My 2nd Trip report: April 13-21 2008

sbkline · Apr 25, 2008

Original plan for Wednesday:

Wednesday April 16: Animal Kingdom all day until 4 or 5 PM, then back to resort for rest of the evening with supper at Boatwrights. Maybe Downtown Disney if we didn't do it already on Tuesday.

We did just as I had planned. We went to Animal Kingdom that day and got several photopass shots, just as we did Sunday and Tuesday at MK and Epcot. We had lunch at Pizzafari and both had the Chicken Parmesian Sandwich. We did the Safari, Tough to be a Bug, the Rafiki Train ride, Festival of the Lion King, Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl. I got fastpasses for Expedition Everest, but my wife didn't want to do that ride. So I rode by myself and I was gonna ride it a second time with another fastpass later, but the wait was gonna be too long even with my fastpass. So Primeval Whirl was our last ride of the day and we ended up leaving the park around 3:30 or so.

We went back to POR and we rented one of those surrey bikes and rode around the grounds a couple times. We both enjoyed that. Then I got in the pool while my wife took a nap or at least rested up in the room. We had supper at Boatwrights. The food was good, but I wouldn't put Boatwrights on my list of top restaraunts. I didn't dislike it, but it didn't totally "wow" me either.

The cold front was mostly gone by Wednesday, but as the sun went down it did get chilly again in the evening. We got on the boat to go to DTD again and had to have jackets on, especially with the wind blowing in off the water. We bought a Minnie plush dressed like Cinderella for our niece, then went back to the hotel. We like to bring sparkling grape juice and goblets with us on our trips and have a drink together, so we took our grape juice outside to that gazeebo at POR in front of the river and we drank our sparkling grape juice out of our glass goblets. That was pretty much it for Wednesday.

More to come later...

Wilt Dasney · Apr 25, 2008

sbkline said:
I originally planned to copy and paste the pics from my myspace page and paste them on here...it worked when I tried testing it before we left. But for some reason when I tried to do it yesterday, I couldn't get it to work...and I can't remember how to do it any other way. So the easiest way to share my pics is to direct people to my myspace page. And I'm still in the process of uploading the rest of my pics, so feel free to keep checking for new ones.

Anyway, back to my trip report...

We interrupt this trip report for the following announcement:

I'm pretty sure you can't successfully link to pics on places like Myspace, Facebook...basically anywhere that requires a login to view content. Photo-hosting services like Photobucket or Flickr would work if you want to link directly to photos since the content isn't tucked away behind a login screen.

Now back to your regularly-scheduled trip report... :lookaroun

sbkline · Apr 25, 2008

sbkline · Apr 25, 2008

Here is the original plan for Thursday:

Thursday April 17: Sea World until 4 or 5 PM or so, then supper at Spoodles and meet up with Fizzle and Skeeder for the Boardwalk and some mini-golf at Fantasia Gardens.

We stuck to that plan as well. We went to Sea World, but left a little earlier than I had allowed for in our original plan. We left around 2:15 or so instead of 4 or 5. My wife wasn't interested in doing the rides, so I did Journey to Atlantis and Kraken by myself pretty much first thing, when I could walk right on. We did the Clyde and Seamore show and the Shamu show and had lunch at some counter service restaraunt around the waterfront area. We did the Wild Arctic, but I was dissapointed with the gift shop there. When we went in 2003 and 2004, I remember the Wild Arctic gift shop having more of a selection of Christmas type merchandise since the whole Arctic theme fits in with Christmas so well. One of the Christmas decorations that we put up every year was purchased at this gift shop. It is a little Polar Bear with a Christmas wreath around his neck. Nothing big, just a 6 inch or so porcelain polar Bear, but it's a neat little decoration to put on our table. But this time the gift shop seemed to have much more generic Sea World trinkets instead of wintery/Christmasy themed stuff. Oh well, things change I guess. We bought a souvenier photo of us on the way out. On the way back to our resort, we stopped at the Beach Club in a third attempt to see Art. He was there this time and I chatted with him for a couple minutes, traded a pin with him and had someone take our picture together. He didn't have any pins that I really liked, so the pin I got from him I ended up trading off again later. When we got back to the hotel, my wife took a nap while I got in the pool, then we went to the Boardwalk area around 6 or so in order to check out the area before our 7:30 supper reservations at Spoodles. Fizzle and Skeeder had 7 PM ressies there, and we managed to get seated a little early, so we were able to see them and talk to them briefly but we were at our own tables so we didn't get to talk to them much over supper. I had the red snapper entree, since I have been wanting to try snapper for quite some time. I enjoyed it, although Fizzle had the same thing and said that he didn't care for it. I didn't have any real complaints about the food, but nothing about the restaraunt really struck me enough to feel much need to eat there again...at least not for a while.

We got done around the same time that Fizzle and Skeeder got done, so we all met up outside the restaraunt and headed towards Fantasia Gardens. We were gonna walk over there, but my wife thought she may need a jacket, as it was getting a little cooler with dusk setting in. So we all walked over to our van to get my wife's jacket and we just took the van over to Fantasia Gardens. We had fun playing mini-golf, although we all sucked at it. That course seems harder than Winter Summerland and the off property mini-golf courses that my wife and I play at. It was still fun, though, although we didn't get a chance to chat quite as much as I would like because we felt rushed with other parties playing right behind us. So we felt like we had to play quickly in order to not hold up the parties behind us, although I wish we would have had the course more to ourselves and been able to take our time and visit a little more. Upon leaving, they gave us all a souvenier golf ball with a sorcerer Mickey on it. We took Fizzle and Skeeder back to Epcot so they could get on the bus back to their resort and then we went back to ours and called it a night.

sbkline · Apr 25, 2008

Here is what was planned for Friday:

Friday April 18: Beach all day, then over to Epcot for supper at Le Cellier and evening EMH. Probably meeting Fizzle and Skeeder for a final time before they leave the next morning.

We basically followed the itinerary, except that "all day" at the Beach was a great overstatement! LOL We had breakfast at the food court at POR and left for the Beach around 9 AM or so. We went to Melbourne Beach, where we went in 2003 and 2004, and it took about an hour and a half or so to get there. My wife had apparently not planned on spending too much of the day at the beach...just a couple hours or so. As it turned out, we only spent an hour there, which was fine with me. For the first time, we actually saw crabs on the beach. We had never seen that before, and I thought it was pretty cool. But it was kind of freaking my wife out and every time she saw a crab from her beach recliner, she pulled her recliner farther back to get farther away from the crabs. :ROFLOL: I kept telling her that they don't want to bother her and that they're more afraid of her than she is of them, but she kept thinking they were gonna get her. So even if she might have planned on staying a little longer, the presence of the crabs there caused her to be satisfied with only spending an hour at the beach. Normally I get in the water when we go to the beach, but the water looked pretty rough and choppy and I was afraid the water would be cold, after the cold front that had come in earlier in the week. So I didn't get in the water at all, and I was ready to go anytime my wife was, since we only went to the Beach for her benefit anyway. So after an hour, we went back, and it was around 2 PM or so when we got back to our room. She went into the room to nap or relax and, as I have said, I can't just sit in a hotel room in the middle of the day. I have to be doing something and napping in the middle of the day, to me, is a total waste of time when there is so much else that I could be doing. LOL So I had this idea, since we were going to Epcot later, that I would run ahead into Epcot and get fastpasses for Soarin' since the fastpasses would surely be gone by the time we got there at 4 or 5. So I got on the bus and went to Epcot and then, as I was approaching the turnstyles, it hit me that I can't get fastpasses for both of us because my wife isn't with me to run her card through the turnstyle and put her finger in the scanner, so I wouldn't be able to insert her card for a fastpass. So that was a waste of a trip, although I briefly chatted with Fizzle, who was at Epcot with his wife, at the time. So then I got on the monorail, since I hadn't been yet and I knew that we wouldn't have any reason to go on it in the next couple days. So I figured I'd ride the monorail now just to have done it once for this trip. I rode it over to the TTC and then got on the other monorail into the Magic Kingdom, then went over to the bus stops and got on a bus back to POR.

My wife and I went to the main bus stop at POR to wait for a bus to Epcot, but as our luck tends to go, every other bus came by, as well as a 2nd bus for some of the locations, before our bus for Epcot came. So by the time we got there, it was probably closer to 5 PM. We did Ellen's Energy Adventure, then went over to Canada, since it was close to 6 PM and our Le Cellier ADR was for 7ish. I wanted to do Oh Canada! before supper, so we did that, then went and checked in for supper. On a side note, I never understood why they call it "Oh Canada" and then don't even play the national anthem of the country which has the same name. IMO, the title of the film implies that you're gonna hear the song at some point, but you never do.

:shrug: Oh well, back on topic now... Fizzle and his wife also had ADRs for Le Cellier, but a half hour or so prior to ours, so they were seated at their table already when we went in.

I ordered the New York Strip steak with Yukon potatoes and I was talking about that steak for the next several days! :slurp: My wife ordered some kind of chicken dish and she enjoyed hers as well. We both had a very good experience at Le Cellier and that is one restaraunt that I would definitely put on my list for a future trip.

After supper, Fizzle and Skeeder went in to watch Oh Canada while my wife and I mozzied on over to the UK. We then met up with them outside the Canada pavillion and walked over to Norway in hopes of doing Maelstrom. The line was too long, so we walked back over to the FutureWorld side and did some photopass shots. I had pre-purchased my photopass CD for $99.95 and was determined to get my money's worth on it. It was Fizzle's last night so he and his wife wanted to go do Illuminations, but I planned for my wife and I to do that on our last night, which was Sunday. My plan had been to try to get on some rides at FutureWorld while everyone was crowding around for Illuminations, so that's what we did. We agreed to meet back up after Illuminations, so Fizzle and Skeeder went that way and my wife and I walked right onto Spaceship Earth. We both enjoyed the new version, but I still miss the old one as well. We then went over to Soarin and it had a posted wait time of 35 minutes, which wasn't too bad considering the 90+ minute wait times during most of the days. Plus, I was hoping that the wait time might be a little exagerrated as they sometimes are, so we went ahead and got in line. It turned out to be every bit of 35 minutes, but we got to ride it. In the meantime, though, Illuminations was out and Fizzle and Skeeder were waiting for us, and I hated that they ended up having to wait on us. We were close enough that I didn't want to get out of line, though, but I felt bad that they were waiting on our account. After Soarin, we met up again and walked toward Test Track hoping to get a group ride on that, but the line was too long. Bad thing about EMH is that even with resort guests only, WDW has enough resort hotels that you could still end up with thousands of people in the park at the same time, and the lines won't be any better than they are when the park is open to the public. We then went back into World Showcase and rode Grand Fiesta together and then we went to Norway and walked right onto Maelstrom. We went into the Norway Bakery where my wife and I each got a dessert and then we all walked together back towards FutureWorld and got several more photopass shots taken. We made one last pass by TestTrack in hopes of finding a shorter line, but no luck. So even if we didn't do alot of rides together that night, we were able to just walk around together and visit, which we really enjoyed. Fizzle had to be at the airport pretty early the next day and my wife was ready to call it a night, so we headed out of the park while Fizzle and Skeeder did Spaceship Earth as their final ride at WDW for this trip. And as we were on the bus pulling out of Epcot, we saw Fizzle and Skeeder walking to their bus stop and they looked up at our bus. I don't think they saw us in their, but I figured they were probably looking at the POR busses wondering which one we were in.

So that's about it for Friday. We really enjoyed all the time we spent with Fizzle and Skeeder and we hope to spend more time in the future with them, both at WDW and possibly in NC with them, or for them to come up to Illinois and see us. We wish we could have spent more time together on this trip, but I guess that's what "next time" is for.

JustPlainBill · Apr 25, 2008

Great report!
Looking forward to the rest, especially finding out which route you took home through Atlanta. It sounds like they started construction on the northbound lanes. It looks like I'll be bypassing the city on my family's trip to WDW in 91 days.

sbkline · Apr 25, 2008

Here is what was planned for Saturday:

Saturday April 19: Hollywood Studios all day, Supper at Mama Melrose

That's exactly what we did. We got there around 9 AM, probably a little after. I got fastpasses for ToT and RnRC. We got several photopass shots at different times of the day. I ended up getting to ride ToT twice and RnRC once, although I had gotten more than one fastpass for the latter and several for the former. I didn't willfully get extra ones just to keep...I had intended to use them, but it just didn't work out that way. When I went back to RnRC for my 2nd ride, the fastpass line was backed up about as far as the regular line. We did Star Tours in the morning and I was dissappointed with the gift shop. Last year we bought a Jedi Mickey for our son, and I had thought about buying a Princess Leia Minnie or a Han Solo Donald, as I thought someone had told me that those are available as well. Not only did I not see either one of those, but I saw no Jedi Mickies either. All they had were little Ewoks and Darth Vader Goofies which are about the dumbest thing I've ever seen. During our day there we also rode the Great Movie Ride, the Backstage Tour and we did the Indiana Jones show, the Beauty and the Beast Show and the Muppets. We went into the Walt Disney, One Man's Dream attraction but we didn't wait for the film as we needed to head over to Mama Melrose for supper. They had several interesting Disney Antiques in there...one of them was a lunchbox that I had bought a couple months ago at an antique store. I bought a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad pin at the Studios that afternoon and added it to my lanyard.

We had supper at Mama Melrose and we each got the chicken parmesian, which is what we had on our two previous visits to that restaraunt. I had thought about getting their steak, but as happens so frequently at some of these restaraunts, the main entree looks really good, but their sides look totally sucky. And I hate to order an entree if I can't enjoy the sides because that seems like such a waste. So we got the chicken parmesian, which I believe, was the cheapest entree on the menu. We didn't order dessert, so the bill was cheap enough that I decided to pay out of pocket instead of using the dining plan. Mama Melrose, Crystal Palace (breakfast) and Le Chefs de France (supper) were the final three table service meals of our trip and we had two credits a piece left, so one of those three was going to be out of pocket. I had planned for it to be Crystal Palace because I thought it would be the cheapest, being a breakfast buffet. But it looks like our meals at Mama Melrose ended up being a little cheaper than CP, so I opted to pay that one OOP and use the DDP on Crystal Palace.

We got our seats for Fantasmic around 7 PM or so, even though the show wasn't until 8:30. But the place was starting to fill up, so it's a good thing we went in early.

After Fantasmic, we stopped and got some more photopass shots taken, since I wanted to get some shots of us after dark at DHS. Then we had to wait for a bus and Port Orleans seems to be the busiest resort. It seems like the bus lines for Port Orleans are always way longer than all the other resorts. Next time we go, we plan to do Ft Wilderness or Wilderness Lodge, so that shouldn't be a problem for us next time.

We got off the bus at French Quarter and bought a couple items at their gift shop, then walked back to Riverside and that was pretty much it for Saturday.

sbkline · Apr 25, 2008

And for our final day at WDW, here is what I had planned on the original itinerary:

Sunday April 20: Breakfast at Crystal Palace, then MK until noon or 1PM, then back to resort for a nap for my wife and pooltime for me. Back to Epcot in the evening for supper at Le Chefs de France. My wife will want to go back to hotel and start packing for departure in the morning, then go to bed, but I may let her do that while I do some evening EMH at MK after Illuminations. But maybe not...we'll see. Maybe we'll both go back to the hotel and I'll get in the pool.

Pretty much stuck to the plan there as well. We had breakfast at Crystal Palace and were done around 8:40 or so. My reasons for eating there were twofold: One, I've always wanted to eat there, and number two, I thought it was a good way to get a headstart on the general public. When the park opens, they still have to walk all the way up Main Street, whereas we're already at AdventureLand and just walk right on in! Mwahahahaha!

After breakfast, since the park wasn't open yet, we took some pictures and we got some photopass shots, since some of them were setting up shop in their respective spots. Usually when we go to MK in the morning, we start out in the TommorrowLand side, but this time, we went through Adventureland. We were waiting at the rope when they opened it up and we walked right onto POTC. Then we went to FrontierLand and did Big Thunder and I did Splash Mountain. We got fastpasses for Peter Pan and came back and did that later, and in the meantime we did the new Haunted Mansion. Neither of us care much for that ride, but I wanted to do it just to experience the new version. But I don't remember enough details about the previous version to know which parts are new and which ones I just didn't remember. LOL We had been given a tip earlier in the week about getting a photopass shot in the Judges Tent in Toontown Fair, because there was a very rare photo-op available of Mickey and Minnie together. I had never really thought about it, but I guess they don't appear together very often, but for this particular period of time, they were gonna be together at the judges tent for a week or so. So we went over there and got several shots taken on our photopass card. We also did Teacups and the train and I got a fastpass for Space Mountain. We had lunch at El Pirata y Pirico, or however you spell that. I've always wanted to try that one, but it's always closed when we go. It was open this time so we ate there, but neither of us were overly impressed. The food was decent, but nothing spectacular. I'm glad we got to try it, but in the future, I think we'll stick to Pecos Bills or Pinochio Village Haus. Earlier, before lunch, we got our Dole Whip floats in AdventureLand also.

Earlier in the week, I was debating between buying the Thundermountain Pin (which I ended up buying on Saturday) and the Expedition Everest Pin. I limit myself to buying two pins (in addition to the 7 piece starter set), or else it's way too easy to overspend by buying every cool pin you see. So I decided on the BTMRR pin insted of the Everest one. So I was pretty excited as I walked onto Splash Mountain Sunday morning, to see a CM with that Everest Pin on his lanyard. I traded another pin for it and ended up with both pins I wanted.

My fastpass time for Space mountain was around 2:10, so I told my wife that we'd leave the park after that since she's all about going back to the hotel to take a nap. So we got to TommorrowLand and we rode the Transit Authority again, then I got in the fastpass line for Space Mountain. I stood in line longer than I think you should have to for a fastpass, and then when I finally got to the final area where you can actually see the cars being loaded, there must have been some kind of technical difficulty because the train was just sitting there...and sitting...and sitting. I'm not a very patient person when it comes to lines and after a week of people being in my way and technical problems on other rides, and knowing my wife was worn out and waiting for me so she could go take a nap, I just didn't have the patience to wait on that nonsense. So I stormed out of the exit gate muttering how ridiculous this is, and met up with my wife and we went back to the hotel. :lol:

On the bus on the way back, a little boy started asking me about my pins, so we were talking about our pins. He had a lanyard and pins as well, so we talked about our collections on the way back to POR. It was their last day as well, but they were actually flying out for home as soon as they got back to the resort. At least we got to finish out the day and go to bed first. lol

We got back to POR and I got in the pool while my wife took a nap. Then we went back to Epcot for our final evening. We drove our van because we were sick and tired of waiting forever for the busses, and waiting in the long lines for the bus on the way back. I was hoping to do Test Track on our final evening but I figured that, getting to the park around 5 PM or so, there was no way. As we walked that way, some guy offered us two fastpasses for TestTrack, which I took in a heartbeat. It was nice of him to offer his unused fastpasses to us instead of throwing them away and it made me realize that I need to be more mindful to do that in the future. If I am unable to make a fastpass ride, I tend to keep the fastpass for the scrapbook or something, whereas it would be a better idea if I would just give them to someone who may use them.

After Test Track, we went to WS and I got a berry tart at the Norway Bakery, using my last snack credit. :slurp: We walked around over to France and did the Impressions de France show, and then checked in for supper at Le Chefs de France. I really wanted to try the shank of lamb, but once again, the side dishes that came with it looked unappetizing, so I thought I would order something else where I could enjoy the entire meal instead of just the main entree. So I ordered the filet of beef with potatoes and steamed green beans. My wife ordered the half of chicken. We both liked our food and our desserts, but once again, we weren't totally wowed by this place and probably won't be back...at least not for a while.

After supper, we went to the photo shop to claim our complimentary 5X7 photo that we got as part of our package of goodies that we get as a result of booking a package. We had a voucher for a free picture, so we wanted to redeem it now instead of wasting more time after park close when we could be going back to the hotel. So we got our picture, then rode SpaceShip Earth again, then went back to WS for Illuminations. On the way there, we stopped in that gift shop right by the lagoon, between WS and FW and I bought that 5 pack "Where Dreams Come True" DVD set. I wanted to buy it last year, but didn't, so I snatched it up this time. We watched Illuminations, then headed back to the van to go back to our room. I had seriously thought about going solo back to the Magic Kingdom on our final night for EMH. But by Sunday night, I was ready to call it quits. It was a good trip, and I enjoyed it and so did my wife, but truthfully, I was all Disney'd out and had my fill of it for this trip. Plus, I was actually kind of tired and we had to be up at 5:30 the following morning to get ready for the trip home. So I went back to the room with my wife and went to bed.

We had a list of 15 rides that we really wanted to do at the Magic Kingdom, as opposed to my approach last year of spending 11 hours straight in the park and trying to hit everything. LOL Out of that list of 15, the only ones we didn't do were Space Mountain and Cinderella's Golden Carosell...my wife didn't think she could/should do that one with a skirt on, and she forgot to dress accordingly. LOL And on the previous Sunday, we did the Enchanted Tiki Room, which wasn't even on our list.

I'll post the final portion, regarding the trip home, later.

sbkline · Apr 25, 2008

On Monday the 21st, we got up at 5:30 AM and got ready to leave. We each had one counter service credit left so we had breakfast at the food court, and then got on our way around 7:30 AM.

JustPlainBill said:
Great report!
Looking forward to the rest, especially finding out which route you took home through Atlanta. It sounds like they started construction on the northbound lanes. It looks like I'll be bypassing the city on my family's trip to WDW in 91 days.

On the way down, we saw huge, horrible traffic backups on the northbound lane on I-75 through Georgia. Every year when we go down, there's roadwork somewhere and there's always something that causes traffic to come to a screeching halt for us at some point in Georgia, whether it be the roadwork, rush hour traffic, or perhaps a combination of the two. After seeing the dreadful backups on the northbound lane a week earlier, I really didn't want to take the chance of running into that crap on the way home. So I decided to bypass Georgia altogether. When we got to I-10, instead of continuing North on I-75, we went West on I-10 through the panhandle. We drove for a couple hours until we came up to highway 231 just past Marianna, Florida. We took 231 North into Alabama and continued on that highway for two or three hours until we got to Montgomery, Alabama. At Montgomery, we got onto I-65 North and followed it the rest of the way up to Nashville, TN. We stopped for supper at an Outback restaraunt a little past Birmingham, where I had a porterhouse steak that rivaled the steak I had at Le Cellier. :slurp: We crossed the Tennessee state line at, if I remember correctly, around 6 or 6:30 PM. We got to Nashville around 8:10 PM Central Time and got back onto I-24, and drove by Clarksville, Tennessee around 9 PM. If I remember correctly, 9 PM is about when we would go by Clarksville on our other trips going up through Georgia on I-75. However, I can't remember what time we left WDW last year, so I'm not sure how this new route compares with the old one in regards to mileage or the amount of time it takes to get to Nashville, where both routes converge. I think the Alabama route actually takes up more mileage and time, but IMO, it's totally worth it to avoid the massive traffic backups. I would rather spend more time driving farther, but to be actually moving, than to take a shorter route and keep getting caught up in traffic gridlock.

We finally pulled off at a Super 8 motel not too far over the Kentucky state line at around 10 PM or so. We got up the next morning and got on the road around 7 AM I believe and got home at around noon.

sbkline · Apr 25, 2008

The final assessment of this trip is that it was an overall success. My wife was leary of WDW going into this trip, because on our previous trips, I've had her at the parks from opening until 9 or 10 PM and rushed her around all over the place, totally wearing her out. She said she didn't have a very good time last year because of this approach, and I learned that I need to totally redo the way I approach WDW if I want to have many more trips. By slowing down and doing half days at the parks, allowing her to go back and take naps, she kept telling me each day what a good time she was having and how much better it was than last year's trip. She's actually looking forward to going the next time (whenever that may be) and she's excited about seeing the new Disney special on the Travel Channel tonight. So I feel like I accomplished what I meant to do on this trip, which was to correct some of my mistakes from last years' trip, and to renew my wife's appreciation of WDW.

disney21 · Apr 25, 2008

sbkline said:
The final assessment of this trip is that it was an overall success. My wife was leary of WDW going into this trip, because on our previous trips, I've had her at the parks from opening until 9 or 10 PM and rushed her around all over the place, totally wearing her out. She said she didn't have a very good time last year because of this approach, and I learned that I need to totally redo the way I approach WDW if I want to have many more trips. By slowing down and doing half days at the parks, allowing her to go back and take naps, she kept telling me each day what a good time she was having and how much better it was than last year's trip. She's actually looking forward to going the next time (whenever that may be) and she's excited about seeing the new Disney special on the Travel Channel tonight. So I feel like I accomplished what I meant to do on this trip, which was to correct some of my mistakes from last years' trip, and to renew my wife's appreciation of WDW.

glad you had a great time!! GREAT TR~! very detailed and informative- good job!:sohappy:

JustPlainBill · Apr 26, 2008

sbkline said:
I think the Alabama route actually takes up more mileage and time, but IMO, it's totally worth it to avoid the massive traffic backups.

Again...great trip report!
Not on the most recent trip we drove home from WDW but the trip before, the morning we were leaving a tropical storm was rolling in from the Gulf (Marco) and its protracted path was going to go right along our originally planned route home north into GA. I decided for safety's sake to to take the same route out of Florida to Illinois you did, only we kept going on through to Mississippi, driving along the gulf coast. We spent the night in Gulfport, MS a very nice area 18 years ago, we would have liked to have spent some more time there. We were tempted to go a little farther to New Orleans but time was short and we had to be back to work. We then drove north to Memphis, TN, we did take a short diversion and toured Graceland. We continued northwest into AK then MO to IL. The drive did add 4 extra hours to the trip, not including the 2 hour diversion at Graceland, I don't know if it was worth it for us in that case, but it sounds like it is good decision to avoid Atlanta at all costs, at least for the summer of 2008.
Thanks for sharing!

sbkline · Apr 26, 2008

We enjoyed POR, but I think on our next trip, we both want to stay at the Fort Wilderness Cabins. For one reason, we just like the atmosphere and environment of that resort. And secondly, the next time we go, our son will be old enough to take with us and we like the extra space that those cabins would provide...almost like a house as opposed to a simple hotel room. That would make it much easier to fit in a third person and all the extra junk that we would have to bring with us.

On this and previous trips to WDW, we have eaten at some pretty good restaraunts, some "so so" restaraunts and some that we just didn't care so much for. Here are all the ones that we have eaten at so far:

Mama Melrose (2003, 2004, 2008)
Cinderella's Royal Table (2004)
Akershus (2004)
Biergarten (2004)
San Angel Inn (2005)
Chef Mickey's (2007)
Alfredo's (2007)
Garden Grill (2007)
Tony's Town Square (2007)
Sci-Fi (2007)
1900 Park Fare (2007)
Coral Reef (2007)
Liberty Tree (2008)
California Grill (2008)
Artist Point (2008)
Boatwrights (2008)
Spoodles (2008)
Le Cellier (2008)
Crystal Palace-Breakfast (2008)
Le Chefs de France (2008)

Out of those restaraunts, my personal list of ones that I would definitely want to eat at again would include:

Cindy's Royal Table
Biergarten
San Angel Inn
Tony's Town Square
Sci-Fi
Artist Point
Le Cellier
Crystal Palace-Breakfast (if for no other reason than to get a headstart on the crowds again, LOL)
Crystal Palace-supper

That's my own personal list, and my wife's list may differ. And for the restaraunts that did not make that list, I'm not necessarily saying I would not ever want to step foot in them again. Some of them I would probably be happy to do again at some point in the future, but not necessarily on the next trip. The character meals, while they didn't knock my socks off, we may consider eating at for the kids' sake, although they don't necessarily make my personal list of ones that I, specifically, would feel a great need to go back to again...I liked them okay, but just not enough that I would feel a tremendous desire to revisit unless we thought our kids may get a thrill out of them.

In addition to the above mentioned restaraunts that I would definitely consider for the itinerary for the next trip, there's still some other restaraunts that did not make the final list for last years' trip nor this years', but which would be on the top of the list to pick from next time...places that we've never eaten at, such as:

Mickey's Backyard BBQ
Hoop Dee Doo
Ohana/Polynesian Lua (are those two seperate things, or different?)
Yachtsman Steakhouse
50s Prime Time

Our next trip may be as long as two years away at the very least...all depending on how our family planning goes. LOL We hope to be prenant with the second child sometime this year, so since that's the goal, there's no trip planned for next year. Our son will turn two this week, so he will probably be at least 4 when we go again and take him for the first time. That's getting about what we consider to be old enough for the first time, and hopefully a child that age would do good at the restaraunts that I listed.

Another interesting tidbit which I forgot to include in my original report pertains to DTD. When we went there on Monday, that little carosell by the Christmas shop was running. And I thought I recognized the tune. Back in 2000, when I did a one day visit to the MK with some friends during our short spring break trip to FL, we stayed for Spectromagic...or whatever it was called back in 2000. I remember the tune being much more peppy and upbeat than the music they play for SpectroMagic now. And when I heard the music coming from that carosell at Downtown Disney, I was just certain that it was the same song that they played for SpectroMagic that night in 2000. I asked the CM if it was the same song and she said it was. I thought it was pretty neat that I was able to hear that tune again...I don't know why they changed the music to SpectroMagic, as that song is much more catchy than the one they play now.

smk · Apr 26, 2008

You will love FW cabins! I call it home, I feel so at home when we arrive there.

minnie2000 · Apr 27, 2008

Great report - glad you had a good time.

I would love to see your photos, but am not a member of myspace. Is there any other way you could post them?

NewfieFan · Apr 27, 2008

Great TR - it was a very enjoyable read!

Your next trip will be very different but in a good way!:animwink:

JustPlainBill · Apr 28, 2008

sbkline said:
On the way there, we stopped in that gift shop right by the lagoon, between WS and FW and I bought that 5 pack "Where Dreams Come True" DVD set. I wanted to buy it last year, but didn't, so I snatched it up this time.

Have you had a chance to watch the DVDs yet, if so, did you like them? I saw the same DVD set in the giftshop of my resort on our first day of our vacation last summer. I wanted to buy it, but being the first day of our vacation I wanted to wait awhile. I thought I'd buy it later in the vacation, but I forgot to go back and get it. I was thinking of picking it up on our next trip down and I was wondering what you thought of it.

sbkline · Apr 28, 2008

JustPlainBill said:
Have you had a chance to watch the DVDs yet, if so, did you like them? I saw the same DVD set in the giftshop of my resort on our first day of our vacation last summer. I wanted to buy it, but being the first day of our vacation I wanted to wait awhile. I thought I'd buy it later in the vacation, but I forgot to go back and get it. I was thinking of picking it up on our next trip down and I was wondering what you thought of it.

I hadn't actually planned on watching them for a little while, since I got my sufficient fill of Disney on this trip and didn't want to overdo it. LOL But yesterday, I was just too curious about what these DVDs were all about, so I popped in the Magic Kingdom one. It wasn't too bad. It gives some good footage of some of the rides, and it has some little bonuses, like Walt Disney's presentation of his plans for building Disney World...I guess it was originally gonna be called simply "Disney World" until he died and his brother renamed it "Walt Disney World" in honor of Walt.

I also bought that "The Magic of Christmas" DVD while down there, but I haven't watched it yet either.

rshell68 · Apr 29, 2008

Thanks for the read! Sounds like a very successful and enjoyable trip!

disneygirl1 · May 1, 2008

Awesome trip report and very detailed! Glad to hear that you and your wife had such a great time!

My 2nd Trip report: April 13-21 2008

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