Kaye Leszczynski - May 2003 - All Star Sports, Offsite

Time of Year: Spring
Travel Method: Plane, rental car
Resort: ASSR, Offsite
Accommodations: Standard room
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: It looked like Kaye and her husband weren't going to get their annual Disney World trip this year, but in the end they got an unexpected reprieve. That scare, perhaps, made them appreciate the trip even more and it was one fo their best ever.

Kaye Leszczynski -- Kaye 2003 -- Walt Disney World (ASSR, Offsite)

Cast

DH – Jim, 34 – 7th trip to WDW, 2 trips to Disneyland, Disney Veteran,
Me – Kaye – 24, 9th trip to WDW (10th if you count while my mom was pregnant with me ?),
Airline – Air Tran Airways – Milwaukee, WI to Orlando, FL

Rental Car – National – Compact Car

Lodging – All Star Sports and Days Inn, Lake Buena Vista – Standard Rooms

May 17, 2003 – May 20, 2003

As I begin to write this report in mid April (with a mere 31 days until our trip begins) I am anticipating that this report will be very long and detailed. Personally, those are my favorite kind! I plan to take lots of notes so I won’t miss any details this time. I have truly enjoyed reading all of the reports here and I hope if you make it to the end it is either entertaining or helpful as all of the reports have been both to me.

I am a very lucky DW as my DH is just as big a Disney fan as me and we both love to plan our WDW trips. We are extensive planners for our Disney trips, for us half the fun is planning it’s also a fun way to pass the time until we get there. We make it to WDW usually once a year sometimes more if we are really lucky and have visited the parks in January, March, and May and have found mid May to be perfect. The weather’s not too unbearable yet and the crowds have been minimal. The past two years we have scheduled our trip for the same week each time and this year we have done the same. We have our fingers crossed that the crowds and weather will be as good as they have in the past.

The Disney leg of this trip will be for four days with us spending the rest of the week in Georgia for my brother’s graduation. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. We’ll arrive on Saturday afternoon and drive to Georgia on Tuesday evening then drive back to Orlando on Sunday morning to depart for home.

When it came time to pick a resort three things factored in to our decision.

Cost – We would like to have more money for souvenirs and spend less on the room, therefore we were willing to sacrifice staying in any of the deluxe resorts to help with that.
We MUST stay on Disney property – We like to immerse ourselves in Disney for our trips and we just love to be on Disney property even when we were sleeping.
Time spent in the room – This trip we are estimating that we will be in the room to be limited to sleeping and showering since we have so much we want to do.
All things considered and factoring in the code we were able to use to get All Star Sports for $74.00 per night it was not hard to decide to stay there. I have read mixed reviews of the All-Stars but All-Star Sports was our first taste of the Disney resorts and we loved it so we are more than happy to go back. We did request Home Run Hotel as that was the building we had last time and thought it was pretty convenient but quiet as well. The size of the rooms may be a bit of an issue for families but with just the two of us it’s not a problem at all. That the room is CLEAN is the most important thing!

Next was a car. With the help of Mousesavers codes and my Disney Club discount I was able to get a compact car for 8 days for only $171.00 all taxes and fees included at National Car Rental. I was really happy about the rate.

With the resort and car decided we needed to plan which parks we would visit on what days. We planned to spend Saturday evening at Downtown Disney and maybe get to bed early since the next few days will be packed with activities. Sunday we will definitely be at Disney MGM for Star Wars Weekends. DH is a HUGE Star Wars fan and we made it to the Star Wars Weekend in 2001 and the smaller scale version last year and have enjoyed the Star Wars festivities. Monday we will tour the Magic Kingdom like we used to do before we bought Park Hoppers. In other words spend the entire day there. We are excited about doing rides that even after all of this time we have never gotten around to doing. We also want to move at a slower pace and just enjoy being at our favorite place in the world. (Magic Kingdom is particularly special for us as this is where we got engaged.) Tuesday we will be checking out of the All Star Sports and spending the day at Islands of Adventure then traveling to Georgia.

As I mentioned earlier we love to plan and part of our planning is reading our favorite guidebooks. We always purchase the updated editions of the Passporter, Birnbaum, and the Official WDW guide. We have gotten so much information from each of them. I also visit a few websites for even more information. Mouseplanet for trip reports, Mousesavers for the best deals, DIS for anything and everything, and WDWIG for menus and park hours. A combination of all of the above helps us to have the best trip possible.

We also purchased all of our trip supplies this weekend. We bought lots of film, as well as toiletries (blister block is a must), batteries, etc. That was fun because we knew all of this stuff is for our trip so even a trip to Wal-Mart is fun when you are thinking about Disney.

Now there’s nothing left to do but wait!

April 20, 2003 - Only 26 days to go, it’s coming fast now, but not fast enough! Today I was surfing around on the DIS boards and discovered a great post! More E-Ride nights had been announced for May!! And best of all one was during our trip – Saturday night. Now to take advantage of this E-Ride we would have to change our plans slightly. Our one and only E-Ride night was May 2001 and we had such a blast it was on of our best memories of the trip so we decided that even though we wouldn’t be arriving until Sat afternoon and hadn’t planned to visit any parks the first day we would change our plans. We had 3 days left on our 5 Day Park Hopper and only planned on using 2 of the days for this trip but we decided to do something that probably wasn’t wise economically but would work out best for us and that was using the 3rd day to enter the Magic Kingdom on Sat night and participate in the E-Ride night. We would spend the beginning of the evening at House of Blues for dinner and shopping at Downtown Disney then head over to the Magic Kingdom around 8:45 so we would have our tickets exchanged for wristbands by the time the event began at 9:30. This may not be an option for everyone as we will basically pay $62.00 a piece (The original park hopper was $207.00 divided by 5 days plus the $12.00 for the E-Ride ticket) for this night but it’s worth it to us to not only enjoy the rides with less crowds but to start our trip off at the Magic Kingdom! Now 26 days and counting!

April 22, 2003 – 22 Days to Go! I make a habit of checking rental car rates about once a week just to make sure that I have gotten the best deal. I was really happy with the deal we got with National so if I got anything better that would just be icing on the cake. Well I did check our reservation with National again, putting in all of the same codes and seeing what kind of rate I got. Well it was $3.00 cheaper, not enough to cancel and rebook, etc. but I did notice something called “Quick Rent” that I hadn’t noticed before. I read what info they had on the website and then called National as well to confirm that I understood everything correctly. And I couldn’t believe that I had never heard of it! Now granted it could be more difficult than it seems but if this works as well as it sounds than I am a National customer for life! You fill out all of the “paperwork” online with your drivers license info, deciding on insurance that you want to purchase or not, etc. and then instead of going to the counter, you proceed to the parking lot to pick any car that’s available in your class. Then you drive to the exit, show the same credit card that you booked the original reservation with and you are all set. This sounds great! Any extra time I can get at my favorite place in the world is ok by me! I had to cancel my current reservation and rebook using this system so I saved the $3.00 after all (that’ll pay for an extra iced lemonade ?) So you’ll have to keep reading to see if it’s as good as it seems but I have my fingers crossed that it will save us a good ½ hour.

May 16, 2003
We are leaving tomorrow! We can hardly believe it, I have spent the last few weeks visiting the DIS boards daily and have gotten even more information. It’s my daily Disney fix. Among the things I have learned about was the time change for E-Ride nights, which will give us more time at Downtown Disney. We are now just keeping our fingers crossed that we will manage to get tickets, as we aren’t arriving until Saturday afternoon. I also read a few reviews about Pal Mickey the new interactive “park guide” and we can’t wait to get our hands on one. In fact when I told my DH about it the first thing he said was “We are getting one right?” ? Read on to see how he works out for us. Going to sleep will be next to impossible tonight just thinking of the fun that awaits us. We did all of the packing yesterday to give us time to think of things we may have forgotten. Tonight we are going to a local restaurant for dinner and then to a news and hobby shop to stock up on magazines for the plane trip. I also used the online check in service that Air Tran offers. It was great! 24 hours before hand you can enter your confirmation number then see an overhead view of the plane and pick your seats. That was a great plus as I was able to ensure we were able to sit together and print our boarding passes – would definitely suggest using this service if you fly Air Tran.

May 17, 2003
Woke up at 6:30 this morning after not sleeping not much last night. Got all of the last minute things packed, got ready, and we’re ready at 8:30 when my father in law arrived to take us to the airport. It’s great that he was unable to take us as it saved the hassles of parking as well as saved a lot of money in parking fees. We found the Air Tran ticket counter easily and there was no one in line. We walked right up and I showed our boarding passes that I printed online yesterday. We then took our baggage to the X-Ray machines. This was the first time we had flown since they began doing this. Now the ticket counter agent puts the labels on your luggage and then you drop it off at the X-Ray station. We headed over to our gate and again there was no wait. I would also like to note that the TSA employees we came in contact with were very friendly and helpful. We arrived at our gate and realized the whole process had taken less than 20 minutes so we had a lot of time to waste. We decided to grab some breakfast but our choice was limited to one small place without having to leave the gate area and go back through security. I got a pretzel and a coke and DH had cereal and milk. We looked around at the gift shop then settled in at the gate area to read magazines until our departure. About 20 minutes before we boarded they announced we would be switching gates due to a maintenance problem. We ended up departing about 15 minutes late but were only 5 minutes late arriving into Orlando. The flight was good but seemed to take forever, I’m sure because we were so anxious to arrive. A few notes about Air Tran: We got an excellent fare and thought that the crew was very nice. The pilot made a few jokes during the flight as well. Served the standard beverage and pretzels and the comfort level was pretty much the same as any of the major airlines. We would definitely fly them again. Truthfully price really dictates who we will fly with. We prefer Midwest Express for the comfort but price wins out over that if there is a big discrepancy.

Arrived in Florida and we could tell we were there the minute we stepped off the plane – it was HOT! We headed to baggage claim and noticed something I never paid attention to before. There was an electric sign as you left the gate area that displayed where each airline’s baggage would be. I usually just look around until I see people I remember seeing on the flight. Obviously this is not as reliable as the sign! ?

Stopped in at the new WDW store and immediately saw 100 things that we wanted. We looked through the store and thought it was very nice – much better than the previous store and seemed to have lots more stuff as well. We also browsed through the Universal Store picking up our 1 Day 1 Park Passes. ($110.65) Off to baggage claim and we timed it just right as the luggage was just beginning to come out. All of our luggage arrived – YEAH! Now off to find the National Car Rental section of the garage. It took a few minutes to find as we went to the wrong floor of the terminal but quickly found where we needed to be and headed out to the garage. I mentioned in the planning we were utilizing QuckRent for this trip and I can’t say enough good things about it! We walked by the National counter on our way out and noticed there was only 1 person in line but it was still nice to walk right by the line! This was our first time using National and we were very happy! We selected a burgundy Mitsubishi Lancer that had only 3,000 miles on it. The car offered lots of legroom, a great AC (a must!) and even a CD player. I love being able to pick the car I like best, that’s a lot more fun than getting stuck with whatever they choose for you! After selecting our car we went through the line and though there were several cars in each lane we were out of the garage within 10 minutes. I highly recommend National and more specifically QuickRent! It made the whole process faster. Only one thing left and that was checking in to the room. So far this trip had gone perfectly smooth so my fingers were crossed that the same would hold true for our reservation and our room requests. We arrived around 4:00 to the infamous long lines but we didn’t care, Grim Grinning Ghosts was playing and we were finally here! DH waited in line to check us in while I went over to Guest Services to see if I could go ahead and pick up the E-Ride tickets for tonight. I was helped by a great CM named Antonio (who I sent a letter to WDW and ASSP management about) he was very helpful and began processing the tickets, he asked for our room number and I showed him our confirmation sheet and explained my DH was in line to check us in. He said he would need a room number to sell the tickets but it wasn’t a problem because he could just check us in himself. I felt bad about “breaking in line” so to speak but there was no one else waiting in the Guest Services line so I decided to think of it as a “pixie dust moment” and accept his offer. (Please don’t hate me! I never break in lines! ?) Antonio was a great CM and being that he was the first one we came in contact with it was a great start to our vacation! He handled all of our requests easily and with a smile on his face. I gave him $500.00 cash as a credit for charging purposes, he checked our Park Hoppers to be certain we had the days left we thought. 3 days left just as we thought, good! Then we were on our way. I was happy to see we had been assigned to Home Run Hotel as I had requested.

It was time for our first purchase (always an exciting moment for a shopaholic like me!) It was a Pal Mickey and an antenna topper to help us locate our car in the parking lots. DH picked the Mickey Sorcerer Hat ($54.51) The CM who checks us out was really nice talking to us about how great Pal Mickey was. Then it was over to the food court for our refillable mugs another thing that just seems to scream, “We are at WDW!” for us. I’m not sure why but it does. We both like the travel ones best and DH picked the green one and I picked the red one. ($23.52) The CM here was friendly as well asking how long we would be there, etc. We filled up the mugs and headed out to check out our home sweet home for the next few days. We were in Building 8 of Home Run Hotel and the room was a great location! It was on the corner just steps from the parking lot and far from the pool. We were so happy to have a quiet location it was exactly what we wanted. (Thanks Room Assigner!!) The room was very clean and we made sure to turn the AC down right away and started unpacking. As is our tradition we turned on the WDW info channel. We were ready to visit Downtown Disney and DH decided to set up the camcorder to video the channel while we were gone so we would have it to watch when we were having WDW withdrawal in the future. I thought that this was a great idea. We didn’t have our tripod so DH set up the camcorder on phone books and we headed to the House of Blues, we were starving. We were seated right away in the side area under the ceiling fans and it felt so nice to relax and we kept saying, “Can you believe we are really here?” We felt like two kids! That’s the point of WDW isn’t it? We love House of Blues and had been really looking forward to eating here again. We started with the catfish nuggets and capers, DH then had the Elwood and I had the Shrimp Po Boy with mashed sweet potatoes instead of cole slaw (I wasn’t even charged extra for the switch). The food was delicious, the server very nice and attentive, and it was one of the best meals we’ve had. (Total with 2 sodas and tip $ 43.00)

Next we headed over to the House of Blues Company Store, which has a lot of interesting things. (In fact one of my favorite kitchen magnets came from there, it says “Be Nice or Leave – Thank You.”) We saw a lot that caught our eye but decided to wait until later in the trip to buy anything. Next was the Virgin Megastore, since we didn’t know that the car would have a CD player we hadn’t brought any CDs so that was a good excuse to pick up the new American Idol CD of love songs (which is pretty good.) ($15.97) It had looked like rain ever since we arrived so DH decided to pick up a Virgin Megastore poncho, I wanted the classic yellow Mickey one which I got later ($6.03) As it worked out the ponchos were great insurance as we were never caught in the rain and they are now waiting in our suitcase for our next trip to WDW. We walked over to the Marketplace with plans to get our picture made at Studio M and to hit a few shops before going to the Magic Kingdom. We were so disappointed to find Studio M closed and it looked to be permanent! In my last report I mentioned how great it was to have one on one time with Mickey so it’s really too bad that it closed. We looked around Team Mickey and saw a lot of t-shirts we liked but didn’t buy anything yet. Next on our list was Once Upon A toy, which we hadn’t seen yet. Wow – what a great store! It’s huge and in typical Disney fashion very detailed. It was lots of fun to explore. DH picked up the Disney exclusive Star Wars figures for his collection ($63.90 for 6 figures) There were lots of stuffed animals but we wanted to wait and see what the World of Disney had before we bought our traditional first night stuffed animal to add to our collection. We looked briefly through the new pin store which was very nice – I’m not really into the pins very much, I just buy ones for the rides or characters that we really like or ones that catch my eye but I haven’t done any trading as all the ones I have I want to keep! We usually buy a few to add to our lanyard hanging up at home. Time was flying by so quickly but we wanted to hit the World of Disney before we left so we headed over there. Lots of new things, which was great! Last year they seemed to have a lot of things from the year before and 100 years stuff and that was it. This year there were a lot of new things, and new designs for the t-shirts. And all new pajamas – a must buy for me each year! We looked at everything but went somewhat quickly, we would have more browsing time over the next few days. We were really disappointed in the stuffed animal selection, now had all of the various characters, even unique ones, were at the toy store and the World of Disney just had huge quantities of the more popular characters. We decided to buy an animal at Magic Kingdom instead. At the World of Disney we ran into my brother in law Dan and his girlfriend Kathy. They were also visiting Disney and had arrived the day before. We had different itineraries for our trips so this was the only time we ran into them and it was a great surprise to see them and hear about how their trip was going so far. We said good-bye and checked out with our purchases. ($37.28 with DC discount). We dropped back by the hotel to leave our packages and for DH to recharge the camcorder battery as we had filled a tape with the WDW info channel. While there I made a wake up call request for 7:29 instead of 7:30 to insure we heard from the mouse himself! (One of the many tips I picked up during my hours of research.) Off to E-Ride night on a very nice night – warm but not unbearable. We didn’t realize how close the All Stars were to Magic Kingdom – it was a very short drive. We parked very close to the front and walked up to the TTC to catch the monorail. When we arrived at the Magic Kingdom we were glad we were arriving instead of leaving as huge crowds streamed past us. It was about 9:55 and we had seen the fireworks overhead as we walked up the TTC. We traded in our tickets for armbands and headed up Main Street. (For people who have been to E-Ride nights in the past, they have made a change in the tickets, instead of a paper ticket you now get a resort card type ticket that says E-Ride Ticket.) I tried to pick up some fudge at the bakery but you couldn’t even move it was so crowded so I decided to try again later. The feeling of walking down Main Street was indescribable. We were so happy to finally be standing in the Magic Kingdom. We walked down to the Haunted Mansion and Pal Mickey started talking and telling jokes right away. We thought he was so much fun and we were just getting started! DH picked up one of the WDW bottle straps to clip him to ($6.00 bottle strap and a bottle of water), which turned out to be a great idea, we were then able to keep him close as he doesn’t speak loudly and we didn’t want to miss anything. This made it much easier to catch everything he said and it’s already packed back into our luggage for the next trip. Pal Mickey seemed a little nervous about Haunted Mansion but we went on anyway ?. DH loved Madam Leota’s tombstone and we both agree that the Haunted Mansion is even better at night. Hands down it’s our favorite ride at WDW and we were glad we were able to make it our first ride. We next went over to the Splash Mountain gift shop still in search of our first stuffed animal. We have the frog and bear so we picked up the fox ($ lost the receipt for this one!), which is so neat looking! As we were walking across the bridge we noticed lots of logs with no one in them so DH decided to ride on it while I babysat Pal Mickey. He reminded us to “keep him from getting wet.” Pal Mickey played a game with me while we waited. It was a cute game where he named 20 attractions and I pressed his hand if it was in the Magic Kingdom and his tummy if it wasn’t. I got all 20 right and he was good company. DH was able to get right on and since the picture was so good he picked it up as well as a great Splash Mountain frame. ($39.36) Next we headed over to Tommorowland to try Buzz Lightyear for the first time we both loved it. DH liked that you could spin yourself too. I beat DH but it was close, I can’t remember the exact scores but neither of us did well. There was no line so we went again and this time my score was a lot better. I hit something in one of the first rooms that gave me 100,000 points. Beat DH again! We really enjoyed this ride – it was on our list of rides to try and hit this trip that we hadn’t in the past. It’s not on our “must do” list for future trips but for an E-Ride night or a 10 minute wait it’s definitely something to try. I should make a note that we are having a BLAST at E-Ride night. No lines, no wait, E-Ride is Great! (Disney should make that the slogan for E-Ride nights ?) Worth $12.00 no doubt. We decided to pick up a large coke ($2.44) and ride the Tommorowland Transit Authority and relax for a few minutes. I just love this ride, it’s so underrated. It was so nice sipping our coke, looking at Tommorowland all lit up, and talking about how great our trip had been thus far. Just enjoying the moment – something you forget to do sometimes at WDW with all of the running around you have to do. After our spin was over, DH headed to the Space Mountain “line” where he was stopped by a castmember to talk about Pal Mickey – (This would be a trend throughout our trip and added a lot of fun to our experience) I went to the arcade and was disappointed to find Tetris gone. It had moved further and further back into the arcade each year so I guess it must not have been very popular. I tried a few other games but didn’t find anything that I really liked. DH showed up and we decided to bypass Alien Encounter and go over to Casey’s Corner for hot dogs. As usual we weren’t disappointed, their hot dogs are the best. (4 hot dogs and 2 sodas $17.41) DH also played a little baseball pinball at the machine in the corner. We headed out via browsing the stores. A CM in the Emporium talked to us about Pal Mickey and said that her husband worked over at Tower of Terror and that he was great there so make sure we took him and say hi to her husband if he was there. She was very nice and we enjoyed chatting with her. I picked up a bracelet with dog charms, a postcard, and a Haunted Mansion antennae topper for Halloween. ($19.97) We decided to call it a night and head back to the resort. We jumped on the next monorail and after a short walk to the parking lot and a short car ride we were in the bed. It was a long day but so great we didn’t care we were exhausted, we were in the happiest place on earth!

May 18, 2003
Mickey woke us up at 7:29 and we were ready and out the door by 8:30. It was another short drive over to MGM and we parked in “Stage” There were storm troopers on top of the turnstiles as you entered which was a great touch that we got lots of pictures of. We killed some time in the Darkroom until they were letting people onto Sunset Drive. I wanted to find a Mickey camera strap but none of the ones they had would work for my camera. While in the store a family with a teenage daughter was trying to decide about buying Pal Mickey. We pointed to ours and told them he was great! We later saw them walking around with one – hope they enjoyed him as much as we did. DH and I split up at this point – he to ride Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster and me to SHOP with plans to meet at the tables in the corner. I went into the children’s store on Sunset Drive and met a great CM, he was very friendly and explained the props hanging from the ceiling and how there were meant to be part of the theme for each area and to make sure I always looked up because it was often overlooked and there were interesting things there. I wish I had looked at his nametag, as I would have written a letter about him as well, he was so enthusiastic and friendly. There were very few people in the stores at this early hour so I was greeted warmly at each store. I made a stop at my favorite store at MGM theVillans Shop. Found a great Ursula stuffed animal and bought it right away. ($11.72) I knew DH would love it. The CM said they were new and had only been in a couple of weeks – lucky me! I shopped my way down Sunset finishing up at the new Christmas store where I got a great reindeer antennae topper for Christmas ($3.73). I spoke with a CM about the changes to the store. It used to be a home store and they had converted it to a Christmas store. She explained that since there was a big home store at Downtown Disney they decide to convert this store to a Christmas store. There was a lot to look at, and it was a very nice store. I picked up a fruit bowl and a bottle of water ($2.81) and went over to tables to wait for DH. He showed up soon after and loved the Ursula ? He commented that he had never had such short waits for those rides. He wanted to stop in the Villains store also so we browsed through and picked up an icee ($3.00) We both love the villains snow globe and I am sure one of these days we will break down and buy it – maybe next time! The Great Movie Ride was closed for refurbishment, which was disappointing as it was closed during this same time last year. So Star Tours was next. I browsed Tatooine Traders while DH rode and then when he arrived helped him hold all his purchases ?. ($138.46) Later he told me that Star Tours needs to be updated badly – there’s so much they could do with that ride especially since they have the 2 new movies that they could draw from as well. It would be great if they unveiled a new, improved Star Tours to coincide with the final new movie in 2005. Now on to Muppet 3D. Another ride we have never done. We had never even been back in this area. I loved the fountain and the theming of the whole area. We were 5th in line for the preshow and we enjoyed all of the attention to detail even before you get to the preshow. We were there for the entire preshow, which was cute but kind of long. All of the props and things to look at do help pass the time though. I made sure to point out the “net full of Jell-O” to DH. The show was great and we loved all of the effects. I had heard about the bubbles but not the fireworks at the end. We were seated all the way at the end of the row (near the exit doors) and couldn’t see the chef from our seats, so maybe the middle or other end of the rows are a little bit better seats for that part of the show. We really enjoyed the show and were sorry we didn’t try this sooner. On to the gift shop where I was really tempted by the Gonzo stuffed animal, he was really cute in his little suit. They had lots of neat stuff here but we didn’t end up buying anything. We were getting hungry and had gone through all of the menus at WDWIG.com and thought Backlot Express appealed to us the most. On our way there we ran into the Star Wars parade and DH taped a little bit of it as well. Neither of us are big parade people so we had not made plans to be there but it was fun to happen up on it and see the various characters. We had some trouble finding the Backlot Express and went right past it. We decided to hit the Indiana Jones store while we were in the area but didn’t buy anything. We looked at the map again and went back to look for Backlot Express. We did find it but there was a pretty big line and none of the registers were open. We figured that they didn’t begin to serve until 11:30 still about 10 minutes away, which was confirmed by the sign at the entrance. Just an opinion here but that seems late for a counter service restaurant at a theme park. Especially for people like us who make an effort not to show up at 12:00 for lunch at WDW! Even opening at 11:00 would be better I think – just my opinion! We decided to take the boat over to MGM and eat lunch at ESPN Café. We timed it just right and were the last ones on the boat. It is a very relaxing way to get to the Boardwalk. I must have been too relaxed because I had us get off at the wrong stop! We got off at the Yacht/Beach Club instead of the Boardwalk. I was totally not paying attention – I should have listened to DH when he said, “Are you sure?” So instead of getting off at practically the front door of the ESPN Café, we had a little walk instead. It was a nice walk though. The Boardwalk is such a pretty area. We seated ourselves at a booth in the bar area and were happy for the cokes the waitress quickly brought. Today was very hot! I do not know the exact temperature but we both agreed it was not this warm last year. After looking over the menu we both got the Club Wrap with fruit cup as a side. It was delicious and perfect for a hot day! The restaurant was not crowded at all and our waitress was very attentive. (Total with 2 sodas and tip $25.00) We had been trying to decide during lunch what to do the rest of the afternoon since we had already done everything we wanted to at MGM. We decided to go back to the room and take a nap. We’ve never done that before but we had a very full day Saturday and knew we would probably last better over the rest of our trip if we got a little nap in today. We went to catch the boat back to MGM and our car. The boat was just leaving the area so we knew we had a few minutes to wait so we browsed in the Boardwalk gift shop a bit before going back to the dock area. While waiting, the boat for EPCOT came up and one of the CMs from that boat checked to make sure we were going to MGM and then said our boat would be along in about 3 minutes. Now this is the type of thing that makes Disney special! It was such a small thing but he easily could have ignored us, attended to his line and been on his way but he took the time to be friendly and courteous to us as well. Also while waiting a mousekeeping CM for the Boardwalk came over to talk to us about Pal Mickey and we had a great conversation with him. He was very friendly, asked a few questions about Mickey then told us he was going to have to get one for himself! He said he hoped we enjoyed the rest of our trip and he was on his way. This was one of the more enjoyable waits I have ever had. The boat arrived shortly after and we took another relaxing ride back to MGM and our car. We walked to our car, which was very close to the entrance and went back to All Star Sports. As a tip, if you have a car and are using it for transportation, always bring your mugs along. It’s nice to have them right with you so you can just stop at the food court on your way back to your room. Which is exactly what we did! DH also got a Mickey ice cream and I got a Mickey Rice Krispy Treat - I love those! ($ 5.43) Stopped in the All Star Sports gift shop for another purchase ($17.12) Back to the room for our nap and the room was nice and cool. Mousekeeping had put our toothbrushes in a cup with a fan made from a towel. I updated my trip report before turning in for my nap while DH fell asleep immediately. We must have been very tired, as we didn’t wake up until almost 5:00! Tonight we had planned to eat at the ESPN Café but we went for lunch so DH suggested driving over to NBA City at Citywalk for dinner. We missed the free parking by about 10 minutes. ($8.00) NBA City was pretty empty and we were seated up in the bar area. Our server was annoying from the beginning and set the tone for the entire dinner. She decided we were her friends I guess and talked to us a lot about her friends I guess and talked to us a lot about her friend’s graduation, etc. I like friendly attentive wait staff but she was more intrusive than friendly. She asked if we liked fish and then when we said we didn’t feel like fish tonight she proceeded to read us all of the fish entrees anyway as “they were really good.” We knew that we wanted for an appetizer and ordered it right away (Tomato, Mozzarella Salad) along with 2 sodas. DH ordered the Philly Steak Sandwich for his entrée and I got the Jambalaya. Both were awful! The steak on the Philly Steak actually looked like crumbled ground beef and the jambalaya was so hot it burned my lips! I love spicy food but this was just not good! DH ate about ½ of his sandwich and I had about 5 bites total before I gave up. The waitress seemed surprised we were “done” and asked how I liked the jambalaya and I told her it was too spicy for me and she said “Oh yes it’s very hot!” (Total with 2 sodas and tip $49.00) We won’t eat here again. The store however is great! We enjoyed looking around down there. It had looked like rain since we left for Citywalk and now the sky looked very threatening so we stopped in the big Universal Store by Emeril’s then made our way to our car. We debated whether or not to stop at Downtown Disney since we didn’t bring our ponchos but we decided to chance it. We stopped first at Ghriladi’s to try the shakes. DH got chocolate and I got vanilla – very good!! ($8.41) As we sipped those we started our shopping. We visited the smaller stores that we missed last night first. We started in the Christmas Store and I forgot how much I enjoy this store. I want everything! I especially love the storybook collection ornaments. I found a few bargains – a pack of cute Christmas cards at 50% off and I loved that they said Walt Disney World Resort on the back! I also picked up 2 name monorail pins on sale for DH and I. My favorite purchase however was a Mickey countdown to Christmas plaque that counts down from 365 days! (Total - $41.51) My 2 favorite things – Mickey and Christmas! I didn’t realize until I got home that I never picked up the 2003 ornament. I may use the mail order service to get it. We stopped in the new scrapbook store and like many others I was disappointed. Disney is missing out on a gold mine by not branching out more into the scrap booking items. Back to Once Upon A Toy where we picked up Shri Khan ($17.04 and the black and white Steamboat Willie Mickey plush. ($ lost the receipt for this one) And also took lots of pictures. – it’s such a great store! The Mr. Potato Head was always pretty full so I never got a chance to check it out but I did notice they had touch screens for creating something at the Mr. Potato Head area but I’m not sure what. Went into the Gourmet Pantry next and got some of that yummy WDW fudge ($15.39) It was a buy so many get 2 free and we got a mixture of chocolate and peanut butter. She also talked me into the extra few bucks for a Disney tin to put them in. I thought that would be better than the cardboard anyway for traveling. We also stopped in Disney at Home (I love the gray Disney chair with ottoman!) Pooh store, and the little garden shop. It was back to the World of Disney for more shopping. Here we bought several miscellaneous things including an interstate 4 sign (the 4 was in a Mickey head), magnets, and a bandana for the dog. (With DC discount $100.13) We decided to skip the West Side tonight and went back to All Star Sports. We refilled our cups and I was hungry (that not really eating dinner was getting to me!) and got a chicken sandwich combo that was really good ($7.06) The food court was just about deserted at p.m. We refilled our cups again, and then went back to the room. I started to pack up the souvenirs that we had accumulated so far into the empty duffel bags we brought except for the stuffed animals. (Have to leave those out for Mousekeeping to play with ?) I couldn’t believe how much stuff we had already accumulated. I worked on this while watching the season finale of the Bachelor and DH walked around the grounds and checked out the All Star Music. DH made one last trip to the All Star Sports food court for the night before coming back to the room to refill our cups. Made a wake up call request for 6:29. We then relaxed and ate some of the yummy fudge before calling it a night.

Monday, May 19, 2003
Rise and shine at 6:29 after Mickey’s wake up call. Got showers and were ready to go by 7:20 for our 8:05 Priority Seating reservations at Crystal Palace. Arrived at the Magic Kingdom and parked in the second row. I love being able to walk up to the Transportation and Ticket Center as opposed to riding the tram. On the monorail we had our first encounter with a lady we would soon see and HEAR a lot of. She was making conversation with a mother whose family had just arrived the night before and this was their first trip. She asked her lots of questions to which the mother would repeatedly nicely reply that they just arrived and that this was their first day in the parks. This happened several times on the way to the Magic Kingdom. I was surprised at the number of people here so early until I realized it must be an Early Entry morning as everyone was getting in – not just people with Priority Seating reservations. Jumped in line after the security check of my backpack. I was disappointed that with all of my planning that I had missed this detail – since we were trying to avoid crowds. Oh well, nothing that could be done about it now, and we probably would have kept our plans as they were anyway. I just crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t cause unmanageable crowds. I was definitely glad we hit the bigger rides that we wanted to do on E-Ride night. Onward to Crystal Palace, it’s a must do for us each trip, the food is great and the restaurant is beautiful. We noticed a few characters out but didn’t stop for pictures. It was nice to see all the characters as you come in. I got into line to check in for our Priority Seating and the line quickly reached all the way down the long porch. After a few minutes the lady from the monorail showed up again! She walks up to one of the Crystal Palace CMs and tells her she has Priority Seating and the CM points to our line and says that is the line to check in. She argues a bit more that she has reservations but eventually goes to get in line. At this point she tells the woman (who has been waiting behind me since I got in line) that she was behind me and just got out of line to ask a question. The lady must have been in a good mood or decided it wasn’t worth it to argue as she just let her break in line. We continued to wait and the lady tells me that she had a reservation and was told she wouldn’t have to wait in line so she must be in the wrong line, I nicely told her that this WAS the line for people with reservations to check in. She asked other people who gave her the same answer, including another CM that walked by. It was now finally my turn to check in (thank goodness!) I went to wait with my DH for our name to be called where we got to see her in action again. She went up the CM at the door and told the CM she had checked in and basically didn’t want to wait any longer. The CM explained that they would call her name when her table was ready. A minute or so later we were called and before we got through the door we heard her telling the CM that she was behind me in line so she should be next. This took place over the course of about 15 minutes. We joked as we were being seated that we hoped she wouldn’t be in our area! We put in our drink order with our nice server – chocolate milk and orange juice for DH and Coke and orange juice for me. Guess who we see now?? She was seated (as were we) in a 2-person table near us. Well after the hostess let her she moved over to a 4-person table by the window. When our server brings back our drinks he moves to her table and asks if he can move her back to her original table. She says no she wants to look out the window (as a side note – she never did look out the window – she read the paper.) and the hostess told her she could – not true! This bothered me for 2 reasons, 1 a family of 4 would now have to wait longer because she was being unreasonable and 2 the server would make less money on this table as a tip is figured by the total cost of the meal. There are more stories I could tell involving the characters but that gives you an idea – she was our “interesting” person of the trip. You know there always has to be that one person that makes you think… WOW! Tigger stopped by to see up first and took pictures with both of us and even gave me a kiss! I should mention again how fabulous the food is here – the fruit is exceptionally good. DH and I aren’t big fruit eaters except here; it’s one of the things that we look forward to. (Total with tip $41.00)

We opted not to see all of the characters or visit Pooh in the center in favor of trying to get on Peter Pan in Fantasyland before the lines got too long. It was already very warm out so we were anticipating a hot day! We waited about 10 minutes for Peter Pan’s Flight. Another first for us. This ride we never rode before because the lines were so long when we would make it over here and the Fastpasses were for a much later time and we weren’t sure we would still be in the parks. We both LOVED it! What a fun ride, we thought about riding again but by this time the entire park was open and we wanted to go for another ride on the Haunted Mansion. There was virtually no line here; in fact DH didn’t even have time to video Madam Leota’s tombstone. It was another great ride. I always see something I didn’t notice before. Today the Haunted Mansion souvenir cart was open and we did A LOT of shopping here! We had to have among other things, the bobble head ghosts, the Haunted Mansion Mickey and Minnie beanies, the Haunted Mansion CD (which is great), a magnetic bumper sticker that says “I Brake for Hitchhiking Ghosts,” a magnet and I am probably forgetting other things but we were excited that they were finally offering a wide variety of Haunted Mansion merchandise!! (Total - $75.60)

Next we went to Jungle Cruise but it was closed until 11:00. We hopped on Pirates of the Caribbean with no wait. We both really enjoy this ride; it is a lot of fun. We were having mechanical problems though we got stuck right before the little drop for about 5 minutes. It was weird to have the lights come on and a CM right there next to you pushing buttons. We got going again but stopped again for about 5 minutes closer to the end. It would have been a better ride without the stops but it was still fun. We could have probably gotten right on again but decided to go to the Hall of Presidents – another ride we had never done before. (You are probably wondering WHAT DID WE RIDE on other trips? We were always more into shopping and soaking up all the atmosphere and riding anything that there wasn’t a big wait for than waiting in line for the big rides.) Hall of Presidents I am not sure why we never made it here as there aren’t usually lines but today it was on my list of rides to definitely try. We didn’t have time to really look around, as the show was about to start. There were few people in the theater, it was nice and cool and we were looking forward to seeing this show. Hall of Presidents is outstanding! The animatronics were unbelievable. They were so lifelike. I especially loved the slight moves that they made, like one president slightly swinging his foot. We were very impressed with this show and were glad yet again that we tried something new. We had now hit all the rides we had planned to do today except for Jungle Cruise so our next item on the agenda was Mickey and Minnie’s houses. The last time we visited them it was late in the afternoon and was very crowded. We stopped on the way at Tink’s Treasures DH’s favorite store at the MK. We never buy anything here but we love to see Tink “fly” across the store. Mid morning turned out to be a much better time to try Toontown it wasn’t crowded at all. I took a whole roll of film and we got to really explore everything. I got a great shot of the Mickey pumpkins in back, which will make a great wallpaper for our computer in the fall. We took the train around to Frontierland to try Jungle Cruise, as it was now 11:00. The train is a nice way to travel around the park, a nice break for your feet! We stopped in the Briar Patch to pick up the last of the Splash Mountain characters – Brer Rabbit ($17.04) The line for the Jungle Cruise was already at 30 minutes so we decided to just save this ride for our list next year. We wanted to stop and try the Dole Whips I had heard so much about – I have to say…. YUCK!! DH and I each took one taste and into the garbage it went. I know some people love them but they just weren’t for us! We decided to do our shopping now and made our way to the Pirates of the Caribbean store where I picked up the Pirates of the Caribbean Mickey in a bottle. ($23.43) It is a great, unique souvenir! We took a trip over to Tomorowland to get our annual Star Wars picture. We usually get this done at the Universal Studios park but this year we only bought 1 day 1 park passes to Islands of Adventure so we are having it done at Walt Disney World. Basically they take your face and insert it into classic pictures. We always pick a Star Wars one and have them hanging in our bedroom. Unfortunately I didn’t look at the picture good enough before purchasing it. ($38.29). This photographer didn’t do a very good job. Our faces look like we’re part green and he didn’t center DH’s face correctly. Oh well, you can’t really tell this while it’s hanging up but it’s definitely the worst one we have had done. Just a tip – make sure you look over the picture carefully so you won’t be disappointed later. They will take multiple pictures until you are happy with it. We shopped our way out of the park, bidding farewell to the Magic Kingdom for this trip. We took the boat back to the TTC noticing that they don’t play music on the ferry anymore. I wonder why? There were only about 25 people on the ferry as it was only about 12:30. We took the walkway to our car. It was very nice to blast the AC after the morning out in the heat. We decided to take our chances that Mousekeeping would be done with our room and try to take another… NAP! Can you believe it? I can’t believe we took not one but two naps on this trip. Usually we are your typical commandos going from one thing to another. We live for these trips so we hate to waste one second! This trip was very relaxing though – partly because of the naps I think! With the heat it was especially nice to be inside during the hot afternoons. So much to my surprise I am suggesting it to others…consider a nap even if you normally go, go, go on your trip. It will surprise you how good you feel taking that little break. We stopped at the food court to get our cups filled and I got a Mickey Rice Krispy treat. We went to the room and noticed Mousekeeping’s cart was right in front of our room so we sat in the car listening to our new Haunted Mansion CD while waiting for them to finish. The CD is great by the way. The room was well worth the wait! When we went into the room Shri Khan was sitting in a cat bed made of towels, the rest of our animals were sitting up on the bed with the remote in Brer Fox’s hand watching Toon Disney! We took lots of picture and videotape as well. We just love the extra things Mousekeeping does. It makes your trip so much more special. (I included this in my letter to WDW and ASSP as well.) We laid down for our nap and after a little sleep I was laying there thinking about our souvenirs and where we were going to put them. I then got the idea to decorate our dining room in Disney “stuff”. We had a great poster from Star Wars weekends as well as shelves and lots of room for all of our accumulations over the years. It’s a room we don’t use but is visible from our living room so we could enjoy seeing it and nothing would suit our personalities better. As soon as DH woke up I told him about the idea and he was as excited as I was. He suggested picking up the new Disney retro “coffee” plates, mugs, and accessories to complete the room which I was all for! He couldn’t remember where he saw them but knew it was at Downtown Disney somewhere. OK naptime was over we were ready to shop! We had a Priority Seating for ‘Ohana but decided to cancel as weren’t hungry enough for an all you can eat meal so this will be on our list for our next trip, as it was something we do want to try. We decided to spend our evening at Downtown Disney beginning with House of Blues again. We had a great server and began with the chicken fingers appetizer that also came with fries which was very good but the catfish is still my favorite appetizer here. DH and I both had the Shrimp Po Boy with me getting the mashed sweet potatoes in place of the cole slaw. Another great meal (Total with 2 sodas and tip $49.00) at a great place! We did more browsing at Virgin Megastore picking up 2 older Disney DVDs we had been looking for – Fun and Fancy Free and The 3 Caballeros ($48.89). DH also surprised me with a little Mickey and Minnie book called “I Thought of You Today and Smiled.” He is such a great, thoughtful guy! ? We decided to drive over to the Marketplace as it looked like it might rain. We went first to the World of Disney hoping they would have the set so we could use our Disney Club discount but they didn’t have the plates. I wanted to try and purchase the entire set at one place as I was going to have it shipped home. We checked next at the Gourmet Pantry and BINGO there it was! It took a little while, as I had to go through several plates in each design to find ones with no scratches and chips. I picked up four mugs, four plates, and the small coffee tin set ($118.45 including shipping home – UPS Ground which took about two weeks.) We hit Once Upon A Toy next where we picked up some of the new die cast vehicles for our collection – Peter Pan’s Flight, and Buzz Light-year. ($12.78) and wished we had somewhere to put the monorail model and all the accessories. We did a little more browsing before leaving. Though this was my last night at Downtown Disney, one of my favorite Disney places I didn’t feel as sad as I thought I would. We had come to Downtown Disney every night and had so much fun that I was just happy things had gone so well for our trip and we still had another day to go! We stopped at the food court to fill up our mugs and do some browsing at the ASSP store before returning to the room. Back at the room I started to gather our thing together. I have to admit packing is so depressing –it’s amazing how quickly your trip goes by. I wish we could stay for another week but we had packed quite a lot into our short trip and had so much fun and we also had the trip to my family’s to look forward to so I was happy with this part of our vacation. While I packed DH decided to go try and catch a last ride on the Tower of Terror hoping for short lines with Fantasmic going on. He had been gone for about 15 minutes when I heard something outside. I peeked out the window to see the kind of downpour only Florida can produce. I had my fingers crossed that DH hadn’t quite made it into the park, as he hadn’t taken his poncho. He arrived a little while only slightly wet. He had just pulled into the parking lot when the rain started so he decided not to take that last ride after all and come back to the room. After finishing up the packing we started watching Martha Inc a movie that was on. After the rain stopped DH took all of our bags out except the one we would need tomorrow morning. That would be one less thing to do tomorrow morning. We decided we were hungry so DH went down to the food court, refilled our mugs and came back with a foot long hot dog (DH) and a sub sandwich (me) both were very good. We have yet to have a bad experience at the All Star food court. I would definitely suggest it for a quick bite or snack. We were never there during busy times but I am sure it can get very crowded around meal times so off times are probably best for minimal lines. We watched the end of the movie, made a wake up call for 6:59 AM. We weren’t able to use the Express checkout as we had put a cash credit on the account so I wanted to give us a little extra time in case of lines in the morning. We then fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow!

Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Woke up with Mickey at 6:59 AM. Showered and got ready quickly and headed to the lobby to check out. DH refilled our cups for the last time. Those cups by the way are one of our favorite souvenirs we use them all the time now at home not to mention the money we saved having them at the resort. There was no line so I was waited on immediately. We had a small credit remaining, which I received as well as a print out of all of our charges. Now we were off to Islands of Adventures – Universal Studios. We are huge Disney nuts but we always plan for one day here. Usually we would have the 2-day pass that I mentioned earlier and visit Universal as well in the afternoon but last year we didn’t ride anything on our trip to Universal so we passed for this year and went with 1 day passes. The themeing at IOA is great and I really enjoy walking around and looking at everything. DH loves all the roller coasters; it’s a roller coaster lovers dream! So far I’ve ridden only one thing here – Spiderman but I still enjoy coming. We arrived about 8:15 AM, paid the parking attendant, and made our way thru City Walk to IOA getting some pictures and noting that it didn’t seem very crowded. It was still about 20 minutes until park opening but they were allowing people to enter. I was stopped right past the turnstiles when an attendant said she needed to see my ticket. I assumed it was some type of spot check or something and handed it over. She scanned it into a machine and she proceeded to ask me questions, ‘Where did we stay, why were we here, etc.’ So many questions that I finally asked how many more questions there were as I had arrived early to get on the rides not take a survey. She immediately stopped and handed me back my ticket and let me be on my way. Lesson learned – if someone asks to see your ticket and they have a little machine in their hands, ask WHY! I have no problem with them taking surveys and if it was on the way out I might very well have been more than willing to answer all of the questions but they should ask you if you’d like to participate instead of just asking for your ticket.

We noticed that one of the counter service places on the right sells Krispy Kreme doughnuts – might be a good idea for breakfast if you are looking for something quick. We always start in Marvel Super Hero Island. We decided to switch “jobs” today. I would do the videotaping and DH would do the picture taking. We thought maybe we could get different pictures and video than we usually do this way. While DH rode the Hulk I shot some video of the Marvel Super Hero Island and the islands that you could see out over the water. There was no line for the Hulk and by the time I walked over to the exit he was done. DH gave it 2 thumbs up as always. He tackled Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall next, again no line. I waited in the arcade and he was out in just a few minutes. Next was Spiderman, which was down. We decided to do our shopping and pictures later and concentrate on getting all of the rides done. Jurassic Park was where we headed next to the River Adventure. DH loves this one as well. And the trend continued, no line! In fact DH was the ONLY one in his boat. The exit here is nice, you can wait right at the exit and watch the boats take off and come back in. We decided we had to get his picture because beside the fact that it was great, how often are you going to be the ONLY person in a ride photo??! ($ 21.29 with plastic frame) The Lost Continent was next, Dueling Dragons had no wait but DH decided to pass on this one in favor of getting back over to Spiderman before the line was too long. We stopped in Seuss Landing to try the Cat in the Hat (another first for us). Again no wait. I didn’t like this ride at all – too much spinning!! DH thought it was an ok ride but I think it would have been a lot more enjoyable (at least for me) if it was more along the lines of the Winnie the Pooh ride where you just ride through the scenes as opposed to spinning through them. That one’s off my list for the future. We went to try Spiderman again and found where all of the people were! The line for Spiderman was 45 minutes and DH said we could just skip this year but I knew we were both looking forward to it and said we should just jump in line and it would probably go fast, anyway we were ahead of schedule. Then I thought of the Universal Express pass and we decided to try and see how that worked for this ride. The kiosks are across the street and there weren’t any lines to use them. We were given a choice of two different times and one of them was only 15 minutes away. This is a nice feature, being able to pick from more than one time. We got a coke to share and looked through 2 shops and then it was time to get in line. The attendant checked our express tickets then let us in line. If you’ve ever been on Spiderman you know the queue area has lots of interesting things to look at as it’s set up like you are walking through the newsroom. The express pass line is set up the same way with smaller rooms and different things to see but the same attention to detail. That was a nice touch. We waited two minutes tops to get in our car and we were off. Their express system works extremely well, at least in this, our first experience. Spiderman is unbelievable. It’s an amazing ride – my absolute favorite non-Disney ride and DH’s favorite ride of all of the parks. I’m not a thrill ride kind of car but the technology that this ride incorporates and the details are just fantastic. It’s worth a try, even if you are a little wary of these types of rides. I was terrified during our short wait the first time I rode but now it’s a ride I look forward to doing on each trip.

We made our way back through the park stopping in the Marvel shops first where DH made some purchases ($ 17.03). Comic Alley was next. It truly is like jumping into the pages of the Sunday Comics. Everything is very bright and colorful and there are lots of fun photo opportunities. DH had read about coin-operated water guns that let you spray people on Popeye’s water ride so we went off in search of them. They are located right on the bridge as you are going over to the Popeye ship “Me Olive.” As well as along the fence on the right side before you reach the bridge. We were so glad we were able to find these (and that we had tons of quarters!) because we had a great time. It took a couple of times to get the timing down but we were pros quickly. Most people on the ride didn’t seem to know where the water was coming from and some of the ones who did figure it out soon joined us on the bridge to participate! It was so much fun to basically add water to a water ride! If you have some time and some extra quarters take a few minutes to try it out.

Next stop Jurassic Park. I love the entrance here and how you are then surrounded by lush green plants. The themeing is so well thought out and very good. We shopped a little more at the River Adventure store. DH found a great picture frame for his River Adventure picture and it was on sale. The clerk couldn’t find a box for it so she wrapped it extra carefully in tons of bubble wrap and took 10% off the total ($14.38) That was a nice surprise. She was very nice and went out of her way to make sure the frame made it home with us safe and sound (it did.) Burger Digs was our lunch pick today and we really enjoyed it. There was a large seating area that was nice and cool (did I mention it was hot again today ?) with Jurassic Park theme music playing. There was also a small outdoor seating area. We’ve eaten at several of the IOA food spots including Blondie’s, Green Eggs and Ham, Mythos, and now Burger Digs and not a bad meal yet! If burgers are what you are looking for this is a good place. We got 2 cheeseburger value meals great burgers with a very nice fixings bar. (Total $ lost this receipt but around 15.00 I think) We strolled through the Lost Continent after lunch and found a great picture spot right to the left of Mythos where you can get great panoramic pictures of the rest of the park. We spent some time taking pictures that came out very well. This area is also somewhat secluded and quiet so it would be a nice spot for a break. We walked through Seuss Landing and were back at the entrance by 12:30 – hard to believe we had packed so more once again into one morning. We were way ahead of schedule for our trip to Georgia so we stopped for an icee ($3.19) in Citywalk and DH picked up a Curious George t-shirt in the Universal Store. ($23.38) We were back in our car and the Disney/IOA leg of this trip was over by 1:00. Now it was time to get on the road to Georgia.

Saturday, May 24, 2003
Thursday we decided to call and check if Air Tran had availability on their earlier direct flight to Milwaukee as we would get home much earlier and wouldn’t have to have a connecting flight. They did have seats available but told us to keep checking back, which we did. We decided to chance it and returned to Lake Buena Vista after a family dinner Saturday night in Georgia. We got a late start so we didn’t arrive until about 1:30 Sunday morning. We tried to get a room at the Walt Disney World Resort on Thursday as well but there were no rooms available in our price range as it was Memorial Day Weekend. Our next choice was the Days Inn Lake Buena Vista; this was our favorite off site hotel however we hadn’t stayed there in about 3 years. We were able to get a rate of $49.00, which was pretty surprising given the late notice and the holiday weekend so we reserved it. It was too late to do anything at WDW so we went straight to the hotel. There was a big sign on the door that said No Vacancies so were glad we went ahead and made reservations in advance. Check IN went quickly and we were soon in our HOT room. The AC had not been on and it would take several hours to noticeably cool. We were on the 8th floor and felt that the hotel wasn’t as nice as we remembered it from our previous trip here. For example, many of the room number signs were gone and had been replaced by signs made of paper with the number written in marker on them. Not one room but several. I reserved a non smoking room but this was obviously a smoking room as the pillowcases were even yellow! Due to the late hour and the no vacancies sign we decided to deal with it as we were just going to fall into bed and leave first thing in the morning. After our wake up call the next morning I called Air Tran to check to see if seats were still available. I was told there were more than 20 seats available now and the flight was in about 3 ½ hours so we should be able to get a seat but we would still be given stand by paperwork and be on a list at the gate to board our flight. We got showers where I was reminded the hotel wasn’t as nice as it used to be as my towel had a lot of holes in it – oh well we’d be home soon. In my final thoughts on this hotel – it would be ok for something like what we did and for what we paid I guess we got what I would expect however if I were going to be staying for a week I don’t think this is the hotel I would personally pick. It is however, a rather large room and some of the views are nice as you can see the Mickey sign on the road that leads to the Downtown Disney hotels from some of the rooms. It also has a couch.

We really had to work to get everything to fit into our luggage but we managed and left the hotel right on time. We considered staying and visiting Downtown Disney for the day and leaving on our original flight at 6:30 that night but decided that the opportunity for a direct flight was too good to pass up. So we bid farewell to Lake Buena Vista, Florida and headed for the airport at 8:00 AM. We made a quick stop at the gas station on the way to top of the gas so we were sure it would be full. ($5.00 appx) And next thing you know we were at the airport. I believe that the Orlando International Airport is extremely easy to navigate. We have never had trouble getting to where we need to be. No problem turning in the car, service was really fast. I give National an A+ I would definitely use them again and must say again – use Quick Rent – it’s fabulous! It was on to the Air Tran check in counter that had a line but nothing like some of the other carriers. We were through the line and had given the agents our luggage within 30 minutes. DH checked out the Universal Store while I bought a few magazines ($ 7.01) We hit the Disney Store together and bought lots of last minute souvenirs. ($97.93) We didn’t take a lot of time in the store like we originally planned because we didn’t know how long it would take us to get through the security line. This did go pretty quickly and was very efficient. We both had to take our shoes off and put them through the x-ray machine as did our entire line. I don’t know if this was the case at all of the lines though. Our last ride for the trip – the Orlando International Airport monorail. Once at the gate we took turns getting breakfast/lunch and looking at the shops. By the time we were both done eating it was just a few minutes until we boarded. I will note that you really need 2+ hours at Orlando International Airport. That turned out to be perfect time wise for us but if we had to check in at some of the other carriers with huge lines we would have had to really hustle to get there I think. If last minute shopping is on your agenda and you want to get a bite to eat 2-3 hours should be sufficient unless it’s a very busy travel day or you know the carrier you use tends to have longer line. Orlando International Airport is a great airport and if you should decide to get there extra early just to be on the safe side you shouldn’t have trouble finding something to keep you occupied until your flight. Our trip home was uneventful and by we were waiting for our luggage at the baggage claim another successful Disney trip complete. Only one question left to answer - How much longer until we are going back?

Final Thoughts
We have gone to WDW at least once a year for the past 5 years. This year however it didn’t seem there was anyway it would be possible. When we figured out that we would in fact be able to swing it you would have thought we had never been to Walt Disney World before! We truly treasured every second, even when we were just hanging out doing nothing. We appreciated our trip like never before and think that it added to the fact that we now call this trip “Our Best Ever.” My DH makes it even more special as he loves Disney as much as me and the times we spend together at WDW are some of our favorite memories. The crowds were low, and overall we couldn’t have asked for anything better. We never seem to get enough of WDW and are hoping for a trip next May.

Things To Do Next Time:

California Grill – hopefully during the early evening for dinner and a chance to check out that view.
Jungle Cruise – Didn’t make it to this one this time.
FINALLY visit Animal Kingdom – we have never found the time to make it here.
Visit Universal Studios next year to see the new Shrek show.
Try to get to ‘Ohana and check out the Poly.
Visit Animal Kingdom Lodge.
And so begins the list for the next trip….

If you have made it to this point I admire your stamina ?. My hopes for this trip report were to be as detailed as I could as that was what I loved about other trip reports and I wanted to return the favor. Hope you all have a Disney Day!

Kaye Leszczynski