[Steve Russo]

October 30 - November 4, 2004
Participants
· Me - Steve, Disney fanatic and DVC member. Aging like fine wine. As my wife says, “Men are like fine wine. They start out as grapes, and it's up to the women to stomp the crap out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.” That’s me.

· Barb – my bride of almost 32 years (Unfortunately, that’s not her age. Just the number of years we’ve been married). Aspiring Disney fanatic – she’s learning.

· The Goergens (Wayne & Sue) – Our long-time friends and fellow Disney vets and DVC members.

· Appearances by Kristen (Sue and Wayne’s daughter) and her boyfriend, Matt

Caribbean Beach Resort (1 night) & Boardwalk Villas Resort (4 nights).

Planning
Yeah, we’re going to do it again. The four of us had taken a 2002 trip for the Food & Wine Festival (F&W) and had a great time – successfully navigating several trips around World Showcase (WS) without staggering into kiosks, falling into the lagoon or otherwise piquing the interest of the Disney police. We never even needed the bail money that Sue and Wayne’s son had offered.

For those that have written multiple Trip Reports: How the hell do you keep them fresh? I’m only writing the Planning section here but I’m already trying to overcome the compulsion to explain in graphic detail how we secured flights, rooms, etc. Sheesh! That even bores me. However, I do admit that planning a WDW trip is my favorite thing.
Let’s suffice it to say that, after Barb and I returned from a December 2003 trip, we checked with Sue and Wayne on their interest. It took them 14 nanoseconds to decide that they were in. We booked our respective studios at the BWVR, our DVC home. Later, we booked flights on Southwest ($247 each) and Sue secured our Tiffany Town Car reservations.
In late spring we learned that Sue and Wayne’s daughter Kristin, and her boyfriend Matt, would be taking a trip spanning our dates and staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR). While they maintain this will be an independent trip, our collective children have always looked to us as their WDW Tour Guides (and usually as their financial backing as well) so I’m certain we’ll run into Kristen and Matt on several occasions.

Sue asked if we were interested in attending Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) on Halloween night. I had read a number of mixed reviews and wasn’t so sure it would be something we’d enjoy. In the end, we figured it was something we’d never done before so we might as well take advantage of the opportunity. Sue called in June and got us 4 tickets for October 31, Halloween night ($139 for 4). We learned later that Kristen and Matt had also purchased tickets so they’d be coming with us.

As often happens, we started to question our decision to travel down on Sunday. After all, why spend a cold Saturday raking leaves in the Northeast when you could be cruising the kiosks at Epcot – drinking something you can’t spell and eating something you can’t pronounce? We decided to travel down on Saturday, October 30, and spend one night at a to-be-determined WDW resort, basing our resort decision on prices when the AP rates were announced.

In August, I received an email from Disney with reduced rates for Value ($54) and Moderate ($79) resorts. We booked 2 rooms at the CBR for October 30 at a rate of $79. Barb upgraded them to Kings for an additional $15 per room. She also tried for a PS at the Liberty Tree for Halloween night but there was nothing to be had. We had hoped to have dinner there and then hang out until the start of the MNSSHP. I guess we’ll have to play that by ear – maybe Tony’s or the Crystal Palace?

We have no PSs, which is actually our normal MO. We typically decide on a restaurant based on how we feel at that time – not 90 days previous – and we don’t normally have problems getting seated on a spur-of-the-moment basis at WDW restaurants. Then again, we usually visit in off-peak times. We’ll see if this works.

What are our goals for this trip? Not much, really. Relax and have a good time which we always do at WDW. I’m sure we’ll spend ample time at the F&W Festival, sampling whatever looks good. We’ll probably visit all 4 parks although there should be nothing new for us since our last trips in December/January – unless we can take part in the soft opening for Stitch. We found out recently that the AP preview for Stitch begins on November 5 – the day after we leave. We absolutely never get lucky on this stuff. I do want to experience those things that were new on our last trip that we only had a chance to do once – Mission: Space, Mickey’s Philharmagic and Wishes.

One more change I’m planning is in the rating system. In my TR for the 2002 F&W trip, I neglected to keep copious notes on the prices at the Festival – essentially telling you all that everything cost $28. In fact, most items were considerably more – about $100. I also, for the sake of convenience (mine, not yours), did a less-than-inspiring job rating the many tasty and exotic food samplings at the Festival. Being the lazy slug that I am, I simply told you if something was good or not (excepting the chocolate truffles in France that were, quite possibly, the best thing I had ever eaten. Especially, when accompanied by Remy Martin VSOP Cognac.) This time around, things will be much different. I shall endeavor to provide you accurate pricing on all items, giving you, my faithful readers, the opportunity to judge for yourselves exactly how much Disney is ripping us off. On the tasting side, I have carefully charted out metrics that will allow me to accurately convey the quality of everything sampled, using a scale of 1-10 with ‘10’ representing a chocolate truffle (the truffle is actually closer to a 12) and ‘1’ being, oh, something like sea urchin wrapped in monkey bladder. Get the picture? I’ll attempt, where appropriate, to get evaluations from my traveling companions as well. You lucky readers, you!

We spent the last week before departure getting things cleaned up at work and making sure the house would sustain Stephen (or son) and Gunnar (our dog) in our absence. That typically involves about $3500 in groceries – none of which require cooking. Stephen’s sisters (Michelle and Stephanie) will be looking in and helping out as needed.
Planning
We made a few last minute trips to Wal-Mart for the odds and ends that you always forget until the last minute. On Friday night, we packed up the suitcases and loaded them in the car. We’re ready.