|
|
Dream
Vacations Travel Agency |
|
Request
Vacation Quote |
I had been
to Disney World four times between 1972 and 1986, before Laurie and I
met, and I loved it so much that it seemed a natural place to spend our
honeymoon seven years ago. That was back in our pre-RADP days,
when we didn't know you didn't have to stand in line an hour and a half
to enjoy A couple of
years ago, we were in line behind a woman who told us she brings each
of her grandchildren the summer before they enter school. That
could only mean one thing to Laurie - at least six more trips!!!
This year is the first, as Elysia
turns 5 in August and enters school next fall. We took the trip
now because our annual passes expire in June and Easter was the only
good break in Laurie's school schedule. I wasn't crazy about a
holiday trip, but figured it should only be half bad since we were
going a couple days after Easter and getting part of the next week,
when people would be Since Lisi had never flown, we decided to stay
overnight near the airport so we could check it out the night before
and remove some potential fear factor. I have to say that the
"moving floor" was excellent training for a lot of the load/unload
areas at WDW, and before we ever got there she was an old pro. We
had some anxious moments during takeoff Tuesday, but once we were in
the air we were fine and with clear skies over Laurie had
gotten a discount on one-day car rentals from Dollar, which has a
pickup-dropoff location at the Courtyard
near Downtown Disney. Renting a car for one day on our arrival
day and again on our departure day was cheaper than using Mears for the
three of us. Plus we unexpectedly achieved an additional savings.
Since we only had the car for one day when we got there, Laurie
decided to go the Belz outlet on our way
in from the airport instead of on an off day mid-trip. She was so
anxious to get to the parks, she said she
spent about a hundred dollars less than she usually does. Sort of a reverse
don't-grocery-shop-when-you're-hungry game plan <g>. We
disagreed on the value of Elysia having
her own camera for the trip. One of us proved our point when her
first two pictures were of our hotel in There were
about six characters greeting guests outside the gates. We knew Elysia was quite
shy, so we didn't know how she'd respond to them. I'd call our
first walk past the characters "low orbit", getting close enough for a
good look, but not too close and don't stop moving. Once inside,
we needed to stop and spend several minutes with each new bird and
animal we saw. Good thing it was afternoon and we were in cruise mode.
We weren't sure how she would handle a brisker pace in the
morning on subsequent days, but were pretty sure she wouldn't handle
long lines very well. After lunch
at the Pizza-Fari (love those hot Italian
sandwiches), Lisi and I took a leisurely
walk to the Safari while Laurie got fast passes to Bug. (Lisi had her own one word name for almost every attraction, you suppose cast members do the same
thing?) At 3:10, the fast passes were for 4:40. I tried to
use our room keys for fast passes on the safari, but they've apparently
fixed that loophole. Safari's standby line, advertised at 40
minutes, was almost exactly that. There seemed to be a shortage
of hippos that day, but we did see a couple things we hadn't seen
before: a young giraffe grazing right at the edge of the road, and an
ostrich in the middle of the road that the driver had to gently coax
out of the way. When he At 4:15 we
thought we'd see the Lion King before we made our way back to the Big
Tree, but Lisi was ready to go back to the
hotel. This seemed like a bad omen after our attractions visited
total had reached one. A band was playing at Harambe,
so we watched them while we were waiting. They were pulling
people from the crowd to dance with them. Lisi
thought they were very good dancers, but I've got to tell you, when it
comes to African rhythms some of these folks looked painfully white. She wasn't
nearly as impressed with the animals on the Big Tree as we thought she
would be, so we were under the Tree in no time. We had a cast
member help us get to where we could get in the theater first, allowing
us to be next to the exits in case we had to bail. We anticipated
Lisi wouldn't like Bug, and we were
right. She made it almost to the bees, albeit without glasses,
and then wanted to leave, urgently. I'm guessing the dark and
loudness were the biggest factors. So we left the show and headed
for the Lion King, with Laurie catching up with us after the show was
over. At this point Lisi's feet were
shuffling, she had no energy, and had
that "do we have to?" look on her face. Reminded me a little of Binnie's She really
enjoyed Lion King, but still had the feet dragging look afterward.
When I suggested we go back to the hotel and pool, all of a
sudden she was skipping and had more energy than I've seen her with in
a It really
sunk in how different this trip was going to be when we were on the bus
back from Animal Kingdom at about 6:30. The driver was telling us
how late each park was open, including Wednesday April 18 Only our second day here, and Elysia
doesn’t feel like Aall that walking@ today.
We had spent five bucks at Belz
on a 101 Dalmations play set, and Elysia wants to play with that this morning, Amaybe we’ll go to
the park this afternoon.@ After
crossing that hurdle, the Epcot gates are open at 8:30, and at 8:46
we’re in the Test Track pre-show, after about a five minute wait. I notice that all the people in the singles
line have a little orange stub that they’re handing in when they
get to the ride. According to the CM,
they’ve been doing that for about 3 months because, even though
there are fives signs saying your party WILL be split up, and two CMs telling them the same thing, people just
can’t seem to grasp the concept. It’s nice to be
inside, because it’s in the mid 50's and very windy, but as we
stand on the #3 squares the ride shuts down. As
we wait, we discuss altering our original stroller plan.
We were going to leave it in the morning and only bring it
in the afternoon when she was tired, but we’ve found it can be
very slow moving without it. We may as
well have it all day. We’re so used to
cutting through Innoventions and the shops
on At 9:20 there’s a
10-minute line for Living with the Land. I
can’t imagine why they have FastPass
here, it’s always been pretty
much a walk-on other than at lunch time. Our
friend Joe has today off from the Disney bank, and meets up with us
while we’re in line. Laurie had
given him our itinerary earlier and he did a good job of finding us,
considering he forgot to bring it with him. We
all agree that this attraction and Jungle Cruise are the most
cast-dependent rides at WDW. You get a bad
guide and it’s just not the same. We never go to the The fountains are very
quiet this morning in It’s 11:00 and we’re on
our way past Test Track to have lunch at It’s 1:22 and we still
haven’t seen our fountain running today. You
know it’s a holiday when the Spaceship Earth line wraps around
both sides of the building at 1:30. It’s
a very good idea to let the five year old make a few of the travel
decisions C we wanted to ride SE,
she wanted to go back to the hotel, we decide she gets to pick. There are still far more people coming in than
going out. At 5:15, after a very
refreshing swim and nap, we’re headed back to Epcot.
At the last minute we decide to take the bus to MK instead
and take the monorail over. This is hard
on Grandma. We both know it’s best
for kids to save MK for last, but as we walk from the bus stop past the
park entrance over to the monorail station, I see her mouth the words AI want to be THERE@. Elysia has mixed feelings
about Spaceship Earth. The best part was Athe way down@ and the worst part was Athe men@, whatever that means, I
didn’t want to dwell on it. We’re still
cramming a lot of sights and sounds into a day, while having lunch at
the Electric Umbrella Elysia wanted to
know if it was today that Joe was with us. It
doesn’t seem it to us, but when you stop and think about her
normal routine at home, it would take her well over a month to
accumulate the new things she’s run across in a half day here. She thought the topiaries were neat earlier
today, but she thinks they’re awesome tonight with lights on them. We’re reminded
we’re not the only ones that go a little out of our way to get to
WDW. I spend a few minutes with a family
that drove 2 hours from Manchester to London, flew 8 hours to St. Louis
(because there were no seats available on direct flights), and sat
around the airport in St. Louis for 4 hours waiting for their 2 hour
flight to Orlando. The Chinese acrobats are
a big hit with Lisi, after standing
spellbound for the entire performance (especially the girl on the
unicycle with the bowls on her head), she
just looks away in awe and says Ashe’s beautiful@. The
German train is a very big hit as well, she
notices a few little details that had escaped us. The
torches have just come up in preparation for the ToN
parade, and Lisi’s still trying to
get a handle on what’s real and what’s Disney.
(AIs that real fire?@, followed by AIs it supposed to be
there?@) As apathetic as I am
about this parade, she can only nod to any of my questions, she’s
just thoroughly engrossed. I guess I
wouldn’t have come up with the same label, but the group of dancers in front of us now are her
favorites, the Abeautiful turkeys@. (You
said it, kid ;-) During Illuminations, she tells us AI’m not even going
to close my eyes because it’s too beautiful to miss.@ Thursday April 19 We arrive at MGM at 8:20
and get in line for the 8:30 gate opening. Lisi can’t do either RnRC
or ToT, so we’ll have a leisurely
breakfast at the Starring Rolls Bakery. The
construction wall in front of the GMR really scars the landscape. The way the big ring sits at an angle above
the wall, I can’t help but think of the movie Contact. Now that would be one sweet ride!! We take the long way (accidentally) back to
Muppet movie. We didn’t know how she
would handle it after her bad experience with the Bug movie the other
day. It seemed that she enjoyed it, yet
she was a little whiny when we came out and didn’t want to do
Star Tours. We head back to pick up FastPasses for the Mermaid and wait (not
altogether patiently) to see the Bear in the Big Blue House. After only two days, this little girl is
whipped. Two days chock full of plane
flights and muppets and bears, Oh My!! Next time, we’ll definitely plan two
days touring and one day off, otherwise it’s just too much input
to handle. The rest of the trip
report is missing so we must take her back again. |
Why Use a Travel Agent? Who Ya Gonna Call? It is not just about price! Show me the Money (I saved) Convenient One-Stop Shopping
Best
Value for Your Money Spent Location,
Location, Location!!!! Personalized Trips |