Trip Reports
01-07-2007, 06:27 PM
When: July 24th-July 31st, 1999
Where: Wilderness Lodge (WL)/ Woodland view room
Who:
Derek (18), a Disney Store Castmember who in the fall will be heading off to college. My family and I have been to WDW about every year since the age of 9. Veteran
Millie (54), mom, work at home mom who doesn't like the scary rides, swore last trip she wouldn't go on Splash Mountain again, we will see about that :). Last trip she needed a wheelchair because she has severe arthritis in her knees probably will need one this trip as well. Veteran
Bobby (59), dad, hasn't been since 1996, enjoys all the scary rides and is looking forward to the new ToT drop sequence and RnR coaster. Gets grumpy sometimes in the parks though cause of all the high prices and long waits. Sounds happier this time since Derek gets a discount wherever he goes. Veteran
Casey, (16), sister, your everyday teenaged girl. She is really the main purpose of this trip since the last day of our vacation we have to go to her dance competition. Veteran
How: By car, probably taking two vehicles, 96 Cadillac Sedan DeVille and 94 Chevy Silverado
Like before the main purpose of this trip is for my sisters dance competition. When deciding on where to stay back in Jan. of 99 I suggested to my dad that I could get 50% off the stay of our hotel at any Disney resort. So we sat down as a family and decided on the Wilderness Lodge after hearing wonderful reviews about it and the pictures looked very lovely as well. This will be the first time we will stay on site and we are looking forward too it. I called CRO a few days later and gave them all of my information on being a CM. After giving information to CRO, I decided on a Woodland View room at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. I initially received a 25% discount on the room and will receive a 50% discount if I call 21 days in advance to confirm that. Trust me I will!
For passes, I can get 5 day discounted hopper passes through TDS so I don't have to worry about getting a LOS or anything larger than that. After confirming everything with CRO and sending off the deposit, it was time to decide on when and where to eat. So I went out and bought the Birnbaum's book and decided on where we should eat. We decided on Artist Point Character Breakfast (CB), Cinderella's Royal Table CB, Chef Mickey's for dinner, 1900 Park Fare CB, Artist Point dinner, Mama Melrose and Whispering Canyon.
After deciding on where to eat it was time to make a temporary itinerary. Below is the itenerary I have come up with:
Day 1- July 24th (Saturday)
Depart home
9 hour drive
Get to Wilderness Lodge later that evening
Sleep
Day 2- July 25th (Sunday
Artist Point CB at 9am
Head to AK
At AK ride a few attractions if lines aren't bad
Eat lunch at Tusker House
Ride a few attractions if time permits
Get on bus to Epcot
Ride Test Track if line isn't long
Eat at one of the countries (TBD) before Illuminations
Go see Illuminations
Hop bus back to WL
Sleep
Day 3- July 26th
Take bus to MK for early entry
Ride a few attractions before breakfast
Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table at 9:50am
Ride a few more rides if lines aren't long
Eat lunch (TBD)
Possibly head back to hotel for nap, swim, etc..
Dinner at Chef Mickey's at 7pm
Head back to MK for MSEP and fireworks
Ride a few attractions
Go back to WL
Sleep
Day 4- July 27th
Take bus/boat to GF for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare at 8:30am
Take bus to the Studios
Get Fantasmic PS for Mama Melrose's
Ride a few attractions
Lunch TBD
Ride a few attractions
Dinner at Mama Melrose's for Fantasmic PS
See Fantasmic
Take bus back to WL or directly to MK for E-ride night
Ride all the good attractions at MK
Go back to WL
Sleep
Day 5- July 28th
Sleep in a little
Breakfast at Roaring Forks
Head to Epcot
Ride Test Track with a line or not!
Walk around Epcot and do a few things
Lunch at one of the countries (TBD)
Take bus to AK
Ride attractions that we didn't ride on Sunday
Take bus to WL for dinner at Whispering Canyon at 8pm
Go to Downtown Disney or MK
Sleep
Day 6- July 29th
Park Hop!
Do whatever day!
Golf!
Water Sports!
Shop
Day 7- July 30th
Dance Competition at one of those on site hotels over there across from Downtown Disney
Do whatever
Day 8- July 31st
Leave WDW :(
The Trip!
Driving and ABS brakes in Action!
Day 1- Saturday July 24th, 1999
Well we all woke up at about 6am to get ready to leave for the world. We all made sure to pack the night before and have everything basically ready for the drive down. We had decided just to take one vehicle
which worked out nicely although it was a tight squeeze in the back seat. No leg room in the back seat! Nine hours of horror and feet falling asleep. The trunk was filled to capacity due to the fact that we had to take along my dad's golf clubs. They barely fit in there but it worked out. Although the car is a 96 Cadillac Deville with lots of trunk space it was filled to the top. Along with that was my sister's dance clothes plus suitcases. Anyhow we finally left at 8:36am. The trip down was uneventful except in the middle of the SC we came to the top of the hill and this guy cut right in front of my dad who was speeding. At the same time traffic stopped completely and the guy who cut in front of us swerved out of the road to the median and my dad had to swerve to avoid hitting him. Now I knew I was gonna ride Test Track but I didn't want to experience in real life. Talk about your ABS in action! GM certainly does test these cars! Well after we got back onto the road the rest of the trip was fine. We had lunch at Arby's at the Georgia state line. After lunch we just kept on going making excellent time. Once reaching Orlando traffic started backing up after going past the Universal exit. It was due to minor accidents and it cleared up after the Lake Buena Vista exit. Hey it was rush hour in Orlando this was expected. We reached the main gate of WDW on World Dr. at approximately 6:04pm and reached the WL a little after that. There we were looking at the splendid glory of this fabulous resort! Incredible! Check in went nice and smooth. The CM helping us was very nice and made for an easy check in. We went ahead and paid the room for the week and decided to get the room charge option just because it's just easier that way. Our room # was 5032 on the MK side of the resort. We went back out to the car and the bellhop assisted us in putting our luggage onto the rack. We went ahead to the room while the valet parked the car and the bellhop was finishing up. In the room the first thing I did was look out the window and what was that in the distance? Why Cinderella's Castle of course! This was the perfect view. We had a perfect view of the castle. If anyone wants the best view possible at WL ask for room 5032 or any room on that row near it. It is perfect! The bellhop came up about 3 minutes later and dropped off the luggage. We then unpacked and stored our luggage in the closet and put our clothes in the drawers. We just sat around for a while and watched TV and just got used to the room. Eventually we were very hungry and decided to go down to Roaring Forks to eat. At this time we decided to buy our little mugs. These mugs are a great value and certainly pay for themselves. I had the pizza, my dad and mom had the tuna salad sandwich, and my sister had a PBJ w/ white bread not that color bread stuff that had been sitting there. After dinner we went up to the room just to relax after the long trip. My dad needed to go buy some razors for his razor blade so he had to go offsite cause they didn't have his type at the Mercantile down stairs. So my sister went with him cause she needed Band-Aids cause she had blisters on her feet. My mom and I stayed back and we decided just to stroll around the hotel and look at everything. We went down to the pool and we watched the geyser go off. We went back up to the room. At about 10pm the fireworks began. By then my sister had returned but my dad had to go back to the drugstore cause he got the wrong razorblades. We all felt so sorry for him. Now to all the people who say you can not see the fireworks at WL you are so terribly wrong. The fireworks were in full view. I'm sure you could see them from the bottom floor on the Woodland side. After the fireworks my dad finally returned and then we hit the sack for a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Oh we had to check our lottery tickets for the big lotto that was at $57 million that week. Dang we lost! Oh well!
Artist Point, AK, Epcot, Test Track, and a little bit of Illuminations....
Day 2- Sunday July 25th, 1999
On this morning we woke up at about 8am. We all had a great night sleep except for those frogs that you could hear down in the little pond. We went down to Roaring Forks to fill up our little mugs full of coffee. Coffee sure does help you early in the morning! Then we walked up to our breakfast at Artist Point with Winnie the Pooh. My mom stayed back at the room for a few minutes to fix her makeup (she would be sorry later on she put any on in the first place :)). We were seated immediately since we had PS for 9am. I loved the Pooh music they had piped into the Artist Point. Great detail. The restaurant was only like half full. I guess they may have more people earlier on or just people don't know about this character breakfast. Our server was Edsel. He was a hoot and he made our breakfast even better. The little bread slices they give you were excellent especially the blueberry bread yum! We decided to get 3 all you can eats and then one fruit plate. Talk about a fruit plate! This plate had huge pieces of cantaloupe and honeydew melon. OH and the strawberries were excellent! They must grow a lot of these fruits on property or over at The Land at Epcot cause you can't find good fruit like this. Tigger was the first character to greet us and of course being Tigger he was a rambunctious one! Pooh was next and he went through my mom's purse looking for hunnie but when my dad offered him the honey syrup on the table he bowed down to him like he was a saint! This was hysterical! Eeyore came next and we got some great shots of him and my mom hiding under his ear. All the characters came back two more times since the restaurant was only half full. In the middle of our breakfast Tigger started climbing two posts almost all the way up to the ceiling. This was so funny; I just knew he was going to fall. Anyway after breakfast we went back up to the room right quick to freshen up and headed on our way to the bus stop. On our way there Tigger was out in the Lobby and he gave me a high five walking back to the Artist Point. We waited for our bus for the AK for about 10 minutes and we were on our way. The bus made stops at the Poly and GF before going to the AK. This took about 20 minutes all together. At the AK gate I went over to Guest Services to trade in my two Complimentary Passes I get at The Disney Store for the one-day hopper pass. These were going to be used by my dad since he only planned to go to the parks for just two days. Then we headed into the park. This was my dad and my sisters first time here. My mom and I have been there 2 other times so this was our third. We headed over to Tough to be a Bug, which only had a 10-minute wait. My sister stopped a few times to take some pictures of the Tree of Life. She's an excellent photographer. I love this attraction. I think its my favorite 3-d show now cause of the new technology that is used. My sister got scared to death and it was hysterical watching her reaction when the hornets came out and stung her. She said she hated the ride after we got off. Next we headed over to Dinoland USA and decided that we would go over to CTX. To our surprise the Fastpass was up and running so we decided to take advantage of this. We stuck in our passes and it printed our time to comeback. I love this system a great way to get out of line. We decided since we were in Dinoland that we would go see the 1pm showing of Tarzan while we waited for our Fastpass time to come up. We walked right in to the theater and waited for the show to begin. It began in about 5 minutes. This show was great. My mom and I agreed that it gave a new tone to the music used in the film. In my opinion it was a little better than what Phil Collins did. Phil is a great singer but I'm just not a real big fan of him. The roller bladders were awesome and they added a lot to the show. After the show we headed back over to CTX and went right onto the ride with the Fastpass. My sister didn't know what to expect and I "assured" her that this ride was not scary at all. Little did she know that huge carnosaur comes out at the end and scares you half to death. She did not enjoy this ride at all and was totally shaken up. I have to admit myself being the third time I've ridden it I still get scared there at the end cause you just don't know what is coming. Its soooo dark in there! We had to get the picture at the exit cause my sister is holding on for dear life and I have my fingers in my ears. After CTX we headed to the Chester and Hester's shop and I bought a beanie and a little model CTX vehicle. I love this shop it's just like a little roadside souvenir stand. Wed headed out of Dinoland and went towards Asia. This was the whole family's first time in this area. My mom and I just missed the opening when we went last November. We headed over to Kali River Rapids and got the Fastpass for it. We then decided to go over to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. The tigers were extremely active. I got great footage of this one tiger drag this ball he was playing with in the water all the way up this hill. He was having a hard time cause the ball was filled with water and was extremely heavy for him. This other tiger was swimming around in the water. The bats in here were extremely eerie to look at. They were huge too! If you're afraid of bats be sure to walk past this area. I wonder what they look like when they are flying? Anyhow at about this time it was time for the Kali River Rapids. I noticed a lot of people getting off who were soaked. Well guess who got soaked? At the beginning of the ride there are two geyser like things in the middle of the river that shoots up and drenches that side of the boat. My mom and I were sitting on that side and it came right on top of us. That's why I said that my mom would be sorry that she put on her makeup. Her mascara was running and everything. It totally got her! After that huge splash we didn't get really wet. I did like that large drop there at the end very cool! After riding Kali we did a little shopping there in Asia. My sister bought this wrap around dress thing that she enjoyed. She likes those exotic type clothes and everything. It was now about 3pm and we decided that this was a good time to go ride the safari. The standby line was only 15 minutes so we just decided to wait since we would have had to wait an hour to use the Fastpass. This safari ride was incredible. We saw every single animal this time! Including the warthogs and the lions. The giraffes were right next to our truck. They were actually over near to where the elephants were. After the safari our huge breakfast had finally worn off and we decided to go eat at Tusker House. These sandwiches are great. My sister didn't eat but my mom, dad, and I each had the turkey and ham sandwich. Very delicious! I'm glad I took the advise of my friend and ate here. After eating we decided to leave the AK but my mom and I vowed that we would be back another day to see the Lion King show, which we haven't seen yet, although this is our 3rd trip to this park! Anyhow we went back to the WL to change and get out of our nasty clothes that had been drenched by the dreaded Kali! After changing we went down to the bus stop and waited about 5 minutes for the next bus to Epcot. We decided that all we were going to do was to ride Test Track and then see Illuminations. The line for Test Track was only 40 minutes so we decided to wait it out. The queue for this ride is incredible. It had a lot of great detail and information. Eventually we made it to the pre-show, which I found amusing. Surprise tests ;)! We boarded into the test vehicles, and away we went. My dad, sister, and I sat in the front seat while my mom sat in the back. The tests on the inside of the building were truly informative. I like the ABS test the most because we had experienced that ourselves on the trip down! Eventually we headed out the building and topped out with a high speed of 64.8mph! It felt faster than that though! This attraction is now one of my favorite rides at Disney. Great detail and a great show! Show much worth the wait! After the ride we bought the little picture which was funny cause my mom's face squirmed cause she thought we were going to hit that wall. Then my sister had to sit in the Pontiac Firebird convertible that is on display in the post show area. We then made it outside and the area around the lake was packed and Illuminations had just started. Oh well we decided to watch what was left of it and come back another night. Before leaving my mom had to make a trek to see if she could find the new Manheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse CD. She eventually found it after like 30 minutes of looking in the shops. Has anyone noticed the depletion of park specific merchandise in the gift shops? It is all WDW generic stuff now. I really don't like this. We waited like 10 minutes for the next WL bus and we were back in our room at about 11. We went immediately to bed because we had to get up early for early entry. Great first day though at Disney!
MK, Cindy's Royal Table, Water mouse, Chef Mickey's, Main St. Electrical Parade...
Day 3- Monday July 26th, 1999
We woke up at about 6:45 and we were down at the boat dock at about 7:30. Today it was just my mom, my sister, and I because my dad went to play golf at the Palm course today. The boat took about 10 minutes to get there though. At the MK we headed straight to Tomorrowland. Buzz Lightyear only had a 5-minute wait so we went immediately onto that. I love this ride! This time though I think my gun was broke because my score was so low. I would eventually ride this ride 3 more times with much higher scores. After Buzz we went over to Space Mountain, which had a 20-minute wait. This time we were able to get my mom on this ride, which she thought was pretty tame. She had not ridden it thought since the 70's so she really couldn't remember. I believe in the 70's though they had double seats in each car but now it is just single seats. Well after Space Mountain she vowed not to ride it again. She didn't really like the idea of riding by herself even though she was just right behind us. By this time it was time for us to head over to Cindy's Royal Table for our breakfast. This was the first we had eaten in the castle. I now know why that it is hard to get into this breakfast. The dining room is so small! It does provide a great time with the characters though. Well the characters at this breakfast were not as good as Pooh the day before. Peter Pan and Belle were the only ones who would carry on a conversation with us and all the others were like lets take a picture have a good day. Not impressive. The food was good though especially those little creamy bread things. Very delicious! Now I can say I've eaten in the castle but I don't think we will be coming back here anytime soon. After breakfast we headed over to the Pooh ride since this was not here last summer when we were here. The wait was only 20 minutes so we decided to wait it out. This ride was ok but Toad was much better. The only thing I liked was the cool smoke rings the heffalumps blow at you. Very cool! After Pooh, we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain, which had about a 20-minute wait. Can't ever get enough of this ride. The clanky tracks and everything. After this it was extremely hot and we decided to head back over to the WL because we were tired and the heat on the asphalt was unbelievable. At the WL my mom and my sister decided to take a nap and I headed on down to the marina to try out one of those new watermice. I got a cast discount, which was nice, and I was off. I took my video camera and my camera with me to get some good shots of all the resorts. The pictures came out really good especially of the GF and the WL. Picture postcard perfect. I had a few run ins with the seaweed and the lifeguards had to come over and help me each time. An hour was up fast and I went back up to the room. I ate a lunch down at Roaring Forks and then fell asleep. I woke up at about 5:30 and my dad was back now and we got ready for our dinner with the mouse himself over at the Contemporary. At 6:15 we got on the bus but it was the wrong one. We got on the Boone bus and not the Crockett. Whoops! Should have just taken the boat! Anyway we went all the way through Ft. Wilderness but eventually made it to the Monorail station and went all the way around to the Contemp. We got there exactly at 7 so everything was ok. We were seated immediately. This buffet was really good and everything was set out nicely. All the characters came around once each. Even Donald who I don't think is apart of this dinner usually. The dessert bar here is very delicious. I had the cheesecake, which was divine, and the cherry cobbler with ice cream on it. We twirled our napkins and everything. People sure do get into this restaurant. When that music starts they just start twirling away! I found this extremely funny. After dinner I had to go get a Bellhop Mickey for my friend who had stayed here in December and when I told her about the Mickey I had to get her one. My dad headed back on the boat to the WL and my mom, my sister, and I headed over to the MK for the Main St. Electrical Parade. We were able to get a good seat in the little courtyard area at the front of the park on Main St. The parade began and it was like an old friend had returned. I like this parade especially the music but its getting old now and Spectromagic was so much better. I'm glad its here for just a year. After the parade my mom and sister headed back to the WL and I stayed back and got in some good ride time. I first headed over to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and just sat back and relaxed. This had no wait at all (does it ever have a wait). I liked riding around on this thing. It had been awhile since I had been on it and it was nice seeing Buzz Lightyear from that vantage point. After TTA, I headed over to Alien Encounter. Although I have been on this ride several times, it still freaks me out to this day. This time though I had the opportunity of sitting on the front row. Talk about in your face! I think I'll stay towards the back next time! After Alien Encounter I rode Buzz Lightyear again and scored like a 200,000. This was my best score yet! I then streamlined over to Liberty Square and rode the Haunted Mansion. After the Haunted Mansion, it was about 10:45 and I made it over to Splash Mountain. I ended up being one of the last people to ride it for the night! I truly love this attraction and wish that Disney would please release Song of the South on video. I remember seeing this in the theaters when I was 6 years old and vaguely remember it at that. Anyway I headed back towards Main St. and took some pictures of the castle on the way out. The boat for the WL was waiting right there so I did not have to wait long. I got back to the room and crashed.
1900 Park Fare, Disney MGM Studios, Rock N' Roller Coaster, ToT, Fantasmic PS at Mama Melrose, Fantasmic, E-Ride Night at MK
Day 4- Tuesday July 27th, 1999
The day before we decided to switch the time of our breakfast because we had to get down to MGM early to make PS for Fantasmic. So we changed it to 9:50. That morning my dad and I woke up at about 8:00 and got in the car to drive down to MGM. We thought this would be much faster than the bus. We went over to the Guest Services and made our PS for 6:20 at Mama Melrose. After our brief little stop at MGM, we went back to the room at WL and got my sister and my mom who were almost ready for breakfast. Again we decided to take our car over to GF since it would be much faster and we needed the car for the afternoon anyway because my sister and my dad needed to leave MGM early to go to a dance rehearsal for my sister. At 1900 Park Fare, the service was pretty good, a little slow but overall a great time. This Snow White here was much better than the one in the castle. Dopey was very funny and Mary Poppins was very nice. The best part of this breakfast though was the Mad Hatter. He was hysterical! This guy had really found his calling in life. Very entertaining! I'm glad my friend suggested this to me! Somehow though Alice was not around and she never came to our table. Oh well! After breakfast we headed back to the car so we could go down to MGM for the day. At MGM we looked at the wait board and saw that Rock N' Roller Coaster (RnR) had only a 30 minute wait. We walked down Sunset Blvd and right into the RnR courtyard. I could see where they were putting up the Fastpass. They would have this on the last day of our trip. The wait ended up being an hour cause it broke down but it was well worth the wait. This ride is awesome! This and Test Track are now my two favorite rides. The coaster was so smooth and the soundtrack was great. After RnR, we saw that the ToT had only a 15-minute wait. It was really only about 10. I like the new drop sequence on this. It really does add a lot more terror to it. I still prefer riding this ride at night though. Just something about going up at nighttime brings more terror to the ride. After, ToT we had to stop to get some slushy drink for everyone to have. We then headed over to the Great Movie Ride. The wait was only 15 minutes. I like the new movie they have added at the end of the ride. It was nice to see some more modern day films in the ride. After this it was about 1pm and my sister wanted to go back to the WL to take a nap before her little rehearsal. So my sister and my dad went back and my mom and I stayed. We were going to meet up at Mama Melrose at 6:20 for our dinner. My mom and I then decided to go around to the New York Street area and see the Muppet 3-D show. I like this show and it is my second favorite 3-d show. We saw the entire pre show which I always find hysterical. After Muppets we went around to the Back lot Tour. We haven't done this since we came when the park opened in 1989. They have changed all this a lot. It was nice to see all the new props and everything. After the tour we went on down to the Animation Courtyard. We were going to go on the tour there but one had already started so we decided to just do something else. The Mulan Parade was about to start so we decided to bypass all the crowds and go down to the RnR coaster. My mom sat in the gift shop (since she doesn't like the coasters) and I waited about 15-minutes. The car that went before mine had that guy Jesse Camp in it from MTV. I guess they have a lot of VIP's down here for the grand opening, which was going to be Thursday of that week. After I rode this again, my mom and I decided to go over to the new Drew Carey show. I have never seen any of the shows before this one so all this sound stuff was new to me (even though I have been here several times before). This was ok, not what I was expecting but it was a good way to get out of the sun. After Sound's Dangerous it was time for dinner. My mom and I headed over to Mama Melrose and to our surprise my sister and dad were already waiting for us. We were seated immediately and were promptly waited on. We all ordered the pizzas and let me tell you they were great. We extremely enjoyed our meal and plan to visit here again. After dinner we still had a little time to kill before we had to go turn in our little slip to get into Fantasmic!, so we decided to check out Coaster's wait but it had a 45minute wait. So we decided to go back over and ride Star Tours. It was a walk on. I hope they really change this ride soon and make it after the new movies. After Star Tours we headed back down Hollywood and to the entrance so we could get in the back way to see Fantasmic! This back way is a long walk. You just keep walking and walking. Finally we got to our seat and still had about 45 minutes before the show. We just sat there and there were a bunch of Brazilians there so we did the wave a dozen times. Eventually the show began and this was my second time seeing it. This show is too amazing to put into words. Anyone who doesn't see this show while they are at WDW is out of their minds. So just take my advice and go see this. After the show my sister decides that we should go ride Coaster again. Well the line was 45 minutes and this was before Fast Pass mind you. She threw a fit because she couldn't ride it. I promised her though that we will it again on Friday. So she seemed to agree to that. We left the park afterwards. The WL bus was there and we were back at the hotel in about 10 minutes. On this night we were going to E-ride night at the MK. My sister was supposed to go but she was tired and decided to stay back. So just my dad and I went. We went over to the MK on the boat. It took about 5 minutes for the boat to come so not a long wait at all. We headed over to the stand at Guest Relations to get our wristband. Afterwards the MSEP was about to begin so we streamlined around and over to Tomorrowland. We rode Buzz Lightyear first. I scored much higher once again. Then we went over to Space Mountain. The line was out the door and we thought why was that because it was e-ride night now. It took us maybe 3 minutes to get up to the load station and it was just a walk on. The two sides were working but just not the inside queues. I can ride this over and over. Space Mountain is just a classic favorite. After Space Mountain we headed over to Alien Encounter. It was a walk on and hardly anyone was there. After Alien all the regular day guests were finally out of the park. We then went over to Frontierland. We then went over to Big Thunder and sat in the front row. This was out first time in the front and did not really like it because it goes so slow over the hills. After Big Thunder we went back over to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz again. It was about 1:45am and then we went over to the Timekeeper and the last show was about to begin. I like this attraction. Robin Williams is funny and some of the lines he says are hysterical. We headed out of the park after that and rode the monorail to the TTC because the boats shutdown after hours. We then got on a bus to WL and crashed in our beds.
Day 5- Wednesday July 28th, 1999
Disney Quest, Downtown Disney, and Whispering Canyon Café
Today was my sister's dance competition so I just hung around the hotel and went over to that at about 12 after sleeping a very long time. Hey I was tired! On this day I discovered the kid's meal in the Roaring Forks. Talk about a value you get a grilled cheese, a ton of fries, an apple, some cookies, and a drink for like 4 dollars. Most adults can't eat this much. I then went to the competition for a bit. I got bored and told my mom I was going to go over to Downtown Disney and go to Disney Quest. First I went to Studio M so I could make my CD of music. Then I rushed over to Disney Quest before 4 because I get a 50% discount on tickets before 4. At Disney Quest there were a lot of people there. It was different than the week I went last year. It had just opened then and the ticketing system and everything was different. I did basically everything in Disney Quest nothing really special about it. I did try that ride the comix this time. It was cool holding a light sword like Star Wars. Well after Disney Quest, I did buy some things in the gift shop. I had to wait almost 20 minutes for the bus this time though. It took forever for the WL bus to come. I guess I just missed it. At about 7:30 I reached the room and then we headed down to the Whispering Canyon for our 8pm PS. Once again a very nice filing meal at the café. I had the all you can eat and it was nice getting a taste of everything this time. My dad had the ribs and my mom had these cut up steak things, don't quite remember though. After this I went down to the pool and enjoyed the super cool waterslide some more. After this we just rested and hung around the room until bedtime.
Day 6- Thursday July 29th, 1999
Today was another relax day. We just went to see my sister at the competition and just did stuff in the hotel. Nothing really special
Day 7- Friday July 30th, 1999
3 parks in 1-day can it be done? I do think so!
AK- Lion King Show, MGM- RnRC, Epcot- Energy, Nine Dragons, Illuminations again....
Our final day in the parks! This trip has definitely been one of our productive ones. Our first goal of this day was to go over to the Animal Kingdom just to see the Lion King show which we had never seen yet. And this was my mom's 3rd time and mine too. Looked like it was going to be my mom and I for this little trip to the AK. My sister wanted to sleep in a little so we said we would come back so we could pick her up. At the AK we went straight to the Lion King for the 1pm show. This show was incredible. Now I know what people mean about this show. Truly amazing!! High tailed it out of AK and back to WL to pick up my sister. On the way down to the room we run into my dad who just came back himself from the competition with the other girls. So my sister decided in the room that my dad would go with us to MGM and we would meet my mom at Epcot since she doesn't like the scary ride. At MGM we went and rode the Coaster. It had about a 15-minute wait. Today however they finally had Fast Pass up and going. We decided just to go to the regular line because it was so small. Our song this time was "Walk this Way" which was good cause I had not heard this one before. After Coaster my sister and I headed to an Epcot bus and my dad went back to the WL to do some much needed laundry. Well at Epcot my sister and I end up looking like idiots. My mom got there before we did and we sit at another end of the entrance for an hour waiting for her. I finally start walking around and finally find her. It was about 5pm so we headed over to Energy and ride this. We had not seen the new version yet. I personally did not care for this. I never really have cared for this ride at all but it was a good way to get out of the drizzling rain. We then headed into the countries. We decided to eat some Chinese food in of course China. This meal was delicious. The best Sweet and Sour Pork I have ever had. After dinner we shopped a little in China and walked all around the lake shopping in and out of the countries. We finally ended in England and decided to sit here for Illuminations. Once the show began we had a very good view right next to the Rose and Crown. I think that Illuminations is just a little overrated and it was an ok show. I hope the new one for the Millennium will be good. Well we left Epcot afterwards and did a little shopping on the way out and skipped some of the crowds out by doing this. Well this was our last visit to a Disney park! What a great trip to the parks we had this time! The WL bus came in 5 minutes and we were back in our beds at about 10:30.
Day 7- Friday July 30th, 1999
Our Last Day!!!
Well we had a great vacation! Everything about the week was perfect. No rain, just sun! We packed up and left the WL at about 8am. We got breakfast at McDonald's on the way back. Our ride home was uneventful and we were sad to be back....
Well that was our trip! We had a great time and hope to do it again soon.
One final note, I now go to school down here at the University of Central Florida and I transferred to the parks. I am over at the Disney MGM Studios on Star Tours. So if anyone is ever over there just look for me, I'll be there on the weekends!
If you have any comments about this planned trip please send e-mail to: Blast_Man@msn.com
Derek Nelson
Blast_Man@msn.com
Where: Wilderness Lodge (WL)/ Woodland view room
Who:
Derek (18), a Disney Store Castmember who in the fall will be heading off to college. My family and I have been to WDW about every year since the age of 9. Veteran
Millie (54), mom, work at home mom who doesn't like the scary rides, swore last trip she wouldn't go on Splash Mountain again, we will see about that :). Last trip she needed a wheelchair because she has severe arthritis in her knees probably will need one this trip as well. Veteran
Bobby (59), dad, hasn't been since 1996, enjoys all the scary rides and is looking forward to the new ToT drop sequence and RnR coaster. Gets grumpy sometimes in the parks though cause of all the high prices and long waits. Sounds happier this time since Derek gets a discount wherever he goes. Veteran
Casey, (16), sister, your everyday teenaged girl. She is really the main purpose of this trip since the last day of our vacation we have to go to her dance competition. Veteran
How: By car, probably taking two vehicles, 96 Cadillac Sedan DeVille and 94 Chevy Silverado
Like before the main purpose of this trip is for my sisters dance competition. When deciding on where to stay back in Jan. of 99 I suggested to my dad that I could get 50% off the stay of our hotel at any Disney resort. So we sat down as a family and decided on the Wilderness Lodge after hearing wonderful reviews about it and the pictures looked very lovely as well. This will be the first time we will stay on site and we are looking forward too it. I called CRO a few days later and gave them all of my information on being a CM. After giving information to CRO, I decided on a Woodland View room at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. I initially received a 25% discount on the room and will receive a 50% discount if I call 21 days in advance to confirm that. Trust me I will!
For passes, I can get 5 day discounted hopper passes through TDS so I don't have to worry about getting a LOS or anything larger than that. After confirming everything with CRO and sending off the deposit, it was time to decide on when and where to eat. So I went out and bought the Birnbaum's book and decided on where we should eat. We decided on Artist Point Character Breakfast (CB), Cinderella's Royal Table CB, Chef Mickey's for dinner, 1900 Park Fare CB, Artist Point dinner, Mama Melrose and Whispering Canyon.
After deciding on where to eat it was time to make a temporary itinerary. Below is the itenerary I have come up with:
Day 1- July 24th (Saturday)
Depart home
9 hour drive
Get to Wilderness Lodge later that evening
Sleep
Day 2- July 25th (Sunday
Artist Point CB at 9am
Head to AK
At AK ride a few attractions if lines aren't bad
Eat lunch at Tusker House
Ride a few attractions if time permits
Get on bus to Epcot
Ride Test Track if line isn't long
Eat at one of the countries (TBD) before Illuminations
Go see Illuminations
Hop bus back to WL
Sleep
Day 3- July 26th
Take bus to MK for early entry
Ride a few attractions before breakfast
Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table at 9:50am
Ride a few more rides if lines aren't long
Eat lunch (TBD)
Possibly head back to hotel for nap, swim, etc..
Dinner at Chef Mickey's at 7pm
Head back to MK for MSEP and fireworks
Ride a few attractions
Go back to WL
Sleep
Day 4- July 27th
Take bus/boat to GF for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare at 8:30am
Take bus to the Studios
Get Fantasmic PS for Mama Melrose's
Ride a few attractions
Lunch TBD
Ride a few attractions
Dinner at Mama Melrose's for Fantasmic PS
See Fantasmic
Take bus back to WL or directly to MK for E-ride night
Ride all the good attractions at MK
Go back to WL
Sleep
Day 5- July 28th
Sleep in a little
Breakfast at Roaring Forks
Head to Epcot
Ride Test Track with a line or not!
Walk around Epcot and do a few things
Lunch at one of the countries (TBD)
Take bus to AK
Ride attractions that we didn't ride on Sunday
Take bus to WL for dinner at Whispering Canyon at 8pm
Go to Downtown Disney or MK
Sleep
Day 6- July 29th
Park Hop!
Do whatever day!
Golf!
Water Sports!
Shop
Day 7- July 30th
Dance Competition at one of those on site hotels over there across from Downtown Disney
Do whatever
Day 8- July 31st
Leave WDW :(
The Trip!
Driving and ABS brakes in Action!
Day 1- Saturday July 24th, 1999
Well we all woke up at about 6am to get ready to leave for the world. We all made sure to pack the night before and have everything basically ready for the drive down. We had decided just to take one vehicle
which worked out nicely although it was a tight squeeze in the back seat. No leg room in the back seat! Nine hours of horror and feet falling asleep. The trunk was filled to capacity due to the fact that we had to take along my dad's golf clubs. They barely fit in there but it worked out. Although the car is a 96 Cadillac Deville with lots of trunk space it was filled to the top. Along with that was my sister's dance clothes plus suitcases. Anyhow we finally left at 8:36am. The trip down was uneventful except in the middle of the SC we came to the top of the hill and this guy cut right in front of my dad who was speeding. At the same time traffic stopped completely and the guy who cut in front of us swerved out of the road to the median and my dad had to swerve to avoid hitting him. Now I knew I was gonna ride Test Track but I didn't want to experience in real life. Talk about your ABS in action! GM certainly does test these cars! Well after we got back onto the road the rest of the trip was fine. We had lunch at Arby's at the Georgia state line. After lunch we just kept on going making excellent time. Once reaching Orlando traffic started backing up after going past the Universal exit. It was due to minor accidents and it cleared up after the Lake Buena Vista exit. Hey it was rush hour in Orlando this was expected. We reached the main gate of WDW on World Dr. at approximately 6:04pm and reached the WL a little after that. There we were looking at the splendid glory of this fabulous resort! Incredible! Check in went nice and smooth. The CM helping us was very nice and made for an easy check in. We went ahead and paid the room for the week and decided to get the room charge option just because it's just easier that way. Our room # was 5032 on the MK side of the resort. We went back out to the car and the bellhop assisted us in putting our luggage onto the rack. We went ahead to the room while the valet parked the car and the bellhop was finishing up. In the room the first thing I did was look out the window and what was that in the distance? Why Cinderella's Castle of course! This was the perfect view. We had a perfect view of the castle. If anyone wants the best view possible at WL ask for room 5032 or any room on that row near it. It is perfect! The bellhop came up about 3 minutes later and dropped off the luggage. We then unpacked and stored our luggage in the closet and put our clothes in the drawers. We just sat around for a while and watched TV and just got used to the room. Eventually we were very hungry and decided to go down to Roaring Forks to eat. At this time we decided to buy our little mugs. These mugs are a great value and certainly pay for themselves. I had the pizza, my dad and mom had the tuna salad sandwich, and my sister had a PBJ w/ white bread not that color bread stuff that had been sitting there. After dinner we went up to the room just to relax after the long trip. My dad needed to go buy some razors for his razor blade so he had to go offsite cause they didn't have his type at the Mercantile down stairs. So my sister went with him cause she needed Band-Aids cause she had blisters on her feet. My mom and I stayed back and we decided just to stroll around the hotel and look at everything. We went down to the pool and we watched the geyser go off. We went back up to the room. At about 10pm the fireworks began. By then my sister had returned but my dad had to go back to the drugstore cause he got the wrong razorblades. We all felt so sorry for him. Now to all the people who say you can not see the fireworks at WL you are so terribly wrong. The fireworks were in full view. I'm sure you could see them from the bottom floor on the Woodland side. After the fireworks my dad finally returned and then we hit the sack for a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Oh we had to check our lottery tickets for the big lotto that was at $57 million that week. Dang we lost! Oh well!
Artist Point, AK, Epcot, Test Track, and a little bit of Illuminations....
Day 2- Sunday July 25th, 1999
On this morning we woke up at about 8am. We all had a great night sleep except for those frogs that you could hear down in the little pond. We went down to Roaring Forks to fill up our little mugs full of coffee. Coffee sure does help you early in the morning! Then we walked up to our breakfast at Artist Point with Winnie the Pooh. My mom stayed back at the room for a few minutes to fix her makeup (she would be sorry later on she put any on in the first place :)). We were seated immediately since we had PS for 9am. I loved the Pooh music they had piped into the Artist Point. Great detail. The restaurant was only like half full. I guess they may have more people earlier on or just people don't know about this character breakfast. Our server was Edsel. He was a hoot and he made our breakfast even better. The little bread slices they give you were excellent especially the blueberry bread yum! We decided to get 3 all you can eats and then one fruit plate. Talk about a fruit plate! This plate had huge pieces of cantaloupe and honeydew melon. OH and the strawberries were excellent! They must grow a lot of these fruits on property or over at The Land at Epcot cause you can't find good fruit like this. Tigger was the first character to greet us and of course being Tigger he was a rambunctious one! Pooh was next and he went through my mom's purse looking for hunnie but when my dad offered him the honey syrup on the table he bowed down to him like he was a saint! This was hysterical! Eeyore came next and we got some great shots of him and my mom hiding under his ear. All the characters came back two more times since the restaurant was only half full. In the middle of our breakfast Tigger started climbing two posts almost all the way up to the ceiling. This was so funny; I just knew he was going to fall. Anyway after breakfast we went back up to the room right quick to freshen up and headed on our way to the bus stop. On our way there Tigger was out in the Lobby and he gave me a high five walking back to the Artist Point. We waited for our bus for the AK for about 10 minutes and we were on our way. The bus made stops at the Poly and GF before going to the AK. This took about 20 minutes all together. At the AK gate I went over to Guest Services to trade in my two Complimentary Passes I get at The Disney Store for the one-day hopper pass. These were going to be used by my dad since he only planned to go to the parks for just two days. Then we headed into the park. This was my dad and my sisters first time here. My mom and I have been there 2 other times so this was our third. We headed over to Tough to be a Bug, which only had a 10-minute wait. My sister stopped a few times to take some pictures of the Tree of Life. She's an excellent photographer. I love this attraction. I think its my favorite 3-d show now cause of the new technology that is used. My sister got scared to death and it was hysterical watching her reaction when the hornets came out and stung her. She said she hated the ride after we got off. Next we headed over to Dinoland USA and decided that we would go over to CTX. To our surprise the Fastpass was up and running so we decided to take advantage of this. We stuck in our passes and it printed our time to comeback. I love this system a great way to get out of line. We decided since we were in Dinoland that we would go see the 1pm showing of Tarzan while we waited for our Fastpass time to come up. We walked right in to the theater and waited for the show to begin. It began in about 5 minutes. This show was great. My mom and I agreed that it gave a new tone to the music used in the film. In my opinion it was a little better than what Phil Collins did. Phil is a great singer but I'm just not a real big fan of him. The roller bladders were awesome and they added a lot to the show. After the show we headed back over to CTX and went right onto the ride with the Fastpass. My sister didn't know what to expect and I "assured" her that this ride was not scary at all. Little did she know that huge carnosaur comes out at the end and scares you half to death. She did not enjoy this ride at all and was totally shaken up. I have to admit myself being the third time I've ridden it I still get scared there at the end cause you just don't know what is coming. Its soooo dark in there! We had to get the picture at the exit cause my sister is holding on for dear life and I have my fingers in my ears. After CTX we headed to the Chester and Hester's shop and I bought a beanie and a little model CTX vehicle. I love this shop it's just like a little roadside souvenir stand. Wed headed out of Dinoland and went towards Asia. This was the whole family's first time in this area. My mom and I just missed the opening when we went last November. We headed over to Kali River Rapids and got the Fastpass for it. We then decided to go over to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. The tigers were extremely active. I got great footage of this one tiger drag this ball he was playing with in the water all the way up this hill. He was having a hard time cause the ball was filled with water and was extremely heavy for him. This other tiger was swimming around in the water. The bats in here were extremely eerie to look at. They were huge too! If you're afraid of bats be sure to walk past this area. I wonder what they look like when they are flying? Anyhow at about this time it was time for the Kali River Rapids. I noticed a lot of people getting off who were soaked. Well guess who got soaked? At the beginning of the ride there are two geyser like things in the middle of the river that shoots up and drenches that side of the boat. My mom and I were sitting on that side and it came right on top of us. That's why I said that my mom would be sorry that she put on her makeup. Her mascara was running and everything. It totally got her! After that huge splash we didn't get really wet. I did like that large drop there at the end very cool! After riding Kali we did a little shopping there in Asia. My sister bought this wrap around dress thing that she enjoyed. She likes those exotic type clothes and everything. It was now about 3pm and we decided that this was a good time to go ride the safari. The standby line was only 15 minutes so we just decided to wait since we would have had to wait an hour to use the Fastpass. This safari ride was incredible. We saw every single animal this time! Including the warthogs and the lions. The giraffes were right next to our truck. They were actually over near to where the elephants were. After the safari our huge breakfast had finally worn off and we decided to go eat at Tusker House. These sandwiches are great. My sister didn't eat but my mom, dad, and I each had the turkey and ham sandwich. Very delicious! I'm glad I took the advise of my friend and ate here. After eating we decided to leave the AK but my mom and I vowed that we would be back another day to see the Lion King show, which we haven't seen yet, although this is our 3rd trip to this park! Anyhow we went back to the WL to change and get out of our nasty clothes that had been drenched by the dreaded Kali! After changing we went down to the bus stop and waited about 5 minutes for the next bus to Epcot. We decided that all we were going to do was to ride Test Track and then see Illuminations. The line for Test Track was only 40 minutes so we decided to wait it out. The queue for this ride is incredible. It had a lot of great detail and information. Eventually we made it to the pre-show, which I found amusing. Surprise tests ;)! We boarded into the test vehicles, and away we went. My dad, sister, and I sat in the front seat while my mom sat in the back. The tests on the inside of the building were truly informative. I like the ABS test the most because we had experienced that ourselves on the trip down! Eventually we headed out the building and topped out with a high speed of 64.8mph! It felt faster than that though! This attraction is now one of my favorite rides at Disney. Great detail and a great show! Show much worth the wait! After the ride we bought the little picture which was funny cause my mom's face squirmed cause she thought we were going to hit that wall. Then my sister had to sit in the Pontiac Firebird convertible that is on display in the post show area. We then made it outside and the area around the lake was packed and Illuminations had just started. Oh well we decided to watch what was left of it and come back another night. Before leaving my mom had to make a trek to see if she could find the new Manheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse CD. She eventually found it after like 30 minutes of looking in the shops. Has anyone noticed the depletion of park specific merchandise in the gift shops? It is all WDW generic stuff now. I really don't like this. We waited like 10 minutes for the next WL bus and we were back in our room at about 11. We went immediately to bed because we had to get up early for early entry. Great first day though at Disney!
MK, Cindy's Royal Table, Water mouse, Chef Mickey's, Main St. Electrical Parade...
Day 3- Monday July 26th, 1999
We woke up at about 6:45 and we were down at the boat dock at about 7:30. Today it was just my mom, my sister, and I because my dad went to play golf at the Palm course today. The boat took about 10 minutes to get there though. At the MK we headed straight to Tomorrowland. Buzz Lightyear only had a 5-minute wait so we went immediately onto that. I love this ride! This time though I think my gun was broke because my score was so low. I would eventually ride this ride 3 more times with much higher scores. After Buzz we went over to Space Mountain, which had a 20-minute wait. This time we were able to get my mom on this ride, which she thought was pretty tame. She had not ridden it thought since the 70's so she really couldn't remember. I believe in the 70's though they had double seats in each car but now it is just single seats. Well after Space Mountain she vowed not to ride it again. She didn't really like the idea of riding by herself even though she was just right behind us. By this time it was time for us to head over to Cindy's Royal Table for our breakfast. This was the first we had eaten in the castle. I now know why that it is hard to get into this breakfast. The dining room is so small! It does provide a great time with the characters though. Well the characters at this breakfast were not as good as Pooh the day before. Peter Pan and Belle were the only ones who would carry on a conversation with us and all the others were like lets take a picture have a good day. Not impressive. The food was good though especially those little creamy bread things. Very delicious! Now I can say I've eaten in the castle but I don't think we will be coming back here anytime soon. After breakfast we headed over to the Pooh ride since this was not here last summer when we were here. The wait was only 20 minutes so we decided to wait it out. This ride was ok but Toad was much better. The only thing I liked was the cool smoke rings the heffalumps blow at you. Very cool! After Pooh, we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain, which had about a 20-minute wait. Can't ever get enough of this ride. The clanky tracks and everything. After this it was extremely hot and we decided to head back over to the WL because we were tired and the heat on the asphalt was unbelievable. At the WL my mom and my sister decided to take a nap and I headed on down to the marina to try out one of those new watermice. I got a cast discount, which was nice, and I was off. I took my video camera and my camera with me to get some good shots of all the resorts. The pictures came out really good especially of the GF and the WL. Picture postcard perfect. I had a few run ins with the seaweed and the lifeguards had to come over and help me each time. An hour was up fast and I went back up to the room. I ate a lunch down at Roaring Forks and then fell asleep. I woke up at about 5:30 and my dad was back now and we got ready for our dinner with the mouse himself over at the Contemporary. At 6:15 we got on the bus but it was the wrong one. We got on the Boone bus and not the Crockett. Whoops! Should have just taken the boat! Anyway we went all the way through Ft. Wilderness but eventually made it to the Monorail station and went all the way around to the Contemp. We got there exactly at 7 so everything was ok. We were seated immediately. This buffet was really good and everything was set out nicely. All the characters came around once each. Even Donald who I don't think is apart of this dinner usually. The dessert bar here is very delicious. I had the cheesecake, which was divine, and the cherry cobbler with ice cream on it. We twirled our napkins and everything. People sure do get into this restaurant. When that music starts they just start twirling away! I found this extremely funny. After dinner I had to go get a Bellhop Mickey for my friend who had stayed here in December and when I told her about the Mickey I had to get her one. My dad headed back on the boat to the WL and my mom, my sister, and I headed over to the MK for the Main St. Electrical Parade. We were able to get a good seat in the little courtyard area at the front of the park on Main St. The parade began and it was like an old friend had returned. I like this parade especially the music but its getting old now and Spectromagic was so much better. I'm glad its here for just a year. After the parade my mom and sister headed back to the WL and I stayed back and got in some good ride time. I first headed over to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and just sat back and relaxed. This had no wait at all (does it ever have a wait). I liked riding around on this thing. It had been awhile since I had been on it and it was nice seeing Buzz Lightyear from that vantage point. After TTA, I headed over to Alien Encounter. Although I have been on this ride several times, it still freaks me out to this day. This time though I had the opportunity of sitting on the front row. Talk about in your face! I think I'll stay towards the back next time! After Alien Encounter I rode Buzz Lightyear again and scored like a 200,000. This was my best score yet! I then streamlined over to Liberty Square and rode the Haunted Mansion. After the Haunted Mansion, it was about 10:45 and I made it over to Splash Mountain. I ended up being one of the last people to ride it for the night! I truly love this attraction and wish that Disney would please release Song of the South on video. I remember seeing this in the theaters when I was 6 years old and vaguely remember it at that. Anyway I headed back towards Main St. and took some pictures of the castle on the way out. The boat for the WL was waiting right there so I did not have to wait long. I got back to the room and crashed.
1900 Park Fare, Disney MGM Studios, Rock N' Roller Coaster, ToT, Fantasmic PS at Mama Melrose, Fantasmic, E-Ride Night at MK
Day 4- Tuesday July 27th, 1999
The day before we decided to switch the time of our breakfast because we had to get down to MGM early to make PS for Fantasmic. So we changed it to 9:50. That morning my dad and I woke up at about 8:00 and got in the car to drive down to MGM. We thought this would be much faster than the bus. We went over to the Guest Services and made our PS for 6:20 at Mama Melrose. After our brief little stop at MGM, we went back to the room at WL and got my sister and my mom who were almost ready for breakfast. Again we decided to take our car over to GF since it would be much faster and we needed the car for the afternoon anyway because my sister and my dad needed to leave MGM early to go to a dance rehearsal for my sister. At 1900 Park Fare, the service was pretty good, a little slow but overall a great time. This Snow White here was much better than the one in the castle. Dopey was very funny and Mary Poppins was very nice. The best part of this breakfast though was the Mad Hatter. He was hysterical! This guy had really found his calling in life. Very entertaining! I'm glad my friend suggested this to me! Somehow though Alice was not around and she never came to our table. Oh well! After breakfast we headed back to the car so we could go down to MGM for the day. At MGM we looked at the wait board and saw that Rock N' Roller Coaster (RnR) had only a 30 minute wait. We walked down Sunset Blvd and right into the RnR courtyard. I could see where they were putting up the Fastpass. They would have this on the last day of our trip. The wait ended up being an hour cause it broke down but it was well worth the wait. This ride is awesome! This and Test Track are now my two favorite rides. The coaster was so smooth and the soundtrack was great. After RnR, we saw that the ToT had only a 15-minute wait. It was really only about 10. I like the new drop sequence on this. It really does add a lot more terror to it. I still prefer riding this ride at night though. Just something about going up at nighttime brings more terror to the ride. After, ToT we had to stop to get some slushy drink for everyone to have. We then headed over to the Great Movie Ride. The wait was only 15 minutes. I like the new movie they have added at the end of the ride. It was nice to see some more modern day films in the ride. After this it was about 1pm and my sister wanted to go back to the WL to take a nap before her little rehearsal. So my sister and my dad went back and my mom and I stayed. We were going to meet up at Mama Melrose at 6:20 for our dinner. My mom and I then decided to go around to the New York Street area and see the Muppet 3-D show. I like this show and it is my second favorite 3-d show. We saw the entire pre show which I always find hysterical. After Muppets we went around to the Back lot Tour. We haven't done this since we came when the park opened in 1989. They have changed all this a lot. It was nice to see all the new props and everything. After the tour we went on down to the Animation Courtyard. We were going to go on the tour there but one had already started so we decided to just do something else. The Mulan Parade was about to start so we decided to bypass all the crowds and go down to the RnR coaster. My mom sat in the gift shop (since she doesn't like the coasters) and I waited about 15-minutes. The car that went before mine had that guy Jesse Camp in it from MTV. I guess they have a lot of VIP's down here for the grand opening, which was going to be Thursday of that week. After I rode this again, my mom and I decided to go over to the new Drew Carey show. I have never seen any of the shows before this one so all this sound stuff was new to me (even though I have been here several times before). This was ok, not what I was expecting but it was a good way to get out of the sun. After Sound's Dangerous it was time for dinner. My mom and I headed over to Mama Melrose and to our surprise my sister and dad were already waiting for us. We were seated immediately and were promptly waited on. We all ordered the pizzas and let me tell you they were great. We extremely enjoyed our meal and plan to visit here again. After dinner we still had a little time to kill before we had to go turn in our little slip to get into Fantasmic!, so we decided to check out Coaster's wait but it had a 45minute wait. So we decided to go back over and ride Star Tours. It was a walk on. I hope they really change this ride soon and make it after the new movies. After Star Tours we headed back down Hollywood and to the entrance so we could get in the back way to see Fantasmic! This back way is a long walk. You just keep walking and walking. Finally we got to our seat and still had about 45 minutes before the show. We just sat there and there were a bunch of Brazilians there so we did the wave a dozen times. Eventually the show began and this was my second time seeing it. This show is too amazing to put into words. Anyone who doesn't see this show while they are at WDW is out of their minds. So just take my advice and go see this. After the show my sister decides that we should go ride Coaster again. Well the line was 45 minutes and this was before Fast Pass mind you. She threw a fit because she couldn't ride it. I promised her though that we will it again on Friday. So she seemed to agree to that. We left the park afterwards. The WL bus was there and we were back at the hotel in about 10 minutes. On this night we were going to E-ride night at the MK. My sister was supposed to go but she was tired and decided to stay back. So just my dad and I went. We went over to the MK on the boat. It took about 5 minutes for the boat to come so not a long wait at all. We headed over to the stand at Guest Relations to get our wristband. Afterwards the MSEP was about to begin so we streamlined around and over to Tomorrowland. We rode Buzz Lightyear first. I scored much higher once again. Then we went over to Space Mountain. The line was out the door and we thought why was that because it was e-ride night now. It took us maybe 3 minutes to get up to the load station and it was just a walk on. The two sides were working but just not the inside queues. I can ride this over and over. Space Mountain is just a classic favorite. After Space Mountain we headed over to Alien Encounter. It was a walk on and hardly anyone was there. After Alien all the regular day guests were finally out of the park. We then went over to Frontierland. We then went over to Big Thunder and sat in the front row. This was out first time in the front and did not really like it because it goes so slow over the hills. After Big Thunder we went back over to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz again. It was about 1:45am and then we went over to the Timekeeper and the last show was about to begin. I like this attraction. Robin Williams is funny and some of the lines he says are hysterical. We headed out of the park after that and rode the monorail to the TTC because the boats shutdown after hours. We then got on a bus to WL and crashed in our beds.
Day 5- Wednesday July 28th, 1999
Disney Quest, Downtown Disney, and Whispering Canyon Café
Today was my sister's dance competition so I just hung around the hotel and went over to that at about 12 after sleeping a very long time. Hey I was tired! On this day I discovered the kid's meal in the Roaring Forks. Talk about a value you get a grilled cheese, a ton of fries, an apple, some cookies, and a drink for like 4 dollars. Most adults can't eat this much. I then went to the competition for a bit. I got bored and told my mom I was going to go over to Downtown Disney and go to Disney Quest. First I went to Studio M so I could make my CD of music. Then I rushed over to Disney Quest before 4 because I get a 50% discount on tickets before 4. At Disney Quest there were a lot of people there. It was different than the week I went last year. It had just opened then and the ticketing system and everything was different. I did basically everything in Disney Quest nothing really special about it. I did try that ride the comix this time. It was cool holding a light sword like Star Wars. Well after Disney Quest, I did buy some things in the gift shop. I had to wait almost 20 minutes for the bus this time though. It took forever for the WL bus to come. I guess I just missed it. At about 7:30 I reached the room and then we headed down to the Whispering Canyon for our 8pm PS. Once again a very nice filing meal at the café. I had the all you can eat and it was nice getting a taste of everything this time. My dad had the ribs and my mom had these cut up steak things, don't quite remember though. After this I went down to the pool and enjoyed the super cool waterslide some more. After this we just rested and hung around the room until bedtime.
Day 6- Thursday July 29th, 1999
Today was another relax day. We just went to see my sister at the competition and just did stuff in the hotel. Nothing really special
Day 7- Friday July 30th, 1999
3 parks in 1-day can it be done? I do think so!
AK- Lion King Show, MGM- RnRC, Epcot- Energy, Nine Dragons, Illuminations again....
Our final day in the parks! This trip has definitely been one of our productive ones. Our first goal of this day was to go over to the Animal Kingdom just to see the Lion King show which we had never seen yet. And this was my mom's 3rd time and mine too. Looked like it was going to be my mom and I for this little trip to the AK. My sister wanted to sleep in a little so we said we would come back so we could pick her up. At the AK we went straight to the Lion King for the 1pm show. This show was incredible. Now I know what people mean about this show. Truly amazing!! High tailed it out of AK and back to WL to pick up my sister. On the way down to the room we run into my dad who just came back himself from the competition with the other girls. So my sister decided in the room that my dad would go with us to MGM and we would meet my mom at Epcot since she doesn't like the scary ride. At MGM we went and rode the Coaster. It had about a 15-minute wait. Today however they finally had Fast Pass up and going. We decided just to go to the regular line because it was so small. Our song this time was "Walk this Way" which was good cause I had not heard this one before. After Coaster my sister and I headed to an Epcot bus and my dad went back to the WL to do some much needed laundry. Well at Epcot my sister and I end up looking like idiots. My mom got there before we did and we sit at another end of the entrance for an hour waiting for her. I finally start walking around and finally find her. It was about 5pm so we headed over to Energy and ride this. We had not seen the new version yet. I personally did not care for this. I never really have cared for this ride at all but it was a good way to get out of the drizzling rain. We then headed into the countries. We decided to eat some Chinese food in of course China. This meal was delicious. The best Sweet and Sour Pork I have ever had. After dinner we shopped a little in China and walked all around the lake shopping in and out of the countries. We finally ended in England and decided to sit here for Illuminations. Once the show began we had a very good view right next to the Rose and Crown. I think that Illuminations is just a little overrated and it was an ok show. I hope the new one for the Millennium will be good. Well we left Epcot afterwards and did a little shopping on the way out and skipped some of the crowds out by doing this. Well this was our last visit to a Disney park! What a great trip to the parks we had this time! The WL bus came in 5 minutes and we were back in our beds at about 10:30.
Day 7- Friday July 30th, 1999
Our Last Day!!!
Well we had a great vacation! Everything about the week was perfect. No rain, just sun! We packed up and left the WL at about 8am. We got breakfast at McDonald's on the way back. Our ride home was uneventful and we were sad to be back....
Well that was our trip! We had a great time and hope to do it again soon.
One final note, I now go to school down here at the University of Central Florida and I transferred to the parks. I am over at the Disney MGM Studios on Star Tours. So if anyone is ever over there just look for me, I'll be there on the weekends!
If you have any comments about this planned trip please send e-mail to: Blast_Man@msn.com
Derek Nelson
Blast_Man@msn.com