Change in Plans

The crowd levels have changed drastically in the past couple of days. I'll put up a new schedule soon ..

Schedule

At long last .. here's our itinerary. And, we have 19 days to go!! The general plan is to tour on mornings and evenings, but don't feel bound to this schedule. We all have Park Hopper passes, so you can visit any number of parks every day. The only thing that's relatively fixed are the meals. We'll need to meet at the restaurants at the time listed if you want lunch (or dinner, for a couple of days).

Saturday, June 18th

· Arrival into Orlando

· Animal Kingdom, 9 am to 8 pm; crowds will be heavy

· Lunch at 12:45 pm, Tusker House in Animal Kingdom

· Check into River Island at Orange Lakes after 4 pm

Sunday, June 19th

· Magic Kingdom, 9 am to 11 pm; crowds will be moderate

· Lunch at 1 pm, Crystal Palace

· Hit the rides instead of watching evening fireworks this night; we'll see them later

Monday, June 20th

· Epcot, 9 am to 9 pm; crowds are supposed to be pretty light

· Lunch at 12:30 pm, Les Chefs de France

· Dinner at 7:00 pm, San Angel Inn

Tuesday, June 21st

· Sleep in, enjoy the resort, relax

· Hollywood Studios, Fantasmic show at 9 pm

Wednesday, June 22nd

· Hollywood Studios, 9 am to 7 pm (morning park); should be extremely light crowds

· Lunch at 1:05 pm, Mamma Melrose's; aim for a light dinner

· Magic Kindom, 9 am to 11 pm (evening park)

· Try to avoid daytime sweets

· 9:15 pm - a surprise

Thursday, June 23rd

· Epcot, 9 am to 9 pm; crowds are supposed to be pretty light

· Lunch at 1:05 pm, Biergarten

· Jeff & Jenn: dinner for 2

Friday, June 24th

· Tropical surprise ... skip breakfast in the condo and leave by 7:15 am, pronto!

· Magic Kingdom, 9 am to 11 pm (morning park); crowds will be moderately high

· Epcot, 9 am to 9 pm (evening park); crowds should be lighter

· Last chance to see Illuminations in Epcot

· Lunch at 1:15 pm, Whispering Canyon Cafe

Saturday, June 25th

· Checkout

· Downtown Disney shopping trip?

33 days to go ...

Time's a flyin'! Anyone ready to hit the road yet? I believe we're at 33 days.

In a couple of weeks, I'll post our itinerary. It'll show what days we're going to which parks and what restaurants we'll be having a meal. Everyone will have a Park Hopper pass, so we don't all have to go to the same park. But ... keep in mind a couple of things:

• I've picked out the park (or parks) for the day based on crowd level estimates. What's on the list will generally be the best park to visit for that week.

• Unless you want to make separate arrangements for mealtime, you will probably want to stay in the same park. We can tour separately and then meet again for lunch. Most of the in-park meals are for lunch.

We'll also be getting a good variety of meals in this trip, just like last time: Italian, Mexican, German, African and French. You might hesitate a bit, wondering just what to eat at some of these places, so let's review some options.

The restaurant that worries me the most is Les Chefs de France in EPCOT. This is the French restaurant we'll visit for lunch. The reviews for this place usually fall in the extremes; either folks hate it because of horrible food, or it was the best tasting thing they ate their entire trip. We ate there once, about 10 years ago. To be honest, it was bland, but we didn't order anything that you'd consider really French either. I remember eating some roast chicken and mashed potatoes ... nothing too striking about that meal. This time, I'm going to be a bit more adventurous.

The restaurant itself is named after 3 famous French chefs. Chefs in France are celebrities, and if you ever do eat good French food, you'll understand why. So, let's cross our fingers that we'll have a good experience. What can you eat there? Don't let the menu trip you up. It's in French, but it's also in English.

From reading online, here's some recommendations:

• Snails. Say what??? Yes, snails or escargot. I'll never eat escargot myself for a couple of reasons ... the first being that it's freakin' snails! Plus, escargot is served in garlic butter. I tend to avoid food that needs to be swimming in melted butter to be appetizing, but that's just me.
• Onion soup. Ever hear of French Onion Soup? Well, this is the real deal. From everything I've read and heard, the onion soup at this place is divine. Rich beef broth with bread and sauteed onions, topped with melted Gruyere cheese ... mmmm. Not sure how hot soup will taste in June in Florida, but then again, the place is air conditioned.
• Mac & cheese. This ain't the stuff from Kraft that tastes marginally better than the box containing it. On the menu, this is 'Gratin de macaroni'. It's baked macaroni, swimming in cream and melted Gruyere cheese. I think they also put tomatoes and a hint of nutmeg in it. You'll probably never be able to stomach Kraft after eating this.
• 3 course lunch: also called, 'The French Menu'. You get full course meal - soup, salad, sandwich, and dessert.
• Creme Brulee. Imagine a pillowy, sugary pudding topped with a crystallized top. Creme Brulee is delicious and here, it's supposed to be about the best you'll ever taste.

While in France, we should also make time to visit their pastry shop and crepe vendor. Crepes are fantastic, and the pastry shop is probably the best bakery I've ever visited.

Vacation Downtime?

Then I suggest a movie! Green Lantern comes out on 6/17. That'd make a great mid-day matinee, don't you think? Downtown Disney has a huge theater ... maybe they'll be playing this one there.

Green Lantern's got a new trailer ... check it out!

http://movies.yahoo.com/

A Vague Notion of Weather ...

Folks, we're sitting at less than 50 days till the trip. Getting excited yet? We've still got some planning to do. Our departure is coming up fast!

So I've heard a couple different things about June weather in the Orlando area. You can see an estimate here:

http://www.weather.com/weather/monthly/USFL0615?month=1 (you might need to copy/paste this into your address bar to see it).

Looks like, for this time of year, the highs range from about 90 up to a record of 100. There have been some pretty severe heat waves the past few years about this time in June. Also keep in mind, that's just the temperature; there's also the heat index, which is all the humidity.

So, that's why we're planning on getting into the parks early, leaving at lunch, and then coming back after dinner. That should help cut down on our exposure to a lot of the high temperatures.

Orange Lake Stuff

Here's a quick list of activities at the resort you can do. Some of these things have an additional fee:

• lazy river ... a very big lazy river!
• world's biggest inflatable water slide
• 3 other water slides in 2 mini water parks
  
• putt putt
• golf
• bungee trampoline jumping
• rock wall climbing
• fishing
• jet ski
• free movie theatre & popcorn
• fitness centers
• pool games
• video game contests
• tennis
• racquetball
  
• ping pong
• beach volleyball
  
• kids' art crafts & activities
• karaoke
• nature walk
• tubing
• wakeboarding
• water skiing
• alligator show
• live music
• Hawaiian luau
• 7 restaurants

That's a lot of stuff! So, start thinking about what you'd like to do during those hot, lazy afternoons on our vacation week. On Tuesday of that week, we'll probably be spending most of the day at Orange Lakes, recuperating.

What's New ?

Well, what should you expect on this upcoming trip that's new or different in Disney World? It might seem a funny question to ask of a place that's had the same Dumbo ride flying in circles for 40 years now, but there's actually quite a bit of things that's new ...

• Construction: The Magic Kingdom is in the midst of a huge construction project in Fantasyland, plus there's some rebuilding going on in Main Street. You can also expect to see some of the back part of the castle covered (tastefully so) in construction tarps. Some of the early work is already finished, and a couple of rides in Fantasyland have enhanced waiting areas. Look for queue changes at both It's a Small World and at the Pooh ride.
  
• Star Tours: Star Tours is closed right now, but is scheduled to re-open in late May, and will be a re-designed attraction. I don't know a lot of details, but I have heard it'll feature more of the prequels (groan!) and the ride will use a variety of combinations of different Star Wars vehicles so that your ride will be different almost every time you go on Star Tours.
• The American Adventure: OK, this ain't new by any means, but I've never once seen this Epcot attraction, so I'm looking forward to finally enjoying it.
• Different restaurants: This trip, we're mostly eating the tried & true, but there's a few places that'll be new for all of us.
• Magic Kingdom fireworks: Apparently a new twist to the night time show is to take images of park guests collected during the day and then project them onto the front of the castle when they do the fireworks.

That's it for this post. Stay tuned for more updates in the near future including:

- a decent list of activities at Orange Lake
- an itinerary
- some ideas about how we're gonna navigate the parks with 11 people ... do we split up into smaller groups or stay together?