The Ogorek Family Trip Report - StartedByAMouse.com We Were Started By A Mouse Too Section


Friday, 7-13-01 We were planning on starting our day at the Magic Kingdom, but we headed to Casting instead by the Marketplace in the hopes that Jennifer could get her employment snafu straightened out, to no avail unfortunately. So we headed to the Polynesian to park and have breakfast at the Kona Café, only to find that the resort entrance guard would only give us a parking pass for three hours (to prevent theme-park goers from taking up valuable spaces). Breakfast was exotic and tasty . . . and noisy as a woman and her mother walked in with 18-month old twins who were screaming at the top of their lungs. They would briefly pause their tantrum, then one would start and the other chime in again in sympathy. This must have gone on for about 15 minutes. A host attempted to seat an older couple at a table directly behind the hysterical toddlers; they were not pleased and rightly demanded to be seated somewhere else - preferably at the farthest point from this melee' as possible. Okay, Mouseketeers . . . where in the World is this hidden Mickey? We finally got to the Magic Kingdom about 11:00, where we got caught in a cloudburst that lasted just long enough to leave us with squishy shoes. We did a lot in two hours, including The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (thank goodness for Fast Pass), Haunted Mansion (where we finally found the engagement ring thrown by the jilted bride embedded in the cement just beyond the canopied exit), and Pirates. We also purchased our admission to E-Ride Night (5,000 resort guests with access to nine attractions--including all three mountains, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and Country Bear Jamboree-from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.). It's well worth the extra $12. While waiting for the monorail back to the Polynesian, we got into a lively conversation with Castmember "Doug" from San Diego (actually he noticed the TDS Atlantis T-shirt I was wearing). When the monorail arrived, he ushered us up front with the driver, which I hadn't gotten to do in years. The monorail really seemed to zip along between the Contemporary and the TTC from that front vantage point. What a treat! Left the girls at the hotel and went to pick Ron up from the airport Hyatt, which is where his meetings have been. (If we ever do that again, I won't take I-4, it's really not that much cheaper than 417 -- $1.25 in tolls versus $2.00 - and almost as congested as driving rush hour in Chicago). Last night's seminar group outing was to Medieval Times (been there, done that, in Chicago - didn't really want to do it again in either place). He actually went 24 hours without ever going outside, although he did open the sliding glass door to his balcony, felt the heat and humidity pouring in, promptly slammed and locked the door and turned the thermostat down to 65 degrees! All four of us went to the Magic Kingdom early in the evening and had dinner at Tony's Town Square Restaurant. Rode the new Magic Carpet ride which is right in the middle of Adventureland (very cute but identical to Dumbo, except for the ride vehicles and theming, of course). There are "jewels" embedded in the pathway of the queue line, and umbrellas to help block the mid-day sun. The shops surrounding the ride have been magically transformed into the marketplace of Agrabah, which has lots of Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine merchandise. The new Magic Carpet ride - watch out, they really do spit! The girls rode Thunder Mountain twice while we found an almost-empty alcove in Liberty Square to watch the Spectromagic Parade - with MY castle in the background. Finally, we all stood in the "dead center" of Main Street and watched fireworks - the usual signal to end the night, but only the beginning for me and the girls and 4,997 other Resort guests. Space Mountain twice, Splash and Big Thunder three times each, Buzz Lightyear and Haunted Mansion once each. A walk through the hub around 12:30 a.m. revealed that five of the characters were out posing for pictures as well, including Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and one of the chipmunks; at one point, a girl was having her picture taken with three characters at the same time, unheard of during normal operating hours. An uneventful bus ride back to the Coronado - express - at 1:30. We're going to sleep well tonight! Saturday, 7-14-01 Ron hates Florida, particularly the unpredictable nature of its weather. The day dawned gray and heavily overcast, so we scrapped plans for Blizzard Beach (the only thing he specifically asked to do) and hung out at the main hotel pool instead. It sprinkled around noon for about five minutes; other than that, we pretty much had sun, although we had been willing to test the "sunburn on a cloudy day" theory. There were big, dark, ominous clouds all around us, though. We started drifting back to the room to shower and change around 3:00. Jen was in the shower at 3:50 when Ron and I suddenly realized the showering sounds were coming from OUTSIDE, not just from her on the other side of the room INSIDE. It was a downpour, a total sheet of water coming from the sky that lasted for about 20 minutes and cooled things off. It continued raining on and off for several hours after that. Even I will admit it has been unusual weather for down here so far. We went to the new, very up-scale outlet mall near Crossroads, as did most of the other tourists staying in nearby hotels; and what was the first store we came to but Disney's - not all that much we were interested in, though. No wall theming, but fun carpeting, just like TDS. They even had some older cels as well as some current pins. A co-worker of mine and her family were staying at the Beach Club, so we met them for dinner at Cape May Café for its clambake buffet - all the peel and eat shrimp you could eat included. They enjoyed hearing Jen talk about the College Program; they were telling us about the four-day Disney cruise they're leaving for tomorrow (the same one we were wait-listed for). Afterwards, we met two of Jen's friends from last year's College Program at Fantasia Garden's mini-golf. It's a hard course but very well done and a lot of fun, even a few watery surprises! Each hole provides a rhyming "clue" as to how best to play it. Lights flash, music plays and fountains spray if the ball follows the proper path. There was a lot of laughing going on, and maybe some creative scorekeeping as well. Sunday, 7-15-01 No rain today - hooray! It started off overcast, became sunny, then got cloudy again. The evenings to date have been perfect, at least as far as Ron is concerned - low 70s and low humidity. Even the daytime temps haven't broken 90 yet, and the humidity has only been bad after a rain. We got to Blizzard Beach early and went on the ski lift, the Family Raft Ride and several of the slides right away with minimal waits. Most of us spent the bulk of the day on Cross Country Creek - the lazy river - until the sun hid and the breeze picked up, around 4:00. Ron wears a very distinctive T-shirt ("Wait a minute-it's not the humidity, it's the heat! It's the sweltering, bone-melting heat!") while floating downstream, to the point where the lifeguards even begin to recognize him. Dinner was at Darryl's in Kissimmee, which has really spruced up 192. The road construction is finally done, there's a beautifully landscaped center median that runs the length of the road, some uniquely colored lamp posts (purple), lots of flowers and even some benches. It's still lined with tacky souvenir shops attractions, hotels, motels and fast food places. This was followed by some needed shopping at Crossroads and Downtown Disney, which was unbelievably crowded tonight (not that it's ever exactly empty). Then we made a stop at another favorite haunt, the Dolphin Hotel's soda fountain, for ice cream (the servers don't dance anymore) with the added company of Jennifer's friends, Jeff and Jesus, again. Jesus is down here on a Wal-mart internship, while Jeff came down with his parents who are not only staying at the Coronado Springs as well, but in a building just across from us.
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Friday, 7-13-01

We were planning on starting our day at the Magic Kingdom, but we headed to Casting instead by the Marketplace in the hopes that Jennifer could get her employment snafu straightened out, to no avail unfortunately. So we headed to the Polynesian to park and have breakfast at the Kona Café, only to find that the resort entrance guard would only give us a parking pass for three hours (to prevent theme-park goers from taking up valuable spaces). Breakfast was exotic and tasty . . . and noisy as a woman and her mother walked in with 18-month old twins who were screaming at the top of their lungs. They would briefly pause their tantrum, then one would start and the other chime in again in sympathy. This must have gone on for about 15 minutes. A host attempted to seat an older couple at a table directly behind the hysterical toddlers; they were not pleased and rightly demanded to be seated somewhere else - preferably at the farthest point from this melee' as possible.

Okay, Mouseketeers . . . where in the World is this hidden Mickey?

We finally got to the Magic Kingdom about 11:00, where we got caught in a cloudburst that lasted just long enough to leave us with squishy shoes. We did a lot in two hours, including The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (thank goodness for Fast Pass), Haunted Mansion (where we finally found the engagement ring thrown by the jilted bride embedded in the cement just beyond the canopied exit), and Pirates. We also purchased our admission to E-Ride Night (5,000 resort guests with access to nine attractions--including all three mountains, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, and Country Bear Jamboree-from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.). It's well worth the extra $12.

While waiting for the monorail back to the Polynesian, we got into a lively conversation with Castmember "Doug" from San Diego (actually he noticed the TDS Atlantis T-shirt I was wearing). When the monorail arrived, he ushered us up front with the driver, which I hadn't gotten to do in years. The monorail really seemed to zip along between the Contemporary and the TTC from that front vantage point. What a treat!

Left the girls at the hotel and went to pick Ron up from the airport Hyatt, which is where his meetings have been. (If we ever do that again, I won't take I-4, it's really not that much cheaper than 417 -- $1.25 in tolls versus $2.00 - and almost as congested as driving rush hour in Chicago). Last night's seminar group outing was to Medieval Times (been there, done that, in Chicago - didn't really want to do it again in either place). He actually went 24 hours without ever going outside, although he did open the sliding glass door to his balcony, felt the heat and humidity pouring in, promptly slammed and locked the door and turned the thermostat down to 65 degrees!

All four of us went to the Magic Kingdom early in the evening and had dinner at Tony's Town Square Restaurant. Rode the new Magic Carpet ride which is right in the middle of Adventureland (very cute but identical to Dumbo, except for the ride vehicles and theming, of course). There are "jewels" embedded in the pathway of the queue line, and umbrellas to help block the mid-day sun. The shops surrounding the ride have been magically transformed into the marketplace of Agrabah, which has lots of Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine merchandise.

The new Magic Carpet ride - watch out, they really do spit!

The girls rode Thunder Mountain twice while we found an almost-empty alcove in Liberty Square to watch the Spectromagic Parade - with MY castle in the background. Finally, we all stood in the "dead center" of Main Street and watched fireworks - the usual signal to end the night, but only the beginning for me and the girls and 4,997 other Resort guests.

Space Mountain twice, Splash and Big Thunder three times each, Buzz Lightyear and Haunted Mansion once each. A walk through the hub around 12:30 a.m. revealed that five of the characters were out posing for pictures as well, including Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and one of the chipmunks; at one point, a girl was having her picture taken with three characters at the same time, unheard of during normal operating hours. An uneventful bus ride back to the Coronado - express - at 1:30. We're going to sleep well tonight!

Saturday, 7-14-01

Ron hates Florida, particularly the unpredictable nature of its weather. The day dawned gray and heavily overcast, so we scrapped plans for Blizzard Beach (the only thing he specifically asked to do) and hung out at the main hotel pool instead. It sprinkled around noon for about five minutes; other than that, we pretty much had sun, although we had been willing to test the "sunburn on a cloudy day" theory. There were big, dark, ominous clouds all around us, though.

We started drifting back to the room to shower and change around 3:00. Jen was in the shower at 3:50 when Ron and I suddenly realized the showering sounds were coming from OUTSIDE, not just from her on the other side of the room INSIDE. It was a downpour, a total sheet of water coming from the sky that lasted for about 20 minutes and cooled things off. It continued raining on and off for several hours after that. Even I will admit it has been unusual weather for down here so far.

We went to the new, very up-scale outlet mall near Crossroads, as did most of the other tourists staying in nearby hotels; and what was the first store we came to but Disney's - not all that much we were interested in, though. No wall theming, but fun carpeting, just like TDS. They even had some older cels as well as some current pins.

A co-worker of mine and her family were staying at the Beach Club, so we met them for dinner at Cape May Café for its clambake buffet - all the peel and eat shrimp you could eat included. They enjoyed hearing Jen talk about the College Program; they were telling us about the four-day Disney cruise they're leaving for tomorrow (the same one we were wait-listed for).

Afterwards, we met two of Jen's friends from last year's College Program at Fantasia Garden's mini-golf. It's a hard course but very well done and a lot of fun, even a few watery surprises! Each hole provides a rhyming "clue" as to how best to play it. Lights flash, music plays and fountains spray if the ball follows the proper path. There was a lot of laughing going on, and maybe some creative scorekeeping as well.

Sunday, 7-15-01

No rain today - hooray! It started off overcast, became sunny, then got cloudy again. The evenings to date have been perfect, at least as far as Ron is concerned - low 70s and low humidity. Even the daytime temps haven't broken 90 yet, and the humidity has only been bad after a rain.

We got to Blizzard Beach early and went on the ski lift, the Family Raft Ride and several of the slides right away with minimal waits. Most of us spent the bulk of the day on Cross Country Creek - the lazy river - until the sun hid and the breeze picked up, around 4:00. Ron wears a very distinctive T-shirt ("Wait a minute-it's not the humidity, it's the heat! It's the sweltering, bone-melting heat!") while floating downstream, to the point where the lifeguards even begin to recognize him.

Dinner was at Darryl's in Kissimmee, which has really spruced up 192. The road construction is finally done, there's a beautifully landscaped center median that runs the length of the road, some uniquely colored lamp posts (purple), lots of flowers and even some benches. It's still lined with tacky souvenir shops attractions, hotels, motels and fast food places. This was followed by some needed shopping at Crossroads and Downtown Disney, which was unbelievably crowded tonight (not that it's ever exactly empty). Then we made a stop at another favorite haunt, the Dolphin Hotel's soda fountain, for ice cream (the servers don't dance anymore) with the added company of Jennifer's friends, Jeff and Jesus, again. Jesus is down here on a Wal-mart internship, while Jeff came down with his parents who are not only staying at the Coronado Springs as well, but in a building just across from us.

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