn looking (glass ring on the table, written notes in our GF book). So Cathy called housekeeping to come do another cleaning while we were gone. We had asked Lou about getting refrigerator (standard dorm size), a crib (the full size crib is better than a Pack n Play, but is about half the size of a regular crib), and a high chair. These items arrived at the room within 10 minutes very speedy.
After settling in the room a little, we headed over to MK around 4:30 (MK was closing at 6:00 for a MVMCP that night). As soon we walked into MK, Donald was greeting over to the left of the entrance hub. Madison absolutely loved him getting real excited for him, grabbing his beak. Donald even tried stealing Madisons stroller so he could take Madison home with him. This was Madisons first character interaction and she was definitely not afraid of the characters. We didnt realize it at the time, but we were about to see how much she liked the characters.
There wasnt a lot of time left before closing, so we thought we would squeeze in just a couple things in Fantasyland. Snow White was a walk on, so we rode Snow White (Madison liked the dwarfs). Dumbo looked to only be a 5 10 minute wait, so Corey took Madison for a ride on Dumbo while Cathy videotaped them. Next, Pooh only had a short wait so we took a ride through the Hundred Acre Wood. It was a little before 6:00, so we thought we would quickly head over to Toontown to see if we could squeeze in a short visit with a few of the characters. We couldnt believe what we walked into. Since it was almost closing time, all of the rooms were open for the 5 or 6 families there to just wander from room to room seeing whomever they wanted. A few of the characters were even moving from room to room seeing some of their friends. Madison was in heaven pointing out character after character to go see. She was honking all of their noses for some reason. We saw Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Cinderella, Perla, Minnie, Pluto, Chip, and Dale. Talk about starting your trip off right!!!
We had a 6:15 PS for Chef Mickeys, and were leaving Toontown right at 6:00. We speedwalked over to the Contemporary, and checked in 5 10 minutes late. We were seated within about 5 minutes. Cathy really liked the food, Corey thought it was just okay (the childrens buffet food was pretty weak). Food highlights included the parmesan potatoes, broasted chicken, and chocolate mousse pie. The ambiance/character interaction was great. Chef Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Chip, and Dale stopped by the table. Chef Goofy was greeting in the main area by the cupcakes. Chef Mickeys rates a definite return for us.
After dinner we strolled through the Contemporary stores (we like the Contemporary stores out of all resort stores weve been through), then rode the monorail back around to the GF for bed. Our first night was a tough one. Madison would not sleep in the crib. Cathy tried nursing Madison to sleep several times without much success. None of us got much sleep that first night.
Day Two Saturday December 1, 2001
We woke up a little after 7:00. We had a 9:30 PS scheduled at 1900 Park Fare. We checked in and were seated right away (skipping Mary Poppins and Tigger outside for the time being). We think the food here is absolutely delicious for a breakfast. In addition to the standard breakfast fare (scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, donut holes) PF also has made to order omelets, grits, and cheesy hashbrowns. The omelet bar is worth the breakfast by itself. Mad Hatter, Alice, and Pooh stopped by the table for a visit. Madison didnt have much interest in Mad Hatter or Alice. But she went wild again for Pooh reaching for Pooh when he was near and grunting for him. We stopped by to see Tigger (and Mary Poppins since she was there) on our way out. This is a great breakfast and character meal, and we will eat breakfast at PF at least once every trip. We tried getting in for another breakfast the last day of our trip, but there werent any seatings available.
We headed over to Epcot (we drove), arriving around 11:00 (Future World opened at 10:00, World Showcase at 12:00). There wasnt really a line for security checks and the guards this day didnt check our bags very thoroughly. It looked like there are a lot of people that dont read the internet or book touring tips there was a very long like for Spaceship Earth. We walked though Innoventions, sending a few e-postcards to friends and family. We had never walked through Ice Station Cool (we had actually never even seen it somehow). We somehow saw Ice Station Cool and decided to walk through. The real snow and the cold environment were pretty neat. We sampled all the drinks. Yes, the Beverly is as bad as everyone says. A few others were okay though.
We walked out of Ice Station Cool to another great surprise. The double decker character caravan bus was pulling up for a character visit. Madison tweaked noses of Minnie, Mickey, Pooh, Baloo, Pinocchio, Gepetto, Daisy, Santa Goofy, and Tigger. I think we got to see everyone except Chip and Dale. Madison was definitely getting spoiled on character interaction at this point.
After the characters packed up to leave, we walked over to Honey I Shrunk the Audience (walked right in). We skipped this attraction last visit (it doesnt rate as an every visit attraction for us). None of the effects or noises affected Madison at all. She just played with a pair of 3-D glasses and ate her Cheerios. After HISTA, it was around 12:30 and time for Madison to have some lunch. So we found a bench under some shade for lunch. Cathy and Corey took turns going to the bathroom and getting a drink. We finally found a talking water fountain. It was somewhere behind Innoventions. We also liked the water it is nice and cold. The coldness of the water at WDW seems to affect the petroleum taste for us (the colder the water the more drinkable).
After Madison was done eating we walked through some shops, heading back towards World Showcase. We found another talking water fountain, but didnt note where the second one was. As we made it to World Showcase, Madison actually fell asleep in her stroller. This was a big event for us because Madison had never really napped anywhere except in her crib at home and in her car seat (and even more so with the small amount of sleep we all got the night before). Madison napped for an hour as Cathy and Corey walked through WS and some of the shops. We were really surprised with as much that there was in WS. We had been to WDW a few other times, but hardly spent any time in WS. We had walked through a couple of times in previous trips, but somehow missed most of what is in WS.
We had beavertails in Canada on our list of foods to eat. But along the way we stopped in the Kringla Bakery in Norway and were very tempted with their goodies. Once we made our way around to Canada (we toured WS clockise), we checked out where Le Cellier was since we had a Candlelight Processional dinner scheduled for Tuesday night and shared a beavertail. We tried the cinnamon and sugar. We thought it was okay, but didnt think it was as good as some people tend to talk up. Being from the midwest, it tasted like the doughy part of an elephant ear.
On our way out of the park we stopped through the other Innoventions and sent an e-video to a friend and got our picture taken and printed on a little calendar thing. This picture is really a pretty nice picture/souvenier (its free, by the way). We walked through MouseGears (this is really a big store and worth shopping in). And before we left we took a ride through Spaceship Earth since it was early afternoon and the line was small.
We were back at GF around 4:30, and ordered a pizza from Gasparilla Grill. Madison got some playing time in around the room while waiting on the pizza. Cathy really likes this pizza, and Corey used to like it more than he did this time. The crust seemed a little different than before. But it was still okay. Cathy will want it again next trip, Corey would probably pass but will get it since Cathy likes it.
We finished up around 5:30 and hopped the monorail over to MK for a 6:00 Spectromagic and 7:00 Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks (this was the only night scheduled for these during our trip). MK was pretty packed the curbs were already several people deep for the parade. We stopped to watch the parade at the Main Street hub by the train station right at the entrance, Corey taped the parade. After Spectro, we walked up Main Street and found a spot at the hub in front of Cinderellas Castle just off to the Tommorrow Land side so we would have an unobstructed view of Tink flying down, and watch the fireworks backdropped on the castle.
After the fireworks a lot of people left the park, but it wasnt closing until 8:00. So we thought we had time for an attraction or two. We checked on the Tiki Room, but the showings for the day were over. Pirates of the Carribean was a walk on, and since this is one of Cathys favorites we rode it. After Pirates we walked by Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain (lines seemed too long, especially with us having to baby swap). But the Haunted Mansion wasnt closed yet, and had no line, so we did it. It was about closing time now, and hopefully time for Madison to go to bed so we headed back to GF for the night.
We always take the boat back for our return to GF from MK because GF is the first stop (the route is MK to GF to Poly to MK). For some reason though, this was the first and only time we have ever had the boat go to the Poly first. So the trip seemed to take 3 times as long as it usually does. Madison fell asleep on the boat ride back to GF. So we were hopeful for a good nights sleep. Madison fell asleep and went to her crib around 9:00. We were in need of some groceries, so Corey made a venture to Goodings for some milk, baby food, and baby snacks. He got lost on the way he took a wrong turn somewhere because the signs to get to Marketplace werent as good in the dark as he remembered. He didnt make it back to the room until around 10:30. In between, Madison had woken up around 10:00 and needed to be nursed back to sleep a second time. But that was the last wakeup for the night (thank goodness).
Day Three Sunday December 2, 2001
We got up a little earlier today since we had an 8:00 PS at Cinderellas Royal Table for breakfast. So we were up at 6:30, and Mickey called to make sure we were awake at 7:02. Madison woke up right after Mickey called. We got ready and left for the room at 7:50.
We were at MK security at 8:00 (it is so nice being able to be in MK in about 10 minutes). Since MK wasnt opening until 9:00, and most of the 8:00 PS people were already at their restaurants we had Main Street all to ourselves. It was a little strange feeling walking down Main Street with no one else there. One of the Main Street photographers was already out, so we had our traditional Main Street picture taken.
We finally checked in at the castle around 8:15 (15 minutes late from the time we took walking up Main Street). They didnt call our names since no one was there waiting (we had heard they call out your names old style when seating you at the castle). We were seated right away but up in the next PS round section. We were brought a basket of croissants and chocolate muffins and some fruit. Corey thought the chocolate muffins were real good and ate both of them. We had the traditional breakfast of stuffed french toast (Cathy really liked it thought it was kind of like a deep fried apple fritter). The eggs were a little runny, which Cathy prefers but Corey likes his dry. The sausage and bacon were a little underdone for our tastes too. Were pretty hearty eaters, so both Cathy and Corey had seconds. After we were done eating, the princesses came by for a visit. Madison saw Mary Poppins, Alice, Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White. Snow White was Madisons favorite she gave Madison a kiss that left a lipstick mark on Madisons temple.
We were finished at 9:10. The lobby area was a madhouse at that time. Cathy thought she heard a couple people arguing that were about to come to blows. We snaked our way out as fast as we could to hit the rides before MK got busy. First up was another ride in Dumbo this time Cathy rode with Madison while Corey videotaped them. We all rode the carousel (walk on), then Peter Pan (5 minute wait), and Small World (walk on). We decided to move on out of Fantasy Land. We had just missed a Tiki Birds showing, so we tried Splash Mountain (walk on). This was our first attempt at using the baby swap process. The process had changed from what it used to be before Fastpass. Now the CM gave us a Fastpass for the second person to use instead of going back through the exit like before. After Splash, we walked on to Jungle Cruise, then caught a Tiki showing. Madison got a little fussy during Tiki Birds so we left a little early.
It was around 11:45 after Tiki Birds (quite a bit accomplished in 2 ½ hours), so we walked over to the castle hub for Madisons lunch while we waited for a 12:30 showing of Cinderellas Castle Forecourt show. We had a pretty nice space staked out since we were there so early. Right before the show started some woman started crowding my space and nudging her way in. During the show, the woman sat down and actually sat on my foot for several minutes (I was standing on the bench-thing videotaping the show).
After Cinderellas show a bunch of characters came out for pictures and autographs (seemed like B characters none that we were that interested in). So we walked over to check out the baby station to change Madisons diaper and give her some time to crawl around some. We spent around 30 minutes in the baby station it was a nice break. Shortly after the baby station stop Madison fell asleep in her stroller (we were so thankful for her taking naps in her stroller). We didnt want to disturb Madisons nap, so we walked over to Tomorrowland to get Fastpasses for Space Mountain (1 hour return time). Since we had an hour to burn, we walked up Main Street to Exposition Hall to pick up our Main Street picture and check out some of the 100 Years attractions.
On our way back to cash in our Space Mountain Fastpasses we picked up Fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear. Corey rode Space Mountain first, then Cathy rode. This was the first time weve rode on the left queue track. In the past we would always ride first thing during early entry and the right side was all that was ever open. After Space Mountain it was time for our Buzz Lightyear Fastpasses. Corey had 178,000, Cathy had 58,000 (Cathy had Madisons assistance).
After Buzz, we walked to the Castle hub to see if we could watch the new 100 Years parade. The hub was packed though. Corey tried to get close to tape the parade over the crowd (probably 6 or 7 deep), while Madison and Cathy watched from further back. After the parade, Legend of the Lion King was about to start, so we watched it since we had skipped it last trip. After Lion King, we walked over to Frontierland to ride Aladdin (we werent real impressed thought they could have done better with a new ride than a regurgitated Dumbo). We wrapped things up in the Magic Kingdom with watching the Country Bears doing their Christmas show.
We took the boat back to the GF for our dinner at 1900 Park Fare. We checked in at 5:45 and were seated at 6:05. We spent some of that 20 minutes visiting and coloring with Piglet, who was sitting out in the lobby area. In the restaurant all of the characters (Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore) were great and came by more than once. Tigger and Eeyore even put on a show with Tigger attacking and wrestling with Eeyore, Tigger pulling a hair clip out of a womans hair, and Tigger throwing rolls at people. The food was a little disappointing though. Cathy thought most of the adult food was missing taste and Corey thought the childrens buffet wasnt in very good shape either (no pizza, chicken fingers were hard and didnt have much chicken in them, and even the hamburgers were lacking). Even the desserts, which were always a highlight before, seemed to be missing the quality and taste from previous visits. We liked the strawberry soup, the brownies, some raspberry cake-ish thing, the vanilla cupcakes, and the fudge wasnt bad. But we thought the bread pudding, apple crisp, rice krispie treat, chocolate cookie, key lime torte, and cheesecake torte werent very good at all. We still liked the atmosphere of PF, and the characters were great, but the food will probably have us skip the PF dinner next time.
After dinner (7:00) we went back to the room for some playtime and a bath for Madison. Madison fell asleep at 8:00. So Cathy showered and Corey went to Marketplace to do some birthday week shopping for Cathy. Corey got back to the room from his shopping around 10:30 and Corey and Cathy went to bed around 11:00. Unfortunately, since Madison had slept well the night before this was her off night for not sleeping through the night. So Madison awoke at 3:15, and stayed awake being fussy at everything until 5:30. She fell back asleep then until 7:15 awaking for the day.
Day Four Monday December 3, 2001
Two nights of poor sleep, even with a good night in between, were getting to us all. So there was quite a bit of stress for the Vails. Corey and Madison thought it would be a good idea to give Cathy some alone time, so they went over the Magic Kingdom around 10:00. The security lines were long and there were not any no-bag checking lines to zip through this morning. Corey and Madison stopped by ??? to pick up a birthday button for Cathy since her birthday was the next day and we were going to Animal Kingdom first thing and wouldnt be able to get her a birthday button until later. Then Corey and Madison walked over the Main Street Confectionery to buy some fudge for Cathy for a birthday week gift. On the way out of the park Madison and Corey stopped in Exposition Hall to send Cathy some birthday week e-cards. For some reason the main monorails were not running, so everyone was riding the resort monorails. Since Corey and Madison were trying to burn some time they rode the monorail back to the GF (20 minutes).
We all took off for MGM around 11:00 a pretty late start of the day for us. On our way to the park Corey and Madison gave Cathy her birthday week gift for day one of birthday week a green Mickey t-shirt, to try cheering her up some and setting the mood right for the park. As soon as we entered the park we saw Capn Hook and Jesse. Cathy and Madison visited and got pictures and autographs from Hook, but passed on Jesse.
We walked back to Rock n Roller Coaster it was a walk-on (same thing with the baby swap as Splash Mountain using Fastpasses). Both Cathy and Corey really like this ride especially the take off at the beginning. Madison fell asleep in her stroller, so we just walked around for a while. Madison woke up at 1:00 right at the time we saw a bunch of characters doing a greeting. Madison got pictures and autographs with Bashful, Doc, Sneezy, Sleepy, Rafiki, Meeko, and Mushu.
We hadnt eaten lunch yet, so we checked on Sci Fi (we had never eaten here and were interested in trying it) to see how long the wait would be for burger and shake. Sci Fi was pretty busy though, so we passed and Corey and Cathy each had a Mickey bar while feeding Madison her lunch. After lunch we walked around Hollywood Boulevard. They were taping episodes of Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Regis, and asked us if we wanted to sit in the studio audience as we walked by. We passed since you couldnt take children in. It looked like a lot of people had purchased the Millionaire package, and didnt need to based on our experience. Just down from WWTBAM, Sorcerer Mickey was greeting visitors in a little theatre. So we stopped in for a visit, picture, and autograph. Playhouse Disney was just getting ready to start the 2:10 show, so we stopped in to see how Madison would like it. She was okay with it but not super interested. We couldnt see Beauty and the Beast or play Millionaire because those two attractions were only operating on Tuesday 12/4 this week.
We tried watching the Stars and Motorcars Parade, but again we were late or picked the wrong spot and were at least 7 people deep. When some rude guy stepped directly in front of us with his kid on his shoulders we gave up on the parade. Now we understand wanting your child to have a memorable trip and all. But that effort shouldnt include being rude and infringing on others enjoyment. Off the soap box now.
Since we didnt have anything really to do on the schedule, we went to the baby station for a diaper change. MGMs diaper changing station wasnt near as nice as Magic Kingdoms. There wasnt a play area in MGMs. So it was pretty much a diaper change and out. We walked through some shops, looking at the merchandise. We still had some time to go before our 4:10 Fantasmic PS at Mama Melroses. So we watch MuppetVision 3D. Cathy and Corey really like this attraction, especially the intro before you go into the theatre.
After Muppetvision, we checked in at Mama Melroses at 4:10. We were not seated until 4:35 4:40 though. We were a little irritated, because they knew we were on the Fantasmic dinner and the show started at 6:00. So we had to hurry through dinner and not really take our time and enjoy things as much as we would have liked. Our server was very understanding of our time crunch and moved things through very quickly. We shared a marsala chicken dinner and pepperoni pizza. We both thought the chicken was very good. Cathy really liked the pizza, but Corey wasnt as much of a fan with the flatbread style. Overall we liked Mama Melrose and will return on a future trip.
With as fast as we ate and as fast as we walk, we checked in at Fantasmic at 5:25. Even with a stroller, we can still move at least twice as fast as traffic. And no, we dont knick any heels either. We sat in the Ursula section, at the end of the row furthest from the middle. We thought the seats were fine though and the seats would definitely not stop us from doing the Fantasmic dinner again. Being able to show up half an hour before show time and having this good of seats is definitely worth eating a dinner at a restaurant we like anyway with no additional cost.
After Fantasmic, there was just enough time for a stroll through the Osbourne Lights. The 3-D glasses they give out for the lights to turn into snow flakes didnt do anything for us. Madison fell asleep in her stroller on the way out of the park a little after 7:00. We got back to the room around 8:00 for some playing and then put Madison to bed.
Corey rode the Monorail over to the Contemporary because he thought he had seen some things in their stores that he didnt see at Marketplace. Corey was mistaken though. So his trip was for naught. Except that on the way back around to the GF, there was an awesome fireworks show going on over the Seven Seas Lagoon. The monorail was having some problems, so the driver opened the doors at the TTC and let everyone get out to watch. He actually waited to take back off until the fireworks were over.
On the way to the room Corey picked up the picture we had taken on Main Street Sunday morning at the Sandy Cove shop. Disney used to deliver packages to your room. Now they deliver them to a main area at each resort and the guest goes to pick the package up. Its still a good benefit to use though better than carrying stuff around with you all day. Corey and Cathy hit bed at 10:30.
Day 5 Tuesday December 4, 2001 (Cathys birthday)
The alarm was set for 6:15 since we had an 8:00 PS at Donalds Breakfasaurus. Madison awoke at 6:55 and we headed to Animal Kingdom at 7:35. We arrived at the gate at 7:50, with about 6 or 7 families ahead of us. Just inside the gate, we had to check in at a table set up to the far right. They called about 10 families to take back to Donalds. We had read on the internet that the first family seated received a special treat. So we were maneuvering the entire walk back to make sure we would be the first to check in. Unfortunately, the first family special event wasnt happening this morning.
The CM saw Cathys birthday button and brought her a birthday card signed by the characters and had the restaurant join in singing happy birthday to her. The food was excellent. In addition to the standard buffet foods of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes Donalds also had a delicious breakfast pizza, some kind of omelet dish, and Krispy Kreme donuts. Cathy thought the donuts were delicious. But Corey has had fairly fresh glazed KKs and these werent as good as the fresh ones. But they were still good. Mickey, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy visited with Mickey and Pluto stopping by twice. Overall, we thought Donalds was great both the food and character interaction. Donalds will definitely be visited again.
We finished eating around 9:00 (park opening). We took the first ride of the day on Triceratop Spin (kind of like Dumbo again). After Triceratop Cathy rode Dinosaur since we were already back in Dinoland. The ride wasnt working at first, so Cathy had a 15 minute wait with no one in line. After Dinosaur we thought we would walk over to Africa to pick up some Safari Fastpasses. On our way a CM asked us to come back for a character greeting that we didnt even know existed. Eeyore, Piglet, and Pooh were back in a nook doing a greeting. This little hidden gem was a nice surprise.
We made it over to Africa around 10:00 and got Fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris with a return time of 10:55 11:55. With an hour to burn we walked through the Pangori Gorilla Trail. And then jotted over to Asia for a walk through the Majaraja Jungle Trek. While over in Asia though we noticed that Kali River Rapids was a walk-on. Corey rode first, and was fortunate not to be in the wet seat. Cathy then rode through twice in a row, and was soaked when she got off. We still had some time before the end of our Fastpass window so we did the walk though the Jungle Trek.
Back over in Africa, Corey rode the Safari first at about 11:25. Cathy rode second, finishing up just before noon. Madison was good enough to nap from 11:00 12:30 to pass the time. We thought we were done with AK for the day, so we started our way out of the park. On the way out we decided to check out Camp Minnie & Mickey since we had never gone back to this area in past trips. The place was bare. We went back and forth on multiple visits with Daisy, Minnie, Brer Bear, Brer Rabbit, and Mickey. Madison had to be getting spoiled with as much character interaction she had been getting.
We took off from AK to head back to GF around 1:00. On our drive back we noticed there was only about 4 or 5 people in line for Summit Plummet at Blizzard Beach. It wasnt what we would consider water park temperature probably in the mid 70s. Back at the resort Madison ate lunch and watched one of the WDW world channels on TV. Cathy had a slice of leftover pizza and Corey ate half a slice since he wasnt very hungry. After lunch Madison and Corey gave Cathy her birthday gifts. Cathy got the fudge Madison and Corey had bought the day before, a 100 Years t-shirt, and an etched Minnie crystal bell.
We left for Epcot at 3:00, barely remembering to stop by the GF desk to pick up our Candlelight Processional vouchers. We valet parked at the Boardwalk and walked over to Epcot and entered through the International Gateway, which wasnt busy at all. Since we had an hour or so before our Le Cellier PS we stopped in one of the shops situated between Future World and World Showcase and bought Madison a Pooh and friends stocking hanger, a pressed penny souvenier book, and a My 1st Pooh t-shirt for Madison.
We checked in at Le Cellier at 4:10 and were seated in about 10 minutes. Le Cellier had some pretty cool pagers to notify you when they were ready to seat you. The pagers had options to review the restaurants desserts, watch a preview for Monsters, Inc (I think), and a couple other things. We were pretty impressed with this concept and would like to see Disney continue this pilot at other restaurants. We thought the food was okay. The pretzel bread was fantstic as many had noted. The cheese soup didnt impress us though. Corey had never eaten cheese soup before, and Cathy wasnt expecting so much of a cheddar taste. For the main entrée, we each had the filet and potatoes. Cathys steak was a little overdone for her though. And the steak quality didnt overly impress either of us we thought it tasted just like regular steak. For dessert we shared a fruit cobbler and the chocolate cake. Both of the desserts were very good. Overall, we thought Le Cellier was just okay. The food wasnt overly special (outside of the pretzel bread and maybe the chocolate cake), and the atmosphere was a little dark for us. We might go back to Le Cellier again. But its not a must for us.
We finished dinner at 5:45, assuming we had plenty of time before our 6:45 Candlelight Processional show. Corey wasnt feeling very well after dinner. His back and knee were hurting and he had eaten too much and had a little indigestion. When we got to the America Gardens theatre the line for the dinner packages was already long and the people were just starting to be seated. So we hopped in line, and sat about 4 rows back in the open air portion of the theatre. It looked like walk-ups were not having trouble finding a place to sit. So this night it didnt look like you would need the dinner package or line up for the general seating two hours early to get a seat. We thought the show was great and the dinner package made things less stressful for us. So we would do the dinner package again.
Madison had fallen asleep ¾ of the way through the show. We were able to get her into her stroller without waking her. Since we didnt want to wake Madison, we slowly strolled around World Showcase back to Future World to do some shopping at MouseGears with our 15% CP discount. At MouseGears we exchanged sizes on a couple t-shirts for Cathy and bought a few gifts for family (a Mickey bib for Madison, a Mickey watch for Corey, a Pooh ornament for a niece, and a few other things). We finished checking out at 9:45 just in time to fight the Illuminations crowd that was trying to get out of the park since the show just finished. It was quite an event crossing that crowd since we needed to exit at International Gateway to get over to the Boardwalk to pick up our car.
We were back in our room at 10:30. Madison stayed awake playing until midnight since she had had such a good nap earlier in the evening.
Day 6 Wednesday December 5, 2001
Madison woke up at 5:30 not what we were wanting having been up until midnight. Luckily she fell back asleep at 6:15, but was up then again for good at 8:00. We had a PS for Chef Mickeys at 9:30. But Corey still wasnt feeling right so we skipped. Since our plans had changed, we just sat around the room trying to figure out what to do. We decided to complete our souvenier shopping and start the day off at Downtown Disney, leaving at 10:00. We usually try to do almost all of our shopping the last day or day before at Marketplace taking advantage of our 10% Disney Club discount. Since we were shopping over the lunch hour, we thought we needed a little something to eat. We checked out the offerings at the deli shop and had a piece of the best chocolate cake either one of us has ever eaten.
On our way back to the resort we noticed that Madison had fallen asleep. We remembered seeing a My first WDW t-shirt in Animal Kingdom in Madisons size (a 12 or 18 month instead of the 2, 3, and 4T sizes we saw at World of Disney). So we swung by AK and Corey ran in the park to buy the t-shirt. The only problem was that the t-shirts in the AK shop were 2T also. Corey went ahead and bought it anyway so Madison also has a souveneir shirt to grow into. Madison was still taking a nap, and we didnt want to disturb her. So we stopped off at the Contemporary on the way back where Cathy bought a postcard that carries the picture like the one on the new Disney Club cards.
Back at the resort, we all had lunch (Cathy and Corey finished off Madisons baloney that Madison stopped eating during the trip). After lunch we tried out the new theme pool. The water was a little cool for Corey (hes kind of a wimp). But Cathy and Madison had a lot of fun swimming and Cathy even tried the slide and liked it.
After the pool, we hopped over to MK around 4:00 for a couple of hours. We watched the new Hall of Presidents show with GW (were still amazed how lifelike the show is). We had reservations for Portobello (we have never been to Portobello), but decided to just eat small in MK at Pecos Bills. Corey really liked the double cheeseburger and fries (all made with the fixins bar). Cathy thought it was okay pretty much just a burger and fries.
After eating it was almost closing time. So we thought we would try Toon Town in hopes of lucking out like we did our first night when we bounced from room to room seeing all the characters. On our walk over we ran into the Queen of Hearts and Governor Radcliffe greeting in Fantasyland (we just missed Frollo). We didnt have quite the same luck in Toon Town as our first night. Though we did still see Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore, Minnie, Chip, and Dale. Madison had a blast grabbing all their noses again.
On our way out of the park we took a few pictures of the castle, Christmas tree, and Main Street at night. We needed a dessert since we had eaten a pretty light dinner. So we shared an ice cream cookie sandwich from the Main Street bakery on our way out. It was soooooo good. We will definitely have one of these on our next trip.
We were back in our room at 6:45. Madison was asleep at 7:30. We spent the evening organizing everything and packing up what we could before the morning. There was another awesome fireworks show going on over the lagoon again. So Cathy ran down around 9:00 to watch. We finished packing around 11:00, and Madison woke up at 11:15. Luckily Madison fell back to sleep in 30 45 minutes.
Day 7 December 6, 2001 (our last day)
The alarm was set for 7:00, but we woke up a few minutes before 7:00. Madison woke around 7:20, giving us a little time to get ready for the day. After getting ready for the day we finished packing our bath supplies and were all ready to go. We were out the door at 8:30 for an 8:50 PS at Crystal Palace. Thursday must have been a Character Caravan day for GF. We saw Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, and Goofy mulling around the lobby. We didnt have time to stop though.
There was no line for security at MK. Regis and Kelly were setting up for a taping at the MK entrance hub. We checked in at Crystal Palace and were seated within 5 minutes. Once seated, Corey was going to get food everyone in case Madison would get a little fussy with her mommy gone. The buffet line was LONG! The buffet had the standard breakfast items of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage as well as a puffed french toast, grits, a breakfast lasagna, and cheesy potatoes. CP also had some donut holes, muffins, and some amazing jelly roll cake that we ate 3 or 4 pieces of. Tigger, Pooh, and Eeyore stopped by to visit. Tigger was pretty playful taking Madisons cup and reading Madisons Disney Catalog with her (Madison pointed Tigger out in the catalog). Overall, Corey wasnt overly impressed with CP but will return, Cathy liked it more and would definitely return.
We finished around 9:50 and started walking over to Fantasyland for a ride on Pooh before we had to leave. CMs were setting up for something, so we stopped a CM and asked what was going on. The CM said they were taping the Christmas parade at 10:00 and 12:00 (we now understood what Regis and Kelly were set up for). Since the parade showing wasnt announced and it was a Thursday morning, there was no one sitting at the castle hub just 10 minutes before the parade started. We had a front row seat for a showing of the parade (only time it ran during a non MVMCP time until around the 17th). Madison really enjoyed seeing all the characters again.
After the parade finished we had a little time before we needed to head back to the GF to check out and leave for the airport. We strolled through the Main Street shops, looking for a Magic Kingdom Mickey pressed penny (we had gotten the other parks Mickey pressed pennies on other days). After walking through all the shops and not finding the machine, we settled for a Cinderellas Castle pressed penny. 30 seconds after getting the castle penny Corey saw the machine for the Mickey penny. The machine was broken though.
Before leaving Corey stopped in at the ice cream shop on Main Street for his traditional trip ending chocolate ice cream cone (the shop didnt open until 11:00). Cathy passed on hers still full from breakfast). We saw Regis and Kelly again on our way out, catching a boat back to the GF at 11:15. We called for bell services back in the room, and a bellman was at our room at 11:45. We left our home away from home at 12:15.
We arrived at MCO around 12:45 for our 2:35 flight. There was a very long line for check-in so we tried the self service check-in. The self service check-in didnt work for us since we had e-tickets. But an agent helped us with the check-in, so we avoided the long line. We were a little concerned when our seat assignments printed out with none of the three seats together (not a good thing with a 15 month old). The agent said she could not pull three seats together, but to mention the situation to the gate agent and they would take care of us. The gate agent did just that, working a few seat assignments and putting the three of us together. Our flight to St Louis took off right on time at 2:35 vacation over.
Cast Corey (4th trip), Cathy (7th trip), Madison (1st trip)
Location Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
Date November 30 December 6, 2001
Day One Friday November 30, 2001
The alarm went off at 4:30. We almost had a problem start to the vacation as Corey stumbled into the luggage lying all around the bedroom floor nearly breaking his toe and doing a lot more damage as he stumbled across more suitcases. Cathy and Corey cleaned up and got a little organized before waking Madison at 5:20. After gathering everything up and triple checking that we had everything, we left for the airport at 6:10. We arrived at the airport at 6:15 (we live 2 miles from the airport). Bloomingtons airport is a smaller regional airport so check-in and security were not an issue. Our 7:09 flight for St. Louis left right on time. Our 10:15 St. Louis to Orlando leg boarded on time and all was looking good. Unfortunately, the jetway (the little hall you walk through from the terminal to the actual airplane) broke and couldnt pull away from the plane. So we had a 45 minute wait on the plane before we could take off.
We arrived at Orlando at 1:45 local time a little behind schedule, but still feeling good. Our luggage was one of the first out and we took off for Nationals Emerald Aisle. We had heard of people being able to pick whatever cars they want at EA so we were hoping to snag a minivan even though we only had a reservation for a full-size. A rather aggressive lady working EA pointed me back to the full-size row. There were only 2 or 3 cars available in the full-size lane, and there were more people coming so we grabbed a car, packed up, and headed off for the resort.
We think we might have taken a little bit of a scenic tour on our way to the resort. It took us about 35 minutes to get to the Grand Floridian from the airport. We valet parked (knowing it was a $6/day charge). We tried the self- park lot on our first trip to GF a couple years back and havent done it since. The self park lot is a LONG walk well worth $6/day to us. When we dropped the bags off Cathy requested Lou to bring our bags up. Lou had hopped for us on a previous trip and was a really nice CM, so Cathy wanted him again.
The line for check-in was about 5 deep. The Guest Services desk had been eliminated. So any and all issues had to go through the same desk now. We always thought the Guest Service desk was a nice service because you could take a smaller or less time-consuming issue there versus the time it takes to check in. Our room rate was reserved at the Annual Passholder rate (we didnt need to have the AP when we made the reservation), but the CM did not ask to see our AP. So we went ahead and passed on buying APs and got unlimited magic passes or whatever they call the length of stay passes now.
Bellman Lou met us in the Lobby and took us out to his cart and drove us on a little tour of the GF, pointing out the buildings, the pool, Gasparillas, Narcooses things we knew about, but it is still a nice way to start. During the drive Lou mentioned that the GF was at 95% occupancy the fullest he had seen in a long time (we thought so much for the first week of December being slow). We pulled up to Boca Chica, and went up to our room - #8314. We were in a tower room. These rooms in the GF have an extra little sitting room with a sofa and second TV. Our first impression was that the extra sitting room looked nice have a little extra room than a regular room. But Cathy thought the room was a little dirty and worn looking (glass ring on the table, written notes in our GF book). So Cathy called housekeeping to come do another cleaning while we were gone. We had asked Lou about getting refrigerator (standard dorm size), a crib (the full size crib is better than a Pack n Play, but is about half the size of a regular crib), and a high chair. These items arrived at the room within 10 minutes very speedy.
After settling in the room a little, we headed over to MK around 4:30 (MK was closing at 6:00 for a MVMCP that night). As soon we walked into MK, Donald was greeting over to the left of the entrance hub. Madison absolutely loved him getting real excited for him, grabbing his beak. Donald even tried stealing Madisons stroller so he could take Madison home with him. This was Madisons first character interaction and she was definitely not afraid of the characters. We didnt realize it at the time, but we were about to see how much she liked the characters.
There wasnt a lot of time left before closing, so we thought we would squeeze in just a couple things in Fantasyland. Snow White was a walk on, so we rode Snow White (Madison liked the dwarfs). Dumbo looked to only be a 5 10 minute wait, so Corey took Madison for a ride on Dumbo while Cathy videotaped them. Next, Pooh only had a short wait so we took a ride through the Hundred Acre Wood. It was a little before 6:00, so we thought we would quickly head over to Toontown to see if we could squeeze in a short visit with a few of the characters. We couldnt believe what we walked into. Since it was almost closing time, all of the rooms were open for the 5 or 6 families there to just wander from room to room seeing whomever they wanted. A few of the characters were even moving from room to room seeing some of their friends. Madison was in heaven pointing out character after character to go see. She was honking all of their noses for some reason. We saw Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Cinderella, Perla, Minnie, Pluto, Chip, and Dale. Talk about starting your trip off right!!!
We had a 6:15 PS for Chef Mickeys, and were leaving Toontown right at 6:00. We speedwalked over to the Contemporary, and checked in 5 10 minutes late. We were seated within about 5 minutes. Cathy really liked the food, Corey thought it was just okay (the childrens buffet food was pretty weak). Food highlights included the parmesan potatoes, broasted chicken, and chocolate mousse pie. The ambiance/character interaction was great. Chef Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Chip, and Dale stopped by the table. Chef Goofy was greeting in the main area by the cupcakes. Chef Mickeys rates a definite return for us.
After dinner we strolled through the Contemporary stores (we like the Contemporary stores out of all resort stores weve been through), then rode the monorail back around to the GF for bed. Our first night was a tough one. Madison would not sleep in the crib. Cathy tried nursing Madison to sleep several times without much success. None of us got much sleep that first night.
Day Two Saturday December 1, 2001
We woke up a little after 7:00. We had a 9:30 PS scheduled at 1900 Park Fare. We checked in and were seated right away (skipping Mary Poppins and Tigger outside for the time being). We think the food here is absolutely delicious for a breakfast. In addition to the standard breakfast fare (scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, donut holes) PF also has made to order omelets, grits, and cheesy hashbrowns. The omelet bar is worth the breakfast by itself. Mad Hatter, Alice, and Pooh stopped by the table for a visit. Madison didnt have much interest in Mad Hatter or Alice. But she went wild again for Pooh reaching for Pooh when he was near and grunting for him. We stopped by to see Tigger (and Mary Poppins since she was there) on our way out. This is a great breakfast and character meal, and we will eat breakfast at PF at least once every trip. We tried getting in for another breakfast the last day of our trip, but there werent any seatings available.
We headed over to Epcot (we drove), arriving around 11:00 (Future World opened at 10:00, World Showcase at 12:00). There wasnt really a line for security checks and the guards this day didnt check our bags very thoroughly. It looked like there are a lot of people that dont read the internet or book touring tips there was a very long like for Spaceship Earth. We walked though Innoventions, sending a few e-postcards to friends and family. We had never walked through Ice Station Cool (we had actually never even seen it somehow). We somehow saw Ice Station Cool and decided to walk through. The real snow and the cold environment were pretty neat. We sampled all the drinks. Yes, the Beverly is as bad as everyone says. A few others were okay though.
We walked out of Ice Station Cool to another great surprise. The double decker character caravan bus was pulling up for a character visit. Madison tweaked noses of Minnie, Mickey, Pooh, Baloo, Pinocchio, Gepetto, Daisy, Santa Goofy, and Tigger. I think we got to see everyone except Chip and Dale. Madison was definitely getting spoiled on character interaction at this point.
After the characters packed up to leave, we walked over to Honey I Shrunk the Audience (walked right in). We skipped this attraction last visit (it doesnt rate as an every visit attraction for us). None of the effects or noises affected Madison at all. She just played with a pair of 3-D glasses and ate her Cheerios. After HISTA, it was around 12:30 and time for Madison to have some lunch. So we found a bench under some shade for lunch. Cathy and Corey took turns going to the bathroom and getting a drink. We finally found a talking water fountain. It was somewhere behind Innoventions. We also liked the water it is nice and cold. The coldness of the water at WDW seems to affect the petroleum taste for us (the colder the water the more drinkable).
After Madison was done eating we walked through some shops, heading back towards World Showcase. We found another talking water fountain, but didnt note where the second one was. As we made it to World Showcase, Madison actually fell asleep in her stroller. This was a big event for us because Madison had never really napped anywhere except in her crib at home and in her car seat (and even more so with the small amount of sleep we all got the night before). Madison napped for an hour as Cathy and Corey walked through WS and some of the shops. We were really surprised with as much that there was in WS. We had been to WDW a few other times, but hardly spent any time in WS. We had walked through a couple of times in previous trips, but somehow missed most of what is in WS.
We had beavertails in Canada on our list of foods to eat. But along the way we stopped in the Kringla Bakery in Norway and were very tempted with their goodies. Once we made our way around to Canada (we toured WS clockise), we checked out where Le Cellier was since we had a Candlelight Processional dinner scheduled for Tuesday night and shared a beavertail. We tried the cinnamon and sugar. We thought it was okay, but didnt think it was as good as some people tend to talk up. Being from the midwest, it tasted like the doughy part of an elephant ear.
On our way out of the park we stopped through the other Innoventions and sent an e-video to a friend and got our picture taken and printed on a little calendar thing. This picture is really a pretty nice picture/souvenier (its free, by the way). We walked through MouseGears (this is really a big store and worth shopping in). And before we left we took a ride through Spaceship Earth since it was early afternoon and the line was small.
We were back at GF around 4:30, and ordered a pizza from Gasparilla Grill. Madison got some playing time in around the room while waiting on the pizza. Cathy really likes this pizza, and Corey used to like it more than he did this time. The crust seemed a little different than before. But it was still okay. Cathy will want it again next trip, Corey would probably pass but will get it since Cathy likes it.
We finished up around 5:30 and hopped the monorail over to MK for a 6:00 Spectromagic and 7:00 Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks (this was the only night scheduled for these during our trip). MK was pretty packed the curbs were already several people deep for the parade. We stopped to watch the parade at the Main Street hub by the train station right at the entrance, Corey taped the parade. After Spectro, we walked up Main Street and found a spot at the hub in front of Cinderellas Castle just off to the Tommorrow Land side so we would have an unobstructed view of Tink flying down, and watch the fireworks backdropped on the castle.
After the fireworks a lot of people left the park, but it wasnt closing until 8:00. So we thought we had time for an attraction or two. We checked on the Tiki Room, but the showings for the day were over. Pirates of the Carribean was a walk on, and since this is one of Cathys favorites we rode it. After Pirates we walked by Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain (lines seemed too long, especially with us having to baby swap). But the Haunted Mansion wasnt closed yet, and had no line, so we did it. It was about closing time now, and hopefully time for Madison to go to bed so we headed back to GF for the night.
We always take the boat back for our return to GF from MK because GF is the first stop (the route is MK to GF to Poly to MK). For some reason though, this was the first and only time we have ever had the boat go to the Poly first. So the trip seemed to take 3 times as long as it usually does. Madison fell asleep on the boat ride back to GF. So we were hopeful for a good nights sleep. Madison fell asleep and went to her crib around 9:00. We were in need of some groceries, so Corey made a venture to Goodings for some milk, baby food, and baby snacks. He got lost on the way he took a wrong turn somewhere because the signs to get to Marketplace werent as good in the dark as he remembered. He didnt make it back to the room until around 10:30. In between, Madison had woken up around 10:00 and needed to be nursed back to sleep a second time. But that was the last wakeup for the night (thank goodness).
Day Three Sunday December 2, 2001
We got up a little earlier today since we had an 8:00 PS at Cinderellas Royal Table for breakfast. So we were up at 6:30, and Mickey called to make sure we were awake at 7:02. Madison woke up right after Mickey called. We got ready and left for the room at 7:50.
We were at MK security at 8:00 (it is so nice being able to be in MK in about 10 minutes). Since MK wasnt opening until 9:00, and most of the 8:00 PS people were already at their restaurants we had Main Street all to ourselves. It was a little strange feeling walking down Main Street with no one else there. One of the Main Street photographers was already out, so we had our traditional Main Street picture taken.
We finally checked in at the castle around 8:15 (15 minutes late from the time we took walking up Main Street). They didnt call our names since no one was there waiting (we had heard they call out your names old style when seating you at the castle). We were seated right away but up in the next PS round section. We were brought a basket of croissants and chocolate muffins and some fruit. Corey thought the chocolate muffins were real good and ate both of them. We had the traditional breakfast of stuffed french toast (Cathy really liked it thought it was kind of like a deep fried apple fritter). The eggs were a little runny, which Cathy prefers but Corey likes his dry. The sausage and bacon were a little underdone for our tastes too. Were pretty hearty eaters, so both Cathy and Corey had seconds. After we were done eating, the princesses came by for a visit. Madison saw Mary Poppins, Alice, Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White. Snow White was Madisons favorite she gave Madison a kiss that left a lipstick mark on Madisons temple.
We were finished at 9:10. The lobby area was a madhouse at that time. Cathy thought she heard a couple people arguing that were about to come to blows. We snaked our way out as fast as we could to hit the rides before MK got busy. First up was another ride in Dumbo this time Cathy rode with Madison while Corey videotaped them. We all rode the carousel (walk on), then Peter Pan (5 minute wait), and Small World (walk on). We decided to move on out of Fantasy Land. We had just missed a Tiki Birds showing, so we tried Splash Mountain (walk on). This was our first attempt at using the baby swap process. The process had changed from what it used to be before Fastpass. Now the CM gave us a Fastpass for the second person to use instead of going back through the exit like before. After Splash, we walked on to Jungle Cruise, then caught a Tiki showing. Madison got a little fussy during Tiki Birds so we left a little early.
It was around 11:45 after Tiki Birds (quite a bit accomplished in 2 ½ hours), so we walked over to the castle hub for Madisons lunch while we waited for a 12:30 showing of Cinderellas Castle Forecourt show. We had a pretty nice space staked out since we were there so early. Right before the show started some woman started crowding my space and nudging her way in. During the show, the woman sat down and actually sat on my foot for several minutes (I was standing on the bench-thing videotaping the show).
After Cinderellas show a bunch of characters came out for pictures and autographs (seemed like B characters none that we were that interested in). So we walked over to check out the baby station to change Madisons diaper and give her some time to crawl around some. We spent around 30 minutes in the baby station it was a nice break. Shortly after the baby station stop Madison fell asleep in her stroller (we were so thankful for her taking naps in her stroller). We didnt want to disturb Madisons nap, so we walked over to Tomorrowland to get Fastpasses for Space Mountain (1 hour return time). Since we had an hour to burn, we walked up Main Street to Exposition Hall to pick up our Main Street picture and check out some of the 100 Years attractions.
On our way back to cash in our Space Mountain Fastpasses we picked up Fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear. Corey rode Space Mountain first, then Cathy rode. This was the first time weve rode on the left queue track. In the past we would always ride first thing during early entry and the right side was all that was ever open. After Space Mountain it was time for our Buzz Lightyear Fastpasses. Corey had 178,000, Cathy had 58,000 (Cathy had Madisons assistance).
After Buzz, we walked to the Castle hub to see if we could watch the new 100 Years parade. The hub was packed though. Corey tried to get close to tape the parade over the crowd (probably 6 or 7 deep), while Madison and Cathy watched from further back. After the parade, Legend of the Lion King was about to start, so we watched it since we had skipped it last trip. After Lion King, we walked over to Frontierland to ride Aladdin (we werent real impressed thought they could have done better with a new ride than a regurgitated Dumbo). We wrapped things up in the Magic Kingdom with watching the Country Bears doing their Christmas show.
We took the boat back to the GF for our dinner at 1900 Park Fare. We checked in at 5:45 and were seated at 6:05. We spent some of that 20 minutes visiting and coloring with Piglet, who was sitting out in the lobby area. In the restaurant all of the characters (Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore) were great and came by more than once. Tigger and Eeyore even put on a show with Tigger attacking and wrestling with Eeyore, Tigger pulling a hair clip out of a womans hair, and Tigger throwing rolls at people. The food was a little disappointing though. Cathy thought most of the adult food was missing taste and Corey thought the childrens buffet wasnt in very good shape either (no pizza, chicken fingers were hard and didnt have much chicken in them, and even the hamburgers were lacking). Even the desserts, which were always a highlight before, seemed to be missing the quality and taste from previous visits. We liked the strawberry soup, the brownies, some raspberry cake-ish thing, the vanilla cupcakes, and the fudge wasnt bad. But we thought the bread pudding, apple crisp, rice krispie treat, chocolate cookie, key lime torte, and cheesecake torte werent very good at all. We still liked the atmosphere of PF, and the characters were great, but the food will probably have us skip the PF dinner next time.
After dinner (7:00) we went back to the room for some playtime and a bath for Madison. Madison fell asleep at 8:00. So Cathy showered and Corey went to Marketplace to do some birthday week shopping for Cathy. Corey got back to the room from his shopping around 10:30 and Corey and Cathy went to bed around 11:00. Unfortunately, since Madison had slept well the night before this was her off night for not sleeping through the night. So Madison awoke at 3:15, and stayed awake being fussy at everything until 5:30. She fell back asleep then until 7:15 awaking for the day.
Day Four Monday December 3, 2001
Two nights of poor sleep, even with a good night in between, were getting to us all. So there was quite a bit of stress for the Vails. Corey and Madison thought it would be a good idea to give Cathy some alone time, so they went over the Magic Kingdom around 10:00. The security lines were long and there were not any no-bag checking lines to zip through this morning. Corey and Madison stopped by ??? to pick up a birthday button for Cathy since her birthday was the next day and we were going to Animal Kingdom first thing and wouldnt be able to get her a birthday button until later. Then Corey and Madison walked over the Main Street Confectionery to buy some fudge for Cathy for a birthday week gift. On the way out of the park Madison and Corey stopped in Exposition Hall to send Cathy some birthday week e-cards. For some reason the main monorails were not running, so everyone was riding the resort monorails. Since Corey and Madison were trying to burn some time they rode the monorail back to the GF (20 minutes).
We all took off for MGM around 11:00 a pretty late start of the day for us. On our way to the park Corey and Madison gave Cathy her birthday week gift for day one of birthday week a green Mickey t-shirt, to try cheering her up some and setting the mood right for the park. As soon as we entered the park we saw Capn Hook and Jesse. Cathy and Madison visited and got pictures and autographs from Hook, but passed on Jesse.
We walked back to Rock n Roller Coaster it was a walk-on (same thing with the baby swap as Splash Mountain using Fastpasses). Both Cathy and Corey really like this ride especially the take off at the beginning. Madison fell asleep in her stroller, so we just walked around for a while. Madison woke up at 1:00 right at the time we saw a bunch of characters doing a greeting. Madison got pictures and autographs with Bashful, Doc, Sneezy, Sleepy, Rafiki, Meeko, and Mushu.
We hadnt eaten lunch yet, so we checked on Sci Fi (we had never eaten here and were interested in trying it) to see how long the wait would be for burger and shake. Sci Fi was pretty busy though, so we passed and Corey and Cathy each had a Mickey bar while feeding Madison her lunch. After lunch we walked around Hollywood Boulevard. They were taping episodes of Who Wants to be a Millionaire with Regis, and asked us if we wanted to sit in the studio audience as we walked by. We passed since you couldnt take children in. It looked like a lot of people had purchased the Millionaire package, and didnt need to based on our experience. Just down from WWTBAM, Sorcerer Mickey was greeting visitors in a little theatre. So we stopped in for a visit, picture, and autograph. Playhouse Disney was just getting ready to start the 2:10 show, so we stopped in to see how Madison would like it. She was okay with it but not super interested. We couldnt see Beauty and the Beast or play Millionaire because those two attractions were only operating on Tuesday 12/4 this week.
We tried watching the Stars and Motorcars Parade, but again we were late or picked the wrong spot and were at least 7 people deep. When some rude guy stepped directly in front of us with his kid on his shoulders we gave up on the parade. Now we understand wanting your child to have a memorable trip and all. But that effort shouldnt include being rude and infringing on others enjoyment. Off the soap box now.
Since we didnt have anything really to do on the schedule, we went to the baby station for a diaper change. MGMs diaper changing station wasnt near as nice as Magic Kingdoms. There wasnt a play area in MGMs. So it was pretty much a diaper change and out. We walked through some shops, looking at the merchandise. We still had some time to go before our 4:10 Fantasmic PS at Mama Melroses. So we watch MuppetVision 3D. Cathy and Corey really like this attraction, especially the intro before you go into the theatre.
After Muppetvision, we checked in at Mama Melroses at 4:10. We were not seated until 4:35 4:40 though. We were a little irritated, because they knew we were on the Fantasmic dinner and the show started at 6:00. So we had to hurry through dinner and not really take our time and enjoy things as much as we would have liked. Our server was very understanding of our time crunch and moved things through very quickly. We shared a marsala chicken dinner and pepperoni pizza. We both thought the chicken was very good. Cathy really liked the pizza, but Corey wasnt as much of a fan with the flatbread style. Overall we liked Mama Melrose and will return on a future trip.
With as fast as we ate and as fast as we walk, we checked in at Fantasmic at 5:25. Even with a stroller, we can still move at least twice as fast as traffic. And no, we dont knick any heels either. We sat in the Ursula section, at the end of the row furthest from the middle. We thought the seats were fine though and the seats would definitely not stop us from doing the Fantasmic dinner again. Being able to show up half an hour before show time and having this good of seats is definitely worth eating a dinner at a restaurant we like anyway with no additional cost.
After Fantasmic, there was just enough time for a stroll through the Osbourne Lights. The 3-D glasses they give out for the lights to turn into snow flakes didnt do anything for us. Madison fell asleep in her stroller on the way out of the park a little after 7:00. We got back to the room around 8:00 for some playing and then put Madison to bed.
Corey rode the Monorail over to the Contemporary because he thought he had seen some things in their stores that he didnt see at Marketplace. Corey was mistaken though. So his trip was for naught. Except that on the way back around to the GF, there was an awesome fireworks show going on over the Seven Seas Lagoon. The monorail was having some problems, so the driver opened the doors at the TTC and let everyone get out to watch. He actually waited to take back off until the fireworks were over.
On the way to the room Corey picked up the picture we had taken on Main Street Sunday morning at the Sandy Cove shop. Disney used to deliver packages to your room. Now they deliver them to a main area at each resort and the guest goes to pick the package up. Its still a good benefit to use though better than carrying stuff around with you all day. Corey and Cathy hit bed at 10:30.
Day 5 Tuesday December 4, 2001 (Cathys birthday)
The alarm was set for 6:15 since we had an 8:00 PS at Donalds Breakfasaurus. Madison awoke at 6:55 and we headed to Animal Kingdom at 7:35. We arrived at the gate at 7:50, with about 6 or 7 families ahead of us. Just inside the gate, we had to check in at a table set up to the far right. They called about 10 families to take back to Donalds. We had read on the internet that the first family seated received a special treat. So we were maneuvering the entire walk back to make sure we would be the first to check in. Unfortunately, the first family special event wasnt happening this morning.
The CM saw Cathys birthday button and brought her a birthday card signed by the characters and had the restaurant join in singing happy birthday to her. The food was excellent. In addition to the standard buffet foods of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes Donalds also had a delicious breakfast pizza, some kind of omelet dish, and Krispy Kreme donuts. Cathy thought the donuts were delicious. But Corey has had fairly fresh glazed KKs and these werent as good as the fresh ones. But they were still good. Mickey, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy visited with Mickey and Pluto stopping by twice. Overall, we thought Donalds was great both the food and character interaction. Donalds will definitely be visited again.
We finished eating around 9:00 (park opening). We took the first ride of the day on Triceratop Spin (kind of like Dumbo again). After Triceratop Cathy rode Dinosaur since we were already back in Dinoland. The ride wasnt working at first, so Cathy had a 15 minute wait with no one in line. After Dinosaur we thought we would walk over to Africa to pick up some Safari Fastpasses. On our way a CM asked us to come back for a character greeting that we didnt even know existed. Eeyore, Piglet, and Pooh were back in a nook doing a greeting. This little hidden gem was a nice surprise.
We made it over to Africa around 10:00 and got Fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris with a return time of 10:55 11:55. With an hour to burn we walked through the Pangori Gorilla Trail. And then jotted over to Asia for a walk through the Majaraja Jungle Trek. While over in Asia though we noticed that Kali River Rapids was a walk-on. Corey rode first, and was fortunate not to be in the wet seat. Cathy then rode through twice in a row, and was soaked when she got off. We still had some time before the end of our Fastpass window so we did the walk though the Jungle Trek.
Back over in Africa, Corey rode the Safari first at about 11:25. Cathy rode second, finishing up just before noon. Madison was good enough to nap from 11:00 12:30 to pass the time. We thought we were done with AK for the day, so we started our way out of the park. On the way out we decided to check out Camp Minnie & Mickey since we had never gone back to this area in past trips. The place was bare. We went back and forth on multiple visits with Daisy, Minnie, Brer Bear, Brer Rabbit, and Mickey. Madison had to be getting spoiled with as much character interaction she had been getting.
We took off from AK to head back to GF around 1:00. On our drive back we noticed there was only about 4 or 5 people in line for Summit Plummet at Blizzard Beach. It wasnt what we would consider water park temperature probably in the mid 70s. Back at the resort Madison ate lunch and watched one of the WDW world channels on TV. Cathy had a slice of leftover pizza and Corey ate half a slice since he wasnt very hungry. After lunch Madison and Corey gave Cathy her birthday gifts. Cathy got the fudge Madison and Corey had bought the day before, a 100 Years t-shirt, and an etched Minnie crystal bell.
We left for Epcot at 3:00, barely remembering to stop by the GF desk to pick up our Candlelight Processional vouchers. We valet parked at the Boardwalk and walked over to Epcot and entered through the International Gateway, which wasnt busy at all. Since we had an hour or so before our Le Cellier PS we stopped in one of the shops situated between Future World and World Showcase and bought Madison a Pooh and friends stocking hanger, a pressed penny souvenier book, and a My 1st Pooh t-shirt for Madison.
We checked in at Le Cellier at 4:10 and were seated in about 10 minutes. Le Cellier had some pretty cool pagers to notify you when they were ready to seat you. The pagers had options to review the restaurants desserts, watch a preview for Monsters, Inc (I think), and a couple other things. We were pretty impressed with this concept and would like to see Disney continue this pilot at other restaurants. We thought the food was okay. The pretzel bread was fantstic as many had noted. The cheese soup didnt impress us though. Corey had never eaten cheese soup before, and Cathy wasnt expecting so much of a cheddar taste. For the main entrée, we each had the filet and potatoes. Cathys steak was a little overdone for her though. And the steak quality didnt overly impress either of us we thought it tasted just like regular steak. For dessert we shared a fruit cobbler and the chocolate cake. Both of the desserts were very good. Overall, we thought Le Cellier was just okay. The food wasnt overly special (outside of the pretzel bread and maybe the chocolate cake), and the atmosphere was a little dark for us. We might go back to Le Cellier again. But its not a must for us.
We finished dinner at 5:45, assuming we had plenty of time before our 6:45 Candlelight Processional show. Corey wasnt feeling very well after dinner. His back and knee were hurting and he had eaten too much and had a little indigestion. When we got to the America Gardens theatre the line for the dinner packages was already long and the people were just starting to be seated. So we hopped in line, and sat about 4 rows back in the open air portion of the theatre. It looked like walk-ups were not having trouble finding a place to sit. So this night it didnt look like you would need the dinner package or line up for the general seating two hours early to get a seat. We thought the show was great and the dinner package made things less stressful for us. So we would do the dinner package again.
Madison had fallen asleep ¾ of the way through the show. We were able to get her into her stroller without waking her. Since we didnt want to wake Madison, we slowly strolled around World Showcase back to Future World to do some shopping at MouseGears with our 15% CP discount. At MouseGears we exchanged sizes on a couple t-shirts for Cathy and bought a few gifts for family (a Mickey bib for Madison, a Mickey watch for Corey, a Pooh ornament for a niece, and a few other things). We finished checking out at 9:45 just in time to fight the Illuminations crowd that was trying to get out of the park since the show just finished. It was quite an event crossing that crowd since we needed to exit at International Gateway to get over to the Boardwalk to pick up our car.
We were back in our room at 10:30. Madison stayed awake playing until midnight since she had had such a good nap earlier in the evening.
Day 6 Wednesday December 5, 2001
Madison woke up at 5:30 not what we were wanting having been up until midnight. Luckily she fell back asleep at 6:15, but was up then again for good at 8:00. We had a PS for Chef Mickeys at 9:30. But Corey still wasnt feeling right so we skipped. Since our plans had changed, we just sat around the room trying to figure out what to do. We decided to complete our souvenier shopping and start the day off at Downtown Disney, leaving at 10:00. We usually try to do almost all of our shopping the last day or day before at Marketplace taking advantage of our 10% Disney Club discount. Since we were shopping over the lunch hour, we thought we needed a little something to eat. We checked out the offerings at the deli shop and had a piece of the best chocolate cake either one of us has ever eaten.
On our way back to the resort we noticed that Madison had fallen asleep. We remembered seeing a My first WDW t-shirt in Animal Kingdom in Madisons size (a 12 or 18 month instead of the 2, 3, and 4T sizes we saw at World of Disney). So we swung by AK and Corey ran in the park to buy the t-shirt. The only problem was that the t-shirts in the AK shop were 2T also. Corey went ahead and bought it anyway so Madison also has a souveneir shirt to grow into. Madison was still taking a nap, and we didnt want to disturb her. So we stopped off at the Contemporary on the way back where Cathy bought a postcard that carries the picture like the one on the new Disney Club cards.
Back at the resort, we all had lunch (Cathy and Corey finished off Madisons baloney that Madison stopped eating during the trip). After lunch we tried out the new theme pool. The water was a little cool for Corey (hes kind of a wimp). But Cathy and Madison had a lot of fun swimming and Cathy even tried the slide and liked it.
After the pool, we hopped over to MK around 4:00 for a couple of hours. We watched the new Hall of Presidents show with GW (were still amazed how lifelike the show is). We had reservations for Portobello (we have never been to Portobello), but decided to just eat small in MK at Pecos Bills. Corey really liked the double cheeseburger and fries (all made with the fixins bar). Cathy thought it was okay pretty much just a burger and fries.
After eating it was almost closing time. So we thought we would try Toon Town in hopes of lucking out like we did our first night when we bounced from room to room seeing all the characters. On our walk over we ran into the Queen of Hearts and Governor Radcliffe greeting in Fantasyland (we just missed Frollo). We didnt have quite the same luck in Toon Town as our first night. Though we did still see Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore, Minnie, Chip, and Dale. Madison had a blast grabbing all their noses again.
On our way out of the park we took a few pictures of the castle, Christmas tree, and Main Street at night. We needed a dessert since we had eaten a pretty light dinner. So we shared an ice cream cookie sandwich from the Main Street bakery on our way out. It was soooooo good. We will definitely have one of these on our next trip.
We were back in our room at 6:45. Madison was asleep at 7:30. We spent the evening organizing everything and packing up what we could before the morning. There was another awesome fireworks show going on over the lagoon again. So Cathy ran down around 9:00 to watch. We finished packing around 11:00, and Madison woke up at 11:15. Luckily Madison fell back to sleep in 30 45 minutes.
Day 7 December 6, 2001 (our last day)
The alarm was set for 7:00, but we woke up a few minutes before 7:00. Madison woke around 7:20, giving us a little time to get ready for the day. After getting ready for the day we finished packing our bath supplies and were all ready to go. We were out the door at 8:30 for an 8:50 PS at Crystal Palace. Thursday must have been a Character Caravan day for GF. We saw Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, and Goofy mulling around the lobby. We didnt have time to stop though.
There was no line for security at MK. Regis and Kelly were setting up for a taping at the MK entrance hub. We checked in at Crystal Palace and were seated within 5 minutes. Once seated, Corey was going to get food everyone in case Madison would get a little fussy with her mommy gone. The buffet line was LONG! The buffet had the standard breakfast items of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage as well as a puffed french toast, grits, a breakfast lasagna, and cheesy potatoes. CP also had some donut holes, muffins, and some amazing jelly roll cake that we ate 3 or 4 pieces of. Tigger, Pooh, and Eeyore stopped by to visit. Tigger was pretty playful taking Madisons cup and reading Madisons Disney Catalog with her (Madison pointed Tigger out in the catalog). Overall, Corey wasnt overly impressed with CP but will return, Cathy liked it more and would definitely return.
We finished around 9:50 and started walking over to Fantasyland for a ride on Pooh before we had to leave. CMs were setting up for something, so we stopped a CM and asked what was going on. The CM said they were taping the Christmas parade at 10:00 and 12:00 (we now understood what Regis and Kelly were set up for). Since the parade showing wasnt announced and it was a Thursday morning, there was no one sitting at the castle hub just 10 minutes before the parade started. We had a front row seat for a showing of the parade (only time it ran during a non MVMCP time until around the 17th). Madison really enjoyed seeing all the characters again.
After the parade finished we had a little time before we needed to head back to the GF to check out and leave for the airport. We strolled through the Main Street shops, looking for a Magic Kingdom Mickey pressed penny (we had gotten the other parks Mickey pressed pennies on other days). After walking through all the shops and not finding the machine, we settled for a Cinderellas Castle pressed penny. 30 seconds after getting the castle penny Corey saw the machine for the Mickey penny. The machine was broken though.
Before leaving Corey stopped in at the ice cream shop on Main Street for his traditional trip ending chocolate ice cream cone (the shop didnt open until 11:00). Cathy passed on hers still full from breakfast). We saw Regis and Kelly again on our way out, catching a boat back to the GF at 11:15. We called for bell services back in the room, and a bellman was at our room at 11:45. We left our home away from home at 12:15.
We arrived at MCO around 12:45 for our 2:35 flight. There was a very long line for check-in so we tried the self service check-in. The self service check-in didnt work for us since we had e-tickets. But an agent helped us with the check-in, so we avoided the long line. We were a little concerned when our seat assignments printed out with none of the three seats together (not a good thing with a 15 month old). The agent said she could not pull three seats together, but to mention the situation to the gate agent and they would take care of us. The gate agent did just that, working a few seat assignments and putting the three of us together. Our flight to St Louis took off right on time at 2:35 vacation over.
