Robin Goble – September 2003 - All Star Movies

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: ASMoR
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: In her trip report from last October, Robin mentioned that she started the expensive habit of twice-a-year visits to Disney World in 2000. So, rather than wait for her scheduled November trip, she decided to also add a third trip this year in September. But this time she was going to be on a budget. See if she kept to it inside.

Robin Goble -- September 2003 -- Walt Disney World (ASMoR)

CAST

Robin/Me - 40; trip planner/recorder; 9th trip to WDW.

Paula/Sister to Robin - 30 years old going on 6; 4th trip to WDW.

HISTORY

Surprise! It's me again. And it's sooner than you expected to hear from me too, I'll bet. When we last spoke it was May and I was just finishing up a week-long trip to WDW with my younger sister, Paula, and her husband. I know, I know, I wasn't supposed to bug you until I go to the Food & Wine Festival at Epcot in November with my mom and nephew, but it's been a long summer and I was bored and restless. I blame it on the fact that I just turned 40 (if you say that really fast, it doesn't sound *too* bad!) a few weeks ago.

As most people do when they hit a milestone, I reflected back over my 40 years of existence and what I had accomplished in my life. I soon came to the sobering conclusion that I hadn't spent *near* enough money on "once-in-a-lifetime" trips to Walt Disney World!

No, no, that's not what happened at all. Actually, Southwest Airlines (the bums!) was offering airfare to Orlando at indecently low prices ($182 bucks round trip--now how, I ask, can I pass up a deal like that when I usually pay around $335?!). Well the ridiculously priced airfare got me to thinking (dangerous territory, thinking is). Could I, queen of the concierge level/ Illuminations Cruise/valet parking/you only live once mentality, actually do Disney *gasp* ON A BUDGET?!?!

Now, now children. Settle down. It's not as bad as it sounds. When you consider wanton spending = sit down, shut up, and wait patiently until November versus careful planning = visit to the Mouse in September *and* November, the choice is not hard to make. So, that's how I came to find myself one August day, sitting at my desk at work, trying to rough out a budget. I figured if I could keep the expenses around $1,500 (which is really not *that* tight of a budget--I know of people who have had to make a trip on less), then I could go. My tentative budget looked like this:

Airfare (2 x $182) = $364
Gas (roundtrip to the airport in Midland which is a 120 mile drive) = $20
Hotel (4 nights x $70/night (hopefully an AP rate)) = $280
Rental car = $120
Admission (time to renew my AP $350; 4-day park hopper for Paula $200) = $550
Meals ($5 per person for each breakfast, $10 per person for each lunch, and $15 per person for each dinner) = $270
For a grand total of $1,604--well, it was *almost* $1,500.

The only other constraint that I had was my remaining amount of vacation time at work. Since the majority of my vacation time for the rest of the year was already spoken for because of my planned trip to WDW in November and some days off I was planning for Christmas week, I needed to keep the time away from work down to a couple of days for this trip. I decided I could manage by leaving for WDW on a Thursday afternoon and returning on the next Monday, thereby only missing 2 actual days of work. I didn't want to go over Labor Day weekend in order to avoid the crowds but I wanted to go as soon as possible, so I settled on September 4th through the 8th.

TRAVEL COMPANION

The choice of a traveling companion was easy--nobody in my family except for my younger sister, Paula, has a fairly flexible work/school schedule and is enough of a Disney-lover to think that a half-planned, spur-of-the-moment four day trip half-way across the country is a good idea. Paula was quick to agree even with the dreaded "budget" looming over the trip. After all, who cares about food and lodging when there's a trip to WDW to be had?

Paula and I decided that the motto of this trip should be "We Choose to Go!" in honor of the opening of Mission: Space (since that is the tag line for the ride). In the face of a limited budget, cheap accommodations, severely curtailed spending and bargain airfare, we *choose* to go. We may not necessarily choose to *eat* since we want to save money, but we do choose to *go*! In fact, Paula said that all of our meals might consist of ketchup soup made out of ketchup packets and hot water that we can nick from the food court at the All Stars resort. Not to worry, I think they have lemon wedges at the food court too! Yum.

AIRFARE

As previously discussed, airfare was on Southwest Airlines flying out of Midland, Texas (a 2 hour drive away). When I was asking my boss for the time off she reminded me that she had promised several months back to buy me two round-trip tickets to the destination of my choice as a bonus. When she asked if I wanted her to pay for these tickets I quickly agreed. My budget is looking better all the time.

LODGING

Budget lodging on Disney property can only mean one thing: the All Star Resorts. Current annual passholder rates expired on August 23rd and there were no new rates available for our time frame. Luckily, I was able to book a room at the All Star Movies (ASMo) for four nights on the Dream Maker package with a Disney Club discount for $756. The price included Unlimited Park Hopper passes for the length of our stay, so I would not need to renew my annual pass for this trip.

My annual pass had expired back in May of this year. I had planned to renew it before our November trip if any good annual passholder resort rates were released. Currently, however, no rates had been released. I had a reservation in November using the Fairy Tale Package at the Beach Club (7 days for the price of 4, plus length of stay passes for the price of 4-day passes), so I would not even need an annual pass in November unless a better discount came along.

Wow, this budget thing is easier than I thought. I had originally budgeted $830 for room and park passes and here I had already saved $74 by booking this package.

Actually, the room reservations were the hardest ones for me to make. I'm okay with missing out on the nicer meals, afternoon teas, Illumination Cruises, etc. but I have to admit that I've gotten terribly spoiled by the convenience of staying at monorail and Epcot resorts. The thought of having to drive or take the bus from the ASMo to all of the theme parks was almost enough to shake my resolve to do this trip on a budget. When I found out that the airfare would be free I was sorely tempted to stay at a more expensive resort. I will admit that I looked into the price difference for staying at the Wilderness Lodge or the Swan or Dolphin but, in the end, I bit the bullet and stuck with the All Stars.

RENTAL CAR

Since time was going to be in short supply this trip, I knew that I wanted to get a rental car for us so we wouldn't have to rely on Disney transportation. It would have been cheaper to just take the Mears shuttle from the airport, but I wanted the convenience of our own vehicle, especially since we would be away from the heart of the action at the All Star Movies resort.

Luckily, I was able to get a rate of only $86 (including taxes and fees) with National by using a rate code I found on the Mousesavers web site (www.mousesavers.com). There's $34 more dollars to cut out of my budget.

MEALS AND MISCELLANEOUS

One benefit of trying to save money on meals is that it certainly cuts down on the number of Priority Seatings (PS) that you need to make. I've made a grand total of "zero" for this trip. I figure we will grab most of our meals from the food court at the ASMo (ketchup soup and lemon wedges!) and at counter service locations at the parks.

Paula said she would like to eat at the Biergarten in Epcot again on this trip so we'll probably try for a late lunch/early dinner there. That will probably be our only "sit down" meal of the trip. I would also like to try El Pirata y el Perico at the Magic Kingdom (MK) if it's open this trip or maybe the Columbia Harbour House since we have never eaten at either of those restaurants. We've also heard good things about Trail's End Buffet at Fort Wilderness, both in terms of food and price. We'll see how it goes.

One temptation of having the Unlimited Park Hopper passes is that admission to all the "extras" are included: Disney Quest (DQ), Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, Pleasure Island, etc. Paula has never been to Disney Quest and has expressed an interest in going there, while I would like to try the Adventurers' Club or the Comedy Warehouse at Pleasure Island. We both enjoy shopping at Downtown Disney. Since we're pressed for time anyway (4 major parks in 3 1/2 days), this may turn into the commando trip of death! Paula tends to be more of a commando gal anyway, so we may be going from dawn until the wee hours of the morning. Surely we can do without sleep for a measly four days! We choose to go--any sleep that we get on the trip is a bonus.

Paula and I are both very excited about getting to try Mission: Space for the first time (can you tell?). We also found out that the Nights of Joy will be held at the MK on the Friday and Saturday nights that we are at WDW. We'll probably just avoid the MK on these days because of the additional crowds.

Additionally, we learned that the Rock 'n Rollercoaster (RnRC) at MGM will be closing down for rehab on Saturday, September 6th, so we'll have to go to MGM on our first day in order to be able to ride it during this trip. I found out that one of the reasons they are closing the RnRC for rehab is to work on the brakes. Does it make us nervous that we'll be riding on it the day before it's scheduled for maintenance on the brakes? Heck, no! We choose to go!

I also usually try to avoid the early entry park of the day, but we may be forced to do a couple of Extra Magic Hours (EMH) in order to accomplish everything we want to do.

THE REVISED BUDGET

After all our reservations have been made, our revised budget looks like this:

Airfare = $0
Gas to Midland = $20
Hotel and admission = $756
Rental car (and gas) = $90
Meals = $270
For a grand total of only $1,136--much lower than the $1,604 I had initially planned. Even if we wind up spending a couple hundred bucks on souvenirs, we will still be way under the $1,500 I was shooting for. Woohoo! I'm ready to accept my new crown as the Queen of Thrift. Of course, maybe we should wait until the trip is over and see if we actually stick to the budget before we confer any titles.

THE PLAN

Our tentative schedule looks like this:

Thursday, September 4th - drive to Midland for our 6:45pm flight; arrive at Orlando at 12:00 midnight; check in at ASMo and go to bed

Friday, September 5th - MGM

Saturday, September 6th - Epcot; lunch/dinner at Biergarten

Sunday, September 7th - EMH at Magic Kingdom; supper at Trail's End

Monday, September 8th - EMH at Animal Kingdom until around noon; return flight home 2:30

We'll try to squeeze in DisneyQuest, the Boardwalk, Downtown Disney, and Pleasure Island in the evenings depending on how much energy we have.

THE TRIP

Thursday, September 4, 2003

"I'd shoot myself if I had to listen to two hours of Disney music!" or, We Choose to Stay!

The Plan: drive to Midland for our 6:45pm flight; arrive at Orlando at 12:00 midnight; check in at ASMo and go to bed

I had planned on working until 2:00 today and by sheer Herculean effort I made it until 1:00 at which time I baled out on work and ran some errands with my mother. I was at Paula's house by 2:00. She greeted me with "I had a feeling you might leave work early today!" We loaded her suitcase, made a quick stop at the drive thru at Chick-fil-a for our lunch ($9.05), stopped by Sonic for a lime diet coke for me ($2.00), and were on the road at 2:20.

Paula had brought lots of Disney CD's which we loaded into my CD player so we could have theme music for the two-hour drive (although my mother said that if she had to listen to two hours of Disney music, she would shoot herself).

We made it to Midland by 4:10 and were at the airport by 4:30. Paula was chosen to be wanded at the security checkpoint (no shock there, it seems like she's always picked) and I had my carryon searched by hand. We stopped by the gift shop to pick up some magazines for the flight, but didn't find any that interested us.

We sat at our gate until 5:45 when we learned that our flight was delayed coming out of Houston due to a tropical storm sitting in the Gulf of Mexico. At 6:15 our flight still hadn't even left Houston yet, so we decided to get some supper at the snack bar (two cheeseburgers, two cokes, 1 order of fries - $15.30). While Paula waited for them to cook our food, I went back to our gate and talked to the gate agent. She said we probably wouldn't make our connecting flight in Austin at 8:25, but that a supervisor was working on alternate arrangements for everyone.

I joined Paula at the snack bar and told her the joyous news. We quickly ate and headed back down to our gate where the supervisor had come out to talk to the passengers who were trying to make connections. When it was our turn the supervisor told me that there was no way they could get us to Orlando tonight. In fact, the earliest they could get us there would be at 2:10pm the following day. To say we were disappointed is the understatement of the year. It was such a quick trip anyway and now we learn that we just lost almost a whole day from our trip.

Sadly, our main concern was that we would be missing out on our only chance of the trip to ride the Rock 'n' Rollercoaster since it was scheduled to go down for rehab on Saturday. Quickly doing the math, we determined that, after we claimed our luggage in Orlando, got our rental car and checked in at the hotel, the earliest we could be at MGM would be 4:30. Since the park was closing at 8:30 on Friday, that only gave us 4 hours to get our rides in!

As we had no other choice, we had them re-schedule us on the 6:30 am flight for the next day, which wouldn't get us to Orlando until 2:10pm. We debated driving back to Lubbock to spend the night, but since our flight left so early the next day we decided to just spend the first thrilling night of our vacation in Midland. Whoopee.

Since weather is an act of God, we weren't compensated for our extra expenses of staying the night in Midland although Southwest airlines did get us a "distressed passenger" rate at the Ramada Inn on airport property. That certainly described Paula and me--distressed passengers! Everyone at the airlines was very apologetic and I know that they certainly can't help the weather. It was just frustrating because it was sunny and clear in Midland. Unfortunately, our plane was coming from Houston. You would think they would have a spare aircraft or two (complete with pilots) sitting around somewhere that they could use to fly us out.

We decided just to leave my car in long-term parking and take a shuttle to the hotel ($3 tip). We picked up our luggage at the ticket counter and walked outside to the shuttle pickup. After the shuttle driver picked us up he said that he had to make a quick stop to pick a couple up from the truck stop where he had taken them for dinner. Well that just added insult to injury! Here Paula and I could have eaten at the *truck stop* instead of the airport if we had only known! Actually, I asked the couple that we picked up how the food was and they said it was very good although the truck stop was very smoky and loud.

After we checked in at the Ramada I started making the requisite phone calls. I called WDW reservations and let them know that we would be checking in a day late at the ASMo. I also called National rental car and rescheduled the time we would pick up our car. Finally I called Mother to let her know that we were spending the night in Midland. She tried to comfort us by saying that this was probably the only bad thing that was going to happen for the entire trip and that the rest of the vacation would go smoothly. It was Mother who suggested that we see if Southwest Airlines would let us come home a day later than planned since we had lost a day due to the weather. Brilliant! I don't know why Paula or I hadn't thought of it ourselves.

I called the airlines and explained the situation to the agent who said that he could change the reservations but would have to charge us a fee of $379 per ticket! Yikes! That's more than double the original cost of the tickets. I asked to speak to his supervisor but she told me the same thing. She said that I should have mentioned it at the airport when they were originally changing our schedule. I explained that we hadn't thought of this option at the airport because we were in shock at the time. She was very nice about it, but unwavering in her answer. I tried every argument I could think of and then finally even cried on the phone to no avail. She suggested that I call Customer Relations and she gave me their number and oh, by the way, they're closed now so you'll have to wait until tomorrow. She suggested that I call them from Florida and be sure to leave them a number where we can be reached because the lines were usually very busy and I would probably just get someone's voice mail. Hello, can you say "theme park!" My plea that we wouldn't be anywhere we could be reached by phone but would be trying to make up for lost time fell on deaf ears. I hung up feeling like the whole vacation was just put in limbo.

Paula called her husband and told him the news then we watched TV for awhile. The lady at the front desk had said that the shuttle to the airport started running around 5:00am. She left a wake up call for us for 4:00am. Not wanting to be obsessive, but not entirely trusting the front desk, we also set the alarm in the room for 4:00.

Paula said that, on the bright side, the room that we were in was probably the nicest one we would stay at for the entire trip! Knowing we had an early morning ahead of us, we went to bed around 10:30.

Friday, September 5, 2003

"That's not right!" or All's Well that Ends Well.

The Plan: MGM

Well let's see, since we have both an alarm and a wake up call scheduled for 4:00, then that means that I should start waking up at 2:30 because I don't want to oversleep, right? I finally just got up at 3:30, turned off the alarm clock, and took a shower. Paula woke up at 4:00 (yes, the wake up call came right on time).

We checked out right at 5:00 and took the shuttle to the airport ($2 tip). Several of the employees at the airport remembered us from the night before and asked if we were going to try again today. After we checked our luggage we walked out to the parking lot to get my cell phone out of my car so Customer Relations at Southwest Airlines would have some way to get in touch with us while we were at the theme parks.

After picking up my phone, we went back inside and headed to the security checkpoint. Paula was thrilled that I got wanded at security this time around and my carryon bag was swabbed down with a cloth to test it for goodness knows what! We were glad to see that our plane was already at the gate.

We saw quite a few people that we recognized from the night before who also had their flight plans disrupted. It was like our own little personal reunion at the airport.

Our new schedule had us flying from Midland to Houston (leaving at 6:30 and arriving at 7:30), then changing planes in Houston and flying to Orlando (leaving at 9:00 and arriving at 2:10). I figured that we had to have a stop somewhere between Houston and Orlando since the actual flying time should just be about 2 1/2 hours and our flight was going to take 4 hours, even accounting for the difference in time zones.

Our flight took off on time and it was a relief just to get off the ground. For the first time, it felt like our vacation was truly underway. We arrived on time in Houston, found our new gate then stopped for breakfast (2 sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches and 2 soft drinks; $10.83). We found out that the next leg of our flight went from Houston to Nashville and *then* to Orlando. Well that explains the time difference anyway.

Since it was after 8:00 and our next flight didn't leave until 9:00, I decided to go ahead and try calling Customer Relations on the off chance that they opened at 8:00. Part of the reason I slept so poorly the night before was that I had worked on "pleading my case" to Customer Relations in my mind. I had all of my arguments laid out (we had already paid for the tickets so they weren't really out any money, we weren't asking for anything for free--just to reschedule, we realized it wasn't their fault but thought they might do this for us out of goodwill, etc.) and exactly how to refute anything that they came up with.

I dialed the number and, surprisingly, they were open. I did not get voice mail but was connected with an agent named Adrian. After I explained our situation to her she clicked a few buttons, said the flight schedule on Tuesday didn't look very busy, and said she would be happy to reschedule us as a courtesy. Well *that* was easy. I wanted to say, "Can't you argue with me for a little while first?" Once I recovered from my shock I thanked her profusely then went to tell Paula the good news.

You can imagine the relief that we felt now that we knew our trip would not be cut short. Of course we still had to make arrangements for a hotel room for our extra night, an extra day for the rental car, and call both of our places of employment to clear it with our bosses, but we were thrilled. In fact, we now reckoned that we were actually coming out ahead since we normally would have arrived in Orlando at midnight and it would be too late to do anything the first night. This way, we would arrive at 2:00, giving us roughly 10 extra hours since we were able to add the additional day! Yes, things were definitely looking up!

Our flight to Nashville was uneventful. We had to stay onboard the plane and just wait for them to load some additional passengers. While we were on the ground, I called Mother on my cell phone to let her know how things were working out. She was amused that we were in Nashville (a tad bit out of the way from Orlando!). Our pilot flew like the wind on the next leg of the trip and we actually arrived in Orlando at 1:50. We had our luggage by 2:00 and proceeded to the National garage to pick our car out from the Emerald Aisle.

There were lots of intermediate and a few full size cars on the Emerald Aisle (on the A side of the terminal). We, however, lucked in to the last Mitsubishi Outlander (a smallish SUV) on the aisle. We had plenty of room for our luggage and were soon on our way to WDW. It sprinkled on us a little as we drove down the turnpike but didn't dampen our spirits. We let out a big "Woohoo!" as soon as we saw the purple WDW signs.

As we were pulling into the ASMo resort, "Dude Looks Like a Lady" by Aerosmith came on the radio. Since the whole purpose of our day was to ride the RnRC, we took this as a good sign. Also, since we were in a rental car, I took the opportunity to crank the volume up full blast since I didn't have to worry about blowing *my* speakers! We parked out front and went inside.

There was a medium sized line waiting to check in, but it moved fairly quickly. We were able to add an extra night to our stay with no problem. We didn't add an additional day on our passes however since Paula had brought her park hopper from our April trip that still had an additional day on it. The Cast Member (CM) said that they had assigned us to a room in the Love Bug section but would we rather be in 101 Dalmatians instead? We said that we would prefer Toy Story and she was able to find us a room there. Yea for Disney magic. See, Mom was right, everything else on the trip was going to go smoothly.

Speaking of "love bugs," (is that a smooth segue or what?) they were very plentiful this trip. You couldn't swing a dead Figment without hitting several dozen pairs of the little mating things.

We stopped by the gift shop to pick up the lanyards and pins that came with our Dream Maker package and quickly found several things that we wanted to buy. We were tough, however, and saved the purchases for a future visit this trip when we weren't in such a hurry to get to MGM. We drove the car around closer to the Toy Story section and unloaded our luggage. We were in room 9964, which was on the third floor on the Woody side just a short distance from the elevator. Our window looked out on Andy's Room and directly into Buzz's eyes!

We quickly changed into comfortable shoes, pulled our hair back into ponytails and were out the door for MGM. I think it was at this point in our trip that we started the "Swolphin" competition, which we maintained throughout the rest of the trip. Now stay with me on this one. As a child, did you ever play the game with your brothers and sisters where the first person to notice a Volkswagen Beetle yells out, "Slug Bug!" and hits his sibling in the arm? Well, as we were driving to MGM, Paula noticed the Swan/Dolphin resorts and yelled out, "Swolphin!" (You know, Swan + Dolphin = Swolphin) Mercifully, she did not feel the need to slug me in the arm. After that, every time one of us noticed the resorts we would try to be the first to yell out "Swolphin!" While normal people might have been annoyed by this, Paula and I were vastly amused every time we said it.

At MGM we parked in Stage 39, which was within easy walking distance to the gate. We moved quickly through security and the entrance gate and were at RnRC at 4:30. There was no wait so we were able to ride twice in a row in less than 30 minutes. After our second ride we decided to see if there was a line for the Tower of Terror (ToT). There was no line so we were quickly plunging down into the darkness and screaming our lungs out.

It was now about 5:30 and our breakfast seemed like a very long time ago so we stopped at Toluca Legs Turkey Company for some food (2 foot long hot dogs and 2 cokes $12.71). After eating we felt certain that we didn't want to go upside down right away so postponed another visit to the RnRC and went back to the ToT instead. We rode the ToT two more times and got a different drop sequence each time.

Our favorite sequence was the one where you get to the bottom of the shaft and the film that signifies the end of the ride begins to start. You think that the ride is over but you're suddenly jerked back up again for several more drops! On this particular sequence we were sitting close to a British family (the two boys, about 10-12 years old, were in the row in front of us and the father and mother were in the row behind us). We had shown the family the sign in the lobby of the ToT that has "Evil Tower U R Doomed" spelled out by the letters that have fallen to the bottom of the sign, and we had chatted to them a little while waiting for the ride to load. Anyway, once the elevator had come to it's *real* stop, one of the boys moaned "That's not right!" and caused the whole elevator to bust out laughing. "Why is everyone laughing?" he demanded, which just made us laugh harder.

It was 6:30 by now and our throats were raw from screaming and laughing. Paula had two Riccola throat lozenges that she shared to help relieve the pain. We decided to do something a little milder for a while so we headed towards the Great Movie Ride which had been down for rehab when we were at WDW in April. On the way we stopped off at the Villain store to look around.

The Great Movie Ride was also a walk on (I'm liking this time of year) and we enjoyed the gangster side, but now it was time to head back to RnRC for another ride. We had another quick jog through the queue and into our waiting limo. When we finished it was 7:50 and we decided to get seats for Fantasmic (which was scheduled for 8:30). Paula got us both a Mickey ice cream bar ($5 and delicious, I might add). We went inside the amphitheater (which was about 1/3 full) and got seats about halfway down in the Pocahontas section.

While we were waiting for the show to start it began to rain, but it was so fine that we never even really got wet. They were playing some Disney Disco music before the show began and we got tickled at the version of "Surfin' Safari" where Goofy says, "Well which is it, surfin' or a safari?"

Fantasmic was great as usual and Paula and I both cried at the finale (it didn't help that there was a tiny little girl behind us who gasped and said, "It's Tinkerbell, Mama!") After it was over we took the back way out and stopped in the Christmas store to do some shopping. I was on a mission to find unusual Donald Duck items for the child of one of my co-workers. The child collects all things Donald and his mom had sent some money with me since he has a birthday coming up soon. We struck gold as we found an old fashioned wind-up Donald made out of tin.

Back out on Hollywood Boulevard, we both laughed at a little boy who was laying flat on his back in the middle of the street (apparently his older brother had "shot" him with a wooden gun). His mother was not as amused by his behavior and Paula and I were. I had my own child to deal with for, as we were walking past some shops, Paula screamed, "A giant Pooh!" and took off in the direction of a huge stuffed Pooh that had caught her eye leaving me standing on the sidewalk shaking my head.

We got back to our room at 9:45, picked up our refillable mugs and headed to the food court. Since we had "lunch" at 5:30, it was now time for a late supper. We got an order of chicken tenders and fries and an individual supreme pizza ($12.92), filled our mugs, and went back to the room where we split the food and watched Disney cartoons. I called our mom to update her on the day's happenings and then we went to bed at 11:30.

Saturday, September 6, 2003

"I always thought that Happy Meal french fry had some kind of beef!" or We Choose To Go (like you didn't see that one coming from a mile away!) or How My Shorts Disintegrated in Hypersleep.

The Plan: Epcot; lunch/dinner at Biergarten

I woke up at 7:00 and took a shower. It was pouring down rain this morning. Paula got up shortly after me and we were ready to go by 8:30. Paula grabbed her umbrella and I put my poncho in my purse as the rain had let up but it was still very overcast. We took our refillable mugs with us to the car so we could stop by the food court when we got back to the resort this afternoon and headed to Epcot. (By the way, I won the "Swolphin" contest this morning.)

We parked in Journey, row 4 and walked the short distance to the gate. We were inside by 8:55 and, as they hadn't had the rope drop yet, we decided to go ahead and do our Leave a Legacy tile.

One of the options that came with our Dream Maker vacation package was a choice between a free round of miniature golf at Fantasia Gardens or Winter Summerland, one storytelling experience at Epcot, a free Leave a Legacy tile, or up to $25 for dining at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney. Paula and I decided that the Leave a Legacy tile would be a nice way to commemorate our trip.

The process of filling out the paperwork for the tile took a lot longer than actually getting our picture taken. We both had to give our name, address, email address, phone number, etc. and sign the form. However, a CM then had to type the exact same information into a computer. It seems to me like it would have taken a lot less time if we could have just typed the information in ourselves. Our poor CM was obviously unfamiliar with the "Caps Lock" on the keyboard. He kept trying to enter Paula's name and, much to my and Paula's amusement, it kept coming up as "pAULA d. hANNA." Once the information was finally typed in, the actual picture taking took only a few minutes. The whole process probably took around 15 minutes, but we were the only ones there.

After we finished we hightailed over to Mission: Space for our inaugural ride. The outside of the building and the queuing area are awesome to look at although we hurried through saying that we'd take our time and look closer on our next go-round. We were quickly put into the Gold Team briefing room and received our instructions from our CapCom, Gary Sinese (how can you *not* be inspired when Gary Sinese is briefing you?). As you are put in the briefing room, a CM assigns you to a row (1 thru 10). There are numbers on the floor for you to stand on which correspond to your row number.

After the initial briefing, a CM pops into the room and explains that you will be loaded by rows and begins to take the guests into another area. In this area, your row is split off with only one other row (with the ever-present row numbers on the floor for you to stand on). Here you are given your flight assignment: Navigator, Pilot, Commander, or Engineer. For our maiden flight, I was Commander (think Jim Lovell in Apollo 13) and Paula was the Engineer (There are no famous space engineers, sorry! Well, maybe Scotty from Star Trek). Gary explains that each position has tasks to do but that he will tell you when it's time to execute your task and will let you know what button to push. They also explain how the ride is loaded, how to secure your belongings, pull down your ride restraints, and warn you about sitting back in your seat and not looking to the side.

At his point, a CM warned us to be sure to keep our eyes open and to look straight ahead during the ride. One lady on our team laughed when the CM said to be sure to keep your eyes open, and remarked that if she started to get queasy, she was going to shut her eyes. The CM was sure to emphasize that she really didn't want to do that, but that she should keep her eyes open even if she became queasy.

After this final briefing, we were loaded into our "pod," which was a lot less claustrophobic that I thought it would be. Everyone quickly stowed their things, sat down, and pulled the harnesses down over their heads. A CM checked that everyone was fastened in and then an announcement was made that the control panel was being brought in closer to the flight team. Even with the control panel pulled in, I didn't feel too closed in. Over each seat was a vent which blew cool air onto your face and there were lots of buttons and switches to play with. Paula and I both pushed and clicked the buttons and switches, which freaked out our teammates as they weren't sure we should be doing that!

Gary came on the screen and gave us the final okay and an announcement was made to shift us into launch position. At this point, Paula and I were both so stoked to be finally on the ride. We were tilted onto our backs and the shields were opened which allowed us to look up the launch tube into the "blue sky." We heard "3....2....1...Launch!" then felt the pod begin to shake and saw smoke begin to rise up the launch tube. Then, the G's hit and everyone let out a "Woo Hoo!" as it felt like our cheeks were being pulled back to our ears! It felt like our arms and legs weighed a ton and then we were in outer space. We were successfully put into and woken up from hypersleep and even managed to make it to Mars.

I'm sad to report that our teammates did not perform their duties as pilot and navigator and the computer had to "automatically override" the buttons they were supposed to push. Paula and I, however were an exemplary commander and engineer. The ride was soon over and I felt no adverse effects with the exception of a slight queasiness when we landed on Mars. I tend to get carsick very easily (can't read in a car or on an airplane to save my life), so I was quite pleased. Paula was a little unsettled by the landing also (her nausea was slightly worse than mine was) but we both agreed that the launch was awesome and the ride was two definite thumbs up! As Gary Sinese says, "When you hear the words 'Go for Launch!' you're going to want to hang on."

The ride dumped us out into the Advanced Training Center which had several activities to do. Paula and I emailed four "postcards from space" which were a hoot to family and friends but didn't try any of the other activities.

We exited, of course, into a gift shop where we each purchased a 2003 pioneer flight crew patch and a Mission: Space pin with "We Choose to Go!" on it.

From Mission: Space we headed over to Test Track where we walked straight into a waiting briefing room. The doors closed and the film had just begun when Paula noticed that she didn't have her umbrella with her anymore. She remembered having it at the gift shop at Mission: Space and reckoned that she must have laid it down when she paid for her souvenirs. Since we were almost to the loading platform, we decided to go ahead and ride Test Track and then go back to the gift shop.

The crowds were so sparse that Paula and I had a car to ourselves this morning. The ride stopped for a while on the mountain curves but was okay again by the time we made it to the barrier test.

Once off Test Track we backtracked to the Mission: Space gift shop where the CM remembered us and went into the back to retrieve Paula's umbrella. He came back empty-handed a few seconds later and said that Lost & Found had just come by to pick up their stuff and take it to Guest Relations at the front of the park. He said that Lost & Found had to make their rounds of the stores and attractions, so it would probably be a couple of hours before the umbrella wound up at Guest Relations. Since the skies were not threatening rain at the moment, we decided to just pick the umbrella up on our way out of the park later in the day.

It was now 10:30 and we decided it was time for a sampling of Coke products at Ice Station Cool. Several of the flavors had been removed but Beverly was still there waiting for us. Note to self: do not drink Beverly when you have a scream-raw throat. It burns even worse than usual and the bad taste clings to your raw throat.

Since I had not yet had my diet coke fix for the morning, we then hopped next door to the Fountainview Café to get something to tide us over until lunch. Wow. Can someone tell me why I have *never* been here before? They had some great looking desserts: cheesecakes, crème brulee, cookies, chocolate mousse, flan, etc. The also had croissants, bagels, fruit cups, fruit croissants, pastries, coffee, juice, milk and soft drinks. Since we were planning on a large lunch (at Biergarten), Paula and I just split a croissant while I had my diet coke ($5.08).

After we finished eating, we went to the Living Seas (which we had not visited since 1997 when we spent the entire time we were there watching the manatees). We skipped the film and boarded our hydrolator to take us to Sea Base Alpha where we headed straight for...wait for it...the manatees! We were pleased to see that they had three manatees this time. A CM had just lowered some lettuce into their tank for them to eat so we watched them from downstairs for awhile.

After a while we went upstairs to watch the manatees from the top of their tank. There we learned that all three of the manatees are males. The youngest, Bock, is approximately 2 years old and weighs 515 pounds. He was orphaned and when they found him he only weighed 60 pounds, which is approximately birth weight for a manatee. Lou was the next oldest. He was around 8 years old and weighed 890 pounds! Most of Lou's tail fin was missing from an encounter with a speedboat's propeller. Mo was the oldest at 10 years and he weighed in at a whopping 914 pounds. He was a complete show off and would swim right next to the glass and do flips and rolls for his audience. He and Lou played chase for a while and walked along the sand bottom with their fins.

All told we watched the manatees for about an hour and a half before moving on to look at the other aquatic creatures.

It was after noon by this time so we decided to head over to the World Showcase and make our way to Germany for lunch. We walked counter-clockwise around the lagoon, starting in Canada. The McDonald's french fry stand by Canada had not yet opened but there were two ducks (apparently with a giant McDonald's french fry monkey on their backs) waiting for opening time!

We browsed through the shops in the UK and stopped for a moment to try our hand at naming a famous person from the UK for each letter of the alphabet. A CM had started a list next to one of the cash registers for customers to fill out, and Paula and I were able to add several names.

France was next and, as had been reported, the Eiffel Tower was indeed missing (I read that it had been taken down for repair and repainting). We tried a chocolate sample in one of the shops and walked through the Boulangerie Patisserie just to look at the amazing desserts.

We moved on to the shops in Morocco and were admiring some glass bottles when a CM stopped to explain that they were used to hold perfume in Morocco. He had a bottle with rose water in it and poured some in our hands for us to smell. He told us that the women in Morocco used the rose water as a perfume.

Japan was next where I bought some Dragonball Z cards for my nephew and an inexpensive set of chopsticks (around $3) so I could get my hair up off my neck. It was ridiculously muggy today and I used one of the chopsticks to secure my hair up in a bun.

We arrived in America at 1:20 and I took Paula into the American Adventure so I could show her the optical illusion painting of the airplane, which hangs in the rotunda. (A CM showed it to me on our last trip when I spent a day at Epcot by myself, so I had never gotten to share the painting with anyone else. If you walk slowly on a gray stripe on the floor in front of the painting, the airplane seems to turn towards you. Pretty neat.)

Since the next showing of the American Adventure started at 1:45, we decided to stay and watch it. Okay, okay, *I* decided to make Paula stay and watch it! Paula was impressed with the hall of flags and agreed that America has the nicest theater at Epcot. Of course it goes without saying that we both cried during the presentation. I told Paula that it was my goal to cry every day of this trip since I had started with crying on the phone to the Southwest Airlines ticket agent in Midland on our first night!

We decided to skip Italy for now since it was about 2:25 and we were hungry. We headed straight for the Biergarten in Germany and were seated right away. The German band Oktoberfest Musikanten was playing onstage with great gusto as we arrived. They certainly added a festive air to the restaurant. Our server, Manuel, took our drink orders and we listened to the rest of the band's set (about 5-8 minutes) before we went to get some food.

The food was great again this trip and Paula and I loaded our plates with spaetzel and every kind of sausage, wurst and wiener known to man (not the place for a light lunch although they do have a large selection of salads). We even found the last pretzel roll in the place and split it between us.

At 3:15, when Paula and I were both stuffed and happy, the Oktoberfest Musikanten took the stage again. While the polka is not really my cup of tea as an art form, you have to admire the band for their enthusiasm. As Paula pointed out, the sad thing is that they play without a hint of irony! Paula and I raised our mugs high and joined in the "Tiki Taki Tiki Taki Oy! Oy! Oy! Prost!" with the best of them. We both noticed that the bass player looked remarkably like Frank Langella (he played White House Chief of Staff Bob Alexander in the movie "Dave"), which only furthered our amusement. At one point I swear they sang a song that had the lyrics "Auschwitz and Edelweiss," which seemed most unfortunate. Also, much to our delight, another song started with the lyrics "Oy, *****enfest!" which they sang with a perfectly straight face. Needless to say, Paula and I were *rolling* with laughter.

One of the band members played a song on the Alphorn (those long horns from the Riccola cough drop commercials) and then they announced that he would play "Edelweiss" on the cowbells! After the laughter died down I am saddened to admit that I shed a tear or two over "Edelweiss." He was actually quite good and I always cry at that song in "The Sound of Music." Yes, it's another low point in my life--first crying over Kermit the frog at the American Adventure and now at "Edelweiss" on the cowbells. Two moments in my life that I'm not proud of.

After we paid out ($36.19 before tip) we looked through the Teddybear shop where I purchased a Steiff Polar Bear (I collect Steiff animals). The CM asked if I would like for her to put the bear in a box or just wrap him up. I opted for the box in case it began to rain again. When she came out with him he was in the biggest box that I had ever seen. Here was this tiny 4-inch tall polar bear in a box that was easily a foot square, which she then placed in a sack that I could have used as a dress. Oh well, at least he was well protected.

From Germany we went back to look through Italy and saw Massimo, a CM we had spoken with when we were here in April. As we were walking out of Italy a handsome CM handed me a flower (some sort of advertisement for a new perfume they were selling in one of the shops). Paula asked what was it about the young, dark, foreign CM's that they wanted me? (Yes, I've had my share of Moroccan stalkers!) It must just be my sheer animal magnetism.

After Italy we strolled through Germany, the Outpost, and China before stopping at Norway to look at the Stave church and look around in the shops. We rode Maelstrom (which was a walk-on) and located the Viking in Mickey Mouse ears on the mural in the queuing area. We stayed for the film at the end of the ride (a first), which caused us to periodically say, "Velcome to Norvay," the rest of the day.

When we came out of Maelstrom, it was starting to rain so we quickly walked to Mexico and went inside. We rode El Rio del Tiempo and then poked around in the shops with Paula cursing me all the while for getting that annoying song on her mind. It had stopped raining by now and we decided it was high time for another trip to Mars.

We cut through Mouse Gears and went to Mission: Space. The stand-by line had a wait time of 25 minutes posted, while the single rider line said 10 minutes. It actually took less than 15 minutes going through the stand-by line. When we entered the queue, a CM gave Paula a white pass on a lanyard to carry through the line and give to another CM before we were divided into teams (he said they used them to gauge wait times).

We were on the Blue Team this time with two first-time riders who were enthusiastic about the ride. Paula was Navigator this trip while I was the Pilot. Paula said her ride was much better than the first time and she was not queasy at all when it was over.

Immediately upon getting out of the ride I noticed that my shorts had split all the way up the back. Luckily, Paula had a jacket with her that I borrowed to tie around my waist so as not to flash the other guests! As we headed to Guest Relations to pick up Paula's umbrella, I noticed that, not only were my shorts split up the rear, but one inside leg seam was torn also. Actually, the seam was not torn; it was like the fabric had just disintegrated. Finally, the drawstring that tied the shorts around my waist had broken, so the shorts (or what were left of them) were rapidly slipping down on my hips. That hypersleep is apparently rough on your clothing.

We successfully retrieved Paula's umbrella and made our way to our car with my shorts getting lower and lower with every step. Luckily, we made it to the car without any further incidents.

On our way back to the ASMo we were stopped at a traffic light right by the McDonalds that has the giant Happy Meal box, hamburger, fries, and shake on the building. Paula looked over at the giant figures and scornfully said, "I always thought that Happy Meal french fry had some kind of beef!" That statement struck me as exceedingly funny as I couldn't imagine *what* the french fries would have to be unhappy about. After I finished snorting with laughter I replied, "Yeah, and that McShake has a chip on his shoulder!"

Paula looked at me funny and asked what I thought she said. When I explained about the french fry having a beef with McDonalds, she started laughing too and said, "A *beak* not a *beef* you idiot! His mouth makes him look like he has a *beak*!" (which was no less funny to me).

Back at the ASMo we parked out front and took our mugs in to the food court for some coke. We stopped at the gift shop first, however, and purchased some items that we had been eyeing since the day before. We were back in our room by 7:00 where we both updated our trip report notes and I called my nephew. We freshened up a bit then left about 8:30. We went back to the food court for some more beverages, then picked up the car from out front and drove to Downtown Disney (DTD).

We parked by the Team Mickey store so we walked through it on the way to Once Upon a Toy. I was under orders to pick up a Mr. Potatohead and all the Disney accessories for a co-worker. Paula turned out to be an awesome box-packer and we were able to get tons of accessories to fit in the box. We looked through the Pin Store, Pooh Corner, Basin, World of Disney, and the Christmas store before I was crying out loud to go back to the room. It was 11:00 by the time we made it back to our car.

We drove to the ASMo and parked in the front again so we could go to the food court and pick up some supper. Paula got a meatball sub with french fries (which looked like they did not have a beef with anyone) while I had a fruit and cheese tray and a piece of cheesecake ($13.35). We were back in the room by 11:40 where we ate supper, watched some cartoons and were in bed by 12:30.

Sunday, September 7, 2003

"Abu has a hairball" or how I got a giant wedgie-saurus.

The Plan: EMH at Magic Kingdom; supper at Trail's End

We slept in until 8:30 this morning. We had decided to save the Magic Kingdom until Monday and go to the Animal Kingdom today instead. We got ready, walked to the food court to fill up our mugs with coke and then got our car from the front parking lot. We were at the Animal Kingdom by 10:00. We parked in Unicorn, row 26 (does anyone *ever* get to park somewhere besides "Unicorn?") and were soon on our first tram ride of the trip.

We entered the gates and made our way to Kilimanjaro Safari (KS) where there was a 10-minute wait posted. On the safari we saw a baby elephant (other than Little Red) with him mother. Also, the giraffes were very close to the vehicle, and the male lion rolled over on his back with his legs in the air. It looked like he just wanted a good scratching on the stomach.

After the safari, we walked through the Pangani Trail to see the gorillas. There was only one male out and he was sleeping right against the glass in the observation area. When we came out of the trail we ran into King Louie and Baloo. Paula had never had her picture made with Baloo, so I took her picture and Baloo repaid her with a kiss on the top of her head.

We made our way to Asia and, since we hadn't had breakfast, stopped at the Chakranadi Chicken Shop and got an order of potstickers and a bottle of water each ($13.50). After we ate and rehydrated ourselves (it was very hot and muggy today), we went to the Maharajah Jungle trail and watched the bats and tigers for a long time. From the bridge, we even got to see one of the tigers swimming in the water.

From the Maharajah Trail we went to the 1:00 performance of Flights of Wonder (a first for both of us). It was a very impressive and entertaining presentation with lots of the birds flying right over the audiences' heads. When they brought out Hope, the bald eagle, Paula and I both teared up. She was beautiful and we were glad to hear that the bald eagle is no longer an endangered species.

Next, we started towards Dinoland, but were waylaid by the Tree of Life and It's Tough to be a Bug (ITTBAB), which had only a few minute wait until the next show. During the show we sat on the fourth row in the very center of the row. When they sprayed the audience with bug spray we were inundated with the stuff. It was several minutes before we could even see the show again because of the fog. So, if you want a long, icy-cold blast of fog, be sure to sit dead center in the first few rows.

As we made our way through Discovery Island to get to Dinoland, we decided to go ahead and grab some lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue since it was already 2:00. As we went in to order Paula was again picked as the bearer of the white card used to gauge wait times (which was nonexistent, by the way). Paula and I both got the Meal Deal (an entree and drink plus a coupon for either popcorn or an ice cream bar and a coupon for a soft drink or bottle of water for $11.99) which I used for a pulled pork sandwich (served with beans and corn on the cob) and a diet coke, and Paula used for a brisket sandwich and a coke. We also split an order of seasoned fries ($29.26).

We took our food and ate outdoors in the spider section. We were a bit unsettled to notice that each dining section had kind of a morbid "Circle of Life" theme in which one animal was eating another. The spiders in our section were feasting on butterflies, the snakes in the snake section were enjoying some tasty mice, and the owls were preying on little helpless bunnies. I realize that this happens all the time in the wild, but still...ewwwww!

After we ate we continued on to Dinoland, stopping first to use the restroom. I normally wouldn't mention this as I'm sure some of you readers are quite delicate, however, I just can't pass up talking about the hand dryer that was in the women's restroom. There was a sign on the dryer that said "Feel the Power," and they weren't kidding. When you turned on the dryer and put your hands under the stream (*jet* stream) of air, it almost blew your hands down to the floor. You could actually see it moving your skin while it blew. Pretty impressive if you're really bored or amuse easily like we do.

Anyway, as I was saying, we continued on to Dinoland and to Dinosaur. The wait time was posted at 15 minutes and, as the fastpass machines were not working, we opted to stand in line. It was several minutes before the line moved and we overheard that the ride had gone down because someone tried to unfasten his or her seatbelt while the ride was in motion. Who would have the time to do that? I'm usually too busy hanging on for dear life to worry about unfastening my seatbelt!

Soon the line began to move and we were on the ride shortly. Being a fan of trip reports by Larry Wilmot, I always get tickled now during the safety film when the actor says, "Flash photography? I wouldn't." After we exited, we browsed through Chester and Hester's gift shop where Paula purchased a Conservation Hero button (which she proudly pinned on her purse) for a $1 donation to the Wildlife Fund.

Primeval Whirl was a walk-on so we went there next since Paula had never ridden it. We had a car to ourselves (they usually seat up to 4 people, with two people sharing one of two sets of divided seats each equipped with a pull-down restraint) and we made the mistake of each taking a separate divided seat and harness instead of sharing one together. We were rattling around like dice after we went around the first corner. The first time our car went into a spin, I was spun into the direct center of my divided seat. Now when I say "divided seat," I mean *divided* seat! There is a hard, fiberglass ridge that runs down the middle of the seat to separate the two riders' rear ends from each other. Well I was spun onto that ridge and it settled in the only place there was for it to go, right down the middle of *my* rear end. By the time the ride was over I had a wedgie of gigantic proportions. In keeping with the theming of the area, Paula dubbed it a wedgie-saurus while I went in search of some king of auger to dig my underwear out! Note to self: be sure to sit next to someone next time so as to cut down on the rattle factor.

Underwear successfully extracted, Paula and I stopped to each get a strawberry juice bar with our Meal Deal coupons. We sat and ate our strawberry bars then, since it was after 4:00 and the park closed at 5:00, decided to start making our way out of the park. On the way through Discovery Island we caught part of the Jammin' Jungle Parade. We stopped before the exit and used the last coupons from our Meal Deals to get two bottles of water.

Outside the park we found several characters including Tigger, Rafiki, Pooh, and Brer Rabbit. I took Paula's picture with Pooh and Brer Rabbit then we took the tram back to our car and were at the ASMo by 4:50. We parked out front and walked through to the food court to fill up our mugs before going to our room.

Back in the room we turned on Disney cartoons, updated our notes, and then crashed and slept from one airing of Lambert the Sheepish Lion to the next Lambert the Sheepish Lion (one of our favorite cartoons from our April trip). Apparently the cartoons are on about an hour and a half loop. We got cleaned up and then left for Disney Quest (DQ) (stopping by the food court to fill up our mugs, of course).

We arrived at Disney Quest at 8:00 and immediately went downstairs to Pirates of the Caribbean. The CM asked the two young men in line in front of us if they wanted to do battle by themselves or if they preferred to have additional help. When they asked for help, the CM put us with them in a team. The CM was very enthusiastic about explaining the ride (I had done it once before with my other sister, her husband, and my nephew, but this was Paula's first time). He said that they had recently held a Pirates of the Caribbean tournament there and he had never seen such awesome teams and high scores. We were soon fitted with our virtual reality masks and were on the bow of our ship. One of the young men was the captain while the rest of us manned the cannons. We did much better this time than I had previously, even managing to sink the ghost ship and the sea serpent and earning the ranking of "King of the Caribbean."

After our triumph as pirates, we went upstairs and made some toys from Sid's room and played around with our pictures at the Magic Mirrors. Next, we went into a song booth and made a CD called "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" that was just hysterical. We were so pleased with the results that Paula purchased a copy (around $10).

Next, we went to try our hands at Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride (Which made me sick as a dog, by the way, the first (and only) time I rode it. I figured, if I could make it to Mars, surely a little magic carpet ride through Agrabah would be nothing, right?). We strapped our virtual reality helmets on and Paula was amused that when she looked at me I appeared to be Abu (the monkey) in a pink vest, while, when I looked at her, she appeared to be Abu (in a blue vest).

We began the ride and, about halfway through, I heard kind of a half-coughing, half-gagging sound coming from Paula's direction. Oh dear, I thought, Abu has a hairball. Actually, I knew what the sound was. When Paula gets nauseated she does a little half cough as a defense mechanism against throwing up--that's what the sound was. When I looked over in her direction, I could no longer see Abu! We finished the ride (we must save the Genie you know, even if Abu is ill) and I took my helmet off and turned to look at Paula. She was a most unnatural shade of gray and was cold, clammy, and sweating (something she never does). She said that Aladdin was way worse than Mission: Space.

I suggested that we go upstairs to Food Quest to sit down for a while and get something to eat or drink to help settle her stomach and she agreed. When we got up to Food Quest we discovered that it was closed (it was around 9:30). We went down a floor to try the Wonderland Cafe, but all they had were desserts and that didn't sound good to Paula at all. We debated leaving Disney Quest and going to a restaurant in Downtown Disney, but Paula decided that she would be okay if she stayed off the virtual reality rides for awhile and maybe just played some video games.

We went back upstairs and played some skee-ball and Ms. Pac Man, then went down to the 3rd floor for some Tempest and Defender. After an hour or so, Paula decided that she felt good enough to try Pirates of the Caribbean again so we went back down to the first floor.

This time we were put with a man named Steve and his wife. Steve was the captain (aarrrgh, Cap'n Steve!) and he told us that he would worry about steering the boat, it was our job to "blast the hell" out of everything. Aye! Aye! Cap'n. Once again, we sank the ghost ship and were Kings of the Caribbean.

It was now 10:30 and we decided to go back to Wonderland Cafe and get a piece of cheesecake to go but, by the time we got upstairs, they had also closed. Denied, we left for the ASMo. We stopped at the food court for supper where I had a hot dog with chili and fries, and Paula had the chicken strips and fries ($12.61). We were back in our room by 11:30. Paula called her husband to update him on our happenings (mostly our report on Mission: Space) and we went to bed around 1:00.

Monday, September 9, 2003

"It's like going on the Jungle Cruise with Eric Idle." or How I Rode Space Mountain with Mickey Mouse.

The Plan: EMH at Animal Kingdom until around noon; return flight home 2:30

I woke up at 7:00 and got my shower and Paula followed at 7:45. I called work to let them know that we were staying an extra day since our Midland fiasco. Not surprisingly, no one was very sympathetic that I was forced to extend my trip to WDW.

We were on our way to the Magic Kingdom by 8:30, stopping as usual by now to fill up our mugs at the food court. As we were driving, I told Paula that, while I hated to be elitist, I just could not deal with the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) today (what with the wild javelinas chasing you through the parking lot and all). I know we're on a budget, but it's worth it to me to forego something else and pay six bucks for valet parking at the Polynesian so we can just take the monorail over (I know, I know, I'm spoiled, but I think Paula and I have been very brave about driving from the All Stars this trip).

Anyway, call me names if you like, that's what we did. I drove to the Polynesian where we used valet to park the car ($6 plus $2 tip) and then we went upstairs and took the monorail to the MK. It was hard to believe that we had been at WDW for four days already and this was our first time to ride the monorail.

There were lots of characters on Main Street when we arrived just after the park opened at 9:00. We stopped to take Paula's picture with Friar Tuck since we don't see him very often. With Paula, we usually ride Pirates of the Caribbean (PotC) for our first ride but I suggested that we might want to go to Fantasyland first since the park just opened and it should be less crowded this time of day. We walked through Cinderella's castle and into Fantasyland and...nothing. It was almost deserted. I have never seen Fantasyland so uncrowded before. It may be hot and humid and rainy after Labor Day, but Paula and I were high-fiveing ourselves all day due to the lack of crowds.

We made a beeline for Peter Pan for our first ride and then went across the street to It's A Small World. Neither Paula nor I had ever noticed the piñatas hanging in Mexico before. Paula suggested that maybe they raided El Rio del Tiempo for them. At the end of the ride where they have all of the signs which say "good-bye" in different languages, I pointed out the one that says "Sa Waht de Krahp" to Paula and we got a good laugh over it. I understand that that really is an actual language (I've heard which one, but it escapes me now), but it sure does look funny to me.

We went on to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh next (first time I have *ever* seen this ride with no line at all). About halfway through the ride I thought I spotted the picture of Mr. Toad handing the deed to the ride to Owl (the Winnie the Pooh ride was built where Mr. Toad used to be), but we went by too quickly to be sure. We got off the ride and immediately got back on to try and locate the picture for sure. The second time through I saw the picture (it's right as you go into Owl's house, hanging on the right wall), but was too slow in pointing it out to Paula so she missed it (plus it was on my side of the car so it was easier for me to see). Well that could only mean one thing--back to the front of the line to ride again (even though the CMs were mocking us by now)! This time Paula sat on the outside of the hunny pot so she was able to see the Mr. Toad picture.

With that small victory we went on to Snow White's Scary Adventure, which I had not ridden in several years. Would someone tell me again why this is a children's ride? There is maybe two seconds of a happy scene at the very end of the ride and the rest of it is just terrifying. I would imagine that any small child would be so hysterical by the time you got to the one small scene of Snow White and her Prince that he or she wouldn't even notice that everything works out in the end. I still have trauma from riding the Disneyland version when I was four!

It was now 10:30. Six rides (counting the three on Pooh) in an hour and a half--not too shabby.

After Snow White, we headed through Liberty Square to the Haunted Mansion. We were ushered inside so quickly that we didn't even have time to see Leota's eyes open on her tombstone outside. On the way out of the Haunted Mansion, Paula stopped to show me the wedding ring embedded in the pavement (I had never been able to find it). It's easy to miss because the ring is smaller than I was expecting.

After the Haunted Mansion we finally made it onto Pirates of the Caribbean for our sail through the pirate-infested waters. Once we were through pillaging and plundering we went to the Tiki Room. We asked the CM how long until the next showing. He replied that it would start in about three minutes, but he could make us wait longer if we really wanted him too. We said that three minutes was plenty for us and went inside for the show. After the show was over we hung around inside to hear all of Iago's comments. We particularly liked the one about flying over to the Hall of Presidents for a nap.

Our next stop was for a spin on Aladdin and then we headed to the Jungle Cruise where the stand-by line had an imposing wait time of 20 minutes posted. The fastpass machines weren't working and it looked like the line was moving fairly quickly so we got in line anyway. Sure enough, we were in our boat in 4 minutes! Have I gloated enough about how great the crowds are in September yet?

Our skipper was an older man with the cutest British accent. His jokes were very random but delivered in such a dry manner that you had to laugh. Paula remarked that it was almost like being on the Jungle Cruise with Eric Idle.

After our cruise we decided that lunch was in order (it was 12:15), so we went back through Liberty Square to the Columbia Harbour House (we had passed it earlier and thought that the food smelled good). We both had the fish and fries with a coke and split a side of cole slaw and a piece of apple pie ($22.95). The food was very good and the restaurant was cool and uncrowded.

Well it was now time to do our civic duty and see the Hall of Presidents. Neither Paula nor I had ever done this attraction and, since I enjoyed the American Adventure at Epcot so much, I decided that it was high time that we saw this one. The next show was at 1:00 so we had a few minutes to wait inside the building before it started.

As both Paula and I went through the turnstiles and into the building, the padding on the turnstile stuck to our clothing like Velcro. After we pulled ourselves free and sat on a bench to wait for the show, we started watching everyone else as they came in. Roughly two-thirds of the people got stuck in the turnstile as they came through, which provided us with our amusement until time for the show. We also observed quite a few people that would come in to the rotunda, look at the pictures of the Presidents hanging on the walls and then leave. We wondered if they thought that was all there was to the Hall of Presidents. After all, it was portraits of Presidents hanging in a Hall!

After the show both Paula and I decided that, while we had done our patriotic duty today, we wouldn't feel the need to see the show again anytime soon. I like the American Adventure much better (of course, it's a lot newer than the Hall of Presidents). With forty-something Presidents under our belt, that roll call of Presidents is a giant whipping!

Feeling very patriotic indeed, we decided it was time for some action so we headed to Tomorrowland where we hopped onto Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I am not going to mention the fact that the ride stopped for a long time in one of the rooms so Paula and I could both run our scores up. I'll just tell you that Paula had a score of 334,000 and my score was 228,000, which were personal bests for us both.

After Buzz, we took a turn on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA) which seemed really zippy today. Next, we went to Space Mountain, which was also a walk-on. Paula rode in the front of our car with me in the middle. As soon as the ride started, the guy behind me became possessed by Mickey Mouse. Every time we went around a corner or down a drop (which, as you can imagine, is considerable), he let out a "Woo Hoo!," "Oh, Boy!," or a "Woohoohoo!," in a high-pitched, squeaky voice. I don't know which I enjoyed more: the ride or having Mickey in the car behind me.

After Space Mountain we took another turn on Buzz but, alas, the ride didn't stop this time so our scores were a more normal (for us) 81,000 (me) and 53,000 (Paula). After ridding the galaxy of the evil emperor Zurg, we walked back to the hub at the end of Main Street. It was now 2:45 and they had the parade route roped off, so we decided to look through some of the shops. We made it all the way through the shops on the east side of Main Street and about halfway through the shops on the west side before I told Paula that I was going to get some water and sit down for a while if she wanted to keep shopping. Paula said she was going to keep looking so I went looking for some water and a place to sit. I found an empty bench (and a water vendor ($2.50)) over by Tony's Town Square Restaurant.

I hadn't been seated very long when I saw Paula looking for me across the street. By the time I made my way over to her side of the street, I had lost her in the crowd of people. The parade was almost upon us (it had started in Frontierland) and the CM's weren't letting anyone stand around, so I went back to my bench and sat back down. After the parade was over I saw her again, obviously looking for me. By the time I stood up and collected my purse and bags, she had disappeared again! I headed in the direction where I had seen her last and eventually we met up. She said I hadn't been gone 5 minutes when she finished looking through the shops and came looking for me. She was psyched, however, about receiving a high hoof (high five) from the "donkey boy" from Pinocchio during the parade.

We left the Magic Kingdom and made our way to the resort monorail platform. There were maybe 20 people waiting for the monorail, which you could see stopped on the track about halfway between the Grand Floridian and the MK. There was one lady who was upset that the monorail had stopped and was determined to share her (very limited) knowledge with anyone who would listen. "Someone dropped their camera on the tracks and it lost power, if that's what you were wanting to know," she told several people who were, very obviously, *not* wanting to know.

Whatever! Maybe my inferior mind just wasn't grasping the logistics of what she was saying but I'm thinking that 1) if someone *did* drop their camera, wouldn't it just fall on the floor of their monorail car and, 2) even if by some stretch a person somehow did manage to drop their camera outside of the monorail, wouldn't it just fall to the ground seeing as how the *mono*rail only has one track and it is covered by the monorail itself and, 3) where the heck was she getting this insider information anyway?

The lady was just stomping down the monorail ramp towards the boats muttering that it was going to be a long time before they got the power back up when, of course, the monorail started moving again. All told we waited maybe 4 minutes from the time we got to the top of the ramp before the monorail started moving. The lady did come back and take the monorail, however, instead of going to the boats.

We rode around to the Polynesian (being extra careful not to drop our camera on the track) where we picked our car up from valet and drove back to the ASMo by 4:15.

Mousekeeping had left us a giant Mickey Mouse head made out of a towel and three wash cloths on one of our beds today. She had also left a thank you note for us (I tipped $2 per day) with a picture of a maid drawn on it.

Paula and I rested and updated our trip notes until around 5:45. While we were resting we had the TV tuned to the House of Mouse. At one point Goofy told a joke about being a waiter. Goofy said that when someone tells him their soup tastes funny Goofy always says, "Then why aren't you laughing?" As Paula and I both rolled on the floor laughing we decided that you have to be at WDW at least four days before that joke is even funny! They just wear you down, man.

While trying to decide what we wanted to do for the evening, Paula mentioned going back to MGM to ride the Tower of Terror again. I said that whatever we did didn't matter to me as long as we could have a meal that did *not* come with french fries! Eating counter service food on a budget is okay for a while but it seems like *everything* you order comes with fries. Paula said pasta sounded good to her so we decided we'd give Mama Melrose (at MGM) a try.

We drove to MGM where there were still CMs directing the parking, even though it was getting late. They were still putting people way out in the boondocks while there were lots of parking spaces up close where people had left for the day. We drove down the aisle we were directed to, but cut back up another row and parked up close just a few rows back from medical parking. From there, we walked to the gates and into MGM.

Once inside the park we made a beeline for Tower of Terror where we enjoyed our 4th different drop sequence in as many rides. After ToT we went to see Muppet Vision 3D where we arrived just in time to be able to watch the whole pre-show. After Muppet Vision, we exited right at Mama Melrose's, but were disappointed to discover that they had closed at 6:30 and it was now about 7:15.

We walked back through the park, stopping briefly at the Sci Fi Drive In. We looked at their menu but didn't really see anything that grabbed us, so we decided to continue on to the 50's Prime Time Cafe. We were seated right away and, while our waitress was nice and chatty, she didn't subject us to any real torment. We did see one CM throwing straws and crackers to her guests.

Paula and I both had the sautéed shrimp pasta and while I had a chocolate shake, Paula had a cherry coke ($41.67 before tip). Neither one of us had anything remotely resembling a french fry! It was after 8:30 by the time we finished (which was the time the park closed) so we had a very uncrowded walk out of the park and back to our car. We were back at the ASMo by 8:50.

I made a trip to the food court for some diet coke and then Paula and I watched Toon Disney until we went to bed around 10:30.

Tuesday, September 9, 2003

"We will now begin loading...by threes." or We Choose to Go...Back

The Plan: There was none. We were supposed to be home by now.

We both woke up at 7:30 and were packed and ready to go by 8:30. We debated what to do for the morning (we didn't have to start for the airport until around noon) and Paula said she wouldn't mind going back to Epcot for one more ride on Mission: Space and some egg rolls from China. Our Unlimited Park Hopper passes had expired at midnight on Monday but Paula had brought an old Park Hopper Plus that still had a day left on it. So, that just left me in need of admission.

Budget in mind, I considered just going to Downtown Disney or somewhere that didn't require admission but the call of Epcot was too strong so we went there instead. We said our good-byes to the ASMo but didn't even stop in for one last fill of the mugs as they were all packed away. We arrived at Epcot just a little after 9:00. I stopped and bought a 7 Day Park Hopper Plus, knowing that we would use the other days for our November trip when my mom, my nephew and I are at WDW.

On the way into the park we were stopped to take a quick survey about our reasons for choosing to visit Epcot this morning (duh! Mission: Space). Once the survey was completed we headed straight for Mars where I decided to count how many warnings there were for Mission: Space before you boarded the ride. There was no wait this morning so we walked straight through to the CM's that assign you to your team. We heard or saw no less than eleven warnings before we were loaded into our pods (we counted six before you even enter the building)! If you had to wait any length of time inside the building you would hear many more than that because they repeat the warnings every few seconds.

There were so few people coming in at this early hour that the CM's assigning us into teams were just defeated. "Stand wherever you want," they would sigh as they put us and a few others into the Blue Team room. We watched Gary Sinese brief us again and then the CM who explains that we will now begin loading by rows popped into our room. "We will now begin loading...by threes apparently." he quipped when he saw how few of us there were. The CM asked a single rider if he wanted to go by himself or be part of my and Paula's team. The CM said that he enjoyed a team experience better, but it was up to us. We decided to go together.

The new guy was the Navigator, Paula was Pilot, and I was the Commander/Engineer (technically the Commander, as I sat in that seat, but I pushed the buttons that I could reach for the Engineer position also). We had another great flight although Paula said this one made her more queasy than the previous two (but not nearly as bad as Aladdin at Disney Quest she quickly added).

After Mission: Space we decided to go to the Fountainview Cafe again for breakfast and so I could have my morning caffeine. We both got a bagel and cream cheese while I had a diet coke and Paula had milk ($8.06). We ate breakfast and then went to ride Spaceship Earth.

After Spaceship Earth it was 10:30 and we agreed to go and say our good-byes to the manatees while we waited for the World Showcase to open at 11:00. We watched the manatees for a while and Paula bought a Marine Conservation Hero button to match her Wildlife Conservation Hero button from the Animal Kingdom. We left the Living Seas at 11:15 and walked to China.

Why is it that the weather on the day you have to go home is always the best weather of the whole trip? It was a beautiful day and the stroll to China was lovely. In China we each got an order of egg rolls, shared an order of wonton ribbon (fried wonton chips sprinkled with sugar--you got a huge bag for only $2.49), a diet coke and a regular coke ($14.01). We ate at a table outside the Lotus Blossom and enjoyed our last few minutes at WDW (Except for the music. That pling pling pling music drives me completely insane in about 5 minutes!). Once, I swear that the music turned into the instrumental version of "Gonna Ride that Donkey, Donkey," which tickled us immensely!

Paula went to use the restroom before we left for the airport and, while I sat at our table, I saw four cranes fly overhead. Seeing as how we were in China and the Chinese consider cranes to be good luck, I took them as a good sign.

We left the park at 12:15, (I had my hand stamped on the way out because, darn it, I'm coming back!), stopped for gas ($8.55 worth at $1.79/gallon), and, $2 in tolls later, we were at the airport by 12:45. We checked our bags curbside then returned the rental car with no problems. Our flights home were on time and uneventful. One thing that we found interesting was that, after experiencing the G-forces on Mission: Space, our airplane take off seemed like nothing. G's? What G's?

CONCLUSION

All in all it was another great trip even though it had a rocky start. Being able to add the additional day certainly made a difference. Otherwise, it would have been a very rushed trip.

Accommodations

While I did my share of whining about not staying at a monorail or Epcot resort, the All Star Movies resort served our needs just fine. There was plenty of room for the two of us, housekeeping was good (leaving us extra towels and wash cloths everyday and even a towel Mickey Mouse one day), and all the CMs we encountered were friendly. They accommodated our room requests at check-in and helped us extend our trip by an extra night.

The theming of the resort is certainly very "Disney," and we enjoyed saying "good morning" and "good night" to Buzz and Woody everyday. Also, the food court at the All Stars is a big selling point (if you rely on quick, inexpensive meals) due to its variety and convenience.

We did not rely on Disney transportation but drove our rental car wherever we wished to go so I can't comment on the bus service. The rental car worked well for us especially since the crowds were low this trip. That way we usually got to park close enough to the parks that we were able to walk to the gate instead of having to take a tram.

As I've said before, given the choice between staying off-site at a similarly priced resort or at the All Stars, I would choose the All Stars every time just for the added bonus of being on Disney property.

Food

Well we certainly had our share of counter service meals this trip. Our only sit down meals were at the Biergarten (delicious as usual with an excellent variety of salads and a good selection of entrees) in Epcot and at 50s Prime Time Cafe in MGM (Yea! No french fries! Also, wonderful milkshakes.).

As I stated earlier, the food court at the ASMo was very convenient for decent, inexpensive food. This was our first time to eat at Flame Tree Barbecue and we thought the food was good. Also, it was our first visit to the Columbia Harbour House at the MK and I thought the fish was a nice change from burgers or chicken strips. El Pirata y el Perico was not open during our time at the MK, so we did not get to try their food. Also, I completely forgot about the Trails End Buffeteria at Fort Wilderness so we never made it there. See what happens to you when you don't make a day-to-day itinerary.

Fountainview Cafe would have to get my vote as the "find" of the trip. I will definitely be going back to try some of their desserts, etc.

Parks/Rides

MGM - RnRC was great as usual. I'm glad we had a chance to get some rides in before it went down for rehab. Also, it was neat getting all four different drop sequences on the Tower of Terror. I think Tower of Terror is one of my all-time favorite rides.

Epcot - What can I say, Mission: Space was awesome. I know there's been a lot of people who are affected by motion sickness wondering whether or not they should ride it. I say you never know until you try. As I said earlier, I am a big wimp when it comes to getting car/air sick and I am not a fan of the spinning ride (e.g. the tea cups at the MK). I was apprehensive about riding Mission: Space but was very pleased that it did not adversely affect me. Did I ever consider not riding it? Nope. No sense judging a ride that you haven't ridden. Plus I would hate to think that I missed out on a possible favorite ride just because I was too afraid to try it.

AK - I must stress this again--sit next to someone on Primeval Whirl. I think I still have bruises from rattling around in that car! I like that the Kilimanjaro Safari is different every time you do it. Also, ITTBAB is always good for a laugh (and a nice rear-end massage, if you're in to that kind of thing)!

MK - Magical as always. I truly enjoyed riding Winnie the Pooh back-to-back three times. Both Paula and I noticed things we had never seen before on each trip through. Also, I enjoy Buzz Lightyear more each time I ride it (and maybe one of these days I'll get a decent score without the ride stopping). I've been riding the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean since I was a child and they are still among my favorite rides.

Crowds/Weather

The weather alternated between being cloudy and rainy our first couple of days and sunny the last couple. Regardless of the cloud cover, it was hot and humid every day. Having said that however, the lack of crowds made visiting this time of year definitely worth it! During the other times of the year that we visit, the crowds are usually manageable in all of the parks with the exception of the Magic Kingdom, which I thought was always more crowded. I have never seen the Magic Kingdom with fewer people in it than there were this trip.

The Budget

And last, but not least, lets see how we fared on our budget.

Airfare = $0
Gas to Midland = $15.39
Hotel and admission = $756 + $86.24 (extra night at ASMo) + $48.76 (extra night in Midland) = $891.00
Rental car (and gas) = $86.91 + $8.55 gas = $95.46
Meals (including tips) = $285.37
Tips (valet, shuttle driver, mousekeeping)/Parking/Tolls - $50.75
(I have not included money spent on souvenirs, since that is greatly dependent on each individual.)
For a Grand Total of $1,337.97, which is not bad considering we had two additional nights of hotel expense plus an additional day of meals. Without the extra hotel and meal expense, the total would have been only $1,161.85 which is just $25.85 over my original revised budget number of $1,136.

So, I am now ready to declare myself (fanfare, please)...Queen of Thrift. At least until November when we'll be back to our old, evil spending habits again.

It *is* nice to know that Disney magic is constant, regardless of how much money you have. Shouldn't everything be that way?

Thanks for staying with me.

Robin Goble