PassPorter Community - Message Boards and Forums - View Single Post - My First Trip Report with the Passporter Jan 2002 Photos Added

Mauimouse · 04-15-2002, 08:24 PM

Saturday, January 12, 2002:

Magic Kingdom, Cast Connection, Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary Resort, Polynesian and Grand Floridian, Boardwalk and Epcot

Mickey woke us up today at 7:45am. Today we are going to meet Erin Prescott, who is a friend of Terri's daughter-in-law, at the partner's statue at 10am.

I slept like a log last night and didn't hear a thing. Terri said that at about 1:30am there was banging on the doors on the 2nd floor. She got up and looked out because she thought it was at our door as well. She said that I didn't move. I woke up at 7:30am and got ready and I let Terri answer Mickey's wake up call.

We were out the door and to Magic Kingdom or should I say the TTC. We took the tram to the front and before we could get to the ferry or monorail we had to show only one Cast Member our ticket. Not too much of a back up. We took the express Monorail to Magic Kingdom. I like how you can also see the Wilderness Lodge from the monorail as well.

Magic Kingdom:

We arrived at Magic Kingdom just after opening which was 9am. We were early and we thought that we could go over to The Hall of Presidents before Erin made it. So we walked down Main Street U.S.A. Oops back up a minute. I forgot one major reason why we were meeting Erin. Erin lives in Michigan and goes to school. She is in hotel management and has come to Disney to be a Cast Member R.A. She will be here for 6 months. She drove down with another gal and arrived last Monday. She started to work right away. Erin's mom gave Terri a shoe box full of goodies for Erin, we were meeting to give her that box and also to have some fun.

Terri was carrying the shoe box, which had a bungee cord around it. Terri had to open it up and we said that we were meeting a Cast Member from back home. First stop was to get a locker and put it in because we didn't want to carry it around and didn't know how long we would be at Magic Kingdom. Six dollars later we are now on our way down Main Street U.S.A. and then over to Liberty Square. Hall of Presidents doesn't open until 10am, so that took care of that. We went for a little walk over to Splash Mountain and then came back via the trail by the water, which was nice and peaceful. We walked back over to the Partner's Statue and waited for Erin. It was a beautiful day and I sat out in the sun. I also took some pictures as well.

Erin was there by 10am, she said that she would have liked to have gotten there earlier but she had to transfer on a lot of buses. Erin asked if we had any plans, which we didn't. We started walking between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. She told us what she has been doing and today is her first real day off. She asked if we drove and we said yes. Our plan was to ride Space Mountain and then leave the park and go to Cast Connection. So we cut by the Speedway over to Space Mountain. I was never brave enough to go on this before. No wait what so ever, which was nice. The walk to the boarding area is surely a long walk and so is the exit. I was at the back. It was fun and wasn't scary at all. I am glad that I finally got to ride Space Mountain.

We left the park right after riding Space Mountain, and on the way out to the monorail and the car. We made our stop to the locker and get Erin's shoe box and got Terri's locker deposit back. Somewhere along the way to the car someone said leaving so soon. Made it to the car and we were off.

Once to the car Erin told me how to get to Cast Connection. Went in and found a place to park. This place is inside a wire compound with 2 areas. We walked up to the Cast Member who was letting people in. Erin asked if she could bring in two guests, he said okay. The first place we went to was outside under a big tent. It was divided into 2 sections. The first section that we went to was about 3 rows of tables end to end and they had plastic buckets on the tables. In these buckets were everything sold at the parks, most of them were broken and a lot of the items were from 2001. Some items that just didn’t sell in the park, because they had tons of these items, a little UK guy, and other various stuff. I found an Epcot passport; it was only missing the button. Everything in this first section was all 75% off. The other section was more or less lost and found items. Sunglasses, hats, camera cases, lens caps. You name it if it was lost in the park it was probably there. Terri got a camera case for $1.00. They even had a stroller for $20.00. I paid for my item and then we went into the other building, which was like a trailer but much bigger. In here everything was new, they had some pins, the 2000 Disney Store. Also a lanyard for 2001, I bought that. They had t-shirts, sweatshirts, and paper items. I looked at the Disney planner thought about getting one, but I use mine so I only got a notepad –Mickey Tablet for .99 cents. I also got a 6 pack of pens. They had some really nice stuff.

We were getting hungry and I don’t know who decided but we were going to now head over to the Wilderness Lodge for lunch. Erin worked at the Wilderness Lodge about 3 years ago, so she was thrilled that we would go there for lunch. I wanted to go anyways and check it out and this was the perfect time to do so.

Drove back to the Wilderness Lodge, and parked in the lot.

I took my camera in as well. Took a picture outside the lobby. Erin was really excited in seeing the place and she wanted to know if anyone would remember her. She knew a couple of the bellhops and they remembered her as well. She was so excited. She said that it was like coming home.

They had a pin cart in the lobby so I checked that out. Erin took us downstairs to Roaring Forks Snacks and I got a chicken wrap, French fries and a Wilderness Lodge 20oz refillable mug. It was a beautiful day so we went outside to eat. Terri got the chicken wrap as well and Erin got a pizza.

While we were eating a pair of ducks came by for a hand-out. They were cute, so they ate some French fries and pizza. Also one thing that I really liked about the Wilderness Lodge is that they have Cherry Coke. First place that had Cherry Coke so far. But I am totally glad that all of WDW is Coke products. Back to the Wilderness Lodge. After we ate and the ducks were fed, I filled up my mug again. We had some time before the Fire Rock Geyser would go off at 1pm. We went back inside and I made my first pin trade. I used my Disney Store pins, one was the Sleeping Beauty Castle 1955. The Cast Member told me that there was a lady who was just there who was looking for a pin that had 1955 on it. She said that she hopes that she comes back now.

We went into the Mercantile and checked that all out, a lot of neat stuff. I could have went nuts here. I did get a Wilderness Lodge t-shirt and a baseball cap. Erin used her Cast Member discount for me which was very nice.

Went back outside and walked around by the pool and stopped and waited and talked until 1pm when the Geyser would go off. The geyser started out spurting and finally started erupting. Both Terri and I took pictures. We were the only ones there until it started erupting and then all these people came from out of nowhere.

From there Erin needed to get back to her apartment, she is going out with a friend to car shop, and are meeting this friend at 2 pm. I told her that we would drive her back, since she took us all over the place today.

Once we dropped Erin off we decided that today would be our day for the resorts on the monorail tour.

Drove back and this time I parked at the Contemporary. We walked over to the entrance and then took the escalators up to the 2nd floor. We checked out the store in the Contemporary. A lot of nice stuff. They had a Pin Cart in the Concourse so I checked that out as well. At this pin cart I bought 3 more pins and then also traded one of my Disney Store pins for a Chef Mickey pin. This pin has a special meaning for me, the reason is that the Cast Member whose name was Theresa told us that she used to be a Chef Mickey at the restaurant. She told us a little of her secrets since no one was around. Checked out the pressed pennies. They had a Mickey Mouse so I got one of those, we took the escalator up to the monorail. I took a picture of Chef Mickey's restaurant. I have always wanted to stay at the Contemporary, maybe one day it will happen.

The monorail was there and we went to the Poly, it stopped first at the TTC and then to the Polynesian. We went outside, or downstairs first and then outside, walked by the pool. We found a swing on the beach and sat down and just enjoyed the view. We both agreed that we could stay here as well. We went back to the monorail station and waited for the next monorail.

On to the Grand Floridian, where we again went outside and checked the grounds. We walked around near the beach. I took a couple pictures of the Polynesian. I took a picture with a Grand Floridian sunfish sailboat.

We went back inside, Terri took the elevator and I went up the stairs. The shops we just glanced at, didn't go inside.

My conclusions of the Grand Floridian is that it is very beautiful, but it is some place where probably I would never be able to stay (the cost). The outside is very beautiful and I love the location to the Magic Kingdom and the monorail.

Got back on the monorail, stayed on when we got to the Magic Kingdom. Got off at the Contemporary. We went down the escalator and then out to ground level. From here we went out by the Marina. There were a couple of Mickey's, a topiary and a steel structure. Terri took my picture next to the Mickey topiary. Took a couple of pictures of both of them. We watched a couple people riding the water mouse.

Back at the Caribbean Beach Resort, we stopped at the Food Court and filled up our pop and to get the film back that we had developed the day before. I also got a bag of chips as well. The Cast Member in the Calypso Trading Post asked what we had planned this evening. I said to check out Boardwalk. He mentioned some places to eat.

Went back to the room and checked out the pictures. We didn't stay long at the room. The reason why we had the pictures developed is we wanted to make sure the photos from Kilimanjaro Safari's turned out. If they didn't we were going to go back and do that attraction again. Terri took the photos down yesterday.

Drove over to Boardwalk area where we parked and the walk to the Boardwalk. We walked around and just checked things out. Our first stop was the Pin Cart, look at the various pins. Terri wanted to trade her flex pin but never did. I was looking at the binder with all the tradable pins. I bought the Wilderness Lodge Totem pole pin. From there we wandered by The ESPN Sports Club and it was jammed, people outside watching the Tampa Bay Bucs football game, they had the tv. on the outside as well as people were standing in a very long line. The Flying Fish looked cool. We weren't hungry so we just kept walking around. We went near the Yacht and Beach Club, but then turned around and since we both bought our room key's we went to Epcot via the International Gateway and into World Showcase.

Went in through the International Gateway. It is a very pretty walk. In Epcot, in France the Living Statue was out and performing. That was good, there were too many people around so we really didn't stay there too long. It was really interesting to see. From there we skipped Morocco and went onto Japan. There we went into the store and looked around.

Walked to The American Adventure and went into the shop, I found a ruler near the Hall of Presidents that I thought that Billy(my nephew) would like and wanted to see if they had it there. They didn't have it, so I will get it when we go back to Magic Kingdom and the Hall of Presidents.

They announced that the Tapestry of Dreams parade was going to begin in 5 minutes. We didn't want to stay so we started back to Boardwalk.

Back over at Boardwalk we walked around to the other side where we came in. They had a bunch of scaffolding up and barriers so I didn't get to take many pictures of the boardwalk. While we were walking there was a surrey with 6 people on it that came flying by and the one woman in the back thought that she owned the road. As we were getting ready to leave I almost got ran over by the same group.

We went back to the Caribbean Beach Resort and stopped at the food court and got some dinner, refill the pop and then back to the room for the night.

Saturday, January 12, 2002 Cost

Cast Connection $2.64
Cast Connection $8.45

Wilderness Lodge
Roaring Forks Snacks $18.74
Chicken Wrap, FF and Large Souvenir Mug
Wilderness Lodge Mercantile $32.65
T-shirt and Baseball Cap

Contemporary Resort
Fantasia $23.32
4 Pins
Pressed Penny $.51
Mickey Mouse

Boardwalk
The Pin Cart $6.89

Caribbean Beach Resort
Calypso Trading Post
Photo C.D. $20.00
Potato Chips
Old Port Royale 2 $9.53
Fried Chicken Plate with Mashed potatoes and rice

Total Cost Day Three $122.73
Total Cost To Date $311.47

Day Four: More Park Hopping and Boma [img]graemlins/puter.gif[/img]

04-15-2002, 08:24 PM	#5 (permalink)
Mauimouse Community Rank: Traveler Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Mid-Michigan Posts: 383	Re: My First Trip Report with the Passporter Jan 2002 Photos Added Saturday, January 12, 2002: Magic Kingdom, Cast Connection, Wilderness Lodge, Contemporary Resort, Polynesian and Grand Floridian, Boardwalk and Epcot Mickey woke us up today at 7:45am. Today we are going to meet Erin Prescott, who is a friend of Terri's daughter-in-law, at the partner's statue at 10am. I slept like a log last night and didn't hear a thing. Terri said that at about 1:30am there was banging on the doors on the 2nd floor. She got up and looked out because she thought it was at our door as well. She said that I didn't move. I woke up at 7:30am and got ready and I let Terri answer Mickey's wake up call. We were out the door and to Magic Kingdom or should I say the TTC. We took the tram to the front and before we could get to the ferry or monorail we had to show only one Cast Member our ticket. Not too much of a back up. We took the express Monorail to Magic Kingdom. I like how you can also see the Wilderness Lodge from the monorail as well. Magic Kingdom: We arrived at Magic Kingdom just after opening which was 9am. We were early and we thought that we could go over to The Hall of Presidents before Erin made it. So we walked down Main Street U.S.A. Oops back up a minute. I forgot one major reason why we were meeting Erin. Erin lives in Michigan and goes to school. She is in hotel management and has come to Disney to be a Cast Member R.A. She will be here for 6 months. She drove down with another gal and arrived last Monday. She started to work right away. Erin's mom gave Terri a shoe box full of goodies for Erin, we were meeting to give her that box and also to have some fun. Terri was carrying the shoe box, which had a bungee cord around it. Terri had to open it up and we said that we were meeting a Cast Member from back home. First stop was to get a locker and put it in because we didn't want to carry it around and didn't know how long we would be at Magic Kingdom. Six dollars later we are now on our way down Main Street U.S.A. and then over to Liberty Square. Hall of Presidents doesn't open until 10am, so that took care of that. We went for a little walk over to Splash Mountain and then came back via the trail by the water, which was nice and peaceful. We walked back over to the Partner's Statue and waited for Erin. It was a beautiful day and I sat out in the sun. I also took some pictures as well. Erin was there by 10am, she said that she would have liked to have gotten there earlier but she had to transfer on a lot of buses. Erin asked if we had any plans, which we didn't. We started walking between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. She told us what she has been doing and today is her first real day off. She asked if we drove and we said yes. Our plan was to ride Space Mountain and then leave the park and go to Cast Connection. So we cut by the Speedway over to Space Mountain. I was never brave enough to go on this before. No wait what so ever, which was nice. The walk to the boarding area is surely a long walk and so is the exit. I was at the back. It was fun and wasn't scary at all. I am glad that I finally got to ride Space Mountain. We left the park right after riding Space Mountain, and on the way out to the monorail and the car. We made our stop to the locker and get Erin's shoe box and got Terri's locker deposit back. Somewhere along the way to the car someone said leaving so soon. Made it to the car and we were off. Once to the car Erin told me how to get to Cast Connection. Went in and found a place to park. This place is inside a wire compound with 2 areas. We walked up to the Cast Member who was letting people in. Erin asked if she could bring in two guests, he said okay. The first place we went to was outside under a big tent. It was divided into 2 sections. The first section that we went to was about 3 rows of tables end to end and they had plastic buckets on the tables. In these buckets were everything sold at the parks, most of them were broken and a lot of the items were from 2001. Some items that just didn’t sell in the park, because they had tons of these items, a little UK guy, and other various stuff. I found an Epcot passport; it was only missing the button. Everything in this first section was all 75% off. The other section was more or less lost and found items. Sunglasses, hats, camera cases, lens caps. You name it if it was lost in the park it was probably there. Terri got a camera case for $1.00. They even had a stroller for $20.00. I paid for my item and then we went into the other building, which was like a trailer but much bigger. In here everything was new, they had some pins, the 2000 Disney Store. Also a lanyard for 2001, I bought that. They had t-shirts, sweatshirts, and paper items. I looked at the Disney planner thought about getting one, but I use mine so I only got a notepad –Mickey Tablet for .99 cents. I also got a 6 pack of pens. They had some really nice stuff. We were getting hungry and I don’t know who decided but we were going to now head over to the Wilderness Lodge for lunch. Erin worked at the Wilderness Lodge about 3 years ago, so she was thrilled that we would go there for lunch. I wanted to go anyways and check it out and this was the perfect time to do so. Drove back to the Wilderness Lodge, and parked in the lot. I took my camera in as well. Took a picture outside the lobby. Erin was really excited in seeing the place and she wanted to know if anyone would remember her. She knew a couple of the bellhops and they remembered her as well. She was so excited. She said that it was like coming home. They had a pin cart in the lobby so I checked that out. Erin took us downstairs to Roaring Forks Snacks and I got a chicken wrap, French fries and a Wilderness Lodge 20oz refillable mug. It was a beautiful day so we went outside to eat. Terri got the chicken wrap as well and Erin got a pizza. While we were eating a pair of ducks came by for a hand-out. They were cute, so they ate some French fries and pizza. Also one thing that I really liked about the Wilderness Lodge is that they have Cherry Coke. First place that had Cherry Coke so far. But I am totally glad that all of WDW is Coke products. Back to the Wilderness Lodge. After we ate and the ducks were fed, I filled up my mug again. We had some time before the Fire Rock Geyser would go off at 1pm. We went back inside and I made my first pin trade. I used my Disney Store pins, one was the Sleeping Beauty Castle 1955. The Cast Member told me that there was a lady who was just there who was looking for a pin that had 1955 on it. She said that she hopes that she comes back now. We went into the Mercantile and checked that all out, a lot of neat stuff. I could have went nuts here. I did get a Wilderness Lodge t-shirt and a baseball cap. Erin used her Cast Member discount for me which was very nice. Went back outside and walked around by the pool and stopped and waited and talked until 1pm when the Geyser would go off. The geyser started out spurting and finally started erupting. Both Terri and I took pictures. We were the only ones there until it started erupting and then all these people came from out of nowhere. From there Erin needed to get back to her apartment, she is going out with a friend to car shop, and are meeting this friend at 2 pm. I told her that we would drive her back, since she took us all over the place today. Once we dropped Erin off we decided that today would be our day for the resorts on the monorail tour. Drove back and this time I parked at the Contemporary. We walked over to the entrance and then took the escalators up to the 2nd floor. We checked out the store in the Contemporary. A lot of nice stuff. They had a Pin Cart in the Concourse so I checked that out as well. At this pin cart I bought 3 more pins and then also traded one of my Disney Store pins for a Chef Mickey pin. This pin has a special meaning for me, the reason is that the Cast Member whose name was Theresa told us that she used to be a Chef Mickey at the restaurant. She told us a little of her secrets since no one was around. Checked out the pressed pennies. They had a Mickey Mouse so I got one of those, we took the escalator up to the monorail. I took a picture of Chef Mickey's restaurant. I have always wanted to stay at the Contemporary, maybe one day it will happen. The monorail was there and we went to the Poly, it stopped first at the TTC and then to the Polynesian. We went outside, or downstairs first and then outside, walked by the pool. We found a swing on the beach and sat down and just enjoyed the view. We both agreed that we could stay here as well. We went back to the monorail station and waited for the next monorail. On to the Grand Floridian, where we again went outside and checked the grounds. We walked around near the beach. I took a couple pictures of the Polynesian. I took a picture with a Grand Floridian sunfish sailboat. We went back inside, Terri took the elevator and I went up the stairs. The shops we just glanced at, didn't go inside. My conclusions of the Grand Floridian is that it is very beautiful, but it is some place where probably I would never be able to stay (the cost). The outside is very beautiful and I love the location to the Magic Kingdom and the monorail. Got back on the monorail, stayed on when we got to the Magic Kingdom. Got off at the Contemporary. We went down the escalator and then out to ground level. From here we went out by the Marina. There were a couple of Mickey's, a topiary and a steel structure. Terri took my picture next to the Mickey topiary. Took a couple of pictures of both of them. We watched a couple people riding the water mouse. Back at the Caribbean Beach Resort, we stopped at the Food Court and filled up our pop and to get the film back that we had developed the day before. I also got a bag of chips as well. The Cast Member in the Calypso Trading Post asked what we had planned this evening. I said to check out Boardwalk. He mentioned some places to eat. Went back to the room and checked out the pictures. We didn't stay long at the room. The reason why we had the pictures developed is we wanted to make sure the photos from Kilimanjaro Safari's turned out. If they didn't we were going to go back and do that attraction again. Terri took the photos down yesterday. Drove over to Boardwalk area where we parked and the walk to the Boardwalk. We walked around and just checked things out. Our first stop was the Pin Cart, look at the various pins. Terri wanted to trade her flex pin but never did. I was looking at the binder with all the tradable pins. I bought the Wilderness Lodge Totem pole pin. From there we wandered by The ESPN Sports Club and it was jammed, people outside watching the Tampa Bay Bucs football game, they had the tv. on the outside as well as people were standing in a very long line. The Flying Fish looked cool. We weren't hungry so we just kept walking around. We went near the Yacht and Beach Club, but then turned around and since we both bought our room key's we went to Epcot via the International Gateway and into World Showcase. Went in through the International Gateway. It is a very pretty walk. In Epcot, in France the Living Statue was out and performing. That was good, there were too many people around so we really didn't stay there too long. It was really interesting to see. From there we skipped Morocco and went onto Japan. There we went into the store and looked around. Walked to The American Adventure and went into the shop, I found a ruler near the Hall of Presidents that I thought that Billy(my nephew) would like and wanted to see if they had it there. They didn't have it, so I will get it when we go back to Magic Kingdom and the Hall of Presidents. They announced that the Tapestry of Dreams parade was going to begin in 5 minutes. We didn't want to stay so we started back to Boardwalk. Back over at Boardwalk we walked around to the other side where we came in. They had a bunch of scaffolding up and barriers so I didn't get to take many pictures of the boardwalk. While we were walking there was a surrey with 6 people on it that came flying by and the one woman in the back thought that she owned the road. As we were getting ready to leave I almost got ran over by the same group. We went back to the Caribbean Beach Resort and stopped at the food court and got some dinner, refill the pop and then back to the room for the night. Saturday, January 12, 2002 Cost Cast Connection $2.64 Cast Connection $8.45 Wilderness Lodge Roaring Forks Snacks $18.74 Chicken Wrap, FF and Large Souvenir Mug Wilderness Lodge Mercantile $32.65 T-shirt and Baseball Cap Contemporary Resort Fantasia $23.32 4 Pins Pressed Penny $.51 Mickey Mouse Boardwalk The Pin Cart $6.89 Caribbean Beach Resort Calypso Trading Post Photo C.D. $20.00 Potato Chips Old Port Royale 2 $9.53 Fried Chicken Plate with Mashed potatoes and rice Total Cost Day Three $122.73 Total Cost To Date $311.47 Day Four: More Park Hopping and Boma [img]graemlins/puter.gif[/img]