3rd Anniversary Trip Report

For those who have never read one of my trip reports you should know that I try to do three things with each report. Aside from describing my trip I also try to include information for those who have never been. What I mean is that I try to provide helpful explanations so that those trying to plan a trip may have a better idea of what each experience is like before they go. And secondly for those who have been many times, I try to include items that have changed since my last visit to help keep you up to date. And finally, I always try to make my reports entertaining for everyone. But I should warn you my reports are generally lengthy because I like to put you, the reader into my trip. If you have any questions along the way, please ask.

The set up!

On January 4, 2004, my wife, Marsha and I had just returned from a trip to Walt Disney World (WDW) and immediately began experiencing WDW withdrawal. Experiencing WDW withdrawal wasn’t something new to us, but for some reason we had it really bad this time. I think it was the combination of having great weather in Orlando on the trip we just finished and the unbelievably cold weather back home and the fact that our brand new Premium Annual Passes were burning a hole in our pockets to be used again. So we began to search for a good time to return, but as the days passed by I had to turn my attention to another annual trip that we take each year. Our wedding anniversary is February 1st, and I always plan a secret trip for the two of us. The idea I had this year was simply stay close to home by staying at one of the upscale hotels in the metro Detroit area. We live in Windsor, Ontario, Canada which is just across the river/border from Detroit, Michigan. I had looked up information for the finest restaurants in the area and our entertainment would have included a comedy show at Second City Detroit, tickets to see Bill Cosby who was going to be in town that weekend as was the Broadway play “Movin’ Out”. But then I stumbled on a great rate for a 7 day Western Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Magic, something that is on our list of things to do. We have already been on two Disney cruises, but not the 7 day Western. Unfortunately, having just returned from a vacation Marsha wouldn’t be able to get a whole week off again so soon, so back to my research. Then I found out that US Air was having a 72 hour seat sale to Florida.

So then I started pricing everything out for a weekend at WDW and by January 13th, just 9 days after returning home I had our next trip all booked and planned. We were able to get round trip air on US Air for only $135 each. We booked a standard room at the Wilderness Lodge for just $109 per night, thanks to annual pass holder rates. And we booked a compact car from National for $103 total for five days, which worked out to be only $45 more that it would have cost us for shuttle service to and from the airport to WDW. As it turned out the trip to WDW was only $200 more than the weekend I was planning back home! During the planning we decided that we would take a much more leisurely approach to this trip. What I mean is that we planned on doing a park in the morning, relaxing someplace during the afternoon and returning for the night time fireworks. Usually we cram as much of WDW in that we can and end up being so tired that we need a full day of recovery when we return home.

Day 1 – Thursday, January 29th

During the days leading up to our trip the entire east coast was being hid hard with bad winter storms consisting of both snow and freezing rain, so we decided to leave home extra early. We were up and on our way by 8:00 a.m. stopping at MacDonald’s drive through for breakfast on our way to the airport. We had no trouble at customs which is always a concern these days, and the highways were fairly clear. We checked in at the airport and headed for our gate walking right through security without a wait. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 11:30 a.m. but the plain was late arriving so we were 45 minutes late departing. We had a connecting flight in Charlotte, NC which was scheduled to leave at 2:00 p.m. which would mean we would now have about 15 minutes to catch the flight. Well we made it just in time, but the flight crew didn’t and the flight out of Charlotte was delayed. Talk about hurry up and wait! We were 30 minutes late departing Charlotte and 30 minutes late arriving in Orlando. But it’s absolutely amazing how almost a full day of travel worries get washed away when you ride the Orlando airport monorail and see the palm trees and feel the sun on your face!

When we made our way down to the baggage claim area there were the usual drivers waiting to pick people up, but we noticed a lot of PGA signs. And then it happened, the worst sight you can see when you arrive in Orlando, groups and packs of cheerleaders! Anyhow, we collected our bags and headed for National Car Rental where we had a quick rental. This meant that we simply pick the car we want located in the class that we reserved, load up the car and exit the garage. This was a smooth process and we were on our way to WDW in a few short minutes. Our first stop was to check in at the Wilderness Lodge where we had requested any even numbered room from #6004 to 6030 which supposedly had views of the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. The cast member at the desk explained that these rooms were not standard rooms but that we could upgrade if we wanted to. We asked about viewing Wishes from the rooms and she explained that the trees have since grown too high and you can’t really see the fireworks any more from the rooms. So we decided to stay with our standard room which was room #6062, the next hallways down from what we requested anyways. We found out pretty quickly why this was a standard room as it overlooks the service area and parking lot for the resort. This was ok with us as we love the resort and didn’t plan on spending much time in the room anyways.

On the flight down we had talked about taking a ride over to the Beach Club Resort for dinner at Beaches and Cream and then taking a swim at the resort pool. Having never gone pool hopping before, and reading conflicting reports here on WDWMagic we decided not to do the swim. We did however drive over to the Beach Club Resort and had dinner at a surprisingly slow Beaches and Cream. For those who have never been, Beaches is one of those 50’s style soda joints that serves shakes, burgers, fries and the like. The burgers here were voted best in Orlando in 2003 and is a must stop for us on every trip. As I mentioned we thought about a swim and then planned on watching Illuminations, but I decided to surprise Marsha instead. We drove over to the West Side in Downtown Disney and purchased tickets to see La Nuba the Cirque Du Sole show. We had seen the show once before in 2001 when we were married at WDW and were excited to see it again. We had a couple hours before the show began so we decided to take in Disney Quest which is also on the West Side. Disney Quest is a five or six story building with interactive games. We did the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster and played some of the many vintage video games before returning to Cirque. The show was unbelievable just as it was three years ago, if you’ve never seen it before, GO! Following the show it was time to call it a night. When we returned to our room there was a card and picture signed by Mickey and Minnie with some balloons wishing us a happy anniversary. Now we really felt like we were home! Next up, Day 2 The Backstage Tour day!
 

Mr. Tom Morrow

New Member
Original Poster
Day 2 – Friday, January 30th

**WARNING** spoilers ahead – Day 2 contains many spoilers from the Backstage Magic Tour, if you don’t want to know how the magic is made please skip to Day 3.

I had a difficult time sleeping during the night. Remember the service area that our room overlooked? Well there were several delivers made throughout the night, and each truck was equipped with the safety beep when they back up. There was also this rumbling noise that sounded like tapping on pipes. We later learned that our room was located right across the hall from a hidden service elevator which was the cause of the noise. We were both up early and we decided to have some breakfast at the Whispering Canyon Café. This was a nice change for us as we normally have the all you can enjoy lunch when visiting. The portions were large and prepared us for the long day ahead. The atmosphere was the same as at lunch, all of the cast members that work at the Canyon play up the whole Wild West theme with lots of noise and group participation. This is generally a good thing, but not first thing in the morning!

We drove over to Epcot to meet our tour group at Guest Services. We had previously done the Animation Workshop Tour and the Keys to the Kingdom Tour twice and had been looking forward to this tour, the Backstage Magic Tour for quite some time. Our group had about 20 or so people in the group. It was a cool morning, in the low 50’s and mostly cloudy. Our tour guide was Tim, who’s name has been changed to protect the innocent! After receiving our name badges and introducing ourselves we made our first stop backstage between the main entrance at Epcot and the back of The Living Seas. This is where we boarded our motor coach for the tour. At Epcot there is a perimeter road that goes all the way around Epcot from The Living Seas, all the way around the back of the World Showcase and back up to The Universe of Energy. The cast members use buses to get from the cast building to their work area. Our first stop was at the American Adventure. Tim explained how the American Adventure was originally suppose to be located on the opposite side of the lagoon between Canada and Mexico, but in the end decided that the host country should be the highlight and was moved to its current location. Tim also explained the reverse forced perspective used in building the American Adventure. The building itself is actually five stores tall but from the outside it looks only three, which was common during colonial times. As well, a five story building would look out of place next to Japan which has buildings that are actually supposed to be taller than the American Adventure. He also noted that because the eye focuses on bright colours that there are several shades of white used on the building to draw your attention to the lower part of the building. Take a look next time you go, the pillars on the lower part are a brighter white than the white used on the third floor window frames.

The cool thing about this part of the tour was that the World Showcase was empty because it wasn’t open yet so we basically had the place to ourselves. It was a bit odd seeing the water trucks making their way around the lagoon. We were then able to stop backstage at the American Adventure. We were able to see all of the audio animatronics that are in the show. All of them are underneath and behind the stage on a kind of laying down elevator. As each scene is needed the sets move to a position right under the stage and then are lifted up to stage level. This means that during the actual show, most of the audio animatronics are physically under the audience. This was one of the highlights of the tour for me as I had read about how the show worked but to see it was amazing. We then loaded up the coach and continued on our way around Epcot stopping at Wonders of Life. Here we were able to see the Body Wars simulators from below the attraction. Since Wonders of Life is open seasonally we didn’t get to see them actually working. Our next stop was at the Cast Member Building where we toured ‘the hub’ which is the central communication area for cast members and the costume area. As we were boarding the coach for the ride over to the Studios I asked Tim what he thought about the whole Roy vs. Eisner thing, Tim’s response was that Roy is their hero. We received the same type of response from various other cast members that we asked later in the trip. This also happened to be the day the Pixar announced that they were breaking off negotiations with Disney which was fresh news that morning.

When we arrived at the Studios our first stop was at the central costuming shop which if you’ve taken the Backstage Pass Tour inside the park, you have seen as well, only through windows. Following costuming we made our way over to Mama Melrose’s for lunch where we were served all you can eat. Tim explained that the original concept for Mama Melrose’s was a Muppets restaurant where Rizzo the Rat was in charge of decorating the place. Turns out the only thing that made it was the lights which are copies of lights from all over the various attractions throughout the Studios. It’s also interesting that as I’m writing this report Disney has announced that it has finally purchased the Muppets and the Imaginears are reportedly looking at the old concepts. Lunch was a lot of fun as we got to know the other people on the tour. Once lunch was completed we slid out a back door and back to our awaiting motor coach. While we were loading we were able to see Buzz, Woody and Jessie, well actually we saw two sets of them, one backstage leaving for break and one set on stage. The Studios like Epcot has a parameter road that the cast members use to get from one place to the other. On our way around the Studios we got a very good view of the construction site for the new Stunt Show.

Our next stop was at the Magic Kingdom behind Adventurland and Frontierland. This is where the parade building is located. We were able to see the Share a Dream Come True and the Spectromagic floats. We were also able to see where the Electric Water Parade barges are kept and learned that the water parade has been around since 1971, has changed very little since it started and remains the most popular parade at WDW. In case your wondering the lights are the older type Christmas lights that are changed three times a year. Also in this area are the show buildings for Pirates and Splash. The thing I found interesting here was that a crane used for the painting rehab of Splash was still up and clearly visible from within the park, very odd, very unDisney like. Our next few stop took us behind the Magic Kingdom to the services area of WDW. Our first stop was at Flower Services where a team of florists prepare all of the flowers and gift baskets for the entire resort. We drove by the Railroad and Monorail garage which was neat. Our next stop was the Christmas Warehouse where the crew was already working on Christmas 2004! Inside the warehouse was all of the Christmas decoration from all over WDW. They generally change the decorations every five years. Behind the warehouse were the giant Christmas trees that you see all over WDW. These trees come apart in 4 or 5 different pieces and the decorations remain on the tree. We were told that the trees go up and come down over night in just one night.

Our next stop was another highlight for me as again I had read about this place so many times. That and I didn’t think we would actually be making a stop at Central Shops. Central Shops is where everything that is used at WDW is created and built. For example, as we were walking through the shop, cast members were working on three VW beetles; one was cut into two pieces. These were going to be used in the new stunt show at the Studios. Apparently during the show, Herby, the love bug gets split in two! We were also allowed into Alligator Ally which is inside the Central Shops and is where the audio animatronics are made. I was surprised to find Bonnie Appetite located here; she was a character from Kitchen Kabaret at Epcot. She was used to demonstrate how the insides of an animatronic work. There was also a small elephant that was going through a testing phase and would eventually end up in the Jungle Cruise. We were told that all of the animatronics in the Jungle Cruise were being replaced with new models. Also located here were two Nemo’s, one was painted the other was not. Also located in the shops were several ride vehicles, a doom buggy, omni mover car from Spaceship Earth and a prototype of the new Space Mountain car for Disneyland. On our way across the street to the Props Warehouse it began to rain. The Props Warehouse is where Disney stores all of the used props from attractions and conventions that may be reused. We were happy to find out that most of the props from Horizons were kept by the Props Warehouse.

We then boarded the motor coach for our ride back to the Magic Kingdom. On our way, I asked Tim if many of the Animators had found jobs at the new Legacy Studios. He said that most of the Animators had found new jobs as most of the major studios had made the rounds including Legacy and Pixar. When we arrived back at the Magic Kingdom we were backstage in an area behind Main Street and Tomorrowland. We had never been to this backstage area; unfortunately there wasn’t much to see here. We did go downstairs to the Utiladors under Main Street USA. We didn’t really see much here, definitely not like the previous tours we had taken. Tim informed us that they could no longer do as much in the Utiladors due to security reasons. For those who don’t know what the Utiladors are, there a set of walk ways that are located beneath the Magic Kingdom. Unlike Epcot and the Studios there is no perimeter road for cast members to use, rather they use these below level walkways to get to their work stations. Some people mistake the Utiladors as a basement or tunnels which is not the case. When the Magic Kingdom was built, the Utiladors were built first then the Seven Seas Lagoon was created and the land that was moved covered over the Utiladors and then the park was built on top. So when you’re walking down Main Street USA you’re actually on the 2nd floor of the Magic Kingdom. When we returned to street level we watched the Share a Dream Come True parade at the Main Street hub. After that, we climbed back on the motor coach and headed back to Epcot for the end of the tour.

We decided that since we were already at Epcot, and it was still raining that we should go in since most attractions are indoors. Our first stop was Universe of Energy, Wonders of Life was closed and we didn’t feel like waiting for Mission Space or Test Track. We did however walk through the Eclectic Umbrella unsuccessfully searching for the talking trash can. We walked over to The Living Seas and to our surprise there was a line to get in! So we continued on our way to the Land to grab a brownie and mourn the loss of Food Rocks. We noticed that the hot air balloons in the center of the building were not working. We said our good buy to Food Rocks and moved along to Journey into your Imagination with Figment. We also saw the new pre-show for Honey I Shrunk the Audience, it was not as good as True Colours which wasn’t as good as Makin’ Memories. That’s two replacement rehabs, both not as good as the one it replaced. On our way back to the main gate I noticed that the talking water fountains located outside the washrooms were covered and not working. We were going to go on Spaceship Earth but we found another line, it brought back memories of 1981! We even took a picture of the line. We decided to head back to the resort to relax.

When we got back to the Wilderness Lodge we decided to take a swim and hit the hot tub. When we arrived at our room we were surprised to find a towel angel on our bed, just like the animals that are made on the Disney Cruise. Later when we were relaxing in the hot tub we could see the Wishes fireworks through the trees. There was still a light rain and the temperature was in the high 50’s. It was funny watching some of the thin skinned people walking around the pool area all bundled up in heavy jackets. We had planned on going to Downtown Disney for dinner but decided to take the boat over to Fort Wilderness to eat at the Trail’s End Buffateria. The food here was good and there was a great selection to choose from. We took our time eating, so much time in fact that we missed the last boat back to the Wilderness Lodge. We ended up walking the trail that goes between the two resorts which was a good 20 – 30 minute walk. Well that completes our first full day, wow that was a lot! Thanks to the weather none of the parks were very busy. We took our time, relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. Next up, Day 3 – Disney Studios.
 

Mr. Tom Morrow

New Member
Original Poster
Day 3 – Saturday, January 31st

The night before I had purchased a ‘happy anniversary’ pin from the pin cart inside the resort lobby for Marsha to ware. I was hoping that someone would notice it and create a magical moment for us like the ones I’ve read about on here so often. Saturday is an early entry day for the Studios which was our destination for the day. Unfortunately the rain continued through the night and into the morning. The temperature however was in the mid 50’s again, very nice. We arrived before the park opened and there was a good sized crowd ready to go. We then found out where the cheerleader teams were going to. Turns out they were dance teams not cheerleaders and there was a competition taking place at the Studios on Big City Street. We however headed directly for our favorite attraction, Tower of Terror. During the first hour we rode Tower of Terror three times and Rock and Roller Coaster once all with virtually no wait. Before moving along we rode Tower two more times. One of the things that we like to do on Tower is at the point where they take your picture we do funny things. For example, on one of our trips Marsha had brought her company newsletter with us and we pretended to be reading while on the ride. This time we just pretended to be sleeping. The funny part is seeing the reaction of the other people who were on the ride with you. We decided to start making our way towards Pizza Planet for lunch when it opened. On our way was stopped at The Great Movie Ride which we walked on, no wait. We stopped and had our picture taken with Sully and Mike from Monsters Inc. across from the ABC Commissary. We watched the Muppets 3D show, we always stop to take a look at the key under the mat now! By this time Pizza Planet was open so we sat outside under an umbrella and had lunch. By this time the rain had stopped.

We decided to make our way back to Sunset Boulevard to take in the Beauty and the Beast show. On our way we stopped to have our picture taken with Sorcerer Mickey as well as Max. When we arrived at the show we still had some time so we went back on Tower again. After Tower we watched the show and then went over to have our picture taken with Lilo & Stitch. Then we went over to Who Wants to be a Millionaire and on the way it began to rain again, just a light rain though not so bad. After Millionaire we took in The Little Mermaid show, back to Tower and then back to Millionaire. For the first time ever I made the top 10 at Millionaire finishing at #8, that was cool. We had priority seating at the 50’s Prime Time Café later in the day. But since most people were leaving because of the rain and the possibility of Fantasmic being cancelled we decided to go to dinner early. Not a problem at all. For those who have never been, this restaurant is like eating in your parent’s kitchen, circa 1950! Wait staff are your cousins, mom is in the kitchen cooking and you’d better keep those elbows off the table! And don’t even think of ordering desert if you don’t eat your vegetables! The food here is awesome, I always have the meat loaf, Marsha now has the Chicken Pot Pie and for desert I have Dad’s Super Sunday.

Following dinner we had a little time before the start of the first Fantasmic show of the evening, so, as you might guess by now we made our way to the Tower. That’s right, we rode Tower eight times during the day, and the longest we waited was 20 minutes due to a break down, which was this ride. And I’m glad we did, Tower seamed to be the place that we heard the funniest things from people during the day. Things like, person with fast pass in hand asking the cast member, “When can I use my fast pass?” That’s better than the, “what time is the 3 o’clock parade start?” question! On another occasion there were two adults having a conversation that went something like this, “Hey isn’t Walt’s brother still alive, yes actually he just resigned from the company!” Now let’s see, Roy was Walt’s older brother and we just celebrated Walt 100th in 2001, crazy. And this last one was priceless. Our last ride on Tower, just after the Library there was a lady who wanted to know how they were able to get Rod Sterling to do the part, since he’s dead? The ladies daughter kept trying to explain to her that they used video of him from the old show and dubbed over someone else’s voice. To which the lady said, ok, but he’s still dead how did they get him to do that?

After riding Tower we had about 10 minutes to get into Fantasmic which was still scheduled to go on. Thanks to the rain there were still lots of seating available. The show did go off with a resounding cheer from the crowd. I noticed that one of the barges was not working, the one with Belle and the Beast which kind of makes the part with the magic mirror seam out of place, “there are three lovelier maids” when you only see two of them. It could have just been because of the rain, but the same barge wasn’t working on our last trip either. At the very end of the show it started to rain very hard and the show ended early. Since we had done everything we wanted to do at the Studios we decided to head over to Pleasure Island. We went into the Adventures Club like we always do but this time we actually went downstairs into show rooms, later in the evening we took part in the Balderdash Cup in the Library. We also saw two of the Comedy Warehouse shows which weren’t all that good this trip. When we had enough we headed back to the resort.

When we got to our room there was now our towel angel and a towel dog. I left a note for the housekeeping cast member thanking her for ‘keeping the magic alive’. We were also surprised to have a Fed-Ex delivery; it was our What Would Walt Do pins. You purchase these pins to give to deserving Disney cast members a sort of guest way of creating magic for the cast members. To learn more about this awesome program, go to Whatwouldwaltdo.com. One of the things that we noticed during the day was that there were lots of first timers in the park. This is always a great thing to see, especially when you see kids experiencing the magic for the first time. And even with the dance competition going on the park didn’t feel all that crowded. Coming up – Day 4 – Magic Kingdom, our anniversary day and Superbowl Sunday!

Day 4 – Sunday, February 1st

We planned on visiting the Magic Kingdom on this day because we always have lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table on each trip and since today was our anniversary it was the perfect time. Sunday is also the early entry day for the Magic Kingdom. We got ready and headed down to the resort dock to take the boat over to the Magic Kingdom. While we were standing on the dock it got really windy and started to rain really hard, but by the time we reached the Magic Kingdom, no rain, no wind, pure magic! We arrived at the Magic Kingdom just as the Mayor, Mickey and the guest family was opening the park. We headed directly for Space Mountain, which was the only attraction that we didn’t get to do on our last trip. We walked on twice in a row, no wait at all. We then did the same thing on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, twice. We figured that we better head for Fronterland to get a fast pass for one of the other mountains. But when we got to the Liberty Square bridge that part of the park wasn’t opened yet. When Frontierland did open, we walked right onto Big Thunder Mountain, three times, Splash Mountain once then Big Thunder two more times. It was great there were no waits for anything. In fact get this; we then went on Pirates, Tiki Room, Haunted Mansion, Mickey’s Philharmagic, Snow White, the TTA and Carousel of Progress all before lunch at noon. For you park vets out there, note that the worn down gargoyle on the Haunted Mansion queue has been replaced with a new gargoyle. We had a wonderful lunch at Cinderella’s Royal Table; the Beef Barley Soup is the best! Unfortunately no one asked us if we were there for a special reason which is something that they normally do. That was kind of disappointing especially since Marsha was wearing her pin.

As we walked out of the castle the sun began to shine, the temperature reached the low 60’s by this time. Next on our schedule was to make our way over to the ESPN Club at the Board Walk to watch the Superbowl. We had called ahead and were told to get to the club no later than 3:00 p.m. if we wanted to get in. So on our way we stopped at the Yacht Club to have our picture taken at the garden gazebo. This is where we were married at and we return to take a picture on every trip. We made it to the ESPN Club by 2:30 p.m. and the place was already full, keep in mind the game didn’t start until 6:25 p.m.! I was starting to feel a bit tired anyways and since we had a lot of free time on our hands we headed for Animal Kingdom. The only reason we went was to pick up our annual passholder pin lanyards and purchase passholder t-shirts. On our way back out of Animal Kingdom we noticed a lot of graffiti on the bamboo to the right side of Discovery Island; we took a picture I hope to post it. This is the kind of stuff that you see at Six Flags not Disney. And its not like we went looking for it, it was hard not to notice it.

It was 4:30 p.m. by the time we returned to the room where we found another towel animal, this time a mouse. I left another note for housekeeping, ‘have a magical day’. We both took a nap waking up at 7:00 p.m. just in time for Wishes. We could see the fireworks pretty good from our balcony after all, not completely clear but who cares we could still see them. We watched the first half of the Superbowl and the half time show, including the Janet Jackson incident. Marsha said I think I saw her breast, I said no way, boy was I surprised when I saw the paper the next day! Then we went down to the resort dock to watch the Water Parade. This was the first time I had ever seen this parade and I had been to WDW 11 times before! It’s kind of neat and the kids really seamed to like it. Then we decided to go back to the ESPN Club for dinner figuring we could get in once the game was over. Turns out we were able to get seats with three minutes left in the game. I must say the last three Superbowls have been pretty entertaining with this one going down to the wire. This is another of our must do restaurants on every trip. What you have here is obviously sports, but you also have stadium type foods done to the max. In fact the portions are so big that we usually only eat appetizers here. We have an order or two of Dingers, the best chicken fingers anywhere and for desert I have a Hockey Puck, a chocolate covered brownie with ice cream. Following dinner we headed back to the resort and called it a night. By this time we were both disappointed that no one had noticed our pin. Next up – Day 5 – I can show you the world!
 

Mr. Tom Morrow

New Member
Original Poster
Day 5 – Monday, February 2nd

This was our ‘I can show you the world’ day. What I mean by that is that we try to do our favorite attractions at each of the parks. The weather was cool and foggy as we stepped out to the Disney bus station at the resort. We were headed for the Disney Studios to ride Tower of Terror. On our way into the park we stopped to purchase a Winnie the Pooh colouring kit which comes with markers and 10 or so different colouring pages of Pooh and friends. However we were interested in the clear back side of the sheets! We decided to make two signs that we would hold up for the picture at Tower of Terror. The first sign read Roy, the second Rules, I think you see where I’m going with this? On our first ride we got the back row by ourselves but because we didn’t colour in our lettering you couldn’t see what the signs said. So we coloured in our signs and rode again this time in the middle row with no body behind us so we held the signs up. Unfortunately our hands moved with the drop and the signs covered our faces. The third time was the trick. We waited for the front row and held the signs under our chins. We purchased the picture, I hope to have it scanned and posted soon. I think I might give a copy to Roy when I see him in Philly in a couple weeks.

We then took a boat ride over to Epcot. We sent a few ‘e-mail from Mars’ to friends and family back home. As we made our way to the main gate, there was a line up at Spaceship Earth again, now I was wondering what was up, but it was still early in the morning. We then hopped on the monorail for the ride over to the Magic Kingdom. By this time the clouds finally gave in to sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70’s. We headed directly for the Haunted Mansion, got a fast pass for Big Thunder Mountain and checked in for our priority seating at the Liberty Tree Tavern. We tried the Liberty Tree for the first time on our last trip and have added it to our must do list. We love the honey butter that they serve here, strange thing this time, we had to ask for it. I enjoy the Pilgrims Feast which is turkey, smashed potatoes, bread dressing and green beans. After lunch we decided to try another activity I had always wanted to do, but never had. We had just missed the boat to go back to the Wilderness Lodge so instead we took the monorail to the Contemporary and then caught the boat over to Wilderness Lodge.

When we got to the resort we went down to the rental dock and rented a canopy boat for an hour. We drove around Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon taking all kinds of pictures. It was a great time for the two of us and plan on bringing others with us next time. The only thing that I couldn’t find while we were out in the boat was the Polly wave machine. We freshened up at our room before heading back to the Magic Kingdom. We took the boat back to the park and headed back to the Haunted Mansion again and then used our fast pass at Big Thunder. Here’s a top secret tip for you, Fast Passes cannot be used before the time printed on the pass but they CAN be used anytime after. That’s right folks they don’t expire at the end of the hour, you can use them later on the same day. Keep in mind that this is a sweet thing and the policy could change at any time! As we were walking back to the hub to watch Wishes we heard another funny! Just as we were walking by The Country Bear Jamboree we heard a gentlemen tell his kids that ‘we have to go in and see the Bernstein Bears’, I thought of you Grizz when I heard that one. We picked our spot about half way down Main Street and waited for the show to begin, and people watched. Sometimes the most enjoyable thing to do is just stop and people watch, especially kids. Wishes was fantastic but it’s hard to beat Fantasmic and Illuminations. As we were leaving the park Mickey was waving good buy from the Train Station, this was something I had never seen before. I usually have a hard time leaving the Magic Kingdom for the last time on each trip (I’m still a big kid!) but with Mickey waving and saying see you real soon, it was much easier!

We boarded the monorail and headed for Epcot. When we got back to Epcot we rode Spaceship Earth and then walked towards World Showcase. We decided to have some fish and chips and the Yorkshire County Fish Stand at the UK. Unfortunately they now serve fish sticks instead of actual fish like the use to do. We stopped in front of Canada to watch Illuminations which was one of the better locations that we’ve watched the show from. Following the show on our way to the main gate we were surprised not to see cast members waving goodbye which is something that we have seen before. Then we heard another funny! As the mob of people is making its way past Spaceship Earth a lady asks ‘where’s the exit?’ how about you just follow the crowd! We didn’t have to wait for a bus; we were able to get on right away. Then we heard a not so funny. The family that got on the bus just after us, the second last group decided to sit on the floor next to the driver. The driver asked the lady to stand and remain standing behind the line or the bus couldn’t move. And this was her response “Do you expect me to stand? My kids are exhausted!” I felt like turning around and asking everyone on the bus, hey anyone on here tired? Well they did stand and move but as soon as the last family was aboard and the driver turned out the lights the whole family sat on the floor, unbelievable.

When we got back to the resort we decided that since we would be returning to the Great White North the next day that we should go enjoy another nice swim. It was beautiful out, the temperature was still in the low 60’s and the hot tub was just right. After our relaxing time in the hot tub we stopped for dinner at the Roaring Fork which is a cafeteria style restaurant at the Wilderness Lodge with some really good food. After that we packed and went to bed.

Day 6 – Tuesday, February 3rd

We were up 8:00 a.m. and had breakfast at the Whispering Canyon Café again. Marsha wanted to stop at the Character Warehouse in the mall just across I-4 from Downtown Disney. The Character Warehouse is where Disney sells all of their discontinued and out of date merchandise from WDW at big discounts. We were so early that we were there before they opened. A half our later we paid for our many gifts and headed for the air port, which is where we should have been at that time. It only took me 20 minutes to get to the air port and returning the rental care was a breeze. We checked in with US Air without a wait. Thanks to the signs that were posted we removed all of our film from our luggage and put it in our carry on. We couldn’t remember which was better and on the trip down we had the film in our luggage. We’re sorry we did as we lost some of our pictures because of the x-ray. I wish they had signs at Detroit Metro! We won’t make that same mistake again.

Our flight took off right on time and arrived in Pittsburgh on time. Boy did we know we weren’t in Florida anymore, it was freezing. We had some time before our connecting flight was ready for boarding so we had some lunch at T.G.I. Fridays. The flight from Pittsburgh to Detroit was also on time and everything went very smoothly. Its still hard to believe that the night before we were in a hot tub and had enjoyed a 70 degree day, now we were back home where is was 10 degrees, buuuuurrrrr.

It was a short trip but a very nice relaxing one, just what the doctor ordered! We were able to do and experience a lot of things that even after 11 trips we had not experienced before. And for some strange reason, even as I’m writing this trip report I haven’t experienced the dreaded WDW withdrawal….yet! It’s probably because I’ll get to meet a real Disney in just a couple weeks! I hope you’ve enjoyed my report, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Thanks, and have a magical day!
 

NemoRocks78

Seized
A belated happy anniversary to you and your wife! Thanks for sharing your trip report with us, I enjoyed it a lot! Glad to hear you had a magical time.:D
 

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