BethC
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 18, 1999
Day 7 - Friday November 3, 2000
Weather - 80's, clear, beautiful!
Guests of Honor:
Click here to read Day 6
We're up early once again and finish packing up. We drop our bags with bell services and say good-bye to our lovely studio in the Boardwalk Villas. We stroll out to the bus stop, taking our time, because we know we've been lucky with the transportation all week and that luck is bound to change. But, not today! As we approach the stop we see our bus pulling in! We are soon whisked off to the Magic Kingdom for one last day of fun.
Jake wants to ride the cars and Chris wants to go look at - surprise! - pins. Melanie waffles for a minute and then decides to go with Chris. Now, I ask you, what kid would rather go looking for pins than ride a classic attraction? The child of a pin-geek, that's who! LOL!! Jake and I work our way over to the Tomorrowland Speedway and luckily it is still early enough to get on with a pretty short wai t. It was so short that we decide to take a quick spin on Buzz Lightyear, even though we were supposed to meet Chris and Minnie at the exit of the Speedway.
The line for Buzz is also short and we are quickly off saving the universe. We hustled back to the Speedway and tried to act nonchalant, like we'd just been standing there waiting forever when Chris and Melanie show up. They saw right through us though, and knew where we had been! Curses, foiled again! We all walk hand in hand over to Mickey's Toontown Fair and wait for the rope drop. There are no characters out this morning, which did seem a little odd. Usually you are greeted with all of Mickey's friends when Toontown opens. Minutes later we are rushing with the herd to Goofy's Barnstormer. We are rewarded with the first ride of the day and zoom through Goofy's Wiseacre Farm, crashing right through the barn. Well, that was so much fun, we decide to do it again. And again.
We finally come to our senses and dec ide to slow it down with a leisurely walk through Minnie's House. This is the best time of the day for this since there are very few people around. We snap some pictures in Minnie's living room and Melanie and Jake spend a good long time playing with t h e gadgets in the kitchen. Chris and I got a real kick out of listening to Minnie's answering machine. No trip to Toontown would be complete without a visit to Mickey's House so we venture over there next. We all love the Mickey Mouse shaped checker set, and wish we had one at home of our own to play!
It's time for some shopping at the County Bounty and we take a detour to go see some characters. We pick the Mickey's friends line and are treated to a character meet and greet with Minnie Mouse, Pluto and Goofy. I just love the character greetings inside the buildings like this. There is a nice backdrop, the lighting is always right, and the people all form nice, orderly lines. We snapped some pictures and then it was time to leave Toontown.
We head for Fantasyland but are stopped by a crazy desire to ride the teacups one last time. We had to wait a couple of turns, but soon we were spinning out of control in our own pink teacup. Did I ever tell you how we always have to race for e ither a pink or purple teacup? Heaven forbid we ever end up with a green or yellow one! We exit the ride dizzily to the amusement of Chris, who always refuses to ride this ride. We then walk over to Winnie the Pooh and grab fastpasses for later.
It seems the crowds have arrived. As we wander through Fantasyland, there are people everywhere and waits of longer than 30 minutes at most attractions. We quickly head out of here and as we pass through the castle we see they're getting ready for the Every Day's A Holiday show. Melanie really wants to see this so Chris decides to go look for some more pins. It's Jake's turn to waffle, and this time he decides to go with Chris. We all agree to meet up at Tony's in time f or our 12:00pm PS.
Minnie and I grab a piece of pavement and watch the band warm up. I think this is the first time we have seen this show in its entirety and we both agree it's a very good show. We watch the Disney characters go through the holidays f rom Valentines Day to 4th of July to Christmas, with every other holiday thrown in for good measure. There is lots of singing and dancing and we applaud loudly at the end, while I glance nervously at the clock on the castle. It's almost 12:00pm and we have to maneuver through all these people and make it all the way up Main Street.
We hold hands tightly and make the mad dash, bobbing and weaving, cutting through stores, up the curb and down until we finally arrive breathlessly at Tony's Town Square, where Chris gives us the evil eye. I put our names in precisely at 12:00pm and the restaurant officially opens. Since we arrived so late, we watch as practically the whole lobby empties out before we're finally called back. We're seated on the pat io by the most wonderful host. He was just full of Disney spirit and so much fun. Our server, on the other hand, was such a dud we quickly nickname him Mr. Personality.
It is wonderful to dine on the patio, watching the goings-on out on Main Street. The temperature once again was perfect, and with the ceiling fans softly whirring away, we declared this our new favorite lunch spot. We place our order and our server brought out the most delicious Italian bread and tomato dipping sauce. We enjoy the beauty of the afternoon and watch as entrees are brought to all the tables around us. We join in the congratulations of a newly married couple as various servers come out and sing That's Amore to them. Our entrees are finally brought out by a different server, but he has only Jake's and my spaghetti and meatball (now, that's-a meatball! This thing was huge!).
We finally flag down our server for some drink refills and he looks at Chris and asks, where's your meal? Chris shrugs his shoulders and our waiter runs off in a huff. I suppose it was our fault that we hadn't received our meal, huh? LOL!! He returns with Chris' calzone of the day and Melanie's Mickey shaped pepperoni pizza. Ahh, all is right with the world again, and we enjoy a most delicious lunch on the patio of one of our favorite restaurants, in our favorite park at our favorite place in the world. Okay, so we're getting a little nostalgic here, but cut me some slack, it's our last day!
We start the long and tedious proces s of waiting for the check. Our server was nowhere in sight, so I take the time to take the kids to the bathroom. When I return, I figure it will be time to go. Nope! Unfortunately we still haven't received the check. We finally flag down another ser ver and ask him to please find our waiter. Our guy finally comes back with the check and Chris quickly hands the credit card to him so he won't run off again. Having learned our lesson the last time, though, I have Chris quickly scan the bill to make su re it is correct. Everything is fine and the bill is very reasonable considering we did get the 2 kids meals free with our annual passes.
It's now time for our fastpass return at Winnie the Pooh. As we enter the line the cast member notices my D IS t-shirt and we strike up a conversation. It seems he is good friends with Pete and is registered on the DIS as Irish Buddha (or something like that). We happily walk to the front of the line where we are shown to our very own honey pot. Off we go fighting the blustery day, bouncing with Tigger, playing with the Heffalumps and Woozles, an d being carried away as the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down. We cheer for Pooh and Piglet as we leave and exit back out into the heavy crowd of Fantasyland.
The crowds are getting crazy but Jake wants to try to ride Big Thunder Mountain just one more time. We work our way through the masses only to arrive at the attraction and find out that is will be closed for three weeks! Good thing we ro de it the other day! We debate about riding Splash Mountain, but none of us really feels like it, when we hear the whistle of the train. And away we go!! We take a quick spin around the park on the WDW Railroad, getting off at the Main St reet Station. We say a tearful good-bye to the Magic Kingdom as we pass through the turnstiles for the final time.
Here comes a boat for the Wilderness Lodge so we decide we'll go check out the new Wilderness Lodge Villas. We enjoy a beautiful ride with the breeze blowing through our hair. We roam around the Wilderness Lodge a bit and find ourselves at the playground overlooking Bay Lake. It's a wonderfully serene setting and Chris and I sink in two lounge chairs as the kids race around playing. All of a sudden I was so tired and I just sat there with my eyes closed relaxing and enjoying the day. I guess Chris thought I was going to fall asleep so he woke me out of my daydreaming and we poked around the villas a little bit. They were still finishing up with some landscaping so we couldn't get real close, but we did see the outside of the buildings and the pool area. It's very beautiful and I think we may stay here someday in the future.
We then spend some time in the gift shop and try to figure out where to go next. Since I had packed the kids bathing sui ts in my backpack we decide to go back to the Boardwalk and swim one last time. Of course the question is, HOW do we get back? We are near the bus stop so we just decide to take the next bus that comes. It ends up being a Crockett bus which takes us to the Ticket and Transportation Center. We debate for a moment about taking the monorail to Epcot, doing a few things there and then walking back to the Boardwalk, but I think we're all just a little tired out today. So, we hopped the express monorail to the Magic Kingdom, where we discover a Boardwalk bus is just now arriving. What a way to end our Disney travels on a high note!
Back at the Boardwalk, Chris runs up to the pin cart, while Melanie, Jake and I hit the pool. It's a little bit crowded today but we still manage to find an umbrella table. The kids are off splishing and splashing, while I'm off in search of the pool bar. I grab a strawberry daiquiri and lean back in my chair. Ahh, this is the life! I spend the time thinking of the wonderful vacation we've had. When the kids have had enough, we pack up and find Chris still at the pin cart. He says good-bye to his new best friend, Leighton, the pin cart guy, and we trudge back through the lobby to pick up our luggage.
Out front we have bell services call us a cab to take us to the Ramada Inn. One arrives shortly and we're off. Goo d-bye Boardwalk! We had a great time, and don't worry, we will be back!!
The cab driver has absolutely no idea where the Ramada is so I try to direct him the best way I know how. It's a good thing I picked a hotel that I knew I could find!! Sur e enough, I show him the way and we soon pull up front. We enter the lobby and I get us all checked in. They've added some ridiculous $1.50 fee for using the safe. Now, I knew we weren't even going to leave the room until we checked out in the morning, but at this point I was too tired to argue. The bellman grabs our bags without even as king and takes us out to our room. It's late, it's dark, we're depressed because our vacation is over, we're all whipped out and extraordinarily tired. We really just can't wait to plop on the bed. The light is on at our room, and the bellman says perhaps our room is not ready yet. Understand that it is now about 6:30 at night. The bed covers have been pulled back and it's obvious that this room is already occupied!!
The bellman calls the front desk and gets a new room assignment and we're off trudgiing behind him once again. 2 buildings and a flight of stairs later, we are shown to our new room. It was not the best and I wasnt' too happy but let's just say I was not impressed and will not be recommending this hotel anymore. Apparently some things have changed since when we've first stayed here. We all plop and Chris goes runs down to the lobby to find a pay phone to confirm our pick-up with Tiffany and to check if there are any flight changes. He also heads off in search of some dinner for us. The last time we stayed here there was a great little pizza place in the lobby, but that was closed when we checked in.
I give the kids their baths and Chris saves the day by bringing in a pizza! It seems the little pizza place just opened a little late this evening. We enjoy the delicious pizza and pretty much crash after setting an early wake-up call for the morning.
Saturday, November 4
We're up and at 'em early this morning. We pack up our suitcases and are down at the lobby by 6:00am. Sami from Tiffany has already arrived to pick us up, though he isn't due here for another 15 minutes. I quickly check out and Sami helps us load all of our luggage into the trunk of his shiny new town car. We enjoy a peaceful ride to the airport, chatting with Sami, who tells us tales of some of his clients. There was this one guy who stayed at the Contemporary for seven weeks and he had Sami pick him up and ta ke him to Ponderosa for breakfast and lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY!! We got a real kick out of that one! He told us lots of fun stories, and too soon, we were back at the airport. We say good-bye to Sami, and are able to check our bags with the skycap. We're glad we did when we saw the long lines inside the terminal.
We have some time to kill so we wander around the airport, browsing through the Disney Store. The kids play for a bit in the playground and we arrive at our gate just as they are board ing our rows! Our flights back were uneventful and we arrived home unscathed.
Thus ends an other fabulous Czada family vacation.
Next trip: The Czadas Board the Disney Wonder!
Thanks for reading everybody, and until next time, may you all have Disney dreams!
Beth C
Co-Moderator - Transportation Board - Getting you from here to there
Co-Moderator - Rewards Board - Getting you there cheaper!
[This message was edited by BethC on 11-27-00 at 10:58 PM.]
Weather - 80's, clear, beautiful!
Guests of Honor:
- * Chris - 34, Disney fanatic, pin fan
* Beth - 34, DIS addict, Boardwalk fan
* Melanie - 7, aka Minnie, Luna Park fan
* Jacob - 5, aka Jake, Big Thunder fan
Click here to read Day 6
We're up early once again and finish packing up. We drop our bags with bell services and say good-bye to our lovely studio in the Boardwalk Villas. We stroll out to the bus stop, taking our time, because we know we've been lucky with the transportation all week and that luck is bound to change. But, not today! As we approach the stop we see our bus pulling in! We are soon whisked off to the Magic Kingdom for one last day of fun.
Jake wants to ride the cars and Chris wants to go look at - surprise! - pins. Melanie waffles for a minute and then decides to go with Chris. Now, I ask you, what kid would rather go looking for pins than ride a classic attraction? The child of a pin-geek, that's who! LOL!! Jake and I work our way over to the Tomorrowland Speedway and luckily it is still early enough to get on with a pretty short wai t. It was so short that we decide to take a quick spin on Buzz Lightyear, even though we were supposed to meet Chris and Minnie at the exit of the Speedway.
The line for Buzz is also short and we are quickly off saving the universe. We hustled back to the Speedway and tried to act nonchalant, like we'd just been standing there waiting forever when Chris and Melanie show up. They saw right through us though, and knew where we had been! Curses, foiled again! We all walk hand in hand over to Mickey's Toontown Fair and wait for the rope drop. There are no characters out this morning, which did seem a little odd. Usually you are greeted with all of Mickey's friends when Toontown opens. Minutes later we are rushing with the herd to Goofy's Barnstormer. We are rewarded with the first ride of the day and zoom through Goofy's Wiseacre Farm, crashing right through the barn. Well, that was so much fun, we decide to do it again. And again.
We finally come to our senses and dec ide to slow it down with a leisurely walk through Minnie's House. This is the best time of the day for this since there are very few people around. We snap some pictures in Minnie's living room and Melanie and Jake spend a good long time playing with t h e gadgets in the kitchen. Chris and I got a real kick out of listening to Minnie's answering machine. No trip to Toontown would be complete without a visit to Mickey's House so we venture over there next. We all love the Mickey Mouse shaped checker set, and wish we had one at home of our own to play!
It's time for some shopping at the County Bounty and we take a detour to go see some characters. We pick the Mickey's friends line and are treated to a character meet and greet with Minnie Mouse, Pluto and Goofy. I just love the character greetings inside the buildings like this. There is a nice backdrop, the lighting is always right, and the people all form nice, orderly lines. We snapped some pictures and then it was time to leave Toontown.
We head for Fantasyland but are stopped by a crazy desire to ride the teacups one last time. We had to wait a couple of turns, but soon we were spinning out of control in our own pink teacup. Did I ever tell you how we always have to race for e ither a pink or purple teacup? Heaven forbid we ever end up with a green or yellow one! We exit the ride dizzily to the amusement of Chris, who always refuses to ride this ride. We then walk over to Winnie the Pooh and grab fastpasses for later.
It seems the crowds have arrived. As we wander through Fantasyland, there are people everywhere and waits of longer than 30 minutes at most attractions. We quickly head out of here and as we pass through the castle we see they're getting ready for the Every Day's A Holiday show. Melanie really wants to see this so Chris decides to go look for some more pins. It's Jake's turn to waffle, and this time he decides to go with Chris. We all agree to meet up at Tony's in time f or our 12:00pm PS.
Minnie and I grab a piece of pavement and watch the band warm up. I think this is the first time we have seen this show in its entirety and we both agree it's a very good show. We watch the Disney characters go through the holidays f rom Valentines Day to 4th of July to Christmas, with every other holiday thrown in for good measure. There is lots of singing and dancing and we applaud loudly at the end, while I glance nervously at the clock on the castle. It's almost 12:00pm and we have to maneuver through all these people and make it all the way up Main Street.
We hold hands tightly and make the mad dash, bobbing and weaving, cutting through stores, up the curb and down until we finally arrive breathlessly at Tony's Town Square, where Chris gives us the evil eye. I put our names in precisely at 12:00pm and the restaurant officially opens. Since we arrived so late, we watch as practically the whole lobby empties out before we're finally called back. We're seated on the pat io by the most wonderful host. He was just full of Disney spirit and so much fun. Our server, on the other hand, was such a dud we quickly nickname him Mr. Personality.
It is wonderful to dine on the patio, watching the goings-on out on Main Street. The temperature once again was perfect, and with the ceiling fans softly whirring away, we declared this our new favorite lunch spot. We place our order and our server brought out the most delicious Italian bread and tomato dipping sauce. We enjoy the beauty of the afternoon and watch as entrees are brought to all the tables around us. We join in the congratulations of a newly married couple as various servers come out and sing That's Amore to them. Our entrees are finally brought out by a different server, but he has only Jake's and my spaghetti and meatball (now, that's-a meatball! This thing was huge!).
We finally flag down our server for some drink refills and he looks at Chris and asks, where's your meal? Chris shrugs his shoulders and our waiter runs off in a huff. I suppose it was our fault that we hadn't received our meal, huh? LOL!! He returns with Chris' calzone of the day and Melanie's Mickey shaped pepperoni pizza. Ahh, all is right with the world again, and we enjoy a most delicious lunch on the patio of one of our favorite restaurants, in our favorite park at our favorite place in the world. Okay, so we're getting a little nostalgic here, but cut me some slack, it's our last day!
We start the long and tedious proces s of waiting for the check. Our server was nowhere in sight, so I take the time to take the kids to the bathroom. When I return, I figure it will be time to go. Nope! Unfortunately we still haven't received the check. We finally flag down another ser ver and ask him to please find our waiter. Our guy finally comes back with the check and Chris quickly hands the credit card to him so he won't run off again. Having learned our lesson the last time, though, I have Chris quickly scan the bill to make su re it is correct. Everything is fine and the bill is very reasonable considering we did get the 2 kids meals free with our annual passes.
It's now time for our fastpass return at Winnie the Pooh. As we enter the line the cast member notices my D IS t-shirt and we strike up a conversation. It seems he is good friends with Pete and is registered on the DIS as Irish Buddha (or something like that). We happily walk to the front of the line where we are shown to our very own honey pot. Off we go fighting the blustery day, bouncing with Tigger, playing with the Heffalumps and Woozles, an d being carried away as the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down. We cheer for Pooh and Piglet as we leave and exit back out into the heavy crowd of Fantasyland.
The crowds are getting crazy but Jake wants to try to ride Big Thunder Mountain just one more time. We work our way through the masses only to arrive at the attraction and find out that is will be closed for three weeks! Good thing we ro de it the other day! We debate about riding Splash Mountain, but none of us really feels like it, when we hear the whistle of the train. And away we go!! We take a quick spin around the park on the WDW Railroad, getting off at the Main St reet Station. We say a tearful good-bye to the Magic Kingdom as we pass through the turnstiles for the final time.
Here comes a boat for the Wilderness Lodge so we decide we'll go check out the new Wilderness Lodge Villas. We enjoy a beautiful ride with the breeze blowing through our hair. We roam around the Wilderness Lodge a bit and find ourselves at the playground overlooking Bay Lake. It's a wonderfully serene setting and Chris and I sink in two lounge chairs as the kids race around playing. All of a sudden I was so tired and I just sat there with my eyes closed relaxing and enjoying the day. I guess Chris thought I was going to fall asleep so he woke me out of my daydreaming and we poked around the villas a little bit. They were still finishing up with some landscaping so we couldn't get real close, but we did see the outside of the buildings and the pool area. It's very beautiful and I think we may stay here someday in the future.
We then spend some time in the gift shop and try to figure out where to go next. Since I had packed the kids bathing sui ts in my backpack we decide to go back to the Boardwalk and swim one last time. Of course the question is, HOW do we get back? We are near the bus stop so we just decide to take the next bus that comes. It ends up being a Crockett bus which takes us to the Ticket and Transportation Center. We debate for a moment about taking the monorail to Epcot, doing a few things there and then walking back to the Boardwalk, but I think we're all just a little tired out today. So, we hopped the express monorail to the Magic Kingdom, where we discover a Boardwalk bus is just now arriving. What a way to end our Disney travels on a high note!
Back at the Boardwalk, Chris runs up to the pin cart, while Melanie, Jake and I hit the pool. It's a little bit crowded today but we still manage to find an umbrella table. The kids are off splishing and splashing, while I'm off in search of the pool bar. I grab a strawberry daiquiri and lean back in my chair. Ahh, this is the life! I spend the time thinking of the wonderful vacation we've had. When the kids have had enough, we pack up and find Chris still at the pin cart. He says good-bye to his new best friend, Leighton, the pin cart guy, and we trudge back through the lobby to pick up our luggage.
Out front we have bell services call us a cab to take us to the Ramada Inn. One arrives shortly and we're off. Goo d-bye Boardwalk! We had a great time, and don't worry, we will be back!!
The cab driver has absolutely no idea where the Ramada is so I try to direct him the best way I know how. It's a good thing I picked a hotel that I knew I could find!! Sur e enough, I show him the way and we soon pull up front. We enter the lobby and I get us all checked in. They've added some ridiculous $1.50 fee for using the safe. Now, I knew we weren't even going to leave the room until we checked out in the morning, but at this point I was too tired to argue. The bellman grabs our bags without even as king and takes us out to our room. It's late, it's dark, we're depressed because our vacation is over, we're all whipped out and extraordinarily tired. We really just can't wait to plop on the bed. The light is on at our room, and the bellman says perhaps our room is not ready yet. Understand that it is now about 6:30 at night. The bed covers have been pulled back and it's obvious that this room is already occupied!!
The bellman calls the front desk and gets a new room assignment and we're off trudgiing behind him once again. 2 buildings and a flight of stairs later, we are shown to our new room. It was not the best and I wasnt' too happy but let's just say I was not impressed and will not be recommending this hotel anymore. Apparently some things have changed since when we've first stayed here. We all plop and Chris goes runs down to the lobby to find a pay phone to confirm our pick-up with Tiffany and to check if there are any flight changes. He also heads off in search of some dinner for us. The last time we stayed here there was a great little pizza place in the lobby, but that was closed when we checked in.
I give the kids their baths and Chris saves the day by bringing in a pizza! It seems the little pizza place just opened a little late this evening. We enjoy the delicious pizza and pretty much crash after setting an early wake-up call for the morning.
Saturday, November 4
We're up and at 'em early this morning. We pack up our suitcases and are down at the lobby by 6:00am. Sami from Tiffany has already arrived to pick us up, though he isn't due here for another 15 minutes. I quickly check out and Sami helps us load all of our luggage into the trunk of his shiny new town car. We enjoy a peaceful ride to the airport, chatting with Sami, who tells us tales of some of his clients. There was this one guy who stayed at the Contemporary for seven weeks and he had Sami pick him up and ta ke him to Ponderosa for breakfast and lunch EVERY SINGLE DAY!! We got a real kick out of that one! He told us lots of fun stories, and too soon, we were back at the airport. We say good-bye to Sami, and are able to check our bags with the skycap. We're glad we did when we saw the long lines inside the terminal.
We have some time to kill so we wander around the airport, browsing through the Disney Store. The kids play for a bit in the playground and we arrive at our gate just as they are board ing our rows! Our flights back were uneventful and we arrived home unscathed.
Thus ends an other fabulous Czada family vacation.
Next trip: The Czadas Board the Disney Wonder!
Thanks for reading everybody, and until next time, may you all have Disney dreams!
Beth C
Co-Moderator - Transportation Board - Getting you from here to there
Co-Moderator - Rewards Board - Getting you there cheaper!
[This message was edited by BethC on 11-27-00 at 10:58 PM.]
