It's cheap! It's free! Can this really be Disney???Complete with pics.

[scrap4u]

Having already planned a one week vacation to Disney for May 2006, we hadn’t really planned to visit again this year. But Disney came out with such a deal on hotels for September and offered the free dining plan, I told DH that we couldn’t afford not to go! Doesn’t that sound like a good excuse! It was sure good enough for us.

So before we had even left on our May trip, I had us booked to stay at Port Orleans French Quarter from 9/9-9/16 in a standard room with the free dining plan. We’d never used the dining plan before so we were really looking forward to this.

Cast list for this trip:
DH—loving husband that works 2 jobs to help feed our Disney obsession
Me—loving wife, Disney obsessed, scrapbooker,
K—internet friend from CA
A.L.—K’s aunt from Louisiana
S—my cousin in Orlando who is a CM
K2-cousin’s fiancée
D—S’s ex- fiancée
S2—D’s husband

We flew Air Tran for our May trip and ended up losing a day due to cancelled flights. This trip, we decided to fly Delta on nonstop flights. Much less chance of getting stuck overnight in Atlanta that way! Plus I had a buy 1 get 1 free coupon with Delta. More free stuff!!

Having just been to Disney in May, we didn’t need to purchase too many things to get ready for our trip. Shoot! That's half the fun of going, being able to justify buying new clothes and stuff.

We did buy DH a new suitcase. With the no liquids restriction that the TSA had in place at the time of our flight, we were going to have to put all our toiletries in our checked bags. Also, the airlines had just decreased the weight limit of each checked bag to 50 pounds. So I wanted him to have a lighter suitcase, in case I needed him to carry some of my toiletries!

I also had a lot of trouble with my feet and ankles swelling on the May trip. Swollen feet in tennis shoes rubbed bad blisters. My poor feet were miserable whole week. I had been reading the Dis board a lot and people kept talking about Crocs. I think they are pretty ugly but when I tried them on, they were very comfy. So I found a lime green pair—the official color of the Dis board—and bought em. I also read about the Jibbitz from DISUNC’s trip report and I found some cute ones and loaded up my Crocs to try and make them cuter.

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The other thing I had to do was get my LGMHs (Lime Green Mickey Heads paint chips) from Home Depot. They are actually Alien Green and there is a whole thread on the community board about this.

Anywho--I used my label printer to print out DisBoards.com and Scrap4u which is my user name. I then laminated them and put green ribbon on them so I could hang them from our camera, fanny pack, etc, and I had a bunch to give out to any Disers I met.

I also had by Disney binder from our May trip. It has all the parks hours, EMHs, our dining reservations, flight confirmations, hotel confirmations, car confirmation, what to do if you lose your passes, things to see and do in each park, the best locations to view different parades and fireworks from, the best park to go to on each day. And most importantly all the info about Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) that we were attending on 9/15 for the first time. Most of the info came from Tour Guide Mike.

We really didn’t use the binder much this trip as we are getting to be veterans. The one thing we do use—I print out all our ADRs on heavy card stock paper. I then cut the paper up so each coupon (so to speak) is about the size of our room key. They have the date, day of week—you know how easy it is to lose track of the days when you’re on vacation—restaurant and time. When we leave the room each day I take out the coupons for any ADRs we have that day and put them in a ziplock bag and stick it in my fanny pack. (Yes, I know. According to the Dis, the fanny pack makes me uncool. But I love my Tigger fannypack!) That way they stay dry when I’m on Splash Mountain or any other wet ride. These come in very handy if a host/hostess can’t find our ADR when we check in.

Friday night before our trip, DH took a ½ night off from his 2nd job and we both tried to finish up our packing. When we were done we weighed our suitcases on the bathroom scale. I should have taken pictures of that! That scale may not be as accurate as the airport's but we figured as long as we didn’t come too close to 50lbs, we’d be ok.

We both packed a few changes of clothes and some shoes in our carry on bags. This helped with the weight in our checked bags and insured that we’d have clothes to wear if our checked bags got lost. We finished up our packing except for a few things we needed to get ready the next morning, and were in bed by 10:30pm.

I always love that commercial for Disney where the little boy tells his mom he’s too excited to sleep. After working all day and then packing and running around, we were both tired and out like a light!

[happybratpack]

Great start!! Can't wait for the rest...hurry! ;)

Your Crocs were quite sylin'!

[scrap4u]

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 7:05am, so I set the alarm for 4:00am but the excitement caught up with me and I was wide awake at 3:30am. I woke DH up, but somehow the Disney excitement hadn’t reached him yet. He slowly got out of bed to get ready. We finished up our packing and ate a quick breakfast, loaded the car and were on the road by 5:20am. Just 5 minutes later then I had planned. Not bad for us.

The drive to the airport was uneventful. The sun hadn’t come up yet and there was barely any traffic on the highway. We went to a park and fly lot to leave our car and take their shuttle over to the airport. I had already printed out our boarding passes the day before so when we got out of the shuttle van, we were able to go right to Delta’s curbside check-in and check our bags. The sky cap didn’t even weigh the bags. He just picked each one of our checked bags up and decided they weren’t too heavy. We (I) breathed a sign of relief.

We left the very nice skycap with a very nice tip, said a quick prayer that our bags would be in Orlando when we got there, and headed into the airport. We bypassed all the lines and headed for security. We did the normal security strip--shoes, DH took off his belt, unloaded his wallet and phone and we got through security with no trouble.

We grabbed some seats at our gate and then went to get something to drink. This no liquids thing was killing me as I always travel with a bottle of water. Even in the car.

We sat next to a really nice woman from the Williamsburg area. She was meeting up with her daughter at her connecting city and they were flying to see her son in Hawaii. He’s in the Navy as a submariner and was on leave. She was very interesting and friendly which helped the time pass quickly.

There was another plane, not going to Orlando, leaving from our same gate prior to our flight. Delta called for the boarding of that flight and people started heading down the jetway. We noticed a security person at the gate rechecking random people’s carry-ons. I guess he was looking for any liquids they might have purchased in the gate area. Remember—still no liquids carried on the plane at this point.

Most of the people had gone down the jetway when all of a sudden they all came back into the gate area. There was some confusion as to what was going on. Finally the Delta gate agent came on and apologized to everyone for the confusion. The gate agents had gotten word that the plane was ready for boarding but it turned out the crew wasn’t even on board the plane yet. Too funny! So they were all told to sit down and they would be recalled for boarding.

During all this confusion, Delta decided to go ahead and board our plane. We walked down the jet way, down the stairs and out to the tarmac. The tarmac was empty of airline personnel. We were going to have play eeny, meeney, miney, moe and pick a plane as there were 2 planes on the ground, both with their engines running. We opted to follow the other travelers who were walking towards 1 of the 2 planes. Maybe, hopefully, they know which one is the right one! We climbed up the steps and when we got inside the plane we asked the flight attendant if we were on the plane to Orlando. She said yes (Yea!) so we headed for our seats.

The plane was so small that DH who is 6ft 1in couldn’t stand up straight in it. He had to shuffle down the aisle looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame! Luckily we were seated near the front of the plane so he didn't have far to shuffle. We’ve been on these regional jets before but always forget just how small they are.

Some people were already on the plane when we got on. An older woman with a wheelchair starts telling the flight attendant that she isn’t going to Orlando. She is on the wrong plane! We were cracking up! We’ve never seen an airline employee put anyone on the wrong plane. They finally moved this lady off our plane and I hope got her on the right one.

We settle in with our books and who should walk onto the plane but my cousin S’s ex-fiancée D. S had already told me that D was coming for a visit with her husband S2 the same week we would be there. How funny that we were all on the same plane. Their seats were all the way in the back of the plane and we were up front so no chatting for us. Plus it wasn’t quite 7am and they didn’t look like they were quite awake yet.

We finally pulled away from the terminal and taxi for what seemed like 10 miles to the correct runway. Keep in mind, we don’t have a big airport. We taxied for so long we started to wonder if the pilot was heading for the interstate and was going to drive us to Orlando. Finally we take off! We’re headed to Orlando baby! The Mouse is waiting to see us! No delays! No problems….well..... except for the family sitting in the row behind us.

It was a mother, father and baby of unknown age in a car seat. I don’t think I ever actually saw the baby. Mom and baby are directly behind DH and I and father is across the aisle in a seat by himself. Baby evidently doesn’t like take-off so she starts crying. Mom tries to sooth her which works for a little while. The flight is supposed to take about 2 hours. Baby doesn’t like flying. Baby proceeds to whimper, cry and scream at an ear-piercing pitch for the entire flight. Mom and dad switch seats but dad isn’t much better at soothing the baby. The only person that makes the baby stop crying is the flight attendant. Too bad she couldn’t have changed seats with Mom! The screaming was so bad at times I couldn’t even read my book. I was just too distracted. I was hoping this wasn’t an omen of what was to come.

We didn’t look back at the family with nasty looks. We didn’t say anything to them—they would never have heard us over the screaming baby! We understand that flying can be hard on small children. But after an hour or so, inside my head, I was screaming along with that baby!

D and S2 were both sleeping for much of the flight so didn’t hear too much of the screaming. But D told me later while we were waiting for our luggage at baggage claim that she was pretty sure the commotion was happening near us. Lucky us!

My feet started getting really hot on the plane because I had socks on with my crocs. Yes, I’m a nerd! But the socks keep the crocs from rubbing the bottoms of my feet raw. Say that 3 times fast--socks keep the crocs! I decided to take off my socks and wear the crocs by themselves for awhile. I would find out very quickly that that was a mistake!

We land in Orlando, take our first thrill ride of the day—the airport tram to the main terminal, and follow the herd moving towards baggage claim. Our bags come right out—yeah, no lost bags—and we head for the National Emerald Aisle. I was able to get a free year’s membership in National’s Emerald Club. Did you catch that? Free again! So I booked National for this trip just so we could take advantage of the membership. Plus National had a really good rate.

We found the Emerald Aisle and walked up and down it looking at all the cars trying to decide which one we wanted. How cool that we could pick any car in the full-size aisle that we wanted! DH really wanted the VW bug but I wanted something bigger. We booked a full size car and I thought we would need the luggage space. We ended up with a Chevy Impala in a really cool blue/purple color. It should be very easy to spot in a parking lot.

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We loaded up the trunk and drove out of the lot. All I had to do was show my driver’s license to the attendant, she printed out something and handed me back a bunch of paper that I don’t think I ever really looked at!

We made our way out of the airport and we’re on the road again. We make our normal pit-stop at Albertson’s to get bottled water and then head to Port Orleans French Quarter. We manage to take the right exit to get to the hotel.

OT--We’ve been known to miss the exit more then once and then we’re stuck on that main road, I forget which one, and we have to drive for miles before we can find a place to make a u-turn.

You don’t want to be following us down that road at that point. DH will be in the left lane doing 50mph while we’re both on the lookout for any teeny tiny place in the grassy median where we can legally make a U-do it. I’ll be telling him to slow down so we can make the u-turn when we find the spot. He will irritably tell me he can’t slow down because some idiot is riding his bumper. Inevitably, this tiny paved spot will appear from out of nowhere, on a curve, going up a hill so it almost invisible. I’ll scream—there it is! DH will slam on the brakes and whip the wheel so we’re screeching through the median on two wheels. But we made that u-turn—yes sirree! Of course everything in the car, including me has now been thrown to right side of the car!

Anywho--We made it uneventfully to POFQ and parked out front. I immediately started taking pictures of the front of the resort, the car and the license plate of the car. In case we lose it in the acres of Disney parking lots! Just a little tip for you. :rotfl: I made sure DH took a picture of me so we’d know that I was actually on the vacation as I usually take most of the pictures.

Went inside Port Orleans and there is no line. Yea! A very nice Mouseketeer in training checked us in. I didn’t ask for an upgrade and she didn’t offer one. My bad! But we did have a nonsmoking room which is a necessity for me due to allergies. We were in building 5 and decide to walk over and find our room first so we’d know where to park and unload our luggage.

The building was very nice. It overlooked a big open courtyard with a fountain at the front. We were pretty close to the food court and not far from the parking lot. The room itself was the same as we remembered from our trip staying here in 2005. It was on the third floor. Gotta love that long walk up the stairs at the end of the day! It had a big Magnolia tree right in front of our room so we couldn’t see much when we looked out the window. But we didn’t really care.

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We walked back out to the front of the resort and moved the car to the closest parking lot. We managed to unload everything and lug all our stuff in 1 trip. DH had to be the pack mule and carry the checked bags up the 2 flights of stairs. He is such a good man! Bad back and all! I carried the carry-ons, 6packs of water, camera, and other assorted junk that we absolutely had to bring!

We were ready to unpack by 10:20am. Hard to believe we were here and almost ready to hit the parks this early in the day. Before we could unpack I had to sanatize the room! I got my Clorox disinfecting wipes and wiped down the remotes, the phone, the bathroom counter tops, the toilet etc. I never saw that 20-20 episode but I’ve heard about it. So I do my disinfecting thing and then we can unpack!

I’m not normally an unpacker. I would have just dumped the suitcases in the room and headed out to a park. But DH likes to unpack everything from his suitcases so the room feels like home. I have to admit it did keep the room a little better organized and we were able to just drop on the beds when we came back from the parks tired.

Well not really drop on the beds because I would never lay down on the bedspreads--watch the 20/20 special.

We finished unpacking and I put my socks back on as I already had a hot spot from the Crocs. I got my fanny pack ready – I know, in your head your saying what a nerd! We headed back out to the car and we’re heading for Epicot baby! :cheer2:

[scrap4u]

We drove to Epcot and were able to get a parking place pretty close to the front of the parking lot. As we were walking up to the entrance of Epcot, we noticed people were stopped and looking up. We stopped too—we had to look—you would have too—Admit it! and realized it was the space shuttle taking off. We couldn’t really see the shuttle too much but we could see the smoke trail as it headed for space. That was very cool!

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I know it just looks like smoke. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was the shuttle. You can trust me! Really!

We found out a few days before we left home that the shuttle take off had been postponed until Saturday 9/9 around 11am. DH and I both really wanted to head over to see it take off but opted not to in case the launch was postponed again or our flight was late.

Not much of a wait to get through security and the turnstiles and lo and behold---we’re here! In Disney World. In Epcot. Ok it wasn’t the Magic Kingdom but it would do for now.

I hadn’t fully prepared my fanny pack before we left the room and realized I didn’t have any band-aids with me. So we stopped in a shop just past guest services and got a little first aid kit with a number of different sized band-aids and some Neosporin type ointment. I got the band-aids on my hot spots (note the plural now) and we headed for World Showcase. We were really hungry since breakfast had been back at 430am so we headed to Morocco and waited a few minutes for Restaurant Marrakesh to open. We both had the Sultan Sampler which was yummy! I think we were both stuffed and skipped dessert. We paid for this as I didn’t want to waste a table service credit on a lunch.

Nothing was crowded in Epcot that day which was wonderful. I kept wondering where all the people were. But it was unbelievably hot and humid! I’m not sure that the temps were much over 90 but the humidity was so terrible it took your breath away when you left the a/c and walked outside!

After lunch we went into the shops in Morocco and I again had a lovely Moroccan woman do a Henna design on my left hand and arm. It was really awesome looking.

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Next we headed over to Soarin’ but it had a 30 minute wait for the standby line. FastPass return was 40 minutes later so we opted to get FPs and headed over to the Character Connection for pictures. I’ve missed this place every time we’ve come to Epcot so it was on my must do list this time. We walked right in and got pictures with Donald, Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Chip and Dale. It was lots of fun and no lines.

They say the first step in recovery is to admit you have a problem. I have a problem. A character picture problem! I love getting pictures with the characters. But I’m not into the autographs. So there is hope for my recovery. But we’re character people. What can I say? I don’t think DH is addicted but he’s a good sport and gets in the picture with me. No offense to people in real recovery!

Next we headed over to Innoventions East to the plastics area to play with robots. First you play around on a computer learning all about plastics and how they are made.

Then you move into another area with 9 computer workstations set up. On the computer you choose the head, body, arms and legs of your robot. You choose a name for him/her and you choose their strengths and weaknesses. How well they will do in heat, cold, knocking down obstacles and jumping. They show all the robots up on a big screen for everyone to see and we all voted for the robots we liked best.

Next is the race. Each person has a doormat thingy in front of their computer on the floor. Like my oh so technical term--thingy! In order for your robot to run, you have run in place on the mat. If the robot needs to jump, you have to jump on the mat. DH and I each had our own robot in the robot race. I came in 3rd and he came in 6th out of 9 people. It was a lot of fun and really got the blood pumping. I don’t think I’ve done that much aerobic activity in months!

When the race was over and we had wiped the sweat from our brow, we got to go into another plastics area and choose real parts to make our own small robot to take home with is. They’re very cute as an eyeglass holder or toothbrush holder.

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We went back over to Soarin and used our fps to ride our first real ride of our trip. And what a good ride it is! I can’t do 180 or 360 screen movies so I had been worried that this ride would make me motion sick but it doesn’t. I can’t ride it twice in row though. I have to have some time in between each ride or I do start to get sick.

We decided to head back to the hotel to rest and clean up as we had 550p ADRs for Chef de France tonight and we’re were going to meet my internet friend from another board.

I have a really good internet friend in Northern Ca. We met through the SS board about 2 years ago but have never met in real life or talked on the phone. When I told her we were going to Disney and getting the free dining plan, she decided to come and bring her aunt with her. For various reasons they ended up coming the week before we did but she managed to make the trip overlap by 1 day so we could actually meet. I finally get to meet my good friend tonight at dinner!

[scrap4u]

Thanks for the response HappyBratPack! Glad you're enjoying it so far. We had a terrific time and the crocs saved my feet!

[OhMari]

Your 20/20 insights were funny. I cringe too when I see people laying on the bedspreads at WDW. I just can't do it. I will actually bring my own sheets sometimes when I go on vacation. I am seriously thinking about sending sheets down with my bounce box.

[scrap4u]

OhMari--I know exactly what you mean. My DH can lay right down on the bedspread. Yuck! When we would take a nap in the afternoon I would turn down the bedspread and then lay a bath towel over the blanket and lay down on the blanket to nap. Paranoid? Heck yea!

Because we were usually hot and sticky, I didn't want to lay on the sheets.

Thanks for reading my report!

[Madsofa]

Really enjoying your report so far! Sounds like a great trip. We are heading to WDW in March '07, staying at POR. Still have to stop at HS to pick up LGMH's! Your henna looks awesome! I'll have to make a stop there and have something done, I've always wanted to try that. How long did it last?
Can't wait to read more! :goodvibes

[scrap4u]

Thanks for reading Madsofa! The henna itself usually cracks and falls off by the next morning. The stain of the image lasts me most of the week. I got mine that first day-Saturday and you could still see a little bit of the design the following Saturday. But the first 3-4 days are the best.

[Madsofa]

:) We plan on doing Epcot our 3rd to last day, so the henna should still show on my when I return. I want to show it off at home! We weren't planning on Epcot at all, but the more I read and see the more I think this will be a highlight of our trip...well on second thought I can't imagine a part of Disney that we wouldn't like! :cool1:

[scrap4u]

:) We plan on doing Epcot our 3rd to last day, so the henna should still show on my when I return. I want to show it off at home! We weren't planning on Epcot at all, but the more I read and see the more I think this will be a highlight of our trip...well on second thought I can't imagine a part of Disney that we wouldn't like! :cool1:

I think you're right on both counts! The henna should still look great when you go home and there's not much we don't love about Disney! The more time we spend at Epcot, the more we enjoy it! :banana:

[scrap4u]

We drove back to Epcot after a refreshing nap. We walked over to France and DH spots my friend K right away. He recognized her from pictures she had shared with us. We hug and chat like old friends. She introduces us to her aunt (A.L.) who was very cute and tiny and we checked in for our ADR. Here is where my coupons came in handy.

The hostess, a very nice young French girl can’t understand what DH is telling her when he tries to check us in. He calls me over to talk to her and she doesn’t understand what I’m saying either. Now I speak a little French, left over from high school—which was many, many years ago. But rather then struggle with the language barrier, I just hand her my ADR coupon. She looks at it and say Ah! Boy those little ADR coupons sure come in handy!

We are immediately seated at an ok table right on aisle so it was kind of busy. We had a very nice waiter whose name I don’t remember. He kept trying to take our order and we were all too busy chatting and getting to know each other. But we all finally ordered.

I had the onion soup which was pretty good. DH had the lobster bisque which he said was really good. I don’t remember what K and A.L. had for appetizers. For entrees A.L. got the macaroni and cheese. It looked really yummy and rich. DH had some kind of fish which he said was good. K and I both got the flank steak. Now I know that flank steak isn’t a really good cut of steak but if marinated and cooked properly can be quite tasty. Not here! It was tough and both of ours were cooked wrong. It was served with French fries which I thought was pretty strange for an upscale French restaurant and the fries were cold! I mainly ate my dinner roll.

We all got dessert since we all had the free dining plan. Someone (I can’t remember who) had the crème brulee and said it was good. I had a strawberry and rhubarb dessert. It sounded strange but was really good. My first time having rhubarb anything!

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All during dinner, we noticed dark clouds coming in and then it started to lightening. By the time we left Les Chefs, it was pouring rain. We decided to head over to the American Adventure to see the show there. We had never seen it before but K and A.L had and said it was good. Plus it was a good place to go to get out of the rain until Illuminations started. I was worried we might fall asleep during the show since it was dark and we were all full but it was very interesting and not one of us snored!

After the show was over we walked over to the International Gateway bridge to watch Illuminations. K and A.L, had never seen it before and seemed to really enjoy it. It continued to rain through the whole show but we didn’t care. We had our Mickey ponchos and K had a Disney umbrella so we stayed fairly dry.

Afterwards, we took our time walking towards the front of the Epcot. I took some pictures of the ball with the fountains in front of it. Very pretty.

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DH took a couple of pictures of K and me together and then we said goodbye to our friends. They were taking the monorail back to the Contemporary and we were driving back to POFQ. A nice ending to a wonderful day but I was sad that there wasn’t more time to spend with K. One evening just wasn’t enough. :sad2:

[scrap4u]

Sunday 9/10 we had an 8:20am ADR at Donald’s Breakfastosaurus. As we left the room on our first full day at Disney and were walking to the parking lot, DH spotted LGMHs in the window of a first floor room in building 6. I walked up to the window to see what Diser it was and it was TikiRoomFan! :wave2: As it was quite early, I left one of my LGMHs hanging on their doorknob. Yea! Our first Dis sighting, sort of.

We drove over to AKL and didn’t get lost. If you ever driven over to AK yourself, you know that their parking lot is big. And they made us drive all the way around the whole lot to get to where they were parking people that day. It wasn’t a very long walk to the front of the park but we felt like we had driven to Timbuktu!

Once we got to the park entrance, it only took a few minutes to get through security and the turnstiles. I love walking through AK when it’s empty! There was a photographer out that morning so we stopped to have him take a couple of pictures of us with The Tree of Life in the background. We have yet to see the opening ceremony here as we either get here early for breakfast or get here just after opening. One day we’ll see it, though I don’t think we’re really missing anything.

We checked into Donald’s and got our picture taken in front of the conservation sign. By the time the photographer was done the host was calling our name to be seated. We sat on the opposite side of the restaurant from where we were in May. Much closer to the buffet. Bonus! We had the exact same waitress as when we were here in May—Robin-- and boy is she a hoot! She’s very funny and has lots of personality!

The buffet has lots of yummy breakfast items on it from breakfast pizza to Mickey waffles to chocolate chip pancakes and the like. I wanted scrambled eggs but what they had looked really runny. I don’t do runny eggs. They are disgusting! To me anyway. More power to you if you can eat them that way!

So I asked the cook behind the buffet about getting some that were drier and not so runny. He very nicely told me to ask our waitress about it. So I asked Robin if I could get some well done scrambled eggs and she had them for me in no time. And a ton of them too! DH ended up eating about half of them. We got really good pictures with Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. When we ate here in May our pictures came out really dark. This time I made sure we used the flash on every picture and they came out much better.

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Don't you love the closed eyes I have!

As we were finishing up our breakfast, we started to notice people walking around outside. It was getting close to 9am so we figured we better pay our bill and be on our way. We didn’t use any of our meal credits for breakfasts. Of course Robin had disappeared by now, so I suggest that DH go ahead outside and head for Expedition Everest as soon as they dropped the rope. He could ride it while I paid the bill and I would meet him there.

Robin finally came back, she had been putting through multiple payments for a large table. I paid the bill and Robin got me a coffee to go and I headed for EE. I found a seat outside of EE and sat and drank my coffee and watched all the excited people getting in line for EE or getting off the ride with happy faces. DH came out of the dump shop all smiles. He was in the front seat of the very first train that went out that day. He really liked being in the front. We both got FPs for later and walked over to Kilimanjaro Safaris. The standby line showed a 10 minute wait. We walked through the preshow and waited maybe 5 minutes for our safari vehicle.

We were seated in the front row of our vehicle which was great! Our driver was terrific! I say that because he was able to slow down and almost come to a stop a number of times for us to get pictures. I got some really good ones of the lions but never saw the leopard that morning. Even though we’ve ridden this ride numerous times, I always find lots of things to take pictures of.

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We left the safari and decided to head over towards the Tree of Life. I stopped to ask a CM where and when DeVine might be out. He called the Character hotline and found out she was out right then and told us where to find her. She was on one of the paths to Asia. I forget which one. So we headed over there. We’d never seen her and I wanted to make sure we didn’t miss her this time.

We would have walked right by her except that we saw her handler. You can’t miss the character handlers with their eye-catching yellow, black, and white shirts and black shorts on. :rotfl: We stopped dead in our tracks and started looking around at all the beautiful foliage to find her. Sorry to anyone who was walking behind us at that moment. We didn’t give much notice that we were coming to a stop! :crazy:

Finally we saw her standing in the foliage. She is so elegant looking, especially when she moves. Very graceful. There were only a few of us watching her. Some people would walk by in their own little world, hurrying to a ride or show and miss her completely. Something I’m sure we’ve done many times before too!

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I got some really good close up pictures of her face. She was totally cool!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0114.jpg

Another item I could check off my must do list! Hard to believe after 5 other trips in 3 years that I still have a list of things I’ve never done or seen. Just goes to show you how Disney World keeps evolving and changing.

Next we headed over to ride Dinosaur. We love this ride! I only rode it for the first time in May. I had avoided it on previous trips thinking it might make me motion sick. Nope! We get off this ride laughing like loons after being scared at the very end!

Next we went to It’s Tough to be a Bug. We always enjoy this show. Again, we waited just a few minutes to get into the show and the theatre wasn’t full.

We left the Tree of Life to head over to the Maharaja Jungle Trek to see the tigers. We could see EE and the ride was broken down. The train car was stuck on the first hill and at that point still had people in it. They were in the broiling sun too. I felt sorry for them because of the heat! Maharaja wasn’t very crowded and I got great pictures of the tigers and the fruit bats.

We headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey to see Festival of the Lion King. We were able to walk right in as they were just about to close the doors. We were seated right up front on the handicap row. I’m guessing they let us sit on the handicap row because it was just moments before the show would be starting. Or, they took one look at me and realized I was handicapped—mentally that is. No offense to any of you that might be mentally-handicapped! Anyhoo, I was able to get some great pictures of the performers! Some of the best I’ve ever gotten really.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0159.jpg

DH and I both really enjoy this show and I always sing along with the songs. Much to the horror of the people sitting around me! As we were one of the last people seated, we were some of the first people out the door. This meant we didn’t have to move along through a herd of people to get out of Camp Minnie Mickey. :woohoo:

Our tummies were telling us it was time to eat yet again. So we decided to try Tusker House for lunch. We’d never eaten there and it came highly recommended on the Dis boards. DH had a turkey wrap with corn chowder and I had the fried chicken sandwich. Both were very good. DH had chocolate cake and I had cheesecake for dessert. They were pretty good too. But it was all even better because it was free! Do you sense a recurring theme here!

Next up was the Pangani Forest Trail to see the gorillas. This was a little bit crowded but not too bad. Not many gorillas out either. Way too hot for them I suppose. I got some great pictures of the Hippo underwater--very close to the glass divider.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0168.jpg

Way cool! I did manage to get a couple of pictures of a gorilla but they were all of his backside. This happened with a few animals on this trip. I missed their faces and got their bee-hinds! Man, I should be a professional photographer! Not!

At some point that afternoon we walked near EE again and it was still broken down. The train was in the same spot on the hill but they had finally let the poor half-baked people get off the ride.

By about 2pm we decided we’d had enough of the heat. We made our way through AK, stopping at various places to check out the pins. When we exited the park DH said we needed to go one way to the car and I said we should go the other way. Trouble's acomin! So rather then argue about it, we split up and each went our own way. We could see each other the whole way though. Turns out both ways were right, but my way--following the signs to the lot!---ended up making me walk across a large grassy area to get our parking lot. Thank goodness--meltdown averted! :thumbsup2

We both got to our steaming hot car and started what would become a normal routine for the entire week. Find the car, which in itself was a challenge. If I didn’t write down the lot we parked in or take a picture of the parking lot sign, we’d wander in the general direction of where we thought the car should be and look for the blue/purple color. But the dag-gone remote wouldn't work until you were within 5 feet of the car, so we couldn't use that as a homing beacon! You could hear other people setting off their alarms so they could find the car by the blinking lights. Not us though.

Back on topic—we would find the car, throw open the doors while trying not to touch them. I learned this the hard way, by almost getting a 3rd degree burn by placing my hand flat on the car door! Youch!

We would stand there and let the heat go out and come back into the car. Remember, it was 90ish most everyday so the air outside was almost as hot as the air inside the car. Then I would beg DH to hurry up and start the car and get the a/c going. Poor thing, he would try to reach in and start the car without touching anything so he didn’t get any burns. After a couple minutes of the hot-starting-to-get-cool air blowing out, we would risk the skin on the backs of our legs and arms and sit in the car. We’re having some fun now folks!

We got back to the hotel in no time and were walking back to the room when we decided today was a good day to hit the pool. In all the times we’ve visited DW, we’ve never used a Disney pool. Never enough time between the parks and naps. We were so hot and sticky from AK that all we could think of was jumping into the cool water.

But wait--there was a surprise waiting for us in our room. What could it be you ask? Well, I had envelopes for Mousekeeping for each day of our trip and I had left one out that day. When we walked in the first thing we saw was our first towel creation sitting with our robots from Epcot! Too funny!

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We changed into our suits and headed down to the pool. We walked around looking for a shower to rinse off before jumping in the pool but never found one. Unless it was in the restroom. So we dropped our stuff on 2 chairs and jumped right into the pool, sweat and all. Aaaaahhhhh! Finally I felt cool again! I was also hoping that the chlorine in the pool didn’t turn my blondish highlights green. That was another reason to find the shower. To get my hair wet before getting in the pool so it wouldn’t suck up all that chlorine.

We stayed at the pool for maybe ½ hour just floating around and watching the little kids having a blast. We dried off and were heading back to our room when DH spotted some LGMHs in the window of a room in building 5 on the 2nd floor I think. So we walked up there and it was none other then GlendaMax! I didn’t really want to meet anyone after just getting out of the pool so we didn’t knock. I didn’t have any of my LGMHs with me so I couldn’t leave one for her right then. But I told DH I’d come back and drop one off. So we headed back to our room to shower off and rest until dinner.

Tonight was EMH at MK and we were dining with my favorite guy--Tigger!

[scrap4u]

We had a 6:15p ADR for the Crystal Palace and it was EMH at MK too. We drove over to MK and parked, took the monorail to MK. We tried to ride up front with the pilot but it was full.

I could feel the excitement building as we got closer to the MK. Finally Cinderella Castle came into view and I knew we were finally, finally here. We truly enjoy all of the parks at Disney World but I only really feel like I’m there when we hit the MK. We were on an express monorail so we went zipping through the Contemporary. We love this hotel too having stayed here in May 2004.

We exited the cool monorail for the hot walkway into MK. Very little line for security or the turnstiles and we headed straight for Crystal Palace and checked in about 20 minutes early for our ADR.

I think we had to wait about 30 minutes before our name was called. But we had a nice table and a good waiter, Gustavo. We love the food at CP. This time I had some of the best sliced herbed turkey breast I’ve ever had. DH had salmon and bbq. They had terrific garlic mashed potatoes and great salads. Lots of variety for dessert. Plus we got to see my favorite character—Tigger! Along with his friends Eeyore, Piglet and Pooh. And it was all free—on the dining plan! Yea!

After stuffing ourselves at CP we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. We were so excited to see the changes they had made to it. We walked right in and no wait to get in a boat. We were in the last row of the boat and the boat was full. What sounded like an Australian family was seated in front of us. Dad on the outside left, then mom, then daughter (maybe 6) and son (maybe 8-9).

So the boat heads out and the ride begins. Some of the newer changes are at the beginning of the ride and the Mom starts taking pictures using her flash. We had been told in the loading area no flash pictures are allowed. Now, I may not like that rule but I understand why they have it. The flashing sure takes away from other rider’s enjoying the ride. Especially if they are right in front of the flash which I wasn’t, but it's the principle! But I didn’t say anything thinking she was just going to take a few pictures of the new scenes. Wrong!

She started taking multiple pictures of every single thing in POC. The flash is going off nonstop! DH and I are looking at each other and shaking our heads at her rudeness. Her husband is rubbing his eyes from the flash going off all the time and saying something to her that she just ignores. I finally tapped her on the shoulder and said “you might want to turn off your flash since they asked us not to take flash pictures”. She whipped her head around and snarled “well everyone else is using their flash!”. I have to admit, I was a bit flabbergasted at that response. Flabbergasted is southern for shocked as h..l. TFI! I didn’t say anything else to her but told DH what she said.

Well, I couldn’t let it go. I was like a dog with a bone! It was so irritating to have the flash going off nonstop for the entire ride. So I started talking to DH and I knew she could hear me. “Gee, I don’t see anyone else’s flash going off!”. “How rude!”. The one that finally got her was when I said to DH “Gee, what a good thing to teach your kids. Even though you’re asked not to do something, because everyone else is, its ok for you to ignore the request/rules too! What a good role model”.

Well she turned around and said “is my taking pictures bothering you?”. And I said Yes it is! She then said something to me but with her accent and as fast as she was talking, I couldn’t understand what she said. So very nicely I said “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear what you said”. She turned back around in a huff and stopped taking pictures. But she kept making comments about me to her family and her poor son kept turning around and looking at me like I had tried to kill his mother or something.

In my mind, I could just see the mom and I getting into a pushing/shoving match and people flying out of the boat and into the water. Then the two DHs would be pusing and shoving and the children would be crying. Oh my goodness--why did I ever say anything! Why didn't I just keep my mouth shut! I could just see the headlines in the Orlando Sentinel--crazy woman from Virginia is attached my mom from Australia during argument!

Back to the real story! She was huffing and puffing and making comments until we got off the boat. The husband just ignored her the whole time. When the boat came to the unloading area, she pushed her husband off the boat and grabbed her kids and practically ran out of the ride.

Well the ride was sure ruined for me but I would never purposely ruin someone else’s magical time in Disney World. I told DH that I felt bad that I had ruined the ride for them. But I also felt like the mom’s over reaction was due to guilt. She knew she shouldn’t be using the flash but was sure she’d get away with it. I called her on it and she didn’t like it. It definitely took me a while to stop thinking about that whole scene.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0411.jpg

A sure sign of what was coming!

About 730pm it started to rain. We put on our Mickey rain ponchos and decided to head to Pecos Bill’s outside patio. It started raining even harder. We managed to get a seat under one of their huge umbrellas with a table. Between the umbrella and the ponchos we stayed pretty dry. But it just kept raining harder and harder and now there was a river of rain water running beside our table.

About 8pm they did finally start Spectro-Magic. A few of the floats went by. Then the Ariel floats came by and just stopped in front of us. Evidently Ariel’s float had died and they had to bring a small truck out to tow her float, Sebastion’s float and Neptune’s float away. And that was the end of the parade. I guess they didn’t run the full parade due to the rain. How disappointing.

We then headed over to Fantasyland to wait for Wishes. The rain finally started to die down and we were able to at least remove the hoods of our ponchos. Wishes started at 9pm and was wonderful as always. I get chill bumps singing along with the music and watching the spectacular fireworks. Again, I apologize to my fellow Wishes watchers for my singing!

We like to see Wishes from Fantasyland at least once during our trip. The fireworks are going off on both sides of you and right over your head. The ending fireworks literally take my breath away, they are so awesome!

When Wishes ended we walked over to the Haunted Mansion and rode that with no wait. It had stopped raining by this time but it sure wasn’t any cooler. We headed over to the Jungle Cruise but it was closed.

So we went back to POC and walked on again with no wait…and no rude flash picture taking mom in front of us this time! We truly enjoyed the all the new things Disney had added to POC. We were very happy that they managed not to lose the charm of the original ride.

We headed over to Splash Mountain and walked on that too. When they loaded our boat, DH and I were in the last row and 1 young man of maybe 11 or 12 was in the front row. He had been in front of us when walking through the preshow and he told us he had ridden SM like 10 times that day. Obviously his favorite ride! All during the ride he kept looking back at us, maybe to make sure we were still there. We would smile at him and let him know—yep! We’re still here with you! The boat in front of us was empty too so I guess it could be a little bit creepy being alone on that ride at night.

DH then rode Big Thunder Mountain. He did have about a 10 minute wait for it. I usually ride BTM once during our trip but it’s not my favorite ride. All the banked curves mess with my inner ear and can mess me up for the day. But DH loves this ride so he’ll ride it many times by himself.

We walked back to Fantasyland and checked on the wait time at Peter Pan…30 minutes. So we skipped it. DH knows I love It’s a Small World so he suggested we ride that since it was a walk on. Always very cute. Since I know this is one of his least favorite rides, it was really nice of him to offer to ride it with me.

We were getting tired and started to head to the front of the park. But before we left we decided we needed some ice cream. We headed for the Main St. Confectionary. On our way there, we saw a PhotoPass photographer taking pictures in the hub in front of the castle. Of course we stopped to have our picture taken. I make DH stop everywhere for pictures because you never know what will turn our good and what won’t. Plus we buy the CD of pictures and the more pictures on the cd, the more economical it is.

The picture did turn out great. It has us in the lower left hand corner with the castle behind us and the Walt and Mickey statue to our right. Great job Disney photographer! And it wasn’t blurry either. A lot of the night shots we’ve had taken on previous trips were blurry.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/DisneyPhotoImage27.jpg

On to our ice cream! We used our snack credits and then sat outside by The Plaza to enjoy the evening and people watch. What better way to spend a hot late evening when you’re tired. The ice cream was so refreshing, it felt good to sit down and we could see Cinderella Castle in all her glory, changing colors. I can’t think of any other place in the world I’d rather be. When we finished our yummy cool ice cream, we walked through some of the Main St. shops and then headed for the monorail back to the parking lots to go back to our home away from home. The perfect ending to a wonderful day!

[team weasel]

Enjoying the TR. Glad you said something to the rude flash picture taking momma. Glad you said something to the rude lady. I've experienced the same thing on multiple rides and have never had enough guts to say something. Good For You! :thumbsup2

[scrap4u]

Enjoying the TR. Glad you said something to the rude flash picture taking momma. Glad you said something to the rude lady. I've experienced the same thing on multiple rides and have never had enough guts to say something. Good For You! :thumbsup2

Thanks for the thumbs up Team Weasel. It was probably a dumb thing to do because you never know how people will react. But I did try to be very nice about it. :crazy:

[teentoddlermom]

Great TR... looking forward to more!

[Madsofa]

:cool1: Great TR! I'm lovin' the pictures. :thumbsup2

[Alice28]

I'm lovin your trippie so far! The pictures are great, and we were at POFQ almost the same week, but in 2005. You're bringing back (hot and sweaty) memories!

[Glendamax]

Scrapie, since we are such close friends, and have known each foreva eva, I must be totally honest with you and let you know that I just skimmed through your whole report to find a pic of you! Now I FINALLY know what you look like!

Ok - back to actually READING the report . . . . :surfweb:

[scrap4u]

Great TR... looking forward to more!
Hi teen toddler mom! :wave2: Thanks for stopping by to read my report. I may have another chapter up this morning!

[scrap4u]

:cool1: Great TR! I'm lovin' the pictures. :thumbsup2

Hi Madsofa. Thanks for sticking around. Glad you're enjoying the report. More to come later today, hopefully!

[scrap4u]

Scrapie, since we are such close friends, and have known each foreva eva, I must be totally honest with you and let you know that I just skimmed through your whole report to find a pic of you! Now I FINALLY know what you look like!

Ok - back to actually READING the report . . . . :surfweb:

Hey GMax! Glad you stopped by for a read! I haven't seen on many threads lately. Hope you enjoy the report and the shout out to you!

[scrap4u]

I'm lovin your trippie so far! The pictures are great, and we were at POFQ almost the same week, but in 2005. You're bringing back (hot and sweaty) memories!

Hi Alice28! Glad you're enjoying the TR. We had never been in September before. We had been in August last year and I swear September this year was hotter! Thanks for reading!

[scrap4u]

Monday, September 11.
Breakfast today wasn’t planned. I figured we’d do the food court at POFQ. I tried not to plan a breakfast if we were going to an EMH the night before. But DH suggested we go over to AKL to have the breakfast buffet at Boma. We love their buffets! Both breakfast and dinner!

I called and we were able to score a 9am ADR. We drove over to AKL and felt such sweet sadness because we stayed at AKL on our last 2 trips to DW but we weren’t there this time. Sniff, sniff. It’s such a beautiful hotel and we really love staying there.

We got a very close parking space and walked into the resort. The beauty of the lobby just takes my breath away. And I love the smell of the Lodge. Or is it the smell that takes my breath away? You decide!

We took the elevators downstairs to the restaurant and were seated right away. I think our waitress Nancy was fine. I don’t remember. All I remember is the excellent food and the terrific Jungle Juice. We stuffed ourselves and then walked back upstairs and through Zawadi Marketplace to see what was new. We enjoy looking around this store as they have lots of interesting things you wont’ see in any other store. We said goodbye to AKL and walked back to our car.

From AKL we drove over to Epcot. We wanted to spend more time here. On previous trips it seems like we haven't spent as much time at Epcot and AK as we have at MGM and MK. We were going to change that this trip. We got to Epicot about 10am. Yes, that is how I say it when we’re in Disney World. It makes me happy. Come on and say it with me....Epicot! I know it’s not very original but who cares! :rotfl2:

Once we got through the turnstiles, we went over to Soarin’ and walked right on in the standby line. As soon as we got off, DH walked back on to do it again. I sat on a bench and people watched and reviewed our pictures on our digital camera.

Next we went to see Turtle Talk with Crush. We’d never seen this before so another thing I could cross off my list. We waited about 5 minutes to get into the theater. While we waited we watched a diver in a tank. Watched the tank fill with water. Watched the diver go up and down. Watched the tank being emptied of water. It was actually pretty interesting to watch even though my description sounds boring. :rotfl:

After TT with Crush we decided to go back over to the Character connection to see if Captain Hook was available. We’d never had our picture taken with him before. We walked in and were trying to peak in between a wall and a divider to see who was out for pictures. A CM walked by and I asked her if she knew if Captain Hook was going to be available that day. She said yes he is available right now. He’s walking down the hall right there. So DH and I walked up to him and asked if we could get our picture taken with him. He graciously nodded his head. The nice CM took a picture of the both of us with him.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0195.jpg

Then there was a cat from Pinocchio sitting on a bench and she took our picture with him too. I don’t know his name but what the heck. It’s a cute picture. We were the only ones in the hallway so we had these 2 characters all to ourselves!

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Next up was Mission Space. DH rode it—the full throw up version—and I walked around the dump shop as I had never been in this one. Not finding anything here that I couldn’t live without, I went outside to find a seat in the shade. After waiting maybe 10 minutes, DH came out, again all smiles. He really likes this ride too. As he was telling me about the ride, out walk Mickey and Goofy in space suits. We followed them (stalked them!) over to their shady picture spot and another nice CM took our picture with them. How fun!

Can I digress here for just a minute and tell you what everyone says over and over. It is truly the CMs that make Disney such a great place. Most of them are the nicest people and will do whatever they can to help you, answer your questions, just make general conversation and spread that all important pixie dust! We always try to smile when we speak to them and make a point to say hello, thank you, goodbye, etc. Without the CMs, Disney would just be an empty park!

Back to the TR--We walked over to World Showcase and started with Mexico. We had never ridden El Rio de Tempe so we did it. Cute but it does remind me of It’s a Small World. We looked at the menu at San Angel Inn but nothing here was tickling our fancy so decided we’d keep walking.

Next stop was Norway. We went into Kringla Bakeri to get a snack. Can I just say yuck! I got the Lefse which is potato bread spread with butter and cinnamon sugar and then rolled up. It looked good but tasted like dirt. Not that I’ve ever eaten dirt but what I think dirt would taste like! I love bread, sugar, and butter. How can you go wrong with that combination? Add a little cinnamon and you have cinnamon toast! Needless to say, I didn’t finish it. DH had a danish that he seemed to like.

Now it was on to the big thrill ride of the day—Maelstrom. It’s a FP you know! Anyway, we walked onto it with no wait. What a shocker! I can remember riding it 1998 and having to get a FP because the standby line was so long! Skipped the movie at the end of course, we’ve seen it once before, and walked through the dump shop. I love the wool sweaters they have but it just doesn’t get cold enough at home to wear them. I have one I bought in New Zealand years ago and I’m always burning up when I wear it.

We continue our stroll around World Showcase stopping to look at the train display in Germany when we decide it’s time to eat again. We stopped at the Tangerine Café in Morocco and had a wonderful lunch. DH had the Chicken Shwarma platter and I had the vegetarian platter. Both were scrumptious! And guess what? They’re free! Even tastier!

We continued past America and France. This trip I was determined to have a glass of champagne in France. How decadent to be walking around a Disney park with a glass of champagne in your hand. I want to stick out my pinkie and toss off French phrases—that I barely remember from high school.

Anyway, DH asks if I want one now but I said no way. I’m too full and it’s too hot. I’m not sure it would stay down, if you know what I mean.

We hit the United Kingdom next. We decided to walk into some of the shops there and ran in Mary Poppins. I took DH’s picture with Ms. Poppins and we kept browsing. We got to the toy store and Tigger, Pooh, and Eeyore were all together for picture taking. Another nice CM took a couple of pictures with our camera of all 5 of us. They came out great and this is a shot we’ve never had before.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0206.jpg

From the UK we walked past Canada but Off Kilter wasn’t playing and we were too tired to wait for their next show. I love me some men in kilts! So we headed into Mouse Gear and then decided it was time to head home and get a little rest before our busy evening.

[missj1975]

Great report so far :)

[scrap4u]

Great report so far :)

Hey miss j 1975! Thanks for reading! I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm certainly enjoying reading over my notes and thinking about being back in DW instead of at my desk working with my back thrown out!

[Aero's Mom]

That's it! After seeing the picture of you with Tigger & friends, I've decided that I'm crashing the next trip you and Mr. scrap4u take and hanging out with you the whole week (instead of just dinner and a show!)!!!!! Ya'll have WAY more fun than I do with AL and you always get way better pictures! :wave2:

K

[scrap4u]

We took a nap, spruced up a bit and drove over to the Boardwalk. We had a 6pm ADR for Spoodles which is a favorite of ours. Within a minute or two of checking in the hostess took us to a little 2 top table in the middle of a walkway. I know we ( meaning me) won’t be happy here. I look around and see plenty of empty tables so I ask the hostess if it’s possible for us to sit at another table. She has a headset on so she can speak with the hosts back at the entrance. After a few moments she turns to me and with much attitude says “just pick any table”. Now I didn’t think my request was cause for an attitude like that. This must have been another cousin of Suzy Helpershoes! I picked a 4 top table towards the back of the restaurant, away from the noisy open kitchen and the main walkway for the waiters. Miss attitude gave us our menus and left us alone.

We had an excellent waitress, Sandi, who was very knowledgeable about the menu and had a great, friendly attitude. I had the Mediterranean dips and DH had the Greek Salad for appetizers. Both were very good.

For entrees DH had the Portuguese Seafood Stew which he loves. Previously I’ve had their Lemon Chicken which is great but I wanted something different tonight and didn’t want steak as I would be having that the next couple of nights. So I opted for the Fettuccini Alfredo. It was not the best pasta dish I’ve ever had. It was very dry. What sauce it did have was pretty good, it just needed a lot more!

For dessert I had the chocolate Apricot pistachio cake and DH had the kids ice cream sundae. He really liked the ice cream. The cake was just ok. Very heavy!

From Spoodles we were going to MGM for EMH. On our way down the boardwalk we came across one of the many terrific street performers. This guy was great, juggling and balancing things, making jokes. He had a great act and really got the audience involved. We stayed to see his entire act even though we were losing precious time at EMH—he was that good! When he finished up, we walked through the shops on the boardwalk for a minute and then walked back to our car to drive over to MGM. Yes, we could have taken a Friendship boat over but then we’d be over our 3 hour maximum for parking at a resort. Can you tell I’m a rule follower? So we drove over to MGM.

When we entered the park it was very close to show time of Fantasmic. We did the walk/run thing to try and get there before it started. As empty as the parks had been for the last 2 days, we didn’t think Fantasmic would be too crowded. Wrong again! It was standing room only. We opted to skip it and come back another night during the week to see it. We were really taking a chance here as so far, this was the only day out of 3 that it hadn’t rained.

Here's a shot of us and the Sorcerer's Hat:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/DisneyPhotoImage18.jpg

We walked on Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller coaster. We walked over to the Great Movie Ride which we always enjoy. We had a very long wait to finally get on this ride. We waited somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes. which was ridiculous for this ride. But we waited and rode it anyway.

Once we got out of the GMR, the park had filled up quite a bit as Fantasmic had let out. We were tired and knew we’d be spending tomorrow here anyway so we took the tram back to our car and headed back to our room. We had another busy day coming up tomorrow and needed our rest!

[scrap4u]

Tuesday 9/12—
We had an 840am ADR for Chef Mickey’s today. We drove over to the Contemporary and the guard there was kind of short with us, wanting to know what we were doing there. After we explained we had an ADR for Chef Mickey’s and weren’t going to the MK, he finally let us in. We stayed at the Contemporary in 2004 and really enjoyed it so it was fun to walk through the resort and see what had changed. It was also nice to already know where we were going as this resort can be kind of confusing to get around.

We took the escalators upstairs and checked in at the hostess podium. We were seated after about 5 minutes. We skipped having our picture taken in front of the plate this time! We did see Minnie, Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale as they came around to our table. The buffet was ok, but not as good as I remembered it.

When we finished up, Goofy was standing out in the middle of the restaurant so we decided to get pictures with him.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0231.jpg

I took a couple of DH and Goofy clowning around. Then DH took pictures of Goofy and I dancing together. That was pure Goofy!

We walked through the shops and I bought a zippered sweatshirt I had been looking at since we arrived. This was the first store that had it in the size I wanted so I whipped out my Disney Rewards card and bought that sucker for free baby! There’s that terrific word again! Free! Say it with me people, Free!

We went back out to our car to leave before the grumpy guard had our car towed and drove over to MGM. This day was kind of cloudy and it sprinkled off and on most of the day.

We were able to ride Tower of Terror twice in a row. It was a walk on as well as Rock n Roller Coaster. DH rode RnR twice and I rode it once. While I was waiting outside for DH on his second ride, I could smell the rain coming. You know that ozone type smell right before the bottom drops out? Sure enough, the sky just opened up right then. Luckily I was only a few feet away from the sliding doors at the bottom of the ramp from the dump shop. So I, along with a number of other people all ran to get inside. It poured for maybe 10 minutes total, but a complete washout.

DH came down the ramp from the shop as it was starting to let up. We’d left our ponchos in the room like a couple of dummies, so I sent DH back up to the shop to buy 2 more. By the time he came back down, the rain had stopped and we didn’t need them anymore. It looked like more rain was coming so I was sure we’d put them to good use. Or will we?

Next we went to see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We had to wait about 10 minutes for the theater to open but it was inside and it was cool so we were fine. We sat down on the floor and leaned up against the wall and chatted and people watched. The theatre wasn’t full when we went inside so we didn’t have to move all the way to the end of the row. We were right in the middle. On no, I broke a rule. Well, I’m a maverick when it comes to some things!

After Mermaid we walked over to catch a friendship boat to The Beach Club. A year or so ago DH saw an episode of Great Hotels on the Travel Channel where Samantha Brown was staying at the Yacht club. One of the places she visited was Beaches and Cream at the Beach Club where she had a Kitchen Sink sundae.

Since then DH has been saying he really wanted to try it. It has 9 scoops of ice cream, plus pineapple topping, strawberry topping, hot fudge, nuts, a whole jar of cherries, a whole can of whipped cream, plus cut up snickers candy bars, sponge cake, Oreo’s and more stuff. It is huge. So we were heading over to the Beach Club to eat at Beaches and Cream.

We caught a Friendship boat over to The Yacht/Beach club. The pilot of our boat stood out on the dock for a little while feeding the ducks from his hands. They would fly over his hand and pick up the food. It was very magical for lack of a better word!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0248.jpg

We got off the Friendship boat and started walking down the boardwalk to the Beach Club. We didn’t really see any entrances off the boardwalk into The Beach Club. I thought that was pretty strange!

I finally saw a CM and asked her how to get to Beaches and Cream. She has us cut through Hurricane Hanna’s, a poolside restaurant., then walk all through the pool area and up and over bridges and finally we were on the hotel side of the resort. Wheh! We made it! We finally saw the sign for Beaches and Cream. I’m sure it’s easier to find if you are coming in from the front of the resort but not from the back!

We walked up to the host who offered us a table right away or we could wait for him to clean off a booth. We waited for the booth of course! I ordered a hamburger and fries with ice tea. All good. DH ordered the Kitchen Sink, for 18.99! Our waitress asked him if wanted to take the challenge.

Challenge! What challenge? If you can eat the entire Kitchen Sink within 1 hour, you get it for free. DH thought about but then said no. The waitress waited until I was mostly through with my lunch and then turned down the lights in the restaurant and made an announcement that someone was going to try eating the whole kitchen sink. Everyone applauded and our waitress took a picture of us in front of the sink. I took a couple of pictures of it too. DH got down to business.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0256.jpg

They actually brought us some small bowls and I used one of those and had 2 bowls full of ice cream. DH probably ate 2/3 of sundae. The whipped cream just got to be too much for us both. He decided to quit before he got sick to his stomach.

We didn’t use the meal plan here as it wouldn’t cover the kitchen sink. So we paid and walked outside. The manager of the restaurant was out there talking to the host and asked DH how he did. We chatted with him for a few minutes. Everyone here was very nice.

We decided to walk around the Beach Club and see what it looked like as we’d never been there before. While we were in the lobby looking around, it started raining hard again. So we settled down on a comfy sofa in the lobby and relaxed, watched the rain and the people.

When it started to let up we headed back out. It was still coming down enough to get pretty wet so we pulled out our newly purchased Mickey ponchos.

DH helped me put my on and then tried to put his on. He was having some trouble but he finally managed to get it on. I looked over at him and started cracking up laughing. The sales clerk had sold him 1 adult and 1 child poncho instead of 2 adult ponchos. And DH had the child’s. DH is 6ft 1 and about 220 lbs. The poncho barely came down to his hips and the sleeves didn’t come past his elbows. I made him stand there and let me take a picture of him because it was so funny looking! What a good sport he is!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0259.jpg

We got back on the Friendship boat to MGM, to get the tram back to our card, to drive back to our room. I know it sounds like a pain but it was actually pretty quick. Except the Friendship boat that is. Sometimes you just want to lean out the window and paddle to get that thing going faster!

We decided to head back to the resort to rest up for the evening. Tonight we were eating at The Yachtsman Steakhouse! Yuummmm! Repeat after me---Yuuummmmm!

[Adi12982]

I love your pictures - thanks for sharing!! Can't wait to read the rest!

[Tasmen]

Thanks for sharing :) All these trip reports make me extra anxious for my own trip.

[GottaGetToDisney!]

We got to Epicot about 10am. Yes, that is how I say it when we’re in Disney World. It makes me happy. Come on and say it with me....Epicot! I know it’s not very original but who cares! :rotfl2:


My DD has always called it Epicot! (And our hotel has always been called the shotel). Original or not, it puts a smile on my face to say "Epicot" too! :teeth:


Gotta Get To Disney! :moped:

[OhMari]

I just hand her my ADR coupon. She looks at it and say Ah! Boy those little ADR coupons sure come in handy!

Did you make your own coupons with your ADR # on them?

And, can you really walk into the Plaza and order ice cream and use a snack credit. My husband will love you if you say yes.

[Madsofa]

Wow I'm so lovin' your report! Holy kitchen sink! :eek:

[scrap4u]

That's it! After seeing the picture of you with Tigger & friends, I've decided that I'm crashing the next trip you and Mr. scrap4u take and hanging out with you the whole week (instead of just dinner and a show!)!!!!! Ya'll have WAY more fun than I do with AL and you always get way better pictures! :wave2:

K

Hey Aero's Mom! You know you are always welcome to join us. We do have a lot of fun but always come home needing a vacation because we're so exhausted. But it wouldn't be Disney if that didn't happen!

We're going to have to meet in DL and let you show us around one of these days! :banana:

[scrap4u]

I love your pictures - thanks for sharing!! Can't wait to read the rest!

Hey there Adi12982! Thanks for posting and I'm glad you're enjoying the report. We sure had a blast. Hopefully I'll get another chapter or 3 posted tomorrow! :rotfl:

[scrap4u]

Thanks for sharing :) All these trip reports make me extra anxious for my own trip.

Hi Tasmen. Wow--you're staying at the Poly on the concierge level--my dream come true! One of these days we'll do that too. :goodvibes

No need to be anxious for your trip. I'm sure you will have a wonderful time. Thanks for stopping in to read my report.

[scrap4u]

My DD has always called it Epicot! (And our hotel has always been called the shotel). Original or not, it puts a smile on my face to say "Epicot" too! :teeth:


Gotta Get To Disney! :moped:

Hey there Gotta Get to Disney! I feel the same way. I wouldn't mind being there right now! :cloud9:

Here's a smile for you--Epicot :sunny: , Epicot :) , Epicot :smooth:

Glad you're enjoying our report.

[scrap4u]

Did you make your own coupons with your ADR # on them?

And, can you really walk into the Plaza and order ice cream and use a snack credit. My husband will love you if you say yes.

Hey Oh Mari--I did make my own coupons in word. Very easy. Just used a Avery mailing label format for a label 2in by 4in. Then I could put all the info for each ADR in 1 block in big, easy to read print!

Attached to the Plaza Restaurant is the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor. It's right on the corner. That's where we used our snack credits for ice cream cones. I think we could get anything but the sundae. It was yummy too! :goodvibes

[scrap4u]

Wow I'm so lovin' your report! Holy kitchen sink! :eek:
Thanks again Madsofa! Holy kitchen sink! I love that! Will have to use it on DH sometime soon. Thanks for stopping in to read! :wave2:

[Glendamax]

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0259.jpg

Priceless! :lmao:

[scrap4u]

When we got back to our that afternoon, we had another little surprise from Mousekeeping!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0260.jpg

With our robots, we now had a nice collection of 4 aliens on our table!

We had a 6pm ADR for the Yachtsman Steakhouse. Yummy! My favorite place to eat in DW! After a nice nap and freshening up, we drove to the Yacht Club and checked in. We waited less then 5 minutes to be seated at a nice table for 2 in the center area of the restaurant. Ricardo was our waiter and he was very friendly and helpful. He said he had worked for Disney for something like 15 or 20 years. His wife also worked for Disney at Saratoga Springs I believe. He took very good care of us and even walked us out of the restaurant when we left.

Another waiter Samir got to talking to us too. He was Lebanese and I’m ½ Lebanese so we talked about when he lived there and how long he had been in the US. He was really nice also.

DH had the shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and I had the Caesar salad. We both had the Yachtsman Filets which were scrumptious. I know a lot of people thing the steaks are better at Le Cellier, but I think Yachtsman steaks are much, much better. DH had the Key Lime pie and I had some kind of strawberry dessert that was really good. I just didn’t write down what it was.

Now comfortably stuffed, we drove back over to MGM. We got there about 745pm and went straight to Fantasmic. While the theater was fairly crowded, we were able to find seats right in the middle from left to right and towards the top so we wouldn’t get wet from the blowing mist, we hoped. There was plenty of space around us so we weren’t crammed all together.

There were 2 Japanese girls sitting on my right who might have been in the late teens or early 20’s. They had evidently been doing a bunch of shopping at MGM and were looking through their purchases. One of the items they had was this string toy. When turned on it blows the string around and around and has a light that shines on the string. It sounds pretty goofy but once you started looking at it, it was hard to stop. It was like it hypnotized me.

Well the one girl is playing with it for awhile and then it stops working. The other girl tries to get it working but no luck. I finally tapped the first girl on the shoulder and asked her if I could help. She handed it to me and I tried a few things and finally got it to work again. The string was stuck inside the toy. The girl was very thankful and spoke some English so we talked about where she was from, outside Okinawa, and talked about Tokyo which I had been to. It was very nice and helped pass the time until Fantasmic started.

Another funny story while we were waiting. As I mentioned, we were sitting in the middle of the theater. A man sitting in our section but closer to the front was trying to get the wave started. The people to the left of him finally caught on and started doing it. Then the people on the right of him caught on and every time he would start the wave it would go to both the left and the right at the same time. The man tried to tell the people on the right to wait until the wave came around from the people on the left but they just didn’t understand what he was saying. He must have started the wave ½ dozen times and every time it split and went both ways. The man finally gave up and sat down. Too funny!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0287.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0295.jpg

Fantasmic was wonderful as always. I was disappointed that the big boat with all the characters doesn’t come out anymore. When Fantasmic let out, MGM was closed so we drove over to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. As we were parking in DTD, DH asked me if I had the Disney Rewards gift card with over 100.00 credit on it. Nope! It was in the room in the safe. Safe from being lost. Safe from being stolen, and especially safe from being used! Darn it! So we went into World of Disney and looked around anyway deciding what we would buy when we came back.

Of course we saw tons of stuff that we wanted. Tons of stuff that we (I) needed, but not really. After filling our heads with lots of wonderful ideas we drove back to our resort and hit the hay about 11pm. The end of another great day in the World!

TFI--Now I’m not sure exactly which day it was but at some point we did go back by GlendaMax’s room and hang a LGMH from her doorknob. I’m sure that was a much better surprise then the lovely check out invoice found there on the last day of your trip!

[scrap4u]

Wednesday—9/13

We had an 820am ADR for Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast. We got up early and drove over to the MK. Except, when we went through the toll booth thingy at MK instead of going to the left to go into the parking lot we went to the right like we were going back to the Contemporary. We were talking and talking and all of sudden it dawned on me that we didn’t go the right way!

I told DH and we both thought about it for a second and realized what we’d done. So we took a left at the next stoplight which took us in front of the Polynesian. We knew where we were and where this would take us. We followed that road to the end and made another left. This is how you exit out of the MK. Then we saw a little sign that said to MK parking and we had to make a sharp left turn with little warning. There we are up on 2 wheels again! You could tell not many people used that turn as the asphalt was kind of broken up and had grass growing out of it. But at least we were now headed in the right direction!

We parked and headed to the monorail. There weren’t any express monorails running at this point so we had to take a resort monorail. We left the TTC without riding in the front with the pilot, again. We stopped at the Polynesian to take on passengers and waited for maybe 10 minutes. We have no idea why. But we’re both starting to get nervous that we’re going to miss our ADR. Finally the monorail starts moving again.

Next we stop at the Grand Floridian. Luckily we’re on our way again after just a couple of minutes. We exit at the MK and do the walk/run thing down the monorail ramp to get into the park and down Main St. We checked in right at 8:20am which is not a good thing. This is one of the few places you really need to be early.

We went inside and had to wait in line for 10-15 minutes to have our picture taken with Cinderella. The picture turned out well and one picture is already included in the price of your breakfast.

But most people would want 2-3-4 different pictures taken. One with each child, one with children only, then one with whole family. Blah, blah, blah. We’re tapping our feet going come on people. We’re late for our ADR.

I know we shouldn’t have. We didn’t get checked in early (thank you monorail!) so you take what you get. Finally we get up to Cinderella who is very nice and snap, our picture is taken and we head right upstairs.

We’re immediately seated and are the last table in our section to be seated. We’ve already missed some of the princesses too. But our waitress was took very good care of us and made sure that before the princess took their break that we saw the 2 we had missed. So we saw Fairy Godmother, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Belle. The food was good as always and we enjoyed our view out of the castle window into Fantasyland, except for the part of the crane that was in our way!

The crane was being used at night to dismantle the golden accessories on the castle as it was almost the end of the Happiest Celebration on Earth.

We really did enjoy our view. It was Fastasyland EMH that morning so Fantasyland was already open. We could see the characters out in Fantasyland playing with the kids who were there riding the rides. It was really cute.

We finished our breakfast and decided to start in Fantasyland, since we were already there. We walked on Peter Pan—for once no 30 minute wait! Next up was Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and then Snow White.

We headed over to Frontierland and rode Splash Mountain twice and then rode Big Thunder Mountain. DH rode TM twice and I rode once. From there we went to Pirates and waited about 5 minutes to get on. No flashes going on this time thank goodness!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0320.jpg Inside Splash Mountain.


When we got off Pirates, Captain Hook and Smee were out for photo ops so we had the nice character handler take our picture. She took a crooked picture that makes us look like we’re on a ship that is rolling in rough seas. Very appropriate for Captain Hook!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0332.jpg

At some point in here we stopped to get a Dole Whip. I had heard a lot of people raving about how good they were on the Dis so we wanted to try it. But wait, there’s no line. Is that a good thing? No! The stand isn’t open yet. Well we would be the first ones in line then. But how long until they open? We’re wasting precious ride time here!

So we walked over to a nearby souvenir cart and asked the CM there if he knew when it opened. He didn’t but said he could call to find out. By the time he finally found the number and got through to someone, we looked over and the window had just opened up and there were already 5-6 people in line! Where the heck did all those people come from? Were they hiding in the bushes waiting for the counter to open? Darn it!

So we got in line and bought our whips. We weren’t first but we got one and that was all that mattered! They were very refreshing and yummy. We just the whips this time but will try the floats on our next visit!

We caught Captain Jack’s Pirate Instruction show which was very cute. Jack was a dead ringer for Captain Jack in the movies. His side kick was very funny too. As the show was ending a woman walked up to me and asked me if I was on the Dis boards. I said yes and she said she was MickNPluto. She didn’t have any LGMHs with her but I gave her one of mine. She and her family were very nice. As they were walking away, I thought I heard that infamous line—“See, I’m not crazy! There are other people on the Dis too!” Too funny!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0336.jpg

Next up was the Haunted Mansion. It was a walk on too. After that we were starting to get hungry again. We’ve had good luck at Columbia Harbor House on 2 previous trips so we decided to go there again. I had the veggie roll, which I’ve had before, but it was terrible this time. DH had the tuna salad sandwich which he said was just ok. Chips came as the side with both and then the only dessert they had was a prepackaged chocolate cake that was terrible. This lunch sucked! Thank goodness it was free with the dining plan or I would have been very upset.

We decided to head over to Tomorrowland. We don’t normally spend much if any time here—I know, we’re weird, but thought we’d do something different this time. We did the Tomorrowland Transit Authority which we hadn’t done in years. I don’t remember every doing it but DH says we have ridden it before.

From there we went to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. We’ve never tried this before either. Anything that has spin in it, I avoid. I can’t ride things that spin around, like the Carrousel in Fantasyland. But I had read so much about Buzz on the Dis boards that I wanted to check it out.

I asked the CM loading us in if the ride spun around and he explained that we were in control of the spinning and it was mainly to be able to hit the targets on both sides of the ride. So we rode it. I was on the left and DH was on the right. I had a terrible score but DH did pretty well. We got off and got right back on—yea baby! And this time DH sat on the left and I sat on the right. I got the good score this time baby! Next time I think we’ll try to each have our own car, if it’s not crowded, and that way we can both be on the right.

DH rode Space Mountain next. I can ride this but it is so rough that it tends to get my motion sickness going. So I took pictures and fought off the love bugs and waited for him.

Next up was snack time so we used some of our snack credits to get FREE popcorn and fresh water and walked over to Fantasyland so DH could do the Teacups. Me, I ate popcorn and swatted love bugs off of me. No spinning for me!

We headed down to Toontown next to buy our Mr. Potato Head and parts. What a deal! $18.00 and you get the head and as many pieces parts as you can cram into Mr. Potato Head’s butt and into the box. A friend told us about this and we were very excited to buy our first one. Luckily a very nice CM helped us load up the box and butt so we could get all our pieces parts in it.

OT—I’ve read that we should buy the actually potato head at Wal-mart and then stuff the box at DW with the pieces. We weren’t positive we were going to get into the whole potato head thing so we didn’t prebuy anything at Wallyworld. TFI—I do have a Ms. Potato Head on my desk at work. My co-workers already know that I’m crazy so they don’t think anything of it!

Back on topic--we decided to take the train back to Frontierland and see how long the wait was for Jungle Cruise. I know, it’s in Adventureland. But you have to get off the train where you can! We checked on the Jungle Cruise at various times that day and it was always a 30 minute wait with long lines every time and the FP machines weren’t operating that day. We wanted to check it one more time before leaving for the day.

DH is into model trains so he loves riding on them. After waiting for about 10 minutes for a train and then boarding it, we all had to get off and walk as the train was broken! The brakes were locked up on it.

We were kind of tired at this point so we slowly walked over to Frontierland. The new Dreams Come True parade was getting ready to start. So we stayed to watch it and see what they had changed instead of riding Jungle Cruise.

The parade was still very good and I got lots of pictures. When it ended in Frontierland we were able to wind our way through the park and the shops on Main St. and managed to exit the park before the parade got to the front end of Main St.

We exited the park without a crowd and took the monorail back to the parking lots and played find the car again! We headed for home to nap and freshen up.

Well we had one more surprise when we got back to our room. Number 3 in our little towel family:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0518.jpg

So here is the whole gang:

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0519.jpg

[dr&momto2boys]

Cute Crocs! :thumbsup2

[scrap4u]

Cute Crocs! :thumbsup2

Thanks dr&momto2boys! They were very comfortable and sure saved my feet for the week!

[Adi12982]

WOW you got a LOT of towel animals!! DH and I have only had one, total! And we tip well! Guess it depends on the mousekeeper you get!

[scrap4u]

WOW you got a LOT of towel animals!! DH and I have only had one, total! And we tip well! Guess it depends on the mousekeeper you get!

I think you are right. We could tell we had 2 different people. One would leave a towel animal each time they came. The other--no towel animals but our beds would be made and then turned down for us and we would have lots of extra towels and wash clothes. So they were both good but towel animals were much more fun!

[Minnie]

Awesome I found your trip report :thumbsup2

I have really enjoyed reading it and your pictures are just wonderful :banana:

[hjd0411]

Scrap4u - I am loving your trip report. Love the phots too. It's good to see that you go to character meals without children! I am going next year with a friend and no kids, and want to do one or two character meals, but didn't want to feel like the "odd one's out"! I guess that is why Disney is for everyone!!!
Thanks for the report, and I look forward to reading more.

Heather

[scrap4u]

Awesome I found your trip report :thumbsup2

I have really enjoyed reading it and your pictures are just wonderful :banana:

Hey Minnie! :wave2:

Thanks for stopping by to read! Glad you're enjoying it. I love reading your reports!

[scrap4u]

Scrap4u - I am loving your trip report. Love the phots too. It's good to see that you go to character meals without children! I am going next year with a friend and no kids, and want to do one or two character meals, but didn't want to feel like the "odd one's out"! I guess that is why Disney is for everyone!!!
Thanks for the report, and I look forward to reading more.

Heather

Goodday HJD0411! So glad you're enjoying the report. :)

We do a bunch of character meals just the 2 of us. It felt strange the very first time but once we remembered we're just big kids anyway, it didn't make any difference at all.

I hope you have a great time when you come next year!

I have been down under before but didn't make it to Brisbane. I'm sure it's lovely as I loved everywhere we visited--Sydney, Melbourne, and Cairns!

[Madsofa]

We have ADR's for CRT - dinner and H & V with Fantasmic! Your pictures, once again, are great! Thanks sooo much for sharing and providing insights! :thumbsup2

[Glendamax]

DH spotted some LGMHs in the window of a room in building 5 on the 2nd floor I think. So we walked up there and it was none other then GlendaMax!
IT'S ME! IT'S ME! :wave2:

I can't believe that we were at the same park on the same day, at the same time, and EVEN ate at the same place and did NOT see each other! While you were taking a break at the pool, we took our break in the room! Man, this is worse than a "Three's Company" episode!

When you took this picture below, I was to your left, sitting on the curb!

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0411.jpg
A sure sign of what was coming!


See Look . . .
[http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l301/glendamax/WDW%202006/Animal%20Kingdom%202006/IMG_0655.jpg
We were so comfortable, and I was excited because we were in a great area. Well, as we waited, the sky got dark . . .
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l301/glendamax/WDW%202006/Animal%20Kingdom%202006/IMG_0658.jpghttp://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l301/glendamax/WDW%202006/Animal%20Kingdom%202006/IMG_0656.jpg


After it rained we went over to Pirates, then to Haunted Mansion, then we watched Wishes! Sound familiar? Wow, this really is 2 ships passing in the night!

[Minniespal]

Excellent.

[scrap4u]

We have ADR's for CRT - dinner and H & V with Fantasmic! Your pictures, once again, are great! Thanks sooo much for sharing and providing insights! :thumbsup2

Morning Madsofa! We've never done dinner at CRT or eaten at all at H&V. I can't wait to hear what you think of both of them!

Thanks for your kind comments! They are much appreciated! :cloud9:

[scrap4u]

IT'S ME! IT'S ME! :wave2:

I can't believe that we were at the same park on the same day, at the same time, and EVEN ate at the same place and did NOT see each other! While you were taking a break at the pool, we took our break in the room! Man, this is worse than a "Three's Company" episode!

Hey Gmax!!! I felt the exact same way when I read your trip report. Almost everything you said you and your mom did--we had done on the same day. We must have been following each other around the parks but never passing each other. :guilty: I was on the look out for you but just never saw you!

Now that we you know what I look like--if we happen to be in the parks at the same time again, we'll both be on the lookout for each other. :banana:

[scrap4u]

Next we had a 6pm ADR at Restaurant Marrakesh. We’d had lunch here before a few times and loved it! So this trip we decided to try dinner too.

We drove over to Epcot and the park seemed pretty crowded. We walked around World Showcase entering from the France side. As we got over to Morocco we saw that Mo’Rockin was playing. These guys and gal are great to watch and listen to! We stopped and watched the end of their show and then checked in for our ADR.

We got an ok table that was in the middle of an aisle. Not a great location but the restaurant was very busy. I don’t remember much about our waiter except that he was busy and his name was Youssef!

We ordered and DH got the Chicken Bastilla and I had the Beef Brewat rolls for appetizers. We love them both and were able to share the two appetizers so we each got some of both.

For our entrees DH ordered the Night in Casablanca which was Lamb, Chicken Kebab and Seafood Bastilla. He said it was pretty good. I ordered the Chicken Kabobs but instead was served the Shish Kebab which was beef.

The waiter offered to go get the chicken for me instead but I told him the beef would be fine. Plus I didn’t want to have wait for my entrée to come out. DH is a fast eater and he’d have been finished before I ever got mine!

Usually I like beef kebobs so no problem, right. Nope! They weren’t very good at all. I should have waited for the chicken. We both got the Moroccan Symphony for dessert which was 3 different types of Baklava type pastries. At least it was another free meal. If I had been paying for it, I would have complained about the beef kabobs for sure!

We noticed that a few people at another large table got the wrong entrees delivered to them too. Don’t know what was going on in the kitchen but someone was confused somewhere. I don’t think we’ll go back there for dinner again but we’ll still go there for lunch.

After dinner we walked over to France and I got my glass of champagne.

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I don't think I have my pinkie out! What a faux pas! Merde!

Then we headed to Canada to hear Off Kilter play. As I mentioned before, I love me some men in kilts!

My cousin S called during the show and said he and his fiancé, K2, were in the park and wanted to meet us near the Rose and Crown. They wanted to drink some beer there but for some reason they had entered World Showcase from the Mexico side.

So we left Off Kilter ( I never did get to see their entire set this trip!) and started walking back through World Showcase. We stopped back in France and I got a glass of wine this time.

We walked on and ran into S and K2 somewhere along the Showcase. It was pretty dark by the time we found them so I’m surprised we didn’t walk right past them.

We headed to Rose and Crown and stood around inside while they drank their beer and we all caught up with each other. DH and I had never been inside this restaurant/bar before. It is very atmospheric and British. We liked it.

We went outside right before Illuminations started and it had started to rain again. Nothing really heavy but enough to get you wet. We saw Illuminations from the UK and then went back to Rose and Crown for them to drink some more beer and have a few shots. I don’t know how they got up and went to work the next day! I was tipsy from a 1/2 glass of champagne and a 1/2 glass of wine on a full stomach! I'm a light-weight though. :goodvibes

Then we walked over to Mouse Gear and picked up a few things. We started looking at the Mr. Potato Head parts to see what they had that we hadn’t already found.

Well they had a number of pieces/parts that we wanted. At $2.00 a piece it was cheaper for us to buy another box for $18.00. So we did and got a second Mr. Potato Head body.

I told DH we’d have one at home and I would have one on my desk at work. And he fell for it! :rotfl: He was as into this as I was, helping me find parts and helping me cram everything into the box and Mr. Potato Head's butt!

We gave my cousin and his fiancée an education in Mr. Potato Heads as they didn’t know anything about them. They agreed with us that it was a pretty good deal.

We headed out of the park and said goodbye to S and K2. I was a bit sad as this was the only time we’d end up seeing them this trip.

We walked to the car and headed back to POFQ for some sweet Mickey dreams.

[scrap4u]

Thursday 9/14—

This morning I had nothing planned for breakfast again but DH wanted to go back to Boma. I was able to get a 9am ADR for breakfast so we drove over to AKL again. No wait for our table this time either. We had a wonderful waiter named Albert. He was so nice, had an upbeat attitude, friendly and took really good care of us! We tipped him well! We enjoyed our buffet there yet again and tried not to over-stuff ourselves. It didn’t work! The food is just too darn good!

We left AKL and drove to AK.

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We walked on EE again. I went in with DH so I could see the preshow and then took the chicken exit. I have ridden this ride before but didn’t want to ride it right after breakfast. It would be barf city for me if I did!

We walked onto Dinosaur. More fun! We walked over to the Safari again and had about a 5 minute wait. This time, we were in the very last row of the ride vehicle. I don’t think we’ve ever ridden in the back before. This driver wasn’t quite as nice in that he didn’t slow down as much for picture taking.

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I still got some more good shots of the lions. This time the cheetah was out but I missed the picture because the driver was going so fast! Dadgummit! I swear the driver speeded up as we came to the cheetah/leopard. It was very bumpy in the back and by the time we got off the ride both DH and I were feeling kind of sick. And it takes a lot to make DH get motion sick! You can be sure we won’t ride in the very back again!

We did have some sprinkles off and on while here but not enough to have to put our ponchos on. We walked back over to Dinoland and got more Mr. Potato Head parts. They sold them to us individually which was nice as there were only a few pieces we wanted. Our day was done here so he headed out of the park and drove over to MGM.

We got to MGM about 1145am. We managed to make a show of Beauty and the Beast. We were on the far left side of the theatre and the fan on that side up in the rafters was broken. We sweltered through that show! We left there and headed over to see the Indiana Jones show. DH really likes that one. Lights Motor Action was closed this day so we didn’t get to see it this trip.

We headed over to Mama Melrose’s for lunch. We didn’t have an ADR but were seated in about 5 minutes. There is long walkway to get to the back of the restaurant and the hostess wanted to seat us at one of two 2 top tables stuck along the wall on this long dark hallway.

You may have guessed by now that I won’t accept a bad table, so I said I’m sorry, but there has to be a better table then this available. I had seen tons of empty tables on the way to this dark dingy table. She got a little huffy but finally took us into the completely, totally empty back dining room and seated us at a 4 top table.

Fine, whatever. Luckily our waitress Jen was very nice and seemed happy to be waiting on us. We were the only table she had at this point. We had the Bruschetta as an appetizer, we each had a Caesar salad and we split the Vine-ripened tomato flat bread. It was all very good. We skipped dessert there and paid for this meal.

From Mama’s we walked into Muppet’s 3D. We checked for the key under the mat and it was there. But for some reason, I didn’t think to take a picture of it. The heat must have gone to my head! We walked right into the theatre and it was only ½ full for this show.

After Muppets we headed over to the shop that has the Mr. Potato Heads at MGM and bought a few more pieces parts. While in this store, a huge thunderstorm rolled in. Lots of lightening and thunder and very heavy rain. We hung out in the store and looked at all the kids stuff in there and waited the storm out. It was over within 30 minutes. Once the rain was pretty much over, we headed back to the tram to go back to our car. Back to our resort for a nap and to clean up.

You can see that naps are very important part of our trip. We’ve learned that if we don’t take an afternoon nap, between 45 minutes and 2 hours, then we are extremely tired and grumpy in the evening. No one likes to be grumpy at Disney so we take a nap.

[scrap4u]

Tonight we had a 530p ADR at Le Cellier. We drove over to Epcot. Again the park felt crowded as compared to during the day. Le Cellier was very crowded. We checked in about 505p. We were early and the hostess suggested we go see the movie in Canada. I told her sorry, I can’t do big screen movies or I get motion sick. We’ll just wait right here within your sight, thank you very much! We were beeped for a table within 10 minutes.

We had a fairly nice waiter named JohnW. I explained to John that we’d had a very bad experience at Le Cellier when we ate here in May. Food not great, screaming kids and parents playing games and running around. He said he hoped it would be a better experience this time.

He told us all about the breadsticks and which parts of Canada they come from—the regular spiel. DH had some kind of salmon/crab appetizer and I had the Caesar salad. DH had the NY strip and I had the 7oz Filet for our entrees. It was much better then last time but it still didn’t compare to the steaks at the Yachtsman. Sorry—don’t mean to offend all you Le Cellier lovers!

For dessert DH had the Chocolate Whiskey cake and I had the crème brulee combo. They were yummy. Thankfully this trip there weren’t any terribly behaved families. So overall the meal was enjoyable. Especially the part where we didn’t have to pay. Love that free dining!

We headed out to see Off Kilter again and who do we run into but SoRUL8 and her family. They were quite nice and chatted with us awhile. They had just arrived that morning. Off Kilter finished up and we headed back to our car.

We drove over to the MK to try and catch a full Spectro Magic parade. There were a lot of dark black clouds over the MK but we hoped the rain would hold off. We went to Liberty Square to watch it and thank goodness it didn’t rain and cut it short again. I got a lot of good pictures of this too. Here is one of the scary clowns that UtahMama doesn't like:

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When Spectro finished up we headed over to the hub in front of the Castle to get a spot to see Wishes.

We managed to get a spot in the hub right on the street. We sat ourselves down to rest and wait for Wishes to start. As it got closer to 9pm, we did finally stand up. A very nice lady next to me was using her camcorder and zooming in on where Tinkerbell comes out of the castle. I was zooming in with my digital camera too. But I forgot that Wishes actually starts for a few minutes before she flies out and I missed her yet again. Dag-gone it!

Wishes was excellent as always and I did get some great shots of the fireworks.

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After Wishes finished up we sat down to wait for the crowds to clear out. We grabbed seats on a bench right in the hub and watched the changing colors on the castle and watched some teenagers near us taking pictures of each other. It was very sweet. It would have been a perfect moment for a few kisses—but DH and I were both too hot and sweaty for that!

We went back to the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor and used some more snack credits to got ice cream one more time. We walked and ate it this time and then headed over to the monorail.

We drove back to POFQ and got back about 1030pm. Neither of us mentioned the fact that tomorrow was our last full day at Disney. Maybe if we ignore it we won't have to go home! Yeah! That's it! If only it really worked that way, we'd never go home!

We did a lot in one day and it wasn’t really that late. But we were exhausted and went right to sleep.

[scrap4u]

Friday 9/15—

Tonight we had tickets to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) and really wanted to have an easy day so we wouldn’t be exhausted at the party that night. It was a good plan and should have worked. But it didn’t!

We had a 9am ADR for Kona Café today. DH loves their Tonga Toast and I love the Pineapple Macadamia nut pancakes. Plus I love their coffee. So we drove over to the MK—managed to go the right way this time!--and parked our car.

We took the monorail to the Polynesian and checked in and were seated right away. Our waitress Samantha started out really well but towards the end of the meal kept disappearing for long periods of time. She did let me have a cup of coffee to go though so that balanced things out.

We took the monorail back to the MK, still didn’t get to ride with the co-pilot. First thing, we headed for the Jungle Cruise. Here it is the last full day of our trip and we are just getting on this for the first time. Bummer!

We waited about 15 minutes to get on it. We were the last 2 people to board this particular boat. I wish we had waited for the next one!

There was a man sitting to my right with his wife and maybe some other family. They appeared to be foreigners and they only reason I point that out is because people from other countries don’t always understand our need for personal space!

DH was on my left and he was right up against some type of box. The cruise takes off and this man is sitting kind of sideways in his seat, facing his wife with his behind on my thigh. I’m completely grossed out. I said something to DH about it but there really wasn’t anything he could do.

I finally tapped this man on the shoulder and said “excuse me, can you please move over”. He did move away from me but was back on my thigh in no time. I asked DH to move over to his left as far as he could and I squished up next to him to get away from this man.

Wrong thing to do! The man came with me. So now, in 90 degree heat, I’m squished up against DH with this strange man’s behind on my leg. I couldn’t wait to get off this ride and didn’t enjoy it one single bit. We seemed to have a very enthusiastic captain but I never heard anything she said. Grossness!

We were the first ones of the boat and I practically jumped off when the boat came to a stop. We quickly walked away and went to Splash Mountain. I really wished I could have changed clothes but so be it.

We walked right onto Splash and got in our boat and the ride took off. Our boat got to the bottom of the big hill and the ride stopped. We were stuck with 3-4 other boats in the blazing sun, frying. After about 5 minutes the ride started back up.

Everything is fine then and we’re riding along. We get to almost the end of the ride, where brer rabbit is back home again in the briar patch and the ride breaks down again. This time we are inside in the dark. They do turn the lights on for us and we’re stuck for maybe 10 minutes this time.

Trapped on Splash Mountain hearing Zip-a-dee doo dah, zip-a-dee-ay, home sweet home is the lesson today.. over and over. Almost as bad as being stuck on it’s a small world. But finally the ride starts back up, we get off and we’re free!

DH is really irritated at this point because he knew we didn’t want to be in MK all that long today and it seemed that fate was conspiring against us!

We walked over to Big Thunder Mt. and DH rode that one more time. It was a walk on also.

We went to see Mickey’s Philharmagic and walked right in and sat down. It wasn’t crowded and we were able to break the golden rule one more time—scored seats right in the middle of a row!

But a family with a toddler was seated about 2 seats from us, in our same row. As soon as the show started the child started crying and continued to scream until almost the end, when his parents finally took him out. Poor little boy! I understand that he was scared. It’s just a shame his parents didn’t take him out sooner.

We walked over to Toon Town from here to buy our photopass CD. We wanted to buy it here because we’d bought one here on our May trip and a really nice CM put signatures and overlays on all the pictures for us. Then when he burned the cd, we had one file with all the original pictures and a second file with the pictures with overlays and signatures.

The photopass people weren’t busy at all and a nice CM worked with us for 30 minutes letting us choose which pictures to put something on and letting us choose the overlays and signatures. When we finished we were ready to buy it.

The CM suggested we wait and buy it later that night. Since we were attending MNSSHP later that night and there would be more photopass opportunities that we would want to have added to the cd. We thanked her for her suggestion and headed for the train to Main St.

We should have bought the CD right then but we wouldn't find that out until later!

We got on the train in Toontown and got off at Main St. and headed for the monorail---still nothing up front available---back to our boiling hot car and drove over to Downtown Disney.

I had read on the Dis such good things about the Earl of Sandwich that we decided to try that for lunch and use some more counter service credits. The place was very crowded when we walked in. DH looked over the menu until he decided what he wanted and then I sent him on his mission to find us seats while I waited in line to order.

I quickly explained the hover method to him so he could score us a table.

I was in line for quite a while but once I finally paid for our order I found a 2 top table right at the line exit. I put our cups down on it and went to look for DH. He was sitting in a booth for 4 waiting for me. Since it was so crowded I told him to come over to the smaller table so another larger group could have the booth. My good deed for the day as I really prefer a booth to a table. I had the Caprese sandwich which was really yummy and DH had The Full Montagu which he really liked.

Next we went to the Toy Store in DD to check for more Mr. Potato Head parts that we hadn’t already bought. I found a bunch of them and then this not so nice CM said I couldn’t buy just pieces parts. I could only buy a box for $18.00. I explained that we had bought pieces at both AK and MGM with no problem. She said they shouldn’t have sold them to me like that.

Inside I’m thinking “well why is there a code to enter the parts in your computerized cash register if you aren’t supposed to sell them that way”. But I didn’t say anything. DH said no problem, we’ll just get a third Mr. Potato Head for him to take to work and put on his desk. So we got all the pieces DH wanted for his P.H. and I got the extra pieces that I wanted. But now we had 3 of these darned things! And how in the heck were we going to pack them?

Who wants to think about packing now! There's too much fun still to be had!

Next up was our favorite store-World of Disney! I could spend a ton of money here. Luckily we had our Disney Rewards card with us plus as a Disney Visa card holder we got 10% off our total purchase.

We brought back some things for our friends 2 daughters and something for our neighbor who was picking up our mail for us. And of course we brought back t-shirts and pens and drawing kits for DH’s daughter. We got all kinds of good things for us too.

A few hundred dollars later we were back in the car on our way to our room for a nap. We were supposed to have a 450pm ADR at Liberty Tree Tavern which we’ve never eaten at before. But it was 3pm before we got back to the room and we would have to leave the room by 415p to make our ADR. So we skipped Liberty Tree and took a 2 hour nap instead. I guess the busy week was catching up with us and we were tired!

Here is a picture of us at the Character Connection in Epcot. I forgot to put it in that chapter.

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Up next is MNSSHP with lots of pictures! :)

[scrap4u]

Excellent.

Hi Minniespal! :wave: Thanks for stopping by to check out my report. I hope you're enjoying it!

[Glendamax]

Scrapie! You've been busy!

I must admit that I was a but sad reading what you did on Friday. Since I'd left that morning, I told myself that everything stopped at WDW the minute I left for the airport. Like Brigadoon, I wanted to believe that it just disappeared. (yeah, I know I'm a bit crazy)

Next time I go, I hope I make to Earl of Sandwhich! One of my co-workers went this year too and loved it!

OH! Great Wishes photo! We ended up watching it from Fantasy Land. From there, you can hear the blasts of air as the fireworks are being launched. It was really cool!

[Minnie]

Great chapter! I can't wait to read about your MNSSHP experience :thumbsup2

[scrap4u]

Scrapie! You've been busy!

I must admit that I was a but sad reading what you did on Friday. Since I'd left that morning, I told myself that everything stopped at WDW the minute I left for the airport. Like Brigadoon, I wanted to believe that it just disappeared. (yeah, I know I'm a bit crazy)

Next time I go, I hope I make to Earl of Sandwhich! One of my co-workers went this year too and loved it!

OH! Great Wishes photo! We ended up watching it from Fantasy Land. From there, you can hear the blasts of air as the fireworks are being launched. It was really cool!

Hey GMax! We love watching Wishes from Fantasyland too. We did that on Sunday night before the EMH. We've even had the ashes falling down on us. You miss out on the seeing the front of the caslte but the fireworks going off right over your head is well worth it. So we try to make sure to catch Wishes at least once from both the hub and from Fantasyland.

I know what you mean about pretending that the park closes when you leave. It's another way to make the leaving bearable! :guilty:

[scrap4u]

Great chapter! I can't wait to read about your MNSSHP experience :thumbsup2
Thanks Minnie! MNSSHP was a lot of fun! If it slows down here at work today, I may be able to post some of it this afternoon.

[scrap4u]

We drove back over to the MK, without getting lost, and were in the park by 5:45pm. Disney had started putting up some of the Halloween decorations but not all of them. We actually saw many more of them when we left that night!

We got into the park with no wait and they were giving out wristbands just past the turnstiles. We received a separate map for the party and a trick or treat bag. As we got into the park we saw lots of families in costume. We didn’t bring any costumes with us so we were just in regular clothes.

We went to Pecos Bills to use some more counter service credits for dinner. It was quite good. We both had burgers and fries which really hit the spot. A lot of families were eating dinner when we were and it was so fun to see the whole family dressed up with a theme. You could tell the kids were really excited for the part to start.

We were feeling kind of left out for not having dressed up for the costume party so we stopped in the POC dump-shop and bought Mickey Mouse pirate ears. Very cute! We both wore them for the rest of the night.

We went into Pirates and rode that with next to no wait. And I didn’t get into a fight with anyone!

We headed over to Main St. to see if they had put out the Halloween party pins and t-shirts. A CM told us they wouldn’t put out the t-shirts and other party merchandise until 730p. They wanted to make sure that only people who paid to attend the party were able to purchase the party items.

They also told us to go Exposition Hall to get our pins. It started raining about this time. Not too hard or for too long. But it was an bad indication of things to come.

We got in line at Exposition Hall and were in line for close to 30 minutes. A nice person in front of us lent us one of her annual passes so we could get the annual pass holder pin. We got that night’s party pin and another larger pin they had.

We also bought the collection of pins. It’s one pin from every night’s party for September and October. You can only buy them in this set or you have to pay to attend every party and buy them at the park. The collection was framed and looked very nice. So we bought it.

By the time we were done at Exposition Hall it was after 730p. We went into the shops on Main St. again and bought our party t-shirts and a gravedigger Mickey doll. Very cute!

DH was starting to get irritated at this point. He was tired of waiting in lines and didn’t feel like waiting for me to shop. He really wanted to see the Villains Mix and Mingle. So I quickly paid for my items and we headed out.

We headed to the castle stage for the Villains Mix and Mingle which was already going on. At least the music was playing and the villains were down in front of the forecourt stage having pictures taken. No photopass photographers were there and very few character handlers. It was a bit chaotic.

We did manage to get a picture with the Evil Queen from Snow White. Also out were Jafar, Captain Hook, Cruella, the Queen of Hearts, Frollo and Malificent but everyone left before we could get any more pictures.

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Main St. with Halloween themed lights and pumpkins in the windows!

After asking DH what he was so irritated about I found out he thought there was only 1 Villains Mix and Mingle show. Once I explained that there were multiple showings of this he was fine.

We walked over to Frontierland to get a spot for the 830pm parade. It was dark by this point but we could see some nasty dark clouds leftover from the earlier rain and lightening was shooting all over the sky.

It was very crowded waiting for the parade and very hote. About 815pm we heard from a CM that the parade was going to be postponed. I had read that it was better to see the second parade anyway as it was usually less crowded.

So DH and I decided to leave the crowd and walked over to Haunted Mansion. As we got to Haunted Mansion they made an announcement over the speaker system that the parade was going to be postponed. They didn’t say for how long.

We walked right into HM and had a good ride as usual. When we came outside there was a photopass photographer taking pictures in front of HM in front of the hearse. We got in line to have our picture taken and that is when the rain started.

The rain was light at first so we didn’t put our ponchos on. We stood in front of the hearse and the photographer quickly took 1 picture. When we saw it the next day it was a really cool picture. They had really cool lights in the conservatory of HM that was in the background and they put a ghost in the driver’s seat of the hearse.

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We walked through Fantasyland and Peter Pan still had a 30 minute wait. I think the clock thing was stuck on 30 minutes that week!

We saw Tigger and Piglet under cover at the entrance to Winnie the Pooh. Tigger had on a skeleton costume and Piglet was a big flower. We had the CM take our picture with them.

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Across from there in Pooh’s Playland was a trick or treat station so we went through there and got our first pieces of candy.

We walked down to ToonTown but didn’t see any characters out. It was raining pretty hard by this time so I wasn’t surprised. We walked down the back path towards TomorrowLand and got lots of candy but according to the CMs Alice and all her pals had left when the rain started coming down.

We walked through Tomorrowland but didn’t see any characters. We headed over to the hub to get a place to watch HallowWishes at 930pm. The rain had finall slacked off at this point so I took off my poncho and tried to cool off.

We were over to the right of the castle in the hub. After all the walking we’d done all week, my feet were finally giving out on me. I was hot, tired and my feet hurt. I sat down on my rain poncho on the ground in the hub and waited for the fireworks to start.

At this point I wasn’t having fun anymore. I was over the rain and humidity and my body was finally wearing out after a week of running wild in Disney World. I tried to find a comfortable way to sit on the hard concrete and DH just stood beside me. I think he could see that I was pretty worn out.

When it got close to time for Hallowishes to start, I finally did stand up. The hub was crowded but not standing on top of each other crowded. I just kept hoping a breeze would blow through to cool us off.

HalloWishes was pretty good. I have read numerous reports where the fireworks go off all around the park. We didn’t see that. We saw them going off to the left of the castle in what appeared to be Liberty Square. I’m sorry we missed it or that they didn’t do it. Whichever.

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Cinderall Castle with ghosts on it!

I did take a bunch of pictures though so it was all good. As we were picking up our stuff to head back to Frontierland a woman started talking to me about being on the Dis boards. I was so tired I didn’t catch her screen name and she didn’t have any LGMH. But we chatted for a minute and then said goodbye.

We went to Frontierland to see the 1030p Boo to you Parade. It was really cute and I got some good pictures of it. The gravediggers making the sparks on the road with their shovels were really cool. The CMs walked along with the parade and gave out more candy. We had quite a bit of candy by the end of the night.

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The ghost dancers from HM.

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Grim Grinning Ghosts from HM.

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More Grim Grinning Ghosts!

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Goofy ends the parade!

At some point after the rain stopped, we walked through Adventureland. They had a building open over to the right just after you enter Adventureland from Main St. Inside you could trick or treat and also get your pictures taken with characters. We took a picture of Tarzan but didn’t want to wait in line to get our picture taken with him.

We did get our picture taken with Baloo and Rafiki because the CMs said they were lonely. No one was getting their picture taken with them.

We ended up back at the hub and watched the entire Villains Mix and Mingle. The show on the forecourt stage was cute and I took a bunch of pictures of it. Then the villains all came down front.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0634.jpg

We managed to take each other’s picture with Malificent and with the Queen of Hearts. Boy is she tall! It was really a mess down front with no clear lines and no CMs to help. We were lucky we were right there in the front and got our couple of pictures and got the heck away from that crowd.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0635.jpg
Malificent!

I really didn’t like the way this was handled and I was pretty nervous because of the way the crowd was closing in on the villains. I had also read that attending the Villains Mix and Mingle this late at night would not be crowded. Wrong!

We decided we’d had about enough of the party. We were both really tired so decided to stop at Exposition Hall to get our CD. But the line was about 20 people deep so we figured we’d come back the next morning and get it.

We left about 1140p and the party ended at midnight so we made the most of it. We stopped to take some pictures of the front of the MK as they had put up more inflatable decorations after we had already entered the park. We got a really cool picture at the front end of Main St. in front of a big inflatable ghost.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0640.jpg

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0642.jpg

We dragged our tired bodies up the ramp to the monorail. We didn’t have to wait too long to get on one. I don’t think the monorail ever felt so good. A soft seat, cool air, aaah! We found our car with no problem and drove back to POFQ for the last time. Sniff, Sniff!

We got back to the hotel about midnight and crashed. We still hadn’t done any packing at this point. Uh Oh!

Would I do this party again. Yes! I would try to go during the week instead of on a Friday night though. That may have been part of why it was so crowded.

I would also try to attend earlier in the week rather than the end of the week when we're more tired.

I read about people who ride a bunch of rides and still attend both parades and Hallowishes and trick or treating and I don't know how they do it. Unless it is much less crowded evening.

As this was the very first party of the Halloween season and the only party during our week's stay, we didn't have a choice. But I'm glad we attended and we did have a lot of fun.

[KangaFan]

Great pictures. You're tempting me. The extra parade, etc looks like so much fun. We're going to be there when the Pirates & Princesses party starts and I hadn't planned to attend because my two children really need their early bedtime--maybe I'll ask Mom to keep the kids while DH & I go. ;)

Thanks for sharing!

[scrap4u]

Great pictures. You're tempting me. The extra parade, etc looks like so much fun. We're going to be there when the Pirates & Princesses party starts and I hadn't planned to attend because my two children really need their early bedtime--maybe I'll ask Mom to keep the kids while DH & I go. ;)

Thanks for sharing!

Hi KangaFan! So great to hear from a fellow Virginian! :wave:

I thing the Pirates and Princesses party is new for 2007. Knowing Disney, I'm sure it will be well done and lot of fun. At least you don't have to worry about the heat! :rotfl:

We really would like to go in early December one year and do Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party! I hear that is a good one too!

I hope you all have a wonderful trip! Thanks for your kind comments!

[Glendamax]

OOOOOOH! New installment! :surfweb:

[scrap4u]

For anyone still reading my trip report--I apologize for the delay in getting up the last chapter. First was the hectic Thanksgiving week and then I was struck down all last week with some kind of stomach/intestinal virus.

I'm up and back at work today and the chapter is written. I just have to upload some pictures to go with it. I will hopefully get it posted tomorrow or Wednesday.

[Minnie]

Can't wait :thumbsup2

[scrap4u]

Saturday 9/16—

(I really didn't take any pictures on this last day. Way too busy! So I've posted some random pictures at the end of this chapter that didn't make it into the other chapters.)

Our last day at Disney is always a busy one. We got up about 630am. Took our showers and started packing. Please note--we STARTED packing! Boy were we behind!

As we were leaving the room to head over to the POFQ food court, we saw the nastiest, ugliest thing! Our bill, hanging on our door knob! How sad. Our terrific week was fast coming to an end. We didn’t even look at the bill, just stuck it in with all our receipts and walked over to the food court to use up some more counter service credits.

The food court wasn’t very crowded so we found a place to sit with no trouble. We don’t really enjoy eating breakfast at the food court which is why this was the first time we’d eaten here all week. But the food was fine.

We headed back to the room to finish up our packing. The lovely Mr. Potato Head boxes went into a big Mickey shopping bag along with 2 very large beautiful holly leaf patterned Mickey Mouse ear Christmas ornaments. No way were they all going to fit into either of our carry-on bags. We left about 9am and loaded up the car. The saddest few moments of our trip!

We waived goodbye to POFQ and drove to the MK. We parked and took the monorail one more time and still didn’t get to ride up front!

We entered the park with no lines and went straight to Exposition Hall. Woo Hoo! No line here either! That was a really good thing as we had very limited time to do a lot today before our flight home!

Never let it be said that we spend our last day lounging by the pool and soaking up atmosphere! Bah! We must run around like chickens with our heads cut off and get more done!

Anyhoo! We told the CM we wanted to buy our picture CD and also had them put our Halloween party pictures on the CD. We asked about the file from Toontown with our overlays and signatures but were told we couldn’t have the overlays and signatures on our pictures.

Whaaattt!!! We explained how the previous day a very helpful CM had already put them all on it for us. This CM said they weren’t there. I’m sure I looked at him like he was speaking Greek! I worked in the IT department of a large pharmaceutical company for 5 years so I am pretty familiar with computers and file systems and I did know what I was talking about.

I asked to speak with a supervisor. Well the supervisor for ToonTown was on her way in but wasn’t there yet and there wasn’t one at Exposition Hall. I explained how we’d had it done when we were there in May. They agreed that we may have done it before but can’t any longer. As if they didn't believe me that we'd done it before!

This upset me greatly as I love the overlays and signatures but didn’t want to pay 12.95 per 5x7 to get them. So I ordered one 8x10 with an overlay of DH and I in front of the castle at night with the Walt and Mickey Statue to use on the front page of our scrapbook album for this trip. I use this same shot of us in front of the castle from each trip to begin each trip’s album and they all have an overlay on them. I had to have it for that reason!

Then we got our cd. When I got home and checked that one picture on the cd, the one picture we bought, it didn’t have the overlay there either. Darnit! To me, that takes some of the value away from the cd. Oh well.

We had to go back to the Emporium shop to get a tin of cookies for our neighbor that was picking up our mail while we were gone, and then it was back on the monorail to head to our car. An entire week at Disney World with between 8 and 10 rides on the monorail and we never managed to ride with the pilot.

Oh well, at least we were able to do it in August 05 when we had DH’s DD with us.

From here we drove to U.S. Please don’t flame me! I know it blasphemous to even think the name of that other park here!

But we weren’t really going to "that" park. We were just going to pay $10.00 to park the car at their parking deck and hit 2 of the stores on the City Walk. You would think we could park for free with a validated shopping receipt or something, but no!

So we paid to park and then walked to the City Walk. I really don’t like US or City Walk. The music they play is so loud! Oh my goodness—did those words just come out of my mouth? I think I’m channeling my father!

Anyhoo--we collect Hard Rock Café t-shirts and wanted to get their latest design. I wanted to get a few shirts at Fresh Produce. I love that store! They have the cutest most comfortable shirts, shorts and skirts. We don’t have any in Virginia so I have to hit them when we’re in Orlando or Myrtle Beach SC.

Once we were done at City Walk, we drove back over to MGM. That sounds weird doesn’t it? Leave Disney to go to U.S. and then back to Disney. Remember what I said about chickens with their heads cut off!

DH went to Tower of Terror to get us FPs for one more ride. I stopped at my favorite watch shop at MGM and bought a new Tinkerbell watch. Yes, I collect Disney character watches. I currently have 8 though I recently dropped my Daisy Duck one and cracked the crystal and need to have it replaced.

We met back up at the watch shop and headed over to the ABC Commissary for lunch and to use up our last counter service credits. I had the tabbouleh rollup—which I’ve had on previous trips and it was very good—but this time it was dried out and kind of stale. DH had a burger and fries and his was fine.

We finished up and walked over to Tower of Terror. Our FPs weren’t good yet but it was only a 10 minute standby line so we got in that and rode one last time. We’ve been known to stop at MGM and ride ToT two or three times and then head for the airport! We can’t get enough of that ride!

While we were waiting in line for the ride, down in the basement, another man heard us discussing which set of elevators we should choose. He asked us if there was a difference. Well, I replied, there can be. You never know until you ride one side or the other. The drops are supposed to be randomly generated by computers but we find one side will typically have more drops then the other.

I must have sounded like I knew what I was talking about because this nice man followed us when we got to the split and ended up sitting next to me on our ride. We chatted with him and he told us this was his first time riding ToT and he was alone as his wife was with the kids. He was very nice and I hope his hearing came back soon after we got off the ride. I’m a screamer on thrill rides and I don’t think he could hear very well when we got off!

So we had a great last ride of the trip. We still had snack credits to use up so we stopped in the candy store at MGM and bought rice krispie treats to bring back. They were just these huge square blocks. But the nice CMs boxed them up for us and put them in a bag.

Great! Another bag to carry on with us! In addition to our one carry-on each, my purse and the big Mickey shopping bag with the Mr. Potato Heads in it.

We did the walk/run back to the tram to head to our car.

We stopped at the Hess station across the street from MGM to fuel up and then it was off to the airport.

We found the car rental drop off on our first try. We’ve been known to circle the airport numerous times trying to get in the correct lane to return a rental car!

All we did was park the car, the guy handed me a little computer print out and we were walking over to the terminal. Done!

WAIT! I don't want things to go this smoothly and efficiently! Because it's getting me closer to home and further from my beloved Disney World! :guilty:

We did self check-in at the Delta Kiosk and then dropped our luggage at the security screening. We headed over to security to get ourselves through and it looked like everything was going to be fine. Nope!

The security guard pulls out the big Mickey shopping bag and asks whose it is. I told him it was ours. He pulled out this one box and told me I couldn't bring it on board.

At first, I had no idea what was it was. Then I realized it was a very small Mickey Halloween snowglobe that we’d bought much earlier in the week.

When we were packing, I didn’t remember what it was because it was sealed up in a box with no picture on the outside. Son of a gun!

The security guy gave me the option to get out of the secrutiy line, go wait in line at the Delta counter, have them try to find my bag and bring it back. Put it in my checked bag and recheck it in.

Hummmmm.....let me think about that for 2 seconds! Nope! No thanks! I wasn’t taking any chances that my bag would get lost with all the extra handling. So the security guard took it my little itty bitty, snowglobe with maybe 3 teaspoons of water in it away. :furious:

I’m sure someone’s child got a nice little present that night! Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I was just kicking myself for forgetting what was in the box.

Once we got through security I whipped out my cell phone to call my cousin S and left him a voicemail message begging him to go to the Main St. Emporium and buy me another one and ship it to me at my expense!

We walked on into the main terminal and started looking for the Croc store. After much searching, we did finally find it. We checked it out but they didn’t have the Disney Crocs I was looking for.

They did have tons of Jibbitz but I already had a bunch in my lime green crocs so I passed.

We took the tram back out to our terminal and decided to get something to eat at Outback Steakhouse. It was pretty good and gave us a chance to rest for a bit.

After we finished eating we headed downstairs to our gate. The place was packed and there wasn’t anywhere to sit. Turns out D and her husband S2 were taking the same flight home as we were. They had seats in the waiting area so we stood and talked to them about their week.

All I remember was them complaining about visiting with D's dad at his house in Tampa. The problem was a bunch of dead fish washed up on shore all that week causing a terrible smell. What a smelly week!

Finally some seats opened up so DH and I sat down to wait. Our flight was delayed by about 30 minutes but other then that was uneventful. No screaming baby behind us on the way home!

As we took off, I was sad to leave but really happy that we’d had such a wonderful week. Because our May 06 trip didn’t go quite as well as previous trips, we were worried that maybe we were Disneyed-out! Thank goodness this trip proved that idea was wrong!!!!

This was one of the best trips we’ve ever taken and just proved to us that we can continue to visit Disney as often as our credit cards allow and still have a wonderful trip!

We were tired, but happy and tan and hopefully bringing some pixie dust back with us.

When we landed in Richmond it was very chilly. Richmond had been having some very cool and rainy weather while we gone and we were very glad to have missed it!

Even if it meant sweltering in the hot Orlando heat and humidity! As someone else sort of said in another report—even a hot, humid day at Disney is better then any day at work! I whole heartedly agree!

Now if I can just figure out how we can afford to go back in the spring for birthday….hmmm….

DH on the Tea Cups--
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0343.jpg

Me Dancing with Goofy at Chef Mickey's--
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0234.jpg

DH with Mickey at Donald's Breakfastosaurus--
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0083.jpg

Me with Jasmine and Aladdin--
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o158/scrap4u/2006-10-26_0061.jpg

[kathymc]

great report and I love the photos!

thanks for sharing

[hjd0411]

Great report - thanks for sharing your vacation with us! It is always sad coming home from any vacation, I think, but Disney even more so. :)
Glad you had a great time, and your photos are fabulous. I'm hoping I'll have the "courage" to write a report when I get back - I will have to ake copious notes, I think. :goodvibes

Thanks again.

Heather

[Madsofa]

Thanks for the great read! You sound like you had a great time! I'm sure we will and hopefully I'll be able to write a report as thorough as yours! :cool1:

[Adi12982]

Thanks for sharing!! I enjoyed reading your report!!

[scrap4u]

Here's a shout out to you wonderful posters!

KathyMC--Thanks for reading and I'm glad you enjoyed it! I see you're heading back to OKW in March. Are you a DVC member? I wish we could afford to become members. I hope you have a great trip! :banana:

DJD0411--Thanks for the kind words! I see you're going next year for your birthday. We went in 2005 for mine and it was wonderful. I don't think we can afford to go again next year but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed! I can't wait to read your report next year! :wizard:

Madsofa--Glad you liked my TR. I hope to read yours after your March trip! I'm sure it will be terrific! :goodvibes

Adi12982--Thanks for reading! We did have a wonderful trip. I just wish we were going again sometime soon. :wave2: I am envious that you are going in December. We've never been during the holidays. I hope you'll be writing a TR when you return. I want to read all the details! :Pinkbounc

[Adi12982]

Adi12982--Thanks for reading! We did have a wonderful trip. I just wish we were going again sometime soon. :wave2: I am envious that you are going in December. We've never been during the holidays. I hope you'll be writing a TR when you return. I want to read all the details! :Pinkbounc

It is my very first time going at Christmas time. It has also been my mothers dream for as long as I can remember to be there for Christmas and New Years! I will most definately write a trip report. . . I have a week after my trip before classes start. . . . so watchout for it!

[scrap4u]

It is my very first time going at Christmas time. It has also been my mothers dream for as long as I can remember to be there for Christmas and New Years! I will most definately write a trip report. . . I have a week after my trip before classes start. . . . so watchout for it!

I can't wait to read it! Here's wishing you a magical time, great weather and light crowds! :wizard: pixiedust:

[vanillarum]

Just curious. Did you ever meet up with any Dis Board members ? Loved your report !! :thumbsup2

[scrap4u]

Just curious. Did you ever meet up with any Dis Board members ? Loved your report !! :thumbsup2

I did meet MickNPluto and Sorul82 and another Diser whose name I forgot. It was really fun meeting people IRL! :thumbsup2 TikiRoomFan and GlendaMax had rooms near ours and I saw their decorated windows but never got to meet them. :guilty:

Thanks for reading my report. I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)