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**WillCAD** · 05-28-2005, 12:44 AM

but had a great trip.

I'm exhausted. I will probably sleep for another week.

My face is pretty red from all the sun. I look like I'm outraged at something.

Spent almost the whole fund. I was hoping to come back under budget to have a few extra bucks for my MouseFest fund, but I came back almost exactly on my budget.

Still typing up my notes, but a few quick impressions:

* Castle decorations - Home Run! I love them.

* Biometrics for everybody - foulest foul ball ever to smack the WDW-going public in the teeth. Slow, slower, slowest - and that was with only moderate crowds!

* Soarin' - 'nother Home Run! Beautiful scenery, gentle ride. Queue area bores you to tears - hopefully they'll add something pretty to it.

* Star Wars Weekends - Home Run, but very crowded. Great character photo ops!

* I saw Wishes (which I love more than life itself) from Fantasyland, a place I spend little time in, and nearly need hospitalization from twisting my neck around to see it. The show lights up Fantasyland like high noon, and some of the lower shells are so close that Disney actually installed water sprinklers on the roof of Philharmagic to douse the crowd during the show! I highly recommend this alternate viewpoint at least once.

* All-Star Music - Everything I remembered it to be. Beds far softer than Pop, food court far higher quality, and the CMs still have that smiling spark that gives your stay that little extra touch of Disney Magic.

* Mummy's Revenge - A good ride that doesn't nearly live up to it's hype.

* Universal Studios Annual Pass - best thing since sliced bread! From the card itself, which is a full-color photo ID (they take your pic right in the Vacation Services office) and laminated solid like a drivers license, to the wonderful 20% discount on most normal merchandise (excluding magazines and a few other things) IN THE PARKS, the Uni AP is far and away better than the Disney AP. And then there is the cost, a measly $183 compared to Disney's $433, and far more extensive dining discounts, and the Uni AP becomes a shining example of how an entertainment venue should be treating thier best and most loyal customers. Disney needs to pay close attention to this!

* Bathrooms - The last truly clean bathroom I saw in the WDW parks was in September 2002. During my 2003 and 2004 trips, I saw not one clean bathroom, and most were disgusting. A far cry this was from the days when every Disney bathroom was so clean you could perform surgery in them. This time, however, the pendulum has begun to swing back; while there were still dirty bathrooms, and a few awful ones, most of the bathrtooms were reasonably clean and neat, showing marked improvement over just 6 months ago when I last visited.

* Attitude - Is it because Eisner is leaving? I dunno, but something is bringing the smiles back to the faces of WDW Cast Members. I saw more happy, shining faces on the CMs this trip than I have in over 3 years.

* Heat - Orlando is always warmer than my native Baltimore, but this week was hot even by Orlando standards, with temps in the low 90s through most of the week. I think I lost 5 pounds just from sweating! SO be warned - take those water bottles with you and DRINK! And once in a while drink a Powerade to replace the sodium, electrolytes, and other chemicals that the human body loses through sweating.

Full trip notes will be up on my web site in a few days, with a trip report to follow... sometime.