Cathy Sowa - October 2003 - Port Orleans Riverside

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: PORR
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Child, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Infrequent
Comments: Cathy and her "travel partner" sister have a grand time making their third Disney World trip together. This time around they have quite a few highlights as they attended Mickey's Not So Scary Holloween Party, the Food and Wine Festival, made it to the hot seat, and took the Backstage Magic Tour.


Cathy Sowa -- October 2003 -- Walt Disney World (PORR)

Early Planning and Background

My “vacation partner” sister (ML) got married in August 2002, and I figured our days of Disney vacations together were over. We’d previously done 4 Disney trips together as adults (Disneyland (DL) in 1995 and 2001; Walt Disney World (WDW) in 1997 and 2000) and I’d done a weekend in February 2002 to DL prior to a meeting in the area. I’d decided I needed a Disney fix soon after moving from Portland, OR to New Orleans, LA, and gave her a call to see if she would be interested in a fall WDW vacation. She talked it over with her husband and he was all for it – he knows she really liked Disney vacations, and it is just something he doesn’t grasp. So we made really tentative plans for an early November trip (wanted cooler weather, low crowds (value season), and to be able to use my Disney Club membership one last time) and I began to check www.mousesavers.com regularly to see if any good discounts were out. Soon after we picked a date, the Fairy Tale package came out. Now initially, it was just open to Disney Club members, and just available for travel that began through the end of October – so we decided that for 7 nights for the price of 4, we’d move our vacation a week or two and go the last week in October. We’d thought about going for a Deluxe resort, but when I was playing with the numbers, I forgot to include that “little” item of tax, so when the reservationist gave me the totals for Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge, they were a little steeper than I’d calculated, and in a rare fit of fiscal responsibility, I decided we should stick with the moderate as we’d initially planned and settled on the Caribbean Beach Resort.

Although initially our first choice moderate resort (Port Orleans Riverside) was either unavailable or sold out, I was able to change our reservation later when they opened up more rooms. I’d done some checking about my airfare, and knew I could get a Delta ticket for about $150 (nonstop), and Disney was able to match the fare I’d found on Delta! Cool, one reservation does it all for me. My sister, who lives in California, wasn’t sure where she was going to be living in October (they’re waiting for her husband to get a transfer), and she didn’t want to make reservations that far in advance. We went ahead and booked the rental car through Disney just to make life easier – we like to have a car available even though we use the Disney transportation most of the time, for those evening activities at other resorts and for getting to and from the airport with the least amount of uncertainty. By the time all was done with Disney travel, we had hotel, car, admissions and my flight for $1835.

During the summer, ML and her DH bought a house near where he is transferring to, so she decided to book her ticket from there. Even if the transfer isn’t in by then, she’ll go check on the house and leave from there.

Ok, we had the hard particulars taken care of – now for the fun of all the “real” planning! I’d been surfing Disney web sites periodically since our 2001 trip to DL, and had started lurking on MousePad quite a bit, so I had some ideas on some fun extras that we might want to do.

On previous visits we’d really enjoyed the tours we’d taken, so we decided to go for the “big” tour - Backstage Magic. We’d also really appreciated the e-ride night we did previously and wanted to do that, but since we were now going the last week in October, we were doubtful they would have one because of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party - so we figured – if you can’t beat them, join them. I booked tickets for both of those soon after booking the trip.

We’d decided, after our last trip that we really wanted to spend more time in Epcot just drinking in the surroundings. “Luck” would have it that we were going during the Food & Wine festival – so lots of good excuses for spending more time there (and for literally drinking in the surroundings!). We thought we might want to do something “special” with the festival – but $100+ each for a dinner wasn’t quite what we had in mind. Well, they finally released the information about the festival and opened up reservations and on the following Saturday we made our decisions: Boma for dinner on the night of early entry to Animal Kingdom, a lunch at Cindy’s castle, and food and wine parings at either Le Cellier and/or Coral Reef. I was able to get the Boma dinner on our chosen night, and after they changed the waiting time rules for the PS, we got our chosen time for Cindy’s as well. The food and wine pairing at Le Cellier was already sold out when I called, but we were able to get Coral Reef. No other PS’s ahead of time, but we had a few ideas up our sleeves, depending on how we were feeling and the way the schedules of things worked out.

Since we’d only gotten the one food and wine pairing, when they added an additional one at Alfredo's, we sign up for that one as well.

Aside from visiting all 4 parks and seeing all the parades and evening shows, spending time with the Food and Wine Festival, exploiting early entry, a morning of shopping at Downtown Disney, and the things we’d made reservations for, there was only one other thing really high on our “to do” list. We figured we’d be spending enough time at “Who Wants to be a Millionaire – Play It!” to either get really sick of it, or until we both got into the hot seat. We’d gotten in back-to-back at Disney’s California Adventure right after the show opened there, so we knew it could be done, but we also knew it depended on luck, the size of the crowds, and the skill of the person in the hot seat. We usually didn’t show up in the top 10 until AFTER the 1,000 point check when we played before, so we knew our chances were better if the person in the hot seat was better. We’ll just have to see how our luck and skill combines on this trip!

Between the Tour (even with the Disney Club discount), Halloween Party, and the Food and Wine Pairings, we’d committed another $550 to the trip.

Pre-visit Day-by-day plans:

Friday – ML arrives from California and spends the night in a hotel near the Orlando airport.

Saturday – I arrive at MCO about 10:00 a.m. (‘gotta love not having to fly across the whole country!), meet ML at the airport, pick up the car, and check into POR. Not sure what we’ll do about lunch – or if we’ll stop for H2O or other non-perishables on the way, but after we check in – it’s off to the Magic Kingdom (MK) where we’ll stay to close and watch Spectromagic and the fireworks.

Sunday – Extra Magic Hour (EMH) at MK, lunch at Cindy’s, Epcot to close with dinner via snacking around the world – making sure to catch Body Wars and American Adventure, since they are on the Backstage Magic Tour - watch Illuminations.

Monday – EMH at Animal Kingdom (AK), lunch in the park, dinner at Boma, MAYBE Pleasure Island or Downtown Disney (DTD) if we feel like it after.

Tuesday – EMH at Studios, probably stay to watch Fantasmic.

Wednesday – Backstage magic tour, but since it’s the only EMH day at Epcot, we may try to sneak in a Test track or Mission: Space ride before the tour.

Thursday – Nothing specific in the morning (maybe shopping, maybe Typhoon Lagoon, maybe just sleeping late) – 4:00 food/wine paring at Coral Reef, 7-midnight Halloween party at MK.

Friday – 3:00 food/wine paring at Alfredo’s. Other than that, – nothing definite – but will get in a few hours of shopping at Downtown Disney, and maybe a fireworks viewing from the California Grill Lounge – figure we’ll use these days to “catch” everything we missed or want to do again – particularly the evening shows if they were canceled on our previously scheduled night.

Saturday – see Friday without the food/wine paring.

Sunday – check out – visit a park in the morning – leaving shortly after noon for the return to reality.

Well finally (and you’re probably saying the same as you’re reading this) October 24 arrives!

Friday, October 24, 2003:

I’d talked to ML the night before when she arrived at their house, and she asked me to give her a call when I got to work in the morning, which would be 6:00 am Pacific time, so that she didn’t oversleep. I thought it would be fun to start her morning off with a song (like they do with the astronauts on the space shuttle) – so I brought one of my Disney CDs to work with me and started her wake up call with the “Tee Hee Hee Hee” at the beginning of the Tigger song. It seemed appropriate at the time, and she appreciated it. She made it to the airport as scheduled, made both flights without any problem (changing planes in Phoenix, AZ on America West), and landed as scheduled at MCO. She had reservations at the Clarion Hotel Airport, got dinner and a nights sleep (not necessarily a good nights sleep because of the people attending a convention of some sort partying in a room near hers). I, meanwhile, was slaving away at work, finished the day and brought my cat to the co-worker’s who’s become his “foster mom” while I’m traveling.

Saturday, October 25, 2003:

I get up bright and early, and parked at a new lot (to me) having checked the price of the new parking garage at the New Orleans airport the night before, and in the process, discovered that they closed the surface lot where I usually park. The non-stop flight was uneventful, and after a quick monorail ride, met up with ML at the Alamo counter, just as planned. She said the line had been really short when she got there, about 5 minutes previously, but it ended up being quite a wait by the time I got into line (I had the car voucher and am the designated driver while she is the navigator, which is why ML didn’t get the car while she was waiting for me). We have paid for an economy car, and despite the “assurances” of the guy at the counter that there were plenty of cars in the lot, we couldn’t find any, and were told to go ahead and get a compact (once we found someone out there to ask to please point out an economy car, since they are parked with the compacts). We ended up getting a bright blue one, and so we didn’t really need the sorcerer Mickey antenna ball I got so we could find it easily in the parking lots.

After a quick ride down the road (and $2.00 in tolls), we made it to check in at POR. Of course, since it was about noon at this point our room wasn’t ready, so I changed into shorts; we grabbed a bite at the food court and bought our mugs for the trip. We both got Chicken Quesadillas with chips, and although the quesadillas were good, the salsa was quite ketchup-y, and there was no Tabasco to spice it up to be found in the food court. Before heading out to the park, we decided just to check to see if our room was ready, and it was! So a quick drive over to Magnolia Terrace (as requested) to drop our bags off (and that’s about all we did) and to the very nearby bus stop to catch a ride to the Magic Kingdom. We ended up arriving about 2:00, so we had time to catch a ride through the Caribbean with the Pirates before the parade. We watched the parade from the hub while consuming pineapple floats.

The “Share a Dream Come True Parade” was a bit of a bummer. I think what was "missing" in my mind, was the groups of dancers. I think there were maybe 2-3 people between each float or two, and most of those were on bikes. I asked during the BSM tour if this was because it was off-season, and "no, that's just the way this parade was designed" The hidden Walt’s were a cool tribute, but there just wasn’t a lot of warmth to the parade - partly because of the lack of dancers and partly due to the fact that the characters on the floats seemed to be almost hermitically sealed inside the snow globes (which used to have “snow” inside, but after a few characters fainted from the heat, they decided AC was more important, and the AC and “snow” don't mix). It really makes them seem "distant" from the guests.

After the parade, we did a Cruise around the Jungles of the world, visited the Tiki Room (Under New Management), went to our Laughing Place on Splash Mountain (with Fast Passes), and then took a ride on the railroad to Tomorrowland. Once we got to Tomorrowland, we did the Carousel of Progress, Transit Authority, and Time Keeper. Although it was nice seeing Carousel of Progress and Time Keeper (since those aren’t normally open during off-season) I would have given those up to have an Alien Encounter. And having Big Thunder down was another bummer (but at least we knew about both of these closures well beforehand). We then saved the universe from the Evil Emperor Zurg (using Fast Passes) on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and then went to Columbia Harbour House for dinner. I had the salad with chicken, pineapple and pecans, and ML got the chowder in the bread bowl. The chowder was good, and so was the salad, but we forgot to ask for the dressing on the side, and they really had everything drowning in dressing. After our food, we went to the Haunted Mansion (using Fast Passes which we didn’t really need), did a cruise through Small World, and then staked out a place near the rose garden to watch the Fireworks.

“Wishes” is the newly debuted fireworks show in the Magic Kingdom. Unless you are standing directly in front of the castle, the effects seem to one side of it, because they are shot off from so far in back of the castle. There are some really nice shells as part of the show, and the synchronization is first rate - but the music wasn't quite as enjoyable as Believe. Though the last (and possibly only) time we saw Believe was the first fireworks show after September 11, 2001 - with the patriotic ending, so our recollection may not be totally unbiased. However, if you can make it to the MK on a day with fireworks (and during our trip the days were limited because of the Halloween party schedule) you would be cheating yourself if you missed it.

We then watched SpectroMagic (the nighttime parade). Spectromagic, as compared to Share a Dream, is a really nice parade. Although I didn’t fully appreciate how HUGE the last float really was, nor did I notice that it would change from multi-colored to all white at the flick of painter pig's paint brush (including the lights on the characters' costumes), it was just a lot warmer than the daytime parade.

After the parade, we rode Buzz (with fast passes), grabbed some cookies, and I rode AstroOrbiter (ML’s stomach doesn’t agree with this ride). We then did our nighttime Cruise around the Jungles of the World, and rode Aladdin two times without getting off. I think we got spit on by the camels a little, but not bad. It was now 11:00 and our first real day of vacation ended with a tired bus ride to POR, filling our mugs on the way back to the room for the night.

We arranged for a wakeup call, which wasn’t as early as it would seem by the clock, since this was the night that we “fall back” to Standard Time.

Sunday, October 26, 2003

After our wake up call from the head Cheese (you have to wait a while after answering for Mickey to say anything, so don’t hang up too quickly! – and the phones had a speaker option, so all in the room could hear the wakeup message – very important if you have little (or not so little) ones who want to hear the wakeup call), we grabbed a quick bite of “breakfast platter” from the food court, consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, potatoes, and a biscuit. The eggs were ok for precooked scrambled eggs, the meat ok, and the potatoes were really tasty, except they were a bit salty for our tastes. After our fill, we caught the bus to the Magic Kingdom for the Extra Magic Hour. We rode Space Mountain and the Indy cars before the park opened “for real” and then hit Fantasyland for the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, Pooh, Snow White and Mickey’s Philharmagic.

Mickey’s Philharmagic is a VERY cool show. We actually made an additional trip to the MK later in the week to see this one again. It's a VERY large screen and includes a number of different Disney songs with CGI 3-D animation (plus scent and other effects). Donald (the main character, even though it's called Mickey's Philharmagic) and Ariel were fairly well done - but both my sister and I though Aladdin and Jasmine were a bit simplistically rendered. This show was one thing that we made sure to recommend to people we saw, even in other parks. The only people we ran into that didn't enjoy it were kids that had problems with loud-ish noises or had problems with the whole 3-D concept and things coming toward them. Aside from the requisite water effects (ala dog sneezes in Honey I Shrunk the Audience), and a few scents, there are some fairly well done air/wind effects, including one with the champagne corks popping in the "Be Our Guest" number.

We then visited the Presidents, helped Buzz with Emperor Zurg (with a Fast pass), visited the Bears, and had some popcorn while waiting to ride the Liberty Belle. We did a cruise around the Rivers of America and then high-tailed it to Cindy’s for our 1:00 PSs for lunch. We’d gotten fast passes for Peter Pan, but taking the cruise had cut our time a bit too short before our PS time to risk riding it – so we gave the tickets to a couple of girls that were waiting in the quite long fast-pass line (initially, I’d thought it was the standby line) and told them to either ride it again, or give them to someone going into the standby line.

Neither of us are really keen on a character meal (and DEFINITLEY not a character breakfast) but we thought it'd be neat to eat in the castle. There were quite a few families waiting to be seated, and it kind of validated our call that we did not want to do a character breakfast - I just hope all of the families knew lunch was NOT a character meal. I'm not sure how many of them had PSs, but since we were a party of 2, we got seated fairly quickly. Interestingly, the same waitress also bussed the tables and set them for the next guests, though there were separate runners for the food from the kitchen. I had the prime rib with mashed potatoes, and ML had the pasta with shrimp and chicken. I had to specifically ask for horseradish, and there was no au jus served with the prime rib, but it was fairly tasty (and the horseradish was definitely sinus clearing good), and the potatoes were pretty good too. The pasta had really good flavor to it as well. I had to try some dessert -- I remember it was good and I ate all of it (except for the couple of bites ML had), but I can't remember what it was, except that was a crème brulee type dish.

At this point, our plan was to head to Epcot, and that’s just what we did. A coworker of mine from our Salt Lake City office was in town doing some work nearby, and we’d originally arranged to meet up with her at Epcot after our lunch. Unfortunately, she had a computer problem the night before and had to re-do a bunch of calculations, so she decided to be responsible and do the work she was in town for, as opposed to having fun. I was disappointed for her, and she was looking forward to the Food and Wine Festival, but things like that happen. Hopefully she’ll decide to make a trip out for fun in the near future!

Since we didn’t have to coordinate with a third person (who DIDN’T have a big lunch at the castle), we decided to see some of Future World before starting to eat our way around the world. We went on an Energy Adventure with Ellen and Bill Nye, went through the Wonders of Life Pavilion (including Cranium Command and Body Wars, but skipping The Making of Me), and did a ride through the Imagination Institute with Figment. At this point, we thought we could handle Mission: Space, so we used the fast passes we’d obtained earlier.

We were really looking forward to trying Mission: Space, and having read a lot about ill effects, were very careful of our stomach condition before we rode it - we didn’t want to be really hungry; we didn't want to have just eaten (like Goldilocks, we needed to be just right). After this first time riding it, we thought it was a lot of fun, but we didn't feel the need to immediately get back in line and ride it again (like we did with Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster and Tower of Terror). We knew we would ride it again, and we did - and knowing what to expect made us a little less tense and made it a little more enjoyable the second time.

At this point, we couldn’t put it off any longer (nor did we want to), so we started eating our way around the food and wine booths. We started in Mexico, and went around to a few booths, saw the American Adventure, shared Chicken strips and Fries in the U.S., ate at a few more booths, and watched Illuminations. We paced ourselves pretty well, but needed just a bit more food at once to not get cranky, which is why we stopped for the chicken strips. We know ourselves (and each other) well enough not to let ourselves get too hungry, dehydrated, tired, or hot. Fortunately (kind of) if one of us feels ourselves getting near a danger point, the other is probably near it as well, and we watch out for each other. I don’t think we hit any times on this vacation when neither of us saw that we were getting too near a danger point, which always helps make a vacation more enjoyable. Anyway, this trip around the world, excluding the chicken strips, was exactly $50.

You may notice that I’m not quoting prices throughout this trip report. I made a decision early on in the trip (at lunch on Saturday) that I didn’t want to do that, that I just wanted to report the total at the end, but I did want to kind of keep an eye on what we were spending at the festival, so we did keep track of that separately.

Monday, October 27, 2003

After a breakfast at the food court, we rode the bus to the Animal Kingdom. On the way in, Goofy and Mickey (both dressed for a Safari) were visiting with guests, and neither had a really long line. I’d earlier decided I wanted to get autographed postcards of a couple of characters to send to two of our nephews, and this seemed like a perfect time. After a quick visit with each of them, we went off to ride the Safari. We saw quite a few animals, and ended up saving Little Red without too many difficulties. We then traveled back in time on Dinosaur, and while in the area, rode Triceratops Spin and Primeval Whirl (Ok, ML skipped Primeval Whirl – it’s that spinning thing with her). On our way out of the Dinoland area, I had to stop by the Bone Yard to see the dino footprints that when you stepped on them made “dino” sounds (though how do they REALLY know what kind of sounds dinos made -- did the Pterodactyls (ala Flintstone’s) burn a CD that was unearthed at some point?) This seems like a good area to let little ones run off steam, and with just one entrance/exit, fairly well contained. We then went and got soaked on Kali River Rapids (ok, I got soaked, ML got wet), and had lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque where we both got the Meal Plus deals. This includes a sandwich (in our case, pulled pork and chicken), corn on the cob, beans, cole slaw, and a drink, plus certificates for ice cream or popcorn and a bottled beverage for later in the day. This also gave us a little time to dry out a little.

We then watched Flights of Wonder, and went on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. They were feeding the Siberian Tigers – they sure didn’t seem as aggressive as my cat gets when it’s time to eat, and all he gets is dry food, not raw meat. We then took the train to Conservation Station, and listened to the rain forest there. We did find out that veterinarian procedures usually are scheduled for the morning, so if you are interested in that, try to arrive earlier in the day, and if you are particularly NOT interested in seeing procedures, wait until the afternoon. We decided to skip the “close encounter” with the animals, and instead used our coupons from lunch to buy ice cream treats. After the train ride back, we walked the Pangani Trail, became honorary bugs, and then trekked to watch the Lion King Show. This show is VERY cool - if we'd gone to this park another day this would have been one of the things we'd hit again, and in all honesty, if the park wasn’t quite so far from everything else, we probably would have tried to do that. By this time, it was about time for the parade, so we used our second coupon for diet cokes, and waited patiently for the parade.

Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade (in contrast to Share a Dream Come True Parade at MK), was a very warm and entertaining extravaganza. Because AK was not built with the idea that it would have a parade, there are not speakers set up in zones around the park, so all the music comes from the floats themselves. There were some VERY creative puppets and the floats (which include everything the characters would need on a safari, and of course, the kitchen sink complete with dirty dishes) were well done as well. Some of the puppets were kind of reminiscent of the tapestry of nations/dreams parade - though most had wheels of some sort so they wouldn't be so hard on the performers physically.

At this point, we made our way out of the park, and over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We were early enough to walk around the lodge some and ML had to make a phone call back to California, so while she was doing that, I hung out on one of the terrace area rocking chairs, “watching” the animals through my closed eyelids. When she was done we still had a bit of time before our PS time, so we walked down to the overlook area. They had just brought out some hay for the animals, and they were REALLY close. This would be a really nice hotel to stay in, and I think it might be one of the few where I'd actually pay for more than a standard view.

Back to dinner - we were still early, so we stopped at the lounge to have a drink, but ended up not having one there because if there was a server, they weren't in sight, and we realized we really should go and check in. It did, however, give us a chance to look at the drink menu and I decided I really wanted a cocktail before eating, so we just ordered it after we sat down. The wait was fairly short (5 minutes, maybe) before we were seated after checking in. The food was interesting, nothing too outrageously flavored, to either of our taste buds, but definitely not a restaurant we'd recommend to a non-adventurous eater. I think a vegetarian would do OK, even though there was quite a few of meat dishes. Also, if you have a special request, they will really bend over backwards to help you out. A woman at a nearby table was allergic to garlic - and since most everything was seasoned with it, the chef made her this huge plate of stuff that didn't have garlic in it. He even came out and made sure it was to her liking. I'm assuming they had called before hand when they made PS arrangements to say there was a food issue, but it just goes to show that the chefs at the nicer restaurants are professionals, and as such really like the opportunity to stretch and shine. One nice thing about the buffet was that the desserts were all really small - not like most restaurant desserts where only growing teenagers are able to finish off a dessert without assistance. Between the two of us, we got one of each dessert and split them (they were just a bite or two when split), then after trying them all, went and got more of our favorites.

Because we'd made fairly early PSs, Epcot was still open, so we just rode the AKL bus to Epcot and transferred to the POR bus and were back “home” without too much of a hassle. We'd considered stopping by the lounge in POR at this point, since we'd heard neat things about the piano player, but since it was Monday night - that meant Monday night football and no piano player. Other nights when we were in the mood for a relaxing post-park drink, the place was just too rambunctious for our moods. It is NOT an adults-only lounge, and at one point the piano player was being basically mobbed by kids.

At this point, we’d spent a total of $320 between us on food and snacks.

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

This was Extra Magic Hour at the Disney-MGM Studios, so of course, we had to do that. After another quick breakfast in the food court, we rode the bus over, and got in line for Tower of Terror (since they were distributing Fast Passes, but the return time, even then, was quite a bit later). Unfortunately, the elevators broke down while we were waiting, and we decided to bail on the ride at that point, but did get Fast Passes for later. Since they were only running half of the ride during our trip, the lines for Tower of Terror really did get quite long. So we went on a ride through the streets of LA with Aerosmith on the Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster, and then on a trip to the Moons of Endor with Star Tours. Since we were in the area, and it wasn’t time for our Fast Passes yet, we watched the Muppets 3-D, and THEN we went to the Hollywood Tower Hotel. It was a very good sequence of drops. For a change of pace, we then went on the Great Movie Ride and were hijacked by the Cowboy. At this point, it was time for the first show of Millionaire, so we went to the Standby line for that. We did get in, but they didn’t let a whole lot of people in behind us.

One down side of going "off season" is the limited showings of the stage shows as well as Millionaire. The first showing of the day wasn't until 11:25, which when you get there at 8:00 for early entry and are addicted to the show, is quite late in the day. After an 8 year old from the UK (after 2 people declined the hot seat for whatever reasons) (who's first question was about the "food at this exit" sign in the U.S.) misread a question about CDs, a man gets into the hot seat - wanting to do at least as well as his father-in-law of a year who is a local and has been in the hot seat multiple times. At the 1000 point break, I was at the top of the leader board! Well, he missed the 2000 point question, and I knew I'd gotten it right, and so when I wasn't in position 2-10, I figured there was a decent chance I'd be the next "lucky" contestant. I didn't have a chance to see what the point spread was at the 1000 point break, but if I had I probably wouldn't have been so certain I'd remained in the top spot. Well, I WAS in the top spot and so made my way down to the hot seat. I did fairly well, using lifelines at 32K and higher (ask the audience to verify Doonesbury’s first name and 50/50 on the meaning of Fagoli - but not getting any help on the 500,000 point question from the stranger outside. The question had to do with Sweet Charity being based on which Federico Fellini film (which was Le Notti Di Cabiria, for anyone who cares.)

I almost walked away at that point, 'cause I really had no clue, but the host wasn't even saying that I could walk away, so I figured I'd go for it. But, alas, I got it wrong, so ended up with the 10 pins, hat and polo shirt. They'll go nicely with the 2 hats and 1 polo shirt from trips to DL (Sept 01 and Feb 02) - the only thing is the hat is kind of obnoxiously colored - the bill is purple and the 1000 point is bright yellow - a little close to the Louisiana State colors, and since I'm not exactly a Tiger fan I’m not sure how much I’ll actually wear it.

After dealing with the paperwork (and not remembering my address because I still had a “little” adrenaline running through my bloodstream), we went to the commissary for lunch. I grabbed a table while ML ordered and got our food, and waited quite a while for her. Seems the kitchen really wasn’t keeping up well with the orders. I really felt sorry for the dad with 2 kids next to me waiting for their food, because they were about as hungry as I was, and it was taking their Mom quite a while, too, and Dad was obviously close to the end of his rope.

After finally eating, we went on the Backstage Tour and walked through the “One Man’s Dream” exhibit (we skipped the movie, though – had seen it in California Adventure in 2001). The exhibit was very well done, and includes the models for the castle in Paris, Epcot, and a few others. There is also an audio animatronic “skeleton” that you can operate with buttons. After that we watched The Little Mermaid (with Fast Passes) – and this was one time where it started to rain, so they let the Fast Pass holders into the lobby area a little early so they could get out of the rain. At this point, we went on another trip with Aerosmith, grabbed a pretzel and Frozen Lemonade snack, and then watched the Beauty and the Beast show.

We decided next to try the Prime-Time Diner - in part because I can't tell time. We had gotten fast-passes for a Millionaire show, and for some reason I thought we had an extra hour before the show started (mind you, we got the fast passes ON THE WAY TO THE DINER). So we had dinner and 2 more people from the standby line got into Millionaire because I couldn't tell time. ANYWAY, we didn't have much of a wait, and our "babysitter" seemed to have quite a few tables to deal with. We split the pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and it was quite tasty, and the "happy juice" (beer) we got with it hit the spot as well. We started out with the onion rings, but they were not rings, but very narrow slices, kind of like an onion loaf, but not as dense as most loaves are. We were very careful, throughout the meal, to keep our elbows off the table, to set the table correctly, and we hadn't worn hats that day, so didn't have to take them off. Our babysitter did make the dad at the next table take off his baseball cap. She did warn us which dishes came with what veggies - and said not to order them if we weren't going to eat the veggies. Although we grew up a little later than the 50s, our mother NEVER served a dinner without 2 vegetables, and I doubt if her mother served a meal without at least 1 veggie -- so I would have liked to see EACH dish come with a veggie of some sort. We did clean our plate (helps to share!) so we got to look at the view-master desert menu - but decided not to have any after all.

We thought we might get some desert while we waited for Fantasmic! to start, and we were a little concerned about getting seats for the show, because the park had been fairly crowded, but it had started to rain while we were eating. Fortunately, the rain had stopped enough so that the show did go on, and instead of getting a dessert while we were waiting, we got a beer instead. The show was great (as we remembered) and Mickey was able to vanquish the villains.

At this point, we exited the park and rode the bus back to the resort, grabbing some Irish Cream at the gift shop to go with coffee we got in our mugs. Aside from one breakfast, I think this was the only coffee I drank the whole trip (I’m not a big coffee drinker, obviously).

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

This was the day of our Backstage Magic Tour. We grabbed breakfast at the food court and thought we’d see about a ride to Mars (Mission: Space) since this was the only Extra Magic Hour at Epcot. Well, we’d already decided we weren’t bringing the backpack onto the tour with us, but we thought we’d stick around Epcot later, so we wanted to have a sweatshirt “just in case” it got cool later (it didn’t). We walked by the big lockers by the buses, noted the price, but decided it would be more convenient to use the lockers actually inside the park. Well, the price difference was over $5, so ML decided to walk back out to the big lockers to save the money. The only time we had any issues with our passes (or had to actually show our hand stamp) was when she came back into the park, and that was just because of the short time between entrances. Although these lockers are cheaper and are larger, they really are a long ways from the actual gate of the park. By the time she got back, we really didn’t have time to ride anything, and even though it was quite early, we went back outside to meet up with the tour. One thing with this tour as opposed to most of the other tours is that you are not required to have park admission to take advantage of it. So if you were using a park hopper pass (as opposed to a length of stay-type pass) you could easily plan a day that didn’t need park entry by taking advantage of this tour.

Overall, the Backstage Magic Tour was pretty darn cool. They did alter the tour recently, but not to add Mission: Space (as I'd kind of been hoping). I did ask if they were going to add backstage at that attraction, and was told that there really wasn't much to see backstage - but if there was a small group (ours was 20, which I believe is the limit), it was occasionally added. One person had signed up that same week, so it's not like the tour booked up much in advance (mind you, this is in late October, not exactly peak season). We started out meeting outside of Epcot - went through the turnstiles at Epcot (in part, I think, to get a bag check) and introduced ourselves. Of our group of 20, there were 5 Cathy or Kathy's in the group, a large number of people from New Jersey, and one couple from the city near where my sister and I grew up in Oregon. Fairly quickly after the introductions, we went backstage. Any time we were on-stage, we could take pictures, but none were allowed backstage. We started out going to the American Adventure and saw the large moving stages used for that attraction. We almost got to see Mark Twain without his clothes, but given his age, I'm not sure I WANTED to see him without clothes! We did see some construction going on outside of Living with the Land - for the transplanted "Soarin' Over California" which is just going to be "Soarin'" at Epcot. After the American Adventure, we drove the long way around the World Showcase and stopped at a cast services building. Among other things (including Pride Hall, where different groups decorated portions of the wall, including maintenance's portion which was complete with fiber optics) we saw the costume distribution shop (I forget what it was called). There were A LOT of costumes in there - and these were just Epcot costumes, not for characters, and not for any of the shows. But considering the number of each type they have to keep (with all the multiple sizes) it's not too surprising that it’d be pretty huge.

After that, we stopped at the Wonders of Life Pavilion, and saw "Body Wars" in action. Because of the size of the "room" that the attraction could be viewed from, 1/2 of the group stayed outside and watched one of the video monitors while the other half of the group went into the ride area and watched the outside of the vehicle - and then the two groups switched. Since the video monitor inside the attraction is mounted inside the part that moves, and since there were no guests in the one we were watching, you couldn't tell anything was happening until we saw the bright "electrical" flashes near the end of the ride. Cast Members observe the ride and will stop it for one of 3 conditions - Pull-out (where a parent pulls the kid out of their seat because they are freaking), Panic, or Protein spill. There was even a small container of protein spill cleaner in the room where we watched the inside of the ride vehicle, but I didn't look at it too closely. Although I've always known that Body Wars (and Star Tours) moved around quite a bit, I was surprised at how much they actually moved from watching the outside of the ride vehicle. One interesting thing (at least to me) was that to tell if it is ok to raise the catwalk that leads from the queue area to the ride vehicle, the computer compares a picture from the morning to the video input, and if ANYTHING is wrong, it won't raise the catwalk. Anything from a small child having gotten away from a parent to a candy wrapper will mean a CM has to figure out what’s wrong and raise the catwalk “manually”.

After that, we left Epcot and went to the Florist’s shop. This was newly added to the tour a couple of weeks previous. They do a LOT of weddings at the Grand Floridian wedding pavilion, and we saw the flowers in various stages of preparation. Leftovers from weddings are sold to cast members for a reasonable price at the end of the week, and this week’s batch included the flowers from the wedding of a niece of some of the tour participants, which had been the day before our tour. One thing we learned from the aunts and uncles was that the bride and groom give Disney a 6 day window of when they want to get married, and then Disney schedules the actual wedding day and time for you, without a whole lot of specific notice. Since Disney is in charge of all the services (photographer, caterer, bakery, flowers, etc) it’s not like you have to quickly try to find all those things on very short notice, though.

Next stop - Lunch at Mama Melrose's in the Disney-MGM Studios. Lots of good food, and the leftovers got boxed up for the driver to eat while we were seeing other backstage stuff in the Studios (since he stayed with the bus the whole time).

We then went to the costume shop where they make all the creative costumes - from Cindy's dresses to the brooms in the parade. I didn't ask specifically why, but when we first arrived the receptionist called back to let them know we were in the building. I got the impression that they had to make sure something was hidden (maybe partial portions of non-face character outfits?) (I have since read a trip report that indicates it may be to allow anyone in for a fitting to go to a more private location). We did get to see the computer controlled plotter and cutting machine. Basically, just a VERY LARGE plotter with a cutting wheel, in fact the blades are commercial-off-the-shelf rotary blades available at any sewing/craft store. The table also has a vacuum system built into it to keep the material from slipping.

After that, we went over to the Magic Kingdom. We went to the "float barn" and saw the floats for Spectromagic, Share a Dream Come True Parade, and some of the floats used in the Halloween parade. One interesting thing was for the characters with large ball-gown type costumes, since it would be too hard to climb into the snow globe with the large gown on, they load the gown into the globe and then the performer actually gets dressed in the globe. Not quite sure how they do that with any modesty, but they’ve obviously figured something out to make that work. We made it out of there just in time (since we had to be gone an hour before the parade) - and went to the shop where they work on the holiday decorations. Lots of final preparations were going on finishing up getting everything ready to start installation the next month. From there, we walked across the street to the main maintenance shop. One of the neat things here was seeing some of the carrousel horses in rehab. They even have some of the original wooden horses in use, and they get rehabbed on the same schedule as the fiberglass ones, but the fiberglass horses don't last as long as the wooden ones have. They have a lot of cool computer-controlled equipment that "makes stuff" but it's kind of hard to put into words to describe. This is also where the work on ride vehicles and other things like that.

After that, we went back on stage to see the afternoon parade. We stopped in the middle of the road to see the sensors in the street that help the control room keep track of where the various floats are, so that the appropriate lights and music can be cued. After watching the parade, we strolled down Main Street and talked about a few of the windows. One item was that only Walt's window faced the castle, but later my sister and I saw another that also appeared to be facing the castle. Oh well.

We then went backstage and downstairs to the Utilidors. I was actually kind of disappointed in these, mostly because it had kind of been built up in my mind. They just sort of reminded me of a large quasi-industrial hallway with no windows. We were running late enough that we didn’t get to see the parade control room. So, it was back to Epcot, and then we got our commemorative pins, said goodbye to the driver and guide, and ended the tour.

Overall, it was a really nice way to spend the day in the middle of a week-long vacation. A couple of recommendations for anyone that might be considering it -- make sure you see the American Adventure and Body Wars (or Star Tours) before you go on the tour. It really helps to appreciate what you're seeing backstage after you've experienced it on-stage. Don't eat at Mama Melrose's before the tour - it's a great lunch served "family style" with a nice variety of food (including killer desserts). I also wouldn't really recommend the tour for your first trip to WDW -- just a little too much illusion-breaking.

Since it wasn’t very late at this point, we had more Disney stuff to do!

Not quite sure what our parents did to us growing up, or if it was because our last vacation was right after September 11, 2001, but we "had" to watch the flag retreat at MK at least once. So after the tour, we rode the monorail over to MK just to watch the flag retreat, and then back to Epcot to hit some food and wine festival booths. ANYWAY, for the flag retreat, there was only piped in music, which was kind of disappointing (not sure what days/times of year the band actually plays) and they were half done folding the flag when they realized they'd done the first part wrong and the stars weren't going to be on the outside. So they undid it and re-folded it correctly. I did REALLY like the way they had the "Veteran of the day" accept the flag and then present him (at least it was a him on this particular day) with a certificate. As they were folding the flag incorrectly, I was wondering if he would have made them re-fold the flag if they had tried to present it to him with the stripes on the outside.

After the Flag Retreat, we took 2 monorails BACK to Epcot, and grabbed a sandwich to split at the Living with the Land Pavilion. We then went to Ice Cool Station, where we tried all of them (including Beverly), with watermelon being our favorite of the options.

We “turned right” at the World showcase and ate our way around for about $42 worth. We ended up leaving before Illuminations because it was just too crowded for us. This day really showed us what a difference Extra Magic Hour makes in park attendance, even in the off season. Walking to Mama Melrose’s in the Studios we noted how much less crowded it was then the previous day, and Epcot was a lot more crowded than it was earlier in the week, and our comparison day was Sunday, which I’m sure had quite a few locals in attendance (though not as many as Saturday, we were to discover later in the trip)

Thursday, October 30, 2003

Thursday we slept late (for us), and drove over to the Polynesian for Tonga Toast at the Kona Café. We also had a French press pot with Kona coffee, which was very good as well. (There is a further discussion about Tonga Toast in Sunday’s portion of the report, where it’s compared to Banana Stuffed French Toast at Boatwright’s). We then drove over to Downtown Disney to shop in all the stores. We didn’t buy much, a few stickers at the scrapbook store, a booklet of postcards with characters (it’s actually hard to find a variety of character postcards), Christmas ornaments, and each of us got a shirt in the World of Disney.

After our shopping foray, we drove back to the Ticket and Transportation Center, parked there, and rode the monorail to Epcot. Interestingly, we’d driven from Downtown Disney going by Port Orleans, and managed to find our way into the parking lot at the TTC without going through the parking ticket booth, which wasn’t a big deal since we didn’t have to pay since we were staying onsite, but it seemed like it was a bit of a flaw in the whole arrangement. Parking at the TTC was a strategic move for later in the day after the Halloween party.

We then rode the monorail to Epcot, rode Spaceship Earth and Test Track (using the single rider line), and grabbed a frozen orange juice at the Colorful Eating booth. This particular item from the food and wine festival earned the highest marks in our books, ++$ (on the “minus – check - plus” scale, with $ added for extra good values). We weren’t quite sure if it was just because we were a little dehydrated, or if it was really was quite good, but it sure did hit the spot.

At this point we walked through the World Showcase to Morocco, and then headed back to the Living Seas pavilion for the Coral Reef restaurant for the food and wine pairing there.

We signed up for this pairing without thinking too much about it, having eaten at the restaurant a couple of visits ago. I think if we'd thought about it, we may not have done it, since neither of us are particularly adventurous seafood eaters. The food was well prepared, and the wines went well with most of them, but nothing was particularly noteworthy, with the possible exception of the dessert which was a citrus lasagna with strawberry glaze, although it was a bit tough to eat. I’m really glad we did it, though, and we did get a recommendation to make sure and try a couple of items from the festival, which turned out to be very good recommendations. For this pairing, they had a fully descriptive menu with each food item and the wine that went with it, and poured the wine as they were bringing out each course of food.

After that, we went through Living with the Land, and then rode the monorail back to the TTC. We boarded the resort monorail, and got off at the Grand Floridian, where we had an adult drink before heading on to the Magic Kingdom and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

MNSSHP:

The party tonight was a sell out, so we figured it would be fairly crowded. We were NOT disappointed in that. We arrived shortly after they officially opened it up (at 7) and people were already camping out for the first parade at 8. We’d already decided we were going to watch the second parade after the fireworks, so we weren’t too concerned about getting to see the parade, figuring there’d be a lot of kids leaving after the fireworks (more on that assumption later). The decorations were quite well done, considering they hadn’t been up earlier in the day. They had fog outside the berm, and quite heavy near the Haunted Mansion (and probably some other places, too), there were projected lights on the second floor of main street of witches and Mickey bats flying back and forth, there were large inflatable decorations (spiders, etc, on the tops of buildings, including a big Stitch (of Lilo and Stitch) on top of his new building in Tomorrowland). They had a LOT of characters out signing autographs, there seemed to be quite a bit more entertainment than normal, and they had quite a few trick-or-treat stations set up around the park. There were also quite a few photograph stations, since the party included a photo for each ticket-holding attendee (so if you were a family of 4, you could get one of just the 2 kids in costume, one of just Mom and Dad, and 2 of the whole family). We weren’t quite sure how they kept you from getting more than one photo per person, since you fill out the address form when you get your picture taken, but we didn’t want more than the 2 we were allotted, so we didn’t stop to figure it out. There was something about kids costume parades at a number of locations, and when we walked by the stage in Tomorrowland it looked like they might have had a DJ there doing stuff with the kids, but since we weren’t kids and weren’t really in costume, we didn’t investigate those areas at all.

Our first stop of the night was a cruise on the River Boat. They had an area set up on the lower level of the bow, so we just hung out there, listening to the 3 musicians and then Auntie Bellum came and told a ghost story. Her delivery and costume were great. After her story, the musicians played Grim Grinning Ghosts (as we were passing the very spookily lit Haunted Mansion). Supposedly there were characters on the boat as well, but they must have been on one of the upper levels, so we didn’t see them. Since we were right there, we decided to visit the Ghosts, and it wasn’t a long wait, but the loading area was really backed up to the “stretching” room. Then we went on a jungle cruise with a VERY good skipper. We’d meant to go on later in the night again, but didn’t make it back over there (honestly, we forgot until it was too late, because we did have time). Then we watched some Pirate Entertainment – and yes they did sing Pirates Life for Me, and they pulled some honorary pirates on stage with them – which are generally just kids, but one of the adults was in a pirate costume, so he got drafted as well. Of course, our next stop was the Pirates of the Caribbean.

At this point, it was time for fireworks, so we went back near the hub to watch them. They were really well done (based on the older fireworks show, not Wishes) but the villains high-jack the show part way through and instead of Tinkerbell, it’s a witch that flies from the castle (though from our vantage point, I wasn’t totally positive). They also set off fireworks from 360 degrees around the park – that in itself was a reason to stop and watch the show, because even with the expanded locations Wishes uses for launching the shells, it sure isn’t a full 360 degrees.

At this point, we’re getting hungry (the fireworks started at 9:15) and our little party guide says that The Pinocchio Village Haus restaurant is open in Fantasyland, so we go through Liberty Square to there, and the doors are unlocked, but nobody is home! I’d read a report before we left that said that particular restaurant was closed for a party at the beginning of the month, but I figured that with a sold-out party they’d have all of the indicated restaurants open. Ok, so we’re in Fantasyland, starting to get irritable, and wanting to make sure that we see the Headless Horseman’s ride at the head of the parade. That cut Tomorrowland out of the picture (too far from the parade route) so off to Pecos Bill’s Café (the only other indicated open counter service). Yes, it was open, and we were enough ahead of the parade we were able to walk down the middle of the parade route, otherwise I don’t think we could have made it with all the people camped out for the parade. Service was really slow (though not as bad as at the Studios), but we were able to get our toppings for our burgers in time to go outside and sit on the back-side of a planter to eat before the ride. The Headless Horseman was pretty cool – but if you came up late, knowing that the parade would take a while to get to Frontierland (since they start this parade on Main Street) you would have missed him because although he may start at the head of the parade, he finishes long before the parade dreams of getting to the end. The parade is cute, with most of the characters in costume, and has plenty of warmth to it.

The parade ends, and we head off to Peter Pan to use the fast passes we’d collected earlier. Even with FP, this ride always seemed to have a really long stand-by time. We got our picture taken right outside Small World (where they normally park strollers), and then hung out in Tomorrowland for the rest of the evening. We rode Space Mountain, and Buzz Lightyear about 3 times, so we would have had time to go on another Jungle Cruise without too much problem, if we’d just thought about it. Although we tried each time we rode Buzz, we never got more than about 300,000 points and we got that high only because I’d read somewhere where some of the high-scoring targets were. The CM by the fast pass/standby merge area said there was a high-scoring target in each room, but we sure didn’t hit them all!

Surprisingly, it was still quite crowded at midnight when we were leaving. There were a lot of kids still close to upright, which tells me there were a lot of really good naps in the afternoon that day. I don’t think we saw any kids having melt-downs, which is a really good thing, but would have been understandable if they hadn’t been properly prepared for the late night. We’d left our car at the TTC earlier in the day, so rode the Monorail there to get it. There were quite a few people waiting for the monorails, so we just rode the resort monorail and had to make just one extra stop. Since we rode the monorail, I didn’t get a chance to see how long the lines were for the buses back to the resorts, but the party guide did say they would be running throughout the party. We just hadn’t wanted to risk really tired kids waiting for a really crowded bus after they’d had too much stimulation and sugar.

Friday, October 31, 2003

We slept in on Friday and had another quick breakfast at the food court. Since we were going to the Studios, and it was Extra Magic Hour at Animal Kingdom, we actually got to the park before it was fully open, even with sleeping in. We went on Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster (with a Fast Pass), and went to a couple of shows of Millionaire to see if ML could get into the hot seat (in Sept ‘01 she was in the hot seat immediately prior to me) - but we got hurt by a couple of "bad" questions - including what game the kids pool game "Marco Polo" most like - we figured "Blind Man's bluff" and since that wasn't A, B, or C, she was pressing D like crazy, when something else showed up - and so she should have selected A - Hide and Seek. Since I was playing along (too competitive not to) but "going slow" so I didn't make it into the top spot, I was able to get the question correct. Late in that game (I think it was at the 32k check of the audience) I was actually number 10 on the board - I guess it just shows when it gets to a certain point it's better to be right than fast!

The host did have some fun with it being Halloween – in the first show they did the “camera check” with people in Orange shirts, and when he was doing the introduction there was a “ghost” backstage (basically a white flag on a stick), and they did add some extra fog effects to the studio. Also, during the break he gave tea bags to anyone who was in costume. Lame, but it was an attempt to get some Halloween spirit into the show (too bad they couldn’t do a few Halloween themed questions, at least the fastest finger).

In between the shows, we did have a quick egg roll snack from an outside card vendor, which was a good thing we ran into it, since we were headed to the commissary and it was right at noon!

At this point we took the Boat to Epcot (it takes quite a while since you have to make 3 stops before the International Gateway), and made our way slowly to Alfredo’s for our second food and wine pairing.

Disney added this food and wine pairing after the rest of the festival had been announced. Although it was full for the day we were there, it appeared that they did not fully book this one before hand, because there was a sign out in front of the pavilion advertising it. For this one, they had a placemat with the three wines listed, and each of the wines already poured into glasses on numbered circles on the placemat. Two of the wines were so good; I've decided I need to get a few bottles for myself and to give as gifts. One was a light white wine with just a hint of effervescence (Banfi Principessa Perlante) that would go well with a wide range of foods. The other I really liked we'd even given a plus from the champagne booth at the festival - Banfi Rosa Regale - which is a rose champagne that actually goes quite well with chocolate. The food was also very good. So good, in fact, that I thought we needed to have a meal there later in the week. The three courses were a salad, pasta, and of course, chocolate dessert.

One piece of advice we got from a couple at the food and wine pairing was to buy the Australian Wine Passport, which got you 5 different wine tastings (from 5 different regions of Australia) for $5. It’s probably one of the best deals of the festival (although they are small tastings and not full glasses). In the Australia area, they also had free tastings of different kinds of wines, and we enjoyed the cabernet tasting. The same couple from the food and wine pairing joined us at our table for this as well, which was cool, since they had recommended it to us, though we were chatting enough I’m sure we missed some of the information abut wine making in Australia.

At this point, we ate from about Italy to Greece, watched Honey I Shrunk the Audience, and called it a night.

Saturday, November 1, 2003

Saturday was another “catch up” day, so we ended up going to three different parks, not making it back to Animal Kingdom, but hitting the other three. First up, Extra Magic Hour at the Studios. We decided to skip the food court this morning, and ate in the park at Starring Rolls. Both things we got were really good, but the apple turnover was exceptional. While ML was getting the food, I walked to the Tower to get fast passes for later, because with only one side open, the standby line for this got really long, really quickly. After eating, we walked to the Rollercoaster and did that, since the line wasn’t too long. We killed a little more time (including walking over to the Indy stunt show area and pulling the rope at the well), and then rode Tower. The only other things we wanted to do in the Studios weren’t starting until 11:30, (Millionaire and maybe the stunt show), and we actually browsed through most of the stores in the Studios at this point, so ML said it would be ok to not try Millionaire one more time, and there was no way we were going to kill THAT much time just waiting for the stunt show, so it was “Goodbye to the Studios” for this trip. Before the shows start (and during the off-season, that means 11:30), there really isn’t that much going on at the studios, especially if you’ve already spent a whole day there. We didn’t end up seeing the Haunted Mansion movie exhibit – If the line looked reasonable, we were usually going to Millionaire or didn’t have enough time before something else was going on. We also missed Sounds Dangerous, but had done that one on a previous trip, and really had no desire to see the Playhouse Disney show.

We rode the boat over to Epcot at this point. This was the first Disneyworld trip we'd used the boat transportation between these parks - and although it was relaxing – it sure is a time eater. I think if you were staying at one of the Epcot resorts it would be wonderful (since you could walk to Epcot and boat to the Studios without too much effort), and it did make me consider looking at those resorts for potential future trips, but it was no where near as fast as the Monorail from the Magic Kingdom to Epcot.

We actually arrived in Epcot before 11, because the World Showcase wasn’t open yet. We went to the Living Seas and watched the movie, and then wandered around the aquarium a little bit. The big tank doesn’t seem to have as many fish in it as it used to, but it just may be my perceptions. We rode Mission: Space with fast passes, and this time we both even risked raising our heads and looking around a little, neither of us with ill effects.

We then went on the Behind the Seeds tour. They really seem to be pushing tour a LOT more then they did in the past (on one trip we had to really hunt to figure out where we would sign up for that). They have the undergrad students that are there for the semester give the tours - and these are agriculture students, so they really get excited about the different processes and stuff that they show - our group only had 4 people in it - and it was nice to be able to LOOK at the plants and such that you just get a peek at from the Living with the Land boat trip.

By this time it’s time to start eating around the World Showcase. We were too late to sign up for a beer seminar – especially since it was a Saturday. Oh well, something to look forward to next trip. We’d made Priority seating arrangements for Alfredo’s at 4:00, so we eventually made our way over there for that. It was not too long of a wait, and we were seated right next to the doorway to the back room where they were doing the food and wine pairing. The only down-side of this location was that the woman who was ALWAYS in the dining area (I don’t think she ever walked back into the kitchen) – she made sure your water was full and showed us the dessert tray, but wasn’t our waiter, anyway, whatever her role is, she “stood” right in that doorway and although that’s where she was supposed to stand, she did a good job of not seeming to be hovering over us, but it was hard for her not to. We had the Tomato and Cheese Salad and the 3 pasta sampler. We were a little disappointed that, even though we said we were splitting both, the waiter did not bring the salad out first and we didn’t get an extra plate to make splitting easier. The portion sizes were a bit small, for the price, so if you were “normal” hungry, you could probably eat the salad and the pasta sampler without over-stuffing yourself. Our waiter also tried to sell us on dessert, so I’m not sure if he didn’t realize that we’d already been shown the tray and declined – it seemed like the busser (for lack of a better term) had been on top of what was happening, and the waiter sure wasn’t. I was definitely not over-stuffed after this (although I could not have eaten an entrée on my own after our snacking lunch that didn’t start all too early), and although the desserts looked great, the one we probably would have gotten was just a bigger portion of the dessert we’d gotten the day before at the pairing, so we decided to eat our dessert around the world showcase.

Basically, we had dessert from Australia to Spain and finished off our Australian wine passport along the way. They really didn’t have this set up well for any kind of weekend crowd – we’d already hit the first 3 areas of Australia, but had to wait in the full line to get in to the tasting area – even though at that point only the first 3 areas had any kind of crowd around them.

After our dessert, we headed to Food Rocks, since we knew this would be closing soon (after our trip they announced the closing date in Early January), and then decided to hit a few last things in the Magic Kingdom.

After a pair of monorail rides, we arrived right at the end of the first Spectromagic parade, so we got some popcorn and watched the end of the parade. We made our way to get Fast Passes for Philharmagic (our big reason for the trip here), but they weren’t in use that day, so we walked back to the front of the castle (through Liberty Square since they’d already blocked off the castle in preparation for the fireworks) watched the fireworks (this time from the opposite side of the hub as the viewing the previous Saturday), then walked back around through Liberty Square to Philharmagic. Since we missed the late-night Jungle Cruise at the Halloween party, we decided to do that now. At the early Halloween party cruise our captain was joking with the cast members loading guests onto the boat that he didn’t want to leave until he was totally full, just like a certain female captain he named. Well, she was our captain on this cruise, and I could kind of see where she thought she was all that – but she was pretty good. We hiked over to Tomorrowland, but the wait for both Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear was too long, so we decided to call it a night, and ended up leaving with the crowd after the second Spectromagic parade.

We picked up our free “art” at the store when we got back to the resort, and I’m looking at it, thinking of my roll-aboard size suitcase, and really wondering if it was going to fit with all my stuff. We stopped and got a snack at the Food Court (it sounds like we were eating constantly today, and it was quite often, but the shared meal at Alfredo’s was the only “non-snacking” meal we had).

Well, I was right to question the size of my suitcase, because the art didn’t fit inside my suitcase even with nothing else in it (the short dimension of the package was bigger than the short dimension of my suitcase), so I decided to bring it back to the store in the morning and have the free art shipped back to my house. I just want to know who the genius was that thought of framed art as a good “extra” for the Fairytale Magic package! I figure whoever it was probably has a lot of UPS stock!

Sunday, November 2, 2003

Bummer, our last day at the parks. We got up and had Breakfast at Boatwright’s. We took this as an opportunity to compare the Banana Stuffed French toast to Tonga Toast, which we’d tried earlier. Tonga toast is dusted with powdered sugar - Boatwright’s toast is coated in cinnamon/sugar mixture. The stuffing (at least from our two samples) was mushy-er in the Tonga toast than at Boatwright’s. We preferred the less-mushy version. Also, the Boatwright’s wasn't quite as greasy, and the cinnamon/sugar coating, while a little over-the-top, helped cut a little bit of the sweetness. I know this sounds odd, but I think it was mostly the cinnamon part of it. So, sorry to all the Tonga toast advocates, we had to cast our votes preferring Boatwright’s version, though if you weren’t staying at POR and it was easier to get to the Polynesian, I’d say they were close enough, that you should do whichever was easier. And if you are a coffee aficionado, the press pot of Kona Coffee should be used as the tie breaker.

After our breakfast, we arranged for shipping of the free art (about $10), went back, and packed and loaded the car. Unfortunately, I managed to write my work address (as I’d wanted) with my home zip code on the shipping form. When my package still hadn’t arrived at work more than 2 weeks after we left, I discovered this little error when I was looking for the phone number to call. Well, after calling I found that it takes Disney almost 10 working days to get the package TO UPS. They’d repackaged it in a box about the volume of a roll-aboard suitcase, and since I now had the tracking number, I was able to call UPS directly and correct the zip code. It actually arrived that same afternoon. Anyway, back to our day?

We drove over to Epcot to try select things from the Food and Wine Festival that we hadn’t tried before that we really wanted, including the crème brulee at France which was DIVINE. I’m really glad we finished off with that dessert, since it really showed the difference between flan and crème brulee – and that difference is NOT the caramelized sugar on top, but the number of eggs per serving.

At this point, it’s time to head toward the airport, and since we are flying two different airlines, we get to leave from two different terminals. I drop ML off at her terminal and make my way around to my terminal and return the car. We’d opted for the “pre-pay for gas” option, just as a convenience, and we ended up using about ½ the tank. I had no problems checking in at the Delta self-serve kiosk, the line at security was fairly short, and I made it to the gate with PLENTY of time to spare. I’d been concerned about flying out of Orlando on Sunday afternoon, but it really wasn’t too bad – until I got to the actual gate area. Since I was flying on a “Delta Connection” flight, they had us in a lower-level area (which means we didn’t have to walk down stairs to get to our small plane) and there were probably 7 or 8 gates served by this one smallish waiting area that was TOTALLY packed with people. I had to make my way to the restrooms at one point while waiting, and that was a real chore with a roll-aboard carry-on. Made it home safe and sound, found out my flight (for work) in the morning was a fairly early morning flight, so quickly emptied the suitcase, did a quick load of laundry, and repacked. ML made it home safe also, and we both declared it a successful vacation.

Money stuff

ML and I have developed a fairly effective (for us) method of dealing with finances. At the beginning of the vacation we put $X into a kitty and then pay for meals, snacks, drinks, and "joint" souvenirs from the kitty. As the vacation goes on, and the account gets low, we kick in more money. This system works really well for us, in part because we don't put our vacation spending on credit cards, and in part because we generally eat about the same amount (so it's not like one of us buys 4 course dinners while the other has a small salad and ice water). This time around the only joint souvenir we bought was a baby Pluto for our newest niece or nephew (our sister is due in early January). In part, we bought it at the beginning of the week so that "mousekeeping" would have something to get creative with - but all that ever was done was a couple of washcloths put together as a toothbrush holder. Not sure if it was the maid assigned to our building, or because we were clearly two adults, or the fact that we were at a moderate and not a deluxe, but it was a little disappointing (and yes, we did tip).

ANYWAY, this was about money -- we ended up spending $400 each on food and drinks for the 8 night trip - and this included almost exactly $200 (total) on the food and wine festival (outside of the pairings). We didn't have a lot of alcohol, but weren't tea-totalers by any stretch. I kind of wanted to keep track of the food and wine festival separate and so we cashed a $50 traveler’s check at the first stand we stopped at, and basically ate and drank until that was done. And it was really that we didn’t want to do much more than that at any one time, not that the "budget" was spent. We used traveler’s checks so that we didn’t have to carry large amounts of cash with us, and they are no hassle to use in the parks (never had to show ID or anything). Especially for the Food and Wine festival it was really nice not charging $3 at a time to our room, as those transactions took just a bit longer, and we were surprised at the number of people who did that.

Final Summary

Port Orleans Riverside was great. We were in Magnolia Terrace, which was just a short walk across a bridge to the main resort area. We didn't spend a lot of extra time at the resort and we never did take the boat over to Downtown Disney, because we wanted to go in the morning, and it only runs after 3 pm. The lounge seemed to be a really party-atmosphere type of a place when the piano player was there - good if you want that and don't want to go to Pleasure Island, not so good if you want a relaxing drink after a day around kids in the park all day. The bus service was adequate, for the most part. Had to wait a couple of times for more than 5 minutes, but it wasn't too bad.

Overall, crowds weren't too bad, but there was a real difference between a park that had early entry and one that didn't. The only real exception to this was Epcot on Saturday, and that was mostly because of the food and wine festival and locals. With judicious use of fast pass and early entry (and single rider for test track) we never waited more than 1/2 hour (posted) for any attraction. We probably would have ridden both Test Track and Tower of Terror an extra time or two, except for the fast pass return times were quite a bit later (or sold out). The only really long wait times in MK were for Peter Pan and Pooh - though Splash may not have been too good, but we only went to ride that once (not quite sure why, but we never made it over there on our later visits).

One thing we did do as a money saving item was getting a Brita Sport Bottle. Since we brought a backpack into the park most days, it wasn't too much of a hassle, and when we got thirsty, we just filled it up at a water fountain, and didn't have to pay through the nose for the parks bottled water, but didn't get overcome by the sulfur smell of the water, either. On our first day, we did take a swig without the filter (for every good scientific experiment needs a control), and it did make a huge difference. We also used it to make coffee in the morning, and I think it probably helped there, too (although since I'm not the coffee drinker, and since we didn’t make a "control" pot, I can't say for sure). The only down-side of the bottle is that the filter is in the sport bottle lid, so you have to squeeze the water out of the spout to get it filtered. Both of us, given a bottle of water with a sports top, will take the entire top off to drink directly from the bottle without impedance.

Adherence to plans: Well, since our plans were pretty open, it wasn’t too hard to stay with them. About the only things on our “maybe do this today list” that we really didn’t do were Typhoon Lagoon and watching the fireworks from the California Grill.

Overall, it was a great vacation, and we can’t wait to go back, though it will probably be a couple of years, unless I can get some sort of work trip to the area and tack on a weekend for myself. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

Cathy Sowa