Ilene Fabisch - August 2001

Trip Report: Part one
August 16-20, 2001
Trip Attendees: Ilene 43, Murt 45, Michelle 14, Michele 15 (family friend)
Stayed at: ASMu ($49 rate)
ransportation: Delta $109 TR from Providence, RI
ental Car: National, using free emerald isle benefits from DC, intermediate car for 4 days: $120

Arrived at 7pm (VERY HOT) at ASMu. Got room I faxed request for except not pool view, they are willing to change me the next day (sold out tonight) but opt to stay where we are as it is such a great location. Second floor Calypso 10 room 551 on end near stairs and right next to food court and main building. Virtually no walking! Since we have a car, we head for Port Orleans resort to take the boat ride over to Downtown Disney as has been suggested. It was a nice boat ride and we are glad we made the extra effort to take it. Get to DD and head for Giardellis, we make this our dinner, LOL. Daughter and her friend get their fav chocolate shake, I get a small hot fudge sundae, hubby can't do ice cream too much so he has a root bear float. Use our AP pass to get a free chocolate bar. It is all VERY yummy. Daughter and friend head for Disney Quest and hubby and I head for Comedy Connection and Adventurers Club. Both are excellent entertainment. Hubby gets picked on at Adventurers Club and has to get up and "dance" in front of the crowd in the library....I am mortified but another disney memory is created. Last time we were in WDW he got picked at the hoop dee doo to wear the tutu! He must just have that kind of face that says I'm a good sport pick me! We leave around midnight, very tired but fully entertained. I'm surprised to see the line up of young folk, just beginning the evening...feeling kinda old.

Since I promised not to rush everyone this trip I get up myself at 7:30 and shower and head for the pool to sit and read and people watch. It is hot already! Hubby joins me about 8:30 and says the "girls" are up and almost ready. We eat breakfast at the food court. This HAS to be the best feature of AS resorts. It is not too cheap but MUCH less expensive than a sit down breakfast anywhere else on property and the food is all very fresh and good. Best waffles I have had in a longtime. We all leave full and ready to go. Using our own car, we head for Wilderness Lodge to do the water mice and sneak a swim in the WL pool. We get to the boat dock and get our boats. We get very lucky, we all have FAST boats and have a great half hour speeding around the Lagoon. When I get back to pay and offer my AP for the discount I notice a sign with posted rates. There is a special called Humprey's plan that I ask about. It includes FOUR hours of boat/bike rental for $115 (no discount applys) but the Cast Member says she can't switch me over to that. (hmmm, I'll have to question that at guest services in the hotel lobby). I go to the lobby and the CM there makes some calls and says I need to go back to the marina, they will switch it over to that plan. So instead of 2 hours (four people for 1/2 hour each) for $71 we got 4 hours (an hour each) for $115. Not too, shabby eh and we just love the boats so we plan to come back another day to get our next half hour. After our swim at WL, we get in the car and head back to ASMu for showers and lunch. It's too hot and not enough time to do parks so we go back to Downtown Disney for some shopping! This time we take bus transportation. We visit many stores and spend way too much money before we leave for our dinner ressies at Boma, AKL. We leave at 5:20 for a 6pm ressie but that was a mistake. We waited until 6 for our BUS! They did honor our ressie though and of the four of us I was the only one that really loved dinner. Lots of great food IMO but not to hubby's taste and the girls didn't really care for it either with the exception of dessert...DELICIOUS! The AKL is a not to miss though. I think it's my favorite building. The detailing is incredible. I love WL as well but the woodworking and enormity here just take your breath away. The girls go to MK before us for enight while hubby and I take in the savanah and talk with a nice CM from Kenya. Even she is complaining about the heat. Apparently Kenya isn't as hot as it's been at WDW recently and she seems lonely too. We head to MK to meet the girls and get to see the fireworks too! We ride, Space, Thunder and Splash Mountains, and Buzz Lightyear. We also do the Country Bear Jamboree. The sun is not out and it is still hot but we are glad we got to do these rides with no waiting and no sunburn! We are tired and head back to the hotel. The bus is nice and cool!

The next morning I do my reading by the pool routine. Everyone joins me a little earlier as we want a good head start at MGM. Rockin Rollercoaster is where we make plans to head first and follow that with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Thinking ahead for lunch we realize we never tried Sci-Fi Diner so I quickly make ressies at Guest Services for noon. We want to be out of the parks for the afternoon again as it is even hotter we think than the day before. Get right on RnR and also grab fast passes. We have time to do Millionaire so we head over and get right in just as they are closing the doors. What a GREAT attraction, it is so much fun, just like the real thing. I'm not sure about how they add the audience scores up though and I'm thinking it's really random even though they say it's not. After the show which is half an hour, we go use our RnR fastpass and decide we want to play Millionaire again! After that show we are just a bit early for SciFi but head over anyway and they are able to seat us pronto. It's kinda fun sitting in the cars with the speakers like they used to have, food is okay not great and we decide we are glad we tried it but probably wouldn't go back again. Heading back to resort for swim time as it is INCREDIBLY hot. You have no idea! Bus driver says heat index is 115! Swiming is great, lots of people but pool is large. The pool temp could be a little cooler as it is more like bath water but still feels good. After a swim and showers we go over to EPCOT. Hmmm looks like rain. I put my sandals on "just in case" as I hate wet shoes. I have no poncho this trip either..left at home by mistake. BIG MISTAKE. We have to be in line at 5:15 for the BLAST show that begins at 5:45. Just as we get in line the downpour begins. Lots of thunder and lightning too! But I really want to see this show and they aren't canceling it. Hubby and daughter say "it's just water" and opt to not get ponchos. Daughters friend and myself think they are NUTS and get ponchos. We stay reasonably dry except for feet (but I have sandals). Hubby and dd are DRENCHED. We watch the show in the rain as there is no cover in the non reserved section. It is a great show, I start feeling badly that hubby and dd are so wet but it was their choice and I let it go, surmising that it bothered me more than them as they could have bought a poncho too! After the show we go to our ressies at Japan. Strategically timed so we would get good standing area for TON but then they announce they are cancelling TON. DD is very dissapointed. We have a great surprise though. The people we are sitting with at the table in Japan happen to be another TheMouseForLess family!! Susan from Miami, and her hubby and two boys are also enjoying the AS rate. And it turns out there room is a few doors down from ours! So we have a totally unplannned mini meet! Susan and her family are very nice and it was fun to exchange some opinions and meet each other. Before leaving we do spaceship earth and catch Illuminations (thank goodness it has stopped raining!) We take the boat ride over to Boardwalk and rent Surreys for half and hour. It has cooled down a bit and we have a ballriding around the boardwalk in our surrey. Line is too long at Beaches and Cream so we go back to ASMu food court. Ice cream there is also very good! Trip half over already!

Trip Report Part Two: Can It Get Any Hotter!

It's Sunday am and I'm awake but everyone else is sleeping still. This morning I wake them so we can get an early start at EPCOT. We are taking the bus and this morning we hit it right so that we don't have to wait very long. Plan is to get to Test Track first. We head on over and think the park doesn't feel very crowded today but we are early and it's Sunday so many vacationers are either checking in or out. Short line at Test track so we use our AP's to get fast passes to come back as well as our room keys (a cute little trick if you have AP's vs Unlimited Park Hoppers). Test Track feels faster today, probably just my imagination. Good ride. We get off and head to Innoventions to send DD list a postcard and view any new exhibits. My kids never did like the whole innoventions thing and it bores them this time as well. Do a quick shop through Mousegears and then my daughter says it's time to go back to Test Track with the fast passes. I am really not interested in riding again so hubby and I go to Land Pavillion. We do the boat ride but both come away wishing they would have kept the Tiny Little Seed song, oh well. We don't do food rocks as we also still miss the original show with Veggie, veggie, fruit, fruit, Ole! Can't let the memories go...feel kinda sad. We head over to Living seas, we haven't done this one in awhile. Preview movie is as good as I remember (and nice and cool in the air conditioning!) Hubby and I think the best part though is the aquarium and that unfortunately also seems the shortest part. We spend some time hanging around looking at the amazing manatees. I buy a sterling silver dolphin ring. I have a thing for dolphins but can't see any in their quadrant. They must be in their holding tank. It is very hot and we decide to head back to the hotel for lunch. The girls will meet us back there. I had wanted to go over to Norway for some rice cream and a kringla but the heat is oppressive and the walk too long from the living seas area to even think about. Feet and head win over my stomach this time. Back on the bus the driver says Blizzard Beach is closed at capacity and Typhoon Lagoon is nearing capacity. I think, is it possible to be any hotter! We meet the girls and get lunch at AS food court, quick, easy and fairly inexpensive. We have the second half hour to use on the Water mice so we get changed and scoot over to WL in our car. It has been really helpful to have the rental car when we don't want to be wasting time transporting ourselves from resort to resort. If you are just doing parks no problem but to get to other resorts you do well to have a car as the only way to most is through either TTC or Downtown Disney, so you double your time due to transfers. The sprites are GREAT, dh and daughters friend though get bum boats and have to go back and switch. It is great on the lake and much cooler. I have a little tour that I do that take just about the whole half hour. I leave a few minutes at the end to just careen around in circles, what a blast. I just read they each cost $6000 I guess I'll never have one so I might as well just enjoy the ones at Disney. We were going to dip in the WL pool but it starts to get cloudy and the lifeguard has to close the pool due to approaching lightning. We head back to ASMu and guess what no rain here! We use the pool and get out in shifts to shower. We have our DD mini meet this evening at Artist Point. It is such fun to meet everyone. The host at Artist Point says, "Wow, your brave meeting people on a list that you don't even know". I think, but I feel like I know these people anyway and we all share that one passion that we can always talk about if conversation gets difficult. But it doesn't get difficult at all tonight. The table is long and there are two conversations going on but we all chime in at different points. Lets see, now...Pam Forrester and her husband were there. What a nice couple. They have a five year old that was in the cubs den, she joined us at the end with so much energy that we all envied her. Then Denise and Steve arrived. They are not officially DD listers but I knew them from RADP another disney list and had meet with them last year when I arranged a mini meet at Beaches and Cream. They are disney employees. Denise is on a medical leave and Steve is only a casual employee now. He drives monorails occasionally and has lots of interesting stories. So does Denise. She works at WDW Travel Company. Did you know there was one time when parents called up to make vacation ressies and requested a room in Boardwalk for themselves and a room in the Carribean Beach for their two children ages 9 and 12! I guess it created quite a stir as management wasn't sure how to handle the request. It was certainly irresponsible of the parents, the two resorts are so far away. I can't even imagine it! Then Michelle and John, the wedding couple, arrived. They are so nice and young and funny. So great to chat with. Michelle is so easy to talk to and the kind of person you warm right up to and think you have known all your life. She will be a beautiful bride! We had a delicious dinner and a fabulous berry dessert. My dd and her friend decide they want to go to DQ and so they leave us. They had shared a shrimp dish and each got only two jumbo shrimp, so it has become a big joke that they left us to go and eat dinner at Cheesecake factory in DQ. The rest of us headed outside to catch the Water Pagent. The music has changed for this too over the years. It was a beautiful evening and a little cooler. It had gotten late and we were all tired so we said our goodbyes and returned to our hotels.

Next morning I wake and realize this is our last day :-( I get on my bathing suit and instead of just reading and people watching I go for a swim. DH and girls join me soon after also trying to make as much of this last day as possible. We also realize we could bake in the park all day with no chance to come back to the hotel since check out is at 11am and we won't leave until 8pm. That could be a VERY LONG HOT day so my strategy is to enjoy the pool, shower, check out and take the car to park at the Contemporary or Polynesian so that when we get out of our dinner ressies at Tony's Townsquare at 6 we can book it to the airport for our 8pm flight. Yeah it's cutting it close but not too bad. Soaking in the pool we verbalize how lucky we are to be able to enjoy a vacation such as this. We've packed so much into four days! Lots of fun and memories to recall during the cold winter coming up. We wonder when we will be able to come back and we haven't even left, LOL! We are packed and in the car but there is a problem with our plan. It seems you can't park at the Contemporary for more than 3 hours! That will never do but we park anyway and decide to shop the contemporary stores and also to monorail to GF as we haven't even rode the monorail this trip yet. We get lucky too! We get to ride up front and talk to the driver. He hands us our Monorail Drivers Licenses when we leave. DD notices they have changed since last time which makes her old one a "collectible", so she is happy! We ride back to the Contemporary and move the car...but where to? DH get a bit miffed as they don't even check the 3 hour pass on the way out. We could've gotten away with it. Should we try Poly...no he doesn't want to take a chance OR waste any more time as it is getting late to get into the park and several rides are on our list. We park in the main lot but the tram is quick and we get their pronto. It is a first for us parking in this lot but not too bad. We need to do Pirates, Tiki's and Pooh and get a Citrus Swirl. I knew SW would be closed but was holding out for it as someone had said it was open the day prior. Pirates and Tikis were great as usual and nice and cool (an important theme this whole trip, LOL). We knew Pooh would be a long shot but were hoping to catch it during the parade when the lines might be lighter.No such luck the wait is an hour and it's not worth it to us as we have ridden it before. Also SW is closed, darn it! We treat ourselves to a giant pretzel and notice that the Lion King show is letting in. We opt for this show and are not dissappointed. Lion King is one of my favorites. I love the message and the animation is unbelievable. I think it is the last of the "old" disney type films. Also it is nice and COOL inside. We get out in time to do our Main Street shopping for an hour and make our dinner ressies on time. Dinner is fabulous. We love Tony's and have sort of made MK and Tony's our last day each trip. Tony's now has these great smoothies in a souvenir mug so you know what I got! Just couldn't resist. The food is so good but it's hard to not fill up on the delicious bread and dip that comes out first. Well it was finally TIME TO SAY GOODBYE...you know the rest...