Our trip to the Wilderness Lodge August 11th - 18th, 2004 - Day 8, (Completed 9-8-04) About This Page:

[emandrysmom]

Wanda,
Glad you all arrived safe and sound! I'm enjoying your report so far. Look forward to more.

[PhillyPooh]

Me, Wanda (41), 7th trip to WDW

DD, Pam (18), 6th trip to WDW

DS, Matt (16), 6th trip to WDW



Trip dates: August 11th - 18th 2004



Resort: Wilderness Lodge Room 6051 (courtyard view)



Day 2 - Thursday, August 12, 2004



Well we got our wake up call from Mickey at 7:15am. It is a beautiful, sunny morning. I took some really pretty pictures of the sunrise over Bay Lake from our balcony. Pam is like me and gets out of bed and ready to go early. Matt on the other hand loves to sleep and is tough to get up and moving. Today was going to be Blizzard Beach day for Pam and Matt. I don't like going to water parks although I do enjoy Typhoon Lagoon. I figured Pam and Matt could go to Blizzard Beach in the morning and I would relax by the pool at the hotel. Pam got up and got ready and finally managed to get Matt out of bed around 8:00am. After Matt got up, his ear was really bothering him and he didn't think going to Blizzard Beach would be the best idea. Pam decided that spending the morning at the Animal Kingdom would be the next best choice. I personally don't like the Animal Kingdom but I didn't want to see Pam go by herself so I decided to tag along with her. Matt wanted to just hang out at the pool and relax. Like I said before it is so nice that they are old enough to stay by themselves and kind of do their own thing. We have the family plan with our cell phones so that worked out really well keeping in touch with each other. I went down to Roaring Forks and picked us up a little breakfast to bring back to the room. Neither me or my kids really eat breakfast so we would just get fruit, juice and cereal to hold us over until lunch. While we are getting ready I always watch the morning news. They are talking about Hurricane Charley which is supposed to hit the southern part of Florida sometime tomorrow evening. Thank goodness it isn't going to reach us. Little did I know.



Pam and I headed to the bus stop around 8:30am for the Animal Kingdom. Matt climbed back in bed and I told him when housekeeping got to the room to get his stuff and head to the pool. Our bus arrived in about 10 minutes but seemed to take forever to get to the Animal Kingdom. We first stopped at Blizzard Beach, then the Grand Floridian, then the Animal Kingdom. Total time from leaving the Wilderness Lodge to the Animal Kingdom was about 30 minutes. The only two things on Pam's must see list were "Festival of The Lion King" and "Tarzan Rocks". As soon as we got through security with our bag we picked up a map and headed for the first show of "Festival of The Lion King". Getting through security here seemed to take forever. It took us about 15 minutes to get through the line. I only carry a small "day bag" which holds a water bottle, cell phone, wallet and a couple of other small items. It amazes me how much some people bring into the parks with them. We arrived at Camp Minnie for "Festival of The Lion King" and got seats in the first row. The show was really empty and we only had to wait about 10 minutes for it to start. This, in my opinion, is the absolute best show in WDW. We really enjoyed the show. After we exited the theater we headed over towards "Tarzan Rocks". We had a little bit of time so we decided to do Dinosaur, which I really like. There was no one in line and we walked right on. I wanted to do it again but Pam was afraid we wouldn't get good seats for "Tarzan Rocks". I know Pam loves this show but it was almost torture for me sitting through it. That arena has to be the hottest place ever. There is no air circulating and you feel like you just can't breathe. We headed out of there during the ending so we could beat the rush. We now headed over to Primevil Twirl which we had never done before. We waited in line about 20 minutes for this. It was o.k. It actually reminded me of a ride you would do at the Jersey shore boardwalk and not WDW. It was now around 11:30am and we had basically done everything we wanted to. We decided to get some lunch before we left so we walked over to Pizzafari. Pam and I shared breadsticks and pizza. It was 12:15pm when we headed out of the park. I don't know what it is about the Animal Kingdom but I swear it is the hottest place at WDW. While we were walking out, there were mobs of people walking towards us coming in. I know different people like different things but I could do without going to this park altogether except I really like "Festival of The Lion King". It just is always so hot and crowded at this park. While we were walking back towards the bus, Pam noticed a Wilderness Lodge bus at our stop. Pam said "come on mom run". I said "you've got to be kidding". I was so hot at this point there was no way I was running. So of course we missed the bus and I had to listen to her whine for the next 15 minutes while we waited for the bus. Once we got back to the Lodge the dark clouds started rolling in again and it started raining. Matt was watching tv in the room when we got back. He had already spent some time at the pool and had his lunch at Roaring Forks. He said the maid knocked on the door at 10am and he got up and went down to the pool. It only rained for about an hour so we put our bathing suits on and relaxed by the pool until 3:30pm. We didn't have any plans for dinner so I called and made a PS for Alfredos in Italy. We've never eaten here and wanted to try it. We only waited about 5 minutes for the bus to come to take us to Epcot. After we got through security we headed to Test Track. Once again the stand by line, even for single riders was 60 minutes. Pam and Matt wanted to do Mission Space but there was no way I was going on that. I sent my hubby a video post card while I was waiting for them. Pam absolutely loves the British Invasion so we headed over to the United Kingdom. We passed Off Kilter who we have never seen but I told Matt, who really wanted to see them, that we would come back. Little did I know that with the hurricane that was unexpectedly going to hit us that we would never get to see them. I did buy him an Off Kilter CD before we left that he really likes. On our way over to the United Kingdom we stopped and got a cinnamon beaver tail which we had never had before. It was really good. After the British Invasion we headed over to Italy for our dinner.



We checked in about a half hour before our priority seating. I had heard good and bad reviews of this place but I like to try things for myself. We ordered the calamari and the mozzarella, tomato, basil thing for appetizers. Matt got the lasagna and Pam and I got the sampler dinner to split. We did not enjoy our food here at all. Oh well at least we tried it. We left Epcot after dinner so we wouldn't get caught in the post-Illuminations stampede. We skipped the hot tub this evening and watched the Olympics before turning in at 11pm. Every tv channel is now talking about Hurricane Charley which is supposed to hit Florida sometime tomorrow. I called for a 7:15am wake up call. Our plans for tomorrow are to head to the Magic Kingdom and spend the day there since we have 5:30pm reservations for the Crystal Palace. This plan will obviously get changed because of "Charley.

[Colexis Mom]

Another great update Wanda But sounds like rough seas ahead

[Caldercup]

[ QUOTE ]
Sidenote - I'll never understand why everyone is so anxious to rush on to the plane when you are going to be sitting in cramped quarters for the next 2+ hours. I would rather sit in the chairs at the gate and take my time getting on the plane. The people at the boarding area had to tell more than one person that they hadn'T called their row yet. Sorry, I just don't get it.

[/ QUOTE ]



I think this dates back to the pre-Sept 11th carryon issues. So many business travelers would cram as much stuff in the carryon bins as possible (like three bags!!) so that they didn't have to wait at baggage claim on the other end of the flight. If you wanted to get room for all your stuff, you had to get on the plane quickly and jam it in before other people came to jam THEIR stuff in the bins.



Now that people don't do as much carryon, I've not had a problem putting my one bag up in the bins ... so I wait until the last second to get on the plane.



I'm really enjoying your trip report. Glad to see your kids get along so well. Here's hoping that Charley didn't cause you too much trouble and that the CMs worked their magic for you. (It's amazing what they were able to accomplish when even their own homes were a wreck!)



Eileen

[imagineerwannabe]

Wanda,

That is totally bizarre since I think we were watching British Invasion on the same day at the same time. We were heading in the opposite direction, towards Future World so we probably passed each other.

[luvnwdwgal]

Another great update Wanda!!!

[wdw4me]

Thanks for the update Wanda. I personally enjoy Animal Kingdom - but I agree it is HOT! Normally we'll take a day and do Animal Kingdom in the morning, then head straight for a water park in the afternoon.

I'm looking forward to your next installment and reading your experience with Charley.

[PhillyPooh]

Posted on Passporter Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Me, Wanda (41), 7th trip to WDW
DD, Pam (18), 6th trip to WDW
DS, Matt (16), 6th trip to WDW

Trip dates: August 11th - 18th 2004

Resort: Wilderness Lodge Room 6051 (courtyard view)

Day 3 - Friday, August 13, 2004 (Hurricane Charley)

Our wake up call was right on time at 7:15am. As usual I was awake and out of bed before the wake up call. I turned on the tv to the station that lists the hours for the parks. Animal Kingdom, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon and Downtown Disney are all closed today. MGM, Epcot and the Magic Kingdom are open from 8am until 1pm. Had we known the hours last night we would have gotten up earlier and left for one of the parks sooner. We decided to head over to Epcot since we hadn't had any luck yet getting on Test Track. Before we left the hotel I stopped at the desk to change our priority seating for today. We were supposed to have dinner at the Crystal Palace today at 5:30pm. I tried calling Disney Dining from the room but they were closed. I changed our priority seating until Tuesday at 5:30pm.

We left for Epcot around 8:15am and didn't have to wait very long for a bus. It was strange walking into Epcot as it was basically empty. We walked right on to Test Track and then headed over to the Land. My kids can't stand this ride but did it to humor me. After we rode the Land we got a snack from the bakery there. We walked outside and headed over to Journey Into Imagination. It is kind of creepy walking around. The sky is very dark and cloudy, there are no people walking around and it is very, very humid. They have all the carts closed, covered and bolted into the pavement. After enjoying "Figment" we walked over to Mexico and had a churro. We did some shopping in the stores in the countries. By 11:30am we were finished at Epcot. Matt wanted to head back to the hotel so he left. Pam and I figured the Magic Kingdom might be empty as well so we took the monorail over there. Upon entering, security informed us again that the parks would all be closing promptly at 1pm. It was very crowded at the Magic Kingdom. We only had time to ride Snow White and Peter Pan. We started walking to the exit at 12:45pm. We were going to stop at the bakery and the candy store on the way out but all the stores were already closed. The boat back to the Wilderness Lodge was pretty crowded.

The wind was starting to pick up and it started raining lightly as we headed back. When we got back to the Wilderness Lodge the pool was closed and they had put all the chairs away. All of the hanging lanterns and benches were tied down and secured. I figured that we must really be going to get hit for them to take all these precautions. I called Matt on his cell phone and told him to meet us downstairs for lunch. Since everyone now had to be back at their hotels it was very, very crowded. We ordered our lunch at Roaring Forks and sat and people watched while we waited for our food. After lunch we decided to go to the gift shop and stock up on snacks. There must have been about 50 people waiting in line to pay. It took about 20 minutes to get waited on. People were clearing the shelves of snacks and booze. We decided to get a deck of playing cards to help pass the time along with some snacks for later in the night. We got back up to the room around 2:30pm and it really started to rain. They had moved our furniture in off of the balcony so we rearranged the room to accommodate the additional furniture. I called hubby to update him as to what was going on. Matt and I decided to play poker for "Nerds, they are a type of candy. We did this for about an hour and then Pam and Matt decided to take naps. All of the tv channels were showing continuous coverage of the impending hurricane. Disney was showing "Finding Nemo", "Brother Bear" and "Monsters". They played them continuously all day and night. I was a little to anxious about the hurricane to take a nap so I took a bubble bath while the kids napped.

After my bath Pam and Matt were still sleeping. I decided to head down to the lounge for an adult beverage. It was absolutely packed. I guess you don't realize how many people are actually staying there because on a normal day so many people are off at the parks and doing different things. Here we are, all stuck in one place together. I took some paper with me and started writing my notes for my trip report. I figured I would have two drinks and then go wake up the kids to get some dinner. At 5:30pm the bartender announced last call. I thought he was kidding. He said "no I'm not kidding, they are closing everything down and trying to get as many cast members home with their families as they can". You can't argue with that logic. I got my drink in a cup to go and went out to the lobby to call Pam and Matt to get them to come down so we could eat. I know sooner got off of the phone when a cast member came over to me and said everyone had to go back to their rooms and stay there until further notice. So our dinner consisted of Cooler Ranch Doritos, soda, cookies, barbeque potato chips and a danish. I wish they would have let us know sooner so we could have had an actual meal. That was really my only complaint during the entire storm. So we watched the Olympics, the Disney movies and the news for the next five hours. Around 8pm the storm got really bad. I've never seen wind and rain like that in my life. They put notices under all our doors and gave us flashlights. The notice said to keep the curtains pulled shut, to stay away from the windows and to not leave our rooms. It was a little scarey but I figured we were pretty safe where we were. I was afraid we would loose power but someone told me that WDW has their own system or something. I finally turned in for the night around 9pm. We didn't call for a wake up call for the morning. We didn't know what would be open and what wouldn't.

[Colexis Mom]

Gosh, that must have been something to live thru! Glad you all made it thru okay, and had to deal with minor inconveniences! I hope tomorrow is a better day and you're able to do more things (and get a nice breakfast, you must be starving )!

[sarah_belle]

Your description of the storm was pretty close to my experience also. The only difference is that at the Polynesian, eveything was open until at least 8pm. We went for our PS at Ohana at 7pm and went back to the room afterwards. When we left the GCH, everything was still open for business.

Great report! Hopefully things improve after Charley passes!

[Diz]

Just catching up on your TR and loving it!

Pam was very nice to say yes to Matt joining in. I'm sure she's going to miss him when she's at college. I know DD missed her Dbrothers!

Sorry about your dinner in Italy. We love Alfredo di Roma - but we only get one thing...fettuccine alfredo. We think it is absolutely delicious and so we stick with that! We do get dessert - my favorite chocolate mousse. To be honest, our first time there was good but I could have gone either way with returning. It is a crowded restaurant, not the type I usually like for their prices! But DH loved it so we went back again. Glad we did. It really grew on me. But like I said, I haven't tried any dish except our favorite.

Sounds like you and Pam are getting some quality mom/daughter time together. Sorry Matt's ear is bothering him...but I think it's rather funny that he found a gal to talk to in the hot tub! That's my DS#1!

I've heard mixed reactions regarding restaurants during Charley. Some stayed open longer than others. Sorry you didn't get a real dinner before they closed. DD's resort closed but reopened again to serve pizzas. The guests there were fortunate.

Hope you weathered the storm through the evening. Can't wait to read more!

[luvnwdwgal]

Sounds like you weathered Charley all right. Thank goodness you had those snacks! Looking forward to your next installment!

[PhillyPooh]

Me, Wanda (41), 7th trip to WDW
DD, Pam (18), 6th trip to WDW
DS, Matt (16), 6th trip to WDW

Trip dates: August 11th - 18th 2004

Resort: Wilderness Lodge Room 6051 (courtyard view)

Day 4 - Saturday, August 14, 2004

I guess because of all the sleep I got last night and not really doing much yesterday I was awake and up at 6:15am. There was a beautiful sunrise over Bay Lake. I walked out on to the balcony to see if there was any damage from last night. There are trees uprooted in the courtyard and lots of leaves, branches and debris blown down. The pool area is very messy looking but already there are cast members out cleaning up. I went down to the front desk to find out what time the parks are opening. The cast member told me that she hadn't heard anything official yet. Today is our day to have lunch at 50's Prime Time and then see La Nouba this evening. I got my shower and woke up the kids. I went and got our usual breakfast fare from Roaring Forks. I checked the board they have in the lobby that lists the hours for the parks. It says Animal Kingdom and Typhoon Lagoon are closed. We are heading to MGM anyway since we have our lunch PS for 50's Prime Time.

As we walked to the bus stop you could see some trees uprooted and lots of debris from the trees on the ground. They already had taken the straps off of the lanterns and benches that were holding them down. I'm impressed with the amount of people that are already out cleaning up. There are a lot of people waiting for all the buses. Because a lot of the cast members called out today the buses are taking a long time to come because they don't have enough drivers.

Our first stop is Rock n' Roller Coaster. They aren't giving out any fast passes today so we figure we will go here first and then Tower of Terror. It took us about 15 minutes to get on this ride which wasn't bad. After we were done we headed over to Tower of Terror. The park has only been open for a half hour and already the standby line is 60 minutes. We decided there was no way we were waiting for an hour. It is really humid today because of all the moisture still in the area. Next we went on the Movie Ride, Star Tours and then Muppet Vision. It is very crowded today. Since we didn't have dinner last night we are hungry for some real food. We walked over and checked into 50's Prime Time a half hour early. They seated us within five minutes. Yeah! Matt had a salad, Pam had the turkey sandwich and I had the fried chicken. Our waiter was o.k. but should probably be working at another restaurant. He was not into his role at all. We always eat here when we are at WDW but this time our food wasn't very good. Of course we had to get the smores for dessert. They were the best part of our dining experience. Maybe the next time we will just go for dessert. After lunch we decided to head out of the park because it was so crowded. We got back to the hotel around 2pm. It started to rain and continued for the rest of the night. We took naps and watched tv and relaxed.

We left for Downtown Disney around 5pm. Pam and I were going to see La Nouba. I offered to give Matt my ticket since he joined us at the last minute but he really didn't care about going. We all saw La Nouba in 2002 when we were there. Pam loves the show and really wanted me to get tickets to go. Matt spent some time in Disney Quest while we were at the show. He met us outside the theater after the show. I tried to make dinner reservations for The House of Blues before the show but they told me it was first come, first serve. We did some shopping at the Virgin Megastore and decided since it was still raining to head back to the hotel. We were originally going to stay and do Pleasure Island after dinner but I really wasn't in the mood for walking around in the rain. We were dressed up from seeing La Nouba and tired of walking under umbrellas. Bus service to and from Downtown Disney seems to take forever.

When we got back Pam decided it was to late to eat dinner. It was around 9pm. Matt and I walked over to the Whispering Canyon Café but they had an hour wait. We headed over to Roaring Forks to get something to eat. I really liked having the convenience of this restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge. The food is pretty good and they have a lot to choose from. They are open until 12 midnight which is really convenient. I ordered the special, which was a hot open face turkey sandwich. It was so good. It was real turkey and not that lunch meat stuff. Matt got a hot dog and we split a salad. After our satisfying dinner we headed upstairs to watch a little tv and then turned in for the night. We didn't call for a wake up call since I seem to always wake up before the phone rings. Pam and Matt are planning to go to Blizzard Beach in the morning.

[luvnwdwgal]

Sounds like you had a pretty good "after Charley" day. Glad you got some real food! Looking forward to more!!

[PhillyPooh]

Me, Wanda (41), 7th trip to WDW
DD, Pam (18), 6th trip to WDW
DS, Matt (16), 6th trip to WDW

Trip dates: August 11th - 18th 2004

Resort: Wilderness Lodge Room 6051 (courtyard view)

Day 5 - Sunday, August 15, 2004

Woke up today at 7am. Since Matt had been taking the antibiotic for four days his ear was feeling better. Pam and Matt decided to go to Blizzard Beach this morning. Typhoon Lagoon and the Animal Kingdom are still closed. Pam went this morning and got our breakfast for us to bring back to the room. I decided to straighten up the room and then spend some time relaxing by the pool. Pam and Matt left around 8:30am and I headed down to the pool around 9:15am. It is amazing how hot and sunny it is for being so early. I told the kids to take their cell phones in case they needed to get a hold of me and have a great time. It's really great that they get along so well together.

I was surprised to look up at 11:30am and see Pam and Matt standing there. They said when they got to Blizzard Beach it was empty so they headed for all the slides and rides that they wanted to do. You really can get a lot accomplished if you get there when they open. Pam and Matt said when they were leaving it was really getting crowded. We headed back to the room to take showers and get ready to go over to Epcot.

We caught the bus and arrived at Epcot around 1pm. Our main objective was for Pam to see the British Invasion again and for Matt to see Off-Kilter as we hadn't seen them yet. We picked up the brochure that lists the shows and times and to Pam's major disappointment, British Invasion doesn't perform on Sundays. Oh well. Off-Kilter is scheduled to perform at 2:30pm so we will grab a bench under the umbrellas and wait for them. Pam and I decided to go get some McDonalds nuggets and fries while Matt saved our seats. After sitting and waiting until about 2:45pm and no one else waiting with us we figured they were a no-show. So no British Invasion and no Off-Kilter. So now Pam and Matt are both in bad moods. We decided to take the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom since we still haven't spent to much time there.

The parade had just ended on Main Street so it was difficult walking as we were going against the crowds. Once again the skies are getting very dark. Our first stop is to see Mickey's Philharmagic. We waited about half an hour but it was well worth the wait. When the show was over it was pouring outside. Matt decided to head back to the hotel and Pam and I headed over for Pooh. It took about a half hour to get on this ride also. After seeing our favorite bear we walked over to the Haunted Mansion. We walked right inside and were on the ride in five minutes. When we got out of there it was still raining so we decided to head back to the hotel and take naps and showers. We have 8:00pm reservations for the California Grille. Pam and I love to stop at the bakery and candy store to buy treats so we did that on the way out. It finally stopped raining around 7pm. We walked down to the dock and took the boat over to the Contemporary at 7:15pm. They now have you check in for the California Grille on the second floor and then they have someone escort you upstairs. We checked in around 7:45pm. I inquired about a window table but was informed there were none available. We were handed a beeper and someone took us and about three other parties upstairs in the "express" elevator.

We had never been to the California Grille before. The view is absolutely breath taking. I ordered a drink and we sat and watched the sunset from the bar. Finally at 8:40pm our pager went off. Our server Ron was really nice. We ordered our dinners and then went outside on the observation deck to get a good spot for "Wishes". For some reason there were technical difficulties getting it started, maybe because of the hurricane. There was no Tinkerbell and one false start. They finally got it started around 9:15pm. The show was wonderful and brought a tear to my eye. Afterwards everyone headed back inside. The view from the observation deck is amazing. Our dinner was served shortly after we came back inside. Matt got the New York Strip, Pam got the Pork Tenderloin and I got the Halibut. All our meals were wonderful. Ron even gave me a complimentary glass of wine. I would definitely go back here. Since we weren't done dinner until after 10:00pm we had to take a cab back to our hotel. It was a very quick cab ride. Lights out 11:30pm. Tomorrow we are going to start the day shopping at Downtown Disney so no wake up call necessary.