Sue Holland - August 1997 - All Star Music Resort

[Trip Reports]

8/16/97 Saturday

We (Sue (me), son Chris age 10) drove up from Ft Myers along with friends (Sheila & her son Colin age 11). We took 2 cars because we were continuing on to Daytona Beach following our stay at WDW, and with beach chairs, boogie boards, etc - one car just would not do it!

This first night we stayed at the Residence Inn at Lake Buena Vista. We'd stayed there in June & enjoyed it alot. I got a government employee rate of $75 for a one bedroom apartment. Chris & I shared the king bed in the bedroom, while Sheila & Colin camped out on the sofa bed. While it's not a fancy place, it is quite spacious & comfortable, and we had access to all the facilities at Marriott's World Center. Our room was right next to the main pool, which we did not use on this trip.

After checking in around 11:00 a.m., we parked at the Marketplace & took a Disney bus to Coronado Springs. I'll be staying there with another friend the first week of October, and was anxious to see it. It was more beautiful than I had imagined! We ate lunch in the Pepper Market food court, and were impressed with the variety & quality of the food. Except for having to get our own food, it felt much more like eating in a restaurant than the other food courts. I had a chicken caesar salad, Sheila had a sub sandwich, and the kids had (of course) burgers & fries. Everyone was very happy with their meal.

After lunch, we took a long hot walk around the lake to see the grounds & check out the pool. The kids were very impressed with the slide at the Dig Site, but since we were not staying there we didn't use the pool facilities. The jacuzzi was quite large, and there was a playground for younger kids in addition to a kiddie pool. I had to promise my son we'd stay there some time (he'll be staying behind in Oct so he doesn't miss a week of school).

From there we took a bus to the MK, then switched to the boat to Discovery Island. We all are FL Resident Seasonal Passholders, and as such have free admission to Discovery Island through the end of December 1997. Sheila & Colin had never been, and my son was too young to remember the last time we went.

It was hot, and birds were dropping presents on unsuspecting guests everywhere, but the kids really enjoyed themselves. Luckily we avoided contact with any bird droppings! At one of the monkey cages a really cute little monkey was watching us. My son started making monkey noises at him, and the monkey would come a little closer & talk back. This went on for a while, until the monkey was off his branch & hanging from the cage wall facing us, when he stared at my son & started to pee. You can only imagine how that impressed 11 and 10 year old boys! They talked about that for a long time!

After Discovery Island, we took the boat to Wilderness Lodge, got a snack at Roaring Forks, then headed back to the Marketplace. We drove over to the Character Warehouse & did some shopping, then had dinner at Jungle Jim's over at Crossroads. After dinner we returned to the Marketplace for shopping at the World of Disney. After that we returned to Residence Inn.

8/17/97 Sunday

The kids picked up the complimentary breakfast at 7:00, we ate & were at All Star Music by 8:00. We had made the ASM reservations over a year ago, before ever having stayed at an All Star. After staying at (& hating) AS Sports last August, I was tempted to change the reservations, but 2 other families were involved & since it was only for 2 nights I left it there.

When we arrived, there was one CM handling check ins. There was one party waiting in line (they said they'd been waiting 20 minutes) ahead of us. We finally got helped around 8:30 (Sheila & I both went up together, even though we had separate reservations). We had requested Calypso 13 months prior, and repeated the request as we were checking in. I told the CM that anything close to the main building would be fine. Where did we end up?? In Rock - only 6-8 miles or so from the main building! We were not happy. Of course, rooms were not available at the time we were checking in, so we did not find out about being in Rock until late that afternoon.

One new thing that is kind of nice - they gave us a card with a phone number & told us to call later in the afternoon to see if our room was ready yet. I called from the Yacht Club around 2, and the rooms were ready. After verifying some information, the CM on the phone was able to activate our keys immediately, so we didn't have to stop at the front desk again. I hope this is something they're doing at all the resorts now - it sure was nice.

Anyways, after getting through the check in process we headed to MK & got there just as it opened. We immediately headed to Big Thunder, where Sheila & I rode it twice. The kids rode the Railroad Train during this time, as they were both too chicken for Big Thunder. We met them on the train at the Frontierland Station, and rode over to Toontown Fair where we did the Barnstormer 3 times without having to get off.

After that, the kids went to the Grand Prix Raceway while the Moms rode the TTA (formerly PeopleMover) until the kids caught up to us. Some idiot decided to jump out of the car while inside Space Mountain, which caused the entire TTA ride to stop for a good 20 minutes or so. I guess they really are watching on those dark rides!

After riding TTA with the kids (3rd trip for the Moms) we saw Carousel of Progress and then had lunch at Cosmic Rays. I had a cream of chicken soup with vegetables that was very filling.

From there we took the monorail (front car with the driver) to Epcot. The driver was telling us that each monorail car costs $6.5 million and each mile of track was another $1 million. Since there are 14 miles of track, I told Sheila if she had $20 million she could almost buy the track & have one monorail train (she'd have to lose a couple of the cars) to run on it. She promised to buy a lottery ticket!

Once at Epcot we saw Living Seas & the Moms did the Journey Into Imagination ride while the kids did ImageWorks.

From there we walked over to the Yacht Club for the 2:00 Flamingo Cafe get together. We met quite a few people from the AOL boards & Flamingo Cafe. We left around 3, since the smoke (the meeting was in the Crews Cup Lounge) was bothering us & we needed to move our stuff from our cars into our rooms at ASM.

We took the boat from YC over to MGM, then switched to the ASM bus. We drove and drove and drove until we found Rock & then walked to our rooms with all of our stuff. Of course, we parked at one end of the building, and our rooms were at the other end, but I guess I should have expected that!

We rested for about an hour, then took the bus to Pleasure Island for dinner at Planet Hollywood. We arrived around 5:30, and had about a 5-10 minute wait. Sheila & I shared the margherita pizza, which I had before, & was very good. Colin had the kid's pizza & Chris had the kid's captain crunch chicken fingers. Chris preferred the pizzas, but I liked the chicken fingers. We all kind of shared it all.

After dinner, we went to Pleasure Island & saw the first 2 shows at the Comedy Warehouse. The Comedy Warehouse is probably my favorite thing at WDW, and whenever I'm in Orlando on business, or at WDW on vacation, I go as many times as I can. 3 of my 4 favorite actors were working that night (Steve, Kelly & Mark - sadly no Layden) and the shows were great. After that we sat in the Adventurer's Club for awhile & got back to ASM around 11 p.m.

8/18/97 Monday

We had breakfast in the food court at ASM. It was noisy, and the big screen TV did nothing to improve the atmosphere. I saw a family there who had brought in their own loaf of bread & were toasting it in the toasters there.

We arrived at the Studios by 8:30, and did Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, Backstage Tour, and the new ABC Saturday Morning attraction that used to be the Monster Sound Show. The Moms agreed that the new show was pretty stupid, and it's doubtful we'd do it again. The Monster Sound Show was better, and I could stand repeating that.

We decided to leave & head to Epcot, so we waited for the boat. While waiting evidently a caterpillar bit or stuck Colin in his calf. He said it hurt, and was whining about having to walk. At over 100 pounds, Sheila assured him that she was not going to carry him!!

We took the boat to the Boardwalk & walked into Epcot. Sheila & Colin stopped at the Odyssey first aid station for a bactine swab for Colin's leg, while Chris & I continued to the Maelstrom. We met up with them there, and rode at least one more time before the line started getting long.

From there we rode Horizons, since I never know if it will be the last time I'll get to ride this old favorite.

We went to the Wonders of Life pavilion & had lunch at the healthy snack bar there. The kids got hot dogs, I got a Wonder Waffle (yummy) and Sheila got a brownie sundae (even yummier). This is my kind of healthy food!

Around this time I was getting a little fed up with the kids (bickering, mouthing off, etc) so we did Ellen's Energy Adventure then I took Chris back to ASM for some "time out". It was either that, or kill him, and that would put a real damper on the vacation.

We got back to ASM around 2:30, and just relaxed in the air conditioned room (after making the 6 mile hike to the room from the bus stop) until around 4 or so.

Sheila & Colin arrived around 4, & we decided to have dinner at Dixie Landings. So - - off we went back to the bus stop, took a bus to MGM & switched to the DL bus there. If it was not 95 degrees we might have gotten off at Port Orleans & walked to DL from there, but it was just too darn hot! Maybe when we're all back in December. Sheila likes Dixie Landings, and we had a good quick meal at the food court there.

After dinner we took the boat from DL to the Marketplace. The plan was for Sheila to stay with the kids for a little while at the Marketplace (some kid stuff was going on) then take them to see IllumiNations & then they'd meet up with me at Pleasure Island.

I, of course, was headed to the Comedy Warehouse. I gave Sheila Chris's Pleasure Island pass so she'd be able to get him in, & we agreed to meet around 10. I saw the first 2 shows at CW again (still no Layden - must have hit his 2 nights off) and both were great. Both times I was seated at the tables on the floor.

As I exited show #2 to get in line for show #3, I ran into Sheila & the kids. They never went to IllumiNations because I hadn't given her Chris' pass to enter the parks!! What a dummy! After apologizing to her, we saw the 3rd comedy show, then went to the Adventurer's Club & also saw a parade with classic cars & motorcycles. This night we stayed for the NY Eve celebration, then headed back to ASM as soon as it was over.

8/19/97 Tuesday

This is our last morning at WDW. We ate breakfast at the food court again, then headed back to MK.

Colin decided he wanted to try Big Thunder, so he & I went on it twice while Sheila rode Splash Mountain & Chris just waited for us at the exit to Big Thunder.

From there, the boys & I took the train to Toon Town where Colin & I rode Barnstormer 4 times in a row without getting off - until Sheila arrived off the train from Splash Mountain.

We headed to Fantasyland, and did Mr Toad, Peter Pan, Small World. Next we rode Haunted Mansion, and finally Pirates of the Caribbean. We bought the boys each a turkey leg & returned to ASM for lunch.

Knowing we were headed to Daytona Beach kind of took the edge off the disappointment of leaving WDW. We spent 4.5 days riding the waves, laying on the beach, & just plain relaxing!

Sue Holland

WDW1972@aol.com