crazycatperson's trip report!

Correction: According to my marketplace passport, we stopped by Hawaii twice on Sunday, where I got a second tuna poke and hubby tried the kalua pork slider. He did not care for it; I had a bite and thought it was pretty good myself. If I recall correctly, this second stop was right before we hit Desserts and Champagne for the meet-up.

Thanks, folks, for the good words about my trip report. Aside from that half-hour power outage, we've been fine here. And since I have a laptop, I was able to keep on writing Wednesday's report even without electricity.

Thursday, October 25 - Animal Kingdom and Epcot

I'm going to sound like a broken record (hey, kids, do you know what that means?), but once again I woke up relatively early while hubby slept in. (In all fairness, I should mention that on our Typhoon Lagoon day he got up before I did - but I figured if there was one day I could sleep late without missing anything, that was it.) Since our first stop was supposed to be Animal Kingdom, I decided to wait for him. We were contemplating dressing for Kali River Rapids, with flip flops instead of shoes and possibly a swimsuit under shorts and T-shirt, and I didn't want to do a lot of walking in flip flops. Well...sometime after 10:00 I was getting antsy and he was still snoring, so I skipped the flops and swimsuit and caught the first bus to anywhere. Anywhere happened to be the Magic Kingdom.

This was my first daytime visit to MK this trip, and I loved seeing the Halloween decorations on Main Street during the day. Then I walked around the castle and happened to pass Cinderella's Wishing Well, which I'd read about here but never noticed before. Yeah...it's a wishing well. From there I tried to check out the new Fantasyland, but it wasn't open to park guests at the time. So I took advantage of the opportunity to visit a couple of my favorite attractions, It's a Small World and Haunted Mansion. (Small World holds a special place in my heart because I first saw it as a child at the New York World's Fair. Yes, I am that old. I also saw Carousel of Progress and President Lincoln at the fair and make a point of catching both CoP and Hall of Presidents every visit.) I got a text from hubby while I was on Haunted Mansion; he was waiting for an Animal Kingdom bus, so I had to put off the rest of MK till Friday.

We arrived at AK at about the same time. Our lunch reservation at Tusker House wasn't all that far off, so we went straight back to the Africa section. Although we were a few minutes early, they took us right in (after a stop for a photo with Donald, of course). I'll describe the Tusker House lunch buffet as "Boma light" - it has similar African-inspired dishes, but not nearly the variety they have at Boma. So if you're primarly interested in the food and not the characters, skip Tusker House and go to Boma. The characters weren't in the immediate vicinity when we first arrived. Goofy wandered into our area first, and for some strange reason hubby chose that moment to go back to the buffet for seconds. So there's Goofy coming by to say hello and hubby is nowhere to be found! And the whole reason we did Tusker House was so he could meet Goofy! I smiled at Goofy and hoped he would stop by later; should've specifically asked him to come back because he didn't. We did get some nice photos with Mickey and Daisy. By the time we were done with lunch, Goofy had completely disappeared. Our server tracked him down for us and I was able to get a photo of hubby with Goofy. It's not great; the lighting in the buffet area wasn't very conducive to taking photos with a cell phone, but at least we have it.

Thursday, October 25 - Animal Kingdom and Epcot, continued

After lunch we saw Finding Nemo: The Musical, which we both enjoyed as usual. Then hubby had to ride Expedition Everest again while I waited in the gift shop. We decided to skip Kali River Rapids, since we weren't dressed to get soaked, and headed back to Kilimanjaro Safari instead. Along the way hubby noticed a stand selling stuffed animal pillows and purchased a giraffe we named "Squishy" because, well, it is. Hubby likes to lie down (read: nap) on the sofa in front of the TV, and he thought Squishy would make a nice pillow. (I'll get a photo when the lighting is a little better post-Sandy.) And yay, because we were staying at a Disney resort, we didn't have to carry him around!

It had started to rain by the time we reached the safari, but we figured the safari vehicles have roofs and got in the standby line anyway. And boy am I glad we did - thanks to the rain, the animals were unusually active. The hippos were swimming, the elephants were congregated by a roadside water hole while some of them played in the water, and a mother and baby rhino literally ran alongside our vehicle for a while. At one point our driver said he saw a couple of giraffes, then we rounded a corner and saw a whole herd of them taking shelter under a stand of trees just a few feet from the road. And the kitties! The cheetahs and lions were both lounging near the road close enough to see very well. Our driver said ours was one of the best safaris he'd ever experienced; it was certainly the best one I'd ever seen. It was worth getting a little wet. (This was our first hint of Hurricane Sandy. More to come.)

It was still raining when the safari was over, so we decided to go back to Old Key West before heading over to Epcot for our last visit to the Food and Wine Festival. After changing into dry clothes and strapping umbrellas to our belts, we headed back out. (Figures, there was no more rain Thursday so we didn't need the umbrellas.) There were a few festival booth items kinda low on my list that we hadn't gotten around to trying, but we decided to revisit favorites from earlier in the week instead. Walking around the World Showcase clockwise, I got the Mexican shrimp taco again while hubby tried the taco de filete, which he enjoyed. At the Morocco booth we both got the Merguez sausage, then hubby had another lamb meatball from the New Zealand booth and we both had more mussels from Belgium. At Canada we shared a chicken chipotle sausage and wild mushroom beef filet. And that was it for grazing. It was past 8:30 by then, so I visited one of the festival shops to buy this year's cookbook. (And was rather disappointed. I liked the cookbooks a lot better when they included recipes for every festival booth dish. Next time I'll have to look at the sample copy before I commit to buying the cookbook.)

This was our only chance to see Illuminations, but we were too late to get a good viewing spot, so we did the best we could and ended up not being able to see most of the aerial fireworks thanks to a tree. But we had a great view of everything lower, and near the end of the show we started walking toward the Future World entrance so we could see the aerial fireworks as we walked.

Now we had a decision to make. According to the weather forecasts, Friday would be a windy day with a 40 percent chance of rain. Hubby was using the last five days of a ten-day no expiration ticket we bought in 2010, so if the weather was nasty, he could skip the parks, stay dry, and save his last park admission for another trip. But I'd used up my no-expiration pass in 2011 when I went without him. For this trip, I had a five-day park hopper. If I didn't use my last day, I would lose it in just over a week. So I decided that whatever the weather, I would be going to Magic Kingdom Friday.

Pictures from our Tusker House character lunch. Hubby is pretending he's awe-struck over Mickey.

Oh, and you'll notice from hubby's T-shirt that we are both crazycatpeople!

Bill, it was indeed a great experience. If I had a time machine, the NY World's Fair would be the first place I'd stop so I could see it all again. As a child, I dreamed of going to Disneyland (since WDW didn't exist yet), but we were on the other side of the continent so that wasn't going to happen. Now, as an adult, I'm glad I had the chance to see the NY World's Fair instead. Disneyland is still there, and I could go tomorrow if I wanted. The World's Fair is gone forever, but at least I have those memories.

Addition to Thursday's report: while we were strolling around the World Showcase, we heard part of the Pointer Sisters show. Those women look darn good for being, what, in their 50s? And sound as good as ever.

Whoa! Wish I looked half that good, and I'm younger than they are! Yes, they sound exactly the same. Clearly they've been living right.

Friday, October 26 - Magic Kingdom

I woke up a little before dawn Friday morning and, fool that I am, rolled over and went back to sleep even though I knew MK opened at 8:00 that morning. I woke up again somewhere around 8:30, realized I was already missing park time, and hustled butt out of there while hubby snored away. Fortunately an MK bus came fairly quickly and I was on my way. At this point, there was no rain, spotty clouds, and winds that were brisk but hardly hurricane-force. I just hoped it would stay that way.

The crowds weren't terribly heavy even though the park had been open over an hour by the time I arrived, and since the castle shows hadn't started yet I walked through the castle to check out the new Fantasyland - once again, it was closed to park guests. So unlike many of you, I missed out on previewing the new attractions. I headed over to It's a Small World so hubby wouldn't have to ride it when (if) he showed up. The wait time sign showed nothing - not even 5 minutes - and I walked right on. Somewhere along the way I got a call from hubby saying he thought the weather looked all right and he was on his way - can't recall if I rode Haunted Mansion once before he arrived or waited till after he was at MK. (Doesn't matter; I rode HM a lot.)

The first thing we did once hubby had arrived was get Peter Pan's Flight FastPasses. By this point in the trip I'd done so many things so many times that I'm not 100 percent sure the order in which we visited attractions. While over in the Fantasyland/Liberty Square area we rode Peter Pan's Flight, Haunted Mansion, visited Mickey's PhilHarMagic and the Hall of Presidents, and ate lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Hubby got the fried fish platter and declared it good but not as good as the fried fish at ABC Commissary in DHS; I ordered the grilled salmon and wished I'd gotten the fried shrimp instead. I had the shrimp last year and really enjoyed it; the salmon was healthier but rather bland (I added barbecue sauce to spice it up a little), and while I liked the couscous, the broccoli did nothing for me even though it was cooked about as perfectly as broccoli can be - just tender enough without being mushy.

The Hall of Presidents is one of my favorite attractions, and not just because I saw the Lincoln attraction at the New York World's Fair. Over the past several years I've been slowly reading biographies of every U.S. president, and it's really cool to see the less famous presidents nod their heads when their names are called and know who they are. I'm up to Woodrow Wilson now, which leaves only a couple of presidents more before I get to the ones I'm already familiar with because they were either recent history or current events in my lifetime.

We stopped by Splash Mountain, but it was closed for repairs, so our next stop was Tomorrowland. We got Buzz Lightyear FastPasses and visited Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor while we waited. I asked hubby to act curmudgeonly so maybe he'd get picked to be "that guy," but no luck. Even so, I always love that show. We took a spin on the People Mover and Carousel of Progress (and I think it's time to update the Christmas scene; it seems almost as dated now as the original 1960s final scene would) and then used those FastPasses. Hubby declined my invitation to ride Space Mountain without me - not one of his favorite roller coasters - so we headed back to Splash Mountain. The water was flowing again and folks were streaming into the standby line, but we didn't want to chance a long wait since we had our final meet-up soon, so we got FastPasses and headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. (BTW, yes, there are mermaids now.)

We finished up just in time to meet for Dole Whips. I sent hubby into the (rather long) line to get us both a Dole Whip float while I scouted out a table in a nearby seating area. None were available, so I stood among the tables waiting for a table to free up and watching for the other WDWFG people. A small group of 20-somethings got in line, and a girl in the group kept eyeing the tables - I knew she was going to make a dash for one even though, hello! I was clearly waiting there. Sure enough, she did, but I beat her to it and then gave her the stink-eye (which she gave me back several times; too bad, chickie!). Shortly after I claimed the table Dee arrived, followed by Kristin, Beckah, and a few traveling companions - oops, our table was not big enough! Fortunately a neighboring table had emptied out, so we pulled it over and had room for everyone.

What a great time we had! We all shared our WDW stories and got to know one another. Silly me, it took several minutes before I realized Beckah was from WDWFG also - duh! I was going to take a photo with my little cell phone, but then Kristin whipped out her huge honking professional camera, so I didn't bother. So check out Kristin K.'s trip report to see Dee Beckah, Kristin, and me post-Dole Whip. While I'm thinking of ice cream, I got the float with pineapple juice and vanilla ice cream; hubby got pineapple juice and orange ice cream. Both were delicious.

If I recall correctly, Kristin and Beckah left first. And who should show up then but Robyn and Simon! They'd planned to go to the beach Friday, but changed their plans when Hurricane Sandy started churning up the surf. So we lingered a little longer and caught up with them. Dee handed out some more Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom paraphernalia (thanks very much, Dee!) and then we all headed over to Splash Mountain, since our FastPass window had opened. But bummer! Splash Mountain was closed again! So we never got to ride it this trip - very disappointing since that is one seriously awesome ride.

Friday, October 26 - Magic Kingdom continued

We parted company then, and hubby and I wandered over to (you guessed it) Haunted Mansion for one more ride. By that time we were thinking about heading back to Old Key West to pick up the merchandise we'd had delivered from Animal Kingdom the day before (at OKW you pick up merchandise at the resort store), get some laundry in the washer, and take a quick bath before going to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma. So we walked through Storybook Circus to catch the train to Main Street and the bus back to OKW.

We arrived at AKL a good half hour before our reservation and checked in hoping that, once again, they'd seat us early, but the crowd waiting in the lobby told me that wasn't going to happen. A cast member had a little trouble programming a pager for us; on the second try he declared everything was set and handed the pager to us. We checked out the menu at Jiko, read the sample menu for Boma, and finally found a seat in the Boma lobby. Half an hour passed and we were still waiting. By then everyone who'd arrived before or at the same time as us was seated. After another fifteen minutes I was starting to think maybe the second pager wasn't working; about then a cast member came over and asked if we'd been helped. I explained that we were waiting to be seated; he took our name and our pager and went to check it out.

While we were waiting for the second CM to return, who should show up at Boma but Dee! She'd passed on her Ohana ADR because of the cool, windy weather and instead got a last-minute reservation at Boma.

A few minutes later the CM returned and took us to a table, so I'm pretty sure that first CM had not programmed the pager correctly. We were both very hungry by then, but fortunately Boma is a buffet so we didn't have to wait. There are so many good things at Boma that I don't think it's possible to try them all. I especially enjoyed the couscous with dried fruit, curried coconut seafood stew, braised pork, and Durban-spiced chicken. And of course the zebra domes and Kenyan coffee tarts!

After seriously overeating (hey, we were HUNGRY), we headed for the Downtown Disney bus, and who should show up but Dee again! We were the only people on the bus, and as we passed Pop Century (Dee's resort for this trip), we joked that it was too bad the bus driver wouldn't open the door and let her out there. He overheard us, asked where she was going, and took a detour to Pop Century, shaving a good chunk of time off Dee's trip! He didn't ask where we were going, but it wasn't a big deal since Old Key West is much closer to Downtown Disney and we didn't have to wait terribly long for to get back.

Now, here are two lessons that I learned that Friday evening: First, don't make an ADR at a resort clear on the other side of WDW on the night before you leave. Second, if you're going to do laundry, don't wait till the night before you leave to do it. Between getting in late from dinner and waiting up to get the laundry dry, I didn't get to bed till past 1:00 a.m. Fortunately, we didn't need to be checked out till 11:00 or on the Magical Express till nearly 1:00 Saturday afternoon, but boy was I tired by the time I finally got to bed.

If we hadn't needed to get on a plane the next day, I might have indulged a bit more. But I was intentionally trying not to overindulge to the point of being sick. And then...you guys are young. I used to be able to eat a lot more than I can now.

A few photos from the Magic Kingdom...

Saturday, October 27 - heading home

We were ready to go sometime before 10:00 and called Bell Services to come get us, since we didn't want to lug our checked luggage up to the resort's airline check-in desk. They were quite prompt; I tipped $10 for handling our luggage and giving us a lift in one of their little golf carts. There was a line for airline check-in, but no wait at the resort desk, although I don't think we actually needed to check out in person - everything had been settled up ahead of time.

We were a little late to our 10:00 breakfast reservation at Olivia's, but it was no problem. Breakfast food at Olivia's is mostly standard breakfast fare. I got pancakes and sausage; hubby had an omelet with shrimp, avocado, and pepperjack cheese, home fries, and toast. It was all good, but nothing out of the ordinary. We had more than an hour after breakfast before the Magical Express was due to pick us up, so we finally took time to explore OKW's Hospitality House and the main swimming pool. Other resorts are more visually attractive (Animal Kingdom Lodge comes to mind) or have better amenities and more restaurant choices, but I would absolutely stay at Old Key West again. It's peaceful, laid back, and gives you a feeling of privacy you don't always get at a hotel or timeshare resort.

Once on the Magical Express, I got a kick out of the difference in the video entertainment. On the way to WDW it was about all the things we could do on our vacation. On the way back to the airport it was all about the many other Disney destinations we could visit (and spend buckets full of money). Not that I can think of a better way to spend my vacation money, but come on, give my wallet a little break before you reach into it again!

After giving us a windy day at MK Friday, Hurricane Sandy gave us a bumpy ride home - the fasten seat belt lights NEVER went off. This is a big reason why I prefer taking the train - a smooth flight is less bumpy than a train ride, but a train ride is much less bumpy than a turbulent flight. Fortunately, I survived the two-hour flight without feeling sick, but I had to keep my eyes closed for most of the flight - not seeing the bumping around helped keep the queasiness at bay.

And then we were back in the real world. I don't even have dates picked yet, but I'm already thinking about our next Disney vacation.

Now, the final verdict: was staying at a DVC resort worth the much higher exchange rate? Well...did you notice how often I got up and headed to a park while hubby was still sleeping? I've never been able to do that before, and I hatehatehate having the start of a Disney day delayed because my travelling companions are sleeping in. Some off-site timeshares do provide buses to the parks, but they're a lot less convenient and frequent. So the transportation system alone sold me on staying on-site. Other advantages included proximity to the parks, the superior customer service, extra magic hours, the Magical Express, and the package delivery system. I can't say that we'll never stay off-site again, but I guarantee we'll be staying at Disney resorts as often as possible from now on.

Allie, it depends on hubby along with a lot of other variables. Hubby likes WDW where I LOVELOVELOVELOVE WDW. (I know a lot of you have the same problem.) Towards the end of our October trip, I told him I really want to visit WDW at least once a year and asked if he'd mind if I go alone if he didn't want to go that often. He said it would be fine with him. So first I need to find out whether he wants to go back in a year.

Then there's where to stay. We can't exchange into a DVC resort every year - it takes the equivalent of two weeks of our regular timeshare. So a Disney trip in 2013 would probably mean regular hotel rooms in either a value or moderate resort, especially if it's just me going - I'm not using up two weeks of our timeshare for just myself.

Then pick a time of year regardless of who's going - we both love the Food and Wine Festival, but it might be nice to go another time of year for a change of pace. Say we decide to take a break from Pennsylvania's winter in January or February of 2014 - that's only 15-16 months away, but because it's 2014 we could probably swing a DVC exchange again. Another possibility - take a trip sometime between December 2013 and February 2014 and get an annual pass, then take a second trip for Food and Wine in October or November 2014 on the same pass (if hubby doesn't want to come both times, I would be the only one with an annual pass). Only one of those trips would be a DVC exchange.

So, where to stay? For a DVC exchange, we'll put in an exchange request based on the requirements of that particular trip (do we need two bedrooms because friends are coming, or can we get by with a one-bedroom or even a studio for just the two of us?) Then we'll snatch up the first unit that becomes available because DVC resorts are hard to exchange into if you're not a DVC owner. My top choices would be an Epcot DVC property or Bay Lake, but I'll be quite happy going back to Old Key West or any other resort, for that matter.

If hubby comes and we stay in a Disney hotel instead of a DVC resort, I'd love to try Port Orleans French Quarter based on the rave reviews I've read here. If I'm going alone, I'll probably go value and stay at Pop Century - I would want to keep my expenses as low as possible if hubby weren't coming along.

Just thinking about all this is getting me excited about the next trip, and it's probably a year away if not longer.

BTW, as much as I love WDW, it's always great to come home to this...

The ones in the photo get along pretty well.

But that's not all of them. And we do have two or three who occasionally get into a spat with one another. But for the most part it's a peaceful kitty kingdom.