[RICH1967]

Hi all,

Just got back from 8 days at WDW. Stayed at the GF in the Sugar Loaf building Concierge. Overall we had a very nice trip. I have lots to say so I will try to make this as brief as possible.

Hotel – We arrived on Saturday at 11:00am. Room wasn’t ready yet so we had an early lunch by the pool. By this point hurricane Jean was the topic of conversation at the resort. The weather was partly cloudy but a little windy (actually very pleasant conditions for walking the parks not to hot with a nice breeze). After lunch our room was ready. The room itself was adequate 2 double beds and a nice bathroom but not knock your socks off nice. Very little difference from rooms at the Poly or AKL. I did not like the Sugar Loaf building. It’s not very big and compared the Main building there is no comparison. If I went back to the GF and I most likely won’t I would only stay in the Main building. I don’t mean to say the GF is not a very nice hotel because it is but for the extra $$ I just didn’t see the value. I will say the concierge staff were much better then the staff I dealt with at the Poly. They were always helpful but I think the food at the Poly concierge was better. I grade the hotel a B

Hurricane Jean – Jean arrived in full force on Sunday morning and now that I am home safely I am glad I was there for it. It was really neat to see the force of nature. The winds were really howling, the talk was that they reached 120mph at the airport so at the resort I would think they were over 100mph. It was wild. Very little debris flying around but lots of trees bent over. It was amazing to see all the trees that are down in Orlando. The monorail ride from MK to Epcot is filled with downed trees. You can tell they have been through 4 hurricanes. Funny story, I decide it’s safe enough to take my son out in the hurricane so here I am with him in 100+ mph wind and I’m thinking people must be saying where is this child’s mother letting him outside in this weather no sooner do I think this here is his mother outside taking pictures of us in the storm! People must have thought we were crazy. Anyway the storm ended around 5:00pm and just like Disney all parks opened on time Monday morning like nothing ever happened. The place is unbelievable!

Parks – Great is all I can say. No lines at all, everyday in the high 80’s just fantastic. The longest line I saw all week was 15 minutes. We had a great time. Most of the Fast pass machines were closed because the wait time was so low they were not necessary. It was great!

Mickey not so scary Halloween party was really good. On September 30 we received a note at our room to expect some noise at night because they were working on a new show. So I am lying in bed at 9:30 when I start hearing fire works. I look outside and end up watching 15 minutes of the best fireworks I have ever seen. Just unbelievable! So when the end I go back to bed and 15 minutes later they start all over again so I once again get up to watch and again they were awesome. So I asked the concierge what they were from the next morning and he told me they were practicing for the Halloween party scheduled for that night Oct. 1. That was enough for me, we bought tickets and had a blast. No lines at all for any ride. Not even 5 minutes. Characters throughout the park giving out candy. We loved it!

All in all a very good trip. I left lots out so if you have questions feel free to ask and I will answer any I can.