Guest Corner: Walt Disney World Vacation 1985

The wife and I were watching the Super Bowl commercials with breaks in the action by some football.

I was following the Twitter traffic on my computer when my e-mail notification went off.  It was an e-mail from my dad that is as follows:

Some time ago you asked if I had photos etc. I haven't found photos of the trip other than what's hanging on the wall which concerns me. Surely I took them. Perhaps we lost some in the move.
But I reached back into my archives and memory and came up with the attached. Your mom looked it over as well and tweaked it. All the places are old hat to you, but this is the FIRST time you went.

What was attached was a 6 page MS Word document with a trip report contained within.  I read the contents to my wife, Enchanted Rose, and after the first page she remarked, “I now know where you got your writing style from”.  When I was done reading she said, “You must ask your dad’s permission to post this on Grumpy’s Hollow”.  I asked and was granted permission. 

I am very thankful and appreciative of this contribution to my Disney memories.

It should be noted that my parents haven’t stepped foot in a Disney Theme Park since we left Walt Disney World on this trip.  They also don’t follow blogs, podcasts or read guide books about Disney.  So, there are some errors and some wrong terminology.  But, I was impressed with what I read considering this trip was almost 25 years ago.

My dad is an extensive journal writer and consulted his journal to write this report for me.  My mom read through it and added her own details.  I was asked to add my memories to this report as well.  I’ll do that in this report with the use of italics so that you will know what parts are my contributions to my dad’s words.

What I would like to ask of you all, my wonderful readers, is that if you can fill in the gaps as well we’d love it.  For example, we cannot remember the name of the resort we stayed at.  If anything is written about that wasn’t mentioned by name, it might be nice to get that info.  My mom informed me she’d like as accurate a report as possible.

So here it is:

Disney World Vacation 1985

Having lived in California for a number of years (February 1972-April 1979), as our kids grew up, we often visited Disneyland, especially around Christmas. So our family as a whole and our kids at an early age were veteran Disney visitors.

Then, in April of 1979, we moved to North Carolina making our traditional and easy visits to Disneyland a thing of the past. But on the other hand we'd not been to Disney World.

While Disney World was not the relative hop and skip we enjoyed getting to Disneyland in California, it was not a big challenge. My wife and I were hardened endurance drivers, known to almost do 24X7 vacation runs shifting drivers and sleeping places to minimize cost and maximize time.

We'd done one of these drives with the kids non-stop to the Miami area from Durham, NC so they weren't a stranger to it either. That's another story, but hold the thought.

Somewhere along the line my wife Karen, did some research (after seeing a Disney Ad on TV) and proposed we visit Disney World while the kids were on their summer vacation. That sounded like a plan so she bought for us what was a pretty expensive $2000.00 package deal which covered all expenses (using a Key Card) except for convenience purchases, e.g. a random soda, snack, etc. Plus that we took $700.00 worth of Traveler's Checks. All expenses meant, a condo for a week, a golf cart to get around the local area, 3 meals a day for everyone, entry to the park and all its attractions, transportation therein. Everything. Each one of us got what looked like a plastic credit card one would present for any expenses.

As I noted the kids had a feel for these marathon runs and jammed into a small car shared with a lot of our “stuff” for what seemed like an eternity wasn't high on their list. On these kinds of trips, the phrase “are we there yet?” had real meaning. Karen & I wanted to make it a vacation and be comfortable too, and free from worry about traveling in our rather old car stacking up a lot of wear and tear even if it behaved itself. And the boys were adamant about having some room to move around in. So we rented a Chrysler LeBaron and traveled in style. A nice new one , and we took off on July 27, 1985, a Saturday morning.... after a lot of repacking (you didn't think we'd really just “take off”). There wasn't room in the trunk for standard luggage and as noted we didn't want to use the boys seating area for overflow, so our luggage was, and often continues to be garbage bags, or perhaps the more lovely leaf and construction bags.

Nor did we drive non stop. We wanted everyone to be reasonably refreshed when we got there, not start off exhausted. We drove down Route 95 to Brunswick, GA where we stayed at a motel overnight.

I thought of everything so instead of entertaining everyone, with witty repartee, we took a supply of cassette tapes. But...the challenge was to have something that spanned the ages, that the kids would at least tolerate and visa versa. I don't remember the whole repertoire but let me tell you even after almost 25 years later and at an advanced age, I recall listening to Weird Al Yankovic, over and over , hour after hour. I think some of those songs are buried in my gray matter. Who could forget:

• “Stop Draggin' My Car Around”
• “My Bologna”
• “Like A Surgeon“
• “I Want A New Duck”
• “Girls Just Want To Have Lunch”
• “Eat It”
• “Another One Rides The Bus”
• “Lasagna”

We hit Disney World early Sunday afternoon July 28, 1985 with enough time to check in and see some of the park and the village. The Condo wasn't huge but for all practical purposes no one cared that much as it was mainly a place to sleep...(the kids slept on the pull out couch and we had the bedroom area. That Golf cart I mentioned came with the Condo and was a nice touch. We used it a bit but not much.

We stayed a week at Disney World. Everyone was looking forward to it, partly for the nostalgic oldies but goodies attractions and partly because of new attractions not at Disneyland. For instance Epcot Center, about which we'd heard much and would visit for the 1^st time on this trip.

Everyone had something they wanted to see. We hit the Magic Kingdom Sunday evening. Karen had an uncanny instinct about where to go. Although it was fairly crowded at Disney World all the time we were there we never stood in line more than ½ hour. Sunday night we sailed through Pirate's Of The Caribbean, The Haunted House, A Small World, and Space Mountain.

Space Mountain. Wow! What a ride that was! Mike sat with me and Karen sat with Ray, screaming all the way down! We also saw the fireworks and the (laser) light show.

And that pace was the pace for the whole visit, On the go all day and night, drag ourselves on to some kind of transportation back to the Condo, fall into bed exhausted at day's end and then repeat the process the next day. We have a picture of Ray on the bus. He was 14 with plenty of energy and even he looked worn out.

And eat! We were entitled to 3 meals per day virtually all you can eat. I was sick of eating before the week was out, gaining weight like I was some movie star whose next role was a big fat man. In Epcot Center you could “visit” other countries and sample their cuisine, Italy, Spain [Ed. Note:  I know that Spain didn’t exist as a country at EPCOT Pavilion], England, and so on.

As I said that package plan entitled us to 3 squares a day. And the boys let no grass to grow under their feet. Since we set no limitations they could have ANYTHING they wanted, refills on drinks, dessert at lunch AND dinner – steak for breakfast. Whatever. One reason is so they could truly have a vacation and another was Karen was keeping a tally and wanted to make sure we got our money's worth out of that deal. Getting one's money's worth meant that point in which the cost of what we would have paid, had we no package deal, exceeded the cost of the deal. I think somewhere around Thursday, helped immensely by the amount of food we were shoveling in, we crossed that line and Karen had her Eureka! Moment.

The only exception to the Plague of the Locusts approach to restaurant eating was for the most part, breakfast. We took some cereal with us, had some of our own sodas, and we'd use that golf cart to go to the local convenience store for milk It saved time for the serious eating and and touring around the park.

I have a feeling we might have become a legend there. One night we hustled over to Epcot to see a laser show scheduled to start at 9. We hadn't yet eaten dinner and we swooped into some small restaurant near the show about 8:45 with 15 minutes to spare, not counting the time to elbow your way to a vantage point from which to see it.

A waiter came up, probably thinking he was waiting on normal people, who perhaps wanted to have a nice dining experience. (dining and eating are both about food, but dining suggests ambiance, taking one's time to savor fine cuisine etc., while eating is just taking on fuel) Karen took a quick poll of who wanted what, fired the order off to the waiter, told him to bring it all including the dessert and the bill at the same time, and be quick about it.

I think here's one time that the term “wolfed down a meal” really fits well. We put a whole meal away in about 5 minutes, and this from a lady whose “throat” closes if she's around fast eaters. And we were off and running. [Ed. Note:  The restaurant was the Garden Grill or whatever was occupying it’s space in 1985]

Remember how we got around? Most of the time we'd go to the bus stop #8 and catch a bus to the Transportation Center and transfer to a monorail to where we wanted to go, e.g. The Magic Kingdom, The Polynesian Village. We couldn't go to EPCOT directly, we had to work our way over. At night we'd reverse the process with bus loads of people. I think once we went on the ferry.

Once in awhile, we'd take the car, like the night it rained a fair thee well and we had to go to a show in the restaurant in the fancy hotel.

Here's the highlights.

Monday July 29^th

Speaking of meals, perhaps because it was our first special meal there, or perhaps it was the event but a meal we really liked is one in which the Disney characters had breakfast with the guests. It was on the riverboat Empress Lilly. We have a photo showing Mike with pure pleasure on his face. He expressed it well for all of us.

Then off to EPCOT, 1^st visiting Morocco, then France for lunch, then to Kodak's     exhibit where we saw a short 3D movie featuring Michael Jackson (I think..) [Ed Note:  It wasn’t Captain Eo.  There was a lot of advertisements for the coming of Captain Eo when we were there but it was some other 3D movie.  I just don’t remember the name] 

After this we visited Great Briton, then Canada, the Spaceship Earth. In the evening we went to Fort Wilderness and saw the boat show and the Hoop Dee Doo Review.

Tuesday, July 30^th

    We returned to Fort Wilderness to visit River Country. Which was a big letdown. As advertised, it sounded really terrific but it couldn't hold a candle to Greensboro's (North Carolina) water park. But the dinner we had at Fort Wilderness was one of the best, along with that Hoop Dee Doo review.

We returned to EPCOT and Mexico for lunch, then off to China for one of the several 360 theaters in Disney World, then to Germany, then the USA, then to Japan and then the Motion exhibit and back to Mexico and then finished with the EXXON Energy show after which the park closed. I think this is the one where after they seated everyone in what appeared to be a normal theater, the seating disassembled and started moving on a track, taking you back in time to the source of the oil, with moving dinosaurs, dense plants etc. Pretty neat.

Wednesday Jul 31^st

The boys with a great deal of grumping went to a behind the scenes tour for kids, an energy class showing how Disney meets their power needs. They did see Space Mountain from the inside, the tracks, how it works, how it's powered. It must have been pretty neat because when they came back from it, they were much more happy about going. From what they said, it sounded interesting and I wouldn't have minded going myself. They went behind the scenes and saw how the park actually runs.

[Ed Note:  The Cast Member who was in charge of all of us pubescent and pre-pubescent kids was a “friend” of Cinderella and Snow White.  I also recollect that my parents were late picking us up at the end of the tour.  I don’t think I ever heard what they did with their time at Walt Disney World when we were off having fun learning about how Walt Disney World uses and creates their own energy.  I remember us being taken to see the on-site power plants and learning about the motors that power the TTA.  We got a workbook and a Polaroid camera to take pictures as part of the assignments in the workbook.  I’m still looking for that workbook.  I know it’s in my junk somewhere in the attic.]

After this, the boys availed themselves of the pool that went with the condo. Unfortunately it was heavily laced with chlorine. We were scheduled to go to the contemporary Disney hotel for a show but Ray threw a legendary hissy fit due to eye discomfort. I made use of the golf cart and bought some eye drops in our nearby convenience store, which eventually helped. It was just as well as we all more or less kicked back today to get some rest.

[Ed Note:  We did end up going to the Contemporary Hotel.  I think there was a show or something associated with the meal at the top of the resort.  I cannot remember the name of either the show (if I’m remember correctly) or the restaurant.  Also, in my defense, the pain was excruciating.  If I tried to open my eyes, they burned like crazy and my eyes seemed to be fogged over because it seemed like trying to see on a foggy day when I could open my eyes.  I was running to the bathroom throughout the meal to put in more drops.  I’m also recollecting that we were at the pool at the Polynesian Resort because I don’t recall the resort we were staying at having a pool]

Thursday Aug 1^st

We all slept late today. The feature of the day was boat riding or rather boat driving. Karen, Ray and Mike got to try their hands at piloting these really neat small motor boats. Two passes at it, once at the Polynesian Village and and once again at the Village.

We returned to the Magic Kingdom in time to get rained on. But expecting rain  (it's Florida in the summer after all) we had bought some plastic ponchos. We may have looked like sweaty drowned rats, but protected from the rain we defied the elements and the sweaty rats did what they wanted to do anyway with a lot less competition from wimps who wanted to stay dry; Bear Country, Tiki Room, the Jungle Cruise and Thunder Road [Ed Note:  Big Thunder Rail Road]. The boy's target for that day was Thunder Road a milder roller coaster than Space Mountain. I wanted to see the parade again. When we got back to our condo this time we were all wiped out!

Friday August 2^nd

We were winding down. We hit the Polynesian village again and Karen and the boys had another go at the boats. I think without a doubt, that the one thing Mike enjoyed above all else were the  speedboats. We had virtually unlimited use of these little speedboats. Technically at 11 years, he was underage to drive them unaccompanied (the cut off was 12 years old). But a nice young lady in charge stretched the truth a bit so Mike got to drive his own boats. We mostly rented them from the Polynesian Village. I still remember the boys with their life jackets roaring off doing the equivalent in water of laying rubber. We tried it at Disney Village again with me as a passenger with  Mike. Not too subtly he wanted me to disembark as the boat was dogging it. With me out it still was a dog. The next day even Karen took one out. I read, as I didn't do the boat thing as I don't care for that stuff. They spent so much time with the boats that Mike ran out of gas. But they refueled him and off he went again.

We went back to the condo and the boys voted to hang out there. They went swimming in that infamous pool, this time sans any problems. I think Ray set his expectations and guarded his eyes accordingly or the chlorine was weaker. We all elected to stay home, where the  boys watched TV (Disney programs of course) and Karen and I packed up.

Saturday Aug 3^rd

We packed up, checked out, did some last minute souvenir buying, got some lunch to go and we were off. This time I drove straight through to home in Durham NC, over 13 hours, with Weird Al doing the honors again.

A good time was had by all. I don't know if they remember it, but I told them when we got there that they had worked hard through the school year and they had only one thing to do here, have a great time, explained the power of their cards, set minimal rules, the main one being just don't stray off. I don't know if words can describe how much everyone enjoyed the trip. And we all remember it, which was the intention. We wanted to give the boys some fond memories.

Technorati Tags: Trip Report, Walt Disney World, 1985

Walt Disney World® Day 00: The Countdown is winding down

Well, Monday, September 8 is my 37th Birthday.  As a fantastic birthday gift, my wife surprised me with a trip to Walt Disney World Resort® for a quick 5-ish day trip (I say “ish” because we really have a partial day on the 1st and 5th day).

She was assisted in the planning by Jana Smith, Owner of Main Street Travel Company and co-host of the Let’s Talk About Disney Podcast.

So, it looks like we’ll be staying in one of our favorite Deluxe Resorts, Animal Kingdom Lodge.  We decided to give up the Savannah View room in order to be able to afford to stay at this wonderful resort on such short notice.

Some of the ADRs we secured are:

• Crystal Palace – An annual tradition to celebrate our birthdays with a character meal.  To top it off, we have an 8AM ADR so we have a chance to be leaving shortly before/after rope drop
• Whispering Canyon Cafe – This is a new place for us.  I’ve been told to ask for the Catsup, but I’m not stupid and think I’ll go without the sweet, sweet tomato food enhancer.  I’m interested in trying out the bottomless milk shake
• Jiko – Another establishment we are trying for the first time.  It’s in our resort so the fact that they prefer a more upscale dress (translation polo & khakis) isn’t that big of a deal.  We can pop upstairs and change before going anywhere else
• Boma – A favorite breakfast choice of ours.  It’s an added bonus that it’s in the same resort.  I have a feeling we may eat here

There will be other places that we plan on going but will play it by ear (such as Beaches & Cream).  Being that we planned this less than 30 days out, we knew that our chances of getting our favorite restaurants was going to be slim with the Free Dining going on at the same time.

I’m really hoping that I can get the trip reports flowing again this time.  I apologize for dropping the ball on my June trip but I was just burned out and found that if I don’t write the trip reports as the trip was progressing, they’ll never get done.

I have configured my wife’s iPhone to be able to send posts to this blog and I had mine configured before MagicMeets.  So, there is the slight possibility that Enchanted Rose will be doing some micro-blogging as we go around and do things.

Technorati Tags: Trip Report

Walt Disney World Day 02…Welcome to the Doghouse

I wouldn’t say that we hit the hay early the previous evening, but it wasn’t my usual 3AM that comes with trips to “The World”.  Enchanted Rose made it clear there wouldn’t be any burning the midnight oil to produce trip reports or process pictures this trip.

We had talked to Tim Devine and few of our other friends the previous evening and were told that we were to meet up at 9:30AM at the Magic Kingdom so we got up at 7AM to make sure we were not late.

I cooked up a big bowl of oatmeal (1 cup uncooked) and downed 2 scoops of whey protein and a banana.  Despite being on vacation, I’m still going to try and stick to as much of my “off-season” bodybuilding diet as I can.  Let’s see how long this lasts.

We hopped on the bus from Old Key West to the Magic Kingdom.  We got there at 9AM and decided to try and hit a couple attractions before meeting up with Tim and his family and our other friends. 

As we were walking in, we ran into the Main Street Trolley performance that happens every morning on none other than Main Street.  We stopped to enjoy this a bit while I attempted to take a couple pictures.  If I didn’t know any better, I could’ve sworn one of those dapper gentlemen were flirting with my wife…haha.

After we got our fill of this song and dance number, we high tailed it to Adventureland to take a spin on Pirates of the Caribbean.  Unfortunately, Pirates was 101 when we walked by and decided to go to Haunted Mansion instead. 

On our way over to the Haunted Mansion, I was observing how dead it was for being June and all.

When we got to the Haunted Mansion there was no wait and we walked right onto our Doom Buggy.

While on Haunted Mansion, Tim attempted to call me.  In order to avoid being rude, I didn’t answer, but I texted him back to inform him that I was on the Haunted Mansion.  I’m starting to see the usefulness of texting.  I have a feeling my cell phone bill is going to be outrageous this month since we don’t have texting on our cellphone plan.

After Haunted Mansion, I gave Tim a call and found out that they were getting close.  I told him to call me when he got to the parking lot.

At this point we decided to head to Splash Mountain.  Once we got there, we decided to have a Photo Pass photographer snap a couple of pics of Enchanted and myself in front of this very wet attraction.  I had them take pictures with my camera…of course.

It was at this point, that I turned to my wife and told her I was in no mood to get wet at 9AM.  It was way to humid and hot to walk around in the parks with wet underwear all day.  So, we kept on walking (sorry George and Andy).

We decided to ride Big Thunder Mountain instead.  I didn’t get any pictures of Big Thunder because I was going to try out my video camera instead.  But, as I was warned, the sensor in the camera that is meant to detect it being dropped falsely was triggered and shut the camera down.

After getting off Big Thunder Mountain, both my wife and I were getting a bit hungry.  Enchanted Rose whipped out a couple breakfast bars, while I decided to make another protein shake.  Unbeknownst to me, as I was shaking up my drink, it was splattering all over my shirt, shorts and camera.  I was wearing my white The Magic in Pixels shirt and a pair of khaki shorts so having a bunch of chocolate flavored protein shake all over it wouldn’t blend in too well.  For some reason, me and chocolate stuff always seems to get on my clothes at Disney.

Needless to say, this upset me and I said we needed to find a bathroom.  So I ducked into the restroom at Splash Mountain and tried to clean myself up the best I could.  I must say, this is not the best bathroom in the park to do a “Clean up”.  Everywhere in the bathroom is wet.  The floor, the counters, the sinks, and even the baby changing tables.  There is nowhere to put your stuff and keep it dry. 

I managed to at least get my camera cleaned up a bit before rejoining my wife outside.  This event should've been taken as an omen for the days events but it wasn’t.

After downing what was left of my protein shake we headed back toward Pirates to see if it was up and running. 

Sure enough, Pirates was no longer 101 and we got into line.  We decided to take the line the veers to the right and we weren’t standing around for long before we were on our boat and coasting through the various scenes of doomed pirates who pillage and destroy while looking for that elusive Captain Jack Sparrow.

While on Pirates, I once again got a call from Tim and once again I texted him back while on the attraction.

As soon as we were off the attraction, I called Tim and was told to wait for him near the Roy and Minnie statue on Main Street. 

We immediately made our way to Main Street crossing in front of the Crystal Palace on our way.  We stopped briefly in front of the Crystal Palace to get another Photo Pass photographer to take a couple quick pics with my camera.

We decided to cut through the stores to get to the flag pole so we ducked into first shop near Casey’s Hot Dog Stand.  It was in there that we saw some ducks wandering inside the store.  I guess they were looking for Donald.

While waiting in front of the flag pole we heard some commotion over at the Emporium.  We decided to check it out and found that The Dream Squad just awarded a family a 30 minute shopping spree.  We were so close but so far away.

At this point, my phone rings and Tim is asking where we were.  I told him and apparently they were in front of the train station.  It was so crowded at this point, that it was impossible to find him, but fortunately for me, he was wearing a bright orange Donald T-shirt and much like myself a wonderfully floppy full-brim hat.

In addition to getting to see my friend Tim again, I was able to see his wife, Karen, and son, Billy.  It had been almost exactly 1 year to the day that I last say Billy and Karen.  Billy definitely had grown up a lot in 12 months.  In addition to Tim and his family we also go to meet up with our mutual friend Skippy.  We also had the great privilege of finally meeting Skippy’s girlfriend, “M”. 

As is tradition with the Devine Family, we immediately headed to Tomorrowland to take a spin on the TTA (Tomorrowland Transit Authority).  Some still call it the WEDWay People Mover, but we just call it “Woo”.  That is Billy’s name for it.  Apparently, to help him not get scared when he was younger, everyone would go “Woo” during the parts where the car would veer one way or another to make the ride seem more fun to such a small child.

After disembarking off of the TTA, we another one of Billy’s favorite attractions, Buzz Lightyear.  Once again, Tim scored a perfect 999,999.  I have no idea how he does it so consistently.

On our way out of the attraction, Billy needed to say hello to Zurg and then it was out into Tomorrowland we went.  Billy spotted Stitch and we went over there to get his picture taken with the much maligned character of Tomorrowland.

At this point, Enchanted Rose was pretty hungry and fortunately so were a few other people.  So, it was decided that Cosmic Ray’s was where we were stopping next.

To say that Cosmic Ray’s was crowded would be an understatement.  It was decided that the ladies would hold down the tables we found while the rest of us went and got the food.  Since I had two hamburgers the day before, I wasn’t to eager to get another one.  So my wife and I got a couple grilled chicken sandwiches.  I must say that I enjoyed these much more than the slightly overcooked (aka well-done) burgers you get at the QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants).  I noticed that Skippy and “M” were sporting a couple wraps and went and asked where they had gotten them.  Apparently, in addition to Burger and Chicken section, there is a Wraps section of the restaurant.  I was embarrassed to not know that considering we eat at Cosmic Ray's a few times each trip.

At this point, I have realized that any hopes of sticking to my bodybuilding diet is going to be near impossible.  So, I decided to eat smart but eat well.

After finishing up at Cosmic Ray’s someone suggested we should check and see if our room was ready at Old Key West.  Fortunately, Tim is always prepared and had the phone number for Old Key West in his iPhone and quickly called and found out that our room is ready.

So, it was decided that we’ll take the room key for Enchanted Rose’s Mom’s room and head back to the resort so that we could move our stuff from one room to the next. 

It was decided that my wife would go with Tim and his family in their rental car while I would go in Skippy’s car with him and “M”.

As luck would have it, the sky opened up on our way back to our vehicles.  By the time we got to our car and got to Old Key West, Tim and crew made it to Old Key West and got us checked in.  Apparently, there was some difficulties since the person at the DVC told us to not pool our points, but to do back-to-back reservations and they’d be linked in their system.

As soon as Tim got the room unlocked, Karen put Billy down for a nap.  That meant that we had to be very, very quiet as we moved stuff from Tim’s car and from the other room we were staying in. 

It didn’t take long to get all the stuff in the room and “M” managed to have all the groceries put away as the last bag was getting hauled in.

I should probably mention that today is Enchanted Rose’s birthday.  As is tradition, we do a character meal when we are in the parks during one of our birthdays.  It was decided that we’d do a dinner character meal this time and give Liberty Tree Tavern a go.

We didn’t get much time to rest before we realized that it was getting close to our ADR time of 4:15PM for Liberty Tree.  Tim attempted to call Disney Dining to see if we could get the ADR bumped a few minutes since we had a strong chance of getting their late.  That proved fruitless since it was in the high season.

Next, Enchanted Rose called her mom and told her that we were running a bit late and asked if she’d let them know at the restaurant that we were on our way.

As luck would have it, the bus to the Magic Kingdom took at least 30 minutes to show up then once we got there we had to go through the “bag check” which is always a fun exercise of unzipping many pockets of my camera bag.

We made it to Liberty Tree Tavern at 4:25PM and found out that our reservation was actually for  4:30PM all along.  We also found out that they wouldn’t seat a party unless everyone was there.  So, Enchanted Rose’s mom and her husband were sitting patiently in the foyer.

While Enchanted Rose was distracted talking to her mom, I spoke to the people at the podium about getting a cake brought to the table for my wife’s birthday.

The Liberty Tree Tavern was unable to sit our entire part of 9 at one table.  So, we were at 2 separate tables on opposite sides of the room from each other.  We were close enough to be able to talk to each other though.

The food was phenomenal.  I must say I filled up a bit too much on the bread, but I couldn’t resist since I love me some homemade biscuits.

We got our fill of the food, took some pictures with the characters and had a few laughs.  Then at the end of the meal, they brought the cake which was a nice surprise for my wife.

After the meal, we decided to pop on over to It’s a Small World for Billy.  After getting off that ride, it was on over to Dumbo.  None of us were really in the mood to be spun around after such a filling meal, but Billy really likes this attraction.  So Skippy and “M” decided to hop on with him. 

Tim took this opportunity to whip out the new large zoom lens he purchased before the trip to see how well it worked.  I should probably point out that at this point, it was slightly drizzling out and was making things a bit humid.

After Dumbo we took a spin around the Seven Acre Woods with Winnie the Pooh and after that, it was a trip on Peter Pan.  We’ve pretty much gotten Billy’s circuit taken care of at this point.

Billy was needing to go back to the room so we decided to split up and join back in time for Wishes!  Tim and his family along with Skippy and “M” were going back to the room.   Nancy’s mom and her husband split off awhile back and we were going to attempt to locate a shirt and tie for me since I forgot mine at home.

The first place we looked was along the shops lining Main Street U.S.A. and quickly discovered that was a bust.  So, it was decided that we’ll go to Downtown Disney.  We still had some time but I was really worried if we’d make it back in time for Wishes!

This is when I made my first big mistake of the evening.  I told my wife that she should go back to the Magic Kingdom and watch Wishes! while I go look for a shirt and tie.  Since it was my mistake she shouldn’t miss Wishes! on her birthday.

Even though that sounded like a great idea in my head it was not well received and it got me in hot water for suggesting that she watch Wishes! alone on her birthday. 

We quickly found out that you cannot get to Downtown Disney from the Magic Kingdom bus station.  So, we decided to hop the monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center.  Well, as luck would have it, you cannot grab a bus to Downtown Disney from their either.  At this point, our only option to get to Downtown Disney was to hop a ride to a resort and then bus from the resort to Downtown Disney.

With all this complaining about there not being enough shopping, Disney sure makes it cumbersome for you to get to Downtown Disney.

Since we needed to go to a resort in order to get to Downtown Disney, I suggested we hop the monorail to the Grand Floridian.  That resort is so fancy and I remember they had a couple high-end stores catering to women, so they MUST have a store selling dress shirts and ties.  If they didn’t we could go out and catch a bus to Downtown Disney.

As luck would have it, there is indeed a small store selling men’s fancier attire on the second floor of the Grand Floridian.  So, we were able to pick out a shirt, tie and socks (she wasn’t going to let me wear my white socks).  I can tell you one thing, if you need to purchase such clothing on property be prepared for the sticker shock.  I cannot wait until the final nail is put in the coffin of neckties.  That sucker was heinously expensive.

Now that this expedition was over we had plenty of time to get to the Magic Kingdom for Wishes!

On the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom, I called Tim to find out where was the best place to stand to take pictures and if I was to expect him back.

As it turns out, when they got back to the room, the room key was not working.  So this entire time they have been waiting outside the room waiting for someone from maintenance to come with new keys.  I told Tim to just go to the front desk and be done with it, but he was worried that as soon as he left, the guy would show up.  Plus, they had Billy with them and needed to keep him comfortable.

Well, I was told to stake out some space near the flagpole on Main Street to get a good shot of the fireworks.

We entered the park near the time that SpectroMagic was supposed to start and we made our way to the area around the flagpole, but it was roped off and we couldn’t find out how to get in there.

A cast member approached us and Enchanted Rose just flat out asked her how we got into that roped off area and we were told to just duck under the rope.  I thought that was a rather funny response, but, oh well, we did it anyway.

We decided to stand next to the Minnie and Roy statue and that is where I put up my tripod.  While we were waiting, Enchanted Rose decided to run to the Main Street Confectionary to pick up some sweets.

She came back armed with a cinnamon bun for herself and a Rocky Road Brownie for me.  The brownie was quite tasty and hit the spot as we waited for the evening’s activities to start.

I called Tim again and found out that they were STILL waiting for the guy to show up.  I once again insisted that he go to the front desk and personally deal with someone.  I was told that at this point, he will not be joining me for Wishes!

Standing near us was a fellow from New York (I think) who had a Nikon D60 and started asking me a bunch of questions about taking pictures of the fireworks.  Fortunately for him, he had the 18-200mm zoom with Vibration Reduction because he was not armed with a tripod.  Since staying perfectly still while shooting in low light is highly important, he was going to need as much help as he could get.

SpectroMagic started and I spent most of the time trying to get my settings right for the fireworks.  I didn’t get many pictures of the parade.  I must admit I wasn’t close to the street and when the tripod is fully extended it places the camera about a foot above my head so I can not even look through the view finder and barely can make out the images on the LCD screen.

Once the fireworks started, I really started to get myself into hot water.  There were some kids standing near my tripod and they kept kicking the legs out from under my tripod and that was frustrating me.  After my dropping my camera off my tripod last year because I didn’t have it properly affixed, I have been paranoid about it happening again.

On top of that, I couldn’t get my shots lined up properly and my wireless remote for the shutter wasn’t firing properly.  So, I kept mumbling and grumbling and griping.  To top it off, my wife gave me the evil eye and I shot back, “I can get frustrated if I want to”.  And that as they say is all she wrote.  The door slammed on the doghouse and I was there for the night.

I knew I was in trouble when the fireworks were over and my wife wanted to leave and we still had the Extra Magic Hours that could’ve kept us there until 2AM.

It was on the bus back to the room that I found out what I had done wrong.  Well, after 6 years of marriage, I guess I was way overdue to do something stupid on her birthday.  I just wish I hadn’t done it on her birthday.

When we got back to the room, Tim was still awake and surfing the Internet. 

We found out that Tim and his family had been stuck outside for almost 2 hours.  They finally drove up to the Guest Relations building and spoke to someone to try and get the problem resolved.  The person at the desk never looked up nor acknowledged their existence.  He communicated with them, but never looked at them.  The problem eventually got resolved but needless to say they were very upset after waiting that long to get back into the room.  We never found out why we were locked out.

As my wife and I do when things go wrong between the two of us, we talked it out before going to sleep and everything was good between us before the lids slammed shut.  That is definitely one thing I can say about our relationship, we have excellent communication and don’t let things fester before we talk about them.

To see the entire collection of pictures taken on Day 01, click the link below:

WDW 2008 – Day 02

Technorati Tags: Trip Report, WDW, Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World Day 01….And it begins

Well, the beginning of our vacation didn’t begin the way that we would’ve preferred.  Enchanted Rose didn’t get off work until 3:00AM and we had to leave for the airport at 5:30AM.  So, she pretty much had to finish packing when she got home and leave.  I was up most of the night, as well, because I was trying to get work done to keep my clients warm and cozy with work product while I was gone.  Then I needed to get my stuff ready to go.  I’m not the best person when it comes to packing or getting organized.

The trip to the airport was without incident and we were excited to see that there was still come covered parking in the parking garage.

We are flying out Southwest Airlines this time.  I’m an old pro with them for business travel, but this is the first time we are using them for pleasure travel (aka checked luggage)

Enchanted Rose tried her best to capture some Z’s on the plane, but we had stops in Houston and New Orleans before Orlando.  So that meant she had about an hour between take offs and landings.  Not much time to spend in REM.

Upon landing and wandering our way to baggage claim (you know you are almost at Disney when you hear the familiar voice on the tram to baggage claim) where our driver from Quicksilver was awaiting for us.

I think our bags were the last to come off the plane, but they all did arrive and we were off.

We took full advantage of the 30 minute grocery stop.  This time we were doing a dual family trip with Tim Devine and his family.  So, we decided to eat in the room as much as possible.  That meant lots of food.  After 30 minutes and $208 later we were back in the car heading to Old Key West.

This first day we didn’t have a room.  We decided to tack on an extra day since Enchanted Rose’s mother and her husband were here at the same time.  They graciously offered up there couch for us to crash on this evening.

I probably should’ve mentioned that it was pouring outside now.  So, when we pulled up to her mom’s room (Turtle Pond, Building 35 at Old Key West) we had to unload everything and get it into the room in the rain.

My first impression of her mom’s 1 bedroom at Old Key West was pretty good considering it was built in the early 90’s.  The room was very spacious.

WDW Vacation Bumper - Day 01 from Ray Harkness on Vimeo.

WDW Vacation - Day 01

After getting settled, we decided we were going to go to Downtown Disney to try and find a shirt and tie for Victoria and Alberts.  Yeah, I forgot to bring my shirt and tie.

We decided we were going to boat it over, but the distance from our room to the Guest Services Building (where the boat dock is) was a bit too much to handle in the rain.  So, we decided to hop on the first bus that came along and get off at the Guest Services Building. 

That bus happened to be one going to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  By the time

the bus got to the Guest Services Building, we had decided to just stay on and go to Hollywood Studios.  We were excited to see what was going on for Star Wars Weekend, but more importantly hopefully take a turn on the new Toy Story Mania attraction.

We decided to head straight to Pixar Place to see what the wait was to get on Toy Story.  It turned out to be 120 minutes. 

Much more than we were willing to wait.  But as luck would have it, a magical moment occurred and we got into the Fast Pass line and were able to experience the attraction.

I must say that this ride is GRUMPTASTIC!  I can tell you one thing, you will get an arm workout on this thing.  I kept having to switch shooting arms because my forearms were on fire.  There is definitely a technique for scoring big, but I haven’t figured it out yet.

To top it off, a nice cast member saw the Birthday Button Enchanted Rose was wearing and let us go through a second time.

I have my new High Definition camcorder and wanted to see if I could get any good video of the ride but a cast member squashed it…LOL.  The cast member was only pulling my leg, but the captured video wasn’t worth viewing anyway.

After getting off of Toy Story Mania, we decided it was time for some food.  Enchanted Rose wanted to take her mom and her husband to the 50’s Prime Time Cafe.  I told her that our luck getting in would probably be slim since we didn’t have an ADR, but we were going to try anyway.  Sure enough, the soonest they could seat us was 9:50PM (it was 5:00PM at this time).  We had them check the situation at Mama Melrose and it was not any better.  So, I suggested we go to our usual fallback quick service at The Studios.  I’m not sure of the name, but it’s the one on the way to Tower of Terror.

The food was so-so (which is to be expected from Quick Service).  I don’t think Enchanted Rose’s mom and her husband were too impressed.

After scarfing down some of Disney’s finest counter service cuisine, we fast passed our way onto Tower of Terror.  Enchanted Rose’s mom and husband are seasoned veterans of Disneyland and are quite familiar with the West Coast version of this attraction.  We told them that the Florida version is totally different.  I don’t think they knew how different until they saw that the “elevator” car moves on a track outside the original elevator shaft.  That doesn’t happen on the Disneyland version.

As usual, Tower of Terror was entertaining.  I love to ride without holding onto anything.  The sensation of having your butt hover over the seat as the car plummets to the ground is kind of fun.

After many random and fabulous drops, we decided to head toward the Star Wars  region of the park to see what was happening on the Star Wars Weekend front.  It was much more crowded around the Star Tours attraction than anywhere else in the park (and that was taking into account the crowd for Toy Story Mania).  But, the wait time for Star Tours was 5 minutes so we decided to hop on even though it isn’t one of my favorite attractions (sorry George, I just get a wicked case of whiplash on that thing).

Naturally, after getting off at the Moon of Endor, we needed to peruse the wares at Tatoonie Traders.  The place was jam packed.  It was especially busy at the build-your-own-lightsaber section of the store.

We noticed they were still selling the “Judge me by my size” shirts and were looking for a youth X-Small for my nephew, Collin.  Enchanted Rose needed to ask a cast member to look in the back for her which was a good idea because they did have one back there.

After completing our transactions and getting some mandatory shots on the speeder bike outside the Ewok Village, we decided to track down Wicket’s Warehouse.

A cast member told us it was between The Great Movie Ride and Toy Story Mania, but by the time we got to The Great Movie Ride we found that it was indeed where the cast member told us, but there was a giant wall between Toy Story Mania and Wicket’s Warehouse. 

On our way to doubleback and find Wicket’s Warehouse we decided to take a tour through the movies.  This is another attraction that doesn’t rate high on my list, but it’s a nice diversion when “The Studios” are crowded, hot and everything else has lengthy lines.  Nothing like a slow ride with great air conditioning to help you recharge your batteries.

After the Great Movie Ride, we continued onto Wicket’s Warehouse which involved a detour through the Streets of America.

Wicket’s Warehouse was pretty awesome.  There were many things that I’d love to purchase, but I’d put a serious hurting on my AMEX if I did.  Enchanted Rose ended up buying a “You are kind of short to be a Stormtrooper” t-shirt and I picked up a limited edition Star Wars Weekend pin.

At this point we were pretty hungry again.  I suggested Beaches & Cream.

We boated it over to The Beach Club from “The Studios”

It was about a 30 minute wait to get a seat at Beaches & Cream.  Enchanted Rose and I waited outside while her mom and husband went into the arcade and played several rounds of pinball.

Once inside Beaches and Cream, we ordered some burgers and ultimately some fabulous ice cream.  My wife and I shared the Brownie Sundae.

After getting fully stuffed and watching 5 or 6 tables get “Kitchen Sinks” [edit note:  “A WHOLE CAN!!!!!!”], we decided it was time for bed.  We  hopped on the bus to Downtown Disney from The Beach Club and then switched to the Old Key West bus from there.

After about an hour or two of bus riding, we got back to Old Key West and went to bed.  We were crashing on her mom’s couch since we couldn’t check into our room until the next day. 

To see the entire collection of pictures taken on Day 01, click the link below:

WDW 2008 - Day 01

 

Technorati Tags: Walt Disney World, WDW, Trip Report