|
|
| Articles | Disneyland | Walt Disney World | User Reviews | Travel |
|
|||||||
 |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
02-07-2006, 09:17 AM
|
#1 | |
|
MousePlanet Trip Report Editor
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: MousePlanet
|
Mike Scopa - WDW (6-23 July, 1994) - Wilderness Lodge / Caribbean Beach Resort
This trip report does not profess to relate EVERYTHING we did on this trip report. The purpose of the report is to inform the reader of any new and helpful information regarding the Walt Disney World Resort and vacationing in the Orlando-Kissimmee area. I may have left out little things we did but I have included all interesting and informative tidbits from our vacation. I can remember reading a Len Goldberg trip report and commenting how he spent a lot of time in restaurants and a lot of time "reviewing" restaurants in his trip report. Little did I know that I would be carrying the torch in this area. Let's face it, part of the Disney experience is the food. Thus this report contains ratings on the restaurants we visited. The ratings are based on overall food quality, price, and service. Ratings are: 5 - Excellent quality and service and in line with the price. Restaurants receiving this rating are "can't miss" restaurants and are recommended to be visited at least once during a visit. You are probably short-changing yourself and your family if you DON'T go to a "5" restaurant. These restaurants are usually visited twice during a visit. 4 - Very good quality and service. Restaurants receiving this rating are "best buy" restaurants and offer above average fare. You really can't go wrong visiting one of these restaurants. These restaurants are candidates for at least one visit. 3 - Average quality and service. Restaurants receiving this rating offer "decent" meals. Don't expect a great meal here...but don't worry about the food being sub-par either. These restaurants are worth visiting but only if a "5" or a "4" restaurant is not available or convenient. 2 - Below average quality and service. Restaurants receiving this rating may lack in either food quality, service, or suitable prices for both. You may get a great meal but you may not see your server for days. You may get great service but the food may not be up to par. Then again you may luck out. These restaurants are not recommended by the author and should be visited only as a last resort. 1 - Unsuitable quality and service. Restaurants receiving this rating need to be blown up. You might as well throw your money out the window and eat Tic Tacs for your meals. Okay those are the ratings. Okay....now put on your Mickey ears and join my family as we start our journey to The Happiest Place on Earth.... Wednesday, July 6th Carol was up early and when I heard her moving about I got up too. It was 2:30 A.M. "Great!" I thought. "We'll get an early start!" We were on the road by 3:30 A.M. We took the alternate route (route 81) through much of Pennsylvania. I wanted to avoid Washington, D.C. We made good time despite the 75+ miles that route added to the trip. We arrived in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina just before 6 P.M. that night. We stayed at the Interstate again ($28.88 w/tax) but that great steak house was gone...so we ate at a Shoney's. Mike did some laps at the pool. I watched the weather channel to check on Tropical Storm Alberto. If we're lucky we'll get to Florida before his rains pour down on us. Boy was I tired...fell asleep well before 9. Thursday, July 7th Carol never sleeps well until we are on Disney property. She got up at 3:00 A.M. so I got up too. We told the kids it was 5:00 and herded them into the car at 3:45 A.M. When we got into the van and turned the key the clock came on and Holly saw it. "3:45?", she wailed. "Gee!", I said. "I could have sworn that 3 was a 5." Boy did I make good time on this day. We spent 25 hours driving down to Orlando. 17 of those 25 hours were in the morning. I am convinced that the more you drive in the morning the faster you'll get there. I'd say getting up early saved us at least 3 hours. Along the way we talked with some people at some of the rest stops. These people were trying to get to some friends in Georgia. Remember this was the time of the Summer where Tropical Storm Alberto was hitting some parts of Florida and Georgia. I kept watching the Western sky on the way down and worried about getting caught in these storms. Maybe that's why I made such good time. I reached the Florida line by Noon. Nothing tastes better than that free cup of orange juice at the Florida Welcome Center. We reached Orlando by around 3:00 P.M....not before a torrential rainfall around Daytona. By the way, I took 295 around Jacksonville. It's the route used by most people....much better than going through Jacksonville. We hadn't stopped to eat all day so we ate at the Sizzler (3) at the Crossroads. From there we went to the Village just to see if we could do our AP's there. We couldn't. It was close to 6:00 P.M. and I had to find a room. My reservations at the CBR didn't begin until Saturday...and it was still Thursday. I got on the phone and called the CRO. After a few conversations with both the regular reservations agent and the Magic Kingdom Club agent, I secured a room for two nights at the Wilderness Lodge. The price was about $165. We were excited...or should I say I was excited because I knew what the lodge was like from reading tons of articles on it and also from talking with Al Heacock about his stay in May. We hurried off to the Lodge. You get to the Lodge via World Drive. At the cross section where you bang a left to go to the Poly you can now bang a right to go to the FW Lodge. You then go under this Jurassic Park archway and pull up to this huge structure. I dropped the family off with the luggage and then parked the car. When I returned to the Lodge Carol and the kids had big smiles on their faces. They (and I) had never stayed in a hotel like this one. The lobby is absolutely huge. You want to just plop yourself down and look at the huge poles holding up the Lodge, or gaze at either the totem poles or the carvings throughout the lobby, or watch the water run out through the rear of the lobby and out to the pool area, or maybe even sit and rock among the twenty rocking chairs in front of the huge fireplace in the rear of the lobby and hope to spot a couple of pesky chipmunks... Our room was on the 7th floor and it overlooked the courtyard and pool area. My son immediately wanted to check out the pool so he did a quick change and we all went down to the pool area. The pool isn't very deep and you can actually swim against a current. There are two spas in the pool area, one cold and one hot....plus a wading pool for the kiddies. Near the spas is an area that looks like a hot spring area. that is where the FW geyser spouts. There are a couple of restaurants and a 24 hour grill for the hungry folk. We spent a lot of time exploring the Lodge. At 9:45 while in our room we heard music and went out into our balcony and watched the Water Pageant as it was entertaining the Lodge at that time. After that Holly, Mike, and I watched "Fantasy..." from the 7th floor hallway. Carol had been up since 3:00 A.M. and was ready to count sheep early so she did not join us. I too had been up since 3:00 A.M. but adrenalin was talking me out of any fatigue that tried to creep into my body. We went back to the room after the fireworks and Mike and I lasted 5 minutes before deciding to explore the Lodge a bit more. Holly was tired and decided to sit this one out. Mike and I roamed around the various parts of the Lodge and as we passed by the Roaring Fork (3.5) we decided to try a Buffalo Burger. Yechh! But I loved the chili. We walked around the pool area. Hey, check out the prints in the cement all over the Wilderness Lodge. We walked around outside and noticed a jogging path. We walked up to where it was supposed to be but couldn't find anything resembling a jogging path. We went back into the Lodge and checked out some of the landings in the lobby. The 3rd landing has a couch and a chair. Look for the off/on switch to the lower left of the fireplace...just under the tools. As we returned to the room Mike and I made plans to jog the next morning...to The Magic Kingdom. Friday, July 8th We got up at 5:30 and made it out to the pool area just before 6. We ran along World Drive and ran past the Contemporary Resort. As we headed towards Space Mountain we couldn't help but notice the spinning Astro-Orbiter thing-a-ma-jig in the new Tomorrowland. We ran past Space Mountain and soon found ourselves near the monorail garage and the back entrance to TMK. We turned around and ran to the front of TMK. All along I kept pretending I was Jay Feenan running the WDW marathon. There were a few workers there but none of them saw me run through the gates and up to the locker area to get a glimpse of Main Street, USA. We headed back to the WL. Boy there was a lot of traffic at 6 A.M.....more than I had expected. When we returned to the Lodge we continued to run and checked out that jogging trail. Hmm, there was a path that we didn't see the night before in the dark. We followed it. Soon we came upon a small area with animals...like a petting zoo. It looked vaguely familiar. We ran a bit further and then I recognized Pioneer Hall. We had run to Fort Wilderness. We ran back and jumped into the Hot Spa. It was great. We had run 7.5 miles and the water felt great. So did the water in the cold spa. We made it back to the room for a shower and we called New Hampshire to let the grandparents know we are in Orlando. By the way, there was a letter left under our door. It was the Lodge asking us to consider extending our stay for $135/night. Wish I had known that before making reservations for two nights. We had breakfast at the FW Trail's End Buffeteria (2.75). From there we headed to MGM. We had our photos taken for our Annual Passports and headed into the park. The Aladdin Parade was about 30 minutes from starting so I planted myself right at the corner near Mickey's of Hollywood and taped the parade. The Genie was not inflated so I know I had to see the parade again. It's a pretty neat parade. We saw it three times and each time it was different (additions). Before the parade started I talked with a cast member (referred to as CM's sometimes in this report) about the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. He checked on the official day for the opening. It was scheduled to open on Friday, July 22nd. I asked about a "soft opening" and he had never heard the term before. As a matter of fact, he knew less about the Tower than I did. After the parade we strolled down Sunset Blvd. It's 1940's Hollywood. There are a few stores, a food court area called The Sunset Ranch Market that looked suspiciously temporary, The B&TB Theater, and of course the new Icon for the Disney/MGM Studios, The Hollywood Tower a.k.a. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This building is huge. and very ominous. Here's an official internal description of Sunset Blvd. from Eyes & Eyes, a Cast Member periodical: Quote:
We left Sunset Boulevard and did Star Tours. After Star Tours we split up and Holly and Carol did B&TB and Mike and I did Soundsations....he loves that. Mike and I then saw Ernie Sabella (Pumba) put his hands in cement. We then did TGMR. I thought some things changed in that attraction. First there was a screen put in front of all those Esther Wiliams' dancers. Secondly, the jewel incident in the Indiana Jones portion of the attraction was different. There was no cast member with a cloak on to warn the Outlaw who went after the jewel. That side of the stairs was blocked off. Hmmm, wonder why? Our tour guide was not too good on her lines...timing was a bit off. Oh well. We left that attraction and walked along Mickey Avenue. Whoa! Look at the characters...Tigger, Jafar, Chip & Dale, Genie, Mickey, and Minnie; the jackpot. Mike and I met up with Carol & Holly at Starring Rolls. They were talking to a CM whose husband worked at TZTOT. I asked her why "Sorcery..." was gone and she said that the "powers" felt that everyone was fireworksed out and when the show was running people stopped their cars outside the park to watch the show causing a traffic problem. She said a lot of the CM's were disappointed that the MGM FW was replaced by the street party. She said that the CM's told those people making the decision that parents would leave their kids to watch the FW and shop...but that fell on deaf ears. She told us a few interesting things. There are huge fans in the B&TB Theater. These fans were installed to keep the visitors cool during those hot afternoon matinees. The only problem is that the fans are too loud so now they can't use them. Here is another interesting tidbit. Why is the TZTOT 199 feet tall? If it was 200 feet tall it would have to have either a red light at the top or some type of strobe light so aircraft could see it at night. Disney didn't want the structure to have such a light so they kept it under 200 feet. We noticed that the park was not very crowded. I would say that the park entertained about 70% of what it normally seen on a July afternoon. We had heard that Alberto's rains had washed out some roads to Florida but somehow didn't think that would reduce the crowds. Where was everyone? It was now midafternoon so we sauntered over to Prime Time (4.5). We got a table in no time and while sitting down we had asked if Ghassan was working. I had heard about Ghassan from the America Online Disney chats. He is the best server to have at Prime Time. The next time you go ask to be seated at Ghassan's station. I won't tell you what he does...but you'll enjoy him. He is THE BEST CM in that restaurant. From PT we went to check out the NY Street Party. Maybe this concept has to grow on you. I just don't like it. Keep Pleasure Island stuff at Pleasure Island. Would you believe beer being sold on the street? That's what you'll find at the NY Street party on the NY streets in MGM. There is a stage near the "Square" and Joe Trippi sings with his band. They do about 3 or 4 songs one of which is the Village People's "YMCA." So this guy Joe Trippi tries to get about 6 kiddies on the stage and have them sing with him and spell out "YMCA" and can't understand why these kids are having a tough time. Ask them their names and where they're from Joe. 'Nuff said! There are games such as knocking over bottles, trying to ring a bell with the swing of a sledgehammer, knocking a plastic frog in the water, tossing a wiffle ball onto a bottle opening, and sinking a basket with a regulation ball and a nonregulation (small) basket. Plus there are people who will draw your profile, get you to ride this crazy thing with three rings on it, and get you to try Virtual Reality devices. There are also crazy velcro walls to jump on and a chance to bat against your favorite MLB pitcher. There is a bit of Streetmosphere but not much. A disc jockey runs two limbo contests a night. There is a guy on stilts, jugglers, and even an appearance by the PI dancers but it just doesn't cut it. It's a pathetic sight to see this guy Joe Trippi try to get the crowd excited. There are Disney Security people in full force at this part of the park...on horseback no less. Bring back "Sorcery..." I knew before leaving for Orlando that "Sorcery..." would not be shown during July...but I was hoping that things would change. We did TGMR again and the Backstage Tour. We then saw all the props and the working set from "Nightmare Before XMAS." Don't miss it...especially if you saw the movie. Yes all of Jack's heads are there and you can also see the Boogie Woogie man up close. We went back to the Street Party to see if it was any better later in the evening...it wasn't. We then went over to see what SB was like at night. SB looks pretty neat all lit up. We also walked over to the Tower. It wasn't lit BUT THE ELEVATORS WERE WORKING.....AND WE HEARD SCREAMS. Obviously there were people testing the attraction. The day was coming to a close. We didn't do much in the park but we had plenty of time ahead of us. As we drove back to the Lodge I couldn't help but think of the small crowd at MGM. The evening crowd was far less than the afternoon crowd. It was 50% of what I usually see in July. I wasn't complaining about that or the weather....mid 80's. Okay where are all those people who talk about crowds and heat in July? I slept well that evening. Saturday, July 9th We got up and packed our bags as we would be checking out of the Wilderness Lodge today. Before we checked out we had breakfast at the Whispering Canyon Cafe (5). This restaurant is located on the left as you walk into the lobby. Everything is served family style on this Lazy Susan in the middle of your table. Servers bring out huge skillets filled to the brim with food and you dig in. The more you eat the more they bring out. Oh do you want more eggs this time around? No problem. Would you prefer more sausage and bacon in the next skillet? Sure thing. The breakfast skillet had eggs, potatoes, country breakfast meats, apple cakes, waffles, and biscuits. The lunch offered beef brisket, smoked turkey breast, sliced ham, white and dark rye bread, fresh leaf lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cheeses, cole slaw, baked beans, fries, and trail dust shortcake. Dinner gives you salad, lamb, turkey legs, ribs, chicken, zucchini, potatoes, onions, cabbage, and other goodies. Prices are: Meal Adult Child Breakfast $ 7.95 $3.50 Lunch $ 8.75 $3.75 Dinner $11.95 $6.95 <= not sure on these It's like a sit-down buffet. This is done for all meals. Best deals are the breakfast and dinner meals. The dinner meal is heavy on the meat and it fills you up real fast. Before we left the Lodge we paid a visit to the gift shop. Carol bought a watch, I purchased a Wilderness Lodge shirt, and Holly got a "Circle of Life" jersey. Mike didn't care for anything. Goodbye Wilderness Lodge. We drove over to the CR and parked near Space Mountain. We entered TMK, the Scopa family's favorite park, and saw banners proclaiming a "Main Street Summer Celebration" regarding some Mascot Election. It was Winnie the Pooh ("The Candidate for You") vs Captain Hook ("Vote for Hook or Else!"). Winnie's HQ was The Emporium and Hook's was the Kodak Shop. I voted for Hook...he's more interesting than some out of shape bear who walks around with a jar of honey on his head. We checked out the new Tomorrowland. Alien Encounter is shaping up as is the Transportarium, the Metropolis Theater, and other little projects. It was mid-day and the lines were not in our favor so we didn't bother to even attempt any attractions. We strolled over to Mickey's Starland and saw Peter Pan. This CM seemed to have springs on his feet. A perfect Peter Pan. We saw Alice and Snow White. The CM who portrayed Snow White was exceptionally pretty. Her facial features made me wonder if she also worked at Universal Studios portraying Marilyn Monroe. We took the Walt Disney Express back to the front of the park and headed to the CBR to finally check in. Hmm, room not ready yet...please come back in an hour. Okay. They gave us a CBR security pass because of the new security measures. You need to get clearance before advancing past the Custom House. We drove over to Old Port Royal and found them to be refurbishing the condiment and drink area. That made for some inconvenience as the area was not as readily available as in the past. Hmm, I see a lot of people using those mugs from the mini-bars. The game room has been done over...nice wall covering. We checked out the store to see if there was anything new and then returned to the Custom House to check in. We were placed in Martinique as requested and got an even better room than ever before. It was room 2427 and it was no more than 20 or 30 steps from both the parking lot and the pool...and the ice machine. I may request this exact room next time. Here is a comparison of our CBR room to our WL room:
Since we had been on the road for a few days the laundry had begun to pile up so while Carol did that, Mike got in a little pool time, and Holly and I took a drive to Publix for some drinks and breakfast items... I never opened the mini-bar. If you aren't aware by now, it's $5/day to have a frig in your room. Holly and I returned, the laundry was done, and we found ourselves a bit tired and hungry so we elected to have supper at OPR (2.5-3.5 depending on what you got) and get an early start in the morning. Plus we needed to unpack. Saturday, July 10 I got up just before 6 A.M. and ran about 5k. I ran down near South Trinidad which is a pretty remote area of the CBR. If you want a lot of quiet you may want to request a room in this part of the CBR. We arrived at TMK at 8:20 and the turnstiles opened at 8:30. Of course the rest of the park opened at 9:00, except to those people for the Character Breakfast. This was not an early opening day for TMK. The kids took off for Space Mountain and Carol and I followed them to TL and did the new Tomorrowland Transit Authority ("through time...in time..."), Dreamflight, the revamped Carrousel of Progress, Skyway to Fantasyland, Peter Pan, and The Lion King Adventure. The TTA seems to go along a bit faster than the old Wedway and there is a different dialogue than from two years ago. The COP has the original Sherman Bros. song and the scenes now depict seasons. And then there's The Lion King Adventure which had opened on Thursday. I had expected a show similar to VOTLM. There is a preshow in which you are told the story of Simba by Rafiki...followed by the opening song from TLK. You then go into the main show. Live performers and Puppetronics, with a little dash of footage from the movie, tell the story in abbreviated form... including the songs. It's LOUD! We see Mufasa just a few times. The first time he is talking to Simba about growing up, the next time we see him he has fallen to the wildebeest stampede. Finally, we see him as an apparition talking to Simba. It's a great show and quite moving. You'll find yourself applauding very strongly at the end of the show. I don't think you can truly appreciate the show unless you have seen the movie first. On this morning the show was not crowded. The theater was at maybe 85% capacity. However once word got around as to how good this attraction was the shows were almost always full. As we exited TLK Adventure we walked right into the middle of the "Sword and the Stone" ceremony. Kinda cute. Next time you're in the area of the Carrousel check the "sequins" near the stone. We then headed over to Splash Mountain expecting to find Mike and Holly. They had already gone on Space and Splash, Haunted Mansion, and Hall of Presidents. Mike mentioned Bush was applauded and Clinton was booed. It's now 11:30 and time for lunch. Well we're in TMK so we all said in unison, "Tony's!" Needless to say it was one of the top meals of the trip. I think it's important to note any important information regarding WDW restaurants because you do spend good money to eat in them. I think that our meal at Tony's (5) was exceptional. I won't go into detail but I will say that if you are a big salad eater like me then you want to try the tossed salad...and remember...do Tony's at lunch....NOT DINNER!. If I didn't know any better I would have sworn that Julie O'Brien was our server. Julie, you've got a twin sister down there...if not you make a heck of a tossed salad. Okay, lunch is over so we head back to the CBR to avoid the mid-day crowds and heat. Now if any of you have ever stayed at the CBR and driven around the WDW resort then you know that sometimes returning to the CBR from TMK or leaving the CBR and going to either EPCOT or MGM can sometimes be challenging as you cross Buena Vista Drive. To survive you need to drive like a Floridian. For some reason Carol couldn't get used to me driving this way and from time to time she made noises that brought back delivery room memories. When we arrived in our room we had voice mail waiting. It's Jackie Kuscher calling to ask where I had put the Babe Ruth pitching machine. The All-Star coaches were looking for it. I called Jackie back and told her where it was and her voice seemed so excited to be talking to someone in WDW. I know the feeling from talking to Ruth last year when she called from FW. After I hung up with Jackie I wrote out some postcards and took a nap. The kids hit the pool. I think Mike hit the water....Holly hit the postcards. Like me, she writes a novel when she writes a postcard. We decided to return to TMK in the late afternoon. We all did TLK Adventure (yes it's that good) and remarked that the cast members who portray Rafiki do an outstanding job. Heh heh, we thought we saw someone who looked like Michael Jackson...nawwww...he had a wedding band on and was walking incognito with someone who had a Graceland t-shirt on. Silly me. Holly and Carol did some shopping while Mike and I had a little target practice at The Frontierland Shootin' Gallery. We were a bit parched after that and so we headed to Aloha Isle for AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! a dole whip. It started to rain a bit. I drummed up some business for the Aloha Isle people by talking some other guests into trying some dole whip. I was thanked by everyone...no commission though. Holly and I did Pirates (forgot where Mike and Carol went) and I noticed the change in one scene....no I won't tell you what it is....it's probably mentioned somewhere else in this conference. We made our way over to BTMRR. We noticed that the ropes were up for the SpectroMagic parade. I planted myself right at the end of the parade route where the floats disappear (to the left of Splash). Hmm, the parade will pass from right to left. "I'm taping the parade from here!" I announced. The parade came by and I got some good shots. It was kind of amusing to watch the end of the parade. There is usually a crowd following the last float. This crowd always acts like lemmings or like the rats in Hamlin. It's quite amusing to see these people halted as the last float disappears behind that final gate. I think that crowd would still be following that float with Jiminy Cricket today unless someone hadn't stopped them. Pretty funny. We checked BTMRR after the parade. Pretty packed. We checked out the Briar Patch. Mike picked out a Tigger shirt. From there we headed towards Tomorrowland. The new look given Tomorrowland makes it look like TOMORROWLAND and not YESTERDAYLAND. As we were walking through Liberty Square "Fantasy in the Sky" began. Hey didn't that one look like Mickey? When we got to TL we took a nighttime ride on the TTA. You're probably saying, "Why Mike? Didn't you do this earlier in the day?" Right, but riding this attraction at night offers you a chance to see the inside of Space Mountain better than during the day. After the TTA we did Dreamflight again. It was getting towards 11 P.M. We headed back towards Main Street U.S.A. and made it towards Town Square just as SpectroMagic was beginning. We were pretty tired so we left the park, walked to the CR where we always parked, and returned to the CBR. Mike and I headed to OPR for a snack. When we returned we had no problem falling into a deep sleep. All during this day I had noticed that going to the left was still rule number one. This is just as true as you head for a turnstile into the park or an attraction. Also, regarding The Lion King Adventure, try to stay about 1/3 from the front and about 2/3 over in both the pre-show and the main show. Do not make an effort to sit in the first 5-10 rows...the effect of the presentation is lost if you get too close to the stage. Monday, July 11 Got up early again and ran again. On my way back to the room I once again noticed guests taking the CBR mugs to OPR. This morning we headed off to EPCOT '94. We checked out Innoventions. It's basically the New Communicore with some new wrinkles. I looked for a CM friend of mine but couldn't find him. Maybe he's off today. Innovention's is a video freak's dream come true. Innoventions is divided into Innoventions East and Innoventions West. It basically is a showcase for tomorrow's technology and will change every year or so as technology progresses. The real popular section is that which houses Sega. I didn't count how many Sega game stations were set up for guests to use but I think I'd be in the ball park if I said somewhere between 60 and 75. There was one area devoted to the Virtua (no it's not a typo...it's Virtua not Virtual) branch of Sega. This area is concentrating on Virtual Reality but I think it's got a long way to go. Here you can race with eight other people and also ride in a simulator.....$4 per ride. A lot of guests were complaining about being charged for this. Holly, Mike, and I tried the Virtua Racing. Mike did the best out of the three of us. If you had watched me you would have never guessed that I had driven 1400 miles to Orlando without getting killed. Innoventions was also a showcase for the latest computer technology and companies like IBM, APPLE, AT&T, Sony (I know what you're thinking), General Electric, GMC, and others really went all out to strut their stuff. On this particular day we did not spend that much time in Innoventions. We headed over to The Land to check out the refurbishing job for this pavilion. It looked a lot better. The no smoking ban in the eating area makes a difference too. The banishment of smoking in all Disney restaurants was the best policy change since our last trip. I think it really makes a difference in deciding whether or not to eat on or off the property. We noticed that Living with the Land had a short line so we did this attraction. Later on in the day this attraction was packed....why I'll never know...unless these are all first-timers. After LWTL we took in Food Rocks. I think this show will be much more popular than Kitchen Kabaret. On the way out we made lunch reservations at The Garden Grill, formerly The Land Grill. We left The Land and visited the Disney Imagineering Labs. This attraction was to discuss Disney's version of Virtual Reality. They call it "Disneyvision." We are brought into an Imagineering Lab and one of the lead Imagineers tells us about this new project they are working on where you ride Aladdin's magic carpet and through the magic of Virtual Reality oops, I mean DisneyVision, you fly through the city of Agrabah. Hey that sounds....wait...where's Holly? We couldn't find her. "Okay folks, let's step into the next room and we'll show you some prototypes we're working on." As we entered the room we see Holly on the stage, along with several other people. Apparently she had been chosen to demonstrate the prototype. They strapped several devices to her head and hands and she and the others were instructed to find someone in the streets of Agrabah. There were monitors above each participant and we saw what they saw with their headsets. Holly and a young boy were the first to find this character they were told to look for and all the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire after the demo so the Imagineers can continue to improve the product. They are using Silicon Graphics to do most of this stuff. Holly noticed something interesting. She said that while she had the headset on she looked down and noticed that the hands on the carpet weren't hers...they were Mickey's...nice touch. When this VR game is finally released the Imagineers will have you going through the Cave of Wonders. We strolled through the Centorium and did a little bit more in Innoventions before heading back to the Garden Grill (2) for lunch. I was disappointed in this restaurant. The Land Grill was always one of my favorite restaurants in Epcot but it's replacement misses the boat. I felt that the meal was overpriced...by at least 15-20%. After lunch we walked over to the fountains left over from Splashtacular. These are fun to watch when they put on their 5 minute show every 15 minutes. We then did something we usually never do...stay in the park during mid-day. We walked around World Showcase, eventually getting to the American Adventure pavilion. Now earlier in the day the show schedule had mentioned that my Voices of Liberty would be performing in the Rose Garden and not the Rotunda inside the pavilion. When I entered the pavilion I found out why. There were displays set up in the middle where the singers usually performed. These displays were honoring Duke Ellington. The Duke bumped one of the major reasons I return to WDW...I never was a fan of Duke Ellington....never will be now. The AA show was just about to begin so we headed up the escalator and made it to the great hall where the show is performed. I don't recall ever being asked to refrain from videotaping this show...but the audience was asked to refrain from both flash photography and from videotaping. I usually honor this request when dealing with copyrighted material, safety reasons, and to avoid inconveniencing others. Twain and Franklin have different mannerisms in this show and The Golden Dream portion is different so don't expect the same film...I think it's just as good as the original if not better. In the end Mark and Ben wave at us. If you're wondering yes I did tape some of the show. I taped the Golden Dream section and the final part of the presentation. I covered my videocamera's red light with black electric tape before leaving for Orlando. It came in handy here. Ruth was that you who gave me that idea? As we came out of the pavilion we noticed Barbie and her friends performing across the way. We caught a glimpse of the show. Maybe sometime during our stay we'll catch the whole show. We continued our stroll through World Showcase and did some window shopping. We left EPCOT in mid afternoon and I drove over to check out Blizzard Beach and the All-Star Resorts. If you look up the word "tacky" in the dictionary you may see a picture of one of the All-Star Resorts next to the word. I didn't see much security there either. We saw huge footballs and Coca-Cola cups. Blizzard Beach has a long way to go. One of the main slides was up but the rest of the park is in the form of a big puzzle with hundreds of numbered sections being waited to be put in place and properly filled in....sorta like Legos. We got back to the CBR for a little R&R...a little pool....a little postcard session....and a little catnap. We took off for the Contemporary Resort to take in their dinner buffet at The Contemporary Cafe. The added buffet tonight was Mexican. This is a very good buffet (4). I happen to be a big salad man and enjoy the different salads. Since we had spent so much time in the mid-day Sun at Epcot we were all a bit more tired than usual so after dinner we cruised the shops and the game room. No one had any real drive to visit a park at this point in the day (7:30) so we headed back to the CBR to checkout the videos I had taken so far. Mike was happy with this decision since "Mr. Physical Fitness" hadn't done his dozen laps in the pool yet. Holly wrote out some postcards while Carol and I watched the videos. Mike was at the pool. Around 10:30 I went to check the pool. I found my son holding audience with two girls. I did what any other red-blooded father would do. No I didn't tell him to get out of the pool and leave his female companionship. I left the pool area (he never saw me) and returned to the room. Carol asked how Mike was doing. "Fine!" I said. "He's having a good time!" "So what do you want to do on your birthday?" she asked. "Ohmigod!" I thought. Tomorrow's my birthday. No bash, nothing is scheduled. I hadn't really thought about what I wanted to do or go on my birthday. I thought about dinner shows, Luaus, Chef Mickey's, Portobello's....arrrggghhh! I couldn't think. Mike finally returned from the pool. Holly and Carol fell asleep and Mike and I watched the late Sports and Letterman. I eventually fell asleep thinking about what we should do on my birthday. Tuesday, July 12 Today is birthday day. Where do we go? The gang said it was up to me. I checked out some of the travel guides. Hmmm, this Capone dinner show looks interesting. We drove over to the place and checked it out. Didn't look as good in person as it did in the guide. From there we went to the Mercado Shopping Village. We had never been there before. If you've never been to this mall DEFINITELY visit it on your next trip. There are some real interesting shops here and there is also a place to get one of several hundred brochures, guidebooks, and coupons for various attractions, restaurants, and hotels in the Orlando-Kissimmee area. It's also a good place to get brochures written in another language. You know...give them to the kids to bring to their Spanish or French teacher and get some brownie points. Anyways, the Mercado Shopping Village is a pretty neat place to go to for a break from the parks. I recommend checking out the unique bookstore and listening to the Porter music box playing in the corner. If you like the music DON'T BUY THE CD's HERE. You can pick them up for less at The Village Marketplace...honest. Hmmm, my birthday and Holly gets a present, a sun dress from one of the shops. Upon leaving the Mercado we almost went to Ripley's. After seeing the Ripley's in St. Augustine this one seemed quite smaller so we passed it up. We decided to do a little resort hopping so we drove over to the Poly to walk around. We hadn't eaten breakfast so we stopped into Captain Hook's Ice Cream Company (3) for a snack. I think the Poly has more charm at night. It shows it's age during the day. Not sure if I'd ever stay there but you never know. We were at the Poly for a long time...Mike and I like the game room. It's small but it has the right stuff. We visited the shops and I went out on the dock and did some panning with the camera. We left the Poly and headed over to the Grand Floridian. I had been in here only once before and that was a real superficial visit. This time I wanted to visit a bit more. Also, I wanted to see if I could catch "Thunder in Paradise" being filmed. No chance although I would bet the farm that some of the show's crew were playing poker in the GF lobby. The cellular phones gave them away. Anyway we explored the GF and I had remembered Julie O'Brien saying something about the GF buffet at 1900 Park Faire. It may have been the character breakfast. It was now past 5 P.M. and everyone was hungry so we decided to try it out. I guess it's called "Mickey and Minnie's Dinner Buffet" at 1900 Park Faire (pay attention...it gets a 5 rating). I had originally planned to have my birthday meal at Chef Mickey's but so much for those plans. This turned out better. Mickey showed up at the buffet and at one table he fed this little guy in a high chair. He then came over to our table and spent some time with us. Minnie was the best. She came over and gave Mike and the birthday boy kisses. I got an extra kiss because it was my birthday. I heard a smooch sound each time. At one point in the meal Minnie came over and sat down next to me and made gestures about how she loves me. I guess my sincere, "We need a Minnie Mania Parade!" plea won Minnie over. Carol was just coming back from the buffet table and I said to Minnie, "Oh oh...here comes my wife." Minnie removed her arm from around me and crossed her leg as if she was just visiting. The kids and I got a big kick out of that. My birthday meal was quite memorable...it wasn't a bash...but it was memorable. I left a little room for dessert and just as I was about to up to grab some goodies I hear, "Hey everybody help us wish Mike a happy birthday!" and next thing I know there is our server with about five other cast members bringing over a cake with a candle on it and singing "Happy Birthday to you...". I'm usually alert to these type of things but Carol got me good on this one. We took the cake back to the CBR...we could use it as a quickie breakfast. We dropped off the cake and then went to Pleasure Island. This was another first for us. I had been at PI in the late afternoon but never at night. Hoo boy. Read on. I had bought tickets at the CBR Custom House before driving over to PI. As we walked into PI we could hear some music going on and on that stage facing the entrance were about six or seven boys, I'd say about 10 years old, performing some song in Spanish or Portuguese. These little tykes were kinda cute at first, but after some 10 minutes I had my full and we made our way to The Adventurer's Club. The Adventurer's Club was very entertaining. We roamed the club for a little over an hour and spent time in a few rooms and we also watched the radio broadcast. By the way, "Thunder in Paradise" sometimes uses this club for certain episodes. We left the AC and came out near the big stage and across from the Comedy Warehouse which had an enormous line. All of a sudden the stage lit up and some band led by some guy named Luiz or Jesus or Ramon or something like that started playing. You guessed it...they were doing Calypso type music. You could also pick up a little Reggae thrown in. The hairs on the back of my neck began to stand up. I panned the crowd and realized that most of the PI visitors this evening looked strikingly similar to those groups led by flags in the parks. "Awwwww C'mon....not on my birthday!!!!" We went into a couple of clubs but I wasn't impressed. At one point we came back from one club and there was this girl dancing with fire and then doing limbo with......those Jackson 5 wannabees I had seen earlier. More hair standing on end. I picked up a PI flyer and it said that during the month of July that PI would have a Reggae and Calypso flavor to pay tribute to our South American neighbors. "WHAAAAAAAAATTT!?!?!?!?!?" On my birthday? Carol sensed I wasn't having a good time. There is a new Jazz club at PI and we tried it on the way out. Lucky for the musicians there wasn't a salad bar in the place because the bar would have been tossed onto the stage. We left PI. Back to the room. I shouldn't give a thumbs down to PI. July is not a good month to visit PI because it is THE month for South American tour groups. One of the CM's made me aware of this and a streetmosphere CM let down his guard and made a comment to me about these groups. Hey it wouldn't be a Scopa trip without....I can't say it. Tuesday, July 13 Today is an MGM day. We had breakfast at Hollywood & Vine (3). This was an early opening day for MGM, but the only open attractions were TGMR, Star Tours, Muppet-4D, and the Animation Tour. I think that VOTLM should be part of the early opening. We did the animation tour. They are very much into "Pocahontas" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." We saw plenty of cels and drawings for both of these pictures so look forward to seeing them next year. We also did some window shopping, interacted with the Streetmosphere and watched the Aladdin Parade again. Before the parade I was talking with one of the CM's and she told me that the CM's who work at MGM were pretty upset that "Sorcery..." was pulled. She told me than they were told that the show was too costly ($10-12K/night) and that they were trying to cut costs and replace it with a much less expensive NY Street Party. She said that the CM's could not convince the Park executives that parents would plop their kids down to watch the FW while they did some shopping. She told me that guest complaints carry a big weight, especially this year, and asked me to stop in at Guest Relations and lodge a complaint. I intend to write a very long letter with several complaints.....of course after I have done this trip report. I will post names and addresses of those people you should write to regarding any complaints. After the parade we walked around the park and "Hey, what's this guy waving me to walk around.....huh? IT'S THOSE SEVEN SINGING MUCHACHOS FROM PI!" They were taking some photos in the park. "Aren't they something?" remarked their manager to me. "They are the future of Latin American music!" They all looked at me. "Have a nice day amigos!" I know I did. The crowds were somewhat bigger today than a few days ago and it was mid-day so we drove over to the Marketplace to do some shopping. I wanted to get a new watch on this trip and was leaning towards an analog watch with a gold face and WDW embossed on it. Hmm, I saw two others I liked. Oh well, don't make a hasty decision Mike....later. Okay, time for lunch. We head over to the Y&BC and Beaches & Cream (solid 5). We've been in Orlando about five days now and I'm beginning to feel the effects of all the good food. Boy am I glad I took off some lbs before the vacation. We ordered burgers...I ordered a double...last time ('92) I ordered a triple. While we were eating our lunch we noticed two waitresses bringing a huge tray of ice cream to this one table. I'd say there had to be about 3 or 4 gallons of ice cream, about 2 cans of whipped cram, nuts and cherries galore and more sauce than you could imagine. It all came in a sink with a faucet. It's called "The Kitchen Sink" and it should be offered only to Sumo Wrestlers, Jabba the Hut, or Sally Struthers. We settled for normal desserts thank you. Man can you imagine the ice cream headache you could get with "The Kitchen Sink?" Well we wanted to stay ahead of the laundry so we go back to the CBR for a little rest and to do the laundry. On this day the clothes don't want to dry and we spend a long time at the CBR making sure the clothes were dry before going back to a park. The park of choice for this evening was EPCOT. Remember, it always rains when I go to EPCOT. It was late afternoon/early evening so once in the turnstiles we jumped on Spaceship Earth. This turned out to be our last time on SE before refurbishing to "enhance the ending." We also went on Body Wars. Wait, let me rephrase that. We practically walked onto Body Wars. Okay, we had a 15 minute wait. While in line something very interesting happened. I pulled out my trip notebook and started making some notes and a cast member walked up to me and said "You know if you're doing a Shopper's Report you're not being very inconspicuous." Hmmm. I just smiled and said, "Oh I'm just jotting down some notes for a trip report." He smiled. Star Tours is much better than Body Wars. I finally saw "The Making of Me." Finally, all my questions have now been answered. Thanks Martin Short. It was getting towards the "positioning hour" a.k.a. the hour before a WDW parade or fireworks when everyone jockeys for parade/fireworks viewing position. We walked out of WOL and looked up...threatening skies and some heat lightning. Horizons of course was closed...I believe Journey Into Space will occupy that pavilion. We headed over to Imagination. EO is gone forever (hopefully) and "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" opens in the Fall. We got into Imagination just ahead of the raindrops. We rode Imagination twice. I love making faces for the picture that's taken towards the end of the ride. We spent some time in Image Works. I do one thing up there real well...The Electronic Philharmonic. Rain rain go away...and it let up enough for us to dash over to Innoventions West. We closed that place up and headed back to the CBR and OPR for a late snack. We arrived back at our room at 11:30. I had about 5 or 10 minutes left on the tape in the videocamera and thought about doing some nighttime shots of the CBR but I was a bit tired so I scratched that idea. Holly took a shower and washed her hair. We started to watch Letterman when POOF.....everything went bye-bye. We were experiencing a power outage. Well after about 10 minutes I got a bit finicky so I made my way out to the Van and got my handy flashlight. I came back into the room and grabbed the videocamera. I was gonna use up the last 10 minutes of the tape after all. I talked with some other CBR guests and we all wondered what happened. I was wondering if the locks would work....they did...must be on the emergency battery. Mike and I walked to OPR and I noticed that Spaceship Earth was not lit up....hmmm EPCOT too? We were mingling with some other guests at the OPR and some CBR officials told us that the key locks would still work despite the outage. The pool areas and various parts of the resort had emergency lights that gave enough light to enable you to walk around. Mike and I returned to the room and told Carol and Holly what we had found out...nothing. We got into bed and I started to pray for electricity before the heat and humidity in the room built up. Within 15 minutes after returning to the room power was restored....ahhh, light, AC, and the last five minutes of DAAAAAVID LETTERMAN. Thursday, July 14 Off to TMK. We took The Walt Disney Express to Frontierland and the kids grabbed a few trips on BTMRR. I'm not a big roller coaster fan so I sat this one out. Besides, in the back of my mind a little voice kept saying, "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror???? You?!?!?!? Hah!" We left BTMRR and walked over to "Pirates..." and walked right on...I mean they had boats waiting for us....dunno where the crowd was. Afterwards we took the obligatory photos of the kids for the grandparents. Of course we soundly embarrassed our teenagers by making them sit for a photo at Lafitte's Portrait Deck. At this point Carol was campaigning for a ride on the Richard Irvine Steamboat. Wow it's been almost 20 years since I rode that baby. Let's go. That attraction is best in mid-morning and in the early evening 30 minutes before SpectroMagic starts. Don't take it if you want to see the parade. From there we took in the new Hall of Presidents show. Hmmm, don't see any foreigners in here...is there a soccer game today? Hall of Presidents has a new narrator. It is Maya Angelou who was also at Clinton's inaugural. No offense but her voice just doesn't do it. Now if you had James Earl Jones doing it I probably wouldn't need to fight off the urge to take a catnap. Not only is Slick Willie the only president wearing a watch (and ring)....he checks his watch too ("Hillary, isn't the 2 for 1 fries at McDonald's from 12-2 today?") Well we hadn't eaten breakfast because we planned to eat lunch at the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the WL so Hi-Ho, Hi- Ho, it's off to the Wilderness Lodge we go. I believe the meal was $8.75/person and just as they did for breakfast the food was brought out on a grill. First there was a salad and different types of bread and then the sandwich meats...let's see there was ham, and turkey, and brisket, and cheeses and others I've forgotten. Well we had hit TMK early and it was time for a little R&R so we returned back to the CBR for about two hours and then we went to MGM. Streetmosphere entertained us for a while. Mike and Carol went star hopping on Star Tours and Holly and I walked into Monster Sound Show. We barely squeezed into the turnstiles. They were still "casting" for the show and asked for one more person. I held my hand up and was picked even though I was at the very end of the waiting area. I did stage two which meant I provided Martin Short's voice. We met outside SoundWorks. It was getting close to 7 and the kids were hinting about dinner. Hmmm, we're in MGM...didn't want to do Prime Time and not in the mood for Brown Derby. Well let's take a shot at Sci-Fi. I know the reports haven't been good but what the heck...I wanted to see the inside of the restaurant. Well either all those reports were in error or big changes have been made because we felt this meal was one of the most enjoyable meals of the vacation. Of course like Claude always says the cast members sometimes make all the difference in the world. The food, atmosphere, service, and price all seemed more than adequate to this picky Disneyholic. I'll return to this place with no problem (4.2). We went to check out the NY Street Party for this night. The band was a bit better as it played some Motown songs but the crowd still never got into it. We watched a limbo contest...ho hum. Mike and I tried one of the basketball games. You get a regulation basketball and try to sink a basket from 12 feet. Sound easy? It is BUT.....the basket is about 15% smaller than a regulation hoop so you need to swish a perfect shot. My shot front-rimmed but I know a slight adjustment in the height of my shot would guarantee a basket. Now those who have logged in many hours playing bball know the secret of shooting successfully from the foul line. We can talk about eyes, legs, knees, wrists, elbows, and follow through but let's not forget the feet. My feet were fine...my release needed to be adjusted higher. But when the guy tossed me another ball I had to MOVE MY FEET. I heard Mike and the crowd groan a bit. These guys knew I was doomed. I back-rimmed the shot. Damn NY street party. The park was in it's last hour of operation for this day and when we walked over to Sunset Blvd. we saw a dimly lit TZTOT. Purple and green...very eerie. We watched the elevators fall and heard the screams of the lucky (lucky?) cast members as they plummeted to the bottom. Mike picked up his Sgt. Pepper's 20th Anniversary shirt on this night. I think it was at Golden Age Souvenirs. We left the park right around closing time. When we returned to the CBR we asked one of the CBR housekeepers about those mini-bar mugs. Here's the deal: They upped the price of the mugs by $1 (now $3.95) and now say that you can use the mugs at OPR for your length of stay. Needless to say we used them quite a bit after that. As a matter of fact the kids used them that night. When they returned they were fighting. This brother/sister bickering usually doesn't last but on this particular night Holly and Mike were really going at it. I calmly told them that unless this bickering didn't stop (who knows why brothers and sisters fight...I forgot) that tomorrow morning Carol and I would drop them off at the airport on the way to the park. Mike stormed off to the pool and Holly escaped to a shower. While they were gone I scribbled a bogus flight number and flight time on a piece of paper and wrote a date and the words "Delta Airlines - Gate 13" and placed the paper in a spot where they couldn't help but see it. Did they last the trip? Read on. Friday, July 15 I felt a bit adventurous on this morning so I drove around the perimeter of the Disney property. I drove through orange orchards, new housing developments, and commercial land developments. I kidded everyone with the suggestion, "Anyone interested in looking at a house?" There were no takers. On the way back we stopped at a few souvenir places and eventually Belz. The character shop didn't have much on this day although I came close to buying a WDW marathon cap for $5. As I write this report I'm cursing myself for not buying it. We hadn't eaten breakfast on this day and by 2:00 P.M. we were hungry. I constantly perused the travel guides every day so I always had a few suggestions ready when the gang was looking for ideas. I was leaning towards an Oriental cuisine on this day and suggested we try this relatively new place in town called Bill Wong's World Famous Restaurant (3.75). I don't recall exactly where it is but I do recall it being less than a mile or two on the left as you leave Belz. There are signs. Anyway I pulled in and left everyone in the van while I checked the place out. These people invited me in to check out the buffet area. It was pretty big and had things like salad and Prime Rib and other dishes I wouldn't expect at an Oriental buffet. The price is $6.75 per person. It goes to $11.75 a person for dinner...when they add things like crab to the buffet. We were personally escorted to the buffet area by our waiter and he went over every dish to make sure we had no questions. In all there were 5 buffet stations (soup, salad, meats, veggies, and desserts). If you go to Belz you may want to look this place up. I know it's on my list. After lunch we stopped briefly at the CBR to check for any messages and then on to TMK right in the middle of a rainstorm. Bonnet Creek saw some heavy rain that day. We parked at the CR and between cloudbursts walked to the front of TMK. This night was very productive. The kids did a couple of rides on BTMRR and Splash while Carol and I visited the 999 ghosts. We then took a nice cool ride on the TTA, Dreamflight (it's never crowded...we may see this attraction disappear if this continues), and the COP. On this particular evening no attraction had more than a 20 minute wait and most of the time we walked right on anything we choose. Where are the crowds? Earlier in the day I had talked with an Orlando Dept. of Tourism official at Belz and he told me that tourism is down primarily because the World Cup Soccer activity frightened people away. People expected riots. On this evening I actually thought "Gee maybe soccer is good for something after all." We stopped over at Aloha Isle and I tried a pineapple float. It's okay but it doesn't replace dole whip. Holly and Carol went off to ride the Skyway. I passed on this (word was that someone had fallen off this attraction the day before). After that Carol suggested a nighttime ride on the Richard Irvine. Too late as Spectro was just about finishing and the fireworks barge was moving into place...no more rides on The Rivers of America for awhile. Carol and the kids decided to watch the fireworks from Fantasyland. I wanted to try taping the fireworks from just outside the Plaza Pavilion so I told them I'd meet them in Fantasyland after the fireworks. Unfortunately my decision to do this was a bit late and I didn't get to tape the fireworks...it didn't bother me because the fireworks seemed a bit chintzy (I don't think I've ever used that word before) on this night. It had been a long day so we made our way towards the front of the park. When we got to the hub in front of the castle I looked back at TommorrowLand and commented to myself how the new lighting really stands out. Holly and Mike took the bus back. They beat us by about 5 minutes. Saturday, July 16 My first thought when I woke up was "Less than a week for TZTOT." We went to Tangaroa Terrace (3.5) for breakfast. Attention...Tangaroa now offers an Italian buffet from 5 to 10 every night. If you remember, the Tangaroa Terrace was open only for breakfast. We didn't go to the buffet so I cannot report on it...but if you stay in the Poly you may want to think about trying this out! After breakfast we visited the Village Marketplace to check out some other shops there. I won't bore you with the play by play. We looked at shirts and watches and tried to get more ideas for gifts. Mike and I checked out the crystal shop next to the Character Shop. Phew! The crystal in there is priced moderate, expensive, and please do not handle. We also drove to Kissimmee to check out some more souvenir shops. We didn't find much although Mike ended up getting yet another U of Miami hat (he had only 15 back home) in a shop called "Sports Magic." on W. Irlo Bronson Hway in Kissimmee. The owner saw Mike hemming and hawing about buying the hat and he (the owner) took another 20% off the hat to make the sale. He told us that his business was off 60% and he was discounting whenever necessary to make a sale. We drove around some more and then went to TMK to finally watch The Mickey Mania Parade. I grabbed my spot in the Town Square figuring that this parade will travel the route of all parades...but SURPRISE...this parade comes down Main Street U.S.A. towards the train station...as if they were filming it for television. No problem. Just before the parade started two southern Belles asked me to take their photograph. Smile! Hmmm, still some time before the parade starts. Nothing kills time more than updating the old trip report notebook. The parade starts and it's loud. This parade was much more enjoyable than the Surprise Celebration Parade for WDW's 20th Anniversary. There are many images of Mickey in the parade. It's a good parade for the kids. One float appeared to have some MMC personalities on it but my kids weren't in agreement with me on this fact. I still prefer the old character parade from many years back. I taped the parade as it moved from right to left past me (in front of the train station) and headed into the gate to the right of the firehouse. Everything is cool....one more float to go and I see them...three people; a woman, her husband, and their son (about 10) decided to cross the street about 30 feet in front of the last parade float. As I'm looking through my eyepiece I opened my other eye and I think "They're gonna spoil my tape." Haw, if only that. As they crossed the street they looked for an opening in the crowd. The woman tries to sneak in between Carol and me except that we are leaning against a lamppost. As the woman got closer I tensed up and she paid no attention to those of us trying to enjoy the parade finale. All she and her family had to do was wait was maybe 45 seconds and there would have been no problem. Instead she lead her family across the street and tried to wedge herself between Carol and me. I held the camera tightly and said in a very clear and discernible voice, "I am NOT moving!" and had my other eye opened and glared at her and her husband. He either heard me and decided to seek another path or just panicked with the float bearing down on him. The woman tried to move me aside....no luck....I kept my position like Charles Barkely on the offensive boards. She managed to get between me and Carol and bumped my arm that was holding the camera. I bet she felt my elbow when she ran into it. The woman pushed her way into the crowd and knocked over a little girl. Luckily this non-English speaking woman disappeared into the crowd before the mob could lynch her. The little girl was okay. I was pretty upset when this happened. I haven't watched all my tapes yet but I expect to see these three nuts come towards the camera and eventually hearing my declaration as an immovable object. Like I said....just 45 seconds to go in the parade and that could have been avoided. We left TMK after the parade. It was a humid day with storm clouds approaching from the Western sky. A lot of people were leaving the park and I didn't bother getting my hand stamped. Again Holly and Mike took the bus back to the CBR. We drove back and we beat them by a few minutes. Just as we pulled into the CBR/Martinique parking lot the sky opened up with some lightning, thunder, and a good supply of rain. This was an excellent time to catch up on any postcards we hadn't sent. We did this, cooled off, and headed off to Epcot....it was already raining. Carol and the kids had to wait for me inside the turnstiles. Remember, I didn't get my hand stamped upon exiting TMK so I went in a regular entry turnstile instead on a re-entry 'stile. I probably could have gone through the re-entry 'stile but I didn't want to try it and then have to go to the back of the line in a regular entry line. Jeez where are all these people coming from? And my God we're talking a lot of people eligible for the Magic Years Gold Card (55 years or over). I had to keep my eyes open for Little Old Ladies from Pasadena in golf carts. We took a stroll over to the Coral Reef Restaurant. The fish must be flown in because the prices seemed to include airfare. So much for eating there. We visited the Living Seas which also serves as the set of "Thunder in Paradise." As we left The Living Seas we joined some other visitors to watch a mother duck and her ducklings in one of the water areas of Future World. We all watched as the mother hopped up from the water onto the concrete and felt her anguish as her ducklings discovered they couldn't negotiate such a jump with their young legs. Apparently during the rainstorm she must have jumped into the water and they had followed....but now they were trapped. "Mom" walked along the edge of the concrete looking for a possible answer to this dilemma and all along we could hear the "peep! Peep! PEEP!" from her kids. Sometimes she would disappear from sight behind some grass and the peeps became more frantic. I turned on the camera and caught a very tender moment (well maybe tender isn't the word). The ducklings were looking for Mom and she had walked to one end of the ledge and was about 60 feet from them. She plopped into the water and once they realized where she was they shot over to her like torpedoes. When we left this family they were still trying to figure out how to get the whole family to dry land...a CM was seen going after some help. As we crossed through Innoventions we couldn't help but notice the lights from the concrete panels on the ground just outside the doors. These panels have tiny holes (a bit smaller than straw holes) from which lights appear and designs are formed. These lights change colors. Check them out next time you're down there. These lights are just outside the doors near the big fountains. We headed towards World Showcase and checked out some restaurants along the way. Keep in mind that for some reason Rose & Crown still allows smoking (Annie Lund take note). We checked the menus at Yakitori, Marrakesh, and Akershus. The Akershus looked like an interesting restaurant to try but not tonight. As we approached the American Adventure Pavilion we ran into a ton of people. It looked like they were just getting out of the America Gardens Theater. Jeesh look at...huh? Wait a minute. Most of them...no practically ALL of them are those Magic Years Gold Card candidates I had seen at the turnstiles. Then it hit me. July...tribute to Duke Ellington....and, oh yeah, Rosemary Clooney was scheduled to perform...and this was the post show crowd. Phew! We had gone from The Living Seas to the Geriatric Seas. Hey Gran'ma watch that wheel will ya? Let's check the Maelstrom. Hmm. Too crowded. We go to The River of Time. They put the four of us in one row. "I don't think this is right," I said to myself. It wasn't. We were squished. We had some Central American neighbors behind us....teenagers. One boy kept standing up and I was waiting for my chance to be a CNN newshound. I would have had fun filming his rescue from El Rio del Tiempo. Anyway, throughout the ride we could hear the conversation behind us. In a flash the language would go from Spanish/Portuguese to English. Okay so they're bilingual. What was eerie was that when they spoke English there was NO TRACE of an accent. I wish I could do that. We went back to Norway. It must have been a full moon that evening because we seemed to have drawn all the lunatics. The Maelstrom had a manageable line so we walked in. Behind us was a party of six. This party appeared to have come from India. It included three heavily veiled women and three children, ages 6, 7, and probably 11. The 11 year old for some reason kept on trying to sneak ahead of us in line. One by one we took turns standing in his way. He kept bumping us. I decided to take over "lookout" and at a precise moment turned and gave him "The Glare." That worked for a while but what I really wanted was to give him "The Gas" (use your imagination) but I had no fuel...been awhile since we've eaten. Anyway we get into the boat and one third into the ride the attraction stops and we hear a voice telling us to remain seated and wait for an attendant. These people were a little impatient and started to chant. "Why me?" I asked. I had a flashback to my college years and Hare Krishna's on the Boston Common. Finally the ride gets going again and we come to the end where we land in a fishing village. Now either word gets around real fast about certain attractions or there are more lemmings in the world than we realize. I say this because only 5 people watched that Norwegian Tourism movie. Everyone else scooted through the theater. We left World Showcase and headed towards Future World. It was getting close to IllumiNations time and we aren't fans of IllumiNations so we were in a hurry to get out of World Showcase before the lights went out. We spent some time at Innoventions and then headed back to the CBR. Hey...we haven't eaten since breakfast. We headed over to OPR at the CBR and enjoyed a decent meal. Carol and Holly headed back to the room while Mike and I visited the game room. When we got back to the room Carol told me that Housekeeping would be coming by...we were almost out of toilet paper. I backtracked to OPR...I knew THEY had toilet paper. Holly had gotten a call from one of her friends who had arrived earlier in the day. Holly planned to call her in the morning. Nighty-nite. Sunday July 17 Holly called her friend as soon as she woke up. Her friend was going to Universal Studios. This was ironic because I had mentioned US to everyone the night before but there were no takers. Had we known Holly's friend was going we may have planned to meet them there. It was after 9 A.M. so leaving now for US would not be a good idea. We opted for MGM. Once again MGM was deserted. On this day we had our photo taken by an MGM cast member on Hollywood Blvd. Later on we picked up the 8x10 glossy at The Darkroom. We went right on Star Tours. I love that pre-show area. Speaking of preshows, we walked right past the Muppet preshow and onto Muppet 4D. We almost did Inside the Magic but I wanted to do it on a day other than Sunday. We walked by a semi-crowded VOTLM and headed into Monster Sound Show. The guy who did Martin Short's voice did a much better job than I did. From there we went back to Hollywood Blvd. to look up some Streetmosphere... nothing. Well after this bit of traipsing around it was time for us to go to Mama Melrose for lunch. Can you spot the hidden Mickey in the waiting area? I'm not too high on this restaurant (2.75). I ordered Cajun swordfish. It was good but I've had better and bigger for the same price. Mama Melrose goes into the same column as the Garden Grill i.e. overpriced and under average. We peeked in TGMR after lunch. It was a little crowded so we decided to try later. By the way, if you want the gangster side ask for car "B" . We walked down to the TZTOT to see if, by chance, it was open. We talked to a CM who said she is required to ride the attraction before she can work there. She said that before she rides TZTOT she will build up her courage by riding Splash Mountain 6 times in one morning. On this particular day all TZTOT commemorative ticket holders were allowed to walk through the attraction but no rides. For the first time since our arrival we see official signs proclaiming July 22nd as the official opening day for the Tower. We were once again going against our normal Disney Day and were in the parks between 12 and 5. We needed to take care of laundry and replenish our drinks in our room so we headed back to the CBR to take care of these things. Our meal at Mama Melrose was far from filling and as dinnertime approached we thought about heading over to the WL and Whispering Canyon Cafe for dinner. This was our 3rd trip to this restaurant. Anyone getting the hint? When we got there we were told there'd be a 20 minute wait. They gave me a beeper / buzzer to wear. We checked at the front desk to see if Mike's friend and family had checked in earlier in the day. They had. We rang the room but no answer. Mike left a message and we roamed around the lodge. The buzzer / beeper started vibrating which indicated to me that our table was ready. We were shown to our table and when we looked at the menu we were surprised to see our name printed on the menu. It said something like "The Scopa Gang at Whispering Canyon Cafe." Carol was going to take a picture of me holding the menu flanked by Holly and Mike but before she could take the picture a very nice girl (mid 20's) offered to take our picture. No sooner does she hand our camera over but a number of waiters and cast members start drenching her with WATER PISTOLS. She returned their fire with her own small pistol. It was soon apparent to us that she was a cast member having a meal with her parents. Pretty soon there's a pretty good water pistol fight going on in the restaurant. After this subsided we began our dinner. While we were eating we noticed our server coming out with several wooden horses and he grabbed kids as he passed the tables. He set up this little race (or follow the leader) with these kids on hobby horses (did I call them wooden horses?) While they raced around the restaurant we all waved our napkins in the air and hooted as if we were at a rodeo (or at Hoop Dee Doo). He also went over to one table and picked up this girl and stood her on her chair. He then announced to the entire restaurant that Lisa had finally finished her veggies. We gave her a round of cheers. Shades of Prime Time. I needed to capture all this down in my trip notebook. We were also kept amused by the CM waiting on the next table. The guy was a riot. If you have dinner at Whispering Canyon try to get "Weedpatch" to wait on you. And, get this, our waiter told me that the CMs noticed me taking notes and figured I was doing a Shopper's Report. I told him I was just doing a report of my trip for my friends. "Sure" he said and winked. Wherever I took out my notebook and jotted down some words we got very good service and attention. See...it pays to do a trip report. I gave our waiter a good tip and wrote him a little note saying he will get a good report from me...made his day. We went over to TMK and while walking in front of the Mile Long Bar we ran into Mike's friend and his family. They had opted to go 95 all the way down and were telling us how Washington, D.C. was a nightmare. They estimated that it took them over an hour to do 20 miles. Boy am I glad I did that 81 route. Anyways, we stay with them to watch SPM (Chernabog STILL DIDN'T OPEN IN FRONT OF ME) and "Fantasy..." (not too good from Frontierland). Afterwards I brought them up to date on the wonders of The World. It had been about 5 years since their last trip. Mike and his friend spent most of the time on Splash Mountain and BTMRR...especially during SPM. Holly and Mike's friend's sister went on Splash Mountain. The parents of all these daredevils opted to go over to Tomorrowland and do TTA and Dreamflight. We had told the kids we'd meet them outside Tony's near the front of the park around 11:30 so we started walking towards that rendezvous point...all along I kept bringing our friends up to date on stuff in MGM and EPCOT. A lot has happened in five years. It had been a busy day and we said goodnight and hoped we would see them again over the next few days. Every night, and this one was no exception, it became easier and easier to fall right to sleep. Monday, July 18 We got to Epcot early on this day and we headed right for Innoventions. I ran into a CM who I had met on Disney Chats on America Online. He works at the Apple section in Innoventions. He told me that the TZTOT was having software problems. Also, it's tough to get the Imagineers to work hard since 900 of them were expected to be part of a layoff on Friday. Boy I could identify with that. Disney's International Business was off enough to force these layoffs. Somehow I don't see Disney hurting. Things were going on even with Michael Eisner going in for heart surgery. I guess there was a rumor going around that Eisner may be leaving. I doubt it. Anyway reviews were scheduled for Disney's Animal Kingdom. Also, Boardwalk should open within 18 months. He told me that the CM's aren't thrilled with the All-Star Resorts. We chatted a bit more and he said that the guests were complaining about the $4 charge to do Virtua Racing and the AS-1 simulator over in the Sega area. He said that parents are leaving their kids at Innoventions and picking them up on the way out of the park. Oh yeah, before I forget....Fantasmic IS being planned for MGM. The show will take place in the waterway area to the right of the MGM entrance. This is a few years off. We bid farewell and told each other to keep in touch. I visited an area where I was interviewed by Jay Leno. You sit on this spot and while everyone watches, you are interviewed by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. You read cue cards that are set at the height of Jay's eyes so it looks like you are really looking at him. We spent 3 1/2 hours at Innoventions. Mike and I sang "That'll Be The Day" at the Karaoke machine and totally embarrassed Holly. I guess I got carried away with the ending. Hey, those two elderly ladies behind me said, "Good job!". We also saw the latest in keyboards, player pianos (they play off a CD), the electric car of the future ($30K), and of course a million video games along with state of the art PC hardware and software. I may have mentioned that a certain company was not represented at Innoventions. I mentioned this to a product manager I work with in the multimedia space and she said she was going to look into this. Near the keyboards and guitars of the future were two large rooms. The room on the left displayed High Definition Television....projected that is. The screen was about 15 feet long and 8 feet high. I couldn't get over how lifelike the images were...and the sound. I kept cursing everyone who opened the door and came into the room. It was soundproof until someone opened the door. Later on when I played back my videotape footage of that room I noticed there was no flicker from the screen. HDTV...go see it if you can. Next to the HDTV room was a special audio room with unbelievable audio equipment. Inside they set up this special audio system of the future. The speakers were the size of phone booths and there were equalizers on top of equalizers. The retail price of the system was emblazoned on a display sign: $50,000. We had spent a lot of time and energy at Innoventions. Carol had expressed an interest in shopping at the Centorium and we trotted over there. A few years back the Centorium was one of the few stores (maybe the only one) that carried Disney University merchandise. We checked out the Centorium and then left Epcot. I asked everyone if they were hungry and I heard "Yes!" but no suggestions as to where to eat. I had some ideas. First we drove over to Port Orleans. Grrrrr, forgot that Bonfamiles serves breakfast and dinner only. I drove to the Olive Garden near Wet 'N' Wild. We had a late lunch (2 P.M.) and it was very good and very cheap...and we were full. If you haven't tried the Olive Garden (4.5) you don't know what you're missing. This was our only meal of the day. We returned to the CBR to check for any voice mail. I was not too keen about this because if I knew that if I would lay down for awhile I would make like Rip Van Winkle. I wasn't going to let this happen. I put on one of the video tapes and yup....you guessed it...just call me Rip....make that all but Mike fell asleep this day. He hit the pool. When I woke up I noticed some power surges in the lights and the TV. Hmmm. We left for MGM. It was late afternoon/early evening. We strolled down Sunset Blvd. and made another visit to the cast members at the bottom of TZTOT. Hmm...where are those generic MGM CM uniforms? These guys are now wearing bellhop costumes. A flag went up in the back of my head. Is TZTOT open? No but it will open at 10 A.M. on Friday morning. We went over to check the line at VOTLM. Hmmm too long. Well we haven't seen Indy yet so we checked the time. Only about 15 minutes to the next show so we got in the queue. As always I went down to the right side of the theater while the rest of the crowd fought to fill the middle. Haw, the fools. Carol continues to be a hot ticket item as she was picked to participate in the show and does a fine job as a citizen of Cairo. We close the park and return to the CBR. The late news says something about a Tornado possibly setting down in Orlando earlier in the day.....hmmmm remember that power surge? Tuesday, July 19 Up early. Head to EPCOT. Haven't done World of Motion in four years. We did it...see ya in four years. The EPCOT 94' Guidebook says "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" is next to Imagination but when we get there a sign says this EO replacement comes in the Fall. We headed over to World Showcase. We took in "Oh Canada." That's always an enjoyable movie. During the course of the movie there are some scenes that make you turn around and look at the different angles from the film. There was this huge guy standing in the row behind us and not once did he turn around. "Psst. Hey pal this is circlevision." He never moved. We walked over to the United Kingdom and watched the Stilt Puppeteers. These are two people who walk around on stilts and use puppets. Don't go out of your way to see them. As we started over the International Gateway towards France we see a small sea of shirts walk by us. Is it....no the shirts say, "Grandpa is 75 at WDW!" I see a spry old gent holding hands with, I assume, are his grandchildren. Other children and several adults follow. I tell Carol and the kids that I want to do the same thing when I'm 75. A woman wearing one of the shirts hurries by and tells us that for his 75th birthday this patriarch TREATED 10 members of his family to a 10 day stay at the Contemporary. He paid for airfare, lodging, admission, and meals. Figure it out. My guess is between 20-25K . Carol makes a futile attempt to convince Grandpa that she is his long lost daughter. We took the bus to China. Carol enjoys shopping in Yong Feng Shangdian. Check the Lunch and Dinner menus outside the Nine Dragons Restaurant. Entrees are pretty much the same....but the prices balloon up for Dinner. From China we walked over to the AA and noticed that the Barbie Show was close to starting. There weren't any good seats so we passed up the show. Besides, one of my WDW favorites, Voices of Liberty, were scheduled to sing in the Rose Garden. They sang only three songs and really didn't belt them out either. I chatted with the lead singer and he told me that the singers need to limit their songs because of the heat and humidity. He told me that they prefer to sing in the rotunda but the displays honoring Duke Ellington had forced them outside. He said they would be back inside in mid-September. Oh joy. I found out that each day's scheduled performances requires two shifts of singers. So if you catch performances in the morning and in the late afternoon you'll see different singers....but they always seem to sound the same. "Beep!" Watch out here comes Barbie in her pink cadillac. Omigod...the license plate says "Mickey1." Don't tell me The Mickster gave up his wheels for that floozy... arrrrrrgghhhh! Lunchtime and we headed towards Restaurant Akershus. Just before going in we watched the Trondheim Trio and Fossekalien. I think the fellow playing the violin had a salamander in his pants. Every so often he would jump and yell something. These people must know the UK stilt puppeteers. Restaurant Akershus (3.5) should be tried by all. Some people may be turned off by the many fish dishes but there are other recognizable dishes at the buffet table. My son said our waiter sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I didn't have the heart to ask him to say, "I'll be back." or "It's NOT a tumor!" After lunch we split up with the ladies heading off to Japan to check out the shops and the men doing Energy and sneaking in some Innoventions quality time. Afterwards we met at the fountains outside Innoventions. We visited the Epcot Discovery Center. It's a neat place for teachers and teacher pets. The pets can buy neat little gifts for their favorite teacher. "Gee Holly I'll bet this key ring will cinch an A in Astro-Physics this Fall!" We left EPCOT and went back to the CBR to freshen up. I did a power walk to the Custom House to cash a Traveler's Cheque. It was a bit warm and I grabbed an ice tea from the vending machine before heading back to the room. When I arrived I found Holly and Mike writing yet more postcards. Look for us in the next Guinness Book of World Records. It will be hard to top 762 postcards for one trip. Also, don't miss our exhibit in Ripley's on I-Drive. The exhibit is a replica of our room with Mike and Holly writing out postcards, Carol fanning herself, and me waiting at the door and looking at my watch. Off to MGM. First stop is Superstar TV. Carol's orange top helps her get selected for a soap role. When she was asked to pick anyone in the audience to play in General Hospital with her I figured I'm a sure thing. Not so. She picked some guy from Jersey. Uh-huh. Later she tells me that she was thinking that if she picked me than no one would be able to videotape her performance. Wait a minute........"Ya can't video or photograph in SSTV due to copyright laws." We get into the theater and somehow end up in the first row....not the greatest seat in the house but there are monitors in front of us so we will be able to see everything. The show starts and so does the fun. I forget what the first show was but the guy behind us must have just come out of a 50 year coma because he was laughing his head off. I'm talking belly laughs. Finally it's time for General Hospital and just before the episode started the lens cover on the video camera accidentally came off. I groped for the cover and OOPS the camera somehow turned on. Well by the time I had found the lens cap and turned the camera off General Hospital was over. Of course we were all surprised to see the videotape showing Carol's performance as shown in the monitor 2 feet from the camera ;^). After Superstar we walked over to check VOTLM. This attraction is always packed. Stopped off at Hollywood & Vine for an ice cream and then Sunset Blvd. and down to TZTOT. There were ominous clouds behind the structure and I was hoping to catch some lightning rolling across the sky as screams emerged from the building. I asked the CM's if there is a TZTOT gift shop. Affirmative. Onward to the NY Street Party. We are in MGM this night because on this night there is a different band playing and we wanted to check them out. Allright...someone other than Joe Trippi. We get to the NY streets and this band was pretty bad.... "Bring back Joe Trippi!" Mike had been checking out the games and tells me that the basketball game is now 2 shots for $2 instead of 1 shot for $2. We go over to the game and I'm thinking about trying it again. I pay the man the $2 and he gives me a ball. I take my time, spin the ball on my finger for good luck, line up my feet, line up the ball lines, take a deep breath, lock my eyes on the tiny rim and "Swish." The guy behind the counter was shocked. I get a high five from him and Mike. Mike gets to pick a college basketball. Hey wait! I get one more shot. I had already MOVED MY FEET so of course I missed the shot....but Mike was happy. We walked around and a streetmosphere policeman walked over to the Strongman's Bell which is one of those games where you take a mallet and hit this lever and try to ring the bell. The cop takes a swing...halfway. He calls time, walks into the crowd, grabs Carol's hand and kisses it for good luck (she was hot this night I tell ya.). He swings...not too much higher. He comes after Carol again. This time a hug for good luck. He swings...gee I think it was lower. He looks for her again and asks for a kiss on each cheek. He swings...halfway. He asks Carol for one more kiss on the cheek but just before she kisses him he swings his head and she end up kissing him on the lips...boy was she embarrassed. Oh yeah...the cop never rung the bell. He yelled out, "It's fixed folks!" I was looking around for a female officer. It's Limbo time. Mike enters...he lasts about halfway through the contest. Some kid about 3 feet tall won. Afterwards Mike got up enough courage to dance in the street with two cheerleaders. He's my hero. Still the NY Street Party gets thumbs down from me. It is failing because the PI crowd is at PI...not here. From there we take the Gangster ride on TGMR and to my surprise the Indy Jones jewel incident is back to normal...dunno why it wasn't earlier in the trip. We try VOTLM. Looks okay so we go in. We end up seeing one of the last shows of the day. You want Lion King merchandise? Go to The Studio Store. Time to leave as it's a bit past 10 P.M. No problem falling asleep this night. Wednesday, July 20 Character Breakfast at the Contemporary Cafe (4). Note that later on this year the Concourse Steak Grill will be opening at the Contemporary. During the breakfast we get visits from all the characters. Boy what a grip Chip has.....he must be pumping iron. What I'll remember the most about this breakfast was the family that came in and sat next to us. There was Mom and dad and 4 kids, the youngest of which was a little munchkin of a girl, maybe 3 or 4 years old. As the family was being seated this munchkin stood on the bench seat and leaned onto the table with her eyes squarely locked on the woman who showed them to their table. This little tyke kept demanding "Where is Day-Yul?!? Where is DAY-YUL?!?" She is assured that Dale and others will be by to see her. Of course I can hardly wait. Dale (DAY-YUL) finally shows up and this 4 year old is wide-eyed by this bigger than life Dale. I can only think that this little girl expected a chipmunk that could hop onto her hand...like in the cartoons or on the stuffed character shelves in the stores. She slowly got over this shock and even allowed Dale to shake her hand. I guess Mom and Dad didn't prepare her for this experience. Okay off to TMK. The kids head off to the Arcade while Carol and I look for bargains in the Emporium. We do notice some racks with sale items but nothing caught our eye. We leave, take in a performance by the Dapper Dans and then head over to the castle forefront to watch "Best of Disney." I find a spot up front to tape the show. It's hot...probably the hottest day of the vacation. We watch the show and then Mike cools me off with an ice tea. You'll notice Supergreeters in TMK. You'll also notice an attraction board similar to the one in MGM. We try TLK adventure and Small World and it's pretty crowded at both attractions...in fact Fantasyland is packed because it's the middle of the day. Yup, I'm breaking my own rules...we're in the park between 12 and 5....but we had a late breakfast. I know....that's no excuse. We stopped over at the Tomorrowland Terrace and caught the last couple minutes of a band called "Funnesse." They weren't too bad...should be at MGM. We go back to the CBR and find a message saying there is a letter for us at the Custom House. It's probably a letter for Holly from one of her friends. We pick it up on the way back to TMK. Well well, it's a letter for me. Looks like it was sent to me from Jackie Kuscher. It's a note from the conference and it's mentioning World Cup Soccer and how I'm dealing with, well, you know. Brazil beats Italy on a shootout. I hate soccer. By the way, a few days after Brazil won the world cup a *deleted* Family moved into the room next to us. I took them out to dinner at Coral Reef NOT!!!!! Anyways, in the letter Jackie tells us that the Babe Ruth All-Stars are having a tough time. Oh well. (Congrats Jackie...you made it into my trip report...watch out for those autograph hounds). Back to TMK. A few pics with the characters in the Town Square and then off to TL to catch the whole Funnesse show. We were a bit disappointed. The show wasn't that long. Time to think about dinner. We head over to The Plaza Restaurant (4.5...best french fries on the property). They have the best Chef's Salad on the property too. Mike and I passed on the Bicycle Built for Two Ice Cream Sundae. Earlier in the vacation we may have gone for it but not these days. Holly left to meet a friend at Space Mountain. Mike tagged along. The line went as far back as the Astro-Orbiter ride. TL was packed. Even the TTA had a line for awhile. After Space Mountain Holly and her friend went over to Splash Mountain. Mike and Carol did the Grand Prix. The three of us went on Small World. Mike then went off to Big Thunder and Splash to find Holly. Carol and I did the Richard Irvine at night. Cool. When we got off the boat she went to locate the kids and I tried to capture Chernabog. Spectro was in full swing as we left the boat. If you're wondering, no he didn't open up for me. I headed over to the Tommorrowand Terrace, set up near some trees, and taped Tink coming almost right at me. I taped the fireworks. I then waded through a sea of humanity to Main Street. I dashed across the street and went in the back way to the Arcade and made good time making it to the Emporium. I then taped the six Emporium windows that had the audioanimatrons depicting key scenes in TLK. Don't miss these windows. I met Holly and her friend outside Tony's. Soon Mike and Carol showed up. They had done Jungle Cruise and Pirates. Holly bid farewell to her friend as she was heading home the next day. We left for the CBR. Holly and Mike had mentioned that on one of the nights they took the bus back to the CBR they noticed some of our favorite tour groups taking busses back to the Swan, Dolphin, and Y&B Club. Food for thought for those future trips.
__________________
You just read a trip report that was originally published in our MousePlanet Trip Reports column. Reader-submitted trip reports have always been an extremely popular feature here at MousePlanet. In order to improve the search functionality and shorten the time from when you submit a trip report and the report gets published, you can now post your trip reports directly to our Trip Report forums. The forums are moderated, but reports should become available for reading very quickly. |
|
|
|
02-07-2006, 09:17 AM
|
#2 |
|
MousePlanet Trip Report Editor
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: MousePlanet
|
Thursday, July 21
We decided to go to MGM. On the way I stopped in at the Custom House and took care of some long distance phone calls and cashed a Traveler's Cheque. I wanted to check out with a $0 balance for the room. While at the Custom House I noticed a lot of people upgrading from the All-Star Resorts. Many of them just don't like the resorts. As we entered MGM I made reservations for The Brown Derby. I wanted to try a Cobb Salad. Carol and I did the Inside the Magic tour and along the way we ran into Chip & Dale and Minnie on Mickey Ave. We're talking a deserted Mickey Ave. so we were able to ham it up with them. Holly and Mike had gone to Star Tours. The film that has Mickey with the Eisner watch was not being shown. Instead, they were showing "The Making of the Lion King." The Studios were taping "That's My Dog" for The Family Channel. No thanks I have neither a dog nor The Family Channel so I didn't pursue getting into the audience. We did find out that you don't have to enter the Park (i.e. pay admission) to be part of the studio audience. Carol and I stopped off at Starring Rolls for a snack. We were to meet the kids around Hollywood Blvd. Boy the birds really clean up the crumbs at Starring Rolls. They practically eat out of your hand. We saw a TZTOT shirt...hmmm must be a commemorative ticketholder. I checked another watch in Keystone Clothiers but nothing really stood out. We hear Streetmosphere outside and we see all kinds of fun and entertainment happening along Hollywood Blvd. before the Aladdin Parade. Hmm all the good spots are taken so I stand on a bench just outside Keystone Clothiers (on Vine Street). It's a good spot to view and tape the parade. After the parade we went to The Brown Derby. No more than 5 minutes after sitting down a person came over with a phone, jacked it into the wall and announced that there was a phone call for Holly. It was Goofy. He was sorry he couldn't make it for lunch but he had to put his hands in cement. We also listened to a birthday call. The Brown Derby (3.5) has decent food but the price is a bit steep. I'm not sure if I'd go back...maybe. If you do go to the Brown Derby look for a CM named Doris. Her picture would be next to word DISNEYHOLIC in the dictionary. She and her husband have devoted themselves to "The Mouse" as she calls Mickey. Her house is all Mickey and Minnie...EVERYTHING. Seek her out and ask her about her house. We left the Brown Derby and walked around MGM. We saw some Streetmosphere and continued to look for some gifts for friends and relatives. We were sitting on a bench along Hollywood Blvd. and I couldn't help but notice how empty the park was on this day. Little did I know how we would benefit from the lack of guests. We were thinking about leaving the park but thought about getting something to quench our thirst first and then leave. Holly went off to get a frozen lemonade and Mike & I got a sno-cone near TGMR. On the way back we sauntered over to the board containing waiting times for attractions. I did a double take. The Tower had a wait time of 45 minutes. "Huh?" I should have asked the Supergreeter what that meant but before I got to him I saw a sign at the beginning of SB....a sign that wasn't there an hour ago. The sign read something like this: "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is going through final dress rehearsal. This means that the attraction will be operating intermittently during the day." Mike and I hustled back to Holly and Carol and STRONGLY suggested we stroll down to the Tower to see what's going on. As we approached the Tower we noticed more activity than normal at the base of the attraction. Sure enough we realize that today as a test day or soft opening day and a CM in a bellhop suit tells me that there is a 45 minute wait. Carol said she'd sit this attraction out so Holly, Mike, and I took off behind the front wall towards the attraction which may very well become the new icon for Disney/MGM Studios. As you walk up the front walkway you pass a sign that reads "The Hollywood Hotel." But don't look away. The sign changes ever so strangely to say "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror." As you walk up towards the porch you pass by an unkempt garden filled with weeds and overgrown bushes...hasn't been touched in decades. As you pass one statue you feel a bit uneasy. Check out the eyes...brrrr. I pull out my notebook and start jotting down notes. We entered the Hotel and saw a musty old lobby. We pass an unfinished chess game in the corner, an old desk (the dust won't wipe off...try it yourself), some chairs, a sofa with an overcoat draped across it, some old pictures, the front desk with some unsorted mail, and a potted plant that has lost some leaves...hmmm they have fallen on the floor and seemed to have formed a symbol or message...can't figure it out. We go passed the "turnstile" that is an electronic eye that counts the visitors. About 20 of us congregate in front of two large doors with the sign "Library" above them. The doors open and we walk into this very well stocked library. The room is similar in size to the stretching elevator in the Haunted Mansion...maybe it's a bit smaller. Books are everywhere as are knickknacks, a desk, paintings, a window, and a TV mounted high up on one corner. A big lightning bolt is seen through the window and the lights go out and the TV goes on. We see a young Rod Serling and he tells us what is about to happen. He relates the story of the Hollywood Hotel and tells the story of what happened on that fateful night (Oct. 31, 1931). On the TV we see the hotel from the outside during a rainstorm (the angle shown is the angle from the base of the hotel...very familiar) and we then see five people walking through a hustling hotel lobby (the same one we just walked through) and these five people get on an elevator. We are then shown lightning hitting the hotel and the elevator shafts. The picture then switches to these five people in the elevator. They glow and begin to fade. We then see the elevator shafts fade. Rod is back and is standing in front of an elevator. He tells us that tonight we are part of the episode and that we will venture into the Twilight Zone and witness the terror. Thanks Rod. The lights come back on and we walk into the boiler room. All the while Holly is saying, "Dad I don't think I can do this." We walk through an old boilerroom. It's musty, it's old. There's junk all over the place. It's dirty. It's noisy. We make our way towards one of the elevators. Along the way we see at least a dozen signs warning about the ride. You can exit just before the elevators if you chicken....erh prefer to bypass the actual ride. We get up to the elevator and we are directed to stand on certain spots just outside the elevator. This is done for loading purposes. The elevator comes and we file in. The elevator contains benches. We sit in the front row and a lap bar is pulled down. Note that the middle seat in the rear row does not have a bar but a seat belt (lap...not shoulder). If you look down at the seating arrangement it looks like this (door at bottom): o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o I checked my watch. It took but 20 minutes to get to this point. I couldn't help but notice how many cast members were staffing this attraction. They were all over the place. Just before we got on a small boy (barely made the 42" requirement) asked about the drop. "What drop?" asked the CM, "We have good elevators here at the Hollywood Hotel." Good job. The cast member tells us there is to be no photography of any kind. This is for the safety of everyone in the elevator. She then SLAMS THE GATE. This was done for effect. Holly started praying. Just before the CM closed the doors she says, "See you at the bottom." The doors close and we hear Rod Serling's voice and the elevator shoots....that's right SHOOTS UP about 20 feet. The door opens and we are looking out into a hotel hallway. It's about 80 feet long. There are tables, mirrors, doors, paintings, plants, intersecting hallways, and a window at the far end. I don't recall what good old Rod was saying but as he said it the five poor souls who were in that elevator that fateful night walked into the hallway and beckoned for us to follow them. They were ghostly apparitions. As they beckoned us they, and the hallway, began to fade...no it's not fading it's changing. Woa! Now I'm looking into deep space, a starfield. How the heck did they...wait..the window is still there...it's on..wait..it's floating towards us...CRASH!!!!! It falls and the doors slam shut. Too cool. We shoot up another 50 feet and Rod says something about the Twilight Zone. The doors open. The elevator moves forward on a track of some sort and we pass by images of TV's Twilight Zone. I won't go into the details because I'm still not sure what I saw. Blue...I remember the color blue. Think of the opening of The Twlight Zone Television show and you can get an idea of what you'll see. As we move forward through "The Zone" I'm thinking, "Hey that's a screen coming up. We're gonna hit it...HEY WE"RE GONNA..." A big white line or lightning bolt or laser light or something like that comes down in front of us, crackles and splits this wall. This part of the attraction is kinda fuzzy to me, but it blows you away. Okay we are at the end of the track now wha.........THE DOORS SLAM SHUT! I'm thinking, "Some day I just gotta get my will in order." We SHOOT UP ANOTHER 50 feet and hear Rod mumble something...we hear one word loud and clear.....TERROR! The doors open up and we are under the O in the word Hollywood. The O is sparking and we can see just beyond the soundstages towards Catastrophe Canyon. "Oh my god," yelps Holly. We drop a foot. I had forgotten about that....for the photo. I think, "Oh-Oh!" Then it happened. Let me make it clear to everyone in here that I worked on this part of the trip report for hours trying as best I can to accurately describe what happened. The elevator TOOK OFF. It didn't fall. It didn't drop. Don't let anyone tell you it's a free-fall. Someone stepped on the gas and we were PULLED DOWN at a tremendous force. Have you ever watched a cartoon where a character runs off a cliff and suddenly realizes he's not on solid ground? The bottom part of his body drops but his neck and shoulders stay up for a second...then they follow the rest of his body. That's what it felt like. The only part of the body (I thought) that feels distressed is the chest and above. I thought I was going to split in two. I actually felt that my head and shoulders were going to remain up there...or my innards were going to escape through my mouth. But! But! But! But....before you get turned off from what I've just said listen to this. This PULL happens so fast that you cannot even complete a single thought. Just as you START to feel the uneasiness I just described...IT'S OVER! I mean ZIP! IT'S OVER! Be aware that even though the lower half of your body appears to have gone through the ride without any ill effects it ain't so. Your knees and legs will shake as you get up and leave the elevator. Your body is in shock for a minute after the ride. My body was pretty upset because I didn't tell it what was going to happen. My brain was still puzzled by the special effects. My chest was trying to fall back into place, and my legs were warning me to keep moving or they were going on strike. Let me make this interesting observation. Thank goodness the drop is in darkness. I would think that if we could see outside as we dropped we'd be in serious trouble at the bottom. I know there are coaster people out there who are saying, "C'mon Mike! It sounds like a coaster!" Nope. Coasters are always moving. This vehicle TOOK OFF FROM A STANDING POSITION. I wish I had looked up as we plummeted. Carol was there waiting for us....along with a dozen CMs and several EMT's standing by to assist any visitors having problems. Needless to say, what other Disney attraction needs EMT's standing by? That says it right there that this attraction is major league. We walked out past the unloading portion of the Tower Basement and turned a corner to see a large waiting area and a long counter. Behind the counter the wall contained a message reading: Picture if you will..... ...the expression of horror on your face as... or something like that. This is to be the area where you can purchase the photo of yourself as you are frightened to death from that little 1 foot drop before THE BIG ONE. This area was incomplete so no photo for us. We went into the gift shop. We all deserved a shirt after that. The shirts were selling like hotcakes. Of course they were out of my size for the one I wanted so I settled for my second choice. My shirt is black with the outline of The Hollywood Hotel. The front of the shirt contains green and purple letters that spell out "Hollywood Tower of Terror." The back says, "You can check in........but you can't check out!" The CMs in the gift shop were dressed like morticians. One asked me if I looked up while on the elevator. "Why?" I asked. He smiled. We left the gift shop and walked into the courtyard. I saw some people sitting down and trying to catch their composure. Some people had a tough time with this ride. Media people were floating all around too. ABC's Spencer Christian was in the area. As we left the TZTOT area we passed hundreds of people gathered on Sunset Blvd. I overheard countless debates over whether or not to attempt the attraction. There were families having STRONG DISCUSSIONS. "Gee Frederick I don't know if it's safe!" "C'mon Dad, I'm tall enough!" "Now Arthur we can't let Junior and sis go on alone. I'm sure your back will be okay." "Omigod did you hear those screams?" "Hey, I just had a milkshake...and you want me to ride that thing?" We stopped off at the Sunset Ranch Market to get a drink (mostly for Holly) and then headed out to check the ticker tape parade which kicks off the NY Street Party. Boy was that small. Don't bother. After that we worked our way back to Hollywood Blvd. and changed our plans to go to EPCOT that evening. Why? Simply, that if we want to ride the Tower again (Mike and I were game) then the best bet was to ride it that evening before word got out that it was open. Tomorrow the lines would be too long. We had dinner in Hollywood & Vine (rating of 3) although Holly wasn't hungry after her venture into the Twilight Zone. When we left H&V we came out into the throes of Streetmosphere (can you tell that we love this entertainment?) Shelby Mayor gave me his card and told me that we could make millions by putting a blonde wig on me, stuffing me in pink tights, and throwing me into the wrestling ring. Mike and I went back to the Tower and the queue looked short enough for us. While in line we struck up conversations with the other visitors and we were bombarded with questions regarding the attraction. We played it cute and said we couldn't remember a lot of the stuff. When asked about the drop we said, "What drop?" When we got to the boiler room we got to cut in front of a lot of people because we were a party of two. As we were moving towards the elevator I asked "Where are the seats? What row?" "It doesn't matter, sir." replied the CM. "It does to me!" When we got there I found myself standing on the spot representing the middle seat in the last row. I turned to the CM and said, "Do I get the seat belt?" She nodded. "I prefer not to!" I semi-demanded in my best Scrivener voice. She switched us with two other people. Everyone was wondering why. Mike and I knew why. We were in the front row. We sat in the front row on our initial journey also. I won't go through the special effects again but will say that the ride is better the second time around because you know what to look for. Look up whenever you think of it. Also, it's better during the day than at night. The park was about to close for the day so we picked up some gifts we had planned to get for some friends and returned to the CBR. We had gone nonstop since 9 that morning. From opening day MGM has always played music throughout the day. As the day goes on the music changes. On this particular evening as we exited the turnstiles the music was bidding us farewell. Can music sob? I forget the song that was playing...it sure was melancholy. It was a very satisfying day. So long MGM. Friday, July 22 Our last full day. Ever notice when you get to WDW your first day seems like you're on top of a huge sack of presents on Christmas morning and your last day is like being at the bottom of the sack and there's one present left? Sigh. We left early for TMK. Splash Mountain had a long wait...we didn't leave early enough for the park I guess. We saw Country Bear Jamboree and risked having one of the ghostly 999 come home with us. We also took in another performance of The Lion King Adventure. All this in about 90 minutes...not bad. By the way, while in Haunted Mansion we were sandwiched between two foreign tourist groups. The Oriental group was very polite. I won't say it. As we were leaving the Haunted Mansion we noticed the guys with VideoTourist shirts on taping footage of these splendid young impolite guests leaving the Haunted Mansion. Carol almost had an eye poked out by a flag. Mike and I "accidentally" walked in front of the video tourist while he was filming these impolite citizens of another country. My last full day in Orlando, a slight run-in with my favorite group of people...not a particularly great day. I wonder how the tape came out after Mike and I, confused of course, walked in front of the lens. I can see it now. "Here we are coming out of the Haunted Man...YAEEEEIIII!!! what the heck was that???" Anyway we saw TLK Adventure and once again noticed a different pre-show. This show is loud but not loud enough to drown out the infant yelping behind us. The poor baby couldn't stand the loud noises. The baby should have never been brought into the theater. Mike and Holly did the Tea Cups and then Carol and the kids did the Grand Prix Raceway. I passed since I had about 1400 miles ahead of me the next day. Carol rode her favorite ride, the TTA and then we discussed where to eat lunch. The Plaza Restaurant won...the Chef's Salad was the key in the decision. I stuck to rabbit food the last 5 days of the trip. After lunch we walked down Main Street. Carol suggested I look for a watch in the Uptown Jeweler's. After some 15 minutes of hemming and hawing I noticed a watch. It had a beige face with Roman numerals on it and Mickey was hanging on to the second hand. That was for me. Holly and Carol picked up some items too. Mike didn't see anything he liked. We then visited the Emporium. At this point everything looked the same. There were a few gifts we needed to get but not here. Carol and I decided we had to go to EPCOT to check on some gifts. Holly and Mike took the bus to the CBR and Carol and I headed for EPCOT. When we got to EPCOT Carol and I split up. She went to China and I went to the American Adventure. I had to check on the Voices of Liberty CD's I had hoped to get for their biggest fans: Nina and yours truly. Along the way I caught the end of the Barbie show. Gee it wasn't THAT corny. As a matter of fact I liked the way they sang their last song...they used sign language as they sang. Grrr....another show we should have seen. After the show I headed for the AA gift shop. Hey the Voices of Liberty are singing in the Rose Garden! Oops, no they're not..they're done. No luck on the CD's. Sorry Nina...sorry me too. I thought about getting cassettes but nawwww. Guess my last shot is at the Village Marketplace. I headed back to Future World, delayed a bit by a drawbridge near Mexico. I met up with Carol and we left EPCOT. As we got into the van it started to rain. EPCOT...Scopa...rain....you know the deal. We got back to the CBR just as the sky opened up. We did a little pre-packing to save time in the morning. After the rain subsided we headed back to TMK. As we were walking along the path to the front of TMK we noticed a van driving up towards the front near the bus terminals. Big mistake. Disney security was on that Van like Winnie the Pooh on honey. Security personnel appeared on foot, on wheels, and most likely in transit in the air to intercept this vehicle and send it on the rightful path. This led me to believe that visitors and all areas of the resort are monitored fairly well and that if someone gets out of line a security person will pop out of a tree, wall, or cloud to take care of things. We rode the train to Mickey's Starland, visited Minnie-Moo, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Carrousel of Progress, Small World, Haunted Mansion, and (kids) BTMRR. Let me tell you what happened in Small World. The CM's were very lax on this day and assumed everyone knew what to do. Well they weren't telling us how to line up ("Row 3 please") and somehow this small girl from another planet (maybe she was 4 years old) got in our row and almost fell into the water because she got mixed up with where she was supposed to go. Her parants weren't much help since they weren't sure (first-timers and foreigners). Here's how it happened. This little girl went into her row and then while on the edge of the dock slid over in front of me to get into my boat seat. Her parents screamed at her and the little girl almost fell into the water. The CMs got a bit flustered (they finally paid attention). I felt bad for the little girl. I still don't understand why her parents weren't behind her as they entered the boat. Also, the cast members weren't helping out either. We assumed which rows to use. I looked at the cast members and muttered something about adding something to my shopper's report...erh list and made sure the CMs heard me. On our return to the dock all CMs were in their right place and doing a fine job. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. It's SpectroMagic time. We watched a little from Frontierland. Finally, Chernabog opened up...a going away gift. Hey you know where I plan to view SpectroMagic next time I'm at TMK? On the porch of the Diamond Horseshoe or Liberty Tree Tavern. It's just after 9:30 P.M. and we were hungry. We made our way to Pinnocchio Village Haus (3.5) for a late snack. Just as we sat down the FW begin. I ran out to tape them. Good spot...right next to Fantasy Faire. After the FW and dinner we split up. Carol and the kids took off for TL and I strolled over to Mickey's Starland to do some taping. Mickey's Starland was pretty empty during this time so I enjoyed myself as I walked through Mickey's House...nice and quiet. I met Carol and the kids at TL near the TTA. Holly was a little under the weather (since her visit to the Twilight Zone). Carol and Mike rode the TTA (again). I wanted to use up the tape in my camera so I taped the monitor at COP. Carol and Holly went looking in the shops and Mike went on the Astro-Orbiter and was blown away by how high it was and how fast it went. Afterwards Mike went over to Space Mountain. Suddenly it hits me. Our stay is just about over. Just yesterday we arrived in Orlando...didn't we? Tomorrow we leave. As we walk towards Main Street I'm calculating that if we return in '97 I am only about 1,060 days away. TL is really thinning out. The CM's in the gift shops and the carts are restocking and cleaning. As we sit under the Astro-Orbiter we hear the TTA monologue. Mike returns from Space Mountain. Says he walked right onto the attraction. Mickey's hands are pointing upward...almost midnight. I notice a couple walking by with a very groggy toddler in their stroller. We start heading towards Main Street USA. We pass by what will be Alien Encounter when we return. We walk across the bridge towards the castle. I capture the castle's reflection in the water. As we walked down Main Street we were pretty quiet. Holly and Carol were ahead of Mike and me and were pretty much at the turnstiles while we were just heading into the Town Square. Mike was under the train station a bit ahead of me as I stopped in front of what used to be the Walt Disney Story. I did a final pan of the Town Square. Two CM's were locking up the Annual Passport renewal area...no longer The Walt Disney Story. They said hi to me. Even though The Walt Disney Story has been removed from TMK it lives on...in The Lion King, in Innoventions, In The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, in Boardwalk, in the eyes of that little girl who was mesmorized by a lifesized chipmonk, and in the heart of Frank Wells who died earlier in the year. I was deep in thought. The entire trip experience was being replayed in my mind. "Dad?" "Huh?" It was Mike. Time for a little father-son chat. "Mike," I said, "The last two times we came I turned this way and said Thanks Walt! It's time again. This time I need to say a little thank you to Mr. Frank Wells." "Who is he?" Mike asked. I explained on the way out. We headed for the CR parking lot. I'm taping...the tape will run out any minute now...just like our vacation time. I was the last to get into the van. I caught a glimpse of the castle just before I got in. I hesitated then whispered, "See you in '97 for the 25th." We returned to the CBR around 12:30. I think I was counting sheep at 12:31....or was I counting days until we return? Saturday, July 23 We got up real early. Carol and I did laundry duty. If everything goes right we'll pull the clothes out of the dryer on the way to checking out. While the laundry is washing I start loading up the van. Some guests move their car and I move the van closer to the room. We slowly get the van all packed and get the last pieces of the laundry out of the dryer and into the last suitcase. I picked up a copy of the Orlando Sentinel at the pool and read the article on TZTOT. The article says the attraction cost $150 millon. We combed the room making sure we didn't leave anything behind and then went over the Custom House to check out. As I was checking out I was told there was a mistake with my account. "Oh brother", I thought, "Unexpected expense!" Wrong. Somehow I had overpaid and they were giving ME money. How often does that happen? From the Custom House we went over to the Marketplace. Our last meal was spent at Chef Mickey's (3). One of the advantages of driving down to Orlando is that you can wean yourself from the resort at any pace you want. We left Orlando at 2:30. We hit some rain on the way home. We stopped over in South Carolina for the first night and in Pennsylvania for the second night. As we drove through NJ some guy in a hurry told me I was #1. We arrived home @ Noon on Monday. Summary First and foremost I want to say I have no regrets about going. I knew coming back would be difficult but it was well worth it. My top 5 memories of this trip will be:
finis Mike Scopa scopa@donvan.ENET.dec.com
__________________
You just read a trip report that was originally published in our MousePlanet Trip Reports column. Reader-submitted trip reports have always been an extremely popular feature here at MousePlanet. In order to improve the search functionality and shorten the time from when you submit a trip report and the report gets published, you can now post your trip reports directly to our Trip Report forums. The forums are moderated, but reports should become available for reading very quickly. |
|
|
|
| Bookmarks |
| Thread Tools | |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Linear Mode
