Trip Reports
02-20-2007, 10:00 PM
Ellen Pillar - May 2003 - All Star Music
Time of Year: Spring
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: ASMuR
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Toddler, Pre-School, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent, Veteran
Comments: A couple 20-year-old, unused tickets (one from 1981 and another from 1985) to Magic Kingdom provide Ellen and her family the necessary excuse to for a quick visit. Universal Studios also received some attention.
Ellen Pillar -- May 2003 -- Walt Disney World (ASMuR)
Who
Ellen (34) – Disney Veteran, 20+trips since 1973
John (37) – Devoted husband, father, and son-in-law. 5th time to WDW
Mom (59) – Ellen’s Mom, veteran but first trip since mid-80’s
Anabelle (5) – Princess, first class. 3rd time to WDW
Rebecca (20 months) – Princess-in-Training, 1st time to WDW
Planning
This quick side trip came about after a conversation with my mom. She mentioned that she had found some old tickets to Disney (from the 80’s) that still had days available on them along with some A-E tickets from the early days. We had a trip to Treasure Island, Florida with my mom already planned for May 2-11. Mom has a week timeshare in Treasure Island that she inherited from my Grandparents. John and I had already decided we wanted to visit Islands of Adventure during our trip (we are coaster enthusiasts) to ride the Hulk and Dueling Dragons again. We also had two park hopper tickets with one day left from our last WDW visit in October 2000. Since we wouldn’t have to lay out any additional money for admission, we decided to add a day at the Magic Kingdom to our Orlando portion of the trip. I booked us one night at the All-Star Music resort and by some miracle, my mom was able to get through 60 days ahead to get us PS’s at Cinderella’s Castle for breakfast with the Princesses. We managed to keep the trip to Disney a secret until Anabelle’s 5th birthday party on April 19th. We gave her a little Mickey, the Disney promo DVD, and a certificate inviting her to dine with the Princesses. Moments like that are what make parenting so fun!
Day 1 & 2 (May 2 & 3) – Drive to Treasure Island
Fairly uneventful. We did have to delay our departure from Charlotte until after a band of super strong thunderstorms came through. We drove in rain for about an hour then didn’t see a drop until we got back to within 50 miles of home! We stopped in Savannah at a beautiful Econolodge for the night, hitting the night before the graduation ceremonies at Georgia Southern University. I’m glad I booked early, the place was packed! We arrived in Treasure Island in the late afternoon and stocked up at Publix, making sure to get a big old container of water. Now, I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale where the water is not exactly high quality (it has a slight garlicky smell), but compared to the water in central Florida it was wonderful. We settled in to our two bedroom condo, overlooking the Gulf. Very nice.
Days 3, 4, & 5 (May 4, 5, & 6) – Treasure Island
Spent the days at the pool and beach, Anabelle’s swimming really took off. I think her swimming instructor will be shocked at her next lesson at how far she progressed after a week of living in the pool! We did take an excursion up the coast to Tarpon Springs where we visited the (surprisingly) free Sponge Museum and visitor’s center. The town was founded by Greeks and has a very Greek, but touristy flavor. I now know more about the sponging industry (the largest industry in Florida in the early 1900’s!) than I would have ever thought possible. Anabelle can even name different species of sponges, she’s ready for Kindergarten next year now! We stuffed ourselves with Greek food, picking up some excellent baklava for after dinner. If you like Greek food, I highly recommend a side trip. Anyway, we packed up on Tuesday night, planning on leaving for Orlando and Islands of Adventure early on Wednesday morning.
Day 6 (May 7) – Islands of Adventure, check in to All Star Music
We left the condo on time at 7:00am. We hit some traffic in Tampa and construction on I-4. Our biggest delay was Anabelle, crying in the back seat with a sore throat and stomach ache. I ended up squeezing myself between the girls’ carseats in the third row of our minivan to try to comfort her. Turns out she had chugged two sippy cups of chocolate milk in a row (she drank the one that was supposed to be for the afternoon as soon as we got in the car). After a pitstop, she felt better but I wedged myself between the girls again, becoming a human pillow for the next hour.
We arrived at Universal at 9:25, quickly parked and headed in. Parking was $8, or $12 for “preferred”. I’m glad we chose the $8 version, seeing as we were right next to the elevator, one floor up from the $12 folks. I can ride the elevator one floor to save $4 any day. We made the seemingly endless walk from the parking deck, through CityWalk, to Islands of Adventure. I had purchased our tickets at our local AAA office before we left at a price of $49 per adult and $41 for Anabelle. Our bags were checked, my mom somehow managing to get the only guard who was actually looking. I only had to open one of the three sections of my backpack, our two cooler bags remained untouched in the bottom of the stroller. My mom had a small purse and they spotted her deadly blade, oh wait, I mean nail file. They wanted her to throw it away under supervision. You would have to know my mom, but she, not surprisingly refused. After much discussion, she left it at guest services and demanded a receipt.
The crowd was very light. We went right over to Spiderman and hopped on. We really thought Anabelle would like this ride, but she refused to get on. This is a girl who at age 5 has already been on some pretty wicked roller coasters. She has been on all eight of the roller coasters at Paramount’s Carowinds that she meets the height restrictions for and likes them all. However, we didn’t push it. John kept the girls in the babyswap room while my mom and I rode, then I hopped back on with John. I have to say that IoA does a great job with the baby swap thing. Each attraction had a room with chairs, some with TV’s where the non riding adult can wait with the little ones.
John and I hopped on Dr. Doom’s tower with no wait, we didn’t even have any one riding with us. Anabelle had spotted Spiderman the character, so we got picture and autographs. Even Rebecca waved, “bye, Spidy”. It was so darned cute! We gave Anabelle the choice of going to Seuss Landing or Toon Lagoon next and she chose Toon Lagoon. She didn’t want to ride anything which was somewhat upsetting since we really thought she’d enjoy this park. We did the ultimate bad parent thing of taking her against her will on Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges. She began laughing as soon as we started moving and really enjoyed it while we were on it. However, when we got off she said it was too wet and gave it a thumbs sideways on her thumb rating system. We let her dry off with Grammy and some popcorn ($4 in a souvenir bucket) while John and I rode Ripsaw Falls. I think this one gives Splash Mountain a run for the money. It has great theming and some really fun drops. We let Anabelle play for a while on Olive Oyl’s ship. She claimed this was her favorite part of the park. It is a really cool three level interactive playground. We finally tore her away promising a ride on the Flying Unicorn. We were really disappointed to find that the other kiddie coaster, the Pteranodon Flyers was closed for the day. You have to have a child accompany an adult on that one and John and I didn’t get to try it on our last visit which was without Anabelle. She really enjoyed the Unicorn though, riding it twice in a row with no wait. John and I then headed to Dueling Dragons. We had the longest wait of the day there, about 10 minutes to ride the first car on the Fire side. We then hopped right back on the Ice side. We met up with my mom and the girls at the Mystical Fountain. This is a fountain that talks to you, spitting water and making the fountain spray way out of the basin. Anabelle had a great time teasing the fountain and whoever it was controlling it did a great job teasing her back. We finally tore her away so we could go get some lunch.
We had surprisingly good salads at Circus McGurkus Café. The kids split a pizza. Just a note that many people may not know, most of the restaurants and shops at Universal give a 10% discount with a AAA card. We saved a little over $3 at lunch, enough to pay for an ice cream later! After lunch we hit the Caro-Seuss-El which does look a little worse for wear these days. Many of the “horses” were missing eyelashes or had parts strapped back on. Cat in the Hat was next with about a 5 minute wait. It’s a great concept, but I think it lacks a little in the execution. A few of the props were obviously missing. There was no net in the “bet I can get that Thing with my net” part, oh well! We then did 1 Fish, 2 Fish, both girls really liked it.
We made our way back over to The Lost Continent for the 3:30pm show of the 8th Adventure of Sinbad. It was a nicely done stunt show. Anabelle loved the princess, it was a little much for Rebecca. The pyrotechnics sent her into my mom’s shoulder a few times. Triceratops adventure was next. It was as I remembered it, a very long queue with a rather lame ending. Anabelle enjoyed moving along the path looking for the raptors that had escaped. We talked Anabelle into the Jurassic Park River Adventure. This prompted a triple, very much thumbs down rating. But at least she tried. She was really enamored with the whole superhero thing so we made it back over to Marvel SuperHero Island for the 5:00 “parade”. After pictures with Captain America and some X-Men (Storm, Rogue, and my favorite, Wolverine), John and I hopped on the Hulk with no wait. John had promised Anabelle another ride on the Flying Unicorn, so he took her over and mom and I took Rebecca back to Seuss Landing. We explored the If I Ran the Zoo area which was very cute. Once we reunited, Anabelle very proudly told me she rode on the Unicorn all by herself (dad in the car behind). I was suitably impressed! We hit Cat in the Hat and 1 Fish, 2 Fish again then headed over for a final ride on Spidy. Anabelle decided to try it, another big thumbs down. But at least she gave it a go. We then left the park, my mom reclaiming her nefarious nail file. A security guard brought it out to her once we were out of the park. We stopped at Starbucks in CityWalk on the way out and then headed over to check into All Star Music.
There was no one in line at the front desk, so I was able to go right up. However, the CM was just past his training period and it took us over 30 minutes to check in for one lousy night! Now to be fair, we did have some requests. My mom decided she wanted a fridge for her insulin, she had originally planned on just using the cooler. They were able to put one in the room for no charge due to medical necessity. We also had the CM check three ParkHoppers to see which two had a day left. He was able to check it right on his screen after a call to find out how to do it. By this time a line was forming and the two CM’s who were originally also at the desk had disappeared. We finally got a room assignment but then the computer locked up and wouldn’t print our keys. We decided to go over to the food court for dinner and to pick up our keys later. Dinner was very good, I had a grilled chicken sandwich and John had a cheese steak. The kids shared a chicken nugget meal. My mom had some trouble as there was not much for her to choose from. She is an insulin dependant diabetic and must have very few carbs. She was sick and tired of salads and tried to get something vegetarian from the grill. They said cheese pizza was the best they could do, but that was too high in carbs and fat. Finally the chef came out and said he could grill up some veggies for her. She ended up with a delicious mix of portabella mushrooms, broccoli, onions, and carrots with a side of marinara sauce. It smelled wonderful and she enjoyed it. They didn’t charge us for it since it was such a hassle to get it, which I thought was really nice. We finally made it to our room, Calypso 1655 with a nice pool view. I wish we could have stayed longer to enjoy it! The girls watched the bedtime stories and we all promptly collapsed.
Day 7 (May 8th) – Breakfast at Cindy’s and Magic Kingdom!
We woke up bright and early to make our 8:05 PS at Cinderella’s castle. We caught the 7:05 bus to the Magic Kingdom and arrived there by 7:30. It was Early Entry day, so the crowd started to build. I had been told that we could just use our old passes at the turnstile. Once we got there we found that we would have to exchange them at guest services, which didn’t open until 8:00. Fortunately, when I walked over, they were already open. One pass was a Junior level (9-18 years I think, this type was phased out long ago. Now you are an adult at 10!) pass last used in 1981 by me, my 12 year old signature still on the back! Two days at the MK for the whopping sum of $18!!! The other was my mom’s, last used in 1985. Since my pass was only for the Magic Kingdom the CM wouldn’t give me a one day Hopper. We weren’t really planning on hopping, but I had given some thought to trying to catch Illuminations or Fantasmic since MK was closing at 7. So much for that plan! My mom’s was a pass for MK and EPCOT so it was transferred to a one day Hopper. We wanted to keep the old paper ones for posterity, the CM said he could do it but it would take a few minutes while he did the paperwork so the revenue drawer evened out. He was quickly done and we entered the park shortly before 8. We got a quick autograph and picture with Minnie then made our way to the castle. We were seated almost immediately and had a wonderful breakfast of rolls, juice, coffee, scrambled eggs, potato casserole, sausage, bacon, fruit, and stuffed French toast. The kids had French Toast sticks. Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Belle, and Mary Poppins made the rounds. Anabelle loved every minute of it, Rebecca warmed up after a while giving Mary Poppins a big smile. Both girls love Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, we can listen to it 4 times through on the way to preschool. Anabelle was a little taken aback, since Mary Poppins isn’t a real “princess”. I assured her it was OK, but she is still telling everyone about it. The 8:05 PS was the way to go. By the time we left at about 8:50 the lobby of the castle was packed to the gills.
Fantasy Land was still pretty empty with the exception of Dumbo, so we hopped on Small World, Peter Pan, the Carousel, and Snow White in quick succession. John has always hated Small World (is there any grown man that likes it?), but said that he actually enjoyed it going with the girls. They both loved it, Rebecca was clapping the whole way through. I knew Anabelle REALLY wanted to see Ariel, so we got in line at the Grotto. She was scheduled to appear at 10:00am and we got in line just about then. There was a 40 minute wait posted by then, it actually took over an hour. This was by far our longest wait of the day. But, we were there for the kids and that was what Anabelle really wanted to do. Hopefully the pictures will turn out. By this time we were very hot (it was in the 90’s the entire time we were in Florida without a single drop of rain), and decided to head to the Haunted Mansion to cool off. We had assured Anabelle that it wasn’t very scary and that Snow White was scarier. She was really freaked by the elevator, when she was two it didn’t bother her at all. It just goes to show how the imagination kicks in by the time kids hit four or five. She sat with John who said she was buried in his chest for the whole ride. Rebecca, on the other hand, really enjoyed it. We headed to Splash Mountain next, but it was down. The standby line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was huge, so we got FastPasses and headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates had the longest line I can remember since I was a teenager, I think all of Splash Mountain’s line headed over along with us. We waited about 15 minutes to ride. Anabelle again wasn’t crazy about this ride. When she sees water she gets nervous, although she calmed down when we pointed out that the boats are like the ones on Small World. She gave the ride a sideways thumb. By this time, our window for Big Thunder was almost open so we headed over there. Anabelle decided to go, so John took her while mom and I waited with the baby sleeping in the stroller. Once again, Anabelle gave the ride two thumbs down. At this point John asked me to stop him the next time he tried to talk Anabelle into riding something. He was really disappointed that she wasn’t enjoying the rides we thought sure she would love. I guess we just have to give it a few more years. She has told me now that she actually liked it a little. She just needs to get used to all the theming I think. By this time we were hungry so we got our FastPasses for Splash Mtn which was up and going again and headed to Pecos Bill’s. Again we ran into some issues with my mom. She figured she could eat either the Kit Carson Salad or the Chicken Wrap. But, she is allergic to peppers which appear in both dishes. The cashier sent a message to ask the manager to come out from her screen which I thought was pretty cool. He was very helpful and said they could make the salad without peppers, no problem. I had the salad too (with the peppers!), John had the chicken wrap and Anabelle the hot dog kids meal. Rebecca was still sleeping, although she did wake up while we were eating and happily shared my salad and John’s fries. We did have a preschooler tantrum here as Anabelle REALLY wanted to eat outside and the adults REALLY wanted to eat in the air conditioning. However, we reminded ourselves yet again that this trip was for the girls and went out to eat in the 90 degree heat. One advantage was that it was much quieter outside. The salad was absolutely delicious and perfect for a hot day. After lunch our Splash Mtn window was open so we headed back that way. John and I went and then I used Anabelle’s FastPass (John held good to his vow not to talk Anabelle into it after her initial no) to ride again with my mom. It was about 2:40 by then and we walked over to get a spot for the parade. The parade was fine, Anabelle and Rebecca did plenty of waving. But, I really liked the old “Remember the Magic” parade better. The new parade doesn’t allow for any real interaction with the children. Anabelle still remembered dancing with Snow White and helping Lumiere in the parade when she was 2 ½. She kept asking, “when do I go in the parade” so she was a little disappointed too. We were also on the wrong side of the princess float. We had Aurora and her prince waving at us, NOT Ariel and Prince Eric. That created a little scene, since Anabelle really has a thing for Prince Eric. But the promise of ice cream helped ease the pain.
We followed the end of the parade down to the Country Bears Jamboree. I love this show and have since I was Anabelle’s age. I even used to have an Album of the show along with the storybook attached to the jacket. I video taped it since the closing of the Jamboree at DisneyLand has made me nervous. Anabelle really wanted to do the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse so John took her while I got FastPasses for the Jungle Cruise and a popsicle for Rebecca. I had learned from someone else’s trip report that the icecream carts do carry sugarfree bars even though it isn’t on the menu, so my mom was able to enjoy a strawberry bar. I predicted that Anabelle would be very disappointed with the Treehouse since I know I always wanted to play with the stuff when I was little and was always disappointed that I could only look. I was right on the money, as evidenced by Anabelle’s face when they came back. But a popsicle set her to rights. She even got it for free! The CM said if she could pronounce the name (itzakadoozie, or some such ridiculous name) she could have it for free, and she did! Way to save us a big $2.50! John and I headed over for some Dolewhips. I have to say that in all my times in the Magic Kingdom, I had never had a Dolewhip. Thanks to the many raves about them I have seen on Mouseplanet, I finally had one and boy was it good!
Anabelle wanted to go on Aladdin’s Magic Carpets next. It was nice that the whole family could ride in one car, but other than that it was no great shakes for the adults. Rebecca has a thing for birds, so we thought she would enjoy the Tiki Birds. John had never seen the show which means I hadn’t seen it in 15+ years. I thought the new show was fine and Anabelle enjoyed seeing the familiar characters of Iago and Zazu. We had promised Anabelle a ride on Dumbo, convincing her earlier in the day that the 40 minute wait would drop later on. Thankfully, we were right and we had about a 10 minute wait. Closing time was drawing nearer, so we decided to skip Mickey’s Toontown Fair. It is fun for the kids, but is a time sink. We rode the teacups with no wait and then John and I investigated the line for Space Mountain. FastPasses were gone for the day and the standby line was 40 minutes. We decided to try to do the rest of Tomorrowland first and head back to Space Mountain if there was still time. We rode one of my all time favorites, the PeopleMover (or whatever it is called now) with no wait, and hit Buzz with a 5 minute wait. John took Anabelle on the AstroOrbiters with about a 10 minute wait while mom, Rebecca, and I enjoyed some popcorn. The thing Anabelle enjoyed most about the Orbiters was that it, in her words, “is on the roof! I can’t believe we are on the roof!). At about 6:45 (closing was at 7:00), John and I got in the standby line for Space Mountain. We had about a 30 minute wait, but it was well worth it. Only the right side was running for both standby and FastPass. We finished up with Space Mountain at about 7:15. We had a very leisurely stroll down Mainstreet and out to the resort bus depot. I had read a suggestion somewhere to stick around for a few minutes and let the park empty some before leaving and that was great advice. No huge throng of people trying to get out of the park right at 7. As long as we were headed toward the gate, the CM’s didn’t seem to mind. All the attractions, shops and food vendors were closed except on Mainstreet, so there wasn’t much to keep guests hanging around.
The bus ride back to All Star Music was interesting. We just missed a bus, so were first in line for the next one. However, the next bus was for all three All Stars and pulled up to Movies, the first of the three. The bus proceeded to fill up with the Movie guests and then the back of the Music line walked over there. So for being first in line, we missed that bus. The next bus was also for all three and pulled past Music to Sports, which was the last line! The bus driver waved us over as he passed by. We walked over and kind of butted in line, but by this point we had decided we were getting on that bus! We settled in the back near two women and kids speaking what I thought was Italian. It turned out to be Portugese. They asked me in English why they didn’t see Bugs Bunny! I had to break it to them that Warner Brothers and Disney are not the same. They were hoping to see Scrooge McDuck as well (I didn’t know he was big in Brazil!). I didn’t remember ever seeing Scrooge, but told them you never know. They wanted to know where they could see Bugs. I think Six Flags are the only parks affiliated with Warner Bros. and told them the closest one was in Atlanta. Once back at the hotel, we refilled Mom’s insulin cooler with ice and headed back to Treasure Island.
Days 8, 9 & 10 (May 9, 10, & 11th) – Back to the beach, then home
We recuperated at the pool on Friday and packed up for the journey home. We left Saturday morning and after a brief detour (whoops, someone should pay attention to the map!), we headed to Savannah for the night. We stayed another night at the Econolodge, stuffed ourselves at Cracker Barrel for Mother’s Day breakfast and headed home. We got home in the afternoon, so we had time to unpack and wind down before heading to bed and back to reality.
Summary
A short trip to Disney is better than no trip, but I am longing to go back. On this trip I realized that I have never been to Disney for longer than 3 days at a time (a byproduct of living in Florida growing up, lots of weekend and one day school trips). John and I really want to take the girls back for a week or so once Rebecca gets a little older. Something to look forward to!
Disappointments:
Anabelle not getting as excited about the “big kid” rides as we thought she would
Loonnggg check in time at ASMu
Not being able to stay longer
MK closing at 7:00
Highlights:
Breakfast at Cindy’s, well worth the exorbitant price
Taking Rebecca on her first visit to MK (first time on Small World, first time on Dumbo, first parade, you get the picture!)
Having so many CM’s amazed at the age of my ticket! (several “Oh my’s!”)
Not a drop of rain the entire week
My mom getting to experience her first visit with grandkids
Getting a little dose of that Disney Magic to keep me going until next visit!
Thanks for reading!
Ellen Pillar
Time of Year: Spring
Travel Method: Personal Car
Resort: ASMuR
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Toddler, Pre-School, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent, Veteran
Comments: A couple 20-year-old, unused tickets (one from 1981 and another from 1985) to Magic Kingdom provide Ellen and her family the necessary excuse to for a quick visit. Universal Studios also received some attention.
Ellen Pillar -- May 2003 -- Walt Disney World (ASMuR)
Who
Ellen (34) – Disney Veteran, 20+trips since 1973
John (37) – Devoted husband, father, and son-in-law. 5th time to WDW
Mom (59) – Ellen’s Mom, veteran but first trip since mid-80’s
Anabelle (5) – Princess, first class. 3rd time to WDW
Rebecca (20 months) – Princess-in-Training, 1st time to WDW
Planning
This quick side trip came about after a conversation with my mom. She mentioned that she had found some old tickets to Disney (from the 80’s) that still had days available on them along with some A-E tickets from the early days. We had a trip to Treasure Island, Florida with my mom already planned for May 2-11. Mom has a week timeshare in Treasure Island that she inherited from my Grandparents. John and I had already decided we wanted to visit Islands of Adventure during our trip (we are coaster enthusiasts) to ride the Hulk and Dueling Dragons again. We also had two park hopper tickets with one day left from our last WDW visit in October 2000. Since we wouldn’t have to lay out any additional money for admission, we decided to add a day at the Magic Kingdom to our Orlando portion of the trip. I booked us one night at the All-Star Music resort and by some miracle, my mom was able to get through 60 days ahead to get us PS’s at Cinderella’s Castle for breakfast with the Princesses. We managed to keep the trip to Disney a secret until Anabelle’s 5th birthday party on April 19th. We gave her a little Mickey, the Disney promo DVD, and a certificate inviting her to dine with the Princesses. Moments like that are what make parenting so fun!
Day 1 & 2 (May 2 & 3) – Drive to Treasure Island
Fairly uneventful. We did have to delay our departure from Charlotte until after a band of super strong thunderstorms came through. We drove in rain for about an hour then didn’t see a drop until we got back to within 50 miles of home! We stopped in Savannah at a beautiful Econolodge for the night, hitting the night before the graduation ceremonies at Georgia Southern University. I’m glad I booked early, the place was packed! We arrived in Treasure Island in the late afternoon and stocked up at Publix, making sure to get a big old container of water. Now, I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale where the water is not exactly high quality (it has a slight garlicky smell), but compared to the water in central Florida it was wonderful. We settled in to our two bedroom condo, overlooking the Gulf. Very nice.
Days 3, 4, & 5 (May 4, 5, & 6) – Treasure Island
Spent the days at the pool and beach, Anabelle’s swimming really took off. I think her swimming instructor will be shocked at her next lesson at how far she progressed after a week of living in the pool! We did take an excursion up the coast to Tarpon Springs where we visited the (surprisingly) free Sponge Museum and visitor’s center. The town was founded by Greeks and has a very Greek, but touristy flavor. I now know more about the sponging industry (the largest industry in Florida in the early 1900’s!) than I would have ever thought possible. Anabelle can even name different species of sponges, she’s ready for Kindergarten next year now! We stuffed ourselves with Greek food, picking up some excellent baklava for after dinner. If you like Greek food, I highly recommend a side trip. Anyway, we packed up on Tuesday night, planning on leaving for Orlando and Islands of Adventure early on Wednesday morning.
Day 6 (May 7) – Islands of Adventure, check in to All Star Music
We left the condo on time at 7:00am. We hit some traffic in Tampa and construction on I-4. Our biggest delay was Anabelle, crying in the back seat with a sore throat and stomach ache. I ended up squeezing myself between the girls’ carseats in the third row of our minivan to try to comfort her. Turns out she had chugged two sippy cups of chocolate milk in a row (she drank the one that was supposed to be for the afternoon as soon as we got in the car). After a pitstop, she felt better but I wedged myself between the girls again, becoming a human pillow for the next hour.
We arrived at Universal at 9:25, quickly parked and headed in. Parking was $8, or $12 for “preferred”. I’m glad we chose the $8 version, seeing as we were right next to the elevator, one floor up from the $12 folks. I can ride the elevator one floor to save $4 any day. We made the seemingly endless walk from the parking deck, through CityWalk, to Islands of Adventure. I had purchased our tickets at our local AAA office before we left at a price of $49 per adult and $41 for Anabelle. Our bags were checked, my mom somehow managing to get the only guard who was actually looking. I only had to open one of the three sections of my backpack, our two cooler bags remained untouched in the bottom of the stroller. My mom had a small purse and they spotted her deadly blade, oh wait, I mean nail file. They wanted her to throw it away under supervision. You would have to know my mom, but she, not surprisingly refused. After much discussion, she left it at guest services and demanded a receipt.
The crowd was very light. We went right over to Spiderman and hopped on. We really thought Anabelle would like this ride, but she refused to get on. This is a girl who at age 5 has already been on some pretty wicked roller coasters. She has been on all eight of the roller coasters at Paramount’s Carowinds that she meets the height restrictions for and likes them all. However, we didn’t push it. John kept the girls in the babyswap room while my mom and I rode, then I hopped back on with John. I have to say that IoA does a great job with the baby swap thing. Each attraction had a room with chairs, some with TV’s where the non riding adult can wait with the little ones.
John and I hopped on Dr. Doom’s tower with no wait, we didn’t even have any one riding with us. Anabelle had spotted Spiderman the character, so we got picture and autographs. Even Rebecca waved, “bye, Spidy”. It was so darned cute! We gave Anabelle the choice of going to Seuss Landing or Toon Lagoon next and she chose Toon Lagoon. She didn’t want to ride anything which was somewhat upsetting since we really thought she’d enjoy this park. We did the ultimate bad parent thing of taking her against her will on Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge Rat Barges. She began laughing as soon as we started moving and really enjoyed it while we were on it. However, when we got off she said it was too wet and gave it a thumbs sideways on her thumb rating system. We let her dry off with Grammy and some popcorn ($4 in a souvenir bucket) while John and I rode Ripsaw Falls. I think this one gives Splash Mountain a run for the money. It has great theming and some really fun drops. We let Anabelle play for a while on Olive Oyl’s ship. She claimed this was her favorite part of the park. It is a really cool three level interactive playground. We finally tore her away promising a ride on the Flying Unicorn. We were really disappointed to find that the other kiddie coaster, the Pteranodon Flyers was closed for the day. You have to have a child accompany an adult on that one and John and I didn’t get to try it on our last visit which was without Anabelle. She really enjoyed the Unicorn though, riding it twice in a row with no wait. John and I then headed to Dueling Dragons. We had the longest wait of the day there, about 10 minutes to ride the first car on the Fire side. We then hopped right back on the Ice side. We met up with my mom and the girls at the Mystical Fountain. This is a fountain that talks to you, spitting water and making the fountain spray way out of the basin. Anabelle had a great time teasing the fountain and whoever it was controlling it did a great job teasing her back. We finally tore her away so we could go get some lunch.
We had surprisingly good salads at Circus McGurkus Café. The kids split a pizza. Just a note that many people may not know, most of the restaurants and shops at Universal give a 10% discount with a AAA card. We saved a little over $3 at lunch, enough to pay for an ice cream later! After lunch we hit the Caro-Seuss-El which does look a little worse for wear these days. Many of the “horses” were missing eyelashes or had parts strapped back on. Cat in the Hat was next with about a 5 minute wait. It’s a great concept, but I think it lacks a little in the execution. A few of the props were obviously missing. There was no net in the “bet I can get that Thing with my net” part, oh well! We then did 1 Fish, 2 Fish, both girls really liked it.
We made our way back over to The Lost Continent for the 3:30pm show of the 8th Adventure of Sinbad. It was a nicely done stunt show. Anabelle loved the princess, it was a little much for Rebecca. The pyrotechnics sent her into my mom’s shoulder a few times. Triceratops adventure was next. It was as I remembered it, a very long queue with a rather lame ending. Anabelle enjoyed moving along the path looking for the raptors that had escaped. We talked Anabelle into the Jurassic Park River Adventure. This prompted a triple, very much thumbs down rating. But at least she tried. She was really enamored with the whole superhero thing so we made it back over to Marvel SuperHero Island for the 5:00 “parade”. After pictures with Captain America and some X-Men (Storm, Rogue, and my favorite, Wolverine), John and I hopped on the Hulk with no wait. John had promised Anabelle another ride on the Flying Unicorn, so he took her over and mom and I took Rebecca back to Seuss Landing. We explored the If I Ran the Zoo area which was very cute. Once we reunited, Anabelle very proudly told me she rode on the Unicorn all by herself (dad in the car behind). I was suitably impressed! We hit Cat in the Hat and 1 Fish, 2 Fish again then headed over for a final ride on Spidy. Anabelle decided to try it, another big thumbs down. But at least she gave it a go. We then left the park, my mom reclaiming her nefarious nail file. A security guard brought it out to her once we were out of the park. We stopped at Starbucks in CityWalk on the way out and then headed over to check into All Star Music.
There was no one in line at the front desk, so I was able to go right up. However, the CM was just past his training period and it took us over 30 minutes to check in for one lousy night! Now to be fair, we did have some requests. My mom decided she wanted a fridge for her insulin, she had originally planned on just using the cooler. They were able to put one in the room for no charge due to medical necessity. We also had the CM check three ParkHoppers to see which two had a day left. He was able to check it right on his screen after a call to find out how to do it. By this time a line was forming and the two CM’s who were originally also at the desk had disappeared. We finally got a room assignment but then the computer locked up and wouldn’t print our keys. We decided to go over to the food court for dinner and to pick up our keys later. Dinner was very good, I had a grilled chicken sandwich and John had a cheese steak. The kids shared a chicken nugget meal. My mom had some trouble as there was not much for her to choose from. She is an insulin dependant diabetic and must have very few carbs. She was sick and tired of salads and tried to get something vegetarian from the grill. They said cheese pizza was the best they could do, but that was too high in carbs and fat. Finally the chef came out and said he could grill up some veggies for her. She ended up with a delicious mix of portabella mushrooms, broccoli, onions, and carrots with a side of marinara sauce. It smelled wonderful and she enjoyed it. They didn’t charge us for it since it was such a hassle to get it, which I thought was really nice. We finally made it to our room, Calypso 1655 with a nice pool view. I wish we could have stayed longer to enjoy it! The girls watched the bedtime stories and we all promptly collapsed.
Day 7 (May 8th) – Breakfast at Cindy’s and Magic Kingdom!
We woke up bright and early to make our 8:05 PS at Cinderella’s castle. We caught the 7:05 bus to the Magic Kingdom and arrived there by 7:30. It was Early Entry day, so the crowd started to build. I had been told that we could just use our old passes at the turnstile. Once we got there we found that we would have to exchange them at guest services, which didn’t open until 8:00. Fortunately, when I walked over, they were already open. One pass was a Junior level (9-18 years I think, this type was phased out long ago. Now you are an adult at 10!) pass last used in 1981 by me, my 12 year old signature still on the back! Two days at the MK for the whopping sum of $18!!! The other was my mom’s, last used in 1985. Since my pass was only for the Magic Kingdom the CM wouldn’t give me a one day Hopper. We weren’t really planning on hopping, but I had given some thought to trying to catch Illuminations or Fantasmic since MK was closing at 7. So much for that plan! My mom’s was a pass for MK and EPCOT so it was transferred to a one day Hopper. We wanted to keep the old paper ones for posterity, the CM said he could do it but it would take a few minutes while he did the paperwork so the revenue drawer evened out. He was quickly done and we entered the park shortly before 8. We got a quick autograph and picture with Minnie then made our way to the castle. We were seated almost immediately and had a wonderful breakfast of rolls, juice, coffee, scrambled eggs, potato casserole, sausage, bacon, fruit, and stuffed French toast. The kids had French Toast sticks. Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Belle, and Mary Poppins made the rounds. Anabelle loved every minute of it, Rebecca warmed up after a while giving Mary Poppins a big smile. Both girls love Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, we can listen to it 4 times through on the way to preschool. Anabelle was a little taken aback, since Mary Poppins isn’t a real “princess”. I assured her it was OK, but she is still telling everyone about it. The 8:05 PS was the way to go. By the time we left at about 8:50 the lobby of the castle was packed to the gills.
Fantasy Land was still pretty empty with the exception of Dumbo, so we hopped on Small World, Peter Pan, the Carousel, and Snow White in quick succession. John has always hated Small World (is there any grown man that likes it?), but said that he actually enjoyed it going with the girls. They both loved it, Rebecca was clapping the whole way through. I knew Anabelle REALLY wanted to see Ariel, so we got in line at the Grotto. She was scheduled to appear at 10:00am and we got in line just about then. There was a 40 minute wait posted by then, it actually took over an hour. This was by far our longest wait of the day. But, we were there for the kids and that was what Anabelle really wanted to do. Hopefully the pictures will turn out. By this time we were very hot (it was in the 90’s the entire time we were in Florida without a single drop of rain), and decided to head to the Haunted Mansion to cool off. We had assured Anabelle that it wasn’t very scary and that Snow White was scarier. She was really freaked by the elevator, when she was two it didn’t bother her at all. It just goes to show how the imagination kicks in by the time kids hit four or five. She sat with John who said she was buried in his chest for the whole ride. Rebecca, on the other hand, really enjoyed it. We headed to Splash Mountain next, but it was down. The standby line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was huge, so we got FastPasses and headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates had the longest line I can remember since I was a teenager, I think all of Splash Mountain’s line headed over along with us. We waited about 15 minutes to ride. Anabelle again wasn’t crazy about this ride. When she sees water she gets nervous, although she calmed down when we pointed out that the boats are like the ones on Small World. She gave the ride a sideways thumb. By this time, our window for Big Thunder was almost open so we headed over there. Anabelle decided to go, so John took her while mom and I waited with the baby sleeping in the stroller. Once again, Anabelle gave the ride two thumbs down. At this point John asked me to stop him the next time he tried to talk Anabelle into riding something. He was really disappointed that she wasn’t enjoying the rides we thought sure she would love. I guess we just have to give it a few more years. She has told me now that she actually liked it a little. She just needs to get used to all the theming I think. By this time we were hungry so we got our FastPasses for Splash Mtn which was up and going again and headed to Pecos Bill’s. Again we ran into some issues with my mom. She figured she could eat either the Kit Carson Salad or the Chicken Wrap. But, she is allergic to peppers which appear in both dishes. The cashier sent a message to ask the manager to come out from her screen which I thought was pretty cool. He was very helpful and said they could make the salad without peppers, no problem. I had the salad too (with the peppers!), John had the chicken wrap and Anabelle the hot dog kids meal. Rebecca was still sleeping, although she did wake up while we were eating and happily shared my salad and John’s fries. We did have a preschooler tantrum here as Anabelle REALLY wanted to eat outside and the adults REALLY wanted to eat in the air conditioning. However, we reminded ourselves yet again that this trip was for the girls and went out to eat in the 90 degree heat. One advantage was that it was much quieter outside. The salad was absolutely delicious and perfect for a hot day. After lunch our Splash Mtn window was open so we headed back that way. John and I went and then I used Anabelle’s FastPass (John held good to his vow not to talk Anabelle into it after her initial no) to ride again with my mom. It was about 2:40 by then and we walked over to get a spot for the parade. The parade was fine, Anabelle and Rebecca did plenty of waving. But, I really liked the old “Remember the Magic” parade better. The new parade doesn’t allow for any real interaction with the children. Anabelle still remembered dancing with Snow White and helping Lumiere in the parade when she was 2 ½. She kept asking, “when do I go in the parade” so she was a little disappointed too. We were also on the wrong side of the princess float. We had Aurora and her prince waving at us, NOT Ariel and Prince Eric. That created a little scene, since Anabelle really has a thing for Prince Eric. But the promise of ice cream helped ease the pain.
We followed the end of the parade down to the Country Bears Jamboree. I love this show and have since I was Anabelle’s age. I even used to have an Album of the show along with the storybook attached to the jacket. I video taped it since the closing of the Jamboree at DisneyLand has made me nervous. Anabelle really wanted to do the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse so John took her while I got FastPasses for the Jungle Cruise and a popsicle for Rebecca. I had learned from someone else’s trip report that the icecream carts do carry sugarfree bars even though it isn’t on the menu, so my mom was able to enjoy a strawberry bar. I predicted that Anabelle would be very disappointed with the Treehouse since I know I always wanted to play with the stuff when I was little and was always disappointed that I could only look. I was right on the money, as evidenced by Anabelle’s face when they came back. But a popsicle set her to rights. She even got it for free! The CM said if she could pronounce the name (itzakadoozie, or some such ridiculous name) she could have it for free, and she did! Way to save us a big $2.50! John and I headed over for some Dolewhips. I have to say that in all my times in the Magic Kingdom, I had never had a Dolewhip. Thanks to the many raves about them I have seen on Mouseplanet, I finally had one and boy was it good!
Anabelle wanted to go on Aladdin’s Magic Carpets next. It was nice that the whole family could ride in one car, but other than that it was no great shakes for the adults. Rebecca has a thing for birds, so we thought she would enjoy the Tiki Birds. John had never seen the show which means I hadn’t seen it in 15+ years. I thought the new show was fine and Anabelle enjoyed seeing the familiar characters of Iago and Zazu. We had promised Anabelle a ride on Dumbo, convincing her earlier in the day that the 40 minute wait would drop later on. Thankfully, we were right and we had about a 10 minute wait. Closing time was drawing nearer, so we decided to skip Mickey’s Toontown Fair. It is fun for the kids, but is a time sink. We rode the teacups with no wait and then John and I investigated the line for Space Mountain. FastPasses were gone for the day and the standby line was 40 minutes. We decided to try to do the rest of Tomorrowland first and head back to Space Mountain if there was still time. We rode one of my all time favorites, the PeopleMover (or whatever it is called now) with no wait, and hit Buzz with a 5 minute wait. John took Anabelle on the AstroOrbiters with about a 10 minute wait while mom, Rebecca, and I enjoyed some popcorn. The thing Anabelle enjoyed most about the Orbiters was that it, in her words, “is on the roof! I can’t believe we are on the roof!). At about 6:45 (closing was at 7:00), John and I got in the standby line for Space Mountain. We had about a 30 minute wait, but it was well worth it. Only the right side was running for both standby and FastPass. We finished up with Space Mountain at about 7:15. We had a very leisurely stroll down Mainstreet and out to the resort bus depot. I had read a suggestion somewhere to stick around for a few minutes and let the park empty some before leaving and that was great advice. No huge throng of people trying to get out of the park right at 7. As long as we were headed toward the gate, the CM’s didn’t seem to mind. All the attractions, shops and food vendors were closed except on Mainstreet, so there wasn’t much to keep guests hanging around.
The bus ride back to All Star Music was interesting. We just missed a bus, so were first in line for the next one. However, the next bus was for all three All Stars and pulled up to Movies, the first of the three. The bus proceeded to fill up with the Movie guests and then the back of the Music line walked over there. So for being first in line, we missed that bus. The next bus was also for all three and pulled past Music to Sports, which was the last line! The bus driver waved us over as he passed by. We walked over and kind of butted in line, but by this point we had decided we were getting on that bus! We settled in the back near two women and kids speaking what I thought was Italian. It turned out to be Portugese. They asked me in English why they didn’t see Bugs Bunny! I had to break it to them that Warner Brothers and Disney are not the same. They were hoping to see Scrooge McDuck as well (I didn’t know he was big in Brazil!). I didn’t remember ever seeing Scrooge, but told them you never know. They wanted to know where they could see Bugs. I think Six Flags are the only parks affiliated with Warner Bros. and told them the closest one was in Atlanta. Once back at the hotel, we refilled Mom’s insulin cooler with ice and headed back to Treasure Island.
Days 8, 9 & 10 (May 9, 10, & 11th) – Back to the beach, then home
We recuperated at the pool on Friday and packed up for the journey home. We left Saturday morning and after a brief detour (whoops, someone should pay attention to the map!), we headed to Savannah for the night. We stayed another night at the Econolodge, stuffed ourselves at Cracker Barrel for Mother’s Day breakfast and headed home. We got home in the afternoon, so we had time to unpack and wind down before heading to bed and back to reality.
Summary
A short trip to Disney is better than no trip, but I am longing to go back. On this trip I realized that I have never been to Disney for longer than 3 days at a time (a byproduct of living in Florida growing up, lots of weekend and one day school trips). John and I really want to take the girls back for a week or so once Rebecca gets a little older. Something to look forward to!
Disappointments:
Anabelle not getting as excited about the “big kid” rides as we thought she would
Loonnggg check in time at ASMu
Not being able to stay longer
MK closing at 7:00
Highlights:
Breakfast at Cindy’s, well worth the exorbitant price
Taking Rebecca on her first visit to MK (first time on Small World, first time on Dumbo, first parade, you get the picture!)
Having so many CM’s amazed at the age of my ticket! (several “Oh my’s!”)
Not a drop of rain the entire week
My mom getting to experience her first visit with grandkids
Getting a little dose of that Disney Magic to keep me going until next visit!
Thanks for reading!
Ellen Pillar