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© Lisa Cubbon, 2002
Who: Andy and Lisa Cubbon (over 50, retired and no kids at home!)
When: January 30-February 4
Where: Boardwalk Inn
So, the time had come to leave the cozy confines of our humble home in Marietta (and get Andy out of the closet for awhile) and head south. We had Blanche all tuned up, oil changed and tires rotated, and off we went to the Happiest Place on Earth!
Prologue: Andy has been working steadily in our bedroom closet since just after New Years Day. We emptied it out and he’s been sanding, plastering and cursing for hours on end and as a result of it, he developed tendentious in his left wrist. So bad that on Tuesday after dinner, we headed to the doc-in-a-box to have it checked. We were leaving on Wednesday at the crack of 9am so this needed to be addressed. After 2.5 hours, he had a wrist splint and a prescription for Indocin [for me, Andy, this is nasty stuff - it works but leaves me queasy]. We made it to Publix, got it filled and headed home to finish packing. That was not how we intended to spend the evening but still we were going to WDW!!!! [some of the local recipients of this trip report are not up on the various initials used here, so WDW is Walt Disney World.]
Wednesday, January 30th. Left at 9am promptly. Right after Andy turned off the water to the house. It’s what we do so we don’t worry about a pipe bursting while we are gone. There was a goodly bit of fog about but it didn’t stop us or even slow us too badly. I was driving the first leg. 9am is way too early for Andy [I’m not usually too ambulatory until Noon]. We had an uneventful drive down. The only excitement was all the construction on I75 and one interesting accident, three semis and a van formed a single unit. There were ambulances, and fire rescue vehicles all around and the southbound lanes were reduced to ONE lane already so it was slow going. We were at the Florida Visitor’s Center for lunch at 1:15pm right on time. We reached the Boardwalk at 5:15pm. And the weather was FANTASTIC! Warm, sunny and welcoming. Check-in was uneventful after I rejected two rooms. One room was way out by the quiet pool, which is a very long walk back to the main entrance. Not a quick entrance or egress. The second room was on the main floor and I said no to that one. The third one was 4293 overlooking the main entrance. I took that one. The room seriously overlooked the carport and I spent many hours watching the valets and people coming and going. The only time it got loud was when the Character Caravan appeared with very loud music at 8am and after the Super Bowl. Otherwise the room was pretty perfect; just freshly renovated, new carpet, looked like new draperies, everything incredibly fresh and no mildew musty smell. After the bags were delivered we headed to Epcot for our traditional Fish and Chips [and ½ pints of Guinness] meal at the Rose and Crown. There was no problem getting an outside table at 6pm [a brief light shower also occurred but we were under cover and it had passed by the time we were done with dinner]. The crowd was pretty non-existent. After dinner, we walked around the World Showcase and just puttered. We decided to stay for Reflections of Earth so we walked around looking for a spot to watch from. As we were approaching the United Kingdom, we noticed the street was blocked off and we were all being detoured to the back and out along the side of the cottages. We then realized that the road was directly under the Big Bang rocket that starts the performance. Cool. After the fireworks (from a singularly bad spot too--our fault) we headed back to the Boardwalk and grabbed a cup of coffee and watched folks for a bit and headed up to bed. After all, tomorrow was another day at the Happiest Place in the World.
Thursday, January 31th. We were up a little later meaning, I did not get up at 6am. I was up around 7am and got ready and then work up Prince Charming [at about 8:15am, a bit early for me. This was the ‘normal’ time she roused me out.] He’s doing pretty well when I give him 1 to 1.5 hours before I need him to move. I went down to the Bakery and got coffee, milk and a pastry to bring back up to the sleeping room. We packed a Disney only rolly bag this time and brought cereal and bowls and had breakfast. This was a first effort for the Disney rolling bag and it worked well so I think it’s a tradition now. Weather is great; Sunny and warm. We both brought a mix of clothes but not enough warm weather stuff. I had two pairs of shorts and I just got by with that.
After breakfast we headed to the Animal Kingdom. That seems to be the new pattern. (I am not going to mention the security checkpoint before going into each park. We did our bit at every point. Some checks were more through that others but it’s not like getting on an airplane. ) We got there around 10:30am and headed for the Safari. But we got hustled by the Festival of the Lion King hawker. They had a CM standing and luring folks into the performance so we went. It was pretty good too. The couple sitting next to us were from Missouri, the Ozarks area so we could talk a bit about the ancestors that came from there so that was nice. After FoLK we headed to the Safari again and there was no line so we went into the standby and were in and out quickly. We then walked the Gorilla trail but they weren’t out. They have added a new caged exhibit of Colobus Monkeys. They were jumping and leaping about. Guess they were playing.
We left to got to the Magic Kingdom for lunch but there is no direct bus there so it’s to the Ticket and Transportation Center and then a Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. When we passed under the railroad station and onto Main Street, well, it wasn’t deserted but certainly not crowded. We headed to Pinocchio’s Village Haus and got the Chicken Salads, which I think are fantastic. Grilled Chicken, peaches, feta cheese and mixed greens in a lovely raspberry vinaigrette. Plus we got an order of fries. This seemed to be where the people were. Fantasy Land was pretty much stroller to stroller. We did stop and get Fast Passes for Peter Pan before we ate too. We took the food and were sitting in the side courtyard when the attack of the Sea Gulls began. Seems some idiots did not bus their table and the gulls had found the booty, French fries. They were swooping down under the umbrellas and making a huge racket and mess. A Cast Member (CM) finally came over and took the tray away but the birds remained. A little kid starting feeding them again. By then we were done and left. Seems to me there is something they could do about the gulls. We had plenty of time before our FP time so we headed to Haunted Mansion. There was a line here. Seems they were only using one stretch room but it was not a bad wait and the weather was wonderful. After that we headed over to Peter Pan and saw a wonderful sight. Three adults each with a lap child in one vehicle. Seems that the CM had put two adults in one and when the CM cleared a vehicle for the third adult, she skidded around and got into the one with her friends. Kinda amazing what people will do to ride together. After Peter Pan, we headed back to Boardwalk. On the bus, it dawned on me that we could do a “Four Park” Day no problem. So after a short rest at the BW, we headed over to Disney Studios. The park was closing but we had no problem getting into Mama Melrose for diner. One thing we learned is not to be in the restaurant when it’s closing. They were still open but the food was not as good as when the kitchen is going full blast. We left after dinner and then tried to take the bus to Epcot since there was not a boat heading towards or at the boat dock at DS [i.e. Disney Studios aka MGM; official name is Disney MGM Studios]. We waited for around 10 minutes and saw a boat coming and race walked over to it [of course, the bus showed up as we were boarding the boat] and then got off the boat at Beach Club [a resort across the lake for the Boardwalk] and walked into Epcot. The “Four Park” completed. We went over to TT [Test Track a simulated auto testing attraction] but it was 25 minutes stand by and no single rider lane so we skipped that and just strolled back out the International Gateway and home!
Friday, February 1st. We slept until 8am. Me too! Until the Character Caravan arrived. Disney has suspended the Early Entry program and this is the substitute. It’s a regulation size Disney bus with a very loud sound system that visits different resorts on a daily basis at 8am and off loads some characters to help the resort guests greet the day. Since we have a room with a view (of the entrance and valet parking area) we got the WHOLE enchilada here. The Characters were Pinocchio, Gepetto and the Big Bad Wolf (whose name escapes me). We did have breakfast at Spoodles. I like their breakfast menu and got the Moroccan Pancakes again. It seems a lot to pay for two pancakes but they are very good and filling. Andy had a ham and cheese omelet with spicy breakfast potatoes. We headed to Epcot and hit The Land first. The Land boat ride was a walk on and we had a very good guide. The last couple times, we had a woman who talked so fast that I was so amazed by the speed that I couldn’t appreciate what we were seeing. This guy did not say it all but covered the high points and it was much more relaxed. Then we headed into Inoventions West and actually did sat in on some of the shows; Monsanto’s Living with the Earth dealt with agriculture. The Radiologists of America (I don’t really know the name) have too much money and they are sponsoring a trade show presentation on the advantages of new technology in X-rays [CAT, MRI, etc.]. Very weird. Then we headed to Xerox and got out photo on a calendar done for free (which I carried around for a very long time…) and then we went to the IBM exhibit and send an e-photo to us from Epcot. It’s available for the asking; not many people have a photo of me scratching my head. There is absolutely no warning before the computer snaps your image. We wandered over to TT and I did Single Rider. I still like the thrill of going that fast [I still find it ho-hum, I prefer people watching; some of the best is at WDW]. Then we headed over to see Ellen’s Energy Adventure [the dinosaur ride]. When we walked into the pre-show, it was empty and the attraction pretty much stayed that way. I tried to talk Andy into getting frisky but he said no. We did sit in the last row and had it all to ourselves. After that we decided to have a bit of lunch Andy’s stomach was not doing so good. The anti-inflammatory med. was making his stomach queasy [also the reason I was avoiding even the medium nausea rides…er… attractions]. I remembered the Tangierine Café in Morocco and we headed over there. We really enjoyed the food. I had the veggie platter and Andy had a Chicken wrap and we each had a Casablanca beer. It was very good and a great place to sit and watch the world go by. There was a female squirrel that was interested in handouts. It looked like she may have had babies she was nursing too. There was only one other couple was sitting on the patio with us. They put some crumbs on a plate but we could not herd her [the squirrel] down that way. After lunch we headed back to the BW so Andy could ice his wrist and then we headed via bus to the Magic Kingdom to see Spectro Magic and the Fireworks. We got there in time for the Share a Dream Come True Parade [so of course we watched it]. We skirted around the light crowds and headed to Tomorrowland for TTA (People Mover) [Tomorrowland Transportation Authority]. I love this one. Then we trained [the Steam Train around the park] over to Frontierland except the train had a technical problem and we had to exit at Main Street so we walked over to Adventureland. There we experienced our only line of the entire trip. There was a line at Pirates of the Caribbean. Not a long line but one we had to wait in. There were a bunch of kids at the MK [Magic Kingdom] on a school outing so I think that made the difference for this time. We went over to the Hall of Presidents and enjoyed that show. As an aside. Andy heard one of the conductors on the train telling some guest that George W was speaking at the Hall of Presidents…all day. I am not sure how the guest reacted but Andy loved the comment. After the performance we roamed the gift shop and Andy bought a postcard of Franklin Pierce since he could not find one of Millard Fillmore. Andy sent it to Don Smith since Don studied Millard Fillmore for some reason. I had two Fast Passes for Big Thunder Mountain RR so we headed over that a way. Andy won’t ride it so I went twice [again a high nausea factor attraction]. Yahoo! Then we tried Pecos Bill for supper. I had read that the Chicken Salad was pretty good so we got two (big mistake [too much]) and an order of fires. Well the salad was great and one would have been enough. Fries were very good too. After we finished eating, it was time to find a spot for Spectro Magic, which wasn’t hard to do. The crowds were pretty light. Andy commented that it was the first time we have ever been so close to the actual parade. It’s a great parade too. After the parade we headed back to the hub to watch the fireworks. No problem finding a spot there either. After the fireworks Andy blazed a trail out of the park and onto the bus. We were the last folks on the bus too. At the Boardwalk we got coffee and a piece of Chocolate Bar Cake that was to die for. All most no cake but tons of Chocolate filling and frosting, way too much [not for me].
Saturday, February 2nd. Today we are meeting friends for lunch here at the resort. It takes a few phone calls to get it straightened out but we do it. But first, I sit on the balcony and watch the comings and goings at the Boardwalk. No newspaper this morning so I had to buy one. They are distributing a free USA Today but on Sat and Sunday you are on your own. I miss the Orlando Sentinel so I picked one up on the way back from the bakery with our breakfast fixins. Actually, it was pretty easy since we packed the bowls and cereal. All I had to do was get milk, coffee and a sweetie. I actually did bring a couple of bananas too. We were all set.
After breakfast we headed to the Animal Kingdom. We wanted to do the safari again and check on the Dinoland additions. We had to be back at the BW by 12:15p to meet our friends. Did the safari and saw one of the Cheetahs taking a stroll. That’s a first. The weather was beautiful and the animals were very active [except the white rhinos that were all napping in a lump under a tree; they’re usually up and about]. There were three young looking giraffes browsing just as you enter the Savannah. Very cool. Then we walked on to It’s Tough to be a Bug. Absolutely no wait. The park did not seem that empty but they were not doing Fast Pass. We headed to Dinoland and took a spin on Triceratops. What fun! Andy and I fit into the front seat and then a Dad and daughter got into the back seat. You can control the up and down motion and the tipping with joysticks. The Dad finally took over control of their joystick and we got some action. We could see the new coaster going in and it looks like a Wild Monkey kind of coaster. It reminded me of old pinball games when the ball starts at the top and you have to work its way down to the bottom. I think it will be fun. The whole area reminds me of everything [gaudy] you would see crossing the US on Route 66. I do like the feel of the place. After that, we headed back to the resort and connected up with our friends. We went to Beaches and Cream for a late lunch and it was much fun for all of us [but there was a long wait for seats]. They are friends from the Ballroom Dance world who don’t dance any more so we caught up on what’s happening and just enjoyed the company. The weather was so nice, we walked over to the Boardwalk and had ice cream too. No dinner tonight! After they left we headed to Disney Studios, walking this time. We did Backstage Tours and Muppets and then wandered into Fantasmic without out sit-upons! Honestly we would never do this in normal times. The theater gets packed so full it’s not fun. But what the hey, if it’s bad we will leave. We got to sit in Hades, really. It’s the far-left section. OK we’ve never been here before. The show was great but about 3 minutes before the finale, I poked Andy and we left. Two CMs stopped us and said we were leaving before the best part. Yeah, we know but if we stayed until the blessed end we’d be the LAST people out. Yech. We were well ahead of the masses. After we exited, we decided to walk back since there was no boat there and no boat on the horizon. We beat those folks back by 30 minutes. We decided we needed a small nosh so we did another attraction at the BW, the Pizza Line at Spoodles. We were in line for 30 minutes. The one CM working the window was doing a great job but gees it’s a big job for one person. We got a Calzone and a salad and ate in the room. Andy picked up a bottle of Coke and a coffee. We were all set. No sweetie for us tonight.
Sunday, February 3rd. Super Bowl Sunday. OK here we go. We breakfast in the room again and then figure out a plan. We are going to Lakeland to have brunch with friends today and the big question is, will be find a parking space at the Resort when we come back. They have set up a tent on the Boardwalk and it’s a big one. So we decided to take walking shoes with us in case we can’t get into the parking lot. We had a great brunch with our friends, also from the Ballroom Dance world but these couples still compete. We got back to the BW around 3pm and there was plenty of parking so we were safe at home for the evening. We headed over to MGM to just mess around and did Who Want’s to be a Millionaire, Play It and The Animation Tour, and I did Star Tours [I’m waiting for the new version, plus it’s another high nausea attraction], Then we headed via bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we had dinner reservations at Jiko’s. Andy’s stomach still isn’t too solid but we do like this place so much and we had not have a fancy dinner yet. Well, fancy for Disney standards still means not dressing up. We got there early enough to watch the animals on all three Savannahs. The weather was so pleasant and it was feeding time so many of the animals were out and active. One Savannah had a small herd of giraffes. The CMs told us the last time that these are all females. No, they don’t have lions or cheetahs, just herbivores. We headed down to dinner and had a nice meal. I had the chicken and Andy had the monkfish, which we both enjoyed, and a nice glass of Pinotage, a South African red wine. Very nice, indeed. We took a bus back to Epcot and finished the night there. We did Spaceship Earth. Why I like this so much is beyond me but it’s just so pleasant. Then we headed toward World Showcase to snag a spot for Reflections Of Earth but first, Test Track. Single Rider was open so on it I went. I got to the top of the cue and was told to just get with the standby line. The CMs was not opening a room for one person. Hot Dog! I love doing this attraction at night. [I got to point out a wild rabbit to some kids; the first I’ve seen at Disney and right in front of TT.] We then continued towards our viewing destination, the bridge going into Mexico [or out of Mexico depending on how you approach it]. Ah, there was a very nice spot still open and we claimed it. It was starting to get a bit cool but we were OK. It would have been nice if we had our jackets with us. We brought our heavy Land’s End coats but that was really overkill [not really ‘heavy’ but Gortex lined and good to at least 5 below way more than we would]. We spent most of our time in shirtsleeves and then at night with just fleeces [really only the last night and Monday morning]. The weather was very nice, indeed. The spot we watched ROE was just ’bout perfect. It’s the second time for us from this spot and it’s really unobstructed. After the show, we headed back to Boardwalk for our final night of vacation. I was pretty surprised that the Super Bowl was still going on. So we did get to see the last 10 minutes and watch the very happy Pats fans leaving the ESPN Club. They were very jolly [i.e. drunk].
Monday, February 4th. Going home day. Boo Hoo. I hate this day. I wish we had stayed one more day but I usually feel that way. I know we will be back but just not when. Our APs expire on the 10th and we did not renew them. Renewals are activated when purchased so there is no point in buying them until the next visit. But first, we put jackets on (it was cool but sunny this morning) and after our breakfast, we headed over to Disney Studios and just messed around for a couple hours. We had to leave before Indy [Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular] started so we missed that one completely and we have not seen Hunchback in the last several times. We will do a lot more next time. We grabbed a quick lunch at the Commissary but I am not thrilled with the new menu and may try some place different next time. We both had Chicken Yakitori with rice but it’s better at Japan in Epcot. Then we left… We started home at 12:30p and were in the house at 7:55p. The trip was extremely uneventful, thank goodness. We did finish listening to a 10 hour book on tape, LA Times by Stuart Woods. Yes, it was unabridged and we were both glad the guy got it in the end.
Epilogue: Just a few regrets like not eating at California Grill or Emeril’s and not riding Rock N Roller Coaster. Andy’s tummy was not up to par. But the weather was spot on perfect and we had a great time together.
Till the next time.