The Cheesecake Tour - Complete

[sunny04]

I'm going to start with a simple bit of background and some general observances that with either not make it in the TR, or will be mentioned over and over and you will know what I mean already.

First of all, this trip is just me and DH. We are both 26 (at least we will be in a couple weeks when I turn 26 - Happy Birthday to me!). We first went to WDW for our Honeymoon a little over 4 years ago and it stuck. Now we go about twice a year. Since I am currently a teacher, we have to go on breaks, hence the spring break trip.

We tried out renting DVC points this time and loved it! Thanks to the DIS and sbacer we got Saratoga Springs and it was beautiful! We'll talk more about that later.

We actually drove down on the 16th most of the way after work, but since all we did was drive, I won't mention that again. It's just to explain to you why our drive will be so short on the 17th since you can see by my name that I'm from TN. Our trip was March 17-23.

Observances, etc. :
- Crowds were not too bad. We have seen MUCH worse wait times. There were times we wondered where all the people were it seemed so empty. Especially for spring break...not bad at all.
- The overall concept of magic in the parks is on the decline. That is not to say it is not magical to those of us who love it. I just mean that there are things Walt would not approve of. They no longer follow with his ideas of keeping the work out of the guests view. Oh, they still say their reasons for much of what they do is not to break the illusion, but they do. Walt would not like that you can see backstage areas from the road, or workers painting all day and leaving wet paint signs all over the place, or trucks and people covering the African savannah. It's really very sad.
- The castle....<sigh>:sad2: They have ruined the castle for me. The new paint has just destroyed an icon IMO. They repainted the top of the castle a new shade last year. Well that's lovely if you only see the top half. But when you see it with the gray bottom half, it doesn't really match. Plus, when they repainted the blue on the towers, they used a shiny paint. In Oct. they were still painting, so I hoped this would be fixed, but it's not. During the sunny parts of the day, the sun reflects off of the blue in an uneven shiny mess. But not even off of all of the towers, so it's not even at all. And now for the worst part to me, for some unknown reason painted the middle section with the clock in a crisscross pattern. It's the only part. The crisscross is the lighter blue that it used to be, and the rest is the shiny blue. It's so yucky and has no purpose that I can figure out. I'm sure some will have no problem with it, but to me, it's horrid.
- People are rude.

Now, let's get this TR started!

[sunny04]

March 17th - We left our hotel in Valdosta at about 9:30 I think and drove in to Saratoga Springs. DH gets a bit anxious about things not working out, so he was a little worried our reservation just wouldn't exist for whatever reason. But it did. We checked in and requested a room in Congress Park with a water view(you can see DTD). They had one on the 4th floor, but it wasn't ready yet. We decided to wait for it, since our ADRs weren't until 5pm anyway and it was only about 1. So we drove over and parked in front of Congress Park and then walked around the resort.

Saratoga Springs is really beautiful....lots of light, springy colors and water everywhere. You get the sound of fountains and waterfalls and running water quite often around the resort. It's spread out, which means you don't see lots of people. That makes it feel even more peaceful and relaxed. It really is very nice. We walked back over to the main building to Artist's Palette for a snack to hold us over until dinner. We walked in, and I was hit with a horrible headache out of nowhere. I thought I was going to pass out. I made it through the line and to a table and slowly nibbled on my pretzels. After awhile, it started to subside a little. (BTW, for those of you who want more details on the food, I will be doing a dining report in the dining section as well...and that is where the title of the TR came from after all. ) We finished our snack and I felt a lot better. I took some ibuprofen anyway to try to knock it out before the parks. We walked out back by the pool and found a bench to sit on. We basically just sat and enjoyed the peace of the afternoon. If you knew DH, you would realize what a big deal this was to get him sitting still without having something else going on. It was amazing and wonderful and relaxing.

At about 2:15 we called to check on our room being ready, and it wasn't yet. So after a little bit, we decided to head back to Congress Park anyway, assuming the room would be done around 3ish. As we walked back around, the skywriter was doing his work and had written "GOD" and was making a smiley face. We walked back behind the building to the water section and found a lovely little bench back there too!

At 3, I called to check on our room again and got an annoying CM that got all snippy because she was spelling my name wrong. She kept acting like I was doing something wrong. I think I know how to spell my own name. The room was ready and it was a PERFECT location! We could park right in front of the entrance to the building, and there was an elevator right at the entrance. Then our room was around the corner from the elevator. We also had a corner of the building room, so our balcony was by itself, not right next to someone else's balcony like some of them were. The view was so pretty...water and DTD. Very nice. I loved this resort and this room. They were perfect.

So we unpacked and got ready to go. The weather was nice, but on the chilly side and was supposed to be in the 40s that night. So we put on pants and took jackets. Around 4, we headed to Epcot for our 5:00 ADR at LeCellier!

[tinawv]

Looking forward to the next post. :)

[oybolshoi]

Glad to see you've got a trip report started! I'll be looking forward to your dining report, too.

Happy Early Birthday!! :goodvibes

[sunlver]

Great start to your trip report.. I just love reading them all. We are going in June so I am trying to read as many trip reports as possible.

Looking forward to your next installment:thumbsup2

[sunny04]

So we got to Epcot and realized that we had left our park tickets in the hotel room. DOH! Dh said he knew you could get them reprinted at Guest Relations if we had lost them, so we proceeded to lie to WDW. :sad2: Actually, DH lied, because I don't like to...I tried the "We don't have our passes...." and they wouldn't take that. So DH said we lost them, and they immediately said ok. So we had new tickets printed - and they are the pretty new ones! Dh got Tink, I got the teacups. We looked at the times guide as we entered and saw that Nemo was only 20 min. and Living with the Land was 5.....while Soarin' was 40. Not bad for spring break though!

So we checked in around 4:45 at LeCellier and were seated in about 5 min. I noticed the trivia question at the door was about what Canadian currency was called (one coin). So I asked our waitress, and I'm sorry to all the Canadians out there because I will probably spell these wrong...feel free to correct me. The Canadian bird is apparently the Loon, so the coin is called the Loony (Loonie?) and the 2 "dollar" coin is called a Toonie (That's how it sounds anyway!). I was like, that's so cute! The waitress laughed and said, "Yeah, Canada is real cute." The kid next to us got a magical moment certificate because he was terrified by Stitch and the parents were telling the waitress about it. But not us. Anyway....for more food info, check out the Dining Report.

Around 6:00 we were done eating and walked back to check on Nemo. It was up to 30 min. now. We have been to WDW enough that we refuse to wait more than 20 min. in most instances. If you just wait and come back later, the wait will be shorter. So we were snobs:snooty: , refused to wait, and headed over to Living with the Land which was still 5 min. We love the Land. We loved it much more before they turned it into a madhouse, but Living with the Land is still peaceful anyway. We noticed several new plants, which was neat. Then headed over to Figment. I know most people loved the old Figment rides, but I never saw them...and I just love this one. I was soooo excited to see several people go in too! I always worry they will just completely close Figment down and put something boring in it's place. So imagine my excitement when we went in and were on a FULL CAR!!!! I've never had that happen. I was quite happy.

After Figment we headed over to Spaceship Earth. It had a line out into the walkway. Here's a little tip if you don't already know this - SE is a CONTINOUS ride....so it should NEVER have a wait. If you wait more than a few minutes for SE, you're crazy. No offense. So we again were the Disney snobs that we are and refused to wait. We knew that in a few minutes, the line would be non-existent. So we walked over to the Art of Disney store to waste a little time. We LOVE that store. I wish we could afford and had a place for everything in that store!

After a few minutes we headed back over to SE, and can you believe it? The line was gone. Well, how about that. So on we went. :thumbsup2

I have failed to mention yet how horribly sick I was at this point. That morning before our drive into WDW, I suddenly got attacked with sneezes and a runny nose. And it lasted all day. Sneezing, coughing, itching, sniffling...it was horrible. By the time we are at in the TR, my throat was killing me, and none of the other annoyances had stopped. So I needed to take some medicine and we had no drink. So we took a little bypass into Club Cool for some free drinks to take my medicine! Hehehe...I felt quite clever.

Then we headed over to the World Showcase. As we started walking, we saw something odd. There was a HS band playing and walking through the WS, going all the way around. We've seen bands in MK, but not at Epcot. It seemed strange. It was kind of funny watching everyone realize there was a band marching up behind them and try to get out of the way. We took our time, taking pictures as we walked, stopping in France to let the band pass by.

We noticed that the areas by Italy were NOT blocked off this time as they usually seem to be. So we thought we would try watching Illuminations from a different spot than normal. However, DH has this website or something on his blackberry that tells him which direction the wind is blowing at Epcot. So he looked it up and the wind would be blowing towards Germany...right next to where we were sitting. We didn't want to be stuck watching the entire show in smoke, so we moved to our normal spot anyway (between Norway and Mexico). We nearly always get something yummy from Kringal, the baker in Norway as we wait for Illuminations. However, I was not feeling up to par, and didn't feel like waiting in the long line. So I sent DH to find me some water, which would be cool on my throat. DH is so wonderful, he went and waited in the line in Norway himself and got us Strawberry Cheesecake. Mmmm....man did that feel good on my throat! (For those of you who haven't had this cheesecake, it is the best ever. The whole thing is flavored strawberry and it has fresh strawberries on top. Soooo good. #1 on my list) Then we watched Illuminations and headed back to the resort to sleep.

[sunny04]

March 18
I woke up still sick, my throat was not feeling good at all. We had ADRs at Kona at 9am, so it was a little early which is never good. (We’re an hour earlier at home, so it felt earlier to us than FL time said it was.) We left the hotel around 8:30 and parked at the Transportation Center. Then walked over to Kona from there. And here began our constant notice of rude people. If you have several people in your family, you should not make one long string of people and take up the entire walking space. Especially if you are walking extremely slow. We checked in right around 9, and were seated within 5 min. again. For more on the yummy Tonga Toast etc., check out the dining report.

After breakfast, we headed over to MK. I was dismayed to see the castle was still shiny and the colors didn’t match. We went straight over to Buzz and saw that the Laugh Floor was Open! Buzz had a 30 min. wait, so we got FP and headed into the Laugh Floor. It really is quite funny. I tried to text in one of my favorite corny jokes (What do you call cheese that isn’t yours? Nacho Cheese!:rolleyes: ) but Mike didn’t choose it apparently. Oh well….I got a text message back from Mike though…I thought that was pretty fun. There is one man in the show that gets teased mercilessly. When the show was over Dh says, “Remind me never to sit in that spot.” I’m sure the spot changes, but it was funny anyway. They talked to someone right in front of us though, and my camera bag was up on the screen. That made me happy too. It’s the small things really.

After that, we headed over to BTMR, taking pictures along the way. We got FP and then walked around to check on POTC. The wait time said 20, but there was no line in sight, so we knew that was wrong and headed in anyway. It was almost a walk on – so says I, Davy Jones.

We headed back over to use our Buzz FP, DH barely beat me. Grrr…I beat him several times in a row, and was pleased with myself. This trip ruined that. :sad2:

We walked across to the TTA and GUESS WHAT??? Space Mountain was down and the lights were ON!!! :yay: We had never managed to catch that before. We both pulled out our cameras and snapped as many as we could. None of them came out too great, but it was cool anyway. After TTA, we walked over to see if was running yet, but it wasn’t. So we got a FP just in case we were still in the park by 3:00 to use it. (We weren’t.)

On our way back to BTMR, we walked through Fantasyland to check out the wait times. They were pretty yucky, so we kept walking. We stopped in HM, which I promptly closed my eyes and rested through. Nothing wrong with HM, I like it, but I was not feeling so great and I needed some rest time. I did open my eyes just in time to see one of those heads pop up and scream at me. It scared me to death. :rotfl:

As we left, we looked for the ring, and it was still uncovered. Then walked on over to BTMR to use our FP. There was quite a line for the FP line, and it still took us about 15 min. to get on in that line, which was strange. But the sky writing pilot was at it again, so I watched him and tried not to die from my cold. I felt pretty terrible at this point of the day. After BTMR we went to Casey’s, which is our favorite tradition. We got corn dog bites, fries and drinks and walked over to the little rose garden between the castle and tomorrowland. It’s one of our favorite quiet spots. We ate our lunch in peace, took some pictures and noticed…what is that? A checkered pattern on the castle?! What is wrong with these people! And then went back to the resort to rest. We stopped at the Hess station for gas and I went in and got some more medicine and the yummiest Hot Chocolate/Coffee/Caramely Goodness of a drink I’ve ever had. It was warm, which is why I got it, and it made my throat happy, and my taste buds even happier. I finished my drink at the hotel, took some medicine and went to sleep while DH worked some. It was quite nice with the balcony door open and the wind blowing in…ahhhh….everything’s better at Disney.:cloud9:

[sunny04]

18th Continued –
We took a rather long rest, but we had a treat planned for the evening! Thanks to the DIS and kpearson, we were getting to share an Illuminations Cruise with another family! :woohoo: So around 6:45 we headed off to the Beach Club. Dh wanted me to drive for some unknown reason, so I did, and we found it okay. Let me just say I LOVE THE BEACH CLUB!! :love: Dh is soooo tired of hearing about it, because after the moment we walked in, it’s the only thing I could talk about. Still is. It’s fabulous and beautiful and just wonderful. Plus, when you walk out the back, you have the little circle of fabulousness that is the Beach Club, Yacht Club and Boardwalk. I mean, wow. They are way too cool. Loved it.

Anyway, we walked along, me probably with my mouth wide open in awe, and found the dock that we would need to be at for the cruise. Then we walked on around to the Boardwalk to find a place to eat. You know, during the day, the Swan and Dolphin just look blah to me in comparison to all the prettiness around them. But I’ll tell you at night when they are lit up, they are quite pretty. We saw one of the street performers on the Boardwalk, which was fun. He was doing something with a banana and was acting like he didn’t have enough, and a guy up on a balcony of the hotel held one out. It was pretty funny, but probably not very funny to read about, so I’ll move on.:rolleyes:

We decided to get some food at the Boardwalk Bakery because it would probably be the quickest and easiest. So we did. (Cheesecake on the bottom of the list….I don’t really remember anything about it. I took one bite and wasn’t impressed.) We ate at a little table by the water which was nice, except there were tiny little bugs everywhere, so we ate really fast trying not to consume bugs in the process. We will assume that we didn’t. :eek:

It was about 7:30 when we were finished eating, and were supposed to meet at the dock at 8. So we headed back around to the Yacht Club to use the bathroom before waiting in the cold for the boat(It was around 45 that night). The Yacht Club was similar to the Beach Club, only had dim lights that made it seem darker and hoity-toity to me. I like the BC better. We went back to the dock and waited for awhile and the family we were meeting showed up. We chatted a bit while we waited and finally got on the boat.

[oybolshoi]

I know what you mean about the Beach Club - as much as I want to try some other resorts I always end up coming back here. It's just lovely and so convenient to so many different things.

And you are absolutely correct about the Swolphin - blah during the day and just gorgeous in the evening.

I can't wait to hear about your Illuminations Cruise - some day I want to do one, especially if we can nab the Breathless.

I hope you started to feel better. :hug:

[sunny04]

Luckily, the boat also provides some big heavy blankets, because it was COLD on that water! We cuddled up under the blankets as we rode around. First you head out towards the Swan and Dolphin and out by MGM. The “captain” was a great CM that told us interesting information about things we passed. We saw part of the Fantasmic fireworks as we passed, which was exciting for me. Then we drove back around the way we came and docked under the bridge at Epcot. As we pulled up beside the other boat, a kid on it leaned over and says “Real pirates don’t say things like Arrhh, they say things like You Smell Funny.” Made me laugh. Then the CM passed out snacks and drinks. We only had to wait a few minutes before the fireworks started. It was really neat to watch that way, although our normal view is much better. The globe is much closer on the boat, which was interesting to see. Overall, it was a great experience, and not too cold once I zipped up my jacket, pulled my hood up, and tucked the blanket around me.

After the fireworks, we rode back over to the Beach Club. We thanked the sharing family again, and decided we weren’t cold enough apparently, because we wanted ice cream. So we asked the CM how to get to Beaches and Cream and she told us. We finally found it, and the wait to get inside would be 30 min. It was way too cold to wait outside for that long, so we went in the to go section and got a shake to go. Yummy tasty stuff on that menu. I wanted a No Way Jose, but it wouldn’t have been easy to get to go, so the shake worked just fine. As we walked back to our car, some people stopped us in the BC “Here are some people who know what they’re doing. Is there a place to get dessert around here?” So we explained where B&C was. One man said, “Do they have pecan pie??” We said no, and he got frustrated. His friends laughed. Obviously he had been looking for awhile for some pecan pie. Poor guy. Then we headed back to the hotel to sleep, drinking our shake all the way home.

[sunny04]

March 19th
This morning we had a tour at 9 am at the MK. We were doing Mickey’s Magical Milestones tour. And by the way, this is a 2 hour tour for anyone ages 10 and up. And it’s only $25, or $20 if you have a Disney Visa. Pretty awesome. For those of you like me, who want to know everything about things you are going to do, you can read the entire post. For those of you who want to be surprised and not know the little secrets of what happens, I will warn you with a spoiler alert in a minute so you can skip to the next post.

We had planned to arrive at MK by 8:30 to have some time on Main Street before opening. However, the monorail did not agree with that. So it was 8:45 before we rushed up to the gates. The opening ceremony was already starting, but of course we didn’t have time to watch it. Probably the only time I will make it to an opening, and I couldn’t even watch it. DH went off towards the castle to take pictures and I went to check us in for the tour. I knew I would be starving before it was over, so after checking in I wandered towards the confectionary to find something to take with me. About the time I started in that direction, the gates opened. I wish I had a dramatic sound effect to put in here, because I have never seen anything like it. These people were RUNNING at top speed, pushing strollers haphazardly in front of them. It was wild. And here was tiny little me trying to meander THROUGH this crowd in a different direction. I laughed my head off and amused the security guard watching the craziness. We said good morning to each other as I passed calmly through the running crowd.

Then I went into the Confectionary. Here’s a tip I learned on this trip. If you want some peaceful shopping, shop in the morning! I was the ONLY person in the store. It was wonderful. I bought a box of mints and a bag of pretzels to hold me to lunch, then tried to call DH and make sure he hadn’t been clobbered by the masses. He didn’t answer. I called again, he was coming behind me. BTW, he got a funny picture of the people running at him. He said he heard a noise, turned around and they were just coming straight for him, so he snapped a picture. It's funny.

I nibbled on my pretzels while we waited and we looked for other people waiting with same kind of name tag on. About the same time, the 3 ladies with the same nametag on starting waving us to come over. So we met up, our tour guide showed up, that was it, just 5 people! So off we went! I have to say, this was one of the best CMs ever. Her name was Claire and she made me think of supernanny. The tour guides wear a long blue overcoat and a blue rounded hat, and she had this harsh look to her. But then she smiles and talks about Mickey and she is just the most fantastic, sweet woman in the world. We loved her!

[oybolshoi]

The Illuminations Cruise sounds like it would be so romantic. But I know what would happen if Jay and I got it... we'd end up with a face full of smoke for the entire show! :lmao:

I'm really curious about your Magical Milestones tour - update soon so I can be spoiled. I love to be spoiled!!

You're doing a great job! :thumbsup2

PS. Too bad you couldn't buy some cheesecake "to-go" before your tour. ;)

[sunny04]

Just for you oybolshoi, here's an update.;)

SPOILER ALERT….if you don’t want to know the surprises of the tour, skip to the next post that will pick up AFTER the tour ends. Otherwise, continue.

We started by walking back out to the front entrance to look up at the train station and the Mickey in the flowers. Claire was a FAST walker, so we were trying to keep up. I can’t remember every detail of information, but she gave us a lot of background to Walt and Mickey both throughout the tour. She also showed us a few hidden mickeys along the way, which is always fun.

We started with a get to know you time, we all said our names, where we were from, and our favorite Mickey memory. Then she told us some stuff and we headed off to Exposition Hall. We had somehow never made it to the back section of Exposition Hall. If you are a WDW fan (and I assume you are since are part of a discussion forum and reading about someone else’s trip) you need to check it out. It’s got a little movie theatre, some cute little picture spots, and lots of history on Walt and Mickey. Really cool. I wanted to get my picture made with the Steamboat Willie cutout, but like I said before, Claire is a FAST walker. I think we would have been lost if we stopped for a picture. Then we stopped just outside the building to talk more about Walt’s life and how Mickey came about. Supposedly, Walt first drew Mickey on a train, so of course, we went and boarded the train. Then we were all given a page and a pen to try to draw Mickey as we rode. She continued giving us information as we drew. She also told us the one with the best Mickey would win a VALUABLE PRIZE!! Mine was voted the best (thank you, thank you, I am honored) so I got stickers. :woohoo: But she decided we all did such a great job, she gave everyone stickers. And since we only had 5 people, she gave us all another set of stickers.

On our ride around to Toontown, she pointed out the hidden mickey inside Splash Mountain, which I have never been able to find! Now I’ve seen it! (Mickey on his back in the boat scene, he’s in the clouds) We got to Toontown before it was open and got to go into Mickey’s house on our own. We really got into the hidden mickey hunt here. Then Mickey came in! We all got our pictures made and he strolled on back to the Judge’s Tent.

After Toontown, we started towards Fantasyland. She pointed out that Fantasyland was the land of feature films – Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Cinderella…..I decided not to point out that Small World didn’t have one.:)

We walked to Sir Mickey’s first to see the Giant peeking inside. In this store, she really talked to us about how much of an impact Disney had on our country and the economy. It’s really crazy. During WWII, several companies were ready to collapse, so got the rights to use Mickey’s image on their products. They are huge corporations now. It’s weird to realize how important a little mouse can really be to the world.

Then we headed over to Philharmagic, walking in the back door…cool. She also showed us the HMs in the show. I think there were 5…..one was in the lion king section, one was in the beauty and the beast section, one in Aladdin that I didn’t see, on in ariel’s scene, and I think that’s it. I think the 5th on is the one on the proscenium. If you want to know specifics, you can PM me and I’ll explain them better.

After Philharmagic, we walked over a little “glade” she called it behind the Liberty Square shops. We passed the evil stepsisters as we went by the castle. They are so fun to watch! Claire told us that Walt had always wanted to create a multi-sensory experience for his guests. He wanted to reach them through sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. Philharmagic really accomplished this more than anything else, and those who worked on the creation of that show felt like it was a “love letter” to Walt. Finally giving him the one thing he couldn’t accomplish. Pretty nice.

Before we went on this tour, I had done research of other people’s experience on it. Everyone else had another character come out at this point to present them with their surprise. However, Dream Along with Mickey was going on in front of the castle, and I wonder if that is why we didn’t get one. Whatever the reason, we did not get a second character. Claire presented us all with Mickey ears. Our names and MMM 07 had been painted on the ears. Quite cute. DH hated it I’m sure. That’s the end of our tour.

[oybolshoi]

Thank you!! :flower3:


It really sounds like a fun tour. Were your Mickey ears the traditional kind or did you get something a little more fancy like Year of a Million Dreams?

** I am appalled at how badly I type when I don't have sleep - I had to come back and fix this!**

[sunny04]

Thank you!! :flower3:


It really sounds like a fun tour. We're your Mickey ears the traditional kind r did you something a little more fancy like Year of a Million Dreams?

I was hoping for YOMD ears, but no....just the old kind. They are the mousketeer looking ones, with the round red and black patch front and center with Mickey's head in the middle. They're cute, and since we've never bought Mickey ears before, I suppose they stopped a travesty.

[sunny04]

Spoiler Over…you may now resume.
We had an ADR for 12:30 at Concourse Steakhouse, so we had some time to waste. We walked back over to Fantasyland. IASW had a 5 min. wait, so we rode that. I know most people don’t care for it, but I love IASW. A little less since reading Kingdom Keepers:eek: , but I still love it. Then we just walked along the shops of Main Street. I found a shirt I liked and found out it was on sale when we went to buy it! Woohoo! Then we headed on over to the Contemporary on the monorail.

It was about 10 til 12 when we got there and our ADR was for 12:30, but it’s usually empty around that time, so we figured we’d check in early. They weren’t open yet. They open at 12. So we sat in the chairs next to the restaurant and watched the window washer. That guy was amazing. We checked in at 12 and were immediately seated. I’ll just mention a few things here about Concourse. Don’t get their water, it’s nasty. And on this occasion, the food didn’t sit well with me, so it will affect me a little through the night. Mostly won’t matter except in the dining parts, just thought I’d mention it.

We went on back to the hotel after lunch to rest. The plan was to head to AK in time to see the 4:00 parade. We always do AK as a half day, and in the morning, so we never make it to 4 to see the parade. We planned it as an evening half day this time for that reason. When I planned, this was an EMH night (I swear it was), but you will see we had some confusion with that too.

I felt pretty yucky and wanted a longer rest, but DH was quite insistent that we needed to leave by 2:30. Yuck. We had like and hour and a half I think. I did not feel happy.

We headed to AK….I am truly sorry if you love AK, please don’t be offended. But I am not a big fan of this park. Dh and I usually come on an EMH morning, and get it done by noon. I LOOOOOVE Dinosaur, DH loves the Safari, Maharajah Jungle Trek, and EE. We also both quite enjoy Donald’s Breakfastosaurus. (Well, and DH likes Dinosaur and I like Safari, etc. I was just pointing out our favorites. I can take the rest or leave it, but Dinosaur is awesome.) We also both LOVED Tarzan. We are very sad it is gone.

Anyway, back to us getting to AK. It’s like an immediate grump alert for me as soon as we get there. It’s always hot, crowded and you have to walk a million miles back and forth to do the things you want to do. This is the one park that we ALWAYS argue at. Because it makes us grumpy. So, we have the normal battles plus I wanted to rest more, and my food still was not digesting well.

It was about 10 til 3 when we arrived and were hoping to make the new Nemo show. We hurried over and heard the line being told that the theatre was full. Guess not. So we decided if we had a chance later in the trip, we would come back to AK just to do Nemo. So we headed to Dinosaur. The wait time said 20, but there was no visible line, so we didn’t believe them. We went in and it took about 10 minutes. I wish this ride was in a different park so I could ride it more. I was a little dinosaur geek as a child….I may be the only girl that could name several dinosaurs correctly and spell them correctly in grade school. So I grin and giggle at the big cute carnivorous animatronic. :rolleyes:

[sunny04]

After Dinosaur we picked a spot for the parade. It was in Africa near the safari, so we could jump into the line as soon as the parade was over.

We had some interesting families on either side while we waited. On one side there was a baby screaming so loud that everyone walking by was looking at it with a horrified look…kind of amusing to watch their expressions. The other side was a family that I don’t even know how to explain without being offensive. Let’s just say, the mother was controlling and would inform her husband to “resume my position” so she wouldn’t lose her seat while she shopped. It was interesting.

So after all this time without seeing the parade, it kind of got way more built up my head than it should have. We thought it was a pretty dinky parade. Kind of repetitive….a little animal shaped car, bunch of stilt walkers, animal shaped car, bunch of stilt walkers, float with a character, bunch of stilt walkers. But now we’ve seen it, and we know….afternoons at AK are a BAD idea. The wait times were CRAZY.

We walked straight to the Safari after the parade and it said 50 min. Yes, that’s right, 50 min. and the ride snobs GOT IN THE LINE. Now I was getting really grumpy. I was at AK, and my stomach felt horrible, and I was still sick and feeling it, and we were getting into a line that said 50 minutes?! :scared1: You have to be kidding me! It actually took about 40 min. Less than 50, but way more than I like to wait for anything. I’m impatient if you hadn’t noticed, part of that Aries in me. Plus, the inevitable AK argument happened during that 40 min. What can you do? The plus side is, we had the BEST guide on our car ever. He really got excited and tried to let us see the animals, slowing WAY down. He also pointed out a HM I’d never heard of before. The little island that the pink flamingos stand on, is shaped like Mickey’s head! I had never heard that one mentioned before!

After the Safari, we had to go to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. DH is obsessive about his tiger pictures, although I don’t believe he get any more perfect than the ones he already has. So we went, and the CM at the tigers kept telling everyone she didn’t know the answers to their questions. Which was interesting, because every other CM there always has, so we knew the answers. I would think they all would have the same training.

Then we walked over to EE. It had a 30 min. wait, and again we actually got in the line. <sigh> Poor sick, impatient me. We will never go to AK in the afternoon again. Mornings all the way. It took about 25 min. to get on the ride…I wondered as we walked through the line, how many people leave that line believing in the Yeti just because of the made up information they have displayed. They have some pretty convincing stuff if you believe things like that. EE wasn’t as fun for me today sick I didn’t feel so great, but then I’m not a roller coaster fan anyway. But I got a better look at the Yeti this time and man, he is awesome. About this time, we realized that AK had nothing out about night EMH. DH asked if I checked recently…well, no I hadn’t. But I swear it said it when I planned. And I would have checked that carefully. So either, I’m really bad at reading the EMH hours, or they changed them. Because they are tomorrow morning, not tonight. It didn’t really matter though, since we were done with AK now anyway. We decided we would go to the hotel for a bit and then head over to MK for Wishes later. It was getting a little sprinkly anyway. So we headed back to rest again and listen to the rain outside our balcony…so peaceful.

[sunny04]

Final 19th
We left the hotel around 8:00 for the MK. We were right on schedule, getting there just in time for some rides maybe before Wishes. We weren’t planning on watching Spectro. But of course, again the monorail had a different idea. They were switching out something and bringing on another monorail car to get ready for MK closing. So we sat and sat and sat realizing we were completely trapped in the monorail, many feet above the ground. Lovely. There was a couple beside us betting on what color the castle would change next…they cracked us up though when they started talking about riding Space Mountain. The guy had apparently had a few beers (only 8 I believe he said) and the girl didn’t want him to throw up on her. He said, nah…I’d throw up on the person behind me. She said, oh, ok then, let’s go. It made us laugh. So we finally got in the park in time for the fireworks. Then somehow made it across the crowds to POTC.

About this time DH was getting hungry, although I was STILL full and yucky feeling from lunch about 9 hours before. Not getting that to eat again!! So we ended up at Sleepy Hollow getting a funnel cake and water. We sat by the water and ate, even I nibbled at it a bit. We took some pictures and headed back to the resort.

As we left, I have to tell you, this was one of my favorite things that happened on the trip. These two boys, probably high school age, had swords and were doing a very elaborate sword fight…they had jumps and all kinds of stuff. They even had a cue, one would say Arrrrr, and that meant they were going to either slice under them or at their head. They were brilliant…I laughed all the way to the monorail…they fought all way out the exit! Up stairs and ramps and all. It was the funniest thing I saw all week. I think some people thought they were crazy, they got some dirty looks from some adults. But I found it charming and perfect. Great ending to a day at WDW.

[AshClan]

I've been reading tidbits all day, and just finished! Sorry you weren't feeling well, but sounds like you did your best to make the most of it. I'm heading over to read your dining review now!!!!

Nice Job! Looking forward to the rest.

[sunny04]

I just wanted to say thanks for the comments. I know a lot of people just read and don't post on TRs...I usually only read them. But when you are writing, it makes it much easier and more fun when you get great feedback. Thanks for reading! I will try to get a new installment posted tonight!

[wee-haggis]

Great report.
We loved Tarzan too, never missed it, saw the show every visit and we miss it now that it is gone.

[oybolshoi]

I just wanted to say thanks for the comments. I know a lot of people just read and don't post on TRs...I usually only read them. But when you are writing, it makes it much easier and more fun when you get great feedback. Thanks for reading! I will try to get a new installment posted tonight!


Amen to that, sister! It's always nice to be appreciated. :thumbsup2

Looking forward to more. :goodvibes

[sunny04]

March 20
We started today with DH having to do some work on his laptop, so we were a little late getting going. I felt MUCH better finally. Plus, we were headed back to the Beach Club!! Ahh….the beauty of the Beach Club. When we walked in, the CM that was at the entrance greeted us with a happy “Welcome Aboard!” and great big smile. Man, I love things like that. :goodvibes

We had ADRs for Cape May Café for breakfast, and I was quite pleased to be back at the BC. So pleased I actually posed for a picture of me sitting in the BC waiting for our breakfast. I’m not usually begging to have my picture made, but I’m also not usually quite so over the top crazy about being somewhere either. Our little buzzer went off after about 5 min.

I’m going to actually put some things in here about this meal, because there were several special things that happened. I’ll just leave the food talk for the dining section. First of all, this is one of those places where you have the paper on your table and the person who seats you writes your server name on the table. I really love that. Who knows why, but I do. I also like that I can immediately pick up the crayons and color all over my table. So I did. While we waited for our waitress, Sami, as we did most of the breakfast. Since we were at the BC, I drew a little beach with waves and a lounge chair, etc. All in purple, because I could. Then while we ate, I got out a black and made a little Mickey head, and then made a Minnie with a red bow.

Our first Minnie character was pretty boring…she posed and walked off. But then they all took a break…and when Minnie came back out, she was miraculously attentive! She sat with me and was so impressed with my little Mickey and Minnie drawings. She whispered with me about how cute DH was, and made him kiss her on the cheek. Really fun stuff.

During our meal, we noticed that the little boy at the table by us was terrified of the characters…He was probably about 6 and he hid under the table every time they came around. His poor mom was trying so hard to get a picture of him and a character together, even if the kid was under the table. Then Dale came around. He took so much time with that family. He even snuck around behind the little boy so the mom could secretly get a picture. She was so grateful. Then, the little boy turned around and saw Dale was there…he started to hide, but didn’t completely. Dale spent some more time there and the boy finally didn’t seem so scared. I love moments like that. Even though it wasn’t my family, it made me so happy to see the character take the time to make their day. The mom did not stop smiling the rest of the breakfast. It was awesome.:thumbsup2

Let’s see….the only other good character stuff was that Goofy and Dale signed our table. I’ve never done the autograph thing, so I thought it was fun. I took a picture, but Dale signed on top of my beach picture.

There were two adorable kids that came in and were looking at me. The character handler came up to me (DH was at the buffet) and said, “They were looking at you like you were a princess! I’ve never seen that before!” It made me feel good. And the kids walked by a few times and still smiled at me. The CM came by again and told DH the same thing. Before we left, she walked by again and commented on me being “Snow White and her Prince Charming.” I have dark hair and really pale skin, and would love to think I looked like Snow White, so that made my day. I wish all CMs were so great.

Oh yeah…one other fun thing at Cape May that cracked us up all day! We were talking about our terrible waitress and how to get her attention. I said maybe we should wave our napkins in the air and say “HEY, WE WANT THE CHECK!” I sort of swirled my napkin over my head a little. One of the other waiters calls out, “We’ve got a dancer!!” It cracked us up.:rotfl:

So after our adventure filled breakfast, we went to the shop because I wanted something from the BC. I bought a shirt with Beach Club Resort on it, and I had to say a sad farewell to my beloved Beach Club. :sad1: I was looking forward to finding out what the cute little man at the entrance would say when we left, but a family stopped to ask him a question as we left. Alas, I will never know.

[sunny04]

After leaving the BC, we headed back to the room. It was an early rest, but it was how our day was planned. We were going to MGM and it would be our only day there. So we figured we would rest some, DH needed to work a bit more, then we would head to MGM for the night. Mousekeeping was in our room cleaning when we arrived, which felt weird because we scared her to death. We went out on our balcony until she left, then rested for awhile.

Around 1:30ish we headed to MGM. We didn’t have too much here on our Must-Do list on this trip. We enjoy MGM, but we’ve been to the parks so much now that we’re more choosy about what we do each time. This time, DH said we HAD to do Indiana Jones because we didn’t last time. I knew that Lights, Motors, Action would be another must-do for him, and I was right. That was about it. In addition, we wanted to do GMR, and Muppets. So we started by heading to Indy and lucked out that they were seating right them for a show in about 10 min. I think. Whatever it was, the wait was not long at all once we got seated. It was kind of fun because next to me was a lady and her daughter that had never seen the show. They were nearly jumping out of their skin at the explosions. Kind of funny. It’s fun too see someone enjoy something fresh when you’re so used to it. One strange thing during the show was that they took out the bad guy getting cut up by the helicopter in our show. It’s the first time we’ve seen it where it was different. We wondered what made them take that part out this time. :confused3

The plan now was to see if they still had FP for Lights, Motors, Action. We got all the way to the back of the park, and they were not giving out FP at all today. I was quite hungry and we were going to eat once we had our FP, but here’s where the plans changed. It started to sprinkle. Then got harder, I ran under the FP awning. DH decided we should go ahead and watch LMA now, even though it meant walking through the rain for quite awhile before we could be seated. So off we go…and the rain gets harder. And it’s raining on us. We finally manage to get seated right before it opens up and POURS. So, the show was delayed a little, but not much. The rain didn’t last long, but they had to do some extra tests and safety checks since everything was now soaking wet.

I have to say, we’ve seen this show several times, but it was very very impressive in the rain. I thought they were going to fall over when they lean on 2 wheels! You could tell they started a little slower, but for the most part, everything is the same. They still do their stunts as they slide around on the water perfectly. One car did hit the wall a little, but not enough to stop anything. The show took quite a bit longer this way, because there was extra time between each segment for them to do extra safety checks and stuff. By the time it was done, we were starving. Time to get some lunch.

[sunny04]

We headed over to our favorite CS at MGM, the Terrace Grill as it is now called. I still call it Flatbread Grill, after finally remembering it wasn’t Studio Catering Co. anymore. Who can keep up with that many names?? We love this place. A few little tidbits from lunch – this is where the title of The Cheesecake Tour came from. We had our 5th piece of cheesecake in 3 and a half days. It was at that moment that I claimed my TR would be called The Cheesecake Tour. It was also, ironically, the last time we had cheesecake on our trip! :rolleyes: There was also one major distracting thing during lunch that bothered me. There was a man sitting near us wearing a shirt that said “Bang your *blank*ing head” on the back(fill in blank with your own imagination). His back happened to be to me, so there was his shirt yelling at me all through lunch. I couldn’t stop staring at it. It really bugged me that he would choose to wear that shirt to WDW in the first place. I am fully aware of free speech and all that, but why do you choose to be that free with your speech in a place like WDW?? :confused3

After we ate, we headed over to Muppets. It only had a 5 min. wait. We walked into the auditorium and were “distinctly unpatriotic” according to Sam Eagle because the people in our row weren’t moving down. I managed to use that phrase several times over the rest of our trip…I don’t think it amused DH as much as it did me.

Then we headed towards GMR. As we walked through the Streets of America, we heard Metallica….not the real Metallica, but Sweat, Mulch and Shears singing Metallica. We decided we needed to stop because we really love SM&S. We sat on the stairs with the red carpet to watch them for awhile. They are so fun! They sang one song, and substituted the word “mulch” for a cuss word…(“every now and then, I kick the living mulch outta me”). It was great. Then they announced that they were on the cutting edge of music, and to them the cutting edge was the mid-1980s. Everyone screamed and cheered for this, including me. ::yes:: All of you 80s babies know what we’re talking about. We watched the rest of their show before heading off to the GMR….of course I had to see if the revolving door behind us revolved first. It didn’t.

GMR had a 30 min. wait time, and apparently we were ride snobs again today, because we didn’t want to wait. We went over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid instead which had a 10 min. wait. I really like the Little Mermaid show. The drama girl in me just itches to work backstage on it. After LM, we went back to GMR, and it said 15 min. now. That’s more like it! So we walked in, and noticed that the left side of the line is REALLY backed up….but the right side seems to be nearly empty. It’s amazing how many people just follow the other people and get in line without paying attention to their options. We went to the right side. They were only running one car, so it was a bit of a wait, but GMR usually is. Our gangster wasn’t too great this time, but not too bad either. There were a couple ladies behind us that had never ridden this ride before and they cracked me up through the whole thing. I hardly paid attention to the ride itself, but to their comments about it. They loved it…kept naming every movie, and were VERY excited about John Wayne. It was cute.

Then we decided to do a little shopping since we were done with all the rides we wanted to do for today.

[lamagique]

I really like this trip report! I like the way you write! And about this:

If you have several people in your family, you should not make one long string of people and take up the entire walking space. Especially if you are walking extremely slow.

I agree completely!!! One of my biggest pet peeves as a guest!

[KatGarcia]

Hey! I made it over to read your report... and I'm having a great time doing it! I agree with you about the bc totally! we were only there for a few to check out the xmas decorations but i loved the atmosphere! ANyways looking fwd to more!

[sunny04]

Thanks again for all the encouragement! I'm glad you are enjoying the report!

Final 20th -
We looked around the shops near the entrance. They have the cutest Wheezy from Toy Story now…he even squeaks! Soooo cute. We looked around the Villains store, but it’s pretty blah now. It’s mostly Nightmare Before Christmas and POTC. I love pirates, but I don’t feel like they belong in the villain store. There was only one tiny section that actually had a villain on it IMO. Kind of odd.

After looking around, we didn’t know what else to do. We sat on a bench across from the Villain store and just chilled. Then DH decided he was hungry. I decided I wanted a frozen banana. We went to one of the CS across from the Fantasmic entrance and DH ate, while I waited. Then a nice family next to us had an extra apple pie from the DDP that they gave us, which was so nice. We took it with us into F!

We made our way into the theatre and found seats among the constant gnats. We ate the apple pie very carefully to avoid eating them. Then the obligatory wave began…although it started really early! It was only 8! I always amuse myself by counting how many people hold/toss their baby into the air during the wave. But even that was boring this time – only 2. We (I) fussed about the ugly curtain pieces they added to the sides. I mean, technically, it has a nice little picture on it, but it doesn’t go with the show at all. I much preferred the plain green. We also noticed a kid playing with the coolest thing…it was a container filled with little green men from Toy Story. I love them…DH and I got very excited. We nearly went over and asked the family where they bought them from. But we decided we would look at MK and find them. The clouds that had been threatening for a little while had moved out and it was perfectly clear blue skies as the sun set. Perfect weather for F! The show was wonderful as usual, the boat is back finally. After the show, I was appalled at how much trash was left behind. It is really upsetting to look at HOW MUCH people really do leave behind. It blows my mind.

So, we took some pictures of the hat and around the hat and headed out. I was starving at this point, because I basically never got dinner, other than nibbling on DH’s, but I also didn’t want to stay up any later to eat…I was soooo tired. So we just went to the hotel and I ate some pretzels before going to bed.

[sunny04]

March 21
I’ve been dreading writing about this day since I started. It wasn’t a bad day, but we had another tour, and it wasn’t the best. We started our day with the Hidden Treasures of the World Showcase Tour. We barely made it to check in before we were off. Yikes! Almost late! The tour is supposed to be a 3 hour tour (:boat:) but they tell you first thing that it will be more like 3 and a half and that’s pushing it. Well, thanks for telling us…several people were barely going to make their ADRs that they had scheduled specifically around the time.

When we first walked up, we noticed James, who was our tour guide, or “facilitator” as they say, on the Yuletide Fantasy Tour a couple years ago. He is AWESOME, and we were so looking forward to hearing his information. However, he was simply there to assist the other tour guide, Monica. She had only been a tour guide for 2 and a half months, so I guess we were part of her training. While we waited on a few other people from the group to get their motorized wheelchairs, I made a joke about running over to Soarin’ to get a fastpass before we started. We happened to have another CM in our group that was there for some reason, and introduced as a CM to us. She volunteered to take our tickets and go get fastpasses! Yes! :woohoo: So several of us gave her our tickets, she got the FP and met up with us at the entrance to the WS.

This is where we realized why there are people on these discussion boards that get information from CMs that is wrong, or different from what others heard from a CM. Because we think she was making up half of her answers….we noticed in Morocco that when she tried to answer one question about how the Morocco pavilion was showing the modern side of the country(which she had stated previously) James was covering his mouth to keep from laughing. He was in the back, so most weren’t paying attention to him, but we noticed. Her answer was that the archway was bigger like the modern Morocco style, otherwise it would be smaller. This is how misinformation starts at WDW. She was a fine tour guide, but if you don’t know, say so, don’t make stuff up that makes no sense. Now, I don’t know, maybe he was smiling because she was doing such a good job and was right, but it didn’t look like it.

This tour was okay, but if you have the "Imagineer's Eye Tour" book on Epcot, it gives you most of the information and more. There were only a few things DH and I learned on this tour that we didn’t already know. If you don’t have that book, and don’t know much about the WS, it would be a great tour! We saw backstage by France and Canada…stood beside the building that the Eiffel Tower is ON TOP of. But that’s about it. The coolest bit of info. was something James interjected. There was a soundtrack of a squawking bird in Norway that Monica was having to talk over. He said it’s the sound of “wounded seagull”. It keeps seagulls and some other birds away and often you’ll hear it around outdoor food places. We found that interesting. Monica also tried to rush us due to the ADRs at 12:30, so we finished at 12:10, but wondered if we missed something cool that she skipped or rushed through. We got cool limited edition pins when it was over though. I always like getting those.

After the tour, we rushed over to Soarin’ with our FP, and planned to eat at Sunshine Seasons when we were done – we were starving!

Here’s my next gripe….and it’s a major one. They have done something weird to Soarin’ and it’s lines. The normal FP line, is now a regular line, and the exit has a piece of tape down the middle on the floor. One side is the exit, one is the FP line. And the FP line was LOOOONG. They were putting a whole room filled up just from FP, but we were entering from the exit! So we walked in the room from the back, and you MISS THE PRESHOW! :mad: We love the preshow, he’s hilarious! And it took longer to get us all boarded and checked than normal. It was the most ridiculous thing. Then we exit the door we came in. Totally bizarre and not cool at all. If that is someone’s first time to see that ride, can you imagine what they thought? I mean, you can’t deny the ride itself is awesome, but the rest is so unorganized and messy, and NO PRESHOW! They miss out on half of the ride and theming! It’s just crazy.

Now that my rant is over, I’ll get back to the TR. As I mentioned before, we were starving. So after Soarin’ we walked over to Sunshine Seasons. We strangely enough, saw nothing that looked appealing. So we decided to head over to the Electric Umbrella. By this time, my feet were hurting and I was tired, so walking all the way over there to be reminded it’s closed for refurbishment was not cool. :headache:

We walked over by TT to get a FP, and talked about the crazy wait times. We couldn’t figure it out. The park seemed pretty empty on this day…not too many people walking around, but the wait times were INSANE. We decided everyone in the park, must be in line. TT had a wait of 120 minutes! And there were hardly any crowds in the park anywhere!

We noticed some carts by TT, and decided to get pizza. I had noticed some people sitting on the patio of the Electric Umbrella, so we walked back over there to eat. We got there, and realized the patio was blocked off, the other people were just cheating. Dh said, “Just because they are breaking the rules, doesn’t mean we have to.” And I know that’s true, but I really wanted to sit in the nice quiet patio with a table. Instead we sat down to eat on a little curb. It was already 1:15, and we realized that our ADR for dinner was at 4:30. So we hatched a brilliant plan......

[sunny04]

March 21, cont.
So we hatched a brilliant plan…we would not eat all of our pizza, but go back to the hotel now and take our leftovers to the fridge. That way we wouldn’t be so full, and we could rest NOW instead of after eating and shop after eating instead of now. Have you got all of that? Well, that was the plan. :)

The only problem is, I am a little Italian girl, who is addicted to pizza, and has a tiny capacity for food in her tummy. So after eating half of my pizza, I should have stopped eating. I knew I should stop eating….but the pizza was so warm and yummy and it was calling my name….eat me…eat me…..yum. So I took another bite, just for good measure. But DH was still eating, so we talked a bit, and sat a bit. And I had to have another bite. By the time we got to the car, I had about 2 bites left on my 3rd piece. We sat in the car, and I pulled out the rest of that piece and ate it. I mean, why prolong it? I knew it would happen. DH shook his head at me. And I spent the ride to the hotel talking about how much I love warm pizza….I just can’t stand the thought of putting it in that fridge to get all cold (although cold pizza is tasty too) when it’s so warm and gooey right now. He thinks I’m crazy, but he also apparently already knew this about me. How ‘bout that…I just figured it out about myself. :idea: So we make it to the room with one piece left of his, and one left of mine to put in the fridge….and I lamented the cold as I put it in the fridge, but I did it anyway.

We watched tv and rested, then I changed into jeans and tennis shoes. (Remember my feet were hurting earlier, so I wanted to switch shoes.) By 4:00 we were back at Epcot. I told DH I wanted to stop in Canada on the way to our ADR, because we wouldn’t want to backtrack after eating. And I knew I wanted some Maple Cookies. Last March, I went on a candy buying spree…trying to find a candy from each country. And I spent a long time in Canada trying to decide between a candy bar and the maple cookies. I chose the candy bar, which was fine, but I’ve been waiting for those cookies now. So we stopped in Canada and I bought the cookies and was quite happy about it.

We checked into Rose and Crown at around 4:11ish (that’s what I wrote down on my notes..isn’t that funny? Why would I write something so specific and then add “ish” on the end?? :laughing: I must have been tired!) We then sat on the curb in front of the restaurant to wait. We actually waited the longest for this ADR than any other. Most of the time, we were called in about 5 min. But I believe they were reopening for dinner at 4:30, so we waited for about 20 minutes (Or maybe it was 19-ish minutes). At this point, I really realized how funny my TRs would be if I had a better memory at all. I actually said that specific thing to DH while we sat laughing hysterically on the curb. This was one of my favorite moments of the trip…we were having so much fun. But I couldn’t tell you a single thing we said, except “If I could remember half of my silliness, my trip reports would be so much better!” That’s it. Can’t remember any of the said silliness. But we laughed a lot, and I felt very happy and warm….and full of yummy pizza.

[sunny04]

We were finally seated, and were even on the little coveted patio. Of course, it was 4:30, not time for Illuminations, and the windiest time of the trip. I mean, the wind literally picked up my menu and blew it away. We laughed a lot and managed to catch it around the corner. It cracked me up…I mean that baby was gone! :laughing:

If you remember my experience with (I mean addiction to) pizza, you may have guessed, I was not actually very hungry yet. Shame on me. We had been so excited about this restaurant, and now I didn’t want anything! It also made me a bit picky…and I felt very bad because I worried for some reason that the waiter would think I was too picky and annoying. Yes, that’s right. I was worried that a waiter in Florida, from the UK, that I may never see again, might think I was too picky because I wanted things like dressing on the side, and to know what things tasted like, and ice. Although, wait for the ice story….it’s our favorite. Between the menu, the wind and the ice, we laughed a lot at this restaurant. Anyway, I’ll skip most of the food talk, but overall it was good. We had the cheese and fruit plate, which I really enjoyed…even the green cheese. Yes, green cheese, and yes, it was supposed to be green. And we had a good laugh and some kind of bread thing that came with DH’s steak. I asked DH if it was a tuber (like a root) and he was like, “It’s not a tumor!” And then I had to speak clearly and explain what I meant, but it looked like a great big dirty root. It was some kind of bread thing, because he tried it, but we had a good laugh at his tumor/tuber too. And the best dessert of the trip, was NOT cheesecake IMO, but the Chocolate Guinness Torte. It was delicious!! But for the ice story…Sitting outside, your ice melts pretty fast, you know. So my drink was getting pretty warm by the end of the meal. Our waiter asked if I needed more water, and I said no, maybe just some more ice. Well, I know that in Europe, they don’t really use ice much, so I’m assuming he just didn’t understand what I was asking for. I wanted more ice to put in the water I had to make it cold. He brought me a full glass of ice………and then took my water! :rotfl: It was hysterical to us. He must have thought I was insane! So I ate some of the ice, since I had no water to drink. Then we headed out to do some shopping.


We headed into the UK first. I decided we should get smart and think of people we needed to get presents for in the near future. So we found a birthday present for DH’s brother, and mother, and a Mother’s Day gift. And we bought me a Shakespeare book, and a Little Miss Sunshine book. Then headed over to TT to use our fastpass from earlier in the day. The times seemed to be way off on the single rider and regular lines. So we were thankful we didn’t have to worry about it. Another one of our favorite moments happened in TT. We were in the preshow, and there were several high school age boys behind us. Everyone’s watching and waiting….and then we get to the “choose one” part. And the lady pushes a button, and the crash appears on the screen. It was quiet, except one of the boys says, “Oh, snap!” :laughing: Dh and I laughed about that for days. We continued on into the ride, where I was whipped with my own hair and thought I might lose a contact. What a fun ride.

Then we bought me a Firebird t-shirt, because DH loves his Firebird as much as me….but if I have a Firebird ON me, then I have both, so I win, right? ;) Plus, it was a black shirt…and as a theatre girl, I’m a sucker for black. Then we headed to Mexico to start up our shopping again.

[sunny04]

When I left off, we were starting our shopping. We started in Mexico. I really wanted to find the peanut butter candy I bought last spring. I work at a school with a large Hispanic population, so I was also getting gifts for one of the office ladies who is from Mexico, and for one of the families that I have soft spot for. The peanut butter candy wasn’t there, which I was not happy about. The other candy looked iffy, so I gave up on the candy idea. I found some cute little figurines for the office lady, and the little girl from the family I was buying for, and some toys for the boys. And a puppet for my classroom.

Then we walked from Mexico to Norway. What a long walk! DH likes some of their shirts, but they didn’t have any that impressed us this time. So we looked, and then moved on.

We stopped in China next, as I was determined to find a candy/snack that actually tasted good. I’ve gotten something different here several times, and still haven’t found a tasty one. This time I got a pineapple cake thing, which is okay, but is really strong flavored. Then we walked out of the shop to head to the one in the back of China. Last time they had some awesome Chinese Opera Masks for $4.50! I was amazed and bought a couple to use in my class. So I wanted to see if they had more. As we walked out, the acrobats were out, and man are they awesome! If you haven’t seen them, you should try to catch them, if even for a few minutes. We have never stopped to watch their whole act, but the things we have seen them do are quite awesome. We went into the back shop, and they had the opera masks! And had small porcelain ones for only $1!!! They look like they would be so expensive. I love it! I bought my masks, and we headed to Germany.

In Germany, we have to get the Haribo Cola Gummies. We got them last spring…and in the fall….and DH insisted I get 2 bags on this trip. He is completely addicted to them. He had eaten the first bag within 2 days of getting home. Next trip he’ll probably ask for 3 bags. So I went in to get his gummies while he went to look at the glass cart for a shot glass. Last year he got a Mickey one that looked like a little beer mug, and had it sent to the hotel. We checked to make sure it wasn’t broken, but didn’t really take it out until we got home, and saw it was Minnie. So he was looking for a Mickey to match it. They didn’t have them anymore.

We decided to get a spot for Illuminations at this point. We also decided to try watching from a new spot, like we tried earlier in the week. He checked his blackberry, and the wind was blowing towards UK, so we decided to try Italy.

[sunny04]

We found a spot against a railing, and I sat down. It was getting quite chilly, and my throat was acting up a little again. I sent DH to get me some popcorn and water. He’s usually the popcorn person, but for some reason, I’d wanted it all day. I sat and shivered in the wind while I waited for him to return. When he got back, I took his phone and called my mom to alleviate the boredom. DH took more pictures, including one of me on the phone. About the same time Illuminations started, we could see Wishes going on in the distance too. I watched part of it during the globe parts.

After Illuminations, we walked the opposite direction through the World Showcase. DH had heard or seen pictures of the fountains in France after dark and wanted to get some pictures of it without people. We had never walked that way after the fireworks before. As we walked, Dh commented that he liked walking this way because it was different from what we usually do. Then we got to France and we stopped in our tracks…the fountains were turned off!! :eek: I laughed and told Dh to remember what he had just said about being glad we walked that way. “Hold on to that feeling. Hold on to it with 2 hands and don’t let go!” I said in my most melodramatic voice.

We took some pictures as we left of the ball, and the ground by Innoventions. We decided to walk out a different exit too. After you’ve been so many times, it’s fun to see how many things you can do differently. We got near our car, and I wanted to make my car honk at the strangers walking in front of it to scare them. Why? I don’t know, it just seemed quite amusing at the time. But alas, my keychain wouldn’t work from the distance we were, and they were all passed by the time we were close enough. In the car, we pulled out the maple cookies. I had been dying to try them….ooohhh yummy. :p It’s like eating pancakes, in a cookie! Yum. So we ate a couple cookies on our way to the hotel, then went to bed.

[oybolshoi]

Just curious - what type of Shakespeare book did you buy? I love Shakespeare and don't recall seeing anything when we were there in October. I probably missed it altogether but if you wouldn't mind letting me know where to look I can remind myself next month when we go back.

Thanks! :goodvibes

[sunny04]

Just curious - what type of Shakespeare book did you buy? I love Shakespeare and don't recall seeing anything when we were there in October. I probably missed it altogether but if you wouldn't mind letting me know where to look I can remind myself next month when we go back.

Thanks! :goodvibes

What a perfect day to ask, as I literally had time to look in it for the first time today! And man does it look awesome! It's an Eyewitness Book, so it's just called Shakespeare. If you aren't familiar with the Eyewitness books, they are pretty cool. They have lots of pictures and descriptions of things...it's a really cool one with good info. in it. Not that it's any new info. mind you;) , but still good.

[sunny04]

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve added on here. I’m in a job search at the moment, so I have filled most of my extra time with that…much less fun than Disney and TRs. I’ll try to get more done soon….only a day and a half left anyway!

March 22
We started today with a 9:15 ADR at Boma. We had never made it over to AKL to look around, and were glad for the opportunity. The plan was to try to make it to AK again in time for the first Nemo show before heading to DTD for some time there. I had been dying to make it to Goofy’s Candy Co. and make my own treat! We made it to AKL pretty easy, although noticed several things on the way that guests should not have seen.

We were not wowed by AKL. I know most people seem to be, but I guess it’s just not our style. We had a little trouble finding Boma, but made it. My throat was a little raw again, so I got their signature drink, which was quite tasty and helped a lot. There wasn’t much African food at breakfast, which was why I picked it. DH can be very picky, and I knew this may be the only way to get him to Boma. I tried the few things they had, like pap, just to have tried them. After breakfast, we took some time to go out to the savannah and try to get some good pictures. Wow…those animals look a lot like people, and trucks….oh wait. They are. :sad2: There were no animals. Just lots of trucks and people working on the savannah. Ahhh…the sound of the African Savannah….sounds like construction apparently. Nice.

So we stopped at the bathrooms, walked through the gift shop, and then headed over to AK. We got to AK in a rush, we were barely going to make it to the line 30 min. before. And it was Launchpad McQuack!! We didn’t have time to stop, so DH snapped a picture of him and some other people. Then, it hit me. I had to use the little girl’s room AGAIN. Didn’t I JUST GO??? :confused3 Darn that stupid tasty juice. DH told me he was going to stop to take pictures of the tree, and I should go on towards DinoLand and use the bathroom on the way. “Oh no! Not the STINKY BATHROOM!” I yelled. :scared1: “Yes, the stinky bathroom.” Dh answered with an evil grin. You guys know the one I mean….For some reason, that one bathroom, always reeks….BAD! I was terrified…what would I find? And just think…I would have to be there long enough that I wouldn’t be able to hold my breath like when you walk past it as fast as possible. What had I done to DH for him to punish me this way??? Must have been the first AK day argument….this was payback. :sad2: So I braced myself….and amazingly, the closer you get, the less it smells. Weird.

I survived the scary, stinky bathroom and we made it to the line at 20 min. before show time. The line went back into DinoLand. At the back of the line, was a nice, quiet CM in sunglasses. We asked if he thought we would actually make it into the theatre, and he nodded in his silent, secret-agent way. We were lucky and relieved. And he was right…we made it in!

[sunny04]

As we entered the theater for Nemo, we were being led all the way up to the top corner, to some bleachers. There were still plenty of empty seats closer to the front. Why didn’t they fill up the close seats first? Doesn’t that make sense, that those nearer the front of the line would get the closer seats? We were not going to sit in the back corner…we and another family crossed across the back and down to the new section they were starting to seat people in. Yes, we cheated a little, but we ended up with an aisle seat so didn’t feel too bad. And I was kicked in the back repeatedly by the kid behind me, so I got my payback.

We weren’t really paying attention to the announcement as we should, and couldn’t figure out if they said no photography or no flash photography. So when it started, I was trying to take pictures. And a CM stopped me…then I felt really, really guilty, since I always follow those type of rules. :guilty: The show was pretty good…it was no Tarzan, which we loved. But it was well done and cute.

After Nemo, we took a little bit of time to look around the paths surrounding the Tree of Life. We’ve only walked through these paths once, and it was 4 years ago, so it was a nice time taking pictures. This was the first time we’ve been at AK that the weather was perfect. It’s almost always hot and rainy. This time, it was beautifully sunny. When we left, DH decided we should exit through the Rainforest Café since we never had before. So we did…nothing too special, but it was different.

Now the plan was to go straight to DTD, try to eat by about 2:30 and head to the hotel by 3 to rest before going back to MK by about 5. We actually didn’t do too bad at following this plan. As we drove over, it started to rain, but had mostly stopped once we reached DTD and finally found a parking space. We shopped around, bought some ornaments, pins, and the found the Little Green Men tub we had wanted! Dh for some strange reason, decided he wanted to go to Raglan Road. We weren’t sure if it was open for lunch, so I stopped at a shop to ask a guy if they knew where it was and if it was open. The man proceeded to make me angrier than most people make me, being rude and acting like I was a moron for asking him a question. Told me to go to guest services. My goodness, I just thought people who worked there might have an idea of when the restaurants were open…if I worked there, I would know that, because I would eat there! He said he hadn’t even heard of it. What a jerk. :mad: So we headed down towards Pleasure Island to find out on our own.

Along the way, we stopped to take pictures of some of the Lego stuff, and of our room at SS across the water. We made it down to PI, and there was a lot of construction going on, so sections were blocked off. We finally found RR, but couldn’t quite get to it. We couldn’t figure out if it was open from where we were, and finally gave up and headed back to Earl of Sandwich instead. Which I was pleased with because it’s what I wanted to try anyway.

[TKDisneylover]

I just caught up with your trip report and am really enjoying it! Will you be posting some of those great pics you were taking? Thanks for sharing!

[IluvXU]

I am enjoying your report! It is a quick read.. just the right amount of details

[sunny04]

I just caught up with your trip report and am really enjoying it! Will you be posting some of those great pics you were taking? Thanks for sharing!

I'm not sure. That was supposed to be DH's job. To get the pictures on my computer, and figure out how to post them on here. However, he tends to not get things like that done in a timely fashion. So we may or may not ever get pictures on here!:rotfl:

[A&A'sGrammy]

I am really enjoying your TR. You tell enough details without going on and on. It sounds like you and your DH are very compatible!!!!:hug:

[sunny04]

Earl of Sandwich was delicious, and we were on schedule! It was 2:30 and we were eating! We only ate half of our sandwiches, and decided to try to take them to the hotel to eat later. We weren’t sure if it would be possible, but figured we might as well try. Then we started to leave.

But wait!! We almost forgot the whole reason I’ve been trying to get us to DTD for a year! :eek: Goofy’s Candy Co.!!! So we headed that way. What a delectable store…but it really should be bigger. They need an entire section for the make-your-own treats, so that people have a space to watch them make their choices. It was a bit small, and crowded, and took about 30 min. We were now OFF-schedule. But we had the yummiest of treats in our hands. I got the rice krispie treat, dipped in chocolate and butterfinger, drizzled with caramel. Wow was that thing tasty. DH got a dark chocolate and peanut butter cookie and something. I think his was dipped in chocolate and covered in oreos or something like that.

It was a little after 3, and we headed out of DTD back to Saratoga Springs. It was sprinkling again. We stopped to get a picture of me with Pooh, and debated over where we parked and what store it was beside. (I was right, by the way:thumbsup2 ) We stopped at the main building as we entered SS to pick up our purchases from Epcot the day before. We also planned to find a nice shirt for DH, but they didn’t have one he liked. He did find a shot glass he liked. While I waited for the guy to come back with our packages, DH stood in a different line to buy his glass. And I learned that I have a “will play with kids” vibe emanating from me, as a little boy with a toy car decided to show me everything he could do with his car – which by the way, was just to roll it into stuff. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I love kids…I’m a teacher for goodness sakes. But sometimes, I wish I was a little scarier, like this moment when I was tired. I smiled and nodded, and mumbled the necessary “wow”s and “cool”s and then was saved by our packages.

We headed to the room. I slept, DH worked on his laptop and blackberry. Around 5, we were ready again to head to the MK.

[sunny04]

March 22 continued

So here we are, at our last night in WDW. We arrived at MK around 5:30ish and realized the stage show was about to start. We still hadn’t managed to catch the talking characters yet! So we rushed up Main Street to catch the show. I really like Dream Along with Mickey, and the moving eyes and mouths are just too cool. Partway through the show, the batteries died in my camera. Oops. I hadn’t charged them since we left home. Oh well.

After the show, we decided to head over to TTA and discuss what else we wanted to do tonight. On our way, we got FP for Buzz. Our FP was for 6:40-7:40, so we had a bit of a wait, but not much. We rode TTA, and checked the wait time on Space Mountain as we rode by. It was an 80 min. wait! So after TTA, we headed over to check on FP, but they were out. Alrighty then.

We decided that we wanted a Mickey Bar, so we got one and sat on a bench to eat it. DH wasted a huge chunk of chocolate that he dropped on the ground. There is not much worse than wasted chocolate.:sad2:

We headed over to Fantasyland to see if any wait times were worth waiting for. Didn’t seem to be. Peter Pan’s sign said 10 min. Well, that’s just crazy. Anyone who knows anything about WDW, knows that it is unheard of for Peter Pan to be 10 min. except for at opening. It looked much longer than 10 min., but we thought we’d try it anyway. We waited for about 10 min and discussed whether to give up or not….we had not moved very far. DH noticed a FP on the ground and picked it up. It was for Buzz from 1:45-2:45 that day. One FP doesn’t help much, but we didn’t want to throw it back on the ground. So he put it in his pocket. Several minutes and feet later in the line, there was another FP. We laughed about how funny it would be if it was the 2nd Buzz….and IT WAS! :thumbsup2 About this time, we had been in line for about 15-20 min. already, and noticed that the line curled WAY around the corner into areas we could not see before coming back into the section we were at. We were not willing to wait that long. :snooty: We climbed over the ropes to get out of line, and guess what the wait time said now? 40 min.!! And the line was the same length as when we got in it! Man, were we glad we hadn’t waited in that line!

We headed right over to Buzz and used our found FPs and were let in no problem. Awesome! We got stuck in the first room for a long time on this ride, so we both got the max score in the first room, which is kind of boring for the rest of the ride. So, I was bored. And I made a face at the camera….I stuck my tongue out and gave myself moose ears with my hands. We tried to find the picture in the store….but all we found was “Zurg zapped your picture” on a screen. :eek: :rotfl:

[VanniGirl]

Love your report - looking forward to reading the rest.

[sunny04]

After being Zapped, we headed over to POTC, but the wait was 30 min. We decided we wanted another snack. So we went back to Casey’s to get a hot dog and sit in the rose garden like we love to do. We ate and chilled out a little, but there were lots of people in the rose garden this time. We like the quiet, peacefulness of this spot, so with lots of people there, it sort of ruined our quiet spot. So we didn’t stay long before heading back to use our other FP for Buzz. This time, DH beat me. Darn it.

We headed over to HM, and although the wait time said 20 min., there was literally NO LINE. We were the only people walking in the line at all. It actually made it a little bit creepy…as we walked up the line, there was a huge, loud (fake) clap of thunder and lightning flashed on the building. I’ve never noticed this effect before, but when you are the only people in the line, YOU NOTICE! It scared me to death, and we laughed at how strange it was in the line alone. I don’t like scary things – HM usually doesn’t bother me. But this was setting a creepy mood to start with that I was not too keen on. Then a few people showed up behind us, which made me feel much better.

By now, it was time to get a spot for Wishes. So we found a spot, enjoyed Wishes and Spectro. The park wasn’t closed quite yet, so we rushed back to Space Mountain. It showed a wait time of 30 min., but DH wanted to wait anyway. The wait was only about 15 min., so it wasn’t too bad. Then we took some pictures of the castle, and headed back to our hotel.

[sunny04]

Hey guys! Thanks so much for all your comments. I just wanted to say a big thanks for reading and sorry it's taken so long! I should be finishing up the TR this weekend, probably today. So, if you can't find it, it's probably been moved to the completed section. Thanks again for reading....coming up - the last morning!

[oybolshoi]

Hey guys! Thanks so much for all your comments. I just wanted to say a big thanks for reading and sorry it's taken so long! I should be finishing up the TR this weekend, probably today. So, if you can't find it, it's probably been moved to the completed section. Thanks again for reading....coming up - the last morning!


I was worried that you weren't going to be finishing - glad to know there's more to look forward to! :goodvibes

[sunny04]

March 23
We have gotten into the habit of planning breakfasts at or near the MK so we can stroll around one last time. That’s one of the benefits of APs – it doesn’t waste a day, and you can go wherever you want! This trip, we had an ADR at CP at 8:25. It was around 7:30 when we left the hotel for MK. We were going to finish up the packing when we got back. I checked in at 8:15 while DH strolled around the castle getting pictures with no people in them as he likes to do. We were seated rather quickly, especially considering how many people were waiting!

Now, here’s a little tidbit of information you could probably live without, but will make the next part of the TR make more sense and be more humorous. The first time we actually met characters at WDW, Pooh caught me totally off guard. I mean, I was already an adult, and was not overly into the character thing. They were fun, but I know they are actors. However, one October day, we walked into the back of the UK shop, and there they were. Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore. I literally gasped like a little girl, covered my mouth, turned quickly to DH and squealed “It’s POOH!!!” It was quite silly, but I was utterly starstruck by Winnie the Pooh. :love: We waited for 10 min. for them to get back from their break, and when I got up to get my picture made, Pooh kissed me. Later, in the same trip, we saw Pooh in a different location, and he kissed me again. We had a running joke from that point on that Winnie the Pooh is my boyfriend. And the silliest thing is, I almost believe that every time I see Pooh, he will kiss me. And so far….he has. ;)

So, back to this trip, we were in CP, talking to all the characters and eating all the yummy food. And Pooh was coming around the tables behind us. Dh said “There’s your boyfriend.” I calmly replied, “I know. He’s playing all coy like he doesn’t know I’m here. Watch, he’ll look all surprised when he gets to our table.” DH laughed, but sure enough, Pooh was “surprised” when he saw me, and gave me a kiss. What a predictable boyfriend he is.:laughing:

After CP, we went to Adventureland and rode POTC one more time. Then we shopped some and left. We stopped at the Hess station again to buy some ice for the cooler and get gas, then sadly packed up the car to return home. Although, since we were staying in a DVC resort, I guess we left home to go home. We loved SS, and this trip was wonderfully fun and relaxing at the same time.

Thanks for reading! Watch for us again in October!

[oybolshoi]

Cute cute cute! We've heard a lot of good things about the breakfast at CP -what do you think of the food there?

And...may I ask...when will be you be at WDW in October? If you happen to see me and my hubby wandering around Epcot be sure to say hello - we're harmless! ;)

Thanks for sharing your trip - it sounds like you had a great time even if you weren't feeling well for a few days.

[TKDisneylover]

I enjoyed reading about your trip, thanks so much for letting us in on your vacation! I'll be looking forward to your October trip TR, especially since we will only be a couple months from our trip by that time. I know I will be glued more to this board at that time than I already am now!:laughing:

[BriarRosie]

Great report! I'm also going in October. :)

It only took me a month after you starting writing for me to find this, but
I'm glad I managed to read the report from start to finish. :goodvibes

[sunny04]

I'm glad everyone has enjoyed my TR!

Cute cute cute! We've heard a lot of good things about the breakfast at CP -what do you think of the food there?

And...may I ask...when will be you be at WDW in October? If you happen to see me and my hubby wandering around Epcot be sure to say hello - we're harmless! ;)

Thanks for sharing your trip - it sounds like you had a great time even if you weren't feeling well for a few days.

We really enjoy CP for breakfast. The food at CP is always quite tasty. And they always have a lot of fresh fruit and pastry type foods too, which I like.

We will be there the first week of October....the 1-8 I think. My parents have decided to take everyone on a trip to...well...another theme park. I am not looking forward to it much, but we plan to sneak off to WDW at night, and are staying 3 extra days after the others to head over to the world. We cannot miss MNSSHP or F&W Festival! We HAVE to go in October! :) When will you be there? We'll keep our eyes open for you....and that evil Plankton you seem to follow around.;)

[oybolshoi]

We will be there the first week of October....the 1-8 I think. My parents have decided to take everyone on a trip to...well...another theme park. I am not looking forward to it much, but we plan to sneak off to WDW at night, and are staying 3 extra days after the others to head over to the world. We cannot miss MNSSHP or F&W Festival! We HAVE to go in October! :) When will you be there? We'll keep our eyes open for you....and that evil Plankton you seem to follow around.;)


Oh, too bad - we'll miss each other by about a week. Jay and I arrive on 10/15.

I'll just have to read your next TR and food report to see how your visit goes. :thumbsup2 I hope you have a great time! :goodvibes