Trip Reports
02-20-2007, 10:39 PM
Mark L. Fendrick - November 2003 - All Star Music
Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, Personal Car
Resort: ASMuR
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: Mark is back with his first trip report in a while. He and his family continue making this their traditional time to visit Walt Disney World and find plenty of things to keep them busy, a new ride, a new show, and the Super Soap Weekend.
Mark L. Fendrick -- November 2003 -- Walt Disney World (ASMuR)
Dates: November 7 – 11, 2003
Who: Mark, Sandy and Iris
Experience: Veterans (AP holders), Cast Member
Stayed: All Star Music
Method of Travel: Song Air/Personal Car
Prologue
This has become a traditional weekend for us to travel to WDW. It started the first year that my daughter moved to Florida to work in WDW, and I flew down this weekend to help her buy a car. We attended The International Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT, but I had to stay off property since Super Soap Weekend had caused all of the rooms at the Disney Resorts to be taken. I bought my first AP that year, and renewed it each year when it expired.
This year my parents would drive us to JFK in NY as soon as my wife returned home from school on Nov 7. We would be flying Song Air, Delta’s new low cost division. Like Jet Blue they intend to have all their aircraft with built-in TV’s at each seat. This would not be complete until January of next year, but today we got lucky to be aboard the first of their aircraft to have the TV’s already installed.
The flight left on time and was very comfortable. Song Air sells food onboard, in addition to the normal free beverages. My wife and I shared a fruit and cheese plate, not wanting to spoil our appetite for dinner with our daughter when we arrived in Orlando .
We landed on time and met Iris in the lobby of MCO. We collected our one piece of luggage and headed to her car and into the WDW area. She had already checked in to the room so we went straight to Bahama Breeze, directly across from the entrance to WDW. After a round of Ultimate Piña Coladas, we were seated and had a wonderful meal. I could actually have enjoyed simply sitting outside at the bar, listening to the steel drum player and had a drink and a few appetizers. That is now on the calendar for our next trip down in December.
After dinner we head to our room and get ready for our first day in the parks.
Day 1 – The Studios ( Sandy ) and EPCOT (Mark and Iris)
This morning, Sandy will be getting up early to get to The Studios well before it opens. She will have to redeem her AP voucher before she gets into the park. We had planned on doing this during our last trip down in February, but my daughter didn’t get a chance to get the voucher (discounted of course) so she used her
Main Gate Pass for my wife. We usually let her use her Main Gates for friends and other relatives since we come so often, and often we need to go to the parks without her and meet her later on. This time she picked up the voucher and Sandy can redeem it this first day. The reason for this separation and early morning arousal? It is the first day of Super Soap Weekend, and Sandy wants to see as much of her favorite, Wally Kurth, as possible. She manages to see him during his first autograph session, as well as during the parade and the talk show with the General Hospital Stars. This year, for the first time, they used Fastpass to enable people to be guaranteed to get an autograph, but today, Sandy decided not to wait the 90 minutes to get a fastpass to wait another hour to get the autograph. Sandy would stay until closing, taking in as many events as possible, as well as getting the souvenirs she was afraid would not be there the next day.
Meanwhile, back in the room, Iris and I sleep until about 9:30 and then prepare to head out to Epcot, mainly to take advantage of The Food and Wine Festival. As in the past, we would spend one day here without Sandy , and then come together with her on Monday. I had also made the decision that although I was anxious to try Mission :Space, since this was a short stay and we would be back in only a number of weeks, that we would only ride it if it were convenient. I didn’t want to ride before the Food and Wine Festival since if it made me ill, I wouldn’t enjoy the rest of the day. I didn’t want tp attempt if after a day of eating for obvious reasons. In the end, we didn’t get a chance, but it will be high on our list in December.
By the time we got to Epcot, World Showcase, and therefore the festival booths, would be just opening. We stopped for Fastpasses for Test Track and it was timed well to provide us with a break between what will be our lunch and dinner at the festival booths. We start at Mexico and work our way around clockwise. Each booth provides a small taste of the named country and we are enjoying it as much as in the past. Lines are not terribly long and the weather could not be better. It is an enjoyable morning.
New this year, where Spain had a temporary pavilion last year, is Australia . We spend a bit of time here. We discover that a wine tasting is about to begin, so we take seats and participate. Although it is only 11:30 AM , most of the other participants are already showing the effects of having a drink or two. Needless to say it was quite a rowdy affair. When it was done, an Australian aborigine named Turtle gave a terrific demonstration of how to play a didgeridoo – a native instrument.
We sampled a few more booths and then took in a show of The American Adventure. This would mark the break between lunch and dinner.
After the show we took a Friend Ship back towards Future World and our Test Track return time. The Fastpass line lead us right onto the attraction and when it was over and we found ourselves in the gift shop, I decided to see if there were any nice Saturn logo merchandise that I might get for my son, who had just purchased a new Saturn Quad Coupe. Unfortunately the selection was poor and I didn’t find anything worth purchasing.
We made a stop in Mousegear to pick up the Finding Nemo DVD. (Gotta love those Cast Member holiday discounts!) Now it was time to head back to World Showcase and continue our eating around the world tour. This time we started working our way counterclockwise.
After a few stops though, Iris starts to get a migrane and we make the decision to head back to the room since we both know that she would be in bad shape and it will probably take a night’s sleep until she would feel better. We made a stop at First Aid for some aspirin and then headed back to All Star Music.
Day 2 – The Studios and Magic Kingdom
Once again Sandy is up early and out of the room without Iris or I waking up. Happily when I wake Iris up to get ready for the day, she is feeling well again and both of us are ready to face the day. While Iris is taking her shower, Sandy calls from The Studios to tell us that she made the decision and got a Fastpass to get Wally Kurth’s autograph. She wanted us to come take her picture with him at her Fastpass time of 11:05 . We change our plans from going straight to the Magic Kingdom and head out to The Studios. We call her cell phone when we arrive, but she is obviously in a place where she has the phone turned off, so we decide to see the set from the Haunted Mansion Movie. From there we see the Muppet 3D Movie after which we both have voice mail from Sandy . We will meet her at the Wally Kurth autograph site. To make sure we get pictures, Iris and I get a spot in front of the stand and I ready my camera as Iris learns how to use the camera in my cell phone.
After the autograph is gotten, we are all ready for lunch so we head over to the 50’s Prime Time Café to see how long a walk-up seating will be. We are told that it would be 45 minutes and we agree to wait. As usual, the meal was superb and the atmosphere fun.
At this point, Iris and I head off to The Magic Kingdom and Sandy heads back into Soap Opera immersion. We will meet here later that evening at Cape May Café for dinner.
We arrive at The Magic Kingdom and head for my all time favorite … as I always have … The Haunted Mansion. There was a bit longer queue than I have seen in a long time, but it was still just a brief wait until we entered the foyer. On past trips my son, a former HM CM, ironically always seemed to call me when I was in the mansion, but this time it didn’t happen. Unfortunately the in car narration is not working for most of the trip through the attraction.
Now it was time to head to Fantasyland and see Mickey’s Philharmagic. I had heard good things about this new attraction and was anxious to see it. We decided that the standby line was not too terrible and would perhaps get us in to the second show from the current time, so we waited. The show is one of the best 3D show I have ever seen and is quite impressive. My only regret is that it was too short. Also, a bit of a preshow in the area just outside of the theater might have been nice rather than just standing in anticipation while the area filled and folks started pushing to get closer to the doors.
Next a trip down the rivers of the world on The Jungle Cruise. Despite having ridden it more times than any of us can remember, our skipper’s delivery of the old jokes – and a few new ones – was wonderful and we had a terrific time. (Did you know that most of the animals are the original ones from when the park opened … that’s right … that is a ’71 Impala.)
At this point we decide that it is time to head out so we can reach The Beach Club in time for our PS at Cape May Café. Sandy has called that she has left The Studios to meet us. At fist she was looking for a bus to get there, but was soon reminded that you take a boat, and in the end she managed to get there well before us. No matter, we get there with plenty of time to spare, and before long are enjoying our dinner.
Another long day done, we head back to the room to get ready for the next day … the first, and only one, we will all be together all day.
Day 3 – Epcot
Super Soap weekend over, Sandy now plans on hitting a few of the Food and Wine Festival booths with us, so we head out to Epcot on what appears to be an overcast day. In truth, the weather goes from sunny and comfortable to rainy – back and forth many times.
In addition to eating lunch at the booths, this night we have PS’s for the hibachi restaurant in Japan .
We work our way counterclockwise again, and pick up any of the countries which Iris and I missed the first day, while allowing Sandy to choose from a few of the stands which we had partaken of earlier in the week. We dodge a few raindrops, but when we get to The American Adventure, the skies open up, so we drop in and see the show … certainly not something which disturbs us.
When we make it around to Australia , we decide to take the Wine Walkabout … taking in 5 different wine samples from 5 different areas in Australia . The next wine tasting demo is still a while away, and the entertainment is not performing since the ground is so wet, so we make a decision. Rather than keep dodging raindrops, we would head to The West Side of Downtown Disney where Iris and I would see Brother Bear, and Sandy would do some shopping.
When the movie was over and we met again, we decided to eat at DTD rather than head back to Epcot for our PS. We have a nice meal at Wolfgang Pucks and then head back to the room to pack, although we would still have most of the day before we have to head back to the airport.
Day 4 – Magic Kingdom
This day Iris would have to work until about 3 o’clock , and is due at the Caribbean Beach Resort at 7 AM . Rather than keep our luggage at All Star until we are ready to go, I get up early to drive Iris to work, and then drive her car back, get a few more hours of sleep and then move our luggage (and hers) to her car, drive it back to CBR (we know where she parks when she is at work), and tale the bus to MK. She then will meet us when she gets off that afternoon.
We get to the MK and as always, the first thing I head to is the Haunted Mansion . Today, the narration is working perfectly.
Next we head towards Sandy ’s favorite land, Fantasyland. We head towards Mickey’s Philharmagic and decide to get Fastpasses. Our first attraction here will be It’s a Small World. The queue was quite long, but we know how fast it moves. While online we strike up a conversation with a woman in front of us. This was the family’s first trip to WDW, and despite the late hour (about 11 AM ) this was their first attraction of the day. Their 3 year old daughter had been stung by a yellow jacket on the way into the park, and had been in First Aid since then. (I had commented that the yellow jacks were more abundant this trip than I had ever seen them. At Epcot I attributed it to the Food and Wine Festival, but it seems as if they were even worse here at MK.) When she and her dad joined her mom in the queue I located a Mickey pin in my assortment of traders (didn’t do too much trading this trip, and only picked up a few new pins) and gave her one. I did manage to get a smile from her. During out wait to get into the boat, we answered some questions they had and made a few suggestions, and then wished them a good vacation when we finished the ride.
It was now time for our Fastpass return to Mickey’s Philharmagic, so we head over there and take our place in the queue leading to the theater. Sandy now got to experience this attraction for the first time and enjoyed it as mush as Iris and I did a few days ago.
While we were getting ready for the movie to start, Iris called my cell phone (on silent of course) to let us know that she was on her way. I called her back when we left the show. She was on the monorail and we told her where to meet us.
We had time to do one attraction and we decided to see The Tiki Room; Under New Management. Then we had to decide where to eat and start to head out of the park and towards the airport.
We had hoped that we could do a walkup to The Liberty Tree Inn, but the first time they could seat us (it was a very busy weekend and week due to a holiday and NJ schools being off for the week) was too long to wait. Instead to decide to have our meal at Columbia Harbour House … gotta love that breadbowl chowder!
It is time now to head out and start the trip home. But it isn’t too unhappy since we know that Iris will be coming north in about a week and a half for her brother’s engagement party, and we will be coming back down in about 6 weeks for a longer stay.
The trip to the airport is uneventful, and all looks well, until we find out that our suitcase is overweight. (We were traveling with only one suitcase as usual for this short trip) We scramble to remove many of the books and pictures that Sandy has collected from Super Soap Weekend, and place them in large shopping bags which I had decided to save. We managed to get the weight to 52 pounds, only 2 over the limit and they accept our suitcase.
Going home we have an aircraft that has not yet been fitted with TV’s, but that is okay since I have a book I want to finish, and since we arrive in NYC early, I almost get to the end before we land. My son is waiting for us at the airport and soon we are home and this is just another trip that is a memory.
Mark L. Fendrick
Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, Personal Car
Resort: ASMuR
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: Mark is back with his first trip report in a while. He and his family continue making this their traditional time to visit Walt Disney World and find plenty of things to keep them busy, a new ride, a new show, and the Super Soap Weekend.
Mark L. Fendrick -- November 2003 -- Walt Disney World (ASMuR)
Dates: November 7 – 11, 2003
Who: Mark, Sandy and Iris
Experience: Veterans (AP holders), Cast Member
Stayed: All Star Music
Method of Travel: Song Air/Personal Car
Prologue
This has become a traditional weekend for us to travel to WDW. It started the first year that my daughter moved to Florida to work in WDW, and I flew down this weekend to help her buy a car. We attended The International Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT, but I had to stay off property since Super Soap Weekend had caused all of the rooms at the Disney Resorts to be taken. I bought my first AP that year, and renewed it each year when it expired.
This year my parents would drive us to JFK in NY as soon as my wife returned home from school on Nov 7. We would be flying Song Air, Delta’s new low cost division. Like Jet Blue they intend to have all their aircraft with built-in TV’s at each seat. This would not be complete until January of next year, but today we got lucky to be aboard the first of their aircraft to have the TV’s already installed.
The flight left on time and was very comfortable. Song Air sells food onboard, in addition to the normal free beverages. My wife and I shared a fruit and cheese plate, not wanting to spoil our appetite for dinner with our daughter when we arrived in Orlando .
We landed on time and met Iris in the lobby of MCO. We collected our one piece of luggage and headed to her car and into the WDW area. She had already checked in to the room so we went straight to Bahama Breeze, directly across from the entrance to WDW. After a round of Ultimate Piña Coladas, we were seated and had a wonderful meal. I could actually have enjoyed simply sitting outside at the bar, listening to the steel drum player and had a drink and a few appetizers. That is now on the calendar for our next trip down in December.
After dinner we head to our room and get ready for our first day in the parks.
Day 1 – The Studios ( Sandy ) and EPCOT (Mark and Iris)
This morning, Sandy will be getting up early to get to The Studios well before it opens. She will have to redeem her AP voucher before she gets into the park. We had planned on doing this during our last trip down in February, but my daughter didn’t get a chance to get the voucher (discounted of course) so she used her
Main Gate Pass for my wife. We usually let her use her Main Gates for friends and other relatives since we come so often, and often we need to go to the parks without her and meet her later on. This time she picked up the voucher and Sandy can redeem it this first day. The reason for this separation and early morning arousal? It is the first day of Super Soap Weekend, and Sandy wants to see as much of her favorite, Wally Kurth, as possible. She manages to see him during his first autograph session, as well as during the parade and the talk show with the General Hospital Stars. This year, for the first time, they used Fastpass to enable people to be guaranteed to get an autograph, but today, Sandy decided not to wait the 90 minutes to get a fastpass to wait another hour to get the autograph. Sandy would stay until closing, taking in as many events as possible, as well as getting the souvenirs she was afraid would not be there the next day.
Meanwhile, back in the room, Iris and I sleep until about 9:30 and then prepare to head out to Epcot, mainly to take advantage of The Food and Wine Festival. As in the past, we would spend one day here without Sandy , and then come together with her on Monday. I had also made the decision that although I was anxious to try Mission :Space, since this was a short stay and we would be back in only a number of weeks, that we would only ride it if it were convenient. I didn’t want to ride before the Food and Wine Festival since if it made me ill, I wouldn’t enjoy the rest of the day. I didn’t want tp attempt if after a day of eating for obvious reasons. In the end, we didn’t get a chance, but it will be high on our list in December.
By the time we got to Epcot, World Showcase, and therefore the festival booths, would be just opening. We stopped for Fastpasses for Test Track and it was timed well to provide us with a break between what will be our lunch and dinner at the festival booths. We start at Mexico and work our way around clockwise. Each booth provides a small taste of the named country and we are enjoying it as much as in the past. Lines are not terribly long and the weather could not be better. It is an enjoyable morning.
New this year, where Spain had a temporary pavilion last year, is Australia . We spend a bit of time here. We discover that a wine tasting is about to begin, so we take seats and participate. Although it is only 11:30 AM , most of the other participants are already showing the effects of having a drink or two. Needless to say it was quite a rowdy affair. When it was done, an Australian aborigine named Turtle gave a terrific demonstration of how to play a didgeridoo – a native instrument.
We sampled a few more booths and then took in a show of The American Adventure. This would mark the break between lunch and dinner.
After the show we took a Friend Ship back towards Future World and our Test Track return time. The Fastpass line lead us right onto the attraction and when it was over and we found ourselves in the gift shop, I decided to see if there were any nice Saturn logo merchandise that I might get for my son, who had just purchased a new Saturn Quad Coupe. Unfortunately the selection was poor and I didn’t find anything worth purchasing.
We made a stop in Mousegear to pick up the Finding Nemo DVD. (Gotta love those Cast Member holiday discounts!) Now it was time to head back to World Showcase and continue our eating around the world tour. This time we started working our way counterclockwise.
After a few stops though, Iris starts to get a migrane and we make the decision to head back to the room since we both know that she would be in bad shape and it will probably take a night’s sleep until she would feel better. We made a stop at First Aid for some aspirin and then headed back to All Star Music.
Day 2 – The Studios and Magic Kingdom
Once again Sandy is up early and out of the room without Iris or I waking up. Happily when I wake Iris up to get ready for the day, she is feeling well again and both of us are ready to face the day. While Iris is taking her shower, Sandy calls from The Studios to tell us that she made the decision and got a Fastpass to get Wally Kurth’s autograph. She wanted us to come take her picture with him at her Fastpass time of 11:05 . We change our plans from going straight to the Magic Kingdom and head out to The Studios. We call her cell phone when we arrive, but she is obviously in a place where she has the phone turned off, so we decide to see the set from the Haunted Mansion Movie. From there we see the Muppet 3D Movie after which we both have voice mail from Sandy . We will meet her at the Wally Kurth autograph site. To make sure we get pictures, Iris and I get a spot in front of the stand and I ready my camera as Iris learns how to use the camera in my cell phone.
After the autograph is gotten, we are all ready for lunch so we head over to the 50’s Prime Time Café to see how long a walk-up seating will be. We are told that it would be 45 minutes and we agree to wait. As usual, the meal was superb and the atmosphere fun.
At this point, Iris and I head off to The Magic Kingdom and Sandy heads back into Soap Opera immersion. We will meet here later that evening at Cape May Café for dinner.
We arrive at The Magic Kingdom and head for my all time favorite … as I always have … The Haunted Mansion. There was a bit longer queue than I have seen in a long time, but it was still just a brief wait until we entered the foyer. On past trips my son, a former HM CM, ironically always seemed to call me when I was in the mansion, but this time it didn’t happen. Unfortunately the in car narration is not working for most of the trip through the attraction.
Now it was time to head to Fantasyland and see Mickey’s Philharmagic. I had heard good things about this new attraction and was anxious to see it. We decided that the standby line was not too terrible and would perhaps get us in to the second show from the current time, so we waited. The show is one of the best 3D show I have ever seen and is quite impressive. My only regret is that it was too short. Also, a bit of a preshow in the area just outside of the theater might have been nice rather than just standing in anticipation while the area filled and folks started pushing to get closer to the doors.
Next a trip down the rivers of the world on The Jungle Cruise. Despite having ridden it more times than any of us can remember, our skipper’s delivery of the old jokes – and a few new ones – was wonderful and we had a terrific time. (Did you know that most of the animals are the original ones from when the park opened … that’s right … that is a ’71 Impala.)
At this point we decide that it is time to head out so we can reach The Beach Club in time for our PS at Cape May Café. Sandy has called that she has left The Studios to meet us. At fist she was looking for a bus to get there, but was soon reminded that you take a boat, and in the end she managed to get there well before us. No matter, we get there with plenty of time to spare, and before long are enjoying our dinner.
Another long day done, we head back to the room to get ready for the next day … the first, and only one, we will all be together all day.
Day 3 – Epcot
Super Soap weekend over, Sandy now plans on hitting a few of the Food and Wine Festival booths with us, so we head out to Epcot on what appears to be an overcast day. In truth, the weather goes from sunny and comfortable to rainy – back and forth many times.
In addition to eating lunch at the booths, this night we have PS’s for the hibachi restaurant in Japan .
We work our way counterclockwise again, and pick up any of the countries which Iris and I missed the first day, while allowing Sandy to choose from a few of the stands which we had partaken of earlier in the week. We dodge a few raindrops, but when we get to The American Adventure, the skies open up, so we drop in and see the show … certainly not something which disturbs us.
When we make it around to Australia , we decide to take the Wine Walkabout … taking in 5 different wine samples from 5 different areas in Australia . The next wine tasting demo is still a while away, and the entertainment is not performing since the ground is so wet, so we make a decision. Rather than keep dodging raindrops, we would head to The West Side of Downtown Disney where Iris and I would see Brother Bear, and Sandy would do some shopping.
When the movie was over and we met again, we decided to eat at DTD rather than head back to Epcot for our PS. We have a nice meal at Wolfgang Pucks and then head back to the room to pack, although we would still have most of the day before we have to head back to the airport.
Day 4 – Magic Kingdom
This day Iris would have to work until about 3 o’clock , and is due at the Caribbean Beach Resort at 7 AM . Rather than keep our luggage at All Star until we are ready to go, I get up early to drive Iris to work, and then drive her car back, get a few more hours of sleep and then move our luggage (and hers) to her car, drive it back to CBR (we know where she parks when she is at work), and tale the bus to MK. She then will meet us when she gets off that afternoon.
We get to the MK and as always, the first thing I head to is the Haunted Mansion . Today, the narration is working perfectly.
Next we head towards Sandy ’s favorite land, Fantasyland. We head towards Mickey’s Philharmagic and decide to get Fastpasses. Our first attraction here will be It’s a Small World. The queue was quite long, but we know how fast it moves. While online we strike up a conversation with a woman in front of us. This was the family’s first trip to WDW, and despite the late hour (about 11 AM ) this was their first attraction of the day. Their 3 year old daughter had been stung by a yellow jacket on the way into the park, and had been in First Aid since then. (I had commented that the yellow jacks were more abundant this trip than I had ever seen them. At Epcot I attributed it to the Food and Wine Festival, but it seems as if they were even worse here at MK.) When she and her dad joined her mom in the queue I located a Mickey pin in my assortment of traders (didn’t do too much trading this trip, and only picked up a few new pins) and gave her one. I did manage to get a smile from her. During out wait to get into the boat, we answered some questions they had and made a few suggestions, and then wished them a good vacation when we finished the ride.
It was now time for our Fastpass return to Mickey’s Philharmagic, so we head over there and take our place in the queue leading to the theater. Sandy now got to experience this attraction for the first time and enjoyed it as mush as Iris and I did a few days ago.
While we were getting ready for the movie to start, Iris called my cell phone (on silent of course) to let us know that she was on her way. I called her back when we left the show. She was on the monorail and we told her where to meet us.
We had time to do one attraction and we decided to see The Tiki Room; Under New Management. Then we had to decide where to eat and start to head out of the park and towards the airport.
We had hoped that we could do a walkup to The Liberty Tree Inn, but the first time they could seat us (it was a very busy weekend and week due to a holiday and NJ schools being off for the week) was too long to wait. Instead to decide to have our meal at Columbia Harbour House … gotta love that breadbowl chowder!
It is time now to head out and start the trip home. But it isn’t too unhappy since we know that Iris will be coming north in about a week and a half for her brother’s engagement party, and we will be coming back down in about 6 weeks for a longer stay.
The trip to the airport is uneventful, and all looks well, until we find out that our suitcase is overweight. (We were traveling with only one suitcase as usual for this short trip) We scramble to remove many of the books and pictures that Sandy has collected from Super Soap Weekend, and place them in large shopping bags which I had decided to save. We managed to get the weight to 52 pounds, only 2 over the limit and they accept our suitcase.
Going home we have an aircraft that has not yet been fitted with TV’s, but that is okay since I have a book I want to finish, and since we arrive in NYC early, I almost get to the end before we land. My son is waiting for us at the airport and soon we are home and this is just another trip that is a memory.
Mark L. Fendrick