[tinkerbell]

Well it was over too soon :( but it was wonderful .. I have to start with how the surprise went over!! As we got on Disney property DH pretended to get lost and end up at the AKL .. well the girls were a bit peeved that he got lost but at first ok with looking around the AKL ..as we played out the "pretend" DH told the girls "they think we are suspose to be here ..so we can go look around insided ( it was around 5:30 am the lobby and all was empty still) Lisa was a little worried that we were going to get in trouble but Barbie got very worried and kept saying "we need to go to the CBR before they throw us out of here cause we arent supose to be here" When I went up to the check in desk she was getting more upset so I told them that we were staying here instead and everyone was in on the surprise!! I wish I had had my camera out at that moment you should have seen thier faces!! Lisa started to jump up and down, barbie looked mostly relieved though! And guess what .. we got a room right away ! We were checked in ..and in our room with the bell service delivery our luggage to the room before 7 am !!
I called our friends from England ( poor things at the comfort inn) and told them we would meet them at Chef Mickey's at 9 . there was no problem at all getting a table even though we didnt make any PS.. we never had a wait at any of the resturaunts at all and we didnt make any PS for them.
Our first 2 days were not very good as far as the parks .. but it was because we spent more time talking and visiting with our friends from england then riding any rides .. we went to see Davey Jones the first day at epcot after breakfast at Chef Mickey's .. it was great ..and Karen and I embarrassed all three girls by carrying on bout Davy! Test track was down :( didnt get to ride it the first day. COP was open Saturday the 20th but closed the rest of the time we were there. The crowds were not bad at all. At the studios we rode TOT and R&R over and over and didnt need fast passes. there were tons and tons of charactors out some we had never seen before like Meg and the Wicked Queen from snow white!!
As for the AKL ......it was an adventure ..there were always animals outside our room. The food there ..wow .. just great!!!!
any way ..we are trying to get over our PDD ( Post Disney Depression) and I have pictures to scan !!!!!!!! any questions??

[wdwjeff]

Hey, tinkerbell,
Welcome back to semi-reality(you've still got DC).:) :) :)

[Cinderellafifi]

We all know post-Disney depression! Welcome back anyway. It sounds like you had a great trip! How lucky that you didn't need a PS for any restaurant - I love it!

Can't wait to read more!:)

[iamagrump]

Tinkerbell... Welcome home and I am glad that the girls loved AKL. I am hoping to go back and try and stay there again.......

[tinkerbell]

a bit more on our trip this year .. one thing I want to point out that I didnt understand before going .. the security check points are before you get to the gate where they take your tickets. These really were surprisingly fast ..for anyone going .. remember you must open your package/bag your self for them to look through, sometimes they may ask you to move things around a bit but they will not stick thier hands into your bags. If you are not carrying anything in ( like a camera case or fanny pack/backpack what ever) then you may go right to the gate and bypass this check. ..in fact It didnt take me long to figure out that if I took, DH's camera case, the girls fanny and backpacks through with my camcorder ..then they could go right on in and be waiting on me ..that made it 3 less people in the line and I always had everything unzipped and ready for inspection. for some reason you will see long lines at a few of the securtiy checks while there will be a couple that are clear or 1 person.. its really not anything I feared it would be ..but ..come summer it may get ugly ya'll. I know I did over here one Mouse cop say that they really needed more on at MK on Mondays ( one of MK's busy days) so it will depend on the day of the week.
April wasnt a dern bit cooler temp wise then May ..so no change there .. the crowds too seemed pretty much the same for This time in April as they do in May.

Our second day at the World was spent at MK .. COP was open that day but not the other days we went to MK .. the CM we talked to said it would be closed till June (but that it could be open if crowds were large) and also the CM said there were no plans to close COP for good.
As to the crowds that day ( saturday april 19th) they were not very bad at all ..there were large lines for Space Ranger Spin .. even on the days we went when MK was not crowded at all there was at least a 45-50 minute wait in the standby line for SRS.

I have to point out something amazing .. everyone seemed so much more friendly and couritous ( spelling) even teen age boys seemed to be more considerate ..like holding the door when me and my granddaughter were carrying out drinks and such. I lost count of how many people we talked to .. in the past it seemed that once in a while you would end up talking to someone nice and friendly on the bus, waiting in line, at the resorts or sitting down to a meal .. but this year .. we talked with so many friendly people and noticed so many being more considerate. Saddly there were the few times we heard parents yelling at thier kids and even over heard more then one couple argueing.
We did notice that SRS needed some work ..it looked very woren :( and I was sad to see that there was gum and graffitti on the walls of SM. But WDW was still cleaner then any other theme park I have ever went to.

[jgriff2388]

Tinkerbell welcome back.
Well it sounds like you had a great trip. I'm glad the girls were surprised.:p Just start planning your next trip, that will get you out of your post Disney depression.
How did you like the travel from AKL on the buses? Did it take long or were they crowded?

[tinkerbell]

Originally posted by jgriff2388
Tinkerbell welcome back.
Well it sounds like you had a great trip. I'm glad the girls were surprised.:p Just start planning your next trip, that will get you out of your post Disney depression.
How did you like the travel from AKL on the buses? Did it take long or were they crowded?

thanks :) yeah we are already talking about our next one in 2003

jgriff2388 I am a big fan of the disney transportation system ..so I thought the bus rides were great as usual ..we did have on bus ride which we had to stand up on .. it was the first bus to Epcot .. Epcot is the only resort that the buses run 45 / 30 minutes before opening .. ( park opened at 10 -- first bus didnt run till 9:20) but heck it was morning and we were fresh as a daisy (duck) so no problem. We never had to stand going back to the resort at the end of the day.
there was one thing I noticed ..the bus drivers were not as talkative or as entertaining as they have been in past years. We had one who on the ride from MK talked about how large the bus system is and how much fuel ..but in the past years we have had some really fun bus drivers .. like the one that told us Epcot stands for Every Person Comes Out Tired.
ohh and the new Nova buses are great!! really loved these but only got to ride in 2 of them.

[Goofette]

Welcome Home Tinkerbell. I wish both of us would have had longer for our vacations. It just went by too fast, which is how I feel about life anymore. I'm glad you liked AKL. I wondered several times when I would be talking with different people if I was talking to you or not :) but I never heard the names of the girls. I want to hear all about your vacation and what you did and didn't like about it.

Glad to have you back.
Goofette

[tinkerbell]

Originally posted by Goofette
Welcome Home Tinkerbell. I wish both of us would have had longer for our vacations. It just went by too fast, which is how I feel about life anymore. I'm glad you liked AKL. I wondered several times when I would be talking with different people if I was talking to you or not :) but I never heard the names of the girls. I want to hear all about your vacation and what you did and didn't like about it.

Glad to have you back.
Goofette

Welcome home to you too Goofette ..I dont think there was anything I didnt like about the AKL .. Karen and I were talking about it and you can really begin to feel as though your in Africa .. in fact as I told her .. "if you dont then its your fault and not Disney's" I will add ..that the manager is a real sweet heart .. we had a small problem with getting in to the park on thursday ..our passes messed up (but they let us in any way with temp passes) and when I got new ones made he called up to the room saying that he hoped everything was taken care of to my satisfaction. To me this is what is at the heart of a WDW vacation ..that they do everything they can to see to it that you have as a stress free time ..well they cant do much about whining pre-teens who think they are too old for crafts at Epcot *grin* ..actually lisa did do the crafts .. I think she wanted to but felt she was too old.. I can live with the smaller room ..heck we have stayed at ASM so small rooms arent that big a deal.. and I can live with the longggggg walk down the hall .. I mean we could have had a different room if we had wanted to wait till later in the day ..but we thought it was just wonderful to get our room at such an early hour!!!!

I havent yet gotten our pictures all scanned ..I just barely got the digital ones down loaded in to the computer.. and I had planned to hook up the vcr and play the tapes over to my webpage but havent had the chance to do that yet either ..some how my house sitter ... *sigh* didnt do much at all so I came home to alot of work :(

[tigger]

Into the wayback machine and out comes Tinkerbells first TR!

Enjoy everyone...

[Dopey]

Originally Posted by tigger

Into the wayback machine and out comes Tinkerbells first TR!

Enjoy everyone...

dagnabbit Tigger, I am reading and reading and enjoying and seeing all those people welcoming Tinkerbell back and it finally dawned on me that these folks don't post much here and then I see the dates. Yes, admittedly it took me a while to catch on
Stop that

[Dana]

I love rereading old reports. I just reread two of mine last night..lol Thanks for finding this and bringing it back up for another read~

[tinkerbell]

wow cant believe this old thing has come up ..ohh but it was one of our best trips, staying at the AKL and seeing Dixie and celebrating with them and her In-laws !!! Not to mention surprising the girls!!! yep ..this was one of our best trips. and the best time was spent sitting talking to Dixie at the AKL one night for hours.

[bali]

Oh fun! You got me, Tigger! I was about to welcome Tink back from a trip I didn't know she was taking!

[tinkerbell]

Originally Posted by bali

Oh fun! You got me, Tigger! I was about to welcome Tink back from a trip I didn't know she was taking!

oh how I wish .. since this thread was brought back from the dead ...and Dixie just returned from WDW .. here is one of my favorite pictures from that year and trip