Trip Report 10/24-10/28/02

wannabeBelle

wannabeBelle

Well-Known Member
Hey there everybody!! I Just got back from Disneyworld so I decided to post a trip report of my own.
Day 1:
Leave my home at the right time (6:30am) and get over to my Mom's house to pick her up. We will be meeting my friend Richie at the airport as he is on the same flight as us. Get to the airport and everything went super smooth so we were VERY early for our 9:45 am flight. Mom and I settled in with our hash browns and beverages from McDonalds that we had gotten on the way. Just as we were finishing up, here comes Richie!! We all got on the plane and the flight was very uneventful. Nice and quiet and right on time for our 12:30 landing. Went downstairs, got our baggage and headed over to Mears. I think we confused the young lady as Rich was staying at PO French Quarter and me and Mom were at Riverside. She had to redo our tickets because Richie was also leaving Sunday morning and I was schedled to leave Monday night. Well this trip on Mears was the LONGEST I have ever had!!! We were probably on the bius for slightly over 1 hour!! I have never had anything like this before with them, but if you are in a hurry it might be something to consider! We got to the resort and dropped off Richie in FQ first. He said he would meet us at the River Roost in Riverside. Get to Riverside and go to check in where there was no one waiting to check in!!! This is just amazing. Mom and I had booked a waterview room and it turned out to be an inspired choice. The room we finally got wasin Parterre Place and was right on a corner facing both the Sassagoula River and the Quiet pool for our area. Mom was thrilled. Also it was a very short walk to the main buildng for the food court and restaurant. Our room was ready so we had the bellman take us over to the rom so Mom could change as it was mid 80's down there!!! I had worn shorts and a Tshirt under my sweatsuit so I was able to change quickly in the airport. We went to the food court to eat after checking in with my sister and telling her we were going to be late meeting her. It was about 3 pm at this point and we were all starving!! A quick snack of chicken Strips for me and Mom and a burger for Rich and were on our way to EPCOT to meet my sister and brother in law at the tea shop in the UK Pavilion. Well when we got there we were stopped for a picture at the front gate. I am kinda glad I did as every picture we took this way during this trip came out really nice!! After that we headed directly for the UK to meet up. Got together and then headed off to Italy to do some more wine tastings. Italy had a particularly lovely production called Masquerade which my sister particularly liked. We were going to try to see the entire thing as we had missed the first portion, but I also wanted to see the American Adventure so we did see that. My sister felt it wasnt detailed enough, but as I pointed out if they got much more detailed, the show would go on for hours!! In addition it had started to on again off again rain so I was a bit damp from walking around in this. As 6:30 was fast approaching we decided to take the Friendship boat to Canada for our PS at Canada's Le Cellier. Our server Chantal was absolutly wonderful. The guys(Rich and my brother in law, John) choose a lovely sweet Reisling to go with dinner. Great choice as everyone at the table liked it. I had the 7 oz Filet Mignon. It was good however the mashed potatoes were a bit too black peppery for me. The bread served at this restaurant is pretty unique and my mother loved the pretzel style bread served here. Everyone else loved the meal. After the meal and two good bottles of the Reisling we headed over to Test Track to get in a ride before Illuminations! Ride went well and we got off just in time to see Illuminations. My Brother in law recorded some of it for me, but I dont know how clear of a shot we got due to where we were standing. Id like to take this opportunity to thank John for all his hard work at recrding stuff for me and depending on how good it comes out, I will make every effort to get a copy to Steve for posting to this site. The two items I recorded with the intent of sharing were Tarzan Rocks! and Primeval Whirl. John is working on the edits now I Am sure. Hey Mr. Spielberg, John is available for the right price!!
 
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wannabeBelle

wannabeBelle

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Original Poster
OK Day 1 continued
Well after Illuminations, we split up to go back to the resorts as I was staying at PO and my sister June and John were staying at the Yacht Club. We arranged to meet the following day at 11:00 by Villians in Vogue in MGM. That night we went back to the quiet pool and soaked the feet for a little bit. It was a touch too cold for me to go swimming, but it was a nice way to peacefully relax before bed. The following morning, Mom woke up very early as is her normal habit, so I got up also. I called RIch in his room at 8:00 to have breakfast at 9:00am in Boatwright's. We were all ready on time and headed over to the restaurant. The menu had changed slightly since I was here last in May but the service and food are still outstanding. Mom tried one of the new items on the menu, Sweet Potato pancakes. She Loved them as well as the service in the restaurant. Soon we walked to the bus stop and made our way over to MGM. It was an absolutely lovely day, sunny and warm quite a far cry from the cold up here in NYC!! We met up with my sister and I dragged her into Villians in Vogue to check out all the Siamese Cat stuff as she has two of them at home so I knew she would appreciate it.After that I pulled the group over to Rock N Roller Coaster. We went on twice back to back. I could ride that ride all day long!! After that everyone wanted to go on Tower of Terror. I had never been on this before and wasnt so sure I wanted to go now, but I got hornswaggled into it. Well having seen the special on the making of it, I figured now is a good a time as any. Id like to take a moment here to thank Cymbal Diva for her encouragement. I did remember that as I was waiting online for the ride! Well I went on and thanks to the special I knew when we were going to drop, which made the ride much better for me so I enjoyed myself a lot!!!! Well after that we left there and Rich went back to the hotel to rest for later. I took the rest of us to the Little Mermaid show and the Animation Tour. Our Animator on our tour, Joe was awesome. He was telling us about a new feature Bears that is coming out in 2005. He also told us about Treasure Planet which the lead animator is the son of Bil Keane who used to do the Family Circus. He was showing us some of the computer techniques used in the film to animate one of the characters!! He was just so wonderful with his presentation!! Definitely one of the better tours I had been on. After that we headed over to the Yacht Club to go pick up the Video camera for Fantasmic later on that evening and to have a small snack to hold us over for dinner at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. When we came back we decided to do the Back Lot Tour and then head over to 50's to meet up with Richie. We found him with no problem and proceeded to go into our kitchen where Mom was serving dinner. I had my pot Roast and so did my sister, John had Meatloaf, Mom had Salmon and Rich had Pasta with Shrimp. As per usual all the food was good and our server was incredible. A lot of fun and when she called my sister "Princess" we all died laughing!! Talk about a perceptive waitress!!! Off we went to Fantasmic and somehow or another we ended up in the front row!!! We tried to videotape the show but especially as I got the camera and dont really know how to use it, I am sure I muffed up on some parts. John noticed I was muffing it so took the camera and finished the shoot for me. Well I stopped on my way out to look for a new watch for myself and we made plans to meet nice and early at the AK the following Day!!! More details to come shortly!
 
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Lilo

Lilo

New Member
Well Belle, what a nice report (somewhat different from the version you told me). I hope you tell everyone how you almost killed your sister:lol: How you will never go with her again:D and all the other wild tales.:hammer:
 
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wannabeBelle

wannabeBelle

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well I Am trying to be nice there Lilo!!! OK now onto
Day 3:
Well everyone had decided that we should get a nice early start for Animal Kingdom. They were talking about being there at opening(UGH). I am kinda not what one would term an early morning person so this was not going to be easy for me, but as my Mom kept getting up super early I was getting up as I heard her moving around the room. Off to a nice early breakfast at Boatwright's again. We didnt eat any where else for breakfast for the entire trip. Why would we?? This is arguably one of the best restaurants I have eaten in for breakfast anywhere. Nice selection on the menu, good service, and when my Mom wanted special items not listed on the menu they are more than willing to accomodate her. We still were about 20 minutes late meeting my sister and brother inlaw. They decided to go ahead and do Kilamanjaro Safari without us, which wasnt a particularly nice thing to do. I had done the safari prior as had my Mom and Richie but my sister didnt know that. We all proceeded to go to Pangani Forest Trail where my sister said she wasnt going to go to Tarzan Rocks. My Brother in Law very quietly told me we would as he had promised me he would record the Tarzan Rocks! show for me. After he saw his gorillas on Pangani he ushered us out and over to get the video equipment and then off to the show!! Thank you again, John!!! We went in for the first show of the day at 10:45am. If John got the video of this show that I think he did, it should be pretty spectacular!! Keep your fingers crossed for me! Also if it comes out that good, I Am going to try to post the video to the main site with Steve!! Tarzan Rocks as always was pretty awesome but they did cut the show a bit. The scene where the "Monkeys" skate around the theatre didnt happen, although the Tarzan for that particular show was amazing!! I heard from a CM that that was this Jane's first performance!! She was quite good also. After that show we headed right over to Primeval Whirl. Only the right hand side track was running at that moment so that is the one we went on. John gave me charge of the video camera as for this one all I had to do was hold it straight, no zooms or pans like in the Tarzan Show. Well I taped this ride and it was VERY funny. Richie and I commented that I dont think we have ever spun so much on this ride as we did then!! Once again if this video comes out OK I'll submit it in to Steve for posting if he thinks it is OK. After that my sister decided that she didnt want to do Dinosaur as she had done it already so we went over to Asia. Onto Kali River Rapids!! What a great ride, although the signs are VERY Accurate when they say you WILL get wet, you may get soaked. I got wet along with Richie in the very beginning, June and John got SOAKED on the final drop!!! Laugh at me for getting wet first will ya!!! HAH!!! Well after that June and John wanted to go back to their resort, so we went and saw Flights of Wonder, a show involving birds in AK. Very nice timeout from the running. After that we decided to head over to MK to catch a few rides before dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. Well when we got there it was JAMMED. More about the afternoon in a little while!!!
 
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wannabeBelle

wannabeBelle

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OK so we hopped out of AK and grabbed the bus to the TTC and jumped on the Monorail. By this time, we are kinda hungry so we contemplated between the Plaza Sandwich Shop and Casey's Corner Hot Dog place. Well as we werent that hungry, Casey's won. The hot dogs are OK but the fries are absolutely delicious!!! We sat at watched the Share a Dream Come True Paradefor a bit then ran over to Frontierland. As previously mentioned The MK was SSSSOOOOOO Crowded on this Saturday afternoon!!! It was wall to wall people every where you turned!! Quite a shock after all of the other parks so far hadnt been that bad at all!!! Well we get to Splash Mountain and there is a line about 1 hour long!!! Mom wasnt in the mood to wait so we went onto Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. That was experiencing technical difficulties and would be down for at least another hour. We turned back into Adventureland and went on Pirates of the Carribean. Always a favorite!! Rich and I decided we would try for ither Aladdin's Carpets or the Liberty Belle Riverboat. We didnt end up getting on either due to a serious lack of communication with my Mom. I decided I needed a little away time and just went wandering around the park on my own for a bit. Very liberating let me tell ya!! Finally free to do what I wanted to do until 5 pm when we had agreed to meet June and John at Space Mountain. I came there, apologized to my buddy for leaving him with my Mom while I romped solo. We went on Space Mountain and had a great time there. Afterwards as we were heading to dinner we stopped and got Richie a set of Mouse ears for his Halloween costume. He and I are going as Disney Tourists!!!! We got over to the Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner and were promptly seated. Our server that night as Jim. If anyone gets him as a server you will know as he has a lovely speaking voice. He was so good about everything too. Wonderful guy and a great sense of humor. Dinner went well and of course the characters were amazing. Watched Spectromagic from the restaurant and kept popping in and out to get a better view!! After dinner we ran over to the Castle for Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks which as per usual were spectacular. After that the group did Alien Encounter while I waited outside!!! I am kinda chicken with that one. The final ride of the evening was Buzz Lightyear!!! We went home and again played in the quiet pool. I warned everyone that tomorrow we had the Kingdom till midnight for the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!! More on that later!!!! Belle
 
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wannabeBelle

wannabeBelle

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Original Poster
Hey there Cymbal!! Trip was actually quite nice. Nothing could spoil the Disney Magic for me for long. My sister just likes being contrary and can sometimes make me upset. As you will read I kinda took care of that on Sunday Morning.
Day 4:
Today we had already agreed since we were starting to get on each's other's nerves to go do our own thing. Richie was going home this morning so we had a last breakfast with him at Boatwright's and then my Mom returned to the room and planned a nice morning/ early afternoon at the pool to rest her tired and blistered feet. I walked Richie back to his hotel(PO French Quarter) and he finished packing and getting himself together for the trip home. I waitted with him for Mears to come and get him. After hhe left I decided to head over to EPCOT and do the Figment ride( Very cute and far better than the last incarnation) send some e mails to some friends, and head over to Test Track for a quick zip on the track!! After that I wandered over to MGM to do Rock N Roller Coaster again. As I was happily bouncing down the street, a person gave me a fast pass for RNRC. That was just awesome!!! After my spin on RNRC, I decided I should head back to the hotel as I hadnt told my Mom where I was going. Get to the hotel and Mom is laying out by the pool. I changed into my bathingsuit and went in fro a bit myself. at about 3 pm we got dressed and headed over to MK to do some rides, just Momm and I. Well that worked out quite a biit better and the crowds were muchlighter today.We went over to Aladdin's Carpet ride. I managed to be just at the right height to get us watered by the camels!! We got on Splash Mountain. Mom had never been and she thought the ride was so cute. Those logs always seem to smell pretty bad though. I wonder if it is just me and my sensitive nose! Oh well after that onto BTMRR, Mom opted out of that as she isnt really into coasters anyhow so she took a smoke break. we very leisurely took a stroll through Fantasyland after that and as there was no line for It's a Small World we hopped on. By this time it was getting close to the time to meet my sister and Brother in law for dinner. Mom had told them to meet at 5:30 by the podium in the Castle, which is where we were scheduled to eat. well as per usual they were late, but not later than our reservation. They had spent the day at Blizzard Beach and had a very good time. We went in and were seated. Our Royal Server was absolutely wonderful and had been serving in the Castle for about 28 years now!!! WOW!!! We ordered the beef barley soup for me(Very good), Salad for my Mom and John and Mussels in coconut milk for June. Everyone seemed to enjoy the appetizers. I had ordered the Kingdom Feast as per our server's recommendation, Mom and June had Jaq's Seafood mix and John had the King Cut of Prime Rib. My dinner was fine, June and Mom were complaining that their dinner was too salty and it was almost inedible. They both had eaten about 1/2 of it by this point!! Our Royal Server did ask if they had wanted anything else since they finally said that dinner had been way too salty, but both declined. I got a dessert there of Bananas Foster Creme Brulee and split it with Mom. It was awesome. After Dinner we took our halloween bags and went trick or treating around the Magic Kingdom!! More about that a bit later!! Belle
 
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wannabeBelle

wannabeBelle

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Original Poster
Hi again!! Just a note regarding dinner on Saturday at Liberty Tree Tavern. The ham is NOT back!! It is still the Smoked pork Loin chops. They are OK, but no where near as nice as the ham!!!
Night of Day 4:
Well after dinner in the Castle we proceeded towards the Haunted Mansion. I have to say it looked absolutely gorgeous. It was lit up with Purple and Green lights all over and it was covered in fog. Very loely and of course not a one of us had a camera!! I would've bought one but I really dont know if it would've come out with a disposable type of camera. On the way over we got sidetracked by a lovely Ghoul who was giving out candy!!! Of course we had to stop!! After that i insisted on getting on the Liberty Belle Riverboat where we heard a band and listened to a Southern Belle's Story. Her name was Georgia, a middle name I cant recall right now, Bellum. Of course due to her unmarried state she has no children of her own, but she has a few nieces and nephews which of course makes her Auntie Bellum!!!She told her story of the witch who livved along the banks of this river and the gambler who heard tell of her fortune. He killed her for her stash of gold coins, but come Halloween of that year the Gambler dissapeared dont you know?? And living in a small cottage on the banks of this here river is the witch, who still makes potions to cure a cold and poultices and the like. She now has an alligator for a pet who has all the markings of 4 diamonds, just like the gambler used to wear! SPOOKY!! well about at that time the river cruise came to an end and we headed over to the HM. The group who went into the HM must be regulars because they recited every word of the speech in the stretching room!! Of course the HM was particularly nice on "Halloween Eve". We Managed to get a bunch more candy, a few more rides, Watch the Headless Horseman race by over the Bridge into Liberty Square holding the Pumpkin that is his head under one arm, and check out the Boo to You Parade. Very cute I particularly liked the real Dalmations that Cruela De Vil had in her cage!!! After that June, John and Mom were getting tired!!! I wanted to stay a bit longer so I dawdled a bit in the shops along Main Street. As I didnt find anything else I wanted (Having found a really nice wristwatch the day before) we left to go back to the hotel.
Day 5:
Well here we are at Monday so we have to get ourselves together and pack up to go home even though our flight isnt until 8:10 this evening. John & June were going to go back to EPCOT today, but Mom really wasnt into running around any more so we had a nice breakfast at Boatwright's, Came back to the room to finish packing up. Call Bell services and ask them to come and get and store my luggage. Mom and I headed for Downtown Disney. I had a gift card that I had gotten for the Disney Store that I wanted to use there. I chose several items that I wanted and went to the register. The Cashier informed me that they DONT Accept a Disney Gift Card in that store!!! Her Mom used to buy her gift cards also for use down there, but they can only be used in the stores in the Malls or in the Catalogs. As all of the items were stuff I wanted anyhow I bought them all regardless. After that Mom and I went to Ghiardelli's for Ice Cream floats. Mom had coffee ice cream in Seltzer and I had Chocolate Chip Mint in Coke. They got my Mom's order wrong at first, but fixed it. I saw 2 other people not get the right thing they ordered. One woman went DIRECTLY to the manager as her son had placed an order for Ice cream in a cone they put it in a dish and slapped a cone on top of it!! She was LIVID! Mom and I finished up and caught the bus back to the hotel, we walked around fr a bit and explored the hotel a bit more, saw the main pool and decided we liked our quiet pool best of all! So off we went to the quiet pool and I Actually got to nap for an hour or so on a nice comfy lounge chair!! Off to the food court for a quick snack to hold us over as the plane doesnt really give any kind of food anymore and off we go to the airport. Flight went smooth as did coming home. I was very smart in taking off on Tuesday as I was so exhausted I kept knowk out for a nap!! All in all not a bad vacation (Disney Could never be!!) but I think next time I'll leave the family and planning and stress elsewhere!!! Next trip 34 more days!!! Belle
 
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AkiraRaptor

AkiraRaptor

Meega, nala kwishta!
Originally posted by wannabeBelle
Hi again!! Just a note regarding dinner on Saturday at Liberty Tree Tavern. The ham is NOT back!! It is still the Smoked pork Loin chops. They are OK, but no where near as nice as the ham!!!
Click to expand...

Hmmm Belle, we had ham at our dinner on Oct 8th. Maybe they were just out?? I dunno, but we deffinatly had ham. And of couse, Stoufers mac and cheese. :D Had to say that 'cos the waitress even said Stoufers, and we thought it was kinda funny pushing the advertising name even in a dinner description.

We love Liberty Tree Tavern. It is our tradition to eat there the very first night on every trip we do.

Great report Belle!
 
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Lilo

Lilo

New Member
The unedited version is the one that was verbally described to me -- in detail:lol:

I'm sure she would never tell that to just anyone Hook:lol:
 
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