Hope & Jason's Honeymoon Trip Report (December 1998)

• Jason, 23, my husband
• Me, 22 turning 23 at WDW :-)
• Mr. Elephant, my little rambuncous stuffed elephant.
• Oso, My shy but ferocious stuffed polar bear, and Mr. Elephant's partner in crime.
• Mufasa, My stuffed Colobus monkey, in charge of keeping the peace (he thinks he's a referee, you should hear him watching football games)
• Yoda, Jason's stuffed giraffe and Jedi master
• Snoopy, Jason's stuffed...Snoopy, of course. He's famous you know.

Taxied slowly to the runway, there was a lot of plane traffic, we're next...we taxi back off the runway. Mechanical problems! Since there was a lot of plane traffic, it took a lot of time to get back to the gate. The pilot apologized and said there would be another plane ready to go to take us. We got back to the gate at 10:45, and we got on the next plane at 11:45! I swear it was the slowest cleaning crew ever for a plane. We ended up sitting a long time at the gate once we were boarded. We were not to far back from 1st class, and I swear I saw someone that looked like Marlee Matlin get on the plane while we were waiting, Jason says I'm crazy. But I do know that these 2 passengers were not on the original flight because I heard the flight attendant explain what the rest of us had already gone through that evening. I was too chicken to go to the restroom and check to see if it really was her, so who knows!

We took off sometime after midnight; Parent Trap was the movie, and we got it for free because of our delays. I wanted to see the movie, and we were sitting in the row in front of the emergency exit row (I hate this row), seats won't recline, so I decided to give up on sleep and watch the movie. Jason was able to sleep so good for him. I really liked this movie, I never liked the original, but this was fun, and it put me in a slightly better mood since it was Disney and all. After the movie I rested my eyes but never really fell asleep. About 6 AM, I start noticing a glow off the horizon...it's a sunrise! I never see many of these since I normally wake up at 10 AM ;-) As I was staring out the window, the glow got brighter and brighter...then I started thinking about Peter Pan and decided that we *really* were flying to Neverland

"Second star to the right, and straight on till morning."

After I had that epiphany, I was much more relaxed and less strung out over our earlier flight problems. Oh yeah, the other plane had brake problems we found out. The sunrise was beautiful shades of pinks, blues and oranges reflecting off the clouds. Very magical, wonder if Disney arranged it ;-) We finally arrived at 7:30, 2 hrs late, hit another restroom, and off to baggage claim. I love that ride from the gate to the main terminal. We met our Florida Town Car driver, Gus; retreived our suitcase. It was one of the first ones off the plane; thank goodness for small favors! The ride to the hotel was uneventful, pointed out Crossroads Mall and Goodings to Jason, and soon we are both pointing out the Disney signs, we're almost there! This time I recognize the route as we come on to property, we pass the DVC signs, and the entrance to Old Key West, just up the block is....

Jason's Notes: I added 3 hours instead of subtracting 3. Hey, I was tired!

We head to the bus stop, get on and the bus went directly to MK. We stood in a semi-long line at Guest Relations to exchange our PAP vouchers for the real thing. The CM seemed to have a problem initially had to call for help, but we didn't mind waiting, after all we had been waiting for so long to even get to that point. We slipped them into the machine for the first time and we're ready for vacation!

Jason's Notes:I think it was more a problem with his computer than our vouchers.

Our first shop is The Chapeau to get my bride ears, and then time to walk up Main Street. This was the first time Jason got to see the castle in all it's blue & grey splendor. And with all the Christmas decorations, the place looked marvelous.

Jason's Notes: First time I saw it, it was turned into the Cakesicle. Much better now, plus I'm a sucker for castles!

Off to Tomorrowland for the obligatory first ride of the TTA. We were hungry so we wanted to get something from the bakery on Main Street but the line was too long, so we headed over to Adventureland to see the new Tiki room show. We arrived just as the pre-show was ending, soour wait time for the first 2 rides was still at zero.

All I have to say about this show was never again! Okay, that's not all I have to say....the Iago and Zazu audio-animatronics were way too big (what's bigger a boat full of flowers or Iago?) and did Iago have feathers or is it fur? The tiki goddess song is good, I can handle that...the added lights and effects were pretty cool, but the choice of music and Iago have got to go. I thought Zazu fit in with Jose, Michael, Pierre and Fritz pretty well, but Iago no way. There are some people whose voice just grates on other people's nerves and Gilbert Gottfried grates on mine. I would have much preferred to see the musical selections updated with *original* music. Disney writes such wonderful, timeless songs, why do they need to use songs not written for Disney? I can't see this show lasting as long as the original tiki room did, without a major reworking. I left the show laughing, not because I liked it but because I was so shocked that Disney could do anything this bad.

Jason's Notes: Hope's being nice, my review was much worse. The best thing I said was to quote Luke Skywalker, "What a piece of junk!" I did like the tiki goddess, black lighting effects, and "Still of the Night" but Iago has to go. Zazu could stay, but Hope and I realized by the end of the trip that Timon and Pumbaa probably would have worked better than Iago and Zazu, even if they weren't birds. This used to be a multiple times a trip attraction for me (and still is at DL) but now it's a zero times a trip attraction.

I needed my Disney faith restored so we saw Princess Jasmine and we did Pirates (2 min wait on the left side). We saw more characters; Baloo, Genie, and Mufasa got his picture taken with his idol Rafiki. Jason got his picture with Rafiki too :-)

Jason's Notes: Rafiki rules!

Next was Haunted Mansion; no wait. Lunch was chowder bowls at the Columbia Harbor House; the chowder here is a lot spicier than DL's chowder bowls. After a few bites we both realized we were too tired to eat. We could have gotten away with only ordering one; oh well. It started to rain at this point, so we ducked into the shops in Fantasyland. Everyone was buying ponchos, I bought a non-talking Mushu beanie, and some stickers for my autograph book.

Jason's Notes: I drooled over the swords that I wanted to buy in the castle.

It was time to head out for a break, and as we left we started walking to where the PO/DxL bus stop was...but then I noticed that the sign said that PO had it's own stop! When did this happen, and was it mentioned on RADP and I was just uninformed?

We got to the hotel at 1 PM, room still wasn't ready so we sat in front of the TV by the Scat Cat lounge. This was the day of the impeachment vote, so we watched history, and I wrote in my journal. While we waited for the room, we also toured the food court, gift shop, I squished some pennies and quarters and took pictures of the decorations. Port Orleans decorations included many garlands and wreaths in shades of yellows, olive & other greens, rusty oranges and dusty reads. There were lots of fruit ornaments and Jester's masks and the like. I thought the colors were beautiful and the trees were nice but too short for the area. I thought that the garlands were too small, and long swags would have looked nicer on the poles than garlands (someday I have to get some pictures of my parents house on my web page so that you guys will understand why I'm critiquing Christmas decorations...in the mean time just imagine 25 trees in your own house).

Jason's Notes: Hope almost stole one of the jester mask ornaments, but couldn't get the guts to. I went to guest services to see if we could buy one, no luck.

Hope's Notes: That's not entirely true, I didn't almost steal...it was really cute though.

At 2:45 the room was finally ready. Room # 5323; it's not exactly close to anything, but wasn't that far from anything either. If you stand at the intersection of the Carriage Path & Cafe Au Lait Way and look at building 5 on the 3rd floor it's right at the corner. It has a wonderful view of the Sassagoula, and it's very romantic setting. This is a good room for honeymooners. One thing about the room we noticed is that on the walls there were 2 old pictures of a man and a woman. At the bottom it said that they were ancestors of a CM, like CM so-and-so's great-aunt Maude or something. A very nice and personal touch.

After we retreived our bags, and after a quick nap we headed over to Animal Kingdom. No problem with our passes. We picked our way through the Oasis, and as we came to the bridge and the first view of the Tree of Life...all I can say is "Wow!".

Jason's Notes: Actually, that's an understatement!

We like that you can't really see the tree until you get through the Oasis, and then you can see everything. We headed back to Africa, but they had already shut off the line for the Safari and the Pangani trail. I can see why a lot of people would be upset that the exhibits close early, and initially I was upset too, but it gave us time to just explore. We wandered down to Dinoland to make sure we could find the Restaurantasaurus for our breakfast the next morning, and then we wandered back to the front of the park. Jason was hungry, and really wanted to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. I decided I'd rather eat at the one at the Marketplace so we bussed over to PO, we thought about taking the boat, but a bus to the Marketplace was right behind our AK bus, so we bused over.

The Marketplace seemed packed, it was 6 PM so we were fully expecting to wait an hour to get seated. Jason got in line to get our name in, at 6:09 he had our slip they said 20 min wait. We decided to browse the Rainforest Cafe shop, but not 5 min. later our name was called and we were being seated in the Elephant room. 6 PM on a Saturday night, and we're seated within 10 minutes; I don't know if it was our hats that did it or we were just lucky.

Jason's Notes: I guess the hats!

We ordered the Rainforest Pita Quesadilla appetizer and a combo plate (BBQ chicken, Mojo Bones, and bacon wrapped prawns). We split both of these, and we were stuffed. We planned to get dessert, but there was no way. We were really impressed with the food, there was lots of it and it was tasty. The quesadilla was fabulous, and I could really go for that as a snack right now. There is a Rainforest Cafe in the works for the Seattle area in 1999 so we are looking forward to eating there again. (addendum we just got email...June 1999 woo hoo!)

Jason's Notes: I rate it as one of the top 3 dinners we had on the trip, with Ohana's and Rose and Crown being the other two.

After dinner we cruised some shops, and Jason bought a 1998 Animal Kingdom watch from World of Disney.

Jason's Notes: Collectable, number 892 of 5000!

We took the boat back to PO and were in the room by 9PM. Jason showered,but I went straight to bed.

I would guess that we had a really good Safari. Lots of animals all over the place. I wish I had time to write down everything we saw, but I was too busy snapping pictures. I had brought 15 rolls with me, and I was already starting to question if I brought enough film. We saw Black rhinos, hippos, crocodiles, greater kudu, thompson gazelles, giraffes, elephants, lions, sable antelope, scimitar-horned oryx, bontebok, waterbuck, eland,nyala, okapi, mandrill baboons, ostrich, and cheetah. I think that's everything...Oh wait, I forgot about the white rhinos...seems that they decided that the road was a nice place for a morning stroll...we were delayed a few minutes for the handler to come out and move them along...well they meanered back towards our vehicle, just off the right side, they were so amazingly close. Everyone in the car got great pictures. Another great picture shot was of the lions. The male was laying under the tree with his head up in the air, it looked like he was having a philosophical discussion with himself...anyway the people behind us were absolutely convinced that they weren't real, Jason and I snickered to ourselves. We both thought the poacher storyline was lame, most people aren't paying attention to the radio stuff, they're too busy looking for animals. Then when you get to the end, it's like "what is this!". Jason and I agreed that the CM holding the gun has got to be the most boring job in the park.

Jason's notes: The safari is the best attraction at WDW. It's amazing to be able to get that close to those animals. I thought I might be a little disappointed since we have a world-class zoo here in Seattle (in fact, Disney borrowed heavily from the ideas used in creating Woodland Park Zoo in Animal Kingdom, and you can tell!) but I wasn't. Simply amazing! As to the gun-toteing CM I can see his day: "Here comes a safari!" *Raises gun* "Clear!" *Lowers gun* Repeat for 8 hours

After the safari, we walked along the Pangani Expedition trail. Everyone was awake except the meercats so we knew we would be back at a later point in the day. The gorillas were very active but there was no flying poop. It was getting closer to our breakfast time, so we headed over to dinoland via the Tree of Life garden. At some point I would like to sit down, and try to find all the animal carvings in that thing. I took another large bunch of pictures...Mr. Elephant found an elephant carving, and Yoda found a carving of a giraffe head, so they posed for pictures too.

Jason's notes:OK, we want to know how much it would cost for Disney to erect a Tree of Life in our backyard! Very pretty tree.

We arrived for breakfast right on time, and were seated in the right side by the buffet. Unfortunately our table had been recently moved to a new position, so that when Donald and Goofy came by on there rounds, they completely missed us! We managed to snag Goofy,

Jason's Notes: I managed to snag Goofy!

but Donald already went on his break. The CM character handler, came by and explained that our table is not normally where we were sitting, and the characters didn't know how to handle it. She assured us that Mickey and Pluto would see us and that Donald wouldn't miss us the next time.

Jason's Notes: There was no way I was letting Pluto get by me! This was my first chance to see him!

The food was only so so, it's the same as all the other buffets. But unlike the other buffets they had Mickey Mouse pancakes! I prefer pancakes to waffles so I was glad to see them. The other food is eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits & gravy, potatoes, fruit, cereals, muffins and bagels. Squished a few more pennies on our way out, and yes we did get to see all the characters.

Next was Countdown to Extinction and a 5 min. wait for the pre-show. Both Jason and I prefer Indy's presentation at DL to this. We thought the ride was too dark to see much, and I never bought into the storyline. We tried to match the parts of CtX that matched with the Indy ride (like the ball rolling/TRex attacking) Went into Chester & Hesters for some more pennies and then it was time to head to Asia and the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

Jason's Notes: Thumbs down on CtX, just wasn't interesting, and I LIKE dinosaurs

At this point in was about noon, so it was starting to get really crowded and it was pretty hot. I think Asia is really beautiful. On the trail you see tapirs, komodo dragons, the giant bats and tigers; there is also a bird sanctuary and some other stuff I can't remember (sleep deprivation :-) ). I thought that there wasn't supposed to be glass between youand the bats, but there was. There are 3 separate areas for viewing the tigers. The first one you come to is kind of small, so everyone was trying to push up to the glass. They do have a problem with condensation collecting on the glass, but they hope to have that fixed before the grand opening. Anyway, small viewing area first; the CM's really need to tell people that there is a larger area just around the corner, with room for everyone. Or have a sign saying more tigers this way. In the bird sanctuary area, I got to see my first radp pin (that wasn't mine or Jason's). I was kind of standing there, when I suddenly exclaimed, "You have a pin!"

Jason's Notes: She confused the heck out of me for a few seconds, I thought she was talking to me! 8-)

I think I scared the family initially but once they realized I was talking about the radp pins, and I had one too they relaxed. Turned out the pin owner was Josh, who I have talked with a couple times on IRC. Josh was there with his parents Marilyn and Brian (?) They had met Beth earlier in the week and had been invited to the radp dinner that would be that evening. We chatted for awhile and found out they were from Canada, Josh and his Dad had ridden Test Track (so we knew we would have a chance to do a soft opening), and that there were going to be soft openings of nighttime safari rides (ooohhh, something else for us to do ;-) )

Jason's Notes: It would take the whole trip, but we would do a nighttime safari!

After the Jungle Trek, we checked out the ride art for the River ride, and Jason bought an Asia shirt, and I bought a button. We browsed some shops, and I bought the 9 safari mini plush and had them shipped home.

Jason's Notes: And safari Goofy!

More penny squishing, and bus back to PO. Lunch was from the food court. I really prefer Dixie Landing's food court to PO; there is more of a selection. Bought the mug, and we took food and drink to the room. Our hour nap, turned into 2 hours, but we eventually ended up on a bus to Epcot.

When we entered, we were jumped by one of the camera guys who took 3 pictures of us. Then he walked us to the camera center, loaded the pictures, we knew we were going to have to buy one...but after we paid he disappeared. It took a long time to get our picure after we paid. We rode Horizons and Ellen only had a 5 min wait so we did that. We saw that Test Track was open, but we didn't have time because we needed to be on our way to 'Ohana for dinner. We just missed a monorail, so we knew this was our opportunity to ride up front. We shared the cab with another man, and his nephew ( I think). The man was from Indiana and this was his first trip up front. His nephew was a local, and his millionth time up front. We had the red monorail, and a very talkative driver; the last time Jason and I rode up front our driver didn't talk at all.

Jason's Notes: Riding up front is becoming more popular I think, this was the only time we got a chance to. Every other time we asked, the front was already taken!

We walked from the TTC to the Poly, squished the Poly quarter and headed upstairs. When we got there Beth, Fuxi, Kenny, Rob, Josh & his family were already there. We waited for Linda Bell and her gang (friends from work and her daughter), Kristen & Eric. Beth handed out gifts and Christmas cards. Thanks Beth! Turned out there were 17 of us and 9 of us were from Seattle! Who would think that Seattlites would outnumber locals in WDW? Not long after we were seated and Kristen and Eric arrived, did Eric get pulled out front to demonstrate a hula. Seems that Eric is not a fan of hula music, so in essence he volunteered himself. Later on Jason and I got pulled up front to dance (since we were honeymooners).

Jason's Notes: And dance..and dance..and dance. That song is way too long, even our table lost interest before the end, though they had no problems tapping the glasses forever, thanks guys! 8-)

The food at 'Ohana was really good. Both Jason and I would definetly go back. Fuxi made the mistake of using salt & pepper. Joel (Linda's friend) also used it, so they got dragged upfront. Rob laughed at them, so he was dragged up there with them.

Jason's Note's: I'm not sure Rob actually laughed, but we told them he did! 8-)

They got to wear silly hats, and dance with pineapples around the room. It was great fun. It took a long time for the staff to get around to serving us dessert; that was the only downside. Joel's kids were already asleep in the chair. Jason and I opted for the pineapple & carmel that comes with the dinner instead of ordering something special. Beth, Fuxi, Rob, Jason and I decided to head over to the Adventurer's Club and Josh's family said they would take the bus over with us. We said our goodbye's to everyone else, and we headed to the bus stop. Rob drove over in his truck, and the rest of us waited for the bus. And waited. And waited. Rob wanted to leave AC at 10:30 but we didn't get there until after 11.

We said good bye to Josh and his family, and met up with Rob at AC. Rob had met up with Jenn ( an addw-er who I've talked with over email but never met before). We grabbed drinks and sat and chatted in the Mask room for about an hour. I had wedding pictures to pass around, and we did get to see a show. Everyone was getting really sleepy so it was time to go. We rode back with Fuxi and Beth since they were staying at Dixie Landings. We walked past our room, and said our goodbyes. It was 1 AM when I turned out the lights.

Jason's Notes: Her choice, and she probably made the right one.

This place is absolutely fantastic. They have the best burgers and the vanilla malt was the best I've ever tasted. Jason and I both had the Double Cheeseburger, but it was huge, a single would have been enough. This place was no more expensive than Red Robin, but I thought Beaches & Cream's burgers were better. Jason told them it was my birthday, so they brought out 2 balloons attached to a can of whipped cream. We took the balloons but we didn't know what to do with the whipped cream so we left it.

Jason's Notes: Yummy, great malts and burgers. We didn't get back there during the trip, but next time...

After lunch we walked over to Epcot. We walked through the shops of UK, France, Morrocco and Japan. In Japan it was Kaki-Gori time. That's the best $2 spent on a hot afternoon. We hopped the boat across the lagoon, and cruised the Port of Entry shops. We rode Spaceship Earth (5 min wait) and headed back to PO. We rested for about 30 min, then decided to go swimming. We arrived at the pool, just as it was shutting down...they needed to remove the umm bacteria...45 minutes later, it was splashdown time. We didn't stay in the pool too long, and I forgot to say hi to the bubbles for Danielle. But we needed to get ready to go to Test Track.

The CM's had said TT would open at 6:30, but since they had been doing soft openings for a couple of days now we decided that we would try to get there at 6 because we were expecting a long line. We got in line, and there were cars running along the track. At 6:10 the CM's announced that the ride had been shut down, and it would be down for at least an hour. Since we knew about the reset times, and this was the only thing we had planned on doing for the evening we decided to wait. I also had a sneeky suspicision that so many people would get out of line that the shutdown wouldn't really affect us. I decided to test this theory. When we got in line the wait time was 90 min. So if the ride had not shut down we would have been riding at 7:30. An hour later, the ride was back up and by 7:50 we were strapped into a car...so the hour delay really only cost us 15 minutes of extra wait time. We had counted the interval while we were waiting, the cars seemed to be whizzing by every 17 seconds. I asked one of the CM's and he said they had about 23 cars running. We enjoyed this ride. It's not thrill, in the roller coaster use of the word thrill, but I wasn't expecting that. Our speed said 64.8. We bought the obligatory photo, and we also bought a magnet. Afterwards, I called my Dad and bragged about getting to ride.

Jason's Notes: Has anybody had a speed other than 64.8? I'm wondering if that really measures your speed or it's just themeing. We rode it later in the week, with an extra person in the car (went from 5 to 6) and we had the exact same speed, and it went up from 64.7 to 64.8 at about the same time, which is why I ask.

We hadn't gotten dinner yet, and we were really hungry but we couldn't decide what to eat! We looked at the menu at the San Angel Cantina, we looked at the menu at the Kringla bakery in Norway, I got a rice cream but Jason didn't want anything. We went through about 20 other suggestions, but nothing thrilled us. We ended up on a bus to PO and then in the Scat Cat lounge with an appetizer sampler and drinks. Not bad, but not exactly what Jason had planned for a birthday dinner. But we did get to see Miami beat Denver.

Jason's Notes: Yay! Denver sucks!

We still kind of hungry so we grabbed bagels and pizza from thefood court and headed to the room. Then it was sleep time.

I was surprised how small the inside queue looks, but we never waited that long to see how long it actually is. The first time through, I had major problems shooting. I was on the left side. Jason's hitting away at the 100,000 target Rob had told us about, and I can't hit squat.

Jason's Notes:Thanks Rob, got that one on the arm first time through!

I didn't hit anything until the 2nd point room! I was not having a good time. I don'tnormally play video games, and this first ride reminded me why I don't play. I thought the rest of the ride was pretty cool, I love the bright colors. I hope they don't fade *smack*, *smack* don't be cynical *smack*, *smack*. We decided to go again, since there still wasn't a line. This time I sat on the right, and I "calibrated" my lazer on the black wall in the first area. This time I did much better, and I hit the 100,000 target on the robot! Now that I could actually hit things, I had a blast.

We walked over to Fantasyland and rode the Teacups, Snow White, Legend of the Lion King,

Jason's Notes: Still the best show in WDW in my humble opinion. Getting to watch the opening sequence of the Lion King on a big screen in the pre-show is great enough, but the actual show is fun too!

and "it's a small world" (5 min wait). We mourned the wall in front of Toad Hall. I pointed out that you could still read Mr. Toad's Wild Ride even though the sign had been removed. We could smell the food coming from Cinderella's Royal Table, and that made us really hungry. We knew we wouldn't be able to get in the castle, so we headed over to Tony's on Main Street. They had no wait, and seated us after I went to the restroom. Our table was specially decorated with streamers and Mickey confetti (we were still wearing the hats). My Lady and the Tramp waffle was as good as I remembered, and Jason was happy with his eggs and bacon. Later in the meal, our server brought us 2 Mickey waffles, with whipped cream, and they made us stand up and kiss. It was very romantic. Jason managed to eat both of those waffles on top of his breakfast; I was impressed! We left a big tip for our server.

Jason's Notes: It was very cool, probably the best celebratory gesture the resturants made while we were there. Plus, I'll take any reason to kiss her! 8-)

After breakfast we hopped on the train and rode over to Mickey's Toontown Fair. I thought the decorations were really cute. The big plastic lightbulbs, lining the edge of the houses and the plastic wreaths. It looked exactly how I would think a toon house would be decorated. We went into the big tent and saw Chip & Dale, the lines were already starting to get long; so we didn't wait for the other rooms. I had the other autographs already, anyway. I'm really bummed about the limited choices of characters in the tent. Since we didn't eat in the castle, I had a hard time trying to find the princesses. I only got Snow White. No Belle, no Wendy, no Cinderella, no Aurora.

We walked to Tomorrowland and did the Carousel of Progress (5 min wait), and managed to catch the Timekeeper with 17 sec. before the start of the show (at least that's what the sign said, but it was more like 2 min). We decided earlier to watch the Christmas parade today, so we headed toward Frontierland. We browsed through the Christmas shop, and we bought a personalized Mickey ornament to commemorate our Honeymoon. Jason stood in line while I walked back over to Fantasyland to grab some frozen lemonades.

Jason's Notes: I love those frozen lemonades!

I got back before he even got out of the store, and I walked pretty slow (tired legs). We were going to walk to the Briar Patch, but there were a fair number of people already sitting for the parade, and the sun was beating down, so I suggested that we just sit. We got spots in the shade over by Pecos Bills and we took turns visiting the Briar Patch. I bought my first of 3 popcorn buckets. We waited just over an hour for the parade, but we needed the rest so it wasn't too bad. The parade started, and I realized I didn't restock my film supply in my camera bag, so I only had one roll. I knew I was going to run out, but I was hopping that it wouldn't be that long of a parade. My film lasted until the last section, so I have no pictures of those silly reindeer or of Santa Claus. Oh well, I had a picture of Santa Goofy! I was surprised about the Pooh float. There was an Owl and a Kanga...I didn't even know they had costumes for them...too bad they don't appear at the Pooh breakfasts. I thought the parade was fantastic, and I wished I had a video camera. Next time.

After the parade we headed back to the hotel via Dixie Landings. I got a chance to squish the Dixie quarter, but I didn't have any film so I couldn't take any pictures of the decorations, and I guess I was tired because I don't remember what they were! I know that there was a tree in the place that they normally have the round sitting bench, because I wanted to sit there but couldn't. We got garlic knots and chicken tenders at the food court. I love those! Both the garlic knots and the chicken tenders. We walked back to PO, and the boat drivers honked at us (we were still wearing the hats). I needed a nap.

Jason's Notes: This was pretty cool, one of the boats to from Downtown Disney came roaring up the river as we were headed to PO. The driver looked over and "woohooed" and clapped and got the rest of the baot to clap for us as they drove by. I thought it was fun!

At about 7 PM, we headed back over to the Magic Kingdom, because we had plans to do E-ride that night.

Jason's Notes: After we exchanged the tickets for the wristbands I stood in line to see Pluto in front of City Hall. Hope told Pluto he was my favorite (he is, with Rafiki second and Sorcerer Mickey 3rd) and Pluto got very excited.

Before the start of E-ride we had time to do the holiday CBJ (I really liked the lights on Melvin's antlers; Buff and Max looked pretty spiffy too),

Jason's Notes: I'm normally not a big fan of the CBJ, but this was fun. I've always liked Melvin, Buff and Max though, and I thought their Christmas decorations were really cool.

Jungle Cruise (we had a good skipper), Haunted Mansion, and we rode the Mark Twain while Spectromagic was on. Pretty good view, if you can time it right.

Jason's Notes: Plus we went up to the top deck, back corner. Kind of a romantic spot for a night time cruise, I liked it.

When it was time for E-ride, so we headed toward BTMRR. In the midst of running through the gate, we find out Dan the CM is our own fdc_elliot from IRC. No time to talk now, but after our ride we did go back for a chat, and then rode again. I wonder how many times a night the CM's have to explain E-ride to the non-bracelet wearing people.

Jason's Notes: I know Dan was getting tired of explaining it, and it was only 20 minutes or so into E-ticket! 8-)

Next was Splash Mountain. The CM's took one look at our hats, and declared, "You want your ownboat!"...okay...we rode solo, and while we were deciding if we wanted the pictures (we wore our hats on the drop), the CM handed us our claim ticketfor our complimentary photo. Tigger and Pluto were in the exit area. Tigger started bouncing when he saw my hat, so I bounced over to him, and we both bounced together. Tigger pulled Pluto over, so we have a picture of Jason and I, Tigger and Pluto. The CM wanted Jason and I to stand next to each other but Tigger and I agreed that I would stand only next to Tigger. Tigger and I said our tearful goodbye because the CM wouldn't let him leave with me :-(

Jason's Notes: Laura, you would be proud of Hope's bouncing. Pluto remembered me from earlier in the night in front of City Hall, which I thought was very cool!

We headed back to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz. We noticed that people weren't getting off so neither did we. We ended up riding it 3 times in a row. Then we went and rode Space Mountain twice. What next? Jason and I looked at each other and said more Buzz, so we went back for another 3 rides. I got my best score of the trip that night 482,600. Jason's high for the night was 233,100. I win! Unfortunately later on Jason would get the high score of the trip. After the 3 rides, our hands were tired of shooting so we walked back out to the hub.

The castle looked absolutely beautiful, there were snowflakes projected onto it. On the TL bridge Minnie was there so we got a picture with her. I took a few pictures of the castle, and their was music playing. Jason grabbed my hand and pulled me in front of the castle and we danced to the music. It was so quiet and peaceful; a perfect moment. I took a few more pictures of Main Street, with the decorations all lit up. But then it was time to return to the hotel for sleep.

Jason's Notes: We got a few of "Aww, how cute" etc. while we were dancing. See, I can be romantic from time to time! 8-)

I should have listened to my body a little better and insisted that we take a break, but I let Jason talk me into going over to Animal Kingdom.

Jason's notes: Oops, should have known she needed a break. This was one of our longest waits for a bus on the trip. 3 MK buses and 2 of each other bus came by before an AK bus!

We got there just as the "March of the ARTimals parade was starting and had no problem finding room to watch. I had to stand on a bench to see. This was a very strange little parade. I kind of liked the frogs but the rest of it was just weird to me. After reading a quote in the "Disney's Animal Kingdom The Official Insider's Guide", I now know why...

"Our measuring stick for all the street entertainment was: Does it make a place feel more like an artists' colony than a theme park?" -Doug May, senior show producer

I'm sorry, but I've always been an engineer/math/science type person and I am not comfortable in an "artist's colony", anymore than a more artsy person would feel comfortable in a maze where you had to solve mathmatical puzzles to get out. I can handle a pretty fair amount of creativeness but this was a little to "out there".

Jason's Notes: I agree with Hope, this parade was a little weird. Some of the floats were kind of cool, but just not my thing.

Next we walked in the Tree of Life Garden again, pausing to see the otters and birds and other animals. We were on our way to "It's Tough to Be a Bug", took many more pictures of carvings.

Jason's Notes, Very cool queue! One of the better ones in the World, along with Star Tours. DL's Indy queue is still the best though.

The bug show, didn't hit me right. I had a hard time seeing any real story, just a presentation of different bugs... the effects were really neat though. Maybe next time, when I'm not so tired I'll like it better. There really isn't anyway to avoid the effects, though which is freaking my mother out, because she always raises her legs in HISTA. She wasn't happy when I told her the only way to avoid the effects is not to sit down, and everyone frowns on people standing during the show.

Jason's Notes: The show was only OK. Cool effects, but not much else. Muppetvision is still the best 3-D (4-D) show.

Jason wanted to do an afternoon safari, so we headed back to Africa. I was really at my meltdown point (too hot and tired), so instead of the safari we got frozen lemonade and sat in the African lounge. I got more pennies. We walked through a few more shops, and I managed to spill my lemonade...not a good day.

Jason's Notes: Probably the low point of the trip, though things were better after dinner. Still had fun though!

We had dinner planned at the Swan (the $50 coupon), so I suggested we go play mini-golf at Fantasia Gardens. We took the bus to the Swan, but it was still a pretty long walk to the golf course when you're hot and tired. We ended up with some pretty bad timing, and ended up sandwiched between 2 families with kids. The family in front of us, the boy kept wanting to replay his hole so they took a long time. I would have asked if we could go infront of them, but there was another family in front of them so it wouldn't have gotten us anywhere. I had a hole in one in the first hole which was cool. As a result of our playing position, I felt and I think Jason did too, that we had to hurry through our holes, because there was a backup behind us. We didn't really get a chance to take our time and enjoy it; we were rushed for time so we could make our dinner; so I don't think it was worth the money. We got to use our AP discount, and there was a 1998 quarter there that was different from the other quarters, and it wasn't listed on either of the pressed penny guides (it's a Sorcerer Mickey but it doesn't have stars like at the Contemporary). The course seemed easy in sections and hard in sections, and I thought it needed some repainting. I think I would like to go back sometime, and play at a slower pace, but maybe I won't if the new course at BB is good.

Jason's Notes: I was really bummed about this. Not nearly as entertaining as I hoped, and I was getting really annoyed by the kid in front of us. The 16th and 17th hole is pretty cool though!

After golf, we walked over to Gulliver's for dinner. It was very empty when we got there and the CM's and Goofy looked very, very bored. For appetizers I had clam chowder and Jason had teriyaki sesame prawns. Our main course was Filet Mignon for me, steak for Jason. The food was pretty good, but the service was very slow. I think the server dragged it out a little so she would have something to do. At the end of our dinner, the place started to fill up a bit. Pluto was also at the dinner, so Jason got more Pluto pictures.

Jason's Notes: That would be 4 Pluto's at this point in the trip!

Our plan was to go to MGM to catch the 8:30 Fantasmic show after dinner, and we thought we would have good timing, but because dinner was so slow, we didn't get to MGM until 7:30. By this time the line for Fantasmic was absolutely huge. We ended up getting seats in the second section on the left, and we were there an hour early. Jason bought me a Fantasmic bucket with carmelcorn (yummy), and we settled in to wait for the show.

I really, really, really tried to keep an open mind about this show. The one at DL is one of my favorite things to do there. We have been known to hit multiple shows in the same night there. I knew my favorite sections Peter Pan, Ursula) wouldn't be in this show, but I hoped that Disney would replace them with something impressive. All in all, the show was enjoyable, but didn't leave my skin tingling like it does at DL. I think it could be improved with a little editting and one big addition. Here's what I think needs to be done to improve the show, and what I did like:

The first and last segments appeared to be identical to DL, and don't need to be changed. But these two parts give such a stong, powerful feeling that the rest of the show can't help but feel a little flat.

Jason's Notes: Love the opening sequence!

The bubble sequence with scenes from the different animated movies is pretty cool, but it's too long. All of the water scene sequences are too long. The impression I got is that in DL the water scenes are segues between the live-action sequences, but at WDW the live-action sequences seem like seques between the water scenes. It totally changes the mood of the show. Anyway, cut the bubble sequence by 25-30%

Jason's Notes: I really didn't feel like this was too long, but it wouldn't be hurt by cutting either. I thought the bubble scene itself was pretty neat too, I had fun trying to ID the movie from the music alone.

The Pocahontas section, is no Peter Pan, and it shouldn't try and replace Peter Pan. Cut the first 2 acts on the Pocahontas scene, but keep the 3rd act (when they are climbing up the mountain and the savages song). Jason also thought the Pocahontas scene was kind of funny because they threw in the traditions of about 4 different tribes, including those unique to northwest tribes, but these are supposed to be the Powhatan Indians, right?

Jason's Notes: This was just my observations on my knowledge (which is limited) on Native American tribes. The shaman they show on the water screen looks like a Northwest tribe shaman, and the war chant sounds similar to a Plains tribe war chant. I could be wrong though. Still, it felt a little weird.

The villians sequence is too long too. Scar doesn't fit with the human villians, and I wouldn't have put in Ursula. It reminds those of us that enjoy the DL show, that there will not be a big Ursula sailing around the lagoon. I also didn't think it would have been too impossible to have an Ursula sailing around the lagoon, I can understand why the Columbia couldn't be rebuilt, but DL's Ursula is only used for Fantasmic, like it could be here, and it seemed like the lagoon would have been big enough to handle it.

Jason's Notes: Dump Scar, he really doesn't work

The show lacks the same consistand high level of intentsity of the DL show, and I can't believe the Imagineers missed one easy way to obtain it. I suppose it could have been too difficult to do, but Imagineers never let difficulty stop them in the old days. Anyway, we have the Mickey from Fantasia fighting evil...what major villian appears in Fantasia? Chernabog of course. They have this great stage that looks very similar to Bald Mountain, and they don't have Chernabog appear at the top of the mountain, but appear on a whimpy water screen instead? Jason thinks having Chernabog replace the Malificent scene would make the story more cohesive as well. I don't think it needs to replace it, but a big Chernabog would sure make Peter Pan easier to forget.

Jason's Notes: I don't see how they could work Chernabog and Malificent into the story. Chernabog is perfect too, he is the only "villain" to really be associated with Mickey in any way, due to the fact that they are both in Fantasia.

I did like the Steamboat Willie boat, and Jason and I watched Steamboat Willie dive into the ship, before Mickey appeared on top of the mountain.

After the show, we dealt with the crowd getting out. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but they really do need an additional exit. We made it out to the bus stop when a weird thing happened. Instead of taking a Disney bus back to PO we took a Mears bus. Mears buses were doing the DxL/PO route and Disney Cruise Line buses were doing the All-Star route. I guess that they were that short of either drivers or buses.

Jason's Notes: Returning home in style! 8-)

We were moving over to WL the next morning, and we still had to pack. Managed to get everything in, but I knew we wouldn't be so lucky when we left WL...uh oh! Lights out at 11. Ah sleep.

Jason's Notes: Hey, no making fun of me! I really hate that first drop in the dark, and if they ever go to random settings, I'm NEVER getting on it again!

* Hope pouts for a moment*

Jason didn't dissapoint, great picture; no more riding. This is my favorite ride so I went and got back in line. Still didn't have a wait, but the CM wondered where my husband went...I said I think I lost him up there, he laughed.

Jason's Notes: Hey! I told you not to make fun of me! 8-)

The guy I sat with gave me and his female friend a penny, and I chuckled. She was nervous on the ride, but declared it not to bad. We caught the 9:15 Voyage of the Little Mermaid and had a 5 min wait for the Great Movie Ride. We had the gangster section; normally I have the western one. We waited 5 min for the Animation tour, but it was kind of boring since it was a holiday and there weren't very many people working. Five minute wait for the Backlot tour, I got pretty soaked at Catastrophe Canyon, and it was cold that morning...brrr. It was lunch time so we got burgers at the Backlot Express. Jason realized he forgot to call his parents, but they were already on the road from their house to the grandparents; oh well. Then it was time to head to Wilderness Lodge.

Jason's Notes: I was not pleased about forgetting. This was the first Christmas Eve I wasn't at home opening presents and I was upset at myself that I forgot to call them while they were doing it. I was worried that they would be upset too, turns out they didn't really care! 8-)

Earlier in the week, Jason had called to verify our reservation. When he did, the room controller mentioned something about not being able to give us the honeymoon suite for the full 4 days and our first night would be in the Presidential suite. We weren't entirely sure that that would actually happen, so we didn't want to get our hopes up; but we were really hoping :-) We get to the desk, and lo and behold we were given keys to the Yellowstone Suite. Jason and I knew any plans we had for the next 24 hours were completely shot. We quickly figured out we had to go to the Marketplace for some last minute Christmas shopping, and we would keep our dinner reservations at Rose & Crown. Everything else was canceled. With as much detail as possible, this is what's there:

The rooms are located on the 7th floor. If you look at an overhead shot of the WL it's kind of a stylistic U, with symmetric jigjogs at the closed end. The suite is in the corner of the right jigjog. Or if you are standing by the Silver creek falls and look up and to your right, its right above you. The main entrance is 7123, but there is an additional door in the bedroom that is 7125.

The entrance is a set of double doors, all of the wood in the suite is dark stained. When you enter the suite you are in the foyer. Directly ahead of you is a huge window, covered with a shutter. If you look out the window you are looking in the area where the river comes out of the lobby. On the left side of the foyer is a door to an ajoining bedroom that you can add on to the suite, past the door is a large table. On the table were 2 very nice and Christmasy centerpieces. Above the table is a large mirror. I should mention that the table looks like it was constucted out of tree parts (except for the top). The legs are sticks, and the trim is little branches.

Jason's Notes: Didn't even notice the table looked that way!

* Hope thinks, "Men!" :-) *

On the right side of the foyer, is a closet. The light fixture in the foyer is made from antlers. There are 2 light switches

If you walk through the foyer and turn right, you are in a hallway. On the left side of the hallway is a buffet. On the buffet is a basket of pinecones, and another centerpiece of dried flowers. Above the buffet is a painting of a mountain and a stream. On both sides of the painting are lighted wall sconces. Two more light switches On the right of the hall is the guest bathroom. The bathroom has a toilet, sink and mirror. From the floor to halfway up the wall is wood paneling, and the rest of the wall is a beige, red, & lt green stripped wallpaper. There is also a phone, and another light switch

Continuing through the hall, you enter the sitting room. If you turn to the left you will enter the office. In the office, there is a carved desk, and a chair and ottoman. On one of the walls, there are 2 shelves that hold 11 vases; the shelves are lighted. Below these shelves is a long counter built into the wall. There are 2 chairs by the desk. On the wall is a painting of some dear. Behind the desk, the wall is half wood and half windows. The windows are covered with wood shutters. Over by the chair and ottoman is another small table with a lamp, and a door to one of the 4 balconies in the suite. There was also a basket with greens and a holiday bow on the desk.

Back into the sitting room. The far side of the room is floor to ceiling windows (just about). As you walk in from the hall, the office is on the left, and on the right is a large bookshelf filled with old books. There is a stereoscope, which had a picture of people climbing Mr. Rainier (which is in our backyard). Above the bookshelf was a painting of a canoe. Directly in front of you is an end table w/ phone and a couch. On the other end of the couch, was a Christmas tree. The decorations were fabulous; dogwood flowers, santa's with bears, pinecones, very woodsy feel. Turning 90 degrees, are 2 large chairs. In front of the chairs & sofa was a coffee table, with a glass top. If you are sitting on the couch, and looking straight ahead is a marble topped bar. On the sitting room side, there are 4 doors. The one on the left opened to a VCR, and stereo. The middle 2 doors opened to a large TV, and the right door opened to a small collection of videos (Snow White, Mary Poppins, Homeward Bound, Mighty Ducks, Davy Crockett). Hanging from the ceiling was a horizontal displaycase, filled with many statues including an eagle head, and wolves heads. Hanging from the bottom of the case was a set of 6 or 8 wine, champange, water, brandy and highball glasses. On the top of the bar, was a poinsetta centerpiece and a wood birdcage. All around the top of the room, there was a molding about 6 inches below the ceiling and there was a garland with dogflowers and lights. There was another door to a different balcony, and 2 more light switches. In the dining room is a huge table for 8. This table top looks like a cross-sectional piece of a very huge tree. The chairs are made from "sticks" and the chair backs look like they are woven from thin strips of wood. On the long wall was one painting, and on the short wall are 2 small pictures of animals. There is also another wall of windows, which includes a door to yet another balcony. There are also 3 light switches.

Continuing through the sitting room, through the dining room will bring you into the bedroom. On the right of the room is a dresser, on the left is a big armoire that holds the TV. This armoire is not like the ones the rest of the WL rooms have. On the other side of the armoir is a big leather chair and ottoman. Turning right at the leather chair, is another wall of windows and a door leading to the 4th balcony. The bed is a 4-poster bed, that looks like it's made out of logs and branches. The bedspread is a beige and rose floral pattern. On both sides of the bed are tables with lights and a phone. 3 switches.

As you enter the room, walk past the dresser and turn right and there is another hall. Straight ahead is the other door that leads out of the suite. On the left is a closet. In the closet were extra pillows, iron and ironing board, and 2 WL robes. On the right is the entrance to the master bathroom.

The master bathroom is composed of three sections. In the first section, on both sides are matching sinks and mirrors. Continuing toward the back of the room...the second section...on the left is a vanity, on the right is another room which has a toilet and a bidat. The third section...on the left is a shower big enough for 2 people, on the right is the very huge jacuzzi tub. This tub is big enough for 3 people, maybe four. I kept sliding around in it because I didn't have a wall to brace myself with. The third section is separated from the other two, by a pocket door. There was also a hamper.

The entire master bath was decorated in what looked like green marble, and matching green floral wallpaper. There was another phone in the toilet area, and a grand total of 7 light switches in the complex.

That completes the grand tour of the suite, so back to what we did...oh, we did find out later that the normal rate of the suite is $700 a night. If you are looking for a special evening, and need a place to do it. This is it. I doubt the honeymoon rooms at the GF are as nice as this, and they go for about the same price. I also forgot to mention earlier that there are hardwood floors in all the rooms except the bedroom. Eventually I will have a scanner and I can scan in pictures. I took over a roll of film just documenting.

Jason's Notes: I realize at this point that I would have a hard time recreating our honeymoon, if I ever wanted to do that! It is a VERY romantic place though, and absolutely beautiful. As close as you could come to being in an actual lodge somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

After we looked around and got lost, I called my parents. The only thing the room was missing was a computer so I could have told you guys about our luck sooner. I needed to brag to someone. We headed over to the marketplace so Jason and I could finish our Christmas shopping, and we headed back to the room. While at the Marketplace I bought some special chocolates from the Gourmet Pantry and I put them on one of the china plates. When we got back, there was champange in the room. Jason and I hopped into the bath, and put our feet by the jets (ahhh); we feasted on chocolates. We got out and lounged around in our robes, and then got ready for dinner. As much as we didn't want to leave the room, we wanted to eat at Rose & Crown.

We got to Epcot a little early for our 7:40 reservations, so we browsed the Canada shops and then went to check in. Jason asked for a water table and they said they'd try. After about a 15 min wait, we were led back to our table; yes it was on the water. We took our time ordering appetizers and entrees. Our server, brought us complementary glasses of champange. We ate smoked salmon, and salads. Entrees were Prime Rib for me, Fish & Chips for Jason. The entrees were very big, neither of us could finish. That of course didn't stop me from ordering dessert to watch with Illuminations. It was about 9:00 when I ordered my Traditional Sherry Trifle. Illuminations would start at 9:30, perfect timing. We had a wonderful server, and left another big tip.

Jason's Notes: Great food, I'd been looking forward to the Fish and Chips since last year, and they didn't disappoint. I probably would have been able to finish them if I hadn't eaten the chocolates earlier.

I preferred the holiday version of Illumination better than I liked Illuminations 25, but it did seem a trifle short. After the show we headed back to our suite. We took another bath (you got to take full advantange of these things when you have them), and then bed.

Jason's Notes: It was a little short, but it was fun. Norway really stands out since they didn't participate, anyone know the reasons why?

So we wake up at 8AM. Present time! We put on our WL robes and go out to the tree. We did most of his shopping for me at WDW. I got Mickey underwear, Heimlich squishy, Beauty and the Beast Tea Set, and the Alice and Wonderland Sugar and Creamer (the sugar is the White Rabbit, the creamer is the Cheshire cat). Jason got a set of Lion King ornaments, Christopher Radko Pluto/Goofy block ornament, little pewter Sorcerer Mickey and a Rafiki wrist wrap. Can you sense that we were working on a theme?

Jason's Notes: Actually only the tea set and creamer and sugar set came from WDW, the rest I brought with me. Hope also gave me my favorite gift before we left, the Star Wars Encyclopedia. It's a little heavy to drag all the way to WDW and back with us!

After presents I slipped Snow White into the VCR and started packing our things up because we had to change rooms. Oh, we could have stayed for an additional $1200. I love that room, but not that much. The night before we filled out our room service card, and breakfast was delivered at 9:30. We had orange juice, and a bakery basket. They brought coffee but neither Jason and I drink coffee. I forgot to mention in part 7, that my parents had cookies & milk delivered to the room (for Santa), but it was a big thing of milk, so we had leftovers that I drank with breakfast. We took another bath, and finally got dressed. Jason went downstairs and got our new room keys, while I scurried around writing down numbers of light switches, number of balconies, and all the other details about the room. Jason came back up stairs and took our bags to our new room. I think it was 10:55 when we shut the door; check-out is 11 :-)

Jason's Notes: Stretched it as far as we could! I was really hoping a miracle would happen and they would let us stay there for the rest of the trip! 8-)

Our new room was 7096. We wanted either 7085 or 7086 since those rooms face more toward the MK, but no luck. I guess we shouldn't complain considering where we spent the last night. The room was very nice, and I think I would have fell in love with it, except I had just been in the Yellowstone. The tub was much smaller, there was only one balcony. But it has a nice ceiling. It's very high, and is peaked. There were no holiday decorations, so that was sad. Another thing I didn't mention is there was a stocking filled with candy hanging off all the doors. Do they do that for all of the resorts, or only the more expensive resorts?

Jason's Notes: And this was on all the doors, not just the Yellowstone Suite.

We headed down to the boat launch to head over to the Magic Kingdom. I suppose I was insane for wanting to go there, but I couldn't help it. There were lots of people waiting for the parade 2 1/2 hours early, but we had already seen it. I had a couple of plans about what I thought we would be able to do without any waits. First on the list was Hall of Presidents. We arrived just as a show was getting ready to start. Second on the list was the Diamond Horseshoe. Our timing was again perfect, a show was just getting out. We got a table on the second floor on the right side of the stage. We had our hats on and Jason didn't want to take a chance of gettingpicked on during this show.

Jason's Notes: That location gave us the view we needed to figure out both the magic ticks done! 8-)

We thought about getting something to eat, but the line was really long and we didn't feel like sandwiches anyway. Third on the list was the Christmas show in the Galaxy theater so we hoped the train from Frontierland to Mickey's Toontown Fair, and took the "secret" path to Tomorrowland. Even though the rest of the park was a zoo the path was deserted, like normal. I noticed a few benches on the path, and looked at the castle. I wondered what the view for Fantasy in the Sky was like from this path, anyone try it?

We had no problem getting a seat for the show. Jason thought it was cheezy, I thought it was cute. Don't care too much for the Kids of the Kingdom, but I thought Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, the reindeer and the snowmen were really cute. It was a cute telling of the Night Before Christmas story.

Jason's Notes: Actually it was the Kids I found cheesy, the characters were fun.

We were hungry again, and after checking the lines at Cosmic Rays we ended up at Pinocchio Haus. The lines here were surprisingly short, but they filled up after a Legend of the Lion King show let out. We ended up eating a few tables away from Julie's Monstro table, so we said hello to it :-) The crowds were too much for me now, so we went back to WL and I found some time to work on my journal, while Jason took a nap.

Dinner for the evening was at Chef Mickey's; we had made our reservations 120 days in advance. We took the boat over to the Contemporary, and I took pictures of the decorations, squished quarters and browsed the shops. We found a set of Mickey luggage at reasonable prices. There are 4 pieces, they're black, and they have a colorful stylized Mickey head in the middle. The prices were actually reasonable for nice luggage, so we tucked it away in the back of our mind. We knew we would need to buy it and we hoped it would be available at the Marketplace.

We checked in, and were seated about 5 min. later. They had the menu behind glass; I tried to take a picture so I wouldn't have to remember what we ate, but it didn't come out :-( There was a salad bar, a couple soups, prime rib, a chicken dish, pork loin, carrots, beans and some other stuff I can't remember. The dessert selection was absolutely fabulous. I had a piece of berry cheesecake, that was to die for and I don't even *like* cheesecake. Jason and I each made our own sundaes. There was also a station for dipping cupcakes in icing and toppings. We wanted one of those too, but we were too stuffed. That didn't stop our waiter from bringing us one of those cupcakes on a plate. The cupcake was the head, and there were whipped cream ears so what did it look like? Mickey of course. Characters for the dinner were Mickey, Minnie & Pluto (walk arounds) and in the lobby were Santa Goofy and Chip & Dale would take turns. It was a very good dinner and the pricewasn't too bad, $25.95 all you can eat.

Jason's Notes: Yet another Pluto picture for me! 8-)

After dinner we took the monorail over to the Grand Floridian to browse their shops, check out their decorations and squish a quarter. The tree in the GF is absolutely huge! Their decorations were one of my 3 favorites (Wilderness Lodge and Coronado Springs being the other 2). We monorailed back to the Contemporary, hopped the boat back to the WL and headed for bed. Jason stayed up a little longer to watch the University of Washington/Airforce game in the Oahu bowl. UW got pounded, so he didn't watch the whole thing.

Jason's Notes: That was the low-light of the day. I really thought the Dawgs would play better, especially the offense. 45-25, yuck.

I got in line, while Jason went to find a CM. Back came Jason, they planned to open the ride at 11:30. It was 11:15 and there was only about 50 people ahead of us, so we decided to wait. We saw cars running around the track, promptly at 11:30 we were let into the queue, people were let into the briefing room. Then we stopped. Cars stopped moving, then the announcement. It was down. We knew we weren't going to get another chance to ride, so we settled in for the wait.

Jason's Notes: We figured, why not? We knew we would be in the first group let into the briefing room as soon as the ride reopened, and we knew the park was packed so we'd be standing in line somewhere else.

As a side note, I kind of became Ms. Test Track expert. Even before we got into the queue people overheard Jason and I talking and starting asking me questions. The family directly behind us had a daughter and a son. Both kids were a little hesitant about riding, I explained to them what would happen, and that settled the boy's nerves. The girl decided she wasn't going to ride, and didn't even want to go through the queue. That was not cool with the parents; she was going through the queue even if she didn't ride. She would not be waiting by herself. I told them even before the CM officially told us the ride was down and wouldn't be back up for about an hour. We talked them into staying the hour, since they most likely wouldn't find a shorter wait. While we were waiting I talked more about the ride, and worked on my journal.

Jason's Notes: These kids were really nervous. The boy kept asking about rops and loops and stuff and the girl would have no part in the ride!

Right on time the cars started whoosing by again, and we were back in business. The parents decided from everything I said that there daughter would really like the ride once she got on it (and buy that time she wasn't fighting the idea as strongly); so she was going to ride. Since we were a party of 2 we got to cut a little (hey, the CM asked for 2 people!). After we got off we hung back to check on our "family". Guess who was grinning from ear to ear and loved the ride? We passed on the picture this time and headed toward Mexico

I decided El Rio del Tiempo is not that bad; except for those video screens. Those are strange, but the rest of it's pretty neat. I like it better than WDW's version of IASW. It was time for Oso to meet his polar bear friends in Norway, so we waited 15 min to get on Maelstrom. We got several cute pictures of Oso and Mr. Elephant with the various trolls in the shops. We cruised the Germany shops and bought a crystal Dumbo and Sorcerer Mickey ornaments. There was a problem with our charge card in the Germany shop so we called the hotel from USA; they said it probably was a fluke so we should try it somewhere else. That somewhere else turned out to be the pastry shop in France for lunch. We split a Ham & Cheese Croissant and I also had a Vanilla Cream & Fruit. That's a wonderful dessert. The croissant was really good and only cost $2.85. No problem with the charge card.

Jason's Notes: I had the raspberry cheesecake too, it was good!

Jason was still hungry so we went over to Beaches & Cream for some French Fries. I hoped to find the YC/BC quarter but no machine :-( It was time to do some serious shopping so we bused to the Marketplace. We did find that luggage at WoD, and several hundred dollars later we headed back to WL to get ready for our dinner at Artist Point.

Jason's Notes: I'm dreading the credit card bill this month...

We were really looking forward to this dinner, and after all the wonderful experiences we had already had on the trip we weren't expecting to be disappointed. Unfortunately we were :-( It wasn't the food that was disappointing, but the service. I have a sneaky suspicion that we got off on the wrong foot with our server because we didn't want any wine (sorry, we aren't big drinkers). I think at that point our server thought we would be cheap and started concentrating on other tables. It took a long time for her to return to take our dinner orders. We ended up with the appetizer sampler (orzo salad, chicken salad, scallop sallad, ostrich and berries & cheese). It was called a "Taste of the Northwest", but Jason and I laughed because it didn't seem too "Northwest" to us (except the scallops, berries & cheese). For our entrees I selected the buffalo striploin and Jason choose the braised venison shank. My buffalo was fantastic, Jason decided he wasn't that in the mood for venison, so we ended up splitting entrees. He wished he would have ordered the buffalo. For dessert we split a piece of apple pie served with cinnamon ice cream, and I had a Wilderness Coffee. I don't know how long it would have taken us to eat our dinner if another server didn't take pity on us, and kept bringing us our food and talking with us. When our original server brought us our check, then she was all chatty, "oh you're on your honeymoon!" It was too little, too late. I would have liked to pass it off on her being busy, but she found plenty of time to chat with her other tables. I probably would come back someday, butit still didn't leave a very good impression.

Jason's Notes: I really wasn't impressed. The service was poor, and the food, while good, wasn't particularly special. Plus it wasn't very "Northwest." Western instead of Pacific Northwestern would probably be a better description. The other server that came by our table had to talk to our server twice and service still didn't improve.

After dinner we went up to our room, and decided to take a bath. Only problem was we couldn't figure out how to turn on the jacuzzi jets! In the Yellowstone suite there was a nob and a timer. This room nothing. Jason swallowed his pride and called the front desk, "We have a really stupid question..." everyone had a good laugh but we eventually found out that there should be a switch in the tub. Turned out the black thing Jason and I both pushed was the switch, but we didn't know you had to punch it really hard to turn it on! We got out of the bath and fell into the bed.

Jason's Notes: OK, no need to add anything to this guys, we felt stupid enough calling. Turns out the front desk had to call maintaince to find out how to turn it on. The CM at the front desk apologized for laughing, but she could tell we were laughing about it too, said that she got a good laugh out of it and that's exactly what she needed that night! 8-)

For instance I remember having to wake up *really* early because we were planning to start the day at Animal Kingdom; and I remember Jason calling the desk and finding out the first AK came shortly after 6AM. And I remember trudging out there in the slightly chilly weather to get there shortly before 6, and I definetly remember freezing in my shorts & T-shirt when the first AK bus showed up at 6:30 while three MGM buses came by even though MGM wasn't opening until 7:30 while AK opened at 7.

Jason's Notes: Grumble grumble grumble. Because it didn't get there until after 6:30 we didn't get to the park until 7:01, which means I missed the opening announcement and Circle of Life song, something I really wanted to hear again. 8-(

I was really proud of being able to keep up my journal until the last day and a half; on previous trips I never made it past day 2. Well if I would have kept up my journal, this is what I would have said...

Even though the bus didn't come until 6:30 we were there for park opening at 7. We headed back toward Africa so we could do another safari and waited until it opened at 7:30. We started heading through the line, most of the people were staying in the right line, but the left line was not blocked by either rope, chain or trash can so we went left. Of course we got to walk right into a loading line while the right line was backed up. While we were loading we heard a CM ask what people had against the left line, and started leading people into it. We had another good safari; the giraffes were pretty close to the vehicle and we took many more pictures including one that has both Yoda and the giraffes in the shot, and Mr. Elephant and the elephants. Mufasa was a little disappointed because we still didn't see any colobus monkeys

Jason's Notes: Never did find the colobus monkeys unfortunately.

After the safari, I gave in and bought film and then we headed over to the train to Conservation Station; there were probably 5 people total on our train. We spent about an hour over there, the sounds of the Rainforest booths were very relaxing. Squished some more pennies, and then headed back to Africa. This time the train was pretty full; Conservation station was near empty when we got there, so most of the people had come after us and didn't stay to long. Too bad for them; they missed out.

Jason's Notes: We spent an hour or so there, and we weren't trying to kill time. Do most people just stick their head in and find out there's no "ride" and leave?

Next we headed on the Pangani Exploration Trail to see if the Meercats were awake. Yes, they were. We watched them for awhile, and then continued on.

Jason's Notes: It was funny, we could only see one meercat, who was standing up looking around. Then another one came up and stood right next to him and the first one scurried away. I joked to Hope "Oh, changing of the guard." Then the CM in the area came on the microphone and told the people standing there that the meercat we could see was the guard and that they traded off every few minutes. Told Hope, "See, told you." 8-)

We didn't pause to watch the other animals this time, because we still had a lot to do in AK even though this was our 4th trip into the park. We did some last minute AK shopping at the Mombasa Marketplace and headed toward Camp Minnie-Mickey. We tried to find a professional photographer to take our picture with the Tree of Life (we had one taken earlier in the week but forgot to go buy it), but there wasn't one to be found. We think it was because it was too congested in the area without photographers trying to take pictures.

Jason's Notes: This is one professional picture we actually wanted to buy, and I'm still kicking myself for forgetting when they took one earlier in the week.

First stop was the Pocahontas show. Cute little show, I liked seeing all the live animals. The story was a little cheezy but seeing the animals was fun. The Pocahontas wasn't all that great, didn't look much like her and I didn't think her voice was that great. Next was the Lion King show; we sat in the elephant section. Mr. Elephant was so happy, but Yoda was a little perturbed. This is a fabulous show, my mother is going to die when she sees it. The acrobats were wonderful. Only down side was I couldn't get very good pictures of the Simba and Elephant floats since they were on our sides. I think you can get better overall pictures if you sit in the Warthog section, so you can take pics of the giraffes and Pumbaa float when they come toward you are going back in, and you can get head-on shots of the other two floats. The lighting was a little dark for some of my pictures to come out too. This show is another reason why I need a video camera.

Jason's Notes: This was a fun show. I especially liked the floats.

After we exited the show we headed over to see who was in the character tent. There was a really short line for Pluto & Goofy. Jason got another Pluto picture (what am I going to do with that guy?)

Jason's Notes That's 5 pictures with Pluto (or was it 6?).

King Louie was in one of the other tents. Note: King Louie can't sign autographs, but he does do great pictures. He was sad though because he enjoys flirting with the girls, and since I was obviously on my honeymoon he knew I was taken. I said it was okay; he could flirt with me. Jason didn't like that for some reason; like he wouldn't ditch me the moment Pluto came into a room ;-)

Jason's Notes: Hey, I'm not flirting with Pluto now am I? 8-) You can trace King Louie's hands or feet though.

Theline for Mickey & Minnie and the Pooh gang were huge so we skipped them; we had pictures of those guys anyway. We did a a little bit more shopping, and headed out.

We still had to visit a bunch of hotels so I could get the 1998 quarters so we took a bus to the All-Stars. Squish, squish, back on a bus to AK. Then we hopped the bus to the Caribbean because it came before the Coronado Springs bus did. Squish, bus to MK, boat to WL. In two hours we visited 3 hotels and got back to WL; not bad I'd say. Lunch was chicken tenders and a Philly cheesesteak from Roaring Forks. After a break it was time to head back to Animal Kingdom so we could do our nighttime safari.

Jason's Notes: Yay! It only took all week.

The nighttime safaris were starting at 5:00 we were there about 45 minutes early. Lots of people knew about the night rides, and were milling around. The CM's tried to tell everyone to leave the area, the queue would open at 5:00, there would be no line then. Yeah, right! I told Jason I was going to get a popcorn bucket, so if the CM's told him to leave he could say he was waiting for his wife.

Jason's Notes: My response was going to be (if they asked) "I've done everything else in the park, I'm here specifically for a nighttime safari.

I go get the bucket, come back and what do you know? The queue had been opened! I knew Jason would have gone into the queue, since this safari was the only reason we had come back to AK. I "excuse me I have to get to my husband-ed" my way through the line and caught up with him.

Jason's Notes: It was really weird. The CM's were saying "The ride won't open until 5, the queue won't open until 5, etc." and all of a sudden we started moving into the queue. Guess they decided that they had to control the crowd somehow.

We were one of the first safaris out, so it was still pretty light out. We didn't see as many animals as we did in our morning safaris, but both the hippos and the crocodiles were more active. As people have mentioned, in the evening safari the poaching story isn't the main focus. Instead you are told about seeing a tribal ceremony and seeing on of the researchers out in the field.

Jason's Notes: Another odd job, playing the tribesmen/researcher in the Safari!

I thought this story worked much better than the poaching thing did. Yes, at the end there are still poachers, but this time you can see live poachers, instead of unseen poachers stuck in a jeep. On of the disappointing things was that there were 2 CM's in the jeep and they kept laughing through the whole ride. They thought what they were doing was stupid and they let it show. Bad show. When we were off the ride, the line was huge and I felt sorry for the people who believed the CM's when they said that therewould be no line at 5:00.

Jason's Notes: Why were they telling people that when they knew it wasn't going to be true?

Now it was time to say good-bye to our new favorite park. We spent about 20 hours in that park and we still didn't find time to do the Flights of Wonder show in Asia or spend that much time in Dinoland.

Jason's Notes: Didn't find Dinoland all that interesting personally.

We still needed to get the Coronado Springs quarter so we caught their bus over and squished. The decorations at Coronado Springs were fabulous. Definetly one of the best. Next stop was the studios for the Osborne lights.

Yoda detoured us on our way to NY Street, so we ended up riding Star Tours and Jason, Mr. Elephant, Yoda and Mufasa got pictures of being stomped by an AT-AT. Star Tours is the one line that I think the right side definetly moves faster than the left. Of course we were in the left line, so we had about a 15-20 min wait. One of the longest of the whole trip. We walked up to NY Street retreived our "Angel" glasses and checked out the lights.

Jason's Notes: AT-AT's rule!

All in all, I wasn't that impressed with the Osborne lights. I've grown up with elaborate display of lights; but at my house we have about 100 unique blowmold lights that we arrange in scenes. We don't use that many of the strings of bulbs. I'm not too impressed by drapping houses in a net of different colored bulbs. Some of the displays were cute (I liked the Go Razorbacks sign, and the Mickey lights). At the end of the display is a train driven by Mickey. There are lights set up to look like puffs of smoke coming out of the smokestack. For about a second one of the puffs turns into a Mickey head; a hidden Mickey. I stared for a moment, counted, rose the camera to my eye, waited...click. When I got home, there it was; the Mickey head puff in my picture. Woo Hoo!

Time to head back to the hotel. Dinner was chicken tenders from Roaring Forks, Jason played Rampage in the arcade while we waited for food. Upstairs to pack everything up. When we started the trip we came down with 3 bags; I brought an extra bag, we bought a carry-on, somehow we ended up with 7 bags. To top it off we had also shipped 3 boxes home. I think we took another bath, but then time to sleep.

Jason's Notes: I'm really dreading the credit card bill...

Dumbo, Dumbo, Dumbo Mr Elephant starts chanting, so we beeline to Dumbo. Mr. Elephant chatted with his old friend and introduced him to Snoopy, Yoda and Mufasa. Dumbo had already met Oso both at DL and last year at WDW. Mr. Elephant told Dumbo he didn't know when he would see him again but knew it would be sometime between Sept. 15th and Dec 19th (time between when Jason's vacation time rolls over and before our AP's expire), so Dumbo said he would spend next fall at WDW. I must explain that this is the real Dumbo we're talking too. All the other Dumbos are just the real Dumbo's helpers; kind of like Santa's helpers at Christmas. The real one is at the North Pole, the ones in the malls are just his helpers. So the real Dumbo will be at WDW next fall :-)

Jason's Notes: Yes, we are insane, just go with it! 8-)

We were supposed to have breakfast at Crystal Palace this morning, but I decided I'd rather do stuff than sit in a restaurant so we nixed breakfast. Instead we rode Buzz, and rode Buzz, and rode Buzz. We had to make it an even dozen rides so we rode Buzz again. The CM's kept laughing at us. Jason got the high score of the trip this morning. I don't know what it was.

Jason's Notes: 608,800!!! Of course Hope said that was cheating, since the ride stopped for a little bit in the first room so I could rack up the score. So next time we went it didn't stop and I got 596,400. I was really trying in that last room to get one more shot off to put me over the 600,00 mark!

The rest of the morning was spent with various characters: Brer Bear in Frontierland, Foulfellow, Perla, Suzy, Pinocchio & Gepetto at the Character Festival in Fantasyland. Pinocchio wrote "he stinks" next to Foulfellow's autograph. We also saw Alice and the Queen of Hearts by the Teacups. I decided I wanted to have lunch at the French pastry shop again, so we needed to leave the MK. I stopped on Main Street to comiserate with Grumpy. He understood how I felt about leaving, but I made him happy by showing him a picture of himself in my autograph book. I bought a T-shirt from a cart and we said good-bye to the Magic Kingdom.

We took the express monorail to the TTC and the monorail to Epcot. Oso requested a stop at Ice Station cool. This was actually our 3rd trip here, forgot to mention it before. I like China & Israel the best. Lots of people tricking friends and family into drinking Beverly.

Jason's Notes: China is my favorite!

While passingthrough the UK we ran into Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. They did a little skit which included Smee breaking through the bushes on the maze. Peter told Smee that I was smart because I knew who he was. It seems poor Mr. Smee isn't recognized much.

Jason's Notes: Apparently some people even called him Santa!

We walked over to France, and just missed the Beast :-( Jason and I each had our own ham & cheese croissant, and I had a Marvelous. That's exactly what that dessert is marvelous! Quasimodo was standing alone in the courtyard so we got his picture and autograph. I told them to enjoy their few moments of piece and quiet. We walked back toward Future World with a picture stop in Canada.

We rode Horizons for the last time. We actually had to wait in line 10 minutes. A strange feeling. We chose the water scene, so we could have seen all three just once. I'm going to miss that ride. Test Track appeared to be running, but there was no more time. We had to go.

From WL we took the Boone bus to Fort Wilderness for the last 1998 quarter. We had to wait about a half an hour for the bus; while all the other buses came by twice. There were about 3 other families waiting for the Boone bus too. It was cold this morning, and it started raining while we were in Epcot. By the time the Boone bus showed up, it was a very hard downfall. We squished the quarter, and made our way back to WL. Didn't have to wait long for a Crockett bus.

At the WL I finished taking the pictures I had tried to take that morning when the battery died, and then we sat in front of the fireplace. I was trying really hard not to cry, but a few tears squeeked out. Jason kept holding me and promising we would be back, we would come back. Our FTC driver was coming at 2:55 so about 2:30 we went to bell services to retreive our bags so we could change back into cold weather clothes. Gus was already there. He came early because of the rain. We decided to wait until the airport to change so we climbed into the car.

Bye-Bye Mickey, bye-bye Mickey.

Jason's Notes: 8-(

There was a bit of traffic on the road so we were glad to leave early. The flight from MCO to O'hare was non-eventful. We got some McDonald's in Chicago; our plane to Seattle left 30 min. late. There were strong headwinds over the Rockies so we got to Seattle at 11PM about an hour late. We waited another hour for the the shuttle service to take us home. We finally made it home at 1AM.

*Sigh*

Page last updated January 13,1999