Audrey Ishizaki -- January 2001 -- Polynesian, Yacht and Beach Club Resort

18Jan - 27Jan 2001

Pre planning

This is our second trip to WDW. Our first (11/99) taught me that it's never too early to start planning! I had previously panicked when I tried to arrange a November vacation in August and found that there were no on-site hotels available! Thanks to RADP, it became possible (combination off-site and on-site).

My (previously?) Disney-skeptic husband surprised me last year when he casually remarked about what we would do "next time" we came to WDW. So I started planning for our "next" vacation! My DH is also somewhat frugal, so I dropped hints about how ticket prices for kids rise at age 10... This was to cleverly force us to return to WDW before my son's 10th birthday. Then we decided to buy annual passes - so our nine year old son would be able to use his child's annual pass even after he turned 10. And, we hoped to snag some AP room rates. And we can return to WDW (!!) with one major cost already taken care of.

I had set up a Travelocity alert for flights to Orlando and got a notice in May for $158 flights on Delta. Yikes! We live on the West Coast (San Francisco Bay Area) and flights are usually *much* more expensive. Since we have frequent flier miles with United (which can be used for Delta flights), I quickly arranged to buy two flights (DHs and mine, to add to our FF miles) and used FF miles to buy our kids' flights. With taxes/charges, that came to $378 to fly all of us to Orlando (and back)!

At that time, I called and made initial reservations at the Beach Club and Polynesian hotels. No MKC discount was yet available.

In September, as soon as we heard (from RADP) the AP room rates were available for the Jan/Feb timeframe, I called and got rooms! I got a concierge room at the Polynesian (AP rates for concierge and lagoon view were the same price) and a water view room at BC. A little pricier than I wanted, but it was not a budget-buster (and I'm hoping that what with the cost of a soda at WDW, that the free continental breakfast, coupled with free sodas/water in the afternoon, the extra for the room will turn out to be a wash). Everything is starting to fall into place....

In October, I hadn't heard whether or not the AP prices were increasing, so I made the decision to buy our APs (using MKC discount) just in case the prices increased later this year, or in case the Disney Club discount wasn't as good. It has turned out that the AP passes did not increase in price until January01 and the DC discount on the passes is the same as the MKC rates. Oh well, at least it's all paid for!

At the very end of November, I received a letter from the Polynesian Concierge service (we're starting off our WDW vacation there), which asked for information about us: how many adults, children, names, ages (of the kids!), what time we were planning to arrive, if we wanted to get reservations for any shows, restaurants, if we had any special room requests, etc...

This year, I *totally* forgot to call in for a Cinderella's Royal Breakfast PS (In addition to our nine year old boy, we have a five year old girl). Hopefully, we'll get a PS thru the concierge service.

The major things are all taken care of! Flights, rooms and admission. Oh, and thanks again to RADP folks, I got our rental car reservation thru national, and got a rate (including taxes, charges) of $189/nine days for a full-size car, which sounded great to my husband (who had been traveling to FL on business a lot last year - and that price was much less than he was used to paying).

The Trip Report

There were 4 of us on this trip: my DH and I (fortyish engineers) and our two kids: Dale (9 years old) and Lyn (5 years old). This is our second trip to WDW, our first being in 11/99. Instead of rehashing our every move (which I don't remember, anyway!), let me go over highlights:

First of all, this was a *magical* trip. Many special and wonderful things happened to us during our WDW visit and we met many delightful people!

Before the magic moments, a not-so-quick, executive summary: Had a *great* time. The crowds were *very* light. The crowds may have increased slightly on the Thurs/Fri before the Super Bowl (in Tampa). We rarely had to wait in line. Even so, we went to E-Ride night and had a great time.

New Favorite Rides: My 5 year old daughter has a new favorite ride (previously It's a Small World): Carousel of Progress. She loves this and both my son and she will sing the song whenever they think about it. My son's new favorite is Test Track, which he rode 7 times in a 12 hour period (and then twice more the following morning).

My son tried many new rides this time: Rock 'n' Roller coaster, Test Track, Haunted Mansion (my DH said he didn't care for HM 30 years ago and he still doesn't care for it), HISTA, ITTBAB, Food Rocks, Body Wars, etc... My daughter tried many new things (for her), but didn't care for the 3D movies (too scary), PoC (also too scary). She *loved* FoLK at AK and the World Showcase Players at Epcot. Next time, we need to try more shows at Disney Studios. Of all the parks, we spent the least amount of time here and missed the most rides/shows.

Fairly cheap eating: We ate mostly counter service and did not have to eat burgers and fries all the time! We frequented Yakitori House in the Japan Pavilion (while we were at Beach Club) because my son missed having Japanese rice ($.99/bowl). Otherwise, we ate at all sorts of counter service places, getting salads, wraps, stir fry, pasta/breadsticks, satay, potstickers, eggrolls, as well as the infrequent burger (some places had *great* topping bars). My DD also had her first (of many) eggroll at Adventureland and is now hooked. I have to comment on the *sublime* order of breadsticks we got one morning at Epcot's Pasta Piazza: just after they opened at 10:30, we stopped to buy breadsticks (the compromise accepted by my son instead of getting his request of donuts at FountainView Plaza)- they must have *just* come out of the oven and were hot and soft with just enough bite in the crust. Dipped into the hot marinara sauce (which my son forsook), it was heavenly. *sigh* We also went to two character meals: Cinderella's Royal Table (breakfast with the princesses, as per my daughter's request) and Chef Mickey's (dinner with Chip and Dale, for my son). Character interaction was fine, food was fine, just not *memorable*.

OMG, the kids *loved* pin trading. Okay, okay, so did I. I had bought some pins from ebay before we left, but it naturally wasn't enough. The best deal was to go to AK and buy the 5 AK pin set/$18. We would then trade these. My son started collecting the Epcot Mickey heads with the country flags. He got all but two before we left (Japan and Morocco). My daughter was more eclectic, trading for pins she liked, but with no theme. I traded for pins *I* liked, or thought unusual. I think I'm going to start collecting castles. Plus, I like pins from the international parks. We can't wait until we return later this year (hopefully) and have started already checking out ebay. What I like best about pin trading is that it gave us license to walk up to strange people and start talking to them! Especially in Epcot, where we could talk to CMs from other countries.

Onto the Magical Moments:

Because our flights were on Delta (and Delta's been canceling flights lately), I was worried about our flights. We had no problem: our flights were uneventful and on-time. The airline remembered the kids meals I had requested for the kids.

Because I had taken the kids out of school for this trip, one of the things my older son had to do was find out the temperatures at the places we landed (so he could convert them from Fahrenheit to Celsius). On our San Jose - Salt Lake City - Orlando flights, the pilots did not tell us (via the speaker) what the temperatures were at our landing points, so I had my son ask the pilots as we left the plane. In Orlando, that led to the kids being asked into the cockpit, where they could sit in the pilot and copilots seats (and wear their hats!). My son, the smart- aleck, had to ask, "Where's the ray gun?". The pilots thought that was funny and found a way to make some funny sounds in the cockpit for the kids. I finally found my camera and got their picture. The pilots were *very* nice and that was our first magical moment of the trip.

Another magical/wonderful part of our stay: As a concierge guest, I got sent a form to fill out that included any PSs we wanted to make. As I had forgotten to call at that magic 60 day mark for a Cinderella Royal Table breakfast, I hoped that the concierge would be able to swing the PS. I called 3 days before we were to arrive to check if they had indeed been able to get the PS (my daughter wanted to wear a special dress - I wanted to know if we should pack it). At that time, we *hadn't* gotten the PS, but the man at the concierge desk said that the restaurant will open up more tables 2 days prior, so that they would make a note to try for us. I'm not sure if that's also available to us regular folk, but it's more info for the CRT lore! It ended up that we *did* get the exact reservation we wanted, thanks to Nina at the concierge desk!

Some comments about the Polynesian Resort: Loved it! The rooms were large and very quiet. The grounds were beautiful. Concierge service was more than we expected. We stayed in the Hawaii building. Continental breakfast was served in the lounge from 7-10:30am: juice, coffee, sweet rolls, cereals, English muffins, bagels and fruit. Juice boxes and ice cold water bottles were available, if you were on your way to the parks. In fact, iced soft drinks and water bottles were available all day. The lounge was just down the hall from us and had a gorgeous view toward MK - you could see the castle! >From 12-4 the lounge had lemonade, iced drinks, cookies and some sand buckets filled with candy (gummy worms, m&ms, fruit-shaped candy) for the kids. >From 5-7 the lounge served appetizers: each night had a theme - we hit Italian (pasta in red sauce, meatballs in marinara, marinated veggies, with sandwiches for the kids), "Eastern" and some other night. Desserts were served from 8-10pm.

We would generally eat our breakfast there, grab drinks whenever we went thru, stop and eat a snack at appetizer time, which would hold us adults so that we would get counter service for the kids for dinner, then we adults could snack and get whatever we wanted. This worked well for us.

Our next magical moment was our first evening at Epcot. We were strolling down the main walkway and stopped to talk to the DVC man, mostly because he had a pin lanyard on. We may have traded with him (or not), but we chatted for a while (he was recently retired and moved down to FL to fulfill a lifelong dream to work for WDW). He ended up giving the kids DVC buttons, then gave each kid a DVC pin! We never even talked about DVC, though I am secretly lusting over it.

We had many magical moments at Epcot. Another came via pin-trading. We met another CM, Subash, who worked custodial and audience control. We met him and traded several pins away from him (my son started collecting the Epcot Mickey heads with the country flags). We later saw him while we were waiting in Japan for the 6:30pm Tapestry of Nations parade to start. He remembered us and told us a better place to stand for the parade (he was right - I got some great photos!). When we saw him later (when the parade was almost done) he let the kids hold the rope that marked the end of the parade! Then he told us to find him around eight o clock before the next parade and he'd let the kids hold the ending rope from Morocco - Germany! He got the kids "honorary" CM passes to put around their necks and after the parade ended in Morocco, they held the rope marking the parade's end all the way to Germany. The kids waved and smiled and felt like they were part of the parade! Subash then showed us a *great* spot to watch Illuminations from near the American Pavilion - the crowd was light that night and we had our best view of Illuminations *ever*! Subash was from New Zealand and was returning home within the next day or two.

Also in Epcot (we spent a lot of time in Epcot...), my daughter came across a CM with a pin she wanted. My daughter wanted a Minnie playing tennis pin to give to her teacher, who loves to play tennis. My daughter, who is fairly shy/quiet with strangers explained this to the CM, while making the trade - the CM told her he would *give* the pin to her. I think the CM didn't want my son to feel left out, so he gave my son the mini-basket- ball that he had been playing with (outside MouseGear). So nice!

At MGM, my daughter and husband waited to watch the Mulan parade while my son and I rode RnR and TT (twice). She was one of the lucky ones to get handed a fan from the parade - she was way too shy to accept it, but my DH finally accepted it for her. It's a prized possession, now!

I wanted to comment on an incident in the TT boiler room line: my son and I were behind a "gang" of teenage boys, who wanted to ride together. I had disparaging thoughts about them and how boisterous I'm sure they would be and how I was afraid we'd get "stuck" riding with them. The CM needed two people to fill up a row and was looking further back in the line, requesting two people, when a couple of the boys ahead of us told the CM, "hey, there's two right here", pointing to us. I felt very bad that I had these awful, prejudiced thoughts about those boys and thanked them as we went up to the elevator. I know there was another one of these humbling experiences where I pre-judged someone(s) by their looks and they completely acted differently than I expected. Good lesson for me.

My son had a magical moment at Epcot, visiting with Dale from the character bus. My son, Dale, really wanted an autograph from Dale the chipmunk. Our first meeting with Subash came from his telling us about some baby ducks near Japan. While we were oohing-ahhing over them, he told us that the character bus was coming in a few minutes. I can't get over how nice he was! After the character bus came, we went and found Dale, who did not have many visitors. My son got his autograph, and then told Dale that his name was Dale, too! Dale (chipmunk) gave a long look at my son, then made a gesture of lengthening his nose, a la Pinocchio, while looking pointedly at my son. WE all laughed, but I verified that my son's name, was, indeed, Dale! Dale amended his autograph in my son's book to read, "To Dale:" and at the end, he wrote, "Is your sister's name Chip?" I got some cute pictures of both kids with Dale, who spent a lot of time with my kids waiting for the next autograph seeker to appear. just magic!

We had one glorious January day where the temperatures were in the mid 80s. We swam at the pool and rented water sprites. They had a special of 1/2 hour for $20? and 1 hour for $28 (or some such similar numbers, and I got a discount for using an AmEx card). What fun we had! My son and I went all the way over to the water area between the Contemporary and the Wilderness Lodge. Later, we all strolled on the beach and lay in hammocks. Ahh, this, too was *magic*! (note: the temperature dropped 20 degrees the next day!)

Near the end of our trip, we scheduled a dinner at Chef Mickey's at 5pm. Afterward, we shopped at the Contemporary. At that point, we were staying at the Beach Club and decided to get back by taking the monorail to the TTC, the monorail to Epcot then walk back thru Epcot.

We'd stayed at the Polynesian in the earlier part of our trip and never was able to ride in the front of the monorail.

That evening, there was already someone waiting in front of us (a dad and his two small girls). My son mentioned (loudly), do you think we could ride in the front of the monorail? I said (more quietly), no, these other people are in front of us, they probably asked first. So, when the monorail appeared, the dad ahead of us asked about riding in the front, but the CM said, no, this little boy asked first, pointing to our son! So the kids and I rode in the front, while my DH (who isn't as excited about such things), rode in the second car (along with the dad and his little girls) so he wouldn't have to fold up our stroller. Now that was magic enough, getting to ride in the front, but then, as we were going to the TTC (sob, such a short ride!), the driver pointed out the fireworks from MK! Wow! And, I remembered to ask for our co-pilots licenses! My DH later commented that it was a good thing for the monorail driver that we were up front because at least one of the little girls badly needed a diaper change...

Then, at the TTC, the kids got to ride up front again (only two spots available)! As they say, when it rains, it pours! And don't forget - it never hurts to ask!

Wow, still reading? Kudos to you!

Other comments from 9 days at WDW:

After Fantasmic one evening, the line to the boats was so long, we tried the walking path back to the Boardwalk area - very nice! We certainly beat the boat that was loading as we started back to the Boardwalk area.
Funniest comment heard at WDW- at Disney Studios, I overheard a woman, commenting to her companion, "Do you think there's a gift shop near here?"
I tried using a pedometer, a la WDW1972, which I sometimes remembered, but sometimes buttons got pushed inadvertently. Anyhow, we generally logged somewhere between 5-10 miles per day.
I was able to try many of the recommended foods I found on this list, even though we did not go to many (any) sit down restaurants other than buffets. One day!
I wanted to catch the Hall of Presidents, but seemed to have missed it by one day! At least, the day we tried, there was someone there chasing everyone away (only can see the rotunda?). I didn't remember seeing this when we walked by earlier in the week. They said it would be September when it reopened.
We watched Miyuki at the Japan pavilion make wonderful candy animals and my son was even selected to choose (on our 3rd time watching!)! He picked a turtle, which only suffered minor damage on our trip home! We were flabbergasted when she made an eagle - the feathers look so great. And what else at WDW can you get for free?
After we got home, one evening, I played the Millennium celebration CD. The kids recognized it right away, and my daughter, in her best announcer voice, remembered the lead-in to Illuminations (which I would recount right here, but I can't remember it at all!)!
We tried many new rides/shows at each park, but we still have a lot of attractions/shows left to try:

at AK, I really want to see (but didn't):

Flights of Wonder
the komodo dragon (too cold on our visit) at DMGM:
The Great Movie Ride
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Muppetvision 3D
at Epcot:

we missed lots of rides here - plus, I furtively tried to spot Paragon
in Mexico, but caught nary a glimpse.
at MK:

Still haven't ridden Space Mountain here!
We even completely missed Toon Town.
And, really, there's more at each park that we missed, but these are the ones I *really* wanted to try. Just goes to show - it will take a lot of trips until we see everything! And I haven't even mentioned the restaurants, food or resorts!

A humorous aside: my husband/son sat together on flights, usually on planes where there were 3 seats on either side of an aisle. My DH inadvertently discovered a way to clear out that 3rd seat: If your nine year old is sitting in the middle seat and starts playing with the airsickness bag and making pretend retching noises, this cleared out the third seat two out of two times!

We plan (tentatively) to return to WDW around Thanksgiving, so we can use our annual passes one more time before they expire. It will probably be a few years after that before we return to Florida. I'm thinking we'll have to go visit Anaheim DL/DCA in 2002 sometime. And we're bandying about going to Japan the year after that (my mother would really love to show off her grandchildren to relatives), so maybe we can see TokyoDL and TokyoDS! So, the saving begins! But I've found that the dreaming, planning and anticipation are really half the fun!

Meal Report

Just to show what costs might be for a family of four (two adults, one 9 year old boy, one 5 year old girl).

Caveats: we managed to stay in a concierge room for 4 nights, which offset some food costs. We would eat (continental) breakfast at the concierge lounge and grab bottled waters/sodas/cookies in the afternoon. In the evening, we'd generally stop and my DH and I would eat the appetizers, which would generally hold us for dinner. My kids are picky eaters and would sometimes eat the appetizers, but usually not, so we'd get dinner for them. When we moved to Beach Club (non-concierge), my husband bought a box of cereal, crackers and some bottled water at a grocery store, which supplemented some breakfasts and snacks.

We generally ate at counter service restaurants, except for two character meals and some stops at the hotel restaurant (Kona Cafe at the Polynesian and Beaches & Cream at the BC). Note a lot of trips to Yakitori House (since we were at Beach Club) because my son loves "Japanese" rice. I may have missed some snacks along the way - my DH didn't save receipts like I did. And, it seems like we couldn't walk past the Canada pavilion without getting a beavertail!

And what is it with eggrolls and "duck" sauce? On the west coast, we *never* see duck sauce with eggrolls. It's almost always served with a red "sweet/sour" sauce. Does anybody know what packaged sauce is served with eggrolls at Disneyland? Is duck sauce an east coast thing?

and onto the costs:

18jan2001 Thursday (very late arriving flight)

late night (11pm!) snack @ Waffle House $7.26 (not including tip)

child's waffle
child's scrambled egg + raisin toast
bowl of soup
single order hash browns
19jan2001 Friday

[breakfast at concierge lounge]

lunch at Kuna Cafe $35.45 + tip ($42)

Caesar salad
potstickers
noodle soup with grilled steak
child's grilled cheese (triple decker) w/fries
milk, juice
[evening snack at concierge lounge]

Epcot: Pasta Piazza $18.34

pepperoni pizza (shaped like Mickey)
breadsticks
side Caesar
soda, juice, hot chocolate
Epcot: Beavertail from Canada $3.00

cinnamon sugar
Epcot: HR Fish & Chips $6.63
2 pieces fish, fries
Friday Total: $69.97

20jan2001 Saturday

[breakfast at concierge lounge]

lunch at AK: $16.75

2x chicken satay
2x Asia soup/potstickers
snacks @ AK: $3.00

pretzel

ice cream sandwich $2.50

[evening snack at concierge lounge]

MK: Plaza Pavilion $15.22

Pizza/breadsticks
chicken strips w/fries
juice, hot chocolate
Saturday Total $37.47

21jan2001 Sunday

breakfast @ Cinderella's Royal Table $52.79 +tip

lunch @ MK Cosmic Ray's $8.33

1/4 dark w/ mashed potatoes
apple juice, med soda
hamburger w/ fries ?~$6 (lost receipt!)
milk
Adventureland Eggroll ?~$6

3x eggrolls
[evening snack at concierge lounge]

Polynesian/Cooks' $5.72

pepperoni pizza
Sunday total: ~$89.

22jan2001 Monday

[breakfast at concierge lounge]

am snack at Epcot: The Land food court $4.22

2x bagels
Epcot: France Bakery $6.80

baguette
chocolate éclair (split 3 ways!)
large soda
lunch @ Epcot:

Epcot: Tangierine Cafe $7.37

Mediterranean flat bread (disappointingly like chicken quesadilla)
Epcot: Yakitori House $7.24

beef udon
rice
Beach Club: Beaches and Cream $11.54 + tip

2x chocolate ice cream
onion rings (for me!)
Dinner @ Boardwalk/Epcot/Boardwalk:

Boardwalk: Spoodles pizza takeout $3.45

pepperoni pizza
Epcot: Lotus Blossom Cafe $6.36

kids fried rice/eggroll
fortune cookies (kids thought too lemony)
juice
3eggrolls (my DD liked the eggrolls) $3.29
Boardwalk: Spoodles pizza takeout $3.45

pepperoni pizza
Monday Total: ~$56.

23jan2001 Tuesday

[breakfast in room]

AK: Tusker's Bakery $4.35

cinnamon roll
hot chocolate
lunch @ MGM: Commissary $22.48

2x child's nuggets/fries
vegetable stir fry/noodles
chicken yakitori/rice
large soda, kids lemonade, milk
dinner @ MK: Pecos Bill $24.75

Chicken wrap w/ carrots
Hamburger basket/fries
chicken salad
large soda juice, milk
MK: Casey's corner $3.23

hotdog
MK: Main St. Bakery ?~$12 (lost receipt)

chocolate cake
3xchocolate chip cookies
juice
Tuesday Total: $65.81

24jan2001 Wednesday

Boardwalk Bakery $7.95

2x bagels
hard roll
2x juices
lunch@Epcot:

Epcot: Lotus Blossom Cafe $3.29

egg rolls
Epcot: African Outpost $3.13

mint cone
Epcot: Canada $3.00

cinnamon Beavertail
Epcot: Norway Kringla Bakery $9.54

chocolate cake (sjokolade kakke)
turkey sandwich
milk
Epcot: Tangierine Cafe $10.34

Chicken sandwich
large soda
Epcot: Yakitori House $16.16

beef udon
chicken/rice ("shogun")
milk, juice
Beach Club: Beaches and Cream $4.19

chicken soup
Wednesday Total: $57.60

25jan2001 Thursday

Boardwalk Bakery $6.89

2x bagels
2x oj
Beach Club: Beaches and Cream $4.72

bagel
2x cereal (cheerios)
lunch @ Epcot: Yakitori House $11.78

child's combo (chicken/rice)
yakitori/chicken/rice
side rice
juice
Adventureland: eggroll ~$2

Dinner @ Contemporary: Chef Mickey's $67.63+tip

Thursday Total: ~$105

26jan2001 Friday

Epcot: FountainView $6.39

donuts
pecan croissant
oj
Epcot: Canada $3.00

cinnamon beavertail
Beach Club: gift shop $2.39

Pringles
lunch @ MGM: Backlot Express $29.26 (not very express this day)

chicken sandwich /fries
hamburger /fries
hamburger /apple
chicken Caesar salad
large soda, juice, hot chocolate
MGM: Commissary $2.91

small soda, milk
dinner @ Fantasmic:

MGM: Catalina Eddies ~$6.00

pepperoni pizza
MGM: Fantasmic $5.00

caramel corn
Beach Club: Beaches & Cream $9.22

chicken soup,
chocolate ice cream
large soda
Friday Total: ~$61.78

27jan2001 Saturday

Beach Club: Beaches & Cream $11.56

2x bagels
banana
2x cereal
2x oj
Epcot: Pasta Piazza ?~$12.27

2xbreadsticks
bottled water
Epcot: Canada $3.00

cinnamon/sugar beavertail
DD: Market Place $2.65

lemonade
(late lunch at waffle house on way to airport)

Audrey Ishizaki