Time of Year: Spring
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: Caribbean Beach Resort
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Infant/Toddler, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent, Rookie
Comments: Stephen and his family drove all the way from Colorado to visit WDW this trip. Stephen's narrative is especially wonderful because he describes all of the character experiences that his almost 4 year old daughter Nicollette had. I'm not usually very sentimental, but Stephen had me misty-eyed. I just kept thinking about those years ahead when Allan will experience those same things. I can't wait!

3/4 - 3/11

Introduction

It's rather long and I'm not really a great writer and I lurk more than I post but I thought I'd share my trip with you all...A little preamble before getting to the Disney part....

Well, with 2 kids, one 4 in May and the other 2 ½ (not to mention the 30 and 31 year old kids...err parents), we decided that a return trip to WDW was warranted. Our first visit was in 1994. My daughter was only 11 months then and my son still in utero.

My daughter (the nearly 4yo) is very into the Disney animated movies but had never really been exposed to the classic characters. So we bought 3 or 4 of the sing along videos that had the characters in them - Campout at WDW, WDW Beach Party etc to get her to know them. After a couple of weeks of watching them, she was all set to meet them.

Friday 2/21 - time to drive to Orlando...all 1850 miles from Denver. People laughed when we said we had a TV/VCR in the minivan. Ha! It was bought especially for this trip and worth every penny. Hardly heard from them.

Tuesday 2/25 - Arrived in Orlando. We're a week early....what will we do ?

Sea World twice, Universal Studios and a lot of pool time killed this week.

Tuesday 3/4

Got up early and headed west down I-4 to get to WDW. Pulled into Caribbean Beach about 8:30am, and there was a room ready for us. Reasonably sized as far as hotel rooms go. Unloaded the car, packed up the backpack and jumped on the bus to MK. Entered the MK around 10:30.

First thing we see as we walk in the gate ? Snow White and Dopey, Chip and Dale standing outside the Welcome Center. My kids love Chip and Dale so it was a great start to the day for them. Missed Snow White since her half hour was up. The escort really didn't do her job by yelling out that she only had 5 minutes left. We'd queued for over 10 minutes and were nearly at the front of the line when they had to go. I understand that it's really hot in these costumes for the masked people and do not begrudge them their rests, but the escorts really need to let people know that it's nearly time to go. That said, the rest of them were really good about it.

It wasn't long before Minnie, Goofy, Tigger, Chip, Dale and Pluto came out again for the little show they do in the mornings. From the kid's reactions this looked like it was going to be a day to hunt down characters and get their autographs.

We moved up Main Street and I must admit I was rather appalled to see what they've done to the Castle. Blargh! Although my wife liked it so it's just personal taste I guess.

Went up to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and did what my daughter had been wanting to do for weeks - ever since she saw it on the sing along tape - the Tea Cup Ride. After that, even managed to get a hold of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, The Mad Hatter and White Rabbit.

Next stop - Toontown. We'd come all this way, it was time to go and meet Mickey. Queued in the judges tent for a good 20 minutes, but the line really does move quite quickly.

Finally got in to see Mickey Mouse. The expressions on the kids faces was magical. It set the stage for what was to come. They loved the characters. We planned then to see as many as possible. This trip had been planned to view through the eyes of the kids, but meeting Mickey Mouse for real and seeing their reaction confirmed it.

Next was a little line down to Fantasyland. What did we see en route but 20,000 leagues shut down and turned into a little character meting place. Caught Snow White here, much to my daughter's delight, along with Dopey, Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Pluto.

Wandered a little around MK just having a look and pretty much called it a day by 5:00 pm.

We knew what to look for now and would be back.

Wednesday 3/5

Headed to the Studios early to get the 8:00 am opening for resort guests but missed the bus and didn't arrive until 8:30. I ran straight down to the Tower of Terror since I was the only one interested. What a great ride! I loved it.

With not much open that early we tried to map out our day. Decided to see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid's first show. We were fairly impressed with it and my daughter (who just loves Ariel) loved it.

Exiting this show it was time to meet Mickey Mouse again - in his little meeting spot outside the Animation studio. It was getting on towards 10:00 by now and we decided on the spur of the moment to eat at the Soundstage restaurant (I think that's the name - the character restaurant off the animation courtyard). The food was OK, not the best of the places we ate at, but of course, the kids were far more interested in the characters. Esmerelda was first to come by. I think Nicollette (my daughter) made her day when she blurted out "Esmerelda, you're so beautiful". She even seemed a little flutered by it. Others there were the Genie, Quasimodo, Meeko and Jasmine.

After lunch, we went down to see the Beaty and the Beast show. What can I say. This little production was fabulous. I loved it. My wife took Nicollette back to see it again while my son had his nap. She was down in the second row the second time, yelling "Belle! Belle! I'm over here!". I'm told that the people around her were laughing, thinking it was pretty funny and even Belle had a hard time keeping a straight face and doing the production.

A little later it was off the the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area to let the kids run wild for a bit.

A few more charaters were met later in the afternoon, including some that we never saw anywhere else - Roger Rabbit and Robin Hood. We went off to see Muppet Vision 3D and that pretty much ended the day.

Thursday 3/6

Early opening day at MK, if I recall. Off we went. It was about 8:20 by the time we got to Dumbo and we had a good 20 minute wait. Did a few of the others in the area - Snow White and Mr Toad's Wild Ride.

We had a late breakfast/early lunch planned and the Grand Floridian so we jumped on the monorail and headed over. Saw Mary Poppins and then the others on the inside - Minnie, Chip, Dale, Goofy and Pluto. Pluto even agreed to come home with us. Nicollette has dubbed him "That Silly old Pluto". Might have something to do with the big lick she got from him. The highlight of my morning there - Minnie let me kiss her nose :-) The food here was pretty good.

Back to the MK and we asked at Guest Relations about where we could find Belle. Nicollette adores Belle and we hadn't seen her yet. They told us that from time to time she has a story reading session just behind the Christmas Shop off Liberty Square at 12:45.

Off we toddled and there was just us and one other little girl. My son wasn't really interested so the two girls had a story for about 15 minutes. (It was Alice in Wonderland if you're interested). It was priceless. Belle was a real sweetheart, spending time (probably a good half an hour) talking to the kids afterwards. She made Nicollette feel really special. She had also been terrified of the Beast from his couple of 'angry' scenes from the movie. Belle reassured her that the Beast is really a nice guy and we seem to have allayed her fears of the Beast after that little chat.

After this we went off to Ariel's Grotto to meet Ariel in apparently what is the only place in WDW where you can get a photo and an autograph. For 45 minutes we stood in the early afternoon sun. A very hot wait. And the, of course, we had to wait some more as we passed over a half hour boundary and we probably had a cast change. But, Nicollette enjoyed the short visit, so it was worth it. Jordan was not particularly impressed. He definately loves the costumed characters a lot more than the face characters.

Off next to the Race Cars at the Tomorrowland Concourse after a quick kiss from Alice at the Tea Cups.

Next was a trip on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and the Astral Orbiter.

It was around this time that we discovered the Toontown Hall of Fame. Three lines to meet the characters - The Villains, Mickey's Pals and the Princesses. We went through the three lines once each and found a few we hadn't seen before - Donald Duck, Sleeping Beauty, Governor Ratcliffe to name a few. The ducks seem only to hide out in this area. Never saw Donald anywhere else except in parades. And only saw Daisy in here once.

Also went and got our poster and Guest of Honour (1994) badges.

Friday 3/7

This was early day at Epcot, so off we went for yet another character meal. This one was in the Garden Grill - a rotating restaurant in The Land. The meal is served family style and was not what my kids wanted. They had much more enjoyed pancakes and waffles and fruit (which was not available here). They enjoyed seeing Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale again though.

After breakfast it was off through the land - seeing the Lion King themed film - The Circle of Life, then the boat ride that talks about new ways of growing food etc.

We now looked at the Epcot map. Not really a lot for the kids but you could meet a lot of characters around the World Showcase. So, we toddled off to Morocco (Jasmine and Aladdin), France (Quasi and Esmerelda), the International Gateway (Belle and the Beast) and the UK (assorted British characters).

Other things we did at Epcot - Honey I Shrunk the Audience - I loved this. My wife freaked at the 'mice' and some of the 3D - the snake and the lion/ cat thing scared my daughter badly. But I loved it. Some very good 3D effects.

Later in the afternoon/early evening we asked a CM who else was to be found in the park that day. Found Rafiki in the Land and in another place (can't remember) they have rotating characters from 6pm. We were thrilled to get a shot of Chip and Dale together. You don't normally see that - at least we never did again. At the character breakfasts they were always wandering around separately.

We had planned to stay for Illuminations but both of the kids fell asleep in their dinners around 8 pm, so it was struggled back to the bus with 2 sleeping kids, a twin stroller and a backpack.

Saturday 3/8

Back to the Magic Kingdom. I ran down to Alien Encounter (not bad, but nothing special, although a couple of the monster effects while you're in the dark are different) while my wife and the kids were doing the Carousel, Dumbo and the Carousel again. We tried to finish up with Fantasyland here, doing Peter Pan's flight and Small World.

Today's character meal was the Crystal Palace with Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. The food was good and the characters were great. My only complaint with this place is that it takes over an hour for the characters to make a circuit and if you are seated just after they've made a pass through your area, it takes a long time for them to get back.

We went over to Adventureland to have a look and ended up down the back of Splash Mountain in Frontierland talking to Brer Bear.

Finally caught up with Cinderella in the forecourt of King Stefan's Banquet Hall under the Castle. Then it was off to see the Lion King show, which was alright, but not at all what I'd expected.

What next ? On the train and back to Toontown for another visit with Mickey, Mickey's pals and the Villains. In the 'sad' note of the visit, Brer Fox made Nicollette cry. He scared her quite badly, just by acting the villain. He must have felt bad because he wrote 'I'm Sorry' under his name in her book...But my wife played the bad cop and made him kiss and make up :-) After that, Nicollette wasn't too keen in meeting the Sheriff of Nottingham. His face is really quite scary for little ones. By the time we'd seen him and Prince John we were alone in the room with the escort and the three villains. Brer Fox must have felt really bad because he came over and apologized a little more. The last photo I have of the two of them at least has her smiling.

Lastly today was a trip to Minnie's Cottage before heading back to Town Square to watch the fireworks. They actually stayed awake for them.

Sunday 3/9

Back to MGM today. Did the backlot tours, both of them. The special effects one was pretty interesting, but I was disappointed in the 101 Dalmations one. Not really much to see there......

Went character hunting again and found Darkwing Duck and Darth Vader (Star Wars Weekend, you know).

Watched the Toy Story parade. Not bad as far as parades go, but I think that MK's parades are better.

Went on over to Pizza Planet to meet Buzz and Woody for a 3:30 appearance. It amazes me the rudeness of some people. The escort was a young girl who gave up trying to control the crowd. Some people just barge on in like they own the place, pushing little kids out of the way to get their picture. When we finally got there, this other woman shoved her son in front of them and took her photo. Hope she like the shot of my kids in her photo.....Sigh.

By this stage, all we hadn't done was the Great Movie Ride (we passed, we saw it in 94), Indiana Jones and Hunchback. We passed on the stunts since I have it on video from 94 and my wife decided to see it there rather than upset my son witht he explosions in the show. We were all set to see Hunchback's show when the kids started losing it. So we packed up and went back to the room.

Monday 3/10

Breakfast with Chef Mickey at the Contemporary this morning and then off to MK again. Even got to ride in the front cabin of the monorail with the driver.

Did the Riverboat cruise and saw the country bears goffing off, as well as Davy Crockett, who thought Nicollette was a real cutie (well, she is, excuse's a Dad's pride).

Next it was back to toontown *again*, for another visit with Mickey, his pal's and the villains. Here we finally caught Daisy Duck for the one and only time we saw her. We had some lunch and then went to watch "Every Day's A Holiday" on the Castle Stage. Quite a good show actually. We enjoyed it. The kid's especially.

Now it's time to line up for the afternoon parade. As the coaches come through just before we find out about the sticker thing and how, if you have one, you can dance in the parade with the characters ont he float as it stops in certain positions. Nicollette was devastated that she couldn't dance.

The Remember The Magic parade is very well put together, IMO. We really enjoyed it. Especially fun was listening to Nicollette scream at the characters until they noticed her and waved at her.

After the parade had passed, back to the castle stage for Disneymania. This show really hasn't changed in the last three years. I think it's the same show I saw in 1994. But it was still relatively enjoyable. For my money, the earlier show was the better of the pair.

We looked around at a few of the shops and then back to Chef Mickey's for dinner. Today was an early day because we had to pack. Tomorrow was our last day, much to our dismay.

Tuesday 3/11

It's hard to believe that this is the last day. It's not even an early day for MK. We were there just before 8:15 and had to wait for opening at 8:30. Then it was up to the Adventureland bridge and had to wait for that to open at 9:00.

From there we went and saw the Country Bear Jamboree - a cutesy little show that the kids really enjoyed.

Back we go to the Crystal Palace for our last 'dance' with Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. This is where we were seated just after the characters had made their pass. It took over an hour for Tigger to get back to us and nearly and hour and a half for Eeyore. Pooh was non-circulating this day, just standing in the entryway/lobby for people to see him there.

Again, after this, back to Toontown for a last visit with the Pricesses and Pals. In the princess room is Pocahontas, who takes a shine to Nicollette, asking her name and making a little small talk. I wonder if she'll remember her a few hours later...

After lunch and a couple more assorted rides, back up to Splash Mountain area to start waiting for the parade. We bugged every Disney employee we saw until we finally got a Snow White sticker. The parade comes by and Snow White's float (the last one) stops by us. Nicollette is nearly bursting her lungs screaming 'Pocahontas!'. Pocahontas notices her and indicates that she'll be right down. By the time she got over to us, Mary Poppins had just about taken her. The look on Nicollette's face was tragic. She didn't want Mary Poppings. Pocahontas comes over and says "I'll take her". This made my whole trip. It was the pinnacle of it. I'm standing there taping this with the camcorder and a tear was running down my cheek from pure joy. The look on her face as she actually got to dance with Pocahontas in the parade was something I'll never forget. She was thrilled. As the dance finished and Pocahontas got back on the float, she crouched down and waved a blew a kiss to Nicollette. It was the best day of the trip for her, I think.

After the parade, I went down to guest relations again to see if that Pocahontas was appearing anywhere in the park again that day. Unfortunately she was not because I really wanted to thank her in person for making a little girl's day like that - she went out of her way to get Nicollette as her dancing partner. So, I left a comment card instead. You know, being one of the CM's in those circumstances really must be a rewarding job.

Well, it was time for the last hurrah. We asked Nicollette what she wanted to do and it was back to the Hall of Fame (yet again) to say goodbye to the characters.

After that, we went to see the Spectromagic parade and pretty much headed out.

Summary

I'm not the greatest writer in the wold so if you've stuck with me so far I appreciate it.

In summary, a great trip. I've only been home a week and can't wait to go back again. We're already planning a trip back in the 1999-2000 timeframe. However, if I lived in Florida instead of Colorado, I'd have a yearly pass.

Next time, we plan on staying on the monorail. We spent 5 of our 8 days at the MK and Caribbean Beach ain't exactly real close to the Kingdom.

Well, that's it. I love Disney. Can't wait to go back.

Favourite Characters in the family from the trip:

Stephen - Tigger
Wendy - Eeyore
Nicollette - Pocahontas or Belle
Jordan - anyone in a furry costume.

Until next time,

Stephen Wales