Dede - October 2006

I had made reservations on Jet blue since I liked them so well last year and decided to use magical express. Had ordered a preferred room at all stars music, made reservations with mears to go to universals halloween horror nights my first night there, rented a scooter, made my dining reservations, Figured I was all set.

I was leaving on sat morning at 6 am.. Friday I got up early to finish listing my stuff on ebay about 9 am. and that night I had my cousin coming over to babysit while I was gone, I tried laying down at 10 pm and tossed and turned til 1 am and didn't sleep a wink, so decided to get up and take my shower and leave early. I was on the road by 2, stopped at denny's for breakfast and got to the airport off property parking place and left my car.

Security at the airport wasn't bad. Got thru fairly quickly. I had brought about 150 disney pins to trade and put them in a separate ziploc bag in my carry on. I had the other suitcase checked in for the magical express. The guy at security made a comment about me having "about 1000 pins" Got on the plane and was informed the little tvs weren't working. but it is only about a 45 min flight to JFK . Got on another plane there, the terminals were only a couple gates apart, so that was good, and the rest of the flight went well.

Arrived in orlando at 1045 am. Went downstairs and found magical express desk and check in was pretty fast. There was a big line to get on the busses but it moved fairly fast as each bus loaded.

Had two stops before all stars music, coronado and sports, and arrived at the resort before noon. I went to the desk, hoping to get my room so I could get a nap before Mears came to pick me up at 4:35 but no such luck. I had ordered a ground floor room close to the food court. The lady told me that I had a poolside room, which I knew was close and made me happy but it wasn't ready yet and to call this number by 3 it should be ready. The guy from randy's mobility was there when I arrived and I got my scooter. It worked well and would go really fast.

Went to the food court, and even tho I had the food plan, decided to grab something to eat and paid for it because I had my meals budgeted out for each day. I had reservations for Hoop de doo during the week, which took two table service credits, and figured that would make up for the night I was at universal so it would come out even.

Had lunch, went in the gift shop and looked around and traded some pins with the cast members there and tried about 8 times between noon and 3 to see if my room was ready. It wasn't .I even asked if they had a different ground floor room and was told no. I thought of going swimming, but the pool was closed for maintenance. I was starting to get annoyed by then, and quite tired since I had had no sleep since the day before.

Well I called again like 3:30 and they told me the reason the room wasn't ready, was they had shampooed the carpet and it wasn't dry. proably be ready by 4 or 430. I told her I had a bus coming at 430 and wanted my room since they said they would be available by 3. and didn't want to have to leave my pins and stuff with luggage services. Between 330 and 415 I called like 8 times and they still were saying it wasn't ready. I waz still sitting in the lobby.

There was a disney employee there helping another group and I asked her is there some way you could help me?? and I explained the problem. She said she would check into it and get back to me. She sent someone else back and they gave me a new key and told me my room number and it was ready. I got a ground floor king size bed in the second set of the calypso buildings so I dashed over, dropped off my carry on and waited for mears. Mears was $15 round trip.They were pretty much on time.

Got over to Universal and boy what a line! I couldn't believe all the people going over on that escalator. Just wall to wall.

Luckily they let me in a handicapped entrance so I didn't have to wait so long. The horror nights were something else, because it was a saturday, they charged more I think it was 44.95 and I had paid for my ticket ahead online and they wouldn't let you buy just the horror night ticket, you had to buy a universal ticket at the same time, which came to around $100. Went to the kiosk and picked it up and saved the other ticket for another trip.

They gave you a special map of the 5 haunted houses and had a few of the regular attractions open too and two special shows. What I didn't like was they had an express pass you had to pay $20 or $40 extra for which guaranteed you immediate access to the haunted houses, and the standby lines were like 20 minutes at first and with a few minutes had gone to 60 minutes. They would not let ANY people from the standby line in til the other people had gone in which meant you just waited and waited . That part I was not happy with at all. I did not think it was fair that I had to pay all that money and then not even get to see everything just so that universal could make extra money. I was so tired in the lines, I was falling asleep in my scooter.The 60 min waits turned into 90 minutes. and I only ended up getting into 3 of the haunted houses and no shows. I did go into twister and jaws tho. Their waits were only like 5 minutes. The haunted houses I did get into were good. They had some areas of fog, that was hard to negotiate thru with the scooter. I had some spaghetti at one of their restaurants which didn't taste good at all. I left about 11 pm as mears said the last bus was at 11:30, so I got on that. when I got out there, there was a bus waiting with the bus driver sleeping in it, then another bus showed up. and split up the waiting crowd. I was sure glad to get back to the hotel to get to sleep, I figured out after that, I had been up for 40 hours! No wonder I was tired out.

Sunday Oct 1.
Today was my day at mgm, I didn't wake up til almost 11 am and was glad I had my scooter, Took the bus over to the park. I had lunch at a place near the honey I shrunk the kids playground. It was a pulled pork sandwich with fries and chocolate cake for dessert, which I kept for later. I seen what they meant by tons of food on the dining plan. I was never hungry. I usually eat at prime time, but this time I decided to try hollywood n vine for dinner. It was a buffet style meal and I didn't like hardly anything on it. The only things I really liked was the pot roast and mashed potatoes,and some of the desserts and I could have gotten them at the primetime with the funny atmosphere. I probably won't eat there again, but I was glad I got to try it with the dining plan. I _went_ (file://went/) on tower of terror, the backstage tour, great movie ride, muppets, and traded lots of pins. I got tired pretty quickly and decided not to stay for fantasmic after the buffet, so ended up going in the gift shop and getting a couple of pirates of the carribean tee shirts for souvenirs for home and had them shipped to the hotel. I left there around 7, I think.

I had been really worried about the weather as the computer had predicted around 90 every day, but it wasn't humid, and had a little breeze most days so it wasn't bad.

Monday Oct 2

I had tickets for Mickeys halloween party tonight and also reservations at Liberty tree tavern. Supposedly I got the last reservation for 6:55 pm.

Magic kingdom is my favorite park and I was excited to be there as usual.I started out at my favorite, the haunted mansion, They had changed the handicapped entrance area from my last visit in Nov, but did still let me park my scooter by the crypt and go into the stretch room by the "servants quarters" door. I went in Mickeys philaharmagic, snow white, pooh, buzz lightyear. country bear jamboree, Most waits were 10 min or less, went into small world and then went over and had lunch at pecos bills. there was no cheese sauce which was disappointing.

Went over and got a fastpass for splash mountain and rode thunder mountain, went back and rode splash, my second favorite ride, but I have trouble getting in and out of the log as I dont have the strength in my arms.

I went to tiki room, the jungle cruise, watched the afternoon parade, then went to tomorrowland rode buzz lightyear again, the ge carousel of progress, peoplemover, went in some gift shops and traded pins, went in stitch's encounter. They had someone handing out the halloween green wristbands for the halloween party so I got that, then stopped in the restroom to put on my costume. I had mouse ears, a tail bow tie and brought black paint to paint my forehead like mickeys.

I went over to liberty tavern, and it was only like 6 and they told me to come back at 630 to check in. So I just waited. Checked in and still had to wait close to a half hour for them to take me to my table. It was billed as a family style turkey dinner. They brought out a big salad, which I refused, rolls, then came out with a plate of turkey,stuffing, ham with a mustard glaze, and a slice of really rare roast beef. Also a bowl of stouffers macaroni and cheese, green beans, and mashed potatoes and gravy. My family had asked me to bring home some "pixie dust" (those mickey mouse head confetti things) and I tried to buy it in tinkerbell treasures but they didn't have it. I asked the waitress about it cuz I seen some on the floor. She asked how many were in my family and I said 2 more. and she came out with two little inch square boxes filled with pixie dust. That was so cool! I took them home.

Minnie mouse, chip and dale,goofy and pluto came to the table. all dressed in masks and costumes. I asked for more turkey so they brought 4 more slices and was offered apple cobbler for dessert but I wanted to get out to the party so I turned it down. I would return here, as I did enjoy it.

I went outside and they were getting ready for the first parade. I took the scooter and went to a couple candy stops. The light started blinking on the scooter, and it scared me so I went and plugged it in in one of the restrooms and stood for the parade.

I seen the headless horseman and the parade was really cute. Went and unplugged my scooter and started again.They were giving out big handfuls of candy and my bag was pretty full. I got another bag. Just a hint.. there are only like 3 other stations one by liberty tree tavern one by thunder mountain, and one in fantasy land. If you want lots of candy, start in toon town, and go around the trail to tomorrowland, there are lots there, I went thru twice and ended up with a bag and a half full. THey were 7 by 9 inch orange bags.They were giving out big handfulls and it was good stuff like miniature butterfingers, nestle crunch, milky ways, snickers, dum dum suckers, raisins, mike n ike gummy bears, york peppermint patties, etc etc. It was well worth it. I had a ball trick or treating and not feeling like a fool..lol

They said they gave out 300,000 lbs of candy that night and I believe it. I stopped at the bridge by stitches encounter and watched the fireworks. they were awesome and then went on the treat trail again. After that I left and they had a one last treat stand outside the gate and gave you snickers . I felt the party was fun and well worth it. Had fun that night checking out all my pins and all the different kinds of candy I got. Felt like a big kid. Fun day!

Tues oct 3
Today was epcot day. I went around 10 and the wine festival was going on. Rode test track, went over to living seas, but the line for crush was too long so I left, went to the land and was going to eat there, but didn't see anything I liked. got a fast pass for soaring, Rode the boat ride living thru the land and it seemed strange with out the guy talking in the front. Went over to the electric umbrella and had a double cheeseburger, which was too much and went to world showcase and got a shaved ice, traded pins, watched the beatles band in magic kingdom, was going to go to energy but the first time in the morning it was closed and in the afternoon had a long line. Went back and rode soarin.

Had reservations at hoop de do revue that night and wasn't quite sure how much I had to transfer but turned out I had to take one bus to wilderness lodge then transfer to the campground bus. I was glad when the show was over they had a bus waiting that would take you direct to the all stars so you didn't have to transfer. the driver said they do that for the first two shows, so that was good.

I hadnt been to hoop de do since 1978 with my ex husband, When I got there, I found out they had given me a table upstairs but since I had the scooter, they moved me to the downstairs, I had a table in the back but it was straight back from the stage. They came back after giving me my drink, and said they would move me up front as they had a cancellation, but I said I was okay. Show was good, kind of like hee haw humor. They still used the same joke.. this is "sally from new york, dont forget to use your fork". For some reason I remembered that from 1978.

They brought out buckets of bbq ribs, fried chicken, bbq beans and little ears of corn on the cob and strawberry shortcake The bill would have been about $50 for this meal. I was glad I got to do it, but wouldn't pay that much if I hadn't been on the dining plan (two credits)I hadnt been in this area for years so it was nice looking around before the show. I bought a couple of pins for MY souvenir.

Wed Oct 4
My last full day here so I wanted it to be magic kingdom. I rode most of the same rides as Monday and ate at harbour house for lunch and had reservations that night for chef mickeys. They only had one left and it was for 8:55 pm. So I got to watch spectromagic, and had to miss wishes at 9. I had seen wishes before tho. I got to chef mickeys and it was fun like usual. I hated leaving like always.

Thurs- oct 5
I had a late flight tonight leaving at 720 and they had left a note on my door I had to be in front to get magic express at 420 pm.

Today was animal kingdom day. This is my least favorite park. I wanted to try everest. I went over and got a fastpass for it and then went to see tough to be a bug and had some lunch at flame tree bbq. Had bbq pork sandwich again and key lime pie for dessert. Went over to ride everest. they had a seat out front that you could try out to make sure you fit and it said disabled people had to be able to transfer in 30 seconds. The seats were plenty roomy as were the lap bars as I am pretty big, so I was happy. I didn't realize tho, that this ride starts out forwards and then stops and goes in reverse! that part I didn't enjoy. Then I had to get back on the bus to go back to all stars. I did upgrade my 5 day ticket to a 10 day no expiration for about $172 so I am all set for my next trip!