Connie Fortner - May 30 - June 7, 1997 - All Star Movies

[Trip Reports]

Time of Year: Summer
Travel Method: Plane, Rental Car
Resort: ASMR
Accommodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented in Group: Elementary, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran, Infrequent
Comments: Connie, her husband, and two daughters visited WDW in June. It was the families first trip by air (lots of lessons learned there) and had a fantastic time as you might expect. The Fortner's closed up their trip by staying at the beach for a day.

I wrote a trip report a week ago and posted it on the RADP. I got a couple of e-mails suggesting that I send it to you. I have read most of the trip reports on your site, and was wondering if you would be interested in adding it.

TRIP REPORT - May 30 through June 7, 1997

The Fortner family consists of George (upholsterer for La-Z-Boy), Connie (full time Mom, part time math tutor and preschool tumbling coach), Angela (9), and Aimee (7). The primary purpose of our trip was for the girls to compete in the USA Trampoline and Tumbling National Competition at the new Wide World of Sports. We have never traveled more than a few hours from our home in a small town in Missouri, so everything was new to us. I do tend to get carried away with details, so beware.

Day 1 - Friday, May 30, 1997

We had spent the night in a suburb of KC, at my mom's, so we were close to the airport. We left for the airport at 4:00am. George went to park the car, and I checked us in. There was no line but 10 minutes later the line was huge. We boarded the plane at 5:45 and were scheduled to leave at 6:05. This was the first time any of us had flown, and we were all pretty nervous. At 6:05 an announcement was made that there was a slight mechanical problem and they were working on it. Panic set in at this point. It was a very long 10 minutes, but at 6:15 we were taking off. Leaving the ground for the first time was awesome. We decided flying was the only way to travel. Our flight was supposed to land in St. Louis at 7:00am, but we circled for 20 min. due to fog. Our connecting flight was scheduled for 7:40, so this gave us 18 minutes to run about 20 gates, catch a shuttle, and then run another 10 gates. We learned a very valuable lesson in all of this. MINIMIZE CARRY-ON LUGGAGE! We had 2 pilot cases, 3 duffle bag type cases, and the camcorder case. We looked like idiots, or panicked tourists, carrying all this at a full run through the airport. We got to our gate at 7:42 and thank goodness they let us on! Due to the fog, our flight didn't leave until 8:15. We had 3 seats together and one across the aisle. Angela chose the lone seat, and there was a little girl her age that sat next to her. They giggled and played through the entire flight. I figured Angela and Aimee would fight the whole trip over who got the window, but this ended up being a wonderful flight. Angela got the girl's e-mail address, so they can stay in touch. Isn't technology wonderful?

We arrived in Orlando at 11:10 and got our luggage within 10 min. We next headed to the Dollar car rental counter. They had a good price, plus the free upgrade coupon from the net. It cost us $240 for 9 days use, which was cheaper than the other onsite places. The line was horribly slow. There were 6 people in front of me and it was a 45 min. wait. In contrast, the National counter never had a line, and the Dollar line just kept growing. They seemed to be waiting for cars to come in. We got a 2-door Nissan 200sx which they called a full size. It was pretty small. George checked with the garage attendant and he said that it was a full size.

At 12:15 we were on our way. We drove past WDW, which killed the children, but we wanted to stock upon some things at Wal-Mart. We found it with no problem thanks to the RADPers. It took about 15 minutes to get there. The prices were even cheaper on some things than at home. We had 2 suitcases of snacks and cereal because I thought the prices would be a lot higher. We could have saved carrying some of the luggage by buying everything there.

We got to ASM by 2:00. I was expecting another long line, but we walked right up to the counter. (On Saturday the lines were horrendously long all day and night). All of our requests were met. We had poolside, 2nd floor, Calypso #1. We had put in our original reservations and I called 3 days before we got there and again the day before. We loved the decorations and the pool. I was so glad we got Calypso because it was a LONG hike to Melody Hall from the back buildings. The rooms aren't large, but we never felt cramped. We unpacked our luggage and stored the bags under the beds. We could hear a little pool noise during the afternoon, but no worse than the neighborhood kids playing at home. I had read about the turbo toilets but I didn't pay much attention to it. The first time I flushed the toilet, I jumped about 2 feet in the air. They are pretty loud. (Aimee had a lot of trouble with toilets on this trip. One day in the parks she said, "Mommy I can't wait to get home to normal potties." She didn't like automation at all. They usually flushed 4 or 5 times on her.) The girls loved the Mickey shampoo and soap. I thought the shampoo left their hair pretty limp, but they liked it. I really liked the clothesline in the shower. What a great idea!

Our original plan was to go to the Marketplace this afternoon, but the girls wanted to go swimming. I didn't want to go to the Rainforest Cafe any where near dinner time, so we decided to hit it another day. We swam at both the hotel pools for awhile which revived us enough to go to Blizzard Beach at 5:15. Everyone was leaving at that time, so the lines weren't too long. George went to Summit Plummet and I took the girls to the Ski Patrol Training camp. They had a blast. There is a tube ride that is just the right size for them, and they loved the ice bergs. We went around Crooked Creek, which was the girls favorite. I could have done without all the cold water blasts, but Angela and Aimee loved them. George was thrilled with the Plummet, but he did get a little bruise on his left hip. He said you don't hit the bottom of the slide, but the impact with the water at the end is pretty intense. He wanted to go again, but we never had the time. We rode Crooked Creek again with George. It was closing time so we went back to ASM and ate at the food court. The food court was great for fast, inexpensive food. Angela ate grilled cheese all week and Aimee had cheese pizza. George and I had chili dogs and we got 2 mugs. The mugs were $16.00 and the rest of dinner was under $11.00. We drink a lot of soda, so the mugs were a fantastic deal for our 8 days. We were all asleep by 10:00.

Day 2 - Saturday, May 31, 1997

We were awakened at 6:00 with a call from Mickey Mouse. What a way to start the day! It was early entry for Magic Kingdom and we had priority seating at 7:30 for Cinderella's Royal Table. The buses start running at 7:00 so we got to the bus stop at 6:45. We were glad that we had gotten there early, because not everyone fit on the bus.

I was amazed at the bus system. We never had to wait more than a few minutes for a bus and it was so much better than searching for a car after walking all day. The only times I wasn't happy were when we had to stand. I was surprised that they allowed this. It seemed like a lawsuit in the making, because we did see 2 different buses involved in accidents while we were there. Both times were because someone ran into them, but standing didn't seem a very safe way to travel.

We got to the MK at 7:20. CRO had told us to be at the castle at least 5 min. early, but the CM at the gate said they don't let anyone in until 7:30. The first look at the castle was wonderful. The girls squealed and their mouths dropped open. I'm disappointed that I didn't get to see the castle in all its grandeur, but I think "Ugly Pink Thing" is a little too harsh. It is still remarkable even if it is pink. Due to the CMN telethon, we had to walk around the castle. We didn't get there until almost 7:40, but neither did anyone else. We were seated right away. I liked all the "Lord" and "Lady" talk. Angela and Aimee didn't eat very much (they are way too finicky). The girls had a Belgian waffle (which was too big and hard), scrambled eggs (Angie ate them, Aimee didn't), bacon (Aimee ate, Angie didn't), muffins (they were brown), and fruit. George and I loved the meal. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns with cheese sauce, and a sweet pastry. The characters were Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, and Alice in Wonderland. George asked Alice if she was the real Alice in Wonderland, and she asked George if he was a real person. He also called Belle, Beth. The girls and I had fun laughing at him. The meal total was $56.00. The Fairy Godmother was downstairs as we left, so the girls got another autograph and picture.

We left the castle and went on Cinderella's Carousel. There was no wait. Aimee wanted to do Dumbo, but I told her we had to wait for our next early entry day, because there was already a long line. George took the girls on the tea cups, and they all loved it. Snow White was a walk on. I think they could have done a little more with Snow White and the dwarves and a little less with the Witch, but we all enjoyed it.

Next we went to the Toontown Fair. Angela and Aimee loved Minnie's house, especially the kitchen. At the Hall of Fame we saw Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto. The girls thought Pluto was much goofier than Goofy. There were no lines so we went to see the villains. Prince John made the kids kiss his paw before would sign their books. Then they had to jump to get them back. Brer Fox drew whiskers, teeth, and big eyebrows on the Minnie Mouse pictures in the girl's autograph books. We got a picture of Captain Hook putting his hook around Aimee's neck. As we were leaving we saw Jasmine getting ready to head to the back room. George asked if she could sign the girl's books, and she did. A whole group of kids came out and wanted her, but the CM said they would have to catch her in the princess room later. We sure felt lucky to see her when we did. We went through Mickey's house and garden. The line to see him in the Judge's tent was huge, so we figured we'd catch Mickey at breakfast later in the week. We rode the barnstormer twice. Aimee was pretty scared on it, so I figured all the Mountains were out of the question. The girls played in the water on Donald's boat, and then we headed for Tomorrowland.

We went on TTA and enjoyed it. With the glimpse of Space Mt. it had, Angela decided she doesn't want to ride it either. We walked right onto Carousel of Progress and really loved it. The scene with the wires coming from the light sockets reminded us of the wiring in our house, but that's a different story. George wanted to ride the skyway, so we waited for 15 minutes and rode it back to Fantasyland. There was a 15 minute line for It's a Small World and all the other lines in Fantasyland were 35 minutes or longer. We loved Small World. I know its kind of corny, but it was wonderful seeing the sweet innocence of all the dolls. The girls were completely enraptured.

Next was the Haunted Mansion. There was a 15 minute wait here also. We encountered our first taste of rudeness in this line. A group of school kids crowded through any open spaces in the line, and their teacher was leading the pack. It was pretty frustrating. I wasn't sure how Aimee would handle this ride, but she had a blast. Two of the ghosts made her jump, but she thought that was a fun kind of scary. She's growing up.

We were starting to wear out, so we headed down Main Street. Each of the girls got pink ear hats with their names on them at the Chapeau.

Watching the woman sew the names on was an attraction of its own. I was impressed. We went to the 25th anniversary center and saw the movie. I had read a lot about the animal kingdom, but George didn't know anything about it, so he thought it was great. We got our badges and our poster, and headed out of the park. In 6 hours at MK we had breakfast in the Castle, saw 13 attractions, got 12 autographs, and saw the 25th anniversary show. We didn't follow any touring plan, but we familiarized ourselves with the park. We were really happy with our first morning at Disney.

The ASM bus was just pulling up as we got to the bus area. We got back to the resort, had a snack, and the girls took a 2 hour nap. Angela and Aimee had each saved $125 Disney Dollars this year, so they were dying to go shopping. We kept making them wait for the Marketplace so we could use our MKC discount, but their patience was at an end.

We boarded the bus at 4:15 for the Marketplace. It was pouring down rain and the bus was full, so we had to stand for the whole ride. It was a very long ride. We signed in at Rainforest Cafe at 4:42 and there was a 50 minute wait. We waited at the Disney Store. The girls really surprised me with their shopping. I expected them to spend everything at once, but they were very careful with their spending. Angela bought 2 necklace and earring sets and a Princess Jasmine hat. She wore that thing the rest of the vacation and got a lot of comments on being a princess. Aimee got 1 necklace and earring set and a pink pointed princess hat.

We got back to Rainforest Cafe at 5:22, and they called us at 5:32. We went to 2 different holding spots, but we were seated in about 5 minutes. I had a chicken and pineapple sandwich, George had a mushroom burger, Angela had 3 amigos, and Aimee had the cheese pizza. We all had sodas. The food was great. Our server was very mediocre. He did the job, but slowly. The next table had a server who told them all about the place and checked on them all the time. We were too full for dessert. George went to the restroom and there were toiletries all over the counter. A man told him to "Help yourself, man." George's thought was, who the heck are you? He is not used to being approached by anyone in the bathroom, then he remembered my telling him about the attendants. He told me about this later, and I was upset because I forgot to go experience this after reading so much about it. I warned you that we are small town folk. Our total bill, including a small tip, was $43.00. This was less than I had expected to spend.

We looked around the Marketplace for a few minutes. It was 7:15 and the girls wanted to see Epcot. George wanted to ride the monorail, so we figured we'd take a bus to the TTC and ride the monorail to Epcot. This was not a wise decision on our part. The bus went to Pleasure Island, Typhoon Lagoon, Contemporary, and finally the TTC. It was a long bus ride, but the driver was very interesting, and he kept us entertained. We rode the monorail and got to Epcot at 8:00. Spaceship earth was a walk on. We really enjoyed it. It ended up being one of Aimee's favorites. Next was Horizons. It was pretty slow and dated. We watched the big fountain for a while and the kids played in the little water squirt fountain. We saw a glimpse of Illuminations, which excited us for our cruise later in the week.

At 9:00 we headed back to the resort. George and the girls swam until 10:15. I'm not as much of a water person as George is, so I lounged in the room. We were all out by 11:00.

Day 3 - Sunday, June 1, 1997

We woke up at 6:00 with a call from Mickey. We ate cereal in the room, and headed for the bus stop by 6:45. At 7:00 the Epcot bus came, then a Magic Kingdom bus, then another Epcot bus, and finally the Disney Studios bus. I thought this was pretty odd since the Studios was the early entry park. I checked and the Studios was the only EE park that day. We got there at 7:20 and headed for the Tower of Terror rope drop. George and Angie were in the 4th car of the day. Aimee and I were waiting at the exit and a CM made her a ToT fan. It made her feel special since she wasn't up to riding this one. Angie came off pretty shaken up, and wasn't sure if she liked it or not. By afternoon she was begging to go again. Her face in the picture was complete terror, so we had to buy it. George wanted to film the drop but the guy next to him said they weren't supposed to, but to put his finger over the red light. He squeezed the camera on the way down and accidentally shut it off. He was pretty disappointed.

The Great Movie Ride had less than a 10 minute wait. It was an okay ride, but I'm not an old movie buff nor am I into horror movies, so I didn't relate as well as some others might. The kids were in the same position. Angie enjoyed the western action scene, but it scared Aimee.

Next was Star Tours with about a 5 minute wait. We all enjoyed it, even though the girls have never seen Star Wars. Muppets 3D was just about to start as we exited Star Tours. There was a little boy around 4 or 5 in the preshow area who was screaming and begging his parents not to make him go in. He kept this up through the whole preshow, and I felt so sorry for him. Some other ride must have terrified him, and he couldn't be convinced that this wasn't scary. It was our first experience with 3D, and we loved it.

There was a 25 minute wait for Little Mermaid, but we got to hear the tuba players while we were waiting. The girls were completely enthralled with this show. George used one of the girl's hats to shield the camcorder from mist so he could record it. We hurried over to Beauty and the Beast since it was set to start in 10 minutes. We got pretty decent seats, especially for as late as we got there. This was Aimee's favorite show of all. Neither George nor I could figure out what the big yellow winged creatures were, but the girls told us they were bats. We didn't get it, but Angela and Aimee thought they fit in just right. We shopped for awhile and got autographs from Friar Tuck, Maid Marian, and Launchpad. The girls were next in line for Pinnochio, but they took him off.

We had 11:30 priority seating for Soundstage. Angela and Aimee finally ate without any complaining. George and I thought the food was okay. The characters were Genie, Meeko, Quasimodo, Aladdin, and Esmerelda.

Angela was wearing her Princess Jasmine hat and Meeko stole it. He put it on his head and Angela had to follow him to another table to get it back. It was a high point of her trip. The hat also got her special attention from Aladdin. She was in heaven when he signed her book "Princess Angie". We had to sit and wait about 20 minutes after we were done eating for Esmerelda. It was raining real hard outside, so we didn't mind waiting. The meal cost $55.00 with tip.

We put on our ponchos and headed to the Animation Tour. It was a very good and informative tour. Since it was Sunday, there weren't any animators at their desks, but we enjoyed the one for the tour. George and I thought they could cancel the last segment of cartoons. We got out at 10 minutes until parade time, so we were 3 rows back from the front. We had to hold the girls on our back the whole time. As the last float was coming into view it started raining hard again. We left the park and went back to take naps. We got all but 3 things done that we wanted, so we scheduled one more time at the Studios.

We were back at ASM by 3:00, and the kids crashed immediately. We were ready to go again by 4:45 and got to Epcot at 5:15. Yesterday and today were too rainy to go to any water parks.

We saw Honey I Shrunk the Audience. This was George's favorite attraction of all. He was jumping all over the place. I enjoyed it, but I had some trouble focusing in on the 3D effects. Aimee took her glasses off through some of it, and Angela kept raising hers for reassurance. Next we did Journey Into Imagination. George and I thought it was pretty slow, but Aimee loved it. We played at the Imagine Works(?) for ½ hour or more.

I wish we could have seen everything at all the parks, but it just wasn't possible. We ate at the food court in the land, but didn't do the attractions there. Angela and Aimee got the PB&J kid's meals which had "the biggest cookie I've ever seen". George and I had BBQ chicken breasts. It was very good.

We decided to start our "World Tour", so we got each of the girls a passport. We went to Canada, but we didn't see the movie. We really enjoyed the landscape and architecture. The CM who signed the passports in the United Kingdom was one of the friendliest of all. This was the only complaint I had in all of Disney. Except for United Kingdom and American Adventure I felt like we were really imposing on the CMs to get their signatures. This could have been handled much better. In some countries you go to the Kids Zone, and sometimes you go into a store. After we looked around the United Kingdom, they were closing down for Illuminations. On our way out of the park, we got the girls Guest of Honor Badges. They wore them to the Magic Kingdom the next day and a lot of the CMs called them by name. A lot of the characters personalized their autograph books.

When we got to the bus stop, there was standing room only. George got mad at me, but I told him to wait for the next bus. It came in 5 minutes, and we got to sit the whole way back to the resort. We got back at 9:50 and the girls got to swim until 10:15. Everyone was in bed by 11:00.

Day 4 - Monday, June 2, 1997

We had another wake-up call for 6:00, had cereal in the room, and got to the bus stop at 6:45. We were at Magic Kingdom by 7:20. The lines at the turnstiles were a lot longer today than they were on Saturday. We walked through the castle and got on the first ride of the day for Dumbo. Aimee was thrilled! My stomach wasn't crazy about her "driving" but I survived. We went on Peter Pan and rode it twice with no wait. The girls were saying hi to all the scenes the 2nd time through. It was great. As we got off the second time, the line had already grown quite long. There was a 5 minute wait on Toads Wild Ride. George spotted the naked lady without any prompting. This was a simple ride, but it was a lot of fun.

We went to the rope drop between Fantasyland and Liberty Square.

Aimee decided that she wanted to ride both the mountains. I was surprised, and asked her what changed her mind. I had told her at Epcot the night before that Test Track wasn't open because it wasn't safe enough yet, so they were waiting for it to be safer. She took this to mean that all the rides were safe or they wouldn't have them open. I was a very happy Mommy. We waited for about 10 minutes, then jogged and trotted all the way to Splash Mountain. I couldn't believe the number of people behind us, and the throng coming from the front of the park was huge. We got on with less than a 5 minute wait, but it was starting to rain just as we got to the boat. While we were on the ride the rain turned into a storm, so they stopped the ride. We were evacuated about half way through the ride. I didn't think we would ever get Aimee to stop crying. She had worked so hard on being brave, and they didn't let her do the big drop. It was really sad. The CMs told us it would be at least 30 minutes before either of the mountains would open, even though the rain was stopping. We left those rides which was a mistake since they were running again in 20 minutes. Oh, well!

We walked over to Liberty Square and got on the boat. The rain had stopped and the sun was coming out. I asked if there were any characters and the CM said he thought it would be too wet for them, but when we cast off 5 minutes later there were 5 characters. It really helped improve the kid's moods. There was Meeko and Pluto (we already had their autographs, but got them again), Mr. Smee, Gov. Radcliffe, and Pocohontas. The girls were entranced with her. Next, we waited for 20 minutes to go through the Swiss Family Tree House. The girls enjoyed it, but it isn't worth waiting in line for.

Our lunch priority seating was for 11:30 at Crystal Palace, so we headed over there around 11:10. We could see some of Disneymania at the castle through the trees. The music was fun. At 11:30 we ate with Pooh, Tigger, and Eyeore. Aimee was upset that Rabbit wasn't there also. I do love taking the kids to buffets. George and I thought this was the best food of all the meals so far. The only problem we saw was the LONG buffet line. I don't know if this was because we got there just as lunch was starting, or if it stays long all day. The meal plus tip was $55.00.

Adventureland was closing at 6:00, so we headed over there to check the lines. The Jungle Cruise had a 60 min. posted wait so we went on to the Pirates of the Caribbean. They said it would be a 40 minute wait, but it was only 20 min. I really liked the way there were things to look at while waiting in line. The ride was fun. The Jungle Cruise line was shorter by now so we waited. This is the most deceptive line I've ever seen. You enter a line and can see the boats through the queue of people so you think the line will be short. But, you enter another building and have to queue all the way through that. You get back to the original building and see the boats again, but you pass right by them and enter a 3rd building on the other side to circle all the way through. Finally, you get to boats. It was a 40 minute line. The ride was cute, but our guide talked so fast we couldn't understand anything she was saying. I think a fun guide could really enhance the ride. Angela and Aimee made their second purchase of the trip in Adventureland. They sell a bikini, hula skirt, neck and wrist leis(?) for $28.00. The girls love dress up clothes and they wore the bikinis at the pool later. I thought this was a great purchase for them.

We headed towards Main Street at 2:10 and found one of the last curb spots for the parade. A trash dumpster had just moved out of the spot so we got it. We were right in front of the castle. The girls were chosen for the parade. Aimee danced with Dale from the Cinderella float and it was adorable, until unchosen audience members jumped up and cut in. They didn't know what they were supposed to do and ended up tripping everyone up. Angela rubbed lamps on the Aladdin float then played Genie says. It was a lot of fun, but the crowds were horrendous. After the parade we left the park and went back to ASM for naps. Our original plan would have been ideal- to visit EE parks in the morning, then switch to other parks by noon. Due to the rain, and other scheduling conflicts this didn't always work out.

We got back to Magic Kingdom at 7:15, and about ½ of Main Street was already staked out for the 9:00 SpectroMagic. Due to the storm in the morning, we had not ridden any of the mountains, so we decided to skip Spectro and ride the rides. It was a tough decision, but after the parade crowds of the afternoon, we weren't ready to face them again.

We started in Tomorrowland. George went on Alien Encounters. He wasn't too impressed. He felt that it wasn't scary, but contrived. It was all effect and no substance. I took the girls to Timekeeper while George was at AE. We really enjoyed it. I couldn't convince Angela that the theater wasn't moving. The kids have become very confused on whether the rooms are moving, the screens, or just their eyes; and every time we see an animal they ask if its real or animatronic. Aimee really wanted to do Astro Orbiter, so we waited in a 20 min. line. The girls loved it, but George and I both got the creeps being up that high and hanging over the edge of the building. George said if you want real fear, forget AE and ride the Orbiter with a 7 year old going up and down as fast as possible.

We headed over to Frontierland next. They had most of the crossings blocked off and it was really crowded. Getting around the park was next to impossible. We finally got over there at 8:15 and there was a 15 minute wait for Big Thunder Mt. RR. Aimee was pretty scared about riding it, but she decided to go for it. During the entire ride she was saying, "I can't believe I like this. I just can't believe it!" We got to Splash Mountain at 8:45 and there was a 30 min. wait. I figured with all the people at the parade that the line would be shorter. We could see some of the parade floats from the ride, and we all loved the ride. We bought the picture of our drop. Aimee and Angela had their mouths wide open in huge smiles. We headed out of the park and when we got half way down Main Street they started the fireworks. We got to see Tinkerbell and watched some of the fireworks, then headed out.

We went to the food court at ASM for supper at 10:30, then the girls got to swim until midnight. I did the laundry until 1:00am. The dryers were very slow. Tomorrow we sleep in for the first time.

Day 5 - Tuesday June 3, 1997

We slept in today, and no one woke up until after 9:00. We did early entry 3 days in a row, and I am thrilled that we did, but by this point no one wanted a 6:00 wake-up call. We had cereal in the room and headed to MGM by 10:30.

The Indiana Jones show was full for 10:45, and it wasn't going to work out to catch the next show. The kids went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground and loved it. I went to stand at Hunchback of Notre Dame 45 minutes before showtime. The family joined me and we had great seats for the 11:45 performance. This was the only theater we found that did have quite a few bad seats. There are poles on each side of the theater that block the view of many of the seats. We got to see Matt the juggler and thought he was great. We really enjoyed the play. It was longer than some of the others and there were a lot of fidgety kids in the audience. Aimee liked Beauty and the Beast better, but Hunchback was Angela's favorite. We got ice cream bars, but it took awhile before the girls could eat theirs. They are frozen very hard. I think I'll be dreaming about those Hunchback bars for a long time. They are heavenly! We left MGM and headed to Epcot.

We got there around 1:00. The girls wanted to do the World Showcase, so we started in Mexico. We really enjoyed the pyramid and the market place. The restaurant looked wonderful, and we wished we could have fit it in. El Rio Del Tiempo was okay, but nothing special. At Norway the girls got "Gargy" the troll's autograph. The line for Maelstrom was too long, but I wish we could have ridden it. We stopped at the bakery and had some lefsa. My great grandparents came over from Norway, so I had lefsa a lot as a kid. The girls thought it was okay but weren't real impressed. It brought back a lot of memories for me though. I wanted to get my Mom something for Christmas from the shop, but everything I liked was way over my budget.

When we got to China the children acrobats were performing. WOW! They are fantastic. The girls were fascinated. Aimee came up and whispered, "Our coach would never let us do that out here on concrete." The temple was gorgeous! The girls found a million things they liked in the China shop.

We all loved the Lion king topiaries at the Outpost. We took a lot of pictures of them, but they just aren't the same in 2 dimension. Germany was okay. The buildings were pretty, but this area didn't have anything special for us.

We took a boat back to future world and went to Wonders of Life pavilion. There was a 20 minute wait for Body Wars. This was one of Aimee's favorite rides. My stomach was upset through most of it. We saw Cranium Command. I really enjoyed it, but a lot of it was over the girl's heads. The star power is amazing. Next we went to the Making of Me. A couple of spots in this had George and I a little nervous, but it was all tastefully done.

As we were leaving Epcot I saw the water fountains and told George I had to have a drink. He was pretty exasperated since we were headed back to the resort. I pulled the girls along and they started laughing when the fountains talked. George came over to see what was taking so long, and he ended up having a lot of fun with it.

We got back to ASM a little after 6:00, which gave us just enough time to get the camcorder battery charged before our Illuminations cruise. We had dinner at the food court again.

We were meeting 2 other families at the Boardwalk at 8:15 for the cruise. On the phone I was told that we would board by 8:30, but when we all got they said it wouldn't be until 8:45 because we weren't doing the party cruise. We loved being on the pontoon, and not having to fight the crowds. The lasers weren't as spectacular as I was expecting, but the fireworks were wonderful. It looked like one of the barges lost part of its load in the lagoon, which might have affected the lasers. The way the cities lighted to the music was great. The girl's coach said that was the first time her baby or her husband had quit fussing the whole vacation.

We went shopping along the boardwalk for a few minutes. I found gorgeous Minnie Mouse shirts and Mickey shorts for the girls. They each spent $5.00 on WDW diaries. We got back to ASM by 10:15 and the girls swam until 11:00.

I am so thankful to all the RADPers, even more so after talking to the coach. They stayed off site to save money, and read maybe one or two guidebooks. When we got together they were complaining about the crowds, the lines, and how few rides you could ride because of it. They were not experiencing the Disney Magic. Even though some of my plans flew out the window, I had learned enough about the parks to have back ups. We felt like we got to see all but a handful of things that we wanted to, some more than once, and we only had 2 long lines. Thanks again to everyone for all the information.

Day 6 - Wednesday, June 4, 1997

We slept in until 8:30 this morning. Today is going to be an easy day, since the girls compete tomorrow morning. We are still going to see things, but we won't be doing all the walking of the past days.

We headed to Chef Mickeys for our 9:30 priority seating. This was the best character meal of all. The food was great and plentiful. There was more variety here than anywhere else. Be sure too ask them to make a Mickey pancake. Every 20 minutes there was a birthday celebration with dancing and napkin waving. The waitress brought a cupcake and lit the candle during the celebration. She also brought the girls big chocolate milks with whipped cream. Okay, so it wasn't health food, but it made for a great vacation day. The characters were the friendliest here. We were so glad this was our last meal or we might have been disappointed in the rest of them. For us, Chef Mickeys and Cinderella's Royal Table were the best character meals.

Next we headed to River Country. Angela and Aimee rode the ponies on the way. The girls loved the sandy beach at River Country, but George wasn't too impressed with the park. I figured that would be the case. Aimee really enjoyed the water slides in the kids part, and George and Angie did the tube rides and larger water slides. The kids both liked the hand glider to drop into the water. We go back to the resort for some quiet time.

At 5:00 I went to the Marketplace for some shopping. There hadn't been any time for me to look through the stores. I bought each of the girls a Minnie Mouse robot painted t-shirt, and some Disney World shirts for George and I. I also got some real cute earrings. The good news is that I saved $20.00 with my MKC card, the bad news is that I spent $200.00 in order to do that.

While I was shopping, George took Angela and Aimee to Typhoon Lagoon. I would have loved to have gone, but there just wasn't enough time to do everything. The girls got to swim with the sharks, but they said the water was freezing. Their goggles didn't fit very well and they pretty much just clung on to George's back. At the end George held his goggles up to their eyes so they could see everything. I don't think they really enjoyed the experience, but they have told everyone that they swam with the sharks. They did the wave pool, but it was a little too intense for Aimee. The girls favorite activity is the winding river, so they did that twice.

We all met back at the ASM by 7:30, ate at the food court, and the girls were asleep by 9:00.

Day 7 - Thursday, June 5, 1997

We were up at 6:30 to head for the USA Trampoline and Tumbling National Competition. The new stadium is wonderful, but I think $16.00 for George and I just to watch our girls compete is a little steep. Aimee competes 4 and 6 backhandsprings, and she is really good, honest. You wouldn't know it today. She got herself so psyched out by everything that she did a roundoff for each pass and no backhandsprings. She got last place. Every time she went down the mat she started crying. It was not a great experience. She did pull out a decent routine on trampoline, but not great. Angela bent her knees on her first double mini-tramp pass so she scored a zero. Her second pass was okay though. She did pretty good on trampoline, but she has done better routines at other competitions. All in all I'm glad that Nationals is over. Maybe next year will be better.

We went into Kissimee for an early dinner. We ate at the Ponderosa and had a nice meal. We all ordered food bars, and this is the first buffet we had ever been to where the ice cream isn't included in the food bar price. There is a big souvenir store connected to the Ponderosa so we shopped there for awhile. Aimee bought a t-shirt and Angela bought some more earrings.

I had a coaching clinic from 5-9, so George took the girls to Blizzard Beach. The main thing they wanted to do was the Crooked Creek again. We were all so tired that the girls asked if they could go to bed at 10:00. George and I packed everything up until midnight. Tomorrow is our last day.

Day 8 - Friday, June 6, 1997

We got our last Mickey Mouse wake up call at 7:00. We finished with the last of the packing and grabbed breakfast at the food court. When we got back to the room our express checkout was on the door. There was one mistake on the bill. We had a credit from the Marketplace that didn't show up. I called the front desk, and they credited it to our charge account. It was great leaving without any lines.

We got on a bus for Magic Kingdom. At 8:20 there were very small lines at the turnstiles. We got in at 8:30. At the hub in front of the castle the girls got the autographs of Queen of Hearts, Tweedle Dum, and Tweedle Dee. We waited about 15 minutes for the rope drop and headed toward Space Mt. The mobs going toward Tomorrowland weren't near as bad as those headed toward Frontierland. Space Mt. was okay, but George and I felt that it was pretty jerky. Aimee didn't cry or get scared, but she said she didn't like it. We had found little Mickey Mouse pen lights at our Disney store and the girls used those on the ride. I think it helped them feel in control.

There was no line for the race cars, so we rode on them. We went over to Toontown and rode Barnstormer for the 3rd time. No one knew when or if Donald would be there for the day, so we didn't see him. Aimee was pretty disappointed. We went to Ariel's grotto and the girls got to pose with her. We now have all the princesses. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the Lion King to start. I liked the preshow but I wish we could have sat during that time. The show was great. We went to the Village Haus for a light lunch, and I went and bought the family matching 25th anniversary shirts. The girls wanted snow cones, so we got those, then headed to Liberty Square. I loved the Hall of Presidents, but Aimee slept through half of it.

We left the park and grabbed a monorail over to the TTC. We asked if we could sit up front from the TTC to Epcot, and we had to wait for one train, but it was fun. We didn't have a very energetic driver, but it was a great view.

We took the boat over to Italy. The girls got their passports signed. Next was the American Adventure. I think we all enjoyed this one even more than the Hall of Presidents. Aimee slept through part of this show too. We went to Japan, Morocco and France. All the buildings were great, but we didn't have any shopping time in any of the countries. We took the boat back to Future World.

There was a very short line at the Living Seas, so that was our next stop. We really enjoyed the manatees and dolphins. There was a long line for Universe of Energy so we decided to skip it for this trip.

We got a bus back to our car at ASM, and left Disney by 5:00.

Our next reservation was at Ramada Inn at Satellite beach. We ate at a Shoney's on the way and had the most wonderful seafood bar I've ever seen. In Florida this is probably common place, but in the midwest seafood bars are pretty few and far between. Our room at the Ramada cost about the same as our ASM room, and it was a lot larger, but the quality wasn't at all the same. Disney had us completely spoiled. Our room was right over the ocean on the 5th floor. We could hear the waves through the night. It was absolutely gorgeous. It was starting to get dark, but we went down and waded in the water. The girls found a few shells, but Aimee was scared to death by a crab. She reached over a shell and saw a crab move in front of her. Her scream ear shattering, she flew up onto George's back, and wouldn't come down on the sand again. We decided to call it a night.

Day 9 - Saturday, June 7, 1997

There were a lot of surfers out this morning. Angela and Aimee had fun watching them. We went across the street to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast for the girls, and McDonald's for George and I. Now we were ready to hit the ocean. There was a lot of choral on the beach and in the water, so we needed to be careful, but the shelling was wonderful. We brought home enough shells to fill 2 lamp bases. They are in the living room and it is a wonderful reminder of the trip. We unsalted ourselves in the hotel pool, packed up, and drove up the coast.

We parked in a hotel parking lot at Cocoa Beach and walked down to the ocean. It was a lot calmer here than at Satellite. The sand was also a lot softer, but the shelling wasn't quite as good. The girls liked this beach better, and Angela got brave enough to scare me a couple of times. We played for about 1 ½ hours then it was time to grab lunch and head back to the airport.

We thought there would be a long line to return the car so we allowed ourselves a lot of extra time. All we had to do was turn into airport, follow the signs, and pull into a parking spot. In less than 5 minutes we were checked out and headed up to the TWA ticket counter. It took about 10 minutes to get our tickets taken care of, so we went to the Disney store in the airport. I had to have one last little taste of it before we left. The girls each bought a purse filled with candy for the flight home. They both had around $20.00 left after vacation. It was awful sad leaving Florida, but I'm sure we'll return someday.

Thanks for reading this trip report. I hope I didn't bog down too much in the details. It has been a lot of fun reliving the memories. This was the best vacation we have ever had, and it lived up to all of our expectations. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me.

Thanks, Connie