December 2001

Day 1& Introduction

Participants:

Stephen

Karen

Stephen's Dad (part time participant)

Our December WDW trip would be our first Christmas season WDW trip in three years. We really love the parks around Christmas and had missed it the past couple of years. Our very first trip to WDW together was in early December and it contributed to our love of the place.

            This year’s trip was a short one (6 days) and would allow us to take advantage of the points in our holding account for DVC. Because we canceled our cruise from October within the penalty period, we had points in our account that had to be used before our Use Year ended in August 2002. We originally had made cash reservations at the Beach Club but when we canceled the cruise we decided to use our points for the Grand Floridian (GF). We have always loved this resort and have always wanted to stay here. It is an expensive resort and we both knew that we wouldn’t spend the money to stay there. So, this would be the perfect opportunity.

            Our trip began on Tuesday, December 4^th. We had a very early AM flight (7:00AM) and because of the heightened security at the airports, we arrived at 5:00am (is anyone REALLY up at that time?).  Because all the passengers had also arrived early, the flight actually took off a couple of minutes early. We even arrived early into Orlando (about 30 minutes). After gathering our luggage, we made our way to the Dollar counter. We usually rent from either Dollar or National as one or the other has a good rate. On airport rentals are the way to go.

            An interesting turn of event for Dollar. I denied the pre-paid gas and agreed to return the car with the tank full. The rental agent told me that not only would I have to return the tank full but also bring a receipt for the gas from a service station within 5 miles of the airport. That’s new. They really want you to buy their gas, don’t they? Well, as you’ll read at the end of this trip report, they DID NOT ask to see my receipt, not from a gas station 5 miles from the airport or otherwise! Lesson learned.

            Since we had arrived into Orlando at around 10:30am it was way to early to check in. We went instead to the MarketPlace to buy a few essentials as well as for lunch.  Our first stop was the World of Disney. We bought a couple of Christmas related items such as sleepwear for Karen. Quite a bit of patriotic items available. The quest for new monorail pieces had begun. As you can read in other trip reports, we bought the battery operated Monorail and then the Spaceship Earth and the Contemporary a year or so ago. We were hopping that new pieces would be made available. No pieces here at the World of Disney, however.

            After browsing the Word of Disney, we made our way to Cap’n Jacks for lunch. The food was great and we had an excellent server. I had the Crab Cake Melt and Karen had the Grilled Chicken (at a seafood place- boy is she exciting).

            Our next stop was the Christmas shop to get ourselves into the spirit. We noted a couple of items we would have to buy including a Mickey tree topper. After an ice cream stop at Ghirardellis, we made our way to the GF. Right from the start you could notice a difference since September 11^th. A sign posted next to the security booth requested photo id before being allowed on the resort grounds. After showing the security guard my driver’s license, he checked a list for our name. Only when he found our name and printed up a ‘personalized’ parking pass, did he allow us through. We pulled up to the valet parking area and unloaded our luggage.

            We checked in at the Front Desk and were given a room n the Boca Chica Lodge, 5^th floor. We walked across the property and toward the building. When we made the reservations through Member Services, we were told that we would be booked into a ‘Garden View’ room.  So, we were surprised when we walked into our room and were facing Bay Lake. From our balcony we could se the Polynesian, the Contemporary, the Main Entrance to the Magic Kingdom and even the Castle. How cool!!!  I can remember visiting the Magic Kingdom with when I was quite young and riding the monorail through the resorts (not the GF of course).  Two vivid memories include riding the ‘Express Monorail’ through the Contemporary and being quite jealous of the folks casually strolling through the resort as we would rush in to the park (only the Magic Kingdom was around then) and try to get our money’s worth by staying from park opening until closing.  The other memory is of watching the Electric Water Pageant also from the monorail after spending a long hot (we always visited in August) day and feeling quite exhausted. Well, now we would be staying in a resort on the monorail line and would be able to watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks and the Water Pageant right from the balcony. Thanks DVC! Of course we took a ton of pictures.

            After a quick nap and cleaning up we jumped on the boat and headed to the Magic Kingdom. We exchanged our certificates for our Annual Passes. We were then faced with another addition since September 11^th. Security guards were set up outside the entrance to the Magic Kingdom and were searching all bags before letting people enter the park.

            We strolled up Main Street, stopping in each of the stores on our continued quest for Monorail Pieces without any luck. Unfortunately, we weren’t lucky on this trip. No new pieces were released this year. The crowds were quite light. We passed through the Castle looking for ‘The Magic Carpets of Aladdin. We thought for sure it would be in Fantasyland. Well, we were wrong. But, on our way through we picked up a FastPass for Peter Pan’s Flight, an attraction we haven’t  been on in a long time.

We finally found Aladdin over in Adventureland and were pleased to note a wait time of about 10 minutes.  While waiting for our turn, we noticed one of the two ‘carpet cars’ had a guy hanging half off the back with a huge professional video camera on his shoulder. Another guy in the car had headphones on. Obviously they were filming something. In the car behind them four people continued to ride again and again. We looked at the women doing the talking and at first couldn't place her. Then it hit us- she was Samantha Brown of the Travel Channel. How cool!

    After our magic carpet ride, we made our way back to Peter Pan. Thanks once again for FastPass because we waited less than 10 minutes.  We really enjoyed Peter Pan as we hadn’t ridden it in about 4 years. Usually the wait time is 25-30 minutes. After leaving Peter Pan we walked toward the Carousel and noticed that that there wasn’t any line for Snow Whites Scary Adventure so we hopped right on. We then made our way over towards Tomorrowland and browsed through Mickey’s Star Traders. The line for Space Mountain was less than 10 minutes so I took the opportunity to ride it. The walk to the boarding area took a lot longer than the actual wait time. I got the back seat and really enjoyed the ride.

The area between Space Mountain and the Carousel of Progress was filled with tented booths all with banners identifying themselves as being a radio station each from a different part of the country. They were all setting up in preparation for Walt’s Birthday party.

We continued our ‘tour’ of Tomorrowland by visiting Buzz Lightyear. The wait time was less than 5 minutes, so it was virtually a walk-on. The park was closing very early tonight (6pm) so the TTA was closed, bummer! We made our way over to the Castle and noticed a small crowd gathered. Once again we saw Samantha Brown.

Day 2