Jennifer and Dave's Disney Adventure Report

Dates: 10/18 - 10/27, 1999 (10 day trip)

Adventurers:

Jennifer Watson (author): 31 year old, writer and co-author of PassPorter Walt Disney World, on her umpteenth trip to Disney (from Ann Arbor, MI)
Dave Marx: 44 year old, writer and co-author of PassPorter Walt Disney World, on his 10th (or is it 11th?) trip to Disney (from Hackensack, NJ and Ann Arbor, MI)
Evans: online friend who we used to work with on AOL; Disney vacation veteran (joining us for the first three days)
Liz: friend of Evans; never been to Disney before (also joining us for the first three days)
Kim Larner: 28 year old, Jennifer's younger sister, pregnant (in her fourth month). On her third trip to Walt Disney World but brand new to the Disney Cruise (from Okemos, Michigan). She is joining us for the cruise aboard the Disney Wonder.
Chad Larner, 28 year old, Jennifer's brother-in-law. Also on his third trip to Walt Disney World. (from Okemos, Michigan) He is also joining us on the cruise.

Updated 11/21/03

Our Eighth Day: Monday, October 25, 1999

Ah, our first full day back at Walt Disney World. And we had much to do! Dave set out early for the Animal Kingdom for research, while Jennifer stayed to see Kim and Chad off to the airport (they were going back to Michigan today). After this, Jennifer also went to Animal Kingdom and we met for lunch at Tusker House.

After lunch, Jennifer stayed at the Animal Kingdom to continue research and Dave left for the Magic Kingdom. Again, we met up — this time at the Walt and Mickey statue in front of Cinderella Castle. We spent the rest of the day researching attractions and restaurants. Between the two of us, we hit almost every attraction and visited every restaurant and counter-service cafe at the two parks. Yow!

Dinner had yet to be decided, so we took a chance that we might get a spot at the California Grill. We'd given the California Grill a low rating our first edition and knew we needed to visit it again to reassess. As it turns out, they could work us in and we were seated in the Wine Room. What a change! The Wine Room is a 35-person room in the back of the restaurant which is much quieter and offers a wonderful view of Bay Lake. This was more like it. One of our major complaints with California Grill was with the noise (it is truly deafening at times) and the service (which isn't as good as it should be for the prices). Both were much improved this time. It would still be as noisy as we'd originally noted in the main dining room, and the Wine Room was still a touch loud, but we could now hear ourselves talking. The food was excellent, as always.

After dinner, we took a monorail to the Transportation & Ticket Center and then a bus to the Wilderness Lodge. We then quickly donned our bathing suits and went for a dip in the pool and the hot tub. Both were heavenly after a full day of walking and researching.

Upon our return to the room, Dave did work while Jennifer promptly fell asleep.

From our PassPorter:

The weather on our eighth day was sunny and cool, much like the day before.

The best thing about our eighth day was our delightful and improved visit to the California Grill at the Contemporary Resort.

The worst thing about our eighth day was all the work we had to do... we wanted to play, too!

The most interesting thing about our eighth day was the view from the Wine Room at the California Grill. We could see Epcot (and Reflections of Earth fireworks!), Downtown Disney, and a Mormon temple way off to the northeast.

The most disappointing thing about our eighth day was saying goodbye to Kim and Chad... we wish they could have stayed longer and we could have spent more time with them.

One word that best describes our eighth day is WORK.

To learn more, continue on to our Ninth Day.

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