Trip Report: Moreno family – Day 1-5 (Nov 4-8)

[AlvaroLuis]

Cast members: Alvaro (41) and Marisel (close second)

When: November 4, 2004

Woke up around 7am so I could log in one last 8K run before our trip (I’m training for the WDW half marathon in January) and be back in time to take our children to the independence day parade in downtown Panama City (they were actually IN the parade). Our flight from Panama to Miami was scheduled to depart at 3pm, so we had to be at the airport not later than 1pm.

After waiting for 3 hours, standing under pouring rain, for the parade to begin it finally did. It was 1230pm already, so we kissed our kids, waved them good-bye and headed for the airport. I know what you’re thinking…what kind of parents would leave their children “alone” in the middle of the rain to take a flight to WDW…without them… we did, and it wasn’t too hard! They were reassured that we are all going back to WDW in January.

Got on time to the airport, got our boarding pass and went through immigration…all within 15 minutes after arriving to the airport. We still had about 1 hour to kill, so we shopped around and bought our DD’s birthday present (new digital camera…so I can get mine back!)

The flight to Miami was OK, pretzels and soft drinks for lunch. Arrived at Miami Int’l Airport at around 6pm. Had a sandwich and a beer at the airport, Marisel had a quesadilla and a soft drink, and took the flight from Miami to Orlando, departing at 8:15pm.

After arriving to Orlando airport, we went to the Alamo counter to get our car (I checked all possible forms of transportation and decided that a rental car would better fit our schedule of activities).

It’s 1015 pm and I’m driving my Pontiac Sunfire down the express way and singing out loud whatever they’re playing at the oldies radio station. I see a sign: “WDW left lane” – “International Drive, 535, exit to the right”…soooo…what do I do?… What do “they” know about getting to WDW? I did not follow the sign…first mistake of many. Did not get lost…not yet…but I’m sure would have been better off following the sign.

Wait, that was not my first mistake. I should have brought with me the address and phone number of the Pop Century resort, which I didn’t. I started guessing whether it is an AK resort, or EPCOT resort…I know it is not a MK resort… It is a value resort, so I figure I’ll follow the signs leading to the All Star resorts and that should take us to Pop…well…kind of! Reached the All Star resorts gate and got turned around “with directions” to get to Pop. It is 11pm now, and we are getting really hungry. “Color TV”!!!… This is IT! We have arrived.

Got to the check-in parking lot and start walking towards the classic hall…I’m not impressed yet… got to the lobby and I see a face painting booth, a mini Disney store…and the smell of food…and everyone was smiling…NOW I’m impressed. They handled check-in really fast and in less than 5 minutes I’ve got a bunch of brochures in one hand, the room keys in the other hand and an empty stomach…

We knew what to expect from the food court at 1115pm, so we were not gonna be picky about it. The first thing we bought was a refillable mug ($11.99), which paid off by itself in two days. Despite all the advice…I had a pepperoni pizza ($5.79).

We were given room 9364 in the 80’s building (2 minutes walk from the parking lot and 5 minutes walk from Classic Hall). We tried to watch some TV but were too tired. Better get some rest now because tomorrow we’ll have a long day at EPCOT.

 

[lynn71092]

Great report!
Can't wait for Part 2.

 

[AlvaroLuis]

Cast members: Alvaro (41) and Marisel (close second)

Last night I set up a wake up call for 7:45am. Planned on getting up earlier and making sure to hit the speaker phone button so we both could hear Mickey…well, it didn’t work out quite like that. I’m sound asleep and all the sudden the phone starts ringing, Marisel gets upset (she always does that if forced to wake up before noon…LOL…) and hands me the phone. I’m thinking “who could this be in the middle of the night?”…sure enough, it was “your Pal Mickey”…and it’s already 7:45am. I got up first, took a quick shower, got dressed and, mug in hand, walked to the food court for coffee.

At 8:45am we are both at the food court having breakfast. Marisel had a breakfast wrap ($5.49) and I had a western omelet w/hash brown ($6.09) and an orange juice ($2.29 – this was my first and last OJ…too expensive) --- today is Food & Wine day so I need a good breakfast.

At 9:20am we are in line waiting for a bus to take us to EPCOT. Why does it always seem like all the other buses are coming more frequently than the one you are waiting for? Finally, here comes the bus…I check my watch…we waited 20 minutes…@#$% Disney, just like they advertise “Buses depart approximately every twenty minutes.” We hop on the bus…all 200 of us…there were not enough seats but fortunately it was only a 15 minutes ride to EPCOT.

FUTURE WORLD:

It is 1030am and we are already taking pictures of the Food & Wine Festival sign in front of Spaceship Earth. We are all those Disney photographers when you need one!!! Oh well! We are ready to start touring Future World when Marisel pops up one of those questions you don’t want to hear “inside” of a park: “Where can I get some film for my camera?” WHAT? My sweetie forgot to buy film for her 35mm camera and just when I was ready to say something I would have regret for days to come she says: “Don’t worry about it, we can use your digital camera today”. Oh-oh!!! I forgot the BIG memory card at home and only have enough room for 2 additional pictures in my camera…so I say don’t worry baby, I’ll buy you ALL the film you want (she absolutely LOVES to take pictures with that camera)…so she is happy and I’m safe…for now. BTW, I ended up paying $18.10 for a 4-pack of ASA400 film…but it came with a commemorative pin… which we lost later that day.

So with lots of expensive film, where do we go next? Mission Space!!! We got there to find out it was only a 20 minutes wait at standby line, but there’s Mickey and Goofy in their space outfit for pictures, so we get in line to have our picture taken. While Marisel stays in line I ran to Test Track to get a FastPass but the return time was 3:30-4:30pm and the standby line was 55 minutes…so, forget about Test Track this time, back to Mission Space.

We got our picture taken with Goofy and got in line for Mission Space. We are placed in the same spaceship with two ladies (mid-50’s) who do not speak English nor Spanish, so we cannot really communicate with them prior to take off, which I wanted to do because I “knew” they had no clue about pushing buttons during the flight or their VERY IMPORTANT roles (they were the Commander and the Engineer…oh boy, we are in trouble!) Not that I had much experience to share with them (this is our first time at Mission Space), but a simple “push the $#@ button…NOW!” would have helped…LOL… At Mission Space they warn you about 20 times before they close those lids that you should refrain from riding if you suffer from this-that-and the other, which I don’t, RIGHT?… WRONG! The minute that thing came down over my shoulders and chest and the controls and tiny window got close to my face I started to feel a bit short of breath (despite the constant flow of fresh air right on your nose). So here comes take off!!! I swear I could feel my cheeks shaking all the way up to outer space. After that, the rest of the ride was awesome; it’s just those first 30 seconds that really got me, and Marisel too. She came out of it a little dizzy and minutes later started to feel sick. It took here about 2 hours and some “special medicine” (more on this later) to bring her back from Mars.

We went next to Ice Station Cool for a taste of the different soft drinks (I never get tired of drinking Fanta Colita). I thought that would help Marisel, but it didn’t really work that well. At the Festival Welcome Center I bought a F&W Festival 2004 shot glass ($6.39) for my collection…I’m still looking for one from last year’s festival. At one of the stores at the Showcase Plaza we bought a pen (needed to keep track of what we were about to eat and drink…you can’t trust your memory after a few cold ones…) and a bag of chocolate covered pretzels ($4.95) – Marisel really loves chocolate covered pretzels and they have become so hard to find these days…it’s like they are illegal or something…

WORLD SHOWCASE:

Let me start by saying that the Food & Wine Festival is the highlight of this trip. It is our second year in a row and plan on coming back every chance we get. Be ready for some serious drinking and eating experience as you keep on reading this report. All prices at the kiosks are with tax included.

Our first stop was in Peru. It is 1:30pm already and I’m starting to feel a little hungry. I had anticuchos (chicken skewer @ $3.25), which came with an amazingly good potato salad and a Cristal beer ($4.25). Marisel had nothing from Peru, but rather had a bite of my anticucho.

Second stop was in Mexico. Before we got to try anything from the kiosk we rode El Rio del Tiempo…relaxing as always! Enough sailing, lets eat! I had a chicken taco ($3). Marisel is still not feeling very well so I decided it was time for a prescription medicine (you know…doctors always save the good stuff for last). Bought her a strawberry margarita ($7.25) and a chicken & chorizo quesadilla ($3.50) to go with it. All three of these Mexican items were excellent. We decided we would come back later that evening after trying other stuff from the rest of the World… which we didn’t…

The third stop was Southeast Asia (located between China and Germany). Here I had the first drawback of the afternoon. The name “Spicy Pulled Chicken” ($2.50) really caught my attention, not knowing that it was a cold dish. Still ate it all (it wasn’t that big anyway), and poured it down with a Singha beer ($4.25) – very strong stuff.

Quickly continued our journey into our fourth stop, South Africa. At this point I was ready for something “spicy” and the previous chicken did not do the trick, so I had the Durban Spiced Chicken ($3.50) and this one was really good. But what is Durban chicken without some wine (noticed I have not had a single glass of wine yet). I bought me a glass of Indaba Merlot ($4.25)….ahhhh!!!…life is good!

It is mid afternoon now and Marisel is running out of margarita, so we go to our fifth stop: Australia. We shared the Marinated Shrimp (which at $4 ended up being $1/shrimp), which tasted real good. I’m getting thirsty again, so I had a glass of Little Penguin Merlot ($3) to go with the shrimp. Marisel had her mind set on her favorite drinking station: Champagne & Sparkling Wine. There she had a glass of Champagne Pommery ($6.75).

Our seventh stop was Japan, and I had to get one of those Tokyo rolls ($3) with what else than Ozeki Dry Sake ($2.75). I like warm sake and this one was cold, but who’s gonna complaint to a cheerful Japanese CM.

It’s getting late now, around 5:30pm, but is time for our eight stop of the day, Valencia Spain. We had been talking about this kiosk for the last 15 minutes so we were really excited when we finally reached there. Marisel had, you guessed, Paella Valenciana ($3.50), which was a bit too hot for her, considering she had just being recently “cured” from a bad trip to Mars by Dr. Moreno. I had the Manchego Cheese & Serrano Ham on olive oil dipped bread ($2.75) – I was in heaven!!! We both decided to wash the Spanish stuff down with Aigua de Valencia ($3.50)…some sort of white wine sangria. It was so good that we bought a third glass to share.

We are looking at 6:00pm in the afternoon now, and after 1,2,3… well, after all that food & wine we were ready for some dessert. Walk into France, our ninth stop for a Chocolate Crème Brulee ($2) and a glass of Chateau Bonnet Bordeaux Rouge ($4.25) for me.

It’s getting chilly now at almost 7pm and I realize that I should have brought my jacket (Marisel did…smart woman). We go into the International Gateway store where I bought a Navy/Green jacket ($29) and Marisel bought a Tinkerbell pin ($6.50).

We breezed through United Kingdom and Canada, not without stopping for a Honey Maple Glazed Salmon with Pecans ($???) – I have no idea how much I paid for this, don’t have any records of it other than the fact that it is underlined in my event guide and I DO remember how good it was… And apparently I washed it down with…saliva!!! Because there’s no record of me buying any drinks after that excellent red wine in France…hmmm!!!

Done with the countries and the kiosks and the wine and the beer, is time for some good old fun! So we went to Honey I Shrunk the Audience (had not been to this one in a long time) and just watched the reaction of the kids around us to the 999,999 mice and the dog sneezing. That was fun. We came out of this one at 7:30pm and spend some time at ImageWorks sending emails home with funny faces (did not take much work in the computer after such a long day). At 7:45pm we looked at each other and decided it was time to go back to the hotel and call it a day…well, not quite.

Once again we had a short 15 minutes ride on the bus back to Pop (this time seated, not standing), although we had to run to catch the bus (this happened more than once during our trip…LOL…)

It was 8pm when we got back to Pop and somehow I had cravings for something sweet (go figure!!!). So we went to the food court and bought a chocolate cake ($3.59) for Marisel and a twinkie tiramisu ($3.99) for myself. Got to the room, turned on the TV and started devouring that tiramisu like there was no tomorrow (not for the tiramisu anyway)…ate the whole thing…I was snoring by 9pm. Tomorrow would be an easier day…we survived the Food & Wine Festival 2004.

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

Food & Wine Fest is definitely alot of fun. Sounds like you really were able to eat your way around!

 

[AlvaroLuis]

Can't wait for next year's fest...we really enjoyed it this year and last year too!

 

[AlvaroLuis]

Cast members: Alvaro (41) and Marisel (close second)

After yesterday’s busy day I had very little planned for today and thought I would spend some time at the pool and taking pictures (at least that’s what Marisel said she wanted to do…). That plan would have to wait another 24 hours.

I got up at 6:30am to get ready for breakfast at the food court at 7:00am (I was going to meet other Disney nuts I had met online).

We were supposed to meet in the area between the restaurant and the merchandise store. I got there at 7:10, filled my mug with coffee and grab a table. I sat there sipping my coffee and updating the information in my palm pilot. Time really flew and before I knew it was 8:00am already. Sadly I had not meet anybody and it was already time to go back to the room, with some coffee for Marisel (Michelle in Florida if you’re reading this I want you to know that I was really looking forward to meeting you and your family…oh well, maybe next time)

When I got back to the room Marisel was already getting ready…and the first words that came out of her mouth were: “When do we shop again?” My answer was “Right after breakfast”. But since my body was crying for some protein we decided to have breakfast at one of the International House of Pancakes on International Drive. A steak omelet and three hotcakes later I was more than ready to take on the shopping part of this trip. The incentive was that I was going to buy running shoes and socks for myself, so that was the fun part. Marisel wanted to buy birthday and Christmas presents for our children…as long as we don’t go to buy clothes I’ll be fine.

We decided to go to Belz Outlet Mall first. Our first stop was at the Nike store but there was nothing that would fit me. Then we tried Reebok and I found the running shoes I was looking for. Our next stop was at the Character Warehouse where we bought a Stitch’s t-shirt for our daughter ($9.99), a ’04 Pooh Grad teddy bear ($2.99), 2 Christmas ornaments ($4.99 each), a Jack Skelington pin for our daughter ($6.50), a Flower & Garden Festival commemorative pot ($2.99), and a Mickey t-shirt for our son ($8.99). We did some more shopping in other stores until 3pm. We then headed over to the Florida Mall, where we stayed until 5pm. I was constantly checking on my watch since I wanted to stop for late lunch by the Boston Lobster Feast right outside of the FL mall, but it was getting late. Our last stop was Toys ‘R Us outside of the FL mall. I’m not going to get into the details of this, but although it ended up being the place where we got the best deal of the day (we bough a PS2, a Gameboy advance, and a bunch of games and other accessories) it wasn’t before we had to deal with whom has to be the most rude employee I’ve ever met. She wasn’t very thrilled about her job (something I could not care less about), but when she overcharged us by the amount of $90 that’s when I demanded an explanation from her. What was her reaction? She just LEFT! (she probably left the store because not even the supervisor could get a hold of her) So I talked to a supervisor and eventually got everything straightened up. No big deal, but it was already 7:00pm and we had planned to go that night to the Boardwalk, so forget about the 15 lobsters I was going to eat… We went straight to the hotel, parked the car and took a bus to the Boardwalk. We got there at 9:00 pm.

The Boardwalk Inn had already Christmas decorations…it was beautiful. Took a picture by the Christmas tree in the lobby and walked down the stairs into the boardwalk. There were all kind of things going on there (fortune tellers, jugglers and the like), but we were hungry (remember…no lunch…). So we decided we would go to the one restaurant that seemed to be the most “fast food” (in terms of time not quality of food): ESPN Club. We started with two clam chowder ($11.98), a Diet Coke for Marisel and a Samuel Adams beer for me. Main course was a Club Wrap ($8.49) for Marisel and a Rib eye Steak ($15.99) for me. The club wrap was a cold meal, but our server had no problem with taking it back to the kitchen and coming back minutes later with a hot Club wrap.

By 10:30pm we were done with our lunch/dinner and, although we were very tired, we decided to walk all the way down to JellyRogers and the dance club (don’t remember the name right now), if only to check them out before going back to the hotel. The dance club was huge but for a Saturday night it was empty (there were about 20 people in there and most wearing tuxedos…wedding guests probably).

At 11:00 pm we took the bus back to our resort and were in bed and watching TV shortly after 11:30pm. Tomorrow will be Pleasure Island night…and the Adventurer’s Club.

 

[kathymc]

enjoying your reports - I can't believe how much you ate and drank at the Food and Wine Fest! sounds good though!

 

[fizz13]

Yeah really, where did you fit all that food and drink? I don't know if I could have walked after all the drinkies! Good on you and much respect.
Claire

 

[AlvaroLuis]

Now that you mention it...that was a lot of drinking, a lot of food and A LOT OF FUN!!!