The Clark Family's Trip Report About This Page:

[JulieClark]

Participants:
Julie (33) Homeschool Mom and Trip Planner; 3rd trip to WDW
Darren (33) Software Engineer;2nd trip to WDW
David (9) Basketball-playing Legomaniac who can get overwhelmed easily...Will he survive his first trip to WDW?
Abigail (7 1/2) Enthusiastic drama queen who can't stop jumping up and down about her 1st trip to WDW

Dates: September 2-8
Lodging: Wilderness Lodge

Day 1: September 2, 1st day of travel
We drove the 4 hours from Chico, CA, down to San Francisco to stay in a hotel by the airport. We had a special deal in which we can keep our car at the hotel free of charge for the duration of our trip to WDW. We ordered pizza delivery for dinner with extra plates and napkins, and they delivered without so much as a single napkin so we ate it using washcloths and hand towels! We went to bed early, due to our 4am! wakeup call.

September 3: Travel Day 2-the things us small town West-Coasters do in our pursuit of WDW!
We caught the shuttle to the airport at 4:30am. We were surprised by being seated in business class with more room than we know what to do with...not a bad deal for $133 round trip tickets! We changed planes in Dallas, and landed in Orlando at 4:15pm. We came down the escalator to baggage claim to find our driver holding a sign with our name, and the 5 of us go off to find the baggage claim. After looking at the driver's sign again, I realized he was from Florida Towncar Service, who my husband had originally booked with then cancelled after I advised his to go with Tiffany Towcar instead. After an awkward moment, he quickly left and we found Gregory, our Tiffany Towncar driver. He is very personable and immediately whisked us off to Kash and Karry supermarket. We spent $50 on various breakfast foods, snacks, and drinks. We pulled into the Wilderness Lodge at approximately 5:30pm. As I entered the lobby, I am rendered speechless by the immense beauty. We easily checked in and headed up to our room with bunkbeds. After doing a bit of unpacking, we headed down to Roaring Forks and bought our refillable mugs (16 oz. for $8.29). The dinner there was fairly good. We spent an hour looking around the hotel and grounds, amazed at the lush surroundings. We went swimming and all four enjoy the rock water slide. We fell asleep to Toon Disney.

September 4: Epcot
Our phone call from Mickey woke us up at 7:06am. We quickly ate breakfast in the room and go out to wait for our bus to Epcot. One immediately came for the TTC, and the transportation specialist ( a cast member on duty til 2:30pm to advise on the best buses to take) put us on it. What fun to arrive at Epcot on the monorail and be treated to a tour around the park! We entered without a problem and head straight for Test Track. After a mere 7 minute wait, we all had the time of our lives riding it! After getting off, we got Fastpasses to go on it again between 10:30 and 11:30. We went back to ride Spaceship Earth. We played around at Innoventions East and West for a short while. My kids loved playing Toon Tag and still consider this one of the highlights of the trip. We enjoyed tasting the different sodas at Ice Station Cool. Our favorites were the lemon one from Israel and the watermelon one from China. We watched Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, and realize upon exiting that we had 7 minutes to get back to Test Track for our Fastpass so we sped over there and ride again. We then purchased a passport and entered World Showcase. Mexico was pleasant, and we found the cast members exceptionally friendly. The highlight of Norway for the kids was playing on the Viking ship, but they were really beginning to wear out. We trudged through Italy, Germany, China, and America, getting our passport stamped and signed at each location. We watched the American Adventure, which I thoroughly enjoy, and my daughter fell asleep. We caught a boat back to the front of World Showcase and went into the Land, looking for something to eat. We were very pleasantly surprised byt he food court area there. I got a huge chicken fajita basked potato and both kids got Mickeyroni and Cheese kids meals all for a grand total of $11.66! We were full and happy. We then saw Food Rocks, rode Living with the Land, and saw the Circle of Life before heading back to the hotel. On the bus ride back, the rain began, complete with thunder and lightning. When we came back to our hotel room, we discovered that housekeeping had made a canoe out of a bathtowel and some plastic wrap for Abigail's dolls! We relaxed at the hotel for 2 hours or so before going back to Epcot for Illuminations. Before Illuminations started, we were able to go on the Living Seas, and I was able to take Abigail to the remaining countries in World Showcase to get her passport stamped and signed while the guys saved our place for Illuminations. We got back just as it was beginning. It was just beautiful! Exhausted, we rode back to the hotel and soon are in Dreamland.

September 5: MGM Studios
The kids have a hard time rising early this morning until I reminded David that we get to ride Star Tours today. After breakfast in the room, we caught the bus to MGM and move towards Star Tours after Abigail had a quick cuddle with Eeyore. On the way to Star Tours, we made a 2:30 PS for Prime Time Diner. We rode Star Tours twice before heading over to the Rock and Roller Coaster. Both kids were just tall enough--3 different cast members measured Abigail--and were a bit tentative about riding it. This ride was my biggest adrenaline rush during our entire stay. What fun! All four of us enjoyed it, but the kids didn't want to ride again. We wandered around Mickey Avenue before watching Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, so remarkable like the real thing. The kids played at Honey, I Shrunk the Kids while we relaxed. We then saw Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and Muppetvision before going to our PS at Prime Time. We had a blast there with Big Sister Kristyn. The food was mediocre but the atmosphere was top notch. I got in trouble for tattling that Darren had spilt his milkshake. We then went back to hotel for an evening of swimming and relaxing. We were determined to not wear ourselves out on this trip and to genuinely enjoy each other, which doesn't normally happen if we get overtired!

September 6: Magic Kingdom, Downtown Disney
Each day became easier to get up! After eating, we caught the boat to Magic Kingdom to enter at 8am. We rode Pater Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and the Mad Tea Party before heading to Tomorrowland to do the Indy Speedway, Buzz Ligthyear's Space Ranger Spin (3 times in a row!), and Tomorrowland Transit Authority. The kids wanted to skip Space Mountain, so we went to big Thunder Mountain. It was a bit scary for my daughter, and she was extremely hesitant about riding Splash Mountain, but loved it after she did it. We took the raft to Tom Sawyer Island and played around there for quite a while. After riding Pirates of the Caribbean the Haunted Mansion, we enjoyed a yummy lunch at Columbia Harbor House. We then went on the Jungle Cruise and the Enchanted Tiki Room before taking the Railroad to Toontown Fair. We found ti quite small and crowded but did love Goofy's Barstormer, riding it three times in a row. We decided to go back to hotel and go to Blizzard Beach for the afternoon. The clouds were beginning to look ominous, and we figured we'd better do it soon. We weren't quite quick enough, as they closed it for thunder and lightning just as we got to the gate. The rain began to pour then too. We tried to play miniature golf at Winter Summerland, but they were closed as well. We waited there for over an hour, hoping the storm would pass, but it didn't so we gave up and went back to the hotel. We ate a marvelous dinner at Whispering Canyon then headed to Downtown Disney and Disneyquest. We enjoyed the bottom floor of Disneyquest, the Explore Zone, riding on Aladdin's Magic Carpets, the Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the Caribbean. The longer we spent at DisneyQuest, the louder it got and the more uncomfortable we became. We browsed the shops at Downtown Disney, buying a couple of souvenirs before catching a bus back to the hotel.

September 7: Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Winter Summerland, MGM Studios, Electrical Water Pageant

We arrived at Animal Kingdom by 8:15 and went to Camp Minnie Mickey to have Abigail's picture taken with Mickey, only to find out that the character trails don't open til 9. We then went to Kilimanjaro Safaris and had a great ride, seeing many animals including a lioness magestically perched atop a rock. We went on the Pagani Forest Exploration Trail and to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We saw It's Tough to Be a Bug, which was the first attraction of our trip to scare my daughter so much that she was shaking and crying. We admired the Tree of Life then headed to the Boneyard for some much needed recovery time for her. We topped off our day with the Festival of the Lion King Show. This show was my all-time favorite for the trip, absolutely breathtaking! We headed off to Blizzrd Beach and had a fabulous afternoon. We especially enjoyed Teamboat Springs, Cross Country Creek, and the Ski Patrol Training Camp. Winter Summerland was the perfect ability level for the kids and nicely themed. We caught the bus back to Wildnerness Lodge, cleaned up, had dinner, and rode back to MGM Studios to ride Star Tours and the Great Movie Ride before watching Fantasmic. Abigail was a little nervous about Fantasmic, still coming down off her fear from It's Tough to Be a Bug, so we left halfway through, getting a bus back to Wilderness Lodge all to ourselves. We were back in time for the very fun and cute Electrical Water Pageant.

September 8: Epcot and Checkout
We woke up a bit sad to be "leaving the magic." We were a bit slow to start the day, packing up everything and getting it stored with Bell Services. Gregory from Tiffany Towncar was due to pick us up at 5pm. We gave the kids the option to go back to any park they liked, and we were astonished when they chose Epcot. We rode Test Track first.We looked a little more around World Showcase and met the character bus, a perfect way to get pictures with all the characters. We then rode Universe of Energy before exploring more in Innoventions. We came out to find that it was pouring rain in huge drops. We ran to Body Wars then ate lunch before returning to see the rest of the Wonders of Life Pavilion. We dashed to Spaceship Earth and rode it once before exiting. We came back to the hotel and sipped hot chocolate from our refillable mugs while waiting for Gregory. he arrived promptly, dropping us off at Amerisuites right by the hotel so we could catch our plane the next morning.

September 9: We caught an 8am shuttle to the aiport, flew all day, drove 3 1/2 hours afterwards and were home by 7pm

Conclusions: We absolutely loved WDW!! We found it to be fun for all ages. We spent very little on food but still found that we enjoyed it. We're already looking forward to a trip someday in the future!

[Beast_fanatic]

Welcome to Passporter!

How great it is that you made a trip report your first post!

Sounds like you had a very full trip and that you had lots of fun without wearing yourselves too much!

Thanks for sharing! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

Julie,

Welcome to the boards! Thanks so much for posting your trip report - I never knew there were transporation specialists at WDW!

As it was the first trip for your children, what did they like the best? Also, what was their reaction to seeing the MK for the first time?

[mcneal]

Sounds like a great trip. My DS was frightened by ITTBAB also. He was balancing on the edge of his seat with his feet up by the end of the show! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] I bet the time difference really takes its toll?! mary

[AKLRULZ]

Welcome! It was fun to read something like this during this time of grief our nation is enduring. I'm so glad you all had a fun time! Thanks for posting this.

BTW - Your children are the same ages/sex as mine! BUT - we have a third child, a son, who is 4! They are counting down the days (50!) for their third trip (2ND for our youngest)!


GOD BLESS AMERICA!

[ 09-15-2001: Message edited by: Dadtojbj ]

[Janet 46]

Julie, Welcome to the boards! And a great trip report. I have one question: What did you eat at 50's Prime Time? I made a PS there for our trip in Nov. and you said that the food was mediocre. Anything in particular that we should avoid?

[CU Tigger]

It sounds like your first WDW was a great family bonding experience. My family and I will be staying at Wilderness Lodge in March 2002 so I loved your account of its majesty. I can't wait to experience it firsthand. Thanks for sharing with us!

[Ursunique2001]

Sounds like you all had a good time. Welcome to the boards!

[ 09-20-2001: Message edited by: Ursunique2001 ]