Jonathan Shain - June 2002 - Port Orleans Riverside

Time of Year: Summer
Travel Method: Autotrain, Personal Car
Resort: PORR
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Pre-School, Elementary, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent, Rookie
Comments: Jonathan and his family enjoyed a week at WDW using the Autotrain to get from home to WDW (in addition to the car, of course). This is a very detailed report of a great family vacation, so sit back and enjoy!

Jonathan Shain -- June 2002 -- Walt Disney World (PORR)

Who:
Jon (43), Father of Emily and Jacob (I'm a corporate attorney for a mutual funds company)
Debbie (41), Mother of Emily and Jacob, and Disney lover.
Emily (7) (loves SpongeBob Square Pants -yes, I know he's not a Disney character, but the shows are pretty funny).
Jacob (3) (loves anything Emily likes, and he especially likes to torment his sister by copying whatever she says!).
When: June 16-23, 2002.
Where: Disney's Port Orleans Resort -- Riverside (Magnolia Bend Section/Magnolia Terrace Building - standard room (Room 8583), ground floor)
How: By Amtrak's Auto-Train from Lorton, VA to Sanford, FL
WDW Experience: Almost None. I visited Disneyland in California for a day about 6 years ago, and visited Epcot at WDW for a day about 10 years ago when I was in Florida for a relative's surprise birthday party.
Background

About 6 months ago, my wife and I began to talk about our summer vacation plans. We first talked about, and tentatively booked a cruise for the family to go to Bermuda by ship from New York City. Since we live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which is only about 2 hours from NYC, we figured that it would be nice to take a trip without the hassles of long-distance driving or flying. After further investigation, however, we were advised that the ship we wanted to book didn't generally have cabins that could accommodate four in a room (unless we were willing to upgrade to a much more expensive suite). So, coupled with our concern that the kids might be bored in Bermuda, we dropped the idea of a cruise, and instead thought about going to WDW. Although all the guidebooks we read say not to go to WDW during the second part of June due to the crowds, Debbie and I don't believe in taking kids out of school for vacations, so we had no choice but to wait until Emily was finished with second grade. Her last day of school was June 14, so we decided to leave for WDW the following day.

We had always talked about going "when the kids are older," but it seemed that the time was now right, since our kids were 3 and 7. Post-9/11 I'll admit that I had my concerns about flying anywhere, no less on a family vacation to Florida. In addition, my wife went on Orbitz and the other airline websites, and the only affordable airfares that we could find from Philadelphia to Orlando were flights that left at odd times or on odd days. The only other choices were driving all the way down, or taking the train. The thought of two days in a small car (I have a Honda Civic) with two kids driving to Florida didn't seem too appealing to me, so my thoughts turned to taking the Auto-Train to Florida.

I broached the idea to some of our friends, all of whom thought I was insane. Comments ranged from "what are the kids going to do on a train," to "can you really sleep on a train" and "isn't Amtrak shutting down next week?" Despite these barbs, I still thought that taking the Auto-Train could be a lot of fun, and would make getting there part of the experience of the trip. Given Amtrak's financial straits, it also seemed that this could be one of my last opportunities to take a non-commuter passenger train. After filling my Civic with empty suitcases to see if all of our luggage could fit in the car, we decided to go for it and, we booked four coach seats on the Auto-Train. The total round-trip fare for the four of us was a little over $700, which seemed reasonable to us, since the train trip included dinner, a movie, and continental breakfast, and we would have the use of our car in Florida without the need for a rental. We did briefly toy with the idea of a sleeper instead of coach seats on the train, but the cost for the sleeper was about double the price for the coach seats, so we figured we'd save the money and just "rough it" in coach for one night.

As time drew nearer to our departure date, my daughter Emily made it clear to me that her one goal on this trip was not Disney-related. Emily is proof of the success of the Nickelodeon channel, because she absolutely adores SpongeBob Square Pants and all of the other Nick shows (I'm sure that Disney has spent countless hours trying to figure out how to replicate the incredible success of Nickelodeon). No, Emily wasn't longing to meet Goofy, Pluto, Mickey and the rest of the Disney gang. Emily instead informed me that the trip to Florida would only be worthwhile for her if she could become a contestant on Nickelodeon's "SlimeTime Live." Although I couldn't guarantee that she would end up with a bucket of green glop on her head on national TV, I did assure her that we would, in addition to visiting Disney World, also spend a day at Universal, so that she could seek the Nickelodeon Studios (since this is a WDW trip report, I won't discuss our actual day at Universal further in this report, but if anyone wants to know what our experiences were like, drop me a line and I'll be happy to fill you in). In the back of my mind, I couldn't help but wonder whether the four days (and all of the money) we had planned to spend at the WDW parks would be a waste of time and money for Emily, who seemed to be totally seduced by the glitzy world of Nickelodeon and its characters.

After much discussion and debate about what type of park passes to buy and when to buy them (i.e., before we left, or at the hotel), we decided that we would purchase four-day park hopper tickets. As a triple AAA member, I was able to purchase the tickets with a slight (and I mean slight) discount (hey, every penny counts!)(I also bought discounted Universal tickets at triple AAA, too). The next decision was the age-old question of on-site vs. an off-site hotel. As I saw the costs of this family trip beginning to mount, my first thought was to stay off-site and try to prevent us from spending our life savings on the trip.

We decided to stay on-site, but to save some money by staying at the All-Star Movies resort. We knew that they had ended early-entry mornings (actually, I knew this because I saw it mentioned on MousePlanet.com), but we still wanted the full Disney experience by staying on-site. Shortly after we booked the All-Stars, Disney began to run full-page ads in our local paper advertising reduced rates on virtually all of their on-site hotels. We called Disney's central reservations, and found out that with the special, our room rate at the All-Stars had dropped. Although we could have pocketed the savings, we decided to upgrade to a better property, and we choose Port Orleans-Riverside (formerly, Dixie Landings). After reading hotel reports on MousePlanet, we asked for and received a ground-floor room in the Magnolia Terrace section of Port Orleans (this had been recommended, because this section of the resort is close to the pool and the lobby/food court, as it is immediately opposite the bridge that connects the guest room buildings with 'ol man island and the food court). With all of the big decisions made, we started our trip countdown, and began to pore over our Disney literature, especially the guidebook "Walt Disney World with Kids." After considerable discussion, Debbie made several different priority seating "reservations," including a character dinner at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian and a character breakfast for our last day at WDW at Chef Mickeys in the Contemporary Resort Hotel.

The trip date drew nearer, and Emily began to count down the days until the big day. My wife was also getting pretty excited, too. Each day Emily would watch SlimeTime Live, and tell me how much it would mean to her to be a contestant. Ignoring Emily's devotion to Nickelodeon, I continued to tell myself that "once we get there, she'll see how great WDW is, and probably forget all about Sponge Bob, Rocket Power, Ginger, and the Brothers Garcia." I had to reassure myself, since I didn't want to think about the prospect that I was about to spend a considerable amount of time, money and effort on a trip to WDW when my daughter only seemed interested in everything but Disney! Several days before our departure date, we slowly began to pack for the trip. It did occur to us that since we would be on the train overnight, we should plan to bring an overnight bag on the train so that we would have changes of clothes, toothbrushes, etc.(more about all of that later in the report).

Day One: Saturday June 15

At work on Friday the day before our trip, I was so anxious to get out of work and get ready that I could hardly pay attention to what I was doing. I studiously kept my head down all day and tried to avoid my boss, in the hopes that if she didn't notice me, I wouldn't get stuck in the office late the day before the trip! I managed to get out of work on time, and I rushed home, to get everything and everyone as ready as possible. Debbie and I were up late packing that night, and after a mostly sleepless night, the morning of our departure day had finally arrived. I told Debbie that I wanted to leave the house at 8:00 AM, since our Amtrak ticket folder warned of getting stuck in traffic through the Washington, DC area. Getting everything ready took longer than we thought (if you have young kids, you'll know how impossible it is to leave on time for anything, much less a week-long trip). We loaded up the car, filling virtually every square inch of the trunk and the passenger compartment too (we barely had room for ourselves and the kids!). At long last, the car was loaded and we were ready to go. Did we leave at 8:00 AM? No, of course not. We did finally close the garage door and pull out at about 9:15, which for us was a fairly major accomplishment.

The drive down to the DC area took us straight down Interstate 95 from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, through Philadelphia and Baltimore via the Harbor Tunnel. The weather was sunny, and we were making very good time, or so I thought. The directions that I had received on mapquest.com suggested that we take the Baltimore-Washington Parkway after passing through the Harbor Tunnel. What a mistake that turned out to be! About mid-way between Baltimore and Washington, we ran into a seemingly endless traffic jam. It was one of those jams that seems to stretch on for miles, with no indication of the cause, and no end in sight. Ordinarily, I'm not the world's most patient person, but I became positively frantic sitting in stuck traffic, thinking about the fact that the Auto-Train tickets clearly stated that the train would not accept passengers after 3:00 PM. As we creeped and crawled along, Debbie and I began to formulate back-up plans, including driving down to Florida, or staying overnight at a hotel and catching the train the next morning. None of these options seemed very appealing to us. Luckily, after creeping a few miles, we finally made into a construction zone where one lane was closed off. We negotiated through the construction zone, and finally out into clear lanes. We sped along the remainder of the route, and except for some very sluggish and very heavy traffic on the Capital Beltway near the Potomac River drawbridge, we made it to the Amtrak station in Lorton, VA at about 1:00 PM.

The greeter at the front entrance to the station advised us that we still had time to get something to eat, and he told us about a Burger King just down the road from the station. The Burger King was located in a strip center about a mile from the station, and there was a Texaco gas station nearby. We got the usual mix of Whoppers and kids chicken nuggets meals. The kids meals came with a prize from the movie Spirit, which of course distracted the kids so that they hardly touched their nuggets and fries (are my kids the only ones that won't eat meals?). As the kids finished up, I took the car over to the Texaco to get gas, since I wanted the car to be fully gassed when we arrived in Florida.

Debbie walked over to the gas station with Jacob and Emily, and we went back to the train station. After we drove into the station off-loading area, an Amtrak employee came over to drive the car into the auto carrier that would be attached to the back of the train. The employee put a plastic sheet over the driver seat and floor (a nice touch, I thought). We quickly took from the car what we thought we might need for the overnight trip (stuffed animals, etc.), and we watched as our car was driven off to the loading area. An Amtrak employee videotaped the outside of the car (presumably to fend off any claims for damages from passengers claiming that Amtrak had damaged their cars while in transit). With the car gone, we proceeded to go into the station to wait for the train to begin boarding.

The station is a very bright, and very new glass and steel structure, and much nicer than I had imagined it would be. We checked in, we received our coach seating assignments and selected the 5:00 PM dinner seating (we would have preferred the later 7:00 PM seating, but it was booked). We were also given four meal coupons for the dinner seating. Debbie went to pick up some magazines to read, and I sat down with Jacob and Emily. At around 3:00 PM, they announced that passengers could begin boarding the train. I know that Amtrak has horrendous financial problems, but the cars on the Auto-Train positively gleamed in polished chrome, each bearing the large "Superliner" motto on the outside. The cars were all bi-level cars, and standing on the platform, they looked gigantic to me. After some initial confusion about which car we were in, we walked down the platform, located our car and headed in.

The first thing we learned on entering the car is that in these bi-level cars, almost all of the coach seats are located on the upper level, which is reached by a very narrow set of turned stairs (we had no problem negotiating the stairs, but I could see where someone with mobility problems might encounter difficulty). The lower level of the car contained several bathrooms on one side, and on the other side were several rows of coach seats, which were separated by doors and a wall from the bathrooms. Apparently, the lower level coach seats can be reserved in advance, although we didn't realize this when we booked our seats. Because the lower level seats are separated from the rest of the lower level, they provide additional privacy and are almost a self-contained group of seats. I could see where a young family (or older folks wanting privacy and or a more quiet atmosphere) might select these seats if they wanted their own group of seats.

We went up the stairs to the upper level and located our seats. The seating was two and two, meaning that two seats were on either side of the main aisle. The seats were surprisingly large (very similar to seats in first class on an airplane), and featured reclining mechanisms, overhead reading lamps, and an overhead luggage rack. We settled in and awaited the train's departure. Needless to say, after about 10 minutes, Emily asked "when are we going to leave." I thought to myself that this was not a good omen for a train trip that wouldn't be over until the next morning! I encouraged Emily to be patient, which is understandably hard for a 7 year old. At around 3:30, the train crew began to attach the auto carriers to the back of the train, and we felt a thump as the two halves of the train were connected into one. Periodically, Amtrak employees would make announcements on the public address system, which were virtually impossible to hear or understand. At about 4:00 PM (the stated departure time), we slowly began to pull away from the station, and we were off.

The kids seemed very restless at first, and although I didn't want to eat dinner so soon after getting on the train, the early dinner now seemed like a good idea, since it would give all of us something to do. I offered to take Emily to the lounge car, where they sold snacks and drinks. She readily agreed, and we quickly got our "train legs" as we walked through several cars to reach the lounge car near the front of the train. The lounge car consisted of a central snack bar area, with rows of seating booths lining either side of the car. Like our coach car, the lounge car was modern and spotlessly clean (again, because of all of Amtrak's well-publicized financial woes, I had expected the worst). Emily selected a package of oreo cookies, and I bought a Sprite. The prices, although higher than at a supermarket, really weren't bad given the convenience of purchasing snacks on the train. The cookies gave Emily something to do besides think about how bored she was, and it was fun to start exploring our "home" for the next 15 hours or so.

As we walked through the cars, I noticed that the train seemed to be about 3/4 full. The passengers consisted mostly of family-types like us who presumably were off to Disney World, and the remainder were largely retirees. Like us, the families had brought on the train the various trappings of home, including pillows, stuffed bears, game boys, and the like. We arrived back at our seats, and I noticed that the train had picked up speed. The Virginia landscapes that rolled by were mostly suburban looking, but I could sense that we were approaching the outer limits of Washington's ever-expanding suburban sprawl. I attempted to try and read one of the magazines provided by Amtrak (the selection wasn't great, consisting of Automobile, Inc., and PC World magazines), but it was no use, since Jacob and Emily (they were sitting across the aisle from Debbie and I) were attempting to cover themselves with the blankets and small pillows supplied by Amtrak, and they kept interrupting us. It was fun to watch them, though, since I knew that they never could have rough-housed like this on an airplane or in a car. I felt vindicated, in the face of all of our friends who thought we were out of our minds to take the train instead of flying. There were some other kids sitting in some of the immediately adjacent rows of seats, but they were all younger or considerably older than Jacob and Emily, so it didn't seem that they would find any train-pals to play with.

Dinner was announced, and we all walked down to the dining car, which was the next car immediately after the lounge car. A very nice waitress showed us to our table, and it was definitely neat to sit at a four-seater booth, watching the countryside roll by (we had past through Fredericksburg, VA by the time dinner began). The table was nicely set, although I noticed that the dishes were plastic-coated paper, but we did have real silverware and cloth napkins. The dinner choices weren't spectacular by any means, but they were adequate. The menu included chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese for the kids. I selected a chicken breast dish, and Debbie had grilled vegetable lasagna. One pleasant touch: each table received a carafe of white wine. As we waited for dinner, I treated myself to several glasses of wine: after all, even if I got drunk, I certainly wasn't driving home. As the train went over crossings and rail switches, you could definitely feel some bumps and thumps, but amazingly, our wine and water glasses didn't spill or fall off of the table. The scenery outside was quite rural, with farm fields occasionally punctuated by small towns and grade crossings. On several occasions, the train ran right alongside the main streets of several small rural towns, giving a good view of old downtown streetscapes.

Our food arrived fairly quickly. It wasn't gourmet by any stretch, but it certainly was adequate and filling. Emily and Jacob, as usual, just picked at their food. Emily ate some of her chicken nuggets under duress from me, but Jacob (who is very stubborn), simply wouldn't eat. Our waitress offered desserts, and Jacob had vanilla ice cream. He didn't eat the ice cream. Emily ordered Jello, which she did eat. With dinner over, we returned back to our coach. Although a movie was being shown in the lounge car, the movie was "A Wonderful Mind" with Russell Crowe. I hadn't seen the movie, but the kids weren't interested (if the movie had been "Hey Arnold: The Movie" or "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius" then they would have insisted on front-row seats), and in any event I didn't think that the movie was appropriate for their ages.

Back in our seats, I tried to keep Emily and Jacob busy with games that we had brought, which included chinese checkers (they promptly lost several of the pieces when they fell under some of the seats), and a "magic" drawing pad that uses a special pen and paper pad to reveal various mazes. I realized that quite a few of the other kids on the train had brought game boys to play video games. Our kids don't have game boys, but if anyone reading this ever decides to take the Auto-Train, bringing along a game boy is a great diversion and might even buy you an hour of peace and quiet while the kids play video games. Although we brought pj's for the kids to change into, since none of the other kids were changing, we decided to let Emily and Jacob sleep in their clothes (I know it sounds kind of icky, but it's really not that bad). Jacob fell asleep very easily, and we let him spread out across our row of seats.

I realized that sleeping on a coach seat was not going to be very easy for me, but I thought it might be easier if I could find an empty row of seats so that I could stretch out a little bit. Because the train wasn't full, I did find an empty row immediately across from the stairway connecting the two levels of the car (which turned out to be a bad location for sleeping, since the lights in the stairwell were never turned off at night, unlike the remainder of the car). After "bedding" down on my seats, I went back to see how Emily was doing. She was quite restless and was having trouble falling asleep in the seat next to Debbie. Since the row immediately in front of my new row was empty, I asked her if she wanted to take that row and try to sleep there. She agreed, and took the row in front of me. Of course, she fell asleep almost immediately, while I tossed and turned all night, struggling to fit my 6-foot frame into two reclining seats. I must have tried every possible sleeping position, but to no avail. Although I was able to catnap for 30 or 40 minutes at a time, I didn't get much sleep that night. I noticed a few people in our car had apparently elected to stay up all night and read, but most passengers were at least attempting to try and get some form of sleep. One minor complaint: during the middle of the night, the bathrooms on the lower level of our coach became stopped up and wouldn't work. This wasn't a really big deal, since we could still use the bathrooms on the other coaches instead.

Day Two: Sunday June 16

At around midnight or so, the train stopped in Florence, SC to change crews and receive supplies. As the morning progressed, we rolled through Jacksonville, Florida, at a very slow rate of speed. The train moved somewhat faster as we left Jacksonville. My thoughts began to turn to the tragic derailment of the Auto-Train a few months back, since we were approaching the portion of track in Northern Florida where the derailment had occurred. There were no obvious signs of the derailment or its aftermath as we passed through the spot where the accident occurred, much to my relief. At about 8:00 AM, the crew announced that we were approaching Sanford. Although the train had been fun, we were all anxious to get off, get our car, and to get going. The train stopped for a while just outside the station, but we finally arrived pretty much on schedule. (I forgot to mention that a continental breakfast was provided in the dining car -- pretty good spread, consisting of bagels, juice, cereal, coffee, milk and fruit).

We got off the train, and piled into the Sanford station, which is quite small and run down in comparison to the large, new and bright station in Lorton. The humidity was extremely high, which was our first signal that we really were in Florida! Because the station was so small and crowded, we decided to wait for our car outside. I guess we were fairly lucky, because we only had to wait for our car for about a half hour, and there were still quite a few people waiting for their cars as we drove out of the station. We loaded up the car with the items that we had brought onto the train, and using the directions handed out by the station personnel, we were on the last leg of our trip to WDW. We quickly moved down Interstate 4 towards WDW, noticing that much of the road was in the midst of a widening project. As we passed through downtown Orlando and approached WDW, we experienced the heavy traffic that apparently is a typical occurrence. In addition to the traffic, we drove into a very heavy thunderstorm which drenched the roadway with driving rain. Little did I know it then, but rain would be a near-constant feature of our entire week in Disney World.

We found the signage for the Disney World exits to be clearly marked, and once off of the interstate, we followed the signs to the Downtown Disney resorts, since Port Orleans is considered to be a Downtown Disney property. Turning into the front drive of the resort, the quality and beauty of the landscaping was obvious, which made me feel good about deciding to spend the extra $$ to stay on-site. The rain was still coming down as we approached the front entrance to the resort, and to make matters worse, the front drive was packed with cars for guests who were checking in or out. The kids had to go to the bathroom, so I unloaded a few bags and left them under a covered portion of the front entrance. While Debbie trooped the kids to the bathroom I arranged to have a bellhop store the bags for later delivery to our room. Inside the lobby, my first thought was that check-in would take hours, because the lobby was packed and there was a long line at the front desk. My fears were unfounded, as the line moved quickly, and within 10 minutes or so Debbie and I were being helped by a CM. Check-in was a snap, we received our Disney ID cards, and we were off to our room. Although Port Orleans is a "moderate" price hotel, other than the long check-in lines, we certainly didn't feel like second-class citizens (later in our visit, we hotel-hopped and visited the Polynesian, Grand Floridian, and Contemporary Hotels, and I can now see how much nicer they are than Port Orleans, but they cost gobs more money to stay at, too) Since neither Debbie or I had much sleep, and no showers in the morning, we both felt (and looked) very worn out. I desperately needed a shave, too!

Our room was on the first floor of the Magnolia Terrace building, located in the Magnolia Bend section of the resort not far from the bridge that spans the Sassagoula River and connects the guest areas of the resort to the main lobby building and the 'ol man island swimming pool. Although I hadn't thought about it earlier, I realized that with young kids in general, and using a stroller for Jacob, having a ground floor room made the logistics much, much easier, since we could roll the stroller in and out of our room, and we didn't have to negotiate stairs with two kids in tow. As we walked to the Magnolia Terrace building, I admired the beautiful scenery of the river, the landscaping and all of the flowers. Although I know that mouseplanet.com has received letters from folks indicating that WDW has become run-down, it wasn't apparent at Port Orleans. In fact, during our week's stay, we saw the groundskeepers pull out large swaths of geranium plants which still had plenty of flowers on them, and plant new flowers in their place. Simply put, at least at Port Orleans I didn't see any of the neglect that some readers have mentioned.

Except for the fact that our room was immediately adjacent to a very noisy central air-conditioning unit, the room was more than adequate for us. The room was spotlessly clean, and the maid had arranged one of the wash towels in the bathroom in the shape of a fan. The room carried through the "old south" theme of the resort, right down to the lighting fixtures and the pictures on the wall (pictures were of steamboats and such). The room featured double pedestal sinks immediately outside of the bathroom. The two beds were both queen size beds, and Debbie and I planned to take one bed, with Jacob and Emily sleeping in the other bed. I can't say that the room was terribly big, but considering what we had paid, and the fact that we probably wouldn't be in the room all that much other than to sleep and dress, Debbie and I both felt that we had made the right choice. Gee, we even got Disney shampoo and soap in the bathroom, too!

Within 20 minutes or so, the bellman arrived with our bags. After he finished unloading the bags, I walked back over the ol' man island bridges to move the car from the parking lot outside the main lobby building to a closer parking lot in the "back" of the property, immediately behind the Magnolia Terrace building where we were staying. Although Debbie and I both felt and looked fairly pooped, we both elected not to take showers an freshen up, and instead we were off to the Magic Kingdom. The rain had let up, and although I initially toyed with the idea of driving over to the Magic Kingdom (on-site guests still do get free parking privileges at all of the theme parks, and I didn't realize until later in our trip that the Magic Kingdom doesn't have its own adjacent parking lot, like EPCOT and Disney-MGM), I was afraid of getting lost, so we decided to take the Disney bus.

We walked back to the "front" of the property, with our collapsible stroller in tow, so that we could catch the bus at the bus stop located near the main lobby entrance to the resort (I later learned that there was a closer bus stop located immediately behind the Magnolia Terrace building). The bus arrived only a few minutes later, and we were dropped off immediately in front of the Magic Kingdom. Of course, the rain had started again by the time we got off of the bus (yes, it rained every single day of our trip, and not just the typical afternoon thunderstorms either). Despite the bad weather, despite the fact that neither Debbie or I had had a good night's sleep, the sight of the front gates to the Magic Kingdom made it all seem worth it.

We passed through the security tables, where each of our bags was searched, and we proceeded to the turnstiles. Although the turnstiles accepted Debbie and Emily's park hopper tickets, the turnstile refused to read my ticket. This was definitely frustrating! A very helpful CM took my park hopper card and went over to guest relations to fix the card or obtain a replacement while I waited at the turnstile gates. Several minutes later the CM returned, and swiped the card through the turnstile. We were finally inside the Magic Kingdom. I knew that I wanted to do something, anything, almost right away. As the rain continued to fall, it seemed like a good idea to get under cover. The railroad is just about the first thing you run into when you enter the Magic Kingdom, so we all got on the train, with only a minimal wait. We got off in Frontierland. Debbie and I were totally disoriented, and couldn't quite figure out where we were on the map included in the park guide.

I asked Emily about going on Splash Mountain, to which she emphatically replied "No way." After walking around aimlessly for a bit, we came across the Aladdin ride (the park guide said that this was a new ride), which features magic carpets that riders can raise or lower as they spin around (we later realized that this ride is Dumbo by another name). This type of a ride was perfect for Jacob, but Emily looked a bit underwhelmed by the idea of waiting in line for the chance to ride a magic carpet. The line wasn't too bad, but it did take at least 25 minutes to get onto the ride, and it was incredibly hot and humid. As we were waiting in line, we observed several severely handicapped individuals who the CM's took great care in assisting on and off of the ride. (Throughout our stay at WDW, we consistently observed the great care with which the Disney CM's assisted handicapped individuals who wished to go on rides). We got on the ride, which Jacob absolutely loved. He loved taking the control lever and moving our magic carpet up, down, and then up/down again, and again. The ride probably lasted no more than a minute, but it didn't matter to him.

Although Jacob wanted to go on Aladdin again, Debbie and I dissuaded him (I just didn't think the waiting time was worth a ride that barely lasted one minute, and besides, I was hot and tired). By now the sun was out, and boy was it hot! Everything the guidebook said about Florida in June was true. As we walked around, Emily spotted her first character: Jasmine. We rushed to get in line to get Jasmine's autograph. Emily was the last person in line before the CM announced that Jasmine couldn't stay much longer. Emily and Jacob finally got to the front of the line and posed with Jasmine for a picture. Emily's first autograph was in the book. Things definitely seemed to be off to a good start.

By now it was about 4:00 PM, and I knew we only had time for one or two more things before we needed to head over to Disney-MGM for our first Disney meal: the Hollywood and Vine buffet. As we kept walking, we ran smack into Dumbo. Although it had rained earlier in the day, by now the sun was blazing down on us, the humidity was high, and the line for Dumbo seemed just about endless. Since Jacob kept reminding me that he wanted to go on Dumbo, I reluctantly gave in and took our places in line. Debbie decided to take go with Emily for a bathroom break, and she agreed to meet us back at Dumbo. Based on the number of people waiting in line, I was confident that we'd still be waiting in line even if Emily took the world's longest bathroom stop. After what seemed like forever, and with sweat dripping off of me, we finally made it onto the ride. Just like Aladdin, I thought, and sure enough, the Dumbo elephants had pretty much the same levers that allowed Jacob to raise and lower us at will. Just like Aladdin, he just loved it -- laughing and shouting as the Elephant went up and down at his command!

After meeting up with Debbie and Emily, we walked over to the Teacups. The line wasn't too bad, so Emily and Debbie decided to go on. Jacob was hysterical, because he wanted to go as well. We watched and waved as their teacup spun around. They were both laughing and waving back at us. After the teacups, I figured that we had time for just one last ride before dinner. Emily and Jacob both wanted to go on the speedway and try their driving skills. This line too, was as long as Dumbo, but it seemed to move faster, maybe because the ride loads just about continuously instead of the stop/start/stop loading/unloading of Dumbo. Emily and I rode in one car, with Debbie and Jacob in the other car. Emily had trouble reaching the gas pedal, but she enjoyed every minute of the ride (even if she kept crashing our car into the center guide rail!). Of course, as we motored around the track, it began to rain.

After the speedway, we trudged back through the front gates to the bus loading area, and went back to the hotel to take a brief rest before dinner. On our way out, I stopped at guest relations, where they promptly and with no questions asked issued me a new park hopper pass to replace my troublesome pass. Soon, we were back on the bus to Disney-MGM. This time, there were no problems with the park hopper cards at the turnstiles, and there were only minimal lines at the security tables. My first impression after entering the park was that it was just so incredibly cool to see the Hollywood icons and the pretend Hollywood street. I knew it was all fake, but it was all done so convincingly, right down to the pretend gas station and the billboard advertising the "big red cars" of the Pacific Electric. We were all hungry, so we headed directly to Hollywood and Vine for dinner. After a brief wait outside, the hostess called us in. Blessedly, the restaurant was bathed in air-conditioned comfort, and it wasn't terribly crowded either. The decor actually reminded me of the Horn and Hardart cafeteria that I went to in New York when I was young. We all thought that the buffet food was really quite good. Although the prices weren't cheap, the selection of different foods was good, and at least Debbie and I both felt that the food was tasty and well-prepared. The mashed potatoes were home-made and they were excellent. The buffet even featured a mini-buffet for the kids featuring (what else) chicken nuggets and french fries. The make-your-own ice cream bar was a big hit, too.

After dinner, we decided to take it easy and just walk around without trying to get into any attractions. Jacob is at that age where he still can fit into a stroller, and when he gets cranky or tired, he needs a stroller. Unfortunately, however, he also likes to push the stroller when he's not sitting in it. Jacob decided that he wanted to push the stroller. Normally, it's cute to watch him push his own stroller, but he has a tendency to crash into anything and everything, including other peoples' knees or legs. When we told him he couldn't push the stroller, he went ballistic, and threw a temper tantrum (one of about 30 tantrums he had during our week at WDW!). As the week went on, his insistence on pushing the stroller became a major bone of contention with him. We spent some time browsing through the shops, and I saw an ESPN polo shirt that I decided to buy later in the week, when I knew we would be coming back to the park. I admired the food stalls across from the Beauty and the Beast show (they really did remind me of the Farmer's Market in L.A.), and listened to the screams periodically wafting out of the Hollywood Tower Hotel. We headed back to Port Orleans and flopped in our room: I had been up since yesterday morning, and my lack of sleep was definitely apparent.

Day Three: Monday June 17

The guidebooks that we read before our trip sternly admonished that in order to avoid lines, it was necessary to "get to the parks early, before the ropes drop." We really tried to get up and out early, but we just couldn't do it. By about 8:30, though, we did manage to all go over to the Port Orleans food court, which features a cavernous dining room, and a very cool waterwheel that turns just outside the dining hall (the water wheel wasn't working during the first few days of our visit, but I noticed on Thursday morning that it was now turning).

The food court was definitely a sight: bustling, crowded, with squads of parents trying to get their coffee and get their kids to tell them what they want for breakfast. It was all a bit disorienting, but we managed to get our food and proceed to the checkouts. Almost everyone seemed to have the $9.99 refillable mugs bearing the Port Orleans name and logo. Debbie and I debated whether or not to buy them (after spending $1,000's to go to WDW, of course we had to closely examine the pros and cons of whether to spend a lousy $40, on 4 mugs, right?). We decided not to buy them, at least not today, and we found a table and sat down. The kids got french toast and egg platters, and Debbie got cereal, and she also bought a fruit cup and a bagel for Jacob. I ended up eating what the kids didn't eat (which was just about everything). The food was OK; after all it was a food court, and I didn't expect the same level of cuisine that I would have expected at a sit-down restaurant. I will say, though, that the scrambled eggs weren't very good: quite likely Disney purchases pre-mixed scrambled egg mix in industrial size containers (just like they used at my college dining commons). Otherwise, the food court had the usual food court virtues: fast, relatively inexpensive, and relatively good food. Besides, with the theme parks beckoning, who wants to spend the time and money on a leisurely breakfast? We sure didn't.

After breakfast, it was back to the bus stop and off to the Magic Kingdom. I really wanted to go through Tomorrowland, and Debbie wanted to see the 100 Years of Magic parade in the afternoon. So, we walked through Tomorrowland, trying to figure out what to do. Seeing the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin attraction, I figured that we should get fastpasses. Although Emily's park hopper ticket produced a fastpass from the machine, my park hopper ticket (again) wasn't working. I used Debbie's park hopper to get another fastpass, which meant that only Emily and I would have fastpasses. The fastpass was for an admission at about 11:00 AM, which gave us an hour or so. We hopped on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which was a nice way to get off on an attraction without a wait. We got a scenic overview of Tomorrowland, and even an inside peek at Space Mountain (Emily still wanted nothing to do with Space Mountain). Afterwards, we walked around a bit more, and Emily and I headed off to Buzz Lightyear while Debbie and Jacob waited and went to get fastpasses for Winnie-the Pooh. Buzz Lightyear turned out to be Emily's favorite attraction: we ended up going on it three times during our visit to WDW. I have to admit, I really liked it, too.

Next up was It's a Small World. The wait wasn't too bad (about a half an hour), and we had nice view watching the CM's load and unload the boats. Sure it's a bit corny, but isn't it a great ride? There's something about hearing that song over and over again that just about becomes mesmerizing. Even the kids were humming the song after we left. By now it was about 12:30, and it was time for Winnie-the Pooh. Jacob just loved it, but the attraction left Emily a bit bored. The attraction exits into (what a surprise) a gift shop. As we exited the ride, the rains came down in monsoon-type sheets of wind-driven rain. The attraction continued to run and people were continuing to stream into the gift shop, while at the same time, no one was leaving because the rain was so heavy. Yellow ponchos began to appear out of nowhere, and in short order the gift shop was doing a land-office business in yellow ponchos at $5 each. We thought about buying the ponchos, but by this time we were basically frozen in place, since we were cheek-and-jowl with everyone else huddling in the shop trying to wait out the rain.

The rain finally let up a bit, and out we dashed. Soon, it turned sunny and hot, and we walked over to Cinderella's Castle for the 3:00 PM parade. Even though the crowd was three deep, and we were broiling, it was worth the wait. Jacob and Emily just about squealed every time a character went by, and the globes in which the characters stand on the floats were really a nice touch, I thought. We didn't have any dinner priority seating reservations, so I suggested that we take the monorail over to the Contemporary Resort. I always wanted to ride the monorail, and I was definitely looking for an excuse to take and ride and sit down. I also was very eager to see the inside of the hotel. We arrived at the Contemporary, and we walked around a bit. The lobby was very impressive, and it was oh-so-cool to see the monorails going through the center of the hotel! We took quick peek at Chef Mickeys (where we had priority seating for a character breakfast later in the week). Emily saw some of the stamped penny machines in the lobby, and she nudged me into giving her money to get some of the stamped pennies. She announced that she wanted to start a collection.

Debbie and I talked about dinner plans. Since we were going back to the Magic Kingdom, we took a chance at the front desk and asked a CM if she could find out if there were any priority seating reservations available at the Crystal Palace. When we had walked by the restaurant earlier in the day, the crowd waiting for tables filled the entire outside verandah of the restaurant, so it didn't seem to likely that we would be able to get in. To our surprise, the CM was able to book a 7:45 seating for us! Debbie and I both agreed that our next stop would be our hotel, since we were all bushed, and our shoes and feet were soaking wet from the rain.

After a siesta at our hotel, we took the bus back to the Magic Kingdom. Debbie and the kids decided to walk around for a while, since we were a bit early. I went back to Tommorrowland to get a fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear (I figured Jacob would at least enjoy seeing the Buzz and Zurgg characters, even if he couldn't score any points), since Emily had enjoyed it so much the day before. The fastpass was for 9PM, which was great, since it would leave enough time for our dinner and then a quick jaunt over to Tomorrowland for the attraction.

I met up with Debbie and the Kids in front of the Crystal Palace (yes, it was raining again!). We squeezed under the Verandah, and checked in with the hostess. Despite all of the people waiting, our names were called within a few minutes, and we sat down at a table near the back of the restaurant. Emily and Jacob excitedly called out the names of Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore, all of whom were circulating around the restaurant. The food, which is served buffet style, wasn't bad, especially considering that the characters are the main attraction, and the food primarily keeps the adults occupied while the kids wait for the characters to arrive at their tables, autograph books in hand. The atmosphere inside was basically frenetic, as the characters moved around the room, Emily and Jacob monitored their progress to get ready for their appearance at our table! The characters finally appeared, posed for pictures, and Emily got their autographs in her book. Despite the crush of people waiting for tables, our waitress never made us feel rushed, and she promptly refilled our drink glasses several times without us saying a word.

Following dinner, we went back to Buzz Lightyear. By then it was almost 9 PM, so we decided to walk back down Main Street while we debated whether or not to stay for the fireworks. After getting snacks in the bakery on Main Street, we walked towards City Hall. After a bathroom stop for Emily, it was only a few minutes until the fireworks, so we decided to stay. Our location proved to be very strategic: once the fireworks were over, the whole park rapidly emptied out. We were quickly out the front gates and onto a bus back to Port Orleans, while we watched the crowds build at the bus loading area! Back at the hotel, we weren't too tired, so we all walked back to the lobby and browsed through Fulton's General Store, which is the gift and sundries shop. I bought Mickey Mouse-shaped pretzels as a snack. Afterwards, we walked back to our room and Emily and Jacob fell asleep very quickly: a day in WDW is very tiring, I was beginning to learn!

Day Four: Tuesday, June 18

This was our day at Universal Orlando. I won't spend much time describing this aspect of our trip, except to say that it rained on and off the entire day. We ate dinner at Mel's Drive-In while we were in the park. Unfortunately, an irate customer got into a very loud and profane argument with another patron and a cashier, ruining our entire meal and destroying the 50's atmosphere of the restaurant. (I'm still planning on writing to Universal management to let them know how poorly the entire incident was handled).

Day Five: Wednesday, June 19

Today was our non-park day. Since we only had four day hopper passes, and one-day passes for Universal, we decided to take a mid-week break. By pure coincidence, one of our neighbors was staying at the All-Star Movies, and they asked us to come over for the afternoon. We spent a leisurely morning, and then rented a four-seater surrey bike at the hotel. We huffed and puffed our way around the grounds, admiring the landscaping and the many flowers. Believe it or not, the surrey bike was one of the things the kids loved most about our trip!

Afterwards, we drove over to All-Star Movies, caught a quick bite at the food court, and met our neighbors out at the pool. It started to rain shortly thereafter, so we waited it out and then headed back out to the pool. After the pool, we all went to the games arcade, where Emily demonstrated her prowess at Skee-ball! The arcade at ASM, unlike at Port Orleans, has a prize counter where tickets can be redeemed for toys and games.

After returning to the hotel, it was time for our character dinner at 1900 Park Fare. We briefly toyed with the idea of using Disney buses to get over to the Grand Floridian, but it seemed easier to drive. After going through the security check at the front gate of the hotel, we were directed to a guest lot across the road from the hotel. My only quibble is that the lighting in the parking lot was very dim, and I would have been reluctant to park in the lot if I had been alone.

Entering the Grand Floridian, the deluxe nature of the hotel was obvious, proving the adage that "you get what you pay for." There were quite a few families waiting outside of 1900 Park Fare, and we were given a waiting time of about a half hour after we checked in. After our pager went off, we were first shown to a table immediately in front of the restaurant entrance. Since Pooh was greeting kids just outside, and there was a large crowd waiting, we asked for another table. Without any complaint, a CM showed us to a much more suitable table near the middle of the restaurant.

The kids enjoyed the characters, as usual, and our waitress brought us a very unusual loaf of bread, which she referred to as "monkey bread." I guess the bread's shape did somewhat resemble a monkey. Out of the various buffets and meals that we experienced while at WDW, Debbie and I both thought that the food at 1900 Park Fare was probably the best. The prime rib served at the buffet was delicious.

Day Six: Thursday, June 20

Today was our day to visit Animal Kingdom. We actually got a fairly early start (at least for us), and we were at the park gates by about 9:30. We walked towards the back of the park, and decided to go on the train ride from Harambe. We passed the entrance to Kilimanjaro Falls, and I picked up fastpasses. Even at this early hour, our fastpass return wasn't until 11:00 AM. The train ride was fun, and it was interesting, since the train passes immediately behind many of the buildings where the animals are housed, fed and treated. The train let us off and we walked down a jungle path to the animal clinic. Inside, the kids spotted Rafiki, one of Disney's newer characters, and we got a picture with them. The Disney veterinarians were examining one of the animals for a routine examination and check-up, and we watched the procedures through the glass, while a CM explained to us what was being done and why.

Next door to the clinic is an outdoor petting area, where small animals like sheep and goats can be combed with brushes that are provided. Jacob absolutely loved this. He followed the animals around the yard, trying to comb them with his brush. It was definitely a Kodak moment. Emily, though, wanted no parts of the animals, so she and I stayed on the other side of the fence. We took the train back to Harambe, and then on to Kilimanjaro Falls.

This is definitely one of the best Disney attractions I've ever been on. The truck was just bumpy enough to provide some fun, and watching the animals was fascinating. Every time Jacob saw an animal, he would point to it and excitedly call out the animal's name. The landscaping and scenery are so realistic that it almost didn't seem like the animals were in a zoo. As we got off the ride, we noticed that the line of people waiting had grown considerably. Emily and Jacob both announced that they were hungry, so we walked over to Pizzafari. While the kids ate pizza, I walked over to the tree of life to get fastpasses for It's Tough to be a Bug. The fastpass time wasn't too bad, only about 45 minutes.

I loved It's a Bug's Life, so did Jacob and Debbie. Emily was scared, though, and she could hardly wait to get out of the show. Our next stop was Dinoland. Debbie and I split up. Jacob and I went on Triceratops Spin (essentially, Dumbo with dinosaurs instead of elephants). Emily and Debbie went on Primeval Whirl (again, it started to rain). Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel, since we had planned on an evening visit to EPCOT and dinner inside the park.

We regrouped at the hotel, and then it was off to EPCOT. We made it into the parking lot (we drove again) and the skies just opened up in torrents and buckets of rain. After sitting in the car for 10 minutes to try and wait it out, we just gave up. I think this was one of the low points of the week: it had essentially rained every day, and we were all just tired of ponchos and wet feet and shoes. We thought about eating at Boatwrights Dining Hall in the hotel, but we decided to go over to International Drive instead, to see what restaurants were over there. We ended up at Pizzeria Uno: good food, but nothing special.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel. By now the skies were clearing up, the rain had stopped, and we decided to head over to MGM-Disney, to try and see Fantasmic (after all, since we had used our park hopper passes earlier in the day, we didn't want to waste the remaining day on our passes). The rains had clearly kept the crowds down, and we all walked right onto the Great Movie Ride. After that, we headed over to the amphitheatre, and we had no difficulty being seated for Fantasmic. Fantasmic certainly lived up to its name. I thought the images displayed on the water streams were neat (Emily and Jacob didn't like the loud noises, and held their ears for most of the performance!). After Fantasmic, we browsed the shops, and I bought the ESPN shirt that I had seen earlier in the week. All in all, we managed to salvage a good day out of what had looked like a total washout.

Day Seven: Friday, June 21

We headed back to Disney-MGM to catch some of the attractions that we had missed earlier in the week. We all loved the Muppets movie, and the Playhouse Disney show. The highlight, though, was getting to play "Who Wants to be a Millionaire-- Play It!." The host of the show was good-natured, and we all had a lot of fun. Debbie and Emily bought pins in the shop underneath the sorcerer's hat, and we then walked into the Beauty and the Beast show, which was excellent.

We had a priority seating for the '50s prime time cafe for lunch. Although we generally had been eating light snacks and drinks for lunch in the parks every day, instead of taking the time (and spending the money) for a sit-down meal, Debbie and I were intrigued by the reviews that we had read, which emphasized the 50's atmosphere, and the interaction with the wait staff. The restaurant was jammed with guests waiting for tables, many of whom appeared to have priority seating requests, too. Although it didn't look too promising, we were determined to wait for a table, even though the kids were getting somewhat antsy.

Fortunately, our names were called within 15 minutes of our arrival (proving to me again that priority seatings are just about a necessity during the crowded months, and even moreso if you have kids that don't like to wait!). We were shown to a table that reminded me of my mother's countertops in her kitchen. At one end of the table was a large black and white TV that showed continuous clips from old TV shows, including favorites like "The Dick Van Dyke Show." Our server was an older man, and he left on our table one of his real-life family photo albums. I have to admit that I've never before been treated to so much insight about a waiter's personal life! It was interesting to look at the photo album, especially the pictures of our server taking his children and their grandchildren to WDW (it reminded me that CM's have lives outside the parks, too).

Debbie and I both ordered the fried chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans. We ordered hot dogs for the kids. As we waited for our food, we observed the goings-on at the other tables. We heard the waitress at the next table admonishing the guests for having "dirty fingernails." After a wait of about 10 minutes, our food was served. The fried chicken was wonderful: juicy and tender (and probably loaded with fat, too), and the mashed potatoes were excellent. Green beans aren't my thing, so I nibbled on a few and left the rest. When our server returned, he scolded me for not eating my green beans, and then he took my fork, speared a few beans, and stuffed them into my mouth! It was hilarious, and the whole room was cracking up. Emily was announced as a "member of the clean plate club," because she had eaten all of her meal. She was rewarded with a smiley face drawn in ketchup on her plate. Emily just plain loved it. Debbie and I both agreed that we would definitely come back to the 50's Prime Time Cafe if we ever returned to WDW.

Dinner later that night was just a quick meal in the Port Orleans food court: I think Debbie and I felt like we had gained so much weight during the week that we just wanted a simple and small meal! We had broken down and bought the refillable mugs, so it seemed to us to make sense to try and get some use out of them by eating in the food court. Our plan was to quickly visit Epcot after dinner, since we had been rained out of our earlier attempt on Thursday. Dinner took longer than we had planned, so we got to Epcot a bit later in the evening. We walked right onto Spaceship Earth, which was a lot of fun. Emily didn't like the dark areas of the ride. Afterwards, I attempted to go on Test Track. Unfortunately, the waiting time for Test Track was over an hour (and this was at 7:30 at night), and all the fastpasses were gone for the day. Test Track had been the one ride I really wanted to try (oh well, maybe next time). There wasn't much time left before IllumiNations, so we quickly ducked into the Canada pavilion for the movie. I still can't figure out how they get those movies to play in the round!

After the movie, we bought snacks and watched IllumiNations for a few minutes. The kids were a bit frightened, so we started to walk back towards the park exit, which also allowed us to beat the post-IllumiNations rush. Our bus back to Port Orleans (we decided not to drive to the park this time) was packed standing-room only.

Day Eight: Saturday, June 22

Today would be our last day at WDW. The Auto-Train back to Lorton left Sanford at 4:00 PM, meaning that we would have most of the morning and part of the afternoon before leaving. After rearranging all of our belongings several times, I managed to squeeze everything back into the car (in the pouring rain, of course). Check-out was a breeze, since our folio had been left hanging on our door while we slept: everything was in order on the folio, so there was no need to troop back to lobby building. Although it was our last day, we were all excited, since we had saved our character breakfast at Chef Mickeys as our final Disney event.

We drove over to the Contemporary. As you might expect, security was tight at the parking lot entrance (more to prevent Magic Kingdom visitors from using the Contemporary parking lot, than for other reasons, I think). The guard had a print out showing the names of people who had reservations at Chef Mickeys. Our name was on the list, so he gave us a three-hour parking pass (I wondered if they really enforced the three hour limit), and we parked near one of the garden wings of the hotel. Although Chef Mickeys was crowded, Goofy was circulating near the front entrance, and both Emily and Jacob excitedly went over to hug him. After checking in with the hostess, we were moved along to the photo station, where we posed for our pictures (yes, we did buy the whole package, even though it is expensive). After a wait of no more than 5 minutes, we were shown to a table in the back of the restaurant, behind the buffet stations.

The kids spotted other characters as we sat down, including Mickey in a chef's hat, and Chip and Dale both wearing chef's hats. As usual, the kids were so excited, we could hardly get them to eat. Emily at least ate a few of the Mickey-shaped waffles (I had some of them too, and they were very good). After a while, the characters paraded through the restaurant, and we all waved and swung our napkins as the characters trooped through. Clearly, visiting Chef Mickeys was a highlight for many of the parents and kids, just as it was for Debbie and I and Jacob and Emily.

Although the food probably isn't the main reason why most people would go to Chef Mickeys, we both thought that the food was really quite good: after all, where else can you get Mickey Mouse-shaped waffles? (Debbie told me later that they sell them in the frozen section of our supermarket, but it's still not the same as being there, I think).

After breakfast, we walked around the Contemporary a bit more, Emily purchased a few more pressed pennies for her collection, and we took the monorail over to the Polynesian, just to look around. I loved the 1970s-Hawaii-Five-O look of the resort. Sure it's a bit dated, but that just sort of added to its appeal. The lush plantings in the lobby were really nice, and I was just enchanted by the Tiki Torch look of the whole place. Next time, I told Debbie, we should just splurge and stay here. She didn't disagree!

After returning back to the Contemporary to retrieve the car, we were off to Downtown Disney. Emily and Jacob played at the Lego displays outside the Lego store, while Debbie went to the McDonald's next door to get drinks (by now, the sun had come out and it was incredibly hot and humid). After about an hour, we all piled back in the car for the trip up Interstate 4 to Sanford. We arrived at the Amtrak station about 2:30, and we boarded the train around 3:00 PM. The trip back was largely uneventful, although we were delayed en route 2/12 hours when a freight train broke down in front of our train. Somehow, the trip down had been more fun and enjoyable, while the return trip just seemed slow and kind of depressing (I guess it was because I knew that our trip was over, and work was looming on the horizon!). We waited for our car for about an hour in Lorton, and our drive back up I-95 to Pennsylvania was uneventful.

Summary

It's hard to know how to summarize our trip. The weather was lousy, yet we all still had a great time. The kids were sometimes driving me crazy, and yet at other times I loved seeing them having fun and getting excited whenever they saw characters. Emily actually managed to forget about SpongeBob for a few days, much to my relief (she didn't even get a chance to watch SpongeBob, because Nickelodeon apparently isn't carried on the cable system at Disney hotels). I couldn't help but think that I need to treasure more moments like this with my family, because one day I'll turn around and they'll be all grown up! Debbie and I are already talking about going back next year, finances permitting. Who knows, maybe you'll see another trip report from me in July 2003!

Highlights:

The character meals: it's just plain fun seeing children so happy and excited.
Fantasmic!: Quite a production, and fun, too (even if Jacob and Emily were both scared by the loud noises!).
Disney-MGM: my favorite park, probably because I like movies.
Spending family time together.
The buffet meals: very good food, well presented.
Fastpass: we saved hours of time that otherwise would have been spent in lines waiting for attractions.
The Surrey Bikes at Port Orleans: The kids just loved riding the surrey around the hotel grounds. Goes to prove that sometimes the simple things are the best.
50's Prime Time Cafe: great 50's decor and good food, too. The best was when our waiter forced me to eat my green beans while the whole room watched! He also drew a smiley face in ketchup on Emily's plate because she was a "member of the clean plate club".
The Auto-Train: sure, it's faster to fly, but we enjoyed the train atmosphere, and now Emily and Jacob can tell their kids someday about their trip to Florida when they slept on the train overnight.
Lowlights:

The constant rain throughout our entire trip!
Jonathan Shain