Summary

May 2-5, 1999

Travel method: plane, Mears shuttle

Resort: Dixie Landings Resort, Magnolia Bend section

Accommodations: standard room

Ages represented: just me, age 24

WDW experience: frequent as a kid; second time as an adult

Sunday, May 2, 1999

Well, I'm back from five short but fabulous days at WDW. This was my second trip as a "grown-up" (I use that term loosely), the first time being last November for my honeymoon. (I had also been to WDW four times as a kid: 1980, 1982, 1984 and 1990.) For our honeymoon, my husband and I bought regular Annual Passes, and although we're going to get a second use out of them this coming October, mine was burning a hole in my pocket! So a few weeks after we got home, I made myself a reservation at the All Star Movies for May 2-6 for $89 a night plus tax.

But lo and behold, a couple of months after that, the Annual Passholder room rates came out, and there were rooms at the moderates for only $99 plus tax! I hesitated for about a nanosecond, decided to splurge on the extra forty bucks, and called CRO to book Dixie Landings. I put in a request to stay in Magnolia Terrace, which is a nonsmoking building in the Magnolia Bend section of the resort (the southern-mansion-style buildings). I also called the resort itself three days before my arrival and spoke to the room assigner, who pleasantly assured me that a room in Magnolia Terrace would be no problem.

The months went by *very* slowly. I hurried them along as much as I could by reading r.a.d.p and by corresponding with my net-friend Lori in Cambridge, Mass., who was getting married at the WDW wedding pavilion on May 1. Since we'd be at WDW at the same time, we decided to meet for lunch at Chefs de France that Wednesday. Boy, was that the right decision...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I said a sad goodbye to my dear husband on the night of May 1. We *are* newlyweds, after all, and even though I was going to see the Mouse, I would miss him. I took Quake City Shuttle to the San Francisco airport - I highly recommend them, by the way, if you ever need to get to or from SFO. They're reliable and cheap. And speaking of cheap, I got a great airfare: $217 round trip on American.

My flight took off on time at 10 PM, and I *tried* to get forty winks. I came prepared; I brought a frozen bottle of water and an inflatable neck pillow, and I took a melatonin pill to help me sleep, but I wasn't able to do more than doze for half an hour at a time. Still, I was excited enough that it didn't much matter.

We landed on time in Miami at 6:20 AM, which is 3:20 AM Pacific time. I grabbed my bags (I always travel with only a carry-on) and staggered to my Orlando flight. I expected it to be a puddle-jumper, but apparently, a lot of people have stopovers in Miami on the way to Orlando, so it was a 757. The flight was short and painless, and we landed at MCO a little early, 7:15 AM.

(An interesting thing I noticed, amid the morning grogginess, was that at MIA, everything is written in both Spanish and English, from directional signs to the print on candy bars and bags of chips. It was kind of like being in Canada, but with Spanish instead of French, of course. Must be terrifically convenient for the many Spanish speakers there.)

At MCO, I took the little monorail to the terminal and found my way to where the Mears shuttle would pick me up. When I got there, the Mears counter was closed! Uh-oh, I thought, since the sign said they didn't open till 8 and it was only 7:25. But very shortly, a clerk appeared. I bought my ticket and an extremely cheery driver appeared and told me we'd be on our way soon. We were, and there were only three other riders: a man going to Coronado Springs and a couple also going to Dixie Landings. Dixie would be the first stop.

In less than half an hour, we were there! I hauled all my bags to the front desk and checked in. My room wasn't ready yet, of course, so I checked out the gift shop, poked through the *beautiful* resort a little bit, and got some breakfast at the Cotton Mill food court. I had a croissant, orange juice and fruit salad, and with my refillable mug, it came to $15. (I still have the Port Orleans mug from our honeymoon, but my goal is to stay in *all* the resorts at least once and get a mug from each one. So far, I have PO, Coronado, Dixie and the Grand Floridian.)

Around 10:00, I decided I'd had enough dawdling around, and took the bus to the Magic Kingdom! It was more crowded than it was on my November trip, but perfectly manageable. I did Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, the Swiss Family Treehouse, Pirates, the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, the Timekeeper and the Carousel of Progress by 1:30.

I checked back with Dixie a couple of times during the day, and by 1:30, they said my room was ready, so I headed back to the resort. A nice Bell Services guy with a Queens accent brought me to my room and said that if I were *his* wife, he wouldn't have let me come to WDW alone. ;)

My room was very pretty. Sure enough, it was in Magnolia Terrace, which is a gorgeous building and fairly centrally located (though I might go for Oak Manor next time to be a little closer to the food court). I checked out the Hidden Mickeys on the bedspread and the coat rack, unpacked my things, got some takeout from the Cotton Mill (a cheese sub, $5.29), and took a much-needed nap.

Now, I'd made a 5:45 priority seating at the California Grill a few months before. When I posted my pre-trip report on r.a.d.p, Tom Carbone (writer of the Yacht Club FAQ on Deb Wills's site) wrote to me to say that he and his wife were going to be there fifteen minutes after me. We agreed to meet in the lounge at 5:30 to chat for a bit before having our separate dinners.

Unfortunately, I overslept a bit and didn't catch the bus to the MK until 5:25. (We saw three vultures and an armadillo on the way!) At the MK, I grabbed the resort monorail and hurried over to the Contemporary. I was horribly late (5:50 or so), but Tom and his wife Lynn were kind enough to wait for me, and they even invited me to have dinner with them.

Tom and Lynn have been to the California Grill so many times that they have a favorite waiter, Kevin, who recognized them immediately. He was great! He was extremely knowledgeable about wine and what was on the menu, and brought half a dozen bottles of wine for Tom and Lynn to sample (I'm not a wine person). They finally settled on the perfect thing, and then it was time for the hard part: ordering dinner.

I spend my days dreaming about the CG's goat cheese ravioli, which I had eaten both of the times I'd visited the CG before, so I just had to order it again. It was excellent, as usual. Tom and Lynn got two dishes to share: grilled vegetables with lemon risotto, and a grouper dish. The veggies were amazing - there must have been fifteen different kinds on the plate. When we had all polished our plates clean, they both ordered the Cappuccino Quake for dessert, and I shared a bite of Lynn's.

They're great people! We had lots to talk about, since we're all "foodies" and all love to make frequent, leisurely trips to WDW. They had just taken the Backstage Safari at Animal Kingdom, so they told me what I could expect when I did it myself the next day. And they'd had dinner at the Chef's Table at Victoria and Albert's the night before, the lucky stiffs. They said they were still a little full from the fabulous dinner.

Tom owns his own computer business - if I remember correctly, he sells software that can be used to send messages via alphanumeric pager. One of his many clients is Disney's security department! They all use his software to page one another. I thought that was pretty cool.

After a long and wonderful dinner, they zoomed off to the Yacht Club. It was their last night at WDW, and Tom was going to see IllumiNations one last time while Lynn packed their bags. :(

I took the monorail back to the MK at about 8:15 (noting the cool-looking new elevator to the Contemporary monorail platform, which was working just fine). I had a quick ride on Snow White and Peter Pan, and at 8:50 I hopped in line for the Skyway on a hunch. Sure enough, just as I got airborne, the fireworks started! I saw Tinker Bell, heard the music from far above the park, and watched the finale just as I got off the Skyway in Tomorrowland. Some teenagers who had ridden in the bucket in front of me were completely spellbound. As the fireworks ended, one girl said to her friends, "Now that's, like, *perfect* memories." I agreed with her.

I took my time leaving the park, and just as I got to the Hub, I saw what some people on r.a.d.p have called the 'goodnight kiss.' The castle lights change color in rapid succession, twinkling with pixie dust each time they change, and "When You Wish Upon a Star" plays softly. Well, that was it. The chin started trembling, and I had to mop my eyes. What a perfect ending to the day.

I got back to DxL around 10:00 and fell into bed.

Monday, May 3, 1999

My wake-up call from the Mouse came at 6:15. Eek! But I bounded out of bed.

I got ready, grabbed a croissant at the food court ($2.01) and grabbed the bus to Animal Kingdom for my 8:30 Backstage Safari tour. I arrived at the park about 8 and went almost directly to Conservation Station, where the tour was going to start. (I stopped only briefly to look for a camera strap [found none] but still didn't get to Conservation Station till 8:30 exactly.)

The tour started a few minutes later. It was GREAT!

First, we introduced ourselves to each other. Our guide, Karen (?), was a student intern, and her supervisor, a former intern herself, came along. It turns out that AK only accepts about two interns a year, so you have to be pretty sharp to land a job there. Karen had six years' experience working with invertebrates at the Philadelphia Zoo, and her favorite animal is the cockroach (!).

We took off backstage right away, and the first thing we saw was bird housing areas. The only current residents were some owls and a pelican with a broken wing, as the other feathered friends were out in the park for the day. The pelican was a refugee from outside AK, but the veterinary staff took him in to tend his wing and will keep him now because his injuries are permanent.

We then walked on toward the elephant barn, where the pachyderms stay when they come in from the savanna at night. Two keepers gave us an absolutely fascinating talk! They told us that AK has a very different approach from other zoos, in that the keepers never actually have full contact with the elephants. The barn is a big warehouse-like building, and the elephants stay in areas partitioned off by bollards (large poles that extend almost from floor to ceiling). The keepers and elephants can see and touch one another through the bollards, but in order to keep the elephants more 'wild' and assure the keepers' safety, they never have full access to each other.

This is not to say that the elephants aren't well-trained, though. They go through a daily, all-over bathing routine that allows the keepers to check them from toes to trunk for any problems; and they get plenty of carrots, yams and apples as a reward. The keepers also use a 'clicker' (just a little plastic item that makes a loud click) when they reward them, so the elephants associate the sound with praise.

There are six cows and two bull elephants at AK. They'd love for them to breed, as there have been no elephants born in captivity since 1984. They're trying natural breeding first, and if that doesn't work, then they'll use artificial insemination. Some of the cows are already trained to accept the insemination. Elephants reach sexual maturity at about age 13, like us, but they carry their babies for 22 months! The bulls are kept separate from each other and from the cows, to avoid conflicts, but the cows are all quite close to one another, as they would be in the wild.

When the keepers were done with their talk, our guide showed us an elephant skull and let us handle a tusk (which are hollow...I didn't know that!) while she told us about the sad decline in elephant populations due to hunting for ivory. Fortunately, in areas where elephants used to be hunted, a lot of populations are growing tagua nuts, which have a very ivory-like texture, to be made into buttons and the like. We passed a tagua nut around. We also learned that rhinoceri are greatly endangered by poaching, as some people believe that rhino horn has aphrodisiac or medicinal properties. Of course, since rhino horn is made of keratin, like our hair and nails, rhino *hair* can be used to make medicines without killing the animals...but we foolish humans do it anyway. A rather shocking fact is that the world's biggest consumer of rhino horn is the United States.

We moved on to what was probably my favorite part of the tour: the food storage areas and kitchens for all of the 1,200 animals in the park. As we went through the doorways into the building, special fans blew on us to get rid of loose dust and insects we might be carrying on us, so as not to contaminate the food. We saw the enormous warehouse for all the hay and alfalfa that's eaten daily - the eight elephants alone go through 20 bales of hay a day!

On our way through to the kitchen, we passed a storage room for kibble and canned animal food, which AK gets mostly from Purina. I spotted some cans of Marmoset Chow! "Not what you see at your local Petco," remarked one of the tour guests.

We watched two cooks in the kitchen. They send the day's food out to the animals in the morning, then spend the rest of the day preparing the next day's food. One cook was working on herbivore diets, and she showed us the recipe for the food that rhinoceros iguanas eat! (I never even heard of rhinoceros iguanas, let alone that they had a private chef.) The vegetables for the herbivores looked like very good quality stuff - if I hadn't known that they were for macaws and antelope, I would have thought she was just making a salad.

Behind her, there was a big storage shelf that our tour guide told us was exclusively for consumption by gorillas. Gorillas, like us hairless primates, like a lot of variety in their food, so AK has some tricks up its sleeve to make their daily meals more palatable. Everything on the shelves was people food: pancake syrup, salad dressing, baby food, food coloring, pretzels...all fat- and sugar-free, so that they get a varied diet without too many empty calories.

Then we watched the chef who was preparing meals for the carnivores in the park. Most carnivores get most of their protein from horse meat, which AK buys from a special farm in the Northwest that raises horses specifically for meat. (It makes sense: lions, for instance, eat antelope in the wild, and horse meat is a lot closer to that than cows or sheep or pigs would be.) But the chef was working with something a little more interesting - he was sorting out big Ziploc bags of mice, baby chicks, rabbits and frozen young trout. The mice also come from a special laboratory that raises them for food and kills them humanely with a poison gas that then passes quickly out of their bodies, so that it doesn't get passed on to the animals that eat them.

Next, we moved to a classroom in another building to learn about how they train the lions. We watched a short video - an un-fancy, unedited one of a keeper's training session with the lioness. For treats, the lioness got raw-beef meatballs, which the keeper offered at the end of a short stick. Like the elephants, the lions are trained not to do circus tricks, but to offer parts of their bodies for inspection. The lioness calmly opened her huge mouth and kept it open while the keeper inspected her teeth - not the first job I'd volunteer for!

After the video, our guide showed us some of the toys they use for enrichment at AK. The gorillas get an interesting puzzle that requires them to use a stick to manipulate a food treat out of a transparent box. Karen, our guide, demonstrated it and had some trouble herself - it's a challenging toy! Then she passed around a puzzle ball, which is a soccer-ball-sized sphere made out of the same plastic they use to make airplane fuselage. It has a small hole in one end and the animals have to figure out how to get a treat out of the hole. The one she passed around had some people treats inside - miniature Milky Way bars!

After we all had our chocolate, she passed around an identical ball, but this one had been pre-used by the tigers in Asia. It had ENORMOUS tiger- fang-sized scratches and holes in the very tough airplane plastic.

We also saw a tough, stuffed canvas sack that's used as a lion toy. They rub the sacks on the goats in the Affection Section and then toss them to the lions, who tear them apart. And she told us that they'll occasionally freeze a treat inside a block of ice - a rabbit or some mice - and give it to the animals to figure out. When they tried this with the baboons, the baboons figured out quickly that it would melt faster if they sat on the ice, so they walked around with very wet rumps for a while!

Next, we returned to the main Conservation Station building and entered the area where the veterinarians work. We toured the operating room, which has a exam table that can be stood on end, so standing animals like goats and horses can be eased onto their sides more gently. The whole room can be sterilized in a matter of seconds from a control panel on the wall.

Then we moved into one of the rooms that's visible by guests through the glass. It was funny to be on the other side, looking out! We talked to two women who are animal tracking specialists for AK, and they told us all about a study they're doing: they're learning about how elephants use low-frequency sounds to communicate with each other at distances of up to 5 miles (!). This is a fairly recent discovery, and they're hoping to be able to track elephants' mating cycles through the sounds. The elephants wear enormous collars that transmit their vibrations to a computer in the room we were standing in.

As part of the study, the researchers played recordings of these sounds to the elephants in their barn. When they played normal elephant chatting sounds, they all perked up their ears a bit; but when they played elephant distress calls, the six cows herded together in a protective circle, as they would in the wild. This was the first time that the keepers understood that the elephants, who had all come from different zoos, had really bonded with each other and were 'family' now. (Elephants are extremely social and even mourn their dead, so bringing together eight perfect strangers in a brand-new setting was a difficult proposition...but whatever they did at AK, it worked!)

After a great chat with the researchers, we went outside backstage to have a little 'animal encounter.' We were ahead of schedule on the tour, so while we were waiting, we chatted some more, and Pocahontas came by. She was in her full costume, fringe and all, but wearing a pair of neon green flip-flops!

Soon a very friendly keeper arrived, and he introduced us to a red- rumped agouti, who was walking on a leash. He was a gerbil-like rodent, about the size of a small cat, and very friendly and inquisitive. We all petted him and he made cheery chirruping sounds.

Our very last experience was a walk to an obscure backstage area that our guide told us was what AK looked like while it was being built. It was pretty darn barren, and it was amazing to imagine that kind of empty land being transformed into the lush park that AK is today. We filled out surveys to evaluate the tour and our excellent guide, and she gave us all a very cool enamel pin. It has a yin and yang with tigers inside each side of the circle and says "Disney's Animal Kingdom Asia."

Over the tour, we all learned SO much - much more than I can record. We heard all about Disney's conservation efforts; what they do with all the manure (use it or sell it for fertilizer); how they breed (or provide contraception for) all kinds of animals; how they keep outside animals * out* (there are three rows of fences, but some critters get through anyway); and what's up next for AK (Beastly Kingdomme, the land of imaginary animals; and the Safari Lodge resort, which will have its own savanna, separate from the one you see on the safari).

It was all over at 12. It was excellent, fascinating and very educational - well worth it.

I took the train back to Harambe and went to Pizzafari for lunch. When I was there last, I'd ordered the hot deli sandwich and asked them to remove the meat, but they now have a version with roasted veggies instead, along with pesto-marinated tomatoes and Caesar salad inside. It was great, and with a Coke it was $7.94.

I was dying to do Kilimanjaro Safaris. It had a 30-minute wait, the longest of my trip, but it went quickly. The safari was fantastic, as ever. We saw many giraffes, rhinos, antelope, and the male lion. I tried not to take too many pictures, because last time, I ended up with a whole roll of shots of grass with tiny, unidentifiable animals in the background! We'll see how the pictures I *did* take turned out this time.

I just had to do the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail when it was over - it's one of my favorites, because I adore gorillas. I saw all the usual suspects, but in the glassed-in gorilla area, the silverback was snoozing with his feet right up against the glass! While we all crowded around and watched, the little 4- and 1 1/2- year-olds came frolicking by at one point - they were very cute. I didn't see any more gorillas in the outside area, though.

Afterwards, in Harambe, I sat down on the ground to check the map for a minute, but I didn't check the *ground* well enough - I sat in a puddle of chocolate! Luckily, I had a pair of shorts in my bag to change into...and luckily, it was only chocolate and not something worse.

Next, I was dying to see Asia for the first time. It's gorgeous! I love all the authentic details, just like in Harambe. I saw a few of the gibbons and siamangs on the way in, climbing about in their temples.

Kali River Rapids had a 50-min. wait, so I did the Maharajah Jungle Trek instead. It was almost as cool as Pangani - I saw no Komodo dragons, but lots of bats, a tapir, and several lounging tigers. I'd learned on the tour that there are six of them, all sisters, so I thought it was funny how almost everyone automatically called them 'he.' ("Look at him! He's over there on that rock!")

Next I made my way to Safari Village to do a little shopping and see It's Tough to Be a Bug. I got caught in the Artimals parade for a bit, but it was just about over. I made my way through the wonderful queue in the Tree of Life and waited in the nice cool darkness while listening to the bugs sing show tunes. The show was as funny as ever. I have to admit I get a bit spooked by it, though! I scooted forward in my seat so I wouldn't get 'stung.' I had hoped to meet Flik at some point, but he was nowhere to be found. :(

So I moseyed over to Dinoland to do Countdown to Extinction - there was no wait at all. I like it plenty, and it scares the pants off me, but sadly, it still can't hold a candle to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland (which is tied with the Tower of Terror for my all-time favorite Disney ride).

Throughout the day, I spent a great deal of time just wandering the Oasis and the Tree of Life Garden. I love happening upon the animals and beautiful greenery like that.

Finally, I headed back to Asia to try to do Kali. On the way, I kept a sharp eye out for the 'secret path,' and I found it! I was tickled, though the moment was spoiled a little bit when a custodial CM walked by. It's very pretty in there, in any case.

Kali had only a 15-minute wait now, which was very bearable because of its fabulous queue. I also had one of my favorite Disney snacks while waiting - a frozen banana ($2.50), yum.

Once on the raft, I put my backpack (containing my PalmPilot and brand- new camera) inside the waterproof bin in the middle. I *hoped* it was waterproof, anyway! I sat next to a girl of about 8 or 9. She struck up a conversation with me, and we speculated about how wet we'd get.

I thought the ride was pretty cool! It could be more elaborate, sure, and I wouldn't wait 2 hours for it, but it was fun and a good way to cool off. I managed to keep from getting *too* soaked, but the mother of the girl I talked to was drenched to the skin.

I slowly made my way to the buses, taking pictures of the animals along the way, and a bus came right away for PO/DxL. I called my dear husband from the room and talked to him for an hour (I'm not looking forward to the phone bill!) and did some laundry while sitting by the Magnolia Terrace quiet pool (which was not so quiet - there were several school- age boys wrestling with their brothers in the water). My chocolate pants came out just fine, thank goodness. ;)

Now, I had planned to spend only the morning today at AK and go to DisneyQuest and Pleasure Island this afternoon and evening. But since I spent till 5 PM at AK and then had to do this unexpected laundry instead of taking a nap, the idea of going out again was daunting. I'm an early- to-bed, early-to-rise person and it was 8:30 by the time the laundry was done. So I decided to have a little dinner at DxL and go to bed early.

At the food court, I got a kids' linguine with marinara sauce and a side order of breadsticks. The total was $5.34. (I love Disney's kids' meals - they're such a bargain. For $3.25 you get a breadstick and a fair amount of pasta; or for $6.89 you get the same breadstick and a tiny bit more pasta. To me, the choice is clear!)

I took the food back to my room. I did this one time at Coronado Springs on my last trip, but I was foolish enough not to borrow a tray to carry everything on. This time, I took a tray and it was a lot more comfortable.

I'm absolutely in love with all of Magnolia Bend. It's so beautiful.

Sleepytime was at 11:00, which is late for me, but I got sucked into watching that silly "Noah's Ark" movie on TV. ;P

Tuesday, May 4, 1999

I got up with the Mouse at 7:10 AM, grabbed another $2 croissant from the bakery, and headed off to MGM!

(I should note that I'm a juice addict. I can't start the day without it, and since the food courts only have those pricey little Minute Maid bottles, I bring my own from home. I just put an empty plastic cranberry juice bottle and an aluminum can of concentrate in my suitcase, reconstitute it when I get to the resort, and every night I fill a small water bottle with juice and put it on ice. In the morning it's nice and cold for breakfast.)

I got to MGM at 8:45 and stood behind the rope on Sunset Blvd. I had no wait for the Tower of Terror, of course, and went around and did it again. The new drop profile is really wild! It was very hard to predict what would happen next, and that made it even more fun.

Next I did MuppetVision 3D - one of my favorites. I especially like the "Salute to All Nations, But Mostly America."

I caught the first Doug Live show of the day. It was great! Very high-energy. I like Doug because everybody can identify with him. And it's so rare to find a kids' show that doesn't rely on bathroom humor or violence to be funny and entertaining.

I wanted to take the animation tour because last time, I saw it on a Sunday, when no one was working. It was cool to see the animators doing their thing, but I'd just as soon skip all the little movies they show. I think they make the tour way too long and don't add much to it. Still, it was really cool to see them all hard at work.

Next, I grabbed some popcorn, my all-time favorite Disney snack, to eat while watching my all-time favorite Disney show: the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I just think it's so beautiful and powerful. Matt the Juggler did the pre-show, and he was great too. He made a lot of jokes about how this was what he was doing with his liberal arts degree. ;)

I had it on my list to check out the WDW Forever kiosks at Pizza Planet. I did, but I didn't find much I wanted! I have a big collection of Disney sounds from the Net, so there wasn't much there that I didn't already have, and I didn't end up buying a CD.

I also wanted to try to see the new Drew Carey show, but it wasn't working when I was there. :(

So I settled for one last ride on the TOT. In the queue, a mother and 2 daughters of about 4 and 8 were behind me. The mother was pretty obnoxious - kept smacking the younger daughter. "Quit hanging on me. You said you wanted to be a big girl and go on this, so shut up!" Charming. The little girl kept pushing me and kicking my feet.

When we got to the doors outside the library, the older daughter tapped me on the shoulder and said "Remember me?" She was the one I chatted with on Kali yesterday! Fortunately, she was quite a bit nicer than her mom.

(By the way, the 4-year-old did just fine on the ride, but her mother was pretty shaken!)

I bought a very cool TOT poster for my cubicle at work and headed back to DxL for a nap.

Around 5:00, I walked over to the boat dock to catch the boat to Downtown Disney. When the dock was just in sight, a boat pulled in, and I was afraid I would miss it...but this is Disney, after all, and the skipper waited for me. I love the boat ride - my husband and I took it one time when we were at Port Orleans on our honeymoon, but it was dark then and it was nice to take it in the daytime this time.

I hopped off at the Marketplace and headed for the Gourmet Pantry. I bought a pair of Mickey and Minnie bride and groom salt and pepper shakers for my newlywed friends Lori and Alex, and also a very cute Mickey pepper mill for myself. I wasn't hungry enough for a big dinner, so I got a little Greek salad ($2.75) and ate it at one of the tables outside.

Of course, no trip is complete without a visit to the monstrous World of Disney store, so that was my next stop (with a brief pause to look at the Lego sculptures, which I love). At WoD, I bought a Walt Disney World Tour umbrella for my grandmother for Mother's Day, and a Mickey Post-It note holder for my desk at work. It matches my Mickey pencil holder, paperclip dispenser and business card holder. I used a coupon that I got with my Annual Passholder newsletter - $5 off any purchase of $25 or more, valid at any Disney-owned shop on the property. In fact, I wound up using three or four of those throughout the trip - they were a great deal.

Now, my plan was to go to DisneyQuest and then Pleasure Island, but I was stuck with this big bag of stuff. I didn't have it sent back to my room, because I needed the salt and pepper shakers to give to Lori and Alex when I met them the next day. So I thought I'd find out if there are lockers on Pleasure Island, and if so, leave it there.

I got lost trying to find Guest Services to ask about the lockers. *blush* When I finally found it, they said yes, there are lockers, so I headed to PI. I asked some CMs at the Wildhorse Saloon where the lockers were, and they gave me a very blank look but then remembered they're near the Rock 'n' Roll Beach Club. Well, I thought the policy was that you could get into PI for free before 7:00, so I thought I'd do that quickly, drop off my stuff, and go to DisneyQuest. Not so easy! It was 6:45 and apparently they stop letting people in at *all* at some point in the evening, so I waited for the gates to open at 7.

I was in line with a big group of teenage girls and a couple of their moms. Apparently, a pop group named "5" (who I'd never heard of) were performing that night at PI, and the girls were all completely psyched. Most of them were holding big posterboard signs saying things like "SCOTT! I LOVE YOUR ABS!". At 7, we all entered en masse, the CM stamped the inside of my wrist, and I found the lockers quickly and dropped off my package. The lockers there are only 50 cents.

I went back to the turnstile and asked the CM if I needed to have a special handstamp in order to leave PI and come back later. He shook his head. "You have to stay with your parents at all times."

Parents?! He thought I was one of the teenage girls! I laughed and showed him my ID (I'm 24). He gave me a new handstamp and a wristband and suggested that I go wash off the first one, which indicated that I was under 18!

After that was all cleared up, I went straight to DisneyQuest. I asked about AP and American Express discounts, and the CM told me that AP holders get 15% off, but AmEx holders get 20%. I used AmEx and paid about $21.

DQ was excellent! I loved the Cybrolator - the people who rode with me were very surprised by it. I couldn't decide which zone to hit first, so I spun around blindly and went for the Create Zone.

I tried Sid's Create-a-Toy and the Magic Mirror and had great fun being silly with both of those. Then the 7:30 session of the Animation Academy was starting, so I sat down and was taught to draw Mickey by a rather grumpy CM (but I'd be grumpy too if I had to do that all day).

Somehow I missed seeing Cyberspace Mountain, which is right next to the Animation Academy, so I went on to the Score Zone and tried Ride the Comix. After hearing the 30-second briefing video about a billion times ("I am Mistress Khan, leader of all supervillains"), I was strapped into a helmet and escorted into the game.

It was cool! I'd never done virtual-reality *anything* before. The helmet was similar to a bike helmet, but had a wheel in the back to tighten it to my head. Then I leaned on a sort of stool, put on a seat belt, and a visor came down from the ceiling and attached to my helmet. I pulled my "sword" out of the side of the stool, turned it on by pressing two buttons with my thumbs, and began battling the supervillains.

Well, I did really badly, but I had fun.

Next door to that was Invasion: An Extraterrorestrial Alien Encounter. This had nothing whatsoever to do with the Alien Encounter in Tomorrowland, other than that it involved nasty aliens. I sat inside a four-person spaceship that had a VR "windshield" that looked out on an alien planet. Ordinarily, one person would steer and one would shoot, but since I was by myself, the CM put it on auto-pilot and my job was to shoot the aliens and rescue the human colonists from the planet. Once again, I did badly, but had fun.

Next, I checked a map and found my way back to Cyberspace Mountain. I designed one coaster with the help of Bill Nye the Science Guy but decided I didn't like it, so I designed another. This one had a simple loop inversion at the end. I'd never been on a roller coaster that went upside down, so I figured I'd try a virtual one first!

I had a *very* long wait to get into a simulator. They only had three out of eight running - the CM said it was because they were short-staffed. There was also a huge group of preteens on a school trip, and they were all in line in front of me. But after about twenty minutes' wait, I climbed into my coaster. It was well worth the wait. I had a *great* time and even got over my fear of inversion coasters.

Afterwards, I was a little hungry, so I headed for the Cheesecake Factory. Based on a recommendation from someone's trip report, I wanted to try the chocolate tuxedo cake. Well, the CMs there were extremely grouchy, for some reason. I was the only customer, and they were reluctant to stop chatting with each other and actually serve me. The one who finally waited on me got even more grouchy when I asked for the 10% AP discount, and even *more* so when I asked for ice water (!), but eventually, I paid my $5 and got my cheesecake.

Mmmm...it was perfect. Very rich, and I couldn't eat the whole thing, but it hit the spot. While I ate, I used one of the Alice in Wonderland 'net terminals to send a bit of e-mail to my husband, my co-workers and a friend. I told my co-workers that we should all take a company trip to DisneyQuest so we could learn from their user interface design. ;)

Next, I went for the Replay Zone. They had my favorite from the '80's: Donkey Kong! But ten or fifteen years have left me out of practice, and I did horribly. I did just as badly on Frogger, so I didn't wait for the person who was playing Ms. PacMan to finish, 'cause I knew I'd get clobbered again. ;)

I didn't want to try Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlaster or the Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam, so I switched to the Explore Zone and went for the Virtual Jungle Cruise instead. It was cool, but you definitely need more than one person on that ride - I wasn't strong enough to paddle the whole raft by myself and kept getting stuck at crossroads and not being able to steer left or right. Next time, I'll bring the dear husband.

Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride was way cool. I was teamed up with some people I didn't know, and fortunately, one of them found the magic scarab, so we got zoomed straight to the Cave of Wonders. I loved figuring out how to make the carpet turn, dip, and zip ahead.

It was getting late, so my last adventure for the night was Hercules in the Underworld. Again, I was teamed up with two other people. They were Hercules and Meg, and I was Phil! Okay, I'm short, but I don't have goat legs. ;) Once again, I did horribly but had a lot of fun. One hint for this game: if you can, be Herc or Meg. They stand in front of Phil and Pegasus, so they get to all the lightning bolts first.

I wouldn't have left DQ, but I really wanted to go to Pleasure Island. I had no trouble getting in this time, and I went straight to the Comedy Warehouse, arriving at 10:30. There was supposed to be a 10:40 seating for a 10:50 show, but they let us in at 10:45 and the show started at 11. It was *very* funny! I had a little preview of the cast's talents last November, because they came and did the orientation session at a conference I attended. Made the orientation a lot more interesting, I can tell you.

To start the show, they called an audience member on the phone and asked her about herself and her husband. She was a primate researcher, and he was a biomedical engineer. When they pressed her a little bit about what her husband did for a living, it came out that he designs catheters! Boy, did the cast have some fun with that one.

Another couple in the audience had just been married the previous Thursday, and they told the performers that one of the bridesmaids had gotten drunk and fallen on the wedding cake. She managed to decapitate the Minnie figurine on top and break her own dress straps at the same time. They sang quite the interesting country-and-western song about the incident.

I wished the show were longer, but when it was done, I went over to the Adventurers' Club. It was a little before midnight and they were just finishing up the club initiation ritual, but they were going to take a break during the midnight festivities and come back later. I decided that I didn't want to stick around till after midnight, so I made my way to the lockers and then to the bus. It came right away and I was back at DxL by 12:20, tired but happy.

Wednesday, May 5, 1999

I got up at 7, a bit bleary-eyed from my night at Pleasure Island, but cheery nonetheless because, after all, I was still at WDW. I grabbed another croissant for breakfast and took the bus to Epcot, arriving at 8:45.

Now, I was going to be meeting my newlywed friends Lori and Alex for lunch at Chefs de France, and I'd brought a little wedding present for them. I made a brief stop to stash it in a locker, and then headed straight for Test Track in the hopes that it would open before 9.

Indeed, it was open. I knew about the single riders' line, but I had heard that you miss part of the preshow experience in that line, so I decided to go through the regular queue one time. The queue area was pretty nifty. I'm not interested in cars at all, but even so, I found lots to look at. I waited only about ten or fifteen minutes until I reached the load area, and just as I was about to hop into my car, the ride broke down! Everything came to a standstill for about five minutes, and then miraculously, it all started running again. I climbed into the front seat and hoped for the best.

The ride was great! Very exciting, but not gut-wrenchingly scary at all. I love how Disney manages to come up with rides that have just enough of a thrill factor to keep things interesting, while still not scaring the pants off smaller kids. I'd say Test Track was no more frightening than Splash Mountain.

Well, I guess I liked it enough that I decided to go around again. I found a CM outside and asked if there was a single riders' line. She said "Yes, but when the regular line is moving this fast, it's not really going to save you much time." Well, she was wrong - I walked right into the pre-show room without a moment's wait. A couple was in there with me, but we were the only "single" riders. When the pre-show was over, we were all ushered immediately into the boarding area and assigned to different rows of the same car...and just as we were about to get on, the ride broke down *again*! This time it was only a couple of minutes before we hopped in, though. I sat next to a nice British woman who asked if I'd done this before, and I got to give her sage advice as if it was all old hat to me. ;)

I checked my list of things I wanted to do in Future World. It was a short list, since I like World Showcase much better, but one thing I definitely wanted to do was Living with the Land. There was no line whatsoever, which was a great improvement on last time, when my husband and I snaked back and forth through the queue for what seemed like forever. Anyway, I like that ride a great deal and want to try the Behind the Seeds tour some day.

Next, I zipped over to Innoventions to send a few e-postcards. Nobody was waiting to use the computers, so I shamelessly sent about a dozen. Then I had to do my favorite Epcot attraction, Spaceship Earth. This time I *did* have a wait, since it was about 10:30, and everybody seems to get sucked into that ride when they arrive at Epcot. Still, it was a short line and I amused myself by trying to understand the conversation of some people speaking German behind me.

It was getting on toward the time when I was going to meet my friends in France, so I decided to do just one more thing before heading to World Showcase: Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. This was my first time, and quite honestly, it may be my last. Maybe it's because I like MuppetVision and It's Tough to Be a Bug so much, but I just wasn't that crazy about it. I also found the pre-show interminable! I agree with the sentiment of it, but I wished it was about a quarter as long.

Anyway, when I was done being sneezed on, it was about 12:00 and time to pick up my bag from my locker and go to France. I didn't look carefully at my locker receipt, so I didn't understand the system - if you want to have in-and-out access to your locker all day, you're supposed to return the key and get a new one each time. I didn't return the key, and someone took it and returned it for the $2 deposit, so I had an unpleasant surprise when I tried to get my money back that night. :( Oh well - live and learn.

I got to Chefs de France around 12:15 and checked in at the podium. Our priority seating wasn't until 12:30, so I looked around in the shops in France a little bit until Lori and Alex arrived. When they got there, Lori and I had a big hug - she and I have been corresponding almost daily for about a year, and this was the first time we were able to meet in person. I also met Alex, her husband of all of four days. :)

We were seated right away and had Greggory (with three G's) from Paris for a waiter. He was very polite and attentive - most uncharacteristic of actual waiters in France, from what I understand. ;)

I was *starved*! Fortunately, all three of us are great food lovers, so I don't think I looked like too much of a pig. I couldn't decide between the _tarte aux tomates_ appetizer and the _gratin aux legumes_ main course, so I ordered both. The appetizer was this excellent pastry crust covered with a thick layer of beautiful fresh tomatoes, basil, and bits of goat cheese. I could have stopped there and been in heaven. But the veggie gratin was very good too - lots of zucchini, eggplant, more tomatoes, and other vegetables, layered with cheese and fresh thyme.

Alex had cream of chicken soup (on Greggory's recommendation) and a grilled veggie sandwich with Provolone cheese and French fries. Not the most French thing I could think of, but tasty! Lori had a big _salade Niçoise_. Everything was fantastic.

Even after all that, we had to see the dessert menu, of course. Greggory dropped it off, recommending the upside-down apple tart ("just like my grandmother used to make"), and went to help another table. We decided to all share the chocolate crêpe. When Greggory returned, he said "Well, have you decided?"

Lori began, "We're going to share the..."

"...chocolate crêpe. Very good," said Greggory.

Huh?! Not only polite, but psychic! ;)

The crêpe was to die for. It was filled with pastry cream and topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Just perfect.

Lori and Alex treated me to lunch, which was very sweet. They promised to let me treat them the next time they're in San Francisco. I had a great time with them! We chatted all about their wedding at the Wedding Pavilion (it went almost perfectly, much to their relief). I was sorry to leave them, but you *do* have to leave honeymooners to their own devices sometimes. ;)

I backtracked to the UK pavilion in search of a Mother's Day present for my Scottish mother-in-law. Sure enough, I found a Black Watch plaid scarf, which was perfect since that's one of the traditional Campbell tartans. I wanted to have it shipped to her, but I mentioned that to the CM just a moment too late, and she had to void the transaction and ring it up again, which ended up taking a very long time. Complicating matters was the fact that I picked up the scarf in the Scottish shop and brought it to the Toy Soldier next door to pay for it; Zoe, the CM, wasn't able to cancel the transaction and we had to go back to the store where I had found it. Zoe was extremely patient and apologetic, and eventually, the scarf was on its way to Missouri.

I browsed around in Morocco and Japan for a bit. In Japan, I was lucky enough to see Miyuke, the candy artist. She is *amazing*. I took a picture of her making a pig. I also wandered through the big Mitsukoshi department store for a while, because on our honeymoon, my husband let me choose a pearl from one of the oysters they have there, and I wanted to see if I could find a setting for it. I found a nice setting, but it was extremely crowded at that counter (someone had just picked out a pearl for herself), so I decided to pass it up. Maybe on our first anniversary trip this fall.

I moved on to the American Adventure and got there just before the Voices of Liberty were going to start. They sounded lovely, and I loved all their costumes.

I must admit I took a bit of a snooze during the American Adventure show. (It was a heck of a late night for me the night before, what with Pleasure Island and all.) What I saw of the show was pretty good, but since I'm not the world's most patriotic person (to say the least), it wasn't my favorite. Still, the theatre was nice and cool and dark....zzzzzzz.....

When I woke up, I backtracked to Japan for a minute and got a rainbow kaki-gori (tangerine, honeydew and strawberry). Very yummy! I couldn't detect any difference between the three flavors, though - they tasted like sweet, sweet and sweet to me. ;)

In Italy, I Cantanapoli were singing and I listened to them while I slurped. Then I made an important stop at the candy shop in Germany to get some chocolate-covered marzipan and Mozartkugeln for my husband, who has a degree in German as well as a sweet tooth. He's been teaching me the language lately, but I was too shy to try my new skills on the CM's.

I zipped through China quickly and headed for the Maelstrom in Norway. There was a 25-minute wait, but I really like that ride, so I braved it (getting kicked all the way by the kids in front of me...oy). Luckily, there was no wait for El Rio del Tiempo in Mexico, as usual, so I made sure to do that in case there's a rehab soon, as has been rumored.

By now it was 6:30 and I was exhausted. I stopped in the Centorium for a minute, which has been moved to a new location because of the millennium celebration construction. I found a new version of the WDW cookbook, updated with recipes from all the restaurants that have been added since the last edition in 1994. One of the new recipes is my favorite, the goat cheese ravioli from the California Grill! But like a doofus, I didn't buy it then and there - I thought I could get it from Amazon.com for cheaper, and of course, Amazon doesn't have it. Well, when we go back in October, that'll be on the top of my list.

I took one more spin on Spaceship Earth ("Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time..."); attempted to get my locker deposit back (no dice); and went back to DxL. Once again, I got a kids' linguine and garlic sticks from the food court and brought it back to my room. I packed my bags for the morning and fell into bed.

Thursday, May 6, 1999

I got up at the crack of dawn for my last day at WDW. My express checkout envelope was hanging on the door, and I found a little problem - I had been charged twice for the scarf I'd bought at Epcot the day before, and the second time she charged me, the CM forgot to subtract the $5 AP coupon I'd given her.

I hoisted up my two bags and hiked to the main building. (By the time I got there, I seriously regretted not just calling Bell Services!) After dropping off my bigger bag to be picked up later, I went to the front desk to straighten out the bill. I got the same CM who had checked me in the first day, but she was in a much grumpier mood this morning than she had been the day I arrived. She removed the extra charge, but she refused to subtract the $5 coupon. :( I should have talked to someone else, but I didn't feel like making a fuss about it.

I got one last croissant from the food court and did my usual trick of eating it at the bus stop while I waited for the MK bus.

It was an early entry morning for the MK, and I arrived a little after opening at 7:30. Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain were still on my list of things to do at the MK, so I headed for Tomorrowland. Space Mountain had a 45-minute wait already! Buzz Lightyear it was. I scored 286,100 on my first time through and 73,100 on my second. I love that ride - it's such a fun diversion.

I wanted to do the Haunted Mansion, since no Disney trip is complete without it, so I left Tomorrowland and cut across the hub to Liberty Square. There was a rope across the entrance and a CM was guarding it. But just then, a guided tour group of teenagers appeared and the CM lifted the rope to let them pass. I thought this meant that the land was open, so I followed them, and for the second time on my trip, I blended in with teenagers. ;) Once we were over the bridge, they continued through Liberty Square, but I changed my mind and decided to do Splash Mountain.

Halfway through Frontierland, I got the feeling that something was weird. Then I looked around and realized I was the *only* guest there! One CM was repainting a railing, and half a dozen others wandered around, doing their morning jobs.

*Oops.* I guess the MK's early entry policy is very different from Disneyland's - at DL, all the E-ticket rides in every land are open early.

I made an about-face toward Fantasyland and ducked under the rope there as nonchalantly as I could. Luckily, the Fantasyland CM guarding the rope had her back turned, and I don't think anyone noticed.

Still seeking anonymity, I ducked into It's a Small World, my husband's secret favorite, before going back to Tomorrowland to try my luck on Space Mountain again. Now, there was only a ten-minute wait. I'd found it uncomfortably bumpy when we were there in November, but this time I crossed my arms and it wasn't so bad. Ladies, I'm sure you know what I mean. ;)

I had time for a quick spin on the TTA before my Keys to the Kingdom tour was going to start, and as it cruised through the dark tunnels, I almost fell asleep!

Then it was back to Main Street for the tour. There was free fresh- squeezed orange juice and coffee for everyone, and I pinned on my name tag. While we were waiting for everyone to show up, a group arrived who were just finishing an early-morning tour all about steam trains. Their guide told some interesting stories about Walt and his love of trains, and how they came to be in all the Magic Kingdoms around the world. I had never heard of this tour, and sure enough, it was the very first time it was offered. It now takes place every Thursday morning, and guests get to tour the roundhouse where the trains are stored and get the first train of the day started.

Finally, everyone was present and accounted for, and our guide arrived. His name was Chris, and he was excellent - incredibly energetic. He told us that he's the trainer and supervisor for all the tour guides at the Magic Kingdom, which I thought was pretty impressive, since he's younger than me.

Before we got started, Chris brought us into Town Square to get acquainted with everybody and teach us two very important concepts: TEAM, and the Four Keys. At WDW, TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves Magic, and the Four Keys are Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency. Chris taught us a little song to help us remember the keys and warned us that we'd be quizzed several times throughout the day.

As we walked down Main Street, we found examples of the Four Keys all along the way. We learned about the names in the shop windows and how they serve as the "credits" for the show that is the MK - Walt Disney's is the last one as you're entering the park and the first one as you leave, since he's the "director" of the show. We also learned about a hundred more tidbits about Main Street and the MK in general - too many to mention here, but all interesting.

We turned toward Tomorrowland, and just before we entered the land, Chris told us about "sensory tickles." They're a subtle thing that happens as you enter any land in the park - usually a change in the level of the ground - that makes you look up from your guide map and realize that you've entered someplace new.

Chris is really into sensory tickles. He said, "They start at your toes. Then they creep up your legs, through your torso, up your arms and out the tips of your fingers. And for some reason, everybody who knows about them has this uncontrollable urge to throw their arms up in the air and yell 'WHOO!' So when I count to three, as we're walking into Tomorrowland, I want you all to do that for me."

Sure enough, we couldn't resist. Fifteen tour guests threw their arms up and yelled "WHOO!" And everyone within earshot turned around and stared at us.

"That was great!" said Chris. "There's seven more."

In Tomorrowland, we learned about the original plans for Epcot and the way the MK resorts are an extension of the park - you can see the Contemporary from Tomorrowland and the Polynesian from Adventureland. We also talked about Hidden Mickeys and took a ride on the TTA to check one out: it's on the belt buckle of the woman getting her hair cut.

Chris sat next to me on the ride and asked how much longer I was going to be at WDW. When I told him I was leaving that afternoon, he asked what time I needed to leave the park to get my flight, just to make sure that I made it on time.

Then we headed toward Fantasyland, taking an out-of-the-way path that took us past the Cinderella wishing well and around the back of the castle. We had a sensory tickle on the way. WHOO! As we reached the castle, someone asked Chris whether there was really an apartment in there.

"Sure," he said. "Up on the third floor is where Cinderella's ballroom is. And above that is where she and Prince Charming live."

Then it was time for one of the most anticipated parts of the tour - the Utilidors. Chris made us swear that we wouldn't take pictures, and also that we'd never call them "tunnels" again, since they're really at ground level while the MK is one level above that.

Boy, are those Utilidors ugly but interesting places. We saw some cars from Snow White being repaired; the costumes of all seven dwarfs hanging on a rack; and a dozen identical Cinderella dresses. We stopped at the costuming and talked about how they keep track of all those thousands of pieces of clothing, and also about the Disney Look. Chris checked us all for violations, and I was one of the few who passed muster, since many people had dangly earrings, facial hair or long fingernails. We ducked into the cosmetology and wig department and met some of the people who take care of the MK's 6,000 wigs.

We saw the cafeteria, and the small classrooms where a lot of Disney's internal training and employee development takes place. While we were standing there, a horrendous racket came from one of the pipes above our heads. Chris explained about the centralized garbage collection system in which the garbage goes shooting at high speeds through the pipe, and how the sound we'd heard was a big block of ice that they send through periodically to clean out debris stuck to the sides. I thought it was a great idea.

Then Chris showed us a big map of the Utilidors and told us how CM's keep from getting lost down there, though it doesn't always work. He answered all our questions about casting and what it's like to be a CM. We saw a Main Street CM having a cigarette break, and Piglet and Tigger walked by with just the feet of their costumes on. Chris told us that CM's aren't allowed to eat, drink, smoke, sit down or even yawn while on stage.

Once we were back outside, we stood by the castle and talked some more about its construction. Apparently, when WDW was first being built, neither Orange nor Osceola counties would approve the use of fiberglass as a building material, and that was one of the major reasons that the Reedy Creek Improvement District was founded. At the time it was begun, there were *four* residents, and there aren't many more today. There are taxes, but no school system or police department.

We had another sensory tickle on the way to Liberty Square and split up for lunch. I think most people went for the Columbia Harbour House, but I decided to take a quick hike to Cosmic Ray's. I had a veggie burger while watching the inimitable Sonny Eclipse and brought my Coke and fries back to our meeting spot by the Liberty Tree. In a couple of years, according the Chris, the tree will have to be uprooted and replaced because it's getting too big for its location.

Next stop was the Haunted Mansion. Chris let us in through the exit queue and we stood in the garden for a bit to learn about how they make the landscaping suitably creepy. The overturned, overgrown fountain that you see out front was originally meant to be a working fountain - it was going to portray the two ghosts from the ballroom who are having a duel. At the last minute, it was scrapped, so they tipped it over and planted hundreds of flowers all over it. All of the trees and plants around the Mansion were chosen for their creepiness factor, and many of the trees have drooping limbs that make them look like they're dying. They even transplant dead grass into the front yard!

A great story about the Haunted Mansion: Just before the MK opened in 1971, they were putting the finishing touches on the ride and added all the cobwebs and dust. One of the WDW bigwigs of the time took a ride through and liked what he saw, but he noticed that the queue areas were a bit dingy and needed to be cleaned up a bit, so he communicated this to Maintenance. Somewhere along the line, there was a mix-up, and Maintenance cleaned the entire Mansion free of every speck of dust, two days before it was supposed to open! Imagineering had to go in and re- dust everything.

Chris told us to look out for two Hidden Mickeys in the Mansion: the three plates on the ballroom table, and also one I hadn't heard of. When you're riding through the graveyard, just before you get to the fat lady who's singing next to the knight with his head in his hand, there's a crypt with a ghost projected on a moving sheet. The ghost's left hand is a Hidden Mickey. We entered through the back way, skipping the queue, and I saw both HM's, though most of the tour guests didn't catch the second one.

We moved on to Frontierland, with another sensory tickle, and entered the parade float area backstage. We saw the garbage sorting area (not too bad a smell, even though it was a hot day) and the show buildings for Pirates and Splash Mountain. Then we came to the area that houses the floats for the Magical Moments, Halloween and Easter parades. Even though it was 2:00 and the parade was at 3, all the floats were still in the warehouse - Chris said it only takes them about an hour to get it all set up. He told us about how the Lion King float works: one puppeteer does Timon and Pumbaa, and one climbs *inside* Simba.

Behind the daytime parade floats was a warehouse for the nighttime parades. We saw both the SpectroMagic and Main Street Electrical Parade components, and Chris told us that in October, the two parades may be combined for the millennium celebrations. We learned all about how the music is synchronized with the different parts of the parade, using sensors in the ground that look like pieces of gum stuck to the pavement. The Spectro floats looked so drab and dark in the light of day!

We saw the Beast costume hanging up, and Chip and Dale and King Louie getting ready to go out for the parade. Inside the big costumes like those, it's 20 to 40 degrees *hotter* than the outside temperature, so on a 90-degree day like that day, the Dwarfs might feel 110 degrees and the Beast 130. The performers sometimes use ice packs inside their costumes, but they melt very quickly and become heavy and hot - even worse than just sweating it out.

On our way back out into Frontierland, I found a coin that had fallen off the Aladdin float, and kept it as a souvenir.

We moved on to Adventureland (WHOO! - sensory tickle). We were supposed to ride Pirates, but Chris took me aside and said that we would skip the ride to make sure that I got to my flight on time. I thought that was awfully nice of him. Outside Pirates, we talked a little about AudioAnimatronics and did a demonstration of forced perspective: one of the tour guests climbed a little staircase to the second floor of a building next to Pirates. When he stood up at the top, he looked like a giant! It's amazing how that works.

We made our way back to Main Street with a couple of last tickles along the way. Chris pointed out the parade sensors, and they really did look like gum stuck to the ground. I never would have noticed them.

We all said goodbye and a big thank you to Chris! He was really an excellent guide, and I thanked him again for making sure I wouldn't be late.

Bravely, I said my goodbyes to the MK as well, and managed to fight back the tears.

I got back to DxL at 2:50, filled my Dixie mug one last time, and got on the Mears bus at 3:10. We stopped at Port Orleans and Old Key West before going on to the airport - OKW is very pretty, and I'd love to stay there sometime.

I got to my flight to Miami with no problems. Then I had a horrendous wild goose chase through the Miami airport. While I was on the plane, the flight attendant announced the gates for connecting flights and said that San Francisco would be gate E-30. Well, I tried to follow the signs to E and took a little monorail to get there, but got stuck somehow in D, with no signs to direct me to anyplace other than the gates in D. I saw no monitors and no airline personnel until I'd followed 78 moving sidewalks to the end of D.

Of course, when I got there, I found out that I had to turn around and go all the way back. 78 more moving sidewalks, and back on the monorail. When I finally found E-30, it was a flight to Mexico! I asked the person at the gate where the San Francisco flight was (since it wasn't listed on any of the monitors), and she said "Um, D-8."

ARGH!

By the time I got to D-8, it was 45 minutes after I'd gotten off the plane. I'd been up since 5:30, had blisters from hell, and was carrying all my worldly possessions. (I decided right then and there that I need a rolling suitcase.) At D-8, the sign said it was a flight to Philadelphia. Through gritted teeth, I asked the nice lady where the flight to San Francisco would be. She said "Oh, right here...the Philadelphia flight is just taking off now, and then we'll be getting ready for the San Francisco one."

Fortunately, it was a long layover, so I was able to call my husband and rant for a little while, and also change my sweaty clothes, without missing my flight. But I will NEVER fly through Miami again. I normally have no trouble navigating in airports, and this was ridiculous!

Still, all's well that ends well - I had no problems on the flight home, and landed about 25 minutes early. I treated myself to a cab ride and got home to my dear husband at 11:20 PM San Francisco time.

Here are a few general notes on the trip.

Time of year: Early May is not bad! It was definitely more crowded than November, but still perfectly bearable. I saw lots of groups of young Magic Music Days performers, but all the teenagers were perfectly behaved, and I saw *no* objectionable large tour groups (I think you all know what I'm talking about).

Weather: Quite nice, as long as you don't mind a little heat. It was about 85-90 degrees during the day and 70-75 at night, with not a drop of rain the whole time I was there.

Transportation: Excellent! I never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus. Most of the time, when I was leaving a park, there was a DxL or DxL/PO bus there waiting for me. I also tried the Mears shuttle for the first time, and had no problems with it at all.

Food: My two sit-down meals at the California Grill and Chefs de France were excellent, of course. I had mostly counter-service food this time to save some money, and also because it's just not as much fun to have big sit-down meals by myself. I really didn't feel like I was missing anything, honestly. Next time, my husband and I plan to schedule just a couple of big meals and do the food-court thing for the rest. I ended up spending only $85 on food for five days when I'd budgeted $50 a day. It would have been a bit more if I had paid for my lunch at Chefs de France, but even so, it would have been cheap.

The best bargain I found was the kids' pasta meal at the DxL food court: $3.25 for a reasonable amount of pasta and a big breadstick. The best new treat I tried was the kaki-gori. And the absolute best counter- service meal I had was the roasted veggie sandwich at Pizzafari at AK.

Disappointments: A few CM's were rude, but the vast majority were great. And I didn't get a chance to go to Typhoon Lagoon or to meet Flik at AK...but there's always a next time. Oh, and the housekeeper at DxL didn't do anything creative with my Princess Atta beanie, but I *am* a grown-up, after all!

Most magical moments: At MK, seeing the fireworks from the Skyway, and watching the "goodnight kiss" at the castle. At AK, having a *very* close encounter with the silverback gorilla. At both of those parks, the great guided tours! I also very much enjoyed DisneyQuest, and meeting up with new and old net- friends over excellent food.

Plans for next time: Drew and I will be back October 9-16 for our first anniversary. We have reservations at the All Star Music but are hoping to switch over to the Movies. We're planning to do the four major parks, DisneyQuest, and maybe a day at the Disney Institute. We'll probably celebrate our anniversary with lunch at Chefs de France, and maybe that night, I'll get him on the Skyway during the fireworks and we can see the goodnight kiss together!

I hope you've enjoyed my little report half as much as I enjoyed my trip.

146 days to go!

Anne Bevilacqua Campbell

waxwing@sirius.com