Rob Steere - December 11-19, 1998 - Caribbean Beach Resort

[Trip Reports]

Rob Steere - December 11-19, 1998 - Caribbean Beach Resort

Time of Year: Holiday Season
Travel Method: Plane, Shuttle Service
Resort: CBR
Accommodations
Ages Represented in Group: Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Frequent, Infrequent
Comments: Rob and his friend Brian went to Florida for just over a week in mid-December to enjoy the holiday trappings at Walt Disney World. Rob's report is a very detailed play-by-play that provides a lot of great information -- especially if you're planning to visit during that time of year.

Summary:

Dates of Trip: 12/11/98-12/19/98
Travel Method: Plane from Providence, RI; Tiffany Towncar from airport
Resort: Caribbean Beach Resort
Accomodations: Standard Room
Ages Represented: Young Adult (20-somethings)
Experience Represented: One Experienced, One Inexperienced
Well, here I am, finally sitting down to write my (much anticipated?) trip report for my trip in December. Thank goodness I took notes daily... Otherwise, I wouldn't have remembered half the things.

First off, let me introduce the players:

Rob, me, 22 year-old library assistant at the Harvard University book depository. I'm the planner, and the Disney-lover. Most people I know find me indispensable when planning their trips... ;-) This was my fifth trip to Walt Disney World, and the third since January, 1997.

Brian, my friend, 21 year-old MIS technician for what he calls a "head-hunter" company. (i.e. they find people high-tech jobs...). This was his third (??) trip, his last being in the Spring of 1987. So, a lot has happened at WDW since his last visit. He wanted to see and do everything, leaning on me to make sure it happened... ;-)

Pre-trip Planning:

The planning for this trip started way back in about June, 1998. Brian decided that he wanted to go, after hearing all of the great things about my trip with my sister last year. When we thought about when to go, I was firm that early December would be the ONLY time to go. Luckily, he agreed.

Fast forward to August, when we actually MADE the reservations for the hotel. We had found that he gets membership to the Magic Kingdom Club through his company, so that helped us save some money on the hotel room. We decided to stay at the All-Star Music, because we wanted to spend as little money as possible. So, I made the reservations.

Our plans also called for Length of Stay passes. We decided that on the first evening there, we wouldn't be going to the parks, so I made split reservations, one for the first night, then another for the rest of the stay.

Fast forward again, to late September. We did some calculations, and found that the difference between the LOS passes, and an Annual Pass with Pleasure Island Add-On, minus the MKC discount, would only be about $30 more. So, we decided to make the $30 "bet" that we'd return to WDW at least once more within a year.

We ordered these through the local Disney Store, and had the vouchers in less than a week.

Also, a note about surprises:

Brian HATES to be surprised. So naturally, I just HAD to plan some surprises... ;-)

The first, was that we weren't staying at the All-Star Music like he thought we were. Oh, sure, we had ORIGINALLY planned on staying there, but then I calculated it out, and found that by upgrading to a Moderate Resort, it wouldn't be that much more money. So, I changed the reservation to the Caribbean Beach Resort.

Second, was dinner at the California Grill while overlooking the MVMCP fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. Third, was the IllumiNations cruise (nicknamed the Troll Barge by Judi). And lastly was the MVMCP itself on 12/18 (I pre-bought the tickets in September).

So, with all of this planned, plus a few Priority Seatings, we got ready for the trip...

Day 0: Sunday-Thursday, 12/6/98-12/10/98 The days before the trip.

For me, the vacation really started with the Boston Area RADP meet on Sunday, 12/6/98. At 1:00, a couple dozen of us converged on the Cheesecake Factory in Cambridge, MA. I got to meet a lot of really great people, and was able to finally put some faces to names (though I have a really bad memory for names, so I've pretty much forgotten who was who by now... :-). Everyone was really nice. That is, until they found out that I was leaving at the end of the week for Disney World. :-o I was just waiting to have cheesecake flung at me... ;-)

The rest of the week seemed to fly by at times, crawl by at others... I thought that Friday would never come. My 22nd birthday that Wednesday helped a bit. Thursday night, I called Brian to make sure everything was all set with him, and give him a list of things to make sure not to forget to bring. With that, I packed (and packed and packed), and fell into bed while listening to the strains of Spectromagic and Fantasmic! from my Disney Music Vacation import CD...

Day 1: Friday, December 11th, 1998 Arrival, CBR, Fireworks and dessert at California Grill

Well, the big day finally arrived. Woke up around 11AM (thankfully our flight wasn't until that afternoon, so we were able to sleep in). Called Brian AGAIN, to make sure he was OK (I admit, sometimes I'm a worrier). He lives about 30 miles away, so his father was driving him down to my house. From here, my mother drove us down to T.F. Green Airport in Providence, RI. T.F. Greene is about twice as far mileage-wise than Logan in Boston, but only takes about 15 minutes more driving. Also, it's usually cheaper, and not as congested as Logan.

We were flying down on Delta Express. We arrived, checked in with no line, and sat down and waited for our plane. We left right about on-time at 3:15. The one complaint I have has to do with the seating. When making the reservations over the Internet, I called up the seating chart for our type of plane, and requested (and got) the exit row over the wing. These provide more legroom (and with Brian being 6'4", I knew he'd appreciate that). The problem was that the seating chart online did NOT match the plane. Sure, the NAME matched (737-200), but it was just wrong... We were in a row with another guy, both Brian and I were cramped for space, but luckily, the other passenger didn't like being cramped either, so he moved to an empty seat, giving Brian and I three seats for the two of us. Still a little cramped for Brian, but not as bad.

We arrived in Orlando just about on-schedule. The temperature was a humid 85 degrees, quite a change from the 30s we left at home. We hopped on the shuttle to the main terminal, and went down to the baggage claim. Right at the bottom of the escalators was our driver from Tiffany Towncar, Mohammed. He shook our hands, and already knew which baggage carousel would have our bags. We went over, and in about 2 minutes, the bags came out, and we were on our way. Downstairs another level, and he had us wait on the curb while he brought the car up, a nice, comfortable and roomy Towncar. Loaded up, and were on our way.

If I had my bearings correctly, he took the northern exit out of the airport, and then out to I-4. We passed Sea World, and then ran into a traffic jam as we got onto I-4. It was moving slowly, and it only took us about 10 minutes to get to where it cleared up. (We saw one guy who was obviously too impatient zoom off the highway into a rest area, go full out across the parking lot, didn't realize the pavement ended, shot off into the grass, came back up onto the pavement entrance ramp, and continued on... Sheesh!)

By about 7:00, we were pulling onto Disney property. Now, about the first surprise for Brian. Like I said before, he thought we were going to All-Star Music, when we were really staying at the Caribbean Beach. So, as we approached CBR, I asked him if he was looking forward to staying at the All-Star Music. He said "Yeah, I guess so.". Then, as we turned into the CBR driveway, I said that I hoped he wasn't looking forward to it TOO much, because we weren't staying there... ;-) He was speechless... It was at this point where Mohammed admitted to being part of it, saying that he'd been told three times back at the office not to mention where we were going (which I had pre-arranged over e-mail a few weeks before). Brian loved it!

We stopped in front of the Custom House, and Mohammed unloaded our bags. The $5 coupon from their website was gladly accepted, and we tipped him generously. Almost immediately, there was a bellman there loading our bags onto a cart. He explained that we should go inside, check in, and then come back out to the Bell Station. So, we went inside and got in a short line to check in. There were maybe two people ahead of us, and we then were checked in by Linda, and wonderful CM. I mentioned to her that we had requested first floor in Martinique, and she looked and said that we wouldn't be disappointed with our room. We didn't set up a charge account, so I'm assuming that's why we never got a key to the mini-bar in the room... Or maybe that's something you have to specifically request? She loaded us down with information, gave us a marked map, our room keys/IDs, and we were back outside in under 10 minutes.

At the Bell Services window, we were told to have a seat, and someone would be with us a couple of minutes. It wasn't more than 2 minutes, before a CM came up to us, and said they were all set. A young CM (well, young meaning our age, I guess... ;-), whose name I unfortunately can't remember, loaded our bags into the back of a van, had us get in, and drove us to Martinique. When he heard what room we were in, he, too, said that we were in an "awesome location", right next to the food court and everything. We got there, he loaded our bags onto a handtruck, and showed us to our room, Room# 2511. Tipped him something like $4 or so.

So, here we were, fully at Disney World at last! A bit about our room. It's DEFINITELY bigger than the rooms at the All-Star Music, where I had stayed the last two trips. I think they're just wider, not really any longer... While we got settled, we flipped on the TV to the Disney World preview channel, and got our first real dose of Disney. Our room location was on the "inside" side of Building 25 in Martinique (i.e. not facing the lake). I was half-expecting that our "Standard View" room would face the parking lot, but it didn't. We looked out into the beautifully landscaped area between buildings 24, 25 and 26. Could only see just a bit of the traffic circle area where the van parked to drop us and our luggage off, over on the side. It was closer to Old Port Royale (the food court) than I had originally thought it was. When we went around to check out the food court, it was right there... I'd say less than 100 yards away. The beach was right on the other side of the building, and the village pool wasn't too far away, either. The main pool was just on the other side of OPR. We both called our parents to let them know that we'd made it OK. Of course, Brian's parents were in on the change-of-resort surprise, so that was pretty much the first thing they asked him. :-)

I had originally wanted to go to the California Grill for dinner, and had made Priority Seating for 9PM. Brian and I decided that we weren't really feeling like a big dinner, so we went to the food court instead, and would go to the CG just for dessert. I love the steel drum music they play in Old Port Royale! It seemed to alternate each day between Disney songs and Christmas songs, so you never really heard the same thing twice (except for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"... That always seemed to be playing... :-)

I think we had personal pizzas from the Pizza Shop. We both bought refillable mugs, and used them ALL the time during the trip. They definitely pay for themselves. Especially when your room is right next to OPR like ours was, and can run over there for a drink any time you want.

We went back to the room to drop off the mugs, and then walked out to the Calypso bus stop, which is the stop serving OPR. It turned out that this stop was significantly closer to our room than the regular Martinique village stop, so we used it all the time. On our way there, we saw a little rabbit in the bushes. We stopped, looked (and talked) to him for a minute before he hopped off. While we were waiting for a Magic Kingdom bus, I realized that we hadn't brought our Annual Pass vouchers with us. I had wanted to stop at the MK's Guest Services window on our way back to the CBR after our dessert, so that we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. (The window was open because of the MVMCP going on at the Magic Kingdom). So, we ran back to the room, grabbed our AP vouchers, and ran back to the bus stop, seeing a bus pull away as we first saw the bus stop. When we got to the stop, we found out from other people sitting there that it had, indeed, been a Magic Kingdom bus...

So, we sat down to wait for the next one. Our wait was about 15 minutes, pretty much the longest we waited for a bus our entire trip. But one did eventually come, and we were soon at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. We wistfully looked at the entrance, as we crossed the plaza to the monorail. (I tried to keep the details sketchy with Brian as to what was going on at the MK... I didn't want him to know about the MVMCP until we got to the MK next Friday).

We boarded the monorail, and were soon at the Contemporary. Up to the 15th floor, and we got there around 9:10 (our PS was originally for 9:00). We checked in with the hostess, and they were all set to seat us. I asked if we could get a window table, and she said we'd probably have to wait a bit, and we said that that was fine. So, she gave us a pager (it lights up with a cool red LED pattern instead of beeping), and told us that it'd be about 20 minutes. So, with 20 minutes to spend, I told Brian to follow me, went back past the bathrooms and the function rooms (where there was a dinner going on), and out onto the walkway out to the viewing balcony/platform at the extreme end of the building. From, here, I pointed out to Brian as many things as I could pick out of Disney World: Spaceship Earth, the Dolphin, things in the MK...

As we were leaving, a family asked us if we knew if there were supposed to be fireworks. (Doah! There goes my surprise...). I told them that they were at 10:00. We went back inside (it was kinda windy up there), and sat down near the elevators. After about another 5 minutes, the pager/flasher went off, and we were seated at a window table. In fact, it was the table right next to where my sister and I sat LAST year. The server was a little slow to first get to us, but after that, he was very attentive. We ordered a couple of beers, and then decided on the triple chocolate soufflé. They said that it would be about a 25 minute wait on that, because they're baked to order. That was fine, so we sat looking out the window. At one point, I noticed a small car out driving across the road, on what, as far as I could remember, was grass and sand... He drove along, then pulled out onto World Drive, or whichever road it is that runs past the Contemporary. Then again, 5 minutes later, a Bronco-like truck went out there and then came back in and drove away... Totally mystified us, but we realized a little later what they were doing... More in a minute...

Then, 10:00 hit. By then, Brian knew that the second surprise was fireworks... But he was NOT expecting what we saw... The lights dimmed as the music started. My only gripe was that they could have turned it up a bit louder... You couldn't really hear the music too well, and the speeches were totally lost... Oh well, we'd hear it all again next week... Of course, I had the seat that had a support post in the way, so I had to move down towards the next table before I could see...

As for the fireworks, all I can say is: WOW! The regular part was OK, and Brian thought that was it... But then the Holiday section started... (I'm getting chills right now just THINKING about it! :-) That totally blew us away. Especially the fireworks that go off all around the park. When you're in the park, depending on where you are, you might see three, maybe four of the other locations' fireworks, but from up top, you see it ALL. I think there were about 7 or 8 other places they were coming from. And this is where our mystery was solved... Where those two cars were out driving on the beach is where one of the launch locations was. I guess they were out checking on the, before the show. And when those fireworks went off, you could see the tubes out on the beach by the light of the explosions. And I must say, those other fireworks really surprised the people around us... There were oohs and ahhs all around us... :-) Also, a lot of applause when it was done.

Pretty much as soon as it was over and the lights came back up, our soufflés were served. They'd changed them a little bit since last year... Now, instead of getting a peanut-butter sauce, you get a small scoop of peanut-butter ice cream to eat with it. Absolutely delicious!

So, nicely stuffed, we made our way down to take the monorail back to the MK. We were able to sit up front for the ride over, no fuss made. At the MK, we stopped at the Guest Relations window, and traded in our AP vouchers for the real thing. We got new passes, with our names on them, and envelopes to put them in. We were told that we would have to go to Pleasure Island to buy the add-on. With that done, we went down and hopped a bus back to the CBR. Just to check it out, we got off at the Martinique stop, and wound our way back to our room (we got a little turned around without the map). The OPR Calypso stop was DEFINITELY closer... Hopped in bed, and got ready for our first day in the parks...

Tomorrow: Epcot, Test Track (not), the RADP Meet, Magic Kingdom and Pleasure Island.



Day 2: Saturday, December 12th, 1998 Epcot, RADP Meet, Magic Kingdom, Pleasure Island.

We pretty much wanted to stick with the Early Entry schedule, but to get us onto a workable schedule with Disney's EE schedule meant that we'd have to go to Epcot today, skipping an EE park...

So, we got up at about 7:30, got ready, and ate breakfast at Old Port Royale. I think we had the Mickey waffles... After returning the refillable mugs to our room, we caught a bus to Epcot and were at the gate by 8:20. Apparently, we weren't the only people avoiding the Magic Kingdom today. The lines at all of the turnstiles reached back to the backs of the tickets booths... Ouch. At about 8:25, they opened the turnstiles, and we filtered in. One thing I noticed was how much trouble it seemed that everyone else at WDW was having with their passes... Either they didn't have them out, or they put the wrong ones in, or they were CMs getting people in the park... We walked up to the base of Spaceship Earth, where they had it roped off. The FutureCorps band was playing, and they had two clowns with a souped up golf cart there, too. They had picked the Epcot Family of the Day who helped them open up Epcot right at 8:30.

Of course, today was the first day of Cast Member previews at Test Track. We were going to see if there was a way of getting in without a Cast Member... But we knew they wouldn't open up until 9:00. So, we removed ourselves from the hoard of people flooding towards the rope barrier at Innoventions, and hopped on Spaceship Earth with no wait. It was just as I left it... ;-) Again, I felt that the narration could be turned up in some places... And maybe they could fill in some of the potholes in the track?

After this, we got off and looked through the AT&T exhibits... We rode that tube simulator.. "This...is a ride." :-) Exited and went to rent a locker (#8... I guess not many people rent lockers that early in the morning...). From here, we walked over to where the restless crowd was at Innoventions East, waiting to run to Test Track. At 9:00, the rope dropped. We held back, and let the mob enter the line (the blue walls were back again, keeping the queue area blocked from the General Public. We kind of stood around the entrance, asked if there was any possibility of getting in without a CM (there wasn't), and even went as far as to call out to see if there were any willing CMs to bring us on... (there weren't... ;-)

So, after being unable to weasel our way onto Test Track, we hopped onto Horizons... I still love this, and will hate to see it go (here's hoping it doesn't...). It was actually in pretty good shape. Nothing majorly wrong. The oranges were still there... (And isn't that really the only thing that counts? :-) The big crystal in space still wasn't rotating... Luke Skywalker was still preparing the birthday cake... :-) But other than that, everything seemed fine... It took me about three rides over the week to finally get to see the fly-by of the infrared city (?) in the Omni film rooms... (My favorite part).

From here, we went into the Wonders of Life. With a quick stop to point out the Hidden Mickey in the Body Wars mural, we did Body Wars. I still think it was OK... Star Tours was better. Brian seemed to like it, though. We checked in on Cranium Command, but we'd just missed it, so we decided to try back later. On the way out, we met Goofy, and got out pictures taken with him.

From here, we went over to the Universe of Energy. Arrived about 3 minutes before the pre-show started. I liked it, again. Brian laughed at parts. (Am I correct in assuming there's two sets of vehicles running through the attraction? One enters the dino area, and while it's in there, the other moved back into the first theater from the second?)

A quick stop in to catch Cranium Command. Again, we timed it wrong, and still had to wait about 8-9 minutes... This is also one of my favorites... The humor in it just can't be beat... From here, we crossed over to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. We stopped for a minute to mourn the passing of Journey... We walked into the HISTA pre-show partway through the True Colors part, so I missed the beginning, but still got enough of it to induce "the shivers"... Also, entering in there into a dark, slanted room isn't all that fun... If I hadn't grabbed onto Brian's shoulder, we could have gotten separated... (Of course, since he's 6'4", I'd have found him pretty quickly when the lights came back up... ;-) The mice really startled Brian, and the effects were still good.

We headed next door to knock off Living with the Land before lunch. The wait wasn't that bad... I'd say less than 10 minutes. The CM was very informative, and seemed to deliver his spiel better than some of the other CMs I've had before.

It was time for lunch, before we had to head over to the TTC to join the big RADP Meet. We decided on the Electric Umbrella for burgers. Of course, there was a big mix-up (not really the CM's fault), and it took me at least 5 minutes longer than Brian to get my food... Apparently, my order was ready before the guy's food in front of me. So when they came over with it, they said what it was, and he, forgetting what he'd just ordered, took it... They kept bringing over his real order, totally confused, until someone realized that I had been standing there for a while... I then got my food immediately...

Over to the TTC, a monorail was waiting for us. Found the covered area for the RADP Meet with no problem. There were quite a number of people there already at 1:10. It was here that I pulled out my brand-new, as-yet-unused, personalized RADP pin. Brian felt left out, so I pulled out one with his name on it that I'd gotten for him. (He doesn't read radp, but for this trip, I made him an honorary member... ;-)

I met so many people, I can't remember everyone... (It doesn't help that I'm really bad with names...). I remember Deb Wills right away... And Judi of the Troll Barge found us... I remember hugging Gardenia and a few others... Saw Kenny, briefly met Bartender Sam. Signed a birthday card for Alicia for the Troll Barge tomorrow (and don't think I didn't see the one they were passing around for me... ;-) Gardenia recounted her ride on Test Track that morning... (We all turned green with envy, of course.) She had heard that soft openings would start Friday, so we planned on returning to Epcot then to see. Of course, we ran into people here that knew about my surprise for Brian of changing resorts from the ASM to the CBR without him knowing. I had mentioned it on the group, and some people remembered... It was here that Brian felt that the whole world was against him and knew about my surprises except him... ;-)

At around 1:30 they TRIED to get us together for the picture... It took us forever to get it taken... But I do have to commend the Disney photographer who put up with all of us... We had over 100 people to get arranged (we had to keep squeezing in), he had to use a trash can to sit on to get high enough to take the picture, and also deal with the ferry docking twice and unloading scores of people right across where we were... Luckily, Brian and I snagged the back row center, so we didn't have to move around. In the picture, I'm the red-shirted guy in the back center, Brian's the tall guy in the blue shirt behind me. (And no, we're not treading on the beautiful Disney grass... There's a cement drainage ditch there behind the bench...). I noticed a Disney security guy over to the side keeping an eye on us... Grabbed one of the receipts so we could buy one of the pictures later on in the week.

With all that over with, we parted ways, and hopped back onto the Epcot monorail... Well, I guess "hopped" isn't quite the word for it... Here is our only encounter with bad guests that I can remember... The platform was full, and Brian wanted to ride in the front cab (one of the few memories he has of his 1987 trip was actually getting to sit in the driver's seat and pushing the buttons (or lever or whatever) when the driver said to). So, we asked. The front was taken for that train. So, we asked if we could wait for the next one. The reply was "Yeah, I guess so.". So, we walked up towards the front, and waited for the train to load and leave. Another couple arrived and asked, and we heard them be referred to the bench on the platform. We weren't told this, but we kind of stood near the bench. The monorail arrived, and they started loading the normal compartments. As the four of us started towards the front, a family of 5 tried to go up there in front of us. When it was explained to the father that we were there first, he said that no we weren't, that we were way back there (meaning by the bench). It was explained that we had ASKED first. As we were ushered into the cab, I heard him remark that he couldn't believe that Disney "wouldn't let LITTLE KIDS ride up front" and instead they "let ADULTS up front and ruin our kid's vacation"... After we were in, the driver shut us in the cab (to make a statement of the finality of the situation, I guess) and the last thing we heard was the CM trying to explain that they could wait just like we did, and the father saying that they shouldn't HAVE to wait because they have "LITTLE KIDS"... Didn't notice whether they waited or not...

The start of the conversation with the couple that shared the cab with us started with that father's attitude, and went on to find out that she was a CRO Cast Member from Tampa. They were here for some sort of training, or a conference, and the group had done the parks earlier that morning, but they couldn't make it until the meeting started. So, they decided to go to the parks afterward by themselves... We started talking about Test Track and the CM previews, and how we'd tried to get on earlier, but couldn't... As we started around Spaceship Earth, we ALMOST had them convinced to bring us on with them... And then we saw... THE LINE... Ouch! The ENTIRE outside area, and even back the Horizons-side of the building was PACKED. And after mentioning that the queue INSIDE was an additional 30 minutes, we decided not to go... Oh, well... We were SO sure that we'd get on later in the week... (Yeah, right.)

We entered Epcot, and headed for the Living Seas. This was around 2:50 or so. It was a good thing we decided on this, because for some reason or another, they had a sign outside saying that the Living Seas would be closing at 3:45PM today. Never found out why. We went in, and it kind of confused me, because I didn't realize that they had TWO pre-show theaters showing "The Sea"... First, the round slide show room was showing the images on the opposite side from what I remembered, and then the seating was all backwards in the sit-down theater... I finally figured it out... It seems that replacing the gravel in the tank isn't the only maintenance they're doing... The diver lock-out chamber had grey paper (themed, though), covering the upper part of the tube. You could only see water through the door. Also, in the display area opposite from the manatee tank, there's a large two-story cylindrical tank that was papered over, too... Hmmm...

We left here right at 3:45. Stopped next door to catch Food Rocks. We'd missed the show again, and had a 10 minute wait, but we didn't want to do a repeat of what we did for Cranium Command, so we sat, rested our feet, and waited it out. This show still has it's funny parts, but I miss "Veggie, veggie, fruit, fruit"...

At this point, we were kind of dead on our feet. I hadn't slept much the past couple of nights, so we headed back to the room, emptying out the locker and returning the key on the way out (retaining the receipt for use at the MK, of course).

Back at the CBR, we took a nice nap. A word about naps... On all of my previous trips, I've never found it necessary to take an afternoon nap. A break sometimes, yes. But not an actual nap... This trip, we ended up returning to our room for a nap virtually every day. I highly recommend it, but don't sleep TOO long... ;-) Not only did it refresh us, but it also broke the day up, and it kind of made the vacation seem even longer... Like each day was actually two shorter days... (Call me crazy, but that's how it seemed). Before we left, Brian had learned that a former co-worker of his was currently AT Disney World. He was told to call his cellular phone when we got down there. Yesterday, we'd left a message, and we returned to our room to find a message on our phone. It was them, so we called their cellular again. Left another message. Then we took a nap. Brian wanted to nap longer, but I wanted to go out and check out the resort. So, while he rested, I took a walk from our room, to OPR, across Parrot Cay, and looped around through Aruba and Barbados, taking pictures all the way.

I noticed that a lot of local birds flock to the CBR, sit on the roofs chattering away for a while, and then converge on Parrot Cay for the night... Walking through the island was deafening... It was here that my digital camera started malfunctioning... It would continually work and then not work through the rest of the trip...

Back at the room, Brian was up, and had gotten a call from his friend. They were actually staying at CBR, but were leaving tomorrow morning to set sail on the Disney Cruise... He'd made arrangements to meet them "at Pleasure Island" that night. Of course, Brian, being a Disney newbie, didn't realize how big Pleasure Island was, and that there was more than one entrance... Well, we'd try, anyway... A quick dinner of spaghetti at OPR, and we hopped a bus towards the Magic Kingdom. Tonight was the only night that Spectromagic was showing (or so we thought. Later we found that there was a Wednesday showing at 6:15...). So, I wanted to go see that.

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom about 7:50 or so, rented a locker, and stepped out onto a VERY crowded Main Street. What gives? I thought that Spectro was to be at 7 and 9? Why is everyone sitting here for the fireworks? Turns out, the times had changed from what I'd originally thought... Spectro was now at 8 and 10... We made our way up the east side of Main Street, through all the shops. The 5 minute announcement for Spectro played... When we got to the end of Main Street, it was so packed, that we looped around through the Plaza Pavilion. Back at the Hub, it was still jam packed. The 5 minute announcement played again here. So, we looped back around, past the rose garden, behind the castle, and through Fantasyland, on our way to Big Thunder. When we reached Liberty Square, there were tons more people. Those bridges are a godsend for getting around the crowds. We heard the 5 minute announcement twice more in Liberty Square and Frontierland... I swear it was following us, mocking us...

We finally got around and hopped in line for Big Thunder... The wait time posted said 15 minutes, I think we waited about 10. Big Thunder, along with riding the monorail, was one of Brian's few memories from his last trip to WDW. So, we just HAD to ride it over and over again throughout the trip... After riding, Brian wanted to go again, so we did. It was here that I started thinking the guy about 5 people behind us in line looked familiar... Then I realized that I DID know him. We were from the same town, we'd gone to junior high school together, and acted in summer theater together for 6 years... He was there with his girlfriend. OK, all together now... "It's a Small World after all..." (Aaagghhh!!!!! ;-) We let people pass until they caught up with us. He was staying at the All-Star Music, and I said that I'd give him a call sometime during the week and we could see about getting together and doing something (unfortunately, never got a chance to do this... Sorry, Brett.).

After the ride, the parade was over. Brett and his girlfriend headed for Splash Mountain. We headed to Liberty Square and went through the Haunted Mansion with not much of a wait. It's here that I can't quite remember what we did... I think we went back to Big Thunder... We may have ridden Splash Mountain...

But we ended up back in Liberty Square to snag seats for the 10:00 Spectromagic. We sat on the Hall of Presidents side of the turn in the parade... Later I found that the parade runs the same direction BOTH times, from Main Street back to Frontierland... I thought it alternated... Oh, well. We still had pretty good seats. We sat on the pavement right behind the rope. (There's that 5 minute announcement again... :-)

After the parade, we wandered out of the Magic Kingdom. We monorailed to the TTC and caught a bus for Pleasure Island. We hung a left to go to the main entrance, and bought the Pleasure Island add-on to our Annual Passes. I was under the impression that the Add-On would be encoded into our regular Annual Passes. But I was wrong. They give you a separate Pleasure Island-only pass... At the entrance gate, the CM who was checking Ids looked at my license and saw where I was from. Turns out, she's from Hudson, too! (What are the odds of running into TWO people from your hometown in the same day?) Of course, when trying to figure out if we might have been in school together, I made the BIGGEST faux pas of the trip and asked how OLD she was... (Doah!). What I MEANT to ask was what year she was in high school... Now, totally mortified (can't imagine what the CM thought), Brian dragged me away and into Pleasure Island...

We were keeping an eye out for his friend and his wife... (Well, Brian was keeping an eye out... I had no idea what they looked like). We bought drinks at the bar across from the West End stage, and hopped in line for the 12:05 Comedy Warehouse show. I noticed the fact that they changed the midnight countdown show a bit... I think it's still pretty good, but I missed some of the aspects of "Metamorphosis"... At least the overhead rockets were still there... Just used a little differently...

At 12:05 we were let into the show. We were pretty far back in line, so we were seated in a second row of stools on the right side... But the show was as funny as always. Only recognized one comedienne from my previous visits... One of the comedians was having an off night in trying to make rhymes for some of the songs, but he covered for himself so well that what he DID say was still really funny.

From here, we were tired, so we walked out to the buses and headed back to the CBR, and fell into bed.

Tomorrow: Disney Studios, a very wet experience and the IllumiNations Cruise (aka the Troll Barge).



Day 3: Sunday, December 13th, 1998 Disney Studios, a very wet experience and the Troll Barge.

We woke up today to cooler weather and clouds. It was only in the upper 40s or so, and the weather recording on the phone said that it would only make it to the lower 60s... Oh, well... So much for the 80s... It also said a 70% chance of rain... When getting ready for the day, I packed my yellow poncho (recycled from my trip last year) into Brian's backpack, and he had brought rain gear of his own... I also threw in my old CompUSA umbrella (yes, that's a plug for my old employer... :-). At first, I was a little hesitant about putting my RADP pin back on, as we weren't meeting up with any RADPers until tonight. I'm not really one that likes to call attention to myself, but Brian wanted to wear his, so I put mine on... In the end, I was very glad that I did. (More on this later.)

We had woken up at 6:30, but we just didn't get moving until about 7:00. This meant that we didn't make it to the Studios until about 8:05AM. We entered, rented a locker, and headed right for Tower of Terror. This was one attraction that I couldn't wait to see Brian's reaction to... Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed. :-o

The wait was about 5 minutes. For all the times we rode this during the week, we always seemed to get the front row... Only got the second row once... I can safely say that Brian was totally caught by surprise by the first drop... (A quote from him... "Woah! I wasn't expecting that..." :-).

Got off, and went right back around to do it again. Again, a 5 minute wait. We wandered up Sunset Boulevard, and into the Great Movie Ride... We got the Gangster side. Brian's not into older movies, so he didn't recognize some of the films featured, but he said he liked it just the same. From here, we headed over to Star Tours, past the now-closed Superstar TV theater... The AT-AT walker outside Star Tours now hisses and steams from it's joints... (A true sign that it's getting old... ;-) It also fires it's "blasters" at you... (Shoots water from it's cannons with accompanying sound effects). There was so little of a line that we even missed the pre-boarding video... We did it again, and caught the video the second time around. Brian bought a shirt at Endor Vendors and had it sent back to the room. From here, we were close to the time for the next Indiana Jones show, so we headed over there. (I was on the lookout for the "rope" outside that I'd heard about, but I actually didn't find it until Saturday afternoon). We were seated front and center, about 8 rows back. Finally saw the pre-show of the cleaning person... (It was a guy today.) He was pretty funny, even dragged a lady out of the front row to help him clean... She really hammed it up, pointing out spots he'd missed. And is that one statue supposed to sneeze at him or something? At one point, he stuck his broom handle up the nose of one of the stone faces, and he was doing it for quite a while... I couldn't tell if he was trying to set off something...

Anyway, they finally got things going by selecting the "extras" from the audience. There was a group of three guys down front who had obviously seen the show MANY, MANY times... They jumped up, yelled and made a lot of noise... Of course, she picked one of them for the first set... She also picked one for the second set of people... And at first she didn't pick the third guy for the last set, but then she did, just long enough to get him to worry that he wasn't going to be picked... :-) They knew exactly what to do while out there... They really hammed it up. The show went along very well, and I was happy to see the rooftop sequence in Cairo again... (It had been raining last year, so they cut the rooftop AND the desert plane sequences out of the show due to the safety of the stunt people.

With the show over, we stopped in at the Sci-Fi Dine-In theater to make a Priority Seating for lunch at 1:00. A quick stop to take a picture of Brian on the Speeder Bike across from the restaurant, and on to MuppetVision 4D. Unfortunately, our timing was bad, and we arrived after the pre-show had finished, just as they were about to load the theater... I had told Brian that the pre-show was not-to-be-missed, and we were going to ask a CM if we could wait, but after everyone had gone into the theater, we couldn't find a CM (without walking out to the entrance), so we just decided to see the movie now, and come back later for the pre-show... The movie was funny, we sat to the left side of a middle row... (For some reason, the 3D effects are clearer here than at HISTA... Sometimes at HISTA I get double-images.). We exited to find the ground soaking wet. It had rained and then stopped while we were inside... What luck!

From here, I directed Brian towards the Backlot Tour. We walked back New York Street, and when we got to the end, I told Brian to stop, and turn around. (He hadn't looked behind him as we walked down the street.) His reaction was "Wow.". Of course, we took some pictures. (I pointed out that the Empire State Building was only 3-stories tall). We headed over to the Backlot Tour, where we joined the line at the bottom of the ramp. They started letting people in, but as we neared the top of the ramp, they stopped, and started letting in small groups one at a time, meaning they were reaching capacity. As it turned out, we ended up right at the front, and were told we'd have to wait for the next one...

We weren't standing there for more than 30 seconds, when one of the CMs came over and asked about our RADP pins. We explained that we were on an Internet newsgroup that loved Disney, etc. I was trying to be upbeat about it, and then she mentioned that they were looking for some upbeat and enthusiastic volunteers to help them (I had a feeling this was coming...), and would we like to help them. We said sure, so we were led over to the side, and around the corner along the edge of the water tank. There, behind a little partition, they had a whole bunch of the yellow rain suits and lots of rubber boots. We put our things in a little lock box, took off our shoes, and donned the slickers and overalls. She made sure that we kept the legs of the pants OUTSIDE the boots... :-) She then explained what we were going to do. Brian was chosen to be the skipper of the tugboat, and I was the lookout of the battleship. She gave us some quick pointers, like for Brian to grab the wheel low and not high, otherwise the water would go into his sleeves. For me not to lean over the front of the tower thing, and for both of us to not crouch down, otherwise the suspenders of the overalls would come off and we'd get wet... (All of this over the sounds of the previous group's action.)

So, with that done, we walked out to the front of the tank, met the CM who would be doing the show, she went over some of the things again, and we waited until the crowd was in, and they had us walk out to the center. The demonstration started, Brian was locked into the tugboat, and I got to dump the water ALLL over him. :-) Then, it was time for me to become the lookout... I admit, I should have hammed it up a bit more, but I couldn't think of anything more to do. (I also ran out of ideas... I had forgotten that the battle sequence was so long.) So, with the airplanes having already flown by (and my suspenders falling off my shoulders anyway from the motion), Brian got to have his revenge, and pushed the button that launched the "torpedoes" at me that exploded around me... Or course, my right arm was in the "up" position, so all that water went right down the sleeve, soaking my right arm... But other than that, I survived the experience...

So, as the rest of the group headed on, we walked back to take the suits off, and reclaim our stuff... Gave a little internal laugh at the couple that was just departing to do the demonstration. ;-). With a dripping right arm, we joined the group that was just filing in. We stayed to watch the action of the next couple, so that Brian could see what everyone ELSE saw, and I took pictures of those volunteers so that we could show people what happened to us (even though it's not US in the pictures... :-).

On to the tram tour. It disheartened me to see that once again, "The Lottery" is gone from the tour... I liked that short film, and Bette Midler was great in it. I think there were ads for upcoming Touchstone films...

We were seated in the front row of the second car. The tour was just like it was last year, but the Armadillo from Armageddon is now parked in the parking lot, instead of the funny parking spaces that were there before (like the pumpkin in Cinderella's spot). Brian was taken in by the "new special effect testing" line they used... But when we were in Catastrophe Canyon, the ground didn't shake with the earthquake... None of the cars did... Last year, the truck didn't move during the flood, this year, no earthquake... If it's not one thing, it's another... :-o

Off the tram tour, through the museum part, and back to the Dine-In theater to check in for our 1:05 PS. We still had to wait a little, so we went into the store next door (formerly Ellen's Buy the Book). I picked out some postcards to send to people, and were waiting in line, when we were called to be seated... Oh, well. I put the cards back on the rack, and said I'd come buy them later...

Inside to eat lunch. We were seated in the front of a car, and another couple seated behind us. I had some sort of burger, and I think Brian did, too. The service here was great, and the milkshakes were thick and delicious. Our waitress was good, but the one serving the car in front of us was funny... At one point, they were showing a clip from "The Amazing, Colossal Man", where three people stick a large hypodermic needle into the giant's leg... At just the right moment, the waitress yelled out "Owwww!"... :-) The film loop was just long enough for our eating speed... The clip that was playing when we were seated was just beginning as we left... But if you eat slower than we do, you might see the loop twice...

From here, we walked out through the plaza, and out of the park. We headed back to our room at the CBR for a nap. (Yes, another nap today. After all, this IS a vacation.) Our plan was to take a short nap, and then return to the Studios for more rides, shows and Fantasmic!. We got back to our room around 2:00, and we ended up sleeping until 5:00... We weren't really hungry, so we went right to the bus stop. Again, finding out that it had poured, and we slept through it...

We entered the Studios around 5:15 to find people streaming towards the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater. So, we joined the throng. Again, I kept a tight lock onto Brian's backpack so as not to get separated... :-)

At the top of the hill, they had CMs desperately calling out to people that had strollers to stay to the right to drop them off... We got into the amphitheater to find the center three sections full already. So, we headed left. At the top of each aisle, there was a CM with a flashlight baton, waving people on. What they were having us do, was walk to the far end of Maleficient, and then fill in back towards the center. At one aisle, people started going down when the CM wasn't looking. Other people tried to follow, but the CM saw them. When we got to the middle of Maleficient, we saw that all they were doing was bring people down, only to fill back in, so we followed a few other people, and climbed down over the benches to about the third row from the top. (Actually, Brian went, and forced me to follow... ;-) So, we were seated right near the aisle, third row from the back of Maleficient, right in front of the cement support for the lighting truss that goes from the back, up to the front There was a support pole in our line of sight to the stage, but it wasn't that wide, so we figured it wouldn't be too bad. (As it turns out, we were wrong... More in a minute.)

The CMs selling things were making their rounds... And then when I really started craving a pretzel, no more came around, and it was too near showtime to go back to the stand... As showtime approached, it started to drizzle. "Oh, great..." I thought to myself. At first, I thought it would be OK. Then, it got a little heavier, so I put on my poncho. People started to put up umbrellas. Including the people in front of us. I wasn't looking forward to asking the people to move or put them down when the show started... Luckily, it tapered off, and then stopped. That was the only bout with rain we had all week... Then the show started...

Wow.

That's about all I can say. Yes, I think I was a little let down... I was kind of expecting more, but it was still really, really good. I think the dragon may have misfired or not been working too well, because there wasn't much fire out of it. Also, though I have never seen it, I've gotten used to the Disneyland version through it's music on the Music Vacation import CD... I missed the Peter Pan section, and from what I've heard about the pirate ship they use, the Pocahontas section is only an OK substitution...

And the one thing I didn't quite get... The show is about "good" vs. "evil", right? So why are Brer Bear and Brer Fox on the Steamboat in the finale? Or are they just "bad" and not really considered to be "evil"?

Exiting from Fantasmic! wasn't that bad. We had all our stuff together and shuffled to the end of the row towards the end of the finale. And at the last note, we got up and hurried along towards the exit. We beat many of the people, but the crowds from the center section made it to the exit first... Even so, most people did take the normal entrance towards Sunset Boulevard, so we veered off to the right towards the Tower of Terror... Brian wanted to get the Fantasmic! CD, but we also wanted to stay ahead of the crowd. So, he decided to buy it later... (One of the few "we'll do it later" things that actually happened.)

Hopped in line for ToT with a 15 minute wait... Our longest wait of the trip for anything, I think. Upon exiting, the gate to the amphitheater was closed, so we couldn't get the CD now. Again, get it later. We had to get dinner before going to the RADP IllumiNations cruise. Brian wanted to go to Pizza Planet, which we had passed earlier in the day. So, we headed back there (luckily the Fantasmic! crowds had died down). Unfortunately for us, Pizza Planet had closed. Apparently they're only open through the dinner rush hour... So, it was back to the Commissary for dinner. I had the chicken breast sandwich, which was still really good. I think Brian had that, too. But they changed the roll on me... I liked the old bun better.

So from here, we walked to the boat landing. I think we stopped by Sid Cahuenga's on the way. The first boat loaded up and left. I'm also thinking that there was the second Fantasmic! show going on, and we saw some of the fireworks over the trees while we were waiting for the boat. So, it came after about 15 minutes, and we got on. Though we were headed to the Yacht and Beach Club marina, I knew it would be faster if we got off at the Swan and Dolphin stop, and the power-walked over to the marina... It was a little longer than I thought, but we still made it there only about 5 minutes late. A couple of the pontoon boats had already filled up and left, and Bruce (aka Zazu) took off just after we got there.

So, we hopped aboard our boat, and waited for the last two passengers, Alicia and her SO. They arrived within a couple of minutes, and we were off. Zeke was our driver, a regular RADPer. In retrospect, we should have done some musical benches after everyone arrived... We were a little port heavy... Zeke mentioned to me (the one sitting up front) that if water started to come over the bow...to scream, grab a lifevest, and dive overboard..... Just kidding... Actually, he just said to tell him to slow down if it happened. (It didn't, but one time it came close, when a few extra people came up front...)

So, we set off on the Figment IllumiNations Cruise, aka the Troll Barge. Judi handed out goody bags with beads, which we promptly put on... (Ronnie would be proud...) Though for some of us with larger heads, the smaller sized beads didn't quite fit, so some of us had bead headbands for the trip... It was (or at least close to) my and Alicia's birthdays, so we were given party hats to wear. Also got a very creative birthday card made by one of the passengers, signed by everyone else. (Gee, like I didn't know this was coming... Don't think I didn't see them passing it around at yesterday's TTC meet...). Also got a Genie beanie... Thanks everyone!

Gary (aka Da Old Troll) was given a pirate hat and an eye patch to wear. And a parrot without a stick... And there were goodies... Boy were there goodies... The cupcakes were delicious, as many can attest. (Those that were left over apparently went to the Adventurer's Club meet later that night.) There were also brownies and cookies, which I think were provided by Zeke and/or the Yacht and Beach Club staff. (Correct me if I'm wrong here...). The brownies were just as good as the cupcakes!

We sailed along, towards the Studios. As we passed the bridges, we waved to the people overhead, who waved back, just generally feeling important... :-) At the Studios, we turned around, and headed back to Epcot. On the way, Judi had a little "booty hunt". Little knitted baby booties, filled with chocolate coins. I think most of them went to Alicia, as she's expecting.

At Epcot, we parked under the International Gateway bridge. Most of the other boats were already there, I think we were the next to last to arrive. The bridge fits three on each side of the center pylon. So, we ended up between two boats. The drivers folded the canopies back, and used the ropes from them to lash the boats together. Though using the pylon to get to boats on the other side was discouraged, I think there was a little "boat hopping" on our side... We were positioned very well for the show. We could see the center ball, and had a water screen right in our line of sight. The only thing is that we could only see about 2/3 of the countries. We couldn't see France, Canada or the UK. And I don't remember whether or not we could see Mexico. To our immediate left, and a little ahead of us, was what I later found out was the "Secret Garden" of the UK pavilion that's so talked about... I think that probably has a slightly better view, so I think that'll be a good site for next year's meet.

The show started, and it was just as moving and awe-inspiring as I remembered. Wow. The show ended, we unlashed, and we pulled out into World Showcase Lagoon. Though it would have been cool to actually drive way out into it, we only went a little ways out to turn around and head back. So, we did another cruise around to the Studios... Now this is where the "incidents" happened... First, there was the What About Bob "I'm sailing!" performance by Judi... I wish I'd had my camera ready, because I was right there... But of course, she freaked Zeke out by leaning forward over the bow in doing this...

And I think the second "incident" happened as she was returning back to her seat... She claims she tripped. All I know is that all of a sudden she was in Gary's arms, they were apparently hugging, and laughing... I had my camera ready, and snapped a picture...

For now, you can see it and decide for yourself at:

http://www.ultranet.com/~steerr/wdw/barge2.jpg

When I eventually get this report on my page in HTML, I'll incorporate that picture into the page... ;-)

So, it was back to the Yacht and Beach Club marina, where we docked, and disembarked. We had our little prize giveaway, Bruce came and took away the leftover cupcakes, and we were off... We were tired, otherwise we would have joined everyone at the Adventurer's Club. So, we went out, hopped the Downtown Disney bus, and used the Marketplace as a transfer point to get the CBR bus. We got back to the resort, filled up our refillable mugs, and while Brian sacked out right away, I stayed up long enough to jot down notes about the first three days which I'm using to write this... (Thankfully I did, otherwise the report wouldn't be this long... I'm sure you're all happy about that... ;-)

Tomorrow: Early entry at Magic Kingdom and Disney Village Marketplace



Day 3: Monday, December 14th, 1998 Early entry at Magic Kingdom and the DVM.

Well, we woke up kinda late today, even though we went to bed pretty early... I don't know... It's just SOMETHING about sailing... ;-)

As we woke up late, we skipped breakfast. (I don't know HOW Brian talked me into THAT... I usually can't survive without at least a donut and juice...). But we wanted to make Early-Entry at the Magic Kingdom. So, dressed and out to the bus stop we went. Soon, an MK bus rolled in, and we climbed on.

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom about 7:25AM. One thing we found about buses on this trip... If your bus stop is in the "A" section at the MK, often-times, the driver will stop the bus on the turn-around and let people off, unless there's buses already there. This puts you as close to the turnstiles as possible. And with the CBR bus stop all the way on the far end, it helps cut down on the walking. Our drivers stopped here about 2/3 of the time this trip.

Entering right away, we headed right for Space Mountain by way of the Plaza Pavilion. (Just gotta love that shortcut). We walked through the queue, all the way to the boarding platform, and were immediately seated in a rocket. Though they were only loading one side, they seemed to be doing some new CM training over on the other side, so they were cycling empty rockets over there. Loved the ride. So did Brian. I think I have the ride memorized, but Brian was still startled in a few places. Got off, and did the big walking loop to get right back on again.

From here, we headed into Alien Encounter. Brian had no idea what was going to happen here, and I purposely didn't tell him anything about it beforehand. Though I wasn't scared the first time I went on it by myself in 1997, over the past two trips, I've found that it can be a really entertaining experience if you're on it with someone else for their first time... Last year with my sister, and this year with Brian. He loved the effects in it.

We exited and crossed the plaza to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. This attraction is just plain fun. Though I do lament the loss of Take Flight (and those rides that came before it), I feel this is a good replacement. The queue was only about half full, and it was constantly moving. When entering the building, I noticed something that I noticed repeatedly throughout the trip. The CM at the entrance had a huge stack of MK maps, handing them out to anyone who asked. The rest of the week, I also noticed that maps were everywhere... This is a major improvement over last year, where it took us three World Showcase pavilions to come up with a map, and even then, it was 2 weeks old... They seem to distribute the maps around the park more lately.

Anyway, back the BLSRS (or as we called it: "BLiSteRS" (Forgot the moleskins... ;-). The Buzz animatronic in the queue was amazing. And I liked the decorations, like the Magna-Doodle and the View-Master briefing monitors. (But we found later in the week the "arm" of the View-Master broke and wasn't fixed before we left). But just a small detail. The first trip, Brian and I shared a car. When we went around again, we split up. For some reason, we both did better when we were together... Of course, we rode this so many times this week, we lost count... Eventually, I found that the best (and easiest) way of aiming, was to hold down the trigger, instead of trying to aim and shoot. By holding it down, it goes off about once per second. So, once you locate YOUR flashing dot, all you have to do is keep an eye on it and aim... And if you know where the target is in the speed room, it's pretty easy to hit it. (Though I think there's two...). Oh, and as of last month, one of the high-point targets is high above you facing straight down. I think the easiest way of hitting it is to swivel around backwards as you exit the room. (I think this is the biggest room of targets).

After doing this twice, we headed towards Fantasyland, on our way to Fronteirland at the 9:00 opening. On the way, we saw that Peter Pan had virtually no wait, so we caught this. From here, we went down to the rope between Fantasyland and Liberty Square. The rope was across the walkway just past the bathrooms, manned by a Fantasyland CM. As 9:00 approached, they lowered the rope and walked everyone down to the overpass bridge thing. Here, we were stopped, and Liberty Square CMs took over. Haunted Mansion-bound guests were directed to stay to the right, and everyone else to the left. Just before 9:00, we were led to the center of Liberty Square by the Liberty Tree, where we met up with the group that was being led into Liberty Square from the Hub. At 9:00, we merged together and were led towards Fronteirland. At the Fronteirland stream (or the Mississippi River, however you want to look at it), three Fronteirland CMs took over the lead. Guests were ushered off of the bypass bridges and instructed to stay with the group. Big Thunder was diverted off onto the first bridge, and most other people continued on to Splash Mountain.

So, we were among the first 50 or so people let onto Splash Mountain. They had both sides of the queue open, so while everyone filed into the right side, I led Brian (and I guess a bunch of other people, too) into the left side. Brian doesn't really like flumes, but he liked Splash Mountain. Of course, there were a few surprises that he wasn't expecting... It was here that I finally SAW the FSU weasel... I'd HEARD the sound before, but never actually happened to be looking in the right place to see him. (As you approach Fox with Rabbit in the bee's-nest, before the right turn to the lift hill, he pops out of the ceiling right in front and above you.).

The drop was quickly over, so from here (after finding the penny machine out of order), we rushed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Just like the other night, we rode it twice, with about a 10 minute wait for each time. After a quick discussion with Brian as to what to do, we headed over to Adventureland. We caught Pirates of the Caribbean, strangely deserted... As we reached the loading area, they were launching a boat with three people in it. There was NOONE else around, and our boat went out with only two others in it.

From here, we were going to go on the Jungle Cruise, but when we arrived we found a 15-20 minute wait. We decided to bypass it for the moment, and instead, we crossed the plaza to see the new Tiki Birds show. Thanks to the group, I was told to sit on the left side for a better view of UhOha, and we did. But we entered the theater too soon, so we ended up right near the end of the bench. Consequently, Iago was practically above us, and we couldn't see him very well for the first part of the show. But later, when he made his great return, we saw him fine just above and to our left... My suggestion would be to try to sit in the middle of the left section... Upon the conclusion of the show, we stayed for a little bit to listen to Iago's sarcastic comments, but then when we started feeling a little uncomfortable standing inside an empty theater, we went out and stood just OUTSIDE the theater doors, and listened to the rest of it...

Jungle Cruise was still crowded, so we opted to get a quick aerobic workout by climbing through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Last year, it was closed and fully de-leafed for it's major rehab. Now, it's looking just as great as ever. After the quick tour, my stomach couldn't take it any longer. Not having breakfast was finally catching up to me, and if anyone was around us, they probably thought there was a thunderstorm approaching from the rumbles I was giving off...

So, as we wandered towards the Hub, we discussed the various options. I was thinking about a hot dog at Casey's, but Brian was looking for something more. We finally decided on Cosmic Ray's, and headed over there. I think we both ended up getting double cheeseburgers (I could just HEAR my arteries clogging up...). While we sat in the big room listening to Sonny Eclipse, we figured out the plan of attack for the rest of the day...

Originally we were thinking about doing Space Mountain again, but after that heavy lunch, it was out of the question. So, we decided on the more sedate TTA (PeopleMover). After a quick spin on that, as we descended the exit ramp, we saw that the Carousel of Progress was just letting people in. So, we rushed over there. The theater we were in was actually almost FULL... We had to walk across the front, over to the other side to find seats. Brian liked it, as did I. From here, it was time to head back to the CBR for our daily nap (us being the lazy type...).

On the way out, we stopped in at City Hall. Before I went, I had promised Chris Brestle that I'd stop in at City Hall (where he worked over the summer) and say hi for him... We spoke to Camille, who remembered Chris, and said hi back... Then it was out to the bus stops, and onto a bus that sat for about 5 minutes before heading back to the resort.

Another longish nap of about 2 hours, and we were up at 4:00, raring to go back to the Magic Kingdom. The two things I needed to do were buy a souvenir for my manager, and pick up one of the photos from Saturday's RADP meet at the TTC. We arrived back at the gates around 5:15.

Heading into Tomorrowland, we saw that Timekeeper was to be starting soon. So, we joined the group in the pre-show hallway. After about 5 minutes, we were left into the theater. (Just gotta love those "lean rails", invented by the Timekeeper... ;-)

Then it was time for another spin on BLiSteRS (Brian killed me in score this time... I think my gun was malfunctioning...). Then, time for one of my "firsts". I had never been on the Skyway before. So, we saw that the line was short (less than 5 minutes), so we hopped in. Also, it had been closed earlier that day, so I decided to go for it while it was open. And off we went, over the Speedway. (At the transfer turn, Brian was like "What? Was that it? Oh....".) Pretty good view.

After being deposited at the far end of Fantasyland, we were faced with a choice... Head into Liberty Square for the Haunted Mansion? Or tackle some of the attractions in Fantasyland... We chose the latter option... Unfortunately, the first thing we came to was It's A Small World... I warned Brian, but he actually wanted to go on it... So, into the boat we went... Overall, it wasn't that bad. I pointed out a few of the Hidden Mickeys to Brian, and also that "Help!" sign being held by the clown in the balloon... So, I was able to brave the experience...

From here, we went over to Snow White. Not really any line, I think we ended up in a car of our own. It was getting late, so we headed into Liberty Square. We were going to take another tour of the Haunted Mansion, but I guess the spooks were playing a little TOO much, as we were told at the entrance that they were closed temporarily... So, it was on to Brian's favorite attraction, Big Thunder. Only one ride this time, but we got to see a cool event... We were lined up on the right-hand platform, when the CM over the speakers said to us to NOT get into the train, because they were taking it off the track, and that it would be moving "rapidly and uncontrollably backwards out of the station"... ;-) And sure enough, after the guests were unloaded, SHOOM!, it went careening backwards out of the station and onto the storage track... The next train came in and we then loaded onto that one.

After Big Thunder, I wanted to do Splash Mountain again, but Brian didn't feel like getting wet. So, while he waited out front (they'd at least turned the water cannon off), I ran back through the empty queue, and hopped in the log with a few other people. From the pond turnaround, I could hear the music and introduction starting for Fantasy in the Sky. There was still more music by the time we got to the upper turnaround at the front... Of course, as we entered the building after that first drop, is when I heard the first explosion... I was hoping that we'd make it to the top of the big drop before the fireworks were done, but alas, it didn't happen. They were over by the time we got out there... Well, at least Brian had something to watch while I was busy following Brer Rabbit and falling into the Laughing Place...

On our way out Main Street (fairly crowded, as it was closing time), I remembered my shopping mission... So, first stop was into the hat shop (Le Chapeau?). I knew exactly what I was getting: a pair of Mickey Mouse ears with my manager's name embroidered in the back. (Short version of the story: it was a joke gift, because in the weeks before my trip, my manager was making jokes about not letting me go, and that why should I be going because he can't even afford a pair of mouse ears... So from that point on, I knew what I was getting him... ;-) Consigned it to delivery to our room, and we were off to stop #2, the camera center. Here, we got in a two person line to buy the RADP meet photo. The people at the counter then were just finishing buying a copy for themselves, but by the time I realized they were one of us, they were on their way out the door... We helped the family in front of us decide which picture of their daughter looked better (first one showed more teeth, but second one she was looking AT the camera instead of off to the side...), and then we bought ours...

I liked the second one (or maybe it was the first one, and the CM said that the one we chose was the more popular one... (Of course, I chose it more because *I* was looking at the camera instead of off to the side...) If anyone has a copy of it, I'm the guy in the red shirt at the center of the back row, and Brian's the tall guy in the blue shirt behind me... Brian decided to get a copy for himself, so we got two. These we figured would survive in Brian's backpack, so we didn't do room delivery on these. We picked up Brian's backpack from the locker, returned the key, and stopped to figure out what we were going to do for dinner...

The general answer was "the Marketplace"... Of course, we had no idea WHERE... (I had a PS for Thursday night at the Rainforest Cafe, so I didn't want to eat there.) So, onto a DD bus at the TTC (got there on the monorail), and off at the Marketplace. Upon perusing the directory, we decided on Cap'n Jack's Oyster Bar. We both had a craving for seafood. (Of course, I think that's usually a given when you're from New England...).

We were seated in the rear "gazebo-shaped" section by the bar, next to a window overlooking the water and the marina... I ordered the New England Clam Chowder, but Brian didn't get any (he said it was because he didn't like it...). When the waitress came back, she was carrying two cups of chowder... She put them down and said to not worry about it... We'd only get charged for one... So, here was the dilemma... I love chowder (or "chowdah"), but couldn't eat two cups PLUS dinner... So, Brian, being the person he is, didn't want to let it go to waste, so he tried it..... And LOVED it! So, it was another "first" for him. (Did I mention that he never eats breakfast? Maybe just a big breakfast on Saturdays, so daily breakfasts was a "first" for him, too...). I forget what he got as an entree... I think some kind of salmon thing... I got pasta with shrimp... Delicious, but totally filling...

From here, we headed over to the two stores that caught our fancy... First was World of Disney. I think it was here that I finally bought the postcards that I meant to buy yesterday... Also bought a Princess Atta doll for my niece. Brian bought three Fantasmic! CDs... One as a gift, one for himself, and one for some sort of trade thing... As we were going to be heading back to the room, we brought the stuff with us instead of getting room delivery.

Next up was the Lego store... Brian was amazed by it. He was in heaven. (He's a Lego junkie.) I had to restrain him from buying up everything in the store... In the end, I think he resisted, and didn't buy anything... Outside, we fooled around with the Legos, made our names on the wall out of the Duplo blocks, and I FINALLY "got" what was so funny with the two Lego guys arguing by the fence (the worker and the foreman...). (Boy am I slow... Last year, my sister laughed at it and made me take a picture... I was so busy trying to figure out what was so funny about the figures, that I neglected to look at the FENCE...). I noticed that the Lego "father" with the kid in his pack and the video camera was missing... Just a rubber cone where he once stood... (Not made out of Legos...).

Back to the bus stops, onto a bus to the CBR, a quick fill-up of our mugs, and into bed by about midnight... I stayed up a little longer to write out some postcards...

Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom, Breakfastosaurus, Epcot and a movie at AMC...

Day 4: Tuesday, December 15th, 1998 Animal Kingdom, Breakfastosaurus, Epcot...

As I've said, I had done a lot of "firsts" this trip... Well, today was the day of my biggest "first" of the trip... Animal Kingdom... (Of course, it was Brian's first visit, too, but I already knew what the park was like...

I don't remember what time we got up, but I think we only had a muffin from the food court... (That's my one gripe about the CBR's food court... If you're trying to make opening at Animal Kingdom, the only thing that opens before 7:00 is the bakery...).

Even with skipping breakfast, we still didn't get to the entrance until about 7:10AM. What struck me first was how open the parking lot was... For some reason, it just didn't "feel" like a Disney lot... Just a large open expanse of pavement... Sure, the other lots are large and open, but somehow it's different... And I also noticed the lack of shade approaching the bus area... Just the covered section... Is all this supposed to relay some sort of feeling of the plains of Africa?

So, in we went... Into a brand new experience... It was kinda weird going into a park I'd never been in before... (Though I had the same experience in 95 with my first visit to MGM, it had been open longer, and I got to know it before-hand...). We walked slowly through the Oasis, but we did hurry along a bit. Then, we burst out into the open and saw the Tree of Life... I think this evoked another "Wow" from Brian... I was pretty awed by it, too... But people need to learn to not stand in the MIDDLE of the bridge, blocking the passage to take a picture or video of their extended family in front of the tree...

We bypassed this area for now, and were headed along with most other people, back to the safaris of Africa. In the village, we heard the guy banging on someone's door in an upstairs room, trying to get in... Everyone was backed up outside the queue, and when they let people in, it was about 7:20... Everyone was funneling into the left side of the queue, leaving the right side empty. We stayed with the crowd, but then ducked over to the right side after we saw some people go past and not get ushered back...

So, we walked past everyone else, right up to the loading area. And were seated in the last row of the very first Jeep of the day... True, the benches could have been a bit more padded, but I didn't think they were THAT bad. After a short delay, we were off... We got to see a lot of animals... Or course, I can't remember what we saw, but I do remember the giraffes, and something wandered across the road in front of us... (Maybe a zebra?). We saw two lions up on their rocks, but they pretty much wandered off as we approached, so we may have been the only Jeep to see them that morning...

I knew and was expecting the "rickety bridge" thing, but it never happened... So, I guess it was broken that morning... I didn't think the poacher story was that bad... The radio transmissions could have been a little clearer... So, it was off the safari, and onto the exploration trail.

We got to see a couple of the gorillas (didn't have anything thrown at us). Those naked mole rats were kinda cute... And at the hippo tank, the two were really hamming it up and performing for us... I was taking pictures through the glass, and one swam right by the windows performing a barrel roll for us... And the other started swimming right at me... I think he (or she) was winking at me... ;-)

From here, we backtracked to the Tree of Life. That guy was still trying to get into wherever in Safari Village... Will he ever get in? :-)

Found the entrance to It's Tough to be a Bug, and wandered through the queue slowly, checking out all of the sculptures in the tree... Took a lot of pictures as we went along. Brian doesn't really like bugs that much, especially bees... I warned him that he might not like some parts of the show, but he insisted on going in... "OK.... If you really want to....". We were in the pre-show room for only a few minutes before the theater doors opened up... We sat about halfway back, and ended up right about in the middle. (Note: Don't bother crowding to the front of the pre-show holding area... There's more than one set of doors to the theater...).

Brian didn't do too bad in the show. He didn't think the bee sting was called for, though. (He hates bees the most) I did fine until the last bug effect at the end... That gave me the "creepy-crawlies"... ;-)

We exited from the theater, taking more pictures of the Tree. Next on the plan was Countdown to Extinction. But, as we passed the Restaurantosaurus, the smell of the food almost drew us in... But I knew that CTX was a wild ride, so I convinced Brian that we'd ride CTX, then come back...

So, we wandered on by, and found ourselves approaching the Dino Institute. (Nice statues...). Brian didn't really know what to expect... I, of course, knew what it was going to be. There was virtually no line, and whenever we visited, the longest we ever waited was about 4 minutes. So, into the pre-show area we went. For some reason, I have a new "chills" phrase... "The Time Rover..." (Of course, that's proprietary... ;-) Does anyone else think that the music kinda sounds like Titanic? So, on to the boarding area we go. (Noticing the sign telling you what to do in case of a ride breakdown...) I also thought the McDonald's ad that played over and over in the corridor was annoying... Within a minute or two, we were seated in our Time Rover. A little difficult getting the seatbelt buckled (the console side is set kinda down in...). And we were off...

I loved the ride, and so did Brian. Without having ridden Indiana Jones, I can safely say that this was one of my favorite Disney attractions... Right up there with Tower of Terror. Some day I'll make it out to California to ride IJA... It was a LOT rougher than I thought it would be, and in later repeat rides, we always got the back seat, and found we liked the back seat MUCH better. A lot more movement. Brian got off the ride, and another "Wow." escaped from his mouth... I think the quote was "I was NOT expecting THAT...". So, of course, we just HAD to go around and do it again... I don't see that the darkness takes away from the attraction, or that they skimped on the design by making some sections black... But I do think the final encounter right before dropping down into the time tunnel could have been done better... Yes, it was thrilling, I just think they could have done a little more with it...

So, after two rides on this, we headed back to Breakfastosaurus. Little did Brian know, but this was a Character Breakfast... I'd been trying to figure out how to get him to one of them, and here he is, going in himself... We were told a 25 minute wait by the hostess, so we gave our name, and sat down at one of the tables. A CM came over and asked if we wanted any juice or coffee. We both asked for juice. She had just brought it to us, when our name was called... That couldn't have been more than a 5 minute wait...

So, we were led inside, past Goofy signing autographs in the lobby, to a table in a side room. I think it was some kind of work area, with cabinets on one wall. Our server was Mike(osaurus), who let us know about the set-up for breakfast. So, we put our stuff down, and headed for the buffet. They had everything: pancakes, muffins, fruit, bacon, sausage, hash browns... Mmmmm.... All being freshly cooked right there by the buffet. So, we loaded up, and headed back to our table to find Mike performing some magic tricks for the large group in our room. We found we didn't have any utensils, and had to ask... (They were brought over in a glass jar). But that was the only problem we had with the breakfast. Mike(osaurus) had a trick ketchup bottle, and he did a good disappearing salt shaker, as well as sugar packet... Eventually, all of the characters made their rounds by our table... Pluto was first, and then Mickey, and finally Donald, who seemed very proud of himself for finding the bone of a Duckosaurus... After a second trip (I'm ashamed to say I think there may have even been a third trip...) to the buffet, we were done, stuffed, and paid the bill...

Outside, we were faced with the dilemma of what to do... We had bypassed the train to Conservation Station earlier, so we decided to head back there. I think we went back there by way of the entrance to Asia... We asked the CMs standing there about the Asia sneak previews, and they told us that they'd be opening up Friday morning at 10AM to noon for the first time... So, we made plans to come back for that. On our way over to Harambe, we did find the "secret path"... It wasn't much, but we weren't really expecting much, either... It isn't all THAT secluded, because where you cross the stream, you can see the main walkway... But it was a neat diversion...

Then, to the train station in Harambe to go out to Conservation Station. Hopped aboard the train, and were to the other station in a few minutes. (I wasn't expecting the sideways facing seats, though... Shades of Horizons...) From here, we trekked up to CS. We went inside, looked through all the exhibits, watched some animals in the rooms, but we bypassed the listening booths... The lines were too long... Outside, we wandered through the Affection area. Petted a few goats, almost got run over by a flock of sheep...

And back down the trail to the station... One thing I did notice, though all of the pathways are very accurately marked on the map (except for the secret path, of course), there was one on the map that was blocked off... It was along the trail between the train station and Conservation Station, off to the side away from the train track... When we asked a CM what was back there, he said something about an area that was only open during the Grand Opening for Michael Eisner and such... Hmmm....

Back to Harambe on the train... We realized we were getting near the next performance of the Lion King show, so we headed down there... Boy is that a long walk... We entered the queue, and had about a 15 minute wait while the show before us finished, and the theater was reset... When we were left in, seating was just general hubbub-find-your-own-seat kinda deal. So, we sat in what ended up being the giraffe section. The show started. It was definitely not what I was expecting... I knew it wasn't like the Broadway show, but I thought that the Lion King characters would at least play a slightly bigger part... But what they DID have was spectacular... (No, Ronnie, the fire guy didn't drop his stick...)

After the show, we wanted to head back to the resort for (yet another) nap, but I convinced Brian to go back to CTX for another spin... So, we did. And went around for another time, making four rides today...

Then, it was back to the CBR, by way of the very sunny bus depot... Only a 2/3 day at Animal Kingdom, but we'd be back later in the week.

Once back in the room, we took a nap, and I filled out a few more postcards before dozing off...

Up after a few hours, we got ready to head over to Epcot...

First things first, we did Spaceship Earth (again). There was no line, and we both really like it anyway, so in we went...

From here, we poked through Innoventions West. We happened to enter the area where you can send picture postcards, so we spent a few minutes in there, e-mailing them to friends. (Though Brian kept sticking his hand in the frame when I wanted to wake a picture to send to my co-workers... :-)

We poked around the other exhibits, and discussed dinner. We were both feeling in an Italian kind of mood, so we opted for pizza from the Pizza place in Innoventions West. It was pretty good.

From here, we crossed the plaza. On the way, we stopped to watch the Christmas show of the fountain and the archway lights. Very impressive. We didn't spend too much time in Innoventions East, as we both keep fairly up-to-date with technology, so not much of it wowed us.

We tried again at Test Track, but there weren't any Cast Members in the area willing to take us in... ;-) So, on to World Showcase for the first time this trip.

Our first stop was Mexico. After poking around the museum section, and a little bit of the shops, we hopped aboard El Rio del Tiempo for a quick ride. We were the only ones in our boat.

From here, we went on into Norway. We walked through the Maelstrom queue, and only had to wait in a two-boat long line. Brian was surprised by the backwards sections of the ride. (And does anyone else think "Always Coca-Cola" when you float past the polar bears?). I also feel that they've lightened up the North Sea area a little bit... I always thought the storm was darker... The movie was just letting in when we dis-embarked, and I felt compelled to stay. The seats were still as surprisingly comfy as I remember... I wish more people stayed for the film... It really is very well done.

After the film, we realized that it was getting late, and we wanted to see if we could catch the last American Adventure show before the park closed. So, we made our way there, stopping in Germany to look at the train and Italy to take a few pictures. As we approached the American pavilion, the Candlelight Processional was just finishing, and they were still admitting for the last AA show of the night. (I think it was about 9:05PM). There was noone in the lower lobby, so Brian and I rushed up the escalators to the upper level, thinking that we were running late... We needn't have bothered rushing, as they were just letting the crowd into the theater when we got up there. We sat right in the middle of the audience.

Again, this production really moved me, on the verge of a tear at some points, and shaking with "the chills" in other places... Especially the movie montage towards the end, and then the chills when the curtains go up behind the statues... I think it was here that I heard one of the biggest "Wow"s from Brian of the trip. (This is his general reaction to anything cool or amazing...). We exited out onto the promenade just as the final warning of the impending IllumiNations was playing. We had plans to go see a movie at the AMC theaters at Downtown Disney, and as we'd seen IllumiNations earlier in the week from the Troll Barge, we didn't feel compelled to stop and watch it again. (Though it IS a good production). So, we walked quickly (but carefully, as the lights are dim along the walkways), towards the International Gateway. The show started before we got to Japan, as was in full swing by the time we approached the "French Arm".

Out the International Gateway, and along the pathway on our way to the Beach Club. You can really see the differentiation between what is considered Epcot and what is the resort area... Though the lampposts stay the same style, at one particular point, they change from being dimmed for IllumiNations to their normal brightness for the walkway to the Resorts...

In through the lobby of the Beach Club, and out to the bus stop. I think we ended up sitting there for about 15 minutes, before a Downtown Disney bus finally showed up. We climbed aboard, and rode to the Pleasure Island stop. We got out, and walked over to the AMC theater.

One thing I like about AMC is that they give a student discount. Most of the theaters near home don't do that. Brian had his school ID, but I had emptied my wallet before the trip of all non-essential items... Library card, video rental card, etc... I thought my school ID was non-essential, so I left it behind... I'll remember to bring it along next trip... So, I got stuck paying the full bit.

In we went, and bought some refreshments. We were seeing the new Star Trek movie, which was playing in Theater 3... Wayyyy down around the end... So, we had a bit of a hike ahead of us. Into the theater to find two other people, in a HUGE theater... Bigger than anything we have at home. (And we have some of New England's largest movie theaters near my house...). The chairs were even more high-backed and comfortable than the ones I'm used to. (They fit 6'4" Brian just fine). Our film didn't start for about 20 minutes, so we sat down and waited. Wait, it was HERE that I bought the refreshments... I went out and got them, and then came back by way of the second floor. I was amazed to find that there were bathrooms AND a snack bar (not open at the time) on the second floor, and stairs up to a third floor balcony in our theater! Wow... Didn't notice that when we came in...

The movie was good, we exited out the entrance into the West Side. We wandered by all of the closed shops, past the ice rink (I was wondering where it was... It was over in the Marketplace last year...). And out to the bus stops. Luckily, our bus was there when we arrived, so we were soon back to the CBR and into bed... And we get to sleep in tomorrow, too...

Tomorrow: A split-up, resort hopping, Blizzard Beach, a little MK, a little Epcot and Pleasure Island.

Day 5: Wednesday, December 16th, 1998 The big break-up, resort tour, a little MK, a little Epcot, Pleasure Island

Today was when it happened... Brian and I just couldn't take another second of each other, so we said our good-byes and we parted each other's company in different directions...

Well, sort of... We had mutually decided that we both needed a day apart from each other, to do whatever we wanted. I highly suggest doing this if you take a long trip anywhere with someone you normally don't see day in and day out (or even with someone you DO see day in and day out, for that matter). This allowed me to go out and work on my pressed penny collection and see some of the resorts without forcing Brian to come along with me...

Brian decided he wanted to go to Blizzard Beach for the day. I wasn't feeling like swimming that much, so everything worked out OK. Brian also was planning to do some laundry, as he was smart and only packed enough clothes for half the week, whereas I packed enough for about 2 weeks... ;-) So, we both slept in fairly late after our long day yesterday...

I think we ended up waking up around 10:00 or so. We got ready, went to have breakfast in the food court and stopped back by the room to grab our stuff. Out at the bus stop, I planned to call Brian in the room around 5:00 or so, and with that, we waited for our respective buses. He was headed to Blizzard Beach, I was starting my tour at the Magic Kingdom resorts, so I was looking for that bus. His arrived first, so he got on that one, which was also headed for Animal Kingdom. (He later said that they were delayed outside Animal Kingdom by workers moving a giant tree... I think he said it had animals carved on it.... Or maybe not... ;-)

My Magic Kingdom bus arrived a couple minutes later, so on I went. In a little while, I was at the front entrance to the Magic Kingdom... My plan was to cross over and get on the monorail... I almost made it, too... I think they have a special magnet at their turnstiles that are made to pull Annual Passes towards it, because before I knew what was happening, I was going flat out, AP-first through the MK turnstile... :-) Oh, well, just a short visit...

One thing I was contemplating buying was the monorail toy that a number of the RADPers had bought and brought with them to the meet on Saturday... So, the Emporium was my first stop... But what's this? A model Magic Kingdom Railroad? Ooooo.... I found out from a CM there that they had just arrived that morning... Tough decisions, tough decisions... I could be one of the first RADPers to have this item... Hmmm.... There was also the Animal Kingdom Barbie doll that I had seen yesterday, that I just KNEW my niece would love... I was surprised to find them for sale here in the Magic Kingdom... I was just standing, looking at them for so long, that a CM came over and asked if I needed any help... I explained my monorail/train dilemma... She understood, and said that she thought I looked more the monorail type... I agreed, but decided that I'd think it over and come back...

So, I left the models behind, and headed into Tomorrowland. On the way, I dropped most of my postcards into a mailbox along Main Street. I rode Buzz Lightyear once or twice, and Space Mountain about three times. I even think I did the TTA once. Then, common sense returned, and I remembered about my resort and penny press tour... So, I stopped into a few of the shops in Tomorrowland and Adventureland to get some pennies, and I headed out Main Street, stopping back into the Emporium... After taking another minute to stare at the two models, I decided on the monorail. I also picked up one of the Animal Kingdom Barbies. So, I bought them, and had them sent back to the room. I also bought a couple more postcards, one especially more my niece Jasmin... (My sister said that I HAD to send one addressed ONLY to her, because Jasmin LOVED getting her own mail... ;-) So, I sat on a bench and wrote out my remaining postcards, only to find that I didn't have my sister and niece's address... I'd already sent the one to my sister, so mailing that one would have to wait until later... Oh, well...

Once outside the gates, I found they must have turned off their AP magnet... I was able to escape the gravitational pull of the MK and make it to the monorail station... ;-)

I had already gotten the pennies at the Contemporary the first night, so there was no need to stop there. At the Polynesian, I hopped off, got the pressed pennies, and I think I made it back to the monorail platform as the next train was pulling in. (I'd have loved to stay, but I was on a schedule here...). I did the same thing at the Grand Floridian, but that took a little longer... I lingered a little more... Then, it was back to the Magic Kingdom, and onto the Fort Wilderness boat.

A nice cruise across the lagoon and then the lake (with a quick stop at Discovery Island), and I was at Fort Wilderness for my first time ever... I quickly was able to get the pennies outside the one Trading Post (Meadow?), but when I went over to Pioneer Hall, I found that I didn't have enough pennies... Hmmm... Well, I knew there were more down at the Settlement (??) Trading Post, so I'd go down there, buy something and get change, and then come back...

So, after a quick look at the map of the Campground, I headed off in what I hoped was the right direction... Luckily, it turned out I was right, and I was soon at the Trading Post after only a ten minute walk or so. I was getting kinda hungry, so I bought two hot dogs and a soda, and went out and ate them at a picnic table outside. With new-found change, I got the pennies that were there, and headed back to Pioneer Hall by a more direct route than my last one... Back to the marina and onto a waiting boat, on my way to the Wilderness Lodge.

This boat had to go all the way over to the Contemporary before it went to the Lodge, but it was a nice ride. The wind was picking up a little, and the sun was setting, but it didn't take that long. A quick gathering of pennies, and then a slightly longer look around the Lodge... I explored some of the other levels of the lobby... (I had only gone up to the 7th floor last year). This year, I tried the 4th and 5th floors, finding the various sitting areas, the balcony overlooking the pool area, and the fireplace where you can flick a switch and the fire bursts into flame... One of these days, I'll stay here... As it was getting about the time I was supposed to call Brian back at the resort, I stopped to make a call. He wasn't there, so I left a message, saying my tour was taking longer than I had thought, and that I'd call him again later.

So, it was out to the bus stops. Boy is it getting cold... Glad I brought my jacket... The Epcot bus came after a few minutes, and off we went... My plan was to just use Epcot as a transfer point to get on the Port Orleans bus... But alas, Epcot appears to be using a higher powered AP magnet than the Magic Kingdom's... At the MK, I had to walk by the gates before I got pulled in... This time, they got me all the way at the bus stops... ;-) But it was only a short visit. I rode Horizons once, taking a ton of pictures... And then back out to the bus stops...

A Port Orleans bus came after about 10 minutes, and the trip to the resort didn't take that long. I'm sure I probably would have been wowed more by this resort, but night had fallen, and it was getting cold, so I didn't stay outside very long... I found the penny and quarter presses after asking someone where they were... Apparently, they had been moved from where my list said they were, to make way for some Christmas decorations.

And then it was out past the pool (kinda neat), to the boat dock. I hopped on the boat headed up-river to Dixie Landings. The ride was nice, but it was dark, and it was getting VERY cold... The jacket I was wearing wasn't as thick as it should have been... So, off of the boat at DxL, and into the warmth of the lobby. Inside, there was a four man harmony group singing Christmas carols. They were very good. After some poking around, I found the machines... (They weren't together). I made another phone call to the room at CBR. Brian wasn't in, so I left a message saying that from here I was going to Pleasure Island, and to meet me in the Adventurer's Club if/when he got there. I hung around until the singing group finished, and then went back out to the boat dock. There, I found that they were closing down the boats for the evening, because it was too cold for the CMs... They were wearing all of the clothing they had, and it was still very cold for them out on the water.

Disappointed that I wouldn't be able to take the boat ride to the Marketplace, I wandered around until I found the bus depot, and waited with the other non-ferry-riders... A DD bus came after about 10 minutes. It had to circle the property before heading to the Marketplace, but that wasn't anything new to me, with the bus system at the CBR... Soon after, we were pulling into Downtown Disney. I stayed on until the Pleasure Island stop. Pulled out my PI AP (did NOT embarrass myself at the turnstile again...), and headed up to the Adventurer's Club, after a quick stop at Ye Olde ATM... ;-)

I hung around in the AC, listening to the Colonel, and seeing a show in the Mask Room. I then joined the crowd as they went into the Library. I think this was the Balderdash Competition, but it may have been the radio broadcast... Upon exiting the Library, I came across Brian standing in the archway of the Treasure Room, watching the end of a show there... We stayed around for another show, and another Library show, too. Then, we headed out for the midnight countdown while waiting in the Comedy Warehouse queue...

When we were let in, we were seated over on the left-hand side, the front balcony on that side. This show wasn't quite as funny as the first one we saw this trip... But it was still pretty good. From here, we went out to the bus stops, hopped on our bus, and headed back to the room to crash...

Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom Early-Entry, Keys to the Kingdom Tour, DVM and Pleasure Island.

Day 6: Thursday, December 17th, 1998 MK, Keys to the Kingdom Tour, Rainforest Cafe, PI.

Well, folks, here it is. Probably the most-anticipated (and probably will be the longest) section of my trip report... The day I'd been waiting for all trip... The day Brian and I take the Keys to the Kingdom Tour...

WARNING!!!! There will be spoilers abound in this report... I suggest skipping this day entirely if you don't like spoilers...

Well, it started out with Brian and I getting up nice and early to make Early Entry at the Magic Kingdom. We had arrived early in the Food Court, before any of the counters (other than the Bakery) were open. I wanted a full breakfast, as I knew we'd be on the tour for a while before we got a lunch break... So, we sat and waited... We noticed it was eerily silent, too... Something was missing... Then, at 7:00, we realized what it was, as the Caribbean steel drum Christmas carols kicked on, just as the counters opened to serve breakfast... So, with Mickey waffles in hand, we sat down... It was here that the week-long puzzler was solved... (Did I mention that before?). One day, we were eating an early dinner, and I saw the tail end of the Gummi Bears on the big screen TV in the food court... Then Brian asked me if I could name all of them... I got all but one, and I couldn't remember the last one (Tummi, Sunni, Cubby, Gruffy, Grammi....). Well, it had killed us all week, because we couldn't remember... So, as we were getting up from the table, Brian all of a sudden blurted out "Zummi"... That was it!

Anyway, we went out, and caught a bus to the Magic Kingdom for early-entry... We arrived at the gates a few minutes before they opened... (Being left out at the curb closest the entrance, rather than the CBR loading area...). So, in we went. Quickly rented a locker. Then we headed directly up Main Street, hung a right at the end, and proceeded into Tomorrowland... Where we went on Space Mountain three times in a row with no waiting... (Oh, no! That's means we're ride hogs! ;-) First ride, they were loading the right side, then for our second ride, they were running the left side, then back to the right side again...

On our way over Buzz Lightyear, I think we hopped on the TTA for a quick spin... Then onto BLSRS for a spin of another kind... Twice... After this, we headed into Fantasyland... All week, Brian had been bugging me to go on the Tea Party with him... I'm not too fond of spinning rides like that... I'm fine with the speed of Buzz, or when I'm on the teacups with my niece, or in the kind that aren't rider controlled... But I was wary of getting on this with Brian... Who LOVES to spin as fast as possible... And then stop and go the other direction... I've never lost my breakfast before, and I didn't this time, but I was quite dizzy for a few minutes...

Now, it was getting close to 9:00, and the opening time for the rest of the park... So, we headed over to the passageway to Liberty Square. About where the Skyway station is, there was the rope across the walkway, and two Liberty Square CMs standing there. As 9:00 approached, they took down the rope, and walked everyone down to underneath the "bridge" thing... They directed people headed to the Mansion to the right... Then, just as the 9:00 announcement was playing, we were walked on into the center of Liberty Square, where we met up with the group being walked in from the Hub...

As the two groups combined into one large crowd (with Brian and I right at the front), we were led down to the bridge over the stream that separates Liberty Square from Fronteirland... Here, there were three Fronteirland CMs waiting to take over the leading... (Keeping CMs within their own land and all that...). People trying to use the shortcut bridge along the waterfront were admonished and told to stay with the group... People headed to Big Thunder were diverted off at the first bridge. We stayed on to the second, and went right into line for Splash Mountain. At the split in the line, we bucked the trend, and went into the left line... And were in the second log of the day...

Didn't really get wet, but I was wearing my jacket... The penny press machine had been fixed at the exit, so I got that, and we passed back out past Brer Fox signing autographs... Well, after all that, it was getting towards the time to meet at City Hall for the Tour... We had been told to meet about 10 minutes early, but Brian and I had a good 20 at least... So, on our way back through Fronteirland, we saw checkerboards and barrel stools over on the side in front of the Shooting Gallery, all set up for a game... So, we sat, and played a cut-throat game of checkers... (I won). I'll tell you, that was probably one of the most spontaneous things we did that trip, and is was quite relaxing sitting there, playing checkers, while the Guests and the World passed us by, rushing to get wherever they were going... Our game lasted longer than we planned, so we hustled it back through Liberty Square, and down Main Street.

At City Hall, we went inside and asked about the Tour. We were directed around to the side of City Hall, to where the character greeting area is... There, we met two CMs. One was Michael, who was to be our Tour Guide. The other was a lady, who's name I don't remember.

First, a word about how it came that we were taking the tour in the first place... I was originally a member of the "Inside Circle". We got a few perks as part of being in the test program... One of them was a free Keys to the Kingdom Tour... I never got the chance to take it. Then, I was saddened when the program ended. Then, I found that the newsletter (Disney Insider) was continuing, and there was a coupon to send away for a "Magic Delivery"... A coupon for a free KTTK Tour for my family was part of it. So, we booked it. (Though we weren't able to get the one earlier in the week that Judi from the Troll Barge was going on...). Now, it seems the Magic Delivery is more widely available... See recent threads on RADP about that subject... I just hope that this tour is still part of it this year... I want to take my sister on it in April... Brian and I aren't related, so technically he shouldn't have been able to take it, but we were never asked a bout it. (Michael, the tour guide, did ask later on conversationally if we were brothers... Apparently, Brian and I look like brothers... He was about the fourth person this trip to ask us that...). I noticed that two other people on the tour had used the Certificates for the Tour...

We signed in, poured ourselves a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice (Michael said he'd squeezed it himself, but I'm not sure... ;-) We got yellow tags declaring we were part of a Guided Tour, attached to a MVMCP pin. (Darn... There goes more of Brian's surprise for tomorrow... Oh, well). As it was warming up, and would only get warmer, I ran over to our locker to put my jacket and Brian's sweatshirt in it. Upon returning, I found that the group was ready. Our group consisted of myself, Brian, a young couple, a father from Britain who was taking the tour while his wife toured the rest of the park with their young children (the tour has an age minimum of 16...), and another family of three (husband, wife and mother).

So, to start, Michael had us follow him across the Square and up to the upper platform of the train station. Here, we sat down, and he introduced himself (again), had us all introduce ourselves, say what we were looking forward to on the tour, when our first visit to WDW was, etc. He also explained what the tour was going to cover... One question he did ask here of the group, was whether we wanted to forgo going on some of the rides as the tours usually do, so that we could spend some extra time in the backstage areas... We all said sure... (Of course). Then, Michael told us his background, and his connection to the Disney company. He first said that he had written his senior thesis on the Disney Company.... I honestly forget what his subject was, but he said that when he contacted Disney, they allowed him access to their complete archives... Then, he jumped back, way before then. He told us about how his mother was one of the fifteen original tour guides at Disneyland, back when it opened in 1955. And how one of his most cherished items is a photo of his parents with Walt holding him as a baby... He also told us about how when it came time to plan the Magic Kingdom in Florida, they wanted to memorialize those fifteen original tour hostesses, so in naming the boats on the Jungle Cruise, they incorporated their first names into them... (Michael pointed out that there's sixteen boats in the Jungle Cruise. They had to make up one name). His mother's name is Sadie, so she's Sunkaroo Sadie (or whatever it is... ;-). While he was talking, the train came and went twice, making him have to talk over it... (He had a knack for stopping in places that became noisy soon after we got there... ;-)

He explained that when the Keys to the Kingdom Tour started, it was more to show people around the park, and show them what there was to do, because here was this brand new park that noone had ever been to. So, they needed to be able to show people around... That is, until the guidebooks came out... Eventually, the Tour evolved into what it is today...

He also talked about the theming of Main Street. That it was modeled after small-town America, around the turn-of-the-century. This encompasses from about 1890 to a little after 1910 or so. It's about this time that the horses give way to the early cars and motorized vehicles... So, throughout the day (on a typical day, he said), the horses are out first thing in the morning, because it's 1890. Then, as the day progresses, the horses are taken away, to be replaced by the jitneys and the omnibus... He said this also carries over to the stores along Main Street with CM costumes. Though the Cast Members don't change costumes throughout the day, each specific store is set at a specific time period, and the costumes in those stores are matched in the styles of that timeframe (floor-length skirts, knee-length skirts, etc.). He also mentioned that timeframes are generally paired across the street from each other, so that if you're in one store, and look outside across the street, you're still looking across at the same time period...

From here, he led us downstairs into Town Square. Along the way, he stopped us, and mentioned that he likes to stray from the script of the Tour. He said that the script with all the facts for the tour is about 3 inches thick... But he likes to stop the tour, calling out "Trivia, trivia, trivia", and toss out a fact here and there that he's picked up, that isn't necessarily part of the normal tour... We then crossed over into the Square. As we threaded our way through people, who should dash through our group, but Chip and Dale! They were being followed by a few children... They saw Michael, and Dale grabbed his baton that Michael was carrying, and paraded around with it for a minute... :-) After Michael had rescued his baton, he led us on... He stopped and pointed out that the poinsettias were some of the ones all around the WDW property... He gave some huge number, like 225,000 individual plants... Here, he also pointed out a little-known fact (it was another "Trivia, trivia, trivia" moment) about the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. Originally, there were supposed to be three arches underneath the train station, to accommodate a larger flow of people. The two side ones, and then a larger, center one. But then, either in pre-planning, or during construction, it was noticed that if that was there, you'd be able to see inside the park, right up Main Street to the castle. They wanted to keep that hidden, and keep the train station as the "curtain" that rose at the beginning of the "show", so the center archway was filled in, and the Mickey planting was put on the outside side, and the counter where you rent your locker was placed on the inside. Note, they kept the inside part of the center archway that faces Town Square... (He pointed out this fact again when we went backstage and saw a large aerial photo of the park... The arch is more apparent in that...)

On up Main Street, he stopped at Center Street, over on the side... Here, he explained about the names on the windows above the stores. He explained about how they were meant as a big thank you to people who had helped build WDW and make it what it is. He pointed out the window memorializing Walt's father (who was a contractor). It's on the second floor on Center Street, on the Tomorrowland side. He also explained about the forced perspective in use on the buildings, and also that there are really only four buildings that comprise the bulk of Main Street... He said that there was a large overhead picture of the park backstage that he'd show us later... He pointed out the newest named window, it's the third floor window on the corner of the northeast building... I think the name is Hudson, and it memorializes a financial wizard that helped Eisner when he first started, that died in a mountain climbing accident. (Correct me if I'm wrong here, folks... Some details are a little sketchy after two months...).

Proceeding on up Main Street, he asked if anyone had ever eaten at the Chinese Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom... Noone had, and me, who I thought had heard of all the restaurants, was also stumped... So, he pointed it out to us... Above the store on the west side of Main Street (I think it's the sports clothing store), the windows are for a Chinese Restaurant... So, who has noticed that before, hmmm? (Michael did say that you can eat there, but that 15 minutes afterward, your stomach feels empty again... ;-)

We headed on up and over towards the old Swan Boat loading area... We stopped, and he explained about a few things. First, about the wire for Tinkerbell... He pointed out where it ends (you can see the support poles for the Tomorrowland end of it if you know where to look), and said that usually, even though she's been doing it for years, the lady playing Tinkerbell still lets out a scream as she comes in for a "landing" at the bottom end... Where two men are waiting with large mats to stop her... ;-) He also told us about how the window that she climbs out of at the top of the tower is very very small. That's why the castle lights go off before she appears... So that everyone doesn't see her backing out through this little hole, onto the ledge... And then that she doesn't turn on her lights until she's well away from the castle, to keep the perspective intact...

Then, he went on to ask us if we knew what the building was that we were near. I knew that it was for the Swan Boats. (I knew that, but had never seen them in action). This brought on a discussion about the original A-B-C-D-E tickets... What I didn't know, was that the Swan Boats unloaded over where the lower patio is by the Tomorrowland Terrace. Apparently, when the park opened, people were getting in line for this ride in the swan boats, not really knowing what it was. So, after people paid their A ticket, and rode around the waterway and got off, they said "What? That's it?". But as it was a low-capacity ride, people would back up well into the Hub to ride them... And the management didn't want people waiting in such long lines for only an A-ticket attraction... So, they took out the swan boats...

From here, we headed into Tomorrowland. Along the way, he talked about the original 1960's type style of Tomorrowland, and how they had updated it to a more "retro" look. He tried stopping in front of the Timekeeper, but other Guests kept stopping him to ask him questions... So, we headed over past the Carousel of Progress. Here, he talked about when Disney World first opened, and the thinking that went into the theming there... He waved his "magic wand" (his baton), and transported us back to Tomorrowland, opening day, 1971. The Imagineers didn't want the lands to just stop at the edge of the park... They wanted it to seem like they kept on going... So, we're standing in Tomorrowland... What do we see? The Contemporary Resort... A vision of a futuristic city-type thing... So Tomorrowland doesn't stop... It keeps going on as far as you can see... We were then "transported" to opening day in Adventureland. With the Jungle Cruise... Back then, the foliage hadn't filled in yet, so what could you see through the trees in parts of the jungle? Across an expanse of water, a Polynesian village... Very topical and Adventureland-ish. It just keeps going on and on... (Thought now the trees have grown in, and you can't see it now). Fast forward again, to 1989(??). You're walking out of the Magic Kingdom. You've just left a turn-of-the-century street, and what do you see off to the side? A turn-of-the-century grand hotel... The Grand Floridian... And I checked it out... You can see that, but from the gates, the Contemporary is behind some trees, and there's an island between the Poly and the MK... Hmmm...

We continued on, past the big black floating, spinning ball. He told us about that, and about the strong jet of water underneath keeping it afloat. As we passed the Speedway, he asked us if we knew what Hidden Mickeys were. Of course I knew, and Brian knew because I'd told him earlier in the week. One or two others knew, but he explained them. In fact, when he's made out nametags, he'd drawn an HM into the tag so he could point it out now... He told about how they were inside jokes and added things. He also admonished the Internet listings, saying that often-times many of what's on those are what the list terms "wishful thinking", and there's many more that the public probably would never get... He pointed out the three-lamp lamppost near the Raceway, saying that it's usually only in the summer when it's shadow is cast properly making a Hidden Mickey...

We then took a turn into Cosmic Rays. We had a seat down near Sonny Eclipse, and he explained about Audio-Animatronics, using Sonny as an example. He told about the history of AAs, and how they'd developed from the Tiki birds, to the Pirates figures, and finally onto the latest models, such as the Wicked Witch in the GMR and even Sonny. He also explained that the figures such as the witch and Sonny, though they look pretty life-like now, they're only doing about 20-25% of their full range of motion. But he did say, that if they did ALL of their motions, they just wouldn't look at all real... They'd be moving TOO much... He also explained about one reason why Disneyland Paris was over-budget... When they ordered their AAs, they wanted them ALL to be the new generation... Even for the pirates that did very little... So, that was one reason.

After a quick restroom stop, we continued on. He led us up the side walkway towards the castle. Along the way, in that little rose garden to the side were Belle and Sleeping Beauty with another CM, just standing there with noone visiting them. They said hello, and asked how we were doing. It was here that Michael demonstrated one of the coolest things we "saw" that day... As we were walking up the path, he cautioned us that the trees were listening... And then he showed us what he meant... In all of the lands, whether you're aware of it or not, there's background music playing, themed to whatever land you're in. So, as we were leaving Tomorrowland, the music faded away. He pointed out that the large white rock to the side of the path is the "sound barrier" between the areas... Then, in the area we were entering, the Fantasyland background music would fade in... But they key thing is that the trees are always "listening" to hear what the level of the sound is in the area. Then, the background music is kept at just the right level so that it stays as background music. And sure enough, with our talking, we could start to hear the music in the background... Then, he hopped up on the wall along the walkway, and started talking to us very loudly. Then all of a sudden he stopped. And sure enough, the music was considerably louder than when we first arrived. He said it takes about 30 seconds, because it wants to get a "feel" for the overall noise level, not just one quick loud noise that might confuse it... Try it sometime... It's cool. (I'd say try it about 2/3 of the way up to the castle... It's where he was...).

Then, he hopped down, and we continued on to the castle. Here, he asked us how many bricks there are in the castle. Of course, I was the only one who knew that there aren't any... Because it's fiberglass... He also went on to emphasize that after all of the hate mail they got a couple years ago, that they will NEVER TOUCH THE CASTLE AGAIN... ;-) He then went on to say that the maintenance people in charge of the castle were really peeved at the promotions people that dreamed up the cakestle, because the castle was on a five-year maintenance rotation (I think), and they'd just finished a painting rotation, when they came up to them and told them to paint it Pepto-Bismol pink... But, the one good thing about it is that they maintenance people (or whoever it was) bargained with promotions to get some of their budget to increase their budget for castle upkeep, and also replace the blue roofs of the spires, going from wood to either metal or fiberglass (can't remember which), which will last forever, and will stay the blue color it was when they first opened... (And I agree... The blue on the roofs looks MUCH better than it did before the cakestle...).

So, we moved on... But sticking with the castle theme, he pointed something else out to us... He brought us over to the middle of the courtyard, on top of the big seal or whatever is in the ground. He explained about how when they were planning the park, they were thinking about the castle... Usually with a real castle, the castle would be in the middle, surrounded by the town, with a large wall around it all... Well, the original idea was to have Fantasyland surrounded by a large wall like the town of the castle, but they realized that in execution of it, it would be too foreboding, and also there'd be complications is making so many entries and exits in the walls for the walkways... So, that idea was almost totally scrapped... But, some other designers of the other buildings in Fantasyland were having a problem... They were having trouble masking parts of their buildings, while keeping the theming right... The two that were mentioned/shown were the Snow White/Mr. Toad show building, and the IASW building... For IASW, the Pinocchio Village Haus front would have to be abnormally high to mask the corner of the building. Same with the other one. So, those designers latched onto the idea of a wall surrounding the castle and the village, and used that imaginary "wall", and used parts of it to mask their buildings, leaving just enough to suggest a large wall around it... And sure enough, if you stand on that seal, and look over Sir Mickey's, and back towards the IASW building, you can see parts of a brick wall, painted in the exact same color scheme as the castle... I also found that pretty interesting...

He brought us over to the fountain with Cinderella. He told us about the crown in the mural lining up with the statue if you're the height of a child (or if you bend down like we did). He also said that the water fountains here were two of the coldest in the park, because the supply pipes run through the fountain, keeping the water in the pipes cool... (And I admit, the water was very cool and refreshing).

From here, he said it was time to go underground. So, he led us over past the Lion King entrance, and into the shop on the other side (something about Captain Hook?). Through a door at the back, and into a stairwell. He stopped us at the first landing, and explained that we were now descending into the Cast Member world, where noone was onstage for us. This is how they truly are, and why there isn't anyone under 16 allowed on the tour... With that, we descended down in the bowels of the park...

We exited the stairwell into a small side hallway, right next to a set of doors with windows. Here, Michael explained is the central computer room for the entire park. Almost all show control is through here. We stayed for about 10 minutes outside here, with people asking various questions. The entry door has a more sophisticated biometric scanner on it, more exacting than the ones at the turnstiles for guests... You also have to punch in a code on the keypad. One gentleman walked past us and entered in as we were getting ready to move on... I whispered to Brian "Brian! Quick! Run for the door!" as it was closing behind him... ;-) Shades of the AT&T simulator in the Global Neighborhood, huh? :-)

We headed into one of the main tunnels, passing a rack full of Dwarf heads along the way. He stopped us and we grouped by a large map of the Utilidor system. Here, he explained how they were built, why they're used, what happens down here, etc. He explained about the "first floor" concept, which has been widely talked about on the group... He got into talking about how it was easy to run computer lines, electricity, etc. in the tunnels, and he talked about the AVAC trash collection system. In fact, we heard it kick on a few times while we were down there... A loud whoosh, a low rumble, the hissing of wind, and then a lot of little clanks along the tube like pebbles... Michael explained that those were ice cubes being sucked along... We occasionally had to move aside for a golf cart coming along, and there was a constant flow of people back and forth along the tunnel... Of course, I shouldn't SAY tunnel, because we were about 100 feet away from the entrance to the tunnel, and we were very obviously at ground level... Michael led us down another side tunnel, where a video display was set up for the CMs, talking about what's new and exciting in the World... Michael was hoping that the segment about Test Track would come on, but it didn't... He said we'd check back later...

That entrance I mentioned was where we were headed next. Out into the sunlight we went. There were a few CMs standing out there smoking. A bus pulled up, and people got off, headed for wherever they had to go... Michael explained that there was a parking lot some distance away, where they parked, and they had to take the bus in to the park... He pointed out that the tall building to our left was actually the show building for It's A Small World... Seemed quite big back there... We then followed him over to the side entrance, into Costuming. Along the way, we passed large bins of dirty laundry.

Once back inside, he led us down the hallway where the windows are to get their costumes... We stopped at about the second one, but he pointed that there were windows all the way down the hall. He explained what a CM does in the morning when they come in, they give their ID, and get their costume... The articles of clothing have barcodes sewn into them, and they're assigned to him. He lifted up the bottom edge of his vest to show us one... (He joked that it was the only one he could show us easily in mixed company... ;-)

Then he demonstrated what happens at the end of the night... The CM walks up to the return bins, scans his ID, and then scans the articles of clothing themselves, and then dumps them in the bin. He actually did this with his vest (though the fact that he was still WEARING the vest made it a little difficult for him to get the barcode up to the reader... ;-) He also joked that he was now on his honor to actually RETURN the vest at the end of the day... (So Disney, if you're missing a Main Street Guest Relations vest, size..... ;-)

He then TRIED to lead us into the actual Costuming back room, but he couldn't get the combination to work on the lock... Apparently, they'd just changed it... He eventually had to have someone open the door for him... We then filed in, past racks upon racks of costumes... Along the back wall, we stopped, and he explained their costuming.

All costumes are arranged by land, and then they have dozens of each costume piece in dozens of sizes... When the costumes are laundered, they come back, and are sorted by land, and then refiled into their correct size rack... (We were near one of the sorting stations). He explained about "show", and that when a costume gets too worn out, they stop using it... As we were by the Frontierland section, he used some blue jeans as an example... He showed two pair, one was bright blue, looked fairly new, the other was getting faded and worn. He said that the second pair was probably towards the end of it's usable life-span as a costume. He also explained that Disney does NOT necessarily make all of their costumes. In fact, they try to out-source as much as they can. (For example, the jeans he was showing us were Wranglers...). When clothes are no longer usable by Disney, the do one of two things with them. They either destroy them, or they donate them to homeless shelters or other charities... The distinction between the two outcomes is determined by the costume itself... Whether it's a Disney park-specific item or not... The blue jeans are regular blue jeans, so they get donated. The jackets for the Main Street sweepers, after removing a patch or two that say Magic Kingdom, etc, is a nice warm jacket. On the other hand, the blue and plaid vest that Michael was wearing would be shredded and not donated... How many blue and plaid vests with that pattern do you see around? :-)

From here, we went back a little hallway, to the room where cosmetologists were working on wigs... Most of the wigs that were out being worked on were for the Christmas Parade or one of the Christmas shows, but there were examples along the top of the wall or Clinton's and Bush's wigs for the HoP AA... And a few others... I believe he also said that Hillary Clinton was actually consulted in the realism of Bill's wig...

He also discussed the characters... How they're classed by height, in determining whether they're played by males or females... Of course, the short characters are usually women, and taller characters are men. Of course, this is not steadfast. He said that they do (or have had) shorter men play the shorter characters, and at least one taller-than-6 foot lady play Goofy... (Or was it Brer Bear?).

And he also got into asking us "How many Belles are there?". Some responded with "Four or five?". The response from him is "Nope. Just one." He went on to explain that he means in children's eyes, or in adult's eyes, too, there is only ONE Belle. True, they have many actresses PLAYING Belle, but there is only ONE Belle... And he explained that they're fully trained in how to act like the character, trivia about the character, etc... Also, for continuity, when they film commercials, take pictures for ads and maps, etc, they always try to use the same actor/actress to portray a specific character. Because with something going down permanently in ink or film forever, they want them to look the same, because....there is ONE Belle...

Finally, he went on to say about how the rotation is for characters... If you're hired to by a character, you don't always START as a character... There's the training... There's the walk-arounds WITH a character, etc. (The CMs who accompany the characters). Then, they would go on to be a fully costumed character with a head-piece in a parade... And then maybe a walk-around character... And then finally, become a face character... So, a person might have been hired to play Cinderella, but many times (unless there's a dire need, I assume), they won't actually get to BE Cinderella for quite a while...

So, we said our good-byes to the cosmetologists (who were very nice and accommodating, by the way), and headed back out into the main corridors. We found ourselves back near the video monitor from before, so we stopped to see if the Test Track part would come up... While we were waiting, he explained that from what he had heard, each Test Track vehicle's computer had the same computer power of the entire Magic Kingdom's mainframe... So, technically, one Test Track car could run the park... And the fact that the Track has 28 of them... Well...

While we were here, we saw Chip walk by without her head on... Cinderella walk by in full make-up and wig in street clothes... And sure enough, there were two tables across the way, with people lining up to get their paychecks... Hey... It's Thursday... I guess Every Paycheck DOES Come On Thursday (EPCOT)... ;-)

The Test Track video never came on, and it was time to move on... As we were leaving, we also saw the Brink's armored truck. Michael explained that it's the only gas-powered vehicle allowed in the Utilidors... (Though I know that an ambulance is also allowed, I only whispered this to Brian and didn't speak up...). Out through another door, and we were in another stairwell. At the top, we stepped out through a door, and out right next to the castle, by the Cinderella fountain... So, Michael said this would be a good time to break for lunch. He made a few suggestions, saying that nearby was the Pinocchio Village Haus, and around the corner was the Columbia Harbour House, which he said people always love... He also said the lines there are usually shorter at lunchtime than most other places... So, we were to meet at the Liberty Bell in Liberty Square in 30 minutes.

So, off we all went. Brian and I decided to try the Columbia Harbour House... I had never been in there, and for some reason, I was expecting a sit-down place... (I keep getting it mixed up with the Liberty Tree Inn...). But, we hopped in line. Another Guest spotted our pins with the yellow "Guided Tour" ears attached to it, and he asked us about it... So, in the 30 second we were in line, we said yes, we were being shown around the park, and even to the backstage areas... (But that was all we said).

Brian and I both got the special platter, though I don't remember what's it's called. It had both chicken strips AND fish strips, plus fries. (We couldn't decide between getting the chicken or the fish, so we compromised and got the platter with both...). They were both really good. When we finished, we took a quick detour up to the restrooms between Fantasyland and Liberty Square, and then joined the group near the Liberty Bell. We were the last ones to arrive, but apparently everyone else had pretty much just gotten there, too...

Michael told us that at this point, the Tour usually goes on the Haunted Mansion to demonstrate effects they use in the parks, but because we were running a little behind schedule, we'd have to skip it and come back later, because the parade people wanted us done with that area before they had to start really getting ready for the afternoon parade... So, we started walking down into Frontierland, using the bypass bridges to get around the small crowds that had already started to form to wait for the parade (I think it was still an hour off). Michael mentioned about how the bridges had been put in only a year or two ago, and how the designers had made it look as if it had always been there... Not just something they had stuck in as an afterthought or a quick fix...

Reaching the area by Splash Mountain, he led us around the fence blocking the road that the parade emerges from, and back that road. Just as we were walking back the road, the crossing signal started clanging and the gates went down, so we had to wait for the train to go by... As we were standing there, the one man on the tour who was by himself heard his name being called, and sure enough... His wife and kids were on the train, waving! Now is THAT the wildest coincidence or what? :-)

After the train had passed, we went on back the road, and around the large wooden fence... On the other side, the magic stopped. Ahead of us was a large parking lot, with some buildings around it. The backside of the fence was all metal, not real wood. We wandered down the hill (re-enforcing the fact that the tunnels were really the first floor), and across the lot. Michael pointed out the Pirates of the Caribbean show building to our left, and Splash Mountain to our right.

Straight across the parking lot we went, and into the storage building for the Spectromagic floats. To the left was the large aerial photo he'd mentioned back on Main Street, and lined up to the right were the Spectro floats, with cords running along the floor all over the place, the buzzing of re-charging batteries in the air...

We walked up to the two far floats, one was the one with the Three Little Pigs, the other was the more mobile Ursula... As we entered the building, he made us stop, and repeat after him: "I promise... Not to touch... ANY of the floats..." :-) Michael explained about how the drivers are inside the front of the floats, and one character atop the float is the "scout"... The CM inside the scout costume has a headset, and they're constantly conversing with the driver, because they have a much better view of the parade route. So, if a little kid darts out from the side, they can tell the driver to stop immediately, etc...

He also pointed out that this float is the first one of the end series of floats. Something you may not have noticed (I hadn't), is that on the front of the float are two "paint buckets", one with all white bulbs, the other with multi-colored bulbs. The center pig (the "scout" by the way), has a paintbrush. In time with the music cues, he dips the brush into the pots, and the entire line of floats changes from white to colors, or back again... He asked us if we knew why the Three Little Pigs were chosen to be at the start of this section... Well, according to him, the reason is because the Three Little Pigs film was the first film to be shot in color... So, that's why they're in charge of the color of the floats... ;-)

Then, we moved over to the Ursula one. He showed us inside, where the driver sits, and where the CM who wears the upper body part sits, with their legs either tucked behind the driver, or hung over the driver's shoulders... (Michael said that in this and some of the other floats, the partners MUST become friends with each other... ;-) The upper person is almost always a man, because the upper bodypiece is VERY heavy...

The designer of this particular float, when he was designing it, couldn't find commercial lights that matched the color of Ursula in the film... So, he wanted more money in his budget to get hand-dipped, matching bulbs made for his float... He was allowed, and of course, that set off all of the OTHER float designers who wanted unique colors... So, they were allowed to... There's over 1000 different hues in the Spectromagic parade... He also explained about how there's sensors in the pavement along the parade route that detects the floats, and triggers music along the way... They look like pieces of chewing gum, stuck to the pavement in a row...

At this point, some other tours had joined us... I believe one was the 9:30 KTTK Tour, and the other was the 7-hour tour that goes to all of the parks... We went over to the side wall, where Michael showed us a display, and explained how the lights are wired in groups of nine bulbs, so if one goes out, even though nine go out, they can easily find and replace the burnt out bulb... Also, there's a board where the driver of each float has to inspect the float before the performance, and sign off on it... (That's another reason why we shouldn't have touched the floats... Some floats had already been signed off on, and we didn't want to mess up something that wouldn't necessarily be caught before the parade...).

On our way out, we stopped by that big aerial photo, and Michael pointed out things, such as the four buildings of Main Street, where we were... The show buildings of Pirates and Splash, the parking lots behind the Main Street buildings...

We then crossed the lot, on our way over to the back of Splash Mountain. As we passed the outdoor area where the other parade floats were kept, Michael pointed out the Christmas ones, and explained that they were kept outdoors (though under cover) because they were designed to be able to withstand the weather of Florida, whereas the Spectro floats are not... (i.e. they're electrical, etc.). That's why the daytime parades aren't canceled as much as Spectro is because of the weather...

As we approached Splash, the sound of rushing water became louder and louder. And we got there, and there's a big pit with water in it, flowing in from various outlets at an unbelievable rate, all flowing over to an area under the building... Michael explained that water is pumped up to the top of the mountain, where it flows down by the force of gravity, pushing the boats along... When the ride is turned off at night, all of the water flows down here, where it gathers, and makes what is 17 feet deep when it's running, fill up to 30 feet deep when it isn't... Though there's life preservers hanging all along the railings, Michael said that if someone did fall it, they probably wouldn't make it... The current is just too strong... There's two emergency exit doors from the attraction right next to this pit, and Michael said that if they're opened, the flow of water is immediately shut off, just in case. He said that this actually happens about once a day in the busy season... Some kid will hop out of a boat, and start walking through doors... He said that one time, he was actually standing there with a tour, when a kid popped out one of the doors, and all of a sudden it went deathly quiet... The kid just stood there, and then Security descended on the area...

Moving away from the rushing water, Michael pointed out where the AVAC system ends... It's basically just a pipe coming out of the side of the hill, going into a large building... Michael said that they usually go in, but because we were running late, we had to move on... He said we didn't miss much... As we walked, he related a story about what happens to the garbage...

The one point I missed was the fact that somehow, the trash gets sorted from the food waste... Well, back when Disney was buying the land for WDW, after word got out about the project, one of the stubborn land-owners that didn't want to sell had a big chunk of property that Disney really wanted... This man was raising pigs on it... So, he made Disney a deal. That if they gave him all of the food waste from the park to use as pig feed, he'd sell, and move his pig farm elsewhere. Well, they agreed... Except, there was a mistake made by the Disney lawyers... In the written agreement, they used the phrase "Walt Disney World", and not "Magic Kingdom"... The lawyers thought that that would do... They didn't think about expansion... Now that WDW has expanded, this contract now includes waste from all four parks, resorts, etc... That farmer now runs the largest pig farm in the state of Florida... Thanks to the fact that he gets most of his feed for free. All because of a small lawyer error... ;-)

On our way out of the backstage area, Michael pointed to lines and things painted on the ground. The first line is the "warning zone", followed by a large area painted on the ground... He said that by the time the performers get to the other end, they have to be fully in character, and STAY in character until the end of the parade route...

We then went back out into the park. Michael pointed out one of the original ticket booths that sold tickets for the attractions, back when they still used the A-E coupons... It's now a camera kiosk in Adventureland...

We stopped by the entrance to Pirates, and Michael again demonstrated the practice of forced perspective... He pointed out the second floor of some of the building... I thought they looked more full-size than Main Street did... Well, he picked out the shortest member of our group (I'd say she was about 5'1"), waved his "magic wand" (his baton again) over her, unhooked a chain, and sent her up a set of stairs to a balcony... When she reached the top, she almost brushed her head against the edge of the roof... Interesting... She then came back down.

At this point, Michael was all set to conclude the Tour, when he realized we'd never gone into the Haunted Mansion! (As the Tour usually ENDS here by Pirates, it threw him off...). So, we walked back towards the Mansion by way of Adventureland. We stopped by the Tiki Room, and he pointed out the roof of the tower. What looks like real straw and thatch, is really metal rods, painted to match... When they were designing it, they didn't want to use real straw, because of the fire hazard... So, they had a "contest", and asked for lots of different ideas... The winner came in with a mini-roof, made out of a couple hundred drinking straws, flattened with an iron... So, they took this idea, and just adapted it, using metal...

Crossing the plaza, Michael confirmed the George of the Jungle rumor about the Jungle Cruise (he brought it up, not us). He said to ride it now, because it wouldn't be like that for much longer... Apparently the idea is to take the focus of the Cruise away from the drivers (they'd still drive, they just wouldn't do much else), and have taped things, speakers in the trees making it sound like George is always just ahead of you, crashing through the trees (and into the trees).

We passed over into Fronteirland, and then into Liberty Square, where they were setting up for the parade... At the mansion, Michael took us in the exit gate, and then stopped by the hearse... Here, he explained a few of the effects and how they're done, such as the glass for the ballroom, and the shadow of the hand across the face of the clock... He said that if you lean out a little and look up behind you, there's just a light, with a little cutout hand moving around in a circle in front of it... He said when we get to the Ballroom, if you feel up to it, stand up a bit, and lean in towards the room, and you can see the dancing ghosts down to your left, and the foot of the ghost in the chandelier up above you...

So, he again waved his "magic wand", and he turned us into celebrities that are being shown in through the back way... And he led us in through a door marked Cast Members Only (or it might have said Mansion Staff Only... Maybe it said Servant's Quarters...). We found ourselves in a little hallway. This is where you're shown if your child (or you) is too scared to ride and wants to go out... I was surprised to find that it's actually themed to the Mansion AS the Servant's Quarters... The hallway is dingy and dim, the chandelier has cobwebs and it flickers, and there's call bells on the wall, labeled for the different rooms. (The one I remember is "Master Gracey's Bedroom"...). We waited in the corridor for a moment, while Michael scoped out the status of the entry foyer. We were waiting to join the next group... While we were waiting, a mother came through with a sobbing girl... Then, we went into the foyer, and were instructed to stay back and be the last ones to enter the stretching room. Also, we stayed back so as to be the last out, too. Michael wanted us to wait a little bit after the Guests went before we got on, so he could talk to us (by having us pass messages down the line) and tap on the top of his Doombuggy with his baton when we ere supposed to by looking somewhere other than the actual show...

And sure enough, if you lean out and turn around, there IS a little wheel with four "hands" on it, making a shadow onto the clock... And you CAN see some of the real ghost animatronics... And if as you turn away from the mirror where a ghost joins you, you look back, you CAN see the ghosts coming back around the end, as well as the low black wall in front of the ghosts, mimicking the Doombuggies...

Once outside, Michael concluded the Tour, but said that he was headed back to City Hall, so if anyone wanted to see the backs of the Main Street buildings, they could come along with him... We all agreed, so the Tour continued on a little... By this time, they had closed off the parade route to Guests, but Michael had a word with the CM there, and we were allowed past... We felt special as we were led down the middle of the parade route by Michael, with the Guests lining the sides of the street... At the bridge, he unhooked another rope, and we continued on... Here, Michael told us that the reason why this area is blocked off to the Guests during parades is not only because it's narrow and would be difficult with Guests here, but because this stretch of sidewalk between the Hub and Liberty Square could be used to stop the parade mid-route if needed to fix something majorly wrong, or if one of the characters was having trouble. The characters have signals to show they're having a problem, whether because of the heat or something else... If the CM in the costume cannot complete the parade route, they're put inside one of the floats. Some of the floats have areas where a CM or character can be placed to ride out the rest of the parade... One example of this is inside the Spectromagic fish trailers... (Where there's one big fish, puling along two or three others...)

This area, just before the bridge, is where celebrities are usually seated for the parades. It's removed from the rest of the Guests, and can be reached with minimal Guest interaction if necessary... One example Michael gave was Princess Diana. They brought her over the grass and over the fence, and she and her group sat on the benches here to watch the parades... Here, he got into Guides, and how they can be hired by anyone, not just celebrities, as long as they can pay the fee... And he went on to say about how once a Guide shows a celebrity around once, they become the Guide for that celebrity every time they come to the parks, unless the Celebrity wants someone different. Often times, the celebrities don't want to pay this, so they bargain, and agree to a motorcade in the Studios, and maybe autographs for a while...

We reached the Hub, where parade CMs were choosing volunteers and teaching them what to do... As we exited from behind the ropes into the Hub, Michael was delayed by a Guest who wanted to know why they weren't being allowed through, because they wanted to get to Fronteirland... Michael explained the parade, and how to go around by way of Adventureland, as long as they weren't beaten by the parade...

So, on we went, and once again backstage next to First Aid. The backs of the buildings were very plain looking, and were pretty short... In a few moments, we were behind City Hall. One of the other people on the Tour (and we all agreed), that it was amazing how short it seemed to take to walk from one end of Main Street to the other from the back of the buildings... Michael agreed, too, and pointed out that without any of the decorations, and other distractions, it happens VERY quickly...

So, the last thing that happened was Michael pointing out the end of the parade areas. There's a large shower area, and when it's above a certain temperature, the union contract says that as the parade approaches the end, it must be turned on full blast, and the CMs in the costume pull them off as soon as they're clear of the performance zone, and walk right into the shower of cold water... And then we went around the far end of City Hall and the Gallery building, and we were back out in Town Square. Here, the Tour totally and utterly ended... (No more following Michael into backstage areas as he actually went about the rest of his day... ;-). We all thanked him, and I thought he was a terrific Tour Guide... If you should ever get him (short, reddish hair, thin, a slight stutter...), tell him we said hi... (Though I can't think of anything specific that he'd remember us by...).

So, here it is, the end of the Tour... How sad... Well, no to talk about other things... The night before, Brian had found that the wife of a former co-worker works at the Emporium. So, we went in to see if she was working. She wasn't, but they said she came in at 6:00 tonight and tomorrow... Well, the MK closed at 6:00 (meaning she'd be in for the MVMCP), but I knew we'd be here for tomorrow night's MVMCP, so I told Brian we'd catch her tomorrow).

We then went back across the Square to the train station. Brian wanted to call up to work and talk to a couple people, so he used the payphone under the train station, just as the parade came down the street and started performing... So, he spoke to them at work, and then we went upstairs to watch the end of the parade in Town Square. After it was done, we wanted to leave and go back to the room and take a nap. But I saw that it was a good time to do something I'd promised myself I'd do... Take a ride all the way around the MK... So, we went inside to catch the train... While waiting, I dropped a quarter into the music organ, and we listened to the Disney tunes it put out...

The train came, and we got on. We rode around to the Toontown Fair. (This was the first time I'd ever gone from the Main Street station to Fronteirland... I'd ridden the rest of the route before...). When we got to the Fair, Brian and I were feeling a bit more rested, so we decided to hop out and walk around a bit... We started by going through Mickey's house. We didn't feel up to a picture with Mickey at the moment, so we ducked out through his garage. Then, on to Minnie's house, where I'd never been before. Quite cute, especially the banging pots and the microwave popcorn...

Of course, with all this walking, Brian and I realized that the rest on the train had only been temporary... We were dragging... So, back onto the train we went, practically falling asleep on the way to Main Street. Grabbed the stuff from our locker (almost forgot it, actually). Out and onto a bus to the CBR, and we trudged into our room and collapsed into bed for a nap.

We awoke much later... I had made reservations for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe at the Marketplace... So, we got ready, and hopped on a bus headed there. We asked at the mushroom desk what we were supposed to do, as we already had a Priority Seating... They directed us to the elephant podium, where we were directed to the line for the Gorilla Room. We were seated in under five minutes, right next to a fish tank with a flaky bulb... I can't seem to remember what we ate, but I think I had some kind of shrimp with pasta...

From here, we wandered through the Marketplace, stopping at the World of Disney to buy a few things, such as three Fantasmic! CDs for Brian... (One for him, two for friends...) I picked up a couple of more gifts for co-workers and my family. And then it was on to Pleasure Island. Ahhh... Cast Member night... I had mentioned this to Brian, and he was looking forward to it like I was... I couldn't wait to catch one of the Comedy shows... I've remembered them from the past visits as being even better than normal on CM night. But first, we stopped into the Adventurer's Club for a couple of drinks, and we watched a number of shows. Including the Balderdash Cup competition (again), and a few main salon shows.

Then, it was across the courtyard to the line for the midnight show at the Comedy Warehouse... In we went after another midnight countdown. Again, I can't remember any details, but tonight's comedy show was the best one of the week. Totally hilarious.

So, upon exiting, we headed back to the bus (the long way, unfortunately), and home to the CBR...

Tomorrow: Asia Sneak-Peek at Animal Kingdom, Epcot, MVMCP.

Day 7: Friday, December 18th, 1998 Asia Sneak Peek, Epcot, MVMCP.

Well, today's our last FULL day of our vacation... Our plan was to head to Animal Kingdom to see the Sneak Peek of Asia that we'd heard about earlier in the week, and then head over to Epcot to see if the Test Track soft opening rumors flying around at the RADP Meet were true... So, we got up around 8:30.

We didn't want a big breakfast, so I grabbed some juice and a muffin on our way through OPR. I think Brian did the same. Hopped on a bus and were entering the Animal Kingdom around 9:15. When we got over to the entrance to Asia, we were told by the CMs stationed there that the Sneak Peek didn't start until 10:00, but they suggested that we go down the path and see the Flights of Wonder show, and then come back. So, we did.

We walked over and got seats for the show just before it started. The sun had just come out, and the wooden benched were still a little damp from the morning dew (or wash-down by Maintenance). We liked the show, and there were some funny moments. But the spectacular thing was when they had the large bird, I think it was some kind of a vulture or a hawk, fly out over the audience to a CM at the back... This thing stayed so low, that it actually flew BETWEEN Brian and I at about the level of our heads... It was enough for us to have to duck and lean away... :-)

So, with the show over, we hurried as much as we could and got in front of as much of the crowd exiting to beat them to Asia. We wandered in, and were directed where to go by some nice CMs. There were also quite a few "suits" standing around. We joined the line that had formed for the start of the Maharaja Jungle Trek. Once they'd gotten the line straightened out, and wrapped it around the one side, we estimated that there were only about 100 people in front of us, so because this was the first day of previews, we can say that we were among the first 100 people to see Asia. :-)

They let us into the trail in small groups, just so they didn't overwhelm things. They let maybe 25 people in every few minutes. So, once we entered, we were handed a map of the trail, with some descriptions, and pictures of possible animals we'd see. First, I think were the Komodo Dragons. There was one lounging out in the sun. Around the bend, there was SOMETHING... I think it was some kind of anteater... But he was laying just out of sight, about the only thing you could see was a little bit of fur if you stood on tip-toe and leaned WAAYY over the railing...

Then, inside to the bat cave... (Where's the Batmobile?) These bats were HUGE! There were some just sleeping, others were grabbing on to hanging pieces of watermelon, sucking away... Note, you don't HAVE to see the bats if you don't want to... There's a path around the viewing area.

Then, it's on to the tiger area. I think this was one of the best themed viewing areas. You wander through the "ruins" of an old temple or palace. And through the archways (glassed in, of course) you can see the tigers. Everyone was bunching up at the first viewing area, so we followed the suggestion of a nearby CM and went on to the next viewing areas. We passed by the cattle section, as they had not arrived yet. The only backup on the trail was on the bridge, the last viewing area for the tigers. This was because this was the area where the tigers were most active, with one sunning herself, looking very regal, and the other two romping around in the grass and water... Lots of photo opportunities.

Then, we wandered through another aviary. We saw a few birds, but there weren't that many visible... Probably will be when it opens officially. From here, the trail led back out to where we entered. Off to the left was where the Kali River Rapids ride will be (well, is now actually, now that it's open). We were able to walk up to the bridge under which the rafts will pass as they finish their run. You could see the rotating load/unload platform, where a CM was working on it. There were also some concept sketches posted on the ubiquitous blue construction wall. From this, we determined that we were standing on the exit pathway... There was also one of the ride rafts sitting there. It was roped off, so you couldn't get IN it, but we could see the layout, and see that there were seatbelts.

From here, we wandered back towards the entrance to Asia. The line for the Trek was HUGE! It had backed up pretty much all the way to the entrance of Asia! We stopped in the one open gift shop that was there, and Brian bought a T-shirt (which he now wears ALL the time...). We then wandered down the pathway to the river. We watched the monkeys (gibbons?) that live in the little hut along that path. The female was halfway out on the ropes that lead up to the towers near the main pathway, but the CM that was there informed us that that's as far as she's gone so far... Back up from the river, and the line that had been there for the Trek was GONE... Well, at least from what we could see... But it's good thing, because exiting from the path, I saw a Hidden Mickey right smack in front of me, and would have missed it if there had been people there... I was so psyched, I just stopped dead in my tracks... I was happy, because I was probably the FIRST person to see it (or at least first on the group...). I just HAD to take pictures of it... :-) I won't say where it is here, but if you really want to know, it's on the Hidden Mickeys web site... There's a picture of it on there, too.

From here, we were heading to Epcot to see if Test Track was going to be open at 1:00 like we'd heard at the RADP Meet, but while headed to the main gate, we heard Countdown calling us again... So, as this was going to be our last visit to AK on this trip, we said "What the heck", and walked down there to ride it twice more...

Then, out of the park, and onto a bus to Epcot. When we got there, we headed right for Test Track. There wasn't ANYONE in line, not even CM previews, and when we asked the CMs around, they told us maybe tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:00... We had a nice chat, though, with the Cm running the merchandise cart out front... She seemed very knowledgeable, and was amazed at how much information we already knew about Test Track and that we found it all out on the Internet.

So, with no Test Track for today, we went on Horizons again... Took a lot more pictures. I wanted to have as much of this attraction archived as I could... Right down to the octopus with clicking eyelids... ;-)

Then, it was on to World Showcase, to do the western side pavilions that we'd skipped the other day. On our way to Canada, we stopped into the shops there in the Plaza. I bought a beanie Figment. (I was surprised they had him with JII already closed). From here, we went back into Canada, something I've never done. I've always just poked around the front part. I made it a point to see "O, Canada" on this trip... So, we wandered back, and around and down to the entrance. We had just missed the previous showing, so we had about a 15 minute wait, but we just sat down and enjoyed the rest and the nice cool air... I liked the movie, as did Brian.

Unfortunately, Off Kilter had the day off, I guess, so it was then on to the United Kingdom, where we caught the very tail end of the acting troupe there... We walked back the street, but with no interest in any souvenirs here, we came back out again. We did make one detour to check out the "Secret Park" that everyone's always talking about. It wasn't much, but we found ourselves standing next to where our pontoon boats were parked underneath the bridge earlier in he week. So, back out, and into France. Here, I splurged, and bought a chocolate croissant in the bakery. This seems to have become a tradition for me... Brian also got something, and we both loved them.

There was no seating, so we had to walk out and sit on the edge of a planter out near the front of the pavilion... Didn't get a chance to see Impressions de France, though... I think that's the one thing in World Showcase that I have never seen... I'll try to see it on my next trip...

Passing through Morocco, we again caught the tail end of a performance, this time some sort of a belly dancer... Then, on and into Japan. There was noone performing, but Brian and I poked through a shop or two, looking for a gift for Brian's friend who's into all things Japanese... We stood and watched the big fish swimming in the pond, and also those little bamboo water tipping things... We were getting a little tired, and I wasn't feeling to well, so we decided to wander over to Germany and get the boat across the Lagoon. We just missed a boat, so we spent a couple minutes looking at the model train in Germany, and then hopped on the next boat.

Crossing Future World for the exit, we noticed (as we always do) that Spaceship Earth didn't have a line... So, we hopped on for one more ride... At the top, just after we turned backwards, the ride came to a grinding halt... I could tell that it wasn't a normal stop for a handicapped person, because that's usually a gradual slow-to-a-stop. This, was almost a jerk-to-a-stop, and I knew it must have been an E-stop... No idea why we stopped, but we were moving again after about 5 minutes and a number of "Please remain seated" announcements. Then, it was out to the busses and back to the CBR for (yet another) nap... (Boy we're getting old... Or maybe we're getting younger... ;-)

After our nap, we got ready for the MVMCP. This was the last of my surprises on this trip for Brian, but it was probably the least of a surprise to him, because there was one going on when we walked by the MK entrance our first day, there were a couple people talking about the MVMCP at the RADP meets, and we got MVMCP pins from Michael on our Keys to the Kingdom tour the day before... So Brian kinda knew that something special was going on, but he didn't have much in the way of details.

So, dressed suitably in Christmas colors, we headed out and caught a bus for the MK. It was fun, because the driver was trying to make us all sing Christmas carols... It sort of worked... At least he was able to drop us off next to the gate instead of all the way down at the CBR stop...

We were in through the gates around 7:30... Our first stop was into the Emporium to see Brian's friend's wife. She's a CM there, and we'd found out yesterday that she'd be working tonight. So, we asked a CM on the floor if she was there, and she went in the back and came out with her... She wasn't in an Emporium costume, so I assume she was some kind of backstage stock clerk or some such thing... We had a nice talk for about 5 minutes. Then, we went and bought two Santa hats with Mickey ears... I think mine fit better than Brian's... At first I felt a little silly (yes, this WAS my idea...), but then I realized "What the heck?" and it really helped me to get into the mood...

Our first stop ended up being the stage show in front of the castle, "Ev'ry Day's a Holiday". I'd seen it last year, but it was still good. From here, we wandered into a deserted Adventureland. We saw maybe five people as we walked over to Pirates. They had one side of the line closed off, and we didn't see anyone until we got to the loading dock. We ended up in a boat with only two other people. It was kinda eerie.

We headed over to Splash Mountain, where we rode once with no wait. Didn't get wet at all... Then, it was over to Brian's favorite, Big Thunder... We rode this twice. We went to the Haunted Mansion, but there was a bit of a line, so we elected to come back later. Time for dinner, so we went into Cosmic Rays to burgers and fries. We wanted to let that settle a little bit before going onto Space Mountain, so we were GOING to ride the TTA once around, but found that to be closed to the Party... (It had been open for last year's party...) So instead we went on Buzz Lightyear twice...

Upon exiting, we found no line for the photo location there, so we got our souvenir pictures taken, and then finally went over to Space Mountain. We only had time to ride this once before we had to get to our viewing location for the fireworks. So, we took up our seats on the patio by the Plaza Pavilion, right along the water. This year they weren't using it for Character greeting, so the tables and chairs were still out, and there were people sitting at some of them... We grabbed two chairs, and sat ourselves between two families along the railing...

The fireworks started right at 10:00. There was even a speaker hidden in the bushes right across the water from us, so we were able to hear everything just fine. And Tinkerbell flew right over us, too. The fireworks were just as terrific as last Friday night, when we saw them from the California Grill.

Now, it was time to hit a nighttime ride on the Jungle Cruise. We had a full boat, and the skipper was in rare form, tossing out a few jokes that I'd never heard before... Now, it was 10:30 and time to find a place to sit for the parade... Back into Liberty Square we went. We ended up sitting on the edge of a planter, right next to the stockades... While we were waiting, there was a tense moment, when one little kid stuck his head through a hole in the stockades that was apparently meant for a person's feet (it was a weird stockade off to the side). He got his head stuck, and couldn't get it back through... It took a minute for the parents to notice him, and it was another minute before they were able to angle his head properly to get him unstuck... I was having visions of security descending on the area, and having to take the stockade apart to get him out... At least it didn't have to come to that...

The parade started. It was similar to the one from last year, but I noticed that they were using the lead float from the daytime parade, just re-decorated a little for Christmas... Don't remember that from last year... After the parade, we were able to hit the Haunted Mansion with no line... No crowd at all... After the Mansion, we did SOMETHING, and then we saw the last Country Bear Christmas show of the night. We took it nice and slow in exiting the park, soaking up the atmosphere, taking a few more pictures of the castle and Main Street.

Then, it was out to the buses, thankful that we didn't have to wait in the enormous line for the monorail, and back to the CBR. We crashed into bed, tired, yet not wanting to go to sleep, because that would bring morning, and our final day at Disney World that much sooner...

Tomorrow: Check-out, Epcot (still no Test Track), Studios, and then home...



Day 8: Saturday, December 19th, 1998 Check-out, Epcot, Studios, and going home...

Well, here it is... Our last day at Disney World. We woke up rather reluctantly, but we were able to sleep in. I think it was around 10:00 that we got up. We had packed some the day before, and it didn't take us too long to finish. Though it DID take me a little while to figure out how and where to fit my pressed pennies into my suitcase. (What do you think the attendant would have thought to see that many pennies go through the carry-on baggage X-ray? ;-)

We called Bell Services to come get our bags for storage until we were to leave at 6:00. Someone was to our door in just over 10 minutes. With him gone, we left our room for the last time that trip, it was just past the 11:00 check-out time. But first, we headed to breakfast at OPR. I had decided the night before that I just couldn't afford the model monorail, so I brought that into the gift shop at OPR and returned it. It went quickly, and I had my sales receipt for it, so even though I bought it at the Emporium in the MK, there was no problem with them taking it back.

So, a quick bite to eat, and instead of walking to the Custom House, we hopped on the bus and rode it around to the Barbados stop and walked across the street from there. There was a short line at the front desk, but there were many windows open. A CM in full costume (you know, the pith helmet-like hat, jacket with cords at the shoulder, etc.) was "working the line", giving people checking in info and maps, answering questions. When he got to us, we said we were checking out. He said that we might not have to wait in line here, that the Guest Services desk could help us. He went off to check on the line there, but as he came back 30 seconds later, a window opened up for us where we were... But he was friendly and nice. I think his name was George.

Check-out went smoothly, and I only owed about $2.00 for a couple of phone calls. Back outside to the bus stop, and it was off to Epcot to try and hitch a ride on Test Track.

We got there, and headed right for TT. Alas, it was still not open. We conversed with the CM standing there, and she said that it would almost definitely be opening for sneak-preview soft openings at 6:30 tonight... Argh!!! We leave for the airport at 6:00! Oh, well. There's always next trip.

So, with nothing else to do in Epcot, we decided to head over to the Studios by bus. On our way there, we heard Spaceship Earth calling to us for one more ride. As there wasn't a line, we went for it... (Famous last words...)

As we rounded the top, and started back down, the ride came to a lurching stop. Not the usual kind like when they stop for a person in a wheelchair, when the ride just slows down gently to a stop. This time, it just stopped on a dime... Right as we were at the steepest part of the descent, between the projected screen above you, and the "classroom" on your left... The recorded spiel went a few times, and it was 5 minutes later that we finally got going again.

As we sat there, I turned around and looked down the line of cars behind us... Now THAT was a dizzying sight... I have a feeling that the ride E-stopped, because of the way it stopped. Either by a CM operator, or perhaps someone got out and an intrusion sensor stopped it automatically.

So, out into the daylight, and onto a bus for the Studios.

I can't seem to remember exactly what we did at the Studios. I know that we did go back to MuppetVision 3D so that we could see the ENTIRE pre-show. We also did the Great Movie Ride again, making sure that we got the Western side this time. Brian was surprised "Hey, wait a sec, didn't we stop there last time?" as we glided past Gangster Alley. :-)

We did Tower of Terror another time or two, and I think we had lunch at the Commissary. Oh, we also did the animation tour, but as it was the weekend, only a couple of animators were working. Well, it was sadly nearing our departure time, so we left the last Disney park of the trip looking forlorn, and got onto the next bus heading for the Caribbean Beach Resort.

We arrived around 5:40, and went to Bell Services to claim our luggage. They brought it out on a cart, and we sat there with it, waiting for the Tiffany Towncar driver to come at take us away from this wonderful place...

And blast it, wouldn't you know, he was EARLY! At 5 minutes of six, Mohammed pulled up. That meant 5 minutes less of being in the World. ;-) And even though it would have been spent sitting on a bench outside the Custom House at CBR, staring at the foliage, it would have been better than 5 minutes at the airport, staring at planes outside...

Mohammed (the same driver from last Friday) loaded our luggage into the car, opened the doors for us to get in, and off we went to the airport. There was no traffic, because we were there in about 20 minutes or so. Mohammed unloaded our luggage, and though we had tipped him the full amount on Friday (not half one way and half the other like some do), I had some money ready to tip him again because he was so nice. But hr never gave me an opportunity to do so, and before I knew it, he was gone. Oh well, I used the money to tip the skycap that took our bags and checked them in.

Out to the terminal we went, noticing sadly as we exited the tram, that it was 6:30, and Test Track was opening to it's very first public riders at just that moment, and we weren't there... Oh well, at least we got to be among the first hundred or so people to see Asia.

The plane ride home was uneventful, and my father was waiting for us at the gate in Providence to drive us home. Of course, when we got to my house, the trip wasn't done for Brian, who's father was waiting in our driveway to drive him the 30 additional minutes to HIS house...

And thus ended this, my fifth trip to Walt Disney World. I had a great time, Brian had a great time, and I started wishing for another trip... Little did I know that I'd be back in just over 4 months...

Rob Steere