Major Woody's Unexpected 1 Day November WDW Visit TR About This Page:

[MajorWoody]

Hello all,

I was fortunate enough to make a brief visit to WDW on a recent work-related
trip to Florida. I was assigned to do an extradtion from Broward County, to
NY. I was going to go to Ft Lauderdale with another Investigator, and return
the following day . I checked with the kind folks on RADP, and found that it
was only about a 3 hour drive from Ft Lauderdale to WDW. We had our flights
arranged so we arrived Thursday morning, 11/14 at 11:00am. We were due to
leave Ft Lauderdale the following evening, departing at 7:20pm. This trip
was arranged on Tuesday, 11/12, which didn't leave much time to plan things.
After the trip was confirmed, I called Disney Club, and made a one night
reservation for Animal Kingdom Lodge, getting the $109 passholders rate
$121 with all taxes). This was well within the limits the DA's Office had
given us for lodging costs. The DA's Office also took car of the car rental
for us, arranging for us to have a full size car at Dollar.

The TR follows :

Who :

Bill, 44, NYSP Investigator, AP holder, and veteran of numerous WDW trips.
In fact, my last trip was 6 weeks ago, and my next one is scheduled for 12/7
through 12/17/02.

Mike, late 30's, NYSP Investigator, and has never been to WDW.

The plan :
Arrive in Ft Lauderdale, pickup the rental car, and drive directly to WDW.
Check-in at AKL, then hit Epcot. At Epcot, we were going to have dinner at
Le Cellier, and hit a few of the Food Festival booths, and also try catch
Tapestry of Dreams & Illuminations. After Epcot closes, head on over to BW
for the ESPN Club. For Friday, we had no specific plans, other than maybe
some quick shopping.

We met at our work station at 5:30am, both of us were pretty tired having
worked the night before. In fact Mike got tied up in a robbery case after I
had left, and stayed until 3:30am, giving him just enough time to go home,
pack, shower, and get back to the station. We drove to Newark Airport,
arriving around 7:00am. We presented our paperwork , and were escorted
through the checkpoints and to the gate. We lucked out on the plane, and got
an exit row, which allowed a lot more legroom. The flight left shortly after
8:00am, and we arrived in Ft Lauderdale just before 11:00am. We then went
down to the Dollar Rental Counter, and I gave the clerk the reservation
information. I use Dollar frequently at MCO, and am also a Fastlane member,
and have been very happy with their service at MCO. However , the clerk at
Ft Lauderdale kept trying to push extras on me. He tried to tell me that
they had a gas program that was much cheaper than the outside prices. I was
very surprised, since I had never heard of such a thing from a rental car
company. When I asked him for specifics, he told me for the low price of
$25, I wouldn't have to fill up the car for the return. I told him that
unless the car had a 20 gallon tank, and I returned it on fumes, that it
would not be a good deal for me , but would most likely be a good deal for
Dollar. He then tried to push the extra insurance on me, which I declined as
usual. He then told me, in a rather condescending tone, that if anything
happened to the car, it would be my responsibility. I told him that if
Dollar didn't have insurance on the car, then it was their responsibility,
and since the car was being paid for by the DA's Office, and on their credit
card, it wouldn't be my responsibility. He then told me that I had to put my
personal credit card on the car, not the DA's Office card. I've used their
card on previous rentals, and never had a problem. If I was paying for the
rental myself, I probably would have walked over to another counter at that
point, but since it was already arranged, I was stuck with it. The guy was
really getting on my nerves at that point. He also kept trying to push an
upgrade on us, which we had no need for. He did assure me that my card was
to be used only for the hold, not the actual payment on the car. It turned
out, when we returned the car, that wasn't the case, and we had to go into
the office to make sure that the DA's Office card was charged.

Eventually we finished with the clerk, and had to go outside to wait for a
shuttle. We ended waiting about 10 minutes, and finally were taken to the
rental lot, where we received a Dodge Intrepid. We loaded up the car, and
hit the road at 11:30am.

We drove 595 to the Florida Turnpike. We stopped once along the way, at the
Fort Pierce service area, and had some greasy Burger King, since neither of
us had eaten that day. We continued on, taking Fla Tpke to Osceola Pkwy,
right into WDW. We arrived at AKL at 2:30pm.

Check-in at AKL went smoothly, and the CM Amanda was exceptionally nice. She
gave us an upgrade to a pool view room, and we had our bags in the room by
3:00pm. I took a quick shower, and then we left the resort to head over to
Epcot.

We decided to park at Boardwalk, since we were going to hit ESPN after Epcot
closed. We found a parking spot, and walked along the BW towards Epcot.
The weather was very nice, a bit cloudy, with a breeze. I stopped at the pin
cart, which is now located near ESPN. I saw the CM had a Tinkerbell Topiary
Lanyard series pin, so I traded with her for that. We then continued over to
the International Gateway entrance to Epcot. Mike bought a 1 day pass ($53),
while I used my AP to enter.

We entered Epcot around 3:30pm, and headed right over the bridge into
France. Our first stop was the Food Festival booth, where I had chicken coq
au vin ( I think that's what it was called ), and Mike tried the escargots.
The chicken was very good, and was a nice sized portion for the price, which
if I recall was $3.00. We then wandered through Morocco, and Japan, but
didn't see anything we wanted to try at the food booths. We did find a beer
booth, and had a frosty one for our trek. We arrived at the American
Adventure just in time to catch the end of the Fife & Drums Corps set. They
drew a nice crowd. We then went inside the pavilion. I was hoping to catch
Voices of Liberty, but it was their day off. The other group, American Vibe
, was scheduled to perform. I don't care for them as much as Voices of
Liberty, and don't feel they fit into the theme of the pavilion as well as
VOL. They came out under the rotunda, and performed their set, doing a nice
version of Minnie the Moocher, and a Duke Ellington song, which I can't
recall. The set was nice, if unspectacular. We then followed the crowd into
the theater, and caught the American Adventure, which is one of my
favorites. Mike was duly impressed, especially with the audio-animatronics.

When the show ended, we exited the pavilion, just in time to see that
Chubby Checker was performing in the America Gardens Theater. We hadn't
planned on sticking around for his show, but while we watched from the back
of the theater, it was very entertaining, and we ended up staying until it
was over. Our decision to stay was aided by the Sam Adams beer tent right
behind us. One of the CM's came out and took a picture of us in front of the
Beer Garden sign, and we each had a Sam's while watching the show. The
Chubster must be in his 60's, but looked great for his age. He did the limbo
song, among several others, and ended up his high energy set with The Twist
which segued into Let's Twist Again. He brought several people onto the
stage to twist during those two songs. All in all, it was a very nice set,
and really added to the enjoyment of being at Epcot.

After Chubby's show was over, we continued walking east. I noticed the
Living Statue was performing outside of Italy, I thought they only performed
at France. We continued on, stopping at Germany. I ordered a glass coffee
mug for my wife, and another one for one of her co-workers. The mugs, with
names etched, came to $26 for the two of them. I told the clerk we'd come
back to pick them up between 8:30 and 9:00pm. Mike saw some nice Christmas
ornaments in the shop, and since we were coming back later he decided to
get them when we returned. We then started walking ,stopping to look at the
display set up for Spain. I also found a booth selling the South African
Durban chicken, and bought one. It extremely spicy, but was very good. We
then continued on, passing by China, Norway, and then Mexico. We had wanted
to catch Tapestry of Dreams, and I thought it still ran all the way to
Mexico. It turns out that it now only runs from Morocco to Germany, so we
had to hoof it back up to Germany.

We arrived back in Germany in time for the parade, and watched it from the
lagoon side. I checked on my mugs, and found they were done, so I picked
them up. After the parade finished, we caught the boat back to Mexico. After
we exited the boat, we walked to Future World. I made a brief stop at Pin
Central, but didn't see anything special. We then went over to Spaceship
Earth, and rode it without a wait.

After Spaceship Earth, it was about 5 minutes before our PS time at Le
Cellier, so we hustled on over there. We checked in, and were told it would
be 10-20 minutes. They were turning away walk-up customers due to it's being
so busy there tonight. We finally were seated at 7:45pm ( from our 7:20pm
PS), and settled in to chow down. I ordered the Steakhouse Caesar salad,
with the 7oz Filet Mignon. Mike ordered the Caesar, and the Rosemary
Chicken. We had coke with our dinner. The waitress was very personable,
telling us about her native Vancouver, and also explaining the different
breadsticks. I had the pretzel breadstick, which was soft, and warm, and
very good. Mike tried the multi grain breadstick. Our salads came, and they
were excellent. We finished the salad, and ended up waiting a bit for the
entrees. They finally came out, and Mike saw that his had the wrong
potatoes,
he had asked for the garlic mashed, but instead they gave him roasted spuds.
So he told the waitress, who took it back, and didn't bring his entree back
for almost five minutes. The filet I had was very tasty, and the garlic
mashed were very good also. Mike said his chicken was just OK, and wasn't
that large. The total came to about $58, and we left a $12 tip. It was now
going on 8:30pm, so we headed back to Germany so Mike could get his
ornaments for his girlfriend. Of course we had to stop on the way, and grab
a couple of frosty ones from the stand outside the UK. With cold
refreshments in hand, we ambled back to Germany. Mike got his ornaments with
time to spare, and we each had one last brewski from the Becks stand at
Germany.

We found ourselves a spot east of the boat dock in Germany to view
Reflections of Earth. I must say, it was a great feeling being there in
Epcot, watching ROE, especially when it was such an unexpected visit. Mike
was very impressed with ROE, and he said he is a big fireworks fan. When the
show was over, we then headed west towards the International Gateway exit.
We stopped at World Traders gift shop, and I spoke at length with CM 'Enri,
who was a pleasure to chat with. He told me quite a few things about Epcot,
including some things to come. We looked around the shop, but didn't buy
anything, I was actually trying to find a tie, but wasn't having any luck.

We then left Epcot, and walked to Boardwalk. We decided to hit the General
Store first, but neither of us found anything we needed. I saw that they now
have a Ticket & Transportation Center add-on for the monorail train set, but
didn't buy it, as we were limited in our luggage on this trip. After
checking out the General Store, we walked to ESPN. I found another CM with a
lanyard pin, and made a trade on the way over. We finally got to ESPN, and
sat at the bar. We each ordered a beer, but were both getting very tired, so
we didn't even finish them, and left. We then went back to the resort, and
hit the sack shortly after 11:00am.

On Friday, we had a 9:00am wake-up call. We took our time getting ready, and
finally left the room at about 10:30am. We checked Mara, but didn't feel
like food court food. We then checked the gift shop one last time, and
headed to the car. When we left the resort, I wanted to stop at MGM to get
the new Annual Passholders pin that was due out today. Mike agreed to wait
in the car, and read the paper. They let us park right up close by the bus
area, and I went into the park and straight to the BAH. I got two of the new
AP pins, plus a couple of other limited edition pins. I also stopped at
Keystone Clothiers on the way back, and found a nice black Goofy tie, which
was $29. I then exited the park ( one of the perks of an AP, you don't feel
bad about only spending 10 minutes in a park), and we drove from MGM to
Disney Marketplace. We checked out World of Disney, and Pooh's Corner, but
didn't buy anything. I checked the Disney Pin Trader shop, and ended up
trading with a lady, trading her the Tinkerbell Lanyard pin ( which we
already had one of at home), for a Dumbo Topiary lanyard pin. We then left
DD, and hit the Waffle House on 535, for a very hearty repast.

After breakfast, we drove back to Ft Lauderdale, making it in just over two
and a half hours. We went to the jail, picked up our prisoner, and went to
the airport. The airport is very poorly marked for the rental car return. We
even asked a deputy, and the deputy wasn't sure. We eventually found it, and
when we returned the car, I found out that they were in fact going to charge
my personal card, not the DA's card, which is not what the original rude
clerk had told us. We had to go inside to get it straightened out. We then
caught the shuttle to the terminal, caught our 7:20pm flight to Newark, and
landed in Newark at 10:00pm.

All in all, we accomplished a lot for such a short trip. We caught several
shows, had a nice dinner, saw a parade, Reflections of Earth, and met some
great CM's. The trip was well worth the drive, and was a nice warm-up for my
next trip in a mere 20 days. I also had my first meal at Le Cellier, which I
thought was very good. I also had my first visit during the Food Festival,
and while I enjoyed it, I doubt I will be going back during November anytime
soon, as I would much rather visit in early December for the Christmas
festivities.

Thanks for reading, and take care,

Bill