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My family and I (dh and dd age 10) were at WDW last week. We live in New Mexico and had never been to Florida. We came very close to
cancelling our trip, due to the hurricanes (particularly Jeanne), but were very happy we didn't.
We flew out on Saturday the 2nd and arrived in Orlando about 3:30. Picked up our rental car (from Thrifty - we got a great deal online -
$115.00 for a week with a mid-size car) with no problems at all. There had been some damage to the airport, but the damaged part was
roped off and had been cleaned. They were in the process of trying to dry things out. We did see some downed trees and some damage to
some of the buildings on the way to Thrifty on Semoran.
We then headed to our hotel. We stayed at the Homewood Suites in Kissimmee, right near the intersection of 192 and I-4. This hotel
served us quite well. We selected it, rather than staying on property, for a few reasons. First, we were able to get a suite with
a king size bed (we really NEED that, lol) and there was a door separating our dd's sleeping area from ours. We like to stay up a
bit later than she, and the TV keeps her awake in a normal room. Also, breakfast was included in the $99 a night price. The rooms are
normal hotel rooms, nothing special, but were clean. We don't spend much time in hotels, so prefer not to pay for resorts. Breakfast was
OK - I have had better and worse in hotels. They always had scrambled eggs, sausage and/or bacon, microwaveable pancakes, toaster
waffles, a large selection of breads/mufins/rolls, cold cereal, instant oatmeal, and fresh fruit. It is right next to the highway,
and if you have a room on that side, you can definitely hear the traffic, though we were tired and it didn't really bother any of us.
Anyway, I would give this place a thumbs up if anyone is interested. After we got settled, we headed down to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner,
and to buy some bottled water and cokes for the room.
Sunday, we headed out to Animal Kingdom. We all thoroughly enjoyed this park, even though there was lots we didn't see. There seemed to
be a fair crowd there, but not really bad. I think we waited 15 minutes for the river rapids ride, and most everything else we were
able to walk onto. We thought the safari ride was the best. We had a good lunch at the Tusker house and would recommend that. We loved
the meal deal for kids where they get lunch and coupons for another drink and ice cream later in the day. Does anyone know why these
aren't available at the other parks? We also thought the Festival of the Lion King and It's Tough to be a Bug! were wonderful shows.
Monday we headed over to the to the east coast and took the tour of the Kennedy Space Center. I won't go into details about that here,
but I would highly recommend that for anyone who is interested.
Tuesday we hit the Magic Kingdom. They were open from 9 to 9 and we stayed all day. Like someone else already said, the rides in
Fantasyland were the longest. It was also the most crowded and unpleasant area in the park. We did see Mickey's PhilharMagic which
is a wonderful show. We saw both parades, and I especially loved Spectromagic. My grandma lived in CA and loved the night parades,
and I had never seen one. We had lunch at the Columbia Harbour House, dinner at Pecos Bill Cafe (where we sat at a table and watched
Spectromagic). Both were OK, but nothing special. DD was collecting autographs and we didn't get many at this park. We stayed for Wishes
and enjoyed the fireworks (and did see Tink), but the crowd getting out of there was just awful. We went on the boat, and finally
arrived back at our hotel shortly after 10:30.
Wednesday we headed out to Tampa and the Florida Aquarium where we took the Dolphin Quest boat out into the bay. Very enjoyable day
with hardly any people there at all.
So Thursday we did Epcot. Again, we spent the whole day there, from 9 to 9. This is the park I would have liked to have spent more time
in. We were at Future World until about 2. There was more we wanted to do, but made outselves head over to World Showcase. This is the
park that seemed the least crowded to me. I don't really think it was, it just seemed more leisurely. Dh and dd loved the Mission to
Mars, though I get motion sickness and don't do those kinds of rides. I liked Test Track and Spaceship Earth. We didn't get to
explore World Showcase nearly as much as I wanted. Epcot has the best food of any of the parks. We were also amazed with
Illuminations. We had gotten to Epcot Early enough that we were parked right in front, so getting out of this park was much easier
than leaving the Magic Kingdom.
Finally, Friday we went to MGM. This was my least favorite park, though there were lots of things I liked. Maybe it was because it
was our last park and we were tired. We really pushed ourselves all week. I thought it was quite quaint with all the old-fashioned
Hollywood buildings. We saw the shows we wanted to see and enjoyed them. We did get a kick out of the Backlot Tour and dd loved playing
the Millionaire. We had lunch at the ABC Commissary, which was a zoo. We left mid-afternoon and took the ferry boat back to Epcot to
poke around a bit more and to eat, then we went back for Fantasmic. This is the MOST amazing thing we saw the whole time. It does fill
up quickly (I can't even imagine how early during the busy season!), so get there at least 45 minutes before the show - preferably an hour
or more if you can do it. Even though getting back there from Epcot was a tiny bit of a hassle, and we were tired, we were so happy we didn't miss this show!
All in all, we had a great week at the World! The crowds were manageable, the weather was beautiful, and we had lots of fun. The
one thing that I really didn't expect is how LOUD everthing is! I was quite tired of all the noise by the end of the week.
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