Walt Disney World

After my last family vacation I decided that it was time to go on an adult trip to Disney World. I invited Tara, and then Terye. They both said yes, but Tara bailed out because of school - lame. But I spent months forcing Terye to plan for the trip, I think it worked out well. The biggest problem was that Disney closed Pleasure Island a week before we went, which meant we would miss going to the Adventurers Club, which I was excited about doing. One thing that Terye forgot to mention when planning the trip is that she is the rainmaker.

Sunday afternoon I arrived despite waiting an hour for the airplane to actually take off. When I arrived the weather was a little gloomy but after having snack we went EPCOT for a couple hours. It started raining shortly after arriving so we ran into Innoventions, there we learned about fire safety and Velcro. While hiding from the rain we also found Chip and Dale, Yea! Dale gave me a big snuggly hug and Chip kissed my hand, what a flirt. When the rain stopped we headed to World Showcase where we learned about Canada and Mexico. We had dinner at Biergarten, which was better then I expected since it is a buffet dinner. Mom’s rouladen is much better though, but the rest of the food was good. Terye thought the band was cool; I sang along to a couple songs, I felt like I had been through it all before. On the way out of EPCOT we stopped at Spaceship earth and got to see what life will be like for Terye and I in the future using spaceships, it was actually pretty amusing.

Mon

day morning I made Terye get up early so we could see ALL of the Hollywood Studios. Our first stop was Toy Story Mani

a, a new ride, and an awesome ride. You get to shoot at stuff and compete for points, it was great, we even got fast passes so we could go back later. Then I made Terye wait on line with me for the Tower of Terror even though she couldn’t go on because of her bad back. Isn’t she a good friend? Then we hit the Great Movie Ride and I got hijacked by Terye to get pictures with Donald Duck, doesn’t she know that character meetings are not part of touring plans for a reason? We had lunch at the Sci Fi Dine In. The food was good but the atmosphere is totally unsocial, maybe this would have been a better choice for later in the week when we were sick of each other and ran out of conversation. But the food was good here and Terye did enjoy watching the movies.

After lunch we went to Muppet Vision 3D; Lights, Camera, Action Stunt Show and saw the Little Mermaid. Then it was time for the Animation Courtyard where we learned about animation, got pictures with Mickey and learned to draw Donald Duck. Terye is actually a decent artist, but my Donald looks like deranged Donald. I guess I’ll have to get real gifts for the family. On the way to Indiana Jones we ran into Blockparty Bash, the new parade, looked like a good time and not entirely parade like, which I had heard. During Indiana Jones the rain maker was at work and we had to run in between rain drops to stay dry on the way to the shops. Since I haven’t met a shop I didn’t like, shopping was the obvious choice. I found a really great shop, bought a Minni Mouse Christmas Tree Topper; she’s beautiful, now I just need a Christmas tree (which I have since found). After relaxing at the hotel we went to Downtown Disney Marketplace where I did more shopping and found some ornaments to match my new tree topper. After torturing each other through a couple thousand Disney stores we finally left Downtown Disney for our hotel and some much needed sleep.

On Tuesday morning I dragged Terye out of bed and yelled at her to hurry up so we could get to the Magic Kingdom! We took the Disney bus which wasn’t half bad and even got to see the opening. I took a video of it if anyone wants to see. Our first stop was Buzz Lightyear, not nearly up to snuff with Toy Story Mania but I did kick Terye’s butt. Then it was Peter Pans Flight, which Terye loved. And everyones favorite… It’s a Small World. Then we went on the new and improved Haunted Mansion which did have a couple improvements in it, fortunately the ghost didn’t follow us to Crystal Palace for breakfast. We had breakfast with Pooh, Tiger, Piglet, and E-Or (I have no idea how to spell his name so work with me) and met a crazy guy who is obsessed with meeting characters (he was with his wife and kids), but he took pictures of Terye and I so it’s all good. Pooh decided to play hide and seek with me and I scared the poor guy, he he. They had delicious French toast and some yummy Mickey Mouse waffles.

In Adventure Land we went on Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise. Back to Liberty Square we stopped at the Hall of Presidents, which is a good place for a nap. Again it rained so we had to hide in stores again until we found Mickey’s Philharmagic, a nice place to hide from the rain. By the time we got out the rain stopped and we went on the Carousel of Progress, which was interesting the first time, and good for a nap the second time. At Monsters Inc Laugh Factory they had me on the screen looking oblivious with a caption, “she had no idea where she is.” I swear I was people watching the handicapped person who was positioning there selves, it was truly fascinating. I don't know what was so funny. That was the last time I made the screen though, I was very attentive the rest of the time.

On the way to my Pineapple Dole Whip we ran into a parade and couldn't get passed it so we had to watch it. Then it was time to see the stores on Main Street and go home. Back at the hotel we decided to figure out dinner and took a recommendation from the hotel concierge guy and ate at the Maya Grill at Coronado Springs. Dinner was good though the ambiance wasn't up to snuff with the rest of the Disney World restaurants. Back at the hotel I was going to go in the hot tub, but there wasn't one. How did I miss that with all the research I did?

Wednesday morning we scheduled one of the more exciting things for this trip, the Keys to the Kingdom tour, a 4 and a half hour tour of the

Magic Kingdom. We met up with Johnnie at 9:30am at City Hall and got some insight into Disney. I can’t tell you all the secrets, you’ll have to take the tour yourself, but I’ll tell you a few of the highlights of it. We got to go backstage and saw all the parade floats getting checked out. We saw the garbage system (they actually sort all the garbage by hand to separate recyclables.) We saw the infamous tunnels under the Magic Kingdom and learned that I would qualify to be Mickey Mouse since I’m under 5 foot 3 inches. They told us about the 3 levels of evacuations in case of emergency, they’ve only used the simplest once, on September 11. We also got to ride the Jungle Cruise and the Haunted Mansion while on the tour. Terye and I had considered going back to the room to rest before dinner, but we didn’t have enough time for that so we waited for the parade, where Terye got good news about having a job despite her laid off status, thank god!

Then we went to Toontown Fair and got pictures with Minnie and Mickey and heard about their latest fight, something about him watchin

g sports when he was supposed to help Minnie. Men, err Mice! But Mickey liked my ears J. Then we escaped from the extreme heat and humidity in PhilharMagic, and went to dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern with Minnie, Goofy, Chip, Dale, and Pluto. The dinner was delicious and the characters amusing. Shockingly Dale and Chip kept saying the other was the bad one, hmmmm. Afterward we

ended up shopping, again and got some more Christmas stuff. By that time it was 7:00 and since Spectromagic started at 8:00 the rain maker, I mean Terye, decided she wanted to stay to see the parade. We got our spots and a half hour before the parade it started to rain. Fortunately, it stopped about 10 minutes before the parade and the parade only started a couple minutes late. It was great, after the first float or two came out it started to torrentially rain; we hid under an awning and left as soon as the parade ended. On the line for the resort bus there was almost a fight because of the line. There was a pushy lady who literally pushed into people to make the line the way she wanted it, it’s a good thing we were in the happiest place on earth!

Thursday we started off the day taking a Segway tour of World Showcase. The first hour we learned to ride the segways then the second hour we drove around World Showcase. This was sooooo much fun. These would be great things if they could go up and down curbs, unfortunately if you take it on a curb you’ll either go over the handlebars or fall on your ass, or so we were told. The other problem is that because you use your feet and legs to balance my feet were killing me by the end. If anyone is looking for a gift idea, I would like a Segway.

After the tour we went on the Finding Nemo ride and got fast passes for Soarin then headed over to Canada for our lunch at Le Cellier. While waiting for our lunch reservation we found some Streetmaspheres, it was in England and the show was “rubbish.”

By the end of lunch we were soooo exhausted that we didn’t even bother going on Soarin and instead went back to the hotel for a nap. For the first time on this trip I fell asleep in an instant. After our nap we headed back to the Hollywood Studios to see Beauty and the Beast, which was a good show. We grabbed a bite then went to get seats for Fantasmic. As is typical of this trip with Terye, it started to rain a little before the show was to start and it was delayed. After getting pretty wet (with a poncho) they cancelled the show. But we did get a consolation prize, they did the fireworks and water show part of it. Not quite the same but it would have to due since there aren’t any other nights we could watch it.

Friday

was our late morning, though I still had to yell at Terye to get ready. We were going to the Animal Kingdom. First we got fast passes for Kilimanjaro’s Safari and went to the Conservation Station, did you know that 2008 is the year of the frog? You’ll all be happy to hear that I did get to see a couple giraffes on the Safari, yea!

We went to the Festival of the Lion King show and got to be elephants. I wanted to be a giraffe but the giraffe section was mostly blocked off, quite disappointing. After a bit of shopping we went to the Finding Nemo show, which had puppets. Apparently I’m not really into puppet shows, I thought it was weird. Then Terye let me ride Expedition Everest, I took the single line and had a chance to see the poor management of the lines. The one poor guy just could not manage the 18 rows with a regular line and a single line. Finally it was time to leave and go back to the hotel to relax before our dinner at Whispering Canyon, at the Wilderness Lodge. The Wilderness Lodge was really nice, I’ve heard it is loud in the lobby and they were absolutely right, apparently wood doesn’t absorb sound well. The dinner was excellent. We took a little walk around in the back of the building and the pool was really cool, as well as the beach area – we picked the wrong resort!

Saturda

y morning I slept late, opps, which meant that Terye did too. We still got to EPCOT by 10am to ride Soarin before the line got really long. You hang glide through the state of California, without actually hang gliding. Very cool! Then we headed over to France for pastries and America to learn about America. The show was kinda interesting and it’s actually kept pretty up to date. The same could not be said about Maelstrom in Norway. I didn’t really understand the ride, it was kinda dark and the video was hopelessly out of date, judging from the computer shown in it I would guess it was from the early 80’s. Nothing made me feel warm and fuzzy about Norway and I really like the country. After that we took our exhausted bodies back to the hotel to relax a while. We had a quick dinner at the resort and went to the Summerland/Winterland Mini Golf. It's a cute little place and we had fun.

were leaving Sunday afternoon so we were going to sleep in a bit and then spend a little time at the Hollywood Studios. The plan was to go on Toy Story Mania. First we decided to make a reservation at the 50's Prime Time Diner. Unfortunately, by

the time we got to Toy Story Mania the line was well over an hour long and we wouldn't have time to ride it. We decided to learn about Walt instead until it was time for lunch. After lunch we decided to check on the wait for Toy Story Mania, it was almost 2 hour by now and decided to move on. We went back to the animation studio to draw another character, this time it was Jiminey Cricket, and I did much better this time. But the time came for us to leave, we took the rental car back to the airport and I stayed with Terye till her flight boarded. And another trip was over....

This resort is classified as a Value Resort by Disney. Terye and I got a good price on it, and enjoyed staying on property. I thought the resort was good for the two of us, though we really did miss having a hot tub. I think the resort would be fine for two adults and a small child, anything more then that I would seriously consider upgrading to a Moderate Resort. The room just isn't all that big and doesn't have all that many amenities. Also, the pool area seemed to be overrun by children - yea, I know it's Disney World. The food court wasn't all that great: like everything at Disney World it was overpriced, and the selection wasn't all that great, the pizza sucked too, which meant I was steering clear of the pasta. When the traditional fast food type of food is just average who wants to try the meal type food? I stayed in building 6 - Surfs up, near the pool. The location was great, not too far from the food court/lobby, near the pool, not too far from parking (though there certainly were closer buildings). However, it was kinda noisy there too. There were often children (small ones) being quite loud in the pool areas past 11pm. Here are a few pictures around the resort.

Terye and I both enjoyed the Keys to the Kingdom tour. I think it enhances the experience because you start to notice the little things a little more. If you've never been to the Magic Kingdom before I wouldn't recommend this tour until you've spent at least day or two, so that you better understand the park when the guide talks about it.

The Segway tour of World Showcase was a lot of fun. Everyone on the tour agreed that they wished it was longer, though I don't know if my feet would have survived much more. The segways were fun and it was nice to see the park before it was overrun with guests. I just wish they had more opportunities to ride segways at the parks or resorts. There is also a segway tour at one of the resorts (I think the Wilderness Lodge,) which I would like to do on a future trip.

Dining is a bit expensive at The World, but the food quality is generally pretty good. Terye and I tended to have 1 big sit down meal a day and then some sort of quick service meal. The menus at the restaurants were generally pretty limited. On our tour we were told that this is to make it easier to choose a meal. It works, but the menus seem overly limited - more like a cruise ships dining menu then like a restaurant.

Sci Fi Dine-In had very good food, the atmosphere was neat, but the environment was weird. It's a drive in movie theme you sit in "cars" watching TV. The problem is that you sit in pairs, so if you're group is an odd number then one of you is sitting alone. Also, you're sitting next to the person you are dining with, not the best for having a conversation, not to mention that you're watching a movie screen. There are a few tables that seat up to 6 where you're sitting facing each other, instead of the screen, but you're not getting that table if you're 2 parents and a kid.

Maya Grill again, had good food, but the atmosphere was quite lacking. We could have eaten off property for much less for the same food and atmosphere. It wasn't bad, just wasn't up to par with other restaurants on property.

Liberty Tree Tavern was very good. I have eaten there in the past and enjoyed it all 3 times. The character interaction is excellent, and the food is good. Apparently, they are taking the characters away in early 2009.

Crystal Palace offered a very nice breakfast buffet style. The food was better then what I had the one day I had breakfast at All Star Sports. The characters were good too.

50's Prime Time Cafe had a fun environment. The setting is a 50's kitchen, and the servers act as your aunt or uncle and will yell at you for misbehaving - wearing a hat at the table, putting your elbows at the table. It's a fun place to eat, but only go here if you have kids or a sense of humor.

Whispering Canyon had a very good BBQ meal with a variety of foods offered as part of it - chicken, brisket, salad, corn bread. The restaurant can be a little loud, particularly in the main area. But there is a back room, where we sat, that was a little quieter.

Beirgarten is a buffet dinner in Germany. The food was very good and better then you would expect at a buffet. They also had a band, and someone who played the bells. This is a good place for larger groups as the tables seat 8 or more people. The downside is that if you're with a smaller group then you'll be sitting with strangers.

Le Cellier in Canada is a steak place. I had the Filet Mignon, it was good, but not fantastic. I heard the NY Strip was good, and went against by better judgment when I didn't order it. - get the NY Strip. It's a small place so make your ADR's early.

I was invited on another family trip, this time Kelly and Dennis were returning to Disney World with my mom, Max and Lucas. Family trip? Sure, why not! We flew down on Jetblue, stayed at a so so time share, I planned lots and tried to make the trip good for everyone, sometimes they listened sometimes they didn't. The trip turned out good, well at least no one killed anyone else.

Our first mission was dinner with Mickey Mouse at Chef Mickey's, it sounded like a good way to start the trip, but in hindsight I think the boys would have enjoyed this more at the end of the trip. I'm not sure they were quite into this whole Disney World thing yet. But how would you feel if an 7 foot mouse walked up to you during dinner?