Kelly O'Connor - September 2005 - Port Orleans French Quarter, Offsite

Time of Year: Fall
Travel Method: Plane, rental car
Resort: POFQ, Offsite
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Frequent
Comments: Kelly and Bill spend most of their Disney time at Disneyland but have made their share of trips out to Florida. This time around, the dining plan on the Magic Your Way package helped seal the deal, though they learned there was a down side as well.


Kelly O'Connor -- September 2005 -- Walt Disney World (POFQ, Offsite)

The cast:

Kelly (34) – Author. Xerox operator for an environmental engineering firm. California native and Disneyland veteran, current DL annual passholder, visits almost weekly. 4th trip to WDW. Thinks too many trip report writers classify themselves as “veterans” after only 3 or 4 trips. Try 40 or 50.
Bill (40) – Systems Engineer at a collections agency. Partner of 4 years, Florida (Winter Park) native, but been in California 15 years, DL annual passholder.
Why

The main factor that prompted this trip to happen when it did was Disney’s offer to include free dining with the Magic Your Way package. Considering that on our last trip in 2003 we spent about $1000 in meals alone, this was a phenomenal marketing gimmick that worked wonders on me. It had also been 2 years since our last trip, which seems to be about the threshold of how long we can hold out between visits. After our last trip, we agreed that we wanted to buy into DVC using profits from our home sale, which actually just occurred in July 2005. Well, the new home that we moved into needed much more renovation than we assessed when first making the offer to buy it, so consequently all that “fun money” earmarked for DVC got swallowed up by repairs and a new kitchen. In the meantime, we didn’t want to wait indefinitely until we could afford to buy, so we’re taking a regular trip and just not staying in a DVC property this time.

Planning

When these specials are released by Disney, I tend to try to book the last possible dates available, thinking that most of the heavy crowds will have finished their vacations by that point. It’s probably a wasted effort, but I went ahead and used that same reasoning for picking my dates of September 28-October 4. I think the rules stated that the last checkin had to occur by October 4. These dates actually sounded appealing for other reasons, such as the fact that we would catch the very beginning of both the Food & Wine Festival as well as Mickey’s Not-so-Scary-Halloween Party (MNSSHP), the latter of which I’d read such favorable reviews about in many other trip reports. The last Disney Halloween event I attended, aside from the yearly Haunted Mansion Holiday merchandise events, was Mickey’s Halloween Treat at Disneyland, which was discontinued after only 2 years in the mid 90s (but is now being retested for DCA this year), and it seems that the Florida event is a much larger affair so I’m excited to be able to attend. Little did I realize by glancing in the weather section of the local paper that September weather in Orlando is still miserably hot and not at all Autumn-like, so I’m not looking forward to that, but we’ll manage. I finally found one of those Brita Fill-N-Go bottles that filters the water for you as you go on clearance at Kmart. Come to find out Brita no longer manufactures them, so it’s a good thing that I also grabbed 2 refill cartridges.

I booked the Magic Your Way Plus Free Dining package for 6 nights at All Star Music Resort about 2 months beforehand using WDW’s website, which was extremely easy to navigate, and applied the initial $200 deposit. I then paid another $100 when I had it to spare, and then paid the final amount from profit money from our home sale. The website also lets you customize everything, and does a great job of upselling by showing you the difference in price on the park hopper tickets if you want to add days or add features. I noticed that the cost of adding another day of park hoppers was only about 8 dollars, so I couldn’t resist and selected the 8 day ticket option even though we’re only staying 6 nights! I figured I could easily add a final hotel night somewhere else later. Sure enough, this confused the system enough that some of the screens showed me checking out on October 4th and some the 5th, and the same happened with the mailed confirmation papers. I figured if there’s a glitch and the hotel thinks we’re staying for 7 nights, great; if not, it’s just a good excuse to try another Orlando area hotel. Of course, it concerned me a little that the Magical Express bus system would expect to take us back to MCO on the 4th, but I figured I’d work that out when we checked in. About a month later, I purchased 2 tickets to MNSSHP using ebay profits from the sale of my Disney collectibles, so one might say the money definitely stayed in the same family. All the while I was constantly checking a million websites looking for the best airfare. I tend to obsess about finding the very best price for everything and sometimes lose out on great deals because I procrastinate, but I finally gave in and went with United, nonstop from LAX for around $230 a person. Not bad, but when you’ve paid $150 and $175 in past years, you always expect to get it again. Not with today’s fuel prices, I guess. I chose a redeye flight that arrives into Orlando at 6:11 AM because it gives us that whole day to play in Florida rather than spend a whole day of a package in the air. We’ll be tired that first day, but a nap in the afternoon should curtail that. By the way, that same procrastination is how I lost out on Pop Century and had to go with an All Star instead <g>. What’s funny is, later on Disney extended the booking period on this package and made more rooms at Pop Century available so I could have switched, but I left well enough alone.

As it turns out, my resort choice didn’t matter because Bill had other plans. I foolishly gave him the login and password to WDW’s site so he was able to go in, find the confirmation number, and call Disney to ask about upgrading to a moderate. I had already done this per his request and found it to be almost $400 more which we couldn’t afford, but when he called, he was first told that nothing else was available but was put on hold forever and when the guy came back, he offered something at Port Orleans French Quarter. Bill took it, not even knowing what POFQ was – just knowing it was better than the All Stars! When he told me, I was glad since I had never seen either of the PO hotels, but not too happy about the extra expense. Bill has vowed to pay for the difference by doing side computer jobs when we get home.

Day 1 September 27-28

Our first day started the night before because of that redeye flight out of LAX. My mom was able to meet us for dinner which was heroic on her part because she had just finished filming a Days of our Lives episode earlier in the day and it ran late. It was also a huge benefit because she could take our car back to her house in the San Fernando Valley and avoid us having to pay for airport parking! I had worked a full day but Bill had taken it off so he drove out to my moms earlier in the day to work on her computer and I took the train from Orange County to LA and then onto the subway to Universal City where surprisingly my cousin picked me up, She took me to Whole Foods where I met up with mom and Bill. Mom had called my cousin to come get me knowing she wouldn’t make it in time. We finally took off toward LAX and, after looking in mom’s Entertainment book, decided to have dinner at Encounter, the theme restaurant at the airport. How convenient, perfect location and with a coupon, lol! I had been here once before and hated the food (duck pizza) but I quickly learned that I just picked the wrong item because everything was great this time. This restaurant has been around since the 60’s and is an airport icon but was completely remodeled by Disney in the 90s and it looks great. In fact, I was wishing that some of the quality that went into this place was more prevalent in our own Tomorrowland. It’s done in futuristic décor, perhaps the way you’d expect the lobby of the Contemporary to look, and the elevators have great mood music as you’re ascending and descending. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re using LAX because it combines the old and the new quite well.

Mom dropped us off at the United gate and even though I had already checked in online, we still had to wait in the paper ticket line. It seemed like a waste of time but no matter. I quickly put the yellow tags from Disney’s Magical Express on our luggage, after, of course, crossing off the All Stars and writing “POFQ” on them instead. We had never used DME and I was nervous that the barcode was coded to All Stars, but there was no need to worry as we would find out later. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for our flight, which was delayed almost two hours. Nothing major, just that the aircraft needed the entire computer that controls the engine changed! I think they were calling it the ECC or ECU unit, not sure. Talk about thinking you are walking into a plane crash. The worst part was not knowing whether our flight would be cancelled or just run very late, and sitting in the airport in the middle of the night with nowhere to go. Finally we started boarding at midnight, instead of 10:30, and were on our way as fast as possible. The flight was about 2/3 full so we were able to share 3 seats between the 2 of us which was great since this was serving as our sleep for the night. I was getting irritated because there was always some distraction to wake us, whether it be the beverage cart or the free movie or the unknown person who threw up in the aisleway and would not own up to it, causing the flight attendant to have to throw down a blanket to cover the potential biohazard, but we probably each ended up with a solid…2 hours of sleep or so <g>.

We arrived into MCO around 8:15 and groggily tried to compose ourselves enough to figure out DME. We went straight to baggage claim and waited until everything was distributed and our bags never came out. Slightly panicked, I asked a United attendant if perhaps the DME people take your baggage before it hits the baggage carousel and the answer was yes. Ugh. Worse yet was that the DME people were at Terminal A, not B, so we traypsed back thru the airport to the right place, finding the DME reps with their big white hand gloves showing us the way. How I missed this the first time, I’ll never know. Anyway, our bus driver Jeanne got us to WDW in great time and with a few corny jokes on the way. I tipped her $2 and thanked her, which nobody else did. I could already see how this system was playing havoc on tipped jobs in Orlando.

The weather was extremely hot and humid – low 90s and 50 percent humidity. I realize this is nothing compared to July and August, but coming from mid 70s and no humidity at home, we were both in shock. There were only a couple people in line checking in at POFQ so it didn’t take long, and CM Anna found us a room that was ready at this early hour which was a wonderful surprise. We got room #2134 which is in building 2, first floor, a 15-second walk to the pool and about a 10-second walk to the boat dock, an absolutely perfect location! This has to be one of those premium locations that cost extra, but I guess we got lucky. The other people at the front desk were being told to check back around 11am so somehow I felt special. We headed over to our room, passing the nice hot tub and huge pool and instantly knew that we loved this resort. It wasn’t crowded, had plenty of space to accommodate it’s 1000+ rooms, and the theme was charming, if not ironic in the wake of Katrina’s recent devastation. The room itself is great – having stayed at CBR on our last trip, I found the layout to be identical but with different textiles. I knew that the hotel had been closed in 2003 for a complete renovation, although I think it was more just a reaction to reduced room bookings and Disney found it easier to call it a complete renovation by closing it for a year. The rooms had definitely been updated, and the curtains, bedspreads, carpet and furniture looked new. I assume that the tile in the dressing area is original as well as a few other details that looked older than the rest of the room, but all in all it looked great, in fact, it looked quite a bit better than the pictures on WDW’s website. For almost the entire time we were there, workers were constantly making improvements – either by repainting railings, removing and repainting the fake shutters outside the windows, or replanting shrubs and flowers. I think I was more pleased with seeing so much rehab activity than annoyed by the smell of paint and the sight of all the golf carts parked on the walkways.

After we got settled in the room, we took a quick dip in the pool and spa. Considering we had basically been awake for more than 24 hours by this point, it was heavenly. Immediately, the lady who was replanting flowers near the spa asked us how we were, where we were from, talked about the weather, and so forth, a trend that would continue with almost every cast member we encountered. I realize that it is probably just part of the WDW training process, but the CMs always seem so interested in your lives back home. At DL, you are hardly ever asked where you come from, how long you are staying, which rides you’ve been on, etc. I guess because they assume that most of us are annual passholders. Kind-of sad in a way, but just one of many differences between DL and WDW I observed. After our swim and soak, we went back to the room and found that DME had already delivered our luggage. I had told Bill that it can take up to 2 hours but this was more like 45 minutes tops so I was very pleased.

We unpacked and headed to the food court, Sassagoula Floatworks Factory. This is really cute with a bunch of Mardi Gras type parade props hanging from the ceilings, some of which, I believe, are said to be authentic New Orleans memorabilia. I took a bunch of pictures and then we ordered our food. I had biscuits & gravy, a side of scrambled eggs and a milk while Bill ordered 3 beignets, a side of grits, and a refillable mug. Total was 24.44 which I paid for. Knowing that our free Dining Plan would include one counter service, one table service and one snack per day, I thought it made more sense to save the counter service credit for lunch and pay for breakfast up front since lunch would probably be more expensive. The food was good, although I didn’t care for the fact that almost everything is prepared before you order it – some of the hot items had that caked-over “glaze” on them from sitting too long without being stirred. The highlight was definitely the beignets – and at 1.99 for 3, a delicious bargain for anyone with a sweet tooth.

When we got back to the room, we discovered that Bill had forgotten the foot attachments that go with his wheelchair back at home, rendering the wheelchair useless. We were both so pissed but what can you do? I remembered that the Moderates provide free wheelchairs to their guests for the length of stay so I inquired if one was available at the Concierge desk. French Quarter was out of them, so the lady said she’d be right back and went to get one from Riverside. I sure hope she took a golf cart; that’s a long walk. Even though Bill is very partial to his own chair, we were glad to have a spare to hold us over in the meantime, and not to have to pay for it at the Parks. At this point we were about to collapse so we took a nap and I set the alarm for a couple of hours later. Bill was having a horrible time connecting his laptop to the high speed internet connection in the room and had to call support twice until finally finding out that his cable was the culprit. This was odd since the cable works anywhere else, but he finally got connected and it worked for the rest of our stay.

When we woke up I called my mom to tell her about the foot attachment predicament. She checked and sure enough they were still in our truck back home so I gave her explicit instructions on how to ship them via FedEx to our hotel using my company’s account number, which would give us a discounted rate. She took them to her local Kinko’s later that day, and included Bill’s reading glasses which he had also forgotten. Thanks, Ma.

I had rented a car for our length of stay starting today at 4pm from the National desk at the Dolphin. This was part of my crazy idea to utilize DME yet still have a car during our stay, which turned out to be a huge mistake. We took the shuttle bus from POFQ to Downtown Disney and transferred to the bus for the Swan, I think. It was either that or the Boardwalk, can’t remember. This was our first Disney bus ride and it took forever. I can’t imagine how people come here with no cars and get everything done – we would have gone absolutely nuts if we had to rely solely on these buses, especially with Bill’s wheelchair! Anyway, we arrived at the National counter at 4:20 and found it…closed. Not a soul around. We couldn’t believe that there was no popup or any other warning on the website alerting us to the fact that this location was only open until 4:00. I was so mad that they would even allow a rental pickup time that was right at closing. There was a phone number to call at the desk and it rang through to the regular 800 number. I was beyond livid so Bill tried the number again and reached someone locally. It turns out it was the other National location at the Car Care Center outside the Magic Kingdom next to the Hess station. They were going to send a driver over to get us and let us rent from their location. They showed up about 20 minutes later and we were able to get our car, thank God. I had reserved using a discount code from Sam’s Club which beat any other deal on property, but Bill added himself as a driver for $8/day extra. This was done because I was owed some money by Bill’s boss for work I had done for him last year. He usually pays me in hotel nights because he knows how much we love to travel, and he had said to book two nights and charge him. Since the POFQ package was already paid for, he was willing to pay for this car rental, but only if Bill could show it as a travel expense, so hence the adding of his name to the reservation. By this point, between the car incident, the late arrival via United and the missing wheelchair parts we were just through with it – however, we now had a Chevy Impala to get around with, and we weren’t going to waste any more time.

I had made all 6 of our Priority Seatings for table service dinners about a month before the trip, and tonight’s was for 7:50 and it was already after 5 and we had yet to have any lunch. My memory is fuzzy on how we could have possibly eaten lunch this close to dinner but this is what my notes say so I’m sticking with it. I drove to the Boardwalk and let Bill off in front while I parked the car. I thought a perfect use of our first counter service credit would be the pizza window at Spoodles. After hearing about it so many times in Sheri’s trip reports, I was dying to try it. We walked right past it, not even knowing what it was, and started heading toward the other end of the Boardwalk before finally asking a CM where the heck it was. She pointed us back the other way, and I ordered a slice of cheese pizza, salad and diet Coke for me and a slice of pepperoni pizza, carrot cake and Coke for Bill. The normal charge would have been $22 which means I should have used the credit at breakfast for $24, but I wasn’t concerned. The sun was blazing hot on the Boardwalk at this point so we took our food over to the little covered area near the stairs up to the lobby and found some comfy Adirondack chairs and ate there. The pizza was delicious and the carrot cake was to die for. We were completely satisfied with our first lunch on the dining plan. A CM who was taking a smoke break was near us and talked to us a bit, including giving us a piece of the pumpkin fudge that she had bought earlier in the day, reminding us that it was a seasonal offering and to buy it now before it was gone. We never did, but we sure appreciated the tip. I then took some more pictures in the general area and we went back up to the lobby, stopped for a quick restroom break, and went back to the hotel to put the leftovers in the fridge.

Tonight’s plan was dinner at the Concourse Steakhouse followed by Extra Magic Hours (EMH) at the Magic Kingdom until 11:00. We parked at the Contemporary (CR) and were a little bit early so we browsed the shops on the Concourse level, which are some of my favorite stores in all of WDW. For some reason the CR seems to have a really good selection of stuff compared to the other hotels. We were seated by 8:00 for our PS at 7:50. I had never been to this restaurant and chose it because I knew that the CR was due for a huge refurbishment which included moving and changing the name of this restaurant, so I wanted to experience it once before all that happened. It shares space with Chef Mickey’s next door and is really only separated by a single dividing wall, which seemed a little spartan to me since these two restaurants are quite different experiences. While waiting to be seated, I took some pictures of the Concourse with no flash, which come out really nice and show the true lighting of the place instead of the glaring brilliance that can happen with a flash.

We both started with the Onion Soup, followed by the 7 oz. Filet Mignon for me and the 10 oz. New York Strip for Bill. For dessert, I had the Chocolate Pudding Cake and Bill had the Peach Blueberry Crisp. Bill also wanted a side of oven roasted mushrooms so we shared that. Everything was very good. Not incredible, but good. I expected a little bit more from a steak house, but there was some grisle on Bill’s steak, and the overall décor was a bit dated, but still comfortable. The noise level is quite high in this area, which isn’t the restaurant’s fault, but I can see why the rumor is currently to move the Food & Fun Center here and to move the Steak House downstairs to the lobby level. I think there it will have a better chance at a more adult, quiet atmosphere. Our total check would have been $88.20, but everything was covered by the Dining Plan so I was quite pleased.

After dinner, I wanted to get some pictures of the pool area so we went out there. I was surprised to find the pools closed and noone in sight, which was odd considering it was still early and the pools at the Moderates would all be quite busy at this hour. The whole area is lit with those huge stadium lights, so there were millions of bugs everywhere – I’m guessing because of the proximity to the lake. Whatever the reason, it was disgusting and I just grabbed a few pics and we were out of there. I used the restroom out by the pool and there were even flying bugs in there all over the lighting fixtures. I think they need to seriously consider installing some bug zappers out here because the whole area was basically useless in this condition. We had the wheelchair with us at this point, so I took us to the MK via the connecting walkway which was a good way to burn off a little of that steak. Naturally it started to rain as soon as we began but we just pulled out a rain jacket and walked faster. By the time we got to the front gates it had stopped.

For our first night in the MK, Bill wasn’t feeling like moving out of the wheelchair much so we started with something easy, Buzz Lightyear. Since our last trip in 2003, the Disneyland version of Buzz has opened so we had something to compare it to. I’d say overall the rides are similar but not identical. Most people prefer DL’s but I think I like WDW’s better, with one major exception – the music. DL has a different soundtrack and it’s just more immersive to me. However, WDW seems to have more interior space and the scenes feel bigger and longer. Of course, the guns do not detach from the cars here, and the cars had paint peeling off everywhere, but it was still fun. Bill got a respectable score but mine was pathetic. Hey, I was steering, that’s my excuse.

Bill was really in pain by this point and didn’t feel like Space Mountain, so I parked him at the smoking area and went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA) by myself. It was at this point that I started to notice that Tomorrowland was in horrible disrepair. There was peeling paint and burnt out lights everywhere! I had always looked up to WDW’s Tomorrowland for still having the Peoplemover and Carousel of Progress, but tonight it was looking really dingy. I did enjoy all the music that is piped in throughout the Land, since DL’s Tomorrowland is pretty quiet at night if a band isn’t playing at the Terrace. In spite of all this, I loved my ride on the TTA as always. I can’t believe how much of Space Mountain it lets you see – you practically feel like you’ve ridden it just by passing through. After that, we strolled toward Fantasyland to take a peek at the new Pooh’s Playful Spot. I was completely underwhelmed, mostly because I knew which E Ticket ride used to be here and this seemed like a ridiculous use of such prime real estate. There was a CM at the entrance who welcomed us and when she asked us what we thought we were polite, but I couldn’t help but say that it didn’t hold a candle to what was there before. She knew it was the Subs, but she had never seen them in person. Amateur! We both told her to read up on her WDW history and find some pictures or something. After that we just browsed through some more shops on our way out. We found that the former collectibles shop next to City Hall had been relocated to inside Cinderella’s Castle, which was disappointing but we weren’t about to walk back to see it at that hour.

The Monorail ride back to the CR took forever. We found out early in the trip that the monorails were being converted from a DOS to a Windows operating system, and the ones with the Windows system were extremely particular about where the monorail could stop or the doors wouldn’t open. They had to be perfectly centered with the new automatic gates or the driver had to back up the train. I can understand the desire for precision for safety reasons, but this caused a ton of delays during our whole trip. We could always tell which trains were still on DOS because they opened and shut quickly and we were always on our way faster. I think we rode just about every color monorail on this trip and I’d say half of them had been converted or so. I might as well say now before I forget that only about half of the monorails had working spiels. At first I thought they had removed Jack Wagner’s classic “Please stand clear of the doors” but was relieved to hear it at least half of the time. The trains were in overall sad condition with peeling carpet and chipped paint everywhere. It’s not their fault, I mean, I think they have been around since 1991 and carry millions of passengers each year, but I really felt they should have been getting more frequent rehabs over the years. There is also new narration between the stops that has been recorded since the 50th anniversary began and it is terribly annoying because they try to fit in so much verbage that there isn’t even space for the guy to take a breath between sentences. You can actually hear where they have edited out his dead space to make more room for more information. It makes what should be a leisurely trip around the Lake very stressful in my opinion.

Even though it was late, we needed to make a side trip to Wal-Mart to grab a few essentials. I called information to get the address and we made it pretty quickly to one in Kissimmee – not the older one on 192 but a very new SuperCenter that was actually pretty nice inside. We picked up milk, camcorder tapes, a transfer cable for the digital camera that we had left at home, and some miscellaneous snacks. I had ordered a larger memory stick for my camera at home but it didn’t arrive in time so we priced the ones here but I didn’t see the point when we could download daily with the cable. We also needed a rain suit for Bill since I had only brought 1, but the prices were ridiculous compared to the ones at Target so we skipped that too. We were ready to check out right at midnight and there was an announcement that they had to convert all the registers over to the next business day so it would be 10 minutes before they could ring anyone else up. We procrastinated, then finally got out of there with a total of $30.48, and made it back to the hotel by 1AM.

It had been a stressful first day in the World, but it was still great to be back. We loved our hotel and, aside from the oppressive weather, were looking forward to a great 8 days.

Day 2 September 29

We made it out the door by about 9:30 and I thought we would start off by taking the trail to Riverside (POR) along the Sassagoula River. I didn’t realize it was quite as long of a walk as it turned out to be, but if it hadn’t been so hot already it would have been pleasant. We looked around the lobby and shops at POR and decided to get breakfast at their food court, which was quite a bit busier than the one at French Quarter. It was very obvious that this hotel has twice the number of rooms as FQ. Even the table service restaurant, Boatwrights, was doing a brisk business. I had a cheese omelette and Bill had a side of oatmeal with milk. We used Disney Dollars for this meal which came to 10.52. The selections at this food court were mostly the same as at FQ with minor variations. In fact, I noticed that most of the food courts on property had the same basic items which was a bit disappointing.

After breakfast, I walked across the bridge to get some pictures of the main pool area and walked a little farther to get a feel for this resort. I thought it was beautiful, if not extremely spread out, but again if the weather had been better it would have been a great place to take a long walk. The main spa was torn apart for rehab, so I was very glad we didn’t get this resort when Bill called to do the upgrade.

We took a look in the main gift shop, which was quite a bit larger and had a lot more selection than the one at POFQ. We found the perfect gift for my mom, a Mickey-themed sarong. These are really just big squares of fabric used to wrap around the waist to cover up one’s bathing suit, but it had a great pattern and considering that she wears these all the time at home, we thought it was a perfect fit. She did end up loving the gift, but neither of us noticed that they had forgotten to remove the ink tag when we purchased it, so the sarong is currently back in Florida getting de-inked and then will be sent back to us.

We took the boat ride back to FQ and checked to see if our FedEx package from mom had arrived yet. We had been holding off on visiting any more parks until the parts came because the free wheelchair from the hotel was not as comfortable as Bill’s regular one. Unfortunately, there was nothing there yet so we went ahead and left for MGM. I was planning to call mom to get the tracking number from her but it was barely 7am in California and I knew she’d be nowhere near awake.

The first thing we did at MGM was to see Beauty and the Beast. I hadn’t watched this since my first ever WDW trip in 1996 and although my best friend and I had laughed at it then because it was so inferior to the one at DL, I wanted Bill to see it. Once Bill was seated in the front row in his wheelchair, I went to use our first snack credits to get a strawberry bar and a bottled water. The strawberry bar was excellent, having a very thin layer of either yogurt or white chocolate on the edge. When I got back, Four For a Dollar was just finishing up their pre-show by wishing an older couple a happy anniversary. I think the wife was onstage with them and they asked the husband out in the audience to pick his favorite Disney song and they would perform it for him. He said, “It’s a Small World”, to which they immediately balked which was quite funny. They said, “Um, OK, then we’ll do OUR favorite Disney song!” They proceeded to do an a capella version of “Remember the Magic” which was completely awesome. Considering that song has been around the Parks in one form or another for almost 10 years and is not tied to a Pixar film, I was thrilled to hear it and they did an excellent job with it. Coming from a choral singing background, I had no critiques whatsoever for them.

The show itself was a surprise. I’m pretty sure it has been completely revamped since 1996 because it was really good. I remember the old version starting with “Be Our Guest”, which immediately took the story out of order, but in this version everything was chronologically correct. I even saw a friend from DL parades in the show who I didn’t even know had moved to Florida. By the end, Bill and I both had tears in our eyes – pretty embarrassing for two grown men in the front row, but I couldn’t help it because it reminded me of how awesome it was that first time I saw the Beauty & The Beast Live show at DL in 1992. Sometimes it is good to not see these shows too often because you can experience the magic all over again a decade later.

After the show we headed to Tower of Terror (ToT) which had no line whatsoever. Unfortunately it broke down after the library room and we were stuck waiting forever and we finally decided to turn around and exit through the queue back down the hill. We went on Rock ‘n Roller Coaster (RnRC) instead which also had no line. This ride really doesn’t do it for me – the coaster itself reminds me of a 70’s corkscrew coaster with added music and a bunch of blacklit signs. I hate over-the-shoulder restraints in general and these tend to give me a headache. I love the theming of the queue line and the preshow, but that’s about it. It was more like a blessed trip thru air conditioning than the fun E Ticket it’s supposed to be. Maybe I’m just getting too old for this kind of ride!

Next I parked Bill at the smoking area near Star Tours and went off in search of Fast Passes for Lights, Motors, Action (LMA). I hadn’t been in this area of the park since the days when the Hunchback show was running so I was a little disoriented but eventually found it. The CM at the entrance said that it was a slow enough day that FPs weren’t necessary and I took her word for it. I walked back to Bill via the International Street or whatever they call it and saw all the Osbourne Lights were already strung up, and a few of them were even lit. Just this short walk was like being in the middle of the Sahara with no food and no water, it was so hot and there are absolutely no trees or shaded areas along this street. I wasn’t impressed, but then again it is probably beautiful at night during the holiday season.

We were ready for lunch by now so I suggested the Studio Catering Co. because I had walked past it beforehand and noted that it had a menu other than the typical burgers and fries. It was a Mediterranean menu similar to Daphne’s and it sounded good. Bill had a Steak Gyro, side of rice, Coke and Panna Cotta for dessert. I had the Lamb Kefta, side of rice, Sprite and Panna Cotta as well. We both had not been feeling well up to this point but the meal helped out. I think it was mostly the heat and the lack of sleep the night before. The food was pretty good and I was thrilled that they were giving this type of menu a chance in the Parks. Total charged to the Dining Plan was 30.06 for lunch.

It was nearing the time for the LMA show so we slowly headed that way, browsing through the Muppet shops on the way. I called my mom and got the tracking number, and then called FedEx and sure enough it had been delivered and signed for before 10am that morning. At LMA, handicap parties can take an elevator to midway up the Grandstand for great seats. I couldn’t have asked for a better spot. The show was pretty good, definitely a step up from the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular which I have no interest in ever seeing again. The whole “learn how we do things behind the scenes” type shows have never impressed me; in fact, I think they take away from the magic sometimes. At any rate, we enjoyed the show and then headed out of the Park, passing through all the shops on Hollywood Blvd. on the way out. It was still ridiculously hot and we were ready for a nap.

We were able to get in a good 90 minutes of sleep between 4:30 and 6PM and woke up refreshed for an evening at Epcot, which was having EMH tonight. We entered through Future World and I got a PhotoPass. I thought this was a great idea to keep using the same barcode for all your pictures and then having the convenience of viewing them online later. We ended up taking a total of 16 PhotoPass pictures throughout the trip and most of them turned out good. As I’m typing this, I’m still debating how many to purchase since they’re a rather hefty 12.95 apiece for the 5x7s.

As we worked our way through the Park, we got a call from our contractor back at home who had been working on our complete kitchen remodel while we were gone. He started off by jokingly saying, “I hope you have fire insurance”, referring to the wildfires that were spreading throughout Southern California that day. At the time it was not at all funny. He then poured more salt on the wound by telling us that he had discovered a factor in the kitchen that was going to cost us more money than originally planned. I won’t go into detail, but it was all we needed to hear, knowing how much we were already paying to have all this done.

Our PS for tonight was at Chefs de France at 7:10. We arrived a bit early and were seated a bit late. On the way to France, we noticed that all the Food & Wine booths had already opened for the season. The restaurant was completely packed and we witnessed the hostess have to tell at least 10 parties that they were out of luck without a reservation. It was clear that the Free Dining was keeping every table at every restaurant full! Our server was Cecile from Marseille, France, a village that I had heard of because it was the hometown of my French teacher from junior high. I had taken 8 years of French in school and had been to Disneyland Paris once in 1993, so it was awesome to be in this beautiful restaurant served by native French people, whose culture and language fascinate me. I ordered the Tarte a la Flamme Alsacienne, the Gratin de Macaroni and the trio of sorbets for dessert. Bill had the Bisque de Homard (Lobster Bisque), Filet du Boeuf Grille, a cappuccino and the sorbet trio as well. We also ordered an Orangina soda and a bottle of Perrier which were not part of the Dining Plan but that was fine. Everything was delicious. My appetizer was to die for, and the macaroni and cheese was definitely not Kraft. It was made with Gruyere cheese and cream, absolutely sinful. Bill orders his steaks medium rare, but this filet was just rare – way too red but he ate it anyway, always the one to avoid making a scene. At one point I asked Cecile how on earth the French stay so slim eating all this delicious, rich food. She replied that the one thing the French don’t eat that we Americans do is soda – or any other sugar-laden drink. Most of their beverages are consumed without sugar, which made good sense. Goes to show that it’s not just the fat making America obese, but the calories too. Our total here on the DP was approximately 84.14. I don’t have record of how much extra we spent on the beverages but we used Disney Dollars and added extra for the tip on the drinks which wasn’t included in the tip already in the DP.

After dinner it was getting close to Illuminations time so we just stayed in World Showcase. While we were still in France, my mom called to tell us that there had been an alert from the fire alarm at our house, and when the security company couldn’t reach either of us, they called Mom, who was listed as the alternate. Turns out that it was accidentally set off by our contractor who was there working at the time, and I guess all the drywall dust from knocking out the old soffit caused it to go off. The contractor called the company back within 5 minutes to tell them it was a false alarm, so luckily the Fire Dept. was never dispatched to our house. Needless to say it was extremely unnerving to hear about it from several thousand miles away, not knowing at first what had actually happened. It’s tough leaving the destiny of your own home in the hands of others!

With that fiasco overwith, we found a spot for Illuminations and enjoyed the show. I videotaped it, but I sometimes wonder why I do because it ruins the actual show for me because I have to concentrate on keeping the camera focused and still. I think once I get a show on tape once, I’m not going to bother trying again. I had told Bill before the show about the barge accident that had happened a week earlier and I didn’t know what to expect. I don’t think either one of us noticed much of a difference, mainly because we don’t have the show memorized like we would, say, Fantasmic back at home. Bill did remark afterwards that he felt the show wasn’t quite as spectacular as he had remembered. That may have had more to do with where we watched it than anything else. I think it’s a neat show, but not perfect. The whole Earth spinning portion is just way too long. Still, I’m happy to watch it any time we’re in Epcot at 9pm.

It was now into the EMH portion of the evening, so we headed back towards FW and got our wristbands. It was sprinkling lightly and we weren’t prepared but we just dealt with it. We first went on Imagination (JIYI) with no wait. I really like this ride, although I still wish I had seen the first version. I always like to know the full history of attractions but that hasn’t been easy with WDW since I completely missed the 70s and 80s here. We were able to play with the Kodak thingy in ImageWorks for the first time because it’s usually too crowded to bother. We sent a picture of myself as a lion back home to a few friends. I noticed the stairway and elevator leading up to the former second floor exhibit area which was blocked off. I knew that this had been closed a while back, but I thought it was because there was no handicap access. Considering there was an elevator there, I’m not sure what their other excuse is, but it was a pity. I remember going up there on my first trip and it was great. I absolutely despise when Disney closes areas and replaces them with nothing.

After that we went into the Land and decided to get in line for Soarin. Although we have had this ride at home at DCA for years now, we were curious about the minor differences. The wait was a good 40 minutes but we were able to see the queue which is completely different than at DCA. The ride itself of course was identical, and I noticed that the scents being blown out were quite a bit stronger than in CA, which was nice. There seems to be quite a bit more hype over this attraction here than at home, maybe because it’s so much newer at this point. What I like is that it is bringing a lot more foot traffic to this pavilion.

We then browsed through MouseGear but didn’t buy anything. We knew that we would get 10% off our purchase at the World of Disney using our Disney Visa so we were holding off unless we saw something very unique. Bill again wasn’t feeling that great so I went on Spaceship Earth alone to close out the evening. This is my favorite ride in all of WDW and I like to ride it as many times as possible on every trip so I thought I’d better get started.

We made it back to the room at 12:10AM and decided to take a quick dip in the pool before bed. There was almost noone else out there which was delightful, and we were in bed by 1:30.

Day 3 September 30

Our wakeup call came at 6:30am but there was no voice on the other end. We were getting up early because it was EMH morning at the Magic Kingdom. I don’t know why we have this obsession with hitting all the early and late times like this, but when it’s still early in the vacation you are worried that you won’t have time to do everything I guess. I got a small fruit bowl at the POFQ food court and we were off and on the Monorail from the TTC to the MK by 7:40. The opening ceremony consisted of an original song broadcast around the entrance plaza and it was cute. I had been disappointed in 2003 when, to open the park, they just selected a family at random from the crowd and had them help count down until opening time – with no prerecorded music or anything. I remarked at that time that there should be a big fanfare or something and it looks like I got my wish.

We went into City Hall to get a Special Assistance Pass for Bill, which we ended up never needing. I had told Bill that the passes were virtually extinct but he insisted on having one just in case. I also picked up our tickets to MNSSHP along with a program to help get acquainted with what would be going on that night. I was surprised that our hotel could not print these tickets for me and that I had to go to either the TTC or within the MK.

We then headed back to Fantasyland and rode Peter Pan which had almost no wait. Bill needed some coffee so we got that at Scuttle’s, which I noticed was quite faded and could use a new paint job. I can’t fault Disney too much here; that poor structure is in the blazing sun all day every day. We then tried to go on Pooh but it was “broke”. Yep, that was the sophisticated terminology used by the CM at the entrance. I would have thought maybe “having technical difficulties, please check back later”, but no, “It’s broke, they’re in there workin’ on it”. We never did make it back to this ride for the rest of the trip but that’s OK, it’s probably my least favorite dark ride next to Pinocchio. I then went on Snow White by myself while Bill finished his coffee in the shade. It was already very hot and drinking coffee was not helping Bill’s core temperature, so we headed to the bakery on Main St. for a light breakfast in the nice cool seating area. Bill had an Apple Charlotte with milk and I had a Breakfast Quiche. Both were very good and we appreciated the brief respite from the heat. Total cost was 8.59, again paid for with Disney Dollars.

Space Mountain was next with a very short wait. With a wheelchair, you always load on the right side so I hope we haven’t been missing anything on the left. The ride was good, but Bill got the front row and it was very bumpy. Not good for someone with hip, knee and feet pain, but he enjoyed the ride anyway. After that we did the Carousel of Progress. There were some new hoops of light at the entrance ramp, which I later noticed were turned on during MNSSHP. I’m not sure if they were put there to help attract people to the ride at night or just for the Halloween event. The CoP looked to be in basically the same condition as in 2003, not terrible, but not perfect. I had known that the extensive refurbishment planned for the ride was cancelled and reduced to just replacing seats and carpeting in one theater at a time, but even this I couldn’t really notice. It seemed like the same aqua carpet and seats as before. I was glad to see, though, that there was a decent sized crowd in the theater. I always worry for the fate of this attraction and hope that if it does end up getting sacked, it either gets moved to another Disney park or that the figures get relocated and not just put in storage. I am so sick of the Disney parks reducing the number of Audio Animatronics everywhere, between Horizons, World of Motion, Country Bears in CA, the Timekeeper, et al.

It was time to try Stitch’s Great Escape. I had read all the negative reviews about it but had to see for myself, plus the air conditioning was on full blast so we gave it a go. The preshow seemed very similar to Alien Encounter to me. The show itself was very mediocre – not at all scary and I hardly heard a peep out of the audience. We were in the back row due to Bill’s wheelchair, but even his seat had the effects “module” on it and neither of us felt anything other than a few water sprays and a few pushes down on the shoulders. I feel like the scariest feature of AE was the alien’s breath in your ears and I didn’t hear anything like that. I guess if they were going for a more kid-friendly attraction, they got it – but it was a no-repeat-necessary type attraction for me. Personally, the way it stands this attraction would be fine in Fantasyland but is way too tame for Tomorrowland. I did think the Stitch animatronic was well done, though.

I had to use the restroom afterward so I went into Cosmic Ray’s and took a quick glance at Sonny Eclipse. It’s nice that they have something like this to entertain the diners but I wouldn’t pay much attention to it after about 5 minutes. On my way out I noticed that they have the sautéed mushrooms at the fixings bar here too, which are my favorite, so I grabbed a small cup of them and offered some to Bill but he passed.

We then went to see PhilharMagic, again in the back row due to the location of the handicapped seating. I had hoped that Bill would try walking in the theatre attractions because I wanted him to see them closer, but he wasn’t interested in being in any extra pain. The show was still good from the back, even though you are somewhat detached from the action. I really like the décor of the lobby, although I miss the Lion King show and felt it incorporated a lot more talent than a 3-D movie does. Oh well, progress has to happen.

Small World was next, which I had been patiently waiting for all along, dying to see just how extensive the rehab was. My first impression was that the copy of the DL façade looked stunning, mostly because it was indoors and protected from the weather. This would ensure that it would always be in pristine shape and not subject to the same rain, train and sun damage as ours. The queue sound was awesome and could be heard way out into Fantasyland, something I’ve always thought was a little too soft at DL. However, there were a few shortcomings from the original, mostly in the clock sequence. There was none of the mechanical “boing” sounds from the clock as it starts to go off, just the various pieces silently moving, and no parade of dolls, since the doors where they would normally come out are practically submerged in the water! This made no sense to me and could have been avoided by reducing the scale of the clock, but then again I’m not on the payroll. Also, it was almost obscene how fast the clock face was swinging back and forth! It looked like a happy face on steroids. I guess I’m just used to the original moving slowly for the past 40 or so years that it struck me as funny. I’m hoping that thing will lose a little power over the years and slow down as the motor wears in! Anyway, the interior of the ride was fine, but really not much different than I had remembered it. Last time I rode in 2003, I remember thinking that the ride looked terrible, and it did look better now, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. I still much prefer DL’s version and feel the countries are too mashed together and disjointed at WDW.

For lunch I wanted to try the Noodle Station and was glad that it happened to be open, after hearing how often it would suddenly close over the past several months. I had the Chicken Noodle Bowl, Pot Stickers, a Ginger Crème Brulee and Peach Orange Green Tea while Bill tried the Shrimp Pad Thai, Egg Roll, Ginger Crème Brulee and a Coke. It was miserably hot but luckily there were A/C vents even at this outdoor venue, so we made sure to sit right under one of them. You know it’s humid when the vents are covered with droplets of water, but I digress. How should I describe the food? P.F Chang’s would hang their heads in shame. Yes, it was pretty bad for what they were going for, but I have to give them credit for trying something new, just like at MGM with the Mediterranean menu. It’s not that they picked the wrong items to offer, they just had some really bad recipes. I do hope that they work on refining them, though, because there is no reason that the Plaza Pavilion should ever have to return to burgers and fries. Guests obviously were willing to embrace the menu, as the seating area was pretty full, but the quality needs some tweaking. On the contrary, the Lucky Fortune Cookery over at DCA had some pretty good Chinese food and plenty of business, and yet it’s still been shuttered almost since the park opened. At least the MK is trying. Total here without the Dining Plan picking up the tab would have been 31.55.

We slowly made our way out of the MK by looking through the shops on Main Street opposite the side we had already shopped down. I’ve read many threads in discussion boards about the “Malling of Main Street” and I think this was the first time that I truly understood what all the complaints were about. These are no longer individual storefronts selling unique merchandise, but rather one big shop on each side stretching the full length of Main Street, with essentially the same stuff in every corner. It was a little disappointing. I saw where, on one side, they had enclosed the former side street area and converted it into more retail space. While the interior of that section looked nice, it really made that side of the street look more generic.

We got back to POFQ and stopped in the Jackson Square gift shop to try to find Bill another short sleeved T-shirt. Bill is very sensitive to sunlight and can get a rash if he starts to burn, so I had packed him several long sleeve tees but with this insane weather he was willing to take the chance. He was able to find one with Grumpy in a football theme that wasn’t ridiculously priced. Total was 21.25 and I’m pretty sure we used the Disney Dollar stash again.

Back at the room we settled in for our nap from about 1:30-3:30. You know how sometimes when you wake up at odd times of the day you are startled awake and jump to your feet for no reason? Bill did that, but then quickly fell back asleep until 3:45, by which time I was ready to go again. We headed out and parked at the TTC and took the Monorail ride to Epcot. This is my favorite leg of the Monorail because it’s the longest time you get to be on the ride without it slowing down.

The point of coming to Epcot was for our PS at the San Angel Inn, but we were early enough to do Test Track first. The elevator for handicapped access was broken, so the CM at the front gave us a pass to go through the ride’s exit and load the vehicle there, without having to watch the preshow. The ride was excellent – so many times that we’ve been on this, there is always some delay or glitch in the programming where some effect doesn’t work or we have to sit on the track and wait, but today’s ride was perfect. Of course we entered our information to try to win a new GM vehicle in the exit showcase area.

We made it over to the Mexico pavilion which we had skipped on our last trip, so this was Bill’s first time inside. I love it in there – being sensitive to the sun myself, I’m thrilled with a place where it’s always night. We had enough time to go on El Rio del Tiempo first. Despite all the teasing this poor ride gets, I think it’s cute. I had forgotten all about the finale room with all the fiber optic fireworks on the walls, and loved it. If they’d just upgrade the funny vendors to digital video and change the screens to LCD so they don’t look so old and fuzzy, it’d be great. As in 1996, the “la la la” song stays with you forever <g>. Sure enough, as we were coming out, the Mariachi band in the Pavilion was playing the same song!

We browsed the shops while waiting for our pager to go off and were seated after finding out that the wheelchair ramp down to the restaurant was not useable. At least that’s what the hostess said – something about it being built in the late 70s and not up to current standards and that it would be easier for Bill to just walk the few steps. I knew I should have doubted her credibility when she said the late 70’s, but we never actually spent the time to check the ramp out. Dinner this evening was Nachos, the Plato Mexicano, Lemonade and some sort of Caramel Mousse with shaved almonds for me, and the Sope, Filete Motuleno, Lemonade and the same dessert for Bill. Everything was absolutely delicious. I had eaten here once before on my first trip in 1996 but didn’t remember it being nearly this good. Of course, at 25 I wasn’t that interested in food, unlike today when I plan my days around it, lol! I didn’t catch the exact amount of the bill because they barely flash it at you when you’re on the Dining Plan, but it would have been around $85 with tip. Seriously though, if I were a local who just came to Epcot once in a while for a meal, the Nachos alone would make a great dinner.

Tonight was MNSSHP for us, so after a quick smoke break for Bill near Test Track, we took the Monorail back to the TTC and then transferred to the MK line. Of course they would not let us get off on the “wrong” side of the Monorail to avoid the walk down and up those ramps with the wheelchair again, but I understood that the CMs have to stick to policy. I just wish they’d consider investing in an elevator at the TTC.

Upon entering the Party, we could see that the MK was transformed in a completely different palette of light colors as well as smoke machines and kids dressed up, mostly as the Disney Princesses. It was a really cool, festive atmosphere, but way more crowded than I had hoped. I noticed that everyone had orange bags for their candy but we had missed them so I ran back to the entrance and grabbed us two. We stopped to take pictures with the PhotoPass representative in Town Square and then made our way up the street. Some idiot in charge had decided to run at least two showings of Cinderellabration tonight, which had NOTHING to do with Halloween, and as if there wasn’t enough else to keep the crowd busy, it created havoc around the Hub. It was pretty much gridlock, even at this early hour in the evening. My main priorities for the evening were to see the Halloween parade, do a little trick or treating, and see the special version of the fireworks, entitled HalloWishes. The first parade was at 8:00 so we really didn’t have time to dawdle and made our way over to Frontierland to get away from the noise of Cinderellabration. The Headless Horseman thing was about to happen and it was still quite a bit before parade time so I was rushing to get out the camcorder. I had assumed that the Horseman would be right before the parade but he acted as more of a 10-minute announcement. The parade was great! I’m a huge critic of Disney parades, having been in so many of them at DL in the 90s, but I really have nothing to complain about on this one. For something that’s only produced for one month per year, it looks like a permanent fixture. The best part was the Haunted Mansion section with the Hitchhiking Ghosts, Grave “Diggers”, and the Caretaker with the adorable live dog walking down the street. The song, which I’m guessing is entitled “Boo to You” was even good. I’d love to see this released on CD, but in the meantime I got a fairly good copy of it on video. A note to those taping this parade from Frontierland: make sure you are on the side of the street opposite the Rivers of America, i.e. on the Country Bears side. If you are not, your video will be shot directly into the bright parade spotlights. Ironically, I read this in a thread after we had gotten home, and I learned the hard way. I haven’t watched the video yet, but if it’s nothing more than a bunch of gel-covered blobs of light, I’ll at least have the soundtrack on tape <g>

After the parade, we made our way towards the Hub to wait for the fireworks. We were parched by now, so I went to use our snack credits for the day at the popcorn cart around the hub while Bill waited on the bridge between the Hub and Adventureland. Little did I know that this would be the longest line I would wait in for the entire vacation. All I wanted was a couple of bottled waters! The line was probably 50 people, mostly wanting popcorn which, when there’s only one CM working, can take FOREVER. My temper was steadily rising as I was worrying about whether to miss the beginning of the fireworks or go back to Bill empty handed. People in line were offering to go find a supervisor and complain. There had been two CMs working and then one mysteriously disappeared, making things worse. I started commiserating with the lady in line behind me, who proudly proclaimed that she had graduated with a marketing degree and could easily dissect the problem here. She went on to mumble some corporate jibberish about how she had encountered things like this at past jobs, most of which was matter-of-fact info that anybody would know, but I politely agreed with everything she said and felt a little bit better that I wasn’t the only one in line who thought the wait was ridiculous. In the end, I waited it out and made it back with minutes to spare. The CM who helped me was named Kelly and I remarked to him that it was nice to meet another male Kelly, which is fairly rare. I told him I think I have met maybe 3 others in my life, and he said he could only think of one, so that was cool.

HalloWishes was cute, nothing major, but a nice variation on the regular Wishes. Fireworks shows are not my favorite Disney entertainment, in fact, I care more about the music than the visual display but this one was fine and everyone seemed to like it. I was hoping that a witch would fly down Tinkerbell’s wire or something but nothing like that happened. Afterwards, we were both so tired and over the crowds but we continued on to Alice’s candy trail which was staged on the path connecting ToonTown with Tomorrowland. I never knew this path even existed but now that I do, I’ll use it because it’s extremely handy. There were trick or treat stations set up all along the way and the crowds moved en masse to each one, collecting basically the same candy at every stop. Still, I was impressed with all the wooden cutouts that had been staged along the way of all the Alice characters. There was even a huge teacup full of candy. There were several other “Trails” like this throughout the Park tonight, so there were plenty of places to get free sugary snacks. By now, we had had enough merriment so we headed out, but I remembered when I checked dizpins.com from home a few weeks earlier that there were supposed to be special pins available during the Event that I wanted to check out. There was nothing in the pin shop behind Uptown Jewelers on Main Street, so I thought maybe I would try the, I forget what it’s called, but the building where the Walt Disney Story used to be. I figured, nowadays this is a multi-purpose location so maybe it would have something. I didn’t see any unusual pins so I went over to City Hall and asked them. Sure enough, it was over there, I just hadn’t delved far enough back in the building, where they had set up special queues and registers just for these pins. I was one of only two people there, so whatever crowds had materialized earlier in the evening to buy these pins was long gone. Good thing, because I was in no mood to wait in a pin line – I can do that at home! The place did look ravaged, though – so I’m guessing there was a big turnout earlier. I ended up buying 2 pins, using Disney Dollars, and they’re pretty cute. Bill and I have cut way back on pin buying the past several months, but I thought these were noteworthy because they weren’t something we could pick up at home. The interior here was depressing and it seemed like a lot of it had been walled off, even since 2003. Back then I was able to peek into the former WDS theatre area and admire the old character mural on the wall, but I didn’t even see that part tonight, nor did I find the usual Mr. Toad vehicle that used to be available to take pictures in.

As we were leaving, the second parade was about to start which I would have loved to watch again but Bill was ready to leave. At least this way we missed the Monorail rush and got back to the TTC in pretty decent time. After reading in many of Sue Holland’s trip reports about how she buys yogurt parfaits to eat the next morning, I had to try one for myself so we stopped at Saratoga Springs on the way home. Bill waited in the car while I ran into the food court. It was 11:05 and they had closed at 11:00 but the door was still open. A supervisor asked if she could help me and I meekly said that I was just wondering if I could buy a parfait. She said they make them in the morning and they’re usually gone by now, but that she would check in the back. Sure enough, there was one left so I took it and thanked her. I went to pay at the one remaining register that was open and the CM asked if I was a DVC member. Sure lady, rub salt in the wounds. I did find out, though, that DVC members get discounts on certain meals which was good to know for the future. Total here was 3.51. This had been my first time inside SSR and I thought it was lovely. I also took a quick peek at the pool area and told Bill what I saw. As he had been doing many times already, he said “Let’s just do it”. Bill is obviously the impulsive one while I’m the sensible one. As much as I wanted to, I wasn’t ready to spend what was left of my life savings on a timeshare. Bill made sure to tell me every day that he had put our house profit checkbook in my backpack, just in case <g>.

We made it back to the room some time around 11:30 and did a quick pool and spa dip before going to bed.

Day 4 October 1

We were up at 6:55 after turning the alarm off at 6:45. I figured if nobody was going to talk to us on the wakeup call service, why not just use the clock radio in the room? Today was EMH at Animal Kingdom (DAK) and we wanted to get in our small repertoire of favorites here before it got too hot. On the drive over, I broke out the parfait from last night. Sad to say, it was a runny mess. It was like yogurt without the curd, and the granola on top was totally stale – no crunch at all to it. I would have been much better off with a parfait from McDonald’s, and at half the price! Anyway, I cut SSR some slack and assumed that this was simply because I had bought it so late in the day.

We arrived at DAK under cloudy skies but no rain, and went straight to the Safari (KS). The line was pretty sizeable, around 25 minutes, and then we had to wait another 15 or so for the accessible truck to come by. By that time, there was a complete carload full of wheelchair parties so I can see why they space them out like they do. We had a good tour guide and saw a ton of animals. I never know whether to feel special judging by the tone of the guide’s voice about how rare it is to see certain animals, but our guide seemed pretty surprised to see certain species out and about and made sure to let us know.

We had had good luck with seeing the first Lion King (FoLK) show of the day last time, so we thought we’d do the same this year. Wise decision, as we were at the very front of the line for the wheelchair groups and it wasn’t until the last minute that the theatre filled up. The show was excellent as usual and brought the requisite tears to our eyes in all the right places. Bill loves the woman who performs “Circle of Life” and it was definitely the same gal as in 2003. I envy her job. A good friend of mine auditioned for the role here in Los Angeles but was cut right away, which to me tells more about the longevity of the current performer’s career than the fact that my friend wasn’t good enough, which she totally would have been. Oh well.

Bill took his usual smoke break by the restrooms while most of the FoLK crowd queued up for the character meet & greets, and then we moved on to Dinosaur. I noticed some new signage showing that McDonald’s was the current sponsor. I don’t get the connection between burgers and Brontosaurs, but I was happy to see any corporate involvement at all in this day of ever-decreasing sponsorship of attractions at the Disney parks (As I edit this report in early November, I am SO thrilled to report that Siemens has agreed to sponsor SSE along with several other attractions – yay!) The line was short as usual and the ride very fun. True, the ride system seems wasted if you consider the magnitude of Indiana Jones at DL vs. this, but I still love to ride it during every trip.

The weather was looking more threatening by now, but we went ahead and got in line for Kali River Rapids (KRR). You take the regular queue up until the last minute where the wheelchairs veer off down a ramp to a special loading area that doesn’t involve stairs or a rotating platform. It’s the same way at Grizzly River Rapids at DCA. Since we were only a party of two, the CM added another 4 people to our raft to make it full, giving them the “special” handicapped treatment that they weren’t expecting. We apologized to them for taking the extra time but they were glad to see how it all works. The ride was good and we didn’t get too wet.

I was starving by now but Bill still wasn’t hungry, even though I had been the one who had the parfait and he had only had coffee. I asked if he would mind if I use my lunch credit now and he was fine with that, so I went to the Chakranadi Chicken shop, partly because it smelled so good and partly because it had been closed in 2003 so I was still curious about what I was missing. It turned out to be a great choice. I had the Chicken Stir Fry, Apple Sauce, and a milk for Bill, hoping it might help his upset stomach. I remember the A/C wafting out of this little food stand and wanting to just stay in that position at the order window forever, it was so hot and humid out! This was one counter service credit on the Dining Plan which would have been 9.80. It’s not the best place to use the credit for maximum value, since you don’t get an appetizer, but that was fine. I never thought to ask if the Pot Stickers would have qualified as an appetizer but I suppose they might have. I brought the food over to the smoking area where Bill was sitting and ate there, to the side. Great food and I will definitely go there again. Between this and the Flame Tree BBQ, DAK ranks high up on counter service meals for me.

Bill really wasn’t feeling well even after the milk so we decided to head out. The late nights and early mornings were catching up to us, so a nap sounded better than any Theme Park could at that moment. Well, Mother Nature decided this was her time to pour like we’ve never seen. It started off fairly gently as we were walking towards the exit but by the time we hit the turnstiles it was an outdoor shower. We only had one rain suit because of the WalMart high price thing, so not wanting to risk either of us getting too wet, we took shelter under the awning of the ticket booth with a few other guests. For a while there, it looked like it was never going to subside but it finally did so we made a bee line to the car.

I wanted to at least check out the Character Premiere store at the Premium Outlets, but was willing to skip Belz since it seemed to have mostly the same merchandise last time. The Outlets were easy to find, having stayed just across the freeway from them at the Homewood Suites for one night on the last trip. It was still raining heavily but we shared an umbrella and made it to the store. We first stopped at the Universal store which had absolutely nothing either one of us was interested in. All the cute E.T. items I had seen in 2003 were gone. At Disney, Bill spent 47.88 on a new tie, a great patriotic Mickey shirt he had been wanting at DL for months but thankfully was at half price here in Orlando, and another cheap Grumpy t-shirt. There was a really nice ceramic tea set in the shape of the Castle, but I behaved and left it, knowing that there were a few other big ticket items I wanted from the Parks themselves. I noticed one of the Hilton HGV timeshare properties across the parking lot, which was a place I had considered trying, and it looked very nice.

Back at POFQ, we still had the counter service dining credit that Bill hadn’t used, and I suggested we use it at the Food Court so it wouldn’t get wasted. I thought that by now he would be ready for a little something but he was extremely nauseous and even the smell of the Food Court was making him queasy, poor thing. So being my usual porker self I opted to get myself a second lunch <g>. I tried the Chicken Parmesan and a Cranberry juice and got Bill a vanilla shake, hoping it might help settle his stomach. We sat at a table in front of the bar, away from the food smell and the shake seemed to help a little bit. It was nice that a bottled Minute Maid juice counted as a beverage here because I was tired of the limited selection of the fountain sodas by this point. Total charged to the DP was 14.88.

After my second gorging of the day, we went back to the room and took a nap. Bill was out from about 3:00-5:00 but I couldn’t sleep so I got up at 4:00 and tried to get going on the trip report. There had just been no time to start writing unless I wanted to be up until 3am every night so I was already 4 days behind. I made some progress, but really prefer regular keyboards over those on laptops so I didn’t go on as long as I could have.

Tonight we were destined for the MK because it was a night when Spectromagic would be playing. Our PS for dinner this evening was at Liberty Tree Tavern, a place that I had been to in 1996 and really liked but had since become characterized at dinnertime. Bill still wasn’t feeling up to eating a full-sized meal, so after some discussion on the Monorail over, we decided to cancel this meal and do a counter service to be determined after the parade. This meant that we would have a spare table service credit on the DP, so be both started thinking that we could choose one of the Signature restaurants that take two credits for the following night. This basically came down to either Coral Reef at Epcot or the Brown Derby at MGM. Since I had booked the BD for lunch on our last day after the DP was over, I thought this made the most sense because we could both enjoy it at dinnertime and not have to pay for it at lunch time on that last day.

I didn’t want to let go of Liberty Tree completely until I knew for sure that we could get into the BD the next night, so I called Dining and Bill and I alternated sitting on hold with them forever. I finally got through and got a great CM who had no problem booking us at the BD. That taken care of, we wanted to be sure to release our LTT PS for tonight, which I forgot to do while still on the phone, so we headed over to the restaurant to let the front desk know. What a fiasco – I had not actually set foot inside this restaurant in 9 years and was blown away by the chaos ensuing within. The line was out the door just to check in at the podium, not to mention turn away those guests without reservations. There were literally a ton of chairs set up in the lobby for the waiting guests, all in rows as if in a classroom! I couldn’t even get near the poor guy at the computer, and try as I might to get his attention, he never even had time to look up. He also had to answer the phone on top of all this madness. I left well enough alone, didn’t say anything, and figured Disney could live without filling our little table for 2 for the night. Bill and I both thought it would be great if we could give away our PS to some poor souls in line who hadn’t booked ahead, but for the life of us we could not find a party of two. This didn’t surprise me, considering that a character dinner is mostly aimed at attracting the kids, of which there were a multitude. It was probably a good idea that we skipped this place, although I still really like the theming inside, and the menu looked pretty good.

With dinner taken care of, I wanted to be sure to catch the Hall of Presidents, which I hadn’t seen since 1996 either. The blessed building was calling our names with it’s heavenly cold air wafting out from the lobby, enticing all around to enter it’s doors. They run the show on the half hour, and we had a bit of time, so I left Bill at the smoking area and went over to get Fast Passes for Big Thunder (BTMRR). The crowds were stifling – just the walk over there required that I take the pathway along the river because the main road through Frontierland was just too packed. The return time for BTMRR was really good, however, only an hour or so away. I made it back to Bill and we were able to sit in the front row at Hall of Presidents, even with the wheelchair. Finally, an AA show that Bill can see up close instead of in the very back row! I really enjoyed this show which, as a teenager, I probably would have fallen asleep in but now could appreciate for what it is. I missed Maya Angelou’s voice from the past version but it didn’t affect the presentation. I love the way several of the figures were programmed with specific movements and jestures that the actual presidents were known to have. These also seemed to be some of the most highly maintained AAs I saw during the entire trip. Of course, both Bill and I could barely contain our snickers during Bush’s speech, but I know it’s only a matter of time before the next president will be the one who has his say in the show. That is, I hope he/she has their say – this is one of several attractions that I truly hope is not on the “endangered” list. The whole area of Liberty Square is so great to me and is one of my favorite parts of the MK, especially since we don’t have it in Anaheim.

After the show, we went into the patriotic store next door and found a bunch of things we wanted. We decided to check later if any of them were available at World of Disney to get the discount, but if not we would come back and buy them here. A lady that had been in the HoP with us came in the store and said, “I wanted to laugh when they introduced Clinton, but you never know who you’re around in a place like this” and so forth. Obviously the sentiments go both ways in a mixed WDW crowd, but there in the South I definitely felt like Bill and I were outnumbered. I should have answered her with a remark such as “need I remind you of that HUGE surplus of cash we had when Clinton left office?” but I refrained and nodded my head.

Next up was the Haunted Mansion. We went in through the exit with another wheelchair party, after being asked if we wanted to view the 5-minute preshow film or not. At first, I thought the CM meant the elevator room but I never did find out what that preshow was. Perhaps it’s a video simulation of the stretching portraits or something, not sure. The ride was good, in fact it seemed to be in a little bit better shape than in 2003. I know this attraction gets lots of complaints for being neglected maintenance-wise compared to the one at DL but it was looking decent. Of course there were problems with the Ghost Host narration and the screen in the graveyard room was still dirty, but I forgave those things and enjoyed the ride, with it’s subtle differences from the original. Afterwards, I rode again by myself because I wanted to enter through the regular queue and do the elevator room. I wasn’t as impressed with the hallway leading up to the Doombuggies as I am at DL, but I do like the animated tombstone.

We then made our way over to BTMRR and used our Fast Pass. There are two sides to load onto the trains but unlike DL only one side is wheelchair accessible, so this means that any handicapped party gets to ride twice in a row so that they can get back to the correct side to unload. We certainly didn’t complain about that. We missed this ride in 2003 because it down for rehab, but I’m glad it was open this time because it’s a blast. Definitely better than DL by far, I’m guessing mostly because of the increased space available for longer straightaways on the track. I also love the little “town” that you zoom past with the miner in the bathtub. I’m sure there’s a name for that part of the ride but I’m not enough of a regular to have it memorized yet <g>.

The time for Spectro was rapidly approaching so I figured we could watch it right from the beginning near Splash and then just cross the street to have dinner at Pecos Bill’s. We found a good spot next to a British family who ever so kindly offered to have Bill wheel himself right up to the rope while their kids scooted down a little to make room for him. Very considerate, especially since they later chewed out another guy for insinuating that he could stand there next to us without waiting more than a few minutes before step-off. Well, 8:00 came and went and there still had not been a 5 or 10 minute announcement and it finally dawned on me that the parade was stepping off from Town Square instead of Frontierland. I thought Spectro always started from Frontierland; I guess I learned my lesson tonight. I could hear the parade coming in the distance when all of a sudden the skies that had been threatening just opened up and POURED all over us. It’s amazing how there is no sprinkling, then rain, then pouring in Florida, it just goes from bone dry to BUCKETS in a matter of seconds. For about 10 seconds, I thought we would just wait out the rain under a nearby tree, but soon after,we all flew the coop and headed for the nearest shelter, totally soaked by this point. The closest place I could find where I could also wheel Bill under was the Briar Patch shop next to Splash. That place became the miniature Superdome for all of us for the next half hour. There is only so much shopping you can do in that tiny store, so I went out looking for paper towels to help dry off Bill who was basically sitting in a pool in his wheelchair. When the water subsided for a second, I ran out to the restrooms at the exit of Splash and they had no paper towels left. Of course it had resumed pouring again so I was now stuck under the bridge of the train near the kid’s play area. Figuring it was never going to let up for the rest of the evening, I gave up and sprinted back to the shop emptyhanded. Well, just about the time the finale unit of the parade was passing by our former great viewing spots, the rain retreated to a sprinkle so we went out to catch what little magic was there. I give big snaps to the cast of Spectro for doing the rest of the show as if they weren’t totally drenched to the bone. Some floats were missing so I guess they had been able to keep them back before they even left Town Square. This was the last night that Spectro would be playing during our entire trip, as we had skipped it on the first night in favor of dinner at the Contemporary, so I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to see my favorite show on this trip.

We sloshed into Pecos Bill and found somewhat short lines but a packed dining room, so I sent Bill to find us a seat while I ordered. We both had cheeseburgers, one with fries and one with carrots, and a chocolate milk for Bill. They ended up including fries with both burgers as well as the carrots so we had plenty of food. This is my favorite burger place in all of WDW because of the fantastic topping bar which is heaven for mushroom lovers like us. I took almost a whole skillet full of them, which was no skin off their backs as it was almost closing time. Satisfied, we headed out, escaping with a mere cost of 12.34 which I paid for rather than waste tomorrow’s counter service credits.

We stopped in the patriotic store once more just to cement into our heads the things we wanted most and as we came out, Wishes was starting, so we just watched it right there. This turned out to be a great spot to see it – totally unobstructed view of the fireworks and very loud music from the parade route speakers. Of course, you miss all the castle effects but that was fine with us – Wishes isn’t our favorite nighttime spectacular and to not have to wait surrounded by 1.4 million people in the Hub was a blessing.

As we were getting ready to leave for the night, Bill asked if I wanted to try to hang around and catch the second Spectro. I knew he was only doing that for my benefit, but I did half heartedly say “ok” from Town Square, thinking we could dash right out as soon as it ended. Sure enough, an announcement came on saying that the parade would be delayed, but they didn’t know for how long. Not wanting to sit around in our wet clothes any longer, we just took off for the hotel. There was light rain on the drive back, so I’m thinking that second Spectro might have been cancelled anyway.

Bill got in bed pretty quickly but I wanted to do some laundry, as we were getting pretty low after 4 sweaty days in Florida. I put two loads in the machine and used the detergent and softener I had bought at home which saved a couple bucks. While I was waiting for the wash, I went over to the pool and called my best friend Koh, my fellow Disney fanatic who now lives in New York. He had just been to WDW in June for a single day only so we related our experiences and just chatted about everything going on in the World as well as caught up on our usual gossip. I got in the pool with the cell phone and some teenagers came out and swam a little as well. Turns out that some of them were cheerleaders and they felt the need to do a small performance over by the alligator statues next to the pool. I was involved in my own little world talking to Koh but they were trying their hardest to get my attention/reaction. I knew this, but I wasn’t willing to give in so I just pretended like their antics weren’t entertaining at all and not worthy of my applause or smiles, ignoring the “hey you”s and the waves and pointings. They finally gave up and went back to swimming. I’m so cranky toward strangers, even on vacation!

I put the clothes in the dryer and went back to the room and found the classic “Airplane 2” on TV, one of those movies I can watch repeatedly and still be entertained. This was on regular television with commercials, so it had been edited, but I noticed a ton of scenes that aren’t in the regular movie, which must have been added to make the TV version the correct length. Some of the scenes were great and I couldn’t believe I had never seen them and the movie was what, 23 years old? So of course I immediately got to thinking that maybe they would be included as an extra on the DVD version. Bill volunteered to come help fold the clothes so we both went back to the laundry room. Of course, after only a single drying cycle the clothes were still a little damp but I wasn’t willing to pay another 4 bucks to dry two loads a second time. We just hung up the shirts and pants and spread the socks around the room so everything could dry, which it did overnight. We didn’t get to sleep until after 1.

Day 5 October 2, 2005

We slept in for a glorious few extra hours and didn’t leave the room until about 10:30. I should say that I slept in; Bill wakes up at almost the same time every day regardless of how tired he is. I’m sure he spent most of the time on the internet or stepping outside to smoke but he always does a good job of not disturbing me, even in these standard hotel rooms.

Bill had been getting antsy about not doing any shopping yet – after all, we were more than halfway through our vacation, horror of horrors <g>. We drove to DTD and started in the World of Disney (WoD) store. The whole point of coming here was to find as many things as we had wanted from the Parks but purchase them here to get 10% off with the Disney Visa card. So what did I leave in the room? The Visa card. Ugh. We went ahead and walked through the store, picking out the things we liked, and then Bill went back to POFQ to get the credit card and I decided to walk to Saratoga Springs and have Bill meet me there for lunch. I figured Sue Holland had done this a million times, so I set foot towards the bus stops, looking for some semblance of a walking path to the resort.

There weren’t exactly blaring signs pointing me in the right direction, but by taking a literal leap of faith across some access road, I wound up at the start of the path to SSR. I thought it should’ve been a little bit better marked from DTD, but then again I doubt many guests want to walk that far during their vacations. The path started out very beautifully, but as soon as I got to the actual hotel buildings the sun was a bit much for this fair-skinned half Irishman, so I picked up the pace a little bit. I passed a pool area and when I realized that this was not the main pool I had seen the other night when buying the parfait, it dawned on me that I had undertaken a much longer walk than I had bargained for! That’s OK though – I happened to have my small umbrella with me and proudly put it up to block the sun. So what if people thought I looked like a Michael Jackson-esque freak. The laugh’s on them because I’m the one who’s not going to be diagnosed with skin cancer <g>. Anyway, I took a shortcut, thinking I was nearing the lobby, but was mistaken and still had to cross a bridge and tread another several hundred yards. Oh well, it was good exercise and the view from the path along the river is quite lovely.

Bill arrived shortly after me and we went into the Artist’s Palette. This was the first time we had been to the food court part of any DVC resort, and it was interesting to see the added items for sale like produce, dairy items, frozen dinners and such. I ended up getting the Chicken Strips with homemade chips, Key Lime pie and a PowerAde, and Bill got a Roast Beef sandwich, Carrot Cake and a Coke. Funny, I don’t remember the Key Lime at all and it’s only been 3 weeks <g>. This counted as a counter service on the Dining Plan and would have cost 27.25. The food was good, and it was nice to order something that’s not available at one of the other resort’s food courts for a change. It did hurt to look at my receipt and see that we only had 2 counter service credits left.

Bill had asked the lady at the DVC booth in the lobby what the current price per point was on SSR and we were shocked to learn that it was over 90. When we came in 2003 it was in the 80s and included a free vacation! I think we missed the boat on this one, so after hearing that, I was still pretty stuck on buying a resale when we actually get around to it. We quietly left the building through different doors so we wouldn’t see her again, considering that she had already begun her sales pitch by telling us to think it over during lunch and then to “Come talk to me” after we were done. No thanks, don’t want to waste your time, sweetie.

With the Disney Visa in tow, we drove back to DTD and continued our trek thru the rest of the shops. I was excited about seeing the new Goofy’s Candy Company, and it did not disappoint – at least at first. When you walk in at one end, there is a bank of frozen drinks, like Slurpees from 7-11, for sale, except they are in much brighter colors and about 5 times the price of the average convenience store. We both wanted to try one so I got lemon lime and Bill got some sort of berry flavor – whatever it was, it was bright blue. These would have been about a buck back home but I think Bill paid 4.25 apiece, oy vey. It’s even more expensive if you want the drink in a huge refillable souvenir bottle. Anyway, the slushes started off pretty good but by about halfway through, it was clear that these were almost solid sugar. Not just like soda sweet, but almost crystalline, not even dissolved sweet. It stuck to your teeth like glue. Bill has an incurable sweet tooth, and I don’t mind candy myself, but we both had to throw them away before we were done and I NEVER throw away any kind of food!

So the other main attraction in this store was the make-your-own-treat bar. I had read about it in Sue’s report and it sounded great. Well, I also remember Sue saying that she wasn’t willing to wait in line to have a piece of candy made and I have to agree. You take a slip of paper and check off the type of base you want (pretzel, cookie, etc) and then what toppings you want it rolled in or topped with. Great concept, poor execution. There was nobody else waiting to place an order, only some orders already placed but not filled yet. And which of Goofy’s candy makers were assigned to fill these orders? Two women senior citizens, obviously from Jersey or Boston by their accent, who pretty much hadn’t a care in the world. The building could have collapsed around them and they’d just continue trying to make out these slips of paper through their bifocals and assume that no guest had any other agenda for the entire day. Between the misreading of Bill’s slip, having to go re-read the slips because they forgot what they said, and the “drying time” in the refrigerator below the counter where, coincidentally, it would be very easy for an older CM to “forget” to unload the various treats and pass them out, I think the process was a good 30-40 minutes. Total joke! I’m sure Disney will pick up on the low profit potential here and somehow update the system. The upside was that the treats were delicious and fresh, and we never did manage to finish both of them before our vacation ended. Word to the wise – if you decide to do this, do it when noone else is in the store, and order only one treat for every two people or you will have a ton of leftovers! Our two “creations”, plus a piece of fudge and a coconut haystack, totaled 13.92.

After the candy fiasco, we had run out of time to finish the rest of DTD because I wanted to catch the Stars & Motor Cars Parade at MGM, which we had missed in 2003. We made it over to the Park, and it started to rain, as if on queue, right when we passed thru the turnstiles. Bill had had enough of the quirky weather so he ordered that we buy ponchos in the Camera Shop just to have at all times in case of Mother Nature’s sudden outbursts. Two of these babies ran 14.00, and we suited up. Of course, within minutes the blazing sun was out, rendering us human crock pots. We had a little time so we wandered thru the shops on Sunset Blvd., not really seeing anything new but just perusing the selections. A small street show was occurring in front of Starring Rolls where they staged a Dating Game with a lady guest along with three undesirable men who she couldn’t see until after she made her choice. It was pretty funny and a nice diversion. The parade route was very full with guests waiting, so I just kept walking farther along it, hoping to find a space for two. I asked a CM if there was a specific place for wheelchairs and she told me about it, but the directions didn’t really make sense to me. We ended up in front of Sounds Dangerous where there was a section of strollers, so I assumed this might also be for wheelchairs and we were able to get up pretty close to the rope. Unfortunately, this spot was in direct sunlight so it was like two vampires out there bleeding to death in the light. The parade came by, with the new Chicken Little car and all, and it was fine, but wasn’t worth the effort. The music is not memorable and there is no complex choreography, and seeing various characters is not my motivation behind parades, so it was a wash. I did love seeing the Muppets out there, though. At least now I know I never have to interrupt my day to get to MGM in the middle of the afternoon until they change parades <g>.

Poor Bill was sunburned by this point and I took him for a smoke break. We then did Star Tours, mostly because I wanted to compare it to DL and to get out of the heat. I liked the queue line quite a bit but the ride was the exact same outdated travesty. That’s OK, Lucas will get to it when he can, I’m confident. The Tatooine Traders shop at the exit was much more impressive than the small Star Wars area of Star Traders back home. After a quick phone call to our friend Becky at home to find out which character was her husband’s favorite, we picked out a Yoda pin to give him when we got back.

We hadn’t used the snack credit for the day so we stood in a moderate line to get a Toll House ice cream sandwich and a water. The Toll House was for Bill and I took a look at the fat content and about passed out. I tried a little, mostly because I didn’t want Bill to have that much fat, and wasn’t that impressed. Should’ve gotten a Mickey Premium bar instead. Neither of us has ever had one, which is crazy considering how often we are at DL and how much Bill thrives on ice cream!

We were slowing down for the day, and we just sat on a bench in front of the Great Movie Ride for a while, deciding what to do next. I took some pictures of the general area and was irritated at how close I had to get to the Chinese Theatre to get decent shots without the stupid Hat getting in the way. This really needs to go. It’s bad enough that they add another pin location, but to purposely block the Park’s best icon so they can use their usual excuse of “It wasn’t that popular” as a reason not to update and maintain the ride just infuriates me. To show my support, we then took a ride on GMR, after a rather long wait which seemed to be lengthened by the fact that we had a wheelchair. The ride was good like always, but it’s increasingly clear how much some of the scenes are being neglected, and even moreso how badly the final movie montage needs to be updated. That’s such a relatively cheap thing to change – it doesn’t involve any animatronics or maintenance, really, and they need to show it a little love. I just recently found out that the Busby Berkeley scene in the ride used to rotate and have some sort of water fountain effect to it which has been turned off for over 10 years. Stuff like that just baffles me.

Considering we had missed the ToT earlier in the trip, it was high time to ride. I had been itching to revisit the MGM version after having been riding the DCA version for the past year because I really prefer this version with the Fifth Dimension Room at the top. I rode once by myself while Bill smoked and then Bill joined me the second time around. Both were very fun. I can see how perhaps the new DCA version is more reliable from a mechanical perspective, but I still would have rather they spent the additional capital to duplicate the original ride and improve on it’s performance without sacrificing ride elements.

Our PS for the evening was the Brown Derby, thanks to the cancellation of Liberty Tree Tavern last night. We checked in 15 minutes early and were seated 5 minutes before our PS which was great. The lobby had some comfortable chairs to wait in which felt great at the time. I hadn’t been in here since 1996 and everything looked the same, although we never saw any of the character actors browse through the restaurant as in the past. I had the Portabello Mushroom Tortellini, Cobb Salad, and Grapefruit cake and Bill had the Lobster & Corn Bisque, Filet Mignon, a double cappuccino and Grapefruit Cake as well. Bill also had, I think, a Margarita or if not, some other alcoholic drink. I do know that we spent 14.87 on drinks that weren’t included in the Dining Plan. The food was very good, although I was a little disappointed in the Cobb Salad. It’s normally served as an appetizer for two but they let me count it as my main entrée, which was nice, but the lettuce is chopped so finely that it is more of a topping than a bed on which to put the other toppings. I guess this is the way it was originally created but I think I prefer it the way most other restaurants serve it nowadays. On the flipside, the Grapefruit Cake was delicious. It didn’t taste the way I had expected or hoped, but it’s very good and not at all tart like you might expect for a dessert with grapefruit juice in it.

There was a table of 8 Asians seated close to us, and we picked up on the fact that none of them spoke any English. When the server came to take their order, they were clueless what to do. I have to give them credit for even sitting at a restaurant like this – if I was in China, I probably wouldn’t even risk the embarrassment! Anyway, it was very comical watching the total lack of communication from both sides. All eight of the party ordered Filet Mignons, probably not even knowing what they were, and by this point the server was so irritated with them that she didn’t ask anyone how they wanted their meat cooked It was funny, because the whole table was laughing their way through this, but I felt bad for them because the server was not exactly going out of her way to help. We were gone before their meals came out, but I hope they at least enjoyed them. I had Bill take a couple pictures of me standing under the brass derby lamps, as if I was wearing the hat, and we headed out.

Fantasmic was next, which we had missed in 2003 also. We arrived about 15 minutes before showtime and were seated in the back in a wheelchair nook, fairly close to center. The show was horrific by Fantasmic standards. First off, the Mickey was TERRIBLE – out of synch with the music, low energy, just everything bad. He also didn’t have any pyro coming from his fingertips like he does in CA. Then at the end, half of the pyro was not working, and it was obvious, even to a first timer. It was also too smoky to see Sorcerer Mickey at the end which, to me, really completes the show. And that cardboard ship? OK, I had seen this show in 1996 and remembered it’s shortcomings, but they were even more vivid 9 years later, lol! The performers on the ship were not holding banners like they do at DL, which really took away visually from the finale. I know this sounds like nothing but one big rant, and I don’t mean to be so negative, but let’s just say we walked away with an even greater appreciation for the gem we have back in California.

We exited the Park through the backstage walkway. The walk was just lined with Cast Members, all either answering questions or just waving goodnight to the crowd. It amazes me how many CMs there are everywhere on WDW property that are simply there to fill space, say hello to people, and help guide them in the right direction. I LOVE this and it’s something that is completely absent from DL. I guess they figure that since most of DL’s clientele are passholders, we don’t need as much assistance in finding things. It’s still sort of sad, and one of those aspects of a WDW vacation that really make a difference and remind you why you just flew across the country to this magical place instead of just took a day trip to Disneyland. We were in bed by 11:30, an early night by our recent standards!

Day 6 October 3

This morning I was sore to get up, not sure why, I guess the past 5 days had caught up to my feet and legs, so the first thing we did was to get in the pool and spa at 8:45. Our goals today were to finish the rides that we had missed at the MK and do our shopping at DTD with the Visa discount. We showered and drove over to the Grand Floridian for breakfast. I thought it would be a good excuse to see the hotel by going there to try their food court. Well, Gasparilla Grill turned out to be no different than Sassagoula Floatworks, and I was a little disappointed. I thought they might have some nicer selections but it was truly the same trite breakfast selections as at the Moderates. I had an Egg & Bacon croissant and Bill had some oatmeal and milk. We paid cash for this because we were saving the counter service dining credit to use at lunchtime. Total was 9.98.

We browsed around the hotel afterward, taking pictures of the great views of the lake and the pool areas. We then went upstairs to look in the shops on the second floor. This hotel really doesn’t do it for me – I love opulence and rich surroundings but this just seemed like another 4 star hotel you can find anywhere in the U.S. Personally, for the same price I’d much rather be at the Poly or Contemporary. I would like to try Victoria and Albert’s someday, though.

We then drove back to DTD to actually make some purchases for a change. We gathered all our stuff and went to buy it at one of the counters in the collectibles area. The CM there saw that we were waiting and helped someone else before us who was interested in jewelry instead. This pissed me off because we had been standing there and we WERE buying something from her area, she just didn’t know that yet because she never asked. Finally we were able to tell her that we wanted to purchase the Big Figure of Maleficent, and she snipped back that she couldn’t leave her area and maybe she would be able to find someone to get one for us. Hello? I’m in the collectibles section buying a collectible and she can’t help me. OK, remain calm and just buy your stuff. Soon a much friendlier second CM came over to help us and brought out a Maleficent in a box and we checked it and it looked fine. We were shipping her home while we took the other small stuff with us, creating two transactions. She packaged and rang up the small stuff and he rang up Maleficent. He was going to input the 10% discount for the Visa, and she said nope, no discount on collectibles. This confused me because at DL, we always get the 10% on this type of merchandise and I thought why would the Visa discount be any different but it was. Bill could sense my displeasure at this news and picked up on it and started to create a scene, insisting that they were wrong. The male CM went to check with his supervisor and sure enough the Big Figs were not included, but he re-rang the purchase with the discount anyway, saying how he was empowered by his manager to make decisions such as this to keep guests happy and that it was fine. We could tell that he was breaking the rules and we kept saying not to worry about it but he insisted. The whole charade was emotionally taxing on both of us but it turns out we were wrong and the CMs were right. It still doesn’t make sense to me that annual passholders have one set of 10% rules while Disney Visa cardholders have another set. Ten percent is ten percent, if you ask me. It would be so much easier if east and west coast passholders got their discount at any of the Parks and we never would have had to worry about the damn Visa card in the first place! We ended up spending 155.95 on Maleficent including shipping, and 146.63 on all the other small stuff.

As a side note, Maleficent arrived back home broken. We pondered whether this was done intentionally or by the postal carrier. Either way, now we have to go through the hassle of getting her exchanged. I’ve since emailed and called WDW merchandise and was told to fax in a letter explaining what happened along with my pertinent info. That was a week ago and I still haven’t heard anything back.

Back at the MK, we were ready for lunch but the Park was packed! It was around 2:00 and all the restaurants looked as if it were high noon. I started with Cosmic Ray’s but there were absolutely no tables. People were sitting on the floor near Sonny Eclipse. Time was running out and we needed to eat before the Share a Dream Come True Parade at 3:00, so I tried Pinocchio’s Village Haus. Again packed, but a short line to order so I got in it while Bill went to look for a table. I got a Turkey Panini with Chips and a bottle water, and Bill got a Meat Antipasto Salad, Coke, Vanilla Shake and a Cannoli for dessert to share. It sounds like a lot of dessert, but the shake was more to calm Bill’s stomach than for his sweet tooth. Total charged to the DP was around 25.00. Bill wasn’t able to find a table and we couldn’t even attempt to look upstairs with his wheelchair, so we ended up leaning against the condiments bar which wasn’t being used and used the tray slide as our table. I stood while Bill sat in his wheelchair. There was another couple next to us who had been forced to do the same thing. It was at this moment that it became clear that this was not the same off-season we had seen in November 2003. The food was very good, though, and I really didn’t mind standing.

We rushed out to find a good place to see SADCT and ended up at the Liberty Bell. This was a perfect spot and totally unobstructed for both of us. We were right by the sign language interpreters which were so fun for me to watch. I used to be in a singing and sign language group in the 80s and it brought back good memories. I videotaped the parade and again realized that, like the Stars & Motors Cars Parade, I never needed to take time out of the afternoon to see this parade again. Other than the Peter Pan narration at the beginning, it holds little “magic” to me and the whole snowglobe idea is just silly.

After the parade we waited what seemed like an eternity to get into the Country Bear Jamboree. It was nice and cool inside, but with the wheelchair we got the very front row and the speakers were louder than I’d ever heard them back at DL – like eardrum piercing loud. Ironic, because I always used to complain that DL’s version was too soft to make an impact. Well, impact was felt this time. Cute classic show as always, and the audience ate it up, but I can see why it didn’t make it back in California. I do hope that the AA Country Bears find another home though, perhaps in DCA.

Bill was ready for his Dole Whip so we wheeled through Adventureland. I noticed the prices were still considerably lower than at the Tiki Juice Bar in DL which was refreshing, no pun intended. I also walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse while Bill ate his whip. I’m sorry to say that I really prefer this over the newer Tarzan Treehouse at DL. When I came back down, Bill had been talking to someone who had gotten her camera’s memory stick wet by accident and he was offering advice. He’s so much better at striking up conversations with strangers than I am.

Pirates had a very long wait at this time, and Bill really didn’t feel like riding anything that involved transferring out of his chair, so we went into the Tiki Room. This show doesn’t bother me nearly as much as some people, in fact, I find it more entertaining than the original. Of course, I always say that’s because I have the original in my own backyard that I can visit at any time, so I might be a little more passionate about the 90’s change if I didn’t live so close to Anaheim. The Tiki Goddess animatronic in the center, which had impressed me so much on my solo trip in 1998, was in horrible repair, just like the Wicked Witch had been in the Great Movie Ride yesterday. I was disgusted that these figures, one of the hallmarks of the Disney theme parks, were allowed to just rot like that and hoped that a rehab was in the works.

I went on Haunted Mansion by myself once again and it was another good ride. I met Bill at the smoking area behind the Christmas shop afterward, after peeking in the Columbia Harbor House to see it’s menu. It looked surprisingly good and I was sorry that we had never eaten here in any past trips.

We had a PS for O’Hana tonight, so we took the Monorail over to the Poly and had a lot of time to spare. Good thing, too, because the Monorail ride took forever. Definitely one of those new Windows-based trains. It didn’t make sense to me that the Resort Monorail line had to stop at the TTC, either, but it did, taking even longer. Finally we arrived in paradise and had plenty of time to explore the shops, including the new gift shop which had replaced several of the older stores since our last visit. The new shop was nice and in the correct theme, but I missed the smaller, more intimate older ones. I sensed that they were on their way out back in ’03 and took lots of pictures, which I was now glad to have. I also took a walk out to the beach and was again reminded of how great it must be to have a room facing the lake at this resort.

We checked in at O’Hana at 6:30 for a 6:50 PS, hoping to get a jump on dinner so that we could get back to the MK by 8:00 for Spectro. We didn’t get seated until 6:52, so it was becoming clear that we might miss the parade. Dinner was excellent, as it always is at O’Hana, even with the menu changes that had gone into place. I couldn’t tell if the changes were cost cutting measures or not, but I just wish they would leave well enough alone. My favorite dessert, the beach bomb shaved ice bucket, was no longer on the menu but they still had it and I ordered it, outside of the Dining Plan of course. The server said “You know, all you need is a Snoopy Snow Cone Machine and you can have that at home” which I didn’t really appreciate because it implied that my dessert tastes were too juvenile – after all, why would anyone in their right mind choose flavored ice over the signature bread pudding with ice cream? Hmm, maybe because I was trying not to be any more of an overindulgent pig on this trip? Anyway, we didn’t get out of there until 8:10, so there was no point in going back to the MK, especially since Bill wasn’t feeling all that well by that hour. Total charged to the DP was 65.21, and I paid 6.52 for my shaved ice with tip.

We walked back to the TTC via the connecting path and stopped in the souvenir shop to the right of the ticket booths. They have a machine that engraves pet tags so I got a new tag with Mickey on it for our Dalmatian with our new address, since she was still wearing one for our old house 40 miles away. Wouldn’t have been very helpful in getting her back home if she had gotten lost! This cost 10.00 and the machine accepted credit cards which was very handy for this cashless couple. Too bad that I still can’t find that damn tag at home – I remember unpacking it but that’s the last I’ve seen of it.

Back at the hotel, I didn’t want to turn in just yet because this was our last night at POFQ. I decided to take the boat ride over to DTD just to say I had done it. I had wanted to do this earlier in the trip and in the daylight so I could get a look at the former Treehouse Villas which have intrigued me so much, but this was better than nothing. I was the only person on the boat ride which was eerily quiet but relaxing at the same time. There were some random lights on in the treehouses, either inside the units or on the porches, so I could get an idea of what they were like even at night. They looked awesome – a piece of the past that has been sorely neglected but would be immensely popular if reopened. I really hope that Disney decides to add this as part of Saratoga Springs – the units really didn’t look to be in that bad of shape, just decoratively challenged <g>. Even Bill, who wouldn’t be able to climb stairs very well, would be willing to stay here just for the novelty of it all, regardless of the non-ADA compliance.

The boat driver let me choose to be dropped off at the West Side so I browsed through various shops and went on ahead into Pleasure Island. I wasn’t sure if they were still on the pay-per-club system and I wouldn’t be able to walk in, but they were so I went in without any charge. I hadn’t been to PI for many years and it was showing it’s age. I had remembered a very good collectibles shop but it was gone. I peeked into a couple of the clubs and they looked fun, but one of them, I think it was Motion, had absolutely no people in it. This was around 10pm on a Saturday night too. I got the feeling that business was not so good around these parts. I could see that the new Raglan Road Irish pub was almost ready to open, so I hoped that might bring more people back to this night spot.

I continued on to the Marketplace side, not wanting to shop for anything, but just enjoying the evening. I looked for a place to use our last snack credit on the DP but everything was closed. I could see the line for the boat ride back to Port Orleans and didn’t feel like waiting, so I headed over to the bus stops. This was a miserable half hour ride back to POFQ, between stopping at the West Side to pick up more passengers and the fact that every square inch of space was taken on that bus. There were so many people continuing on to Riverside that I could barely squeeze out at the French Quarter stop. It’s times like this that reminded me that to do WDW without a car is just suicide. I made it back to bed around midnight.

Day 7 October 4

It was time to leave POFQ so it was a sad morning. We left the room and grabbed an orange and a banana at the food court to use as our last snack credit which we hadn’t used yesterday. I had been dreading this day for another reason too – since we were checking out of the hotel today, but not leaving WDW property until the next day, I had to ask if we would be able to come back tomorrow and use Magical Express from here. It was a confusing question to everyone I posed it to, but finally the DME desk confirmed that this was not possible, that you had to depart on the same day as your check out day or the service would not be offered. We were checking into the Hilton in WDW for our last night, which, even though it’s an official WDW hotel, it’s not Disney-owned so it didn’t quality for DME. This was a pretty big letdown, because if I had known it would be a problem, I would have rented the car at the airport and skipped DME altogether. The way it stood now, we would have to use Mears to get back to the airport after returning our rental car here on property at the Dolphin. Lesson learned – either use DME on your exact arrival and departure days, or rent a car from the airport and skip the free service. I really felt like the minute you check out of a Disney hotel, you’re nobody again – no charging privileges, no early entry, no DME! I also confirmed that even though we had checked out, that our room keys would still be valid for park admission on the following day, since I had bought 8 day park hoppers but only spent 6 nights in their hotels. The CM confirmed that yes, it would work, because any park tickets on the room keys would not expire for another 7 days or so.

We drove over to the Hilton and were able to check in and get our room right away, which was great, considering it was only 10am. The hotel seemed deserted, much more like I would have expected early October to be, and it was a refreshing change. I’m thinking that the Disney hotels were packed mostly because of the free dining plan, which wasn’t offered at the Hilton. We were given a room on the top floor with a view of DTD, absolutely perfect. When you book this hotel at Hilton’s website, you have a choice of many different rates depending on what view and whether or not you want to be on the Executive floors, the top floors in the tower. I had booked the most expensive rate because it was to be reimbursed by Bill’s boss for work I had done for his company, which is probably why we ended up with this desirable room.

The room was very nice and comfortable but felt extremely small, even smaller than our moderate room at POFQ. I recognized the décor from the website and the bed was very comfortable. There was also a stocked refrigerator, which we kindly took a few items out of to make room for Bill’s refrigerated medications. The décor on the Executive floors is a little bit different than the rest and, supposedly more high end. It basically felt like any other Hilton in the country – newer, clean and comfortable with lots of amenities. The toiletries on this floor were also “upgraded” from the standard Neutrogena. They were some line by Crabtree & Evelyn but they were nothing like the indulgent bath gels and soaps I used to buy there in the 80s, the last time I was in one of their stores.

One of the perks of the Executive floors was the Concierge lounge and it’s accompanying free food. Since the Dining Plan was over, we were now on our own as far as sustenance. I went down to check it out and found that all the breakfast items had been cleared away and they were only serving beverages at this hour, so I grabbed a coffee for Bill and an orange juice for me. They want you to leave all your dishes there in the lounge but I went upstairs anyway. We unwound a little in the room, not unpacking but just getting situated, and ate a little bit of our candy creations for breakfast. Very healthy. We weren’t in too big of a rush to leave since it had started to sprinkle outside.

Eventually, we headed out and parked at Epcot. We hadn’t given what I thought was adequate time to World Showcase, either on this trip or our last one, so today was going to be spent here and only here. We started with Maelstrom, which had a very minimal wait. I tried to videotape it, but it was too dark to show up and I turned it off about halfway through. We bypassed the movie at the end which I was actually up for watching, but I didn’t want to spend the time at that point. After that we browsed through China’s shops which were really gorgeous. I can’t believe I never took the time to come back here. Some of China’s ornate merchandise can be construed as tacky but today everything just looked really nice. I wanted to see Wonders of China since it had been updated since the last time I saw it in Disneyland, so I did that while Bill stayed outside at the smoking area. The film was very good – I remember being bored to tears with the original but this one held my attention very well.

Next, we happened upon my favorite WDW street performer, Miyuki. She is the candy artist in Japan whom I first saw in 1996 and is still working here, God love her. Bill was equally entranced and I got some pictures and video of her. My best friend and I had gotten quite a few laughs out of her on that first trip, making fun of her broken English spiel and all, and I thought he would appreciate seeing her on video for fun. It’s not that we were disrespecting her, just laughing at her whole routine. I could stay and watch her all day.

We then saw Impressions de France, with a fairly substantial wait in the lobby beforehand. Bill had no interest in another movie attraction but he sat through it for me. I had to agree that it was rather lethargic, but at least now we know not to bother with it until it gets updated. The music is wonderful and the theatre and lobby are lovely, but the production values just weren’t all they could be. Afterwards, we got some goodies at the Patisserie and enjoyed them in the seating area in the gift shop. I think I had a quiche and Bill got a Napoleon, both of which were delicious. I just checked the receipt and it looks like I also got a chocolate croissant – oink! The bill here was 14.59.

Lunch was not going to be a formal affair today, so we just continued on in the snacks dept. and got cheese soups and a Riesling from the Canada booth of the Food & Wine Festival. Both were very good and we ate them right across from the booth overlooking the lake. By now, it was time for a break so we headed back to the Hilton. I wanted to try out the pool and spa, which we could see from our room were totally empty, but Bill thought it might be too cold with the overcast weather. Cold? After the blistering heat we’ve been through for the past 7 days? Please. I went ahead by myself, got into the Jacuzzi which was plenty hot, and called Bill in the room to tell him it was “safe”. He came down with no problems. There are two Jacuzzis next to eachother but only one was hot and had the bubbles working. Afterwards I was bold and went in the regular pool which was a little cool at first but quickly warmed up and felt great. Bill dried off on a lounge chair and played the games in his cell phone. It was awesome being the only person in this HUGE pool when no doubt all the pools at the WDW resorts would be packed right about now.

Back up at the room, I again went to the Concierge lounge which was now serving the evening appetizers. I ate a bunch of them in the lounge and then brought a plate up for Bill, who wasn’t very hungry but had a few anyway while working on the computer. I also went downstairs to ask for the phone number for Mears to buy our tickets for the next afternoon. I found out that they are directly tied to Mears’ computer and can sell and print tickets right there at the lobby Concierge desk. $34 later, we had a guaranteed ride back to the airport, and it was no problem to