"Feel the Magic" Trip - 11/30-12/7, 2002: Complete About This Page:

[Marv]

Maggie,
Are you still on your whirlwind tour or did your students find out you corrected papers on vacation and retaliate?

[TINKN]

You are so right about pictures with the troll in the gift shop at Norway. I bet it ranks right up there with the most popular shots. Loving your report. Can't wait for more.

[maggieworkman]

Sorry guys, we bought my mom a new computer for Christmas and my husband has had our computer off line for the better part of the week trying to hook up the new cable and some network device.

I will type it up tonight.

Maggie

[maggieworkman]

Day 7 (Dec. 6, 2002): (MK and EPCOT) - “Whirlwind tour of our Favorites”

Let me start off by saying I didn’t take very good notes for this day. Maybe because it was our last full day?

Mickey called us at 7:30 am to get us “Up and at ‘em”. We were both excited and sad, since it was our last full day. I had left this day relatively open when I was planning. I thought there would probably be some things we didn’t get to see earlier in the week that we could do today or just redo some of our favorites. When I had announced to the family that I had left the day open, DH was shocked! I had been an obsessive planner for the past few months and he laughed at me. He thought I had planned our trip down to the minute. Anyway, we decided to make it a whirlwind tour of our favorites - which meant MK and EPCOT. This is turning into a pattern. We all get our showers, head out to the bus stop and get to MK. Our first stop is the Main Street Bakery at 9:30am. After our overabundance of food here yesterday, we decided to share today. We ordered a croissant ($2.29), a chocolate chip cookie ($1.59), a bear claw ($1.79), a milk ($1.99) and a bottle of coke ($2.35). The croissant was flaky and delicious and the bear claw was tasty too. This breakfast came to $10.61. Then we headed to Space Mountain … again. What is this? Our 8th time? The girls couldn’t get enough of this. Then, surprisingly, DD#1 agreed to go to Alien Encounter. She had been avoiding this all week. But, she wanted to try it. So we waited in line. The line wasn’t too bad. However, they stopped letting people at the people in front of us, so we had to wait for the next show. I was getting a little worried that DD#1 might psych herself out of it before we actually made it in the theater. But she made it and shortly they ushered us in. We went through the preshow and finally got seated in the auditorium. I was on the end of the row and DD#2 kept telling me that I was in a perfect seat for the Alien to get me. Thanks, sweetie. DD#1 got scared a little and I used her hat as a sort of face shield so she couldn’t see what was going on. But then, apparently, I was suffocating her (ooops!) with the hat, so she just suffered through it. She was ok, but she didn’t enjoy it. DD#2 thought it was great! Both DD#1 and I thought the auditorium seemed a lot smaller since the last time we rode on it a few years ago. Does anyone know if they made the auditorium smaller? After this, we headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad … another favorite of my roller coaster queens. We had fun, but really like this at night better. Then I wanted to go on Haunted Mansion again, but the family only thought this was so-so. They didn’t think it should be included on our whirlwind tour of favorites. Are they crazy??? We then decide to head over to EPCOT. I make us leave via the Emporium. We walked down Main Street all the way down through the gift stores. It was fun to check everything out. This is one thing we didn’t do much during the week as we were too busy on Space Mountain. On the way out, we stop by the Camera Center and get our picture in front of the castle. It turned out very nice!

We take the monorail over to EPCOT. The front of the monorail is already spoken for by a group of high school kids. So, we don’t get to do this. We didn’t get to do it the whole trip. I guess that’s something that goes on the list for next time. We enter EPCOT. We stop by the photo shop and pick up our EPCOT pictures from the other day. It is very cute. The CM had the girls stand separated and hold hands out in front of them. Kind of picture what cheerleaders do when they are setting up a pyramid and someone is going to climb up to the second layer. Whenever we looked at the picture, the girls were “holding” sorceror Mickey! By this time we were getting hungry, so I convince everyone to go to Mexico. I was really craving that child’s plate (tortilla chips and beef burrito). For some reason that burrito tasted soooo good to me. I still crave it. This time we orders the child plate (comes with a child coke) (3.50), the plain chips (1.95), side salsa (1.95), side cheese (.56) and a churro (1.88) for a total of $10.44. We all snack on this and are satisfied. As we were sitting on the Cantina patio, the Character Caravan goes driving by. It looked kind of fun and it was the first time we saw this at EPCOT. I asked the girls if they wanted to follow it and see the characters, but they decline. There were a few characters there we didn’t get signatures for (Geppeto and Pinnochio) but they weren’t interested. I sure was….

Here is where my notes get sparse …

Our goal is to see the other Country pavillions that we haven’t really explored yer. We walk quickly past Norway and China, since we have already seen these. We look quickly at the Refreshment cool post, but there wasn’t much to see there. We do a walkthrough of the small, temporary (?) Spain exhibit. This is more like a small little trailer that has a few pictures and knick-knacks. There is a lot of talk about olives and olive oil. Next we spend some time in Germany. We didn’t really get to look closely yesterday as we were rushed due to the Candlelight Processional. We again look at the beautiful dolls - they are similar to American girl dolls, but more expensive. They had many of them with traditional garb on, but they also had some dressed like Snow White, Cinderella, etc. I looked at the cuckoo clocks for my dad. I was so tempted to get him one, but then I was realistic and said I wouldn’t be able to stand that cuckooing every hour for years to come … We spend a little more time in Italy. It is so very beautiful here. Then we head to the American Adventure. The family doesn’t want to see the show. But we look in the shop there. They have some really cool nostalgia political pins! I was sooo tempted to buy a couple, but I didn’t. Did I really need a Clinton/Gore 1996 pin? or an I like Ike pin?? But they were so cool. There was a Dukakis pin … I could go on and on. We finally left - boy that shop seems small. We looked through Japan, but had seen it pretty much the other day. We breezed through Morocco. I got a few more pictures here. This is another very pretty pavillion. We stop by France, but manage not to stop at the bakery. Too bad. I want to buy a little Eiffel tower, but I don’t. (Do you see the pattern where I like everything I see but don’t buy it. I am sitting here now regretting not purchasing some stuff. There’s always next time, right??) In the UK, we walk through the garden again and enjoy the shops. That’s it for the World Showcase. This seemed to be our second favorite place - only behind MK. On the way out, lo and behold Ice Station Cool is open. I was soo happy because it had been closed all week (at least, everytime we checked it was closed). I walk in and nonchalantly hae the girls try some of the Watermelon drink. They taste it and say it is ok. I then _nonchalantly_ say to DH, “Here, why don’t you try this one from Italy called Beverly.” I say, “Wait, let me get a picture for Grandpa (the Italian).” So DH takes a big drink and I snap a picture just as this big disgusting look comes over his face. It was priceless. He is gagging and trying to grab the watermelon out of the girls hands. Then he turns to me and says, “You already knew about that, didn’t you? From those boards!” I sweetly say, “Who me?” Of course the girls have to take little sips too and proceed to make the biggest display of gagging etc. that they can. I decide not to try. This helps me end the trip on a happy note, because I was disappointed that “we” weren’t going to get to experience this this trip. We send Grandma and Grandpa a video email in Innoventions East. This was very cool. We then send them a e-postcard from Imagination Pavillion. This one actually turned out pretty good of all of us.

I had made PS for Whispering Canyon Café for 8:10 pm, but we were split on whether or not we wanted to do this. DH wasn’t really interested and I was beginning to feel the Mastercard weigh down on me, so we decided to skip it. I was a little sad, because I thought the girls would enjoy it. I knew my girls would definitely ask for ketchup, because they are ketchup fiends, so I was looking forward to that! Oh well. Another thing for the “next time” list. (Boy, that list is getting long.) Instead we decide to head to DTD. We drove over there this time instead of taking the bus. Nothing really jumped out at us there as far as restaurants, so we decided to head over to the Goodings shopping place across the street. We find a TGI Fridays and decide to eat here, because it is one of our family favorites. We had a slight wait for a table, but nothing major (maybe 15 minutes). We order an appetizer - potato skins - because I love them. Of course I am full by the time I am finished with these and this is before our meal comes! But I also love the steak on a stick dinner with loaded potato ( I know! I know! Not a low fat meal). DH gets the shrimp marinara. The kids get a chicken finger and a pizza. DH also gets an Irish coffee. This meal comes to $55.07 before tip. A pretty decent price for dinner for four, especially considering we had an appetizer ($6.79) and a specialty coffee that cost $5.09!! The food was good here and a nice change to get off property for a little while. We also got points added to our Friday’s Club card and I think now we are past the number of points needed for a free appetizer. After dinner, we head to DTD. On the way, I nearly run into a few cars as I am scoping out all of the DTD hotels (like the Hotel Royal Plaza, the Hilton, Doubletree, etc.). We were thinking about staying at the HRP on our next trip in June since there will be 5 maybe 6 people. DH gets mad because I keep swerving around the road. Doesn’t he realize I need to look these things over! We make it to DTD safely and have a hard time finding a spot to park. It seems everyone is here tonight also. It is a Friday night, so that is probably why. We have to park on the West Side near the movie theaters, but way in the back rows. We all are wearing our Mickey Christmas Santa Hats and are feeling in the spirit. We walk pasta the WEst Side, past Pleasure Island and get to the Marketplace. We look around the Lego Store. I had wanted to get the girls some Legos because they use these a lot when they play Pokeman (They make up Pokeman villages to use with their little Pokeman figures.) But they didn’t have any just regular old Legos. Everything was either a Harry Potter castle set, or a Star Wars set, or some set that made a specific item. Whatever happened to using your imagination when building things with Legos?? So, we walked out of their empty handed. DD#2 has to try the slide in the play land. Then we stop at the World of Disney. Whoa! I give the Master Card a workout. I buy some treats for Christmas, a shirt for myself and a Mickey ring for myself. The ring is a silver band that has Mickey heads going around the band - think diamond anniversary band but with Mickey heads instead of diamonds. I use my Disny Club discount and say around $15 - so that is nice. I had made DH take the girls to look around so I could shop without little eyes seeing what I was buying, but now I couldn’t find them. And our walkabouts were out of batteries! I spent about half an hour wandering around trying to find them. After we hooked up, we left WOD. Outside World of Disney there is a Santa Claus. So we wait in line to get the girls pictures. It is one of those deals like at the mall, where they take your picture with their camera, but we didn’t even stop at the kiosk to look at it. They let me take a few pictures with my own camera, so I was happy. DD#2 asked for a bike, but DD#1 couldn’t think of anything she wanted. Huh??? By now it is nearing 10 pm, so we head home. We are very tired after a long day and a busy week. We drive back to Port Orleans, which is very close to DTD. It only takes us a couple of minutes. After we get back to the hotel, I head out to the Food Court to get our mugs filled and I stop at the Gift Shop to pick up our packages from our Candlelight Processional discount shopping spree. I get the girls ready for bed and then I begin the sad task of packing up our stuff for our departure tomorrow. Also, it had been very cold all day and I am beginning to feel that tickle in the back of my throat like I am getting a cold.

Memories of our Seventh Day. The weather today was … very cold. Sweatshirt and heavy jacket weather with gloves. The best thing today was … doing our favorites. The worst thing today was … missing PS at Whispering Canyon Café. The funniest thing today was … DH drinking Beverly at Ice Station Cool. Today we tried … driving to DTD … and the result was … fast trip but trouble finding a spot to park. The most magical moment today was … shopping in DTD with our Mickey Santa hats.

Next installment … Day 8. We leave WDW.

[ 01-12-2003, 10:38 PM: Message edited by: maggieworkman ]

[4disneyorbust]

sounds like you & your family had a great time. thank you for writing a report, i enjoyed reading it. [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img]
Laura

[tikibird]

Wow, you had a lot of detail for not many notes - great job! Sounds like you had an excellent last full day - how cool [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] to hit all of your favorites!

Really enjoyed this installment, looking forward to the next.... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[TINKN]

Great report! Looking forward to the final installment. You took great notes (even on your last full day).

[Marv]

Originally posted by maggieworkman:
Day 7 (Dec. 6, 2002): (MK and EPCOT) - “Whirlwind tour of our Favorites”

I buy a Mickey ring for myself. The ring is a silver band that has Mickey heads going around the band - think diamond anniversary band but with Mickey heads instead of diamonds.

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">Wow, Mickey heads intead of diamonds...that's a real Disney fan! Bet DH liked the price better, too. I think I'll request that for my next anniversary, course a trip to Disney would be part of it, right?

Loved your description of DH trying Beverly. (We've never made it there, but can't wait to do the smae thing to DH!) Maybe it was a good thing it wasn't open til your last day!

[joyjoy]

Aww, I don't want you to go home, you're having such a good time. [img]graemlins/pout.gif[/img]

Loved your whole report - your husband and kids sound like great sports and you! What a fun mom. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[maggieworkman]

[img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] Sad news about my Mickey ring. I was playing with it while driving (kind of twirling it around my finger, but up above my knuckle) and it slipped off my finger and fell INTO the steering wheel. It slipped in the groove between the wheel and where it connects to the dash! [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] DH is trying to find a way to rescue it.

Day 8: We leave WDW.

We woke up to Mickey one last time. But instead of being exciting, it was just sad. We were leaving today. I found a copy of our bill under the door. I didn't realize that if you didn't have any corrections to make, that you could just leave and not check-out at the front desk. That is what is said on the bottom of the paper, at least. I worried about this all the way home - like, maybe they will charge me for another night, etc. Isn't it a shocker when you see all those charges you put on your room key! [img]graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] Although, we hit right on budget - nearly to the dollar!

We packed up our stuff, which was no easy task. We had all our vacation stuff. Plus I bought Christmas presents on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), plus the girls had their Christmas presents from all the inlaws. This included a Barbie Travel Train from Grandma. Let me just say that this can hold four barbies and is nearly 2 feet long. If you have ever played Tetris, you will understand our problem.

We waved good-bye to our room at Port Orleans and made our way to the car. We decided to stop somewhere at Crossroads to eat breakfast. We had seen a Perkins there when we ate dinner the night before at Fridays. So we get out and there were a lot of other people with the same idea. The wait was about 15 minutes. But, we weren't in a hurry. DD#1 and I share some "Big Breakfast" thing - I don't eat eggs and she only eats eggs, so it worked out great for us. DH gets an omelet and DD#2 gets pancakes. The food was ok, but nothing phenomenal. (Although, better than the CRT food.)

I start off driving. We are hoping to make it to Chatanooga or so today. The girls are playing in the back and DH and I listen to Treasure Island on Book on Tape. After about 3 hours, DD#1 says, "I don't feel so good." The next thing I know, DD#2 says, "Gross." I turn my head and DD#1 has thrown up! The good news is that when DD#1 mentioned she was sick, DD#2 handed her the box to her new Beauty and the Beast figurine set she had just opened. Smart girl. So at least it wasn't all over everything. DH quickly finds a grocery bag, but doesn't have the easiest time putting the dirty box in the bag. WE stop at the next exit to clean up a little, but now, DD#1 is feeling fine. Although, DH says his stomach doesn't feel so good. Great! I think. Just what we need. But he doesn't get sick. We think maybe the eggs were bad at Perkins, because DD#2 and I don't get sick.

DH takes a turn driving for a few hours. Once it gets dark, I start driving again. DH doesn't like to drive at night if he can help it because he is blind in one eye. So we begin looking for a Fairfield Inn or some other Marriott along the road or on one of the signs. We can't find one for a long time. Finally, we pass Nashville and then the TN/KY border. Just over the border in Bowling Green, KY, we find a Fairfield Inn. It was nearly 1 am. And later there because we passed the time zone line. This was a decent hotel to rest our heads. I wanted to stay at a Marriott brand hotel because they were having a promotion where you make 3 stays at a Marriott Hotel and get 2 weekend nights free. I had stayed at one for the Passporter Girls take on Mall of America meet, we stayed on one driving down to WDW, so this made the third stay! Yay!

We get up in the morning and eat a continental breakfast in the lobby. The typical muffins, bagels, cereal, fruit, etc. We pick up some bread slices (wrapped individually!), a packet of jelly and a packet of peanut butter from the breakfast bar for later and head out.

Around lunch time I begin to point out all the Cracker Barrels to DH. We have never eaten at one before. I told him I wouldn't be allowed to post a trip report if we didn't stop at at least one Cracker Barrel on our trip! He doesn't quite see the need. Finally, somewhere in Indiana, I see a Cracker Barrel and since I am driving, I pull off and say, "We are eating here." DH says fine. But we go in and there is a pretty big crowd. She says the wait will be 20 minutes or so. This is Sunday lunchtime, so it is quite busy. DH doesn't want to wait. But I say, "Come on. We're already here." So we look around the shop to pass the time. They have some interesting stuff there and if there had been even a cubic centimeter of space in our car, I might have bought some stuff. We are finally seated and I ask the guy what he recommends since we've never been here before. He says, "Everything." Thanks for the help. I can't decide because several things look good. But I go for the chicken pot pie. I must say that this was one of the best pot pies I have ever eaten. Our bill was very cheap - around $20. DH thought something was wrong with the bill at first. He said, "Why haven't we ever been here before?" So, a Cracker Barrel convert is born!

We make it to Chicago shortly after 4 pm. We live on the north side, so we had to drive through the city, but luckily it was pretty low traffic.

That is the end of our adventure! Hope you enjoyed the report.

Next installment, "Reflections of our trip."

Maggie

[ 01-12-2003, 10:41 PM: Message edited by: maggieworkman ]

[tikibird]

Sorry to hear that your trip has come to an end - great report! I enjoyed hearing about your trip home (and now I want to go to Cracker Barrel!), and am looking forward to your wrap up! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[maggieworkman]

Well, thanks to all of you we had a wonderful trip. Also, we used the idea of buying an AP and then going a week earlier the next year, so that is what we are doing. This year we went the week after Thanksgiving, next year the week before. (We always visit inlaws in Florida for Thanksgiving.)

I am not sure how people survive at Disney without boards like these and books like the Passporter. I am so glad I found this. One day I heard a guy on the bus from POR tell another lady that, "We had no idea they merged Port Orleans and Dixie Landings. When we called and made reservations for Port Orleans, we assumed we were getting FQ. But they stuck us over here in Alligator Bayou." I heard another lady on the bus comment about how cute some little girls mask was (from EPCOT). The mother of the girl said, "Yes. We found these on the second day. But we had trouble getting all the stamps. We sometimes had to back track to get some countries. How are you supposed to know what all the countries are????" Hello!!!! Passporter! Or at least read the park map!

I hope my report has helped others like previous reports helped me. Here are our thoughts:

Reflections of our trip.

Dates: Nov. 30 - Dec. 7, 2002 (7 full days at WDW)
Adventurers: Me (33), DH (34), DD1 (10), DD2 (7)
Resort: Port Orleans - Riverside - Parterre Place

Notes:
1. The first week of December was a great time to go. It was value season. There were hardly any lines for the rides. The Christmas decorations were up. Lots of special Christmas things to do.
2. We would do Candlelight Processional with dinner package again. Our food came to at least the price of the package plus we saved money on souvenirs with discount. We also had a reserved seat under the pavillion for the show.
3. Probably wouldn’t do Rose and Crown PS again for Illuminations. Food wasn’t the best and seats aren’t guaranteed to be on patio.
4. We would do MVMCP again and see more of the special Christmas stuff.
5. I would have liked to resort hop more to see the Christmas decorations.
6. CRT: great princesses, lousy food
7. LTT: great food, great characters, would do again
8. H&V: great food, great characters, would do again
9. In EPCOT, we often got the child plate at the counter service and shared it. We were able to “eat ourselves around the world” this way. We ate at Cantina twice because it was so good. Yakitori house was delicious too.
10. Patisserie is TOO DIE FOR!
11. We didn’t get to swim much (one day only) because it was too cold.
12. Port Orleans is nice and well priced (we paid only $79/night) and we would stay here again. Mousekeeping was nothing special (she did prop up our beanies on a towel on the table, but that’s all) but competent. The food court was nice and had a good selection. We might try FQ next time, but not sure. We enjoyed the mansions and aren’t sure we want to give that up just to stay near the first bus stop.
13. We wanted to rent Surrey bikes, but it was a little too cold this time.
14. We had a car, but never used it until the last day to go eat at TGIFridays at Crossroads. We used the buses to go everywhere and were happy with that. Only one night was their a long wait to get home. We always had a seat on the bus, even when crowded.
15. It was very bright, even in December, so a hat is strongly recommended. Except, take off the hats for pictures. If not, your face will be in shadows for all pictures.

Rides we went on/Shows we saw:
MK: Alien Encounter, Astro Orbiter, BTMRR, Buzz Lightyear, Carousel of Progress, Cinderella’s Carrousel, Diamond Horseshoe Saloon, Dumbo, Hall of Presidents, Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, Mad Tea Party, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Peter Pan, Pirates of Caribbean, Snow White, Space Mountain, Tiki Room, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Winnie the Pooh, Spectromagic Parade, Share a Dream Come True Parade, Tinkerbell’s Flight

EPCOT: American Adventure Pavilion, Body Wars, Canadian Pavillion, Cranium Command, China Pavillion, El Rio del Tiempo, Food Rocks, France Pavillion, Germany Pavillion, Ice Station Cool, Impressions de France, Innoventions East, Innoventions West, Italy Pavillion, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Japan Pavillion, Maelstrom, Mexico Pavillion, Morocco Pavillion, Norway Pavillion, Spaceship Earth, Test Track, United Kingdom Pavillion, Wonders of China, Off Kilter Band, Japan Drums, Illuminations, Friendship boat

MGM: Beauty and the Beast, Great Movie Ride, Indiana Jones, Muppet-Vision 3D, Rock n Roller Coaster, Sounds Dangerous, Star Tours, Studios Backlot Tour, Tower of Terror, Fantasmic, Stars and Motor Cars Parade

AK: Dinosaur, Kilimanjaro Safari, Its Tough to be a Bug, Tree of Life, Mickey’s Jammin Jungle Parade

Rides we missed and are on our “Next Time” list:
Country Bear, Jungle Cruise, Liberty Belle Riverboat, Timekeeper, WDW Railroad, American Adventure Show, Journey into your Imagination, The Living Seas, LIving with the Land, O Canada, Universe of Energy, Wonders of Life, One Man’s Dream, Voyage of Little Mermaide, Who wants to be a Millionaire, Magic of Disney Animation, Festival of Lion King, Flights of Wonder, Kali River Rapids, Maharajah Jungle Trek, Pangani Forest Trails, Pocahontas, Primeval Whirl, Rafiki Planet Watch, Tarzan Rocks, Triceratop Spin

Places we ate:
Cinderella’s Royal Table breakfast, Liberty Tree Tavern Character Dinner (before MVMCP), Main Street Bakery (breakfast pastries), Boulangerie Patisserie (pastries), Cantina de San Angel lunch, Kringla Bakeri og Kafe (pastry), Le Cellier dinner, Lotus Blossom Café (eggrolls only), Rose and Crown dinner during Illuminations, Yakitori House (lunch), Hollywood and Vine Character lunch, Rainforest Café lunch at AK, Wolfgang Puck Express dinner, Port Orleans food court, TGIFridays (off site at Crossroads), Perkins (off site at Crossroads), Aloha Isle for Dole Whip

Places we would like to eat next time:
Chef Mickey, Whispering Canyon, Princess breakfast at EPCOT, MICKEY BARS! (we missed these)

Special things we did:
MVMCP (Christmas Parade, Mickey’s Twas night before Christmas show, Snow on Main Street, Christmas Picture), Osbourne Family Lights, Candlelight Processional with dinner Package (Le Cellier), Boat ride from POR to DTD


Maggie

[ 07-15-2003, 09:27 AM: Message edited by: maggieworkman ]

[tikibird]

Originally posted by maggieworkman:

10. Patisserie is TOO DIE FOR!

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">Oh, YES! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] (not going to let the Food Police drag me out of there without a dessert next trip!)

Great wrap up - looking forward to those pictures! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[luvnwdwgal]

Maggie, I have really enjoyed reading your trip report! You included so much detail, which is great!! Looking forward to reading more, even if it is your final installment. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]

[Brant]

Thanks for such an awesome report, Maggie! You definitely took WDW by storm and sounds like your trip was one you'll never forget.