Note: Min's trip report is in Coral and Bill's comments are in Blue.

Click to Read:   Intro  -  Part 1  -  Part 2  -  Part 4  -  Part 5  -  Part 6

Part Three

October 22, 2003 - Wednesday - Min's 30th Birthday

It’s my 30th!!!

While getting ready, I put on the "Today Is My Birthday" button that I had gotten at the studios yesterday and my "Guest of Honor" name tag. We headed for the bus stop to catch the bus for the Magic Kingdom. We had PS at Crystal Palace for 8:30 this morning. I wanted to have breakfast on my birthday with Pooh and the gang. We got to the park and zipped through the security check. I once again had problems with my annual pass not working properly and was let in through the gate by the cast member monitoring the turnstiles.

Min is always having problems with her annual pass. She has short fingers and I think this plays havoc with the biometric scanners. Since Min was let in through the gate, I asked the cast member that admitted her if she would be able to get fast passes and was assured that there would be no problems.

It was not an early entry day for the Magic Kingdom so there were only a few other people on Main Street. It was neat, it seemed like we had the park to ourselves. Bill checked in with the hostess at Crystal Palace and we were seated right away. Our table was decorated with streamers and Mickey confetti. It was our first time having breakfast at Crystal Palace. The food was very good. They had a wonderful potato casserole and I loved the Pooh waffles.

The food was indeed quite good. The standard WDW breakfast buffet faire with a few bits of Crystal Palace flair. I did find one thing not quite to my liking, the choices of yogurt. The choices were blueberry or honey. Not being a big fan of blueberry, I tried the honey. Yuck. Oh well, live and learn.  :)

Bill got pictures of me with Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger. There was another lady, Melissa, sitting two tables over from us that was also celebrating her birthday. We talked with her and her husband. Then the two of us, along with about a dozen kids, marched with Tigger and Piglet in the "parade" for those who are celebrating special events at Crystal Palace. Bill laughed and took our picture. After the parade, our server brought me a cupcake with a candle and a card that was signed by Pooh and the gang. I really enjoyed my birthday breakfast.

I think that Crystal Palace did a great job with the decorations, cupcake and card. I could tell by the look on Min's face that she had had a good time at breakfast.

After breakfast, we went against our normal tendencies and took a right instead of a left, Tomorrowland here we come. We tried getting fast passes for Buzz Lightyear, but my pass came out as invalid.

So much for no problems getting fast passes, I was really perturbed. I was ready to march back up to guest relations and let fly with both barrels. Min seemed to just take it in stride not wanting to let anything spoil her birthday and suggested we head over to Carousel of Progress.

After a brief discussion about the fast pass situation, we headed over to Carousel of Progress. It was the second time we got to see it this year. Next, we went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and stayed on it for a second trip. Then it was off to Timekeeper, Bill loves this attraction and it was the first time we had gotten to see it since our June 2002 trip.

I usually have a problem with dizziness when watching 360-degree movies but I don't with this one. Maybe that is one of the reasons I like this one so much.

After Timekeeper, it was across the hub to Adventureland. We both got a Dole Whip and sat down to take a break.

While we were sitting there, we saw a street-mosphere character interacting with guests at the entrance to the Swiss Family Treehouse. She was dressed like the ultimate tourist/adventurer and most of the guests did not know what to make of her. I tried getting her attention for a chat but was unable to before she moved on.

After our break, we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. We saw Aladdin, Jasmine and Jafar but the lines were a little long so we continued on to Pirates. The wait at Pirates was about fifteen minutes and turned out to be one of the longer wait times that we had on this trip. Next we doubled back and checked out the Jungle Cruise and the Enchanted Tiki Room but passed on both. We cut through to Frontierland and caught the Country Bear Jamboree. Then we went to the Hall of Presidents. Afterwards, we decided it was time for a break so we caught the bus back to AKL. Back at the room, we found my Butterfly Pooh riding on the back of our elephant roommate.

Yep, Butterfly Pooh had tamed the mighty Elly. I think... or maybe it was the other way around and Elly had Butterfly Pooh just where she wanted him.  :)

After our rest, we caught the bus to Disney Studios. Our plan was to see the Stars and Motorcars Parade before our dinner PS at Mama Melrose. We got to the park about twenty minutes before the start of the parade. My AP did not work, again. 

I told the cast member at the gate about Min's problem with her pass. He reset the biometrics on her magnetic stripe and had her re-scan her fingers. He said that should fix the problems she had been having with her pass.

We headed into the park and found a place to watch the parade across from Min and Bill's Dockside Diner. It was a neat parade, Lilo and Stitch had their own car this time. The last time we saw the parade, Stitch had stolen Aladdin's place with Jasmine in the Genie mobile.

I took a lot of pictures during the parade. Unfortunately, the mixture of sunlight and shade really messed things up and they turned out way too dark. We did not discover this until after we got them developed. These pictures were the final tip of the scale in favor of getting a digital camera, no more not knowing how a picture is going to come. We will be able to see it as soon as we take it. Yay!!!

After the parade we rode GMR and then hurried over to Mama Melrose for dinner. The food was very good. Our server, Tracy, was from Jacksonville and grew up right down the street from where we live. She brought us a chocolate mousse for my birthday along with a birthday card with the Beast on it.

This was our first time at Mama Melrose's. I really liked the food and the mom and pop feel of the place. This is definitely a place I could see eating at again on a future trip.

After dinner, we headed for the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater and Fantasmic. On the way we stopped at Legends of Hollywood, the Pooh store. Bill got me two Pooh t-shirts for my birthday. We then made our way to the amphitheater. The wait was very long and the humidity made it rather uncomfortable. I got some cotton candy which turned into an exercise in group participation. First we had the pass the money part of the exercise and then the pass the cotton candy bucket part of the exercise. When a young girl from England saw that I had gotten "candy floss," we got to do it all over again.

After the cotton candy/candy floss pass, we got to do the wave. A cast member cued up the wave to our left and it would run the length of the amphitheater then back again. We did a normal wave, a fast wave, a really fast wave, a slow motion wave and finally a wave with a twist, stand up spin around then sit. A little bit of fun to break up the monotony of the wait and a good time was had by all...  :)

Fantasmic was very good. The characters, the pyrotechnics, the water screens and the music combined for a very enjoyable show. After the show, we headed for the bus stop. It was pretty crowded and we passed on the first bus because we did not wish to stand. Bill made the comment that at least I would get a seat on the next bus. His prediction turned out to be true when he gave up his seat for a lady with a sleeping child in her arms.

Min forgot to mention that our Jacksonville meet and greet continued on the bus. The lady who I gave my seat to struck up a conversation with Min on the way back to the hotel. It turns out that she and her husband had recently moved from Jacksonville to New Jersey after his term of service in the Navy had ended.

We were back to the hotel by 9:00. We did our nightly run through the gift shop for package pick up and drinks. Then it was back to the room and off to bed. Overall, I had an awesome birthday.

It was a good day, I am glad Min thought it was awesome.

October 23, 2003 - Thursday

Today was our take it easy, no real plans day. We started the day with breakfast at Boma. This was our second breakfast there this trip and once again the food was great. I tried the Frunch today, it was good but a little too sweet for my taste. After breakfast, we decided to head over to Animal Kingdom and see the shows. We had planned on seeing them on Saturday but due to the Wishes schedule change, we had changed our plans to the Magic Kingdom on Saturday instead of Animal Kingdom. We grabbed some cash from the ATM in the hotel lobby and caught the bus to Animal Kingdom. Bill got a Kilimanjaro Safaris baseball cap since he had left his WDW baseball cap in the room. We picked up a schedule and saw that we where about thirty minutes away from the first showing of Tarzan Rocks that day. So it was off to the Tarzan Rocks theater. We made our usual stop just before the bridge to DinoLand U.S.A. to visit with Pooh and the gang. Bill got some pictures of me with Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger. Tigger pointed at my birthday button, clapped and then gave me a hug. The Tarzan Rocks was very good and I enjoyed it very much. It was a different group of singers than the first time we saw it. I like Juan, the guy from our first time seeing the show, better than Billy, the guy we had this time.

I really like the energy of this show. The music, the acrobatics, the aerial stunts are all fantastic. I agree with Min on the Juan over Billy preference.

Next, we made our way to Festival of the Lion King. We really liked the new enclosed show pavilion. The show was great as always. It was the first time we got to see the fire twirler, he was awesome.

The new show pavilion is great. I like the way the music and songs sound in the new enclosed pavilion versus the old open pavilion.

After the show, we headed for the bus. The Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends show was a few minutes from starting, so we decided to give it a try. It was short and sweet, just long enough to keep the kids' attention. Don't know if we will see it again or not.

Not on my list of priorities as a repeat attraction.

On our way to the exit, we saw Lilo and Stitch outside of Island Mercantile, so we got in line for a picture. The family in front of us asked us to take a picture of the four of them and then returned the favor, so we both were in the picture for a change. As we were leaving, Stitch licked me and I laughed. We walked through Island Mercantile looking for souvenirs. Bill found a small plush of Minnie dressed as a ladybug and we bought two of them. One for me and one for Lynsie, my best friend Hollie's six month old daughter. Bill thought about getting a third one for Hollie, she loves ladybugs and Bill thought that she would be jealous that Lynsie got one and she didn't. We decided against getting a third one.

I decided to let Hollie be jealous. After all, isn't that the way it is with parents and kids. A kid gets a neat present and the parent gets jealous then thinks now why didn't they have something like that when I was little.  :)

Once again we headed for the exit. We looked at some of the animals in the Oasis Exhibits on our way out then finally made it out the exit and to the bus stop. After the short ride to our hotel, we went up to our room to rest only to find another Mousekeeping surprise. Minnie, Butterfly Pooh and Black Cat Pooh had decided to go on a canoe trip in the middle of our bed.

I really liked this one... the canoe was made out of towels and wash clothes with pens for the oars...

We rested most of the afternoon before getting ready for dinner at Fulton's Crab House. We caught the bus to Downtown Disney and arrived at Fulton’s about fifteen minutes before our PS time. We were seated at 7:00, our PS time. The food was excellent. I started with the Fulton's Combination Platter, shrimp and snow crab claws, which was the best. Bill had stone crab claws appetizer. I thought they were too sweet but he loved them. We both shared an order of the Portobello Mushroom Fries. Next we both had Classic Caesar salads. For the main course, I had the Gulf Shrimp and Dungeness Crab Cake. Bill had the Twin Main Lobsters. As I said earlier the food was excellent, however, the service was not. Our server seemed very distracted and messed up several small things during our meal. This was the only time on our trip where we left less than a 20% tip, I think Bill only left a 10% tip.

The food was great, and we will probably return because of that. The service was less than expected for such an expensive restaurant. Far below the level of service we received on our honeymoon visit to Fulton's. Just a list of the small things; no crab boursin dip with crackers, wrong drinks, slow on refills of drinks, no bucket for shells, once we got a bucket and it was filled we had to ask several times for another bucket, wrong dessert. All in all a lot of little things that made for a less than stellar dining experience.

After dinner, we went to the Adventurers' Club. This was our first time to there and it was neat but I was bored. We saw the radio theater show in the library and then looked around the mask room. I was tired so we left and caught the bus back to AKL. We made our regular trip through the gift shop and then retired to our room.

I loved the Adventurers' Club and cannot wait to return. This place really appeals to my sense of anachronism as I sometimes feel I was born during the wrong era. I don't think Min was as much bored as tired. We will give it another try someday when she is well rested.

Click to Read:   Intro  -  Part 1  -  Part 2  -  Part 4  -  Part 5  -  Part 6