Trip Reports
02-20-2007, 09:45 PM
Nikki Chatelain - March 2003 - Port Orleans French Quarter
Time of Year: Winter
Travel Method: Plane, Shuttle
Resort: PORFQ
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Rookie, Veteran
Comments: Nina and her mother make an annual trip to Disney World for Mardi Gras. To escape it, that is; they live in New Orleans, and it is a good time to get away. A chance to see their Altanta Braves in Spring Training is a bonus treat.
Nikki Chatelain -- March 2003 -- Walt Disney World (PORFQ)
The Chatelain Family Mardi Gras Escape!
Friday, February 28-Wednesday, March 5, 2003
WHO:
Nikki Chatelain, 29, Disney Veteran and Trip Report Author
Nina Chatelain, 74, Rookie (wheelchair bound because of a bad leg)
WHERE:
Port Orleans French Quarter, Standard View
Every year, my mom and I head to WDW for a few days to escape the madness of Mardi Gras in our hometown of New Orleans. In fact, during the week of Mardi Gras I would venture to guess you have a 99.9% chance of running into someone from New Orleans at WDW. Apparently it’s the second most popular Mardi Gras destination for locals, right behind Colorado. We were also looking forward to catching two Atlanta Braves’ spring training games at WDW’s Wide World of Sports. Being huge Braves fans, this was an extra special treat for us.
DAY 1-Friday, 2/28/03
We left New Orleans on Southwest for a PACKED direct flight to Orlando at 8:00 am CST and arrived at MCO at approximately 10:45 EST. We had to hunt around a bit for our Tiffany Towncar driver, T.J., but in a few minutes we found him and our luggage and were on our way. We checked in at Port Orleans French Quarter and headed to the food court for a little lunch before trekking to the parks. Both my mom and I had had the chicken club wrap; it was good, but I was disappointed in the fact that it was served ice cold. After lunch we boarded the bus to Disney-MGM Studios so I could catch ‘Walt Disney - One Man’s Dream’ and ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the parks weren’t crowded at all – FastPasses weren’t even available for Millionaire that day. ‘One Man’s Dream’ is a fantastic attraction, and I hope they keep it open for quite some time. In Millionaire I finished the game at the top of the leaderboard for the second time, but no trip to the Hot Seat – GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
We headed back to the room for a much-needed break (since we’d been up since 4:00 am in order to catch the plane) and headed to Magic Kingdom that night for dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table. We got there about 30 minutes early and were seated immediately, which meant we got to watch ‘Fantasy in the Sky’ Fireworks while we ate. The food was fantastic. I got the Earl’s Poulet with garlic bread pudding, spinach and roasted red onions with the chocolate mousse stack for dessert, while my mom got the Kingdom Feast and a fruity sherbet thing for dessert, the name of which completely escapes me. MK closed at 7:00 that night, so fat and happy we headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
DAY 2-Saturday, 03/01/03
We started the morning by grabbing breakfast in the food court at the hotel. My chocolate chip muffin was delicious, but mom’s experience wasn’t as good. She decided to try the beignets, and WDW’s beignets are A LOT different than the real thing that we’re used to at home. Mom said they aren’t as light and fluffy as they should be, and just didn’t taste right. After breakfast, we started the morning at MGM; yet again, the parks weren’t crowded at all – Millionaire was a walk-on for the second day. We headed back to Millionaire so I could try for the Hot Seat again: I didn’t even make it on the leaderboard this game ?. We then grabbed some decent pizzas for lunch at Catalina Eddie’s on Hollywood Boulevard and went to catch the bus to Wide World of Sports for the Braves spring training game against the Mets. We got a few sprinkles during the game, but no major downpour. The game ended in a tie because the Mets ran out of pitchers, but it was a good game nonetheless. We considered taking a break at the hotel, but the game ended later than expected, so we headed straight to Magic Kingdom instead to catch the 7:00 show of ‘SpectroMagic’. We grabbed some chicken strips at the Columbia Harbour House and took off towards Main Street. My mom was in a wheelchair, so we pulled into the reserved section along the Hub near the Castle and I took my place on the curb at her feet. ‘SpectroMagic’ is one of the most beautiful parades I have ever seen. My mother had never seen it before and kept raving about how gorgeous it was. After the parade, we called it a night.
DAY 3-Sunday, 03/02/03
Before starting our day, we stopped in the French Quarter food court for what turned out to be a disappointing breakfast. My mom ordered the King Creole platter with eggs, sausage, toast and fruit, and she didn’t enjoy it at all. I ordered french toast with sausage and found the toast to be lukewarm and cooked only on the outside – the inside was still plain white bread. After breakfast, we headed to Animal Kingdom early to catch ‘Kilimanjaro Safaris’ and ‘It’s Tough to be a Bug!’ The parks were busy, but not overly crowded. ‘Kilimanjaro Safaris’ was excellent, because there were a lot of animals roaming about. The theming is so well done. I have never been to Africa, but the Harambe Preserve is exactly how I would picture the African savanna. ‘It’s Tough to Be a Bug!’ was hysterically funny, as usual, although my mom held my hand and refused to let go after the Termite-inator came on screen and covered us with “acid”. I was afraid she wouldn’t like the film, but she loved it!
We headed back to MGM to catch the bus to Wide World of Sports for our second and final Braves spring training game against the Expos. The game started an hour late as the result of a downpour that began 15 minutes before the scheduled start, but the Braves won 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth. We were going to take a break at the hotel following the game, but it didn’t end until 5:00 pm and we wanted to grab dinner at Planet Hollywood (using the $25 certificate that came with our DreamMaker Basic package). After a good dinner at the Planet (beef brisket sandwich with provolone for myself, which was very good, and the shrimp club sandwich for my mom, which she also enjoyed) we took a quick walkthrough tour of Pleasure Island, since my mom had never been there. We then headed to the Marketplace to do some window-shopping. World of Disney was very crowded as usual, but they had a good selection of merchandise. We then went straight to Ghirardelli’s for dessert, two sundaes that were out of this world! Mom got the Golden Gate, with butter pecan ice cream, vanilla ice cream and caramel topping; I got the Warm Brownie Sundae and demolished it. Both of the desserts were absolutely delicious, and I highly recommend stopping there during your next visit to WDW. Satisfied and sleepy, we boarded the Sassagoula Steamboat Company’s boat for a chilly but relaxing trip back to the hotel.
DAY 4-Monday, 03/03/03
We decided to give breakfast at the food court another try, but we played it safe this time: I had a delicious cinnamon bun with icing and mom had a bagel and cream cheese. We enjoyed them both, but they didn’t stay with us too long – we were hungry a short time later! We boarded the bus to Magic Kingdom and headed to Tomorrowland, where we rode the ‘Tomorrowland Transit Authority’, and then boarded ‘Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin’. My mom did a lot better on Buzz than she thought she would, and she enjoyed it a lot more than I ever could’ve imagined. We then went to ride ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’, which wasn’t a big hit with my mom (she kept asking me if we could borrow someone’s kid so we wouldn’t look stupid standing in line for a kiddie attraction). We stopped at Pecos Bill’s Tall Tale Café for a basic lunch of hot dogs and chili, then we took the grand circle tour of the park via the ‘Walt Disney World Railroad’ a trip that she really enjoyed. Yet again, the parks were busy, but not overly crowded. We headed back to the hotel for a break and to do some laundry.
After a well-deserved rest we boarded the bus to Epcot, hoping to catch a few attractions before our 6:00 PS at the Garden Grill. We rode ‘Spaceship Earth’, one of my favorite attractions in all of WDW, and one which my mom had never been on. It was wonderful as usual, and my mom loved it. We then took off to ride the new ‘Journey Into Imagination with Figment’. The new attraction is a vast improvement over the first rehab. The first rehab didn’t have any spirit to it; I found it to be very dry and bland. The new attraction is whimsical and fun, and reminds me of the first incarnation of JII. I enjoyed this attraction a lot.
We arrived at the Garden Grill a few minutes early for our character dinner with Mickey, Goofy and Chip and Dale. The food was fantastic, for the most part: a delicious multi-grain bread and salad to start, with a skillet of stuffing, rotisserie chicken, creamed spinach, flank steak and fried catfish. I was VERY pleasantly surprised with the catfish; as a native New Orleanian who is used to having catfish fried a certain way, I couldn’t believe how tasty the fish was. The whole meal was excellent, I was only disappointed in the flank steak, which I found rather bland. Dessert followed, which was an excellent strawberry shortcake. I would highly recommend the Garden Grill for lunch or dinner. The food was great and the character interaction was fantastic. Each character stopped by our table at least twice. It was a wonderful experience.
After dinner, we planned on viewing ‘Illuminations: Reflections of Earth’, which is my favorite nighttime spectacular in all of WDW. However, when we left the restaurant it was cold and rainy, and I didn’t want to subject my mother to freezing in the rain, so we headed back to the hotel. I took a very quick trip to Downtown Disney, browsing through the Gourmet Pantry quickly and heading to Pleasure Island for about an hour. It was relatively crowded for a Monday night; 8TRAX was hosting a private party until 10:00 pm, and I believe everyone who attended just hung around afterwards. In addition, there was a dance competition being held at Wide World of Sports, and a lot of the kids who took part flooded Pleasure Island that night. I stopped in the Adventurer’s Club, 8TRAX and the Rock n’ Roll Beach Club, but headed back to the Adventurer’s Club to catch the Radio-Thon in the library. The Adventurer’s Club was packed, and the library show was a lot of fun. After the show, I boarded the boat back to French Quarter to bed down for the night.
DAY 5-FAT TUESDAY!
We head to WDW every year to get away from the crowds and hassle of Mardi Gras at home in New Orleans, but we still like to celebrate. Mom and I each donned our Mardi Gras shirts and some beads before we headed out to the ’Ohana Restaurant for a character breakfast with Mickey, Goofy, Chip and Dale. The meal was fantastic: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, potatoes and Mickey waffles. The character interaction was spotty because there were so many kids in ’Ohana. At one point a supervising CM came over and asked if the characters were stopping by our table. We had our pictures taken with Mickey and Dale, but they didn’t pay as much attention to us as they did the kids in the restaurant, which didn’t really bother us too much – I would rather see them spend more time with the kids because it means more to them. After we filled up in breakfast, we headed to MGM for the morning. If you’ve never been to WDW during Mardi Gras, it looks like a little version of New Orleans: on Fat Tuesday you will see TONS of people walking around in beads and purple, green and gold shirts. For the first time during our trip, the park was fairly crowded. We headed to ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ for the third time and had to grab a FastPass, the first time the system was in use during our trip. We were going to check out the ‘The Magic of Disney Animation’ Tour while waiting, but it quickly filled and the next tour wouldn’t start for 20 minutes, which would cut into our FastPass time for Millionaire. We headed over to Hollywood Boulevard and caught some streetmosphere (Billy Bob and Willy Bob, two banjo and box playing brothers/uncles/cousins who were hilarious) and then headed back to Millionaire. Roughly 75% of the audience in Millionaire was from New Orleans, and both contestants who reached the Hot Seat were from Louisiana. The first was a 9-year-old girl who took a wild guess on the fastest finger question. They allowed her mom to come down and help her, and together they made it to the 16,000-point question. The second contestant sat down in the Hot Seat and was doing very well – so well that he continued his turn in the next show. At the 1000 point plateau and at the end of the show, I was at the top of the leaderboard again, but I still can’t get in the Hot Seat!!!!! It will happen on my next trip, so help me! ?
We decided to head to Riverside and do lunch at Boatwright’s, but we found out after we arrived that they were only open for lunch and dinner, so we settled for some yummy grilled chicken sandwiches in the food court. After a rest at the hotel, our marathon evening began: originally, I bought an E-Ride Night ticket so I could do all of the rides my mom didn’t like in one shot while she was at the hotel relaxing. However, I really wanted to see ‘Illuminations’ and I wanted her to see it as well, and because we were rained out on Monday night, Tuesday was our last chance to see it this trip. Instead of allowing her to rest at the hotel as planned, we headed to MK around 5:30 and rode ‘Snow White’s Scary Adventures’ and ‘Peter Pan’s Flight’. We then headed to the Main Street Bakery for our dinner of handmade ice cream cookie sandwiches, which were out of this world! I got mom some coffee while I ran off to ride Splash, Space and Thunder Mountains, my three “must-sees” every trip; unfortunately, I had to miss ‘Big Thunder Mountain Railroad’ because we were running out of time to get to Epcot for ‘Illuminations. I grabbed mom and her wheelchair and we headed for the Monorail; thankfully, the CM at the gate allowed us to take the wheelchair up the ramp, which saved us loads of time. The station CMs allowed us to take the wheelchair on the Monorail and on to Epcot! I’m not sure if this is usually allowed, but it saved us a LOT of time. We made it to Epcot by 8:30, in plenty of time to take a bathroom break, grab something to drink and settle in for ‘Illuminations’. The show did not disappoint, and, yet again, my mom loved it. We headed back to the hotel so I could pass out after all that running!
DAY 6: Wednesday, 03/05/03
On our last day, we headed to Downtown Disney in the morning to do a little shopping, first stopping by the Gourmet Pantry for a breakfast of delicious cinnamon buns and apple danishes. We then headed to the World of Disney to load up on souvenirs for family and friends. The best time to go to the World of Disney is right after opening. It isn’t nearly as crowded as it is at night, and it’s much easier to look around and shop. We then headed to Epcot, grabbing a good lunch at the VERY crowded Sunshine Season Food Fair. A tuna sandwich and soft serve ice cream for mom, both of which she really enjoyed, and a veggie wrap for me – it was ok, but it was served cold; I was hoping it would be hot, and then taking a tour of World Showcase. We viewed the Circle-Vision film ‘O Canada!’ and then trekked over to France for the beautiful ‘Impressions de France’. We then took a quick trip around the rest of World Showcase and caught the bus back to the hotel, so we could head home :(.
Overall, the trip was excellent. It rained every day we were there except on Wednesday, but we just threw on our ponchos and dealt with it. The crowds were never really heavy, and the temperatures ranged from the mid 60s to the 80s. All in all we had a great time!
Nikki Chatelain
Time of Year: Winter
Travel Method: Plane, Shuttle
Resort: PORFQ
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Rookie, Veteran
Comments: Nina and her mother make an annual trip to Disney World for Mardi Gras. To escape it, that is; they live in New Orleans, and it is a good time to get away. A chance to see their Altanta Braves in Spring Training is a bonus treat.
Nikki Chatelain -- March 2003 -- Walt Disney World (PORFQ)
The Chatelain Family Mardi Gras Escape!
Friday, February 28-Wednesday, March 5, 2003
WHO:
Nikki Chatelain, 29, Disney Veteran and Trip Report Author
Nina Chatelain, 74, Rookie (wheelchair bound because of a bad leg)
WHERE:
Port Orleans French Quarter, Standard View
Every year, my mom and I head to WDW for a few days to escape the madness of Mardi Gras in our hometown of New Orleans. In fact, during the week of Mardi Gras I would venture to guess you have a 99.9% chance of running into someone from New Orleans at WDW. Apparently it’s the second most popular Mardi Gras destination for locals, right behind Colorado. We were also looking forward to catching two Atlanta Braves’ spring training games at WDW’s Wide World of Sports. Being huge Braves fans, this was an extra special treat for us.
DAY 1-Friday, 2/28/03
We left New Orleans on Southwest for a PACKED direct flight to Orlando at 8:00 am CST and arrived at MCO at approximately 10:45 EST. We had to hunt around a bit for our Tiffany Towncar driver, T.J., but in a few minutes we found him and our luggage and were on our way. We checked in at Port Orleans French Quarter and headed to the food court for a little lunch before trekking to the parks. Both my mom and I had had the chicken club wrap; it was good, but I was disappointed in the fact that it was served ice cold. After lunch we boarded the bus to Disney-MGM Studios so I could catch ‘Walt Disney - One Man’s Dream’ and ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the parks weren’t crowded at all – FastPasses weren’t even available for Millionaire that day. ‘One Man’s Dream’ is a fantastic attraction, and I hope they keep it open for quite some time. In Millionaire I finished the game at the top of the leaderboard for the second time, but no trip to the Hot Seat – GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
We headed back to the room for a much-needed break (since we’d been up since 4:00 am in order to catch the plane) and headed to Magic Kingdom that night for dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table. We got there about 30 minutes early and were seated immediately, which meant we got to watch ‘Fantasy in the Sky’ Fireworks while we ate. The food was fantastic. I got the Earl’s Poulet with garlic bread pudding, spinach and roasted red onions with the chocolate mousse stack for dessert, while my mom got the Kingdom Feast and a fruity sherbet thing for dessert, the name of which completely escapes me. MK closed at 7:00 that night, so fat and happy we headed back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.
DAY 2-Saturday, 03/01/03
We started the morning by grabbing breakfast in the food court at the hotel. My chocolate chip muffin was delicious, but mom’s experience wasn’t as good. She decided to try the beignets, and WDW’s beignets are A LOT different than the real thing that we’re used to at home. Mom said they aren’t as light and fluffy as they should be, and just didn’t taste right. After breakfast, we started the morning at MGM; yet again, the parks weren’t crowded at all – Millionaire was a walk-on for the second day. We headed back to Millionaire so I could try for the Hot Seat again: I didn’t even make it on the leaderboard this game ?. We then grabbed some decent pizzas for lunch at Catalina Eddie’s on Hollywood Boulevard and went to catch the bus to Wide World of Sports for the Braves spring training game against the Mets. We got a few sprinkles during the game, but no major downpour. The game ended in a tie because the Mets ran out of pitchers, but it was a good game nonetheless. We considered taking a break at the hotel, but the game ended later than expected, so we headed straight to Magic Kingdom instead to catch the 7:00 show of ‘SpectroMagic’. We grabbed some chicken strips at the Columbia Harbour House and took off towards Main Street. My mom was in a wheelchair, so we pulled into the reserved section along the Hub near the Castle and I took my place on the curb at her feet. ‘SpectroMagic’ is one of the most beautiful parades I have ever seen. My mother had never seen it before and kept raving about how gorgeous it was. After the parade, we called it a night.
DAY 3-Sunday, 03/02/03
Before starting our day, we stopped in the French Quarter food court for what turned out to be a disappointing breakfast. My mom ordered the King Creole platter with eggs, sausage, toast and fruit, and she didn’t enjoy it at all. I ordered french toast with sausage and found the toast to be lukewarm and cooked only on the outside – the inside was still plain white bread. After breakfast, we headed to Animal Kingdom early to catch ‘Kilimanjaro Safaris’ and ‘It’s Tough to be a Bug!’ The parks were busy, but not overly crowded. ‘Kilimanjaro Safaris’ was excellent, because there were a lot of animals roaming about. The theming is so well done. I have never been to Africa, but the Harambe Preserve is exactly how I would picture the African savanna. ‘It’s Tough to Be a Bug!’ was hysterically funny, as usual, although my mom held my hand and refused to let go after the Termite-inator came on screen and covered us with “acid”. I was afraid she wouldn’t like the film, but she loved it!
We headed back to MGM to catch the bus to Wide World of Sports for our second and final Braves spring training game against the Expos. The game started an hour late as the result of a downpour that began 15 minutes before the scheduled start, but the Braves won 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth. We were going to take a break at the hotel following the game, but it didn’t end until 5:00 pm and we wanted to grab dinner at Planet Hollywood (using the $25 certificate that came with our DreamMaker Basic package). After a good dinner at the Planet (beef brisket sandwich with provolone for myself, which was very good, and the shrimp club sandwich for my mom, which she also enjoyed) we took a quick walkthrough tour of Pleasure Island, since my mom had never been there. We then headed to the Marketplace to do some window-shopping. World of Disney was very crowded as usual, but they had a good selection of merchandise. We then went straight to Ghirardelli’s for dessert, two sundaes that were out of this world! Mom got the Golden Gate, with butter pecan ice cream, vanilla ice cream and caramel topping; I got the Warm Brownie Sundae and demolished it. Both of the desserts were absolutely delicious, and I highly recommend stopping there during your next visit to WDW. Satisfied and sleepy, we boarded the Sassagoula Steamboat Company’s boat for a chilly but relaxing trip back to the hotel.
DAY 4-Monday, 03/03/03
We decided to give breakfast at the food court another try, but we played it safe this time: I had a delicious cinnamon bun with icing and mom had a bagel and cream cheese. We enjoyed them both, but they didn’t stay with us too long – we were hungry a short time later! We boarded the bus to Magic Kingdom and headed to Tomorrowland, where we rode the ‘Tomorrowland Transit Authority’, and then boarded ‘Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin’. My mom did a lot better on Buzz than she thought she would, and she enjoyed it a lot more than I ever could’ve imagined. We then went to ride ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’, which wasn’t a big hit with my mom (she kept asking me if we could borrow someone’s kid so we wouldn’t look stupid standing in line for a kiddie attraction). We stopped at Pecos Bill’s Tall Tale Café for a basic lunch of hot dogs and chili, then we took the grand circle tour of the park via the ‘Walt Disney World Railroad’ a trip that she really enjoyed. Yet again, the parks were busy, but not overly crowded. We headed back to the hotel for a break and to do some laundry.
After a well-deserved rest we boarded the bus to Epcot, hoping to catch a few attractions before our 6:00 PS at the Garden Grill. We rode ‘Spaceship Earth’, one of my favorite attractions in all of WDW, and one which my mom had never been on. It was wonderful as usual, and my mom loved it. We then took off to ride the new ‘Journey Into Imagination with Figment’. The new attraction is a vast improvement over the first rehab. The first rehab didn’t have any spirit to it; I found it to be very dry and bland. The new attraction is whimsical and fun, and reminds me of the first incarnation of JII. I enjoyed this attraction a lot.
We arrived at the Garden Grill a few minutes early for our character dinner with Mickey, Goofy and Chip and Dale. The food was fantastic, for the most part: a delicious multi-grain bread and salad to start, with a skillet of stuffing, rotisserie chicken, creamed spinach, flank steak and fried catfish. I was VERY pleasantly surprised with the catfish; as a native New Orleanian who is used to having catfish fried a certain way, I couldn’t believe how tasty the fish was. The whole meal was excellent, I was only disappointed in the flank steak, which I found rather bland. Dessert followed, which was an excellent strawberry shortcake. I would highly recommend the Garden Grill for lunch or dinner. The food was great and the character interaction was fantastic. Each character stopped by our table at least twice. It was a wonderful experience.
After dinner, we planned on viewing ‘Illuminations: Reflections of Earth’, which is my favorite nighttime spectacular in all of WDW. However, when we left the restaurant it was cold and rainy, and I didn’t want to subject my mother to freezing in the rain, so we headed back to the hotel. I took a very quick trip to Downtown Disney, browsing through the Gourmet Pantry quickly and heading to Pleasure Island for about an hour. It was relatively crowded for a Monday night; 8TRAX was hosting a private party until 10:00 pm, and I believe everyone who attended just hung around afterwards. In addition, there was a dance competition being held at Wide World of Sports, and a lot of the kids who took part flooded Pleasure Island that night. I stopped in the Adventurer’s Club, 8TRAX and the Rock n’ Roll Beach Club, but headed back to the Adventurer’s Club to catch the Radio-Thon in the library. The Adventurer’s Club was packed, and the library show was a lot of fun. After the show, I boarded the boat back to French Quarter to bed down for the night.
DAY 5-FAT TUESDAY!
We head to WDW every year to get away from the crowds and hassle of Mardi Gras at home in New Orleans, but we still like to celebrate. Mom and I each donned our Mardi Gras shirts and some beads before we headed out to the ’Ohana Restaurant for a character breakfast with Mickey, Goofy, Chip and Dale. The meal was fantastic: scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, potatoes and Mickey waffles. The character interaction was spotty because there were so many kids in ’Ohana. At one point a supervising CM came over and asked if the characters were stopping by our table. We had our pictures taken with Mickey and Dale, but they didn’t pay as much attention to us as they did the kids in the restaurant, which didn’t really bother us too much – I would rather see them spend more time with the kids because it means more to them. After we filled up in breakfast, we headed to MGM for the morning. If you’ve never been to WDW during Mardi Gras, it looks like a little version of New Orleans: on Fat Tuesday you will see TONS of people walking around in beads and purple, green and gold shirts. For the first time during our trip, the park was fairly crowded. We headed to ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’ for the third time and had to grab a FastPass, the first time the system was in use during our trip. We were going to check out the ‘The Magic of Disney Animation’ Tour while waiting, but it quickly filled and the next tour wouldn’t start for 20 minutes, which would cut into our FastPass time for Millionaire. We headed over to Hollywood Boulevard and caught some streetmosphere (Billy Bob and Willy Bob, two banjo and box playing brothers/uncles/cousins who were hilarious) and then headed back to Millionaire. Roughly 75% of the audience in Millionaire was from New Orleans, and both contestants who reached the Hot Seat were from Louisiana. The first was a 9-year-old girl who took a wild guess on the fastest finger question. They allowed her mom to come down and help her, and together they made it to the 16,000-point question. The second contestant sat down in the Hot Seat and was doing very well – so well that he continued his turn in the next show. At the 1000 point plateau and at the end of the show, I was at the top of the leaderboard again, but I still can’t get in the Hot Seat!!!!! It will happen on my next trip, so help me! ?
We decided to head to Riverside and do lunch at Boatwright’s, but we found out after we arrived that they were only open for lunch and dinner, so we settled for some yummy grilled chicken sandwiches in the food court. After a rest at the hotel, our marathon evening began: originally, I bought an E-Ride Night ticket so I could do all of the rides my mom didn’t like in one shot while she was at the hotel relaxing. However, I really wanted to see ‘Illuminations’ and I wanted her to see it as well, and because we were rained out on Monday night, Tuesday was our last chance to see it this trip. Instead of allowing her to rest at the hotel as planned, we headed to MK around 5:30 and rode ‘Snow White’s Scary Adventures’ and ‘Peter Pan’s Flight’. We then headed to the Main Street Bakery for our dinner of handmade ice cream cookie sandwiches, which were out of this world! I got mom some coffee while I ran off to ride Splash, Space and Thunder Mountains, my three “must-sees” every trip; unfortunately, I had to miss ‘Big Thunder Mountain Railroad’ because we were running out of time to get to Epcot for ‘Illuminations. I grabbed mom and her wheelchair and we headed for the Monorail; thankfully, the CM at the gate allowed us to take the wheelchair up the ramp, which saved us loads of time. The station CMs allowed us to take the wheelchair on the Monorail and on to Epcot! I’m not sure if this is usually allowed, but it saved us a LOT of time. We made it to Epcot by 8:30, in plenty of time to take a bathroom break, grab something to drink and settle in for ‘Illuminations’. The show did not disappoint, and, yet again, my mom loved it. We headed back to the hotel so I could pass out after all that running!
DAY 6: Wednesday, 03/05/03
On our last day, we headed to Downtown Disney in the morning to do a little shopping, first stopping by the Gourmet Pantry for a breakfast of delicious cinnamon buns and apple danishes. We then headed to the World of Disney to load up on souvenirs for family and friends. The best time to go to the World of Disney is right after opening. It isn’t nearly as crowded as it is at night, and it’s much easier to look around and shop. We then headed to Epcot, grabbing a good lunch at the VERY crowded Sunshine Season Food Fair. A tuna sandwich and soft serve ice cream for mom, both of which she really enjoyed, and a veggie wrap for me – it was ok, but it was served cold; I was hoping it would be hot, and then taking a tour of World Showcase. We viewed the Circle-Vision film ‘O Canada!’ and then trekked over to France for the beautiful ‘Impressions de France’. We then took a quick trip around the rest of World Showcase and caught the bus back to the hotel, so we could head home :(.
Overall, the trip was excellent. It rained every day we were there except on Wednesday, but we just threw on our ponchos and dealt with it. The crowds were never really heavy, and the temperatures ranged from the mid 60s to the 80s. All in all we had a great time!
Nikki Chatelain