The Second Time Around -- Part One About This Page:

[Versafox]

Date:

Thursday 11/29/01 to Tuesday 12/4/01

Adventurers:

Liz (Versafox) 1st Disney trip to Disneyland in the '70s; most recent trip to WDW in 1989.

Jim -- 2nd trip EVER to Disney -- his first was our honeymoon in 1989.

Resort/Hotel: Contemporary (originally PO French Quarter, but you know what happened there!)

Celebration: Our 12th wedding anniversary and my 18 month benchmark as a cancer survivor

UP, UP AND AWAAAAAY . . . .

Our original Delta non-stop flight was cancelled post 9/11; so we re-booked on American. Their flight left at 7:05 a.m., which sounds like a really good idea until you realize that it means you are supposed to be AT the airport at 4 o'clock in the MORNING! Bleeaach!

A client of mine volunteered, the dear soul, to drive us to the airport at 3:30 a.m. I am not a morning person and I absolutely HATE to fly, so I could not be classified as an intelligent life form on that trip. I took my first 1/4 Valium when I got into the car.

Allow me to say at this point that Valium is a *wonderful* thing. I had 25 mg tablets -- I took 1/4 when we headed to the airport. 1/4 once the bags had been checked; 1/4 when they began boarding the plane, and the final 1/4 when I sat down in my seat. By the time the plane took off, I was *almost* serene. Mentally, you still KNOW what could happen. But with all that lovely drug flowing in your veins, you are sparred those awful adrenlin spikes that get your heart to racing and squeeze hell out of your chest every time the plane bobs, lurches, dips or flutters. Basically, you still know -- on a mental level -- what is going on. But you just don't care!

I was so relaxed (and so darn tired!) that I spent the entire flight zoning out to the music on the headphones. Can't say I was exactly sleeping, but can't say I was exactly awake either through the whole flight. When I began to feel the plane losing altitude on its approach to MCO I took another 1/2 Valium. As far as I am concerned, landing is worse than taking off!

We actually were running about 45 minutes late. We took off 15 minutes late, and then, contrary to normal weather patterns, we had a head wind down to Florida. This slowed us down consdiderably, and we ended up landing about 45 minutes late. The pilot was an ace, I must say -- we had a very, very smooth take off and and equally smooth landing. Big stuff when you hate to fly as much as I do!

Got off the plane, stripped off the jackets and sweatshirts we'd worn from Chicago, leaving only a white T-shirt bought months before at the Disney Store. Crammed all the extra clothing into the carry on and went off in search of baggage claim.

DH was clueless -- I *knew* where we were supposed to be going, but was to, well, *floaty* to pay much attention. Ended up in the wrong baggage claim area, but figured it out pretty quick and traipsed accross the terminal to find our Tiffany driver and our baggage waiting for us. Went outside while our driver went to get the car, and parked on a bench -- WOW -- palm trees! We left Chicago in 40 degrees and rain, and arrived in Orlando to find sun and about 80 degrees. Fantastic!

Our driver's name was Mohammed -- he asked us to call him "Mo" and I thought he seemed a little nervous about how we'd react to his name. Didn't bother me -- but then, nothing much *would* have bothered me at that point! He was very pleasant and friendly without being pushy. Asked some questions, gave us some good info about Disney and Pleasure Island (all of which we already knew, thanks to the Passporter and these boards!) but didn't talk our ears off. Fine by me!

God, the Contemporary is just as impressive as I remember. Last stayed here in the early '80s; the approach is different, the topiary animals they used to have are gone, but the hotel is just so darn amazing you can hardly look at anything else.

I'm not a fancy person, and the lobby at the Contemporary intimidated me at first. So shiney, bright and modern looking! The sitting area had very modish chairs, bright colors, bold patterns -- it did make me feel quite uncomfortable at first. It was only about noon, but DH thought it was worth asking if we could check in, so I stood guard over the luggage while he talked to the front desk.

The result? A ground floor room in the North wing. We did ask for a Tower upgrade, but they had nothing available. The room they ended up giving us was right at the very end of the North wing. It was a corner room, and when we got there we were STUNNED at how lovely it was. We had a private patio! Directly in front of our room were palm trees and a white sand beach, Bay Lake -- nothing man-made in sight at all. We were a long, long way from the food court and the monorail and the pools and everything else, but the room was SO quiet -- it was astonishing. In our entire stay, I think I heard noise from the hallway exactly once!

We were both impressed by the room itself. It was HUGE. Two queen beds, a sofa bed, a large table, a full-size closet, and more drawers than we could hope to fill. We even had two telephones! The bathroom was also gorgeous; the main room had a black marble sink and vanity, a tub with shower, and that area was larger than a queen bed. Add to that a second, smaller room with the toilet and another sink -- seperate doors, seperate lights. Made it very easy and convenient for two people to get showered, shaved, dressed and ready to go in the morning.

I'm the organized sort, so we took half an hour when we hit the room to unpack the bags and put things away. Called the front desk to ask for turndown service for the lenght of our stay. Took a few photos of the room and the view. Then gathered up our "park gear" and headed out to the Grand Canyon Concourse to catch the monorail to the TTC -- and Epcot.

[Versafox]

The monorail has a particular smell -- ever notice? Impossible to describe, impossible to mistake. Weird sense of homecomeing as soon as we sit down.

Unload at TTC, down, around, back up the ramp to the Epcot monorail -- in two days, that ramp is going to seem like Mount Everest! -- for now it's nothing. Oh God, here we go. And there it is -- Spaceship Earth! Nothing like it. Nothing looks like it, and God knows, nothing *feels* like our first sight of it after all these years.

First task is to get DH's Annual Pass activated. Takes only a moment, at about 2:30 in the afternoon. There is basically no one around the front of the park, so we think to ask -- How many people in the park today?

The answer *floored* me. 5,000! When we were last here, 10 to 12,000 was considered normal, slow period attendance (according to Birnbaum's book.) 5,000 people! It's like having the park all to yourself!

First thing we noticed was the "Leave a Legacy" monoliths. Ugly! To me, they look like some sort of weird, asymmetrical cemetary. Badly designed, visually unappealing, the only purpose seems to be to fill up an empty space and to generate $35 per square inch income for something Disney readily admits is not expected to be a permanent installation. I found it quite disturbing, and quite unpleasant.

There was no line at all for Spaceship Earth, so we walked right on. Noticed the changes right away; no more narration by Walter Cronkite, for one thing! The ride itself is still spectacular, even with the changes. It was our favorite 12 years ago; it remains a favorite throughout this trip. I think we ultimately rode it four times.

After Spaceship Earth we came across Mouse Gear -- this was not here 12 years ago and we took the time to roam through the shop. We tenatively selected tomorrow's shirts (we had packed almost no clothing -- instead we planned to buy a shirt each day to be worn the next day. No worries about having packed the wrong clothing!) From Mouse Gear we went on to Test Track. The standby line was very short -- 20 minutes, I think -- but some technical trouble developed and we ended up waiting there about 45 minutes. Was worth every minute though -- the ride itself was AWESOME! Didn't buy the photo, because my eyes were closed. Next time!

From here we strolled down the walkway past the Odyssey -- this restaurant was still open when we were last here, though the place was always nearly deserted. Now it is used (as I understand it) only for special events. Seems an enormous waste of a perfectly good building. Hope Disney figures out how to use this space sometime soon! At any rate, it makes a nice shortcut to the World Showcase, with the added benefit of a nearly deserted restroom along the way.

We had a 6:00 PS at Marakesh, so we shopped our way through England and France; stopped briefly in France for a glass of Pouilly Fouisse wine -- lovely stuff. Morocco was just deserted. Asked about being seated early and they took us immediately, saying the show was about to begin. The restaurant was just beautiful. The tile, all the details were simply amazing. There were only about 5 tables of people eating, only one of them right at the edge of the performance area.

DH and I decided to order one each of the Marakesh Feast and the Royal Feast. The belly dancer came out while DH had his salad and I had my soup -- she's really very talented. She was looking for people to get involved from the audience, but with so few people dining she didn't have much choice. First she brought up a girl of about 12 who obviously was too embarassed to enjoy herself. Then -- she picked me!

Well, I'm sure my face was bright red, but heck, we're on vacation, right? So I did my darndest to follow her instructions and pop my hips and strut my "stuff" just as she did. It was lots of fun, though God knows I don't have one half of the figure of that dancer, nor a hint of her grace, either.

Our meal was quite interesting. There was plenty of food, and though the flavors were unusual, it was not too spicy or too "strange" to be enjoyable. Both of us ate every scrap of all the food presented to us -- including the desserts. Who ever misses dessert?

When we got out of Morocco the Tapestry of Dreams parade was in progress. The parade ends at Morocco, and there was almost no one lined up to view. So we just walked up to a very nice viewing area, right on the rope railing, and sat down! I had not planned to try to catch this parade, but the opportunity was just too good to pass by.

This was quite an interesting parade. The music is catchy (it's been running through my head for days) and the giant puppets are amazing. I thought the floats were a bit dull, though. It was quite an incredible sight, with the different giant puppets, and I think I shot at least a full roll of film.

Once the parade was over, we moved into Japan and took a quick look through the shops. We bought a LOT of stuff here on our last trip, and thought we probably would do the same this time. Oddly, this would turn out to be our only trip through Japan, and we ended up not buying anything at all. Wish we had managed to make it back, but there simply was not enough time.

Leaving Japan, we walked past the theater where the Candlelight Processional was just starting. There were still plenty of seats, but we decided not to stay, assuming we would get back here later in our stay. As it turned out, we never did. This was one of the major disappointments of the trip -- I had wanted to see this show, but it simply was never being held at a time that was convenient. I was most amazed that there was only ONE showing on Saturday night!

The American Adventure show was closed during the Processional, so we wandered onward. It was becoming clear to both of us that we were way too tired to stay for Illuminations, and in fact just too tired to enjoy any of the attractions. We managed to stop at Maelstrom in Norway to ride the boat -- a nice ride but just too short. We didn't stay for the movie, again thinking we'd get to it later in the week, but we never did.

By the time we got out to FutureWorld only Test Track was still open. So what the heck? We gave it another spin, this time in the dark. That was our last ride for the evening, because having been awake since 3 a.m. we were just too tired to enjoy anything else.

We trudged off to the monorail, and reached the "Big C" (Contemporary) just as Illuminations was starting. At our room we changed to our bathing suits and dragged off to the the hot tub, thinking that might help the muscles already aching with exhaustion. We spent the next 1 1/2 hours alternately soaking in the hot water and floating in the swimming pool. Did get to see the Electrical Water Parade (or whatever it's called) from our spot in the spa -- that hasn't changed a bit in 12 years, except for all the flags at the end.

The hot tub was pretty deserted, though we did meet two other couples there, oddly both had moved to the "Big C" because of the closing of PO French Quarter. Both other couples admitted to having a wonderful trip but to being *extremely* unhappy with Disney's handling of the whole PO situation. One couple was talking about the possibility of a class action lawsuit -- asked for our names and addresses, which we gave. Doubt anything will come of it. Don't think Disney is really aware, however, of just how many unhappy customers there are with the whole PO situation. Finally crawled off to bed at 11:30 -- I do believe we were both unconcious by 11:31!!

[Wondcat]

Great beginning Liz! So nice to meet you, now it's my turn.

[CinderellaPrincess]

ahhh..the 7:05am flight out of O'hare...we have taken the flight before, LOL!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Great report..can't wait to read the next installment!