Wednesday September 12, 2001

Tired. That's all I can say about driving 14-1/2 hours from Baltimore to Disney, overnight, with no sleep other than a few winks in the passenger seat of Franks Chevy Astro. But we made it!

Arriving at All-Star Music.

We were stopped at the security checkpoint which serves all three All-Star resorts. Our picture IDs were checked, their numbers written down as checking-in guests, and the license plate of the van was also recorded. I had only stayed on-site twice before, but I had never seen these security checkpoints in use during daylight hours, at least not at Value or Moderate resorts. The Security CM told us that since the terrorist attacks, security had been tightened somewhat all over WDW property; we would be required to show ID and proof that we were guests each time we drove through the checkpoint, for the duration of our stay. This was not a problem for either of us; we were both somewhat reassured that Disney was taking at least some minimal steps to ensure the safety and well being of its guests.

All-Star Music looked a little deserted as we pulled into the Check-In parking lot. Few guests waiting for busses, few cars in the lot, and few in the lobby. But as it was only 8:30am, I figured everybody was still in the process of gearing up for their days in the greatest vacation spot in the world. And, of course, September is one of the slowest times of the year at WDW; we expected light crowds and short lines during our stay. It seemed that the shock of the attacks was wearing off, however; the Disney magic was showing through the gloom, and people began emerging from their rooms to line up at the Check-Out and Guest Services lines. Frank and I, of course, staggered into the Check-In line, which was manned by only a single Cast Member so early in the morning. After a 15-minute wait (which seemed more like an hour to me, tired as I was), the CM finally finished with the guest he was helping, and we leaned heavily on the counter to pass over our reservation slip and IDs. He was friendly and helpful, as they all are, but not overly chatty, since a line of checking-in guests had formed behind Frank and me. As the CM worked on checking us into the resort, we inquired about E-ride night, but he told us that tickets weren't on sale yet; we'd have to come back on Saturday or Sunday. We also wanted to extend our stay; originally, we were to check out on Saturday, Sept. 23, and fly home on a 6:15 plane, but since we were driving, we wanted an extra day. No problem; but we had to actually make a reservation for the extra day, then come down to the lobby and check out, then back in again, on our original check-out date. Seemed a little ridiculous to me, but we were so tired, we just went with it. We got our room key cards, and the CM told us that our room was available right away (another symptom of low occupancy), so he showed us where the room was located, gave us our check-in package (flyers, mini-guide book, etc.), and were off.

And to the room.

Our room was in the Broadway section of ASM, which is as far as you can get from Melody Hall. We were in Building 8, room 8445, facing away from the pool, which we considered a blessing. We had not faxed or called a room request ahead of time, and we were so blitzed from the drive that we forgot to ask for any specific type of room at check-in. But the location, although remote, was acceptable, because we figured it would be quiet and peaceful. It was also on the first floor, another plus, since we wouldn't have to lug our luggage up and down stairs or elevators. More on room location in tomorrow's trip report.

When we arrived at the room, we were somewhat taken aback to find someone in it! A maintenance cart sat in front of the door, and a CM was putting some touch-up paint on the wall just under the in-room safe. He finished quickly, apologized for the mix-up, and moved on to his next assignment. We didn't figure it mattered much; just a small hiccup in Disney's enormous (or is it enour-mouse?) entertainment machine. We had to make two trips from the van to get all our stuff into the room. We'd packed light, in anticipation of flying, but the drive had made us quickly add a couple of coolers and some snacks, all of which had to be brought in along with the luggage. Once the coolers were inside, Frank freshened the ice, while I did a little unpacking (camera, water bottle, film), and put a few valuables into the safe. Frank also made PS for us at Restaurant Akershaus, in Epcot's Norway pavilion, for 7:50.

At this point, I was hoping to get a few minutes of sleep, but Frank was keyed up; not having been to Disney, or on vacation at all, in over three years, he was determined to start having fun right away, even if it killed us. So we secured our room and headed up to Melody Hall to get a bus to Epcot. Since we were going to have dinner there anyway, we figured it best to simply make today an Epcot day.

Beginning the day at Epcot.

The bus service leaving Melody Hall was fairly quick, and we were soon walking (staggering in my case) to the big Guest Services window to the right side of the Epcot turnstiles. There was a much longer line there than usual for that time of the morning; because of the terrorist attacks the previous day, all the Disney parks had shut down early, and many guests were concerned that their passes would be docked a days admission, when they had actually only been in the park for an hour. CMs walked the line, reassuring nervous guests that their passes would not be docked for yesterday. Some stayed in line until they got to the window anyway, only to have the same assurances repeated by the CMs behind the glass. I think the CM we talked to was relieved when we told him why we were there: we had Park Hoppers that we wanted to trade in for Annual Passports. This process took maybe 15 minutes; Frank had a 5-day hopper, and paid the difference for his AP, and I had a 4-day hopper. I also had a second 4-day hopper with one day left on it, left over from last year's trip. The CM told me that I could only apply the value of one hopper toward my AP, not both, but the guy was very nice, and tried swiping the old hopper through the computer anyway. The computer denied it, of course, so I had a slightly larger difference to pay for my AP than Frank, and I'm left with a hopper with one day on it. Oh, well... at Disney, all things are good; I'll figure out what to do with that hopper some day.

On a side note: I was disappointed and confused that Disney has switched to plastic cards for their regular passes (hoppers and the like), and that every Disney resort has a printer that programs plastic room-key cards for use as room keys, charge cards, park passes, etc, but an Annual Passport, which is meant to last an entire year, is still a crappy little pasteboard card! It made no sense to me at all!

Big deal; we were at Disney! So we made our way through the turnstiles, using our new APs for the first time, with that funny finger-reader device, and immediately headed for Test Track. I had been raving over this attraction for some time, and Frank had never been on it, as it was still not open for business the last time he'd been to WDW. The stand-by line was about 40-minutes right then (according to the sign, which I think was in error), so we got a Fast Pass. Of course, the FP wait was over an hour... I had never used FP before, and Frank had a pretty low opinion of it before we started, so we wound up not using it the rest of the trip. We didn't need it, anyway.

Lunch, rain and more food!

It wasn't quite 11:00 yet, but we were both hungry, so we went over to the Electric Umbrella and got lunch (am I the only one who just loves the cheeseburgers and fries in that place?) We sat on the upper level, even though the place was pretty empty, and watched people come and go from the side entrance of Mouse Gear. As we ate, we watched the Florida sunshine gradually turn grayer and grayer, until finally a burst of rain began falling... and it got heavier and heavier, until we couldn't even see across Innoventions Plaza. We didn't have rain gear with us at that point, except the big 1-gallon Ziploc bag I carry to protect my camera, so we just sat there, watching people run (they still got wet), hide (they still got wet), and drip their way into Mouse Gear, only to emerge sheathed in yellow Disney slickers. Many of the slickers had the 100 Years of Magic logo on them instead of the traditional Mickey Mouse. I resolved to get me one of those; I had left my rain gear at home, since I've never needed more than the yellow slicker at Disney, and it saved room in my luggage.

We sat there for a while, letting our lunch settle, then pushed off and went into Mouse Gear. I like browsing in the various Disney shops, looking for new and interesting souvenirs, and marveling at how high the prices go each year. Even on my first day, I'm already looking for a few things, and this year was no exception; I was looking for my favorite souvenir, the $6.00 pewter medallions. Each year there are a few new ones, and sometimes the old ones are redesigned. But in Mouse Gear, zilch. Well, there's always Downtown Disney.

After the rain slacked off, our FP time for Test Track still hadn't arrived, so we walked toward World Showcase; I took some pictures as we went, and we browsed through the two little shops at the end of the walkway leading to the World Showcase Lagoon. By then our FP time was approaching, so we returned to Test Track, only to find that it was still closed due to the rain. We stood around for another ten or fifteen minutes until the ride re-opened, then spent fifteen more minutes being led by a CM through the maze of empty queues inside the building. That is a long queue. Test Track was, as usual, a superb ride, great fun, and my favorite ride in all of Epcot. And of course, we browsed the obligatory gift shop at the ride's exit.

Remembering, of course, that neither of us had slept in over thirty hours, we wanted to take it easy on this day; we both enjoy simply walking along World Showcase, looking at the architecture, and absorbing the various cultures as we pass through each pavilion, so we headed into WS, taking the right path through Canada, and into the U.K. We were getting a little hungry again, so we stopped for a snack at the fish-n-chips walk-up place, and sat at one of the tables facing the lagoon. While sitting there, we heard a booming sound of helicopters, and sure enough, three huge military choppers flew right over Disney property; I took a couple of pics before they disappeared behind the trees. We also noticed that the group of people sitting next to us was British. "You come all the way from the U.K. to eat fish-n-chips at Disney World?" I quipped, evoking both laughter and a few 'Mind your own business, Yank' stares from the group.

After our snack, which was terrific (gotta eat there again sometime when I'm really hungry), we went to International Gateway and got on the boat, stopping briefly at the Boardwalk, where I got a couple of the pewter coins I'd been looking for, and continued on to the Swan and Dolphin. One of my favorite vacation activities is exploring the gift shops and eateries of the various resorts, so I always take the boat to S & D; besides, the boat ride is beautiful, and provides a peaceful respite in the middle of a long Epcot day.

Conventions 101.

Here came one of our more unusual encounters. When we entered the lobby of the Swan, we noticed a large number of people wearing lanyards with plastic pouches around their necks. Frank wondered if this was part of some new security procedure initiated by Disney in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks. "No," I told him, "This is a convention hotel. Those people are all convention guests; the ID in the pouch lets them into convention function areas." Having been to a few conventions of various types myself, I had never even given the lanyards a second thought. But Frank has never been to a business convention, and had never seen an ID lanyard of that type; instantly enamoured of them, he couldn't risk stopping one of the conventioneers to ask where she got the cool pouch hanging from her neck. Of course, he did this as I was getting on the escalator, so I wound up waiting for him at the top and missing the resulting conversation, but the lady apparently went to conventions allot, because she told Frank that she had a dozen of the lanyards, and gave him the one around her neck. She kept the plastic pouch with her convention ID, though.

Now Frank was excited; he wouldn't rest until he found a plastic pouch to go with the lanyard, so he could put his new AP, room key, and ID in it and wear it around his neck. "Well, this is a convention hotel," I said, "If anyone would have these things in the gift shop, it'd be the convention hotels." So we checked, and drew a blank. Then, Frank remembered Downtown Disney. "They gotta have these things at Downtown Disney!" I chuckled, knowing he was wrong, but sleep deprivation had made him a bit delirious, so we hopped a bus in front of the Dolphin and went to DD to look for plastic pouches for neck lanyards. Again, zippo. But he bought a few other trinkets for the neighbor kid who was feeding his dogs while we were on vacation, and we headed back to ASM. We stopped in the food court at Melody Hall to pick up our refillable mugs, and went back to the room. I dozed for an hour while Frank peered intently at the Weather Channel, getting more and more insulted as tropical storm Gabrielle gathered strength and headed straight for us. We were in for lots of wind and rain, it looked like; a couple of day's worth, and Frank took it as a personal insult.

Evening falls, but we're still standing.

By this time, our PS at Akershaus was drawing close, and we decided to watch Illuminations after dinner, so we decided to drive the van back to Epcot. We didn't want to wait for the bus back to ASM to pick us up from the park; we'd already found at, while waiting at DD, that bus service to the All-Stars was still significantly worse than bus service from the All-Stars.

Night was falling as we walked from the Epcot gate all the way back to the Norway pavilion. I love Epcot at night, with Spaceship Earth shining down on me, and the WS pavilions glittering across the lagoon. We were seated immediately at Akershaus, and found the buffet to be as terrific as ever. Frank, a much bigger eater than me, got a desert, while I simply sat sipping my soda. I was content, knowing that I could get some wonderful treats later in the trip at the Kringla bakery just outside.

By the time we were done eating, it was nearly time for Illuminations. We rushed out to find a good spot... only to find that the crowds were so light, we were able to find a railing spot right away. And a great spot it was, too! Illuminations is a spectacular pyrotechnic display, coupled with some lasers and other lights all around the World Showcase lagoon. I may be in the minority, here, but I actually prefer the 2001 version of this show to the Millenium version.

It all comes to an end.

Standing at the rail for twenty minutes, with our Norwegian dinners settling, and the floating lights twinkling in the lagoon water, I began feeling my 40-odd hours of sleeplessness very strongly. It was all I could do to stagger back to the front of Epcot and collapse in the van. The drive back to ASM is a blur; I barely remember getting changed and into bed that night, and I don't remember another thing until I woke up the next morning. All in all, I'd say it was a terrific, if exhausting, first day at Walt Disney World.