Jackie Reichert - May 1998 - Dixie Landing & Offsite

[Trip Reports]

Cast:

Me (Jackie), age 25, last trip to Disney 1994
Rick, my husband, age 24, hadn’t been to Disney since he was 8 years old
Dates:

May 25, 1998 thru June 1, 1998
Hotels:

Dixie Landings, offsite at Econlodge Maingate Hawaiian and Clarion Plaza
Reason for trip:

Celebrating our first wedding anniversary
Monday, May 25, 1998 (Memorial Day)

Our flight from Syracuse, NY (layover in Pittsburgh) was fine, we got in on time at 2:20pm. We took the tram thing to the luggage pickup and went to catch the shuttle to Alamo. We found this area to be a little confusing, it said that the rental car shuttles would board there, but it didn’t say which company boarded WHERE. We had to stand in the middle and hope that the Alamo bus pulled in close to where we were standing. It worked out okay anyway, we only waited about 5 minutes for the Alamo shuttle to show up.

When we arrived at the Alamo place, I was expecting a TERRIBLE line from what I read on-line about this place. There were a lot of people there, but I only waited in line about 15-20 minutes. The line moved swiftly and I wasn’t displeased at all. I didn’t encounter any hassles at the counter, and they didn’t try to sell me any unnecessary insurance. They looked at my drivers license and Discover Card. I had a coupon for a free upgrade, we had reserved a compact car so they upgraded to mid-sized. We got a 1998 white Ford Contour. It was lovely and the best part about it was the air conditioner only took about 3 minutes at the most to get cold in the humid weather! Anyway, I walked out to the car got in picked up my husband and luggage on the curb. I had called the Econolodge Hawaiian before I left to get directions (where we were staying for the first 4 nights). They gave us a map at Alamo and off we went.

The lady at the Econolodge gave me TERRIBLE directions. We ended up driving into Disney World! I knew something was wrong when I drove under the "Welcome to Disney arch!" When we finally arrived at Econolodge we discovered that my husband left one piece of our luggage at the Alamo rental place!!! We drove all the way back there, about 20 minute drive and $3 worth of tolls there and back! I wasn’t amused! There it was still sitting on the curb!

I wasn’t very impressed with the Econolodge Hawaiian. I didn’t have a bad stay but probably wouldn’t stay there again.

Here’s what was good:

Location was excellent, took about 5 minutes, if that, to get onto Disney property
No line at check in, we checked in about 4:00pm.
The pool area wasn’t anything special but it was clean and nice. They just put in a pool bar that sold drinks, beer & a few food items.
I never ate at the hotel restaurant, but it looked nice inside have no idea how the food was though.
The lobby had a gift shop and small convenience store, was very handy to buy milk for small cereals and a soda, ice cream whatever.
Here’s what I didn’t like:

The rooms weren’t dirty per say, but they could have used a face lift. The carpet in our room was new though.
The bathroom was the worst kept up place. The floor could have been cleaner in there.
The water pressure in the shower was horrible. I mean I could barely wash the shampoo out of my hair and had to flush the toilet twice every time.
I’m glad our room wasn’t near the pool area because it was very noisy over there and it would have irritated me.
I found the layout of the place to be very confusing. We ended up having a room that was on an inside corridor which meant we had a LOT of lugging to do with our luggage. The closest you could get your car to the inside corridors was very far away.
All local calls, even credit card calls called from your room were like .75 cents a call.
Don’t get me wrong, this hotel was not a total nightmare but with the many choices of budget hotels in the Orlando area, I would be more likely to try a different one next time.

If you do decide to stay at the Econolodge Hawaiian, here are my suggestions....

Check in was very crowded at night, try to check in late afternoon or early morning if you have a choice.
Request an outside room. Ask to be able to have a room close to where you can park your car.
Request a room AWAY from the pool area. The place isn’t that big, the longest walk you could have to the pool would be maybe 2 minutes.
If you are going to make phone calls with your credit card, walk down to the lobby and use the payphones, they don’t charge you .75 cents just to pick up the phone. And if you are going to make local calls, use the lobby payphones too, they’re also a lot cheaper to stick in a couple cents worth of change.
Okay.....back to the report

After having to travel BACK to Alamo, we finally returned to the Econolodge and dressed very quickly for dinner. I had made 7:00 dinner reservations for Gullivers at the Swan to use my $50 coupon. We were rushing and rushing and we ended up getting there early! The Swan was really dead on Memorial Day, nothing going on in the conference rooms and ballrooms. It was a ghost town. We were seated at Gullivers and I set my $50 coupon on the table first thing. When the waitress came over, she saw it and told me to just use it like a $50 bill when I paid the bill but the gratuity was not included. Wow! That was great! So we both ordered Prime Rib, I had French fries and Rick had baked potato. They brought us out Greek style salads. I’m not big on Greek salad but this was good. It had a vinegar and oil type dressing and only a little bit of cheese on the top. She also brought out really great fresh bread and butter. When we got our dinners, they were delicious! Just before the dinners came out, the waitress brought out little dishes of toppings for Rick’s potato. There was sour cream, butter, chives and bacon bits. It sure looked yummy. The prime rib was fabulous. Timon and Pumba came around 3 times while we were eating. They were just great, interacting with all the guests in the restaurant. At the end of the meal, she didn’t even bring us a bill, she said it came to $44 and took our coupon. We left about an $8 tip and off we went! Wow! I was really impressed with the atmosphere, the food and the characters not to mention it was practically free! I would suggest this restaurant to anyone who is looking for a place to use their $50 coupon. What a great way to spend our first day in Florida!

I had planned to walk over to the Boardwalk after dinner and we did just that. We walked over the bridge to the Boardwalk and almost got ran over by about 10 surrey bikes! They were all over the place! We walked all the way around passed the Yacht Club, Beach Club and onto the Boardwalk. I had to go over and take a look at the infamous swimming area at the Yacht Club! There weren’t too many people in it at that time but it did look fun with the sand bottom, neat! As we got over to the Boardwalk a show was about to start on the dock. A little car with some funny guys stopped and did this skit with juggling and balancing and all that, it was a great little surprise.

We then headed over to Jellyrolls. I could not wait to check this place out after everyone raved about it on the RADP and in trip reports! We got in about 8:30 PM and there weren’t too many people there yet. We had to pay $3 cover per person and the drinks weren’t cheap! Rick drank two long island ice teas, and 2 beers, it was about $20 for just that! Yikes! I don’t drink so I nursed a coke all night. It would have been very easy to blow over $50 just on drinks alone if you stayed there a few hours so be prepared. At first things were a little slow, but it picked right up. There appeared to be 2 duos that switched every hour. I liked one duo better than the other though so I got excited when the one duo would come on ! The one I liked had this one guy, his name was Matt, looked like he was in his late 20’s and VERY nice looking. He was also the BEST piano player I saw that night. He blew me away! I went to college for music for 5 years and there were not many people I met that could play the piano like that!! We ended up spending a great deal of time here, Rick had to DRAG me out of there because he said he needed to get a little sleep if I intended on being at SeaWorld by 9am. I would definitely recommend Jellyrolls, but be forewarned that most of the action doesn’t take place until after 9pm. Wow, I would go back just to see Matt play the piano and sing some more! Outstanding! A must see by far! If anyone else goes and sees Matt at Jelly Rolls, please send me and email and let me know what you thought.

Back to the hotel for some shut eye. We were in bed by about 12:30 AM. The next day I planned on Sea World, then to Planet Hollywood for dinner before 5pm to use my priority seating coupon from Rita Aero’s book.

Tuesday, May 26, 1998

We found Sea World with no problem, got on I-4 East. Cost $5 to park the car, we gave the parking attendant a $10 bill and she gave us 4 $1’s back! I made Rick pull the car over and I went back and got my $1! I wondered if this was a little underwraps rip off scheme! How many cars will stop to get their $1 bill?? I certainly did! We got to Sea World right at 9:00AM when it opened. I won’t go into a lot of details but we sure did enjoy this park! Especially my husband who absolutely adores sea life. The only problem is the way they space out the different shows, for instance the dolphin show was at 10:30 and like 1:45!! If you missed the first one, you had to wait forever!!! When we first got there, we ran right over to Journey to Atlantis since I knew this one would have a long wait. Well, there was something wrong with the ride and we waited for 30 minutes at least just for them to open it up. That was disappointing but the ride was pretty good when we finally got on! It was a lot like Splash mountain to me but at the end it turns into a short roller coaster ride. But if you don’t like roller coasters don’t worry about it, that part last less than 5 seconds I think and it’s not that bad. I really enjoyed the story and all. If you intend on going on this ride, it should be the first thing you run to when you get in, later in the day the line was outrageous! My little fan/sprayer came in really handy at Sea World because of being outside at attractions, unlike most of the attractions in Disney World. It was pretty warm out there and that sprayer was a life saver! One word of caution, especially on the Whale/Shamu show, if you sit in the splash zone, be forewarned you won’t just get splashed, you will GET DRENCHED!!! With salt water too! We found out the hard way! Some of the other shows say you’ll get splashed but none of them were as bad as the whale one!!

We left Sea World about 3PM. We returned to the Econolodge and showered for dinner. We were at Planet Hollywood by about 5:00 PM. We were seated immediately downstairs, we didn’t need to use our "go to the front of the line coupon" there was nobody waiting at that time. Both Rick and I ordered the bacon cheeseburgers with fries. I don’t like a lot of stuff on my cheeseburger, other than cheese and bacon, so I asked her to hold the tomato, lettuce and onion and Rick asked her to add an order of mushrooms. Well the order came out a while later, but only Rick’s burger came out and our waitress was not the one who delivered it. Our waitress walked out a few minutes later and brought out my burger and apologized for it. It was all rather confusing. But in the end everything was fine. Since I booked part of my trip through Liberty Travel, we also were given a voucher for $5.00 off our dinner bill. Then I had one of the Milky Way coupons for a free dessert. You don’t get to choose what you want but what they brought us was great! It was like a hot fudge brownie sundae. It was delicious, especially since it was free! The bill came to $19 after the $5 off coupon and the free dessert (tip not included). I then took my other Milky Way coupon for a free hat with a $10 purchase into the gift shop and told the girl, this coupon says with a $10 purchase and that I just ate dinner there and she took the coupon and handed me a black baseball hat. Had the Planet Hollywood logo on a silver plate on the front and it was embroidered ORLANDO on the back. Very nice for free! I used it as a gift to give to my step-father as a souvenir when we got home. Thank all you RADP’ers for the Milky Way coupon thing and the priority seating coupon in Aero’s book!

We wandered around Disney West Side and then onto Downtown Disney. I bought some stuff at the HUGE Disney Store and remembered to use my Magic Kingdom Club card for a 10% discount. I found a Sebastian stuffed animal and a Sebastian plastic figurine. I just love that crab! We were going to try taking a boat over to Dixie Landings so we could check the place out before we checked in later that night but it looked like a thunder storm was coming so we decided against it. Instead we got back into the car and headed out to find a grocery store. We ended up at a Goodings. My advice to you is try to find a publix grocery instead, Goodings was a little on the steep side. However, a 6-pack of beer at Goodings is still cheaper than at the bars! We picked up some beer for Rick, some water, soda, pop tarts and a few munchies. Headed back to the hotel and hit the hay early. We caught the weather forecast that night and they were predicting rain and thunderstorms for the next FOUR DAYS!!!! What a disappointment!

Wednesday, May 27, 1998

Well, I had planned to go to Typhoon Lagoon this day but it looked a little iffy in the morning before we took off so we quickly changed our route to EPCOT. There was a miserable drizzle outside, but not enough for ponchos, I just carried a small umbrella. We got to EPCOT right when it opened and headed right for HISTA, we walked right in and caught the very first showing. Since we were over there already, we did Journey into Imagination with Figment. I was pretty sick of that song by the time we got out of there! It was drizzling on and off the whole time we were at EPCOT. It really wasn’t THAT bad though because it was still 90 degrees outside, we certainly weren’t cold. We did all the regulars and tried to go back and hit Spaceship Earth but the line was still pretty long at lunchtime. So I remembered that I had read that the lines aren’t as bad in the evening, we decided to save that one for later. We then headed right over to World Showcase, about 10:15 AM or so when it opened.

From trip reports I have read, we decided to head over to Maelstrom/Norway and The River of Time/Mexico first thing. We did and they were both walk ons! I followed all the tips I read from the RADP and trip reports and they sure did work! We decided to catch an early lunch at the Electric Umbrella at Innoventions, I used the 10% off coupon from the back of the Birnbaum’s book. I had a chicken finger kids meal and Rick had a burger and fries, total after the discount came to about $10. After lunch we headed back to the other side of the World Showcase to Canada and counter clockwise from there. I was very impressed with the detail they went through at all of the countries complete with native people to the country working in the shops. We headed out of EPCOT early in the afternoon and decided to hit Typhoon Lagoon for awhile.

It had been drizzling all day on and off and it cleared up a little when we got to Typhoon Lagoon. There weren’t many people there at all. The longest line we had to wait in was about 10 minutes. We pretty much did everything we could do at TL in about 1 1/2 hours. I was petrified of that wave pool!! I can’t swim very well and the first wave nearly killed me! Those waves are pretty dangerous if you’re not that good of a swimmer. But I suppose it would be a great thrill for people who like waves!! It looked pretty fun from the shore, but when I got out there, I was actually scared! Overall I liked TL, I thought it was a fun park and we picked a great afternoon when it wasn’t crowded. As long as it’s not thunder storming, I would suggest trying TL on one of those drizzly days because the crowds are really down then. You can’t feel the rain when you’re already wet and the humidity keeps you warm. The slides at TL aren’t nearly as fast or fun than the ones at Blizzard Beach as we would find out later in the week. We returned to the Econolodge yet one more time to change for dinner.

We ended up eating at a DELICIOUS Italian place called Giordano’s. It was near Goodings down on Irlo Bronson/Rt 192 about a mile or two past the Econolodge Hawaiian we were staying at. They had reasonable prices and this stuffed pizza to die for! The service was excellent and the Italian salad dressing was the best I ever had!

After dinner we drove back to EPCOT to catch Illuminations. Rick still hadn’t done Body Wars so we went over there about 8:20pm and there was a 10 minute wait. I waited outside, I don’t much like that ride! After that, we went out to hunt down a good place to watch Illuminations. Well, we ended up right by a stage (on the Canada side) that had this sort of "rock" type bagpipe band playing. The were outstanding!! I don’t know if this was a good place to catch Illuminations from or not, but I certainly wasn’t as impressed with the show as I was back in 1994. Has the show changed? I couldn’t really see the laser effect on the waterfall from where we were and I didn’t much like the introduction of the countries either. I seem to remember them playing native music to the country when they introduced them in the old show. Well needless to say, I was a little disappointed. It was still a cool show I guess, but I miss the old one.

We took the advice of many trip reports and decided to sit down and wait for the crowds to dissipate after Illuminations before attempting the parking lot. We sat and watched people, listened to the fast paced "we want you people to walk fast" music that was playing. We waited a good 20 minutes or so before heading back over to Spaceship Earth. On the way out, we decided to stop for a chocolate mousse at this little fast food place (the name escapes me). It was delicious and it stalled us a little more. Be sure not to miss the twinkling sidewalk between Innoventions and Spaceship Earth, it was so cool! I can’t believe HOW many people that park can hold! So 45 minutes after Illuminations ended, we finally headed out to the parking lot, where we found NOBODY, ahhh what a relief! I’d rather sit and have a pastry than sit in the gridlock. I highly recommend you do this instead of trying to beat the crowds that you will not be able to beat!

Thursday, May 28, 1998

Today was really just a day for us to relax and get ourselves ready to check into Dixie Landings first thing Friday morning. We rode around, looked at some apartment complexes in the area as we are entertaining the idea of moving to Orlando someday.

This night we had reservations at King Henry’s Feast Dinner show. I was extremely disappointed in this whole experience. We got there a little early and were escorted to a place where they almost forced you to get your picture taken, then they directed you to this booth where I THOUGHT they were going to seat you. Yeah right! It was a vacation time share thing!! We were getting solicited after we were already in the place. That is uncalled for, it made me uncomfortable and I pretty much told them off! Now this place was supposed to be like you were in a Renaissance era castle. They did okay right up until we saw Skill-Crane games in the bar area! They looked so silly, I’m surprised they didn’t have a whole arcade in there! The show wasn’t very good and neither was the food. They made at least two jokes toward gays during the show and the jester mimicked Beavis and Butthead. Again, this was supposed to be an authentic Renaissance experience. It was an insult, I don’t recommend it AT ALL! Perhaps the other Medieval dinner show is better?

Friday, May 29, 1998

We made it an early morning since we wanted to check out of the Econolodge, check into Dixie Landings and get to the Magic Kingdom all pretty early. We were checked out of the Econolodge at about 8:00AM, no lines at the desk. We drove to Dixie Landings and parked the car right out front under the canopy. We left the luggage in the car while I went to check in. I didn’t figure they would have the room ready THAT early but I wanted to check in anyway so that we could leave our luggage and stuff. Not to mention I read that the earlier you get there, the better chance you have of getting a free upgrade.

It was about 8:30AM, there was no line at the check-in desk at DxL. About a week before we were to check in, I faxed DxL room controller telling him that we would be celebrating our anniversary and that we would like to have a king bed with a water view and also requested the Magnolia Terrace building ( I knew I could get a non-smoking room there). I wasn’t sure how that was going to work, I wanted to double check so told the girl at the check in desk that I had requested a room in Magnolia Terrace and she stopped me and said, "I know, I’m reading it here on my computer right now, I see you also requested a waterview with a king bed." I couldn’t believe it, they were actually going to give me the free upgrade! She said I could get a regular room now or I would have to wait for the other room. I of course waited for the better room! We were going to the MK anyway. I asked to buy E-Tickets for that night as well, she said she’d just charge it to our room. She gave us our resort ID’s/keys, E-Tickets and a pass for our car. We got the luggage out of the car and brought it to the bell hop, who directed us to storage, about another 100 feet away or so. He gave us a claim ticket and we drove to the Magic Kingdom.

We got into the MK a little after 9:00AM. Since we were doing E-ticket that night, we decided to avoid the big rides as we could do them later with little wait time. However, we headed straight over to Tomorrowland and Alien Encounter was a walk on so we decided to go anyway. That was pretty intense, I could hear all the little children literally screaming and then when it ended they were all crying. I would warn against bringing small children on this attraction, it was very disturbing. But it was okay for adults and teenagers. It seemed so real!

We went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority right before it was closing for refurbishment, that was a walk on. We walked around a bit then took the skyway out. That was a long line!! But I really wanted to see the park from up there so we waited anyway. Next we did a couple things in Fantasyland-Mr. Toad, It’s a Small World, Tiki Birds etc. We walked up to the Castle after this, wow it is looking more beautiful than ever. It was breathtaking. I guess a new paint job really put the finishing touches on it. We went inside the castle to the gift shop. Wow! They had some great stuff in there. Inside the shop they have little castle music boxes, glass statues, necklaces etc. Rick was thoroughly taken with the replica swords in the shop. They certainly weren’t cheap, but they were pretty cool. This shop was one of the most fascinating for us in all of Disney World. Check it out!

At about noon or so, it started to get pretty warm and pretty crowded so we headed back to Dixie Landings to check out ‘ol Man Island and get some sun and check out the food court for lunch. We decided that instead of going to get our car in the MK parking lot, we took a bus for DxL’s. When we arrived, I went to check to see if our room was ready, no luck. We found the food court to be a little steep on prices but no different than the parks. Rick got a sausage calzone, an order of garlic knots with marinara sauce and a soda and I got a chicken finger salad, total came to about $12. I will have to say that while you’re spending the same amount of money to eat there as you would in the parks, you get more food for your buck. That same $12 would have only bought a burger and small order of fries in the park. After lunch we went over to the pool and laid there for a couple hours. The pool wasn’t too crowded but there were quite a few kids in it. I found it to be pretty neat. Just a little forewarning that you can buy a beer at the pool bar for $4.25 or you can buy a can of beer in Fulton’s shop for $1.50! (a 2 minute walk from the pool into the main building). Same beer. Just a little way to save a bit of money (same goes for soda).

At about 2:30, we were getting a little fried in the sun! However we didn’t care because the sun had only been out once since we’d been in Florida!! And they call that the sunshine state?? Ha Ha! We packed up whatever we had with us, which wasn’t very much since our luggage was still in storage and went to check if the room was ready. Just a little tip to remember, if you decide to leave your luggage in storage and you would like to go to the pool or whatever, make sure you keep your swim suit with you and anything else you may need while your suitcases are locked up! At 2:30 the room was ready so we headed out to get our bags. They assigned us to the Magnolia Terrace building just like I requested. We didn’t have our car with us as it was still at the Magic Kingdom so one of the bell hops put our suitcases on the back of a golf cart and off we went. Boy, we sure did get the royal treatment then! The CM brought us on a little tour around the grounds. He explained how to get to the bus stop, quiet pool and other areas. He gave us a few pointers on getting around and where to eat etc. I tipped him a couple bucks when he brought our luggage into our room and he bid us goodbye. Wow, that sure was great service! I’m not so sure that we would have gotten a tour like that had we had our car with us. So you might want to keep that in mind if you’d like a free tour and someone to carry your luggage to your room for you! But don’t forget to tip!

Magnolia Terrace was GORGEOUS! There was a walkway to the building that was lined all the way up with rose bushes. There was a white gazebo at the opening of the walkway. As it was really humid, the smell of magnolias just hung in the air, I thought I was in paradise! Everything was just so lush and tropical (anything is tropical when you live in the #1 snowiest city in the Northeast!). The room was equally beautiful. We did get a king bed and the room was huge with only one bed in it. There were his and hers sinks outside the bathroom with two mirrors and a vanity that stretched between the two. Everything in the room was intricately done, unlike most hotel rooms that look institutional. One thing that was pretty strange was that I could have swore she told me I was waiting for a water view room and I had to stand in the window, turn my head to the left and look through the trees to catch a glimpse of the Sassagoula River. I think I would have been disappointed had I paid extra for a water view and got that room. I don’t know, maybe they didn’t end up giving me a water view? I don’t know, I wasn’t complaining, they gave me a king bed and everything else had been great! We changed our clothes and went out to find the bus stop, it was out back of our building, not a bad walk at all. We caught a bus for EPCOT since it was the first one we saw, then got on the Monorail at EPCOT and went to the TTC and onto the MK. We went in to get our E-Tickets turned into yellow wristbands at the town hall then walked around a bit more. Rick and I shared an ice cream and went to get the car to take back to DxL so we could shower for dinner. We had 7:00 priority seating at the Concourse Steakhouse at the Contemporary.

We were late getting to our priority seating at the Concourse. I guess I didn’t calculate right how much time it was going to take to do all that. Another problem we kept running into was with using the Disney Highways. I don’t know if it was my imagination but it always seemed like they sent you the longest way possible to get from point A to point B!! I really didn’t know my way around so I had to rely on the signs and most of the time, I felt like I was driving in circles! Also I noticed that you couldn’t drive more than 1/4 of a mile without seeing a sign for I-4 so if you need to get to that highway you WON’T have a problem!

Even though we were a few minutes late for our priority seating, they seated us immediately. Rick and I both ordered steak, can’t remember now which one. It came with potato wedges with herbs on them. They also served Caesar salad which I don’t like, so I asked if I could get a salad with vinegar and oil and she said that would be fine. She also brought us fresh bread. The service was pretty good and the food was good too. However, it is right next to Chef Mickey’s, like there isn’t even a wall there, you can see the people dining there from the Concourse Steakhouse. The music coming from Chef Mickey’s was deafening at times! And above your head, the monorail comes through every couple of minutes and causes a bit of noise. I didn’t like the atmosphere at all and for the price we paid ($54 after tip), I expected more.

After dinner we walked over to the MK for E-ticket night. The walk from the Contemporary to the MK wasn’t bad after sitting and eating dinner but walking back after E-ticket was extremely tiring! We got to the MK just before 9:00 PM so we decided to take a seat and watch Fireworks in the Sky. We sat down in the garden area on the walkway that goes to Tomorrowland. It was a great unobstructed view of the fireworks. I thought the added touch of Tinkerbell flying out just before they began was spectactular!! Only at Disney World!! After the fireworks, as most people were filing out of the park, we were headed over to splash mountain! By the time we got over there, they were checking wrist bands at the entrance. We had about a 8-10 minute wait there. Rick wanted to do Thunder Mountain so we walked over there, but there was about a 15 minute wait there, so we decided to come back. We went to Pirates where we walked right on, had a boat to ourselves. Next we went to the Haunted Mansion about a 5 minute wait. We stopped to get a lemonade and I just could NOT get used to that funky tasting water. Yick! We went back over to Thunder Mountain and there was about a 10 minute wait, so Rick went and I sat down on a bench. I was getting REALLY tired by then. I had just about enough of theme parks for the day! If I had some more energy I would have liked to get on Splash Mountain again but I was worn out. When Rick came out about 15 minutes later, we went over to Space Mountain because he wanted to get on that once. I don’t do coasters so I didn’t go on that one either. Instead I laid down on a bench in Tomorrowland and fell asleep!!! I was pooped! Rick came out and woke me up like 10-15 minutes later. By that time it was about 11:30pm.

So in all actuality, we didn’t really have walk-ons that night at E-Ticket. We had to wait in 5-15 minute lines on all the rides. There were a lot more people in the MK than I had read about E-ticket nights in trip reports. Not to mention, I was exhausted by the time 10pm rolled around. My advice to you is to make sure you save some energy to use at E-ticket night, as you don’t realize how tired you are after spending all day running around from park to hotel to dinner and back to the MK. That walk back to the car that was parked at the Contemporary was a long haul at midnight! The monorail wouldn’t have been much better because we were parked in a lot no where near the building so we would still have had to walk a lot!

Saturday, May 30, 1998

I had planned to do early entry at the MK this day but since we decided to do E-ticket the night before, we didn’t have any reason to go back. So we slept in a little and went to Perkins for brunch. We went souvenir shopping at some of the outlets and returned to Dixie Landings. We decided to go to Blizzard Beach that afternoon since it was actually partly sunny. At first it didn’t look like there were a lot of people there as we went on a couple of the basic water slide rides. Then we saw this real fast tube ride that they timed you on which looked like a ton of fun. The line didn’t look long at all, boy that was deceiving. We waited for a tube then we waited at the top of the hill to get on the slide, total wait time about 1 hour!!! Well after this one, we got pretty irritated with the line situation, there were 45 minute waits at all of the big slides and 20 minute waits at the rest. We did the family tube ride, that was pretty cool! Then we floated around in the free floating tube ride. We left the park shortly after this because the lines were unbearable. That was a little disappointing but at least we had a good visit at Typhoon Lagoon!

Since I wanted to check out the Grand Floridian while we were at Disney, we went over there to walk around a bit. That place is from a dream of mine! I hope someday we’ll be able to afford to stay there. I love the victorian era and the GF reminded me of that movie "Somewhere in Time." I could just live there the rest of my life. I like that grandiose sort of feeling it has, there were CMs walking around outside with white linen dresses on with parasols, just a beautiful touch.

We returned to DxL to change so that we could eat dinner. We decided we would return to Giordanos, the Italian restaurant we ate at on Wednesday night because we enjoyed it so much. This time I got a HUGE salad so that I could drown it in that delicious Italian dressing! After dinner we headed to the MK to catch the Spectromagic Parade at 9:00PM. Well, that was a mistake. We didn’t get there until right after it started and the place was MOBBED, I mean a zoo! It was terrible. I’ve never seen that many people in one place before. We managed to get ourselves onto a porch but we couldn’t really see too much. The floats were breathtaking though, of what we could see! Then it ended and it looked like rioting on Main Street! Rick and I decided we would just wait awhile. So we went into the stores, not a good move, they were mobbed too. We sat down on a bench and waited another 20 minutes or so, then caught the ferry to the parking lot. Perhaps you’d be better trying to catch the parade that starts at 11pm instead, I’ve heard it’s less crowded.

Well it was our last night at DxL, so I talked Rick into taking a little stroll with me to say goodbye. DxL is beautiful at night, the mansions all lit up and the smell of flowers lingering in the air. Can’t believe we had to leave the next day. We took a quick dip in the quiet pool before we went up to bed. We were doing Early Entry at MGM the next day.

I called DxL front desk to request a late check out so that we could go to MGM early and not worry about our luggage and all that. Of course I didn’t tell the CM that, I simply asked if it would be possible to check out late, she told me she had to check to see if that room was available. She asked how late and I said noon (regular check out is 11am), she said, "why don’t you take until 1:00pm!!" I said that would be even better and thanked her three times! I was a bit apprehensive about asking for late check out since I’ve heard reports of people this did not work for. But I thought I’d check anyway and I was pleasantly surprised.

Sunday, May 31, 1998

We got up really early, drove our car to MGM and were there for early entry at 7:30AM. I was a little disappointed that they did not even check to see if we were hotel guests. We just put our hopper passes through the reader and walked in. They could have cared less. I kind of feel they should monitor this more, anyone with a hopper pass could have walked right in for Early Entry.

We went to the Great Movie Ride, where there was no wait. We took a look at the schedule of showtimes and were a little disappointed to see that most of the shows didn’t have a show during EE, as a matter of fact, most didn’t have their first showing until after 10:00. Neither one of us were too thrilled about Tower of Terror, so we didn’t go over there, but the sign said there was no wait. I’ve been petrified of elevators since I was a kid and I still have nightmares about them. We headed over to Star Tours so that Rick could go on (I don’t do motion simulators). There was a 10 minute wait there. So I sat down on a bench to wait and next thing I know there is a truck coming through with the green soldiers from Toy Story on it. They were hysterical! They were marching in front of the truck and one of the soldiers was yelling with a megaphone sitting in the truck. He saw me sitting on the bench alone and said, "Keep that seat open for me, I’ll be there in a few minutes!". The marching soldiers were interacting with the other guests, very cute! Rick came out and we headed over to the Muppet 3-D, we got right into the next show. By this time it was getting to be around 9:30 AM so we headed over to the Little Mermaid to catch the first show. I couldn’t miss this one, I just love that crab!! I love this attraction, I feel as though I’m really under the sea with the mist and the wave effect. That is so cool, one of my favorites! We then went over to Indiana Jones since they were loading in for the first show. After Indiana we went to the Backlot Tour. There was a bit of a back up there, but not too bad.

After this we had to go back to DxL to check out and get our luggage. We would return to MGM later to eat at 50’s Prime Time. Well, we decided to do the express check out and so they don’t even require you to call or go to the desk, you just leave. That’s such a great feature, saved us a lot of time. We headed over to the quiet pool to get some sun after loading up the car. We laid out in the sun and swam for a couple hours, I was sooo happy to get a nice tan before heading home! We got pretty fried for awhile then I hit the ladies changing room, touched up my hair with my cordless curling iron and put on some clothes. We drove back to MGM just in time for our 4:30 priority seating at 50’s Prime Time Cafe. We were seated within 5 minutes. The waiting room was a wreck! There were things all over the floor, they needed to get it cleaned up! I was unimpressed by our waiter, cousin, whatever. I did like the atmosphere of the place though, very authentic and original. We weren’t all that hungry when we got there so we decided to split a bunch of stuff, we ordered 1 each of chili-cheese fries, nachos, strawberry milk shake and brownie sundae. The food was pretty good but I was expecting a little more in the way of service. Oh well, we spent about $24 with tip and the Magic Kingdom Club 10% discount. We then caught the last showing of Hunchback of Notre Dame. I took a few moments to spray my feet with my fan and cold water while we were in the Hunchback show! Kept me cooled off. We finished off with the Magic of Disney Animation which was devoted almost entirely to Mulan. I liked this attraction, watching the little movies and such, it was neat to watch the characters come to life and Robin Williams was hysterical!

Now it was time to bid Disney goodbye for this trip. I had a comp night at the Clarion Plaza on International. Drive set up for our last night so we headed over there. That is definitely a convention hotel all the way! I could tell by the price, $129/night for a basic room! And it was nothing spectacular. If this room wasn’t free, I would never have spent that kind of money to stay there, Dixie Landings was $129 a night for heaven sake! We planned to go down to the hotel bar to relax but Rick got watching the Bulls game and I fell asleep at 9:30, was pooped! The next day was leaving day, boo hoo.

Monday, June 1, 1998

Well, check out wasn’t until noon and our flight was at 4:20pm. So we got up and went to the pool for a couple hours. We laid out and did some swimming, worked on the tan a little! At noon, we checked out by telephone and loaded up the car. We stopped at a couple souvenir shops before taking the car back. The car return went extremely smooth. I was expecting at least 1/2 hour before we got everything taken care of, but I was pleasantly surprised. I pulled up to the curb and dropped off Rick and the luggage, I pulled ahead as instructed and got out of the car. The guy scanned it and asked me if I had any problems. He asked if I would like to keep the taxes on my Discover card and he printed me out a receipt from his little hand held machine and that was it! I walked back to Rick and there was a shuttle leaving right then for the airport so we were off! Timed, it took less than 5 minutes for the whole process! I didn’t have to go inside the building or anything. Very efficient and fast.

We didn’t have any problems on the flights home, except that we ended up at the Orlando airport a lot earlier because of how little time it took at the Alamo place! Overall we had an excellent time!

Summary

Here are a few summarized tips from my trip:

The pointers I got about what to hit on Early Entry mornings from the RADP and Birnbaums Guide were lifesavers. Knowing where to go first saved us valuable time in lines. Birnbaums guide has a paragraph on what to hit first when going into each park. It worked like a charm for us. There are MANY people who have no clue where to go when they enter a park, you have an advantage over them.
If you would like the best chance to upgrade your room upon arrival and/or request a specific building, fax ahead of time and arrive early to check in.
If you would like to save a little money, stay off-site on the night you arrive and the night before you leave. If you’re like us we didn’t arrive at the hotel the first night until evening and would have wasted a night in a Disney resort. The day we flew back out, we barely had until noon before we had to leave the hotel anyway. Would have been another wasted night.
Take advantage of the $50 coupon in Rita Aero’s book, it was one of the best experiences that we had! And such a great deal!
GO TO JELLYROLLS! I cannot even begin to tell you how much fun we had there! Be aware that the place really doesn’t get hopping until after 10pm.
Do not forget to take full advantage of your Magic Kingdom Club card wherever you can. Take your MKC guide with you on vacation and remember to use it. I used it at the huge Disney Store in the marketplace for 10% off. It can also be used at a few fast food places at the parks, make sure you don’t forget to give it to them, they won’t remind you!
There is a coupon good for 10% off food at the Electric Umbrella in Birnbaums Guide (fast food place in EPCOT). We used it to save a few bucks on lunch.
If money is a problem, you may opt to not rent a car, but I think it proved to be cheaper to rent a car for us. We spent less money on food by being able to eat off-site occasionally and buying cheaper souvenirs and also for being able to hit the grocery store. The extra money I spent on renting a car (about $150 incl. taxes) probably saved us that equal amount and we had the full use of a car!
After Illuminations is over, do NOT try to leave the park with the herd. Stay put or grab a dessert or something and relax. You’ll have a much better time relaxing on the park bench with a chocolate mousse than sitting in the gridlock in the parking lot for 45 minutes!
Don’t forget to schedule in some time to smell the roses at your Disney Resort. Go in the pool, take a stroll, check out the gift shop. You’re paying for it, you may as well enjoy it. I wish I had had an extra day to do this.
Well, that’s it, thanks for reading this far. Please let me know what you thought or if you have any questions. After all the help I got by you guys to plan this trip, I owe you one!! Send me an e-mail, I would love to hear from you!

Jackie Reichert

JakeFlake@aol.com