thewise's Family Trip 11/28-12/07: Now Complete!!

[erikthewise]

Introduction

I've decided to follow Janet2K's format and post all the parts of this report in a single thread. That way it all stays together in one place. Now if only we had done things half as interesting as Janet2K, or if I could write half as well...


Cast
Self (Richard): likes seafood, gets up too early, walks too fast. Thinks that entering a park after the scheduled opening is like walking in on a movie after it’s started. Can accurately estimate the duration of any sequence of activities, and hates being late.
DW (Julia): Family photographer. Hates seafood, likes to sleep in, walks too slow. Thinks it’s immoral if not illegal to arrive at a park before opening time. Not a slave to the clock.
DS10 (Jonathan): Tall enough to ride anything but doesn’t like anything that has a hint of a thrill . Loves interactive games, arcades, slow rides, and hamburgers.
DS7 (Patrick): Fearless; will ride anything. Has both the enthusiasm and the patience of a forest fire. Doesn’t like anything that isn’t a ride or a meal. One inch too short for Rock’n’Roller Coaster.

We are staying 1 night at the Swan, 6 nights at Beach Club Villas, and 2 nights at the Yacht Club. Why splitting stay between three different Epcot resorts?! The short answer is that we don’t have enough DVC points to spend the entire trip in Beach Club Villas, and weekends cost a lot more points. Also we originally planned to arrive the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so when we bought airline tickets to arrive on Friday, we needed someplace to stay Friday night.

My Personal Goals:
-- Make effective use of fastpasses
-- Eat no french fries
-- See new attractions Mickey’s Philharmagic and Mission: Space
-- See old attractions Carousel of Progress and Timekeeper

I've posted a restaurant report at http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=477088, so I won't be saying much about our meals here.

 

[erikthewise]

Fri Nov 28: Going In Style!

We woke up at 4:00AM for our nonstop Airtran flight out of Dayton at 7:25AM. We left at 5:15 for the 25 minute drive to the airport. Amusingly, there was actually some traffic as we drove past our local mall. People were already out and about for the after-Thanksgiving sales, some of which started at 5:00AM! Just as we were about to get on the freeway, DW asks “Did you get Patrick’s backpack?” I reply that I did not. It was mentioned last night, but it never got put with the other luggage, so it never got into the trunk. I abort the freeway entrance so we can decide if it contains anything crucial. After we turn around, I decide we’d be pushing it too close if we go back, so we’ll just have to do without it. (As it turns out, there was nothing crucial in it, and we were better off not taking it.)

At the airport I dropped off everyone else and go to park the car. The day after Thanksgiving is actually a very slow travel day, but because it’s a very busy travel weekend, I had worried about whether there would be any parking spaces available at the airport. I had actually emailed and called the airport to ask whether we could expect to find parking spaces, but never got any meaningful response. What if there is no place to park? We’d simply be screwed, as there would be no time to make other arrangements. As I pulled into the economy parking lot, my fears grew as there were no parking spaces in sight. I did find one in just a couple minutes, and immediately hopped on the shuttle bus. I’ll never know how many empty spaces there were, but I don’t think there were very many.

I had scoured the Airtran web site and noticed that they are currently offering cash upgrades to Business Class (from any coach fare) for $35. I had decided in advance to try and get one for my wife since she had never flown anything but coach.

When we arrived at the airport I asked if any cash upgrades were available on our flight. The agent said, "Well, let me check. Two, four, eight, ... twelve is all we have available." He was being sarcastic, as they only have 12 Business Class seats; they hadn't sold a single Business Class seat on this flight! I asked for two upgrades. After we left the counter, I discovered the agent had given us all four seats in Business Class for $70. Not bad, I thought, upgrades for $17.50 each! You can't beat that!

So we all enjoyed our flight down. There was only one other person in Business Class! Nobody slept as we were excited to be on our way. For me a WDW vacation begins when I see the palms trees at the Orlando airport as we taxi to the terminal! We landed on time, got our luggage, and dragged it over to National car rental. We grabbed a blue Intrepid from the fullsize aisle since they have large trunks, and drove to WDW, arriving at the Swan about 11:10.

Of course our room was not yet ready, 10 minutes after checkout time! We had a 12:20 PS for Garden Grill in Epcot, and it seemed like we had plenty of time. But it was a warm day, and after going back out to the car to change, putting on sunblock, and returning to the boat dock, it was already 11:40. I realised that if we had to wait very long for a boat, we could be late for our PS. I could tell no one was in the mood for a forced march to Epcot after our travel, so we would just have to wait. Fortunately they had five or six boats running the Epcot-Studios routes, so we only waited a couple minutes for a boat, and made it to Garden Grill ten minutes early.

DS7 had asked to eat at this restaurant because it turns around and he thinks that’s cool. He and DS10 were happy with the macaroni and cheese and chicken tenders. DW requested the roasted vegetable stew, and I had the standard fare: catfish, flank stank, turkey, stuffing, and vegetables. Early in the meal I ducked out to grab some fastpasses for the Living with the Land boat ride down on the first level of the Land pavilion. With DW visiting the restroom, three characters went by with only one of us there! Fortunately they all came around a second time before we left.

We really didn’t plan to spend much time in Epcot that day, so we just did Living With The Land (the boat ride) and Food Rocks, which I was surprised to find was still open. Apparently it is scheduled to be closed permanently on January 3 for construction related to the Soaring Over California attraction being built next to The Land. We were lucky to be able to see it for the last time.

When we got back to the Swan our room was ready (yea!), so we went up to check out the view and the Heavenly Beds. We had an AP rate which was supposed to include an “upgraded view”. The view was a little disappointing as we were on the fifth floor directly facing the Dolphin, so all we could see was hotel! But the Heavenly Beds more than made up for the view! The Swan rooms are supposedly 340 square feet, the same size as Animal Kingdom Lodge, but our room seemed larger than the one we had at AKL last year. I think it’s because the room is more squareish, which is a better use of space than the long skinny rooms at AKL.

After a short rest I took the boys down to the Grotto Pool to go swimming. This was their only chance to use this pool, and they really enjoyed it. The actual pools are about the same size as Stormalong Bay, but with less features, theming and landscaping. The slide is less ambitious, but that’s good as it is easier for younger children to use. DS7 went on it several times. Getting a free life vest made the pool a lot more fun for him as without it he is limited to the 3ft sections. We discovered that the kids pool was a lot warmer than the large pool!

We ate dinner at Palio in the Swan, just getting pizzas since we had a big lunch. Then we went over to the Dolphin Fountain for dessert. It had been a long day, so we had an early bedtime.

 

[erikthewise]

Sat Nov 29: Front Desk Reunion

The weather had turned cold overnight. When we woke up it was in the 40s and very windy! That made my plan of going to Tubbi’s Buffeteria in the Dolphin and bringing back breakfast an adventure. DS7 and I had to survive the outdoor crossing to the Dolphin! We made it but it was really cold! I think DS7 came along so he could ask for a donut; he deserved one for being out in that weather!

Last night DW said she thought she and DS10 were getting pinkeye. So that had to be taken care of before we made any plans. I went down to the lobby and asked the woman at the Concierge stand about options for medical assistance. She gave me a flyer for East Coast Medical which makes hotel visits, so we gave them a call. The good news was that DS10’s eyes had cleared up so it was only DW who needed to be examined. As the doctor was scheduled to stop by that morning. It was not cheap ($200 for exam and medication), but we didn’t have to spend all day waiting in a clinic during our vacation, and we hoped our insurance back home would reimburse some of it. As it turned out of course there was a $250 annual deductible for out-of-network expenses, so we won't get a penny back.

While the others were waiting in the room, DS7 and I went to Epcot to try to ride Mission:Space and/or Test Track. I had been concerned about the crowds the weekend after Thanksgiving; we had never before been at WDW at a time that was crowded. I figured our only chance was to get there early. So we left the Swan around 8:20 and walked to Epcot, arriving at the International Gate around 8:35. Last year they had let us in and held us at a rope near the UK pavilion. No such luck this year; they didn’t even let anyone through security until 9:00! This is unfair as it gives the people at the main entrance a 5-minute head start to Future World attractions!

Because DS7 and I had arrived so early, we were the second group in line to enter the park. After we got through, we walked to Future World as fast as we could. DS7 surprised me by jogging/walking the whole way, just about keeping up with my walking! He could not have done that last year, but he was a lot stronger this year. The original plan had been to grab fastpasses for Test Track, then go to Mission:Space. For some reason I decided just to go straight into M:S instead. We got in line at 9:07, which tells you how fast we went to get there! Even still we had about a 15-minute wait, but I was pleased with that.

I think M:S does an excellent job of capturing the “astronaut experience”. Anyone who has ever dreamed of being one should give this a try. Neither of us are subject to motion sickness so we didn’t have any problems. DS7 was Pilot, and I was Navigator. (There is also a Commander and an Engineer on each flight.) I think we pushed our buttons at the right time, and the mission was a success! I should mention that DW does have motion sickness issues, and DS10 doesn’t like any ride that “wiggles his tummy”, so they would not have done well on this ride anyway.

After we got out, we went over to Test Track to discover the fastpass machines weren’t working that morning! I must have been psychic to avoid them before M:S! That pretty much wrapped it up for Test Track that morning as the standby line was already pretty long, quite a bit out the door and 35 minutes according to the sign. We just say no to lines that are that are longer than 20 minutes. DS7 was not happy about missing Test Track, but when he accepted it he wanted to do Spaceship Earth. This also had a line but it only took about 5 minutes to get in. After SSE it was clear that serious crowds were starting to build and I wasn’t excited about being part of them. So I suggested we ride the monorail. DS7 had already asked to do this a couple times, so he went along with the suggestion. Of course there weren’t a lot of passengers going back to the TTC this early, and we were able to sit in the front! Our driver was Lee from NYC. Lee didn’t talk much, so we just enjoyed the view.

Of course when we got back we had to re-enter Epcot, along with a whole bunch of other people who were still arriving and standing in long security lines. It only took a few minutes to get back through the line, but for some reason I didn’t see a “no bags” entrance. It was about 10:45 and time to head back to the Swan. DS7 was not excited about walking all the way back across Epcot but there was really no choice.

On the way back we stopped at the Beach Club to see about our room at Beach Club Villas. Not only was it ready, it was room 548, right next door to where we stayed last year (546)!! So I knew we would have the same great Epcot view. While I was at the front desk, I asked to have my Disney Visa rewards balance transferred from my rewards card to our room account. He said “no problem”, but for some reason it took about 10 minutes to make it happen. While waiting I was pretty sure I recognized one of the other CMs at the front desk as the person who checked us in last year. DS7 was pretty tired and moaning about how long it was taking, but eventually it was done, and we collected our key cards and went back to the Swan. The doctor had come and gone so that was taken care of. It was time for lunch but we didn’t want to go far, so we ate at Garden Grove in the Swan.

After lunch we moved over to Beach Club Villas, aided by the fact that we only brought two or three bags up to our room at the Swan. After a brief rest in our new room, we went grocery shopping at Publix. Last year I went alone, but this year the whole family came, which meant it only took about half the time. Along with the groceries we bought a cheap styrofoam cooler so we could take the inevitable leftovers with us to the Yacht Club. We got the last one!

After we got the groceries back up to our room (2 trips), I went down to the front desk to pick up our Candlelight Processional package materials. In the lobby I saw Art the Greeter. I told him has was looking good, and promised to bring the whole family down later to get a picture with him; unfortunately this never happened, but we did get such a picture last year.

While getting the CP package I became certain that I recognized the CM that checked us in last year. She was training a new CM; last year she was the one getting trained! I thought it would be nice to let her know I recognized her, so I walked over to her station. At first she thought I was trying to sneak into her line, but when I told her I recognized her from last year’s checkin, she got a startled look on her face and said “I’m coming out!”. After checking to see that the CM she was training could handle things for a couple minutes, she left the front desk and came out into the lobby through a side door, and we talked for a couple minutes. She said she recognized me too, which seems unlikely, but in any case a nice thing to say. I told her how thrilled I was last year on our first trip “home” to BCV to get a room that met all my requests and was available at 12:00, so thrilled that (at the time) I wanted to kiss her. She surprised me by giving me a hug right then and there, and then of course she had to get back to work.

OK so I’m a terrible flirt, but on this occasion I think I was just trying to brighten up someone’s day. I think I did that, but as often happens with the best CM’s, she ended up brightening my day just as much.

After a nice early dinner at Cape May, all four of us went to Epcot. This was the third time DW7 and I had entered Epcot this day! I wonder what the record is for entries into the same park by one person in a single day? DW and DS10 had not yet been in a park today, so DS10 got to choose a ride. He chose Spaceship Earth! So we rode it, for DS7 and me it was the second time today, but neither of us minded. No line this time of course; after 7:00 is the best time to ride Spaceship Earth. Afterward we watched Honey I Shrunk the Audience. DS7 was getting tired so DW took him back to our room. DS10 wanted to stay longer, so we headed over toward Body Wars, but it had closed at 7:00. Just as well, as that gave us time to get a good spot along the fence near World Showcase Plaza for Illuminations. I like Illuminations best of the evening shows, because it has the best music, and it has a storyline that is much more meaningful than the others.

Before going to bed DW says she thinks we should do early entry at MK tomorrow. I hadn’t originally planned to since she often gets stressed out when we try to rush in the mornings, but it’s fine with me.

 

[erikthewise]

Sun Nov 30: Uh – Early Entry – You know!

Rise & shine it’s 6AM! Early entry days bring out the commando in me, so it’s just as well we only do one per year. Guess what! DW thought that early entry at MK meant opening at 9AM! That’s the trouble with being the obsessive planner in the family; it’s so easy to take for granted that your family knows what’s going on, and you never know what it is you forgot to tell them.

After straightening out that MK opens at 8AM this morning, we somehow get out the door by 7:15. This was almost exactly when we left the room last year, only last year we took the bus. That did not work out very well, and we arrived at MK a minute or two after 8AM after a stressful bus ride. This year we drove instead, and in spite of the advice often given, we arrived 10 minutes sooner. It only takes about 5 minutes to drive to MK from Beach Club, and we parked in the very first row, meaning a short walk to the TTC. The express monorail doesn’t run that early, but even the resort monorail got us to MK in plenty of time, and we were standing in line by 7:50.

The early entry crowd is light this morning, and the weather is good; perfect for Fantasyland blitz! I walk ahead to get fastpasses for Philharmagic, and meet the others at Winnie the Pooh. We then do Peter Pan twice (second time at DW’s request), then Small World. On to Tomorrowland! Last year we made the mistake of going to Tomorrowland Speedway next, and spending 20 minutes standing in line because they only had one lane running. This year we avoid that trap. DS7 and I head directly to Space Mountain, where the wait is less than 5 minutes because they have both sides open! DW and DS10 go on Buzz Lightyear twice, and after we meet up we all ride Buzz. I ride with DS10 and take it easy so I don’t beat him. My heart is in the right place, but not my bottom; I should have been riding with DS7, as he is the one who throws a fit after DW outscores him badly. We have to sit down for a few minutes until he starts to calm down.

It turns out that the Philharmagic fastpass was still set as if the park opened at 9:00, so it wasn’t good until about 10:00. We still had some time to kill, so we stepped onto Carousel of Progress, which is right next to Buzz anyway. I saw this a long time ago (more than 20 years), so I’m glad I had to chance to see it again. It’s not clear that I’ll ever have another chance as it has been a “seasonal” attraction in recent years and we never go at “seasonal” times of the year. The attraction is a series of set stages with audio-animatronic figures extolling the virtues of new technology in 1900, 1920, 1940, and the near future. This is one of the original Walt Disney attractions that premiered at the 1964 World Fair in NYC. The final stage in the original presumably was set around the near future at the time, e.g. 1970, but it has been updated now to look 2010ish. An interested feature is that it is the audience that rotates to a new position for each change of scene, while the stages remain stationary.

Of course the fastpass for Mickey’s Philharmagic, like any “show” attraction, doesn’t really get you to the front of the line so much as just giving you a much better chance to be admitted to the show if the queue exceeds the seating capacity. If the show doesn’t fill, the fastpass doesn’t really do anything. But this show is very popular and getting a fastpass allowed us to do other things first with confidence we would still be able to get in later in the morning. I’m pretty sure the theatre was full for our showing. This is by far the best of the 3D films at WDW. The quality is superb, the animation seamless. Rather than 3D effects superimposed on a largely 2D film, this one feels as if it is 100% 3D. It is a joy to see classic Disney characters brought to new life here. And yes there are some “special effects” as well!

Afterward we ride Haunted Mansion. We have had good luck the last couple years riding this just before lunch; it has been just a 5 minute wait. As we found ourselves near Columbia Harbour House around lunch time, we decide to eat there again as we did last year. Before doing so I went down to Big Thunder Mountain to grab fastpasses for after lunch. It turned out to be a longer walk than I thought! We ate lunch on the second floor of CHH, which is very peaceful and relaxing.

Jackpot! After numerous uses and attempted uses of fastpasses last year which didn’t pay off, finally this one pays off bigtime! DS7 and I bypass a 30-minute standby line to virtually walk onto Big Thunder Mountain! It seems that one of the best times to use fastpasses is when most people are still willing to wait in the standby lines, so that hardly anyone is in the fastpass lines. I was unable to talk DS10 into trying BTMRR, and he probably wouldn’t like it anyway. I gave our two extra fastpasses to a young couple.

It’s now time to leave the park. We generally don’t try to do a whole day on early entry Sundays, as MK starts to get crowded by late morning, and we start to get tired. So we hopped onto the railroad at the Frontierland stop, rode it to Main Street, and exited the park. We took the express monorail back to our car and drove back to BCV.

We were trying to get some rest this afternoon as we had a Candlelight Processional package for that evening with dinner at 5:30 and the show at 8:15. We prefer an early dinner but unlike past years we couldn’t seem to get a 6:45 show with dinner before. The boys are bouncing off the walls in our room so I offer to play a DVD for them (“A Bug’s Life”, brought from home), only to discover that there is no DVD controller in our room! I call down to housekeeping to ask for one, and it arrives promptly, but for 10-15 minutes we were looking at the screen that asks you to choose between fullscreen and widescreen with no way to make the choice! If they are going to have cheap DVD players that do not have menu navigation buttons on the front, they ought to make sure the rooms have a controller!

We entered the International Gate about 5:00 and I faced a quandry: which is the quickest way to Norway? I’m sure many people would turn right, but when I eyeballed it, it seemed shorter to go left through UK, Canada, and Mexico, and a look at the standard Epcot map says the same.

After we were seated at Akershus, I got fastpasses for the Maelstrom ride. The meal at Akershus was good, but especially good for seafood lovers like myself. After dinner, we rode the Maelstrom and stayed to watch the Norway movie that follows it. I had assured DS10 there was nothing in this ride to upset his tummy, but I had forgotten about the short descent at the end; he was not pleased about that! The boys then played on the Viking Ship at the Norway pavilion for awhile. This is the closest thing to a playground at Epcot. All the other parks have one: the Boneyard at AK, Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground at MGM, and Tom Sawyer Island at MK. We still had time to kill, so we spent some time wandering around the China and Germany Pavilions. DW bought an Advent Calendar (with little windows for each day Dec 1-24) at Germany.

DW didn’t want to be seated too soon for the Candlelight Processional, and I didn’t want to be seated too late; at some point they let everybody into the remaining seats. As it turned out it wasn’t an issue. When we arrived at the American pavilion about 7:45, the previous show had just let out and there were long lines for admission to the theatre. CMs were reassuring those of us in the CP package line that they had only sold 700 package seats for this show and there were 1000 seats in the section reserved for us. Like last year DS7 protested having to watch this show, but not as much even though it was at 8:15 instead of 6:45. That’s progress! Next year we may try going to a 5:00 show and eating dinner afterward, but that risks someone starving to death during the show.

We were seated next to a group who were mostly speaking Russian with a little English mixed in. Because of the English I risked asking the man next to me “Vwi Russki?”. He responded in Russian, but having had only one year of Russian 30 years ago, I didn’t attempt to carry the charade any further and reverted to English, which he spoke perfectly well. We had a nice conversation, and we all enjoyed the show (except maybe DS7). Afterward I took the boys back to our room, and it was DW’s turn to watch Illuminations.

 

[erikthewise]

Mon Dec 1: Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Root Beer

Today is Pirate Cruise day! Our boys had reservations for the Pirate Cruise Adventure at the Grand Floridian; you don’t have to stay at the Grand Floridian to do this, but you do have to make reservations as soon as possible (90 days out) as it is a popular event. This was DS10’s last chance as it is restricted to ages 4-10. A detailed description of the Pirate Cruise can be found at http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=465756&perpage=15&pagenumber=4, a lot more than we could ever get out of our boys!

We had a bit of a scramble getting there on time. We were supposed to be there 15 minutes early (9:15), and pulled into the Grand Floridian at 9:05, only find the parking lot was on the other side of the street! By the time we parked and walked back, it was 9:15. There was a “marina” sign which pointed north, so we hurried to the boat dock, only to find that the boat dock and marina are not in the same place. So then we hurried over the marina. But we were able to get the boys registered in plenty of time.

I thought DW would want to spend the intervening two hours at the Grand Floridian, as in past years she had complained about not being able to spend much time there. But instead she wanted to go shopping at MK. Fine with me, except that of course “going shopping” with someone else is like riding in the back seat of a car instead of driving it. Fortunately the shopping didn’t last too long, just long enough for roughly five CMs to ask if they could help me as I wandered around the store in a disoriented fashion.

Afterward I wanted to go get a Dole whip at Aloha Isle as I’d heard so much about them on these boards. On the way over we watched some dancers (live entertainment) at the end of Main Street performing to 1900-era music, e.g. “Daisy, Daisy”. But when we got to the Aloha Isle, it was closed! Well, it was only 10:40 and it was not a very warm day, so instead we went over to Main Street Bakery where I got a breakfast quiche. Since the boys were getting a snack on the Pirate Cruise I figured we’d be having late lunch. I managed to drop my quiche on the floor, but it was quickly replaced by a CM, an example of the wonderful customer service one sometimes takes for granted at WDW. However, after I apologized for dropping it, I pointed out that the reason I dropped it was because I attempted to set down my tray at the counter where the napkins and plastic silverware are stored. The space where I put my tray was not quite large enough and it toppled off the counter. I showed him how by a simple move of one dispenser there would be plenty of room for a tray, but he insisted it be left in its original position. “That’s the way management wants it.”

Our last stop at MK was the Exposition Hall, where I led DW into the back room, suspecting there was something of interest back there. And so there was! In the back is a section paying tribute to the early days of Disney animation, including a small theatre with continuously running cartoons, a number of photo cutouts, and a couple other things I can’t recall. Worth a look if you have a little time to kill on Main Street.

We left the park and caught a shuttle boat back to the Grand Floridian. Everyone wanted to go to MGM, so we drove there to find it wasn’t too crowded. We did the Great Movie Ride after about a 10 minute wait. I don’t think I’d ever seen the preshow before; in the past this has been a walkon for us. I’d read that they were changing the “script” for this ride, but it went exactly the same as last year. Apparently the script change never took place, or perhaps it didn’t work well.

I grabbed Star Tours fastpasses before we ate lunch at Pizza Planet. While I like to try different sitdown restaurants, I don’t feel a need to experience all the counter service outlets; Pizza Planet works for us. It turned out the FPs only saved us a couple minutes at Star Tours; DW decided not to ride with us, and said “those fast passes didn’t help much did they? There were four or five groups of people who came out after you went in!” In fact we had almost no wait; I pointed out to her that there were several ride vehicles that were in operation and the people who came out were riding those other vehicles.

But my faith in fastpasses was not diminished. I grabbed some for Millionaire before we went to the Honey I Shrunk The Kids playground. Our boys love this but it’s not very parent friendly. It’s typical to not see your child for 5-10 minutes at a time, or even longer, which can be a problem if you need to leave on a schedule. The printed window for a Millionaire fastpass is only 10 minutes long, but we able to get there on time.

I did well at Millionaire, getting on the top ten list at #7 during the first game then missing the last question. (If I’d gotten it right I might have been in the hot seat!) In the second game I finished #3! We then watched Muppets 3D. I love the Muppets and everything about this show except that obnoxious non-Muppet 3D character whose name I always forget.

Our last attraction today was Magic of Disney Animation. This consisted of three parts: a question and answer session, a drawing lesson, and a walkthrough of the working studios. In the drawing lesson, we got to draw Stitch, which was exciting for DS7 as Lilo and Stitch is just about his favorite TV show these days. In the question and answer, I winced when someone asked about future animation projects at Disney Studios Florida. The session was run by one of the animators working there; he put up a brave front and gave a noncommital answer to this question, but the truth is the studio is just months or even weeks from being totally shut down. For more information on this disturbing development, see the article “Three Hits and You’re Out?!” at http://www.jimhillmedia.com/. (You may need to look under “Archives”.) If the animation studios are shut down, it seems this attraction would have to be discontinued.

We left MGM about 5:30 and returned to our room, where we ate dinner. After dinner, the boys watched bedtime stories on the Radio Disney channel. Every evening from 7:00 to 10:30 they show “read-along DVD” synopses of movies such as Little Mermaid, Toy Story II and Monsters, Inc., each lasting 10-20 minutes. These are nothing more than narrated sequences of still shots from the movies. This was their favorite evening activity when in the room, and we saw each one several times during our stay. The nice thing about the one-bedroom suites at BCV is that there are two TVs in separate rooms, so if you don’t like what the kids are watching, you can go into the master bedroom and watch something different, which is what DW would often do. I usually prefer children’s programming to adult programming, so I’d usually watch the bedtime stories with the boys.

 

[erikthewise]

Tue Dec 2: “I Am Not a Trash Can!”

This morning we went to Animal Kingdom. We arrived at the gate about 8:45. I was hoping for an opening ceremony, but all that happened was a few characters came out a couple minute early, did a few cheers, and did a countdown to open the park. We followed the crowd to the Safari and only had to wait for one vehicle to load before we got our. I think we saw the Sunrise Safari group from AKL leaving just as we were entering the queue area; they all had name tags and looked like they got up too early!

It was our best safari ever (out of three). Our driver was not African but was knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The morning was cool and there were lots of animals out and about. Even both lions were active!

The boys wanted to go to Dinoland next so we headed that way. After the three of us rode Dinosaur, DW said she wanted to do some exploring on her own, so we agreed to meet at the Tree of Life at 11:00 and she took off. The boys just wanted to play in the Boneyard playground, which they hadn’t done before, so we did that for at least half an hour. This playground is much more open and parent friendly than Honey I Shrunk the Kids at MGM. You can generally keep track of where your child is, though of course one parent can’t follow two children!

After we met DW, we all took the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. The seating on the train is “sideways”, in that you sit facing one side of the tracks, not forward. You face the same direction both ways as the train does not turn around. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this before; apparently Disney doesn’t want us looking the other way! Actually there’s nothing to see but a solid fence in the other direction. Looking the direction we were facing, we could see many of the buildings where the mammals spend the night at Animal Kingdom. That’s right, all of those animals who look so at home out on the savannah are just faking it; they all come back to their respective hotels when the show’s over!

There were a number of interesting and educational exhibits at the Conservation Station, plus a petting zoo which our boys were not interested in. It appeared to be just goats, so I don’t blame them. Now if they had a tapir or a capybara or something, it would have been worthwhile! But the big hit was the talking recycling bin! (He became very irritated if you called him a trash can.) Everyone was getting hungry, so we left the park and went back to our room for lunch. This was the only day we ate lunch in our room; we have yet to eat a meal in Animal Kingdom.

Tonight we would be going to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Since it lasts until midnight and the fireworks aren’t until 9:15, we don’t want anyone to be getting tired at 8:00! So this afternoon we had “naptime”. In order to get the boys to take a nap, we had to separate them. So DS10 napped with DW in the master bedroom, while DS7 and I napped on the sleeper couch in the living room. To my surprise, everyone (including myself) actually got some sleep.

At 4:00 we left for Magic Kingdom. We arrived in plenty of time to get to our 5:05 PS at Liberty Tree Tavern. I even to remembered to grab a MVMCP map and schedule. (I seldom remember to grab a list of showtimes when entering a park.) LTT is a nice place to eat before MVMCP; it has good (but not great) food, along with good theming and character interaction. It also has what may be the worst restroom in all of WDW. It is on the second floor at the top of steep narrow steps, not only not wheelchair-accessible, but difficult for anyone with mobility problems. Once you get there, it is very small with only one stall and one urinal (on the men’s side). The good news is that there is running water and flush toilets. All it would take for complete authenticity with the colonial theme would be to have the toilets empty into a pit under the building. If you need something better (or if there’s a line), you can go across the street to Columbia Harbour House.

The park closes at 6:00 on MVMCP nights. Apparently between 6:00 and 7:00 all the guests remaining for MVMCP are herded into Tomorrowland until the party starts so CM’s can make preparations. Since we had to go there anyway, we decided to catch the 6:15 showing of Mickey’s ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas at the Galaxy Palace amphitheater in Tomorrowland. This was a reading of the famous poem by Mickey and Minnie, interspersed with a number of song-and-dance numbers. After the show we visited Timekeeper, another attraction which is usually not open when we visit. The whole family enjoyed this one; if you haven't seen, it is definitely worth doing.

We then walked back toward the castle, and noticed that the other show, “Celebrate the Season”, held on the Castle Forecourt, was also a song-and-dance type of show. We kept walking into Adventureland, and grabbed some free cookies in a large building near Aloha Isle. They were also doing family photos there but the line was kind of long so we decided to come back later. As we continued we noticed that Aladdin’s Flying Carpets had virtually no line, so we rode it twice in a row, including DS10 who just that morning had decided he was “too old” to ride Triceratop Spin!

I thought it would be fun to ride Big Thunder Mountain in the dark, so DS7 and I did that next. DW turned up her nose at my suggestion of riding Pirates of the Caribbean, so she and DS10 just waited for us. It was a walkon so they didn’t have to wait too long. It was now about half an hour before the first parade, so we decided to sit down and wait. We sat on a stone wall on the south side of the parade route near Country Bear Jamboree, a great place to wait because you don’t have to stand or sit on the ground. We checked with a CM to make sure we’d be allowed to watch from there, always a good idea if you’re uncertain whether your chosen spot is “legit”.

The Christmas parade is definitely worth watching, and you can only see it at MVMCP until it gets closer to Christmas (about the 20th). At this location the crowd was very well behaved, but there were a few people not too far ahead of us who needed to be reminded to stay back out of the street. Remember: if you take a step out in the street and lean forward to see what’s coming, you will likely be blocking the view of 100 or more people behind you!

After the parade we went back to Adventureland to the photo station and waited in line about 15 minutes to get our family photo taken. They sent us four prints in the mail, and it was actually a good picture! I was nervous because it was getting close to fireworks time, but we managed to get in front of the castle about 5 minutes before they began. The Wishes fireworks is a great show, including narration and music to which the fireworks are synchronized. On MVMCP nights, fireworks are only shown during MVMCP, leaving only three days a week when they are shown during regular park hours.

After the fireworks, the boys were still holding up well so we set out for more rides. The park was starting to get kind of empty, and lesser attractions were nearly deserted. We rode the Mad Hatter Teacups twice in a row, then wandered over to Toontown. We walked through Mickey’s and Minnie’s houses, and DS7 rode Goofy’s Barnstormer twice, once with DW and once with me. DS10 won’t even do the baby coaster! It was now about 10:30, so we started to head toward the exit, but noticed that Tomorrowland Speedway had no line at all! Given that we have spent more time in line waiting for this than any other attraction at WDW, this was too good to pass up, so over DS10’s objections we walked right onto it. The catch was that it took a while to get off because there weren’t enough people getting on to move the cars out of the way! After this ride, we really did leave. I was surprised that our boys lasted until nearly 11:00!

 

[erikthewise]

Wed Dec 3: Kings of the Caribbean!

Of course I hadn’t planned anything for the morning after MVMCP assuming we’d all sleep in. Hey, even I slept in until 7AM! I went running this morning, as I did on Monday and Friday, 3 laps around Lake Crescent each time. Today I also stopped by Ship Shape Health Club to do some leg extension weightlifting for my bad knees. It’s really nice to be able to do this without charge due to DVC membership.

To my surprise everyone else was up and having breakfast when I returned. The plan of just relaxing this morning didn’t suit the boys so we went exploring around the resort a little. DS7 had become obsessed with the different stairwells at BCV and was always asking to take the stairs. So at various times we went looking for staircases and eventually found all six of them. This morning we also did our “oval races” on the oval sidewalk behind BCV. I timed all three of us running around the oval. DS10 beat DS7 by only 0.1 seconds, and I beat their time by about 3 seconds, but it is hard work doing those tight turns! We thought about walking through the tunnel to Boardwalk, but decided not to. There is actually a sidewalk through the tunnel so it can be done, it makes for a good jogging path.

At 11:15 we went down to Beaches & Cream for an early lunch. We ate here in 2001 but somehow didn’t get around to it last year, so it was good to come back. This year we had the No Way José sundae for dessert. After lunch we drove to Downtown Disney, where we would spend the rest of the day. I had purchased discount tickets online for Disney Quest, so that was the first stop. We entered about 12:30 (it opens at 11:30), and it wasn’t crowded at all, no doubt because it was a weekday with nice weather.

We first did the virtual Pirates of the Caribbean on the 1st floor. It was supposed to be only a five-minute wait, but it turned out to be 15 or 20. The line moved VERY slowly because the CM had to prep the virtual reality helmets and give a brief orientation for each group, so it took 3-4 minutes for each group ahead of us! But the wait was worth it; this is the second best attraction at Disney Quest, and the wait would no doubt have been longer if we had postponed it. You get to pilot a ship around various Caribbean ports and sink as many pirate ships as possible. One person is the captain and steers the boat (that’s me!) and the others fire cannons. We did pretty well and attained the second highest classification, “Kings of the Caribbean” I think.

The Virtual Jungle Cruise attraction is less successful but still worth doing. It’s a pretty good simulation of navigating a 4-person rubber raft through rivers, lakes and rapids. There are a number of places where you can choose to go one way or another, so there are a variety of paths you can follow. To control the raft, you use oars with rollers on them pushing against inflatable bumpers which surround the raft. The raft bumps up and down and rolls back and forth in response to the various obstacles and rapids you encounter, and that part was fun. Our problem is we weren’t sure how to use the oars. Do the oars work by putting pressure on the inflated bumpers, or by spinning the rollers on the oars? I don’t know, but I suspect it’s the first one. It makes a big difference in how you handle the oars.

Aladdin’s Flying Carpets on the 2nd floor is another virtual reality game with a helmet that fits over your head. It’s somewhat uncomfortable as it needs to be on tight, and even then has a habit of becoming detached. You use a controller to guide your carpet through the cavern in which Aladdin’s lamp is found in the Disney movie. I never felt I really understood how the controller was supposed to work, and was constantly frustrated by the lack of control. This was complicated by the fact that there are time when you really don’t have control, but are on autopilot to get you to the next stage of the game.

Next we went up to the fourth floor and participated in Animation Academy, you use an electronic pen on a computer screen to draw a particular Disney character under the instruction of a CM (we did Pluto). This was similar to the Magic of Disney Animation attraction at MGM except that the electronic pen was more difficult to control than a normal pencil.

Also on the fourth floor was the crowning attraction of Disney Quest, Cyberspace Mountain, where you can design your own roller coaster, then ride it in a simulator. There is a bank of about 8 simulators, and they are serious simulators – they can spin you in any direction, and when the roller coaster goes upside down, you really go upside down! Unfortunately I was the only one to do the simulator part as DS7 was too short (you have to be 51”).

Also on the upper floors is Buzz Lightyear’s Astroblaster, where you ride around in 2-person vehicles shooting large rubber balls at each other as well as playing bumper cars. To pick up the balls you have to drive over them, which is difficult because the cars don’t go straight. There are also a large number of classic arcade games such as Space Invaders, Pacman, Centipede, Defender, etc. DS10 spent a lot of time on these games, but I was not terribly impressed. There is little if anything less than 20 years old, and there is a children’s museum in Columbus (COSI) that has just as good a collection if not better. I was disappointed they didn’t have Dragon’s Lair.

Floors 3-5 are very noisy because of some Mighty Ducks game on the third floor. This game is at the center of an atrium that extends up through the fifth floor and the incredible noise from it reverberates everywhere. After a while we couldn’t take it any longer and had to leave.

Is Disney Quest worth it? It was for us. If you have a pass that cover it, such as an Ultimate Hopper Pass or Premium Annual Pass, it’s worth taking a look at. If you actually have to pay for it, I’d say it’s only worthwhile if (as we did) you buy heavily discounted tickets online, and you go at a time when the lines are short, such as a weekday afternoon when it isn’t raining. Disney Quest simply doesn’t have the capacity to handle crowds well, and the two attractions that make it worthwhile are going to have very long waits if it gets crowded.

We left Disney Quest about 3:30, and after taking a peek at Wolfgang Puck’s Café, we had a late lunch/early dinner at House of Blues at 3:45. We had tickets for Cirque du Soleil, and after lunch we still had about an hour to kill. DS10 wanted to go back into Disney Quest for more arcade games, so I went with him. DS7 and DW went over to the Marketplace to the Lego Store.

For a long time I had resisted the temptation to go to the Cirque du Soleil show “La Nouba” at Downtown Disney due to the cost. But as our trip drew nearer, I realized that this year might be our best chance to see them. We usually go the second week of December, when the show is not performed. (They need a vacation too!) So about a month before we left I went online and luckily found great seats.

We met at 5:30 to enter the theatre, as they recommend for the 6:00 show. However only a small fraction of the audience took them seriously, as most seats were still empty when we sat down. I had splurged and ordered Category 1 tickets, center stage in the fourth row! I had worried that they might be too close, but they worked out very well. We were well above stage level, but not quite at eye level with the performers, and we could see just fine. Sure we had to look up to see some of the action, but that is true of nearly everyone as some of the action occurs very high above the stage. On the other hand it seemed that there weren’t any really bad seats; every seat has a clear view of the stage. If I were to pick perfect seats, they might be about 8 rows back.

I am not going to attempt to critique this wonderful show; it is well worth the cost by today’s standards. I paid nearly the same price for tickets to The Lion King stage show next June, and I would be thrilled if it turns out to be as good as “La Nouba”. The category 1 seats are only 10% more than ordinary seats, so they are not a bad value at all.

After we returned to our room, I decided to go watch Illuminations a second time. I parked myself just beyond the Rose and Crown between the UK and Canada pavilions. It is not an ideal spot because some overhanging trees obscure the fireworks a little, but I had an excellent view of what occurs on the lake. I ended up standing next to two other men who had left their families back in their rooms; we exchanged a lot of thoughts and impressions about our visit to WDW. As the show went on I found myself glad we were not downwind of the fireworks! There is a LOT of smoke produced by this show, and it all seemed to be headed for the Germany and Italy pavilions.

 

[erikthewise]

Thu Dec 4: "It's All Right!" (buh-bowm-bowm-BOWM)

This morning we returned to MGM. We arrived at 8:50, and were admitted to the park immediately. They had rope drop at the end of Hollywood Blvd to open the park at 9:00. The boys wanted to do Star Tours (again!) so I took them there while DW went to browse at One Man’s Dream. When we returned we tried to get fastpasses for the first Millionaire show, but they weren’t giving them out today due to anticipated low turnout.

Today was our “show” day, and we found a way to do several shows without gaps or overlaps. We got in line for the first Little Mermaid show at 9:30, then went to the first Indiana Jones show at 10:10. On the way in, I just happened to notice that the CMs badge said Cedarville College, about 15 miles from where we live! So we stopped and chatted for about 5 minutes; he was a student working in the College Program, but had actually graduated and was planning to stay on for a couple years. Our boys love the Indiana Jones show; it’s a shame they’re still too young to watch the movies, which have a lot of violence.

The first Millionaire show was at 11:20, but we were able to squeeze in One Man’s Dream beforehand. This attraction is a must see for us, our way of paying tribute to the man who made it all possible; it’s the least we can do. And don’t take it for granted! The last I heard it had been extended to early 2005, and even that’s not for sure. Take advantage of it while it’s still here!

We had an 11:50 PS at Sci-Fi Theater, but the Millionaire show lasted long enough that we were a little late getting there. And quite a number of people had the nerve to line up in front of us at the podium! A PS doesn’t do you any good unless you can check in; at popular restaurants sometimes I think I need a PS for my PS, so I can bypass the walk-up customers to get to the podium! But once we checked in we were seated in about five minutes.

After lunch we headed over to the Beauty and the Beast show, getting a seat about 15 minutes early for the 1:15 show. I prefer this show to Little Mermaid because it is longer, so it includes more of the musical numbers and does a better job of following the actual story. The unexpected treat here was a preshow performance by Four For a Dollar, a four-man vocal group. They performed three numbers: “It’s All Right” (Huey Lewis and the News), “Love Potion Number 9”, and “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”. The fact that I can still remember what they sang 12 days later is an indication of how good they were; in fact I still can’t get “It’s All Right” out of my mind!

After the show we decided to head for Backlot Tour, one of the few attractions at MGM we hadn’t yet done. (Those paying attention will notice we haven’t done Rock’n’Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror. I love RnR, but DS7 was an inch too short and this is much too intense for DW or DS10, who wouldn’t even ride Barnstormer! I had resigned myself to the possibility that DS7 would ask to go on ToT, but I was not looking forward to it, and he never insisted on it. Maybe next year.) But as we went past Millionaire, the CM was saying “Come on in! Immediate seating!” so we went in. Over the strong objections of DS10, who has developed a strong dislike for it. He has paranoid delusions of being forced into the hotseat, which he doesn’t want to do! Actually one of the contestants we saw was an 11 year old girl, who won the fastest finger question but was nearly petrified in the hot seat! As the host pointed out, if you don’t want to come down, you don’t have to push the buttons!

Today was DW’s turn to shine at Millionaire! She was in the top ten three times, including being #1 at the conclusion of one of the shows! This matched my feat from last year. One of these years we’ll get in that hot seat! I was off my usual game today, though I did manage one appearance at #5.

Actually playing in the hot seat is much easier than playing in the audience! The hot seat player gets three lifelines; audience players don’t get any! If there is a question you don’t know, you’re toast! The hot seat player gets about thirty seconds to answer each question (The actual time varies according to which stage of the game you’re at.) This is an eternity! Audience players don’t even get one second! In order to get into the top ten, you have to answer the questions instantly! OK if it goes above 8,000, you can take a second or two, but there is extreme time pressure if you are trying to get into the hot seat as the scoring takes into account how long you take to punch in the right answer.

Here’s an example of how that can affect your play. One question was: “What is the part of a hot air balloon that the passengers sit in called?” I was excited because I knew the answer was “gondola”! When “gondola” did not appear among the first three answers, I knew it must be the last one, so I immediately punched in answer “D”. But the last answer was not “gondola”! It was only then I noticed that one of the answers was “basket” and that was what they were looking for. If I had taken the time to see all four answers and compare them, of course I would have gotten it right, but you can’t win the game taking that much time. (This was also a case of being too smart for my own good.)

After the second Millionaire show, we walked down to Backlot Tour, but there was a long line and the sign said 25 minute wait, so we decided to skip it and head back to BCV. This turned out to be a good afternoon for the boys to go swimming at Stormalong Bay. The temperature was almost 70, about as warm as it ever got that week, and the pool wasn’t crowded at all, just enough other swimmers to make it fun. We got a life vest for DS7 again, and stayed in the pool from 3:30 to 5:00. For a while we went over to the “little kids pool” where the water is only 2 ft deep and there is a big sand pile where you can build sand castles etc.

We ate dinner in our room afterward, and just relaxed in our room that evening. DW and I both had a chocolate attack! We had two options: pay high prices for prepackaged snacks at the resort store, or go to Boardwalk Bakery and get something fresh. A no-brainer! I scored some serious chocolate at Boardwalk Bakery for under $10! A big piece of chocolate cake, a large fudge brownie, and a giant chocolate chip cookie. We had two of the cookies earlier in the week so we knew those were good.

 

[erikthewise]

Fri Dec 5: "We're not going to the Yacht Club!"

Happy Birthday Walt Disney! He’s 102 today. This is the day we check out of BCV. So for breakfast we try to eat up some of the remaining perishables. I’m packed by 8:30 but DW needs more time, so I take the boys to Epcot for a while to get them out of her hair. We enter slightly after 9:00 and head over to Test Track. Although the line probably isn’t too bad, I grab fastpasses out of habit. Also out of habit I run all four annual passes through the fastpass machine, including DW’s. Guess what! If you don’t enter the park, you don’t get a fastpass! Just making sure someone was paying attention. At least I didn’t set off any alarms or anything.

With fastpasses in hand, we drift over to Wonders of Life. I don’t know what all those people with fastpasses for Test Track and Mission:Space are going to do while waiting after Wonders of Life shuts down. If Disney thinks we’re all going to go shopping in Mouse Gear, they have another think coming. We had a great time although the pavilion was nearly empty this time of the morning. The CM said we were the second group to enter that day! We almost got a private showing of Body Wars, but another couple ended up going with us, for a grand total of 5. Next we saw Cranium Command, one of my favorites. The video was out during the preshow, and I wondered if anybody else noticed there was supposed to be video! Afterward the boys spent a lot of time playing with the interactive stuff in the middle of the pavilion. I just about had to tear them away from it when our fastpass time came around.

DS10 rode this attraction last year but did not enjoy it because of the fast curves. I hoped he would ride it again this year, but didn’t want to. So he got to wait by the exit while DS7 and I went. With the fastpasses it was pretty close to a walk-on, but there was a delay of about five minutes while we were waiting to get out of the cars. It was now about 10:30 and time to head back to BCV as checkout time is 11:00. I hoped DW hadn’t called the bellhop and sent the luggage ahead to Yacht Club!

When we got back, the maid was already in our room preparing it for the next guests, even though we hadn’t left yet! This may explain why we’ve had good luck getting rooms right away at early check-in. Fortunately our luggage was all packed and ready to go.

I gathered everyone together and told them:
“We’re not really going to the Yacht Club!”
Blank stares.
“We’re going somewhere else instead, somewhere in Disney World.”
“Where?”
“The Polynesian!”
“YEA!!” in unison.
The Polynesian was our favorite resort before joining Disney Vacation Club. DW and I stayed there for 5 nights in 1992, and we all stayed there 4 nights in 2001 before our cruise. I had originally booked Yacht Club because I couldn’t get an AP rate at the Polynesian, but eventually was able to get a AAA rate at the Polynesian and decided to go for it. I decided to keep it a secret!

We checked in at the Polynesian at 11:45, but our room wasn’t ready yet. There was an “entertainer” in the lobby singing Hawaiian music and getting children and adults to join in by playing maracas or swinging these nerf bolos around to the music. We did that for a few minutes then went upstairs to Kona Café to get some lunch. They didn’t start serving lunch until 12:00, so we had a bit of a wait.

After lunch our room still wasn’t ready, so we drove over to Wilderness Lodge to visit. DS10 took on a walk on “his” bridge in the lobby. He was there when he was 13 months old and got a big thrill out of walking back and forth across the bridge. We sat in front of the fireplace for a few minutes, and looked at the Christmas decorations, totem poles, etc. Since we are thinking of staying at Wilderness Lodge Villas next year, we went to the front desk and asked if we could be shown one of the suites over there. A CM named "Zaly" from Puerto Rico was very happy to do that for us (and no doubt to get away from the front desk for awhile!). We were shown a one-bedroom suite on the fifth floor. We were not surprised to find the room layout to be nearly the same as at BCV, but the décor was very different using darker tones. Also this suite had a slanted roof as a result of being on the fifth floor!

Upon returning to the Polynesian, our room still wasn’t ready (2:30)! So we decided to ride a surrey bike! Last year we rode a one-bench bike at the Boardwalk and it went pretty well, except that only DW and I could pedal, and the older boy had to sit between us with the younger one riding in a basket! This year we decided to try the larger two-bench bike so that everyone could have their own seat. This did not go well, as DS10 was not really tall enough to reach the pedals (I thought he would be), and the bike itself was a lot heavier, so we had to work pretty hard on the uphill parts. We gave up after 15 minutes, but the CM at the marina was nice and only charged us for 15 minutes instead of the usual half-hour minimum.

Finally our room was ready! We had 1803 on the first floor of Rarotonga. I had been hoping for Tokelau or Tahiti, but our room had the advantage of being one of the closest to the Great Ceremonial House (lobby, food, shopping) which was very convenient. It was also very close to the Neverland Club, where the boys stayed from 5:00 to 8:00 while DW and I had our best meal of the trip at the California Grill. Because we had a PS for 5:30 when it opened, we got a window table without even asking. The view is spectacular! You can see all of the Magic Kingdom, the Grand Floridian, the Polynesian, and for quite a distance beyond. We also saw the sunset just shortly after being seated.

We got back about 7:30 but didn’t go get the boys until 8:00 because we were sure they were having a good time. DS10 said “Dad, you were right about what you said.” I had told them I thought Neverland Club was the best of all the children’s clubs. At 9:00 we went down to the beach to watch the Electric Water Pageant and the Wishes fireworks. I still like the Water Pageant after watching it several times, but I would like it more if they would go back to using the Handel Water Music theme they used when we first saw it in 1992. The Wishes fireworks are well worth watching, but unlike previous fireworks shows you really miss something by not being there in MK to hear the narration and music that goes with it.

 

[erikthewise]

Sat Dec 6: Family of Four Finally Finds Figment!

We slept in a little today. I had heard that they were doing TV taping for the Christmas Parade in MK today, but our rule is NEVER go to MK on Saturday, and the TV taping just reinforced that decision. The boys asked to go to Animal Kingdom, but DW said no to that. She’s decided she doesn’t like (most of) AK. The rest of us still like it, so I think next year just the boys and I will go and let her spend all day playing Millionaire at MGM or something.

Actually I had always planned to go to Epcot today because of the MegaMouseMeet being held at the Dolphin at 1:00, the main event of Mousefest 2003 (http://allearsnet.com/btp/mousefest.htm). Quite a number of Disney cognoscenti, primarily webmasters and book authors, were scheduled to be there to meet all comers. If we were at Epcot my going there would be a minimal disruption.

We entered Epcot around 9:30 and grabbed Test Track fast passes as DW hadn’t ridden it yet and DS7 had no problems about going again! While waiting we went to Energy Adventure, which lasts about 45 minutes. As the fastpass delay was about an hour and a half, we still needed to kill time, so we went into Innoventions East. If you don’t see this you won’t be missing much, but it’s interesting for children. The most interesting activity was a 4-player character tag game where the players moved their chosen character (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, or Goofy) through a small 3-D town playing tag. There were also some ice cream cones you could grab, and the goal was to accumulate the most ice cream cones. The catch was that you couldn’t get any ice cream cones while you were “it”. DS7 played Mickie and had a rough time of it as the other kids always tagged him, so he spent most of the game being “it”. The nice thing was the at the end of the game, each player received a title for being best at something. DS7 was “Best Tagger” and DS10 was given the “Best Strategy” award while playing Minnie.

We still had a little time left so we sat on a bench and counted down the last five minutes until our fastpass time. (If the CM’s will let you in before your time comes up, I don’t want to know.) I wanted to ride again too, but decided to stay with DS10 in the exit area this time.

We ate lunch at Pure and Simple in the Wonders of Life pavilion. This is the one thing in that pavilion I won’t miss. It was the worst food we had during our entire trip, edible but somewhat disappointing even for counter service.

After lunch I headed for the Dolphin and the others for Body Wars. DW had taken her dramamine so she could ride this, and apparently the boys wanted to ride it again.

The MegaMouseMeet was definitely worthwhile. I got to talk to several “notables” including Deb Wills of allearsnet.com and Jim Hill of jimhillmedia.com. Deb had randomly selected me from interested registered MouseFest participants to go on a special tour of MK organized by Jim Hill Sunday morning, and I was looking forward to that. I also hoped to meet our travel agent there, but it turned out she had a difficult week with the flu and couldn’t make it to that event.

When I returned to Epcot I called the others on my walkie-talkie and found they were just leaving The Living Seas. There was one attraction we hadn’t yet done (ever!) at Future World and that was Journey Into Your Imagination. It doesn’t get great reviews but I thought we should give it a try. I thought it was nothing special (and look how OLD Eric Idle looks!), but our boys loved it! DS10 laughed his head off at the antics of Figment! And they enjoyed the activity area after the ride also. At that point it was getting to be close to 3:00, so we took the monorail back to the Polynesian.

DW needed a map, but that is not possible with both boys in the room. DS7 was still full of energy, so I took him exploring. We decided to ride the resort monorail all the way around, and again we got to sit up front! After we got back, I decided we should check out the Luau Cove. We’ve never done the Luau and it’s not on my list of things to do, but it was the only part of the Polynesian Resort I hadn’t seen. When we entered the Cove about 4:00, we saw onstage a couple CM’s and several other men who looked like they were performers. One of the CM’s came over to us, and I explained we were just exploring and would be leaving shortly. They told us that the Luau had been cancelled that evening due to the weather. As the “weather” consisted of cool temperatures in the 40’s, but no rain or high winds, I have to conclude that there weren’t very many performances of the Luau during our stay at WDW, as lows in the 40’s were very common.

We had a 5:20 PS for ’Ohana, and enjoyed the meal even though it wasn’t quite as good as in 2001. That evening we just relaxed in our room, including the last round of “bedtime stories” on resort TV.

 

[erikthewise]

Sun Dec 7: " All Good Things…"

Our last day! Fortunately our return flight on Airtran was an evening flight so we could still spend the morning at WDW. As on Saturday, I made the 60-second walk over to Captain Cook’s to grab some breakfast. But I wasn’t thinking as clearly today, so I ended up making three trips!

This morning I took advantage of a unique opportunity, a chance to take a free “beta-version” 2.5-hour tour of MK organized by Jim Hill of jimhillmedia.com. The tour was mostly given by Jim Korkis, a well-known Disney historian. Mr. Korkis showed an amazing depth of knowledge together with the ability to weave that knowledge into interesting stories. I have not taken the official Disney tours of MK, but I’m willing to bet that what I experienced that morning was much, much better. It was clear that a number of the book authors and webmasters who were also on this tour were similarly impressed. Of course as this was not an official Disney tour, there was no access to backstage areas.

I had finished my packing early and entered MK shortly after the 8:00 early opening, made a PS for the Plaza Restaurant at 11:30, did a little shopping, and rode Snow White before getting back to Main Street to join the tour. The rest of the family took more time to finish packing, and entered much later, and spent some time at Tom Sawyer’s Island before meeting me for lunch at the Plaza.

After lunch it was finally time to go. We said goodbye to Magic Kingdom, and to the Polynesian, and got in our car for the hour-plus drive up to DeLand to visit relatives for a few hours before heading to the airport. DW’s cousin and her husband live up there, and we’ve visited them on each of our recent trips. DW’s elderly aunt (her cousin’s mother who lives nearby) was also visiting so we had a chance to talk to her as well. It was a nice relaxing afternoon! Even though we had taken care to make sure they wouldn’t have to prepare a meal for us (as they had kindly done the last couple years), they did share a delicious store-bought cheesecake sampler with us, very welcome since we would be dining on airport food later.

On Airtran you don't get advance seat assignments, but you can select seats via web check-in 24 hours in advance. I had done this before leaving but it turned out to be irrelevant due to the upgrades. When I used their computer to do web check-in this afternoon, I found we were in Business Class again!! I called Airtran, and after a 20 minute wait to get through, the agent seemed mystified as to why we had been upgraded, but assured this was not a mistake and there was no additional charge. So we got a total of 8 upgrades for $70, or $8.75 each! The only explanation I have is that the gate agent at Dayton must have upgraded our return flight as well! Give that man a promotion! You can bet we will have Airtran as our first option for future flights to Orlando.

We left at 4:30 for the hour-long drive back to the airport. Of course we needed to put gas in the car on the way back. We took 417 (the northern portion) from I-4 to the airport, and there are no highway signs whatsoever indicating the presence of gas stations (or food or lodging) at any of the exits. The exits are also designed so that you have to enter the ramp before you can see anything. There are also no elevated signs that can be seen from the highway. It was a conspiracy to prevent us from getting gasoline! Finally I chose what seemed to be a likely exit and indeed there was a Sunoco station. I filled up, but once I got back out on the highway, I discovered that the tank was only 3/4 full; the pump had shut off prematurely! I can’t remember the last time this happened to me, but it has been several years at least, and this was not a good time. I did not want to risk spending more time looking another gas station as time was running short, but it cost an extra $20 to return the car 4 gallons short. You can bet I won’t be in any hurry to patronize Sunoco in the future.

At the airport we went through the wrong security line, then had to exit and go through the other one instead. Fortunately the lines were short so we only lost about 10 minutes because of that. The problem with eating at the airport is that all the good places to eat are before the security checkpoint, so to eat there you either have to get to the airport really early, or risk getting to your gate later than you should. In our terminal there were just a McDonalds and a Sbarro, but we somehow survived. After eating we went to our gate, and 33 minutes before departure boarding was already well underway! I’m not sure what their rush was, but at least we left the gate ontime (7:30). On the plane I made sure to have some diet coke so I’d be alert enough to drive home. And so we arrived safe and sound.

Wrap-Up

For those keeping score it home, it may appear that I achieved all my personal goals. Actually I was only 3 out of 4; at our very last meal in WDW at the Plaza Restaurant, I forgot to ask for a replacement for the french fries. So I ate them. Sue me!

Overall it was just about a perfect trip. We had no travel problems, not even any driving errors like last year – I think I finally know my way around WDW. We had no experiences with bad food, poor service, or snotty CMs. Even the people around us at WDW all seemed pleasant and well-behaved! Things can always be better, but they could so easily have been worse! I apologize if this resulted in a boring report. I have no complaints, only thanks for a wonderful trip.

And I wish all of you the same!

 

[Krissalee]

I am enjoying your reports so far, can't wait until you post the rest!

BTW, I love you posting the reports in this format. It makes it so much easier, since I don't have to search the thread to find each and every day.

 

[IloveDMB]

I'll second what Krissalee said. I love it when people write in this format. It's so much easier to keep track of what you read.

Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Minniespal]

Wonderful trip reports ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[corky805]

Thanks for writing!

 

[Credit Man]

Thanks for the great report. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[IloveDMB]

Just finished up and this report was a lot of fun to read. You did a great job and it wasn't boring at all.

One question. Does Airtran fly direct to Orlando from you or did you have to change in Atlanta? If you did have to change, were you automatically upgraded?

 

[erikthewise]

Airtran flies nonstop from Dayton to Orlando, which too good to be true. Other nonstop options from southern Ohio are limited.

 

[BCV23]

Enjoyed your trip report. On our last trip, we combined BCV and the Polynesian, too.

I like the idea of a day at MGM devoted to shows. We may try that next trip.

Thanks for your report.