Trip Reports
02-20-2007, 10:07 AM
Amy Gourley -- May 2002 -- Walt Disney World (CSR)
May 16-22, 2002
Cast of characters
Peggy, my mother-in-law, 20+ trips to WDW
Grant, 23, my brother-in-law, 20+ trips to WDW
Jason, 27, my husband, 20+ trips to WDW
Amy, 26, me, 8th trip to WDW
Planning
Jason and I had not been to Walt Disney World (WDW) since our mini-trip in March 2001. We were looking to do another shorter trip (less than a week) in 2002 to see the 100 years celebration. Looking at the family schedule, we decided a good time to go would be in mid-May, the week after Grant's graduation in college
When Disney started doing the cutbacks in October, we considered whether we really wanted to go on the trip. We were particularly disappointed by the cancellation of early entry and the closing of the Carousel of Progress. Jason and I both feel a strong sense of history of the resort (Jason in particular because he has been going there essentially yearly since before he can remember) and see the cutbacks as a continuation of the removal of the quality elements that distinguish Disney from its competition. Jason thinks that a history of the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue could be used as a metaphor for the cutbacks over the years. (The menu used to have corn-on-the-cob, corn muffins and corn chips with salsa, and the table had many little knick-knacks on it that could be taken home as souvenirs, such as a large decorative menu. These have all been eliminated over the years.)
We were casually looking for airfares over the fall and in January found $94 round trips out of Baltimore to Orlando nonstop on Southwest. Deal of a lifetime we figured. Well lightening has actually struck twice because Jason and I are also planning a December trip to Disneyland after snagging $158.50 roundtrip from Washington National to Santa Ana/Orange County, CA on Continental. (Stayed tuned for that trip report in late December).
With the elimination of Early Entry we didn't feel particularly compelled to stay on property. After all, if Disney considered Early Entry to be a perk to get people to stay on property, if they eliminate it they should expect to lose customers. We have always stayed on property, but were upset enough that we actually made reservations to stay off property the entire trip. However in early February I found a discount code on www.mousesavers.com that brought the price of staying at the moderates under $100. We also found it attractive because it had a discounted version of the Discover Magic package option. Jason and I enjoy going to Disney's full service restaurants, so we figured it would be a good way to save money. Our success with the package will be analyzed at the end of the report. So we compromised and stayed four nights at Coronado Springs, and the nights at the beginning and ending of the trip at the Hampton Inn - Maingate East.
For car rental, we made a reservation with a $137.99 weekly rate for a standard car ($176.64 after fees and gouges) made far in advance via National's website using an Entertainment book double upgrade coupon that was never confiscated. A diligent check of rates after the reservation was made never yielded a rate any lower.
Thursday, May 16
After a full day of work for Jason and a half-day for me, our goal was to get from Alexandria, VA (suburb just south of DC) to Baltimore, MD in time for our 9 PM flights. Peggy and Grant were driving down from the northern suburbs of Philadelphia to meet us for dinner. The reason we were all flying together, instead of the usual plan of having the northerners fly out of the Philadelphia area, was the great airfare Jason found on Southwest. We were to meet at the food court of Arundel Mills Mall just south of the airport at 6:00 for a leisurely dinner before heading to the airport. We left a little before 5, figuring even with bad traffic, we would get there at 6:15 at worst. Because of what must have been the worst traffic in the history of a Washington DC Thursday (seriously, even the traffic reporter on the radio sounded amazed) we got there about 6:45. We wolfed down our food, (Sbarro for Jason, Taco Bell for me) and headed out.
We got to the airport and parked a little after 7. We were in a bit of a rush as we didn't know what to expect in terms of check-in and security lines. We saw a parking lot shuttle bus lumbering along towards our stop, and knowing the random frequency BWI runs these buses, we hurried so we wouldn't have to wait for the next one. After Jason got out of the car and was opening the trunk, I put Jason's backpack with all our important papers in it on the driver's seat so that Jason would be sure to pick it up. We got all of the luggage out and made it to the bus just in time. After riding about a half mile through the parking lot, I asked Jason if he had picked up the backpack. He looked puzzled. He said that he thought I had it. We realized that it was still in the car. Jason said that he would go get it and meet the three of us in the terminal at Southwest check-in. The bus we were on was very crowded, so Jason, Grant and I were sitting in the back of the bus, but Peggy could only find a seat up front. At the next stop Jason got up, yelled to his mom at the front that he was going back for the backpack, and jumped out the rear doors. The bus driver, thinking he was talking to her, said something like "Ok, whatever".
Jason ran and he ran and he ran. He got the car and there was the backpack, right were I left it. Not wanting to take the time to do the bus grand tour of the parking lot, he started running back to the point where the buses leave the lot. About half way there he could run not more. So then he walked. He got to the bus exit, flagged down an empty bus (the one Grant, Peggy and I were on was packed to the gills - go figure) and off he went to the terminal.
Peggy, Grant and I got to the terminal, and waited for Jason before we got in the check-in line. Amazingly, he arrived only about a minute after we did. Knowing that buses don't arrive every minute on average, this says something about how BWI likes to run all there buses close together and then have a long wait if you don't get one of the buses in the cluster (past experience supports this theory), but I guess it worked out well for us this time. We got through check-in and security with minimal waits. Our flight was delayed about 40 minutes, so it arrived in Orlando 40 minutes late.
Got our bags back with minimal hassle, and we were off to National car rental. Jason waited in line for about five to ten minutes and presented the print out of the reservation to the agent. The agent typed away for a while, then looked puzzled. The agent asked Jason if he is an Emerald Club member. Jason is. The agent wanted to know why Jason didn't skip the counter and go to the Emerald aisle like he was supposed to. Jason said that the computer told him to go to the counter when the reservation was made, so here he is. The agent said that it was not necessary, and he could go right to the Emerald aisle. A pleasantly handled conversation, but a waste of ten minutes as the clock was ticking towards midnight.
We crossed the street and got to the Emerald aisle. It was full of cars, at least 20 to choose from. Jason, Grant and I, being the type of people we are, had to check out each one, even though the clock was approaching midnight. For whatever reason we passed on the roomy Chevrolet Malibus' and took a red Mitsubishi Gallant all the way at the end of the aisle. Maybe it was because it was red, maybe because it looked cool, I dunno. Odd thing about it is that there is no keyhole for the trunk; the only way we could figure to get in was to unlock the driver's door and use the release there.
We made an unplanned detour through Celebration, as we made a wrong tour on our way to the Hampton Inn Maingate East. I had been wanting to see Celebration, but not in the dark. It was interesting to see how everything looked new and very similar architecturally. The Hampton is a good, clean hotel that recognized our Hilton Honors Gold status with bottled water, cheese cracker sandwiches and cookies waiting in both room. Finally to sleep, at about 1 AM.
Friday, May 17
We got up today around 7:00, had our complimentary breakfast (Krispy Kreme donuts!) and headed to WDW. We are staying at Coronado Springs for the first time. Grant and Peggy were in one room and got the package for room and park tickets. Looking back at our eating patterns over our last couple of trips (see previous trip reports) Jason and I decide to get the Discovery Magic plan. This plan varies from the one the Peggy and Grant got mostly in that it gives us 16 magic wishes (2 per person per night). The wishes can be used for a variety of things such as souvenirs, golf, water boat rentals, meals, etc. The plan also included pins and preferred viewing for parades and nighttime shows (we tried to use it for Magic Kingdom (MK) fireworks, but they were "all full") If we assign these minor benefits no value (the only ones we used were the pins), one can take the difference in price between the two packages and divide by 16 to yield a per wish price of $33.43. Sometimes as in the cost of the souvenirs, a wish costs more than what we would have paid for it in cash. So we decided we would get the best value out of them by using them for meals. For meals a wish can be used for one appetizer, one soft drink (no smoothies, milkshakes, etc), one entrée, one dessert and one after dinner coffee/tea. (Rules for a la carte breakfast are slightly different, but we never used them for this). It can also be used for buffets and for dinner shows. The wish will also cover tax and a 15% tip. Disney is rather vague about how the wishes can be used, when we called to ask questions about them, one reservation agent said they were nontransferable. After thinking about what that meant and how we intended to use the wishes, we called back a spoke to another agent and asked specifically if we could use the wishes to pay for the Hoop-Dee-Doo for all four of us. The agent said we could. The agent said they were ours and we could "do whatever we want with them". This seemed to be a conflict, but because Disney would not provide written rules about their use, all we could do was head to Disney and see what happens. One of the reservation agents we talked to also said that Bongos at Downtown Disney does not accept wishes, but it turned out that they do. Detailed analysis of the cost effectiveness of the wishes for us can be found at the end of the report.
We got checked-in with minimal hassles. We had to ask for the instructions booklet on the magic wishes. We next went over to guest services and made a few priority seating (PS) changes. We then asked to have our Hoop-Dee-Doo reservation for the next night ticketed and paid for via the magic wishes. The cast member (CM) typed away for a while. He looked puzzled. The CM typed some more. Jason asked if he could help. The CM said there was a problem processing the wishes. Jason pointed out that only one room had wishes, but we wanted all four reservations paid for with wishes as we were told would be possible when the reservation was made. The CM said doing so would be "unethical" but because we were told ahead of time that it would be allowed that the CM would do it anyway. It was done. We felt bad about doing something "unethical", but Disney's unwillingness to disclose the rules ahead of time, and the fact that we were told specifically that doing this was ok ahead of time and used that assurance in part of our decision to buy the package in the first place made us feel justified in taking the exception. Your mileage may vary.
I headed over to the Coronado Springs gift shop to pick up the Discovery Magic pins, one for me and one for Jason. The design was Goofy in an airplane. The blister pack indicated that the pin was from "Walt Disney Travel Co. Inc.". We dropped Peggy and Grant off at Epcot at around 9:30. The parking lot was nearly empty. Peggy reported that crowds were very light. Jason and I then headed out for a day at Kennedy Space Center.
We arrived back at WDW around 4 PM and decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom for a while before our dinner at Artist's Point. We decided to park at the Wilderness Lodge. We showed our Coronado Springs parking pass to the security who asked us if he could help us. We said that we were going to look around the resort and have dinner at Artist Point (which was true). He let us through. Jason came up with a great idea! When we were at the space center we had trouble finding the car. He said we should take a picture of where we parked it with the digital camera so that we can look at the picture using the preview feature when we needed to find it again! LOL! From the WL, we took a boat to the MK. While waiting for the boat, I pulled out my book to read. I have never brought a book to the parks to read before but it helped when waiting in lines for buts and such but I never read while waiting for an attraction. Grant brought a book too and Jason called both of us nerds.
It was a really hot day and we were really thirsty so our first stop was for a Coke at the Tomorrowland Terrace. Tomorrowland was really crowded, so we decided not to do Buzz Lightyear, our traditional first ride, first. (It's also a tradition to not wait in line for Fastpass (FP) attractions if we can help it). So we Fastpassed it and rode Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA) first. I waved at the people in Space Mountain as usual, wondering if anyone ever sees me. I was disappointed to hear that even the narration in the TTA mentioning the Carousel of Progress (COP) was taken out. COP is my favorite ride and I kept hoping that perhaps it would reopen when we were there, but alas, no. There was no narration for Timekeeper either, which I had already noticed in our last visit. While waiting for the Buzz FP, we walked through some of the restaurants and shops to check out the menus and merchandise. The audio-animatronic alien was entertaining away in Cosmic Ray's. Grant reported that there was a live band there earlier that day.
We headed over to Fantasyland. We stopped by the Pooh shop to look for Piglet merchandise. Piglet is my favorite character but he is way underrepresented in merchandise. There will be an item in every other Hundred Acre character except Piglet! I bought a little hair tie with a cute Piglet on it. We rode Snow White since it had a short line. We noticed that the former Fantasyland Skyway station area has now been turned into a meet and greet, and Snow White was there. Do all old attractions become meet and greets?
We decided to go on the Haunted Mansion even though a 20 minute wait was posted. It turned out to be a walk on. Passing the Partners Statue, we saw a duck and a bunch of cute baby ducklings. Finally, our Buzz FP was ready. Somehow I ended up with 809,200 points. I have never done that well before! I had over 300,000 points by the end of the first room so I don't know what good targets I hit! Jason only had 100,000 points so I beat him for the first time. We even took a picture to prove my score.
We headed back to the WL and met up with Peggy and Grant for our 7 PM PS at Artist Point. When the server first arrived, we explained that two of us were on wishes and two of us were ordering a la carte. We were going to get appetizers to share between the four of us, but there was nothing Peggy and Grant were too excited about so we just ended up having our own appetizer. Jason got the grilled venison medallion on cannellini bean and asparagus salad with apple vinaigrette while I ordered the field greens with goat cheese toast and balsamic chive dressing (we got a menu to take home). Jason thought it was ok, but didn't like the venison, which he had never had before. I really enjoyed the field greens. I don't like dressings too much but this one was pretty good and not too heavy.
Throughout the meal, the server poured the four of us water from an expensive looking bottle which we had not ordered. We ordered the following entrees-Peggy-grilled filet of beef, Grant-air chilled free range chicken, Jason-grilled buffalo top sirloin, Amy-pan-seared veal tenderloin. Everyone enjoyed their meals. To share for dessert, we got the chai tea cheesecake and chocolate cake with brandied cherries. The cheesecake was very, very good and the chocolate cake was just ok, nothing special. When we got the bill, it turned out that the water was our after dinner coffee/tea. This was fine with us because we didn't intend to use that part of the wish. The bill revealed that our $66.86 worth of wishes netted us $130.02 worth of food.
I had really wanted to go swimming after the long, hot day, but after dinner it was thunder storming. We went back to the room. I read and Jason and Grant went to Disney Quest for a while. I was asleep by time Jason got back around midnight.
Saturday, May 18
We were up at 7:30 to head over to MGM for the 9 opening. I think this was the first time I've been there at opening time. Finally saw the Sorcerer Mickey Hat icon (BAH), it's ok but I still don't like that it hides Mann's Chinese theater. We headed towards Rock and Roller Coaster (RNRC) with many other guests. We waited in line for about 10 minutes until they said that the ride was having technical difficulties. We then headed to Tower of Terror (ToT), had a very short wait despite now having to absorb the line from RNRC too. I love this ride!
We shared a quick breakfast of a sticky bun and grapefruit cake at Starring Rolls. We got a fast pass for Millionaire and headed to check out One Man's Dream. It was good exhibit with lots of models. I liked the Designing Disney Theme Parks traveling exhibit better, but this was still a very good exhibit. We also watched the movie after touring the exhibit.
Next we had a quick lunch at Rosie's All American Café. I went to get chicken strips while the others went to get pizza. After I tried to pay for my order using my Disney room card, the cast member said I had to use on of the Discovery Magic wishes, the she couldn't just charge it to the room. I told her I didn't want to use a wish (the order was only $6.33) and cancelled my order. We had Peggy go up and order my chicken strips, since she is not on the Discovery Magic plan. Jason loves the pizza here and the chicken strips were pretty good too.
After eating, we went to play Millionaire. It was pretty fun! I was a little confused when to exactly press the answer buttons but I figured it was after the keypad lit up. I must have missed that part in the instructions. The last player of the session got up to the 250,000 point level. At the scores at the very end, Jason ended up at the #8 slot, despite having missed one of the earlier question, but getting all of the later ones right. We guess that this means that at most 7 people in the audience got all seven right. Or maybe it's better to answer immediately and be wrong than to think about for a while and get it right.
We immediately got another set of Fastpasses for the show. Next we did Star Tours and Muppets 4-D, and then it was time for Millionaire again. This time, when the scores were checked after the 1000 point question, Peggy was in the #1 slot and Grant was #3. But then they dropped down and didn't make the hot seat. Peggy and Grant used the strategy of pressing the button for the correct answer repeatedly as fast as possible as soon as the D answer is read. Jason, who also got all the questions leading to the point level correct but did not get on the leader board, used the strategy of waiting for the lights above the buttons to light up and then pressing the correct button. I used the same strategy as Jason but never made it to the board.
We decided next to park hop to Epcot and all pretty much did our own thing. Peggy just walked around. Grant went all the way from the Epcot main entrance to the Refreshment Outpost in World Showcase just to get a root beer float. Jason had advised him that such a trek was not necessary and he could get one somewhere in Future World, but he could not be deterred. Jason tried to go to the single rider line of Test Track, but the ride was closed. He then took some pictures of the soon to be Mission: Space, and soaked up some purple walled and floored atmosphere in the Electric Umbrella (it will always be the Stargate Restaurant to him) It has good pizza too, but it was better "back in the day". Jason and Grant later met up in Innoventions West to play a hockey game.
My goal was to get a kaki gori in Japan. First, I made a mandatory stop at the pin station. I didn't trade as much as in previous trips. At this stop, I got a Piglet from the Disney Store Japan from a girl from Japan. It was another hot day, and my throat was really dry. I was tired and didn't know if I really wanted to walk around the whole World Showcase for a kaki gori. I didn't really want to wait for the boats, which were not there, so off I went. I noticed that the beavertail stand was closed in Canada. Along the way, I thought many times of just getting one of the frozen ice drinks in the stands I saw along the way, but I really wanted the kaki gori so I trudged on. Finally, I arrived in Japan. I got a rainbow kaki gori (strawberry, tangerine, honeydew) which was a little cheaper than the other frozen ice things I saw along the way, and sat on a bench for a while before walking around the rest of the World Showcase. I looked a little bit at the Flower and Garden show, but mainly made my way back to Future World. I stopped at Ice Station Cool for a few drinks of Kinley Lemon and Smart Watermelon. I met up with Peggy and we found the boys in Innoventions. I explored Innoventions West, finding nothing of particular interest there.
Before leaving Epcot, Jason and I decided to quickly do Spaceship Earth (SE). My favorite part of the ride is in the ancient Rome section seeing the little chariot go down the street and around the corner. I don't know why that's my favorite part but it is. In hindsight, I wished we would have skipped SE for the time being since as soon as we got off the parking lot tram there was a sudden downpour. We ran to the car but still got soaked to the bone. It felt good after the heat, but we were all literally dripping wet. We again parked at the Wilderness Lodge, but this time to take the boat to do the 5 PM Hoop-Dee-Doo. I mentioned to Jason how I would like to sit on the shelf (balcony) sometime and lo and behold I got my wish. It was freezing in Pioneer Hall, and I don't think I was only one due to some other comments we heard. Our server noticed I was cold and brought me an extra clean tablecloth to put over my shoulders! The food and show was good as usual. The first two times we saw it, all the characters were played by the same people, but this time everyone was new with perhaps the exception of Clair. After the show, we looked at all the old pictures of the casts at Pioneer Hall, which was fun. We never would have known they were there if we hadn't got seats up there. We were the last ones to leave.
We took the boat back to the MK and while waiting found out that, yes, fish do like to be fed Cheerios by little kids. The line at the dock was very long, and we didn't get on the first boat that came, because it was already mostly full of people from Wilderness Lodge. We ended up about tenth in line (with still 60-80 people behind us) which was a good thing because the next boat, which came about 7 minutes later, was almost completely packed and only about 15 people got on. The people in line behind us were starting to get upset (and we don't blame them) but the cast member promised another boat would be there in 5 minutes.
The Magic Kingdom was packed with more and more people arriving every minute. At the MK, Peggy decided to find a seat for the Spectromagic parade, while the rest of us went to ride some rides. Peggy couldn't find a seat, so feeling tired and not wanting to deal with the crowds, decided to go back to the room. The rest of us checked out the Fastpass return for Buzz, and it was offering 9:45 to 10:45 (parking closing is 11:00). We then checked out Space, which had the same times. We checked out Pooh, which was "sold out" of fast passes and had a 45 minute standby line. Suspecting he had better hurry, Jason ran back to Buzz and got 9:55 to 10:55, the last times available. The three of us then did TTA. Jason and I went to do Space Mountain, but Grant left us because he didn't want to stand in a line posted at 45 minutes. The wait turned out to be only about 15 minutes. I saw someone's Magical Moments pin light up, the first time I've seen one light up. I considered getting one put really didn't want to spend the money on it. On Space Mountain, just as you start up the lift hill, to one side of you part of the track dips down to your level and if your rocket is there at the right time one of the rockets ahead of you whizzes by really fast. During our ride when we got to that dip, there was another rocket just starting up the lift hill. Jason tried to scare them by screaming at them, and it must have worked, because they shrieked back!
Because it was now time for the 9 PM Spectromagic parade, we decided to see if we could find a space to see it instead of waiting around for the 11 PM show. We found a space on the walkway on the left side of the castle that leads directly to Liberty Square. It was an ok spot but I wish we were a little closer. It was better than staking out a place an hour before hand though. This was the first time for me seeing Spectromagic. It was nice and I really liked all the different colors but I really prefer the Main Street Electrical Parade.
We high tailed it over to Frontierland after the parade against the flow of the park exodus and almost got run over by a double-wide stroller. We actually caught up to the parade and had to squeeze our way through behind the people still watching the parade. One man who was watching the parade fell off of a five foot wall he was standing on to right into the walking path. He must have been ok because he got right up and said he was fine.
Big Thunder Mountain was a walk on. I don't think I've ever done it in the dark and it was fun. We then went to find a viewing spot for the fireworks, and found one the porch of the Crystal Palace, which was a pretty good spot, but it was hard to understand the dialogue. We could here the music fine. People would periodically open one of the side doors to the restaurant and the air conditioning would pour out. Cold to me, but refreshing to Jason.
We met up with Grant again for Buzz. My score was nowhere as good as the first time I rode the ride. I "only" got around 300,000. We headed back to the hotel. I felt a little sick in my stomach before I went to bed. About an hour later I felt a lot sick. After involuntarily emptying the contents of my stomach, I felt better. I don't know if it was from riding all the loopy de loop rides after a big dinner or from being partially dehydrated, but it thankfully only lasted the one night.
Sunday, May 19
Sunday morning I was feeling better but my stomach was still a little woozy. This turned out to be the dreary day-rain most of the morning, and dreary the rest of the day. At least it wasn't as hot and humid as it had been the last two days. We had a 7:30 PS at the Kona Café for breakfast, and Jason and I made it there at 8. Peggy and Grant had planned to join us, but when we called just before leaving, they hadn't even woken up yet. So we planned to meet them later.
Jason had the Tonga toast and I got the seasonal fruit platter. We had already decided before the trip to share the Tonga toast, since I can never eat it all on my own. With my stomach feeling woozy, it was good to have the fruit. I thought the fruit platter was a pretty good deal. The platter contained a large bran muffin with raisins, large slice of pineapple, smaller slices of cantaloupe and honeydew, pieces of kiwi, bananas, and oranges, and a large bunch of grapes. I had a small piece of the Tonga toast and Jason helped me finish the fruit platter. Jason thought that the Tonga was as delicious as always.
We took the monorail to the MK and made it there a little after opening at 9. With the combination of the rain and it being Sunday morning, the place was deserted - the polar opposite of last night. We had forgotten to pack the umbrellas or ponchos we had bought from Disney on previous trips. We really didn't want to buy replacements, and because it never really rained too hard today, I'm glad we didn't.
Just as we got to Main Street, a jitney pulled up and we rode it to the castle. We shared it with a family of five on their way to the castle for breakfast with Cinderella. We then attacked Fantasyland and rode Pooh, Peter Pan, and it's a small world, all with no lines. We then went on the Jungle Cruise, which was fun in the rain with the rain dripping down into the rivers.
We then met Peggy and Grant at the Hall of Presidents for the first showing at 10 AM. Finally got to see the George W animatronic, nothing too exciting though, but the HOP is much better without having to listen to Maya Angelou. We all together did the HM, Tiki room, and Pirates. We parted company with Peggy and Grant to ride the Magic Carpets. I had been wanting to ride them but not in the rain. Just has we were about to leave the park, the rain finally let up. I enjoyed the carpets. I had control of the up and down and Jason controlled the pitch. Jason didn't notice any effect from pushing his button though.
We went back to the Polynesian to retrieve our car and check out the new pool. The pool looks great. Jason had stayed here many times as a child and has fond memories of the old pool (now gone), which had a slide before having one became the norm. We next headed over and parked at the Boardwalk. We had decided that we wanted to have lunch at the Big River Grill or Beaches and Cream. We looked at the menu at BRG and decided to then look and B and C. We walked all the way around and then decided that B and C menu was too limited and instead of walking back decided to take the boat. We saw a boat heading towards MGM, and one of the crew members called out "Harold!" to a black bird sitting nearby. The bird came and ate out of his hand. After waiting 10 minutes and watching two sets of kids fight over the pay-per-view binoculars, the boat we wanted still showed no signs of arriving. So we decided to walk back to the BRG. After we arrived, were seated, and had put in our order, we finally saw the first boat that would have taken us from Yacht Club to Boardwalk arrive at the Boardwalk dock. Transportation inconsistency like that is why we prefer to have a car, because although we could walk in this case, if the bus from MK to AK takes forever to arrive, we'll end up wasting a lot of time.
We used one wish here by getting one appetizer and one desert to share, having on entrée and drink on the wish, and using room charge for the other entrée and drink. We actually didn't have to pay for the second drink because it was charged as our after meal coffee or tea, which we were not going to use anyway. We had the chicken quesadilla, which was very good. I liked the different taste due to the asiago cheese not usually used on quesadillas. Jason had penne pasta with a parmesan cream sauce and I had a honey mustard chicken sandwich, both very good. We had the chocolate confusion cake for dessert, very, very good, my favorite dessert of the whole vacation. If it were not prepaid on the wish, we probably would not have had the cake, so having the wish made us try something we usually would not have that turned out to be really good.
We decided to go back to the room and take a quick nap, which turned out to be 2 hours. Jason then went to Downtown Disney and I decided to take a swim. The pool at the Coronado is very nice. The water was a great temperature. I just relaxed and went down the slide once.
Peggy and I then took the bus to the West Side to meet Jason for dinner at Bongo's. I have been wanted to eat at Bongo's for a few years and finally this year we were. We split two appetizers of tamales and breaded mashed potato balls filled with meat. I liked the potatoes better than the tamales. Peggy got a dish with rice, vegetables, shrimp and chicken which I think was called Cuban Chinese, or the like. Jason got a Cuban steak and I got a dish with seasoned ground beef, rice, and plantains. I just love plantains. Peggy and Amy liked their dinners, Jason thought his steak was ok, but didn't really like the marinade very much. For dessert, we shared flan (but not me!) and a sweet vanilla pudding. I think I liked the place more than Peggy and Jason.
We met Grant at DisneyQuest, where it was very crowded so we decided to leave. We went to Virgin Records for a little bit before the three of us minus Grant went to Pleasure Island. We did the 10:15 show at the Comedy Warehouse. It was an ok show, but not the funniest I've seen. I didn't recognize most of the players, only Jake I remembered from before. We then hung around at the Adventurer's Club for a while, watched the treasure room show and went back to the hotel.
Monday, May 20
Today we started the day at Epcot, since Jason and I have not spent much time there yet this trip. Walking around Spaceship Earth on the left side, we saw some cast members directing traffic. Turns out the character bus was on its way and I noticed Piglet was on it! We didn't stop now but we did see Piglet later. We also saw a CM riding a Segway (the mystery device announced a year ago that was supposed to change the world but turned out to be pretty useless for most people) near Innoventions. Peggy jokingly asked if she could have it for the day (as a theme park is one of the few places it would actually be useful). I forgot to look for it later in Innoventions.
We started the day with Test Track, which Jason and I rode in the single riders line. It took longer than expected since the ride was having some kind of problems again. Does it ever run all the time? It seems like every day we spend at Epcot it breaks down at least one time. The ride was fun, as usual. After the ride, we decided to try out the Dreamchasers ride. I thought this was a virtual reality ride, based on what I read in the summer Disney magazine, which it says is a virtual reality ride. However, we were told this was not 3-D, virtual reality, a not something I can't remember. Hmmp! Jason thinks that third thing was that it was not interesting, but that doesn't seem right. It turned out to be a promotional video which was mildly interesting, but not worth the twenty minutes we waited in line. The seats move and you put your forehead next to the machine and it moves back and forth with the non virtual reality, non 3-D, whatever video. I must have not had it that close to my forehead because I was getting bumped each time I moved. The only question I had at the end was what are fuel cells? Jason said he would tell me later, but he never did.
Peggy and Grant had been waiting for us at the end of the ride and had probably thought we were lost. Amazing, they were still there waiting. Next, all of us went on Living with the Land. There was a line and the wait was around 20 minutes because they were not running nearly enough boats. I love looking at all the new methods and techniques for growing fruit and vegetables. We next went to the gift shop in the Land, one of my favorite gift shops. I bought an Epcot T-shirt for myself and a gardening T-shirt for my mom. Grant left us at this point.
We had an 11 AM PS at San Angel Inn in Mexico. We originally had PS at the 50s Prime Time Café, but we already had spent a lot of time in MGM and hardly any in Epcot. On the way to lunch, the character bus was at the entrance to World Showcase. The characters were off the bus and meeting the guests in groups of ones and twos. I was wearing what Jason calls my Piglet shirt (pink striped shirt) but forgot my homemade Piglet ears (of course, Disney sells Pooh and Tigger ears but not Piglet) at the hotel. Pooh and Piglet were posing for pictures together-again Piglet is not by himself. We got one of the last pictures with them as they had to leave to go back on the bus.
Lunch in Mexico was good, as usual, but I think I ate a little too much. We used two wishes here so we again got to try two appetizers and two desserts along with our entrees. There were only 2 appetizers on the menu, Queso Fundido and Sopa Azteca, so we ordered both. The queso fundido was very good, our server mixed the cheese, chiles, and chorizo together in front of us and wrapped it in tortillas. This was a great find, and something we probably would not have order without the wishes, so the wishes showed an intangible value here by encouraging us to try something we ordinarily would not have. The sopa azteca was also good. Peggy ordered the plato americano with a chicken quesadilla and chicken enchilada and beef taco. Jason got the chicken with chiles, cheese and spices. I got the plato nacional with tamale, flauta, and chile relleno. I was pretty full after the appetizers so I really didn't eat too much of my lunch since it was only ok. I wasn't too interested in desserts so Peggy and Jason ordered the flan and rice pudding. They liked the flan. We all tried the rice pudding, which looked like it was deep fried, and agreed it was awful. Our server came over and asked how we liked the desserts and Jason said the flan is good but we didn't like the rice pudding so much. A bit later he came out with another dessert to try, I think it was chocolate chimichangas. It was very nice of him, and we did like that dessert better.
We split from Peggy here to walk around the World Showcase. We first rode the Rio del Tiempo and looked at the Mexican shops. We noticed that one of the shops, where they had cookbooks and other things next to the glass shop was closed. I bought a small painted purple cat made by artists from Oaxaca who were temporarily there. There was also an exhibit on the Oaxaca painted wood working in the front of the pavilion.
We mainly went around the countries looking in a few shops for gifts (I looked in the UK shop for Harry Potter things. I saw the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone book... hmm, if this is really supposed to represent the UK, shouldn't they have the Philosopher's Stone version of the book?) I wanted to see the museum exhibit in Japan, but it ended up still being the baseball exhibit we saw in March 2001. We ended up at the American Adventure in enough time to see the end of a Voices of Liberty show and then see the attraction. We also did Maelstrom before heading back to Future World. I don't know why we headed back there because we had planned to see Starship at the America Gardens Theater in about a half and hour. We ended up having drinks at Ice Station Cool before heading back to the American Pavilion. It was pretty cool to see Starship; one of my favorite 80s song is We Built This City. They played a short set of 5 songs and I was surprised how many of them I knew. We went to Germany to catch the boat back to FW and I noticed now that the miniature train display has buttons to press to make actions happen. The giant live lizards on the top of the model houses were still there.
From here we headed out of Epcot and back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. We ended up going to the pool for a bit but I thought the water was too cold so I didn't go in for long.
The plan was to meet Peggy and Grant for dinner at Jiko in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. This would be our first visit time visiting the AKL. I really liked its look especially walking through all the natural grasses to get to the lodge. The lobby is really amazing and that's where we found Peggy -- Grant had decided to go to Disney Quest. We then went out the back to look at the animals. It was really neat to see the animals at the hotel. We saw giraffes, zebras and some kind of animal with really long horns that I forget the name.
After looking at the animals for a bit, we went to our PS at Jiko's. Again, Jason and I used two wishes for dinner. For our appetizers we chose smoked bacon and onion flatbread with a curry yogurt sauce and asparagus soup. I don't like asparagus so I didn't try the soup but Jason thought it was very good and flavorful. The flatbread was yummy too. For the entrée, Jason ordered the oak grilled beef tenderloin with wine sauce. Peggy and I both ordered the pan-seared monkfish. Neither of us had had it before and the server, described it as a poor man's lobster, which sounded good. We both really enjoyed the monkfish which came with a tomato butter sauce and lots of good vegetables. Jason liked his entrée too; the wine sauce went very well with it. For dessert, I tried the guava sorbet with three rum ice and Jason and Peggy shared a spice cake with chocolate and peanut butter sauce. Overall, a very good meal. This was definitely my favorite meal of the trip. Service was very slow though -- it took over two hours. Our server spent a lot of time socializing at the bar.
We dropped Peggy off at CS before going to Downtown Disney. Again, we had trouble putting our key in the gate to get to the hotel. This has been a constant problem throughout the trip. After putting it in the slot multiple times, dropping it under the car, and backing up the car to get the key back - we finally got though. Jason wonders if the security guards watching us through the security camera had a good laugh. We were not the only ones to have problems though.
At Downtown Disney, we looked at the World of Disney and the Pooh shop. Again, there was not much Piglet merchandise at a Pooh shop. We ended the night at Pleasure Island. We went to the Adventurer's Club for a while and saw a show in the mask room. We headed out before midnight to see the last Comedy Warehouse show. We saw the New Year's Eve show which was a lot different from the last time we saw it. When we saw it in 2000, it was a big stage show that was much longer, had more energetic dancing and much for fireworks. This time they acted like New Year's on TV, going live to different clubs on PI. At the CW, we found out that a lot of Disney college program students were there which made the show interesting.
Tuesday, May 21
Today was our last day at Disney. We were up early at 6:30 AM to check out and head over to the Animal Kingdom for breakfast. Also, Jason and I planned to go to all four parks today to catch things we haven't yet so we better get moving! We had breakfast at Donald's Breakfastosaurus, my favorite breakfast buffet at WDW. Grant and Peggy had never been there for breakfast. I enjoyed my meal but noticed that they didn't have the Knott's berry farm fruit syrups that they had last time we were there. Jason and I really enjoy the atmosphere of the restaurant and many of the servers really get into their roles.
After breakfast, Jason and Grant rode Dinosaur. I decided after our last trip that I had no need or interest to ride Dinosaur again. I really don't like the ride too much and Indiana Jones at Disneyland is much better. While they were on the ride, I sat for a bit with Peggy and checked out Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama. I don't think it's that bad; they could have put in something nicer but it's ok. After the ride we got fast passes for Primeval Whirl since the ride appeared not to working right then. Jason and I broke off from Peggy and Grant here.
We had decided to spend only till around 11 in the park since we had so much to do. We never spend much time in the AK, but there were a few others things I would have liked to see if we had the time.
We went to the Kilamanjaro Safari, where it was about a 20 minute wait. I really like the theming in the Africa section of the park, both on the ride and in the Harambe village. After the safari, we took the walking path in Africa and looked at the animals for a bit. We headed back to Dinoland for a spin on Primeval Whirl. I enjoyed the wild mouse ride. I didn't think there would be much theming but was pleasantly surprised. My favorite effect was going up the hill and going "back in time". I also like the rapid spinning parts. Jason did not like the new section at all. He finds the whole idea of midway games with cast members yelling at guests to come play to be tacky.
As we left AK to head form MGM, right outside the main gates to the AK, we saw a talking tree, similar to the talking trashcan in the MK. I hadn't seen or heard of this one before and it was pretty neat.
We drove and made it to MGM in a half an hour. We checked out times for Millionaire, but decided we wouldn't have enough time to fit in a show. Instead, we went to the Great Movie Ride, which had been closed for rehab earlier in the trip. It had a 15 minute wait. We got the gangster side, the side we usually get on this ride. I was really tired and started drifting off on the ride. I like watching the movies in the last scene so I made sure I was awake for that. I joked to Jason after the ride that we should go on Universe of Energy next so that I could finish my nap, ha ha. Energy is an ok ride actually, but my least favorite ride in Future World.
I wanted to do the Backstage Tour but then decided what I really wanted to do was to see what the exhibit was after the ride. The exhibit was Dressed to Thrill, which had costumes of top leading ladies from various movies. I love costumes so it was really interesting to me, but I think Jason wasn't that thrilled with the dresses. We planned on eating lunch again at Rosie's Red Hots. I saw frozen lemonades and had to get one as I had wanted one for a while. While I enjoyed my lemonade, Jason went on Rock and Roller Coaster. For some reason this trip, I didn't go on some rides I go on such as RNRC. When he returned, we split a pizza and Coke for lunch.
From MGM, we drove to Epcot. We had a PS at Le Cellier in Canada that night, so we parked here and took the monorail to the MK. We wanted to be at the MK by 3 to see the Share a Dream Come True parade. We arrive around 2:30 and I was surprised that not a lot of people were lined up to watch the parade. We found Peggy sitting on a bench in the town square. Jason went to get us Splash Mountain Fastpasses and I went to the candy shop to get fudge and a Mickey pretzel, like I get every trip. Jason also came back with a Dole Whip, which he stated costs less than buying a bottle of water at the park! The dole whip (actual food with calories in it) was $2.49. The water (which one can get from a fountain for free) cost $2.50. While he was waiting in line, Jason noticed the recirculating pineapple juice fountain that the cast members fill the orders from was running critically low. He wonder what would happen when it ran out. Just as it was about to empty a cast member came out from the kitchen with a BIG bucket of pineapple juice to fill the it back up all in one trip. Jason had never seen so much pineapple juice in one place at the same time before.
Jason returned with the Dole whip around three o'clock. The parade headed down Main Street from the castle (after starting in Frontierland), so we didn't see it until about 3:20. I liked the parade, some of the floats were really pretty, especially the princess float. Jason, who generally does not care for the day time parades, liked it too.
After the parade, we met up with Grant so we could take our traditional picture in front of the castle. It turned out that Grant also had a FP for Splash that began 10 minutes after ours. We left Peggy with the plan being to see her at Canada for dinner, and walked slowly to the ride as we saw no point in getting there before our Fast Passes became valid. Apparently not many people share this opinion as we found a lot of people were loitering in front of the fast pass entrance, waiting for them to be valid. I didn't get too wet on the ride this time, yea! Also all the show effects appeared to be in working order - last time we were here the water shots that cross the flume in front of the logs in the laughing place sequence were not working.
From here we left Grant as he wanted to do the shooting gallery and we were heading to Epcot. We took the train around to Main Street and came just in time to see the flag ceremony, which I've never seen before.
We took the monorail to Epcot. I went to the Land to exchange my shirt for a different size while Jason went to Innoventions. I actually ran into Grant first at Innoventions West and then found Jason. I played the Play Station NBA basketball game with him for a bit. We went over to Innoventions East and saw the preview for Mission: Space. I enjoyed playing the various games related to it. I noticed that they are renovating the House of the Future, an attraction I always enjoy. We then walked around for a bit looking at Mission: Space and some birdhouses from the Flower and Garden show. We then wandered up to Wonders of Life as Jason wanted to see if there were any remnants of the Met Life sponsorship left. There weren't, and the Snoopy lifestyle quiz machines were gone. It was pretty empty in there and I rode the stationery bike through the parade scene in there. I would really like to see the pavilion get a makeover. Jason says that it is essentially the same as it was when it opened over ten years ago (except now the Snoopy Quiz is gone).
We had about an hour before our PS and decided to do Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. It was fun to listen to everyone's reaction to the movie, sounded like a lot of people enjoyed it. Before going to dinner, we headed to the UK shop to buy a gift for our cat sitter.
Jason, Peggy and I arrived about 5 minutes after our PS time of 7:30 and were given a buzzer. We didn't get in until almost 8. We used our last two wishes here. For appetizers, Jason and I both got the cheddar cheese soup -- yum, yum! For an entrée Peggy ordered the filet mignon, Jason the NY strip steak, and I had the sweet potato ravioli. It was ok, but not my favorite entrée of the trip. Peggy and Jason enjoyed their meals. Service here was slow, as it was last time we came here. For dessert, we got two pieces of the chocolate cake and by time we finished Illuminations had too, so it was around 9:15.
I wanted to go to World of Disney before it closed at 11. Jason first thought about dropping me off there since he was taking Peggy and Grant to the hotel, Hampton Inn, for our last night. We then decided it would be easier for me to take a bus to a resort and then from there take a DD bus. Jason planned to meet me at the Adventurer's Club. I would have gone up to the Boardwalk, but I realized I haven't seen my favorite sparkly light sidewalks in Future World yet this trip. After enjoying the sparkles, I headed to the bus area and found that the line for Port Orleans was reasonable. I made it on the second bus out. When it stopped at PO, I had to go down one bus stop and luckily the next bus came in 5 minutes. I made it to WOD around 10:30. I bought some gifts (key chains, pens) for some people and a Haunted Mansion ride vehicle for Jason. Jason said we got a 15% discount with our Disney Club card but I didn't have the card. I saw at the counter about an American Express discount so I asked about it since we have AMEX and the CM gave it to me after asking if I was staying at a Disney resort. I also saw about other discounts that we couldn't use anyway because of the Discovery Magic plan but it also solved the mystery of where everyone got the AMEX lanyards I kept seeing. I met Jason at the Adventurer's Club around 11. Being tired from a long day, we only stayed until around 11:30.
Wednesday, May 22
We got up around 8:30 to have the free continental breakfast. It was good, but they need more tables and toasters. We got to the airport with no problems. We returned the rental car, and the receipt that the person who checked the car in printed out was $100 too much. We pointed the problem out and were told to go to the main desk to get it fixed, which was not a major hassle. Check-in at Southwest was a breeze, and the line for security was less than five minutes. The flight was uneventful, and we actually arrived early. The walk to baggage claim was very, very long. The wait for the shuttle to our car was actually reasonable for a change (multiple bad experiences at BWI) and we got back to the cars quickly. We managed to beat rush hour traffic home.
Analysis of Discovery Magic (DM) Plan:
Cost of Jason & Amy's package : $1425.98
Cost of Peggy & Grant's package: $890.64
Cost per wish assuming no value for the little perks of DM: $33.43
We used four ($133.72) for the Hoop-De-Doo for a $191.18 bill which we could have discounted 10% or about $16 so we saved $41.46.
We used two ($66.86) at Artist Point for a $130.02 bill, although we would never have spent the $13.31 on the fancy water, so we saved $49.85.
We used one at Big River Grill and saved $6.10.
We used two at Bongos where we could have got a 10% discount, so after the discount we saved $17.11.
We used two at San Angel Inn and saved $3.08.
We used two at Jiko where we could have gotten a free dessert, so after the discount we saved $27.96.
We used one a Breakfastosaurus and lost $13.43.
We used two a Le Cellier and saved $16.56.
Total savings: $148.69
So we were able to get great value out of it. We also found intangible value to it because it encouraged us to order things were probably would not have, which we found out that we really liked (the chocolate cake at Big River, and the queso fundido at San Angel Inn, among others). We always go on vacation saying that we would not worry about price at the restaurants and just order what we wanted. Being on the plan made this easy because it was all prepaid.
On the down side, we found that use of the plan required some maintenance. The cast member at Rosie's Red Hots charged the wish for the chicken, even though we paid with the room change. We had to go to Coronado Springs front desk to resolve the problem, which took about half an hour. Bongos charged us three wishes when they should only have done two. This also required a half hour to correct, and while doing this we had to deal with the only unpleasant cast member we encountered on the trip. He originally said that whatever Bongo's did must be right and did not want to fix the problem. Jason persisted, and he reluctantly did his job, researched to problem, and corrected the error. It can pay to be persistent.
Amy Gourley
amy@pressroom.com
May 16-22, 2002
Cast of characters
Peggy, my mother-in-law, 20+ trips to WDW
Grant, 23, my brother-in-law, 20+ trips to WDW
Jason, 27, my husband, 20+ trips to WDW
Amy, 26, me, 8th trip to WDW
Planning
Jason and I had not been to Walt Disney World (WDW) since our mini-trip in March 2001. We were looking to do another shorter trip (less than a week) in 2002 to see the 100 years celebration. Looking at the family schedule, we decided a good time to go would be in mid-May, the week after Grant's graduation in college
When Disney started doing the cutbacks in October, we considered whether we really wanted to go on the trip. We were particularly disappointed by the cancellation of early entry and the closing of the Carousel of Progress. Jason and I both feel a strong sense of history of the resort (Jason in particular because he has been going there essentially yearly since before he can remember) and see the cutbacks as a continuation of the removal of the quality elements that distinguish Disney from its competition. Jason thinks that a history of the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue could be used as a metaphor for the cutbacks over the years. (The menu used to have corn-on-the-cob, corn muffins and corn chips with salsa, and the table had many little knick-knacks on it that could be taken home as souvenirs, such as a large decorative menu. These have all been eliminated over the years.)
We were casually looking for airfares over the fall and in January found $94 round trips out of Baltimore to Orlando nonstop on Southwest. Deal of a lifetime we figured. Well lightening has actually struck twice because Jason and I are also planning a December trip to Disneyland after snagging $158.50 roundtrip from Washington National to Santa Ana/Orange County, CA on Continental. (Stayed tuned for that trip report in late December).
With the elimination of Early Entry we didn't feel particularly compelled to stay on property. After all, if Disney considered Early Entry to be a perk to get people to stay on property, if they eliminate it they should expect to lose customers. We have always stayed on property, but were upset enough that we actually made reservations to stay off property the entire trip. However in early February I found a discount code on www.mousesavers.com that brought the price of staying at the moderates under $100. We also found it attractive because it had a discounted version of the Discover Magic package option. Jason and I enjoy going to Disney's full service restaurants, so we figured it would be a good way to save money. Our success with the package will be analyzed at the end of the report. So we compromised and stayed four nights at Coronado Springs, and the nights at the beginning and ending of the trip at the Hampton Inn - Maingate East.
For car rental, we made a reservation with a $137.99 weekly rate for a standard car ($176.64 after fees and gouges) made far in advance via National's website using an Entertainment book double upgrade coupon that was never confiscated. A diligent check of rates after the reservation was made never yielded a rate any lower.
Thursday, May 16
After a full day of work for Jason and a half-day for me, our goal was to get from Alexandria, VA (suburb just south of DC) to Baltimore, MD in time for our 9 PM flights. Peggy and Grant were driving down from the northern suburbs of Philadelphia to meet us for dinner. The reason we were all flying together, instead of the usual plan of having the northerners fly out of the Philadelphia area, was the great airfare Jason found on Southwest. We were to meet at the food court of Arundel Mills Mall just south of the airport at 6:00 for a leisurely dinner before heading to the airport. We left a little before 5, figuring even with bad traffic, we would get there at 6:15 at worst. Because of what must have been the worst traffic in the history of a Washington DC Thursday (seriously, even the traffic reporter on the radio sounded amazed) we got there about 6:45. We wolfed down our food, (Sbarro for Jason, Taco Bell for me) and headed out.
We got to the airport and parked a little after 7. We were in a bit of a rush as we didn't know what to expect in terms of check-in and security lines. We saw a parking lot shuttle bus lumbering along towards our stop, and knowing the random frequency BWI runs these buses, we hurried so we wouldn't have to wait for the next one. After Jason got out of the car and was opening the trunk, I put Jason's backpack with all our important papers in it on the driver's seat so that Jason would be sure to pick it up. We got all of the luggage out and made it to the bus just in time. After riding about a half mile through the parking lot, I asked Jason if he had picked up the backpack. He looked puzzled. He said that he thought I had it. We realized that it was still in the car. Jason said that he would go get it and meet the three of us in the terminal at Southwest check-in. The bus we were on was very crowded, so Jason, Grant and I were sitting in the back of the bus, but Peggy could only find a seat up front. At the next stop Jason got up, yelled to his mom at the front that he was going back for the backpack, and jumped out the rear doors. The bus driver, thinking he was talking to her, said something like "Ok, whatever".
Jason ran and he ran and he ran. He got the car and there was the backpack, right were I left it. Not wanting to take the time to do the bus grand tour of the parking lot, he started running back to the point where the buses leave the lot. About half way there he could run not more. So then he walked. He got to the bus exit, flagged down an empty bus (the one Grant, Peggy and I were on was packed to the gills - go figure) and off he went to the terminal.
Peggy, Grant and I got to the terminal, and waited for Jason before we got in the check-in line. Amazingly, he arrived only about a minute after we did. Knowing that buses don't arrive every minute on average, this says something about how BWI likes to run all there buses close together and then have a long wait if you don't get one of the buses in the cluster (past experience supports this theory), but I guess it worked out well for us this time. We got through check-in and security with minimal waits. Our flight was delayed about 40 minutes, so it arrived in Orlando 40 minutes late.
Got our bags back with minimal hassle, and we were off to National car rental. Jason waited in line for about five to ten minutes and presented the print out of the reservation to the agent. The agent typed away for a while, then looked puzzled. The agent asked Jason if he is an Emerald Club member. Jason is. The agent wanted to know why Jason didn't skip the counter and go to the Emerald aisle like he was supposed to. Jason said that the computer told him to go to the counter when the reservation was made, so here he is. The agent said that it was not necessary, and he could go right to the Emerald aisle. A pleasantly handled conversation, but a waste of ten minutes as the clock was ticking towards midnight.
We crossed the street and got to the Emerald aisle. It was full of cars, at least 20 to choose from. Jason, Grant and I, being the type of people we are, had to check out each one, even though the clock was approaching midnight. For whatever reason we passed on the roomy Chevrolet Malibus' and took a red Mitsubishi Gallant all the way at the end of the aisle. Maybe it was because it was red, maybe because it looked cool, I dunno. Odd thing about it is that there is no keyhole for the trunk; the only way we could figure to get in was to unlock the driver's door and use the release there.
We made an unplanned detour through Celebration, as we made a wrong tour on our way to the Hampton Inn Maingate East. I had been wanting to see Celebration, but not in the dark. It was interesting to see how everything looked new and very similar architecturally. The Hampton is a good, clean hotel that recognized our Hilton Honors Gold status with bottled water, cheese cracker sandwiches and cookies waiting in both room. Finally to sleep, at about 1 AM.
Friday, May 17
We got up today around 7:00, had our complimentary breakfast (Krispy Kreme donuts!) and headed to WDW. We are staying at Coronado Springs for the first time. Grant and Peggy were in one room and got the package for room and park tickets. Looking back at our eating patterns over our last couple of trips (see previous trip reports) Jason and I decide to get the Discovery Magic plan. This plan varies from the one the Peggy and Grant got mostly in that it gives us 16 magic wishes (2 per person per night). The wishes can be used for a variety of things such as souvenirs, golf, water boat rentals, meals, etc. The plan also included pins and preferred viewing for parades and nighttime shows (we tried to use it for Magic Kingdom (MK) fireworks, but they were "all full") If we assign these minor benefits no value (the only ones we used were the pins), one can take the difference in price between the two packages and divide by 16 to yield a per wish price of $33.43. Sometimes as in the cost of the souvenirs, a wish costs more than what we would have paid for it in cash. So we decided we would get the best value out of them by using them for meals. For meals a wish can be used for one appetizer, one soft drink (no smoothies, milkshakes, etc), one entrée, one dessert and one after dinner coffee/tea. (Rules for a la carte breakfast are slightly different, but we never used them for this). It can also be used for buffets and for dinner shows. The wish will also cover tax and a 15% tip. Disney is rather vague about how the wishes can be used, when we called to ask questions about them, one reservation agent said they were nontransferable. After thinking about what that meant and how we intended to use the wishes, we called back a spoke to another agent and asked specifically if we could use the wishes to pay for the Hoop-Dee-Doo for all four of us. The agent said we could. The agent said they were ours and we could "do whatever we want with them". This seemed to be a conflict, but because Disney would not provide written rules about their use, all we could do was head to Disney and see what happens. One of the reservation agents we talked to also said that Bongos at Downtown Disney does not accept wishes, but it turned out that they do. Detailed analysis of the cost effectiveness of the wishes for us can be found at the end of the report.
We got checked-in with minimal hassles. We had to ask for the instructions booklet on the magic wishes. We next went over to guest services and made a few priority seating (PS) changes. We then asked to have our Hoop-Dee-Doo reservation for the next night ticketed and paid for via the magic wishes. The cast member (CM) typed away for a while. He looked puzzled. The CM typed some more. Jason asked if he could help. The CM said there was a problem processing the wishes. Jason pointed out that only one room had wishes, but we wanted all four reservations paid for with wishes as we were told would be possible when the reservation was made. The CM said doing so would be "unethical" but because we were told ahead of time that it would be allowed that the CM would do it anyway. It was done. We felt bad about doing something "unethical", but Disney's unwillingness to disclose the rules ahead of time, and the fact that we were told specifically that doing this was ok ahead of time and used that assurance in part of our decision to buy the package in the first place made us feel justified in taking the exception. Your mileage may vary.
I headed over to the Coronado Springs gift shop to pick up the Discovery Magic pins, one for me and one for Jason. The design was Goofy in an airplane. The blister pack indicated that the pin was from "Walt Disney Travel Co. Inc.". We dropped Peggy and Grant off at Epcot at around 9:30. The parking lot was nearly empty. Peggy reported that crowds were very light. Jason and I then headed out for a day at Kennedy Space Center.
We arrived back at WDW around 4 PM and decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom for a while before our dinner at Artist's Point. We decided to park at the Wilderness Lodge. We showed our Coronado Springs parking pass to the security who asked us if he could help us. We said that we were going to look around the resort and have dinner at Artist Point (which was true). He let us through. Jason came up with a great idea! When we were at the space center we had trouble finding the car. He said we should take a picture of where we parked it with the digital camera so that we can look at the picture using the preview feature when we needed to find it again! LOL! From the WL, we took a boat to the MK. While waiting for the boat, I pulled out my book to read. I have never brought a book to the parks to read before but it helped when waiting in lines for buts and such but I never read while waiting for an attraction. Grant brought a book too and Jason called both of us nerds.
It was a really hot day and we were really thirsty so our first stop was for a Coke at the Tomorrowland Terrace. Tomorrowland was really crowded, so we decided not to do Buzz Lightyear, our traditional first ride, first. (It's also a tradition to not wait in line for Fastpass (FP) attractions if we can help it). So we Fastpassed it and rode Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA) first. I waved at the people in Space Mountain as usual, wondering if anyone ever sees me. I was disappointed to hear that even the narration in the TTA mentioning the Carousel of Progress (COP) was taken out. COP is my favorite ride and I kept hoping that perhaps it would reopen when we were there, but alas, no. There was no narration for Timekeeper either, which I had already noticed in our last visit. While waiting for the Buzz FP, we walked through some of the restaurants and shops to check out the menus and merchandise. The audio-animatronic alien was entertaining away in Cosmic Ray's. Grant reported that there was a live band there earlier that day.
We headed over to Fantasyland. We stopped by the Pooh shop to look for Piglet merchandise. Piglet is my favorite character but he is way underrepresented in merchandise. There will be an item in every other Hundred Acre character except Piglet! I bought a little hair tie with a cute Piglet on it. We rode Snow White since it had a short line. We noticed that the former Fantasyland Skyway station area has now been turned into a meet and greet, and Snow White was there. Do all old attractions become meet and greets?
We decided to go on the Haunted Mansion even though a 20 minute wait was posted. It turned out to be a walk on. Passing the Partners Statue, we saw a duck and a bunch of cute baby ducklings. Finally, our Buzz FP was ready. Somehow I ended up with 809,200 points. I have never done that well before! I had over 300,000 points by the end of the first room so I don't know what good targets I hit! Jason only had 100,000 points so I beat him for the first time. We even took a picture to prove my score.
We headed back to the WL and met up with Peggy and Grant for our 7 PM PS at Artist Point. When the server first arrived, we explained that two of us were on wishes and two of us were ordering a la carte. We were going to get appetizers to share between the four of us, but there was nothing Peggy and Grant were too excited about so we just ended up having our own appetizer. Jason got the grilled venison medallion on cannellini bean and asparagus salad with apple vinaigrette while I ordered the field greens with goat cheese toast and balsamic chive dressing (we got a menu to take home). Jason thought it was ok, but didn't like the venison, which he had never had before. I really enjoyed the field greens. I don't like dressings too much but this one was pretty good and not too heavy.
Throughout the meal, the server poured the four of us water from an expensive looking bottle which we had not ordered. We ordered the following entrees-Peggy-grilled filet of beef, Grant-air chilled free range chicken, Jason-grilled buffalo top sirloin, Amy-pan-seared veal tenderloin. Everyone enjoyed their meals. To share for dessert, we got the chai tea cheesecake and chocolate cake with brandied cherries. The cheesecake was very, very good and the chocolate cake was just ok, nothing special. When we got the bill, it turned out that the water was our after dinner coffee/tea. This was fine with us because we didn't intend to use that part of the wish. The bill revealed that our $66.86 worth of wishes netted us $130.02 worth of food.
I had really wanted to go swimming after the long, hot day, but after dinner it was thunder storming. We went back to the room. I read and Jason and Grant went to Disney Quest for a while. I was asleep by time Jason got back around midnight.
Saturday, May 18
We were up at 7:30 to head over to MGM for the 9 opening. I think this was the first time I've been there at opening time. Finally saw the Sorcerer Mickey Hat icon (BAH), it's ok but I still don't like that it hides Mann's Chinese theater. We headed towards Rock and Roller Coaster (RNRC) with many other guests. We waited in line for about 10 minutes until they said that the ride was having technical difficulties. We then headed to Tower of Terror (ToT), had a very short wait despite now having to absorb the line from RNRC too. I love this ride!
We shared a quick breakfast of a sticky bun and grapefruit cake at Starring Rolls. We got a fast pass for Millionaire and headed to check out One Man's Dream. It was good exhibit with lots of models. I liked the Designing Disney Theme Parks traveling exhibit better, but this was still a very good exhibit. We also watched the movie after touring the exhibit.
Next we had a quick lunch at Rosie's All American Café. I went to get chicken strips while the others went to get pizza. After I tried to pay for my order using my Disney room card, the cast member said I had to use on of the Discovery Magic wishes, the she couldn't just charge it to the room. I told her I didn't want to use a wish (the order was only $6.33) and cancelled my order. We had Peggy go up and order my chicken strips, since she is not on the Discovery Magic plan. Jason loves the pizza here and the chicken strips were pretty good too.
After eating, we went to play Millionaire. It was pretty fun! I was a little confused when to exactly press the answer buttons but I figured it was after the keypad lit up. I must have missed that part in the instructions. The last player of the session got up to the 250,000 point level. At the scores at the very end, Jason ended up at the #8 slot, despite having missed one of the earlier question, but getting all of the later ones right. We guess that this means that at most 7 people in the audience got all seven right. Or maybe it's better to answer immediately and be wrong than to think about for a while and get it right.
We immediately got another set of Fastpasses for the show. Next we did Star Tours and Muppets 4-D, and then it was time for Millionaire again. This time, when the scores were checked after the 1000 point question, Peggy was in the #1 slot and Grant was #3. But then they dropped down and didn't make the hot seat. Peggy and Grant used the strategy of pressing the button for the correct answer repeatedly as fast as possible as soon as the D answer is read. Jason, who also got all the questions leading to the point level correct but did not get on the leader board, used the strategy of waiting for the lights above the buttons to light up and then pressing the correct button. I used the same strategy as Jason but never made it to the board.
We decided next to park hop to Epcot and all pretty much did our own thing. Peggy just walked around. Grant went all the way from the Epcot main entrance to the Refreshment Outpost in World Showcase just to get a root beer float. Jason had advised him that such a trek was not necessary and he could get one somewhere in Future World, but he could not be deterred. Jason tried to go to the single rider line of Test Track, but the ride was closed. He then took some pictures of the soon to be Mission: Space, and soaked up some purple walled and floored atmosphere in the Electric Umbrella (it will always be the Stargate Restaurant to him) It has good pizza too, but it was better "back in the day". Jason and Grant later met up in Innoventions West to play a hockey game.
My goal was to get a kaki gori in Japan. First, I made a mandatory stop at the pin station. I didn't trade as much as in previous trips. At this stop, I got a Piglet from the Disney Store Japan from a girl from Japan. It was another hot day, and my throat was really dry. I was tired and didn't know if I really wanted to walk around the whole World Showcase for a kaki gori. I didn't really want to wait for the boats, which were not there, so off I went. I noticed that the beavertail stand was closed in Canada. Along the way, I thought many times of just getting one of the frozen ice drinks in the stands I saw along the way, but I really wanted the kaki gori so I trudged on. Finally, I arrived in Japan. I got a rainbow kaki gori (strawberry, tangerine, honeydew) which was a little cheaper than the other frozen ice things I saw along the way, and sat on a bench for a while before walking around the rest of the World Showcase. I looked a little bit at the Flower and Garden show, but mainly made my way back to Future World. I stopped at Ice Station Cool for a few drinks of Kinley Lemon and Smart Watermelon. I met up with Peggy and we found the boys in Innoventions. I explored Innoventions West, finding nothing of particular interest there.
Before leaving Epcot, Jason and I decided to quickly do Spaceship Earth (SE). My favorite part of the ride is in the ancient Rome section seeing the little chariot go down the street and around the corner. I don't know why that's my favorite part but it is. In hindsight, I wished we would have skipped SE for the time being since as soon as we got off the parking lot tram there was a sudden downpour. We ran to the car but still got soaked to the bone. It felt good after the heat, but we were all literally dripping wet. We again parked at the Wilderness Lodge, but this time to take the boat to do the 5 PM Hoop-Dee-Doo. I mentioned to Jason how I would like to sit on the shelf (balcony) sometime and lo and behold I got my wish. It was freezing in Pioneer Hall, and I don't think I was only one due to some other comments we heard. Our server noticed I was cold and brought me an extra clean tablecloth to put over my shoulders! The food and show was good as usual. The first two times we saw it, all the characters were played by the same people, but this time everyone was new with perhaps the exception of Clair. After the show, we looked at all the old pictures of the casts at Pioneer Hall, which was fun. We never would have known they were there if we hadn't got seats up there. We were the last ones to leave.
We took the boat back to the MK and while waiting found out that, yes, fish do like to be fed Cheerios by little kids. The line at the dock was very long, and we didn't get on the first boat that came, because it was already mostly full of people from Wilderness Lodge. We ended up about tenth in line (with still 60-80 people behind us) which was a good thing because the next boat, which came about 7 minutes later, was almost completely packed and only about 15 people got on. The people in line behind us were starting to get upset (and we don't blame them) but the cast member promised another boat would be there in 5 minutes.
The Magic Kingdom was packed with more and more people arriving every minute. At the MK, Peggy decided to find a seat for the Spectromagic parade, while the rest of us went to ride some rides. Peggy couldn't find a seat, so feeling tired and not wanting to deal with the crowds, decided to go back to the room. The rest of us checked out the Fastpass return for Buzz, and it was offering 9:45 to 10:45 (parking closing is 11:00). We then checked out Space, which had the same times. We checked out Pooh, which was "sold out" of fast passes and had a 45 minute standby line. Suspecting he had better hurry, Jason ran back to Buzz and got 9:55 to 10:55, the last times available. The three of us then did TTA. Jason and I went to do Space Mountain, but Grant left us because he didn't want to stand in a line posted at 45 minutes. The wait turned out to be only about 15 minutes. I saw someone's Magical Moments pin light up, the first time I've seen one light up. I considered getting one put really didn't want to spend the money on it. On Space Mountain, just as you start up the lift hill, to one side of you part of the track dips down to your level and if your rocket is there at the right time one of the rockets ahead of you whizzes by really fast. During our ride when we got to that dip, there was another rocket just starting up the lift hill. Jason tried to scare them by screaming at them, and it must have worked, because they shrieked back!
Because it was now time for the 9 PM Spectromagic parade, we decided to see if we could find a space to see it instead of waiting around for the 11 PM show. We found a space on the walkway on the left side of the castle that leads directly to Liberty Square. It was an ok spot but I wish we were a little closer. It was better than staking out a place an hour before hand though. This was the first time for me seeing Spectromagic. It was nice and I really liked all the different colors but I really prefer the Main Street Electrical Parade.
We high tailed it over to Frontierland after the parade against the flow of the park exodus and almost got run over by a double-wide stroller. We actually caught up to the parade and had to squeeze our way through behind the people still watching the parade. One man who was watching the parade fell off of a five foot wall he was standing on to right into the walking path. He must have been ok because he got right up and said he was fine.
Big Thunder Mountain was a walk on. I don't think I've ever done it in the dark and it was fun. We then went to find a viewing spot for the fireworks, and found one the porch of the Crystal Palace, which was a pretty good spot, but it was hard to understand the dialogue. We could here the music fine. People would periodically open one of the side doors to the restaurant and the air conditioning would pour out. Cold to me, but refreshing to Jason.
We met up with Grant again for Buzz. My score was nowhere as good as the first time I rode the ride. I "only" got around 300,000. We headed back to the hotel. I felt a little sick in my stomach before I went to bed. About an hour later I felt a lot sick. After involuntarily emptying the contents of my stomach, I felt better. I don't know if it was from riding all the loopy de loop rides after a big dinner or from being partially dehydrated, but it thankfully only lasted the one night.
Sunday, May 19
Sunday morning I was feeling better but my stomach was still a little woozy. This turned out to be the dreary day-rain most of the morning, and dreary the rest of the day. At least it wasn't as hot and humid as it had been the last two days. We had a 7:30 PS at the Kona Café for breakfast, and Jason and I made it there at 8. Peggy and Grant had planned to join us, but when we called just before leaving, they hadn't even woken up yet. So we planned to meet them later.
Jason had the Tonga toast and I got the seasonal fruit platter. We had already decided before the trip to share the Tonga toast, since I can never eat it all on my own. With my stomach feeling woozy, it was good to have the fruit. I thought the fruit platter was a pretty good deal. The platter contained a large bran muffin with raisins, large slice of pineapple, smaller slices of cantaloupe and honeydew, pieces of kiwi, bananas, and oranges, and a large bunch of grapes. I had a small piece of the Tonga toast and Jason helped me finish the fruit platter. Jason thought that the Tonga was as delicious as always.
We took the monorail to the MK and made it there a little after opening at 9. With the combination of the rain and it being Sunday morning, the place was deserted - the polar opposite of last night. We had forgotten to pack the umbrellas or ponchos we had bought from Disney on previous trips. We really didn't want to buy replacements, and because it never really rained too hard today, I'm glad we didn't.
Just as we got to Main Street, a jitney pulled up and we rode it to the castle. We shared it with a family of five on their way to the castle for breakfast with Cinderella. We then attacked Fantasyland and rode Pooh, Peter Pan, and it's a small world, all with no lines. We then went on the Jungle Cruise, which was fun in the rain with the rain dripping down into the rivers.
We then met Peggy and Grant at the Hall of Presidents for the first showing at 10 AM. Finally got to see the George W animatronic, nothing too exciting though, but the HOP is much better without having to listen to Maya Angelou. We all together did the HM, Tiki room, and Pirates. We parted company with Peggy and Grant to ride the Magic Carpets. I had been wanting to ride them but not in the rain. Just has we were about to leave the park, the rain finally let up. I enjoyed the carpets. I had control of the up and down and Jason controlled the pitch. Jason didn't notice any effect from pushing his button though.
We went back to the Polynesian to retrieve our car and check out the new pool. The pool looks great. Jason had stayed here many times as a child and has fond memories of the old pool (now gone), which had a slide before having one became the norm. We next headed over and parked at the Boardwalk. We had decided that we wanted to have lunch at the Big River Grill or Beaches and Cream. We looked at the menu at BRG and decided to then look and B and C. We walked all the way around and then decided that B and C menu was too limited and instead of walking back decided to take the boat. We saw a boat heading towards MGM, and one of the crew members called out "Harold!" to a black bird sitting nearby. The bird came and ate out of his hand. After waiting 10 minutes and watching two sets of kids fight over the pay-per-view binoculars, the boat we wanted still showed no signs of arriving. So we decided to walk back to the BRG. After we arrived, were seated, and had put in our order, we finally saw the first boat that would have taken us from Yacht Club to Boardwalk arrive at the Boardwalk dock. Transportation inconsistency like that is why we prefer to have a car, because although we could walk in this case, if the bus from MK to AK takes forever to arrive, we'll end up wasting a lot of time.
We used one wish here by getting one appetizer and one desert to share, having on entrée and drink on the wish, and using room charge for the other entrée and drink. We actually didn't have to pay for the second drink because it was charged as our after meal coffee or tea, which we were not going to use anyway. We had the chicken quesadilla, which was very good. I liked the different taste due to the asiago cheese not usually used on quesadillas. Jason had penne pasta with a parmesan cream sauce and I had a honey mustard chicken sandwich, both very good. We had the chocolate confusion cake for dessert, very, very good, my favorite dessert of the whole vacation. If it were not prepaid on the wish, we probably would not have had the cake, so having the wish made us try something we usually would not have that turned out to be really good.
We decided to go back to the room and take a quick nap, which turned out to be 2 hours. Jason then went to Downtown Disney and I decided to take a swim. The pool at the Coronado is very nice. The water was a great temperature. I just relaxed and went down the slide once.
Peggy and I then took the bus to the West Side to meet Jason for dinner at Bongo's. I have been wanted to eat at Bongo's for a few years and finally this year we were. We split two appetizers of tamales and breaded mashed potato balls filled with meat. I liked the potatoes better than the tamales. Peggy got a dish with rice, vegetables, shrimp and chicken which I think was called Cuban Chinese, or the like. Jason got a Cuban steak and I got a dish with seasoned ground beef, rice, and plantains. I just love plantains. Peggy and Amy liked their dinners, Jason thought his steak was ok, but didn't really like the marinade very much. For dessert, we shared flan (but not me!) and a sweet vanilla pudding. I think I liked the place more than Peggy and Jason.
We met Grant at DisneyQuest, where it was very crowded so we decided to leave. We went to Virgin Records for a little bit before the three of us minus Grant went to Pleasure Island. We did the 10:15 show at the Comedy Warehouse. It was an ok show, but not the funniest I've seen. I didn't recognize most of the players, only Jake I remembered from before. We then hung around at the Adventurer's Club for a while, watched the treasure room show and went back to the hotel.
Monday, May 20
Today we started the day at Epcot, since Jason and I have not spent much time there yet this trip. Walking around Spaceship Earth on the left side, we saw some cast members directing traffic. Turns out the character bus was on its way and I noticed Piglet was on it! We didn't stop now but we did see Piglet later. We also saw a CM riding a Segway (the mystery device announced a year ago that was supposed to change the world but turned out to be pretty useless for most people) near Innoventions. Peggy jokingly asked if she could have it for the day (as a theme park is one of the few places it would actually be useful). I forgot to look for it later in Innoventions.
We started the day with Test Track, which Jason and I rode in the single riders line. It took longer than expected since the ride was having some kind of problems again. Does it ever run all the time? It seems like every day we spend at Epcot it breaks down at least one time. The ride was fun, as usual. After the ride, we decided to try out the Dreamchasers ride. I thought this was a virtual reality ride, based on what I read in the summer Disney magazine, which it says is a virtual reality ride. However, we were told this was not 3-D, virtual reality, a not something I can't remember. Hmmp! Jason thinks that third thing was that it was not interesting, but that doesn't seem right. It turned out to be a promotional video which was mildly interesting, but not worth the twenty minutes we waited in line. The seats move and you put your forehead next to the machine and it moves back and forth with the non virtual reality, non 3-D, whatever video. I must have not had it that close to my forehead because I was getting bumped each time I moved. The only question I had at the end was what are fuel cells? Jason said he would tell me later, but he never did.
Peggy and Grant had been waiting for us at the end of the ride and had probably thought we were lost. Amazing, they were still there waiting. Next, all of us went on Living with the Land. There was a line and the wait was around 20 minutes because they were not running nearly enough boats. I love looking at all the new methods and techniques for growing fruit and vegetables. We next went to the gift shop in the Land, one of my favorite gift shops. I bought an Epcot T-shirt for myself and a gardening T-shirt for my mom. Grant left us at this point.
We had an 11 AM PS at San Angel Inn in Mexico. We originally had PS at the 50s Prime Time Café, but we already had spent a lot of time in MGM and hardly any in Epcot. On the way to lunch, the character bus was at the entrance to World Showcase. The characters were off the bus and meeting the guests in groups of ones and twos. I was wearing what Jason calls my Piglet shirt (pink striped shirt) but forgot my homemade Piglet ears (of course, Disney sells Pooh and Tigger ears but not Piglet) at the hotel. Pooh and Piglet were posing for pictures together-again Piglet is not by himself. We got one of the last pictures with them as they had to leave to go back on the bus.
Lunch in Mexico was good, as usual, but I think I ate a little too much. We used two wishes here so we again got to try two appetizers and two desserts along with our entrees. There were only 2 appetizers on the menu, Queso Fundido and Sopa Azteca, so we ordered both. The queso fundido was very good, our server mixed the cheese, chiles, and chorizo together in front of us and wrapped it in tortillas. This was a great find, and something we probably would not have order without the wishes, so the wishes showed an intangible value here by encouraging us to try something we ordinarily would not have. The sopa azteca was also good. Peggy ordered the plato americano with a chicken quesadilla and chicken enchilada and beef taco. Jason got the chicken with chiles, cheese and spices. I got the plato nacional with tamale, flauta, and chile relleno. I was pretty full after the appetizers so I really didn't eat too much of my lunch since it was only ok. I wasn't too interested in desserts so Peggy and Jason ordered the flan and rice pudding. They liked the flan. We all tried the rice pudding, which looked like it was deep fried, and agreed it was awful. Our server came over and asked how we liked the desserts and Jason said the flan is good but we didn't like the rice pudding so much. A bit later he came out with another dessert to try, I think it was chocolate chimichangas. It was very nice of him, and we did like that dessert better.
We split from Peggy here to walk around the World Showcase. We first rode the Rio del Tiempo and looked at the Mexican shops. We noticed that one of the shops, where they had cookbooks and other things next to the glass shop was closed. I bought a small painted purple cat made by artists from Oaxaca who were temporarily there. There was also an exhibit on the Oaxaca painted wood working in the front of the pavilion.
We mainly went around the countries looking in a few shops for gifts (I looked in the UK shop for Harry Potter things. I saw the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone book... hmm, if this is really supposed to represent the UK, shouldn't they have the Philosopher's Stone version of the book?) I wanted to see the museum exhibit in Japan, but it ended up still being the baseball exhibit we saw in March 2001. We ended up at the American Adventure in enough time to see the end of a Voices of Liberty show and then see the attraction. We also did Maelstrom before heading back to Future World. I don't know why we headed back there because we had planned to see Starship at the America Gardens Theater in about a half and hour. We ended up having drinks at Ice Station Cool before heading back to the American Pavilion. It was pretty cool to see Starship; one of my favorite 80s song is We Built This City. They played a short set of 5 songs and I was surprised how many of them I knew. We went to Germany to catch the boat back to FW and I noticed now that the miniature train display has buttons to press to make actions happen. The giant live lizards on the top of the model houses were still there.
From here we headed out of Epcot and back to the hotel for a rest before dinner. We ended up going to the pool for a bit but I thought the water was too cold so I didn't go in for long.
The plan was to meet Peggy and Grant for dinner at Jiko in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. This would be our first visit time visiting the AKL. I really liked its look especially walking through all the natural grasses to get to the lodge. The lobby is really amazing and that's where we found Peggy -- Grant had decided to go to Disney Quest. We then went out the back to look at the animals. It was really neat to see the animals at the hotel. We saw giraffes, zebras and some kind of animal with really long horns that I forget the name.
After looking at the animals for a bit, we went to our PS at Jiko's. Again, Jason and I used two wishes for dinner. For our appetizers we chose smoked bacon and onion flatbread with a curry yogurt sauce and asparagus soup. I don't like asparagus so I didn't try the soup but Jason thought it was very good and flavorful. The flatbread was yummy too. For the entrée, Jason ordered the oak grilled beef tenderloin with wine sauce. Peggy and I both ordered the pan-seared monkfish. Neither of us had had it before and the server, described it as a poor man's lobster, which sounded good. We both really enjoyed the monkfish which came with a tomato butter sauce and lots of good vegetables. Jason liked his entrée too; the wine sauce went very well with it. For dessert, I tried the guava sorbet with three rum ice and Jason and Peggy shared a spice cake with chocolate and peanut butter sauce. Overall, a very good meal. This was definitely my favorite meal of the trip. Service was very slow though -- it took over two hours. Our server spent a lot of time socializing at the bar.
We dropped Peggy off at CS before going to Downtown Disney. Again, we had trouble putting our key in the gate to get to the hotel. This has been a constant problem throughout the trip. After putting it in the slot multiple times, dropping it under the car, and backing up the car to get the key back - we finally got though. Jason wonders if the security guards watching us through the security camera had a good laugh. We were not the only ones to have problems though.
At Downtown Disney, we looked at the World of Disney and the Pooh shop. Again, there was not much Piglet merchandise at a Pooh shop. We ended the night at Pleasure Island. We went to the Adventurer's Club for a while and saw a show in the mask room. We headed out before midnight to see the last Comedy Warehouse show. We saw the New Year's Eve show which was a lot different from the last time we saw it. When we saw it in 2000, it was a big stage show that was much longer, had more energetic dancing and much for fireworks. This time they acted like New Year's on TV, going live to different clubs on PI. At the CW, we found out that a lot of Disney college program students were there which made the show interesting.
Tuesday, May 21
Today was our last day at Disney. We were up early at 6:30 AM to check out and head over to the Animal Kingdom for breakfast. Also, Jason and I planned to go to all four parks today to catch things we haven't yet so we better get moving! We had breakfast at Donald's Breakfastosaurus, my favorite breakfast buffet at WDW. Grant and Peggy had never been there for breakfast. I enjoyed my meal but noticed that they didn't have the Knott's berry farm fruit syrups that they had last time we were there. Jason and I really enjoy the atmosphere of the restaurant and many of the servers really get into their roles.
After breakfast, Jason and Grant rode Dinosaur. I decided after our last trip that I had no need or interest to ride Dinosaur again. I really don't like the ride too much and Indiana Jones at Disneyland is much better. While they were on the ride, I sat for a bit with Peggy and checked out Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama. I don't think it's that bad; they could have put in something nicer but it's ok. After the ride we got fast passes for Primeval Whirl since the ride appeared not to working right then. Jason and I broke off from Peggy and Grant here.
We had decided to spend only till around 11 in the park since we had so much to do. We never spend much time in the AK, but there were a few others things I would have liked to see if we had the time.
We went to the Kilamanjaro Safari, where it was about a 20 minute wait. I really like the theming in the Africa section of the park, both on the ride and in the Harambe village. After the safari, we took the walking path in Africa and looked at the animals for a bit. We headed back to Dinoland for a spin on Primeval Whirl. I enjoyed the wild mouse ride. I didn't think there would be much theming but was pleasantly surprised. My favorite effect was going up the hill and going "back in time". I also like the rapid spinning parts. Jason did not like the new section at all. He finds the whole idea of midway games with cast members yelling at guests to come play to be tacky.
As we left AK to head form MGM, right outside the main gates to the AK, we saw a talking tree, similar to the talking trashcan in the MK. I hadn't seen or heard of this one before and it was pretty neat.
We drove and made it to MGM in a half an hour. We checked out times for Millionaire, but decided we wouldn't have enough time to fit in a show. Instead, we went to the Great Movie Ride, which had been closed for rehab earlier in the trip. It had a 15 minute wait. We got the gangster side, the side we usually get on this ride. I was really tired and started drifting off on the ride. I like watching the movies in the last scene so I made sure I was awake for that. I joked to Jason after the ride that we should go on Universe of Energy next so that I could finish my nap, ha ha. Energy is an ok ride actually, but my least favorite ride in Future World.
I wanted to do the Backstage Tour but then decided what I really wanted to do was to see what the exhibit was after the ride. The exhibit was Dressed to Thrill, which had costumes of top leading ladies from various movies. I love costumes so it was really interesting to me, but I think Jason wasn't that thrilled with the dresses. We planned on eating lunch again at Rosie's Red Hots. I saw frozen lemonades and had to get one as I had wanted one for a while. While I enjoyed my lemonade, Jason went on Rock and Roller Coaster. For some reason this trip, I didn't go on some rides I go on such as RNRC. When he returned, we split a pizza and Coke for lunch.
From MGM, we drove to Epcot. We had a PS at Le Cellier in Canada that night, so we parked here and took the monorail to the MK. We wanted to be at the MK by 3 to see the Share a Dream Come True parade. We arrive around 2:30 and I was surprised that not a lot of people were lined up to watch the parade. We found Peggy sitting on a bench in the town square. Jason went to get us Splash Mountain Fastpasses and I went to the candy shop to get fudge and a Mickey pretzel, like I get every trip. Jason also came back with a Dole Whip, which he stated costs less than buying a bottle of water at the park! The dole whip (actual food with calories in it) was $2.49. The water (which one can get from a fountain for free) cost $2.50. While he was waiting in line, Jason noticed the recirculating pineapple juice fountain that the cast members fill the orders from was running critically low. He wonder what would happen when it ran out. Just as it was about to empty a cast member came out from the kitchen with a BIG bucket of pineapple juice to fill the it back up all in one trip. Jason had never seen so much pineapple juice in one place at the same time before.
Jason returned with the Dole whip around three o'clock. The parade headed down Main Street from the castle (after starting in Frontierland), so we didn't see it until about 3:20. I liked the parade, some of the floats were really pretty, especially the princess float. Jason, who generally does not care for the day time parades, liked it too.
After the parade, we met up with Grant so we could take our traditional picture in front of the castle. It turned out that Grant also had a FP for Splash that began 10 minutes after ours. We left Peggy with the plan being to see her at Canada for dinner, and walked slowly to the ride as we saw no point in getting there before our Fast Passes became valid. Apparently not many people share this opinion as we found a lot of people were loitering in front of the fast pass entrance, waiting for them to be valid. I didn't get too wet on the ride this time, yea! Also all the show effects appeared to be in working order - last time we were here the water shots that cross the flume in front of the logs in the laughing place sequence were not working.
From here we left Grant as he wanted to do the shooting gallery and we were heading to Epcot. We took the train around to Main Street and came just in time to see the flag ceremony, which I've never seen before.
We took the monorail to Epcot. I went to the Land to exchange my shirt for a different size while Jason went to Innoventions. I actually ran into Grant first at Innoventions West and then found Jason. I played the Play Station NBA basketball game with him for a bit. We went over to Innoventions East and saw the preview for Mission: Space. I enjoyed playing the various games related to it. I noticed that they are renovating the House of the Future, an attraction I always enjoy. We then walked around for a bit looking at Mission: Space and some birdhouses from the Flower and Garden show. We then wandered up to Wonders of Life as Jason wanted to see if there were any remnants of the Met Life sponsorship left. There weren't, and the Snoopy lifestyle quiz machines were gone. It was pretty empty in there and I rode the stationery bike through the parade scene in there. I would really like to see the pavilion get a makeover. Jason says that it is essentially the same as it was when it opened over ten years ago (except now the Snoopy Quiz is gone).
We had about an hour before our PS and decided to do Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. It was fun to listen to everyone's reaction to the movie, sounded like a lot of people enjoyed it. Before going to dinner, we headed to the UK shop to buy a gift for our cat sitter.
Jason, Peggy and I arrived about 5 minutes after our PS time of 7:30 and were given a buzzer. We didn't get in until almost 8. We used our last two wishes here. For appetizers, Jason and I both got the cheddar cheese soup -- yum, yum! For an entrée Peggy ordered the filet mignon, Jason the NY strip steak, and I had the sweet potato ravioli. It was ok, but not my favorite entrée of the trip. Peggy and Jason enjoyed their meals. Service here was slow, as it was last time we came here. For dessert, we got two pieces of the chocolate cake and by time we finished Illuminations had too, so it was around 9:15.
I wanted to go to World of Disney before it closed at 11. Jason first thought about dropping me off there since he was taking Peggy and Grant to the hotel, Hampton Inn, for our last night. We then decided it would be easier for me to take a bus to a resort and then from there take a DD bus. Jason planned to meet me at the Adventurer's Club. I would have gone up to the Boardwalk, but I realized I haven't seen my favorite sparkly light sidewalks in Future World yet this trip. After enjoying the sparkles, I headed to the bus area and found that the line for Port Orleans was reasonable. I made it on the second bus out. When it stopped at PO, I had to go down one bus stop and luckily the next bus came in 5 minutes. I made it to WOD around 10:30. I bought some gifts (key chains, pens) for some people and a Haunted Mansion ride vehicle for Jason. Jason said we got a 15% discount with our Disney Club card but I didn't have the card. I saw at the counter about an American Express discount so I asked about it since we have AMEX and the CM gave it to me after asking if I was staying at a Disney resort. I also saw about other discounts that we couldn't use anyway because of the Discovery Magic plan but it also solved the mystery of where everyone got the AMEX lanyards I kept seeing. I met Jason at the Adventurer's Club around 11. Being tired from a long day, we only stayed until around 11:30.
Wednesday, May 22
We got up around 8:30 to have the free continental breakfast. It was good, but they need more tables and toasters. We got to the airport with no problems. We returned the rental car, and the receipt that the person who checked the car in printed out was $100 too much. We pointed the problem out and were told to go to the main desk to get it fixed, which was not a major hassle. Check-in at Southwest was a breeze, and the line for security was less than five minutes. The flight was uneventful, and we actually arrived early. The walk to baggage claim was very, very long. The wait for the shuttle to our car was actually reasonable for a change (multiple bad experiences at BWI) and we got back to the cars quickly. We managed to beat rush hour traffic home.
Analysis of Discovery Magic (DM) Plan:
Cost of Jason & Amy's package : $1425.98
Cost of Peggy & Grant's package: $890.64
Cost per wish assuming no value for the little perks of DM: $33.43
We used four ($133.72) for the Hoop-De-Doo for a $191.18 bill which we could have discounted 10% or about $16 so we saved $41.46.
We used two ($66.86) at Artist Point for a $130.02 bill, although we would never have spent the $13.31 on the fancy water, so we saved $49.85.
We used one at Big River Grill and saved $6.10.
We used two at Bongos where we could have got a 10% discount, so after the discount we saved $17.11.
We used two at San Angel Inn and saved $3.08.
We used two at Jiko where we could have gotten a free dessert, so after the discount we saved $27.96.
We used one a Breakfastosaurus and lost $13.43.
We used two a Le Cellier and saved $16.56.
Total savings: $148.69
So we were able to get great value out of it. We also found intangible value to it because it encouraged us to order things were probably would not have, which we found out that we really liked (the chocolate cake at Big River, and the queso fundido at San Angel Inn, among others). We always go on vacation saying that we would not worry about price at the restaurants and just order what we wanted. Being on the plan made this easy because it was all prepaid.
On the down side, we found that use of the plan required some maintenance. The cast member at Rosie's Red Hots charged the wish for the chicken, even though we paid with the room change. We had to go to Coronado Springs front desk to resolve the problem, which took about half an hour. Bongos charged us three wishes when they should only have done two. This also required a half hour to correct, and while doing this we had to deal with the only unpleasant cast member we encountered on the trip. He originally said that whatever Bongo's did must be right and did not want to fix the problem. Jason persisted, and he reluctantly did his job, researched to problem, and corrected the error. It can pay to be persistent.
Amy Gourley
amy@pressroom.com