(Since I wrote that sentence a month ago, and it's now December 31, I can state that it didn't work, and it still seemed like Christmas came waaay too soon after we returned from Florida.)
This year, in addition to all the usual Christmas festivities, Walt Disney World is doing their "100 Years of Magic" celebration - to honor Walt Disney, whose 100th birthday would have been on 12/5/2001. Many people (particularly those under 25) don't seem to realize that Walt Disney was a real person, and there are special exhibits and activities at the parks that tell the story of Walt Disney.
Wednesday, November 28 - Travel Day
This was my first time flying after the events of September 11, and I wasn't really looking forward to it. Everything worked out ok, but it was not without its adventures...The shuttle service picked us up at the completely ungodly hour of 4:45 - we were at the airport, checked in, and through security by 5:10 - and our flight didn't leave until 7:00! We boarded the flight on time but were delayed leaving for almost an hour because the winds were shifting and it wasn't safe to take off. Once we got off the ground it was a beautiful day and we had a smooth flight, though the pilot reported they were having freezing rain in Dallas...uh oh. (We fly the southern route to AVOID problems like that!)
We were late getting into Dallas, and then they had trouble getting the jetway positioned, and then the end of the jetway was icy, making the footing treacherous. But we still had plenty of time to make our connection - even time for an Auntie Anne's pretzel (good thing, since they didn't feed us breakfast, and we learned they weren't going to feed us on the hop to Orlando, either!). Once we got aboard the plane, we sat for *two hours* waiting to be de-iced. So we were an hour and 45 minutes late getting into Orlando.
But we made it. :-)
By the time we got to Old Key West and checked in it was almost 8:00,
and we were STARVED. Before we even went to our room we went to
Olivia's and had dinner - it was good, but I like their lunch menu
better. And we were VERY disappointed, because they have taken the
chocolate chip pecan pie off the menu!!! Our server recommended the
chocolate layer cake and the cognac-pumpkin cheesecake, and we got a
piece of each to go, then drove over to our room. We were over in
Building 18 again (I think that's the third time we've been in that
building) in a one bedroom unit. Ahhh...LOVE all the space in that one
bedroom unit!!! :-)
We unpacked and watched West Wing and had our desserts, which were both very good - I still miss the chocolate chip pecan pie, though.
It was a weird day - normally we arrive in time to at least go to Epcot
for a little while on our first day, but not this time because of our flight
delays.
Thursday November 29 - Animal Kingdom, Epcot
We slept in (it's 3 hours *earlier* for us!), but still made it to
Animal Kingdom about 10:00. After our usual breakfast at Tusker House
we used the FastPasses that we had gotten BEFORE breakfast for the
safari...and breezed past all of those people in the standby line. I
still don't understand why people don't make better use of FastPass...We
had a very good driver, though we didn't see too many animals this time.
Though we DID see a LOT of vultures - sure looks like they know
something about this hippo that we don't...
Then we started criss-crossing the park to see the various shows - so we
saw the bird show, Tarzan Rocks, and Festival of the Lion King. I made
Lee ride the new "Triceratops Spin" over in Dino Land (there was
no line), which was cute but definitely doesn't break any new ground
as far as ride technology goes! (Think Dumbo only with a triceratops
rather than an elephant.) Tigger was wearing his "Magical
Moments" pin, and I'd heard that it lit up during "It's Tough to
Be a Bug" so we did that. Lee was so distracted by Tigger's pin
that he forgot to lean forward and got stung in the back by the
hornets. :-(
Over in Camp Minnie-Mickey we noticed they had a lot of new Christmas
decorations this year - including "themed" Christmas trees for
Mickey,
Minnie,
Pluto,
Donald,
Goofy,
Eeyore,
Pooh,
Piglet, and
TIGGER!!! I, of
course, loved the Tigger tree the best :-) We went over there towards
the end of the day to take pictures of the trees and there was almost NO
ONE over there - the characters were out with no one to visit them.
Goofy was actually stretched out on one of the benches snoring. :-) So
if you're interested in characters, I'd say Camp Minnie-Mickey at the
end of the day is a good place to go!
We visited the tigers in the Maharajah Jungle Trek, but they were mostly sleeping - but that's what tigers do. :-)
We saw "Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade" - the new parade at Animal
Kingdom. It looked fun - especially for the people they had evidently
pulled out to participate in it - each float had anywhere from 2-6
guests on it who got to sit and wave to everyone - that looked like fun.
I was eating an ice cream cone which I finished just as the parade was
*ending*, so I never got any pictures. (It was vanilla/chocolate soft
serve swirled together in a big waffle cone - yum!)
For lunch we'd gone over to the Chakrandi Chicken Shop in Asia, but they
had again dumbed down the menu - they used to have really good chicken
satay and pad thai noodles, and then they turned it into more of
a chicken shish kebab, and now it's just plain old rotisserie chicken.
So we went to Tusker House instead - though Lee was disappointed because
they only serve their "Villager's Special" (kind of an African beef
stew with saffron rice) on Saturdays now. We both
had the turkey wrap which was quite tasty (though Lee had to pull the
tomatoes out of his), but the best part was the "vegetable chips" that
came with it - instead of just plain potato chips, we had chips made of
sweet potatoes, taro, onion, and potatoes. Interesting flavors! It was
nice to see that Tusker House still has some foods that are a little
different.
We saw two new (to us) entertainment groups over in Harambe - a troupe of acrobats (recognized one of them from the Houzali troupe that used to perform in Morocco at Epcot), and a group of drummers/dancers who were great fun to watch.
We left the park when it closed at 5:00 - we again fail to understand how people can insist that Animal Kingdom is only a "half day" park. The only ride we did was the Safari, nor did we get out to Conservation Station or Pangani Forest, and we STILL managed to spend 7 hours there. Though this reminds me of the commercial for AK we saw while watching West Wing - it showed all of these snippets of various Cast Members at AK smiling and saying "Natazu!" - sounds like some kind of a greeting, but then at the end it says "Animal Kingdom - it's Not a Zoo". :-)
After a short break back at Old Key West (hereinafter referred to as OKW) we headed over to Epcot for the evening. We had dinner at one of our favorite places, the Tangierine Cafe in Morocco, which is a counter service place. Lee had the chicken/lamb Shawarma platter (which had some yummy side dishes!) and I had the chicken Shawarma sandwich. I highly recommend either one. It's busier than it used to be, which is good for them, but it was nicer for us when there was no line! :-)
Once we were done with dinner we went over to the America Gardens
Theatre and stood in back to watch the Candlelight Processional - Marlee
Matlin was that evening's guest "narrator". She signed, but had an
interpreter who read the words - he had a very good voice. It was
interesting to watch her. We were standing outside the back of the
theater right where about half of the choir comes in, so we got our own
private concert as they walked by us singing. :-)
We walked the rest of the way around World Showcase, and then back over to Italy and watched Reflections of Earth (aka IllumiNations) from there. It was a pretty good spot. We closed two parks in one day - not bad, huh? :-)
We'd parked at the Boardwalk, so on the way back to the car we
stopped at the Boardwalk Bakery for some goodies - their chocolate
brownie with chocolate frosting is very good - nice and rich and
fudgey!
Friday, November 30 - Magic Kingdom, Studios, Downtown Disney
Since we were going to Magic Kingdom, and our Rule #1 is "Avoid the
TTC!", we took the bus from OKW. There was a fairly long line at the
entrance where they were doing security checks of all bags (something
they have been doing at all the parks since September 11), but it moved
quickly. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the Main Street Bakery, then
met Katie and Susan Spencer at the Christmas tree - Jeff, Brian,
and Jeff's mom Sue, hadn't made it to the park yet. So the
4 of us went off and rode Buzz Lightyear, and then met up with
Jeff, Brian, and Sue outside Pirates. We also did Jungle Cruise
(we hadn't done this one in quite a while, and a couple of the
scenes were completely unfamiliar to us - the jokes were just as
bad, though. :-} ), Hall of Presidents (Brian's request - he wanted
to see if the new Bush animatronic mangles words the same way the
real one does - I think he was disappointed. :-) ), Haunted Mansion,
and Country Bear Christmas. Somewhere in there we had lunch at
Pecos Bill's.
Jeff and Sue went back to Ft. Wilderness, and the remaining 5 of
us rode Thunder Mtn, though it had a pretty long line. :-( (This
was the only time we experienced any kind of crowded conditions at
all.) At that point Susan and Katie and Brian had to leave - Lee
and I stayed to watch the new "Share a Dream Come True" parade.
We actually saw most of it
twice - once from just outside the Christmas Shop (not very good
viewing because we got there late), and then we caught most of it
at the end of Main Street just in front of the Emporium. Most of
the floats were quite pretty - and at least the music
isn't as insidious as the Recycle...err *Remember* the Magic parade. :-)
But I hope those "globes" are
air-conditioned, or it will get brutal in the sun!
Speaking of...the weather was absolutely perfect the whole time we were
there - highs in the upper 70s-low 80s, and lows in the upper 60s. No
rain at all. It was very comfortable, though I needed a sweatshirt or
something at night.
After the parade we took the bus back to OKW, took a short break, then
drove over to the Studios. We paused to look at the new Sorcerer's Hat
they've erected for the 100 Years of Magic celebration - on
rec.arts.disney.parks people have been saying that it's one "Big Ass
Hat" (BAH), and yep, now that we've seen it, we have to say that
it's definitely one big ass hat. :-) Underneath the hat there's
some machines where you can test your Disney knowledge - and if
you have a Magical Moments pin (Tigger was wearing his!) it lights
up and does all sorts of things.
Lee and Tigger got ALL their
questions correct, and Tigger's pin was going crazy! :-)
We walked through the "One Man's Dream" exhibit on Walt Disney - that
was very well done. Lots of interesting things to see, like the
multi-plane camera, the dancing man, photos of Walt Disney, etc. (And
the multi-plane camera was the answer to a Jeopardy question the other
night - the question, of course, was "Who Was Walt Disney?" :-) )
By then it was about 6:30, so we hoped the crowds back at the Osborne
Lights wouldn't be too bad. It was still crowded, but you could walk
around. We were just glad that it *wasn't* raining, because the last
two times we've done it have been in the rain. It was a pleasant
evening, though. The lights were as beautifully excessive as ever, and
there were a couple of displays that I really liked - like the one of
*Santa* pulling his sleigh. :-)
And we closed down *another* park! :-) We drove over to Downtown
Disney and had dinner at the Wolfgang Puck's Express on the West Side.
Our timing was very good - by the time we left there was a line and no
available tables. I still really like their butternut squash soup.
After eating we wandered around for a while and got some dessert at the
Candy Cauldron, then went back to OKW.
Part 2
Part 3
Tigger's Magical Moments
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Text and photographs copyright © 2001, 2002 by Laura Gilbreath. All rights reserved.
Laura Gilbreath lgil@cts.com
Last updated 1/3/02
