Mike Banks -- January 2000 -- All Star Sports

January 28th - February 2nd 2000

Cast Members:

Mike: 28, Narrator
Becca: 27, My Wife
Dave: 32, Cousin
Tracy: 31, Cousin, Dave's wife
Alec: 1, Dave and Tracy's son
Aunt Nancy, 55, My Aunt, Tracy's mother
Pre-Planning:

This is the most last minute trip we had ever planned. The idea for the trip with my cousins probably started at a family party in the summer in '99 or even as far back as '98. Dave and Tracy, who are huge DVC members and Disney addicts like myself and Becca thought it would be fun to go down together. Our plans to vacation together started to take shape in December when we went to Alec's first birthday party where we ended up talking about our Sept '99 10 day trip and their Disney cruise they went on in November. We said that we wanted to go back and they said they would like to also. A few weeks later we went to Dave and Tracy's and decided that if we were to go on vacation it would have to be no later than the first week of February because of a combination of Value season and Dave's availability of vacation time at work. We all kinda talked about it and left it at "we'll see what happens". This was in the middle of December.

The afternoon of January 2nd we got a phone call from Tracy. She told Becca that she had booked airfare for $188 roundtrip from Jan. 29th to Feb. 3rd. That was all we needed to hear. Becca immediately called USAir and we had airfare for the same price but slightly better times, earlier leaving time and a later return flight. Since we have a $25 off coupon and frequent flier program with Continental we decided to see what they had available. The only flights available were more expensive and worse times than the tickets we had on hold at USAir. Then something magical happened. Our agent was able to find a flight leaving Jan. 28th at 6:15 a.m. and returning Feb. 2nd at 4:25 p.m. for only $156. We immediately had him put the tickets on hold and called Tracy to let her know.

The next day Tracy called us and let us know that the trip was definitely on and that her mother was going with them. After we got off the phone with Tracy we called the airlines purchasing our Continental flights and canceling the tickets on hold with USAir. Becca then called AAA and booked a fall package getaway, the same package we took last year when we stayed at Port Orleans for 4 days. We had wanted to stay at All Star Movies but they only had a limited amount of packages for each resort and ASMo was already booked up. We ended up making our reservations at All-Star Sports for 5 nights and 6 days. Tracy and Dave were able to make reservations at ASMo because they were only booking the room and not a package deal like us.

Now that our rooms and flight were booked we had to get together and try to coordinate our schedules. Tracy and Dave (T&D) planned on using the remaining two days on their park hoppers and resort hopping or spending time at the pool with their son for most of the vacation. This left us a nice combination of time at the parks by ourselves and with Tracy and Dave as well as some serious downtime at the pool, which we always plan to do but usually never get around to it. Having my Aunt there to watch Alec will finally give Becca and me someone to go out to the bars with.

We went to T&D's house a couple weeks before the trip to make some definite plans. Tracy had already made her trip schedule out and we planned ours in order to see everything we wanted to see and still spend time with them. We had planned on going out to dinner Sunday night, visiting MK on Monday with them and also having dinner with them on Tuesday night, our last night there. With all that worked out Dave and I decided to make golf reservations for the Magnolia course on February 1st with a 2:12 tee time. After 2:00 the greens fees were almost half price.

On January 27th, the day before we leave, I realized that I had not submitted a room request. I faxed a letter asking for a king size bed in Touchdown! Here's hoping I get lucky. Now with everything planned out all that was left was to wait for tomorrow morning to arrive.

January 28th: Day 1

The alarm woke me up at 4:35 and I sprang right out of bed. I realized that I didn't wake up once during the night, which is unusual for a night before Disney trip. I went downstairs and finished off the box of cocoa pebbles and watched the weather channel to make sure we would get out of Buffalo without any weather problems. Everything from here to Newark looked clear and I didn't expect any delays. We had packed the car last night so all that was left to do was to get dressed and feed our basset hound Barty. We said our good-byes to Barty and were on the road by 5:15.

I dropped Becca and the luggage of at the airport and dropped off the car at my office, which is .8 miles away from the door to the airport. I had started jogging a few months ago and decided that instead of wasting $5 on a short cab ride I figured I would save a little money. As it turned out the distance wasn't a problem but the -18 deg. wind chill was. After what seemed an eternity in the cold I finally arrived at the airport where Becca was waiting for me. We walked to the last gate, luckily Buffalo has a small airport, where they started boarding the plane.

The flight was only about 1/3rd full and we began to pull away from the terminal on time. Then we had our first problem of what turned out to be some pretty rough traveling. Since our flight was the first of the day the pavement was still icy and our plane had some problems with the slick pavement. The plane made it about 100 feet from the terminal several times before getting stuck on a big patch of ice. We would then have to be pulled back to the terminal where they would start again with a head of steam. This happened for 45 minutes before we made it to dry pavement. At 7:00 we were finally in the air and on our way to Newark.

We landed 10 minutes before our connecting flight was to take off, luckily the gate we needed to go to was right next to the gate we arrived at and we made it aboard on time. As soon as we walked on the plane though, we realized the plane wasn't going to take off anytime soon, the line on the plane to take your seats was backed up to the door. We finally made it to our seats and had to wait even longer for the flight attendants to find seats for the children that were seated in an exit row. To make matters worse the book I had just purchased off of Ebay, The Story of Walt Disney World 1977, was ruined by our water bottle that opened in our carry on and spilled all over my book. Needless to say I was pretty upset.

Once we took off I calmed down a little, with the help of watching Darma and Greg in Spanish, twice. They finally showed it in English and I enjoyed it. The flight was pretty smooth and we landed at 11:30,on time according to our flight plans but if we had been able to take off on time we would have been early. We made our way down to baggage claim and while I waited for our bags while Becca went to Mears and purchased our transports. I was still waiting for our luggage when Becca met me at baggage claim. She told me that when we had our luggage we just go down one level and check in with the guy downstairs. 20 minutes came and went along with all the rest of the passengers and we still hadn't received our luggage, we realized that our bags must not have made the transfer. I kept waiting while Becca went to the continental baggage claim counter and reported our lost luggage.

We were told that our luggage should be on the next flight and that it would be delivered to our resort for us. I was hoping for some sort of compensation but they said they don't do that until your luggage is missing for 24 hours. This was unlikely to happen so no free stuff for me this time. After we filled out all the paperwork we grabbed our carry on bags and went to the Mears bus stop. After a relaxing 15 minute wait, which we desperately needed, our bus arrived and a short while later we were on our way to the All-Star Resorts. We hadn't used Mears since our honeymoon, at the time we thought Mears seemed very chaotic and confusing. They have since reworked their process and it was very orderly. Overall we were very happy with Mears this trip.

The trip to WDW took about 30 minutes and had some very interesting things to see along the way. We were able to see the new Opryland hotel going up just off property and the new America through the Century hotel (at least that's what we were told the name was as of now) that was having site work done to it. Sports was the first stop for the all-star bus and not having any luggage we were the first ones off the bus when we realized that the rain that started when we landed also brought in a cold front with it. We walked to the check in line where with only one person ahead of us and where quickly called by the next available CM. We were told that our room would not be ready until 4:00 but since we had a length of stay pass we were free to go to the parks. After check-in we checked our bags and walked to the bus stop where we caught a bus to Epcot.

It was so nice to be back on a Disney bus. We never use public transportation in Buffalo, but something just feels right about Disney transportation. We quickly arrived at Epcot and were soon walking through the gates. Seeing the new wand and 2000 was great, when we were here in Sep. they had not yet finished it. I took a few minutes to look at it up close and looked at the structure that supports the whole thing, it's incredible what they can do.

Originally we planned on going directly to Mexico to get something to eat but with no line on Spaceship Earth we took a journey through the history of communications with the help of our good friends at AT&T. The ride was great except for the Brazilians that insisted on screaming and singing through most of the ride. Thankfully when we got off they requested to stay on the ride so we didn't have to worry about hearing them in the global village. We got slightly sidetracked through innovations, which wasn't open in Sept. we didn't stop at any of the pavilions but we were impressed with how it's set up. By this time we were very hungry so we walked to Mexico to grab lunch, stopping at the Showcase Plaza to get some 2000 pressed pennies. When we came home I saw those same pressed pennies selling for $6.00 each on Ebay, if only I had thought ahead.

We finally arrived at Cantina de San Angel where we ordered our normal, Plato Combinacion. Once again it didn't disappoint. The only down side to our meal was the old man behind us who insisted on feeding the birds. After we finished our main course we decided to leave before we get hit by a bird. As I was standing up a bird flew up to me and took the churro I was eating out of my hand, I couldn't believe it. I was so mad I looked at the man and said "Thanks a lot buddy, thanks for feeding the birds" his reply was "What don't you like birds?" I was so mad that someone could be so inconsiderate to the people around him.

We thought a slow boat ride might help to take my mind off of my stolen churro so we walked across the way to the pavilion where we rode El Rio del Tiempo. This ride was closed in Sept. so it was nice to be able to go on it this trip. It was now past 4:00 and our room was now ready for us so we decided to go back to all-star Sports (ASSp) grab our coats and head back out to MK since it was open till 10:00 tonight.

Our bus was waiting for us and we were soon on our way back to ASSp. Disney's direct buses are so much nicer than the mess at Shades of Green and having to switch buses at TTC. We checked at the front desk and were told that we were in room 7432, the third floor in Touchdown. We walked to the football field and took the elevator to the third floor. Our room was overlooking the garden area, the next morning we would realize how lucky we were not to be overlooking the football field, and when we opened the door we were greeted with a huge king size bed. It would seem that my request wasn't too late and they were able to accommodate us. We called down to luggage services and had them bring up our carry-ons we had checked with them, Continental had not yet delivered the rest of our luggage. I have read how the all-star luggage services wasn't that great but I thought they were as good as any hotel I had ever stayed at. When our bags arrived we pulled out our coats, it was getting a little chilly, and headed back out to Magic Kingdom (MK).

When we arrived at MK it felt like we had never left, it was very comforting to be back. We were a little hungry but didn't want to spoil our meal later so I suggested that we go to Columbia Harbor House. With the cold night and everything I had read I thought a splitting a clam chowder in a bread bowl would be perfect. The restaurant didn't have a long line but was very crowded even though the park was relatively empty. We finally found a seat and sat down to enjoy our little snack. I liked it but Becca said there was something in there she didn't care for.

After our meal we walked to Haunted Mansion where we waited behind a large group of girls wearing "sugarcanes" coats. After HM we walked though Liberty Square and cut across to Adventureland where we rode Pirates of the Caribbean with a 5-minute wait. It's great to walk through the queue and think back to my trips here during Easter season when we would have to wait for an hour in these halls. Next we walked past Splash Mountain and walked up to the train station where we planned on making a full lap. When Lilly Belle pulled into the station everyone got off and we had the choice of seats. We took the seats that were directly in front of the gate which was a big mistake. With an entirely empty train the next two groups of people that came on next took the rows directly in front of and behind us. That kind of bothered me, not that I wanted the whole train to myself, but a little buffer would have been nice. As the train made its way around the park and we finished our lap we decided to take it one stop further to Mickey's Toontown Fair (MTTF).

MTTF was completely deserted; my guess is the people who would normally be here were watching the parade with their parents. We walked to Goofy's Barnstormer that had no wait at all. I enjoyed this ride even though it was incredibly short. As we were walking out a young girl was a little upset because her mother was making her get off the ride after 18 straight rides. Although I liked the ride I think I would be sick if I rode it that many times. We were hoping since MTTF was so empty that Buzz wouldn't have that long of a wait either so we took the path to Tomorrowland that follows the train tracks. Half way to Tomorrowland we looked all around us and realized that we were totally alone, we couldn't see anyone else around us. It was amazing to think, even for a second that you have the park all to yourself.

Once we arrived at Tomorrowland we were reminded that there were a few thousand other people still at the park with us. We walked to Buzz, which was a walk on, and I'm happy to say I finally beat Becca 41,400 to 39,600. Now I know those scores are very low but I was happy just to win. It was now 8:30 and originally we had planned on staying here for the fireworks at 9:00 but decided to beat the crowds out of the park and grab the bus to Yacht and Beach Club for another snack.

The first stop was at the Yacht club, which we took and walked by castaway cay, which was closed, on our way to Beaches and Cream. We had a short wait at B&C and just as we were about to be seated a group of 3 Chinese businessmen decided they didn't have to wait and took our booth. A couple minutes later a table opened up and we were finally seated. We weren't incredibly hungry so we split a cheeseburger and fries and had a cherry coke and a milkshake to go along with it. The meal was delicious as always. We decided to begin the long process of going to back to ASSp and skipped the Boardwalk for tonight. We walked to the Beach's bus stop and 2 minutes later a Downtown Disney bus was pulling up. We sat in the front, near 6 young men who, with all the cologne they had on led me to believe that they were looking forward to a night at Pleasure Island. I think they may have gone a little overboard on the cologne. We took the first stop we could, so we could get some fresh air. Before long our bus was there and we were back in our room and asleep by 12:00.

January 29th, Day 2

We got our wake up call from Mickey at 8:30 to begin our day. After an hour of putzing around we were ready at 9:30 to head out to MGM today. We walked to the bus stop where a bus was waiting to take us to the park to begin what was already a beautiful day. The temp. was around 52 deg and was going up to 65 today. We had originally wanted to grab a bite to eat at AS food court but it was packed full of cheerleaders, today was the beginning of the competition which happened to be taking place at MGM in the Indiana Jones theatre. Since the food court wasn't an option, for Becca at least, we decided to grab some pastries at Starring Rolls Bakery at the corner of Hollywood and Sunset. I had a cheese Danish (of course) and Becca had a muffin, both were delicious.

After our morning snack we continued down Sunset where I got Fastpasses for ToT and RnRC while Becca browsed through the shops. We met up together in front of the Beauty and the Beast stage show where we took our seats for the 10:15 show. We hadn't seen this since our trip in '97 so it was nice to get back here again. After the show it was just about my Fastpass window so I went to the rides, which actually didn't need a Fastpass because the standby lines where so short. The rides were great as usual, what I did find interesting was the new footage in the RnRC preshow. Instead of wasting payroll on having someone grab Joe Perry's guitar they added a studio hand into the movie who tells Joe "I'll get that for you". After the rides I met up with Becca and we walked aimlessly toward Hollywood Blvd.

We ended up on New York Ave. and eventually cut down the Chinatown area and walked back to see Muppetvision. On our way we saw Jessie along with Woody and Buzz across from Pizza Planet. Muppets was very entertaining as usual. After Muppets we walked to Hunchback where we were about 20 minutes early, just early enough to get some great seats for Matt the Juggler. It was pretty much the same pre show as the last time I had seen Matt but I loved it then and I love I loved it this time. He is probably the best pre show at the parks. After Matt's act we watched the Hunchback stage show. The show was very good and I enjoy it more than the Beauty and the Beast show, I think part of it is the fact that the show is smaller and more intimate.

After Hunchback we walked back up New York Ave where we stopped at The Writer's Stop where we bought a delicious chocolate chunk cookie and a WDW Architecture book that I have seen on Ebay but never put a bid on. Now that I own the book I'm glad I didn't buy it off of Ebay. We bought it at MGM for only $3 and I've seen it on Ebay for $25. I assume that the books on Ebay were hardcover, mine is a soft cover. We ate our cookie as we walked out of the park to catch the bus to ASSp. We were planning to go to AK next but we forgot our MKC card that was going to give us a discount o our dinner at AK tonight.

After a quick stop at the hotel we caught a bus to AK and arrived to hordes of people walking out, we were the only people walking into the park, gotta love that. Once in the park we made our way back to Kilamanjaro Safaris (KS) where we picked up our Fastpasses. We had about an hour before our scheduled time was up so we walked back to the Tree of Life where we watched It's Tough to be a Bug. The ride was a total walk-on and when the show started the theatre was only half full. After the show we patiently waited for all the strollers to be claimed before we made it to the slightly less congested pathways and walked towards Asia to make our way back to KS.

I had read about a hidden pathway between Asia and Africa and tried to find it. After a few minutes of searching we found it and took a little trek through it. Becca was hesitant to walk through the foliage because she felt that it wasn't a place that guests were allowed to be. I admit that it did feel a little illegal, in part because it wasn't a paved walkway and partially because we couldn't see anyone, we could still hear people so you still knew you were at the park but the path was a very fun place to be. It was very secluded and a great place to escape from the heat of the park. The path let us out about 20 ft. behind where we entered. This is defiantly a place to walk through every trip. We continued along our original path to KS where we entered through the Fastpass entrance which is now located on the side and we entered about halfway through the line. KS was great as usual. We saw all the regulars on the ride, hippo, and elephant, rhino... we also had a great view of the lion perched on its rock.

We left Africa and we started to crisscross the park, which looking back now wasn't such a good idea. Wanted to ride Countdown to Extinction, but when we got there they had a 20-minute wait posted. It looked more like a 30 minute wait to me though so I walked over to where Becca was sitting and told her that I was going to skip CTX for this trip. We took this time to relax a little bit, even though it was very hot out it was nice to take a little break. After our short rest we walked back towards Asia where I was contemplating going on Kali River Rapids but I decided it wasn't warm enough and that we would just walk through Maharajah Jungle Trek (MJT). Just outside of KRR we looked above us and saw a chimpanzee swinging cables that were running between the ruins. He was amazing to watch, it looked as if he could have continued across the wires and walked down the ruins to join us.

I enjoyed MJT very much; Becca doesn't get quite as much out of this trail as Pangani Forest Exploration. She usually skips over the Bats and she also avoids the bird sanctuary. I tell her she's missing out but she still decides to pass on these animals. On our way out of Asia we kept walking to Africa where we planned on eating at Tusker House with our seasonal savings discount coupon. When we got to TH it was 4:45 and the restaurant was totally empty. When we walked up to the counter the manager told us that they have been closed for 15 minutes. Becca was pretty upset because she was looking forward to dinner here, she ate here wit her parents in Sept. and loved it. She tried to argue that the coupon we had said that it was open until 5:00, needless to say she didn't win that one, so we walked to Pizzafari, which we could use our MKC discount at. We both enjoyed the meal; I had a pepperoni pizza while Becca had a chicken salad.

By the time we sat down to eat it was 5:00 and the park was officially closed. We grabbed a seat on the porch overlooking the ToL and watched all the people file out of the park. After our dinner we walked back towards Africa to try and find the place where I had seen people walking behind the ToL. We found the trail quite easily; it was located next to the bridge right before you cross over the river. Unlike the path we found between Asia and Africa this pathway was paved and meant to be found by everyone. Despite the fact that this path was fairly obvious I don't remember noticing it on any of our previous trips here. The path took us along the river and gave us a different view of the tree. There were a few animals displayed with signs about them on the walkway, I even found a creature that either escaped from his area or snuck into the park. I took a little side path that went toward the river next to the base of the tree and standing right in front of me staring me in the face was a raccoon type creature. I have never seen an animal like this before and it startled me slightly, I turned away for a second to look for Becca and when I looked back the beast was scurrying into the bush. Becca came back with a CM and after looking for a few seconds for him we continued along the path and out to the main walkway. I was surprised to find that the path is actually the continuation of the exit to ITTBaB. Now I know that next time we're waiting for the stroller traffic to clear out after ITTBaB we can make a left and avoid the crowds.

We followed what was left of the crowds through the oasis and caught our bus, which was waiting for us. Once we got back to the hotel we dropped some of our gear off at the room and took this time to walk around the resort. We both loved the themeing, I especially liked Surf's Up, I thought the surfboards were a great touch and the lifeguard tower for the stair enclosures are a perfect combination. We found our way back to our room at 7:00 and called over to All-Star Movies (ASM) and found out that Dave and Tracy (D&T) were in room 1910 in Dalmatian. We called over and left a message for them to call us. About 30 minutes later Dave called our rooms and we made plans to meet at ASM food court in 45 minutes.

At 8:00 we headed over to ASMo. We planned on meeting them at ASMo a few times so we decided to walk over to see how long of a trek it is. It turned out to be a short walk and pretty enjoyable. As soon as we walked into the food court found them and pulled up a couple chairs to sit down and join them. After their quick bite to eat we put Alec in the stroller and walked around ASMo. We all found the resort very nice, especially the Toy Story area, which had a bunch a kids playing in Andy's room. From ASMo we walked through Mighty Ducks to All-Star Music (ASMu). Having grown up in a hockey town Becca and I loved the themeing for the Mighty Ducks pool. Becca and I didn't enjoy ASMu as much as the other two resorts even though they are the exact same buildings once you take off the ornamentation. Of the areas we liked Broadway the best, I also liked the colors of Calypso they are very bright and cheerful. After our resort touring it was 9:00 and Dave and Tracy were tired from their day of traveling, actually Dave and Aunt Nancy were tired, Tracy decided that she would go back to the room since the rest of her roommates were calling it a night. After making plans to meet up for dinner tomorrow we said our good-byes and walked to the ASMu bus stop where we caught the first bus to Downtown Disney (DD).

Since it was relatively early we thought it would be a good idea to go to Pleasure Island (PI). Normally we don't enjoy PI as much as we would if we had a few more people with us, but we had a pretty good time there tonight. I was determined to finally have a kungaloosh after reading about it so many times so our stop was the adventurers club. We walked in and took a seat near the balcony of the second floor after getting my kungaloosh. The drink was really good and the performers were very funny. After the first show had ended they announced that the library was open for the next performance. By the time we got downstairs it had already filled. The CM's told us that we could have a set in the study next door for the next show in about 10 minutes but it was a little to intimate for us so we decided to head over to 8Trax. We stayed here just long enough to finish our drinks we had brought over from Adventurers Club. After 8Trax, which had a decent crowd, we walked back toward the DJ booth.

Everyone had converged at the corner and were watching Frankie and the West End Boys playing. The band was pretty good. Everyone seemed to be enjoying them. After listening for about 15 minutes we walked next door to the Rock and Roll Beach Club where another cover band, Kabang, was playing. We had a good time here, and actually stayed for about an hour. We had a few drinks, listened to the band, who was very good and we even danced a little. The band was just finishing up its set so we decided that it was probably a good idea for us to get back to the room. We originally wanted to go to the Gourmet Pantry and get some cookies for back at the room but we were a little too tired so we walked to the PI bus stop and were in our room sleeping by 12:00.

January 30th, Day 3

Mickey called us the morning at 8:30 and we were walking into Epcot at 9:30 this morning. Our first stop was our traditional breakfast at Pure and Simple in the Wonders of Life pavilion. I had the Breakfast wrap and Becca had a toasted bagel with strawberry spread, our standard breakfast here. Eating breakfast here is always a great experience, not only is the food very good, but the pavilion is always empty, it's our own little get away in the park. Before breakfast we made a slight pitstop to pick up a Fastpass for Test Track and sure enough when we were finished with breakfast my window was now here. There was a short wait for FP but soon I was out on the course. Unlike in Sept. the ride was non-stop and much more enjoyable. I met up with Becca, who had just gotten back from browsing through Mouse Gear and we walked through Innoventions east, this time with the intention of looking at the displays a little more in depth than we did on Friday. We walked through and saw only a couple of places we were interested in visiting so as we waited for the next showing of House of Innoventions (HoI) we sent a few E-Cards from the internet zone. After sending a couple of cards to our friends back at home we went in line for the next showing of HoI. I noticed that in the group before us was an Amish couple, now I would think that a house of Innoventions for them would be a house with indoor plumbing and electricity. The house had some great features in it, but the most amazing demonstration they had was the electric wheelchair. This was absolutely incredible; it was capable of climbing stairs and was able to go from its 4 wheels to being a 2-wheel wheelchair that stayed perfectly balanced and vertical, even when it was shoved.

Now that we had finished the East Side of Future World we crossed in front of the fountain, which was performing, and walked over to the imagination where we were just in time for the pre show of Honey I shrunk the Audience. We saw Honey in Sept but we missed the preshow so Becca was glad we were able to see it this time. After we were restored to our normal size we went on Journey in your Imagination (JIYI). I had read that it was a pretty bad ride but Becca wanted to go on it and since there was no wait so I figured there wasn't much to lose. This is another one of those rides that if I were here during peak season and had to even wait 10 minutes for it I would have been mad. After the disappointing JIYI we walked over to the Land pavilion to ride the Living with the Land boat ride. We made a quick stop to grab a bite to eat. After surveying what the Land had to offer we settled on what is probably the nutritious food that they offer, potato skins. They were really good though, plenty of sour cream and cheese. After we cleaned up from our messy snacks we took a very enjoyable ride through the greenhouse.

We didn't feel we needed to go to The Living Seas so we walked to the World Showcase where we started counterclockwise around the World Showcase Lagoon bypassing Canada to visit the Millennium Village. We took a walk through the rainforest in Brazil but skipped the mini golf at Scotland because of the line for it. We stopped briefly at Saudi Arabia, which looked to be a very informative place, although we only stopped here briefly. Our next stop was walking through the different seasons in Sweden. I thought that this was one of the most interesting displays I had ever seen. The concept and design is very well thought out. The Sweden exhibit exited at the food court. We were in the mood for something sweet so we bought a dessert from the Pacific Rim and northern Europe.

After our little snack we continued through the pavilion and stopped at the Israel exhibit. This was a very educational exhibit and with a lot of hands on fun stuff to do. I ended up staying her for about 20 minutes. We walked through the souvenir stands and left the village making our way back to the entrance to Epcot. Once we made it back to our room I changed and walked down to Grand Slam Pool. Becca wanted to rest in the room. I knew if I tried to relax in our room I would end up watching the WDW promo channel and get all anxious to go to the parks so I grabbed a lounge chair and tried to get a little color on my mid winter northern skin while I jotted down some trip notes. After lying by the pool for about 30 minutes Becca came down to the pool and joined me. We stayed here for about another 15 minutes before we walked back up to the room and got ready to go out for dinner tonight.

After showering and changing we met Dave and Tracy at the All-Star Music bus stop at 4:30. Dave and Tracy were waiting for us when we arrived and after a short wait a bus for Downtown Disney arrived and we piled in. Since it was such a beautiful night we took the bus to Pleasure Island where we walked to the West Side making our way to House of Blues for dinner. We picked HoB for a couple reasons, one is that none of had eaten here and the other was that we had a coupon that was good until 5:30 every evening.

We walked up to the counter and were seated right away. We made priority-seating arrangements just in case it was busy, When we arrived it was only about half full, better safe than sorry I guess. Not being a big fan of Cajun food I was apprehensive about eating here tonight so I decided to play it safe and I ordered the Jack Daniel's barbecue ribs. Although they weren't as good as the ribs at Rainforest Café, which are still the best ribs I've ever eaten, they were still very good. Everyone liked their food, Becca had pork, Dave had jambalaya and Tracy ordered penne pasta.

The bill came to $90.00 after the discount, including drinks. We finished up just in time to walk next door to where HoB was having a free Superbowl party. It wasn't very crowded but there were no seats or tables left, so we stood against the railing as we watched the first quarter. Dave and I wanted to stay but we decided to do some shopping and come back for the end of the game. Instead of walking to the marketplace we took the water taxi which was a very enjoyable little ride. Our main goal at the marketplace was to buy a Mickey bath mat for our newly renovated bathroom so our first stop was Disney Home where we found exactly what we wanted. From Disney Home we continued on to Days of Christmas where we bought a few ornaments for next year. We browsed through a few more shops but didn't buy anything before we stopped at Disney Gourmet where we picked up some chocolates and the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. We grabbed a table in front of the hidden Mickey water fountain and watched kids run through it as we ate our snacks.

After eating half our snacks, gotta save half for the room tonight, we walked through Team Mickey on our way to World of Disney (WoD) where we stayed for quite a bit and bought a couple souvenirs. After we left WoD we figured that there was enough time to make it back to HoB for the end of the game so we bypassed PI and took the walkway that led us under the PI footbridge and over to the West Side. Once we made it to West Side the girls said they wanted to do more shopping so we parted ways and Dave and I walked down to HoB where we watched an exciting end to a great game. The girls met us at the bar for the last minute and after the game ended we were herded out so they could start letting people in who will pay a cover. I'll say one thing for the Superbowl party; I've never seen a TV as large as they had there. After walking all evening we debated on which bus stop to grab the All-Star bus from. We decided to keep our walking to a minimum and took our chances of catching a crowded bus from the West Side. Sure enough our fears were realized and we weren't able to fit into the first bus, despite they're being enough room in the back of the bus. After the bus driver asked a couple of times for everyone to move and no one budged he closed the door and pulled away. He next bus showed up a few minutes later and was practically empty so it was for the better we waited. A short bus ride later we were back at the resort and in our room by 12:00 finishing up our snacks from Gourmet Mickey.

January 31st, Day 4;

Mickey called us at 7:30 today and an hour later we were walking out the door on our way to ASMo to meet up with T&D. We ran into Tracy, Alec and Aunt Nancy in the Dalmatian courtyard. While we were waiting for Dave I was questioned on my choice of clothes today. It was 48 deg. This morning and the forecast called for it to get warmer so I decided to wear shorts with a sweatshirt. Everyone else had jeans on and were bringing coats with them for later. After a couple minutes Dave showed up, wearing shorts, although he did have a pair of jeans for later in case it gets colder. He insisted he wasn't going to change into them. We walked to the bus stop and caught the next bus to MK.

We arrived at MK to a cold light rain and a temperature that seemed about 5 degrees colder. I was pretty cold at this point but now that I was at the park I decided to tough it out because I didn't want to waste the hour it would take to go back to the room and get warmer clothes. After a slight problem with Dave and Tracy's park hopper we were walking down a chilly Main St. We decided to grab a bite to eat and stopped in the Main St. bake shop where we ordered the usual, cheese Danish, cookies and hot chocolates all around. I was foolishly hoping that when we walked out it would have magically jumped up tot he 60 deg range but when we finally finished our snack it seemed to have gotten even colder. We braved our way through the cold to Fantasyland where after a brief stop at Sir Mickey's where Tracy bought Dave a sweater we walked to Lion King where we waited a short while for the next showing. The show was of course good but what were even better was the heaters in the theatre.

After LK we crossed the street and thought about getting in line for small world but there was about a 20 minute wait so we passed on this ride and walked down to Pooh where we picked up a Fastpass that was good in 45 minutes. To pass the time we walked down to Peter Pan, which had a 30-minute wait. Pan is well worth the wait and being around all those people helped to keep us warm. In case you can't guess it was really cold today. After Pan we walked back to Pooh just in time for the beginning of our FP time. Alec really enjoyed the ride, and we were able to all fit in the same car too.

After pooh I just couldn't handle it anymore, I decided to go back to our room and get warmer clothes. We made plans to meet at Space Mountain in about an hour. I made my way back to the park exit and was able to catch a bus that was waiting for me to take me back to ASSp. The ride back to the resort was very informative. I was the only passenger on the bus and was able to talk to the driver about happening at WDW. Most of the conversation was about the new value resort they started behind Caribbean Beach Resort. Once I got back to the room grabbed my jeans and coat and made it to the bus stop for the next bus. Before long I was walking up to MK again and I finally met up with the rest of the family at the Tomorrowland Arcade. Dave, Aunt Nancy and I went on Space Mt. together. The left side was closed so we waited with the rest of the crowd for the right side. I found the right side to be much faster and more exciting than the left and really enjoyed the ride more than I did when I was here last time.

We met up with Becca and Tracy and walked over to Buzz Lightyear where Dave had the highest score of 233,00, of course he was the only person in his car and didn't have to deal with a passenger. I had the next highest with 210,000 and Becca was just after me with 191,000. After coming in a close second we stopped at Cosmic Ray's for lunch. Becca and I have never eaten ere before but we both enjoyed this restaurant. It's a good place for a group of people to eat at because of the selections they have there. We made a stop at the fixings bar, which is always fun and finally found a seat. The food was really good, even though it was fast food type and after warming up for 45 minutes or so we were ready to head out again.

We walked to Adventureland where we walked into Pirates of the Caribbean. The queue for this ride was especially exciting, instead of being forced to the right and over the boats they had opened up the left side, the first time I have ever been along this route. It was a nice change of pace. After PoC we made our way towards Splash Mountain, picking up a churro along the way. Since it was so cold only my aunt Nancy wanted to do some rides, the rest of the group went to see Country Bear Jamboree. Because of the weather Splash Mountain was a complete walk on, we didn't stop until we sat down. With bundling up and wearing waterproof gear we managed to stay warm and dry. Since splash was so quick we figured we had time for Big Thunder Mountain. By the time we finished 2/3rds of the MK mountain range everyone else was waiting for us outside CBJ. We stopped inside Pecos Bill Café for a few hot chocolates before we went into Haunted Mansion.

HM was a fun ride, even more fun when I scared my Aunt Nancy by reaching out from our Doom Buggy and grabbing Aunt Nancy's shoulder. It gave her a good fright and the rest of us a good laugh. From HM we wanted to keep warm so we crossed the street and waited for the next showing of Hall of Presidents. After leaving a very empty HoP we took some time in the gift shop and talked about our options for the rest of the night. On a side note I was amazed at how many historical documents were available at the gift shop, and how expensive they were. Dave and Tracy decided to join us as we left MK for Epcot. Becca and I knew this would probably be the last night we could go to Epcot and we wanted to catch Tapestry of Nations.

Once we got off the monorail at Epcot our main objective was to find a place to eat. Of course we couldn't agree and we ended up walking through Future world and completely around the world showcase until we stopped at Mexico and split up so they cold eat and Becca and I could catch ton. We made plans to meet at the Land after ToN, but when the parade ended, which was very good, we couldn't find them in the Land. One word of caution on the parade, don't stand under a tree after it had rained to watch the parade, every time on of the puppets bent over we got a little sprinkle. We took a much-needed rest at the Land in hopes that T&D would show up. After 15 minutes we decided that they probably went back to the resort for the night. As it turned out they ate at Mexico for dinner and walked out as ToN ended but didn't see us, they assumed, like we did that we went back to the room.

During all the ToN confusion we totally neglected dinner so we took a walk over to Millennium Village to see what they had there. After a quick walk to the food court we realized they didn't have anything we were interested in. it was now 8:30 and decided not to torture ourselves so we walked out of the park and made our way back to ASSp and visit the food court there. I'm glad we decided to leave the park because by the time we made it to the food court we were almost too tired to pick out our food and walk up to our room. We finally made it back and enjoyed our chicken finger and child's chicken meal while watching TV in our room. We turned the TV off around 11:00 to rest up for our early morning tomorrow.

February 1st, Day 5;

The day before we had made plans to go to MGM this morning with my Aunt Nancy because she has an annual passport. Dave and Tracy, who have a hopper pass decided they were going to relax this morning and hang out around the ASM pool with Alec and save the remaining day on there passes for later in this week.

The phone rang at 8:20 this morning; it was my Aunt Nancy calling to make sure we were still on for MGM this morning. We told her of course and made plans to meet at ASMu at 9:15. 10 minutes later we got our call from Mickey that let us know there's big doings going on. We got our stuff together and walked to the ASM bus stop where Aunt Nancy was waiting for us. A very quick bus ride later and we were walking into Disney/MGM Studios at 9:30. We checked the tip board and made our way to ToT and RnRC to get on them while the lines were short.

RnRC was our first goal, one of my new favorite rides. We picked up a Fastpass for later and then jumped in line and were ushered into Studio C right away. I did notice that the studio hand was back picking up Joe Perry's guitar, what a great job. The ride was great, as usual and as we walked out Becca was sitting near the guitar/keyboard area waiting for us. We still had to visit ToT so Becca said she would wait for us until we got back from the ride. We marched right into the library then straight to the service elevator. Aunt Nancy kept telling me she couldn't believe how short the lines were; she usually comes during the peak season and waits hours for some rides. ToT was made even better by the fact that we were given a front row seat. I kept my wits about me a lot better than I normally do on this ride because I was able to see both the Tree of Life in the distance and Becca waiting for us in front of RnRC. We walked back to RnRC after ToT to meet up with Becca and walk down to our new favorite snack spot, Starring Rolls Bakery, at the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Blvd. in fact Sunset Blvd is gaining ground on Main St. at MK as my favorite place to be in all WDW. I love the atmosphere starting at the intersection with the bakery and gift shops, leading past a fruit stand, and finally to the end of the boulevard with RnRC, ToT and Fantasmic. It's a wonderful place to be.

After our morning snacks we walked to Voyage of the Little Mermaid (VoLM) but saw it had a 10-minute wait so we walked over to the animation tour which was the main reason for us coming to MGM today. When we took this tour during our last trip in Sept it was a Sunday and the animation room was empty. This time it was a Monday and the animation room was quit busy. We also saw a woman walking around with a handful of Tarzan videos that were being handed out to all the employees. The animation tour was even better than last time, thanks to us coming on a weekday. When we walked out to check on VoLM, which had an even longer wait of 25 minutes now. Aunt Nancy and I took advantage of this time to walk back down Sunset Blvd. where we went on ToT again. This time I was able to sit in the seat belt seat, always fun. After ToT we made it back to VoLM just in time to enjoy the next show. It was now 12:30 and we had gone on all the rides we wanted to so we decided to make our way back to the resort.

Originally we were going to stop by and say hi to Dave and Tracy and then continue on to do some resort hopping but when we found Dave and Tracy they were sitting with Alec at the ASMo kiddie pool. It was so relaxing that we decided that we should take it easy for the afternoon and stay at the pool with them. This was such a good idea; it was a nice change of pace sitting by the pool for a few hours. We stayed until 3:00 when we left to walk back to our room to shower and change for our dinner tonight.

We met up again at 5:00 at the ASMu bus stop where we took the bus to MGM. At MGM we walked to the boat dock and took the friendship to Y&B, this is such a great way to travel. If they don't expand the monorail system they should make waterways all around WDW and increase there Friendship fleet. Not the fastest way to travel but probably the most enjoyable. We made our way to Cape May Buffet where Aunt Nancy told us earlier this week she was taking us all out for dinner. The food was outstanding; I especially like the BBQ ribs and the potatoes. The desserts where also incredible. The whole meal was great, being a buffet we all ate way more than we should have. So much so, that we were all a little uncomfortable walking the boardwalk around after dinner. We walked towards Epcot and crossed the bridge to the Boardwalk where Dave and I stopped in at the ESPN club and had a couple drinks while we watched the Sabres game and one of the hundreds of TV's they had there. While we watched the hockey game the girls walked down the Boardwalk.

We managed to have a couple of beers at ESPN, I don't know how though; I was still so full from dinner. It was just after 8:00 when we finished our drink and Dave and Tracy decided to head back to there resort. We said our good-byes for tonight and made plans to meet up with them right before our Mears pickup tomorrow afternoon. Since we still had most of the evening we decided to walk into to Epcot and catch Illuminations 2000 since we still haven't seen it this trip. Tapestry of Nations was walking by France when we entered Epcot so we decided to head towards UK and Future world to try and find a spot to watch the show. We finally stopped at the entrance to World Showcase, along with everyone else. Since we had seen the show last trip we thought that a quick exit was more important that a good view so we stayed where we were. After the show ended we walked with the masses to the monorail stop.

The next monorail came after only a few minutes of waiting and we were on our way back to the TTC. Once at the TTC we decided to do the resort hopping we had skipped earlier so we grabbed a resort monorail and headed out towards the Polynesian Village. I especially love this resort, Tracy and I have discussed this and we think we love this resort because my Uncle Leo (Tracy's father) took the whole family to stay here in 1975. The fact that the grounds could be the most beautiful on the property, especially at night, and the view of the castle across the lagoon also help to make PV a wonderful place to walk around. After surveying the property and taking a quick peak at the castle we walked back up to the monorail and took the next train to the Grand Floridian.

At GF we stopped in the gift shop, didn't buy anything, and walked outside to walk around the grounds and back up to the monorail to continue our monorail resort hopping. When we got back on the monorail we stopped at the MK stop next, even though it was late guests were still boarding because E-Ride night had ended about 45 minutes ago. It was at this point we decided we would take one last trip around the lagoon tonight and catch the bus back to ASSp from MK. Once we were underway again we decided to skip the Contemporary and just stay in our seats until we stopped at MK again. The only problem with this was, by the time we got back to MK there was no more pickups and although the train stopped at MK the doors weren't opened so we were trapped. We considered getting off at Contemporary and walking to the MK bus stop but after all the walking we had done today we thought that we would give our feet and break and wait for the DD bus at the TTC and just transfer there.

After waiting 20 minutes and still no bus for DD we were beginning to wish we had gotten off at the Contemporary. We even considered taking a cab just to get us back to our bed but eventually a bus showed and we were on our way back to ASSp after a few stops at DD. After what seemed to be the longest walk to our room ever we crashed on the bed and were asleep by 12:00.

February 2nd, Day 6

Mickey called us at 7:00 tonight and because of our late night last night we decided to call Priority Seating and change our breakfast from 8:20 this morning to 9:15. This gave us another hour of sleep that was desperately needed. We snoozed for another hour until 8:00 when we had to wake up and get ready to go home. We called for luggage pickup and after a short wait there arrived and checked our luggage. We ended up leaving around 8:30 and arrived to a chilly MK at 8:50.

We took a slow walk down Main St. and checked in at Crystal Palace for our traditional last day breakfast. We were seated right away and saw why; the restaurant was half-empty. The breakfast was as good always and as usual we ate way too much. After breakfast we walked to Tomorrowland and started to hit a couple of our favorite rides again. We walked on to TTA and took a relaxing, and chilly, ride through Tomorrowland. Along the way we saw Space Mountain had no wait so after the ride we walked to SM and I was able to ride the right side again.

Becca met me at the exit of Space Mountain and we took the back trail to Toontown. We still hadn't been through Mickey and Minnie's house so we did that and then walked through the Toontown Hall of Fame and picked up a couple things for our friend's children. We left TT and walked to Fantasyland where we had wanted to go on It's a Small World but there was a 40-minute wait so we decided to skip it. Instead we walked over to Adventureland where we had wanted to go on Jungle cruise but the line was very long here also so we got a Fastpass in case we made it back this way a little later. We continued to Frontierland where we walked up to the station and waited for the next train.

We made a complete lap around the park and we decided we wanted a little snack before we leave the park so I left Becca at the train and she continued to Main St while I picked up a Dole Whip and Mickey Ice cream. When I made it back to the Main St station Becca was already waiting for me. We grabbed a couple seats looking down Main St at the castle and relaxed for 20 minutes. This is our favorite way to end our vacations. In our favorite park people watching. Before we left I stopped in at the Main St. Gallery and looked around while Becca bought a few Tigger treats for us to enjoy at home (I'm writing this 8 months after our trip and we still have 5 left, is that gross?).

We left the park at 1:15 and we were back to ASSp by 1:30. We grabbed our bags from the baggage claim and waited by the pool for 30 minutes before we were to catch Mears to the airport. At 2:00 we walked to the bus stop where Tracy and Dave were waiting for us. We gave them our length of stay passes which they told us afterwards did get them into AK. The bus showed up so we said our good-byes and were on our way to the airport. The flight home was non-eventful other than a long wait on the ground in Newark waiting to takeoff and before long we were back at home with our dog.

Mike Banks