Trip Reports
03-01-2006, 07:32 AM
Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane
Resort: Carribbean Beach Resort, All Star Music Resort
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent
Comments: This report reviews Tanya's trip with her husband. The trip was timed to just miss the holiday rush...and Tanya's narrative is fun to read and informative.
The setting: 2 adults (age 27 and 29) from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, going to WDW for the second time, but this time staying on site at the Carribbean Beach Resort for four nights between Nov 18 to 22, then going to The All Star Music Resort on Nov 26-28th.
Day One -- Monday, November 18th, 1996
Arrived at 3:30-into Orlando airport-special note-got very inexpensive flight by doing comparative shopping on the internet (www.itn.com). Had organized to rent car from Thrifty-special note-do not rent from Thrifty…renting an offsite car delays you by approx 45 minutes, from waiting for the connector bus, to having to drive to this offsite rental service area for pick up and return of the car…the travel agent convinced us to go with a "big name" car rental company, but we had an easier time with the little name company when we went in 1995.. Check with your travel agent to make sure your car rental is on the airport site.
We also flew with USAir and were quite pleased with the service, etc. We had been teased prior to leaving for our vacation that we were travelling "Scare Air", but we had no problems whatsoever.
Anyhow, we arrived at the Carribbean Beach resort at 5:00pm and had an easy and friendly check-in. We got neat credit-card like keys for our rooms that had our names on it..and you kept them for souvenirs. You can charge things onto your room at some parks with these cards too. All was good with the world. Now came the time to find our room, which was not so good. We were staying in the village of Aruba, no problem, but when it came to locate our room, the room numbers are not very well detailed...we went around and around and around...with a big heavy suitcase and a laptop and a heavy carry-on bag. The buildings are two stories, and the room number posted on the ground level are for the first floor only…TIP: go to the second floor and look at the numbers up there. The room, once we found it, were very nice, clean, had two sinks, very happy with it. We immediately went with the refillable mugs in our rooms…$6.95+tax, approx $8 in total. There were 25th Anniversary ones, and Carribbean Beach ones. No charge for refills at the main food court. BIG TIP: we saw the same exact mugs (25th anniversary ones) at MGM for $2.75 + tax!!!!!! The exact same mugs!!! We were a little peeved, as we had already purchased our mugs for more than double the price at our resort! Where is the justice in that?
Anyhow, the first night, around 5:30pm, we went to Magic Kingdom. We saw the big pink castle, very unusual looking, pretty grotesque actually. It does look like they dumped a bottle of pepto bismol on it. I think after experiencing it, you may need some too. We went to Space Mountain (15 minutes wait), then Splash Mountain X2 (walk ons because of spectromagic parade), Big Thunder Railroad (walk on). SM and BTR are very different in the dark…try them both in daylight and at night. We then watched the fireworks from Fantasyland…it seems they are shot from here. It is less crowded here because everyone is still on Main Street from the parade. The fireworks from Fantasy land appear to be right overhead from this vantage point.
We went back to the Carribbean Beach resort for a late supper, to avoid the children thing…WRONG! We went the the Captain's Tavern around 8pm and it was busy with kids, adults, etc. Our server was Captain Ron, I guess we were not the typical table, no kids, and I think he knew we were in no mood to be entertained after a long travelling day, so we didn't see him much. The food was OK, but we found that anytime we had sit-down service, we paid alot for food that was just OK, and the service was not up to what you would expect from Disney.
Day Two -- Tuesday, November 19th, 1996
The next day, we got up around 7:00am, had some awesome danishes and cinnamon buns at the bakery at the Carribbean Beach, and headed for MK. We appreciated the access to the WDW buses, they run quite frequently. Wasn't crazy about the distance we had to walk from our bus stop. Not very convenient. When we got to MK at opening, went on Splash mountain and got delayed by 20 min at the end of the ride because they had to stop the ride…I think they must have had a hysterical child on there or something. Then went to BTR (walk on), Alien Encounter (walk on), Pirates of the Carribbean (walk on), Peter Pan's flight (10 min), Mr Toad's Wild Ride (walk on), Dumbo (20 min-and we actually waited this long!), Peter Pan's Flight (10 min), Haunted Mansion(we waited early in the day for 20 minutes…the line did not move, so we left, came back later on in the day and walked on), and The Adventures of Snow White(walk on).
Noticed that there was some new construction in Frontierland… a new raft to go to Tom Sawyer Island?
We ate lunch at the Cosmic chicken in Tomorrowland…liked the mechanical entertainment they had for their patrons, the food was inexpensive, $12 for two adults!!
We also enjoyed the Hunchback ice cream bars…yum yum…chocolate ice cream, caramel, and a thick chocolate coating. Just remember to let them thaw for about 20 minutes in the searing sun, as my husband bit into it frozen and cut his mouth on the chocolate!! Lined up for the 3:00pm parade..no tips here, just try to stand your ground because people try to squeeze you out of your spot!! Parade was very good. The tune "Remember the Magic" at this point was starting to get on my nerves, however.
That night, we went to Planet Hollywood at 7:00pm. The joint was jumping. We waited in the bar for 30 minutes, had a drink, and looked at the paraphenalia. Very cool place. Once seated, we had this awesome view of all sorts of pieces of movie sets suspended from the ceiling. Service was great, food was great, and believe it or not, resonably priced! We ate for $35 (including the tip---we had drinks, natchos and pizza). Added note..I went to the ladies washroom, and there was a towel and soap lady in there, to give you soap and towel to wash your hands. Anyhow, of course she has two large glass bowl full of dollar bills…for her tips…she was making a mint!! Anyhow, I didn't have any cash whatsoever…kind of embarrassing that I didn't have any cash…so if you head for the bathroom, make sure you bring some!! They were selling all sorts of things in there….cigars, lotions, etc….with a big picture of Demi Moore on the wall smoking a cigar…not impressive!! We were very impressed with the food, atmosphere, service, and price at Planet Hollywood!!!!
We then went to Peasure Island at 8:30pm. Our first stop was the Adventurer's Club because the last time we went to PI we didn't go in here for any time….we had a blast this time!!! You do have to give yourself time to get used to the pace, so give yourself time. We had to drag ourselves out of there to go to the Comedy Club…which we had a good time at too, but when the show was over, we headed back to the Adventurer's club!! Stayed until 11:45pm, and then went back to our hotel.
Day Three -- Wednesday, November 20th, 1996
Woke up late today because we were headed to Blizzard Beach, which is only open at 10am. Got to the water park at 11:00am, was quite busy, but didn't have to wait too long for water rides…maybe 10min maximum. Lots of walking in bare feet on rough cement…people are allowed to wear regular footwear and I think it tends to scatter rocks and other foot-unfriendly items about the walkways. The rides were very cool…we didn't ride the Summit Plummet, or any of the crazy ones, we did the toboggan racers and all the tube rides. The park isn't really set up very conveniently, the rides are spread out quite a ways, and the climb to get to the starting gate is very long. We went to Wet 'n Wild the last time we came to Florida, and felt at BB the climbs were much higher and took us a long time to get to the rides (maybe we are getting older and slower!). We did have fun, however, just the same. It started to rain when we were there, but who cares because you're already wet!! We left around 2:00pm.
We went back to the hotel, had a snack (lunch) and headed to MGM. Straight to the Tower of Terror, walked on. (It had been raining, just stopped, so quite a few of the people had left the park). Then we went to Muppets 4D (I love this…I grew up on Sesame Street and the Muppets, they have great comedy..the effects are very cool too). We also saw the Hunchback of Notre Dame production…awesome. We loved it, told the story well, very flashy and well done!! We have not seen the movie yet, but we were able to follow everything great!! We also went on the Dalmations Backstage Tour. I love the 101 Dalmations, but this tour was kinda boring. They showed some neat stuff about how they made the newborn Dalmations out of molds, and sewed wiskers into them, etc(I would think as a child I would be freaked out by watching a lifelike newborn puppy have it's wiskers sewn in with a needle…the puppy just looked a little too real). As well, they took us on a tour of three EMPTY sound studios…telling us that last week, the WWF was here, or that a show was being filmed at the end of the week. To us, it just looked like three big empty rooms!!!
We had priority seating at the Sci Fi for 7pm supper. We're not convinced that this priority seating is all that it's cracked up to be…we gave them our reservation card at the Sci Fi reception area, (there was no one else waiting) told them that we were going to the bathroom for 5 minutes, came back, and there was a whole crowd of people. We waited for 10 minutes, all these people got seated at their tables, so I approached the desk. They seemed totally confused, said that they already seated people by the name of "Dutton", pulled out our card, they looked around at each other and seated us. No apologies for lateness, no nothing.
Anyhow, we were seated in the backseat of a car. The set-up of this whole restaurant is soooo cool. For those of you who haven't been there, there is a huge screen at the front of the restaurant, showing B movie Sci Fi hits, and cartoons. The patrons are seated in old fashion convertibles, and you eat in the car. Very neat premise, if the running of the place was better.
Because we eat out a fair bit, we like to watch how things are run. The flipping of the tables was terrible, the tables were not bussed for a long time after the patron had left, leaving them unusable (and gross) until they were cleaned up. We watched the floor manager of the place walk back and forth, past all these cluttered tables. In a well run restaurant, the floor manager would have cleaned up whatever was amiss, instead of walking by the mess. It's all for the good of the restaurant! Anyhow, the food portions were very large, so we barely ate much…but the food was good. All-in-all, I don't think we'll go back!! We then headed to Epcot for the Illuminations 25. We enjoyed it, it was still spectacular, but we agreed that the regular Illuminations is better…more time spent at each pavillion instead of rushing through them like they did this time.
Then we returned back to the hotel.
Day Four -- Thursday, November 21st, 1996
This was reserved as Epcot day. We got up at 7am, headed to Epcot and were through the gates by 9am. First we went, like everyone else, to Spaceship Earth. We walked on this ride, enjoyed it, learned something. That is one thing about Epcot, you always learn something. We then headed to the Universe of Energy, with Ellen and Bill Nye the science guy. (10 min wait) It was OK, I'm glad we still got to see the dinosaurs, because that is the coolest part.
Then we went to Body Wars, pretty cool. (5 min wait) We had a bite to eat in this building…good healthy food for a change. The pineapple banana slushes are very tasty, and good for you too! Then to Horizons (walked on)…interesting and learned something again! Then to Honey I Shrunk the Audience 3D…a must see!! I think the 3D effects in this show is better than the Muppet one at MGM. We waited 20 min.
Then we went to the Canadian pavillion, the restaurant LeCellier for lunch, around 11:30am. They have a Buffeteria type style, the food was EXCELLENT. It was pretty cool because the girls working behind the counter were from Halifax too, were a little homesick, and very excited to see us!! We would definitely go back there to eat. We then headed back to the hotel around 2pm for R&R and to check in with any email messages. We were able to dial in to our server in Canada, using a calling card and our laptop, from our Carribbean Beach Resort room. Pretty cool.
Anyhow, after a nap, we headed back to Epcot (does anyone know what that stands for…what does the name "Epcot" mean, exactly?) to do the pavillions around 5pm. This was fun, as we hadn't really done them completely last time. We had made reservations at the Mexican restaurant, but cancelled them because we were having too much fun sampling food from each pavillion…TIP you can have a good healthy lunch, at a cheaper price than supper, and then just nibble at pavillions all night. My husband had a beer at several of the pavillions and had a great time!! The english pub was really worth dropping into, and Germany was one of our favorites as well. We stopped at the France pastry shop..had an eclair (yum yum), pretzels, etc. You must check out the French pastry shop in France…totally awesome. We got to experience food from everywhere. The neat thing too is that all the shops are converting into their Christmas merchandise, so we got to do some shopping in this regard as well. And the Chocolate!!! Hubba Hubba!!
What amazes me is Disney's ability to put things up without anyone seeing them. We left Epcot on Wednesday at 9pm, came back at opening on Thursday, and up was the Christmas garland, huge decorated Christmas tree, etc. How do they do this?
Anyway, we did the Mexican and the Norweigan ride (walked on). We were too tired to see illuminations again, so we went back to our room for R&R around 8:30pm. TIP they were letting people in the gates at 9:00pm for illuminations, even if you didn't have a hopper-type pass.
Day Five -- Friday, November 22nd, 1996
We packed up early from the Carribbean, packed our car and left it there in the parking lot and used the WDW buses. Ate a hot breakfast at the Carribbean…not worth it, I'd stick to cereal and cinnimon buns. Got to MGM at 9am, went to the Tower of Terror (waited 10 min). The ToT is much better now with the double drop. It is much more fun than the one big drop. When I went last year, and went on the ToT, I almost woofed my Egg McMuffin (and I DO thrill rides). But this time, I had no problem, and I had a lot more fun!! (we went on it again, as a matter of fact!!) The crowds seemed bigger today, probably indications that Thanksgiving is near.
We went on the Great Movie Ride, then did the Magic of Disney Animation. This is one of my favorites. The film beforehand with Walter C and Robin W is very funny (I could watch Robin Williams all day!!), and I'm always facinated in watching a film in progress. They were making Hercules, which looks like a really interesting project. Something they did differently in this tour that they didn't do last time, was they had a disney animator demonstrate how they make basic cartoons. We gathered in a room, and this gentleman drew for us. Very cool. And answered any questions we had.
Then we went to see the Beauty and the Beast stage production. It was great, well worth seeing. This is one of my favorite stories, and I always get a little teary-eyed during it.
We went to the Hollywod and Vine for lunch at 11:30am…yummy. Had this awesome three layer chocolate cake (we shared it and couldn't finish it!!). Prices were reasonable.
Then we went to line up for the Toy Story Parade at 12:30pm…it started at 1:00pm. Disney always tries to entertain the crowd while waiting for the parade…it's great!! Parade was short, but really neat. We were happy because we, for the first time, got to sit during a parade.
We did a little shopping after that, and we were on our way to Boyton Beach to visit relatives, only to return on Tuesday, Nov 26th to the All-Star.
Day Six -- Tuesday, November 26th, 1996
We arrive back to the WDW after a 4 day hiatus at noon to check into the All-Star Music Resort---we weren't sure what to expect, as we had stayed at a "higher budget" place earlier…it's always easy to go up a step, but to come down can be a drag. Anyhow, we quickly checked in, the fellow at the desk found us a king-sized bed (Yahooooooo) that was available for us…once again, easy and friendly check-in. The room was perfect size for two, very happy with the room. We stayed in the Calypso building (#10), which was just a hop from the main food area and the pool. We were able to park quite close to our room. We liked the "cartoon-like" atmosphere of the resort…"larger than life"…just like you would expect from Disney. And we felt the All-Star Resort was able to cater to our needs better…there was a neat little place to buy snacks, beer, etc. I guess you can say the All-Star resorts cater to the "budget-conscious", and therefore offer snacks, etc, to buy. At the Carribbean Resort, most of these day-to-day stuff was not available…I bought Benedryl at the All-Star store, and I really wasn't expecting to be able to find it. The CB didn't appear to carry that type of stuff. This example will define what I am trying to say about the differences in resorts. At the AS you could buy bottles of beer and enjoy them in your room, but at the CB they would serve it up for you in their beautiful outdoor bar area …for twice the price! Sometimes it is just nice to kick back in the privacy of your own room. We were also expecting more children at the AS, but really didn't find any more than at the CB…there seemed to be more couples and groups of people(not families) at the AS. I think if we were to go back, it would be at the AS. One thing we did notice was the bus service from the AS was significantly less than for the CB. We were amazed at the number of buses at the CB, but found we were always waiting for full buses at the AS. Mind you, this was the day before Thanksgiving! Still, the bus system for the AS is totally inadequate, as I'll elaborate on later. We arrived to the MK at 1:00pm. The place was packed. We went on NO rides…we are not the type to wait 1 hour to go on space mountain…we did all the rides last week, so we just took in the ambiance. It was great!! Lots of people-watching!! Had the frozen lemonade, thought we would love it, wasn't worth the $2.
Hopped a bus and went to the Disney Village Marketplace at 4:00pm. This place is overwhelming. Don't expect to go in and spend an hour shopping. This place as well was mad with parents and their tired children. We bought mass quantities, had it sent to our room (great feature if you can remember your room number), and thought we would head to MGM for a last-minute ToT ride. Not to happen. We had the most irritating time to get a bus from The Village to MGM. The AS buses were not to be found, actually, no buses were to be found. So, in despiration, we hopped on the Port Orleans/Dixie Landings bus, which took us to a PO bus stop which did not seemed to be serviced by the MGM buses very well either…to top it off it was FREEZING…low 50's and windy, with us in sweat shirts and shorts!
Finally, after waiting forever, we went into the PO resort and went into a cute little bar and had a bite and a drink. Great little bar, had the TV's going and the drinks flowing to calm our nerves(it was a very long day at this point, as we had drove 3 hours that morning to get to Orlando). We finished up, finally caught a bus to Epcot so we could connect with the AS bus. Two wasted hours of bus travel time. You can imagine we went right to bed after this!!
Day Seven -- Wednesday, November 27th, 1996
Today we got up at 7am, and grabbed a granola bar from our suitcase, and headed out to the Magic Kingdom. Hopped on the bus at 8:10am, was at the park at 8:25am, waited in line at the turnstiles(there was quite a line already!!!) and headed in. They only drop the ropes for the different "lands" at 9am, so we headed to the bakery for a cup of tea and hot chocolate to have while we waited at the ropes. Today was a colder-than -normal day, we wore shorts, but had our sweatshirts on all day…so a cup of something hot was a good idea. We waited at the entrance to Adventureland…as this is the quickest route to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad. It's pretty wild to look back at the oncoming crowd who is headed to SM too, but waited at the entrance to Liberty Square and therefore we were 100ft ahead of them!! Anyhow, we walked on to Splash Mountain at this point, and then headed to Big Thunder Railroad and walked on. It is really interesting how Disney alters their plans for the day when they know it is going to be busier than normal. For instance, the SM ride seemed to be different…I think we were rushed through at a faster rate than the week before. As well, when we went on BTR, they had two trains on each side of the line, so that we actually went through some country that we hadn't been on before.
Then we went to register for the 25th anniversary so to get our commemorative lithograph and we got to listen to a major marketing speal by Disney…it was pretty bad…we were expecting a movie to "remember the magic", but the movie centered on all the new things that are going up and how we should book our next vacation now…it was tacky…albiet interesting to see what new is going up. We got our GoH badges at this show as well.
We went on the AstroOrbiter ( 30 minute wait) …I had a Hunchback icecream bar which helped the wait..and got on a 1 minute ride!! Not worth the wait!
Went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride…was good to get away from the hoopla, but pretty lame.
Then we left for MGM at 12:15, and went on the ToTX2 while the Toy Story Parade was going on. Went back to the hotel for a nap, then went to the Rainforest Café for 4:00pm..had to wait 20 min for a table, not bad considering there was a lot to look at in the shop anyway…we had a few appetizers…we weren't overly impressed with the food, it was OK. The atmosphere is cool, lightening, thunder, rain, gorillas and elephants, but not the place to go for a quiet meal! We liked Planet Hollywood better, but it's like comparing apples to oranges. We went back to MK, and during the Spectromagic parade, went on Splash Mountain twice…we walked on the first time, then waited 15 min the next. To avoid the crowds in the park during Spectromagic, on arrival to the park we went directly to the Trainstation, and this took us to Frontierland, we got off there, and on to Splash M!! We saw parts of spectromagic and the fireworks from the Splash mountain ride!! We were going to go on BTR next, but the line-up was long, so we took the skyline to tommorrowland…very nice view of the park at night…we had to wait 15 min, however, to get on this! We then headed out, because it was park closing, and intended to take the Monorail to Epcot…the monorail line was increadible, so we went back to our resort, and went to bed!!
The next morning we went to the Coral Isle café at the Polynesian, and had awesome banana-stuffed french toast….and left for home!!
Travel Method: Plane
Resort: Carribbean Beach Resort, All Star Music Resort
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent
Comments: This report reviews Tanya's trip with her husband. The trip was timed to just miss the holiday rush...and Tanya's narrative is fun to read and informative.
The setting: 2 adults (age 27 and 29) from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, going to WDW for the second time, but this time staying on site at the Carribbean Beach Resort for four nights between Nov 18 to 22, then going to The All Star Music Resort on Nov 26-28th.
Day One -- Monday, November 18th, 1996
Arrived at 3:30-into Orlando airport-special note-got very inexpensive flight by doing comparative shopping on the internet (www.itn.com). Had organized to rent car from Thrifty-special note-do not rent from Thrifty…renting an offsite car delays you by approx 45 minutes, from waiting for the connector bus, to having to drive to this offsite rental service area for pick up and return of the car…the travel agent convinced us to go with a "big name" car rental company, but we had an easier time with the little name company when we went in 1995.. Check with your travel agent to make sure your car rental is on the airport site.
We also flew with USAir and were quite pleased with the service, etc. We had been teased prior to leaving for our vacation that we were travelling "Scare Air", but we had no problems whatsoever.
Anyhow, we arrived at the Carribbean Beach resort at 5:00pm and had an easy and friendly check-in. We got neat credit-card like keys for our rooms that had our names on it..and you kept them for souvenirs. You can charge things onto your room at some parks with these cards too. All was good with the world. Now came the time to find our room, which was not so good. We were staying in the village of Aruba, no problem, but when it came to locate our room, the room numbers are not very well detailed...we went around and around and around...with a big heavy suitcase and a laptop and a heavy carry-on bag. The buildings are two stories, and the room number posted on the ground level are for the first floor only…TIP: go to the second floor and look at the numbers up there. The room, once we found it, were very nice, clean, had two sinks, very happy with it. We immediately went with the refillable mugs in our rooms…$6.95+tax, approx $8 in total. There were 25th Anniversary ones, and Carribbean Beach ones. No charge for refills at the main food court. BIG TIP: we saw the same exact mugs (25th anniversary ones) at MGM for $2.75 + tax!!!!!! The exact same mugs!!! We were a little peeved, as we had already purchased our mugs for more than double the price at our resort! Where is the justice in that?
Anyhow, the first night, around 5:30pm, we went to Magic Kingdom. We saw the big pink castle, very unusual looking, pretty grotesque actually. It does look like they dumped a bottle of pepto bismol on it. I think after experiencing it, you may need some too. We went to Space Mountain (15 minutes wait), then Splash Mountain X2 (walk ons because of spectromagic parade), Big Thunder Railroad (walk on). SM and BTR are very different in the dark…try them both in daylight and at night. We then watched the fireworks from Fantasyland…it seems they are shot from here. It is less crowded here because everyone is still on Main Street from the parade. The fireworks from Fantasy land appear to be right overhead from this vantage point.
We went back to the Carribbean Beach resort for a late supper, to avoid the children thing…WRONG! We went the the Captain's Tavern around 8pm and it was busy with kids, adults, etc. Our server was Captain Ron, I guess we were not the typical table, no kids, and I think he knew we were in no mood to be entertained after a long travelling day, so we didn't see him much. The food was OK, but we found that anytime we had sit-down service, we paid alot for food that was just OK, and the service was not up to what you would expect from Disney.
Day Two -- Tuesday, November 19th, 1996
The next day, we got up around 7:00am, had some awesome danishes and cinnamon buns at the bakery at the Carribbean Beach, and headed for MK. We appreciated the access to the WDW buses, they run quite frequently. Wasn't crazy about the distance we had to walk from our bus stop. Not very convenient. When we got to MK at opening, went on Splash mountain and got delayed by 20 min at the end of the ride because they had to stop the ride…I think they must have had a hysterical child on there or something. Then went to BTR (walk on), Alien Encounter (walk on), Pirates of the Carribbean (walk on), Peter Pan's flight (10 min), Mr Toad's Wild Ride (walk on), Dumbo (20 min-and we actually waited this long!), Peter Pan's Flight (10 min), Haunted Mansion(we waited early in the day for 20 minutes…the line did not move, so we left, came back later on in the day and walked on), and The Adventures of Snow White(walk on).
Noticed that there was some new construction in Frontierland… a new raft to go to Tom Sawyer Island?
We ate lunch at the Cosmic chicken in Tomorrowland…liked the mechanical entertainment they had for their patrons, the food was inexpensive, $12 for two adults!!
We also enjoyed the Hunchback ice cream bars…yum yum…chocolate ice cream, caramel, and a thick chocolate coating. Just remember to let them thaw for about 20 minutes in the searing sun, as my husband bit into it frozen and cut his mouth on the chocolate!! Lined up for the 3:00pm parade..no tips here, just try to stand your ground because people try to squeeze you out of your spot!! Parade was very good. The tune "Remember the Magic" at this point was starting to get on my nerves, however.
That night, we went to Planet Hollywood at 7:00pm. The joint was jumping. We waited in the bar for 30 minutes, had a drink, and looked at the paraphenalia. Very cool place. Once seated, we had this awesome view of all sorts of pieces of movie sets suspended from the ceiling. Service was great, food was great, and believe it or not, resonably priced! We ate for $35 (including the tip---we had drinks, natchos and pizza). Added note..I went to the ladies washroom, and there was a towel and soap lady in there, to give you soap and towel to wash your hands. Anyhow, of course she has two large glass bowl full of dollar bills…for her tips…she was making a mint!! Anyhow, I didn't have any cash whatsoever…kind of embarrassing that I didn't have any cash…so if you head for the bathroom, make sure you bring some!! They were selling all sorts of things in there….cigars, lotions, etc….with a big picture of Demi Moore on the wall smoking a cigar…not impressive!! We were very impressed with the food, atmosphere, service, and price at Planet Hollywood!!!!
We then went to Peasure Island at 8:30pm. Our first stop was the Adventurer's Club because the last time we went to PI we didn't go in here for any time….we had a blast this time!!! You do have to give yourself time to get used to the pace, so give yourself time. We had to drag ourselves out of there to go to the Comedy Club…which we had a good time at too, but when the show was over, we headed back to the Adventurer's club!! Stayed until 11:45pm, and then went back to our hotel.
Day Three -- Wednesday, November 20th, 1996
Woke up late today because we were headed to Blizzard Beach, which is only open at 10am. Got to the water park at 11:00am, was quite busy, but didn't have to wait too long for water rides…maybe 10min maximum. Lots of walking in bare feet on rough cement…people are allowed to wear regular footwear and I think it tends to scatter rocks and other foot-unfriendly items about the walkways. The rides were very cool…we didn't ride the Summit Plummet, or any of the crazy ones, we did the toboggan racers and all the tube rides. The park isn't really set up very conveniently, the rides are spread out quite a ways, and the climb to get to the starting gate is very long. We went to Wet 'n Wild the last time we came to Florida, and felt at BB the climbs were much higher and took us a long time to get to the rides (maybe we are getting older and slower!). We did have fun, however, just the same. It started to rain when we were there, but who cares because you're already wet!! We left around 2:00pm.
We went back to the hotel, had a snack (lunch) and headed to MGM. Straight to the Tower of Terror, walked on. (It had been raining, just stopped, so quite a few of the people had left the park). Then we went to Muppets 4D (I love this…I grew up on Sesame Street and the Muppets, they have great comedy..the effects are very cool too). We also saw the Hunchback of Notre Dame production…awesome. We loved it, told the story well, very flashy and well done!! We have not seen the movie yet, but we were able to follow everything great!! We also went on the Dalmations Backstage Tour. I love the 101 Dalmations, but this tour was kinda boring. They showed some neat stuff about how they made the newborn Dalmations out of molds, and sewed wiskers into them, etc(I would think as a child I would be freaked out by watching a lifelike newborn puppy have it's wiskers sewn in with a needle…the puppy just looked a little too real). As well, they took us on a tour of three EMPTY sound studios…telling us that last week, the WWF was here, or that a show was being filmed at the end of the week. To us, it just looked like three big empty rooms!!!
We had priority seating at the Sci Fi for 7pm supper. We're not convinced that this priority seating is all that it's cracked up to be…we gave them our reservation card at the Sci Fi reception area, (there was no one else waiting) told them that we were going to the bathroom for 5 minutes, came back, and there was a whole crowd of people. We waited for 10 minutes, all these people got seated at their tables, so I approached the desk. They seemed totally confused, said that they already seated people by the name of "Dutton", pulled out our card, they looked around at each other and seated us. No apologies for lateness, no nothing.
Anyhow, we were seated in the backseat of a car. The set-up of this whole restaurant is soooo cool. For those of you who haven't been there, there is a huge screen at the front of the restaurant, showing B movie Sci Fi hits, and cartoons. The patrons are seated in old fashion convertibles, and you eat in the car. Very neat premise, if the running of the place was better.
Because we eat out a fair bit, we like to watch how things are run. The flipping of the tables was terrible, the tables were not bussed for a long time after the patron had left, leaving them unusable (and gross) until they were cleaned up. We watched the floor manager of the place walk back and forth, past all these cluttered tables. In a well run restaurant, the floor manager would have cleaned up whatever was amiss, instead of walking by the mess. It's all for the good of the restaurant! Anyhow, the food portions were very large, so we barely ate much…but the food was good. All-in-all, I don't think we'll go back!! We then headed to Epcot for the Illuminations 25. We enjoyed it, it was still spectacular, but we agreed that the regular Illuminations is better…more time spent at each pavillion instead of rushing through them like they did this time.
Then we returned back to the hotel.
Day Four -- Thursday, November 21st, 1996
This was reserved as Epcot day. We got up at 7am, headed to Epcot and were through the gates by 9am. First we went, like everyone else, to Spaceship Earth. We walked on this ride, enjoyed it, learned something. That is one thing about Epcot, you always learn something. We then headed to the Universe of Energy, with Ellen and Bill Nye the science guy. (10 min wait) It was OK, I'm glad we still got to see the dinosaurs, because that is the coolest part.
Then we went to Body Wars, pretty cool. (5 min wait) We had a bite to eat in this building…good healthy food for a change. The pineapple banana slushes are very tasty, and good for you too! Then to Horizons (walked on)…interesting and learned something again! Then to Honey I Shrunk the Audience 3D…a must see!! I think the 3D effects in this show is better than the Muppet one at MGM. We waited 20 min.
Then we went to the Canadian pavillion, the restaurant LeCellier for lunch, around 11:30am. They have a Buffeteria type style, the food was EXCELLENT. It was pretty cool because the girls working behind the counter were from Halifax too, were a little homesick, and very excited to see us!! We would definitely go back there to eat. We then headed back to the hotel around 2pm for R&R and to check in with any email messages. We were able to dial in to our server in Canada, using a calling card and our laptop, from our Carribbean Beach Resort room. Pretty cool.
Anyhow, after a nap, we headed back to Epcot (does anyone know what that stands for…what does the name "Epcot" mean, exactly?) to do the pavillions around 5pm. This was fun, as we hadn't really done them completely last time. We had made reservations at the Mexican restaurant, but cancelled them because we were having too much fun sampling food from each pavillion…TIP you can have a good healthy lunch, at a cheaper price than supper, and then just nibble at pavillions all night. My husband had a beer at several of the pavillions and had a great time!! The english pub was really worth dropping into, and Germany was one of our favorites as well. We stopped at the France pastry shop..had an eclair (yum yum), pretzels, etc. You must check out the French pastry shop in France…totally awesome. We got to experience food from everywhere. The neat thing too is that all the shops are converting into their Christmas merchandise, so we got to do some shopping in this regard as well. And the Chocolate!!! Hubba Hubba!!
What amazes me is Disney's ability to put things up without anyone seeing them. We left Epcot on Wednesday at 9pm, came back at opening on Thursday, and up was the Christmas garland, huge decorated Christmas tree, etc. How do they do this?
Anyway, we did the Mexican and the Norweigan ride (walked on). We were too tired to see illuminations again, so we went back to our room for R&R around 8:30pm. TIP they were letting people in the gates at 9:00pm for illuminations, even if you didn't have a hopper-type pass.
Day Five -- Friday, November 22nd, 1996
We packed up early from the Carribbean, packed our car and left it there in the parking lot and used the WDW buses. Ate a hot breakfast at the Carribbean…not worth it, I'd stick to cereal and cinnimon buns. Got to MGM at 9am, went to the Tower of Terror (waited 10 min). The ToT is much better now with the double drop. It is much more fun than the one big drop. When I went last year, and went on the ToT, I almost woofed my Egg McMuffin (and I DO thrill rides). But this time, I had no problem, and I had a lot more fun!! (we went on it again, as a matter of fact!!) The crowds seemed bigger today, probably indications that Thanksgiving is near.
We went on the Great Movie Ride, then did the Magic of Disney Animation. This is one of my favorites. The film beforehand with Walter C and Robin W is very funny (I could watch Robin Williams all day!!), and I'm always facinated in watching a film in progress. They were making Hercules, which looks like a really interesting project. Something they did differently in this tour that they didn't do last time, was they had a disney animator demonstrate how they make basic cartoons. We gathered in a room, and this gentleman drew for us. Very cool. And answered any questions we had.
Then we went to see the Beauty and the Beast stage production. It was great, well worth seeing. This is one of my favorite stories, and I always get a little teary-eyed during it.
We went to the Hollywod and Vine for lunch at 11:30am…yummy. Had this awesome three layer chocolate cake (we shared it and couldn't finish it!!). Prices were reasonable.
Then we went to line up for the Toy Story Parade at 12:30pm…it started at 1:00pm. Disney always tries to entertain the crowd while waiting for the parade…it's great!! Parade was short, but really neat. We were happy because we, for the first time, got to sit during a parade.
We did a little shopping after that, and we were on our way to Boyton Beach to visit relatives, only to return on Tuesday, Nov 26th to the All-Star.
Day Six -- Tuesday, November 26th, 1996
We arrive back to the WDW after a 4 day hiatus at noon to check into the All-Star Music Resort---we weren't sure what to expect, as we had stayed at a "higher budget" place earlier…it's always easy to go up a step, but to come down can be a drag. Anyhow, we quickly checked in, the fellow at the desk found us a king-sized bed (Yahooooooo) that was available for us…once again, easy and friendly check-in. The room was perfect size for two, very happy with the room. We stayed in the Calypso building (#10), which was just a hop from the main food area and the pool. We were able to park quite close to our room. We liked the "cartoon-like" atmosphere of the resort…"larger than life"…just like you would expect from Disney. And we felt the All-Star Resort was able to cater to our needs better…there was a neat little place to buy snacks, beer, etc. I guess you can say the All-Star resorts cater to the "budget-conscious", and therefore offer snacks, etc, to buy. At the Carribbean Resort, most of these day-to-day stuff was not available…I bought Benedryl at the All-Star store, and I really wasn't expecting to be able to find it. The CB didn't appear to carry that type of stuff. This example will define what I am trying to say about the differences in resorts. At the AS you could buy bottles of beer and enjoy them in your room, but at the CB they would serve it up for you in their beautiful outdoor bar area …for twice the price! Sometimes it is just nice to kick back in the privacy of your own room. We were also expecting more children at the AS, but really didn't find any more than at the CB…there seemed to be more couples and groups of people(not families) at the AS. I think if we were to go back, it would be at the AS. One thing we did notice was the bus service from the AS was significantly less than for the CB. We were amazed at the number of buses at the CB, but found we were always waiting for full buses at the AS. Mind you, this was the day before Thanksgiving! Still, the bus system for the AS is totally inadequate, as I'll elaborate on later. We arrived to the MK at 1:00pm. The place was packed. We went on NO rides…we are not the type to wait 1 hour to go on space mountain…we did all the rides last week, so we just took in the ambiance. It was great!! Lots of people-watching!! Had the frozen lemonade, thought we would love it, wasn't worth the $2.
Hopped a bus and went to the Disney Village Marketplace at 4:00pm. This place is overwhelming. Don't expect to go in and spend an hour shopping. This place as well was mad with parents and their tired children. We bought mass quantities, had it sent to our room (great feature if you can remember your room number), and thought we would head to MGM for a last-minute ToT ride. Not to happen. We had the most irritating time to get a bus from The Village to MGM. The AS buses were not to be found, actually, no buses were to be found. So, in despiration, we hopped on the Port Orleans/Dixie Landings bus, which took us to a PO bus stop which did not seemed to be serviced by the MGM buses very well either…to top it off it was FREEZING…low 50's and windy, with us in sweat shirts and shorts!
Finally, after waiting forever, we went into the PO resort and went into a cute little bar and had a bite and a drink. Great little bar, had the TV's going and the drinks flowing to calm our nerves(it was a very long day at this point, as we had drove 3 hours that morning to get to Orlando). We finished up, finally caught a bus to Epcot so we could connect with the AS bus. Two wasted hours of bus travel time. You can imagine we went right to bed after this!!
Day Seven -- Wednesday, November 27th, 1996
Today we got up at 7am, and grabbed a granola bar from our suitcase, and headed out to the Magic Kingdom. Hopped on the bus at 8:10am, was at the park at 8:25am, waited in line at the turnstiles(there was quite a line already!!!) and headed in. They only drop the ropes for the different "lands" at 9am, so we headed to the bakery for a cup of tea and hot chocolate to have while we waited at the ropes. Today was a colder-than -normal day, we wore shorts, but had our sweatshirts on all day…so a cup of something hot was a good idea. We waited at the entrance to Adventureland…as this is the quickest route to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Railroad. It's pretty wild to look back at the oncoming crowd who is headed to SM too, but waited at the entrance to Liberty Square and therefore we were 100ft ahead of them!! Anyhow, we walked on to Splash Mountain at this point, and then headed to Big Thunder Railroad and walked on. It is really interesting how Disney alters their plans for the day when they know it is going to be busier than normal. For instance, the SM ride seemed to be different…I think we were rushed through at a faster rate than the week before. As well, when we went on BTR, they had two trains on each side of the line, so that we actually went through some country that we hadn't been on before.
Then we went to register for the 25th anniversary so to get our commemorative lithograph and we got to listen to a major marketing speal by Disney…it was pretty bad…we were expecting a movie to "remember the magic", but the movie centered on all the new things that are going up and how we should book our next vacation now…it was tacky…albiet interesting to see what new is going up. We got our GoH badges at this show as well.
We went on the AstroOrbiter ( 30 minute wait) …I had a Hunchback icecream bar which helped the wait..and got on a 1 minute ride!! Not worth the wait!
Went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride…was good to get away from the hoopla, but pretty lame.
Then we left for MGM at 12:15, and went on the ToTX2 while the Toy Story Parade was going on. Went back to the hotel for a nap, then went to the Rainforest Café for 4:00pm..had to wait 20 min for a table, not bad considering there was a lot to look at in the shop anyway…we had a few appetizers…we weren't overly impressed with the food, it was OK. The atmosphere is cool, lightening, thunder, rain, gorillas and elephants, but not the place to go for a quiet meal! We liked Planet Hollywood better, but it's like comparing apples to oranges. We went back to MK, and during the Spectromagic parade, went on Splash Mountain twice…we walked on the first time, then waited 15 min the next. To avoid the crowds in the park during Spectromagic, on arrival to the park we went directly to the Trainstation, and this took us to Frontierland, we got off there, and on to Splash M!! We saw parts of spectromagic and the fireworks from the Splash mountain ride!! We were going to go on BTR next, but the line-up was long, so we took the skyline to tommorrowland…very nice view of the park at night…we had to wait 15 min, however, to get on this! We then headed out, because it was park closing, and intended to take the Monorail to Epcot…the monorail line was increadible, so we went back to our resort, and went to bed!!
The next morning we went to the Coral Isle café at the Polynesian, and had awesome banana-stuffed french toast….and left for home!!