S&S Varney's Best Trip Ever!!! About This Page:

To give you a little background, my DH (Shawn) and I (Sara) have been married for three years. We honeymooned in Disney, staying at the Coronado, celebrated our first anniversary there, staying at Port Orleans and were there last week to celebrate our third anniversary. (We were supposed to go for our second but had to cancel when I got sick. )

Day One:

4:00 a.m. - Connecticut - The alarm goes off. Shawn shuts it off instantly because I don't think either of us really ever went to sleep! An hour later after watching the timer countdown to zero we are out the door.

8:50 a.m. - Mid Air somewhere over Atlanta - Our pilot oannounces that we will be landing approx a half hour, get this...EARLY!!! I think it was at this point that I began to believe we were in for something special.

9:50 a.m. - Our Florida Town Car driver, Mark, arrives and apologizes profusely for being "late". Actually, he wasn't late - we were early and Delta never updated the arrival time on the system. He brings our luggage out to a brand new white towncar and we're off!!

10:30 a.m. - Wilderness Lodge - After bidding au revoir to Mark, we enter the WL lobby. "Damn that's a big fireplace!", is Shawn's first response. Mine was much less eloquent - "Wow." The chandeliers were the next thing I noticed after the fireplace. They are huge replicas of tee-pees decorated with native american paintings. And when I say huge, I mean two or three stories huge!
We are met at the desk by Jackie, my new best friend . She welcomes us and takes our vouchers. Confirms our requests with us and explains that she has given us a king size bed room on the first floor on the North side. (facing the Magic Kingdom) I crack open my first (but definitely not last) cheesy grin of the trip and explain that the reason I asked for the North Side was so that we could maybe see the fireworks. Was there maybe a room higher up with queen beds? Ding, ding, ding, give that woman a prize! There sure was and she made the switch immediately AND it was ready. We finished checking in and brought our luggage up to the room.

Okay, first impression of the room was that it was small. Now don't quote me on this but I think our king size room at PO was bigger. The decoration was again Native American in origin and the furniture was very Frank Lloyd Wright-ish. (But so is our house so we loved it.) I was pleased but not blown away. UNTIL...I went out on the balcony and saw the view! We could see the Magic Kingdom through the trees and a great view of the Contemporary. However, if you look down all you saw was the loading dock and the smokehouse. My advice? Don't look down! The view of everything else is worth it!!!

12:00 p.m. - Lobby - At exactly noon, they ring a big bell and the loudest woman you've ever heard yells, "COME AND GET IT!!!!!". This lets you know that the Whispering Canyon is open for lunch. (Duh.) Now this day was actually Halloween so all the cm's were in costume. We were waited on by Suzan, the pillsbury dough girl. Remember her as she comes back later. The food was allright. We ate light as our next stop was going to be the Rock'n'Roller Coaster. Shawn had the Chicken tenders and I had the brewmyster burger. Nothing out of the ordinary.

12:30 p.m. - Bus - Our experiences with the bus system overall were very good but we avoided it whenever possible. There are many transportation options at WL and our favorite is the boat to the Cont or MK and the monorail from there to Epcot. More on that later...

To be continued.....

------------------
Celebrate the future...

[Dreamer]

How great your room was ready so early! Hope we have the same luck

------------------
Karen

Aug-85 off-site
Aug-97 0ff-site
GOT SMART
Nov-98 BWV W/Grandparent
Nov-00 BWV W/Grandparents

[mattjs]

Love this report. I'm back at the lodge and back at the World. Can't wait for more. Can't wait to read on.

[lynch610]

Sounds wonderful.
Waiting for more.

------------------
Connie

[wdwlovers]

Sounds good so far! Waiting patiently for more. I think we had the same first impression of WL too!

------------------
A dream is a wish your heart makes...
June 1991-stayed outside of Disney
Sept 1998-WL (honeymoon)
Dec 1-10, 2000-CBR

Sorry for the delay! I wrote out the whole next part yesterday but my cat was walking on my keyboard and erased the whole thing! I didn't have the heart to re-write it last night.

1:00 p.m. - MGM - We arrive at MGM after a short bus ride. Wilderness Lodge shares a bus with GF and Poly. WL being the first stop both ways. Upon arriving at MGM we hear directly for RnR, assuming we are going to have to FP it based on the crowds. I don't know what it is about MGM but it always looks packed. Surprise, surprise, there was only a 5 minute wait. ***WARNING*** For those of you who wear contact lenses, bring wetting drops!! This ride sucks every ounce of moisture out of your face! That said, I was quite nervous as I had never been on a ride that goes completely upside down before. However, I am pleased to report that the loop is so fast you barely notice it. In fact the ride is so fast you barely notice it! Well, that's an exagerration but it is a VERY short ride. It is also by far the best one either of us has ever been on. The only other thing I would warn you about is the volume factor. IT IS LOUD!!! Shawn wears hearing aids and could easily have heard every word just fine without them. Also, thanks to mattjs for the warning about having your head back before the ride takes off. You saved us some serious neck strain!

Having survived the ride our next stop was the cart selling water right outside the ride. Disney is no dummy when it comes to marketing and merchandising. You will definitely need that water. Next...off to the Animation Tour!

1:30 p.m. - Animation Tour - This is a great tour for people who really love Robin Williams and/or Disney Animation. Shawn rates this as "skippable" and for a shorter trip, I would agree. But if you are not on a timeframe this is a great chance to go behind the scenes and get a sneak peek at coming attractions. (Atlantis looks amazing!) Also, the conceptual drawings lining the queue are wonderful works of art in their own right.

2:00 p.m. - Star Tours - Okay, everybody who has a rabid Star Wars fan in their house raise their hands? Yeah, me too. (And by rabid, I mean asking for the $150 Millenium Falcon for X-mas and thinking there is an ice cube's chance that he will get it! Not that I'm talking about anyone specific... )
I had actually forgotten how well done this ride is. I had also forgotten how much I get thrown around on this and Body Wars!! As I am one of those biological anomalies who is tall but with short legs, my feet don;t touch the ground on these rides. Hence, mucho bruiso! Stretch over there had no such problems. (He's laughing at me as I write.)

3:00 p.m. - Muppetvision 3D - If you're wondering why it took us an hour to get 100 yards, let me just remind you that Star Tours dumps you out into a store. 'Nuf said.
I am a huge Muppet fan so this is a big favorite for me. (Bean Bunny is my favorite!) Try to spend as much time as possible in the pre-show area and read everything!! Toom any inside jokes to countI think this is far superior to HISTA (Honey, I shrunk the Audience). The in theatre effects really make it for me. And that's all I have to say about that! (Don't want to spoil it.)

From here we walked up the New York Street Scene. Look for the Singin in the Rain umbrella for a really great photo op.

4:45 p.m. - Mama Melrose's - This brings us to our first negative experience of the trip. Now living in the Northeast, we are blessed with access to great international cuisine, so I was somewhat unimpressed with Mama's food. Also, this is the noisiest restaurant we encountered at WDW. We had reserved the Fantasmic Dinner Package but after this dinner we could not face any more crowds and headed back to the WL.

6:30 p.m. - WL - Back at the room, we were greeted by a chilled bottle of champagne and toasting flutes accompanied by a card congratulating us from the staff of WL! We decided to hit the pool and hot tub and return for champagne and fireworks. (The ones over the MK that is )

The pool unfortunately had been temporarily closed due to a ph problem but the hot tubs were open. Felt great but not particularly romantic due to the small children using them as swimming pools! We stopped at Roaring Forks on the way back to the room and bought mugs. These paid for them selves in no time and are a great investment.

9:00 p.m. - After drying off and loading my camera, we adjourned to the balcomy where Shawn had a glass of champagne while we waited for the fireworks. All I can say, is that I cried thru the whole show practically. We had an amazing view and hopefully got some good shots although I haven't gotten any developed yet. A magical ending to a magical first day. Tomorrow...Magic Kingdom!!!

10:30 - WL Boat Launch - We slept in this morning then headed for the boat launch. Shawn had never been on the monorail so we took the boat to the Contemporary. At the Contemporary, we asked the monorail attendant if we could ride up front (insert big cheesy grin here ) since it was his first time, etc. Turned out to be no problem. We shared the space with two of the most charming kids I have ever met. A girl about 13 (usually not a great age) and her 6 year old sister still wearing her Minnie Mouse costume. They were too cute and chattered away the whole ride to the Magic Kingdom. We were given Co-pilot's licenses and hopped off at MK.

11:00 - Main Street, U.S.A. - Our first stop was the Kodak picture center to wander around. There are some cute photo op's that are rarely visited in the back. From there we headed for the Barber shop. When Ivan the Barber saw I was taking a picture of Shawn getting his hair cut, he whipped out a big Mickey bib, huge Red plastic scissors and a pooh bear to hold behind Shawn's head. Too cute!! I then left him there and told him to meet me at CRT when he was done as we had 12:00 PS's. I then went directly to the Sports Shop to buy Shawn a t-shirt as this was the actual day of our anniversary and I hadn't gotten him anything. Then I sprinted to the Castle. The PLAN was to give the t-shirt to the hostess and ask her to surprise him with it during lunch. Unfortunately, as I got to the check-in counter and said the word "Anniversary", Shawn walked up behind me. (Damn that was a fast haircut!) So the surprise was ruined. We then waited for our table and when we were called upstairs didn't even look at the card. We handed the card to the gentleman at the top and he led us across the room towards the windows. Now I have never sat that close to the windows and had always wanted to but I saw that the table I was hoping he was going to right next to the window was decorated for a special occasion with Mickey Confetti (which I quickly dubbed Mickey-fetti) and streamers. Imagine my shock when it turned out to be for us!!!! I sputtered for a minute and asked how they knew, he winked and said "Magic." Then I looked at the card and realized "anniversary" was written in big letters on it. Ah-hah! After a wonderful lunch of Major Domo's pie (Prime Rib and mashed potatoes in a cabernet sauce in a puff pastry shell) we asked for the check. Well, when our waitress brought it she also brought a white gift box with a Cinderella sticker on it. Again with the sputtering, I opened it and found 2 beautiful etched toasting flutes with the CRT logo on them. Well, at this point I lost it and started crying! (Okay, I'll admit it. I'm crying again just remembering.) I cannot believe how many people went out of their way to make our stay so special. And hang on folks there is more to come in the coming days!!

1:00 p.m. - Fantasyland - After I recovered, we headed for Winnie-the-Pooh. Here we encountered our first line. 45 minutes!!! Needless to say we got our first fastpasses of the trip and headed for Tomorrowland. Now keep in mind that we are now toting around these flutes. We decide to go on Space Mountain. No line again. When the line splits we wnet left. For those of you who don;t know, SM has two different tracks. They are not exactly the same ride. I think the one to the right has a lot more dips but Shawn insists it is just "jerk-ier".

I love this ride but I was a little afraid that after RnR it wouldn't hold up. No problem! It's really apples and oranges. SM's stregth is in the darkness and closeness of the surroundings. Now, I spent this ride hanging on to the box with the flutes for dear life! Immediately upon exiting I insisted we go back to Main Street and get a locker! Lockers are $5 a day, $2 of which you get back when you return the key. A little pricey but worth it in this case.

I have to go watch the election results now. I hope everyone voted! (I'm from CT so I'm a little biased.) Next up...MK part 2 and Buffalo, Ostrich and Salmon, Oh My!!

[mbgold]

savarney,

We are staying at WL in December and I would love to have a view of the castle, what room did you stay in? Thanks.



------------------
mbgold

The voew of the castle was really through the trees but the view of the firewirks and Contemporary was amazing. It was room 6046 and had 2 queen beds. Hope this helps!

[mbgold]

Yes, this helps very much!!! Can't wait to read the rest of your report. Thank you so much.

------------------
mbgold

[Disnygirl]

Oh sigh,
Your trip report makes me lonesome for Disney, especially since you stayed at my favorite resort. Thanks for the report, it is bringing back terrific memories!

Disnygirl

When last we saw our heroes....

From the lockers we headed up Main Street and towards Adventureland. We decided to stop at the Swiss Family Treehouse. This, as far as we are concerned, is definitely skippable even with kids. You aren't allowed actually in any of the rooms and there is a lot of climbing involved. Personally, I think this exhibit would make a great Tarzan playground.

Next stop, Jungle Cruise which had just re-opened. Did not see a single difference. This is a cute ride and depending on your guide can be down right funny. Our guide this time was not that funny but he thought he was!

2:45 p.m. - We stopped in Caribbean Plaza for a Mickey Bar (me) and a juice bar (Shawn). He is not a big Ice Cream freak. Can you believe I married this guy? Anyway, we decided to skip Pirates of the Caribbean because we were dying to get to Splash Mountain and the parade was minutes away. We knew if we timed it right we could hit SM, BTMRR and HM while the parade was going. Sure enough, no real line at SM and we got a great view of the parade from the ride! I was truly saddened to hear this past weekend to hear of the tragedy surrounding this ride. However, for the record, from what I understand there was nothing that Disney could have done to prevent this occurence and they are working hard to find out what happened.

On a continued sad note, we arrived at BTMRR soaking wet only to be told that it had closed an hour earlier for the next three weeks to install safety gates. Wah!
So we headed over to Liberty Square and to the HM. Once again, after a minimal wait during which a CM walked the queue intoning, "please fill in all the dead space", we were ushered into the Stretch room. We had checked out www.doombuggies.com prior to our arrival and were ready to look for insider jokes and references, we were not disappointed! I won't spoil anything for you but if you enjoy this ride I would highly recommend the site.

3:45 p.m. - By now it was time for our Winnie-the-Pooh FP. The system really works on this ride. There was an hour wait in the stand-by line and one person in the FP line. However, I am not sure for the reason of this attractions popularity. And I am a huge pooh fan!! I did enjoy the picture of Mr. Toad giving Owl the deed to the property and the tigger room but I thought the rest was fairly boring. (My 5 year old niece apparently agrees.) My favorite part was the Pooh store at the end.

Our next stop was Mickey's Toon Town Fair and we were here for one reason only - Goofy's Barnstormer. This is a great ride!! It is less than a minute long but very well themed and with some great speed (or at least the illusion of speed.) This is a wonderful way to introduce kids to rollercoasters. (As well as those grown-ups who are not so sure! )This is a not-to-be-missed attraction for us.

4:15 p.m. - Tomorrowland - Back in this land we headed for TimeKeeper. The next show was starting in 15 minutes so we checked out the line for Buzz Lightyear. 5 minutes so we hit it! This is one of Shawn's favorite's. Toy Story 1 & 2 are his favortie movies and he ususally scores really well on this ride. I, on the other hand, do not. I keep getting his beam mixed up with mine on the target!!

Back to the Timekeeper. Boy was I happy. Robin Williams twice in 2 days! Neither of us had seen this attraction before so we had no idea what to expect. We both loved it and deemed it a new classic. It is a 360 degree movie and can be quite disorienting at times particularly when the character is flying. This is where I told Shawn he coudl find me the next time he goes on AE as it is right next door. (We skipped AE this trip. I have done this ride twice and will never do it again as long as I live. You know how they say never say never? NEVER!)

We decide to ride SM once more sans flutes and take the right hand fork this time. I was in the front car for both rides and this is definitely the wilder of the 2. Ride both and see for yourself.

5:30 p.m. - As we had 7:00 p.m. reservations at Artist Point we decided to hop the boat launch back to WL. The sun was setting and this is the perfect way to see it.

Artists Point is whole report unto itself and I need Shawn's input on this so I will write about it tomorrow. (We are still exhausted from staying up watching the returns last night. But as Star Jones said today on The View, "It ain't over 'til the Fat Lady sings and I can't carry a tune!!")

More tomorrow!!!

[lynch610]

Fantastic Report!!!

------------------
Connie

7:00 p.m. - Artist Point

We had a few minutes before our reservations so we went on a Hidden Mickey hunt. There are over four total in AP and surrounding areas. When the hostess appeared to escort us to our table, she brought us to a table in the center of the first room and informed us that our server would be Johnny. Little did we know that this was the famous Johnny Rosa. We sang his praises for days only to come home and read all about him in this weeks wdwig newsletter!

Johnny arrived at our table bearing 2 flutes again with the champagne and congratulated us on our anniversary. This time I got up the courage to request ginger ale instead as I can't drink champagne. Without batting an eye Johnny replaced my champagne in no time flat. He suggested the Chilled Taster Platter as an appetizer and we agreed. We decided to taste this before ordering our entrees. While waiting for our appetizer we had a chance to take in the ambience of AP. Soaring ceilings and wood trim make this one of the largest feeling restaurants we've been to. On our floor (6th floor, north wing) there are actually 2 AP lookouts that look down into the restaurant. Our appetizer arrived consisting of a small portion of salmon with pesto, buffalo, ostrich and halibut. Everything was wonderful although the ostrich was a little game-y tasting for me. This was exactly what Shawn liked about it though - Chacun a son gout! (To each his own or something like that.) The halibut was wonderful and not too fishy. The buffalo was wonderful and that is what I decided to order. I figured if it was that good cold I couldn;t wait to taste it hot! Around this time Johnny also brought the breads. Two types - a sourdough and a wholegrain along with butter, carmelized onion butter and roast garlic. Needless to say, neither of us even touched the regular butter! Shawn had decided to order the pork loin and when our meals arrived we were in heaven. I cannot say enough about Johnny and his attentiveness. It was as if Central casting had sent a waiter from a 40's movie! My Buffalo was phenominal, subtly flavored. Similar in taste to a filet mignon but a larger, thinner cut with much less fat. Shawn says his pork was the best he has ever had and that is saying a lot as he orders this whenever possible!! A week later he is standing behind me drooling at the thought of it. (No kidding. Now he's pouting and wants to know when we go back. God help me.)
My entree was served with a kind of broiled squash which was to die for! And I don't even like squash! After dinner we were convinced by Johnny to have dessert, which basically consisted of him walking by to serve someone else dessert. I ordered the triple chocolate cheesecake and Shawn had the apple tart with cinnamon ice cream. I immediately tried to convince him to switch. While my cake was good it was nothing compared with that ice cream! Shawn finished his and half of mine. After thanking Johnny for an extraordinary dinner, we staggered upstairs.

When we returned to the room there was a vm from Shawn's parent who had just arrived at SoG to join us for the last 2 1/2 days. We called them to arrange to meet the next morning at 8:30 am at AK and headed to the beach to watch the EWP.

We were afraid that we had missed part of it because when we got down there it had already begun and ended shortly thereafter but it turns out it is a really short show. Neat though. Back upstairs to sleep off our meal! We asked Mickey for wake-up call because we had 8:00a.m. PS at RC at AK (FYI, the meal was BYOB, UC? Just kidding, I couldn't resist throwing in a few more abbreviations! )

Almost time for ER so to be continued!!! Tomorrow, AK and why Shawn was soaked for hours!!!

Sorry for the delay! However, over the weekend we got most of our pictures developed. We got some great shots but we now wish we had a camera with a stronger zoom lens.

Anyway...Mickey woke us quite early the next day and after dressing and much slathering of sunscreen we headed for the bus stop for Animal Kingdom. Upon arrival at AK we walked quickly over to RC and were the first people in line. Now we have an RC in our local mall so our first question to our waitress was could we use our buy one entree get one free coupon for Breakfast? Happily the answer was yes!! The food is decent, I had whatever the scrambled eggs breakfast is called and Shawn had the French Toast with bananas and strawberry's. This meal is huge!!! We ate quickly as we were meeting Shawn's parent just inside the park at 8:30.

8:30 a.m. - We greet Judy and Dennis, Shawn's parents who are experiencing in their first visit to WDW in 20 years! We decide to head straight for the Safari (as does everyone else in the park). Now normally, I walk something close to mach speed but Judy is not a fast walker so I tried to slow to a crawl (speed walk for the rest of the world). I don't think I was very successful! But when we did get to the Safari it was only a 10 minute wait. Thus began the picture taking frenzy! I love animals and was determined to get as many photos as humanly possible starting with the folks in my party. Shawn was standing by with new rolls of film and can I just say? Drop in loading is the best photographic invention ever!! We were in the last row of the bus which is not the best seat for pictures but occasionally you can het a good shot out the back. There seemed to be less animals active than our last ride 2 years earlier at the same time. Few giraffes, one lioness and a lot of antelope. However, I did manage take a roll and half on this alone. Upon exiting we took the Pangani Exploration Trail to see the Gorilla's. None of my photos of the Meerkats (Timon from the Lion King)had come out last time for unknown reasons so I was a woman on a mission. I regret to report I came up with only one photo this time and the little guy is really well camoflaged. Again, this is where I really missed the strong zoom. Next, on to Asia! (Right after buying some water and fresh fruit. Actually, after my sneaky MIL bought water and fresh fruit. I love the woman to death but getting a check or anything even vaguely like it requires Marion Jones-like speed!)

9:15 am - Asia - First stop-Kali River Rapids. This is where Judy said "I'll see you later!" and headed for a group of tables and chairs. We loaded her down with bags, water bottles, etc. ("Who needs lockers?", says Shawn."We've got Mom!") Again, no wait and we were loading. Okay, now for the details of where we were sitting. Pay attention this is CRUCIAL! If you are entering the boat at 6:00 on a dial, Dennis was at 11:00, Shawn 10:00 and me 9:00 with an entry space in between me and Shawn. When we got out of the boat we noticed that the boats end up the same way every time. I was not so impressed with the ride. It is a rather gentle flume except for one short drop. However - you do get wet!!! Unless you are Shawn in which case you practically drown!!! He says his clothes are still drying. The worst part for me is I got hit by BOTH elephants. Literally, three hours later Shawn was still quite damp. We collected our things (and our mother) and started down the Maharajeh Jungle Trek.

10:15 pm - Tigers, Tigers and more Tigers - The felines are defintiely the hit of this trail although we may be a little biased being the owner of 4 cats. (One of whom looks suspiciously like one of the tigers we saw. Hmmm, he was stray...) There are many different spots to see and photograph the animals. We felt this was defintiely the better themed of the two trails with the ruins, etc. Judy and I skipped the bats and them promptly discovered that you walked right by them once out the other side. For some reason, they were a lot less scary viewing them outdoors. They are huge! The flying foxes are literally that. Fox sized rodents with wings. Not my idea of a good time, so when the guys rejoined us we continued.

11:00 - We decided to see the 11:45 Tarzan Rocks! so we got in line. WARNING! This show is really loud!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you have children (or sensitive adults) and really have to see this show bring earplugs. I can't tell you how many kids we saw leave holding there ears 2 seconds in. The show is okay, Basically a concert of the soundtrack with some rollerbladers and Tarzan and Jane make a brief appearance and do some cool vine swinging. I wish we had gone to see the Lion King because once we got out of this show (which took a while, the theater holds a lot of people and was packed), we just couldn't face another crowd or any more noise. We checked Dinosaur but the wait was too long and the FP time was after we would have left the park. We decided to go back to WL for lunch. We wanted Judy and Dennis to see the Lodge and we really were ready to get out of the park. I find that my limit in that Park is only a half day. It is always the busiest and hottest.

1:00 pm - WCC - We were shown to our table and informed that Suzan was to be our server. Oh joy. I don't know if you remember but this was the Pillsbury Dough Girl from our first day. She was still obnoxious. However my father in law got a huge kick out of her as he enjoys this type of humor. (Sarcastic that is. I can't complain, I love it too, just not in my waitstaff.) Shawn decided to go for the All you can eat BBQ, Dennis had a huge Club Sandwich and Judy and I got Brewmyster burgers. I think this is the best burger I have found in WDW, just be warned that they come well done unless otherwise requested.

After lunch, we walked around the resort and caught the geyser going off. Luckily we knew where to stand to not get wet. As it was, Shawn still wasn't dry from this morning! Dennis and Judy decided to catch the boat somewhere and we headed back to our room for a nap as we had 9:00 seats for Cirque du Soleil.

5:00 pm - Mickey wakes us up again and we shower and dress for Downtown Disney. We received a coupon for PS at Bongos with our CDS tickets but we plan to stop at HOB and see if there are any seats in the Voodoo Garden. Once again, the restaurant gods are with us and we seat ourselves outdoors in the beautiful VG. It is a beautiful, balmy night and this is a really romantic spot due to the lighting, etc. I started with a Caesar Salad and then I had the Shrimp and Crawfish Etoufee and Shawn had (again) the prok loin. Mine was out of this world!!! Spicy and with huge chunks of Crawfish which I had learned to love during our last visit at Bonfamilles. ( Which I am sad to say is no longer with us and is the sole reason we did not stay at PO this trip.) Shawn's was decent but after AP's pork he had gotten spoiled. I'm not sure it's a fair comaparison. The mashed potatoes on the side were eye-rolling good however. We decided to skip dessert in order to get in some shopping before checking in for CDS.

CDS deserves it's own report and we promise to post it tomorrow night barring any thrilling election news (Yeah right!). Night!


------------------
Celebrate the future...