Who Says You Can't Have Fun Going Solo??? TR Completed

[Dolce27]

A little backgound...

My love for Disney began when I was two years old. It was 1981 and the Magic Kingdom was the only built theme park at Walt Disney World. My parents left my baby sister (less than a year old) with my grandparents and we drove from Texas to Florida for my very first vacation. I believe we stayed at the Polynesian Resort for that trip, there weren’t many resorts to choose from at that year, and the entire trip down my parents went on and on about how we were going to see Mickey Mouse and proceeded to tell me all about Mickey. Now, I do not have any memory of this trip at all – I’ve had to rely on my mother’s story telling abilities and pictures.

Apparently my two year old self didn’t take well to the Disney characters. I’ve seen pictures of me with Pluto, crying and screaming; pictures with Donald, crying and screaming – you get the picture. Apparently, life sized furry creatures were not to my liking. However, there was one story that I grew up hearing: My mother and I were veering off towards Adventure Land from the Main Street area and she was letting me walk. I suddenly let go of her hand and take off running. Surprised, she looks up and there in front of us is Mickey Mouse, without anyone else around him, bending down on one knee, arms open wide, and I run straight into his arms.

I’d heard this story for years and suddenly one day, about 4 months ago, I thought to ask one question I’ve never asked before: “Mom, where was Dad during this?” I guess I’d always assumed that he was off doing his own thing. Her answer: “He was right behind you taking the picture.”

“There’s a picture?!?”

I didn’t recall having ever seen a picture of this. But yup, a picture does exist:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/scan0001-2.jpg

I believe that moment was when I became a true Disney fan, although I doubt my two year old self realized it.

We only had two more family trips to Walt Disney World while growing up. We went again (this time with my sister) when I was seven and stayed at the Contemporary Resort. Both Magic Kingdom and EPCOT existed at that time. I do have many memories from that trip.

The last family trip took place when I was fifteen. (Actually, I believe this was my family’s last family trip period. I do not recall another family trip after this and my parents split – and then divorced – when I was eighteen) By this time MGM Studios had been added, along with the Moderate Resorts, and we stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter. My then thirteen year old sister declared that she hated Disney and now at twenty six years old she still maintains that disposition. She swears that no child of hers (she hasn’t yet begun a family) will ever go to Disney World. I think she still has a hang-up from being left behind on my first trip – my sister tends to hold grudges over things such as that.

[Dolce27]

Despite my love for all things Disney, at that point in my life I aspired to be a Disney Animator (kind of glad now that I didn’t make that my profession due to the massive lay-off a couple of years ago), I don’t think that I ever thought that much about going to Walt Disney World.

That changed during my sophomore year of college. I sat in the councilor’s office one day, discussing my degree plan, and I made an off-hand comment that I wanted to either work at Walt Disney World or on a cruise line that summer. I have no idea where that came from. It just sort of popped out of my mouth – I hadn’t thought about it much before. The councilor informed me that Disney has a college program (Really?!?) and recruiters came to the campus every spring (this was fall 1998). She told me where on campus to get more information on the program but upon arriving there I discovered that Disney had stopped visiting our campus for reasons unknown.

I was determined that would not keep me from going to WDW so I went to a campus computer lab and decided that I was going to find out where Disney was going to be that next semester. Now, I know the internet had already been around before 1998 but I wasn’t really introduced to it until 1997 and everything was on dial-up and I really didn’t know how to do proper searches on it. Now, I couldn’t imagine life without it but then I had no idea how to find the information for what I wanted, or even if that information was available on the internet. But alas! I probably spent 30 minutes to an hour before I stumbled on what I needed – a Disney recruiting schedule. There wasn’t a website or anything like they have now for College Program information – just a page of text listing the University’s and dates. That was all I needed. They were going to be at UT Austin (I lived five hours away in the Dallas area). So, I took off work, drove to Austin for the interview and spent the summer of 1999 working at Walt Disney World in Florida.

It was at that point that actually going to Walt Disney World became important to me. That summer had been a blast and spending seven days a week at the parks for three months was a dream come true. In July/August 2001 I decided that I really wanted to go back (I was still in college but I couldn’t afford to take off any more time from school to go back on the college program). I asked a college friend if she wanted to go and we discussed it for a couple of weeks and decided that we would go that next May for a vacation. I booked the reservation at the end of August, calling my friend before I booked it to see if she wanted any special requests, and then I called her back the next day to confirm that everything was booked and I had paid the deposit.

Then, a week after Sept. 11, I came home to a message on my answering machine from my friend asking me to call her. The tone was not good. I was worried that she was scared to go to a high profile location such as Disney after what had just happened in New York. Nope, that wasn’t it. She just ‘discovered’ that she had misbalanced her check book by several hundreds of dollars and couldn’t go. (?!?) Oh yeah, and she asked me ‘Did you book the trip yet?’ Uh, you know darn well I did.

I wasn’t about to give up my Disney trip because of this so I told her (even though I was a college student living off campus working two jobs and financially responsible for myself – she was living on campus with her parents paying for everything) that I’d pay ½ of her part of the trip costs if she could get her parent’s to pay for the other half. She hadn’t been doing well in school previously but that that semester she’d made significant improvements and I thought her parent’s might help her out as a reward.

She calls back later that evening and informed me that her parents would pay for her entire half but she hated Disney and really didn’t want to go. And you couldn’t tell me this before we made plans and I booked the trip – why? Upset, I called my best friend from high school. She asked me why I hadn’t invited her – she’d always wanted to go to Disney. I told her that because she was married I figured she wouldn’t want to go with me and leave her husband at home. She told me she’d call back – and she did call back later to inform me that her husband was a big boy and to put her down for the trip. Yea!

I called WDW reservations and I think they were happy to get me just changing the names in the reservation as I got the impression many were cancelling their trips due to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Time moves on and I pay my half of the trip – my best friend still hadn’t paid her half. Two weeks before final payment I attempt to call her. I can’t reach her and she’s not returning my calls. Not good. One week before final payment I come home to a message on my answering machine from her asking me to call. Déjà vu anyone?? Yup, my best-friend doesn’t have the money for her half of the trip and has to bail.

[Dolce27]

All right…. I was not going to let my vacation that I’d now been planning for months become ruined. I called Disney reservations and changed it into a reservation of one. I paid the remainder and was set to go to Walt Disney World: Solo. Now, had I not worked there I’m not certain that I would have gone for a seven day trip solo. But I had worked there for three months and I felt comfortable with the parks and all. I went in May 2002, staying at the All Star Movies and I had a blast! I found that I enjoyed going where I wanted to when I wanted to. I only rode the rides that I wanted and I didn’t have to argue with anyone over restaurants to eat at. It was kind of nice.

After the 2002 trip, I wasn’t certain when I’d get to go back. At that point in my life I couldn’t make plans for expensive vacations. I’d finished college and due to a poor job market, I was having trouble finding a job. I was working hourly jobs that barley made ends meet and going on a vacation of any kind was out of the question. March 2005 I finally landed in a job that paid a decent salary and allowed paid vacation time. Later that year (2005), my sister began planning a wedding in England (my brother in-law is English) for June 2006 and I knew that my very first paid vacation time would be spent in England for the wedding.

Then the reason for this trip occurred on March 15, 2006. That was the day that my fifty-seven year old father un-expectantly passed away. I don’t think anyone is ever ready for a parent to pass away, but at twenty-seven years old I definitely wasn’t. I expected my dad to be there for all the ‘dad’ stuff like walk me down the aisle whenever I finally meet my ‘Mr. Right’. My sister’s wedding was already postponed (thank-goodness – I don’t think she would have been ready to walk herself down the aisle just a couple of month’s after my dad’s death) because she and my brother-in-law decided they wanted to move the U.S. and would have the wedding here at a later date.

It was during my depression the month following my father’s death that I began to ask myself ‘What makes me the happiest?’ and Disney World was the first thing that popped into my head. To me, Disney is escapism. It is a chance to get away from everyday problems, be a kid, and just enjoy life. So, I decided in that moment that I was going to Walt Disney World. And I decided to go alone. If I hadn’t gone solo in May 2002 and enjoyed it so much I might not have planned a solo trip for this one – but I knew that I enjoyed myself at Disney (with or without anyone else) and I wanted to get away from everyone and everything. Besides the stress of loosing my father, the job I was currently working was a nightmare and physically making me sick. I needed an opportunity to re-coup.

I was fortunate to discover the DIS Boards and I began spending all of my time on here. I ate my lunches at my desk everyday at work so that I could read the boards during my lunch hour and I went straight home from work to get back on this website. In reflection, focusing on my planned Disney trip was how I got through my grief. It gave me a positive to focus on so I wouldn’t spend all of my time thinking about my father.

After much research I decided that I would plan my trip for the week of September 10 – 15, 2006. The dates avoided the Saturday and Sunday crowds for the most part and I understood September to have one of the lowest crowd levels of the year. I worked at Disney during a summer, I was well aware of what crowd levels could be like and I wanted to avoid them at all cost. Originally, I was going to book the All Star Movies again. I was trying to save on money and I thought the Herby the Love bug section that I stayed at on my 2002 trip was cute. What I really wanted to do was stay at the Boardwalk Inn – but that was a bit out my budget. On a lark I looked up the cost to stay at the Port Orleans French Quarter as I had such fond memories of it. The price difference between a Value and a Mod (at least during off-season) was reasonable and I decided to go with the POFQ.

All right, I had a date and a resort now what in the world is an Advanced Dining Reservation??? In 2002 it was Priority Seating with a 90 day window. Now, (thanks to the information I obtained from the DIS boards) I have to make ADR’s and there’s a 180 day window? Oh… wait!!! I’m already in the 180 day window! Everything’s going to book up!! I’m not going to be able to eat in any of the restaurants!!!!!

Yeah……. it’s April. Nobody was around to give me that bottle of chill pills. I spent hours on a Sunday afternoon going over every single restaurant menu debating if I really wanted to eat there and going over every scenario to figure out if the Disney Dining Plan was worth my money. In the end I decided that there was enough sit-down restaurants that I would like to try and having the Dining Plan would make that affordable. So, I booked the dining plan and made all of my reservations. It’s April 1 and I’ve just made food reservations for September – I hope that is what I want to eat in September.

So, Date (check) Hotel (check) Food (check) Wait! What do you mean there is now free dining plans??? I just booked and paid for the dining plan! O.K. So, I decided – my loss. If I’d just had waited a little bit longer to book then the Dining Plan could have been free. I read through posts and posts of people talking about the free dining plan and the codes and I just grumbled… and grumbled… and grumbled about it. Finally one day during my lunch break a thought popped into my head : ‘It wouldn’t hurt to ask if I could be switched to the free dining plan – the only bad thing that could happen would be for them to say no.’ (What a novel idea!) So, I called and what do you know- not a problem! Woo-hoo! I have free food!!! Knowing me, I’m still going to spend money on food on top of that (and I did - I know, you are probably wondering how anyone could eat more on top of the amount of food given on the Dining Plan. Well, I will tell you now: It didn’t have anything to do with being hungry. It was all about how much time I spent in the Disney Restaurant Forum. I read posts and posts thinking ...’ I want that… and I want that… and that…) and that food picture thread should be illegal! In fact – that whole Forum board should have a warning message on it before you can enter. So, it had more to do with all the foods I wanted to try rather than being hungry).

OK. It’s only May and everything is planned. What am I going to do for the next four months?? I began making detailed daily itineraries, I ordered the vacation planning video, and I become a permanent lurker (occasional poster) on these boards. I snuck park maps into boring work meetings and while it looked like I was studying my planner I was really figuring out the fastest route from one attraction to the next.

On thing about my father’s sudden death that impacted me was this: My father was only fifty-seven – which is still pretty young. He’d taken early retirement (thank goodness) and had been retired for almost two years at the time of his death. It seemed that he was waiting for retirement before he really began ‘living’ his life. Once he retired he began learning Spanish, bought a bass guitar to teach himself to play (shocked me – I couldn’t picture my dad with any type of electrical instrument before that!), things such as that. He only had 1 ½ years to enjoy those things that he’d put off until ‘retirement’.

I decided that I couldn’t do that with my life and have since put together a list of ‘must do’s’ before I die and I’m working on them now as I don’t know if there will be a tomorrow. So, one thing I’ve always wanted to do was swim with dolphins. While Disney doesn’t have a program that allows you to ‘swim’ with dolphins, they do have the Dolphin in Depth program that allows you to interact with dolphins. So – who cares about money – sign me up! So, I signed up for that and then had to re-tweak my itinerary to fit around the tour at EPOCT.


So, now I wait and wait. September couldn’t come fast enough.

...Day One Next...

[kristinanderic]

Don't stop now, i'm enjoying the report.

[newholidayx2]

keep the report coming -
youre right - never too early to start enjoying your life

[Dolce27]

Sunday September 10, 2006

The day has finally arrived! I woke up at 4:30 in the morning to be at the Airport by 6:00 am. My very sweet mother drove for 1 ½ hours to stay with me the night before so she could drop me off at the airport.
I live fifteen minutes away from DFW airport.
Isn’t she a sweet mom to drive 1 ½ hours - get up at 4:30am - drive me to the airport fifteen minutes away (since I couldn’t bother calling a cab) only to drive 1 ½ hours back home? Don’t worry – she’s getting a really good Mother’s Day gift this year. ;)

I flew Air Tran and I was very nervous about this. I always use Air Tran when I fly to Disney (OK... so, I’ve been on Air Tran four times before (counting return trips) – that’s enough to like or dislike an airline and I hadn’t been impressed with them thus far.)

I usually have to have a lay-over in Atlanta. The last trip (2002 trip) my flight left DFW 30 minutes late for some stupid reason (there always seemed to be stupid reasons for their flight delays) and we pulled up to the Atlanta gate just as my connecting flight was pulling out. Great. So, I found out that there’s another flight leaving within the next ten minutes – but it’s at the other end of the terminal. So, I take off running to the other gate hoping to catch that flight. Mind you, this was only eight months after 9/11 and I’m running through an airport. Upon reflection I’m shocked that I wasn’t detained by airport security. I did make that flight but my luggage didn’t make it with me. After a night of calling and yelling at people until they stopped answering the phones I finally got my luggage at 5:00am. (Not one of my finest moments I must admit). I did not want a repeat of this event.

For this trip, I liked the flight prices they offered and what swayed me was that they were offering a direct flight; which they’d never done before when I needed to fly them. All right. My main issue with them was flight delays. I think every time I had been on them previously – going to Orlando or returning from Orlando my flights had always been delayed because the coffee pot wasn’t working – or some reason such as that. Well, if there was a direct flight, I wouldn’t have to worry about missing a lay-over. I might arrive up to an hour late in Orlando based on past experience. Not a big deal. So I booked it.
Of course that was April when I booked. Within a couple of months they’d canceled the direct flight and put me on a lay-over in Atlanta that didn’t give me any time at all to make a connecting flight even if they were on schedule. And they didn’t notify me of the change – I just happened to check on the flight. So, I called and managed to get them to put me on a connecting flight leaving later so I *hopefully* wouldn’t have to worry about missing a connecting flight should we leave DFW late. A couple of months later I get on to check the flight and notice three things 1) They bumped me back to the original connecting flight that didn’t give me anytime to get to during my lay-over (?!?!) 2) they put the direct flight back on the schedule. Yea! 3) They still hadn’t notified me that they were switching my flights around.

So, I called again and managed to be put back on the direct flight and the flight was still listed as I arrived at DFW. Yea! I had been having nightmares that I would get to DFW and find that the flight was canceled and I should have been on the earlier flight that morning to Atlanta. Fortunately, all was well. My flight left on time and we actually arrived early in Orlando. It wasn’t a full flight so I had a row to myself. Keep this up Air Tran and I will continue to use your service. The only problem I encountered was that something became loose in cargo during the flight and fell – causing the plane to jerk. It scared me badly for a moment as I’m petrified of flying. But other than that, it was a smooth trip.

Upon arriving in Orlando there was around a fifteen to twenty minute wait for the Magical Express. Not bad, but still, when your that close and so eager to be there it seems to take forever. There was one stop before POFQ, which was Old Key West, and then we arrived at POFQ.

I think this resort is very nicely themed. Here are some photos I took later in the week after returning from a park one night:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0841.jpg

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Check-in was a breeze – no line, I was able to walk right up and it was nice to not have to lug my luggage with me as it was being taken care of by the Magical Express people. I was put in Building 1 (I think it’s one of the furthest buildings out but I didn’t care – I love to walk. I’d rather they put me out there then someone that would have trouble walking at the end of the day coming in from the parks. I didn’t care much about the room location or the view so I wasn’t concerned as to what type of room I was given – which was a good thing as my view was the parking lot.) In fact, I barley glanced at the room upon entering; I’d save that for later. I tossed my carry-on down and took out anything in my backpack that I didn’t need for the parks and then made my way down to the bus stop.

During my planning I had trouble deciding which park to start with for my first afternoon at Disney. Disney MGM is my favorite – but I’m biased as that was the park I worked in during the College Program. I finally decided that I should start my trip at the Magic Kingdom. I made it to the MK by 1:00. Honestly, it was like I couldn’t breathe until I stepped through that turnstile. I needed this vacation so badly. Between my dad and my horror of a job – I was to a breaking point stress wise. Suddenly stepping through that turn style and looking down Main Street I could breathe again. I felt as if I had taken my first gulp of air after holding my breath for months. Disney was already working its magic on me.

I decided to try out the ‘new’ Pirates of the Caribbean first. Thanks to the many discreet study periods of park maps during work meetings, I knew exactly which direction to go. MGM was the only park that I could walk around blindfolded since I spent three months of my life in that park. The other parks, I still get a bit turned around in.

First, before Pirates, I had to stop by and grab a Dole Whip. I didn’t know these things existed – I learned a lot about food (well, Disney in general) from these boards. Seriously, I know more about Disney World now after reading the DIS boards than I did while working there. Back to the Dole Whip: I like pineapple but I don’t love pineapple so I got a pineapple/vanilla swirl. I was turning away from the stand and almost lost my Dole Whip as the top was falling over. Quickly sticking it into my mouth to save it – I ended up with a serious brain freeze. But it was a good Dole Whip. It is now on my food list for future Disney trips.

I found Pirates to be cute. Honestly, it had been three years since I was last on it so I knew about some of the changes for sure (The mist screen, adding Capt. Jack Sparrow) but some of it I didn’t know if it was new or if it was original. I did enjoy it and didn’t have any complaints about the changes they made.

After Pirates I grabbed a Fast Pass for Splash Mountain and went over to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I think I’ve only been on this twice in my life- once in 1999 and once in 2002. I don’t know why I never rode it more times than that. I had so much fun this time around. There were two things that made it so much fun: First was the man in front of me that I will refer to as the ‘chug-a chug-a’ man. He was riding solo and was in the first row to the train while I was in the second row. Every time we’d go up a hill he’d be making a ‘chug-a chug-a’ steam train sound while rotating his arms. As we reached the top he’d lean over the ‘steam engine’ at the front and give it a little tap series and then throw his arms up as we went down the hill. He was so into it that I couldn’t help but laugh. I think watching him made the ride experience so much greater.

The second thing I found is that if you are going on that ride solo – it really doesn’t matter which side of the train you sit on. I began the ride on the left side, then I was on the right, then the left, then the right again. Apparently the train couldn’t decide which side I should be on so I got to experience both. I kept hearing the lady behind me laugh and at first I thought she was laughing at me (Hey, I was laughing at me) but then half-way through I decided she wasn’t. Right at the end as we were coming back into the dock she leaned forward and said something to me (I don’t remember what) and I realized that she had been laughing at me. Every time I went flying/sliding into the other side cracked her up.

So, the guy in front of me made me laugh and I made the woman behind me laugh. All was good.

[Dolce27]

I still had some time before my Fast Pass return for Splash so I took the ferry over to Tom Sawyer’s Island. I’d never been over there before. You are going to find that for me being a former cast member – there are lots at Disney that I haven’t done. The summer I worked there I tended to do the same things over and over. Stupid of me, I know. But now I have lots of new things to experience.

I explored the island for awhile and then went over to Adventure Land to go on the Jungle Cruise. I hadn’t done the Jungle Cruise since I was 15 and at Disney with my family. (I know, I know. At least I wasn’t tired of the jokes). Actually, since it had been so long since I last heard the jokes I found them to be rather funny. The ‘jungle guide’ I had made one last joke that I didn’t think was scripted as we pulled back into dock. While advising us to not leave anything behind he warned parents that included all small children. Any small children left behind would be taken over to It’s A Small World, bolted to the floor and forced to sing ‘It’s a Small World’ over and over for the next four years. They would then sent back home to the parents.

Others may use that line also and it may be scripted but I went on the Jungle Cruise again later that week and the guide I had that time didn’t warn parents of that.

After Jungle Cruise I made my way back over to Frontier Land to go on Splash Mountain. I got in the back (yeah – I didn’t want to get wet. I have issues with getting wet on rides) and I made it off just in time for the new 3:00 parade. It had already started by the time I approached so I had to stand behind people. Being September there wasn’t much of a crowd. I stood behind one person and had a good view. There was another person behind me- but they were sitting on the stone wall so I don’t think I blocked their view in any way. I tried to be careful about not standing in anyone’s way that had already been there. I got a few pictures but what I found funny was the guy in front of me. I would see a float approaching that I wanted a picture of so I’d raise my camera to get ready and then at the last second the guy in front of me would raise his camera (as if he just decided he want that picture also) and would block my view. I wasn’t upset in any way – he was there first- I just found it funny because that seemed to happen only on pictures that I wanted. When I didn’t want a picture it didn’t seem that he did either. I don’t even think that he realized I was standing behind him since I walked up late. But none the less, I got several nice pictures of the parade. I thought the parade was o.k. I liked the snow globes better.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0469.jpg
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After the parade passed I fought my way over to the Haunted Mansion. Since I was walking in the same direction the parade was moving – that proved to be quite a feat. The pathways were packed in several areas with parade watchers and it was sometimes hard to maneuver around the people. On my way I noticed the sky was darkening but I wasn’t worried.

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(I do enjoy reading the tombstones while waiting. I wished they would change them up every now and then - or keep adding new ones.)

It wasn't even 3:30 as I made my way to the Haunted Mansion and I didn’t think the rain would start until closer to 4:00. I’d stop off at a store to buy a poncho after the ride.

Yeah, that proved to be a stupid mistake. After riding the Haunted Mansion, which I love and is such a classic, I came out to pouring rain. Hard rain. Sheets of rain. No, the cast members were not going to let me stand under the awning at the Haunted Mansion until it stopped. The problem is – The Haunted Mansion is in Liberty Square. I didn’t know where the gift store in Liberty Square was located as I’d never been to it. I knew that it existed; one of my roommates on the college program had worked at it. But where was it? That was the question de jour.

Making a run for it I ran to the nearest awning that I could find. I had no idea what I was standing next to. I think that I was close by The Liberty Tavern – not certain. As I was standing there, pondering what to do, I was looking in the direction of the ground when I happened to notice that the guy in front of me (avoiding the rain) had the weirdest pair of pants on. Oh – wait a minute! Cast member! So, I walk around to stand in front of him. He’s listening to the park radio and smiling at something being said – I wasn’t paying attention. I asked him where the merchandise shop was. He just stared blankly at me – as if he couldn’t understand me. Maybe he didn’t speak English? But, he had understood whatever was being said in English on the park radio. Hmm…Oh well. I wasn’t going to get an answer from him. Time to keep running.
I dogged from awning to awning (I did end up at the Liberty Tavern at one point – I was hoping it was the merchandise shop upon my approach. Darn it!) Finally, I reached the merchandise shop. Woo-hoo! The only problem was – I looked as if I just climbed out of a swimming pool. I was completely drenched. Not a dry spot on my body. As I walked into the store people just stopped what they were doing and stared at me. I walked up to the cast member behind the counter and she just stared at me, stunned.

I looked at her and said: “I know it’s kind of pointless now but can I buy a poncho?” She just smiled at me and I then became the proud owner of an over priced Mickey Mouse rain poncho. I walked out the other side of the store, facing Fantasy Land, and the rain was letting up. Figures.

[Dolce27]

I went over to Mickey’s PhilharMagic. I had read so much about it that I couldn’t wait to see it. Oh-my-gosh! I loved it! It was so good. I debated and debated if I was going to buy that Donald Duck t-shirt in the gift shop after. I’m writing this trip report in February but I went in September, so I can’t recall what the t-shirt said but I thought it was so cute. I didn’t buy it and I’m now kind of regretting it.

After Philhar I walked over to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. All right. I do remember vividly Mr. Toads Wild Ride from when I was seven. I loved it. My sister hated it. She (being five years old at the time) went on the side that took you to jail. She honestly thought she was going to jail. It traumatized her. (It’s a good thing that my sister, hating all things Disney, will never read this trip report. ;) )

They put in Winnie the Pooh the summer I worked at Disney and I thought it was cute then and I think it is cute now. I didn’t have a problem with them replacing Mr. Toad. I have fond memories of Mr. Toad from when I was a child and I like to keep them that way. As an adult I think I would have found the ride so outdated that I wouldn’t be able to maintain the childhood memories. Besides, how many children today know of Mr. Toad? They know and love Winnie the Poo and this will be their ‘Mr. Toad’. – That’s just my two cents. :rolleyes1

After Winnie the Poo, I did a quick tour of Mickey and Minnie’s house. Yep, the houses are cute and cheesy and I had fun taking lots of pictures of them

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I then headed over to the carousel. I love carousels and I especially love the one in Fantasy Land.
My view while on the carousel:
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0526.jpg

I had an ADR at Cinderella’s Royal Table that night. It was going to be my first time to eat at the Castle and I was looking forward to it despite the less than stellar reviews given on the DIS boards for the new menu. With a little time to spare, I stopped over at the castle shop and looked at the $1,000.00 artwork and the $85.00 replicas of the statues in front of the castle. I really wanted either the Dumbo or the Chip and Dale statues. Dumbo has special memories for me from when I was a child.
When I worked at Disney my mom came and spent a few days for a vacation. One night, while I was sitting on the curb on Main Street waiting for the parade (It was the Main Street Electrical Parade that summer) my mom disappeared into a shop for a few minutes and came back out with a small silver sculpted Dumbo clock. Apparently she had fond memories of me riding Dumbo when I was a child also.
As for Chip and Dale, Dale is my favorite Disney character. I love him. Back in college I had hoped to come back on the College Program the next summer and be ‘friends’ with Dale. Alas, it was not meant to be.

But, standing there in the shop looking at the sculptures, I couldn’t justify spending $85.00 for something I’d have to lug home with me so I went on to my ADR at CRT.

[Dolce27]

Since having your picture taken with Cinderella is part of the package, I had to do that. I was nervous about being a single adult having my picture taken with a face character. On my 2002 trip I had one character picture taken with Dale at Chef Mickey’s but other then that, I hadn’t had a character picture taken since I was a child. Fortunately she didn’t make me feel awkward taking a picture with her. However, the picture turned out horrible so it’s now buried in the back of something – I don’t currently know its location.

For my meal I choose the BLT salad. I really liked it and the pretzel bread was yummy. Then again, it’s hard to do bread wrong in my eyes as I’m a bread addict. I had the lamb with the vegetable root mash for my main entrée. I. Loved. It. I was a little worried about picking this and was going back and forth with something else for my selection (remember, I even had my food planned out months in advance before arriving :) ). I’d never had lamb before and I couldn’t figure out exactly what vegetable root mash was but it was so good. I still get cravings for it. CRT is a must on my next trip just so I can have that again. I only ate half of my lamb to save room for desert. (I tried doing that at every meal – eat only half of everything so that I’d had room to try everything.) For dessert I had the chocolate moose cake. It was yummy but truthfully, I wanted them to take the cake away and bring me back the rest of my lamb.

There was a family there that I think may be a DIS board family, they looked so familiar to me – I’m betting the mom is a DIS board member that post trip reports. I noticed them before being called into dinner and we were called in around the same time and I was seated close to them. I kept glancing over at them all through the meal, well for two reasons. 1) When you eat alone you have nothing to do but people watch 2) I was still trying to determine if I had seen a picture of them on the boards and that is why they looked so familiar. One time when I happened to glance over, one of the daughters began to choke on her food. It scared me to death. The mom was sitting across the table and stuck in between some other family members. She was desperately trying to get out from behind the table when the grandmother (or I assume the grandmother) sitting next to the girl managed to whack the girl on the back and loosen the food. I don’t want to know what the mom was feeling, seeing her daughter choking and not being able to get over there fast enough when it scared me, a stranger, pretty badly.

Also, before I left, I saw commotion across the restaurant from where I was sitting and noticed a Photo Pass photographer standing over there. I was confused at first but I then realized that a guy just proposed to his girlfriend. Very sweet. :goodvibes

Coming Up: End of Day 1 with EMH and Day 2

[Dolce27]

Kristinanderic and newholidayx2: thanks for reading you guys! :) I'll try to post more later.

[newholidayx2]

thanks again for your report

[Bee]

Okay.. here I am and waiting.

Disney lets me escape also.. So sorry to hear about your dad.

Write on, write on!

Thanks, Bee

[Dolce27]

I plan to post more later tonight when I get home from work.

[Dolce27]

After CRT I headed over to Tomorrow Land. I grabbed a fast pass for Space Mountain and went over to Carousel of Progress. I’d never been on it. I attempted to go on it in 2002 but they didn’t have it open when I was there. Finally, I was getting to see this – after so many posts about it I was curious. I enjoyed it (as a once per trip enjoyed) and I got the stupid song stuck in my head. Darn it. ‘It’s a great big beautiful tomorrow…’ played itself over and over in my head for the rest of the night. :rolleyes:

After that I went over to Astro Orbiter, another one I hadn’t been on before. It was fun. I like things that fly up in the air in circles or anything that swings. On to Space Mountain with my fast pass that really wasn’t needed. I didn’t know which track was better, the right or the left as you were approaching the split. I normally went to my right so this time I decided to go to my left and basically walked on to it. (I think the most I had to wait the entire week was 20 minutes – lots of stuff was either 5 minutes or walk-ons). Space Mountain went down after I was in my ‘space capsule’ just past check point before you go into the tunnel. It didn’t bother me. I’m only 5’3 and I was in the last seat. There was plenty of room to be comfortable for the wait. The poor guy behind me wasn’t so lucky. He apparently was much, much taller than 5’3 and was crammed into the front seat of the 2nd car. He wasn’t very comfortable and the CM advised us to wait it out. He told us that since we were past check he couldn’t let us out of the ride without having to reset it. The ride was down for maybe 5 – 10 minutes. It wasn’t bad and the CM chatted with all of us. Too bad I hadn't already made it inside so I could see the track with the lights on.

I walked out of Space Mountain to rain (Yea! I was going to have an opportunity to wear my overpriced poncho) and the announcement that Spectromagic was being cancelled due to the rain. (Oh well, I’d seen it before). It was an EMH night so I went over and received my wristband and then made my way over to Stitch’s Great Escape. I’d read so many negative reviews about it that I wasn’t expecting much. I did think it was cute actually. The chili dog… that was just... gross.

I love Stitch so I was a little disappointed. Before the attraction opened I had high hopes for it.

After that it was about time for Wishes. I hung out in the shops on Main Street browsing and I then took a position in front of the ice cream shop to watch. Wishes was another first for me and it’s just amazing. Disney tries to go all out for most everything they do and it’s so worth it.

Extra Magic Hours began and I just had to see Mickey’s PhilharMagic again. I’m defiantly putting this as one of my ‘must do’s’. It is such an amazing show. Peter Pan was next and then I then hopped on the once carousal again.
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As I was getting off I noticed Chip and Dale lining up for pictures. All right, if I could get my picture taken with Cinderella then I could get it done with my favorite character, Dale. I’ve read about how mischievous those chipmunks can be. Apparently Mickey had them on their best behavior that night – there was nothing at all mischievous about them. Dale did kiss my hand as I was leaving. Chip just ignored me. I think Dale’s cuter anyways so I ignored Chip right back. :teeth:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0595.jpg

[Dolce27]

I then went back to Frontier Land and rode Big Thunder Mountain (I think this is becoming another favorite) and then back over to Tomorrow Land for another turn on Space Mountain and Astro Orbiter. On Space Mountain I took the right side this time but it had been too long since I was on the left side earlier that night for me to make a decision if one side was better than the other.

I then decided that my night was over. I’d been up since 4:30 that morning and had been at Magic Kingdom since 1:00 that afternoon. I caught the bus back to POFQ and was in bed sometime after 1:00am.

I did get pictures of the statues in front of the Castle – I love those little statues. They are so cute. No wonder I want to buy one. The bumps you see are rain drops – I took these pictures just before Wishes and it was still raining some.

Here's the lot of them: They're just too cute not to post. :rolleyes2

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One thing I noticed that day was the CM’s didn’t seem very friendly. I smiled at them – they glared back. Fortunately as week went on they seemed to be getting happier. :teeth:

I believe that the highlight of the day was the chug-a chug-a guy. To this day I still smile thinking about how into that ride he was.

[Dolce27]

Monday September 11, 2006

I had a wake-up call set for 6:30 am. That’s right. I was up at 4:30 am the morning before, didn’t go to bed until after 1:00 am and willingly set a 6:30 am wake-up call. No, I’m not insane. Almost – but not quite there yet. :rolleyes:

I wanted my Stitch/Mickey wake-up call. When the phone rang, I picked it up to silence. Great, no wake up call for me – only a wake up ring. Just as I was about to put the phone down I heard Stitch and got my wake-up call after all!

I quickly showered and dressed and hit the Sassagoula food court at POFQ for Beignets. That was another food item I’d read about on the DIS boards and decided that I ‘must try’. It was yummy – actually everything I ate that week was yummy – but it was messy. I had powdered sugar everywhere. Sorry people who had to clean up after me. I cleaned up as best as I could.

I then hopped the bus to Disney MGM Studios – my favorite. I know that it’s the smallest park but I just love that park. I had a great bus driver and we chatted the entire way over. Of course, being September 11, 2006, our conversation ended up on September 11, 2001. She was working on 9/11 and told me about how Disney cleared the parks and everything that happened that day from a CM point of view.

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Quick Trivia: That is the only Mickey Mouse you should find at Walt Disney World that has his head tilted and is not looking at you straight on. The reason for this is because his ear is a lightening rod.

We arrived at MGM studios and the opening ceremony was done by a couple of the streetmosphere characters. When I worked there you didn’t see those guys until at least noon but I thought it was great that they have them opening the park now – it’s all about the movies you know.

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I headed directly to Rock n’ Rollercoaster.

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This is another attraction that opened the summer I worked there. On rides they have a period called ‘cast preview’ where it’s not open to the public and the cast members get to try out that ride first. It usually lasts about a week – or based on my experience, a week. The Thursday before when I picked up my paycheck I was given a specially designed Rock n’ Rollercoaster ticket for cast preview. The ticket gave me a time frame for when I was allowed to ride the attraction. I assumed I was only allowed to ride the attraction once and had to use that ticket to get on. Not so. That next week during the preview another CM came up and told me that they’d allow you on if you were in costume or had your cast member ID on you – you didn’t need the ticket. So, I still actually still have that ticket and I went on Coaster many times the week of cast preview – and many times the remainder of that summer. I love it.

So, I chose that to be my first ride at MGM that day. I like to sit in the back on a rollercoaster. It whips you around faster as the front has to slow down for turns and such. I am not one to be scared of a rollercoaster. I grew up going to Six Flags Over Texas and I’m sorry to admit it – Disney’s rollercoaster’s are rather tame in comparison to Six Flags – but Disney’s theme for the attractions are much better than Six Flags could ever dream of. I decided at the last minute to actually check out my ride photo. I never do that as I hate pictures of me. Surprisingly, I thought the picture was good enough to buy – so, here’s my first ride photo. Ever.

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(Not that you can see much of it on here!:teeth: )

I’m not making a habit of purchasing ride photos – way too expensive but I thought buying at least one in a lifetime was acceptable. I then went on to Tower of Tower. I love the entire concept of this and the theme is wonderful. I went down into the boiler room and it was a walk on. I walked up to the CM to request to be put in the back as I have to sit in the back. I will not say exactly why I will not ride in front of people on TOT, but lets say it’s a fear that stems from the summer I worked there when I was working an after hours party that involved alcohol. Lots of alcohol. Combined with a ‘thrill’ attraction. Let’s just say it was not good so I always request to sit in the back but this time everyone began laughing at me. That had never happened before but I soon understood why: There were only enough people to fill the first two rows. The third row was empty and then there’s me, all by myself, sitting up in the corner of the forth row. I didn’t buy the ride photo for this but I looked rather sad sitting up there all by myself. Oops

[Dolce27]

I then went over to the Great Movie Ride. They only had one tram going and thank goodness it stopped in the gangster scene rather than the cowboy scene. I prefer the gangster for some reason. If you don’t know the trick for which scene you get – it’s all about which side of the queue you go into when entering the main part of the building. The queue divides everyone into two lines upon entering the main room where the movie clips are shown. If you stay to the left – you are in show ‘B’ and get the gangster scene. Staying right puts you in show ‘A’ and you get the cowboy scene.

After the Great Movie Ride I attempted to take a flight to Endor on Star Tours but that didn’t work out so well. Silly droid, he didn’t know where he was going. I then decided that a snack was in order and wanted to try the apple cinnamon pretzel at Min and Bill’s Dockside Dinner. All right, I loved this (much better than the beignets and I liked the beignets) but then again, I love anything with cinnamon in it.

I went over to do the Disney Animation Tour. Obviously I haven’t done this since Michael Eisner fired (eh...laid-off… whatever) the animators and I didn’t know what to expect. I really, really enjoyed it. The interaction with Mushu was so cute and I stuck around for the drawing class (Animation Academy) where I learned how to draw Goofy. I played around with the kiosks at the end and discovered that I am most like Cinderella.

I went and looked around at One Man’s Dream and stayed for the movie on Walt’s life. I admire Walt Disney – he is an inspiration to me and I think that’s why I love Disney so much. He was one of those people that wouldn’t accept no for a answer and figured out how to succeed with his dreams. I took a stroll down Mickey’s Ave. after leaving the movie. I had planned to see the Narnia exhibit while there, but I didn’t and I now do not recall why.

The Power Rangers were out in full force and no one was waiting to get Kim Possible’s autograph. Poor Kim, I almost went over to ask for a picture – almost. I was over by the stunt show and decided to not see it. I had originally planned to watch it but I decided that I didn’t mind skipping it. ... Might have been a mistake - but I'm leaving something new for next time. ;)

I love the little things you find at Disney such as the Singing in the Rain umbrella – which was turned on while I was there.

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I went to Muppets – while outdated I love this 3-D show. However, I do wish they’d make a new Muppets 3-D to put in it’s place. While standing in line to be let into the pre-show I showed a family the key under the door

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and I noticed this custodian broom pan:

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I love the pre-show to Muppets almost as much as I love the actual show.

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The auditorium wasn’t completely full. I had been the first in my row so I moved all the way down like you were supposed to but since it wasn’t full and everyone else in my row stopped half way down, I moved back toward the center of the row as the show began.

I went over to Rolling Stars bakery for a lunch of salmon with cream cheese on a bagel and a huge chocolate chip cookie for dessert. I went to sit down outside when I heard the streetmosphere in the middle of a skit on Sunset Blvd. so I moved over there and watched them while I ate. I love to watch the streetmosphere. They are so entertaining and I think they are ignored by a lot of people at the park that don’t take the time to stop and observe their surroundings – too intent to getting to an attraction or show.

They were playing the Dating Game. They picked a woman out (a guest in the park that day) and then brought out three "contestants" and made her sit with her back to them so she couldn't see them beforehand as she asked questions. These were her choices:

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... of course, the lovely bachelor that was chosen:

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:teeth:

After they left I went back over towards Hollywood Blvd to discover that I had missed seeing my favorite group of the streetmosphere actors – the Hollywood Public Works. These guys are a bit more slapstick then the rest of them. I took a couple of pictures of them and they told me they’d be out again before the parade.

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[Dolce27]

I looked around at all of the gift shops and then made my way back over to Hollywood Blvd. so that I could grab a bench to sit on and wait for the parade. True to their word, the streetmosphere actors came back out and entertained those of us already waiting for the parade.

Frederick, who is scared of most everything, had issues with the balloons:
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So, he chose to conquer his fear and attack the balloons:

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With a spade.

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Do pay attention to these guys if you are ever at MGM. They are hilarious.

I had seen this parade back in 2002, with the exception of the Cars addition. (I still have not seen this movie).

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After the parade I went back over to Tower of Terror and grabbed a fast pass and went on Rock n’ Rollercoaster while I waited. I then went on Coaster a second time while I continued to wait for the time to be able to use the FP. For some reason I was bored with Tower this trip – it just wasn’t thrilling to me. I must be becoming jaded on thrill rides. All the ride photos show me with an ‘is this all?’ expression on my face while everyone else is screaming and smiling. :confused:

[Dolce27]

I then make my way back over to Hollywood Blvd and catch another Streetmosphere set and find that I just missed Chip and Dale at the character meet and greet by ‘the hat’.

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Don’t get me started on ‘the hat.’ I like ‘the hat’; really I do, just not in its current location. It completely ruins the 1930’s – 1940’s Hollywood feel for me.

I went over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground. I do realize that I am an adult but climbing that spider web is just fun – especially when it’s at 12 am with your manager and no one else is around to laugh at you. I was in the process of climbing the web with a bunch of kids, all other adults standing off and shaking their heads at me, when a boy – oh, maybe about six or seven – strikes up a conversation with me. He began by asking where I was staying and he was a cute kid so I chatted with him as we climbed but after awhile I began to feel a bit uncomfortable as I was an adult stranger and him being a kid. I didn’t know where his parents were. I think it was the kind of questions he kept asking – he wanted to know all about me. After we got off the spider web another boy around his age (a brother, cousin?) approached him requesting that he go on the slide with him. The boy refused and became clingy towards me. This is when I began to really feel uncomfortable. I looked around for an adult that would claim this kid – but I didn’t notice one. Why did this kid blow off someone he obviously knew to stay with me – a stranger? I finally told the boy that I had to leave and he began to get really upset. I finally walked off and he suddenly ran up to me and gave me a big hug before running off again. I found his clingy behavior a bit odd and I hope the parents were somewhere watching him, deciding that I looked all right enough for their kid to be hanging with. He was a really sweet kid though.

After Honey I sat down on some steps on New York Street and called my best friend back home (the same one that bailed on me in 2002). We chatted for awhile and then I went over to Hollywood and Vine for my ADR. I had read many negative reviews of this place but I was willing to try. I did the Fantasmic package and when I booked everything in April I decided that I wouldn’t want something heavy (such as Italian) in the heat of September and I ate at the Hollywood Brown Derby in 2002. So, Hollywood and Vine it was. I actually liked it all right – but I’m not a very picky eater. At all. I had flank steak, green beans, mashed potato, a roll, creaser salad and chocolate mouse, carrot cake, and a brownie for dessert. I love desserts – just in case you didn’t pick up on that there. ;) I went and got an EMH bracelet for that night and went over to Oscars to go up the back way to get into the amphitheater for Fantasmic. I knew that the reserved seats for the package were on the far right and that didn’t bother me as I worked Fanstasmic many nights back in 1999 and I often stood up right behind the dinner package guests so I was accustomed to seeing the show from that far over. When I entered the amphitheater it wasn’t very full so I scooted on over to a middle section towards the front. I’d never been that close to the show before. I could feel the heat from the fire and would get sprayed by the water.

I did learn something that evening that I should have known before then: Off! Goes with Florida evenings as umbrellas go with London weather. Unfortunately I didn’t have any Off! with me that night but I did have an overpriced Mickey Mouse poncho that I didn’t need as it didn’t even sprinkle that day. I also was learning that while wait time for rides were short and it was one of the least populate times of the year to be at Disney, there were still way too many people. I was expecting it to me much less populated than it was. But, it still wasn’t bad. Here is a picture of the amphitheater while everyone is waiting for Fantasmic to begin:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0785.jpg

I don't know about you but that does fit my description of crowded. It's packed!

After Fantasmic, (I never tire of that show and if you haven’t seen it – you must!) I intended to go on Coaster for a 5th time and go through the queue of Tower for night time pictures. Yeah, that was before I left the amphitheater. I stepped out onto Sunset Blvd and seriously, the line for Coaster and the line for Tower were almost to the merging point to form a single line down Sunset Blvd. :eek:

I took pictures of things around the park for nighttime pictures instead of attempting to get on a couple of rides I’d already done several times that day. My picture ‘theme’ I found myself taking many times that week was store front windows. And signs. I found that I liked the window displays they had.

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It was so nice wondering around MGM at night. The music was great. It made me wish that I had someone to dance with in the middle of the street. The atmosphere was great. I love the background music at that park.

I did some quick shopping to buy a few souvenirs and then went to the bus stop. The POFQ bus seemed to take forever. I waited much longer for that bus than I had for any ride the entire trip.

I had intended to check out Scat’s Lounge when I returned to POFQ but it was dead and I didn’t have anyone to sit and listen to the performer with so I decided to take a walk along the river instead. I wasn’t quite ready for bed at that point. The river was so nice and peaceful at night. I love to walk – I can walk for hours upon hours. I don’t recall how many times I walked up and down the river – several that night. I went up to my building (Bld #1) and all the way down to the bridge going into PO Riverside. Finally at midnight I decided to call it a day and go to sleep.

Day 3 Next...

[Bee]

You are doing an awesome job!:thumbsup2

[KimAshton]

Cannot wait to read more. :)

[bushdianee]

I've thought about a solo trip and almost went on one last year until my DSis decided to go with me. Did you have times where you felt lonely?

[Davidsmommy]

Wonderful report!!!

MGM is my favorite park too.

[Dolce27]

Bee: Thanks so much for the continued support! :goodvibes

This is my first trip report to write and I'm glad that you all are enjoying it.

bushdianee: For the most part, I was not lonely during my trip.There were a few moments that I wished I'd had someone to share the moment with. One thing about traveling solo - a lot of people remember you and will say hi and chat when they see you around the parks. I kept running into this one couple everywhere I went.

I will try try to post Day 3 tonight but I will not be home until late.

[kristinanderic]

You make me want to go on a Solo trip! It would be so cool to be able to do what I want to do all day.

Although..I'd also like to find someone with the same passion for disney as me...that would be neat also. I'm still working on my husband...its hard to convert a non-disney person into a disney fanatic!

I took him for his first time in 2004 and we just returned from a January 2007 trip. I got him into pin collecting so hopefully he will have a draw to go back and get some more pins. He he.

When you find the guy your gonna marry...make sure he likes disney!!

[Dolce27]

When you find the guy your gonna marry...make sure he likes disney!!

As much time as I spend lurking on the Disney Weddings Forum (:rolleyes1 ) he, whoever he is, better like Disney. I hope for a Disney Wedding at some point in my future.:teeth:

[Bee]

As much time as I spend lurking on the Disney Weddings Forum (:rolleyes1 ) he, whoever he is, better like Disney. I hope for a Disney Wedding at some point in my future.:teeth:

I am sure your sister will be soooo excited!:rolleyes1 :rotfl: :rotfl2:

Sorry, I was just recalling you saying how your sister "loves" Disney. NOT!

[zdad]

On thing about my father’s sudden death that impacted me was this: My father was only fifty-seven – which is still pretty young. He’d taken early retirement (thank goodness) and had been retired for almost two years at the time of his death. It seemed that he was waiting for retirement before he really began ‘living’ his life. Once he retired he began learning Spanish, bought a bass guitar to teach himself to play (shocked me – I couldn’t picture my dad with any type of electrical instrument before that!), things such as that. He only had 1 ½ years to enjoy those things that he’d put off until ‘retirement’.

Wow....I'm in shock right now. I'm 47 and just had the "What I'm going to do when I retire at 55" talk last night with my wife of 25 years. Eerie that I read this today. Such perspective, so so close to home. I'm really numb right now. Makes our adults only trip to WL this coming April sit in a whole new light.

Peace to you, your family and your dad. Glad to see you enjoying every minute !!

Zdad

[Polyfor30th]

Thanks for sharing your vacation--I am really enjoying your report :wave2:
Looking forward to your next installment!

[newholidayx2]

thanks for your trip report - anxiously awaiting more
did you have the chance to see Mulch Sweat and Shears at MGM?

[ARS123]

I love your insight into things. When I was your age (and unmarried), I would have never had the nerve to travel to Disney alone. After reading your report, I really wish I would have. You make it seem like the most ordinary and normal thing imaginable. Thaks for posting this report and I'm looking forward to reading more.




_____

[Dolce27]

thanks for your trip report - anxiously awaiting more
did you have the chance to see Mulch Sweat and Shears at MGM?

Sort of - but not really. I know that doesn't make much sense right now.

[Dolce27]

I am sure your sister will be soooo excited!:rolleyes1 :rotfl: :rotfl2:

Sorry, I was just recalling you saying how your sister "loves" Disney. NOT!

Since her wedding is back on for later this year and the subject of weddings is brought up a lot; I've kind of mentioned to her that when I get married I would like to have the wedding at Disney. She gets a look of disgust on her face. :teeth: She honestly cannot believe that someone actually likes Disney since she doesn't. But she did say that she will attend and be in the wedding if that is my location. ... I think she hopes that I'm not serious. :rolleyes:

[Dolce27]

Wow....I'm in shock right now. I'm 47 and just had the "What I'm going to do when I retire at 55" talk last night with my wife of 25 years. Eerie that I read this today. Such perspective, so so close to home. I'm really numb right now. Makes our adults only trip to WL this coming April sit in a whole new light.

Peace to you, your family and your dad. Glad to see you enjoying every minute !!

Zdad

Thank you.

I hope that you and your wife have a wonderful trip this April.

[Dolce27]

Tuesday September 12, 2006

My wake-up call was set of 5:35 but the exhaustion was beginning to catch up to me as I couldn’t make myself get up until 5:45. I quickly showered and dressed and headed out. Upon walking out of the POFQ lobby I see the EPCOT bus pulling up. Worried that I won’t make it, I begin to run. Just as I near the back of the bus on its right side, the driver begins to take off. Darn – he didn’t see me. Just then he stopped. Yea! I hop on the bus with a smile and a thank-you and I’m on my way to EPCOT.

It was EMH morning and I arrived thirty minutes early so I had plenty of time to study the turnstiles for this park as I waited... not that there was anything very interesting about them. It just wasn't something I normally look at upon arriving at a Disney theme park.

Once we were allowed in I headed straight towards Soarin’ after the rope drop. I liked it a lot – but I didn’t love the attraction (at least not the first time around. I probably had too high of an expectation). Flying through the orange grove section was my favorite part of it but I wanted to feel as if I were flying faster.

I ate a quick breakfast at the Fountain View Bakery. My breakfast consisted of Cinnamon Pecan Croissant that was quite yummy. (:rolleyes:) I then went on a quick trip in Spaceship Earth and afterward found out at Guest Relations that I needed to meet for the Dolphin in Depth Tour at 9:30 instead of 9:00 like I previously thought.

With thirty more minutes to kill, I next went over to Mission: Space. I was a bit nervous about this ride. Obviously, I knew about the deaths and I’d read about a lot of people feeling sick for the rest of the day after getting off. The Dolphin in Depth Tour was soon and I became concerned that I would become sick from the ride and be unable to do the tour. Finally I decided that I was going to make a go for it. I bravely walked up to the CM’s handing out the orange or green boarding pass: Orange please.

If I was going to ride it, I wanted to experience it all – not a tamed down version of it. There wasn’t a line and I only had to wait to get into the pre-show. I was assigned as Engineer and I climbed into my seat. The count down began for take-off and we launched. It was so great! This makes up for being bored on the Tower of Terror and sort of bored on Rock n’ Rollercoaster the day before. I pushed the button for the landing wings a little too soon. Oops! I’m a bad Engineer. We finally, after a rather bumpy landing, landed on Mars and I rush off to find my way back to Earth so that I can meet some dolphins. I was fine, no sign of dizziness at all.

I had to meet by Guest Relations outside of the park gates. I walked out to find other’s already waiting and shortly after a woman showed up to take us backstage. We were stopped just inside of the gates into backstage and were asked questions such as: ‘Do you know what a dolphin looks like?’ ‘Have you ever touched a dolphin?’ ‘What’s your t-shirt size?’

We were also asked if we had ever been backstage at a Disney park – only myself and one other guy had ever been. She explained about how out ‘onstage’ is Disney magic but back ‘offstage’ it is reality. We were then led over to the Living Seas Pavilion and were taken to the top of the tank and into a room where people were preparing something. There was a pool in the room that was divided into two sections by a wall. There were four dolphins in the pool, two on one side of the wall divider and two on the other. One dolphin – I don’t know which one – seemed to enjoy the new faces and began showing off for us.

It was then explained to us (by the use of a plush dolphin) the anatomy of a dolphin and then we were taught about the different foods (fish) that dolphins eat to provide them with carbs, protein, and water. Dolphins may live in salt water but they cannot drink the salt water. They get their water intake from eating squid.

We were then led through the room out onto the top of the tank. A CM diver was getting into the tank when we walked past and we were led to a set of chairs set up on the walkways around the top of the tank. There was a demo of how the dolphins are trained and I was the lucky person that got to stand up and pretend to be a dolphin. All right – I did volunteer because no one else would. It consisted of me listening for a sound and then being tapped so that I would reach up and touch something. I would then be rewarded with Monopoly money. Every time the thing that I had to touch was raised higher and higher until the point that I was going to have to jump up to reach it. By the time it got to that point, I didn’t jump. I didn’t feel like jumping. Give me real money and I’ll jump but those Monopoly twenties couldn’t be used in the park.

All right – I jumped. Aren’t I a great demonstrator? Are you sure you can’t exchange that Monopoly for something else? I'm not picky, I will take Disney Dollars. I guess they were out of Disney Dollars that day. :sad2:

We then went back into the room with the holding pools where two trainers were working with two of the dolphins using sounds and pictures. The other two dolphins were crammed on the other side of the wall, peering through a gate (or something such as that), in the wall trying to watch.

Then we were taken to a classroom where we learned about Conversation and why it’s a bad idea to interact with wild dolphins. Finally, we were led to the locker rooms were there were bags with each of our names on it containing wet suits in our size and shoes.

Then it was back up to the top of the tank where we ran into a small problem. The day before they had shifted around sea shells in the main tank and it caused the water to rise six to ten inches higher than what the water level was in the holding tank for the dolphins. Due to this, the water pressure would not allow them to open the door releasing the dolphins into the main tank.

One of the trainers, Dave, came over and began chatting with us while they worked to fix the water level. He had interesting stories about how the dolphins love to play fetch with the fish in the main tank – accidentally killing the fish. They finally built some sort of fence in the tank that allows the fish to swim through and escape and prevent the dolphins from going any further.

Finally, they were able to adjust the water level and the gate opened up allowing two of the dolphins into the main tank. We each had our picture taken with Rainier (I don’t know how they spell his name)

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/scan-1.jpg

I believe that the other dolphin that was released into the tank was Kalabar? (I can’t quite recall his name but I know that it wasn’t Calvin that was let in) This dolphin didn’t want to corporate for any reason. They will tell you at the beginning of the tour that the dolphin interaction is optional on the dolphin’s part. None of them (the trainers) are going to make a 500 lbs dolphin do something that he doesn’t want to do. (All the dolphins at Disney are male.) We were split into two groups of four – there are a total of eight people that can do this tour at a time. My group was to work with Rainier and we were shown commands to do prompting a reaction out of him. It was fun – and funny.

[Dolce27]

The other group couldn’t get their dolphin to stick around because the dolphin apparently had other plans – such as taunting the trainer. He would swim over as if here were going to corporate and interact with the people but then, at the last possible minute, he would veer off and swim back to the other side of the tank. He kept doing this to the trainer over and over. Finally they had to bring the other group over to join with our group. Rainier was very well behaved; then again he’s an older dolphin – 27 years old. I believe they said that dolphins can live up to their 40's.

So, we didn’t spend as much time with the dolphins as you normally would on this tour because of the water pressure issue and a misbehaving dolphin – but it was still worth it. I'm very glad that I did this tour.

We went back into the locker rooms and changed. We each received our photos taken with Rainier and a t-shirt and were then led back outside of the park by Guest Relations. I re-entered the park and made my way back over to The Living Seas Pavilion from onstage – attempting to catch Turtle Talk. I took one look at that line and decided no. Every single person at EPCOT that day was in that line.

My stomach had begun rumbling as it was 1:30 and I wanted lunch so I headed towards the World Showcase but first made a stop at Character Connection.

Yea, there are photo pass guys there so I hopped in line to get my picture taken with the big cheese himself –Mr. Mickey Mouse. It was my first photo with him since I was two years old. Mickey gave me a kiss on the cheek as I was leaving. Aww… I then skipped a couple of characters (Sorry Minnie, sorry Goofy) and walked over to – you guessed it – Chip and Dale. Dale was goofing off with the queue ropes as there wasn’t anyone in line for their pictures until I walked up. Dale managed to get himself stuck inside the ropes and had to be rescued before I could have my picture with them. I walked up to Dale and told him that he was my favorite and he gave me a big hug. Chip held out his arms for me and I gave him a big hug, telling him that he was my second favorite. Dale was highly amused by this and proceeded to laugh, point, and taunt Chip over this. Dale was in an extremely good mood and couldn’t stop bouncing around during the picture and he gave me a kiss on my hand as I left.

Onward to the World Showcase. I started towards Mexico, which is backwards for me. I always start with Canada. But, thanks to the Restaurant boards, I had to try the school bread in Norway. At Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe I bought salmon on buttered bread (which I ate ½ of) a cup of cheese soup (oh-my-gosh! So yummy!) and the School bread.

I. Am. In. Love.

I didn’t know what to think about it at first. It was huge – massive! The bread was very sweet – it reminded me of a cinnamon roll but without the cinnamon. It had vanilla custard spread in the middle and was covered in coconut. It was so yummy. I ate ¾ of it – I couldn’t stop eating even though by that point my stomach was beyond full. This is now a must to eat every time I go to Disney World. And I just found the recipe online so I will now attempt to make it at home. Woo-hoo!

After, I needed to walk it all off so I walked around the Norway Pavilion. I didn’t ride Malestrom but spent time exploring the gift shop instead. Man, those trolls are expensive!

Moving onto China, I spent time in the gift shops there also. The year before I had been in Shanghai China on business and we stayed at the Ritz Carleton. The women that worked there wore a uniform that consisted of the traditional button up silk dress but it stopped at mid-thigh. They wore a type of pants under. I looked for that while in China (the country) but I could only find the shirts or a full dress – nothing that stopped at mid-thigh. I finally spotted what I wanted at the China Pavilion in EPCOT – but very pricy and I was reluctant to spend my money on it.

So I moved on, exploring the crystal figurines in the Germany gift shop. Whoa- wait a minute! How much did that crystal Cinderella castle cost again? I could have sworn that price tag said $35,000.... All right... moving on now.

At the Italy pavilion I came out a gift shop and ran into Geppetto standing by himself. He was dancing to some music being played and looked rather lonely so I had my picture taken with him.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0843.jpg

Funnel cakes in the American Pavilion – yummmm… It’s been forever since I last had one but the school bread refused to allow the funnel cake any sort of access in my stomach so the funnel cake was a no-go. I looked for a cute American Mickey Mouse – didn’t see one. I’ve never seen The American Adventure. (Gasp! Shock! … I know, I’m a horrible American) There wasn’t a showing while I was there so I still wasn’t seeing it.

In Morocco I searched for the place that they do henna tattoos to no avail. I wouldn’t dream of getting a real tattoo but two of my co-workers had returned from a business trip in Dubai with henna tattoos and I had liked it – especially since it wasn’t permanent. I wanted something to circle my ankle but I was out of luck that day. I did spend some time looking around the pavilion. I’d never spent anytime in the Morocco Pavilion before and the atmosphere was rather nice.

I took a quick tour of the French pastries in the French Pavilion. Can those cream puffs be any higher? How in the world do you eat that?

I went over to the UK Pavilion and tried to enter the toy store from the back and had a run in with Marry Poppins. I think she was trying to escape.

I spent some time in the UK pavilion trying to find something for my brother-in-law, Richard. He claims to hate Walt Disney World as much as my sister but I don’t know if that is true or not. Sometimes it’s just easier to agree with my sister than disagree with her. I met Richard’s parents when I was in London last year visiting my sister and Richard and they love Disney World.

Looking for a gift, I couldn’t find anything that I thought he would want – I wanted to find something Disney with a British twist. I just saw a lot of British.

I went and looked around the Canadian Pavilion as I didn’t realize the Canadian Pavilion had very much to it until this trip. I had an ADR at Le Cellier later that evening and I needed to know where the restaurant was so I wouldn’t be late.

[Dolce27]

I walked back to Future World and went to grab a fast pass to Soarin’ but decided not to get it as the stand-by time said ten minutes; but it was more like twenty minutes. The wait wasn’t too bad and I think that was the longest line I waited in all week. I was in the third bay this time and I enjoyed this flight more than my first flight. Why, I do believe that Soarin’ is growing on me a bit.

I walked over to Journey into the Imagination. It was cute but I wasn’t too impressed. This was the first time I’d been on it since I was fifteen as it was closed for rehab while I was there in 2002. I think the version of it that I rode when I was fifteen was the one everyone loved – but I only vaguely remember it. Of course, all of the exhibits at the end were packed.

Funny, hardly anyone was on the actual ride. :teeth:

So, I skipped the exhibits and made my way over to Innovations. I went over to do the quick Segway intro thing they do there. While waiting in line I noticed the CM kept staring at me. He finally walked over and asked my age telling me that you must be at least eighteen years old to do this. Ummm… I’m twenty-seven – do you need my driver’s license? (Quick vent: I’m so tired of people thinking that I’m so much younger than my age – I don’t think I look that young. In fact, I’m beginning to get wrinkles. It’s obvious to me that my thirtieth birthday is quickly approaching. :Vent over. Sorry, pet peeve. :rolleyes: ) Fortunately, the CM took my word about my age and left me alone.

All they do for this is bring you into a room and explain what a Segway is and how it works. They had the new models there for the short demo. The actual Segway Tour that you pay for was still using the old Segway models at that time but there were plans to change them out with the new ones.

After the brief introduction to Segways we were allowed to go and get on a Segway and were briefly shown how to move the Segway forward, backward and to turn. It’s a very brief thing but if you can’t do the Segway tour it’s a good thing to do if you want an idea of what a Segway is.

After Innovations I made my way back to the Canadian Pavilion to Le Cellier. I was looking forward to this dinner as I’d read so much about this restaurant. I had a fabulous server. I had read a lot about bad service at this restaurant but I didn’t find that to be true for me.

I had the famous cheese soup to start (I have to admit, I thought the Norwegian cheese soup I had earlier that day was a bit better) and I loved the pretzel bread – then again: I’m a bread addict. I had the mushroom filet mignon; which I ate ½ of. It was very good and I’m not a big beef eater. For my dessert I had the crème brulee sampler. This was my first time to try crème brulee ever. It was good. I found that I preferred the maple crème brulee over the vanilla crème brulee – but both were excellent.

After this meal I was stuffed to the point that I felt I was going to be sick. The only thing I could think of to do is walk it off so I began power walking laps around the lagoon. I made two laps and not only did I still feel sick, I was now slightly dizzy from walking so fast in a large circle.

Not good.

I made my way over to the Italian Pavilion and found a bench to sit on. At that point I never wanted to eat again – Ever. I had a breakfast ADR at Rainforest Café the next morning. Yeah, I called Disney Dining while sitting there and canceled that.

I finally began to feel better and went to look at the gift shop in the Germany pavilion again. I loved their crystal figurines. I took a good look at the Cinderella castle. It was priced at $37,500.00 – all hand crafted crystal by Arribas Bros. Later that week I was at the Arribas Bros. store at Downtown Disney and I asked if they sold any of the castles – they had one on display in that store also. I was told that they usually sell three of them a year. Wow. It’s a beautiful castle but I don’t think I could spend that kind of money for that.

It was getting close to time for Illuminations and here’s another shocker: I’ve never seen Illuminations before.

So, this was to be another first for me. I decided to pick a spot on the Italy Isola to view it from. I found a spot up at the fence. No one could sit in front of me so that was good. The gondolas’ were all around and they might block some of my view but I wasn’t too worried. The night was beautiful – again no rain. It was cool with a great breeze and I enjoyed sitting there listening to the pre-show music playing on the speakers .Where I sat I must have been pretty close to a speaker.

Illuminations began and why-oh-why had I never taken the time out for it before? It was awesome! I already knew the music from listening to it on the Internet but the show itself was just amazing to watch. Afterward, I slowly made my way around the lagoon in no rush. In the crowd I accidentally cut in front of a woman driving an ECV causing her to have to do a quick stop. Ooops! I was distracted by the lit up golf ball up ahead.

Seriously, I was looking at Spaceship Earth trying to decide if I wanted a night picture of it and wasn’t paying attention of where I was going. Shame on me, I know. I quickly apologized to the woman and took off incase she wanted to yell at me – she looked pretty irked. But I did take a picture:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0848.jpg

Back at the resort I wasn’t ready for bed so I went back to walk up and down by the river. I told you: I love to walk.

One thing that I decided to do on this trip was to audition for a position as an improve actor. Now, I am not an actor by any means but I’ve always loved to watch the Steetmosphere over at MGM and secretly hoped that I could get a fun job such as that. (I do realize that there is a lot of hard work involved in what they do).

So, on the Disney website I saw that they were having one audition in the month of September and it was Friday, September 15 – while I was there! So, I went and bought a book on comedic monologues; none of which I found to be too funny but I didn’t have much time to find and memorize a monologue before I left for Disney.

I memorized three monologues before I left and performed them in front of a friend and let her select the one I would perform for my audition. This would be my very first audition and I had no idea what to expect. I tried researching on the boards but I couldn’t find anything.

So, as I walked up and down the river I’d stop at each end and run through my monologue. I’d stop practicing if the water taxi from Downtown Disney was going by or if others were too close. I’m certain that anyone who saw me thought that I was insane – staring out at the water obviously having a conversation with myself. Oh well.

I finally felt tired enough to go to bed and headed towards my room. I don’t know what time it was – probably around midnight.

Day 4 next...

[newholidayx2]

so you felt completely safe walking around the parks and the resort at night?

[stitchlover]

subbing...love the report. You remind me so much of my "little" cousin (31 years old). She would do this type trip in a heartbeat and never give another thought to doing it alone. Can't wait for the next segment.

[Dolce27]

so you felt completely safe walking around the parks and the resort at night?

Yeah, I didn't have a problem with either. There were too many people at the parks for me to worry. I recall feeling a little apprehensive the first night I walked a long the river alone - but that feeling didn't last long.

[Dolce27]

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Today was Animal Kingdom Day. I still couldn’t eat food – I was very glad that I had canceled my ADR the night before. I quickly showered and dressed and made my way to the bus stop where I saw several people waiting for the AK/Blizzard Beach/EPCOT bus. With my luck, they were all headed to AK. Only a couple of people stood in line for the Magic Kingdom bus.

I debated if I should change plans and go to the MK that day and do AK the next day. The next day would be early EMH hours at MK so the MK would probably be a bit busier that day. I was still debating about my MK/AK days when the transportation CM at the POFQ bus stop asked where I was going. I explained that I was trying to decide between the AK and the MK and I asked her what she thought. She informed me that the MK had Magical Beginnings that morning and that the Disney resorts were only 50% full. She never really stated which park she’d choose, but I finally decided on the MK - everyone else seemed to be going to AK.

So, change of plans. I can be impulsive when I want to and I don’t have to completely stick to my itinerary that took months of planning.:rolleyes:

As I climbed onto the MK bus, dreams of the French Toast Loaf at the Main Street Bakery that I read about begin to drift though my head. All right, so maybe I was a little bit hungry. So, I happily sat on the almost deserted MK bus dreaming of food and thinking how fun it would be to watch the little kids interact with the characters for Magical Beginnings when we reached the first PO Riverside bus stop.

There are three or four POR bus stops and one POFQ bus stop. All week long the POR bus stops had been pretty deserted. We *maybe* would pick up one family at a couple of the stops. That morning we pulled up to the first bus stop and I heard the bus driver tell the people outside to wait and let her get off first. I didn’t think much about it until a few seconds later when I happened to glance out the side window and saw a huge line of people. All of these people were going to the Magic Kingdom?!? :scared1:

And we still had three more bus stops of people before the MK? :sad2:

They began to file onto the bus and kept coming and coming until the bus was at full capacity. The bus diver was still standing off the bus so I made a quick decision: I’m sticking to my original itinerary. Who needs impulsive days when you already had a day planned out?

See, plans, they are a good thing. :thumbsup2

So, in order to stick with my original plan, I quickly got up and off of the bus.The driver looked at me as if I were crazy. She asked where I was going and I told her Animal Kingdom. She informed me that I needed to go over 'there' and nodded towards a direction. Looking over I first noticed a bus heading towards MGM but behind that was an Animal Kingdom bus. Woo-hoo!

I ran over and climbed onto the bus. The driver asked where I was going and I told him Animal Kingdom – Magic Kingdom was getting too crazy! :teeth: The very few people on the almost deserted bus laughed at me and we were on our way to Animal Kingdom.

Walking up to the turnstiles – we weren’t allowed through yet – I saw West Palm out and about.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0850.jpg

I quickly managed to pick out his handler who had to stand close by in order to hear the audience responses. I thought the handler was a bit obvious but no one else seemed to pay him any attention.

First on my list of things to do that day: Expedition Everest.

As soon as the opening ceremony completed and the rope dropped I, along with everyone else, made a mad dash towards it. Well, as mad of a dash as the cast members would allow us. By getting to the ride that early I didn’t have much of an opportunity to study the queue since there wasn’t much of a line to wait in. I really liked the ride but I thought it was a rather mild rollercoaster. The Yetti was awesome I must admit.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0863.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0864.jpg

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http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0861.jpg

I grabbed a FP for later and then made my way to Primeval Whirl. Yeah, I don’t know why Disney put in a cheap boardwalk carnival in the middle of Animal Kingdom – but I do like Primeval Whirl. It’s fun. I noticed this billboard which I found rather humorous, so of course I took a picture of it.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0854.jpg

The CM let me stay on the ride to go through a second time. As I was happily making my way through the ride I noticed Chip and Dale walk out beside the ride and stop for pictures. I quickly got off the ride and made my way over. I was still looking for an acceptable picture of me with the chipmunks. I hate having my picture taken and I wasn’t happy with the pictures from MK or EPCOT. I guess that I am too picky.

A couple had beaten me over and I walked up just in time to see Dale propose to the woman. Bad Dale! You’re supposed to be mine! And he proposed in front of the woman’s husband none the less! The nerve of some chipmunks. :mad:

My turn came and Chip opened his arms to give me a big hug. I guess I was forgiven for telling him the day before at EPCOT that he was my second favorite. I turned to Dale and informed him that he was my favorite but since I caught him proposing to another woman Chip was now my favorite. That made Chip very happy. Dale kept trying to grab me away from Chip – I guess to make amends but Chip wasn’t having that. I was caught in the middle of a tug-of-war game with me being the rope. Chip finally succeeded in getting me away from Dale and he took my arm and began to lead me off stage. I finally had to tell Chip that he must stop, his handler was yelling at him to come back over where he was supposed to be. Chip finally turns to look back and sees the handler motioning for him to come back, which he reluctantly did. As we return, Dale takes a possessive hold of my arm while Chip begins kissing me: my cheek and up my arm.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/chipmunkme1.jpg

[Dolce27]

I finally say good-bye to them and headed off to Dinosaur. That ride is all right in my opinion. I’d probably do it once a trip to Disney but it’s not a ‘must do’ for me. Next is The Tree of Life

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(It's amazing how much detail is put into everything at Disney. Does anyone know how long it took to carve all of the animals into the tree?)

I went inside to see It’s Tough to Be a Bug where I once again find a sign to take a picture of.

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It’s all about signs and window displays this trip. ;) I love It’s Tough to Be a Bug – it is so cute.

After the show I headed back to Expedition Everest to use my fast pass. I enjoyed the ride a bit more the second time around. I think I had too high of an expectation for everything this trip and I never enjoyed the ride as much the first time around because of this.

After my second ride I then went to see Flights of Wonder – which was another first for me. I enjoyed watching the different birds and I will probably make time for it my next visit.

Breakfast/Lunch was at Pizzafari. There are two food types that I love: Pizza and Tex-Mex/Mexican food. I can eat that all day, every day. I ordered a cheese pizza and the chocolate cake for desert.

The cake was awesome. (By the way - how many foods have I now described as awesome?) Well, it was. It was a huge slice (it was enough to be my lunch) and it tasted homemade – so good. It didn't come in a plastic container like many of the other CS places served.

All right, I’m once again stuffed. So, I need to walk it off. Again. I decided to leave the Animal Kingdom. It’s my least favorite park and I did everything there that I desired to do that day. In hindsight, I do regret not spending a little more time there.

As I was leaving I ran into Stitch and I couldn’t resist having my picture taken with him.

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Oh yuck! Did he just lick me?? :rotfl:

One last picture before I'm out the gate:

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It's real - as in alive! I actually took a picture of something that wasn't metal, plastic, or covered in fake fur with a large red nose. :teeth:

I decided that I was off to MGM. I walked to the AK bus stop and there wasn't an MGM bus at that time but there was an EPCOT bus. Good enough, I’ll take it.

So, I’m off to EPCOT. I rushed through bag check and power walked to the International Gateway. I’m actually rather glad it turned out like this, I’ve always wanted to take the water taxi and it stops at the EPCOT resorts first before MGM. It was nice to see The Boardwalk up close – I still want to stay there. Maybe next time…

Finally, we arrive at MGM:

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I reached MGM around 1:00 and watched a streetmosphere skit before heading off to get a FP for Tower of Terror. There was a slight problem with that; the FP machines were closed as the line wasn’t long enough to require a FP so I walked onto TOT. The drop sequence was a bit better then the one I went on the past Monday so I enjoyed it a lot more. I walked over to the Rock n’ Rollercoaster and as I walked up I decided to see how many times in a row I could ride it. Back in 1999 during Cast Preview, I was on it once with a fellow CM that was on his 16th trip in a row.

At first it was fun riding it over and over. Yes, I did have to get off and make my way around through the queue again. Several of the CM’s just grinned at me and I joked around with them. There was one CM that I talked to a lot while waiting to go into the pre-show a couple of times. Later, when he was working the dock at the end of the ride, he let me by-pass going around and through the pre-show a few times and sent me through a door that took me directly, via a hallway, into the room where you queue up to get onto the coaster. By my eighth trip I was beginning to become a bit bored and I decided that I’d call it quits after my tenth ride. On trip number nine (while riding in the back) I slammed my head pretty hard into the head rest while being jerked around by the coaster. It bothered my ear enough that I was a bit concerned about it.

After getting off from trip nine, the CM that had let me by-pass the pre-show a couple of times asked me if I really quitting after trip ten. When I told him yes he asked if he could ride with me. Umm… sure. He had someone cover his post and we cut back through, by-passing the pre-show, and hopped on for my tenth time in a row on Rock n’ Rollercoaster. After the ride was over I told him bye and I finally left the attraction. It took 2 ½ hours to ride the ride ten times in a row. Of course, there were some lines and I did have to sit through the pre-show at least six of the ten times.

My ear was still bothering me from where it was slammed into the headrest. I walked over to New York Street where Sweat, Mulch, & Shears pulled up to play.

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I’d read about them so I sat down on the curb intending to watch a performance. Their loud music proved too much for my too sensitive ear so I left and sat down in Writer’s Stop for a few minutes where it was much quieter. They will be on the 'to do' list for my next trip.

I left MGM and took a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge. I had an ADR that night for Boma. I couldn’t wait to try the Zebra Domes. I wondered around the resort gift shop for awhile and then went and looked out over the savannah. Finding a rocking chair I sat and called a friend back home to chat for awhile. It was very nice and relaxing out there. Such a beautiful resort.

Boma was good and I really enjoyed the food that I tried. Of course, I had to try several of the desserts. I liked the Zebra Domes but they weren’t as good as I was expecting them to be. The banana bread pudding quickly became my favorite dessert there. The banana bread pudding is on my ‘must’ list now.

I took a bus to Downtown Disney from AKL. I had a night planned at the Adventures Club. I didn’t know about this club when I worked there in 1999. I’m not a club person so I never went to PI. I knew about it when I went on my 2002 trip but the night I went I was exhausted and only stayed for a couple of hours. So, this night I planned to stay the whole night.

My ear was still rather sensitive and kept hurting – every noise seemed too loud and for awhile I thought that I’d have to leave. Eventually my ear stopped hurting and I was able to enjoy the rest of the night at the club. We were in the library waiting for a skit when the butler, Graves, walked by me and stopped. He asked me if I wanted a hug and I said no. (I think they do this ‘hug’ routine every night). So, of course he pretends to have hurt feelings and keeps giving me a sad look. Only the people sitting by me knew what happened but during the skit he’s up on the stage with his back to the audience giving himself a hug. It begins to get pretty funny. After the skit is over and he passes by me I finally relent and give him his hug which makes him happy. Of course, this time the entire room notices that I just gave him a hug and are probably wondering why.

I really loved the Adventure’s Club. It’d probably be a one time a trip only thing as it has the same skits every night. I know there was a huge debate about if you should take kids there or not – I say not.

It is a bar and there are tons of sexual innuendos the entire night. Especially as people tend to become drunk. The CM’s will pick on parents who bring young children in asking them why they would bring a child to a bar. There was a woman there with two young children that night and the kids were miserable – which made the mother miserable and unable to have as good of a time as she would have if she had gone without the kids. Also, I was observing one of her children absorbing all of the sex jokes that he didn’t understand. I’m betting that he’s going to make an inappropriate remark at the wrong time leaving the mom to explain how the kid knows about that.

But, that's just my 2 cents over that topic. I'll move on now.

I closed the club down that night – I think I was the only guest that lasted the entire night as I looked around during the last skit and didn’t see anyone I recognized from earlier. Actually, I didn’t realize that I was the only one left from the beginning of the night until Graves pointed it out to me. After the Adventure’s Club closed I went back to PRFQ and climbed into bed at 2:00 am. <--- Should I retitle this trip report to be 'How do survive Disney on little to no sleep?' :rolleyes:

Next up: Day 5

[LouDisney]

I have really enjoyed reading your trip report. Can't wait to read about day 5.

[newholidayx2]

cool
Rock n Roller coaster 10 times in a row! Id love to do that! I think Ive seen the door to that hallway.

My son & I did ride Primeval Whirl 13x's w/out getting off. When we finally did they gave us a Magical Moment certificate for being "ride freaks"!

[peacelovemickey]

Just wanted to sub. I am enjoying your report a lot. I had a similar situation which lead to my love of all things Disney. My father passed away suddenly at the age of 52. I was 24 when it happened. We decided a few months after he died that we wanted to do something to get our minds off of the first anniversary of his death. I jokingly said, "Let's go to Disney World!" and everyone liked the idea. So DH, mom and my sister and I went over Thanksgiving that first year. Dad had passed away the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and we just didn't feel like having a traditional Thanksgiving that first year. We had such a blast that we made it a semi-tradition. Our family has since grown. My sister has married and we have both had 2 children. Her husband claims to have had a bad experience at Disney when he was a child and refuses to go back:confused3 , so we go without him! This year will be the 10 year anniversary that Dad has been gone, so it will be a special trip for all of us. Thanks for letting me share!

[Dolce27]

cool
My son & I did ride Primeval Whirl 13x's w/out getting off. When we finally did they gave us a Magical Moment certificate for being "ride freaks"!

I've never heard of those! That's cool.

[Dolce27]

Just wanted to sub. I am enjoying your report a lot. I had a similar situation which lead to my love of all things Disney. My father passed away suddenly at the age of 52. I was 24 when it happened. We decided a few months after he died that we wanted to do something to get our minds off of the first anniversary of his death. I jokingly said, "Let's go to Disney World!" and everyone liked the idea. So DH, mom and my sister and I went over Thanksgiving that first year. Dad had passed away the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and we just didn't feel like having a traditional Thanksgiving that first year. We had such a blast that we made it a semi-tradition. Our family has since grown. My sister has married and we have both had 2 children. Her husband claims to have had a bad experience at Disney when he was a child and refuses to go back:confused3 , so we go without him! This year will be the 10 year anniversary that Dad has been gone, so it will be a special trip for all of us. Thanks for letting me share!

I'm sorry for your loss. That it happened just before the holidays made it even that much harder, I'm sure. I'm glad that you were able to 'escape' to Disney World and enjoy making a new tradition together and have somewhat of a positive memory to reflect upon from that period in your life.

[Dolce27]

Thursday, September 14, 2006

I wanted to get up at 5:45 am to be at the Magic Kingdom in time for morning EMH at 8:00 am but my tired body finally protested and I slept until 7:00 am instead. I actually managed to get to MK by 8:30.

I walked onto Dumbo.

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I hadn’t been on this since I was seven years old and for nostalgic reasons, I was determined to ride it this trip. After Dumbo I did the carousel and then back to Mickey’s Philhar Magic. I have decided that the carpet scene where you are flying through the streets chasing Aladin and Jasmine is my favorite part of the show.

I then made my way to the Main Street Bakery to finally have my French Toast Loaf that I’d been dreaming about since the day before. It was so good but there was just too much of it. Everything in the Main Street Bakery looked good – I wanted all of it.

As I sat outside eating my French Toast Loaf I listened the trolley performers do their dance/sing routine. I couldn’t quite see them from where I was sitting but I did see them in passing a few times that morning.

I decided to do the Jungle Cruise next but there was a sign posted outside stating they wouldn’t be open until 10:00. All right, off to Pirates only to find that a CM was turning people away for some reason that I never found out. I headed towards Splash, which was operating, but decided to do Big Thunder Mountain instead. I then was able to get on to the Jungle Cruise. The line was rather long and it begun to lightly rain and I had trouble finding a dry spot to sit – which didn’t seem to concern the CM. If I’m all wet, then that’s one thing but being dry except for my bottom – well, I have an issue with that.

I then headed to Tomorrowland; grabbing a FP at Space Mountain. Two additional FP’s popped out with mine and a CM standing nearby warned me that I could only use one of them. I just looked at him and assured him that I’d only use one and then I headed off to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (TTA).

That became my favorite thing to be on for the next couple of days. Hardly anyone rode it and it was very relaxing to ride along. Most of the time, while riding the TTA, I’d use that opportunity to call friends and family back home to chat. Going though Buzz Lightyear I decided that it looked pretty empty so I hopped off of the TTA and went on that.

I will freely admit: I completely, totally, utterly suck at this. :sad2:

I can’t do Buzz. I’m lucky if my finishing score is 20 – without any additional zero’s after it. I saw an eight year old a few cars ahead of me who’s score was quadruple mine. I will never get on this and compete with anyone else. Ever.

I explored the gift shop – Venus of Merchant? (I don’t recall the name) and outside of it I ran into PUSH the talking trashcan. I’d always wanted to see him but I was never in the right place at the right time. I watched him interact with a girl that couldn’t figure him out.

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That family left and PUSH began chatting with me. He asked where I was from and after I told him he decided to give me the ‘Texas Test’.

Oh great.

He told me that he wanted me to complete the next line of the song after him and that I had to sing and clap. Well, one problem: I don’t sing or clap. At least not in public. So, he began with the first line of the ‘Texas Test’ song singing “The eyes of Texas are upon you…” and then waited for me to sing “Deep in the heart of Texas” (That is how it goes right? :confused3) and do the little clap. I pretended that I didn’t know the next line, which I sort of didn't. Unfortunately that was one persistent trash can and I finally had to cave and sing his line for him. And clap. So, if I wasn't right on the lyrics - he was nice enough to not say.

By then I realized that my FP for Space Mountain was up so I headed back to that for a ride. It was a walk-on, I didn’t really need the FP. I went on the left track and then went back through the stand by line (I promise Mr. CM, I did not use the other two Fast Passes) and rode the right track – attempting to compare the two tracks. I decided that I preferred the right track. I don’t know if there is really much of a difference in the two

I wondered over to Toontown and explored the area a bit before going back to Tomorrowland to go on the TTA one last time.

I left the Magic Kingdom and hopped a bus over to the Beach Club. I wanted to try out Beaches and Cream for lunch. It wasn’t busy at all thank goodness – that place is so tiny. I had read that it was a small restaurant, but seriously, it was small. I had a hamburger, fries, and the No Way Jose ice cream sundae. I had been looking forward to the sundae and it was good. ;) I've yet to try food on this trip that I didn't like.

Of course, I was back to the stuffed feeling (getting quite used to that feeling) and that day was hotter then it previously had been that week. I was wearing jeans and I was beginning to feel pretty bad. Heat plus too much food is never good.

It was my first time to the Bach Club and I took some time to explore the resort. This is the resort my aunt and uncle stay at every year.

I was looking around the lobby when I saw a teen boy really dressed up. I didn’t quite understand why he was so dressed up in the early afternoon. I then spotted a bride a short distance away. Ah… a wedding.:teeth: The kid being dressed up makes a lot more sense now. Everyone looked really nice.

I went out on the beach area and sat down on a swing for a few minutes before I made my way around the Lagoon to check out the Boardwalk. I never went into the hotel, just explored the shops on the boardwalk and really enjoyed the air conditioning inside. I mean, seriously enjoyed it. I was about to set up camp there in the middle of the shop for the rest of the afternoon. I refuse to wear shorts and the heat was really beginning to get to me that day.

[Dolce27]

I left the boardwalk and went over to EPCOT through the international gateway. Upon passing through the gate I cut through a gift shop so I could have another three seconds of air-conditioning when I suddenly found my exit blocked by a furry chipmunk back. Unbeknownst to me, Chip and Dale had been on the other side of the gift shop waiting on people to show up for photos when Dale had spotted me walking through the gift shop.

I promise! I wasn't stalking chipmunks!

Dale had backed himself into the doorway and refused to let me pass. Chip reached through a gap between the doorframe and Dale and grabbed a hold of my arm – attempting to pull me through to let me out but I still couldn’t get past Dale. I ended up with half of my body caught in-between Dale and the doorway frame. The handler was yelling at Dale to not hurt me. I wasn’t worried about being hurt but I was rather stuck. A kid walked up and Chip left me to go and greet the kid but Dale remained, leaving me squished between him and the door. The handler began yelling at Dale once again, this time to come over for pictures. Dale obeyed and walked over to Chip and the kid.

I began to walk off but then thought better of it. I decided what the heck, I could always do with another picture of chipmunks. :teeth: So, I waited for the family to move on and then went over for a picture.

As I walked up to them, Chip opened his arms for a hug. I told him that he was being the ‘good one’ that day, so Chip then decided to be bad. He moved to stand in front of Dale, blocking Dale from posing in the picture with me. Dale would walk around behind me to stand at my other side but by the time he got there, Chip had already moved over there – again blocking Dale from being in the photo. This went on about four times before Dale decided that his feelings were hurt and walked off to pout, his back to us. I reached over, grabbed his hand, and pulled him back for the picture. Chip left him alone this time but Dale was out for revenge. Dale kept reaching across me with his hand to block Chips face from being in the photo. The CM handler had snapped the shot of that occurring:

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The handler then proceeded to lecture Dale that he ruined the photo. Dale looked ashamed of himself and then behaved for another photo.

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I said my good-byes to the chipmunks and walked over to Futureland. I went to pick up a FP for Soarin’ but the standby was only listed at a ten minute wait time so I waited and got in Bay 1 for that trip across California. I enjoyed the attraction regardless of which row I sat in. Of course, if you are in row 2 or 3 you will have one row of feet hanging in front of you but it was never distracting to me.

Afterwards, I realized that I hadn’t done Turtle Talk with Crush so I went over to the Living Seas Pavilion and got in line for that. The diver I had seen at the top of the tank the day that I was there for the Dolphin in Depth Tour was doing a scuba demonstration in the diver lock-in tank for a bunch of kids waiting to see Crush. I think they were teaching the kids’ diver’s hand signals. I only had to wait ten minutes or so to see Crush, not too bad, so I watched that while I waited. Turtle Talk was cute. It’s another once a trip kind of thing for me but definitely something you should see if you haven't.

I went back to ride Mission: Space. Despite doing so well on it the time before, I was a bit concerned about this trip as I was still feeling sick from the combination of the heat and too much food. I decided to go on it regardless and I did go on the orange side. Since I was fine riding the orange side (the more intense side) I didn’t have any desire to do the green side. All was fine on it and I had a fun time riding it – as usual. This was quickly becoming my new favorite thrill attraction at Disney. I think the strong blast of cool air they blow on you to help prevent motion sickness helped a lot. I was feeling a bit better by the time I got off of the ride.

I decided to leave EPCOT and hopped the monorail to the TTC and then took the resort monorail over to the Grand Floridian. Of course I, like most people, find this to be a beautiful resort. My purpose for going there that day was to find a computer lab. I realized that I had left home without any information for the auditions the next day. After a couple of inquiries I found the business center and was informed that it was $10.00/hour to use the internet. Great. I grinned, more like grimaced, and said all right and walked over to the nearest computer.

I’m glad that I did come to check on the location address; I found that there had been changes made to the audition once again since I left home. They had changed the info to define times of what groups would be auditioning when. The dancers were auditioning the morning and the singing and improve auditions were moved to that afternoon. Very good news for me. I had an ADR at 1900 Park Fare the next morning and I was stressing about eating and then making it over to the auditions in a decent amount of time. Now I wouldn’t have to show up until 1:00.

As things now stood, I had plenty to time. :banana: I checked on my return flight and with a sigh of relief;l found that no changes had been made to that. :banana: :banana:

It took about three to five minutes to check on this information. As I walked out of the computer lab the guy looked up at me surprised. I informed him that I was finished and he didn’t charge me the $10.00 since I was barley on the computer. Yea!:banana: :banana: :banana:

I looked around the resort a little bit. While I’ve always found this resort to be extremely beautiful, I’ve never desired to stay at it before. I’m beginning to change my mind a bit – maybe one day I will stay but I first want to try out the Boardwalk Inn.

I hopped the monorail back to the MK and hopped a bus to POFQ to do another Disney first for me: I took a nap.

Yes people, I actually took a nap. I never take naps – for any reason. Especially while at Disney World. As you may have noticed, I’m a bit of a park commando… I don’t know if anyone picked up on that or not. :rolleyes:

So, I took an *almost* two hour nap and then got ready to head to Downtown Disney. The bad thing about taking that nap, my body was in total shock from it (Seriously, it’s not used to napping) and I had trouble waking back up. I also got into a fight with the alarm clock. It was making weird noises so I walked over to try to make it stop but then the music somehow came on and refused to turn back off. I did everything I could to get it to stop including flipping every switch/button and banging on it while yelling at it to shut-up. Nothing worked. I left the room with the music blaring loudly and prayed that it would be off by the time I returned. (It was.)

Upon reaching Downtown Disney, I decided that I wanted to do some shopping. I’d been hoarding what little money I had all week and now it was time to spend it. Napping really missed me up and I walked around in a fog for most of the rest of the night and really began to regret ever taking one. (Note to self: Next time at Disney don't take a nap -regardless of how tempting.) I was having trouble focusing on anything. I recall walking around the Christmas store wanting to purchase an ornament but it took at least thirty seconds of staring at each ornament before my brain computed what the ornament actually looked like.

I picked up a really nice looking ornament and was staring intently at it when a very stern voice said "Don't Touch!" and I quickly put that sucker back down from where I just picked it up from.

Glancing over I saw a mother telling her child not to touch the ornaments, it hadn’t been directed at me. Ooops. :blush:

Hey, in my defense I was still half asleep and hearing that ‘you better heed what I’m saying’ mother tone of voice that we all grew up hearing and all understood what came next if you didn’t heed – you better believe that I obeyed.

I made my way around a few more stores before going into The World of Disney. This place was packed, people everywhere. I bought a calendar and a photo frame for myself and began to see if there was something nice, but cheap, I could buy for Christmas gifts. I couldn’t find anything there but I went over to Arribas Brothers and found two paperweights – one etched with Grumpy and the other etched with Sneezy for my mother and step-father. There’s a family joke that my mom is Grumpy and my step-father is Sneezy and while Grumpy merchandise is everywhere (along with Dopey) do you have any idea of how impossible it is to find any of the other seven dwarfs?

Now, if I’d had more of a selection of Sneezy merchandise, or any selection at all for that matter, I wouldn’t have bought them paperweights. But, I didn’t have a selection and the paperweights were nice so that is what they got.

I then had to check out Goofy’s Candy Co. I wasn’t hungry enough for a meal but a snack sounded good right then. I stepped inside the store and oh-my-gosh! I didn’t even know where to begin. It all looked sooooo yummy. It probably took ten minutes to make a selection. I finally bought a stick of three marshmallows covered in chocolate and m&m’s. That was my dinner. :teeth:

I took a few pictures of store display windows decked out for Halloween:

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Then I hopped the bus back to POFQ and went back to bed. I had to be ready for auditions the next day!

Day 6 Next...

[WDW Poly Princess]

HOORAY for solo trip reports!!!

Loving your report so far! Especially the MGM day, since I somehow managed to totally miss that park on my recent trip! (I have no idea how! I've never skipped a park before!) Love the Streetmosphere pics, too- they're one of my favorite things about the park! (And I agree about the hat!) I liked hearing about the Dolphin tour, too- there aren't many reports about it online!

And oh no! This just reminded me that I totally forgot to check out the free segway demo thing at Epcot! Drat! Oh well, that's what next trips are for!

Can't wait to hear about your audition! I've been vaguely considering trying out for somewhere in entertainment at WDW, too!

[Dolce27]

HOORAY for solo trip reports!!!

Loving your report so far! Especially the MGM day, since I somehow managed to totally miss that park on my recent trip! (I have no idea how! I've never skipped a park before!) Love the Streetmosphere pics, too- they're one of my favorite things about the park! (And I agree about the hat!) I liked hearing about the Dolphin tour, too- there aren't many reports about it online!

And oh no! This just reminded me that I totally forgot to check out the free segway demo thing at Epcot! Drat! Oh well, that's what next trips are for!

Can't wait to hear about your audition! I've been vaguely considering trying out for somewhere in entertainment at WDW, too!


Thanks.

I've been reading your trip report and that's why I sort of regret not staying at Animal Kingdom longer that one day to explore.

Still, I'm glad I got to spend more time at MGM. I love the whole atmosphere of the place.

And yup, that's what next trips are for! I already have a whole list of things that I missed or didn't know about last trip that I can't wait for my next trip to do!

[Dolce27]

Friday, September 15, 2006

I woke up at 5:00 am and quickly dressed and hopped a bus to the TTC. I had an 8:00 am ADR to 1900 Park Fare. Just a quick note: There are early morning busses that run to the resorts to pick up people who have early morning ADR’s.

Upon arriving at the TTC, which wasn’t open yet as it was only 6:20 am, I sat on the bus and chatted with two CM’s for awhile – the bus driver and another CM that had worked the night shift at one of the resorts and was using the bus to get back to the TTC so he could go home.

I got on the very first monorail going out that morning, along with many CM’s heading to work, and was at the Grand Floridian by 7:00 am. I sat on a very comfy couch in the lobby until my 8:00 ADR and was happily presented with a large buffet of food. I’m a breakfast kind of girl. I love breakfast foods so breakfast buffets are always good. I did enjoy my selection at 1900 Park Fare.

It’s a good thing that I’m not much of a Pooh or Tigger fan because they both ignored me every time they passed. There weren’t too many of us in the dining room that early, so they made several rounds around the restaurant. Alice wasn’t there that morning, which I was disappointed about, but the ever flamboyant Mad Hatter was!

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I had a quick chat with him and I asked for a picture of his lovely self – well he thought that he was lovely. I was out of the restaurant by 8:30 am and on a monorail to the MK to hop a bus back to POFQ.

Once again, I ate too much and felt stuffed. My body was going to have a seriously hard time of adjusting back to its normal eating habits the next week after spending seven days at Disney overeating sweet stuff!

I stayed at the resort the next few hours practicing; first in my room until Mousekeeping came and I left so she could do her job. I then wondered around the grounds where people once again thought that I was crazy. I’m not crazy – all right, maybe just a little.

I hopped the bus for Animal Kingdom. Anyone who has auditioned for Disney is probably already seeing a problem with this. I, however, was clueless. I knew that the auditions were held in the Animal Kingdom Rehearsal Facilities – but where exactly that is located is what I still had to find out.

I walked up to Guest Relations outside the park entrance to Animal Kingdom. I asked the girl where the Rehearsal Facility was and she just looked at me. She then asked if I was a Cast Member, nope, or if I had a car, again… nope. Then she told me sorry, I was out of luck and she went back to what she was doing.

Great. :confused3

I began to walk off and then walked back to her – what about a taxi? I inquired. She informed me that I could take a taxi and that the taxis are located outside the entrance gate.

I grabbed some money from an ATM and walked over to the entrance gate where a security CM stood. I asked her where I could find a taxi and she told me to ‘go left’. So, I went left, and kept going left, and kept going left.

Finally, Animal Kingdom was beginning to become a small dot in the background and I still hadn’t seen a taxi anywhere so I began making my way back. I had passed two women earlier as I was making my way left and I asked if they had seen a taxi. They hadn’t and stated that they'd been sitting there for an hour. To this day I have no idea why they were just sitting there. For an hour. I didn’t ask.

I made my way back up to the park entrance area and spotted a transportation CM (probably on the College Program) waiting for the parking lot tram to pull in. I asked him but he wasn’t for sure where the rehearsal facility was. He then asked me to wait a moment. A tram came in and he spoke to one of the other CM’s on the tram and they then tell me to go to the CM entrance and that security back there could help me.

So, they point out the CM entrance – which I don’t see – and I began walking that way. First I have to walk through the resort bus waiting area and then I keep going past that to where I’m walking on grass and it looks like I’m heading out of the parking lot on foot. I think that I became an ‘attraction’ for the people standing around waiting for the resort busses. I’m surprised a CM didn’t yell at me since it didn’t look like I knew what I was doing – which I didn’t!

I stood in the middle of this deserted grassy area in the AK parking lot area staring across the road to where this path is 'supposed' to lead to the CM entrance but I didn’t see anything. Just then, three CM’s walked out and suddenly I could see the path. It was well hidden if you didn’t know of its existence.

I quickly crossed the road and made my way along the path until I reached the security guard booth where I met one of the friendliest CM’s I’d met on the trip. I explained to him that I wanted to audition and he explained to me that the Animal Kingdom Rehearsal Facility wasn’t actually located at AK – it was a bit away and I would need a car. I asked if he had a phone number for a taxi. He told me that I wouldn’t need a taxi – he’d take care of it.:woohoo: He called up another security guard who picked me up and drove me over to the Rehearsal Facility. Yea! :banana:

Like I stated earlier, I’ve never auditioned for anything before. I don’t harbor any secret ambitions be an actor in New York or Hollywood – if anything I’d much rather be a director.

However, I was currently miserable in my job and I wanted a job to where I could make people smile. I loved watching the streetmosphere over at MGM and thought how awesome that would be if I was good enough to be apart of that group – or something similar.

I did try to find out information about what to expect for the auditions to be like before I came, but I wasn’t able to find out anything so I’ll post everything here for anyone who ever wants to audition.

Upon entering the room, I found it to already filled with people waiting to be called in. There was a table set up that had a green colored application to fill out with your information, if you didn’t already have a resume with you, and they also had a Polaroid to take your picture if you didn’t bring a headshot. When auditioning you do need to bring an 8 x 10 black and white headshot. I found out from another girl there to audition that it's becoming more popular to use color headshots; but Disney still wants black and white. I did have a headshot with me but not having any previous acting experience, I didn’t have a resume so I filled out my personal information on the application they provided.

You turn in the headshot, application and/or resume upon completion and are given a number. Then you wait. And wait. And wait some more.

I didn’t practice my monologue while waiting; if I didn’t know my lines by that point then I was just out of luck. Instead, I spent my time observing everyone else around me acting very nervous.

There were auditions for current CM’s before the open call began and I could tell for the most part who current CM’s were and who weren’t. I wore kaki slacks and a nice shirt but most of the female CM’s seemed to be dressed in cute dresses and heels. They all wore make-up and red lipstick. Most looked like they were dressed in 1940’s clothing (they weren’t) but the dresses they wore had a classic and elegant look to them. The men were dressed in beige slacks and button down shirts. There were a few people in jeans and some, like me, dressed in-between.

A girl who had recently moved to the area and had been a musical theater major in college sat down next to me and we began chatting until she was called. I then moved over and began chatting with various people. Most people I spoke with seemed to be relaxed but there was one girl that was a nervous wreck that just new she was going to do badly. I guess she did. When she came out after the audition she refused to speak of it and left rather quickly.

They called groups of ten or fifteen at a time to go back. However, once you are back there they line you up in the hall and you go into the audition room one at a time. You only have to audition in front of two judges. There were at least two rooms being used to audition in because we walked past one room with people waiting outside on the way to our room.

The judge I had was the Senior Casting Director for Disney. There was another woman in there; I don’t know her what her position with the company was. Also, the piano accompanist who is in the room for anyone with singing auditions watched.

A girl who went in about four people before me apparently did well. The Casting Director led her out of the room and wanted her to audition for someone else that day. We were told that if we passed this round of auditions then we’d be called back the next week for a second round of auditions so I found it odd that she was being taken immediately to audition for another person. So, good luck to her because I assume she is now working for Disney in entertainment.

My audition, while I didn’t totally bomb, wasn’t all that good. If I had been auditioning for American Idol – America would have never seen me because I don’t think I was so horrible that I would have been passed through to audition in front of Randy, Simon, and Paula for a ratings boots, nor was I good enough to be passed through because I was good.

I was so-so. Again, it was my first audition and while I didn’t forget any of my lines (yea! I was so worried about that) I wasn’t comfortable enough to fully act my lines out. Also, I wasn’t at all happy with my monologue selection – I didn’t think the topic was appropriate for what they were looking for and I knew that going in.

I’m not trying to imply that the monologue topic was inappropriate, it just wasn’t a good selection for the type of stuff Disney does. It had been a last minute decision to audition and I didn’t have enough time to find a monologue that I was happy with. BUT I walked out of that audition feeling extremely happy.

Truthfully, I don’t know that I would even be happy working in Disney entertainment but at that moment I was very happy that I did something that I never thought I’d have the courage to do: I auditioned for the Senior Casting Director of Disney. I stepped out of my comfort zone and attempted something new. So, I was very happy that I tried.

Also, I wanted to note that I was one of the last groups to go and audition and I only saw about five people of approximately two hundred get a yellow call back card. The Disney auditions are tough and they also type-cast. No matter how good you are, if you don’t fit the look for what they need at that time you won’t get a call back. You don’t know what they need when you audition.

I was sitting next to a guy that used to be in Disney entertainment. He had auditioned one year and didn’t get a call back. Several months later he auditioned again and he got it. They told him that they remembered him from his previous audition and they now had a position for him. So, he actually got a part based on a previous audition. Obviously he had quit Disney for awhile because he was now back to audition again.

[Dolce27]

I was probably the happiest rejected person to walk back into the waiting area that was now completely deserted. No one was in sight. I walked out of the building and realized: I had no idea how I was getting back.

Well, I didn’t have a problem with walking so I was just going to walk back to Animal Kingdom and then hop a bus over to Magic Kingdom. I had a ticket to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party that night.

I took off down the street to a intersection – well, it made a ‘T’. Across from me were apartments or condos. I looked right and I looked left and I had no idea how to get back to Animal Kingdom. I should have paid attention on the ride over. :sad2:

At the (I assumed) condo parking lot across from me I saw two different families unpacking their cars so I crossed and went up to a guy at one car. I was right – these were time share condos and the guy had no idea where Animal Kingdom was. :eek:

All right then.

I walked over to the next car and approached a woman, who at least knew of Animal Kingdom, but didn’t know how to get there. :confused: She thought that I should make a right out of the condo parking lot, go down the street and make a left at the next intersection onto a major (and extremely busy) road. It was probably a couple of miles down from there.

All right people! How in the world can you come to Florida, practically be on Disney property and not know where the Disney Theme Parks are?!? That’s just wrong. :sad2:

All right, this was going to be a lot of walking. Fine with me. I love to walk – especially with the amount of food I had already inhaled that week.

I turned to walk out of the condo parking lot and see a car stopped at the entrance to the parking lot. As I approach the car, the window rolls down and a girl that I’d spoken with while waiting for auditions asked me if I wanted a lift.

Ummm… yes!

She knew that I didn’t have transportation from some of the conversations I had with people in the audition waiting area and she happened to be driving back by the rehearsal facility when she saw me cross the road into the condo parking lot. She asked me where I wanted to be taken and I asked if it was a problem for her to drop me off at the MK – it wasn’t.

So, Elizabeth, if by any chance you are a DISER and find this trip report – again, THANK YOU!!!!

I get to the MK just after 4:00 and I didn’t know if I should enter with my park hopper pass or my party ticket. They were allowing partiers in so I used my MNSSHP ticket and got my wrist band. I was set and wouldn’t have to come back up to the gate later. Oh, I also got my trick-or-treat bag.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0890.jpg

There were cast members standing up and down Main Street holding signs that politely encouraged non party guest to begin leaving the park.

I don’t recall the order in which I did everything. I started out at Starlight Café for some chicken strips, fries, and carrot cake. I ate in the lounge and caught a performance of Sunny Eclipse. I had read on the boards that he’d been missing one eye. I’m proud to report that from where I sat both eyes looked firmly intact. :teeth:

I then went over to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. I approached a teacup just after the man on the round in front of me exited it. He climbed out over the top of the door. I guess the door is broken? Oh well, the tea cup was my favorite color (purple) and most other tea cups were now full so I climbed over the door and sat down. After spinning myself silly I discovered that the door did open. I guess the man just didn’t know how to open it. So, now I felt silly for my climbing performance a few minutes prior.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0906.jpg

(I couldn't ever get a clear shot of this little guy - I guess that he didn't want his picture taken.)

I went over to the carousel – I still love carousels ;) - and then I attempted to go to the torture device, oh excuse me; It’s a Small World, but it went down right after I entered the queue so I left and headed over to Frontierland where I went to grab a FP for Big Thunder Mountain only the FP was down and the ride was a walk-on. I then went to Splash Mountain, another walk-on.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0911.jpg

Anyone know why those ugly birds seem so happy sitting up there?

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0912.jpg

Oh! Nice view of the castle. Uh... wait a minute! Where is the ground???

(My pathetic attempt at humor. It's Friday. I'm tired. :teeth: )

Off to Pirates. Again, a walk-on. Then it was a quick climb thorugh the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. I decided that I could live without the Tikki Room and was almost spit (well sprayed with water) over by Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride - despite knowing to look out for large puddles on the ground to avoid in that area. As I continued to walk around it seemed that more and more stuff just 'magically' began to appear for the party. Seriously, I could have sworn that piece of halloween decor sitting to my left wasn't there 30 seconds ago yet I never saw anyone put it there. :confused:

Making my way back to Tomorrowland I rode the TTA twice, they let me stay on. On my second trip around I saw that there wasn’t a line for Space Mountain so I hopped off the TTA and went on Space Mountain. I went on the right side and was in the first seat, first car. I never ride in the front and I believe that to be best trip I had on Space Mountain.

By the time I walked out of Space Mountain, the park was officially closed and the Halloween Party had officially begun. I decided to start the night off with the Haunted Mansion. They had a fog machine out giving great effects to the mansion.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0921_edited.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0919.jpg

The CM inside attempted to be very grim – but I could tell she was trying very hard not to laugh from some of the guest bantering she was receiving. I walked out of the Haunted Mansion to rain… once again. What is it about that ride and rain? I attempted to take some pictures of the Pet Cemetery and I saw the Mr. Toad statue in the back.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0925.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0923.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0927.jpg

(The middle picture is of Mr. Toad. He was a hard one to get with my little point and shoot camera.)

Also, I looked for the wedding ring to no avail. I’m beginning to think that the ring is a myth.

I passed by Cinderella’s Coach that they had out for the evening … and the massive photo line that went with it! I decided that I’d stop back by later that night to attempt a photo opt. I finally road It’s a Small World. All right – did it. Once was enough.

I found my way back over to Main Street to view my photopass and purchase a few photos. I stepped back out in time to watch the end of the first parade. No, I’ve never seen the Halloween parade before but I wasn’t too much into parades this trip so I didn’t mind that I’d only caught a little of it. Besides, it was raining.

Hollow Wishes was something I did not skip out on and it was so awesome! Better than the normal Wishes in my opinion. When at the end that shoot off that 180 degree arch of fireworks around the park at the same time – I’d never been so impressed. I loved the special Halloween fireworks and music – that is a must if you ever have an opportunity to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

I went on the TTA for another couple of rounds. Hey, what can I say? It was so relaxing without anyone around and I’d already done most of what I wanted at the MK since that was my third time in the park that week. After the TTA I managed to wait out the line for Cinderella’s Coach and got a couple of pictures:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0933.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0934.jpg

[Dolce27]

Somewhere along the way, earlier that evening, I had passed the Hall of Presidents which was closed for refurbishment. I’m glad that of all the attractions that could have been closed for refurbishment while I was there, that was the one.

It puts me to sleep.

I know, I know. The Hall of Presidents puts me to sleep and I’ve never seen the American Adventure at EPCOT – I’m not being a very good American, am I?

Of course, Disney being Disney, they had to figure out a creative way to tell you that it is closed and of course me being me, I had to take a picture of a sign:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0917.jpg

By this time the second parade had begun, but I hopped back on the Carrousel instead of watching. I was disappointed to find the Carrousel music turned off; the music from the dance party over at Aerial’s Grotto was turned up really loud instead. I looked over at the Dance party to see Chip and Dale dressed like Orlando Bloom from the last scene of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl dancing away with several kids. It was cute to watch.

I decided that it was time to call it a night and worked my way up to Main Street where the parade was just reaching. I stopped in The Main Street Bakery and bought a Mickey rice crispy head with chocolate covered ears and drooled over the little Arribas crystal figurines that were in the attaching store to the bakery.

I finally stepped back out onto Main Street and watched most of the parade. I also captured another window display I liked:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0936.jpg

Here is my only parade picture that I took. Capt. Jack Sparrow – and it didn’t turn out too well:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0946.jpg

A few more miscellaneous photos from the Magic Kingdom:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0949.jpg

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0605.jpg

... and it was time to say good-bye, this would be the last time I was in a park this trip and I was becoming depressed very quickly.

They were handing out miniature Snicker Bars on my way out. Somewhere during the evening I had made my way though one extremely long, beyond long, candy line with my little trick-or-treat bag. I didn’t get much candy for my efforts – I could still see the bottom of my bag by the time I completed the line.

So, me and my little bit of candy, hopped the POFQ bus and went back for my last night. I had already received the envelope of Magical Express Instructions for my return trip the next day on my door earlier. Looking at that was even more depressing. I had to face reality – my trip was over and it was almost time to return to the stress of normal life.

Day 7 Next...

[Dolce27]

I just wanted to thank everyone who has been reading my trip report - it's my first one to write. I also want to thank those of you who've made nice and encouraging comments along the way.

I'll try to complete the trip report tomorrow.

[peacelovemickey]

Oh Man! Your TR is almost over!? I am enjoying it so much! Thanks for the backstage glimpse of an audition. I have always been curious about those!

[KimAshton]

Cannot wait to read more. Love TR's.

[mbtileguy]

thank you so much for this report it is the" bomb " i might even read it again
i would love to do disney solo you are a inspiratio. cant wait to read how it ends. by the way how did remember all this did you take notes?

[Dolce27]

thank you so much for this report it is the" bomb " i might even read it again
i would love to do disney solo you are a inspiratio. cant wait to read how it ends. by the way how did remember all this did you take notes?

Thank you.

Yes, I took notes. I had a small notebook with me while there. Being by yourself; there is plenty of down time to sit and write.

[Dolce27]

Saturday, September 16, 2006

I woke up to my last day at the World. :sad1:

I was really happy with Air Tran this trip because I had a early flight down allowing me to be at the parks by 1:00 pm and I had a late flight back to DFW. My flight didn’t leave until 7:00pm that night.

Normally I had early morning flights but not this time! :woohoo: I loved this flight schedule. Keep this up Air Tran and I’ll take back every negative thing I’ve ever said about you. ;)

I packed and went down to the food court for breakfast. I decided to have chocolate chip pancakes. The Saturday before I left for my trip I made chocolate chip pancakes for the first time in my life because it sounded like a fun thing to do. I’d never before had chocolate chip pancakes – so I began my trip (sort of) with them and I decided to end my trip with them. I must admit- mine had been better. :teeth:

I took my luggage down and had them store it and hopped a bus over to Downtown Disney. I wanted to buy my aunt and uncle and their two daughters (2 & 3) a gift as they had brought back a very nice gift for me when they had returned from Disney earlier that year. They bought a pearl Mickey Mouse head pendant necklace for me. There is a large pearl with two smaller pearls creating the ears on a delicate gold chain. I love that necklace.

However, shopping for my little cousins proved to be difficult. My uncle is rather picky (in my opinion) and everything I thought about buying them I imagined him getting annoyed over that selection – now if he really would have or not, I don’t know. But I kept finding stuff and then putting stuff back. I finally settled on a box of fudge over at the Candy Cauldron on the West Side for the entire family. Who gets annoyed at food? I picked out the fudge and tried to stick with a lot of white chocolate as my aunt gets migraines from chocolate but can usually eat white chocolate all right. Oh, and she loves chocolate regardless.

I’d been searching for a photo album but wasn’t happy with this year’s selection. I finally picked out a silver one with Sorcerer Mickey on the front that says ‘Where The Magic Lives’. I really liked the one I bought in 2002 and they had that one again – except this time in gold. The one I bought in 2002 was sliver. I’m not a gold person at all.

I made my way back over to Arribas Brother’s and that was a big mistake. The night before at the Magic Kingdom I saw a Steamboat Willie figurine that I really wanted but I didn’t want the price tag that came with it.

They had the same one at the Arribas Brother's store. I was considering settling for another Mickey Mouse figurine that was $70.00 cheaper and I was doing a rather good job of convincing myself that I really did want the cheaper Mickey… yeah, I bought my little Steamboat Willie:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0962.jpg

Isn’t he cute??

Shopping was complete. Done. Finished. It had to be, I didn’t have much of a choice. The lack of money sort of prevents continued shopping.

Time for lunch instead. I wanted to try the Earl of Sandwich. I had the Le Frenchy Sandwich and an Oatmeal Cookie. And of course, it was good. :teeth: No complaints with food this trip. I sat outside while I ate, enjoying watching the people around me. It was a rather nice day.

I still had some snack credits so I went over to Goofy’s Candy Co. I bought two marshmallow sticks – one was covered in white chocolate and the other in milk chocolate.

My last picture to take on this trip:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i28/Dolce27/Disney/CIMG0951.jpg

I made my way over to the dock to take the water taxi back up to POFQ. I’d always wanted to have the option to use the water taxis while at WDW and I had an opportunity this trip. I still had a little time back at the resort before it was my pick-up time for the Magical Express to the airport. I walked around the gift shop a bit, still didn’t have any money to buy anything else.

I wasn’t certain if I could take the marshmallows on the airplane. Normally, I never attempt to carry food onto an aircraft and with all of the strict regulations that have come about over the past few years; I began to worry about my marshmallows.

Besides, I was so stuffed from a week’s worth of eating the snacks weren’t even sounding very tempting at that moment. I decided instead to offer my treats to some cast members. The box was still sealed from when I left Goofy’s Candy Co – I hadn’t opened it. I walked into the lobby and there were several CM’s behind one of the counters, chatting.

They all ignored me for a moment before one walked up to me. I offered the snacks to them – looking at the CM’s behind her to include them. After all, each marshmallow stick has three marshmallows on it so there were six marshmallows to share. Unfortunately for the other CM’s, the CM who I handed the snacks to decided they were for her and her girlfriend. I don’t think anyone else at work that afternoon was getting any. The CM that I handed the box too looked pretty darn happy at accepting my gift and kept mentioning over and over how she and her girlfried were going to enjoy them.

The others just stared at me. I couldn’t tell if they were staring because they I thought I was odd for randomly offering them food or if they were disappointed with themselves to not be the one to stop ignoring me first. Who knows? :confused3

Marshmallows gone, I sat in the lobby watching old Mickey Mouse cartoons on the t.v. in the kid’s area until it was time to leave for the airport. My flight home was actually very good. Again, not a full flight so I had an entire row to myself again. It was rather nice flying back to Dallas at dusk – it kind of helped to put an end to my trip.

At the time I was depressed because I honestly didn’t know when I could plan another trip. Now I have made that decision: I’m going back to Walt Disney World December 2008 for 10 days/ 9 nights at the Animal Kingdom Lodge to celebrate my 30th birthday! :banana:

Again, trying to turn a negative into a positive here… who looks forward to their 30th? :confused3 So, my planning has once again begun – it’s never early to begin planning is it?

[LouDisney]

Loved reading your trip report. I think going for your 30th b'day will be a great way to celebrate. Hope you will do a pretrip report.

[mbtileguy]

would you go solo again for your 30th?

[kristinanderic]

We are planning a trip for February 2009. I need something to look forward to. I know its a long ways away....but it just gives me more time to plan!

[Dolce27]

would you go solo again for your 30th?

I'm not planning a solo that trip. A friend I had in college that lives is Hong Kong is planning to join me. Also, a few family members might come down for a couple of days around my birthday.

But, if they all bail out on me - I'm still going! :teeth:

[WDW Poly Princess]

I'm so sad to see your TR end! Now I actually have to work on my own!

Thanks for sharing your audition experience! Freezing winters at home are making Florida seem more and more appealing- I can't help but think how much fun streetmosphere or AdvClub or something would be! (I don't think I have enough dance experience for the dance jobs I want, but maybe someday!)

You need to go back sooner than 2008 so we get another report soon!

[Dolce27]

We are planning a trip for February 2009. I need something to look forward to. I know its a long ways away....but it just gives me more time to plan!

Same for me with next years trip. It is still so far out but I want to plan now. However, one thing that I am not doing is counting the exact days until the trip as the trip will be my 30th b-day trip. I really don't want to know how many days it is until that b-day. :rolleyes:

[Dolce27]

Loved reading your trip report. I think going for your 30th b'day will be a great way to celebrate. Hope you will do a pretrip report.

Thank you.

I probably will do a pre-trip report next year after things are officially booked and all.

[Dolce27]

I'm so sad to see your TR end! Now I actually have to work on my own!

As someone who is currently reading your trip report, I am glad that mine is now complete so that you will continue to work on yours. :teeth:

[GrumpyOne]

Just read it from start to finish, you did a nice job with it.

[lovesdumbo]

Thanks for your great report. I really enjoyed it!

I just love the photo of you with Mickey as a 2 year old!

I'm planning my first solo trip. I'm always all these great trips for my DH and 3 children (7,6 & 4) so I'm looking forward to a trip where I get to do exactly what I want to do. I was actually thinking of skipping MGM :scared1: as it not my favorite park but you've shown me how wonderful this park can be if I slow down a bit. I think I will enjoy this park solo.

Thanks again for all your insights!


How's your job going?

[Dolce27]

Thanks for your great report. I really enjoyed it!

I just love the photo of you with Mickey as a 2 year old!

I'm planning my first solo trip. I'm always all these great trips for my DH and 3 children (7,6 & 4) so I'm looking forward to a trip where I get to do exactly what I want to do. I was actually thinking of skipping MGM :scared1: as it not my favorite park but you've shown me how wonderful this park can be if I slow down a bit. I think I will enjoy this park solo.

Thanks again for all your insights!


How's your job going?


Thank you. I hope that if you do make it to MGM that you really will enojoy your time there.

As for my job, I am actually working a different job then the one that I had while on that trip. I posted my resume on Monster within a couple of weeks after returning home and I had a new job a couple of weeks after that! It happened so fast! I'm a lot happier now, which is a good thing. :teeth:

[snowbell]

I just came across your trip report. I thought it was really great. I lost my Dad April 27th 2005 so I know how Disney can make someone feel better.
My condolences to you... and so you know -- it does get better.

[jimmiej]

subscribing

[emilymad]

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your trip report. I am not sure I would have the courage to go solo but your report is very inspirational. As I read your report I kept thinking how familar some of the stuff you said was. I am about your same age, I fell in love with Disney as a child, I wanted to work for Disney animation. I am also glad I didn't go down that path since the layoffs. I went to Disney over the past summer to get over my divorce. Not the same as losing a parent but Disney can be the best therapy. I didn't have the courage to go by myself so I dragged my little brother. I also want to go to WDW for my 30th birthday. My boyfriend is against this idea but since this is thankfully a few years away we will see about that. I am sure he would be equally freaked out by my reading of the Wedding boards. :lmao: Anyway, I just wanted to say great report! Sorry it took me a paragraph to do that! :)

[Dolce27]

Thanks you guys for reading and I'm glad that you enjoyed the report. Yes, Disney *in my opinion* is the BEST therapy for whatever troubles you have. Also, I am an advocate for going solo... if you've ever considered - go!

Thank you Snowbell for your condolences and I’m glad to know it does get easier. This Thursday will make a year since his passing and the day he died was my grandfather’s birthday (mom’s dad) that passed away this past October. This will be the first of my grandfather’s birthdays without him on top of being the one year anniversary of my dad’s death… I kind of had a rotten year last year.

[Glendamax]

Hey! I just "found" your report. I may go solo in September, so I will be reading through for any tips! :surfweb:

[JamieW]

I just wanted to say "hi" to a fellow Dallasite and tell you I enjoyed reading your report. It was a little eerie though b/c I found myself going "me, too" at some of the stuff you wrote, like an obsession with staying at Boardwalk and having trouble finding a job after graduating from college in 2002 (I worked at Gap before finding a "real" job).

I've been thinking about a solo trip. I like the idea of doing what I want when I want. Aah, someday. :)

[Glendamax]

I can't believe we were there at the same time!!!!

[Mickeefan]

I just found your trip report today and read it while at work. So much for getting anything done today. :rotfl2:

I'm going solo for a quick weekend trip on May 4th. I stayed a couple nights extra (solo) in January and really enjoyed it. When passholder rates came out for May, I jumped on it and got a room at All Star Sports.

Your report was so informative. I plan on spending more time just wandering around and seeing all the details that Disney is so good at. Thanks for taking the time to write your report. I enjoyed reading it.

[pigletof4]

I haven't read all of your report, but if you go solo again, there is a single rider line at EE. My dd and I road single rider after waiting in line for an hour. We waited my 5-10 minutes.

[Dolce27]

I haven't read all of your report, but if you go solo again, there is a single rider line at EE. My dd and I road single rider after waiting in line for an hour. We waited my 5-10 minutes.

Thanks for the tip. When I rode EE I got there at park opening (in September) so it was a walk on and then I FP it for later so I never noticed a single rider line. I heard that they are about to open a single rider line at Rock n' Rollercoaster at MGM also.

[Dolce27]

I can't believe we were there at the same time!!!!

What's funny is that I read your 2005 trip report about a month or so before going. You had posted in the 'Who's going in September' or 'September Roll Call' or whatever the name of that thread was. If I see a TP link in a sig I usually click on it so I clicked on yours (and loved your report) and since everyone had been posting the dates they were going I knew we'd be there at the same time so I was looking out for you so I could actually meet someone from the Dis Boards just to say 'hi'. I never saw you nor did I see anyone that week wearing anything lime green (but neither was I) so I could be a big dork and ask them if they were part of the Dis boards and meet new people. Did you notice any lime green that week?

Here's a solo tip: When you're by yourself - you'll meet lots of new people. You'll stand out a bit more being solo and people will remember you. I kept running into this one really nice couple throughout the week. I sat by them the beginning of the week on Sorin', rode a bus with them from Port Orleans Riverside to Animal Kingdom, and wound up in two different lines at two different parks with them. It was only brief chats when I saw them but it made me feel less like I was there by myself after that brief chat and it was nice that they always had a big smile for me when they saw me. Truthfully, I wouldn't have remembered them from Sorin' but they remembered me because I was there solo.

[Dolce27]

I just wanted to say "hi" to a fellow Dallasite and tell you I enjoyed reading your report. It was a little eerie though b/c I found myself going "me, too" at some of the stuff you wrote, like an obsession with staying at Boardwalk and having trouble finding a job after graduating from college in 2002 (I worked at Gap before finding a "real" job).

I've been thinking about a solo trip. I like the idea of doing what I want when I want. Aah, someday. :)

"Hi" back. I say take that solo trip. It really was nice being able to see and do exactly what I wanted since I don't have the opportunity to go to Disney very often. I wouldn't want to take every trip solo - but I think it's nice occasionally. My next planned trip (end of next year) is planned with a friend (and some family thrown in a couple of the days).
I'm now a little concerned that I spoiled myself a little by being able to do what I wanted when I wanted on this last trip that I'll still try to take that approach when we're there next year and that she might be ready to kill me by the end of the trip. :rolleyes:

Oh, and I'm going to try to satisfy that Boardwalk craving since I'll have a friend to split room costs with. I was thinking Animal Kingdom Lodge because it's a little cheaper but Boardwalk couldn't be that much more - could it? I'm impatiently waiting for 2008 pricing to be released.

[MsLeFever]

thanks so much for writing this - I have really enjoyed reading it!

[pigletof4]

The single rider was over the by gift shop. It wasn't with the other two lines. I will have to remember the single rider line for RNR next time.

[MamaLema]

I'm loving your trip report!:goodvibes

[BeautyNBeast]

I read your whole TR today! What an awesome time. I am glad you had a great time.

[puggymom]

Great trip report, I am heading down for another solo trip in less than 3 weeks. I love to read other solo's. I know what you mean about being spoiled. My next trip to the World will probably be a long weekend type, since next summer I am taking my then 8 yo niece/goddaughter for8 or 9 days. I am looking forward to it and I know it will be wonderful, but I won't be able to do what I want when I want. Yes I am spoiled:laughing:

[Minnie Lor]

Ok, I confess. I am a lurker on the Dis boards - mostly on Zzubs TR. I couldn't help but read your report after finding it last night. Great job!

I am planning my first solo trip to the world for MouseFest this year. :dance3: I am obviously very excited. I love to plan trips and this will be my fifth trip to WDW in 8 years. I usually go with my husband but thought I would like to try a solo trip. I want to experience Disney in a whole new way. I'm a very detailed person. I want to ride my favorites many times and see the things that you miss when you are with someone else.

I've already booked my room, bought an AP (because I get to go back 2 more times in a year :cool1: ), paid for the Yuletide Tour, and am ready to buy my MVMCP ticket when they come out. So even though I'm commited to going I've been a bit nervous. So many people have questioned my sanity for planning a solo trip. I will meet up with friends at MouseFest but for the most part it will be just me. Thanks for posting your TR. You have given me the courage that I CAN do this.

And to the lady that posted about her husband not being a Disney nut. My hubby got hooked after the KTTK tour.

Thanks again!
Lorie

[Dolce27]

I'm loving your trip report!:goodvibes

I read your whole TR today! What an awesome time. I am glad you had a great time.

Thanks you guys! :goodvibes

Great trip report, I am heading down for another solo trip in less than 3 weeks. I love to read other solo's. I know what you mean about being spoiled. My next trip to the World will probably be a long weekend type, since next summer I am taking my then 8 yo niece/goddaughter for8 or 9 days. I am looking forward to it and I know it will be wonderful, but I won't be able to do what I want when I want. Yes I am spoiled

Have fun on your upcomming trip. I wish that I could take more trips... but not going to happen. My next trip, Dec 2008, is going to take forever to get here.

When you take your niece/goddaughter you'll probably have so much fun watching her see it through a child's eyes that you'll forget all about the perks of being there solo. Is this her first time to go?

So even though I'm commited to going I've been a bit nervous. So many people have questioned my sanity for planning a solo trip. I will meet up with friends at MouseFest but for the most part it will be just me. Thanks for posting your TR. You have given me the courage that I CAN do this.

Yes you CAN do this! You'll have a blast!

People question my sanity for going to Disney period... most people I know have never been and just don't get it. They all think it's for kids. The fact that most people I know have never been is probably one of the reasons I end up solo (no one jumping up and down asking 'Can I go with you?' when I tell them I'm going) but going solo has proven to me that the magic is still there - even when your by yourself. Have fun.

[CriminyCrafft]

I just found your TR and I LOVED it! Thanks so much for posting! It sounds like you had so much fun. I'm seriously considering a solo trip next September. I'll be finishing up a judicial clerkship then and I want to PARTY before I start my "real," potentially grueling job. I am considering going to Paris Disneyland solo instead of WDW, which frankly I'd be a little scared to do. However, Paris Disney appears to be very, very expensive for Americans these days, so I'll probably just do WDW. As you said, NONE of my friends or DH "get" Disney, so what's a girl to do? I was thinking of staying at POFQ just as you did.

One question - do you think it would be awkward to do character meals alone? I love them but it seems like I would *really* stand out at those if I went solo! :rotfl:

Again, thanks for your TR!!

[Glendamax]

One question - do you think it would be awkward to do character meals alone? I love them but it seems like I would *really* stand out at those if I went solo! :rotfl:

Heya! I know this question was for Dolce, but I did read in a solo dinning thread, that people did dine at character meals, and didnt feel out of place.

I'm going solo for the first time this September and will be dinning at Crystal Palace. I love their breakfast, and couldnt pass it up!

[Dolce27]

I've now eaten solo at Chef Mickey's (2003 trip) for breakfast and 1900 Park Fare (this past trip) for breakfast. I had fun both times and didn't feel out of place. At Chef Mickey's all of the characters stopped at my table. At 1900, I was a ignored by Poo and Tigger - but I was there to see the Mad Hatter and Alice (who, sadly, was MIA that day) and the Mad Hatter spent some time chatting with me.

[puggymom]

I'm going solo for the first time this September and will be dinning at Crystal Palace. I love their breakfast, and couldnt pass it up!

Me too. I have a solo breakfast ADR for CP too in a couple of weeks:thumbsup2