Dede – May 2004

Day 1 – May 15, 2004

Well sat may 15 was our morning to get off the cruise. Hubby was going home, and I was taking tamara to disney world. I was kinda concerned how this would work with him and I going different places, but it really wasnt a problem. They told us since we had had the first seating at 6 pm, we had to eat breakfast at 6:45 and be off the ship at 8. Breakfast was at lumieres the same place we had dinner the night before. We said good bye to our waiters Micho from Croatia and Edwin, They were both real nice. We sat at a table for 7 all week but the other 4 people never showed up. We had put our luggage out into the hallway the night before, and only had our carry ons to take to breakfast. First when you get off the ship, they have the luggage in color coded areas.. ours was light blue donald I think and its on there by cabin number, so its pretty easy to find. We got a porter to help us, and basically customs was just handing them a form as we walked thru. They didnt check anything. When I got outside there was a lady there, telling me to go to a Mears van and the other ones had signs for different airlines. Hubby was going on US air, and they took his luggage right there, so he didnt have to deal with it anymore. Mears loaded my and tamaras luggage into the van. It really was no muss no fuss. they told us that normally they use a big disney bus, but because there was only about 10 of us going back, they hired Mears to take us. It took about 1 1/2 hours for us to get back to All stars, because of course Tamara and I were the last resort to get dropped off, after several stops at downtown disney hotels, and some on property ones. I had requested a ground floor room, and they told me that they had a second floor room available immediately, but when she checked they had one available on ground floor too. I had paid for a preferred room annual pass rate $59 I think and she gave us room 0431. They never asked to see my pass and I hadn't activated yet. It was in the first part of the second calypso building, the next to the last room and just overlooked some trees, lawn and parking lot. We unpacked a bit and then headed for the magic kingdom. We got there about 11 am, and had to wait in line at guest services for alot of people buying tickets, as I had to activate my annual pass. Finally got it, and got to the window to rent an ecv, and found out they were all rented out, and they had a waiting list of 6 people already to get one. This kinda spoiled my plans and I offered to take tamara to another park but she insisted on pushing me in a regular wheelchair. Poor kid! We did well tho, and I explained fast passes to her, and we went to haunted mansion first. On the way there, she got my squeeze breeze fan jammed into the wheel of the wheel chair, and had to stop and unjam it. We rode haunted mansion, pooh, peter pan,snow white, mickeys philharmagic, country bear jamboree, aladin, tiki birds, pirates, jungle cruise, and then rode thunder mountain, and splash mt. We watched spectromagic at night then left before wishes, Timekeeper was not open but carousel of progress was open. Small world is already closed. It was very very crowded this day (sat) I was surprised we rode as much as we did.


Day 2 – May 16, 2004

Today was our day at MGM studios. We got there around 9 and went on the great movie ride first I wanted her to see the part with the wizard of oz. Then she insisted we go to tower of terror. I went on with her, and she loved it, and wanted to go again, so we got fastpasses, and she went on rock and roller coaster. I didnt ride that. We went up and watched the muppets. It was star wars weekends and they had alotof stuff in that area for them and that part was pretty crowded, but the rides seemed more manageable. There were several star wars characters there for autographs and they had a parade go thru, but we didnt watch it.  I had reservations for noon at Prime time cafe. I purposely didnt tell tamara about it, because I wanted to see her reactions. Our waitress introduced herself as cousin brenda, and told tamara to keep her elbows off the table and no tattling.. to which she immediately replied by trying to tattle on me. The waitress reprimanded her for that and it was funny. Two other tables came in and she went thru the same spiel with them, and the same thing happened, one kid started tattling, and she made both tables repeat after her a "I will not tattle" speech. It was cute. Tamara and I drew with crayons on the napkins pictures of aunt brenda and "uncle elmo" and she came by and asked who uncle elmo was..lol. I had a pot roast dinner, It came with mashed potatoes and a vegetable (not green beans) but more a mixture of carrots, celery and onions. All she wanted was french fries and we both had milkshakes. They were $4.99 each and our meal came to over $31. I thought that was pretty high considering all she had was fries and a milkshake. We left and went to sounds dangerous. I don't think she was too impressed by that, and wanted to go back to ride the tower and the coaster again. So I told her I would meet her around 3 at a certain spot, I went to see millionaire. They had had some star wars versions earlier in the day. But this was a regular one, and they had Mickey dressed as a jedi in the theater where he is usually a sorcerer. There was a couple characters on that street for pictures. I think one was princess lela, and some other guy. Sorry I don't know the characters. There were also models of c3po and r2d2. I grabbed us fastpasses for little mermaid, stopped at a pin booth then went to wait for tamara. She got there within a half hour and said she had only had time to ride each ride once. We had missed the beauty and the beast show, so we went up and seen One mans dream, and then to see the little mermaid show with our fastpass. I really wanted her to see that movie they have about walt there. They still had the front of the "making of the haunted mansion movie " there, but the attraction was closed. the guy said it closed when it came out on video. I had seen that last Nov. She really liked the little mermaid (she's 12) Then we decided to go take the backstage tour. There really wasn't alot to it. They had picked a few people from the audience and did a couple scenes from the pearl harbor movie. Then we got on the tram. They had torn down the houses, and basically went by a couple sound stages, and past a few props from movies. Then we went to catastrophe canyon and the part where NY street was, and it was over. They drop you off at a place that has some costumes from different movies in it. They had taken my scooter when we got on the tram and it was waiting there for me. I was getting tired by this point, but tamara was still raring to go, so we went to see the beauty and the beast show. I had never seen it before, and it was really beautiful. We got to sit in the front row as they had ramps leading down to the bottom off to the side. By this point my wheelchair battery was on such low power It barely wanted to make it back up the ramps. We turned it back in, and we left on the bus, got back and ate at the motel food court. The restaurant I ate at before that has the regular meals, like turkey and pork, was all closed up and empty. The only things available were an ice cream shop, some pastry things, a little store with juice and stuff, the grill (That had VERY greasy food) and a pizza and pasta place. I got a philly steak sandwich with fries and tamara got a double cheeseburger with fries. She went swimming and I took my cell phone down and called my mom and watched her.


Day 3 – May 17, 2004

This morning Tina had gotten us reservations at the princess breakfast in norway at 10:10. We got to epcot around 9:40 and walked leisurely over there. Got fastpasses for test track. They had the rest of world showcase roped off, so you couldnt go further than Norway til after 11 am. We waited about 10 minutes and then went in. We had a table for two. It has some kind of danish with chocolate syrup on it, on the table . we each ate one, and I saved the other two for later. They had so much air in them tho, they really got squished..lol She brought us out some orange juice, I was offered coffee. then they bring you out a skillet that has scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage links, two biscuits, and a cheezy potato casserole in it. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. We ordered more bacon and eggs because I told her that was going to be our lunch too, since it was over $46.  The princesses were snow white, belle, mulan, jasmine and sleeping beauty. We got our picture and tamara got an autograph with each one of them. She enjoyed that. I don't know if I would pay that much to do that again tho. We had already seen most of those princesses on the cruise. Next she insisted we go to see mission space, so I told her we would get her a fast pass for it, as I have a bad back and wasnt trying it, and then we rode test track together. She liked that so much she went on it again after she went on space as a single rider.  I spotted ice station cool and we went thru that and I just had to have her taste that delicious "beverly drink" LOL . She said yuk!!! lol. She got a big kick out of the snow in there. We walked over and did the energy ride with the dinosaurs. Health was still closed.  We went over to see the honey I shrunk the audience movie, got fastpasses, rode the imagination ride twice, then seen the movie, and then went over to the land, saw the lion king movie, and went down and got fastpasses for the boat ride and had lunch. I had a bbq pork sandwich and she ordered a kids corn dog meal. She liked that. I think it was only 3.49 and included a small drink and chips. We rode the boat, and she didnt want to go to living seas, so we walked over and did the ride inside the golf ball. She didnt have any interest in going to see the countries, said her feet hurt, so we turned in the scooter and left around 3 or 4. We went back and went swimming. She ended up saying she didnt feel too good and went to sleep about 730 pm. She was fine the next morning.


Day 4 – May 18, 2004

Well today was "supposed" to have been my rest day, but I had bought a voucher online for sea world that was good til december so I figured I better use it. So we called mears the night before for transportation to sea world.I had only bought Tamara a 5 day pass for disney anyways. It was $14 each round trip, which I didnt think was too bad. They said we could have either 8:05 or 9:05 pick up so I chose the earlier so we could be sure to have a scooter. They said they come back on the half hours, and I could either make a reservation or just call them from the park 90 minutes before I wanted to come back, but I told them 3:30 as we had 6 pm reservations for chef mickeys. I hadnt been to sea world in about 10 yrs or more.  They had a pass for over 50 which was only a little more than the pass I had bought and was good for a whole year and told me it also gave you a discount on food, souvenirs, and scooters, so I paid the difference and bought that. Thats about the only good thing being 50 is good for..lol It also let me buy up to 3 tickets for 15% off so I saved about $10 on tamaras ticket, and the $35 scooter was only 28 with discount, so I figured even if I dont go back I did okay. We also saved over $2 on lunch. We seen the sting rays, went to the sea lion and otter show which was really funny. went over to eat, We both had watermelon, and she ate a bbq pork sandwich and I had a different meal. and fruit punch. That was about $23. Then we went over to shamu stadium and seen the shamu show and she went over and rode krakus, a roller coaster and then a water ride atlantis while I waited in the gift shop. It was a nice day, and we both had seen what we wanted to see by the time it was ready to leave, so it worked out well.  We went back to our room, got ready to go to chef mickeys, I took a shower while she went swimming, We got a bus to magic kingdom then got on the monorail to the contemporary. We had about 25 minutes to go, so rode the whole circuit before getting off. Chef mickeys was fun. We got a picture of us by a big plate and spoon. a 5 by 7 was $12.95 plus tax. I also took pictures as the characters came around. Still love those parmesan mashed potatoes! I brought a ziploc with me to use for cookies so we could have them for breakfast our last couple days. That cost about $55.  I had plans to go on the balcony at the contemporary to see wishes that night, but it wasnt showing til 930 so we didnt stick around. Our meal was at 6. They had those early mornings and late nights at various parks while I was there, but I didnt use any of them. It seemed like all the parks were pretty crowded irregardless.


Day 5 – May 19, 2004

I had left this day up to tamaras choice and she wanted to see animal kingdom then go back to MGM to ride tower and the roller coaster again. We got there early so we would be sure to get a scooter. and I took her to see Its tough to be a bug. She really enjoyed that. We walked over to camp mickey minnie and seen mickey and got our picture and she got pics with some bears Koda and somebody, and pluto. We went to see the festival of the lion king. That was really nice and we both enjoyed that. Then she wanted to go see Pocohantas so we watched that show. Then we went over and got on the kilomanjaro safaris. Seen some animals and then she was ready to ride some rides. We went over to this section that had primevial world I had never even seen that section, and it looked alot like a carnival. We both rode that ride and it was pretty wild. It kind of reminded me of the wild mouse ride, that had spinning at various times in it. She rode a second time, but I sat the second one out. I had only been to animal kingdom twice, so didnt really remember alot about it. We saw Ivy the clinging vine on the way back over to eat. she just wanted Mcdonalds french fries and I had the rib dinner from the flame tree bbq. After we ate, we rode the water ride, and of course out of the whole ride full I was the one who got soaked by this thing that looked like Niagara falls was going over the top of me. She thought that was hilarious of course. When we got back to the room, even my underwear was still totally soaked. It was very hot that day, so I didnt really mind too much. We got back to the room and went swimming. Then ordered a pizza and brought it back to our room. It was around $19 with tax for 8 pieces.


Day 6 – May 20, 2004

Today was our last day, Our plane left at 730 pm and tiffany said they would pick us up at 5. So we decided on our last day to go back to magic kingdom. We got a scooter, and went over to tomorrowland first, since we hadnt really gotten over there. Got fast passes for buzz lightyear, and I sent her on space mountain. When she got off, we rode the people mover, then went on buzz lightyear. I really wanted her to see carousel of progress, ( timekeeper was closed) so we went on that. then she rode autotopia while I went in the gift shop. I got 3 antenna toppers and this little tv thing for $6 that has 4 things you can slide into it with scenes from the parks. I ended up buying her one later on at the gift shop at all stars so she would have one too. I thought they were a nice souvenir.  We walked over so she could see toon town, and she rode goofys barnstormer and went in the little houses, She wanted to go on the teacups, but I didnt so we went and got fastpasses for pooh, seen philharmonic again, rode pooh, then went to harbour house to eat. She got two kids meals of bologna and cheese sandwiches, and I had chicken tenders. and gave her my fries. We went on Haunted Mansion, and she wanted to go back and ride thunder mountain again and splash, so we got fast passes for splash and rode thunder first. They didnt end up taking our fast passes, so she rode again. The people were starting to line up for the 3 pm parade, so we decided to get out of there, before we couldn't. Got back to all stars, she went in the arcade, I got an ice cream cone and then we got our luggage from guest services, and waited for tiffany. They were there at 5, right on the dot. We had a nice flight home, and changed planes in Pittsburgh.  I want to thank Tina from the magic for less for all her help with my trip. She did a wonderful job making all the reservations and getting us discounts. She changed my reservation three times at all stars, getting us cheaper rates as they became available. She booked all our shore excursions on the cruise also. Thanks so much tina!  Hope you have all enjoyed these reports. I was really surprised that it was so crowded and hot this time of year there. but I am used to going in Novemberand January.