This year marks the 25th wedding anniversary for my wife and I and while it is not until August we celebrated a little early due to work schedules at WDW. The trip was special for a number of reasons not the least of which was that we were taking along some additional family members and a friend. My wife's two older sisters and a friend went along and we booked two rooms at the CBR for the period of 6/28-7/5. We had not stayed at the CBR since 2000 and felt then that some renovations were in order. Obviously that has been addressed and the old charm of the resort is back. The colors in the rooms seemed more vivid and the food court looks great and seems to handle traffic flow much better. We have long favored the CBR for both price and convenience to the parks and its basic central location. We were reminded why we liked it so much when we drove thru the gate at the security check point. Everything about the place looked great. We had flow into Orlando International and rented a van for the week. We find this to be something that offers us more flexibility and control. I had read of fewer buses running and had experienced the long waits for buses too many times in a couple of our early trips. It's an added expense but it gives you a leg up on getting from park to park or to make a run to some place like Winn Dixie for provisions.
We faxed the CBR a couple of weeks in advance of our arrival about some special requests, namely lower level rooms due to the difficulty one member in our party has in negotiating steps. There were a couple of other things we requested and to their credit the CBR came through.
Our first day was to be a light one in terms of park touring as travel is both time consuming and tiring. We had all gotted up at 3am or thereabouts in order to get to the airport and get the first flight out. We arrived before noon at Orlando International and thanks to some information gained via the forums at WDW INFO learned that Winn Dixie is both nearby and considerably cheaper than Goodings and so we made that a stop for provisions before checking in and then located the church we would attend on Sunday morning...again, thanks to information obtained via this vehicle. Thanks to those who helped.
We checked in and made our way to MGM and were able to do TOT, Muppets and Great Movie Ride. Persuaded my wife's sisters to get the special visitor name tags and one in fact had to have the name engraved on the spot. The thing that struck us about MGM on this day was how light the crowds seemed to be. The park was hardly empty but as many of you know, MGM and EPCOT are much more manageable than the Magic Kingdom. Further contributing to this was the fact that many of those in the park were in line or already seated for Fantasmic. We arrived at the park late in the afternoon and left before closing due to fatigue as much as anything, knowing that we had a week to go, but we had to have at least a little fix. Besides we just couldn't see checking in and staying in the room no matter how tired.
So we got a park buzz and retired for the evening. Most of the day was consumed by travel but it ended on a very positive, upbeat note thanks to the magic that is Disney/MGM.
My wife and I who marked our 8th visit since 1987 with this trip noted on the first day that some of the old "spark" seemed to be back in the cast members. Many of them seemed to actually be enjoying what they were doing and seemed anxious to communicate that enthusiasm to park guests. So much has been written about everyone working at WDW being down in the mouth spirit wise, that the company is a shell of its former self, that the magic is but a memory. We were encouraged by what we saw the first day and would experience this time and again.
I think that Disney like the rest of the world is different in the wake of 9/11. They probably also realize that they can no longer take any guest for granted, nor should they ever have, but they know that it's not just one big thing that people remember, it's also those small things such as the spirit of the crew on the tram or the cast members in the park stores or the attractions. If they aren't having any fun and seem to be serving a sentence people tend to notice that and it impacts their experience. I think the people at Disney are smart enough to have recognized this and apparently took steps to correct some missteps of the past.
All in all, while we spent only a fraction of our day in the park we were excited and looking forward to the week ahead. ...which I will document in subsequent reports.
Bill Yarbor
Haubstadt, Indiana
We faxed the CBR a couple of weeks in advance of our arrival about some special requests, namely lower level rooms due to the difficulty one member in our party has in negotiating steps. There were a couple of other things we requested and to their credit the CBR came through.
Our first day was to be a light one in terms of park touring as travel is both time consuming and tiring. We had all gotted up at 3am or thereabouts in order to get to the airport and get the first flight out. We arrived before noon at Orlando International and thanks to some information gained via the forums at WDW INFO learned that Winn Dixie is both nearby and considerably cheaper than Goodings and so we made that a stop for provisions before checking in and then located the church we would attend on Sunday morning...again, thanks to information obtained via this vehicle. Thanks to those who helped.
We checked in and made our way to MGM and were able to do TOT, Muppets and Great Movie Ride. Persuaded my wife's sisters to get the special visitor name tags and one in fact had to have the name engraved on the spot. The thing that struck us about MGM on this day was how light the crowds seemed to be. The park was hardly empty but as many of you know, MGM and EPCOT are much more manageable than the Magic Kingdom. Further contributing to this was the fact that many of those in the park were in line or already seated for Fantasmic. We arrived at the park late in the afternoon and left before closing due to fatigue as much as anything, knowing that we had a week to go, but we had to have at least a little fix. Besides we just couldn't see checking in and staying in the room no matter how tired.
So we got a park buzz and retired for the evening. Most of the day was consumed by travel but it ended on a very positive, upbeat note thanks to the magic that is Disney/MGM.
My wife and I who marked our 8th visit since 1987 with this trip noted on the first day that some of the old "spark" seemed to be back in the cast members. Many of them seemed to actually be enjoying what they were doing and seemed anxious to communicate that enthusiasm to park guests. So much has been written about everyone working at WDW being down in the mouth spirit wise, that the company is a shell of its former self, that the magic is but a memory. We were encouraged by what we saw the first day and would experience this time and again.
I think that Disney like the rest of the world is different in the wake of 9/11. They probably also realize that they can no longer take any guest for granted, nor should they ever have, but they know that it's not just one big thing that people remember, it's also those small things such as the spirit of the crew on the tram or the cast members in the park stores or the attractions. If they aren't having any fun and seem to be serving a sentence people tend to notice that and it impacts their experience. I think the people at Disney are smart enough to have recognized this and apparently took steps to correct some missteps of the past.
All in all, while we spent only a fraction of our day in the park we were excited and looking forward to the week ahead. ...which I will document in subsequent reports.
Bill Yarbor
Haubstadt, Indiana
