Disney World, Florida 2002
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~
When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are.
When you wish upon a star your dreams come true.
-- Wonderful World of Disney
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~
Trip To Walt Disney World 2002
Sue, Luke, & Caty
Thursday 15 August 2002
US Air Rochester to Charlotte, NC 0800-1000, turbulance
Charlotte to Orlando 1115-1247, comfortable flight
Mears Shuttle to resort, purchased round-trip ticket.
Disney All-Star Music Resort, Broadway Bldg. -- Very comfortable room, first floor, two double beds. Cable tv channels were mostly Disney-related -- Disney Channel, Disney Today, Disney Radio, Disney Cruises, Overview of Disney World, a few others.
PM-- To Magic Kingdom-- Pirates of the Carribean, Haunted Mansion, train around Magic Kingdom, Main Street USA, Big Thunder Mt., Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, Jungle Cruise. Our tour guide for the Jungle Cruise was hysterical and had us all practically rolling in the aisles. The park was an awesome spectacle, like a dream, perfectly manicured and tidy, no trash, everything spotless.
Friday 16 August 2002
Magic Kingdom
Tomorrowland-- Timekeeper, Space Mountain. Very hot-- returned to hotel to swim for the afternoon. Music resort consisted of about 10 buildings or so, over 700 rooms, and 2 swimming pools, one shaped like a guitar and the other like a piano. Miss Caty spent a majority of her time in the pools.
Magic Kingdom in evening-- Spectromagic Parade, Fantasy in the Sky fireworks over Cinderella's Castle-- including the graceful decent of Tinkerbell on a cable, a thrill for those of us recalling this from Walt Disney's television show.
Saturday, 17 August 2002
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Breakfast at Animal Kingdom's Rainforest Café. We loved this breakfast and the café's elaborate rainforest decorating and special effects, much better than the Rainforest Café in Niagara Falls, Canada. Our breakfast was great, the waiter personable and sought to please, and we had lots of fun looking and listening.
Oasis- Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is not done justice by pictures. It's massive, extraordinary size is not visible in photographs, nor the amazing details of its "bark." Inside the tree is a rather large auditorium where "It's Tough To Be A Bug" is viewed, refreshingly cool on a sultry August day.
Asia-- Flights of Wonder (bird show), Kali River Rapids (a favorite of the kids, one is warned that you will get wet and might get drenched), Maharajah Jungle Trek. Rafiki's Planet Watch-- Wildlife Express Train, Habitat Habit, Conservation Station, Affection Section.
Africa-- Pangemi Forest Exploration Trail, Mombasa Marketplace, Kilimanjaro Safari. For the safari, we are loaded into trucks (Deuce and a Halfs, like "Grandpa" drove in Germany in WWII), and drive through a steppe where wild animals live in a refuge, elephants, giraffes, boars, gazelles, etc. Our tourguide/driver gives appropriate narrative regarding the animals and "natives" as we assist conservation police catching poachers. Caty was NOT fond of driving over the rickety bridge which we were warned could fall any second, and began to-- Disney special effect done with hydrolics.
Festival of the Lion King was magnificent!! I had never seen The Lion King and was able to get an 11th hour rental of the movie as my library reserve arrived the day before we departed. The kids and I loved it and this made the performance all the more memorable. The music, lighting, costumes, lively performing were spectacular.
It's Tough To Be A Bug-- A 3D show which holds some surprises which makes everyone jump! To Hotel @ 1730 to swim. Ordered a pizza dinner for the kids. Swam until midnight, to their delight.
Sunday 18 August 2002
Disney MGM Studios
Kids did Tower of Terror. I sat on a street bench and savored the ambiance.... Hunted for Disney trading pins. Luke had a sore throat and wasn't feeling well. After getting aspirin and sore throat losenges from Disney Nurse, Luke's temp. 99.2şF orally, took in the A/C and chatted about her job as a nurse at DisneyWorld (good job!), we returned to our room. Luke & I slept, Caty swam, natch....
PM-- Typhoon Lagoon Disney Water Park
Castaway Creek x5, Shark's Reef snorkel x2, Typhoon Lagoon Surf Pool. Visited the park ice cream shack-- ordered Garbage Pail x3-- a regular sized sand bucket (repleat with shovel) full of ice cream, hot fudge, caramel sauce, strawberries, marshmallows, chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, crushed waffle cones, whipped cream, and cherries, $7.10 each! Ok, so the kids wanted their own and this being a dream vacation, I indulged them! How much did we each eat? First came rain sprinkles and then the park was closed because of a storm warning, and we skeedadled back to our room, with very full tummies! Caty and Luke each ate about Ľ of their bucket and I finished about ˝ of mine, leaving disappointed that I couldn't relax and enjoy it.
Rested in evening, Luke very congested, Caty exhausted, bought sore throat spray and kid's Tylenol cold prep. Luke and I briefly visited Guitar Center in Downtown Disney West Side.
Monday 19 August 2002
EPCOT
Luke very sick to stomach. Bought and gave him Pepto Bismol. Allowed him to sleep later. Caty and I returned to Disney MGM Celebrity 5 & 10˘ Store for Aerosmith Rock & Roll Rollercoaster logo drum practice pad & drum sticks. Luke requested red, white, and blue drum sticks, Caty buys rainbow colored drum sticks.
Midmorning we go to Epcot (acronym for Experimental Community Of Tomorrow). I push Luke around in wheelchair. It is a very, very hot day. We skip Future World and wander around the world in the World Showcase. Each nation has a small plaza with native architecture, employees in native dress and speaking native tongue to each other, selling native-made souvenirs, all very nice and difficult to resist. The Chinese store has the most wonderful items for sale, Japanese store Misukoshi also excellent items, their Japanese ceramic bowls and plates very affordable. The kids were thrilled with their Pokémon and YuGiOh card purchases. The tea sets and rice bowls were lovely and each of us chose our own chopsticks for about $3.75 a pair. We rushed through later nations as we were very overheated.
Mexico-- purchased a small drum. Norway. China-- Lots of interesting stuff to buy. Caty bought a large panda marionette which got lots of laughs as I "walked" it through the airports. Outpost (Africa). Germany-- bought Caty's American Girl doll a pair of glasses. They custom create beautiful 18" dolls there, with hand made clothing, much of it native German dress. Lovely beer steins. Italy-- Chocolate Gelato, the best I've eaten since Italy 2000!! USA, a lovely historic pavillion modelled to colonial specs, reminding me of Colonial Williamsburg. Japan-- Enviable Japanese Gardens, architecture, native drumming exhibition. Great store where we bought ceramic bowls & plates, chopsticks, Pokémon & YuGiOh cards, Massimo "Hello Kitty" merchandise for girls. Also had lots of lovely bonsai & bamboo plants and accessories. Morocco, France, UK, Canada-- mostly rushed through seeking reprieve from the heat. Back to resort to rest, sleep, cool off in pool.
2030, at my suggestion and Luke's urging, we return to Epcot for the show-- IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, as the sky above World Showcase Lagoon transforms into a breathtaking kaleidoscope of fireworks, color, and light-- all set to a moving musical score." The initial firey "explosion" a good ˝ mile across the lagoon, was so very hot that we could feel the heat from it! The show and fireworks were an exceptional thrill, finishing our vacation spectacularly.
Epcot is a park not to be done in a day, or less. If I had my druthers, I would return to spend several days wandering Epcot to see all there is to see and learn from its exhibits.
Tuesday, 20 August 2002
Shuttle to Orlando Airport 0935, direct trip
US Air Orlando to Pittsburgh 1300- 1530ish
Pittsburgh to Rochester - arrival 5:47 PM. Met by Mom & Dad and Gary. Tired and glad to be home. House didn't look all that bad for 5 days without me. Cats glad to see us home too.
I've told Mom that NEXT YEAR they will have to go with us!!
~8-)(-8=
I'll be posting pictures on my home page as soon as available.
Back to Home Page
Copyright © 2002 by Susyne
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page