WaltDisney
World - October 1998
Son
Daniel and I just finished another wonderful trip to DisneyWorld,
our 2nd trip this year. One of the BIG highlights of this trip was our
being #11 and 12 to ride the new Buzz Lightyear Astro Spin,
and we were the first ever to buy the new Buzz T shirts. It's
a ride that's sure to be a huge hit for young and young at heart alike.
The 2
of us in front of Buzz's entrance. Photo taken by a fellow DFBB (Disney
Fan Bulletin Board member), that's also a WDW Cast Member. There
wasn't a huge amount of fanfare preceding the opening, but the Sergeant
and Buzz himself made an appearance.
Buzz's
ride is very colorful, and you control the amount of spin, if any, by a
joystick centered at the front of your car. Each person has a laser
gun and you shoot at various "Z" targets all through the ride, if you hit
on you get points, AND start the animations for a related object.
It's really cool!
Our room in the
Contemporary Tower Club was wonderful, these shots are from our
balcony. We had a perfect view of the Castle, and at night enjoyed
watching the colored lights change on the castle. They ranged from
Gold to every shade of Purple, Green, Orange, Blues and Pinks. It
was breathtaking to watch each color change, sometimes seeing 2 or 3 different
colors shining on the Castle at once. The lights started at park
close, and kept up their show all night long! It's worth a monorail
ride just to see these lights on the Castle at night!
Another
highlight for us was finding the Brick we bought in May. It's located
at the Ticket and Transportation Center. Right in front of the first
palm tree planting by the left side Exit.
We always love
dinner at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom complete
with the Pooh gang.
This was
our first ever visit to Tom Sawyer's Island, and it was a real treat.
For us as well as our feeding the ducks.
Daniel
found one of the hidden treasures - a paint brush - hid behind a curtain
in the windmill, and was awarded a back entrance pass to Big Thunder
Mountain!
At the
Animal Kingdom we enjoyed a character greeting with Pluto,
Rafiki, and our favorite Goofy.
We didn't
make it into Countdown to Extinction this trip as the lines were very long
and the day
quite
hot. But we enjoyed It's Tough To Be A Bug, and the pathways
through the Oasis.
Some shots
of MY personal favorite....Cinderella's Castle.
We always
love to have dinner at the Garden Grill in the Land at Epcot.
The characters here seem to have an extra special fun time with guests.
We have a tradition of stopping by the Jumping
Water fountain area at Imagination at Epcot.
We did the Imagination ride and saw Dreamfinder and Figment, this
attraction closed the weekend after we were there, so we were very glad
we got to see it one last time. In Innoventions we stopped
by the GM EV1 totally electronic car display.
I got to test drive one!
A
postcard sent home from IBM at Innoventions - Epcot.
We enjoyed dinner at the newly remodeled
Coral Reef in the Living Seas - Epcot, which is just beautiful
now! We met up with friends we first met on our Dec. '96 trip (we
met on the DFBB) Carol & Jerry, and their friends Jo and Hu,
all from Michigan.
We found some great shopping at Downtown
Disney to round out our trip.
I didn't get any good pictures of the new
Disney Quest but it was our favorite spot this trip!
If you've never experienced Virtual Reality this is a MUST as it's some
of the best!
Cyber Space Mountain is totally cool,
we rode it at least 6 times, Ride The Comix is another great
VR experience, as is Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride. Daniel took
an animation class and got a printout of his rendering of Goofy
along with a neat certificate, and I enjoyed the Internet Coffee Bar on
the 4th floor.....the Tuxedo Cheesecake is divine! We had fun with
Sid's Create A Toy making toys on a computer terminal from different
pieces - much like Sid did in Toy Story, and we purchased our creations
for a neat keepsake. Disney Quest is located in Disney's
West Side section of Downtown Disney, and it is really a unique
place to spend a late evening, or a hot afternoon. We bought 90 Unit
cards for $20 and got most of the major attractions out of them once.
They have traditional arcade games where you win tickets based on points,
and a redemption center where you can buy small toys that's great for the
younger kids. You can check out Disney Quest
in about 3 hours time, but I think we spent nearly 8 hours there to really
get the full experience. The other shops in the area include The
Virgin Mega Store where we bought some CD's and CD Roms. It's
an awesome store!
We had a fantastic trip, and as always, look
forward to our next one!
"If
you keep on believing, the dream that you dream will come true"
See
photos from our May 1998 Trip
HOME
10/10/98
Photos by Marcia Cook
